From: Bill Chalker <bill_c@bigpond.com>
Date: Sat, 07 Nov 98 19:14:30 PST
Fwd Date: Sun, 07 Nov 1999 07:01:52 -0500
Subject: 'Cosmic Crashes' - Some Comments


I've just finished 'Cosmic Crashes - The Incredible Story Of The
UFOs That Fell To Earth' by Nicholas Redfern (Simon & Schuster,
1999, 328 pages).

As someone who has researched similar tales in Australia (see
"The Ultimate Secret - Fact or Fiction: The Australian
Connection" at Http://www.project1947.com/forum/index.htm) the
thing that stood out the most for me was that while Nick has
produced a readable and entertaining book, that should do well,
it falls short on the critical point of whether it constitutes
proof of the extraordinary claim of crashed UFOs. Ultimately
while there are some intriguing stories, the proof is lacking.
Nick Redfern appears to approach his stories a little
differently to me. Instead of being guided by the quality of the
evidence, we have here the overall impression that Nick is
completely convinced of the fact that UFOs are crashing to earth
all over the place and among others the British government is
covering it all up. If such was the case, i.e.,. a rather
extraordinary claim, then the evidence presented should also be
extraordinary. It isn't. It is intriguing, and perhaps
encourages us to look further, but never-the less we should keep
the nature of the evidence for such claims in proper context.
While fascinating, the evidence is short of absolute.

Likewise with my own Australian data, however I've approached
such stories on the basis that while interesting they should be
seen for what they are - intriguing stories, deserving of
investigation, but we should present them warts and all, not in
the best possible light with their dubious details either
stripped bare or not presented at all.

For example we have the statement on page 165 of Redfern's book
that we are about to read an extract from "a classified UFO
document made available to the investigator and nuclear
physicist Stanton T. Friedman", but instead to the informed
reader all we get is an extract from the notorious and
unverified MJ-12 papers. At that stage in the book that are not
described as MJ12 documents. This is disappointing for the
uniformed reader and depressing for the informed and critical
reader. Why not show the reader the true nature of the source
material - i.e.. an unverified & dubious document of which most
serious researchers accept as a hoax document. Such colourful
sources as Bill Cooper and John Lear are used without comment.
While impressive for the uniformed reader it is depressing to see
such stuff resurface.

Nick Redfern makes much of Jenny Randles intriguing "solider's
story" and the apparent use of the term EBE (page 204). Only one
problem if you consult Jenny's book "From out of the Blue"
(1991), she reports that the source did not use the term "EBE"
etc, rather it was "BEFABS"!

Nick Redfern makes much of a 1963 Australian story from a 1972
newspaper report (!) referring to a "sphere crash" near Broken
Hill. Likewise he refers to Tim Good's Alien Liaison" (or "Alien
Contact" US edition) story of a similar sphere examined at
Woomera.

I won't get into detail here unless asked but the 1963 story and
perhaps the earlier Tim Good story refer to recoveries of
probable prosaic space re-entries. The 1963 case - generally
known as the Boulia Ball - is definitely of US origin, unless
the use of US plug threads on these balls is being copied by
aliens - I doubt it. In fact I came across an Australian Defence
file from 1965 that carries a copy of the paper "Re-entry of
Space Vehicle Fragments", Journal of Spacecraft, Vol.2, No.5,
Sept Oct 1965, pgs. 660-63, by Peter Twist of The Weapons
Research Establishment, Salisbury, South Australia. The paper
identifies the Boulia ball of 1963, the subject of Nick
Redfern's interest in 1999, as most likely of US origin. If
anyone looks at the 1963 photos of the Boulia Ball, one would
have to wonder why there was ever any mystery at all. It was
clearly from Earth and not a "Cosmic crash" candidate.

My point here is that there are people like myself that are only
too happy to assist researchers like Tim Good, Nick Redfern etc,
in their research, but we would insist on presenting the full
facts.

At the Project 1947 web site, my article address Australian
"cosmic crash" tales, but I caution "Such stories deserve
careful attention, if only to put them to rest. If only one
turns out to be substantial then we have a very extraordinary
situation. I should caution none of them constitute proof of
anything."

In a hardcopy version published in the Australian magazine
"Ufologist" (UFO crash/retrieval stories - the Australian
experience" July/Sept 1997) and at their web site:

http://www.powerup.com.au/~ufologist

I have listed 21 such stories and detail a few.

I hope that this posting sheds some clarifying light on the
reality or non-reality of such tales,

Regards,
Bill Chalker
7/11/99