SIGHTINGS

SIGHTINGS

Korff and Brad Sparks Claim Corso-Birnes Roswell Book Exposed From Kal Korff
c/o TotlResrch@aol.com

Note - Replies and responses are welcomed and encouraged.

EXCLUSIVE EXPOSE! Colonel Philip Corso and William Birnes' Bestselling Book Exposed as a Hoax! By Brad C. Sparks

Philip Corso's Roswellmania

The only thing "extraterrestrial" in Philip Corso's book "The Day After Roswell" (Pocket Books/Simon & Schuster, 1997), is the height of his tall tales, certainly the tallest Roswell tales to date. His thesis of course (for those of you blessed with not hearing this rubbish before) is that many of our high-tech advances such as microcircuits (and the transistor before IC's), lasers, fiber optics, microwave ovens, Star Wars SDI weapons, etc., all actually came from "reverse engineering" the alien technology found in the crashed UFO near Roswell, New Mexico, in July 1947 -- a feat largely made possible by Corso himself when he purportedly divvied up the alien goodies while working at Army R&D in the early 60's. But in his haste to cash in on Roswellmania he has made some fantastic blunders of history that completely expose him as a fraud in the most embarrassing way.

Corso just can't resist putting himself at the center stage of great events of history, courted by the big names such as Robert Kennedy and his "old friend" J. Edgar Hoover (Corso's "other book" is called "I Walked With Giants"), and he is ever the powerful hero. (pp. 2, 37, 84, 156, 191, 206-209, 255) But he trips on his way up the ladder to the stage. Corso has apparently made a cynical calculation that he'll be able to make his bundle and retreat before anyone can develop a sufficient publicity base to expose him, so there was no need to research his lies to get them perfect.

The only thing he has carefully avoided is getting trapped into endorsing a particular Roswell crash site or timeline from the multitude now being promoted. He can't clarify the confusion for us because he pretends he doesn t remember too clearly these elementary details of the date and location of what he claims is the single most important event in human history (pp. 5, passim) -- to say nothing of his military career -- even though he claims he had two years to pore over the TOP SECRET Roswell files while at Army R&D headquarters. Instead, all he really knows is what happened the "DAY AFTER" Roswell, starting from when the alien material was transported -- hence the title of the book (p. 55). How convenient? (Page references are to the edition of Corso's book minus the now withdrawn preface by Sen. Strom Thurmond.)

Corso tells how he personally intimidated the CIA director of covert operations to get him to stop his CIA agents from following Corso around.

This is part of Corso's story of how he got the job of exploiting alien technology as head of the Foreign Technology desk of Army R&D in "early 1961" (pp. 50, 63-64, 177). The alien microchips and other technology had been recovered from Roswell decades earlier but gathered dust in one filing cabinet, together with extensive files and documents on the case, until genius Corso came along and figured out what to do with it. A "couple of days" before he was officially expected to begin at the Pentagon (p. 37), he was led through back door means to meet his new boss and old friend, Lt. Gen. Arthur Trudeau, head of Army R&D. (His military records indicate he arrived at Army R&D Hq in the Pentagon from Baltimore on May 5, 1961.) This was supposedly done so that no one would know officially that Corso was inside the Pentagon yet and so he wouldn't be followed. Corso asked why he couldn't go through the "front door." Trudeau allegedly replied "Because they're already watching you, Phil." Thus Corso learned he was being tailed by CIA personnel (pp. 37, 44, 87, 107, 174, 185), but he was determined to not play along.

Corso claims he marched right past a startled secretary and into the office of the CIA director of covert operations, Frank "Wiesner" (sic), at CIA headquarters in "Langley, Virginia," and told him off (p. 87). As indicated above, this must have been "a couple of days" after the initial meeting with Gen. Trudeau, in early May 1961. Keep this date in mind as you read on, as it explodes Corso's story as a tissue of lies. Corso claims he warned "Wiesner" that he would start carrying a gun and if he ever found a CIA man following him again, the agent's body would later be found with bullet holes in his head. Later in 1961, "Wiesner" himself was found dead by hanging in a London hotel room, the victim of suicide, Corso claims (p. 87). Better not tangle with that Corso, no telling what might happen!

Problem is that Frank G. Wisner (not "Wiesner") had been hospitalized and replaced as top CIA covert operator nearly three years earlier in August 1958, first by an acting covert operations director Richard M. Helms and then by Wisner's permanent replacement, Richard M. Bissell, on January 1, 1959. Thus Bissell was the actual CIA Chief of the Clandestine Service (or Deputy Director for Plans) serving in 1961 at the time alleged in Corso's tale.

