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UFOS: THE EARLY YEARS BY NICK REDFERN	THE FBI CONNECTION BY NICK REDFERN	THE HUNT FOR THE BOLAM "BEAST" BY JON DOWNES

Caption:

This picture was sent to me in early 2003 by a British man named Colin Perks, whose full story appears in my book Three Men Seeking Monsters. It was taken by Perks himself, overlooking the River Thames, London and appears to show a snake or serpent-like creature in the water. Perks stated that the "thing" appeared animate and was around 8 to 10 feet in length.

Caption:

In late 2003 myself and a number of colleagues spoke at the first UFO Crash Retrieval Conference at Las Vegas, Nevada (see: http://www.lasvegascitylife.com/articles/2003/11/20/local_news/news02.txt)
After the conference some of us traveled out into the desert to take a look at the amazing scenery. Here's (left to right) British crop circle researcher, Matthew Williams; author and editor of Steamshovel Press, Kenn Thomas; Greg Bishop, the editor of The Excluded Middle; Jon Downes, the Director of the British Center for Fortean Zoology; and myself.

UFOS: THE EARLY YEARS
BY
NICK REDFERN
When it comes to Unidentified Flying Objects and the British Government, there is one question that I am often asked: for how long have British authorities been investigating UFO-like phenomena? While it is generally accepted that the so-called modern era of UFO sightings began on 24 June 1947 - following the now-historic encounter of pilot Kenneth Arnold - documentation has surfaced showing that the British Air Ministry conducted investigations of both the "Foo Fighter" sightings of the Second World War and the Scandinavian "Ghost Rocket" phenomenon of 1946.

However, official investigations within the British Isles of unusual aerial phenomena started earlier than that - much earlier, in fact. One of the most notable "pre-Arnold" reports can be found within the archives of the British Admiralty and dates from 1915. Prepared by a Lieutenant Colonel W.P. Drury, Garrison Intelligence Officer at Plymouth Garrison, Devonport, England, the four-page paper is titled REPORT ON THE DARTMOOR FLOATING (OR BALLOON) LIGHT and concerns a series of strange events that occurred on the wilds of Dartmoor (the setting for Conan Doyle's classic novel, The Hound of the Baskervilles). Lt. Col. Drury advised his superiors at the Admiralty that on 28 June 1915 he and a colleague, one Lieutenant C. Brownlow of Naval Intelligence, had interviewed a Miss Cecilia Peel Yates at Dolbeare Cottage, Ashburton, about an unusual experience:

"She informed us that a few mornings previously, just before dawn, having been awakened by the barking of dogs, she saw from her bedroom window a bright light in the sky, bearing N., and apparently suspended a short distance above the earth. It was too large and bright for a planet, and, as she watched, it swung to the N.E., and disappeared. Haytor is due North of Ashburton and 4 miles distant as the crow files."

Initially, a study of the document makes clear, Lt. Col. Drury and Lt. Brownlow were more than skeptical of Miss Peel Yates's UFO-like encounter: "Although we had entirely failed to shake the lady's evidence by cross-examination, we deemed her story so wildly improbable that we excluded it from our official report. But shortly afterwards reports of a similar phenomenon were received from the neighbourhood of Hexworthy Mine, which is 5 miles to the N.W., across Dartmoor. On July 12th, Lieutenant Brownlow and I proceeded to Sherril, near Hexworthy, and interviewed Mrs. Cave-Penny and her daughter, from whom the report emanated. Their house, an isolated form on the moor, commands a clear view of the mine, which is two-and-a-half miles distant. They stated that on several occasions they had watched a bright white light rise from a point a few hundred yards to the Eastward of the mine, swing across the valley to about the same from Totnes, and a paddock some distance West of it, and disappear. The light sometimes rose above the skyline, at others it showed against the moon of Down Ridge, on which the mine is situated. On each occasion it rose from the same spot and followed the same course. Mrs. Cave-Penny is a rather excitable, irresponsible Irish lady, but we had no reason to doubt her evidence in the main, and her daughter's testimony (which fully corroborated that of her mother) was most clear and definite. This floating light against Down Ridge has been reported from the Hexworthy district on several occasions since, the last being a few nights ago."

Four weeks later, Lt. Col Drury informed his superiors at the Admiralty that encounters with the unidentified light were being reported from other locations on the moors, too: "About the middle of August this peculiar light was reported from two other points, viz., a meadow at Dartington Manor, about two miles belonging to Barton Pines, a large country house on high land overlooking Paignton. Dartington Manor is the home of the Champernownes: Barton Pines is owned by a Mr. William Whitley, formerly of the Life Guards. On more than one occasion Mrs. Whitley had reported that she and other witnesses had seen the floating light immediately above the belt of fir trees which screen the paddock from the garden and house. Brownlow, the Detective Police and I have separately interviewed Mrs. Whitley on various occasions, and we have all found her perfectly consistent in her story. For some time Mr. Whitley was sceptical, but, having seen it himself, he is now as convinced of its existence as his wife. The paddock commands an extensive view of Tor Bay in one direction and a long chain of the Dartmoor Tors in the other."

