 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Carrots & Crop Circles
By George Wingfield
Posted May 8, 2011
Last weekend saw the 23rd annual Ozark UFO Conference in Eureka Springs, AR, which attracted up
to 600 attendees and was very successful. Among outstanding presentations was one made by
Peter Davenport, Director of the National UFO Reporting Center (http://www.nuforc.org/) and another
by Travis Walton (www.travis-walton.com), abducted by a UFO in Arizona in 1975 and probably the
most convincing abduction case ever.
Some other presentations contained highly questionable claims which could not be challenged by
other researchers like me due to the lack of an open ‘question and answer’ session that would have
allowed this. The only reason that I am circulating this e-mail is that I believe one should speak out
when one knows for certain that a claim is untrue. Obviously one cannot address all the dubious
claims that are made at UFO conferences and on Internet websites since that would take up every
waking minute of one’s time, but there have been occasions during past Ozark UFO conferences
where such speaking out has been possible. A notable instance was in 1996 when I was able to
reveal that Ray Santilli’s “Alien Autopsy” footage and his associated claims were completely
fraudulent.
As part of Linda Moulton Howe’s presentation this year the so-called CARET drones, pictures of
which appeared on the Internet in 2007, were promoted as being genuine craft that had been built
using extraterrestrial technology at a secret laboratory in Palo Alto, CA. Various e-mails to Coast to
Coast AM Radio and to Linda Howe’s Earthfiles website (www.earthfiles.com) with alleged sightings
and photos of the drones were sent by people calling themselves ‘Isaac’, ‘Chad’, ‘Deborah’, ‘Raj’,
etc. None of these informants was visible or contactable as a real person and their identities were
clearly false. The acronym CARET supposedly stands for “Commercial Application Research for
Extraterrestrial Technology”. In fact it is more likely a homonym for the “carrot” which was dangled in
front of eager ufologists like Linda who took the bait.
An excellent article on the drones and CARET documents by then MUFON International Director
James Carrion appeared in the MUFON UFO Journal of April 2008 concluding that there was every
indication that the whole thing was a highly elaborate hoax. What Carrion failed to mention at the
time was that many of the metal parts which made up these “craft” were unmistakably bicycle
components which had been sectioned or modified. Ball bearing race cages, modified bicycle wheel
rims and bicycle derailleur idler-arm gear wheels can be clearly seen in the CARET photos by
experienced bicyclists. This was communicated to Linda in 2007 by Bob Soetebier (www.BikeBob.
org) but she chose to ignore his warning. The CARET drones also bore cryptic symbols, supposedly
of extraterrestrial origin. On Thursday, July 19, 2007, NPR radio affiliate KWMU broadcast a "St.
Louis on the Air" show on cryptography during which someone named ‘Isaac’ called in. From what he
said then and the fact that he had attended a "2600 meetup for Hackers and Phreaks” there is a
strong possibility that this ‘Isaac’ --from the St Louis, MO, area-- was the man who created the
CARET drones hoax. A further letter from Bicycle Bob to this effect can be found at the following link:
http://lucianarchy.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=cali1&action=display&thread=2028&page=36
Apart from promoting the hoaxed CARET drones as genuine products of extraterrestrial technology,
Linda Moulton Howe also presented several photos of elaborate crop circles in England which she
suggested were the product of extraterrestrial intelligence. This is a subject which I have studied at
great length and I can give the assurance that the vast majority, if not 100%, of these formations that
have appeared in England in recent years are human-made. They are secretly made by certain
small groups of people who describe themselves as creators of field art but who delight in deceiving
croppies and ufologists in just the same way that ‘Isaac’ and his friends weave deception on the
Internet. At least three of the crop circle formations shown as part of Linda’s presentation were made
by people whom I know. One formation shown was the subject of a letter from me to the MUFON UFO
Journal of February 2011. That explained just how the formation was made and who made it.
Another, the famous Pi crop circle formation of 2008, which encoded the value of π to an accuracy
of ten digits, was partly the work of a good friend of mine. He collaborated with veteran circlemaker
Julian Richardson who has been making the best English crop circles since 1990. The Pi formation
caused great excitement for those who interpreted it as being the result of alien intelligence, but I can
assure you there is absolutely nothing extraterrestrial about it.
Let me quote something which sums up this unfortunate situation very precisely:-
The road of ufology is littered with dead-end tales of alleged crashed saucers, alien treaties,
imminent disclosure and other false claims made by shadowy figures with assumed names, false
identities and alleged insider information. Many respected ufologists have let their guard down when
approached by an insider claiming altruistic motives for revealing their deepest, darkest secrets.
Hoaxers and disinformation agents don’t play nice and the carrot they dangle can look very enticing
to those of us who passionately want to find out the truth. To further darken the already murky
ufological waters, the Internet has become the spawning ground of choice for new UFO myths,
memes, and disinformation. Virtual witnesses flourish in this anonymous environment, making
incredible claims that are consumed by a hungry public more than willing to believe.