Bissell is famous in history as the leader of the U-2 and the Corona spy satellite projects at CIA as well as the architect of the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion that had dominated the headlines for the past few weeks before

Corso arrived at the Pentagon in 1961, so it is surprising that the supposed intelligence expert Corso has such a poor grasp of intelligence history as to not know these well-known facts. Bissell's name was repeatedly cited as the chief planner of the Bays of Pigs operation in front-page news stories at the time. (For example, see New York Times, April 21, 1961, p. 1 col. 7;

May 3, 1961, p. 1 col. 6; July 17, 1961, p. 13 col. 4. The May 3 front-page story reported that CIA "deputy director" Bissell and CIA Director Allen Dulles had testified the day before at a closed-door hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee concerning the Cuba disaster.)

I interviewed Bissell almost twenty years ago about his UFO involvement and Project Corona and naturally he never mentioned Corso or Roswell. Corso should have known who Bissell was for another reason, namely that he claims (falsely of course) that the Project Corona spy satellite program was handed over to him in 1961 (pp. 131, 136) -- and that was Bissell's project. More about this below.

Worse still, Wisner s office was not even in the U.S. in 1961 but was in London. Wisner had been sent overseas to take the less demanding post of CIA Chief of Station in London on August 6, 1959, but was recalled from London in the spring of 1962 and resigned from the CIA entirely in August 1962. So Corso could not have simply driven to Wisner's office in 1961 and barged in -- as if we're to believe that Corso could get through CIA Security so easily to reach the top spook in the Agency and threaten him.

And it was public knowledge that the new CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., was not yet open for business in May 1961 when Corso's imagined confrontation with the top CIA spook supposedly took place there. The new building did not receive its first CIA employees until September 1961.

(The New York Times reported on May 3 (p. 5 col. 5) that the CIA s "headquarters staff is scattered throughout Washington in thirty or more buildings but it will EVENTUALLY MOVE into a new building almost as large as the Pentagon on the Virginia side of the Potomac [at Langley]." The New York Times Magazine published a photo of the CIA HQ building "NEARING COMPLETION in Langley, Va.," on May 21, 1961 (pp. 78-79). Only about 4 months later did CIA employees start moving into the Langley building (New York Times, Sept. 28, 1961, p. 20 col. 8; Oct. 8, p. E 7) and by early November 1961 about 1/3 of the CIA HQ employees had moved in, with the rest expected early in 1962 (NYT Nov. 6, 1961, p. 39).)

Did Corso push his way past construction workers into an unoccupied office-to-be?!? Maybe he just camped out there and waited for all the walls and furnishings to be filled in and "Wiesner" to pick the right office. Maybe there was a time machine in the Roswell spacecraft. There are lots of ways to explain this discrepancy, all of them psycho.

Worst of all, Frank Wisner did not "hang himself" in a "London hotel" in 1961. He killed himself with a shotgun on his family farm in Galena, Maryland, on October 29, 1965 -- years after Corso claims it was, and on the wrong side of the Atlantic for Corso's fevered and rather sick imagination. There's no need to add to the Wisner family tragedy with preposterous stories linking him to extraterrestrial investigations, distorting the sad details of his demise and even falsely accusing him of being "one of the best friends" the Soviets ever had (p. 87). Wisner had been depressed since the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 which he had helped inspire as the top CIA clandestine official only to see it brutally suppressed. Eisenhower refused to overtly intervene or covertly assist the brave freedom fighters who were crushed by Soviet tanks, and Wisner never recovered from his personal anguish over the betrayal.

If anyone was a real hero it was Wisner not Philip Quixote, the fake. Wisner could have chosen the life of a rich playboy but instead threw himself into service to his country. Whereas others gave mere lipservice to the "rollback of the Iron Curtain," Wisner personally did more to roll it back than practically anyone in his era. And when plans failed and courageous freedom fighters were bloodied or tortured, Wisner saw and felt their anguish and it took a terrible toll on him personally, till it killed him.

These are not minor errors of abstract historical facts. These are stories of Corso's own alleged personal experiences involving supposed major episodes in his career and in world history. For comparison, here is an example of an error that IS minor: Corso believes the Air Force became a separate service from the Army in 1948 (pp. 54, 61). In fact it separated on September 18, 1947. Corso was in the Army at the time and stayed there, so it is understandable that decades later he might make a one-year error in remembering the date inasmuch as he was probably not personally involved with the creation of the Air Force (though given his claim that it was "critically important" for him to trace the exact movements of Roswell material in 1947 in order to assess which military service or agency got control of how much [pp. 53-55, 62, 79-80, 99] and that the Air Force got its share of alien materiel when Wright Field changed over from Army to AF [pp. 54, 61-62] one would think Corso would have done better research on the date of the transition).

