Travis Walton Encounter: George Knapp C2C 1-29- 2012

[Doc]

Richard Dolan was writing about Government use of journalists back in 2005: In his "Government Lies and UFOs" he did a wide-ranging analysis of government deception regarding UFOs and such diverse topics as the Iraq war and the FOIA being gutted by Ronald Reagan, which I never heard before.


"The lies and coverup regarding UFO phenomena by the American national security state is nothing new. Indeed, it is simply standard operating procedure. Our leaders lie about everything important, including UFOs. "


"Back in 1977, journalist Carl Bernstein revealed that the CIA had used more than 400 journalists to carry out assignments over the past quarter of a century. This included but was not limited to planting disinformation and propaganda. These were covert, paid arrangements which helped many a journalistic career. Today, the CIA blandly says, in effect, "we don’t do that anymore." To which the appropriate response is "B.S." Not only does the CIA have cozy working relationships with journalists around the world (and certainly the Internet), but why would one think the rest of the American national security establishment doesn’t? Can anyone seriously believe otherwise?"

http://keyholepublishing.com/Governm...s_and_ufos.htm

[Doc]

(continued)
It was Richard Dolan who found the infamous Phil Klass letter in which Klass tried to poison the well with Stanton Friedman's new employers at the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics in Canada by writing, uninvited, seemingly every negative thing he could think of about Friedman. On October 18, 2005 Dolan announced that he discovered the letter in a file he was given at the Canadian National Archives during an unrelated research project.

http://keyholepublishing.com/New Klass Letter Found.htm

The letter is a near masterpiece of interpersonal poison and a great example of the Politics of Personal Destruction.

[newyorklily]

Awesome find, Doc!

[Doc]

Awesome find, Doc!

Thanks! Giuliano Marinkovic linked the thread. I just tracked back to its origins. The discussion of Klass at UFO Updates in 2005 is very interesting, not in the least for how easy much of the UFO Community in the day went on Klass and how scrupulous they were not to falsely accuse the man of being dishonest, which I don't think he would have done for any of them. I think maybe they were missing their old enemy and preserving his memory as a worthy adversary, which to me he never seemed to be.

[Doc]

From Victor Martinez: Here's more insider info on the Walton-Klass case for your forum that was just sent to me by Travis himself. YES: It was me who sent the original e-mail to Evelyn Gordon at the "Sky Ships Over" Website. 2,300+ recipients means something! Hope you guys enjoyed the
"RIVERS" photo stream!

(In chronological order)



--- Original Message ----- From: Evelyn Gordon
To: Travis Walton
Sent: Sunday, February 05, 2012 6:57 AM
Subject: Travis, just for you


Travis, we received the following in an email from someone who views the Sky Ships over Cashiers website.
We don't want to post any false information, so can you confirm the following to be true.? If so, do you want to elaborate on it?
If it's true, we'll post it along with information about your book.

Thank you for your time,

Mary Joyce, Editor
www.skyshipsovercashiers.com
www.skyshipsovercashiersnc@yahoo.com


BRIBE BOMBSHELL! STEVE PIERCE WHO WAS WITH TRAVIS WALTON WHEN HE WAS
ABDUCTED CLAIMS THAT HE WAS OFFERED A $10,000 BRIBE FORM THE LATE
DEBUNKER PHIL KLASS TO STATE THAT THE ENTIRE TRAVIS WALTON ALIEN
ABDUCTION CLAIM WAS A HOAX!

WHY WOULD KLASS OFFER SUCH A BRIBE SINCE HE BELIEVED ALL "ALIEN
ABDUCTION" CASES WERE "CLEARLY HOAXES" UNLESS THE WALTON EVIDENCE WAS SO
STRONG THAT IT SUGGESTED OTHERWISE?!