Drury continued: "The Dartington "floating light" was reported by Mr. Falkland Ricketts of Gatcombe Manor, who had also seen the Barton Pines occurrence. After several further reports from this witness, I obtained the sanction of the G.O.C., to watch one of the three points enumerated until I saw the light myself. I selected the Dartington Point, and, accompanied by Mr. Brownlow, began to watch from a position immediately opposite near the main Totnes-Newton Abbot road. On the third night we both saw the phenomenon precisely as it had been described at Hexworthy and Barton Pines."

But what, precisely, was it that the Intelligence Officer of Plymouth Garrison saw on Dartmoor? Drury's next statement makes for notable reading: "About 9.30 that night (September 4th) we observed a bright white light, considerably larger in appearance than a planet, steadily ascend from the meadow to an approximate height of 50 or 60 feet. It then swung for hundred yards or so to the left, and suddenly vanished. Its course was clearly visible against the dark background of wood and hill, though, the night being dark, it was not easy to determine whether it was a little above or beneath the skyline. We were within a mile of the light and both saw its ascension and transit distinctly. The Dart flows between Dartington and our post of observation, and, unfordable [sic], it was impossible to reach the meadow from which the light arose."

Illustrating that he had carried out a number of personal nighttime investigations of the area in the hope of seeing the unidentified object, Lt. Col. Drury added more pertinent and illuminating information: "I have watched Down Ridge, Dartington Manor, and Barton Pines by night on several occasions before and since September 4th, but that date is the only time I personally have seen this "floating light" which has so often been reported by other and reliable witnesses. It is to be observed that a ruler-edge laid upon the map will pass through the three indicated points, and that the suspect Buckfast Abbey (which harbours some 40 un-naturalized Germans of Military age) lies on the centre of the line. The line runs from the direction of Princetown to the Coast of Paignton. These lights, which are presumably lifted by captive balloons, are of an entirely different character from that of the stray fire balloon reported over Ashburton."

Lt. Col. Drury concluded his report on the curious encounters for the Admiralty thus: "It is suggested that the former may be employed to lift an aerial for wireless purposes. In any case it is difficult to find a normal cause for the credibility attested and oft recurring phenomenon, unless it be some form of illicit signalling. The proposed methods of detecting it I have dealt with in my former report "Suspects and alleged Illicit Signalling on N.E. Dartmoor". W.P. Drury. Lieut. Colonel, R.M.L.I. Intelligence Officer."

For twelve weeks after the events chronicled officially with the Admiralty, sightings of the unknown light continued on a regular basis and prompted Lt. Col. Drury to submit a Confidential message to his superiors. Titled ABNORMAL LIGHTS ON DARTMOOR, it states: "With a view to detecting the origin of the above (and especially of the "floating light") I have recently submitted a scheme, which has been approved by the C.O.C., for rounding up one of the most active areas of the Moor at night. This scheme can only be carried into effect under certain conditions, for which I am writing. Meanwhile, and as an essential preliminary measure, I am awaiting the sanction of the War Office to my application to have certain correspondence in that area secretly examined. The application which was made a month ago, has been recently renewed, but no reply has so far been received." (1)

Currently accessible documentation relating to these events shows that, whatever the true nature of the strange aerial lights of Dartmoor, the matter was never fully resolved to everyone's satisfaction. Were they the result of the actions of the "40 un-naturalized Germans of Military age" at Buckfast Abbey or was something far stranger occurring?

No evidence has surfaced in the Public Record Office's archives to suggest that this was the work of the Germans. The investigators David Clarke and Granville Oldroyd, however, have suggested the possibility that the curious Dartmoor light phenomena may have been some form of "earthlight" or "spooklight." As Clarke and Oldroyd note, at least some of these objects "are plasma-like blobs of energy created by frictional discharges from rocks in zones of geological faulting. In this way spooklights are 'created' by electromagnetic leakage from the strain generated in faultlines during the period leading up to an earth tremor." (2)

This theory does have its merits. There are, indeed, numerous accounts on record where unknown aerial objects have been seen time and again in areas with a reputation for being geologically unstable. It is also the case that a number of minor earth tremors have occurred in the West Country over the course of the last one hundred years - as have other sightings of unknown aerial lights. In 1932, for example, an incident with very similar overtones to those of 1915 occurred near the River Torridge, North Devon. From the archives of the Western Morning News, comes the following account titled "Will O' the Wisp?" It reads:

"Sir. A few nights ago, another man I were, one dark November night, at about eleven o'clock, on a hillside near the River Torridge far from any road, footpath or house. We were long-netting rabbits. Between us and the river lay a stretch of marshy ground, perhaps one hundred yards wide. On the other side of the river the ground rose abruptly covered in timber. Suddenly, we saw quite near us apparently about fifty feet above the marsh, an oblong object floating in the air. I cannot describe it better than saying that it looked like a conglomeration of very dim stars. It appeared to be about three feet by two feet in size and was clearly outlined against the dark background of the opposite hillside. It sailed about with a sort of circular motion, something like a swallow hawking over a pond. For five minutes or so, we watched it as it swept around in ever-widening circles; finally, it sailed off up the river and we saw it no more. I have sent this letter, before forwarding it to you, to the man who was with me at the time, and he corroborates all that I have said. (3)

As the acclaimed British author Jonathan Downes notes, Will O' The Wisp (or Jack O' Lantern, as it is also referred to) is "an incandescent form of methane that rises above rotting vegetation" - marsh gas, in other words. However, in response to the account that appeared in the Western Morning News, one E.E. Rudd of Torrington asserted that, "Sir, 'Jack' does not dance fifty feet above the ground. You will not see him on a dark November night, neither does he move with a circular motion. As a youth, I was lucky to see a superb display over some bogland on our common. This land has since been reclaimed and cultivated. What [the writer] and his companion saw was a white owl." (4)

The idea that this witness had been fooled by something so mundane as an owl is absurd. But, it is important to note that a local man who had lived in the area for his entire life was also dismissing the marsh gas explanation.

"Earthlights" and "spooklights" do seem to be an entirely real phenomenon; however, there is one major problem that surfaces time and time again when one tries to apply this explanation to the 1915 events: a study of the Admiralty's official reports, leaves the reader with little doubt that the lights were under some form of intelligent control.

For example, according to the paperwork currently in hand, Mrs. Cave-Penny and her daughter had seen on what was described as "several occasions," a bright white light "rise from a point a few hundred yards to the Eastward of the mine, swing across the valley to about the same distance west of it, and disappear." Whatever the true nature of this particularly unusual phenomenon, the description creates images of something undertaking very precise - rather than random - movements on repeated occasions and from the exact same location.

Similarly, the testimony of Mrs. Whitley of Boston Pines referred to repeated encounters with the strange light "immediately above" a belt of fir trees on her property. Once more, this suggests the presence of a type of aerial phenomena that was undertaking a pre-planned reconnaissance of the area by way of an already-established route. In other words, there was demonstrable evidence that intelligence lay behind the mysterious light.

Nearly ninety years later, it seems highly improbable that this strange affair will ever be truly resolved. Of one thing we can be certain, however: unusual aerial phenomena was highly active in the UK almost a century ago and Britain's military was keeping a close and concerned watch on the situation.

References:
1. Public Record Office file: Admiralty 131/119. Crown copyright exists.
2. UFOs 1947 - 1987, edited by Hilary Evans with John Spencer, published by Fortean Tomes, 1987.
3. Western Morning News, 16 and 19 February 1932. The Owlman and Others, Jonathan Downes, published by Domra Publications, 1997.
4. Ibid.

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THE FBI CONNECTION
BY
NICK REDFERN
The purpose of this report is to relate the way in which the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) became involved in the investigation of the Majestic 12 documents in the late 1980s. The story is a strange and convoluted one and involves the surveillance of U.S. citizens and authors, liaisons with the Air Force (and possibly the CIA), and even allegations of Soviet intelligence links to the story.

That the FBI has had involvement in the UFO subject is no secret: in 1976, the researcher (and author of the book The UFO-FBI Connection, 2000) Bruce Maccabee obtained via the Freedom of Information Act more than one thousand pages of UFO-related files from the FBI that dated back to 1947; and since then additional files have surfaced on a variety of issues linked to the UFO controversy. But what of the FBI link to MJ12?

The first person to publicly air the original batch of two MJ12 documents - the so-called Eisenhower Briefing Document and the Truman Memorandum - was the British author Timothy Good, who did so in May 1987 in his book Above Top Secret (Sidgwick & Jackson, 1987). Essentially, the first document is a 1952 briefing prepared by Admiral Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter for President-elect Eisenhower, informing him that a UFO and alien bodies had been recovered from the New Mexico desert in 1947. The second is a 1947 memorandum from President Harry Truman to Secretary of Defense James Forrestal, authorizing the establishment of MJ12.

Shortly after Good's publication of the documents, additional copies surfaced in the USA via the research team of Stanton Friedman (a nuclear physicist), William Moore (the co-author of the book, The Roswell Incident (Granada Books, 1980) and Jaime Shandera (a television producer).

Moore had been working quietly with a number of intelligence "insiders" who had contacted him shortly after publication of The Roswell Incident in 1980. From time to time various official-looking papers would be passed onto Moore, the implication being that someone in the U.S. Government, military or Intelligence Community wished to make available information on UFOs that would otherwise have remained forever outside of the public domain. It was as a result of Moore's insider dealings that a roll of film negatives displaying the documents was delivered in the mail to the home of Shandera in December 1984.