Corso again fraudulently inserts himself into history by alleging that as the Army Foreign Technology czar in charge of Roswell he helped President Kennedy decide to send a man to the moon. Corso alleges that he worked on a moon base plan called Project Horizon to help keep the ET's at bay, which plan he urged on Attorney General Robert Kennedy in a personal meeting in May 1962 (compare pp. 2, 37, 156, 191, 206, 255). Lo and behold says Corso, it was a short time later that the AG's brother, the President, announced the Apollo program objective of landing a man on the moon by the end of the decade. Corso takes pride in his supposed contribution to Kennedy's decision on the moon race (p. 156).

Only problem is that JFK made the famous moon-project announcement on May 25th of 1961 -- A YEAR BEFORE the alleged Corso promotion of Project Horizon to Bobby Kennedy in May 1962. Corso can't seriously claim he simply made a typo or error of one year and meant to say it was in May 1961 because that would mean he had secured a personal meeting with the brother of the President only days after he arrived at the Pentagon and before he had even finished his first alleged Roswell exploitation plan which included the Horizon moon-base (pp. 102, 105, 115, 157)! Corso indicates it took more than a month to complete his first report and plan for General Trudeau and it was already "summer" then so it had to be at least June or July 1961 (cp. pp. 49, 51, 53, 91).

He also states explicitly it was "After his first year in office" (after Jan. 1962) that "President Kennedy saw the value in Project Horizon" (p. 155) through Corso's pitch to brother Bobby in the May 1962 meeting and it had been "six months" from that meeting to the Cuban Missile Crisis of the Fall of 1962 (p. 255) so that doubly fixes the alleged meeting in the Spring of 1962, not 1961. He is tightly locked into his 1962 date for his fictitious involvement in inspiring JFK's 1961 Apollo lunar landing plan and there is no way out -- except to admit it's all a fantasy. Corso's delusion is one year too late.

Why doesn't Corso present written records proving the subject matter, date and existence of the Kennedy meeting? This would be far more important evidence to support his claims than padding his book with several dozen pages of irrelevant Project Horizon technical documentation, none of which mentions ET s or UFO s or Roswell (pp. 275-332).

Corso claims that in his first Roswell exploitation plan to General Trudeau, which as we ve seen must have been submitted in June or July 1961, he claims he stressed how the Roswell aliens were so well protected and equipped for long-term space flight, unlike the experiences of both American and Soviet astronauts who had had difficulties with weightlessness and the space environment (p. 112). But as of the date when Corso purportedly made his report only ONE person had been in orbit, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin who was up for an hour and a half on April 12, 1961. The Soviets released nothing at the time indicating any difficulties with human adaptation to space flight.

Not only is time warped in Corso's crazy fantasies as with his "Wiesner" fable and the Kennedy moon-shot fabrication, which are years off in date in physically impossible ways, but so is space: He has a possible Roswell UFO crash site on the plains of San Agustin "in some proximity" to the Roswell Army Air Field (p. 3). But in fact it is at least 160 miles away, west of Socorro! Look at a map.

Logic goes out the window, too, as when Corso mystifyingly states in one place that only "five to six of us" in all three military services were privy to the Roswell secrets (p. 85). Yet he tells how the Roswell "package" spread out further and further among the services over the years with little or no coordination (pp. 51-62, 71, 73, 78, 82-84). Plus there were the several military members of the "Majestic 12" committee in control of the coverup of Roswell (pp. 62, 69, 71, 74, 82, passim) who additionally "had personnel stationed at the Pentagon to keep tabs on what the military was doing" on Roswell R&D (p. 175). There were military pathologists at Walter Reed, Bethesda and Roswell Army Air Base, who allegedly performed autopsies on the alien bodies (pp. 91-92, 96-99, 190). There were "military intelligence personnel" developing cattle mutilation surgical methods (p. 181). And there must have been many military technicians involved in the test flights of the Roswell craft at Norton, Edwards and Nellis AFB's (pp. 99-100, 107, 218) and quite a few military administrators of the purported "alien technology museum, the final resting place of the Roswell spacecraft" maintained by the Air Force and CIA (p. 100). In fact, Corso admits there were a "LARGE NUMBER of people who really know the truth" about Roswell such as "top-ranking MILITARY officers" (p. 100, emphasis added). Yet we are meant to believe the Roswell secret had spread out to ONLY 5-6 MILITARY MEN after 15 years?? That s a "LARGE NUMBER"?!? If they had that few after that many years, how many did they START with in charge of the Roswell spacecraft, ZERO? Maybe that s the real truth slipping out by inference -- it started with zero because it never happened.

