Majestic 12 - Initial Discoveries

Initial Discoveries

In 1978, Canadian researcher Arthur Bray uncovered previously classified Canadian UFO documents naming Dr. Vannevar Bush as heading a highly secret UFO investigation group within the U.S. Research and Development Board. No name for the group was given. Bray published excerpts of the documents in his 1979 book, The U.F.O. Connection. The author of the documents, Wilbert Smith, was a UFOlogist working in the Canadian Department of Transport who is not known to have had any security clearance, and the skeptical researcher Christopher D. Allan concludes that there is no way any such group headed by Bush could have come to his knowledge. On the contrary, Smith's claims could have instigated the MJ-12 hoax.

The earliest appearance of the term "MJ Twelve" was a message of unclear origin dated November 17, 1980. This so-called "Project Aquarius" Teletype message had been given to Albuquerque physicist and businessman Paul Bennewitz in November, 1980, by U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations counterintelligence officer Richard C. Doty. Bennewitz had photographed and recorded electronic data of what he believed to be UFO activity over nearby Kirtland AFB, a sensitive nuclear facility. Bennewitz reported his findings to officials at Kirtland, including Doty. In 1989, the UFOlogist Bill Moore claimed that the documents were actually a hoax created by Doty as part of an attempt to drive Bennewitz insane. One sentence in the lengthy Teletype message read, "The official US Government policy and results of Project Aquarius is still classified TOP SECRET with no dissemination outside channels and with access restricted to 'MJ TWELVE.'"

In 1983, Doty also contacted UFO researcher and journalist Linda Moulton Howe, revealing alleged high-level UFO documents, including those describing crashed alien flying saucers and recovery of aliens. Doty again mentioned MJ-12, explaining that “MJ” stood for “Majority” (not “Majestic”).

Because the entire MJ-12 affair made its first appearance only a year after Bray had made public the incriminating Canadian documents about the secret UFO committee, one theory is that the Project Aquarius Teletype message was part of a counterintelligence hoax to discredit the information in the just-revealed Canadian documents. Thus the various MJ-12 documents could be fake, but the secret committee described in the verified Canadian documents could still have been real. (See Arguments for below)