“MAJESTIC 12” PROMOTERS SUPPRESSED STUDY
PROVING UFO CRASH DOCUMENTS ARE HOAXES
(Originally published Sept 2018)
Prominent “MJ-12” documents proponents Stan Friedman and Robert and Ryan Wood have known for over a dozen years that the UFO crash papers are fraudulent, based on the findings of a world-expert linguist that they themselves engaged! The infamous Majestic 12 UFO crash documents supposedly substantiate the truth of the Roswell crash of 1947 and the retrieval of extraterrestrial debris and bodies. They do nothing of the sort, and supporters of the papers have promoted them without full disclosure of what they really know about them for far too long. Other things that the MJ-12 proponents know (and which are revealed here) show that they are wittingly promoting something other than truth.
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A MAJESTIC REDUX
The “Majestic 12 Documents” refers to the many pages of alleged Top Secret documents that supposedly prove the existence of a select group of scientists and military personnel – codenamed Majestic 12 – established in 1947 under President Truman. Their mission was and is to oversee the investigation and analysis of downed ET craft and crew, develop and implement policies, help exploit recovered technologies, and to help maintain security and secrecy. The papers describe the circumstances of the Roswell crash, the efforts taken to retrieve, a detailing of what was found, technologies, possible origin, implications and related matters.
The first batch of these papers, sent anonymously, were received in 1984 as undeveloped black-and-white 35mm film by California film producer Jamie Shandera, an associate of UFO researcher Stan Friedman.
The original "briefing document" was followed by others, often obtained under almost surreal, goose-chase circumstances. One had original Roswell researcher and Friedman associate William Moore running from destination to destination, winding up in a hotel room where a delivery man told him he had a specific amount of time to read the documents and do what he will, but that the delivery man would then return for the documents.
Other documents were secured by happenstance in storage boxes at the National Archives, based on “riddles” on postcards mail-forwarded from far-away countries like Ethiopia. Apparently at around the same time, famed UK UFO author Timothy Good also received some of these documents from an anonymous source.
In 1992, more Majestic 12 documents surfaced (received by one-time UFO researcher Timothy Cooper and others) and were shared to the father and son team of Ryan and Robert Wood, and in turn by Friedman. Some of the documents received by Cooper were said to have originated through a former intelligence agent called “Cantwell”. Tim Cooper was behind the JFK-Marilyn Monroe UFO memo, shown to be fraudulent in my piece “Famous JFK-Marilyn UFO Document is a Hoax“.
1994 saw the receipt of another 35mm film of documents, this time by researcher and Friedman friend Don Berliner, as an “Operations Manual” called “SOM”.
All these documents were sent anonymously, and no one in the intervening decades has taken responsibility for them.
The original 12 individuals comprising the Majestic group include well-known military men and scientists such as Rear Admiral Roscoe Hillenkoetter, Director of the CIA; Vannevar Bush, wartime chair of the Office of Scientific Research; James Forrestal, Secretary of the Navy and first Secretary of Defense; General Nathan Twining, head of Air Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base; and Dr. Donald Menzel, a noted Harvard astronomer.
Despite some UFO researchers maintaining that the papers were hoaxed (as do government agency investigators who found historic and anachronistic inconsistencies), many people still accept the documents – and the Majestic group – as genuine.
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KNOWINGLY PROMOTING FAKES?
Stan Friedman is a career UFOlogist. He is perhaps the only person on the planet who actually makes a living in the UFO field. He has moved dozens of books (including those on MJ-12), been featured on many cable TV UFO shows and video documentaries, and presented at numerous conferences since 1967.
It was with some hesitation that I decided to write this piece. Friedman did great early research. Though he did support Gerald Anderson (who claimed to be a witness to Roswell as a very young child, and later proved to be a fraud), Friedman did light the fire to the reality of Roswell as an extraterrestrial event. But it need not and should not be lit by things fake. And these documents are just that. And Stan Friedman and the Woods know that.
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Robert Wood, PhD was associated with McDonnell Douglas for many years in R&D management. He is also a UFO author. His son, Ryan Wood, is described on their website www.majesticdocuments.com as having “an excellent record of entrepreneurship, marketing and public relations” experience. It states that he has known Stan Friedman since 1969. Their website offers MJ-12 books for sale that
Stan Friedman
they have authored, including The Majestic Documents, The Secret, and Majic Eyes Only (also available as a DVD). Both father and son have presented at many conferences over some time.
WHAT THE SCIENTIST TOLD ME ABOUT THE FRAUD
I know that Friedman and the Woods have kept this knowledge of MJ-12 documents on the down-low by a rather amazing coincidence:
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While searching for experts who may be able to interpret the symbols or ‘hieroglyphs” found on the Roswell UFO debris “beam” by witness Dr. Jesse Marcel Jr. for the article “Have the Roswell UFO Debris Symbols Been Deciphered?“, I researched many forensic linguists. I found and dialogued with Dr. Carole Chaski about possible analysis of the symbols. Dr. Chaski (PhD, Linguistics, Brown) as Executive Director of the Institute for Linguistic Evidence, is widely acknowledged as world-leading in her field. She has consulted with law enforcement, intelligence agencies and others for years in resolving questioned documents.
