Philip J. Klass

From The Book of THoTH (Leaves of Wisdom)

This article is about Philip Julian Klass, the UFO researcher. For the science fiction author Philip Klass (1920), please see his pseudonym William Tenn.

Philip Julian Klass (November 8 1919–August 9 2005) was born in Des Moines, Iowa and died in Merritt Island, Florida. He was an electrical engineer by training, and also a journalist, but he is probably best known as a leading debunker of UFOs, arguing especially against the extraterrestrial hypothesis.

In the ufological and skeptical communities, Klass tends to inspire strongly polarized appraisals. Klass has been called the "Sherlock Holmes of UFOlogy" by supporters. And in a 1999 interview, fellow debunker Gary Posner wrote that despite some recent health problems, the 80 year-old "Klass's mind -- and pen -- remain razor sharp, to the delight of his grateful followers and to the constant vexation (or worse) of his legions of detractors." [1]

However, Klass' critics have accused him of pathological skepticism, and of using pseudoscience explanations and unfair propaganda techniques to advance his anti-UFO arguments. He has also been accused of being vindictive and resorting to character assassination and other "dirty tricks" against UFO witnesses, opposing UFO researchers, and even some fellow skeptics critical of him. A notable example were his attacks on atmospheric physicist Dr. James E. McDonald after McDonald had demolished Klass' ball lightning theory for UFOs as scientifically invalid. (detailed below)

Contents

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Biography

Klass graduated from Iowa State University in 1941, with a BS in electrical engineering. He worked for General Electric for ten years as an engineer in aviation electronics. In 1952 he joined Aviation Week, which later became Aviation Week & Space Technology. He was a senior editor of Aviation Week & Space Technology for thirty-four years.

In 1973 Klass was named a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, recognized for his technical writing. He was also a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Aviation/Space Writers Association, the National Press Club, and the National Aviation Club. Asteroid 7277 (1983 RM2) was named "Klass" after him.

Retiring in 1986 as senior avionics editor of Aviation Week & Space Technology, he continued to contribute to the magazine for several more years. His book, "Secret Sentries in Space" (1971), was one of the first books about spy satellite technology.

He is credited with coining the term "avionics," a blending of aviation and electronics.

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UFO Researcher and Skeptic

Klass was a founding fellow of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP). He is best known for his skeptical investigations of reports of UFOs. He published the bimonthly Skeptics UFO Newsletter for several years and wrote several books on the subject (see below).

In his first book, UFO's: Identified, Klass argued that UFO reports were best explained as a previously unknown type of ball lightning. Though initially speculative and provisional, Klass thought that plasma was consistent with many UFO reports: bright lights moving erratically. A highly charged plasma might further explain the reported effects of UFOs on the electrical systems of airplanes and automobiles.

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Criticism of Klass

Klass's plasma conclusion met with considerable incredulity, even from some pronounced UFO skeptics; Klass was essentially invoking one mystery to explain another. Even the Condon Committee, led by the UFO debunking Edward Condon, rejected Klass's theory after assembling a panel of plasma physicists who demonstrated that Klass was out of his depth. (Clark, 369) Psychologist David Saunders (a Condon Committee investigator), described UFOs: Identified as "the most presumptuous book in the history of ufology".

Atmospheric physicist James E. McDonald offered a detailed rebuttal of Klass' plasma hypothesis. In part, McDonald wrote:

"My most basic objection to his plasma-UFO theory is that he does not confront the fact that the interesting UFO reports do not involve hazy, glowing, amorphous masses, but reportedly sharp-edged objects often exhibiting discernible structural details, carry discrete lights or port-like apertures, and maneuver for time-periods and in kinematical patterns that are extremely difficult to square with his plasma-UFO hypothesis. It also fails to deal quantitatively with parts of the argument that are, in terms of existing scientific knowledge, amenable to quantitative analysis." [2]

Klass and McDonald engaged in an often savagely adversarial relationship. Tom McIver (a self-described "fellow skeptic") wrote that shortly after McDonald criticized Klass's plasma theory, "Klass accused McDonald of misusing public funds, resulting in a traumatic government investigation and audit (in which he was cleared, though he committed suicide not long afterwards)." McIver article, External links