Typical of Corso s absurd anachronisms that prove he doesn't know what he is talking about on military and intelligence history is his listing of the members of the MJ-12 "working group" as of the "middle of September" 1947 (p. 74). He has obviously lifted this list carelessly from published pro-MJ-12 sources without bothering to verify the facts. He is careful to note the exact transitional positions in 1947, e.g., that General Twining was in the "AAF and then USAF" (the Army Air Forces became the U.S. Air Force in 1947), General Vandenberg was Central Intelligence Group Director then "USAF Chief of Staff in 1948," etc. But Gordon Gray is described in mid-September 1947 by Corso as "President Truman's Secretary of the Army" (I think he's wrong, it was Under Secretary in 1947) "and chairman of the CIA's Psychological Strategy Board." The PSB was a division of the National Security Council (NSC), not the CIA, and it didn't exist in 1947. The PSB was created on April 4, 1951. Corso should have known this from his tour of duty at the NSC in the early 50's.

Another bogus Corso achievement I ve already mentioned is his purported takeover of Project Corona, the pioneer U.S. spy satellite. Corso attempts to steal all the credit for Corona but if you read his timeline carefully most of the major R&D and cover-story actions took place in 1960, long before he ever arrived on the scene (pp. 129, 138, 141-142, 145). Corso has done a poor job of reading up on space history from comic books or whatever (since he couldn t have actually worked on the real classified Corona program and gotten things so ridiculously wrong). He claims the most clever innovation was when the Air Force managed to sneak the Corona camera payload on-board an already existing "NASA" civilian satellite project called "Discoverer," which was difficult because it had to be small enough to "fit into" the interior easily and be self-contained (pp. 137-138, 140-142). He imagines that this whole ludicrous endeavor of one agency hiding payloads aboard another agency's satellites was necessitated by NASA assuming control of "ALL satellite launchings" including the military s launches when NASA was created in 1958, a control that purportedly lasted until the 1970 s (pp. 126, 128-129, 138, 144-147, 155-157; emphasis added).

The truth is that Corona was entirely a secret CIA -- not Air Force -- program begun several months BEFORE NASA was even formed. Corona was ordered by President Eisenhower on February 7, 1958, and NASA s first day of operation was on October 1. The cover for the satellites was the AIR FORCE s Discoverer label, which never had anything to do with NASA. It was always publicly associated with the AIR FORCE. NASA never had control of the military's satellite launchings. The existence of a Air Force satellite launch pad completely separate from NASA's Cape Canaveral should settle it. Doesn't Corso read the newspapers? Who does he think has launched satellites from Vandenberg AIR FORCE Base in California from 1959 to the present day? Santa Claus and his elves?

In another proof of Corso's complete ignorance of the Corona project, he invents the following remark by General Trudeau in early 1963, purportedly declaring, "In just a couple of years ... We ll have orbiting satellites mapping every inch of the Soviet Union" (pp. 202-203). Corona satellites had already mapped the USSR by 1963 and proved the nonexistence of the "missile gap," showing there was no huge Soviet ICBM force hidden in Siberia or some other place. You can now even read the official history of CIA s Corona satellite on the Internet and millions of frames of its space reconnaissance photos are now declassified and available to the public. Obviously Corso has a very poor grasp of the Corona satellites function and operational history.

Corso is also the hero of the Cuban Missile Crisis (pp. 253-258, 269), Reagan's SDI or Strategic Defense Initiative (pp. 4-5, 78, 115, 243, 249-250, 268, 273), the Korean War POW revelations (pp. 2, 37-38, 87), the exposure of KGB moles inside the CIA and elsewhere (pp. 2, 37, 139, 141, 189), and the JFK assassination -- as an investigator for the Warren Commission -- which he intimates was due to JFK finding out the truth about the CIA (pp. 2, 87, 206, 208).

And of course last but not least Corso is the hero of the Planet Earth's desperate but successful "war" against the ET s (or EBE's, Extraterrestrial Biological Entities, the term he cribbed from the fraudulent MJ-12 documents) (pp. 5, 142, 249-250, 260, 269). This supposed war against UFO s led to Reagan and Gorbachev meeting and ending the Cold War (pp. 262-263, 266, 268). We had negotiated a "surrender" treaty with the aliens (were there alien negotiators in the State Dept. too?) until we were able to reverse engineer enough Roswell weapons to fight back (pp. 268, passim).

As Corso modestly boasts, "Sometimes, once in a very long while, you get the chance to save your country, your planet, and even your species at the same time." (p. 273) Corso gives whole new meaning to the term "delusions of grandeur."

Corso's notion that many of our high-tech innovations were really back-engineered from extraterrestrials is a new twist on the Ancient Astronauts theory. Instead of saying man was too stupid to invent pyramids or the wheel on his own and had to get the ideas from space visitors, Corso has updated the concept and says we got the microwave oven (p. 178) and laptop computers (pp. 170-173) from aliens. I guess all those millions of scientists and engineers we've cranked out over the years have largely been a waste -- they were dummies who had to get clued in by ET's.

