MUFON Over Board - Save Our Ship

After listening to MUFON International Director Clifford Clift’s interview on the Jerry Pippin show titled “MUFON Under Siege”, I was floored by Cliff’s statement that MUFON has an ethics committee. Apparently this committee investigated one of the MUFON State Directors that was recently fired from their position. Seriously? MUFON has an ethics committee? 

After what I have witnessed as blatant unethical behavior on the part of the MUFON Board over the last two years, I am astounded by its hypocrisy! The MUFON Ethics Committee needs to turn its sights on its own Board of Directors whose actions during the MUFON-BAASS contract renewal periods were not only unethical but an outright derelict of duty by failing to properly represent the interests of MUFON’s members and the general public that MUFON serves as a non-profit organization. 

Imagine for a minute that you are hired by a company and in your employment contract you are guaranteed a certain salary. Now imagine that as a condition of your employment, you are asked by your employer to keep detailed records on how you spend that salary. After five months on the job, the employer calls you into their office and states that your salary is going to be cut in half because your monthly spending reports show you are banking half of your salary. Further the employer states that placing half of your salary in savings was not in the “spirit” of your employment contract. Sound outrageous? Absolutely! Yet, that is exactly what happened to the MUFON-BAASS contract. 

In a contract renewal letter dated June 25, 2009, Mr. Robert Bigelow stated that BAASS would cut MUFON’s monthly contract payment in half because “the accumulation of large sums of unspent money was not in the spirit of the BAASS-MUFON purchase agreement.” Incredibly, the majority of the Board of Directors sheepishly went along with Mr. Bigelow’s demands. Their comments justifying their positions were interesting. Tom Deuley, MUFON Board member said that in his experience doing business in China, change of contract terms was common. Clifford Clift agreed with Tom’s assessment claiming similar experience in real estate. 

What is wrong with these statements? First, this isn’t China and second MUFON already had a signed and legally binding straightforward purchase agreement. Yet, these Board members believed it was OK to change the contract terms five months after the deal was signed and sealed. When I mentioned this to an attorney friend of mine, her response echoed my assessment. “It doesn’t matter whether it was Robert Bigelow or Joe the Plumber signing the contract, BAASS had a legal contractual obligation to fulfill the terms of the contract or MUFON could have not only terminated the contract but sought damages.” 

Before MUFON entered in to a contractual relationship with BAASS, I had a one on one telephone conference call with Mr. Bigelow and I specifically asked him about money left over at the end of each contract month that had not been spent on project expenses for that month. Mr. Bigelow stated in no uncertain terms that the money belonged to MUFON. When June 2009 rolled around, Mr. Bigelow evidently had a change of heart and not only demanded a reduction in the monthly contract amount but then at the second renewal period in October 2009, simply stopped sending project checks altogether. Mr. Bigelow further demanded that MUFON pay for ongoing project expenses from the funds left over in the bank. The end result of all of MUFON’s efforts when the project was terminated in January 2010 was zero dollars in MUFON’s project bank account. 

Even before I resigned from MUFON, rumors were spreading around the organization and the Internet that I had embezzled money from MUFON and from BAASS funds. The truth is that I had not taken one dollar from either fund as confirmed by an independent CPA audit of the MUFON and BAASS books. Further, I had donated my $30,000.00 salary that I was authorized to draw from the BAASS project back to MUFON. BAASS suspected wrong doing before this independent audit, probably based upon the spreading rumors and demanded that MUFON Board member Jan Harzan turn over both sets of books to BAASS auditors. 

Now, let’s examine this second incredible lapse of ethical judgment on behalf of the MUFON Board. They secretly turned over the financial books of a non-profit organization to a for-profit organization which had no right to audit MUFON’s accounts. Conveniently BAASS subsequently found clerical mistakes that it used to justify reneging on its contractual obligations under the law. 

It was also around this time that the MUFON Board of Directors entered into secret negotiations with BAASS for renewing the contract, promising BAASS “complete transparency” while hiding their actions from me while I was still acting International Director. In 2008, MUFON suffered a financial loss at its annual symposium in San Jose, California and I personally made up for the shortfall with $14,000.00 of my own funds. During the MUFON-BAASS project, the MUFON Board directed me to reimburse myself the $14,000.00 from BAASS project funds! I did not for two reasons. First this would have been a misuse of BAASS funds and secondly I had already paid income taxes on the $14,000.00 MUFON owed me and the only way to hide these payments from BAASS auditors was to show it as salaried income. Later on after I resigned from MUFON, Clifford Clift in an email to me alluded that failing to reimburse myself from BAASS funds was insubordinate behavior against the MUFON Board. In other words I was disobeying the Board by not using BAASS project funds to cover MUFON’s shortfall. 