According to Jerome Clark (a UFO researcher and vice president of the Center for UFO Studies), "Klass's campaign continued in one form or another for some 18 months, though after an audit of his work ONR noted that it was aware of McDonald's UFO work and no objections to it. Nonetheless, McDonald lost ONR support for future contracts, apparently because ONR feared that Klass would write an article on the episode for the powerful Aviation Week." (Clark, 370)

Another example of an attack on a well-known Ufologists was detailed in a 1975 FBI memo. Klass called the Editor of the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin to complain about an article by Dr. J. Allen Hynek that appeared in the February, 1975 issue. According to the memo, Klass "derided" the decision to publish the article and called Hynek a "fraud". The memo said they responded to Klass with a positive assessment of Hynek: "All of his writings and public statements that were examined prior to the publication of his article in the Bulletin disclose a meticulously objective and scientific view of the UFO phenomenon." When Klass was informed of the FBI’s positive view, especially that he was affiliated with a leading university (Northwestern), the memo says that Klass replied, "He won’t be for long!" The memo concluded with a negative assessment of Klass: "In view of Klass’s intemperate criticism and often irrational statements he made to support it, we should be most circumspect in any future contacts with him." External links

Klass has often been accused of using unfair, baseless "dirty tricks" in efforts to discredit UFO researchers with whom he disagrees. For example, Jerome Clark writes:

"To destroy the UFO 'problem' Klass concluded that ufologists should be the target as much as the UFOs themselves. If the ufologists could be publicly shamed or embarrassed on any grounds (not just professional but personal as well), who would take their pronouncements about UFOs seriously?"

Similarly Tom McIver writes that many of Klass's opponents:

"have been subjected to ... smear treatment. Richard Kammann was a CSICOP Fellow who quit in disgust, appalled in particular at Klass's response to a once-loyal CSICOPer who dared to criticize the botched statistical methods of a CSICOP investigation. Klass's published response to this critic, said Kammann, contained 'so many smokescreens, red herrings, non sequiturs, quotes out of context, and misstatements' that it constituted 'intellectual fraud' if not outright cover-up. Not only did it ignore all the substantive points of the criticism, it was 'one huge ad hominem attack.' Klass 'ignored practically every specific point that [the critic] Rawlins had made. Instead [he] offered blatant ad hominem attack on Rawlins' motives and personality, bolstered with rhetorical ploys--including crude misquotation.' Describing his own attempts to reason with Klass, Kammann says: 'The Klass letter started a long and exasperating exchange in which he talked about everything but the statistical errors [the focus of the criticism] and the real cover-up. He kept me busy for a while answering irrelevant questions, while periodically attacking my objectivity, intelligence or integrity. From time to time, he threatened to expose my cover-up of scientific evidence he imagined he had uncovered [and] regularly ignored all my serious answers and questions...'" (quote source,Rawlins detailed article of what happened)

About Klass' tactics, McIver commented:

"Kammann's description exactly described Klass's response to me, and I learned it was his standard way of dealing with critics and opponents. Like a sleazy trial lawyer he assaults defendants or witnesses with a nonstop barrage of relentless, inquisitorial demands, fishing for inconsistencies or dirt, and seeking to break, exhaust, and discredit them in any way possible... Klass's general strategy, besides going on an all-out offensive with ad hominem smears, is to mire opponents in interminable debate, challenging every point and demanding proof for every statement (even all the ones he knows to be true), hoping to frustrate and exhaust opponents with busy work, while himself simply ignoring inconvenient questions raised by his opponents. If any of his challenges are left unanswered, he claims victory. All responses that are made are then further challenged in an endless series, with Klass trying to lure his opponent into answering so many challenges that their responses will contain some detail that Klass can then jump on (by quoting selectively and usually out of context) as a claimed inconsistency or error." [3]

McIver also wrote about Klass' personal attacks on him, after McIver had compiled evidence of financial fraud against a fellow CSICOP's member:

"...he launched a smear campaign against me, seeking to destroy my credibility, describing me as a 'Hopeless Kook,' 'obstinate crank,' 'crackpot,' 'one of the dumbest adults alive,' and 'Venomous Pipsqueak' who makes 'wild, baseless claims,' 'completely spurious allegations' and 'Flat-out Lies' he 'knows to be false'."

