July 9, 2013
To SCEPCOP Members:
Even though this information is several years old, I feel that it is important enough to be posted as widely as possible.
The FBI released file information on the late UFO debunker Phil Klass. Members of SCEPCOP should go to google and punch in the search field Phil Klass FBI file. Click on Google Search, and the first listing from the Computer UFO Network is where the file is located.
Read the file, to be totally honest by the time you are done SCEPCOP members should be rolling on the floor having a VERY GOOD laugh.
The FBI did NOT hold Mr. Klass in high regards. As a matter of fact the FBI considered Klass to be "irrational" and nothing but a trouble maker and a complete pest. The file clearly states that Mr. Klass DID NOT have a sterling reputation. One of the documents states that Klass was not in full possession of his faculties.
Translation: This means that Klass was nuts. For more information about Phil Klass, go to google and in the search field punch in Skeptics Honesty and UFOs. This online posting is a real eye opener. By the way Phil Klass was not and never was a scientist. He DID NOT have a Ph.D degree. Klass was a former aviation electronics engineer and Senior Aviation Editor at Aviation Week and Space Technology.
By the way, when I spoke at Cornell, the late W. Reid Thompson referred to Klass as being "A Loose Cannon"
See "Shutting Up UFO Debunkers" for more information about Reid's professional and scientific credentials.
The FBI file on Klass, makes it very clear that Klass has NO credibility in the same file there is a statement about the late Dr. J. Allen Hynek. The FBI file stated that Hynek HAS a sterling reputation, and that he is associated with one of the finest universities, Northwestern. Statements also in the file said that Allen had the respect of his peers in the scientific community.
While Klass's UFO "investigations" were more likely a disinformation campaign to serve some other ulterior motive, scientific objectivity was NOT used in Klass's case investigations. In April 1980, Hynek spoke in Syracuse. Hynek told me that Klass was caught lying on his case investigations.
Since the FBI did not have a positive view of Klass, consider the source, of the criticisms about Phil Klass, and ask yourself how CSI would ruin it's credibility by having Klass as one of their major UFO debunkers.
To quote the late Dr. James E. McDonald who was an atmospheric physicist at the University of Arizona, McDonald established that Klass's "plasma" explanation for UFOs was not scientifically plausible, McDonald remarked "Klass Dismissed." In light of what is now known perhaps, if McDonald was alive he probably would have said as well CSI dismissed.
Steve Zalewski
Syracuse, NY
Last edited by
Steve Zalewski on 13 Sep 2013, 09:49, edited 18 times in total.