The dissemination of the MJ-12 Documents came about from men working in the field of military intelligence. Because this and other documents originated from a specific individual, namely an AFOSI sergeant named Richard Doty, it could be easy to see as his hoax, and his hoax alone. What negates this hypothesis, however, is the fact that others are working towards the same end. Moreover, unlike Doty, these were commissioned officers.

Normally, sergeants don’t give orders to captains, colonels and generals. Usually, it’s the other way around. For that reason alone, I’m quite sure that Doty’s attempts to peddle the story of MJ-12 to ufologist Linda Moulton Howe and others did not happen at his own initiative. Then again, what sway would Captain Robert Collins (aka Condor) have over Colonels William Coleman and George Weinbrenner, or Generals Robert Scott and Glenn Miller?

The most plausible mundane explanation for these events is that two intelligence generals got bored, and organized a prank with their subordinates. Yet even this seems highly doubtful given the context of MJ-12 disclosure. MJ-12 wasn’t the first attempt by military intelligence officers to disseminate “confidential” information among ufologists. Preceded by the spurious Project SNOWBIRD and the equally unlikely Project AQUARIUS, MJ-12 represented simply another tall tale by authorities (or intelligence-friendly companies) “off the record,” culminating in the disclosure of such things as alien autopsy films.*

In short, we have numerous government officials spinning outrageous tales of alien interaction on Earth. Col. Coleman, Capt. Collins and Sgt. Doty have appeared before cameras to tell us these stories. The actions of others have been well documented by such credible ufologists as Dr. Jacques Valleee and Dr. J. Allen Hynek. And since the materials these brass provided were proven fraudulent in the end, we have but two questions. (1) Were these men acting on their own, or in accordance to official policy? (2) If they acted under orders, what did their superiors intend for them to achieve?

Evidence suggests that these men did not act on their own, but under the auspices of someone higher up. After all, Col. Coleman affirms his belief (as an insider) of UFOs within the halls of the Pentagon itself in front of Allan Sandler and Robert Emenegger’s film crew. It’s not like he could have just snuck them in for an unnoticed visit. Someone had to approve their presence. Likewise, someone had to permit Moulton Howe’s visit to the AFOSI at Kirtland AFB, or at least known the substance of her meetings with Sgt. Doty, especially since she wrote about them. Granted, security’s tighter these days because of 9/11. But even before then one had to show ID, state a person of contact and a purpose to gain access to a military facility. Showing up with a film crew, especially at military headquarters, simply isn’t going to happen on the spur of the moment. So this should dispel any notions that these officers operated in the shadows, as far as their peers were concerned. Most important, this indicates that not just one but many of Col. Coleman’s superiors approved of his actions in allowing Sandler and Emenegger to film at this most secure installation.

Moreover, the attempt to pass off bogus information extends beyond the careers of these individuals, and continued long after their involvement with military intelligence, through such companies as Disney who had a long establish relationship with Intel. Furthermore this appeared to be a rather extensive effort, as witnessed by numerous ufologists contacted by people representing the government.

One ufologist, Lee Graham, almost accidentally, gathered compelling evidence that surreptitious UFO disclosure from seemingly credible sources. More important, he gave us good reason to believe that the United States government actively attempted to formulate the main discourse within ufology.

In 1985, Graham, an amateur ufologist, worked for a defense contractor, Aerojet Electrosystems, in Azusa, CA. As part of his job, he had to adhere to all security laws, among them DOD Regulation 5200.I-R, which requires personnel, upon coming across a document bearing what appears to be a classification stamp, to report it immediately. So, when someone flashing a Defense Investigative Service (DIS—now officially known as the Defense Security Service, or DSS) badge approached him with documents pertaining to MJ-12, he turned them over to his superiors. He also spoke to ufologist Barry Greenwood, who in December of 1975 published the first article on MJ-12 a year-and-a-half before the 24th Annual UFO Conference in San Francisco, where Bill Moore, Jaime Shandera and Stanton Friedman made the MJ-12 documents available to the public.

The following year, Graham showed Greenwood more documents pertaining to SNOWBIRD and AQUARIUS. Lee later received a visit from two DIS agents, who interviewed him about his contact with the other DIS agent. Greenwood gave them all the information he could.

Early in 1987, months before the UFO Conference, Graham learned the identity of the DIS agent who gave him the secret documents. The “government agent” in question turned out to be Bill Moore. Curiously, Moore confirmed that he did approach Graham with MJ-12 documents, and that he posed as a DIS agent under an assumed name.

Moore explained that he was simply joking. Joking or not, impersonating a federal agent is a serious crime, a federal offense, a felony. Yet, despite Graham’s cooperation with DIS, and despite Moore’s admission, no one seemed interested in prosecuting Bill. For many ufologists, this seemed to indicate that Moore actually did some work on behalf of DIS, or promoted whatever agenda it had.

