PHILIP J. KLASS was the thorn in the side of just about everybody according to most reports. It is little wonder than that this poster child of debunkers, masquerading as skeptics, should have an FBI file. In 65 pages of reports, memos, and photocopied articles are revealed a fascinating dark side to this man who was often not above personal, and very ugly, attacks on UFO researchers. The file, located at http://www.cufon.org/cufon/Klass FBI.pdf, notes that by the early 1960's there was an official FBI file on Klass for a 1953 article that revealed classified information. The Air Force was quoted as saying that one article dealt with something so classified that it could not be declassified for purposes of a lawsuit! In 1975, the FBI noted he had been twice investigated for publications of classified information and for his attacks on the character of Dr. J. Allen Hyneck. His books are notable for their ability to track down and eradicate a non-issue as if it were the main event. To ignore facts that did not conform to his views. His lasting legacy is a warning to future researchers and a footnote on the willingness for those who claim to be skeptics but who are, at heart, agenda driven debunkers. A memo of that year (from the FBI's Mr. Kein to Mr. Moore) states: "In view of Klass' intemperate criticism and often irrational statements...we should be most careful in any further contacts." In another place, an agent in 1976 questioned if Klass was in "possession of all his faculties" regarding a 28 page rant that included terms such as "psychic time bomb", "Jewish subconscious transformation", and a device called a "cattle-prod prod" to be used against enemy aircraft. This is the Klass who was a founding member of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation o Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP). He was called by Michael Sokolove 'the voice of cool reason." In 1983, he published his famous "UFO Curse"..."you will never know any more about UFOs than you know today." Yes, now there sounds the bell-like voice of a mind that has closed its corridors to anything but what it firmly believes to be truth. Klass, High Priest of Debunkers and Close-Minded Scientists, died in 2005.
[reprint 2008, Spellbound Stories]
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