(Continued)

[Doc]

Evelyn, Yes, it is true. I even mentioned this in the1996 edition of my book. But all I knew then was that Deputy Click had taken Steve the message when Steve still lived in this area. I didn't know then that Klass had also flown to Texas and spent hours taking Steve out to dinner and trying get him to accept the bribe. And followed Steve to another state or two. Very curious, since in my first edition I had criticized Klass for being "an armchair investigator" who, unlike Dr J. Allen Hynek, the Lorenzens and Stanton Friedman, had never personally contacted anyone involved nor ever bothered to visit the site. But then I met someone at the 2011 IUFOC who ruefully admitted to having picked Klass up at the Phoenix airport and drove him the 180 miles to the site of the incident near Heber. A very expensive "hobby", yet I never saw in any of Klass's books or "whitepapers" where he even once mentioned these costly "field excursions" to rebut my "armchair investigator" charge. And Klass was famous for tape recording everything. After his death all his papers went into the Philosophical society's archives. I wonder if any mention of this or tapes of it are there?

All this strongly supports the belief that Klass was a paid government disinformationist. Compounding this are the FBI files I possess that someone obtained under the FOIA. In these papers are documents citing repeated investigations of Klass by the FBI for revealing classified information in his articles in Aviation Week & Space Technology, in letters he sent out, and even checking to see if he had "obtained any kind of licensing for radio transmitting equipment" one would surmise, to pass info on to our enemies. The FBI decided to hold off on prosecuting Klass and keep the matter in "RUC status", supposedly because this would involve further exposing the sensitive information in open court. But I seriously doubt that is why they held off, because that argument would preclude ever prosecuting anyone for espionage or revealing classified information, as we are well aware many others have been.

However, Klass was no friend of the FBI. He had derisively attacked the agency publicly for discussing the use of psychics in criminal investigations and for publishing an article titled "The UFO Mystery" by astronomer Dr. J. Allen Hynek in their internal publication. Klass's FBI file includes this comment, "Bufile 62-116443, Serial 7, states that "in view of Klass' intemperate criticisms and often irrational statements he made to support them, it was recommended that the Bureau be most circumspect in any future contacts with him" One hint about the possible nature of "future contacts with him" might be in what was hidden by the redaction in this next quotation from Klass's FBI file. "Bufiles discloses that Klass has, from time to time, come to our attention by virtue of the fact that he has been in... (9 LINE REDACT!) ...this Bureau (partial line redact) and not to be of assistance to his government."


This "assistance to his government" was not likely acting on behalf of the FBI because they evidently didn't like him at all. The real smoking gun in this matter might be the November 9, 1964 memo, previously stamped "SECRET", from John Edgar Hoover (I never knew what the the "J" in J. Edgar Hoover stood for) to Director Central Intelligence Agency. Subject: PHILIP J. KLASS

It looks to me like the matter was turned over to the CIA, and then possibly some agency beyond them. This seems to suggest that the threat of prosecution for those classified leaks could be used as leverage to gain cooperation in being "of assistance to his government."

More bombshells to follow in a future final edition of my book FIRE IN THE SKY.

Travis Walton

[Lee]

Here's the FBI file Travis references above: http://www.cufon.org/cufon/Klass_FBI.pdf

[newyorklily]

Here's the FBI file Travis references above: http://www.cufon.org/cufon/Klass_FBI.pdf

Wow! Thank you, Lee. That was really eye-opening.

[uforadio]

And there is another detail that gives almost sarcastic tone to the whole story.

While Klass was ready to go this far to offer $10.000 to Steve if he declares the case as a hoax, in the same time he was publicly offering exactly the identical sum of money if someone brings proof of abductions. Amazing. How many bizarre layers this guy has. And I thought that spy novels were interesting that much

In the text below (by the way I have that documentary in my archive) interview with Klass:

For the whole piece click on the link:
Source: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/aliens/philipklass.html

KLASS: I have gone into my lifetime savings, and offer to pay 10 thousand dollars to any person who believes they've been abducted, to report it to the FBI. Let the FBI investigate it. If the FBI comes back and says, 'We believe this person's story,' I will then go into my life savings and present this check for 10 thousand dollars to that person. And thereby, we will have alerted our federal government.

