Jim Westwood's MJ-12 disinformation theory
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 7
| Date | 1 January 1999 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Disinformation & hoaxes (topic) |
| People | Jim Westwood, Robert M. Wood, Harold Puthoff |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 137 |
| Year | 1999 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1999 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 6 |
Jim Westwood, described in Jacques Vallée's journals as a former CIA expert on fake Soviet documents, concluded in the late 1990s that the "Eisenhower Briefing Document" at the heart of the Majestic 12 (MJ-12) story bore all the marks of an American disinformation document originally meant to fool the KGB.[1]
Background
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The MJ-12 papers, which purport to describe a secret committee formed by President Truman in 1947 to manage recovered alien craft, reached UFO researchers in the 1980s. The best known, the "Eisenhower Briefing Document" dated 18 November 1952, was on a roll of film mailed anonymously to producer Jaime Shandera in 1984. The name had earlier appeared in a 1981 document used in the disinformation campaign against Albuquerque researcher Paul Bennewitz, in which Bill Moore and Air Force investigator Richard Doty were involved.[2]
Westwood's review
In the late 1990s McDonnell Douglas engineer Robert Wood and his son Ryan were analysing the MJ-12 documents, publishing "Another look at Majestic" in the MUFON UFO Journal in 1999. According to Vallée's journal entry dated 1 January 1999, Hal Puthoff hired and paid Westwood to bring his expertise to Wood's project, and Westwood judged that the briefing document had all the earmarks of a fake — an American disinformation document once meant to fool the KGB.[1][3]
Other views
The idea that MJ-12 might be genuine Cold War disinformation rather than a modern hoax would explain why the papers look official while containing errors. But the FBI called the documents "completely bogus" in 1988, and researchers have found evidence of later fabrication, including a Truman signature photocopied from a genuine 1947 letter, date formats matching Moore's own notes and a memo attributed to an official who was abroad on its supposed date. Moore admitted in 1989 that he had fed fake material to researchers. Westwood's reported view adds to the long debate but does not resolve it.[2]
People and topics
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- Central Intelligence Agency — The U.S. foreign intelligence agency, which has followed UFO reports since the 1940s.
- MJ-12 — Disputed documents describing a secret committee managing crashed saucers.
- Jim Westwood — Former CIA consultant who studied the MJ-12 papers.
- Robert M. Wood — McDonnell Douglas engineer who ran an in-house UFO study and later promoted the MJ-12 documents.
- Harold Puthoff — Physicist who co-founded the SRI remote-viewing research and later worked on AAWSAP and To The Stars Academy.
- Eisenhower Briefing Document — The MJ-12 document dated 1952, received on film in 1984.
- Disinformation — False information spread deliberately to mislead.
- Federal Bureau of Investigation — The U.S. federal police agency, which helped check flying disc reports from 1947 to 1950.
- Air Force Office of Special Investigations — The Air Force's criminal investigation and counterintelligence agency.
On the Timeline
- Jehovah teletype (Cooper documents) (November 1998) — An allegedly leaked CIA teletype is given to a researcher.
- Bigelow's contact contingency planning (1999) (8 January 1999) — Bigelow discusses the need for a plan if alien contact were confirmed.
See every 1999 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- "An alleged 2001 National Institute for Discovery Science memo", UFOs Scientific Research (Jun 2019) · ufos-scientificresearch.blogspot.com · archived copy
- Majestic 12 — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- "Robert M. Wood", Patrick Gross · ufologie.patrickgross.org · archived copy
- How the FBI debunked the MJ-12 papers — Atlas Obscura · atlasobscura.com · archived copy
- MUFON UFO Journal, Oct 2008 (PDF) — The Black Vault · documents.theblackvault.com · archived copy
- More on aerospace companies and UFOs — UFOs Scientific Research · ufos-scientificresearch.blogspot.com · archived copy
Further reading
- Majestic 12 file — FBI Vault · vault.fbi.gov · archived copy
- Harold E. Puthoff — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- UFO documents — CIA Reading Room · cia.gov · archived copy
- Dwight D. Eisenhower — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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