Moore, Friedman and Shandera worked carefully for two and a half years in an attempt to determine the authenticity of the documents. With Timothy Good's release, however, it was decided that the best course of action was to follow suit. As a result, a huge controversy was created that continues on fifteen years later.

But how and why did the FBI become embroiled in the MJ12 affair? Howard Blum is an award-winning author and former New York Times journalist, twice nominated by the editors of that newspaper for the Pulitzer Prize in Investigative Reporting. In 1990, Blum's book Out There (Simon & Schuster, 1990) was released, and detailed his investigation of U.S. military and governmental involvement in the UFO subject. According to Blum, on 4 June 1987, the UFO skeptic, Philip J. Klass, wrote to William Baker, Assistant Director at the Office of Congressional and Public Affairs. "I am enclosing what purport to be Top Secret/Eyes Only documents, which have not been properly declassified, now being circulated by William L. Moore, Burbank, California, 91505…" The Bureau swung into action.

Jacques Vallee-the UFO author, investigator, and former principal investigator on Department of Defense computer networking projects-stated in his book Revelations (Ballantine, 1991) that the FBI turned away from the MJ12 documents in "disgust" and professed no interest in the matter. Papers and comments made to me by the FBI and the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, however, reflect a totally different scenario. Furthermore, there are indications that the FBI launched (or were at least involved in) several MJ12-linked investigations during the late 1980s.

Of those investigations, one definitely began in the latter part of 1988. Howard Blum has stated that of those approached by the FBI "in the fall of 1988", one was a "Working Group" established under the auspices of the Defense Intelligence Agency tasked with looking at the UFO problem. In 1990, Blum was interviewed by UFO Magazine (Vol. 5, No. 5), and was asked if the Working Group could have been a "front" for another even more covert investigative body within the U.S. government. Blum's response aptly sums up one of the major problems faced by both those inside and outside of government when trying to determine exactly who knows what.

"Interestingly," said Blum, "members of [the Working Group] aired that possibility themselves. When looking into the MJ12 papers, some members of the group said - and not in jest - 'Perhaps we're just a front organization for some sort of MJ12. Suppose, in effect, we conclude the MJ12 papers are phony, are counterfeit. Then we've solved the entire mystery for the government, relieving them of the burden in dealing with it, and at the same time, we allow the real secret to remain held by a higher source.' An FBI agent told me there are so many secret levels within the government that even the government isn't aware of it!"

We also know that what was possibly a separate fall 1988 investigation was conducted by the FBI's Foreign Counter-Intelligence division (which I have been advised operated out of Washington and New York). Some input into the investigation also came from the FBI office in Dallas, Texas (the involvement of the latter confirmed to me by Oliver B. Revell, Special Agent in Charge at Dallas FBI).

On 15 September 1988, an agent of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations contacted Dallas FBI and supplied the Bureau with another copy of the MJ12 papers. This set was obtained from a source whose identity, according to documentation released to me by the Bureau, AFOSI has deemed must remain classified to this day.

Before addressing the involvement of the FBI's Foreign Counter-Intelligence division in this matter, let us focus our attention on Dallas FBI. On 25 October 1988, the Dallas office transmitted a two-page Secret Airtel to headquarters that read as follows:

Enclosed for the Bureau is an envelope which contains a possible classified document. Dallas notes that within the last six weeks, there has been local publicity regarding 'OPERATION MAJESTIC-12' with at least two appearances on a local radio talk show, discussing the MAJESTIC-12 OPERATION, the individuals involved, and the Government's attempt to keep it all secret. It is unknown if this is all part of a publicity campaign. [Censored] from OSI, advises that 'OPERATION BLUE BOOK, mentioned in the document on page 4 did exist. Dallas realizes that the purported document is over 35 years old, but does not know if it has been properly declassified. The Bureau is requested to discern if the document is still classified. Dallas will hold any investigation in abeyance until further direction from FBIHQ.

Partly as a result of the actions of the Dallas FBI Office and partly as a result of the investigation undertaken by the FBI's Foreign Counter-Intelligence people, on 30 November 1988 an arranged meeting took place in Washington DC between agents of the Bureau and those of AFOSI. If the AFOSI had information on MJ12, said the Bureau, they would like to know.

A Secret communication back to the Dallas office from Washington on 2 December 1988 read:

This communication is classified Secret in its entirety. Reference Dallas Airtel dated October 25 1988. Reference Airtel requested that FBIHQ determine if the document enclosed by referenced Airtel was classified or not. The Office of Special Investigations, US Air Force, advised on November 30, 1988, that the document was fabricated. Copies of that document have been distributed to various parts of the United States. The document is completely bogus. Dallas is to close captioned investigation.

