From: Eustaquio Anddrea Patounas <socex@terra.com.br>
Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2003 14:55:15 -0300
Fwd Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2003 23:44:06 -0400
Subject: Roswell Declassified


Source: Popular Mechanics

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/military/2003/6/roswell_declassified/index.phtml

Roswell Declassified

Formerly secret files finally reveal the truth about the
world's most famous UFO incident.'

By Jim Wilson
Photos by Louis Jawitz [Many pictures at site]

Knowing that old military records often contain startling
revelations, we were eager to see what surprises awaited us in
the latest disclosure from the Roswell files. For decades, UFO
researchers had clamored for the National Archives to come clean
about a "flying disc" that supposedly crashed during the Fourth
of July weekend in 1947. The Army started the story when it used
the term in a press release about a crash that had occurred
north of Roswell, N.M. At the time, the sleepy town had the
distinction of being home to the only atomic bomber unit (at
Roswell Army Airfield) in the world. By the end of that holiday
weekend, the Army had retracted its original story, claiming it
had been a mistake. The debris that ranch manager Mac Brazel had
found on the J.B. Foster Ranch was simply the remains of a
weather balloon. The press reported the revised version of
events, and the story promptly died.

Government paperwork, however, is immortal. Once a Roswell file
was created it became a collection bin for all sorts of UFO-
related material. Eventually, the collection moved to a climate-
controlled archive in College Park, Md., about a half-hour drive
east of Washington, D.C. And there the files would have remained
undisturbed were it not for a law that forces the government to
periodically review a document's security classification.

During the 1990s, the time limits on keeping Cold War-era
records began to expire. Journalists had come to appreciate that
these automatically declassified files often contained
spectacular information. Declassified records showed how the
Atomic Energy Commission intentionally released radiation from
its reactors in Hanford, Wash., on unsuspecting civilians in
that area. Other disclosures described how doctors working for
the federal government were permitted to conduct ghoulish
medical experiments on women, children and prisoners. Buoyed by
these earlier disclosures, UFO researchers had good reason to
hope the 11 boxes of newly opened Roswell files might contain a
similar smoking gun.


Paper Chase

POPULAR MECHANICS was interested too. In 100 years of covering
military affairs, our editors had come to realize that
everything the government touches creates a paper trail. If
something extraordinary had happened at the Roswell Army
Airfield in July 1947, evidence would turn up in the paperwork
compiled by sergeants and officers. And it was that possibility
that lured us to Maryland. If aliens had landed, the soldiers
who chased them would have left a paper trail, too.

As we had hoped, we found the original government records. But
first we had to do some digging. Most of the boxes were filled
with newspaper and magazine clippings about flying saucers, old
books, and government UFO reports that were made public decades
ago. There were Betamax videotapes about UFOs. We even found the
remains of the infamous balloon reflector, which UFO buffs claim
the government planted at the crash site in place of the pieces
of the flying disc. These pieces, they say, were taken to an
undisclosed military base.

Then, amid the clutter, in Box 1, we found what we were after.
It was a seemingly unimportant document titled "Morning Reports,
July 1947." This was essentially a log of the day-to-day
activity at the base. In much the same way that a police blotter
would provide evidence of a bank robbery, the Morning Reports
would provide unambiguous evidence of unusual military activity.

As we worked through the Morning Reports line by line, we came
to a simple realization: Absolutely nothing extraordinary had
happened at Roswell that Fourth of July weekend. There was no
indication of an emergency, no mention of a deployment of rescue
and firefighting crews, as was the case with other crashes. That
was one mystery solved.

For years, UFO researchers had claimed that enlisted men and
officers involved in the disc recovery operation were
transferred to other bases to ensure their silence. Sure enough,
the transfers took place. The paperwork explained why. Several
months earlier, in a sweeping postwar military reorganization,
Army fliers were systematically transferred to the newly created
U.S. Air Force. The men had not been transferred. They had
merely changed uniforms. Another mystery solved.

We left the National Archives and Records Administration complex
in College Park more confused than enlightened. Surely there was
more to the story. As the old saying goes: "Absence of evidence
is not evidence of absence." So with this thought in mind we
decided to call Frank Kaufmann, the man at the center of the
Roswell episode.

Forged Records

Kaufmann was less than the picture of health when we interviewed
him for our July 1997 cover story about the 50th anniversary of
Roswell. A respected member of the Roswell business community,
Kaufmann's name had been tied to the story from the very
beginning. We were saddened to learn he had died in February
2001.

Kaufmann's credibility arose from his willingness to show
journalists and book authors a copy of his Separation
Qualification Record, which supported his claim that he was an
intelligence officer stationed at Roswell in July 1947. After
Kaufmann's death, his widow gave UFO researchers access to her
husband's papers. One of those researchers was Mark Rodeghier,
scientific director of the J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO
Studies. In fall 2002, Rodeghier published his findings in the
center's journal: "To put it quite plainly, Frank Kaufmann
created an altered version of an official document to present a
false version of his military career consistent with his claims
about his involvement with the events at Roswell. His supposed
work in intelligence was used to explain how he came to be so
knowledgeable about what crashed at Roswell and the subsequent
military cover-up."


Dying Confession

Stanton Friedman, a physicist and author of several books on
Roswell, tells POPULAR MECHANICS he was not surprised that
Kaufmann had altered his service record. "He got out of the
service in 1945. He was a civilian employee doing the same job,
as a clerk."

Friedman says his suspicions were raised during a 1999 meeting
with Kaufmann and several other researchers. He says he asked
Kaufmann pointed questions about his working relationship with
Maj. Jesse Marcel, who was an intelligence officer at the
Roswell base in '47, and Col. William Blanchard, the base
commanding officer at that time.

"Kaufmann knew he was dying," Friedman says, explaining why he
trusted the answers he received. "I asked Kaufmann, 'Did you
take Marcel to the [crash] site?' He said 'no.' I asked him,
'Did you take Blanchard to the site?' He said 'no.'"

Despite the disappointing document disclosure by the National
Archives and the discovery that Kaufmann had altered his
military records, Friedman says it is premature to close the
books on Roswell. He believes convincing evidence of an alien
landing exists but that it has yet to be disclosed. And he says
he knows exactly where to find it--in vaults at the National
Reconnaissance Office and the Central Intelligence Agency.