Roswell Slides Saga Involved Email Hacks and Surveillance, Community Member Claims

Ross, a commenter at the 'UFO Conjecture(s)' blog, stated today in an email exchange with 'The UFO Trail' that his email and the accounts of some high profile UFO-researchers were hacked in relation to the alleged Roswell slides. Ross further stated that he believed "a three letter agency" was responsible. 

Ross stated that he assumed he was initially targeted due to his involvement in email exchanges about the slides. He first got involved in the saga, he indicated, about 18 months ago through reading 'UFO Conjecture(s)' and exchanging emails with its author, Rich Reynolds. 

"The 'hacking' thing involved Tony Bragalia, Rich Reynolds, Nick Redfern and myself," Ross wrote.

"Based on the resources required to do what I think they were doing; intercepting our comms as opposed to just 'hacking' and just the way things transpired I'm of the opinion this was a three letter agency," he added.

The party responsible for compromising the emails was obviously interested in the slides, Ross explained, and generally caused disruption.

"My instinct was that whoever we were dealing with had a sophisticated operation behind them," Ross wrote, "and figured I may as well try communicating to see what they have to say (the hacker used various safe-mail accounts to interact with us)."

Ross continued, "The first response I received to a communication I had initiated was a list of emails which were mostly discussions about the slides, but there was some unrelated material there (which I discarded). This was obviously the hacker wanting to let me know the extent of the surveillance. There was a lot of smoke and mirrors, but overall the story was that these slides were of interest to certain three letter agencies. There were offers of money, a sit down meeting with someone fully briefed in what the government really knows about UFOs, and even the opportunity to see for real what the slides supposedly depict. All these offers were related to my acting as a conduit to arrange a meeting between the people handling the slides and the party/parties doing the 'hacking'. This wasn't something I was in a position to set up not being in contact with or on good terms with the people involved."

Ross alleged that further intrusions involved telephone disruptions, explaining, "I got some strange calls and some even stranger interruptions into calls I was making. It would be things like 'have you considered our offer', 'we can help each other', that kind of thing. I had kept that part quiet because people just tend to write people who say stuff like that off as loons."

The events unfolded "over the last few months," subsiding in the last six weeks or so. Ross interpreted that computer experts and the FBI were alerted to the circumstances but investigations resulted in "dead ends".

"It was clear to me that what they were engaged in was a labor, it wasn't recreational, it was a case of this is how we do this and it has to be done. For example, 'these issues crop up from time to time and it is important that we deal with them so they can be managed in a way consistent with established practices', which was an answer as to what was with all the smoke and mirrors and bullshit riddles."

"I think the goal was to spook people," Ross concluded, "to derail the slides investigation and to attempt to recruit people into a conspiracy with the ultimate goal of securing the slide material on their behalf." 

Prior to the email exchange with Ross, attempts were made to obtain comments from writer/researcher Thomas Carey about his statements about the slides during his recent appearance at American University. Carey was emailed Nov. 13 and permission was requested to submit a few questions, to which Carey replied the same day, "Sure."

The questions, which included inquiries about what evidence he felt existed that directly linked the alleged slides to Roswell and what he would say to critics that assert the slides only contain images of unknown circumstances that cannot be conclusively demonstrated to involve an ET life form, were emailed Nov. 14. After receiving no responses, a reminder that his comments would be appreciated was sent Nov. 18. As of this post, no further emails have been received from Carey.

Standing Eight Count for the MJ-12

Work of such researchers as Mark Pilkington has reignited interest in the infamous MJ-12 docs and surrounding circumstances. His book and resulting film, 'Mirage Men', significantly contributed to bringing some events that were dangerously nearing obscurity back to where they belong at the forefront of attention of the UFO community. 

In 2007, scholar and author Dr. Michael Heiser facilitated professional linguistics testing on select MJ-12 docs. The work was conducted by qualified expert Dr. Carol Chaski and resulted in her assessment that the docs examined were almost certainly inauthentic. Chaski demonstrated an extremely high rate of accuracy in her previous evaluations, and it is all explained in depth in Heiser's full report. Interest in the report has been revived of late thanks to sites including Frank Warren's 'The UFO Chronicles', where an ongoing watchful eye is kept on the ever developing MJ-12 story. 

Heiser recently published a post at his blog, 'UFO Religions', providing some resources for those interested in the saga. The post included a recommended video created by Alejandro Rojas of Open Minds:

Rojas' informative presentation included summaries of USAF documents he obtained that are worthy of ample consideration. The presentation also included the results of tracking down what appears to be the first mention of the term "Majestic Twelve" in the UFO community, and suffice it to say its origins were quite dubious. 

Among other points of interest, the question was raised in the video as to why Richard Doty might have been involved in such disinformation operations, given his relative inexperience with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI). George P. Hansen addressed such circumstances in his book, 'The Trickster and the Paranormal'.

Hansen cited the case of Airman Simone Mendez, who was apparently called upon at a very young age and under questionable conditions to file a report on her attendance at a MUFON conference. The circumstances demonstrated official interest in the UFO community and implicated the AFOSI. Moreover, it implied the AFOSI might have targeted Mendez for recruitment - and perhaps individuals such as Doty as well - due to their inexperience and similar extenuating circumstances, not in spite of them. For much more detail, as well as additional information of interest surrounding Doty, please refer to Hansen's work.

Writer/researcher Ryan Dube published a number of posts on the MJ-12 saga and related circumstances, including his 2010 piece, 'John Alexander - Mr. Non-Lethal with Many Hands in Many Pots'. Dube explored the career path and ufology activities of Col. Alexander and other members of the intelligence community. After conducting an interview with Alexander, Dube concluded, "I am now even more suspicious than ever before that John was one of the integral players in the distribution effort of the MJ-12 memes upon the public domain, starting in the 1980's and continuing throughout the next several decades to today."

As recently as last year, Col. Alexander inserted himself once again in the controversial MJ-12 debate when he discussed the legendary group during an interview. Grant Cameron reported that he interpreted the statements of the colonel, which included that Alexander "had someone whisper" to him about MJ-12, could not be over emphasized. Cameron credited Alexander with confirming existence of the MJ-12 yet acknowledged that Alexander doubted the MJ-12 had anything to do with UFOs. Many disagreed with Cameron's take on the importance of the situation, apparently including Alexander, who later informed this writer that his remarks "did not change anything." 

And what to our wondering eyes should appear but yet another chapter in the winding saga of the MJ-12. The latest from Kevin Randle informs us that Tony Bragalia came across a relevant lead on a doc. The two of them ran down provenance and, at least to Randle's satisfaction, have knocked the MJ-12 meme out for the count. It seems they indeed identified an operation that used key code words as described in the legendary Majestic operation, but the actual op in question had nothing to do with alleged UFO retrieval. That, according to Randle, confirms that the MJ-12 story of UFO lore is complete myth because code words are not duplicated in order to minimize risk of compromising the projects of which they are assigned. Not exactly sure why people would be whispering to Col. Alexander about such, instead of just describing it to him in an audible voice, but he could no doubt explain it in unassailable entirety if he ever decides he feels like it. 

In the mean time, perhaps we might consider if the MJ-12 story has not always been floundering on the ropes. Was there ever a time that it drew any particularly credible support? How many of us ever really bought it?

Perhaps more importantly would be why the saga was so persistently propped up and promoted. Questions of origins and purposes become quite relevant, arguably more so than authenticity in some cases.