At first glance, that would seem to lay matters to rest once and for all. Unfortunately, it does not. There can be no dispute that the Air Force has played a most strange game with respect to MJ12. The FBI was assured by AFOSI that the MJ12 papers were fabricated. However, Special Agent Frank Batten, Jr., chief of the Information Release Division at the Investigative Operations Center with the USAF, admitted to me on 30 April 1993 that AFOSI is not now maintaining (nor ever has maintained) any records pertaining to either MJ12, or any investigation thereof. This begs an important question. How was AFOSI able to determine that the papers were faked if no investigation on their part was undertaken? Batten has also advised me that while AFOSI did "discuss" the MJ12 documents with the FBI, incredibly they made absolutely no written reference to that meeting in any shape or form. This is most odd: government and military agencies are methodical when it comes to documenting possible breaches of security.

Richard L. Weaver, formerly the Deputy for Security and Investigative Programs with the U.S. Air Force (and the author of the US Air Force's 1995 near-1000 page report, The Roswell Repor: Fact Vs. Fiction in the New Mexico Desert), advised me similarly on 12 October 1993. "The Air Force considers the MJ12 (both the group described and the purported documents to be bogus," stated Weaver. He, too, conceded, however, that there were "no documents responsive" to my request for Air Force files on how just such a determination was reached. Stanton Friedman has also stated that, based on his correspondence with Weaver on the issue of MJ12, he too is dissatisfied with the responses that he received after filing similar FOIA requests relating to the way in which the Air Force made its 'bogus' determination.

Moreover, there is the fact that AFOSI informed the FBI that, "copies of that document have been distributed to various parts of the United States." To make such a statement AFOSI simply must have conducted some form of investigation or have been in receipt of data from yet another agency. On the other hand, if AFOSI truly did not undertake any such investigation into MJ12, then its statement to the FBI decrying the value of the documents is essentially worthless, since it is based on personal opinion rather than sound evaluation.

If the Bureau learned anything further about MJ12 in the post-1989 period, then that information has not surfaced under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act. Perhaps the Bureau, unable to get satisfactory answers from the military and the intelligence community, simply gave up the chase; I do not know. I do know, thanks to Richard L. Huff, Bureau Co-Director within the Office of Information and Privacy, that MJ12 remains the subject of an FBI headquarters Main File that is titled "Espionage." Today that file is in "closed status." But why would the MJ12 documents be linked with a FBI HQ Main File titled "Espionage? It is here that we have to turn our attention to the FBI's Foreign Counter-Intelligence division.

Some of the information related above was published in my book The FBI Files. As is often the case with published authors, people who read their books will contact them with information based on the material contained within the pages of the book. In the wake of the publication of The FBI Files, I was contacted by a man about whom I will say little. I will say that he offered that he had formerly served with the FBI in the time period that the FBI was investigating MJ12 and had knowledge of the Bureau's interest in the MJ12 documents. He also supplied information that convinced me that he was genuine. According to the man, the FBI had actually been aware of the intricacies of the MJ12 saga for some two years before Timothy Good published the documents in Above Top Secret. However, I was advised, the investigation was intensified after the documents were publicized in the U.S. I was further told that initially there was a fear on the part of the Air Force and the FBI's Foreign Counter-Intelligence people that the MJ12 papers had been fabricated by Soviet intelligence personnel who intended using them as "bait."

That bait was to be used on U.S. citizens who had a personal interest in UFOs but who were also working on sensitive defense-related projects - including the Stealth fighter. The hope on the part of the Soviets, it was suspected by the FBI and AFOSI, was that by offering the MJ12 papers to those targeted sources within the U.S. defense industry, the Soviets would receive something of value of a defense nature in return. The man was unsure precisely how the investigation concluded. He did know, however, that no charges were brought against anyone. This is an ingenious scenario but it must be stressed that my source reiterated that the Soviet theory was simply that - a theory and nothing more. It was, he said, one of several avenues being actively pursued by the FBI at the time - including the possibility that the MJ12 documents had been created as disinformation by the US Government to hide to facts concerning secret experimentation undertaken by the US in the immediate post-war era. A similar comment to that of my source as it related to the Soviets was made by Gerald Haines, historian of the National Reconnaissance Office, in his controversial paper, "CIA's Role in the Study of UFOs: 1947-1990."

In a section of the report dealing with CIA involvement in UFO investigations in the 1980s, Haines commented that: "Agency analysts from the Life Science Division of OSI and OSWR officially devoted a small amount of their time to issues relating to UFOs. These included counterintelligence concerns that the Soviets and the KGB were using U.S. citizens and UFO groups to obtain information on sensitive U.S. weapons development programs (such as the Stealth aircraft)."

It should also be noted that the Haines paper claims that no original MJ12 documents were known to exist; however, he neglects to reference the so-called Cutler-Twining memorandum that Moore and Shandera located in the National Archives.

There is further evidence, too, that the FBI has in its archives more information pertaining to MJ12 than has surfaced into the public domain thus far. On 16 November 1988, the UFO researcher Larry Bryant wrote to Ms. Hope Nakamura of the Center for National Security Studies and advised her that in a then-recent conversation with William Moore, he had been informed of Moore's efforts to secure the release of the FBI's file on him. The bulk of the FBI's dossier on Moore (which amounted to no less than fifty-five pages) was being withheld for reasons directly affecting the national security of the United States of America.