McIver added that Klass put out a lengthy series of flyers labeled the "McIver Forked Tongue" series. [4]

Another example of such smear tactics has recently come to light, in a letter found by historian Rich Dolan in the Canadian national archives. When Klass discovered that UFO researcher Stanton T. Friedman, a former nuclear physicist, was emigrating to Canada with his family, Klass in 1980 wrote a letter to the Canadian National Research Council, who were supposed to investigate Canadian UFO reports. The letter disparaged Friedman’s professional credentials as a nuclear physicist, twice said he had a "mountainous ego," called him "something of an outcast" within the UFO "movement," and that he was a "full-time UFO lecturer (of the 'snake-oil salesman' variety)" whose lectures were "filled with half-truths and falsehoods." Klass requested his letter be secrety distributed to other Research Council members and kept concealed from Friedman. letter

In 1983, Klass suggested that, as Clark writes, "that UFO cover-up proponents were serving the ends of Soviet foreign policy." Clark notes that this was a "new wrinkle" "in an unending stream of vitriol from the mouths and keyboards of CSICOP's bombast artists. After all, Klass and his CSICOP colleagues had already characterized us ufologists as antiscience cultists, cryptofascists, mental cases, money-grubbing exploiters, and raving irrationalists, and CSICOP chairman Paul Kurtz had repeatedly assured the press that societal acceptance of anomalies and the paranormal threatens the fabric of civilization." [5] (Interestingly, Timothy Good's Above Top Secret notes that Klass has been accused, by sources Good deemed credible, of being a "CIA asset", perhaps following the Robertson Panel's directives to debunk UFOs.)

However, Klass's defenders have questioned Clark's objectivity in assessing Klass, beyond their normal differences of opinion regarding UFOs. The men have butted heads on several occasions; in 1984, a series of friendly letters turned sour when Clark thought that one of Klass's jokes was a "death threat". Clark has also been accused of ignoring Klass's explanation on at least one occasion despite the fact that it was endorsed by the participants in the UFO case. Peter Brooksmith writes: "I've long found it interesting too that in his treatment of the RB-47 case in his UFO 'Encyclopedia', which is so admirable in so many other ways, Jerome dismisses Klass's interpretation of the data as a series of unlikely coincidences. But he doesn't mention that Klass presented that interpretation to the RB-47 crew, who agreed that the 'UFOs' were the product of human error & excitement combined with ghost echoes on the radar. This is a key item in Klass's analysis. Surely it was not just dislike for the man that led Jerome to omit it?" [6])

Critics, however, point out that Klass's explanation for the RB-47 case was thoroughly demolished by researcher Brad Sparks, who found, among other things, that Klass had the RB-47 plane sometimes moving at impossible supersonic speeds in order to get portions of his explanation to work. Sparks also disproved the keystone of Klass's thesis, that the RB-47 microwave sensors were miscalibrated because of equipment malfunction. Thus, it is argued, it doesn't really matter if the participants endorsed Klass's explanation or not, since it was bogus.

Questioning the accuracy of the above claims by critics about Klass's character, defenders like to point to instances where Klass behaved in a civil, reasonable manner when debating UFO research. An example given was a 1976 letter to Gordon Thayer (a Condon Report investigator), Klass wrote of his and Thayer's disagreements "there are several more basic issues. For these, I want to give you the maximum possible time to do your 'homework' to dig out the strongest possible supportive evidence for your viewpoint. Thus I shall raise them now to provide you at least three months time to find/locate supportive evidence (if same can be found)." [7]

Ufologist William Moore "eulogized" Klass this way: [8]

The world is better off without him. My sainted grandmother told me not to say anything about the dead unless I could say something good. He's dead. Good.
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The UFO curse

THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF PHILIP J. KLASS
To ufologists who publicly criticize me, ... or who even think unkind thoughts about me in private, I do hereby leave and bequeath:
THE UFO CURSE:
No matter how long you live, you will never know any more about UFOs than you know today. You will never know any more about what UFOs really are, or where they come from. You will never know any more about what the U.S. Government really knows about UFOs that you know today. As you lie on your own death-bed you will be as mystified about UFOs as you are today. And you will remember this curse.

