>>Second of two-part excerpt from "Just Cause", newsletter of Citizens Against UFO Secrecy, regarding the controversial "Aquarius" memo, and "MJ 12". _______________ What about the data in the "MJ12" report? The date is immediately telling. September 18, 1947, is the birthday of the CIA, the official first day of their existence! Is it a coincidence or a tell-tale clue to the document being phony? Or could this report have been one of the first orders of business for the flegdling CIA? The connection of the 1947 Roswell incident to this affair makes sense. Based on the information unveiled by Bill Moore, Stan Friedman and others, the Roswell crash was clearly a major topic in high government circles. It strains credibility to think that piles of metallic debris would have been sent to Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio from New Mexico for analysis if the material were simply parts of what should have been an easily-recognizable radar reflector balloon to Army Air Force officers. After the arrival of the material at Wright-Patterson and wherever else it may have gone, official documentation ceases. No useful government files describing analysis of the debris have been unearthed. Obviously analysis took place somewhere. Where is the report? If the Roswell object were a strange device of some sort, then involvement of the individuals listed as MJ 12 would make sense. My first thoughts upon seeing this list of people is that if a UFO had crashed and was recovered, this would be the kind of panel that I would want to put together to investigate the matter. All of these individuals were at the top in their respective areas of experience during the late 1940's and had the added benefit of government experience behind them. The Majestic 12 indeed! A number of them were later involved in the UFO phenomenon. In fact, fully half of the panel would make a mark on UFO history during and after 1947: o Hoyt Vandenberg - said to have read the now-famous 1948 "Estimate of the Situation" and subsequently ordered it downgraded and destroyed for lack of evidence that UFO's were interplanetary. o Roscoe Hillenkoeter - Former board member of NICAP and proponent of UFO reality. o Vannevar Bush - Mentioned in the formelry top secret Canadian "Smith memo" of November 21, 1950, as the head of a "concentrated effort" to study UFOs. o Nathan Twining - Authored a well-known September 1947 Air Force memo strongly endorsing the serious nature of UFOs. o Donald Menzel - Author of 3 books debunking the UFO phenomenon. o Lloyd Berkner - member of the CIA's "Robertson Panel" of 1953. Panel members' background show that most had connections to either the National Security Council or the Research and Development Board (R&DB). The R&DB figures prominently in testimony given to us by Dr. Robert Sarbacher and CAUS is convinced that UFO file material exists in the R&DB's holdings at the National Archives. Another curiousity. General Twining's pro-UFO "flying discs" memo (see CLEAR INTENT, pp.213-214) dated September 23, 1947, comes only five days after the MJ12 report. Could Twining's possible connection to an MJ12 panel have had an influence on his wr iting of the 9/23/47 memo? The listing of Vandenberg and particularly Donald Menzel as MJ12 members is a major curiousity since both had later negative involvement in UFOs. If an MJ12 Panel concluded that UFOs were real, Menzel's and Vandenberg's debunking would seem illogical. Or would it? If a singular incident of high national security importance occurred, like a Roswell incident, such could be classified more highly even that the H-Bomb, as the Smith memo so aptly put it. As study of the phenomenon progressed, secrecy would be of the utmost importance and any effort to diffuse the interest of the public and non-need-to-know personnel would be encouraged. Therefore, General Vandenberg, by batting down Project Sign's "Estimate of the Situation", would be preventing undue attention from