Bryant went on to explain that Moore was attempting to find legal assistance in challenging the nondisclosure of the majority of the FBI's file. In a determined effort to lend assistance to Moore, Bryant drafted a lengthy and detailed advertisement that he proposed submitting to a number of military newspapers for future publication.

Titled UFO SECRECY/CONGRESS-WATCH, the ad specifically addressed the eye-opening fact that the Bureau's file on Moore was classified at no less than Secret level, and that at least one other (unnamed) U.S. government agency was also keeping tabs on Moore and his UFO pursuits. In particular those pursuits relating to certain "whistle-blower testimony" which Moore had acquired from a variety of sources within the American military and government. Courageously, Bryant signed off urging those reading the advertisement to contact their local congressman and to press for nothing less than a full-scale inquiry into the issue of UFOs.

Bryant's advertisement was ultimately published (in the 23 November 1988 issue of The Pentagram, a publication of the U.S. Army); yet as spirited as it was, it failed to force the FBI to relinquish its files on Moore. By 1993, the FBI's dossier on Moore (which was classified at Secret level) was running at sixty-one pages, of which Moore had succeeded in gaining access to a mere six.

In 1989, Bryant, mindful of the FBI's surveillance of William Moore, attempted to force the Bureau to release any or all records on Stanton Friedman. On 2 August of that year, Bryant received the following response from Richard L. Huff. "Mr. Friedman is the subject of one Headquarters main file. This file is classified in its entirety and I am affirming the denial of access to it."

Bryant's efforts on Friedman's behalf came after he (Friedman) had filed FOIA requests with both the Bureau and the CIA. The response from the CIA was that it had no responsive files - except for a 'negative' name check from the FBI, who subsequently refused to reveal details of either the size of the file or its security classification.

On 28 August 1989, Bryant filed suit in the District Court for the Eastern District of Columbia. "My complaint," explained Bryant, "seeks full disclosure of the UFO-related content of the FBI dossier on Stan Friedman. Neither Stan not I have been able to convince the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation to loosen its grasp on that dossier, which Bureau officials assert bears a security classification." Fortunately, in Friedman's case, a "small portion" of the FBI's file pertaining to him was eventually released (on 13 November 1989) as a result of Bryant's actions. The remainder of the FBI file on Friedman has never surfaced.

What are we to make of all this? Consider the following. The FBI conducted several investigations of MJ12 (via its Dallas Office; its Headquarters at Washington, DC; and its Foreign Counter-Intelligence division). It had close liaison with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations on an MJ12-related operation that may have also involved the CIA in an attempt to crack a Soviet intelligence operation that may or may not have existed. And the fact that the Bureau holds an extensive Secret file on William Moore (co-author of the first book on the Roswell crash and a key figure in the MJ12 saga) and a file of unknown size and classification on Stanton Friedman is more than notable. It also suggests that more information currently exist in the archives of the FBI on MJ12 than has been declassified thus far. Whether or not the FBI was ever fully satisfied by its investigations into the murky world of MJ12 and with what it was told by the AFOSI is debatable, however. The final word I will leave to one of Howard Blum's FBI sources: "All we're finding out is that the government doesn't know what it knows. There are too many secret levels."

When it comes to Unidentified Flying Objects and the British Government, there is one question that I am often asked: for how long have British authorities been investigating UFO-like phenomena? While it is generally accepted that the so-called modern era of UFO sightings began on 24 June 1947 - following the now-historic encounter of pilot Kenneth Arnold - documentation has surfaced showing that the British Air Ministry conducted investigations of both the "Foo Fighter" sightings of the Second World War and the Scandinavian "Ghost Rocket" phenomenon of 1946.

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THE HUNT FOR THE BOLAM "BEAST"
BY
JON DOWNES

The Center for Fortean Zoology has for years been interested in reports of Bigfoot-like creatures seen in Britain. Over those years, we have collected a large amount of data on the subject, and we have been vaguely meaning to do something about it for a long time. In mid-2001 myself, my colleague at the CFZ, Richard Freeman, and Nick Redfern (who now lives in the US) undertook a six-week-long tour of the UK investigating a wide range of cryptozoological and Bigfoot-style mysteries.

In the latter part of 2002 and early 2003, however, there occurred a huge "flap" of Big Hairy Man (BHM) sightings throughout the British Isles that we could not afford to ignore and that required our immediate attention. Indeed, such was the scale of this wave of encounters that, even as we made plans for an expedition in March, a handful of new sightings of large, man-beasts from the Bolam Lake area of Northumberland, England, arrived in our email in-box in January that prompted us to undertake an immediate study of the evidence.

We liaised with Geoff Lincoln, an absolutely invaluable researcher based in the area. We gave him our planned arrival time, and asked if any of the eyewitnesses would be prepared to speak to us. Much to our delight, five out of six were. I think it should be noted here that the sixth is a soldier, and with the burgeoning situation in the Middle East spiraling rapidly out of control, it would be completely unreasonable to expect a serving military man to be at the beck and call of the CFZ.

