I haven't seen this posted yet. I hope he has a posthumous book awaiting publication. I always wanted to know how much he was trolling and how much he was serious about!
Stanton T. Friedman, 1934-2019
- Thread starter Garak
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skeptiko interviewing him
https://skeptiko.com/stanton-friedman-on-jacques-vallee-and-ufos-consciousness-367/
https://skeptiko.com/stanton-friedman-on-jacques-vallee-and-ufos-consciousness-367/
I'll have plenty of listening to try to get to, too.
Originally Posted by Stanton T. Friedman
I think that we need to recognize that there are good reasons for keeping secrets and you don't want your enemies to know what you know, either about what you know or about what you know, they know. The weapon, the counter weapon, the counter counter weapon, these have been games we've been playing for a long time.
That's always a useful quote. I don't know what's with some people lately, but I've come across the notion from a few young people that they cannot ever conceive of a reason why classified information even exists, why there are secrets, and that all secrets must be pernicious. I suppose that when one is compelled by some deep psychological need to post one's toilet habits on Instagram and Twitter, that confusion might exist.
Originally Posted by Stanton T. Friedman
I think that we need to recognize that there are good reasons for keeping secrets and you don't want your enemies to know what you know, either about what you know or about what you know, they know. The weapon, the counter weapon, the counter counter weapon, these have been games we've been playing for a long time.
That's always a useful quote. I don't know what's with some people lately, but I've come across the notion from a few young people that they cannot ever conceive of a reason why classified information even exists, why there are secrets, and that all secrets must be pernicious. I suppose that when one is compelled by some deep psychological need to post one's toilet habits on Instagram and Twitter, that confusion might exist.
MolaKule
Staff member
In another thread I suggested a team of non-military-associated scientists be convened to study the so-called UFO phenomena. Apparently, this had been done in 1952 as well.
Quote
The Robertson Panel, 1952-53
...On 4 December 1952, the Intelligence Advisory Committee (IAC) took up the issue of UFOs. (26) Amory, as acting chairman, presented DCI Smith's request to the committee that it informally discuss the subject of UFOs. Chadwell then briefly reviewed the situation and the active program of the ATIC relating to UFOs. The committee agreed that the DCI should "enlist the services of selected scientists to review and appraise the available evidence in the light of pertinent scientific theories" and draft an NSCID on the subject. (27) Maj. Gen. John A. Samford, Director of Air Force Intelligence, offered full cooperation. (28)
At the same time, Chadwell looked into British efforts in this area. He learned the British also were active in studying the UFO phenomena. An eminent British scientist, R. V. Jones, headed a standing committee created in June 1951 on flying saucers. Jones' and his committee's conclusions on UFOs were similar to those of Agency officials: the sightings were not enemy aircraft but misrepresentations of natural phenomena. The British noted, however, that during a recent air show RAF pilots and senior military officials had observed a "perfect flying saucer." Given the press response, according to the officer, Jones was having a most difficult time trying to correct public opinion regarding UFOs. The public was convinced they were real. (29)
In January 1953, Chadwell and H. P. Robertson, a noted physicist from the California Institute of Technology, put together a distinguished panel of nonmilitary scientists to study the UFO issue. It included Robertson as chairman; Samuel A. Goudsmit, a nuclear physicist from the Brookhaven National Laboratories; Luis Alvarez, a high-energy physicist; Thornton Page, the deputy director of the Johns Hopkins Operations Research Office and an expert on radar and electronics; and Lloyd Berkner, a director of the Brookhaven National Laboratories and a specialist in geophysics. (30)
The charge to the panel was to review the available evidence on UFOs and to consider the possible dangers of the phenomena to US national security. The panel met from 14 to 17 January 1953. It reviewed Air Force data on UFO case histories and, after spending 12 hours studying the phenomena, declared that reasonable explanations could be suggested for most, if not all, sightings. For example, after reviewing motion-picture film taken of a UFO sighting near Tremonton, Utah, on 2 July 1952 and one near Great Falls, Montana, on 15 August 1950, the panel concluded that the images on the Tremonton film were caused by sunlight reflecting off seagulls and that the images at Great Falls were sunlight reflecting off the surface of two Air Force interceptors. (31)
The panel concluded unanimously that there was no evidence of a direct threat to national security in the UFO sightings. Nor could the panel find any evidence that the objects sighted might be extraterrestrials. It did find that continued emphasis on UFO reporting might threaten "the orderly functioning" of the government by clogging the channels of communication with irrelevant reports and by inducing "hysterical mass behavior" harmful to constituted authority. The panel also worried that potential enemies contemplating an attack on the United States might exploit the UFO phenomena and use them to disrupt US air defenses. (32)...