Now that we've established that Corso fabricates entire screenplays and dialogues involving himself inside CIA headquarters and elsewhere that never happened and never could have happened, there really is no need to go into the rest of his confabulations about his heroic role in getting U.S. industry to "reverse engineer" microchips, fiber optics, lasers, Kevlar, etc., from his make-believe Roswell spacecraft. That would be chasing phantoms, trying to prove a negative -- that something doesn't exist -- which is inherently very difficult if not actually impossible. The dramatic stories that we can easily check prove Corso to be a rank literary hoaxer.

RESPONSES

Note - Thanks to Updates-Toronto for forwarding some of the responses it received regarding the Korff-Sparks piece on the Corso-Birnes "The Day After Roswell" book...

Date: Tue, 11 Aug 1998 12:18:35 -0500
From: Paul Reischmann <preischmann@beckman.com
To: UFO UpDates - Toronto <updates@globalserve.net
Subject: Re: Korff & Sparks - Roswell Book 'Exposed'

Hi!

Note - Replies and responses are welcomed and encouraged. EXCLUSIVE EXPOSE! Colonel Philip Corso and William Birnes' Bestselling Book Exposed as a Hoax! By Brad C. Sparks

I read Korff and Sparks response to the late Mr. Corso's claims in his book, "The Day After Roswell" (Pocket Books/Simon & Schuster, 1997). What follows are some 'phrases' excerpted from their short essay.

What might have been more effective for Korff and Sparks, would have been to present only their discrepancies ('just the facts, please!') and leave out the verbal assaults, especially so close to the unfortunate death of a very respectable man.

Regards- Paul Reischmann

-----------------

(1) (for those of you blessed with not hearing this rubbish before)

(2) But in his haste to cash in on Roswellmania he has made some fantastic blunders of history that completely expose him as a fraud in the most embarrassing way.

(3) so there was no need to research his lies to get them perfect.

(4) it explodes Corso's story as a tissue of lies.

(5) "Wiesner" himself was found dead by hanging in a London hotel room, the victim of suicide, Corso claims (p. 87). Better not tangle with that Corso, no telling what might happen!

(6) Corso has such a poor grasp of intelligence history as to not know these well-known facts.

(7) There are lots of ways to explain this discrepancy, all of them psycho.

(8) Corso's delusion is one year too late

(9) Not only is time warped in Corso's crazy fantasies as with his "Wiesner" fable and the Kennedy moon-shot fabrication,

(10) Typical of Corso s absurd anachronisms

(11) he doesn't know what he is talking about on military and intelligence history

(12) Another bogus Corso achievement

(13) Corso has done a poor job of reading up on space history from comic books or whatever

(14) Doesn't Corso read the newspapers?

(15) Who does he think has launched satellites from Vandenberg AIR FORCE Base in California from 1959 to the present day? Santa Claus and his elves?

(16) Corso's complete ignorance of the Corona project,

(17) Obviously Corso has a very poor grasp of the Corona satellites function and operational history.

(18) Corso gives whole new meaning to the term "delusions of grandeur."

(19) Corso fabricates entire screenplays and dialogues

(20) the rest of his confabulations about his heroic role

(21) from his make-believe Roswell spacecraft.

(22) Corso to be a rank literary hoaxer

From: Don West <hepsut2@webtv.net
Date: Tue, 11 Aug 1998 22:34:48 -0400 (EDT)
To: updates@globalserve.net
Subject: Fwd: Corso expose

Dear Kal:

Just read Brad Sparks' article re Corso. I assume that both of you investigated these facts.

While I commend any and all exposes, pariculary in the field of ufology; are there not perhaps other factors involved which could possibly account for Corso's errors in reporting?

Could these dates, times, individuals have not been remembered or put into the proper time frame or context by an elderly gentleman, scanning the events in his memory? I believe before we throw out the entire episode of Corso, it would be wise to wait for hopefuly, some other sources or information to come forward before we pass complete judgement.

In so doing we might very well lose some other source which might be willing to step forward to corroborate some of what Corso says.

If true, this, of course begs the question as to why Corso would either conceive or construct such an incredible tale. Why? Self-aggrandizement? Fame? Fortune?

In the event if was fabricated to bring shame upon him and his famlly?

I really don't know what to say, except that if indeed it was a hoax it appears quite convincing and it is difficult to believe this kindly, elderly gent would stoop to a level of deceit, all things considered.

I would suggest that it might be interesting for both you and Brad to put out some "bait" (which I believe is part of the reason for the article) - in order to acquire more info - either pro or con.

Until I have a little more to go on, rather than some time-lines, or misplacement of individuals, or buildings at the time, I will reserve any judgement or your or Brad's opinions on the issue.