This was originally published in Saucer Smear, October 10, 1983 (Moseley and Pflock 2002:323-24).

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Quote about Klass

  • Klass was the voice of cool reason, seeking to demonstrate that a temporary inability to fill in the whole story should not open the door to wild speculation. His real argument, like all debunkers', was not with the people who believed that they had witnessed or experienced some paranormal event but with those who made an industry of igniting their imaginations. - Michael Sokolove, "The Debunkers", The New York Times Magazine, December 35, 2005, page 58.
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See also

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Books and articles

Books:

Articles:

  • Plasma Theory May Explain Many UFOs, Aviation Week & Space Technology, August 22, 1966.
  • A Field Guide to UFOs, Astronomy, September 1997, pg. 30-35.
  • N-Rays and UFOs: Are They Related;, Skeptical Inquirer, 2(1)57-61
  • NASA, the White House, and UFOs, Skeptical Inquirer, 2(2)72-81
  • UFOs, the CIA, and the New York Times, Skeptical Inquirer, 4(3)2-5
  • UFO Federation Falls on Hard Times, Skeptical Inquirer, 9(4)314-316
  • The "Top-Secret UFO Papers" NSA Won't Release, Skeptical Inquirer, vol. 10, reprinted in The UFO Invasion
  • Crash of the Crashed Saucer Claim, Skeptical Inquirer, vol. 10, reprinted in The UFO Invasion
  • A Hoax UFO Document, Skeptical Inquirer, l0(3) 238-239.
  • The Condon UFO Study, Skeptical Inquirer, l0(4) 328-341, reprinted in The UFO Invasion
  • FAA Data Sheds New Light on JAL Pilot's Report, Skeptical Inquirer, vol 11, reprinted in The UFO Invasion
  • The MJ-12 Crashed Saucer Documents, Skeptical Inquirer, vol. 12, reprinted in The UFO Invasion
  • The MJ-12 Papers "Authenticated"?, Skeptical Inquirer, vol. 13, reprinted in The UFO Invasion
  • New Evidence of MJ-12 Hoax, Skeptical Inquirer, 14(2)135-140, reprinted in The UFO Invasion
  • Additional Comments about the "Unusual Personal Experiences Survey", Skeptical Inquirer, vol. 17, reprinted in The UFO Invasion
  • Time Challenges John Mack's UFO Abduction Efforts, Skeptical Inquirer, vol. 12, reprinted in The UFO Invasion
  • The GAO Roswell Report and Congressman Schiff, Skeptical Inquirer, vol. 18, reprinted in The UFO Invasion
  • That's Entertainment! TV's UFO Coverup, Skeptical Inquirer, vol 20, reprinted in The UFO Invasion

Note - reprinted in The UFO Invasion, edited by Kendrick Frazier, Barry Karr, and Joe Nickell, Prometheus Books, ISBN 1-57392-131-9.

(There are several other articles.)

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Sources

  • Jerome Clark, The UFO Book: Encyclopedia of the Extraterrestrial, 1998, Visible Ink Press, ISBN 1-57859-029-9.
  • Timothy Good; Above Top Secret: Morrow William Company, 1988; ISBN 0688078605
  • David R. Saunders and R. Roger Harkins; UFO’s? Yes! Where the Condon Committee Went Wrong; World Publishing, 1969
  • James W. Moseley and Karl T. Pflock. (2002). Shockingly Close to the Truth!: Confessions of a Grave-Robbing Ufologist, Prometheus Books, ISBN 1-57392-991-3.
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External links

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