Serendipitously, we were able to stay at a house owned by our County Durham representative, David Curtis. He and his wife Joanne were absolutely fantastic all the way through our sojourn in the North. The only sad thing about our stay with them was that Davy had to work most of the time and was not able to join us during most of our activities.

After a series of fairly dull misadventures, we met Geoff Lincoln, and Dr. Gail-Nina Anderson (a member of the CFZ Board of Consultants), and we made our way in convoy to Bolam Lake itself. It would be nice to say that we were overwhelmed with a spooky feeling, or that the genius locii of the location was in some way redolent of Fortean freakiness. But it wasn't. It was just what one would expect from a heavily wooded country park in the North of England in the middle of January - cold, wet and gray.

Geoff showed us three of the locations where these things had been reported. We carried out a thorough series of photographic mapping exercises, while I stayed back at the main car park and did my best to fend off the incessant inquiries from the press. Just after lunchtime a TV crew from a local television company arrived and filmed interviews with our investigation team. It was only after they had gone that we realized something very strange was happening.

Although we had tested all of our electronic equipment the night before, had charged up batteries where necessary, and had put new batteries in all of the equipment that needed them, practically without exception all of our equipment failed. The laptop, for example, has a battery, which usually lasts between 20 and 35 minutes. It lasted just three minutes before failing. Admittedly, I received an enormous number of telephone calls during our stay at the lake, but not anywhere near enough to justify the fact that I had to change handsets four times in as many hours. The batteries in both Geoff's and our tape recorders also failed. It seems certain that there was some strange electromagnetic phenomenon at work here.

Later that afternoon we drove to a local pub where we met our first witnesses. Like all of the other people we were to meet over the next few days, they requested anonymity, and therefore in accordance with our strict confidentiality policy, we have respected this. Naomi and her son had been visiting Bolam Lake only a few days before. Not believing any of the reports that had appeared in the local media, they were both appalled and frightened when - while walking across the car park itself - they had seen a huge creature standing motionless in the woods. They described experiencing an intense feeling of fear and trepidation, and rapidly left the area. They were incredibly co-operative, and agreed to come back to the lake with us the next day to stage a reconstruction.

I had a wake-up call at 5.30 a.m. the next morning, and a taxi took me to a rest area 500 yards along the road from the Bolam Lake car park, where I did a two and a half minute interview for the BBC Radio 4 Today programme. One thing of great importance happened during the half-hour or so I spent shivering by the side of the road waiting to speak to the BBC. Just before dawn, the crows, which live in a huge colony in the woods, started an appalling noise. Suddenly the noise stopped. I heard a brief succession of booming noises- like a heavily amplified heartbeat from a Pink Floyd record - before the crows started up again. It is unclear whether these noises came from the vicinity of the lake itself or were made by the set-up of satellite dishes, and recording equipment that was loaded in the back of, and on top of, the BBC man's car. During the taxi journey back to Seaham the driver remarked on the peculiar behaviour of the crows, and said that although he was a countryman himself and had spent his whole life living in this area, he had never heard anything quite like it.

As soon as I arrived back at base, it was time for the entire CFZ expeditionary force to drive to the outskirts of the city of Newcastle where we met Geoff and a second witness in a cafe attached to a garden center. The witness, Neil, had been fishing at Bolam Lake one night four or for five years previously. Together with two companions he had been making his way back to the car-park when they encountered a huge, dark, man-shaped object about 7-8 ft in height with what he described as sparkling eyes. The three fishermen did not stop to investigate but ran back to the car. However, this was by no means the only encounter that Neil had to report to us. Together with one of his companions from the first adventure, he had again been night fishing at Bolam Lake during the summer of 2002. They had been camped out on this occasion, and had heard noises, which they assumed were from an enormous animal moving around in the bushes outside of their camp. Deciding that discretion was the better part of valour, they decided not to investigate, but when they broke camp the next morning they found that fish in a bait tin had been taken, and there were signs that something very large had been lumbering around in the vicinity.

Possibly the most astounding story that he had to recount had taken place a couple of summers before our visit. He had been in the woods at the opposite side of the Lake with his girlfriend. They had been making love, when his girlfriend told him that she could see what she thought was a man in a monkey suit watching their sexual adventures intently from behind a bush. Neil, unsurprisingly, looked around the area but could find nothing.

We then continued to the lake. Neil had been amazingly co-operative, and had, like Naomi, agreed to stage a reconstruction with us. At the lake we liaised with the team from a local investigative group called Twilight Worlds and began a series of exercises, which would take up the rest of the day. Geoff had noted, the previous week, a series of apparently artificial tree formations similar to those "Bigfoot Teepees" noted by researchers in the United States.