Just months earlier Clifford Clift when responding to BAASS inquiries into the rumored financial improprieties told BAASS that the MUFON Board was sorry for providing poor oversight of how I administered the BAASS project. Clifford conveniently forgot to mention the Board’s directive to me to draw funds from the BAASS account to pay for non-project expenses. The hypocrisy of this Board appears to have no bounds. MUFON finally paid me the money I lent the organization but only after I had my attorney intervene and threaten legal action. All of these allegations of unethical behavior I make against the MUFON Board I can back up with detailed memos, MUFON Board meeting minutes, letters and emails. I dedicated ten years and thousands of hours to MUFON as an unpaid volunteer and almost four years as a salaried International Director. I worked hard to professionalize its investigative force and to fulfill its mission to the public.

The people within the ranks of MUFON are good people who also volunteer their time and own financial resources to meet MUFON's goals. I still believe that the mission statement of MUFON is sound if rigidly adhered to and not compromised for the almighty dollar. I don't wish MUFON to cease operation or to fade away, but an organization is only as sound as its ethical and moral compass. Once that compass is broken, it is a ship drifting aimlessly. 

The actions of this current MUFON Board are grossly negligent and unethical and if allowed to continue unchallenged will sink MUFON as an organization. The Board should be held accountable for its past actions. Setting an ethics committee on MUFON members while taking a blind eye to its own unethical behavior is what makes this MUFON Board destructive and toxic to MUFON. Perhaps the MUFON Board needs to be reminded of who it really serves as a non-profit. Hint, it is not a for-profit organization.

All Future Updates Will Be Made to My New Blog Only

You can find the new blog at: http://historydeceived.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/blog-post.html#more

Hunting the Skinwalker

It was after uncovering some disturbing information about the Skinwalker Ranch owned by Robert Bigelow that I began to have doubts about the real purpose behind the MUFON-BAASS project. Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS) is an aerospace company allegedly involved in discovering novel and cutting edge space technologies and contracted MUFON in 2009 to perform UFO investigations on its behalf. In the following email to the MUFON Board of Directors, I summarized my research findings and my misgivings about any further relationship with BAASS.

Note that this email has been modified to remove identifying information about the confidential source here called Brad Newton who is still under a non-disclosure agreement from his work with the now defunct National Institute for Discovery Sciences (NIDS), also an organization founded by Robert Bigelow.

CONFIDENTIAL – DO NOT FORWARD – FOR MUFON BOARD ONLY – HIGHLY SENSITIVE

Gentlemen,

Since taking on the MUFON International Director position, I have been in observation mode trying to understand the true nature of the UFO phenomenon. In 2007 I personally financed a “meeting of the minds” in Fort Collins to try and gain insight into what the status quo was in Ufology. I have personally investigated high level cases such as Kinross and the California Drones and have found myself on the receiving end of a constant flow of disinformation.  What I have observed over the last three years seriously disturbs me.

It is my belief that there are forces at work here that “manage” Ufology for their own purposes. When an organization like MUFON starts to operate outside of the box “they” intend to keep us in, then these controlling forces move in to tighten their grip. Case in point is MUFON’s relationship with BAASS. Although John (Schuessler) knows who BAASS’ sponsors are, I am no longer comfortable with the MUFON-BAASS relationship. Let me explain in detail.

Just last month, I financed my own trip to Utah with Dr. Frank Salisbury who was looking to republish his book “The Utah UFO Display” and was looking for new material to add. Since the book covered the Uintah Basin in North East Utah where the Bigelow Skinwalker Ranch is located, Salisbury sought and was denied access to the Ranch. I also asked and was denied access. Instead, we spent our time interviewing new witnesses around the Ranch. Our contact person was Brad Newton (real name withheld) who has researched the area for many years. What I learned from Brad is what has led to the doubts I now harbor.

Brad worked with NIDS on the ranch and mentioned that after an alleged sighting, metal rods were found on the ranch that were sent to NIDS for analysis. Brad was in contact with a NIDS scientist who informed him that the rods were made from Element 115 and did not originate on earth, and that he (the scientist) had worked at Area 51 on a reverse engineering project where they had accumulated 300 pounds of this material. This in a nutshell is the Bob Lazar story.