Once again..bear in mind that I don't suggest not going any further into the issue - please do. I would be curious to see the outcome. By the way...I commend you for the Billy Meier expose.....yet recently saw a post regarding the "crystals' in Billly's pond,...which states that your book version was completely untrue....and that you were never told such a thing, re the crystal's "power" etc.

I should like to hear you clarify that whole issue. Ironic...is'nt it? Now YOU are being accused of something which you and Brad are accusing Corso of!

Oh well, Kal I don't know what the heck to believe at this point!

And let's not forget that it's not over 'til the fat alien sings!

Take Care, peace.

Sincerely,

Don

From: James S. Mortellaro Jnr. <Jsmortell@aol.com
Date: Tue, 11 Aug 1998 13:09:41 EDT
To: updates@globalserve.net
Subject: Re: UFO UpDate: Korff & Sparks - Roswell Book 'Exposed'

What is interesting about this expose, is that it has surfaced after Corso's death; when he is unable to defend himself. His death, this expose & etc, is most convenient, is it not?

Corso's book has been out for quite some time. I read it the better part of a year ago. This tome requires research in order to verify the claimant's assertions. Not to say the claimant is incorrect, just that it must be verrified, under the circumstances.

Personally, I would have appreciated the expose infinitely more, had the author the courage to confront a living Corso. Whether right or wrong, it seems out of character for military mind to have made such serious errors, however it is telling that his memory was in it's twighlight years.

Got any more bright ideas?

Jim

Date: Wed, 12 Aug 1998 17:57:29 -0500 (CDT)
To: UpDates - Toronto <updates@globalserve.net
From: Dennis Stacy <dstacy@texas.net
Subject: Re: UFO UpDate: Re: Korff & Sparks - Roswell Book 'Exposed'

From: James S. Mortellaro Jnr. <Jsmortell@aol.com
Date: Tue, 11 Aug 1998 13:09:41 EDT
To: updates@globalserve.net
Subject: Re: UFO UpDate: Korff & Sparks - Roswell Book 'Exposed'

What is interesting about this expose, is that it has surfaced after Corso's death; when he is unable to defend himself. His death, this expose & etc, is most convenient, is it not?

Corso's book has been out for quite some time. I read it the better part of a year ago. This tome requires research in order to verify the claimant's assertions. Not to say the claimant is incorrect, just that it must be verrified, under the circumstances.

Personally, I would have appreciated the expose infinitely more, had the author the courage to confront a living Corso. Whether right or wrong, it seems out of character for military mind to have made such serious errors, however it is telling that his memory was in it's twighlight years.

Got any more bright ideas?

Jim

Jim,

Yes, I've got a lot of more bright ideas. While it's unfortunate that Corso has passed away and can no longer defend himself, his collaborator, William Birnes III, remains very much alive and well, and is in fact now the publisher of UFO magazine.

Maybe he would like to release the corespondence that took place between him and Corso in the course of writing the book?

Don't hold your breath.

But maybe the Corso family would be willing to release any correspondence between the two, along with any corroborating papers or files Corso may have left behind?

Again, don't hold your breath.

"The Day After Roswell" was a sham from the word go. Its critics can't help it that Corso died. If he and Birnes had wanted to defend themselves against expected future critics and legitimate criticism, they could have done so at the very start by providing convincing documentation -- which they chose not to do, or couldn't do.

The pity is that we'll now never know why Corso, who had an enviable military career and record of service to his country, chose to toss it all away at the end. Did he need the money all that badly? Was he embittered because of a perceived lack of recognition over his role in history? (My own suspicion.) Or did he simply fall under the seductive sway of book-packager William Birnes III? (My second suspicion.)

Will his family set the record straight by releasing his papers, files, and correspondence for public inspection?

You dream. Corso's son has already intimated that his father filled him in on additional Roswell details between heart attacks, thus carving out a ready made career for himself on the UFO lecture and media appearance circuit, a temptation few of us could refuse when it's handed to us on such a silver platter.

In the absence of the complete publication of the Corso-Birnes correspondence and any existing Corso files, the truth will suffer and the myth will grow. Corso will become Roswell's first martyr, an enshrinement that Birnes will do nothing to deflect, deter, or correct, even though, in his heart, he knows better.

Any other questions?

Dennis

From: Keith Woodard <qwoodard@worldnet.att.net
To: "UpDates - Toronto" <updates@globalserve.net
Subject: Re: UFO UpDate: Re: Korff & Sparks - Roswell Book 'Exposed'
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 1998 16:00:30 -0700

From: UpDates - Toronto <updates@globalserve.net
To: updates@globalserve.net
Subject: UFO UpDate: Re: Korff & Sparks - Roswell Book 'Exposed'
Date: Wednesday, August 12, 1998 7:33 AM

From: James S. Mortellaro Jnr. <Jsmortell@aol.com
Date: Tue, 11 Aug 1998 13:09:41 EDT
To: updates@globalserve.net
Subject: Re: UFO UpDate: Korff & Sparks - Roswell Book 'Exposed'

What is interesting about this expose, is that it has surfaced after Corso's death; when he is unable to defend himself. His death, this expose & etc, is most convenient, is it not?