Together with Twilight Worlds, Geoff and my colleague from the CFZ, Graham Inglis, went off to map these formations and to make a photographic record. They also took with them a Twilight Worlds member trained in using their EMF meter, together with a dowser. After our electrical mishaps of the previous day, we wanted to find out whether there were, indeed, any abnormal EMF fields in the area. Neither investigator found any unusual readings.

Our next task was to stage a reconstruction of Naomi's sighting. Again a full photographic and video record was made, and EMF readings were also taken. Again no unusual readings were recorded either by the EMF meter or the dowser. We then repeated the exercise with Neil and reconstructed his first sighting.
At about half-past four, one of the members of Twilight Worlds reported seeing something large, human-shaped and amorphous in the woods directly in front of the car park. As the dusk gathered at about 5 o'clock, I again heard the raucous noise of the crows that he had reported just before dawn. Suddenly, once again, they fell silent and one of the Twilight Worlds members shouted that she could hear something large moving around among the undergrowth. I ordered all of the car drivers present to switch on their headlights and to put them on full beam. I did not hear any noise in the undergrowth although other people present did. Eight people were watching the woods and five of them, including myself, saw an enormous man-shaped object run from right to left, disappear, and then a few moments later run back again.

When the expedition returned on Monday, we conducted experiments to find out exactly how far away the creature - if it was a creature - was from the excited onlookers. Using Richard Freeman (the CFZ's resident zoologist) as a model, I made a fairly accurate estimate that the creature had been a hundred and 34 feet away at the time of our sighting. I also estimated that the creature had run along a distance of between 12 and 18 feet. About five minutes after my sighting, I wandered across the car park to the location when Naomi had reported seeing the creature. There, too, I felt a sensation of intense fear and quickly returned to my companions.

After an incident like that, anything else would have been an anti-climax. However, Geoff Lincoln took the CFZ team to interview two further witnesses. The first was a young man living in the suburbs of Newcastle. Geoff and Richard visited him at his home and he told of his encounter with an enormous man-shaped being next to a hollow tree in the woods, some months previously. The incident had taken place while he had been walking his dog. He had been so frightened by his experience that he refused to ever go near the lake again. Finally we went to another pub where we met another man called Neil. He had been with the first Neil at the time of his initial sighting.

We were all impressed by his sincerity and by the way that he corroborated his friends' testimony in what seemed to us, at least, to be a very natural and uncontrived manner. One day later, we returned to the lake. We carried out a thorough photographic survey of the final two sighting locations to ascertain - as far as was possible - the size of the thing that had been seen on Saturday night, and its distance from the eyewitnesses.

As the EMF scans had been remarkably unsuccessful, we tried to scan the area for magnetic anomalies using a pocket compass. Mike Hallowell, a friend and excellent researcher, registered a strange magnetic anomaly at the location of the fisherman's first sighting. However, it must be reported that when the team tried to replicate this later in the day, they were unsuccessful.

That evening, we interviewed a final witness: a woman in her late fifties, who had been visiting the lake about five years before with her son who was then 11 years old. Like Naomi and myself, she reported intense feelings of not exactly hostility, but what she interpreted as a message not to investigate a peculiar tree formation any further. She discussed these tree formations with us at some length. She had been surprised to find them at several locations throughout the woodlands. Our work was then finished and we returned home. Bolam Lake in Northumberland, however, is not the only place in the United Kingdom where BHM phenomena have been reported over the last few months:

CANNOCK CHASE, STAFFORDSHIRE:
There have been at least five reports from this large forest in central England during the last 12 months. This is one of the few places in Britain where such reports have occurred regularly for the last century.

FRISTON PARK, SUSSEX:
An ex-soldier, now working for the Forestry Commission, had a sighting last summer of a BHM. He hints that some of his colleagues may also have seen it. There are pieces of circumstantial evidence surrounding this reports, which ties in closely with Bigfoot reports in the US.

SHERWOOD FOREST, NOTTINGHAMSHIRE:
A sighting last year sparked several historical accounts, and kick-started an entire flap. Man-beasts have been reported in this vicinity for centuries. One of the most famous was known as Robin of the Wood. Sounds familiar?

LONGRIDGE FELL, LANCASHIRE
Apparently a woman living in the vicinity reports having been "in contact" on some level with several of these creatures for some time. Longridge Fell is also the site for encounters with two other famous British monsters - a dragon and the notorious Dun Cow.

It is the intention of the CFZ to continue to dig deeply into the mystery of Britain's man-beasts and to present our findings in a full-length book at the end of the year. Similarly, our friend and colleague Nick Redfern has written a book about our 2001 expedition, Three Men Seeking Monsters that will be published in March 2004 by Paraview-Pocket Books. If anyone can shed any light on the British BHM encounters or has sighting details to report, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Jonathan Downes is the director of the Centre for Fortean Zoology [CFZ] based in Exeter, England. The CFZ is a non-profit making organisation founded in 1992 that studies mystery animals across the globe. For details of the work of the CFZ see: www.cfz.org.uk Jonathan Downes can be contacted at jon@eclipse.co.uk

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