UFO Enigma Editorial: Skeptics or Debunkers?
By Don Ecker, Director of Research
From The Desk of UFO MAGAZINE
As I started to think about this month's topic for Destination Space,
I had several things going on at once. I have been working on a book
of Lunar Anomalies and of course my job with UFO Magazine takes most
of my time. Just about a week had passed since I had started reading a
new book we received at the magazine, a book that I just reviewed and
that will end up being the next "must have, must read" for this
generation. This book is titled "UFOs and the National Security State"
written by one Richard M. Dolan. (I will be talking more about this
book in the future.)
While all this was going on I also received, addressed to me,
something I immediately put a jaundiced eye on, a letter trying to get
me to subscribe to the Skeptical Inquirer. Now why would I feel so
strongly about the Skeptical Inquirer? And what is the Skeptical
Inquirer? Well, in the letter it was described as the "magazine for
science and reason" and that can't be too bad, can it? Let me give you
a paragraph or two from the letter:
"This magazine is created by editors, scientists, and writers who are
as fascinated by the extraordinary and the mysterious as you are. But
unlike most of the 'wide-eyed' amateurs who call themselves experts,
they're not afraid to look a little closer... to ask some pointed
questions... to bring science to bear on the issue-because they want
to truly solve the mystery, not wallow in it. (Oh goody! My comment)
That's where the fun is. And, believe me, it's a wild ride!"
Oh yeah, it is a wild ride for sure. But wait, just like the Ginzu
Knives commercial, there is more! I also received a "personal note"
from Nobel Laureate Leon M. Lederman addressed to 'me.' It started
with: Don Ecker
"Dear Friend, I have found great articles in the Skeptical Inquirer
that debunk such examples of 'junk science' as UFOs in Roswell, cold
fusion, ghosts and haunted houses, astrology, fortune tellers, crying
statues, etc., etc. The exercise of rational (scientific) thinking is
essential to preserving our long-term commitment to rationality.
Skepticism is an essential attribute of good thinking. Sincerely, Leon
M. Lederman Nobel Laureate-Physics 1988."
Ooo, I felt better already. I decided to compile a list of writers,
former and current for the Skeptical Inquirer and see what kind of
rationality we came up with. And one or two names have expired or gone
on to that great rational hall in the sky, so if still alive, I am
sure they would write for the Skeptical Inquirer. Here goes.....
What skeptical observation can begin without mentioning Dr. Donald
Menzel, the grandpa of all UFO skeptics? Menzel was the man who put
the "ad" in "ad hominem." Of course next would be Philip J. Klass, who
bills himself as the Sherlock Holmes of UFO investigations. (Oh,
really?) Jim Oberg, former NASA contractor and "up and coming"
debunker. Carl Sagan, pop astronomer, former SETI proponent and
debunker extraordinaire would fit right in there, and I cannot forget
another "up and comer" Michael Shermer. Now some meaner guys, (not to
suggest some of the above were not nasty now and then) Martin Gardner,
Joe Nickell, Curtis Peebles, and Robert Sheaffer. This list is kind of
a "Who's Who."
So, what is it that I think that suggests I am not ready to buy the
"honest effort" that these guys put out to bring rationality to UFOs?
And... why is it that the UFO subject is always thrown in with the
ghosts, astrologers, haunted houses, fairies and so on? After all,
when the United States Air Force was publicly chasing saucers they did
not have a "fairies officer" or a "ghost" officer or a "haunted house"
officer, but they did have a UFO officer on each Air Force base. That
should say something. But my experience by and large is that the
skeptical community "explains that which is un-investigated, and does
not investigate that which is unexplained." Let me explain.....
Philip J. Klass is today considered to be the premier UFO skeptic
alive. Klass, now fast approaching 80 years of age, has slashed and
burned his way across the landscape for about 35 years. Over the now
almost 15 years I have been chasing the phenomenon, I have had a
number of encounters with "kindly old Phil." Now please, do not get
the idea that I am billing myself as the "know all and seen it all"
guy, but I have been around
the block with a bunch of skeptics in all those years. In my
encounters with Klass, Oberg, Sheaffer, Shermer and others I have
found that without exception they all have taken a page from Robert
Low, Project Coordinator of the Condon Committee, and instead of
attacking the cases -- they will attack the witnesses. Slashing and
burning the word, reputations and character of people reporting on the
UFO phenomenon. (In a humorous moment when I was on Larry King Live
debating Jim Oberg on the STS-48 shuttle UFO, Oberg accused me of
coming on the program to sell magazines when I asked him if he was
operating under any security restrictions. The "ad hominem attack!)
I do not have either the time or space to give you a litany of each
skeptic I have named, so this month I will simply zero in on one, Phil
Klass.