http://www.roswellfiles.com/Articles/CIAReport.htm
I don't know if Freidman was an opportunist who discovered he could make more money by penning UFO books and going on the lecture circuit than by doing applied nuclear work, or whether he really believed the material found at Roswell NM was an alien spacecraft.
I do know he was a critic of Carl Sagan and the SETI group.
Quote
The Robertson Panel, 1952-53
...On 4 December 1952, the Intelligence Advisory Committee (IAC) took up the issue of UFOs. (26) Amory, as acting chairman, presented DCI Smith's request to the committee that it informally discuss the subject of UFOs. Chadwell then briefly reviewed the situation and the active program of the ATIC relating to UFOs. The committee agreed that the DCI should "enlist the services of selected scientists to review and appraise the available evidence in the light of pertinent scientific theories" and draft an NSCID on the subject. (27) Maj. Gen. John A. Samford, Director of Air Force Intelligence, offered full cooperation. (28)
At the same time, Chadwell looked into British efforts in this area. He learned the British also were active in studying the UFO phenomena. An eminent British scientist, R. V. Jones, headed a standing committee created in June 1951 on flying saucers. Jones' and his committee's conclusions on UFOs were similar to those of Agency officials: the sightings were not enemy aircraft but misrepresentations of natural phenomena. The British noted, however, that during a recent air show RAF pilots and senior military officials had observed a "perfect flying saucer." Given the press response, according to the officer, Jones was having a most difficult time trying to correct public opinion regarding UFOs. The public was convinced they were real. (29)
In January 1953, Chadwell and H. P. Robertson, a noted physicist from the California Institute of Technology, put together a distinguished panel of nonmilitary scientists to study the UFO issue. It included Robertson as chairman; Samuel A. Goudsmit, a nuclear physicist from the Brookhaven National Laboratories; Luis Alvarez, a high-energy physicist; Thornton Page, the deputy director of the Johns Hopkins Operations Research Office and an expert on radar and electronics; and Lloyd Berkner, a director of the Brookhaven National Laboratories and a specialist in geophysics. (30)
The charge to the panel was to review the available evidence on UFOs and to consider the possible dangers of the phenomena to US national security. The panel met from 14 to 17 January 1953. It reviewed Air Force data on UFO case histories and, after spending 12 hours studying the phenomena, declared that reasonable explanations could be suggested for most, if not all, sightings. For example, after reviewing motion-picture film taken of a UFO sighting near Tremonton, Utah, on 2 July 1952 and one near Great Falls, Montana, on 15 August 1950, the panel concluded that the images on the Tremonton film were caused by sunlight reflecting off seagulls and that the images at Great Falls were sunlight reflecting off the surface of two Air Force interceptors. (31)
The panel concluded unanimously that there was no evidence of a direct threat to national security in the UFO sightings. Nor could the panel find any evidence that the objects sighted might be extraterrestrials. It did find that continued emphasis on UFO reporting might threaten "the orderly functioning" of the government by clogging the channels of communication with irrelevant reports and by inducing "hysterical mass behavior" harmful to constituted authority. The panel also worried that potential enemies contemplating an attack on the United States might exploit the UFO phenomena and use them to disrupt US air defenses. (32)...
http://www.roswellfiles.com/Articles/CIAReport.htm
I don't know if Freidman was an opportunist who discovered he could make more money by penning UFO books and going on the lecture circuit than by doing applied nuclear work, or whether he really believed the material found at Roswell NM was an alien spacecraft.
I do know he was a critic of Carl Sagan and the SETI group.
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I always wondered the same thing. I saw one clip with him and Georgio, and he was looking at Georgio like he was another planet. I was't sure if he was humouring some of these people, doing it for the books, legitimate interest, and so forth.
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