And another bonus

Small glimpse from my archives that I just uploaded on the link below – reminder of the old days of Larry King

Randle vs Klass
Date of Broadcast: June 28, 1997
Title: Roswell Revisited
Source: VHS Recording

[Doc]

---- Original Message ----- From: Evelyn Gordon
To: Travis Walton
Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 5:19 AM
Subject: Travis, do I have this right?


Travis, I haven't changed anything in your story except at the end where I've eliminated the heavily redacted paragraph because it's difficult to follow, and rewrote the MEMO information. I especially need you to read the paragraph in larger type to see if I'm understanding it correctly. You're free to rewrite it. Might it be correct to say they used the threat of prosecution to get Klass to serve as a disinformation agent for the government or CIA?
Thanks again - Mary

---------------------

Klass was no friend of the FBI. He had derisively attacked the agency publicly for discussing the use of psychics in criminal investigations and for publishing an article titled "The UFO Mystery" by astronomer Dr. J. Allen Hynek in their internal publication.

Klass's FBI file (Bufile 62-116443, Serial 7) states that:

In view of Klass' intemperate criticisms and often irrational statements he made to support them, it was recommended that the Bureau be most circumspect in any future contacts with him."


The real smoking gun in this matter, however, might be the November 9, 1964 memo previously stamped “SECRET,” from J. Edgar Hoover to the Director of the CIA. In it Hoover said it looked like the Philip J. Klass matter was turned over to the CIA and then possibly some agency beyond that, and that a threat of prosecution over classified leaks might have been used as leverage to gain Klass’ cooperation.


More bombshells to follow in a future final edition of my book “Fire in the Sky.” – Travis Walton


EDITOR’S NOTE:The most recent edition (2010) of Travis Walton’s book about his abduction,“Fire in the Sky,”is only available through his website. He cautions that other sources are selling overpriced 1996 editions. A date for his final edition is not yet known because new material continues to come in.

From: Travis Walton
To: Evelyn Gordon
Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 11:40 AM
Subject: Re: Travis, do I have this right?


Evelyn, The following explanation is probably of no use to you since it is far too lengthy for the brief simplified summaries you need. But perhaps it may clarify the meaning of my earlier response.

No , the rewording in your last paragraph still is not right. Just as I have done in my book I wish to separate the facts from any theories or conclusions I personally make about them. OF COURSE any discussion of how to leverage the withheld prosecution in order to gain coperation would not be included in the un-redacted parts of the memo. OF COURSE they aren't going to release the files with such admissions of impropriety on their part left unredacted.

{In past FOIA releases they used big solid black rectangles to cover the withheld portions. Now they use white boxes with a thin black line of an outline. Perhaps this practice was changed to conserve toner or make it look less starkly like they are withholding so much.}

There are two entire paragraphs redacted from the first page of the memo and other pages are so heavily redacted that on some pages little remains, making it hard to completely decipher. After 911 there was much discussion of longstanding noncooperation between the FBI and CIA and other agencies. So ANY memo from the FBI to the CIA is noteworthy, especially Director to Director. The significance of the memo is that the sole subject was Philip Klass, his security breeches and the FBI's decision not to pursue prosecution or further investigation.

So I ask, if the matter was closed, why report all the details to the CIA? The "...not to be of service to his government..." line I excerpted from the end of a large redaction from another document in the file supports MY OWN conclusion that such a scenario would provide the perfect circumstances under which cooperation as a disinformationist might be "persuaded." To me the implication of these points is clear, but it is NOT flatly stated in these files. However, this scenario would be entirely consistent with methods of recruitment known to be commonly employed by these agencies.

If there is still confusion about this perhaps it would be better to not even mention the FOIA files. Better to be confident in our accuracy than to condense it in a way that might create any unnecessary misconceptions. I really appreciate your diligence in fact-checking by having me review your distillation prior to putting it out there. I commend this as a very responsible approach. -- Travis