Klass entered the UFO scene around 1966. A former editor with Aviation
Week & Space Technology, he would seem to be an excellent choice to
examine the UFO subject and present an honest and critical eye on some
of the more difficult UFO cases. Alas, that was not to be. After Klass
wrote his first UFO book "UFOs-Identified" where he claimed UFOs were
anomalous, but not alien, Klass theorized that UFOs were caused by
ball lighting and free floating plasmas. Even the University of
Colorado study (Condon) found this theory to be scientifically
unsustainable. Dr. James McDonald, an atmospheric physicist and
proponent of legitimate UFO study, tore Klass's arguments apart using
scientific reasoning and facts. Klass then decided McDonald must be
dangerous and dealt with, after all he was "pro-UFO." McDonald was
working for the Office of Naval Research who funded his trip to
Australia to conduct cloud-physics studies, and Klass went on a
rampage at ONR writing letters demanding to know who funded McDonald
to conduct UFO research in Australia, and later trips McDonald was to
take to Europe and the USSR. Klass also enlisted other sympathetic
journalists to assist him in a campaign that lasted 1 and one half
years. The ONR conducted an audit of McDonald that cleared him, but
then cut McDonald off from any further grants. They were afraid of
further bad press. At this point I would ask the Skeptical Inquirer
about rational and scientific open mindedness.
Klass's position is such that if anyone is willing to propose that
some cases might possibly be explained as off world technology, then
they are only seeking celebrity status or attempting to make money. At
this point, Klass then zeroes in on the character of the researcher.
In 1983, Klass began an attack directed against the University of
Nebraska because they were sponsoring a UFO conference. In a
conversation with the university's administrator Klass charged that
"ufologists 'seek what the Soviet Union does, to convey to the public
that our government can not be trusted, and I resent it as an American
citizen." He equated UFO research with communism, as un-patriotic and
anti-American. Klass went on to phone faculty and further claimed that
for the university to sponsor such a conference (UFOs) was comparable
to the dilemma they would face if the American Nazi Party wanted to
hold a conference there. Later CSICOP spokesman Mark Plummer wrote
that he found nothing excessive in Klass's claims.
I had personal experience with Klass on two different occasions when
he displayed his fanatic anti-UFO sentiments. In 1992, I was invited
to debate Klass in Denver, sponsored by ParaNet and MICAP. During the
debate we began to discuss the Frederick Valentich case. This was a
case of a young Australian pilot who disappeared in 1978 after
radioing that he was being approached by a huge UFO. (The RAAF became
involved in this case, but no aircraft or body was ever located.)
Klass began by calling Valentich a "drug smuggler." I was not about to
allow him to get away with that and demanded he prove his assertion.
His proof? Valentich had four life preservers in his aircraft. Klass
has operated on the assumption that if the case cannot be discarded
because the claims can't be disproved, then it must be a hoax because
UFOs simply cannot be real!
The next run in with Klass happened near the end of January 1995. I
had invited Klass on my two hour, weekly radio program UFOs Tonite!.
During the program Klass had threatened to hang up when I challenged
him about his assertion that Major Jesse Marcel, when picking up
debris from the Roswell Incident, was trying to claim a $3,000 reward
offered by a newspaper for proof of a flying saucer. Klass got very
testy when I challenged him on the statement that Marcel, the
intelligence officer of the most elite military group in the world,
would attempt collect a reward. (By the way, there is no proof of such
a reward being offered that I was ever able to locate.) He threatened
to hang up at that point. Later during the program we were discussing
the 1952 overflights of Washington DC, when Klass tried to suggest the
Air Force was not worried because they took over an hour to send up
jet interceptors. I informed Klass the reason was that the local Air
Force bases were repairing runways and the jets had to be flown in
from Delaware. (I had the proof including a statement by Al Chop who
was then the Air Force liaison with its Blue Book operation) Klass
became enraged and began screaming "Bullshit!" over the air. When I
expressed my indignation to him, he became embarrassed and hung up his
telephone mid-show! (Another time Klass "lost it" and began screaming
profanities to a national audience occurred about 1993 on the Larry
King show. Klass appeared with Travis Walton and Mike Rogers, and
Rogers accused Klass of being a government agent. Klass in a 'klassic-
display' of temper screamed, 'MIKE ROGERS!, YOU'RE A GODDAMNED LIAR!"
This is the rational thought demonstrated by the likes of the
Skeptical Inquirer and CSICOP that I have encountered.
The bottom line is the fact that UFOs are real (but I am not saying
necessarily ET, but some cases do suggest that) and the United States
Government is hiding the information. Perhaps they still feel that
they are 'protecting us', but I don't buy it. When my tax dollars help
defray the costs of all these damned secret programs, and then I am
lied to, to boot... well, damn it, I feel used. And if the skeptics
are honest, and not much proof of that yet either... in their heart of
hearts they know it to be true. More on this later and remember to
keep your eyes to the skies.