Corso's book has been out for quite some time. I read it the better part of a year ago. This tome requires research in order to verify the claimant's assertions. Not to say the claimant is incorrect, just that it must be verrified, under the circumstances.

Personally, I would have appreciated the expose infinitely more, had the author the courage to confront a living Corso. Whether right or wrong, it seems out of character for military mind to have made such serious errors, however it is telling that his memory was in it's twighlight years.

Just for the record, I first noticed this expose on Korff's website in January. It went up on the Sightings website last Sunday because Korff was Rense's guest that evening. A caller asked Korff where Corso's story broke down, and Korff gave the short version on the air and offered to make the entire expose available for Rense to post as well.

Kind regards,

Keith

From: Kal K. Korff <TotlResrch@aol.com
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 1998 18:18:00 EDT
To: Updates@globalserve.net
Subject: Kal Korff Addresses Issues Over Corso Expose

Dear List,

Apparently this was not made clear, so I will repeat it again -- This expose of Colonel Corso is NOT new. In fact, it is OLD NEWS and was pubished some 6 MONTHS ago. Also, I appeared with Brad Sparks some 6 MONTHS ago on the popular radio program, "The Laura Lee Show," where this expose was first announced by Sparks and myself. The show was broadcast in ALL 50 states!

If you managed to "miss" this expose, I am sorry, but millions of people did not. To set the record straight it has been blatantly IGNORED by Corso and his supporters. After all, what can they say?

So the claim that this expose was deliberately released after Corso's death when he can't defend himself is NOT true and ANYONE DOUBTING THIS CAN GO DO THEIR OWN HOMEWORK AND DIG UP THE TAPES FROM LAURA LEE'S SHOW and deal with it.

By the way, I did plan to confront Corso on this and other matters, on July 4, 1997 to be precise, on MSNBC, where I was a guest all day during the Mars landing and Roswell segments. However, Corso, like Paul Davids, never showed up for the debate. Corso gave the excuse he "was hard of hearing," but managed to "hear" everyone who believed his tall tales.

In another instance, Corso chickened out of a radio debate with me on Laura Lee's Show, and instead Birnes filled in. Birned admitted, much to the shock and suprise of everyone, (and this is all on tape), that he did NO investigations into Corso's claims and admitted that his job was simply to make the book read better.

Since then, Birnes has changed his story, citing "extensive background investigations" (although he can't and won't name with whom,) etc., ad nauseum.

It is my personal opinion that Birnes' recent acqusition of UFO Report magazine now HURTS the UFO field if he continues to spout the Corso and Roswell nonsense.

On the other hand, featuring Birnes might make for a nice follow up sequel to "World's Greatest Hoaxes Revealed" that Bob Kiviat and I are already starting to plan. Hmmmm......

At any rate, enclosed is my editorial on Corso and where I stand on the matter. I assume all of you will now adjust your "criticisms" of me accordingly. I am adding this page to my web site, where the Corso expose is featured, and it will be uploaded in the next day or so with lots of other goodies.

Having been very busy lately with everything from sneaking back onto Meier's property again to finding out who really faked the alien autopsy film and working on the Fox special to expose it all for everyone, it's been quite a cycle.

Kal Korff (Editorial below)

Think Objectively EXCLUSIVE EXPOSE!! Colonel Philip Corso and William Birnesí Bestselling Book Exposed as a Hoax! by Brad C. Sparks

But First - A Blunt Editorial by Kal K. Korff

NOTE: Sadly, but predictably, I have received some emails from a distinguished minority of UFO fans who think it is "just horrible" that I should publish "right after Corso's death," a searing expose of him that proves the claims he made in his book "The Day After Roswell" are pure fiction passed off by Corso as if they were fact. Under the pretense of having "respect" for the dead, the cries of "foul" by these few people still jump out at me on my computer screen.

While I appreciate the theoretical loftiness of these people's spiritual values, who are we fooling here?

Let's face it, the REAL issue for these people is NOT what they pretend (and some may actually believe) it to be - the fact that Corso is dead is IRRELEVANT to most of them -- the fact that I dare to QUESTION or "attack Roswell" (as one gentlemen put it) is what really rankles them!

This is truly sad, ladies and gentlemen - but it is also symptomatic of a certain (but thank God ever-dwindling) sector of both the UFO popualtion and the general public nonetheless.

