Privatized control group claim (1999)
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 8

| Date | 7 July 1999 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Crashes & retrievals (topic), Beings & bodies (topic), Nuclear & missile sites (topic) |
| People | Tim Cooper, Steven Greer, David Grusch |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 138 |
| Year | 1999 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1999 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 11 |
An anonymous letter dated 7 July 1999 and sent to UFO document collector Timothy Cooper, who marked it received on 9 July, claimed that MJ-12 had stopped being a government body in 1969 and had become a private concern funded by "big money and big science".[1]
The writer

The typed letter, headed "Important", described its author as a "walk in" since 1982, when he said he had learned that William Moore's "aviary" sources were really Air Force Office of Special Investigations agents. It said Moore had been taken in by deception about MJ-12 and had produced documents based on OSI material. It gave no name or position.[1]
The claims

The letter said MJ-12 had been known by many names, including "Zodiac" and, from 1992, "Jehovah"; that a "UFO/EBE Working Group" was an international consortium funded by major financial institutions and industrialists; that "Majestic" was set up by President Truman to look for signs of extraterrestrial contact through the creation of the NSA; and that a Defense Department project under Robert Oppenheimer tried to reverse-engineer recovered hardware. It also suggested that people who investigated too deeply had been killed.[1]
Problems

The letter contains clear errors. It says Albert Einstein died of "cancer" in 1955, when he died of an aortic aneurysm, and it presents Oppenheimer as an MJ-12 player until his death. Like the rest of the Cooper material, it has never been authenticated.[1][2]
Influence

The letter's use of the name "Zodiac" was later noted by researchers studying physicist Eric Davis's search for a program of that name, and its idea of a privatised program anticipated later claims, including David Grusch's 2023 testimony about contractor-held material.[3][4]
People and topics

- Central Intelligence Agency — The U.S. foreign intelligence agency, which has followed UFO reports since the 1940s.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- Tim Cooper — California researcher who said he received many MJ-12-style documents from anonymous sources in the 1990s.
- Project Blue Book — The Air Force's public UFO investigation from 1952 until its closure in December 1969.
- Steven Greer — Physician who founded CSETI and the Disclosure Project.
- David Grusch — Former intelligence officer who testified in 2023 that the U.S. has recovered non-human craft.
- Unidentified anomalous phenomena — The U.S. government's current term for unidentified objects in the air, in space and underwater.
On the Timeline

- Homer Rowlette deathbed account (March 1999) — A man says his father told him on his deathbed about the Roswell crash.
- Arlington Institute board meeting (1999) (3 December 1999) — A defense think tank with former CIA chief James Woolsey holds a board meeting.
See every 1999 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- Anonymous letter to Timothy Cooper, 7 July 1999, Majestic Documents (PDF) · majesticdocuments.com · archived copy
- Albert Einstein — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Keith Basterfield, "Zodiac", UFOs – scientific research (July 2023) · ufos-scientificresearch.blogspot.com · archived copy
- David Grusch UFO whistleblower claims — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Majestic 12 — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- How the FBI debunked the MJ-12 papers — Atlas Obscura · atlasobscura.com · archived copy
- On the Tim Cooper MJ-12 documents (1990s archive) · geocities.ws · archived copy
- Review of Kevin Randle's 'Case MJ-12' — Stanton Friedman · medium.com · archived copy
- Cooper/Woods 'Majestic' leak grows into paper flood (archive) · oocities.org · archived copy
- Critique of the Cooper MJ-12 documents — Kennedys and King · kennedysandking.com · archived copy
- majesticdocuments.com · majesticdocuments.com · archived copy
Further reading
- Majestic 12 file — FBI Vault · vault.fbi.gov · archived copy
- Stargate Project — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Stargate collection — CIA Reading Room · cia.gov · 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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