Later in 1987, Graham received a visit from FBI Special Agent William Hurley, and another man, whom he later identified (with the help of C.B. Scott-Jones, an aide to recently deceased Senator Claiborne Pell) as Maj. General Michael Kirby (USAF). Instead of running him over the coals for talking to Greenwood, or for ratting out Moore, the officials congratulated him for leaking MJ-12. They then showed him photos of the then top-secret stealth fighter (F-117 Nighthawk), apparently so he could disseminate info about that too.

Graham later took the documents he had and sent them to the office of newly elected VP Dan Quayle so that he could finally get an answer to whether or not the MJ-12 documents were classified. Dale Hartig, head of Public Affairs for DIS, responded, saying that the MJ-12 documents were unclassified. DIS subsequently indicated that they nevertheless came from a government source.

The Graham incident illustrates the depth of the effort sustained by US Intel to develop UFO lore to its own benefit. More than simply a few scattered individuals, this effort stretched across jurisdictions, agencies, and rank. It required the dismissal of possible crimes committed, the use of secure government facilities, and propping up of an individual within ufology who remained sympathetic to their goals: namely, Moore. For whatever reason, it seems far more likely than not that the dissemination of fraudulent UFO information originated in government policy.

The question remains as to why. Once government involvement becomes clear, the plausible answers are limited.

One plausible explanation offered by some: military intelligence wanted to test how information spread among underground networks, in case leaks to upcoming projects (most important at this time, the stealth fighter and bomber) occurred.

Explanation two: government officials wanted to discredit the UFO community once and for all. This could have occurred for a number of reasons, among them the danger of “flying saucer nuts” starting a panic out of an innocent anomaly, the threat of accidentally disclosing secret projects (again stealth), or the possibility that ufologists are right, and the government is in some type of secret alliance with off-world factions.

In case that last reason throws you, you have to keep in mind that the government has done things like that before. In their 1974 book The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence former-CIA Deputy Director special assistant Victor Marchetti and State Department official John Marks described a rather inventive method used by the Agency to protect it from evidence that would prove misconduct. In 1967, when an internal document revealing the CIA’s illegal involvement with the attempted overthrow of Indonesian President Sukarno was on the verge of being leaked to the press, the Company hastily drafted an obvious forgery to show reporters before the real item could surface. After the officials pointed out the mistakes, reporters dismissed the real McCoy as just another fake when it finally surfaced.

Explanation three: MJ-12 and other alien disclosures become a red herring, leading away from a trail that could very well end at the misappropriation of public monies, controversial technologies, liability, or treaty violations. For example, the presumed reason for secrecy around Area 51 (Nellis AFB Groom Lake Facility) allowed President Bill Clinton and George W. Bush to forbid, by Executive Order, investigation of two deaths caused at the facility through negligence. And if the public begins to think that massive cost overruns in defense spending could result from the building of secret UFO facilities (a notion advanced by the movie Independence Day), then they might not be so inclined to investigate such blatant profiteering.

Explanation four, from Michael Mannion’s theory of mindshift: the devastation that an advanced society could have upon a less advanced one is well documented within our own history. So, in order to apprise the public of an alien presence on Earth, government officials would have to somehow get Earthlings “up to speed,” as it were. By releasing MJ-12 in such a way that they could easily discredit the revelation later, officials could float the idea of human-alien contact without declaring that it’s actually happened.**

Final explanation, the thesis of Report from Iron Mountain: in order to maintain the status quo without resorting to constant warfare, those sponsoring the anonymous collaborative study suggested that UFOs (maybe from burgeoning US technology, or technology developed by the Nazis during the tail end of World War II) could serve as a war substitute, either because of its potential to draw the public interest closer to the interests of those in power, or because of its potential to serve as the basis of a new religion.

Of course, these explanations aren’t mutually exclusive. And they might not be exhaustive. These are the only explanations I can think of. If you can think of some, Ill add them to the list.

As for now, I’m out of explanations. So this series ends here.


*I say films (plural) because I had originally thought to introduce an additional alien autopsy movie from Russia, allegedly depicting the 1969 recovery from the UFO incident referred to by the locals as Sverdlovsky’s Midget. It’s more difficult to debunk that particular film, than the one presented by Ray Santilli. I didn’t include it here, though, because I thought it might merit its own series.

** By now, you’ve probably surmised that I’m not a big believer in the alien hypothesis in respect to UFOs. Still, I have to account for the possibility that it is accurate correct. If so, mindshift seems the most plausible explanation. Regardless, one has to consider it as a possible explanation.