Through Dr. Salisbury, we were able to interview the brother of the original owner of the ranch who sold it to the Shermans who subsequently sold it to Bigelow. The ranch owner’s brother was adamant that there was no UFO or strange activity on the ranch prior to the Sherman’s purchase, contrary to what was discussed in the Skinwalker Book and that he (the owner’s brother) had personally received a call from Bigelow trying to convince him otherwise. I found this to be extremely odd and disturbing. I also subsequently learned of a business relationship between Lazar and Bigelow (documented in the MUFON archives).

What I see in the MUFON-BAASS relationship is active management of MUFON’s work, despite assurances from BAASS otherwise. By carefully controlling the purse strings with each contract evaluation period, they are ensuring they receive a constant flow of information from MUFON while also making sure that MUFON does not end up with operational funding to stabilize its long term financial well being. Who’s on the receiving end of this information? Since that will not be disclosed to MUFON, I cannot state for sure, but I don’t feel confident that the information is being used for what MUFON was originally informed.

If you were able to listen to my speech at the Symposium or read my paper in the Proceedings or read my blog, then you know where I stand on the active management and control of information on the part of governmental or quasi governmental forces in our work. Conspiracy theory? Yes. Plausible? Yes.

MUFON has an obligation to the public to fulfill its mission. I for one believe that we cannot adequately do so as long as we are actively managed, nor can I in good faith stand by while this is happening. Those are my personal feeling however and as such I don’t want to speak for the organization when making the decision to renew or terminate our contract with BAASS. I leave it to the Board for a decision on this.

I have already stated my decision to step down as the International Director, and in large part my decision has been based on my research. I will continue to work within MUFON and for MUFON’s long term viability, but I will not stand by and be managed. My time will be better spent actively uncovering the trail left by the forces of disinformation and my efforts focused on uncovering the truth. In the end that is all that is important.

Sincerely,

James

John Schuessler responded with the following email:

James,

I am concerned for you if you are basing decisions on what Brad has said.  It is not my intent to argue the point, but the whole Element 115 thing is pure bunk.  Don't take my word for it, just ask any scientist. Both CSICOP scientists and MUFON scientists like Stanton Friedman have thoroughly debunked Lazar's Element 115 story.  If you could get Element 115 (or Elements 114 and 116) to be stable enough to make them into rods, they would make extremely heavy rods.  I can find no one except Bob Lazar and now Brad that believes there are Element 115 rods anywhere, let alone dumping them out on the ground in an uncontrolled environment on a ranch in Utah.

As for the rods found on the Skinwalker Ranch, I was on the NIDS Scientific Advisory Board back in those days and can verify that rods were found.  They were not heavy Element 115 rods.  Instead, they were thin carbon rods that are used in arc lamps to make very bright lights in field operations.  I have personally used this type of rods in arc lamp operations many years ago.

John

My email response to John follows:

Hi John,

That is my point exactly. Lazar and element 115 are bunk but it appears to me that the NIDS scientist was promoting it to Brad. Why? I found Brad to be honest in his demeanor and he is held in high esteem by everyone we came into contact with including many of the witnesses we interviewed. Brad has no motive for promoting the Bob Lazar story but it was communicated to him nonetheless.

Actually, it was the former ranch owner’s brother’s assertions that cemented for me that something is amiss. The Skinwalker ranch story did not play out as described in the book and that coupled with us being denied access does not add up for me.

I can only conclude that BAASS is at someone else’s beck and call. The Board does not need to agree with me on this, which is why I am leaving the contract renewal response to the Board.

Best wishes,

James

It was after this email exchange that the MUFON Board bypassed me as acting MUFON International Director and secretly engaged BAASS in renegotiating the MUFON-BAASS contract while purposely keeping me out of the loop. As you can see from the email exchange, this secretive communication was altogether unnecessary because I deferred to the majority decision of the MUFON Board.

Unethical behavior on the part of the MUFON Board aside, the following questions still beg for answers: What is really happening at the Skinwalker Ranch and why are serious investigators being denied access? Why was a NIDS scientist pushing the Bob Lazar story which is a known farce? Why does the book “Hunt for the Skinwalker” describe paranormal activity present on the ranch prior to the Shermans purchasing it when a close surviving relative of the former owner denies such activity? Why is the truth about activities on the ranch being censored through non-disclosure agreements?

It appears that once again in Ufology there are more questions than answers; common fare for a field where the waters are muddied but never cleared. If you consider yourself a truth seeker then perhaps it is time to take a stand against these forces of ambiguity that seek only to obscure the truth rather than bring it to light. It is time to promote truth and not mystery in a field that has too many mysteries already. It is time to reveal the truth by not compromising ethics or principles or by allowing truth to be censored. It is time to stop falling prey to fear and lies but instead to hunt the Skinwalker forces of deception in their own territory. Who is up for a hunting trip?