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Robert and Ryan Wood
Dr. Carole Chaski
Dr. Chaski was surprised when I mentioned Roswell, and told me that she had completed a project involving Roswell some 12+ years ago. When she mentioned the Majestic documents, I was stunned. She said that “more than a dozen years ago” Stanton Friedman, the Woods (and a pivotal person named Dr. Michael Heiser – more on him later) engaged her to conduct a thorough linguistic forensic analysis of a number of these documents to determine their authenticity.
– When I told her that Stan Friedman and the Woods still promote the reality of MJ-12 and many of the MJ-12 documents, she said, “but they know they are forgeries.”
– She was astonished that anyone believed in or was still talking about the papers, speaking of them in a disparaging tone as, “those documents.” My sense was that hers was that it was all complete nonsense.
– It was abundantly clear to her that they were hoaxed, and she had made that abundantly clear to Friedman and the Woods.
– She characterized “the younger Wood” as “way out there.”
– It was obvious to me that she felt the whole of MJ-12, any such documents, are virtually certain to be fakes. Of the documents she did not see, she said: “if they are anything like what I did see, I would be wholly unimpressed.”
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Dr. Chaski sought authenticity of authorship through use of several computational approaches. These included syntactic analysis (determining the relevant components of a sentence and describing these parts grammatically) as well as stylometric methods (the study of measurable features of literary style).
She analyzed some 17 such documents, though not the first, original MJ-12 “briefing document” that set off the whole series of them. That is because it was impossible to ascertain its author and signature, and without this, comparative analysis could not be performed.
And one must ask, since the group had the documents for years: Why did it take so very many years before they got someone like a Dr. Chaski to do such a linguistics review and analysis?
MJ-12 SOURCE TIMOTHY COOPER’S CONFESSION
Very little-known is that Timothy Cooper (the one-time UFO researcher who supplied many MJ-12 documents) later disavowed MJ-12 and the documents as being hoaxed. These include the documents that he himself provided to the Woods and shared with Friedman.
In an April 3, 2009 email to respected UFO researcher Robert Hastings (archived on The UFO Chronicles website as "UPDATE 1: Operation Bird Droppings--The MJ-12 Saga Continues"), Tim Cooper makes an astonishing confession. He admits that he no longer has faith in any of the documents on UFOs and Roswell that he had previously promoted. Cooper confirmed that all of the “documents” that he was previously associated with are either questionable or outright fabrications.
– Cooper recants his prior work to Hastings and, clearly referencing Friedman and the Woods, states in the email: “The MJ-12 documents are a hoax and those who promote them as reality know this, or should know this.”
Neither Friedman nor the Woods have ever mentioned in their books this statement by their former friend Cooper, nor do they ever mention Dr. Chaski, the very expert who they worked with whose conclusion was not favorable to what they promote.
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Tim Cooper
– Cooper also speaks disparagingly of “documents” found in the book Exempt from Disclosure, by Robert Collins and Richard Doty, to which Cooper had contributed. He said that he has since ceased his association with Doty and Collins. Cooper admits that articles, for instance, that they had authored about James Jesus Angleton’s supposed UFO involvement were only what he called “speculative pieces”.
When Hastings emailed Cooper back with additional questions on this confession, Cooper declined to respond and never commented on the matter again.
DR. HEISER KNOWS
Dr. Michael Heiser
Michael Heiser, PhD is a Biblical scholar, Hebrew linguist, and an individual with strong interest in UFOs as they relate to religion. Heiser is believed to have provided the professional fee in whole or in part for the analysis by Dr. Carole Chaski for the Woods. Based on what I know such a consultant charges, it was in the thousands, not hundreds. Heiser was an integral part of dealing with Dr. Chaski, and interacted with Friedman and the Woods during the process. What he says on the matter matters.
Heiser states:
“The application of genuine science in UFO study” was used by Chaski in analyzing the documents.
“The test results cast a shadow on the Majestic documents in toto”
“The documents perpetuate UFO mythology”
Heiser related these sentiments to Friedman and the Woods.
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TIME TO LET IT GO
Author and UFO researcher Kevin Randle reached out to Stan Friedman for comment on this. Stan replied that he addressed the analysis in the second edition of his book Top Secret Majic. I bought it and it is not in there…
The Woods continue to stand by many clearly faked documents. To be fair though, Friedman has dismissed some of these MJ-12 documents. But he knows that he should reject them all. Especially given what Chaski, Cooper and Heiser have told him. Friedman is psychologically wed to the “reality” of the papers. But after 35 years, Stan and the documents need a divorce.