–James Carrion, then MUFON International Director, writing in the MUFON UFO Journal, April 2008.
Maybe I am taking the whole business of the fantastical claims that are made by some ufologists and
some claims presented at UFO conferences far too seriously. Perhaps I should accept that some
segments of the UFO subject are merely a mythology that has been built up by some UFO “experts”
and gurus over the last sixty odd years. Should we relax and accept such fiction and fantasy like
Trekkies do at their conventions? I don’t think so since I do believe that UFOs are real and that we
should investigate them from a scientific standpoint. Anyone who doubts their reality should read
Leslie Kean’s excellent book: UFOs Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials
Go on the Record (Harmony Books, 2010). Besides, we are not being truthful to those new to
the subject if we say nothing about claims that we absolutely know to be false. It also brings the whole
subject of ufology into disrepute.
George Wingfield
Ottumwa, IA.
By George Wingfield
Posted May 8, 2011
Last weekend saw the 23rd annual Ozark UFO Conference in Eureka Springs, AR, which attracted up
to 600 attendees and was very successful. Among outstanding presentations was one made by
Peter Davenport, Director of the National UFO Reporting Center (http://www.nuforc.org/) and another
by Travis Walton (www.travis-walton.com), abducted by a UFO in Arizona in 1975 and probably the
most convincing abduction case ever.
Some other presentations contained highly questionable claims which could not be challenged by
other researchers like me due to the lack of an open ‘question and answer’ session that would have
allowed this. The only reason that I am circulating this e-mail is that I believe one should speak out
when one knows for certain that a claim is untrue. Obviously one cannot address all the dubious
claims that are made at UFO conferences and on Internet websites since that would take up every
waking minute of one’s time, but there have been occasions during past Ozark UFO conferences
where such speaking out has been possible. A notable instance was in 1996 when I was able to
reveal that Ray Santilli’s “Alien Autopsy” footage and his associated claims were completely
fraudulent.
As part of Linda Moulton Howe’s presentation this year the so-called CARET drones, pictures of
which appeared on the Internet in 2007, were promoted as being genuine craft that had been built
using extraterrestrial technology at a secret laboratory in Palo Alto, CA. Various e-mails to Coast to
Coast AM Radio and to Linda Howe’s Earthfiles website (www.earthfiles.com) with alleged sightings
and photos of the drones were sent by people calling themselves ‘Isaac’, ‘Chad’, ‘Deborah’, ‘Raj’,
etc. None of these informants was visible or contactable as a real person and their identities were
clearly false. The acronym CARET supposedly stands for “Commercial Application Research for
Extraterrestrial Technology”. In fact it is more likely a homonym for the “carrot” which was dangled in
front of eager ufologists like Linda who took the bait.
An excellent article on the drones and CARET documents by then MUFON International Director
James Carrion appeared in the MUFON UFO Journal of April 2008 concluding that there was every
indication that the whole thing was a highly elaborate hoax. What Carrion failed to mention at the
time was that many of the metal parts which made up these “craft” were unmistakably bicycle
components which had been sectioned or modified. Ball bearing race cages, modified bicycle wheel
rims and bicycle derailleur idler-arm gear wheels can be clearly seen in the CARET photos by
experienced bicyclists. This was communicated to Linda in 2007 by Bob Soetebier (www.BikeBob.
org) but she chose to ignore his warning. The CARET drones also bore cryptic symbols, supposedly
of extraterrestrial origin. On Thursday, July 19, 2007, NPR radio affiliate KWMU broadcast a "St.
Louis on the Air" show on cryptography during which someone named ‘Isaac’ called in. From what he
said then and the fact that he had attended a "2600 meetup for Hackers and Phreaks” there is a
strong possibility that this ‘Isaac’ --from the St Louis, MO, area-- was the man who created the
CARET drones hoax. A further letter from Bicycle Bob to this effect can be found at the following link:
http://lucianarchy.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=cali1&action=display&thread=2028&page=36
Apart from promoting the hoaxed CARET drones as genuine products of extraterrestrial technology,
Linda Moulton Howe also presented several photos of elaborate crop circles in England which she
suggested were the product of extraterrestrial intelligence. This is a subject which I have studied at
great length and I can give the assurance that the vast majority, if not 100%, of these formations that
have appeared in England in recent years are human-made. They are secretly made by certain
small groups of people who describe themselves as creators of field art but who delight in deceiving
croppies and ufologists in just the same way that ‘Isaac’ and his friends weave deception on the
Internet. At least three of the crop circle formations shown as part of Linda’s presentation were made
by people whom I know. One formation shown was the subject of a letter from me to the MUFON UFO
Journal of February 2011. That explained just how the formation was made and who made it.
Another, the famous Pi crop circle formation of 2008, which encoded the value of π to an accuracy
of ten digits, was partly the work of a good friend of mine. He collaborated with veteran circlemaker
Julian Richardson who has been making the best English crop circles since 1990. The Pi formation
caused great excitement for those who interpreted it as being the result of alien intelligence, but I can
assure you there is absolutely nothing extraterrestrial about it.
