Review of 'Out There'

Article 56 of alt.alien.visitors:
Path: ns-mx!iowasp.physics.uiowa.edu!maverick.ksu.ksu.edu!rutgers!sun-barr!newstop!sun!rayssd!plw
From: plw@sgfb.ssd.ray.com (Paul L. White)
Newsgroups: alt.alien.visitors
Subject: Review of 'Out There'
Keywords: ufo, alien, flying saucer
Message-ID: <284@sgfb.ssd.ray.com>
Date: 2 Nov 90 18:00:42 GMT
Sender: news@rayssd.ssd.ray.com
Organization: Raytheon Company, Portsmouth RI
Lines: 46

I've been mulling over Howard Blum's book that has recently been published.
Blum is a former writer for the New York Times and has published two other books...one dealing with the Walker spy case.  Blum's book, Out There, was begun as
a spin off of his background interviews of NSA personnel during the writing of
the Walker spy story.  One NSA guy was getting nervous about the information
he was giving Blum about the NSA and Walker, so to get him off of his back,
he told Blum that he should be looking into the UFO Working Group.  Disappointedabout his NSA source drying up, Blum half heartedly follows up the ufo lead
only to find that it is true that there has been a UFO Working Group formed
under the cognizance of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA).

The head of the alleged UFO Working Group is a Col. Phillips.  Col. Phillips
gathers a motlely crew of scientists and intelligence agents to investigate
old Blue Book reports and current UFO sightings.

'Out There' informs the reader of the Gov't's interest in "remote viewing" for
submarine location under the Project Aquarius designation.  The reader learns
of the satellite/space junk tracking at Cheyenne Mountain and the UFO report
that triggers the formation of Col. Phillips UFO Working Group.  Various
background is provided on SETI, Projects Grudge and Blue Book for the UFO
neophyte.  Several chapters are devoted to an Air Force special projects
group devoted to UFO disinformation and the eventual disclosure of the
infamous MJ-12 document.  The subsequent furious ("rabid?") controversy
over the document's authenticity by Phillip Klass and Shandera...not to
mention the FBI's investigation as to whether the document (if original)
is a leaked TOP SECRET and who should be prosecuted are also divulged in
Blum's book.

One's enjoyment of the book will definately be biased on the basis of whether
the reader is a skeptical or a believer.  Being a fence sitter, myself, I
enjoyed Blum's well-written prose and the accurate naming of various
Government agencies and locations of which I have a passing acquaintance. 
I found a healthy amount of reservation about the ease to which Blum got
his contacts to discuss information that was not only classified, but would
cause them to be ridiculed. 

Klass-be-damned...something's going on and pranksters, swamp gas, atmospheric
refraction, et al is not going to explain it away.  If the `Gulf Breeze
Sightings' and 'Out There' books are total fabrications, then God bless the
authors, they tell a damn fine story.  If they're not fabrications, we're
still left out in the dark, knowing something's going, but not knowing what.

=========================================================================
Paul White             Seeping slickness
plw@rayssdb
==========================================================================

f


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