Now, regarding the expose of the late Colonel Philip Corso presented here, let me just say the following:

1) I, Kal Korff, am NOT the author of this Corso expose. Brad Sparks is the author, as is obvious by the appearance of his byline at the top of this page. While you are free to continue to take your feelings out on me by sending me various hostile emails, it's obvious many of you missed the fact that I am NOT the expose's author -- although I thank you for the flattery in thinking I am! The real credit, however, goes to Brad Sparks.

2) Speaking of Mr. Sparks, Brad is an extremely credible UFO researcher and historian, in fact one of the VERY BEST! I have known Brad, personally and professionally, for 17 years now, and relish every opportunity to work with him.

If you have never heard of Brad Sparks until now, or don't know about any of his past work, then you have not been involved in the subject of UFOs long enough to appreciate what I am talking about, or you don't know the subject as well as you might think you do.

While there's nothing wrong with this, and this observation is not meant as a put down, but I would strongly urge you to think carefully about this, because it means there are other key areas of your self-perceived "understanding" of the UFO subject that must also be missing as well.

3) Regarding the matter of Colonel Corso, let me state for the record that I regard Colonel Philip Corso as a genuine American hero. While this will surprise my critics, I remind everyone reading this once again how often very wrong my "critics" are, and this is yet another example. I might as well take this opportunity to say that I also regard Major Jesse Marcel as a genuine hero also, and indeed ALL people who are brave enough to put on a uniform and dedicate themselves to the service of our country.

However, despite the very real bravey of these individuals in the service of their country, we must never forget one very important fact: The American way of life, and especially the United States Armed Forces, teaches us first and foremost that truth, honesty and integrity, above all, reign supreme. It is a soldier's, and especially an officer's duty, to his fellow countrymen to always tell the truth, -- especially about activities they themselves claim to have personally engaged in and/or championed. In a similar fashion, the military also teaches us that we are responsible for our own actions, regardless of their nature, and must ultimately pay the consequences for them.

Indeed, to state anything less than the truth about one's actions is plain dishonorable. To blatantly make up claims, especially colossal ones, is unforgivable, whether the originator of said claims be deceased or not. At the very least, whatever great legacy one manages to build up during the course of one's lifetime is forever buried in the avalanche of dishonor such confabulations rightfully bring.

Most importantly, I would argue that the ONLY TRUE WAY to HONOR these VETERANS, in the spirit of what they signed up and served their country for, is to face the TRUTH about them and their heroic deeds, no matter how painful, actions that stand alone by and of themselves and are not in need of the imaginary elements of "crashed saucers" and pickled aliens to prop them up or make them worthy of history.

To face the truth like a soldier, "head on," is what these men, I am sure, would surely want us to do on their behalf if they were here today to be asked this question. To face the truth as nothing but the truth, like the Honorable Officers that they were, is what they would want us to do for them, in honor of them, as their memory serves us today.

In closing, I am sure that those who have emailed me with their "concerns" would never want an individual to lie or distort the truth. If this be the case, then you will SUPPORT the purpose of this web page and the message it is communicating that is quite simple: Yes, Corso is a genuine American hero, but despite all this, Corso was not telling the truth when it comes to the claims reviewed here on this web page.

We owe it to Colonel Corso's supporters, Corso's historic legacy, and the surviving members of his family that honor the truth, to help set the record straight.

Lastly, we must never forget that as painful as it is for us to acknowledge, in the final analysis, we were lied to, even by these great heroes. What matters now is to set the record straight, so that the legacies they established, can be honored truthfully and accurately.

Kal K. Korff August 12, 1998

email responses to: TotlResrch@aol.com

Brad Sparks' expose then begins, titled "Philip Corso's Roswellmania" , etc.

From: Ralfnstein@aol.com
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 1998 00:27:39 EDT
To: eotl@west.net
Subject: Korff, Sparks, Corso, and getting it straight

To those interested in the continuing Corso/Roswell controversy: I am a radio journalist and UFO investigator who has been producing on this subject since 1987. Over the years I have interviewed a number of the principals involved with the Roswell investigation as well as a number of surviving eye witnesses. Prior to the publication of "The Day After Roswell", I recorded a two hour interview with co-author William Birnes.

At that time, Mr. Birnes was very cognizant of the errors in the book, took full responsibility for them, and was well aware of the fact that Corso had not been given enough time to read the final manuscript before it went to the publisher. He laid the blame on Simon & Schuster who was rushing to get the book out by July 4th, 97, the 50th Roswell Anniversary. He admitted to practicing shoddy journalism and to cutting corners on fact checking; he blamed himself for his lack of specific knowledge about the Roswell case and for his UFO naivete in general. Apart from it all, he felt his manuscript was faithful to the Colonel's story, and that to the best of his ability, given the constraints that they were laboring under, they did a commendable job. This was in June or July of 97. These statements are on the record.

Ralph Steiner
Ralfnstein@aol.com
SIGHTINGS HOMEPAGE