Let me quote something which sums up this unfortunate situation very precisely:-
The road of ufology is littered with dead-end tales of alleged crashed saucers, alien treaties,
imminent disclosure and other false claims made by shadowy figures with assumed names, false
identities and alleged insider information. Many respected ufologists have let their guard down when
approached by an insider claiming altruistic motives for revealing their deepest, darkest secrets.
Hoaxers and disinformation agents don’t play nice and the carrot they dangle can look very enticing
to those of us who passionately want to find out the truth. To further darken the already murky
ufological waters, the Internet has become the spawning ground of choice for new UFO myths,
memes, and disinformation. Virtual witnesses flourish in this anonymous environment, making
incredible claims that are consumed by a hungry public more than willing to believe.
–James Carrion, then MUFON International Director, writing in the MUFON UFO Journal, April 2008.
Maybe I am taking the whole business of the fantastical claims that are made by some ufologists and
some claims presented at UFO conferences far too seriously. Perhaps I should accept that some
segments of the UFO subject are merely a mythology that has been built up by some UFO “experts”
and gurus over the last sixty odd years. Should we relax and accept such fiction and fantasy like
Trekkies do at their conventions? I don’t think so since I do believe that UFOs are real and that we
should investigate them from a scientific standpoint. Anyone who doubts their reality should read
Leslie Kean’s excellent book: UFOs Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials
Go on the Record (Harmony Books, 2010). Besides, we are not being truthful to those new to
the subject if we say nothing about claims that we absolutely know to be false. It also brings the whole
subject of ufology into disrepute.
George Wingfield
Ottumwa, IA.
| Linda Moulton Howe's repeating pattern. |
1992 research in the fields of southern England: (From left) Linda Moulton Howe, Colin Andrews, Shari Adiamak, Ron
Russell, Grant Wakefield, Steven Greer, unknown, George Wingfield, Maria Ward, unknown. Copyright: Colin Andrews
Russell, Grant Wakefield, Steven Greer, unknown, George Wingfield, Maria Ward, unknown. Copyright: Colin Andrews
| Linda Moulton-Howe: Copyright: Colin Andrews |
| George Wingfield. Copyright: Colin Andrews |
| "The only reason that I am circulating this e-mail is that I believe one should speak out when one knows for certain that a claim is untrue" |
| "The acronym CARET supposedly stands for “Commercial Application Research for Extraterrestrial Technology”. In fact it is more likely a homonym for the “carrot” which was dangled in front of eager ufologists like Linda who took the bait" |
| ...."many of the metal parts which made up these “craft” were unmistakably bicycle components which had been sectioned or modified......This was communicated to Linda in 2007 by Bob Soetebier (www.BikeBob.org) but she chose to ignore his warning. " |
| "Apart from promoting the hoaxed CARET drones as genuine products of extraterrestrial technology, Linda Moulton Howe also presented several photos of elaborate crop circles in England which she suggested were the product of extraterrestrial intelligence..... At least three of the crop circle formations shown as part of Linda’s presentation were made by people whom I know" |
Comment by Colin Andrews:
I am aware of several other important cases involving the UFO and crop circle subjects in which Linda Moulton
Howe has been informed of vital facts which she has chosen to ignore in favour of telling the stories as
pumped up inaccuracies, which is fine for show biz, and her regular radio programs but does nothing to
enhance the professionalism surrounding these subjects nor most importantly the truth.
Prof. A.J. Gevaerd, the well known and highly respected researcher from Brazil tried to tell her what he knew
about a hoaxed abduction claim in that country but she ignored his vital information (Open letter HERE).
I am also aware of several cases where those who have made certain crop circles and have admitted this to
her, one which she claims formed in front of her as she watched from a nearby hill. She again chose not to
accept the rational truth in favour of the irrational magic. That said her early work into cattle mutilations was
well done.
I agree with George Wingfield, that we expect a much higher standard from such prominent researchers as
Linda Moulton-Howe.
I am aware of several other important cases involving the UFO and crop circle subjects in which Linda Moulton
Howe has been informed of vital facts which she has chosen to ignore in favour of telling the stories as
pumped up inaccuracies, which is fine for show biz, and her regular radio programs but does nothing to
enhance the professionalism surrounding these subjects nor most importantly the truth.
Prof. A.J. Gevaerd, the well known and highly respected researcher from Brazil tried to tell her what he knew
about a hoaxed abduction claim in that country but she ignored his vital information (Open letter HERE).
I am also aware of several cases where those who have made certain crop circles and have admitted this to
her, one which she claims formed in front of her as she watched from a nearby hill. She again chose not to
accept the rational truth in favour of the irrational magic. That said her early work into cattle mutilations was
well done.
I agree with George Wingfield, that we expect a much higher standard from such prominent researchers as
Linda Moulton-Howe.
Two cases known to be hoaxes - 'Caret drone' UFO and Pi crop circle.