MUFON Director James Carrion Stepping Down

[aNorthernSoul]

From: http://www.theufochronicles.com

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

<!-- Begin .post --> BREAKING UFO NEWS:
MUFON Director James Carrion Stepping Down and New Replacement Has Been Chosen!


By James Carrion
MUFON
1-12-10



Effective March 1st, 2010, I am relinquishing my position as MUFON International Director to take on a different position within the organization. The reasons for my relinquishing the position are many but the overlying issue is that I simply no longer have the time to dedicate to the job. As a member of the “sandwich generation”: a single parent of a young child who must also deal with aging parents, my time has become very limited. In addition, I still actively manage a separate for-profit company which further limits my time. Finally, I am also doing time-consuming independent UFO research that focuses on the role of Government in the UFO field - a gold mind of information yet to be adequately explored.

It may come as a surprise to you, but my transitioning out of the International Director role has been two years in the making. In 2006, I committed to a three year term as the International Director until 2009, but when no suitable candidate was found, I agreed to stay on for one more year. In 2008, the MUFON Board of Directors approved the role of a MUFON Business Manager to separate the duties of leadership from those of running MUFON’s nonprofit business operations. I gave the board notice in December 2009, but I offered to stay on until the 2010 Symposium in July so a suitable candidate could be found. Fortunately, a candidate search was not necessary as one of the existing MUFON Board members offered to become the new International Director and was unanimously voted into office. I will be occupying the role of MUFON Business Manager which will be far less demanding of my time.

I am proud to announce that the new MUFON International Director is my long term good friend and colleague, Clifford Clift. Clifford will be featured in the MUFON Journal so that the MUFON membership can become acquainted with him and his professional background. I am completely confident that Clifford is the best man for the job and I know that MUFON could not be in better hands.

It has been my pleasure to serve MUFON as the International Director these last three years and I know that going forward, MUFON will still be on the cutting edge of UFO investigation.

If you would like to congratulate Cliff or introduce yourself to him, please direct all correspondence to [email protected].

If you want to keep up with my independent research, stay tuned to my personal blog at followthemagicthread.blogspot.com where I will continue my fight for the truth and exposing those who have no intention of revealing the truth.

And more from his blog: http://followthemagicthread.blogspot.com/

 

[Gareth]

Thats disappointing. He sounded great in the Paracast interview.

 

[Gene Steinberg]

Thats disappointing. He sounded great in the Paracast interview.

And it doesn't prevent us from having him on again. He's still active as an investigator and as an official in MUFON.

 

[Hoffmeister]

yup, he was one of my favourite guests too. these days when I think of mufon, my mind conjures images of people sitting round worshipping the space brothers. When I heard James it really shocked me how close he was to my way of thinking. One of the only guests where I havent disagreed with any of what they are saying.

 

[aNorthernSoul]

Sadly, we will have to prepare for the Romanek's of the world to try to insinuate this somehow validates their stories even though it is completely unrelated.

 

[Simonemendez]

I have been a subscribing member of MUFON on and off, for almost 3 decades. And so, the baton of leadership is passed, once again. I was extremely impressed with Carion on the Discovery Channel. Too bad, such a shortlived series.
Just in case anyones curious, I did artwork for the MUFON journal back in 1984. You can see it, by going over to TheBlackVault website, go into 'encyclopedia', and locate MUFON Journals for 1984. I'm not sure if my illustrations are in every issue of that year, but I randomly picked the early summer months, and found more than a few.

 

[Kieran]

I'm not sure, but I read somewhere or heard somewhere. That some people, are not happy with Carrion and the concern expressed was to do with his previous role with the military, intelligence I believe. My opinion. Don't know the man. But some people might find his opinions and what he said about the Roswell crash very curious. Since many people believe it was a crashing of ALIEN spacecraft. And Carrion differs. So a clash is unavoidable.

 

[Gareth]

And it doesn't prevent us from having him on again. He's still active as an investigator and as an official in MUFON.

Of course. I just meant that his plans for MUFON sounded really good. Hopefully his ideas will still be executed.

 

[dyingsun]

Let's hope his 'legacy' isn't lost... I like these 'Institutions' for reporting sightings, but I can see the probability for 'infighting' there..

 

[Schuyler]

I'm sorry to see him step down. He is such a breath of fresh air compared to what we usually see. I guess he's not completely gone, and I understand there's only so much energy to go around. Sounds like he's still pretty busy and the Business manager job isn't exactly trivial either.

 

[searcher]

Thats a shame I enjoyed the show when he was on. Speaking of MUFON I cames across this UFO Media Matters: Will Success Spoil MUFON? hardly puts MUFON in a good light

 

[Trajanus]

I'm not sure, but I read somewhere or heard somewhere. That some people, are not happy with Carrion and the concern expressed was to do with his previous role with the military, intelligence I believe. My opinion. Don't know the man. But some people might find his opinions and what he said about the Roswell crash very curious. Since many people believe it was a crashing of ALIEN spacecraft. And Carrion differs. So a clash is unavoidable.

This is interesting--someone with ties to military intelligence heading MUFON and opposing an alien interpretation of Roswell. Could be a mole put there to misdirect MUFON, lol. But you raise a very important point. Is a Roswell skeptic a good choice for MUFON director??? I'm aware of alternative viewpoints, and problems with witnesses, but, the same goes for the bulk of other cases. I mean, if you're gonna dismiss Roswell as something prosaic, you might as well dismiss all of UFOlogy.

 

[Kieran]

This is interesting--someone with ties to military intelligence heading MUFON and opposing an alien interpretation of Roswell. Could be a mole put there to misdirect MUFON, lol. But you raise a very important point. Is a Roswell skeptic a good choice for MUFON director??? I'm aware of alternative viewpoints, and problems with witnesses, but, the same goes for the bulk of other cases. I mean, if you're gonna dismiss Roswell as something prosaic, you might as well dismiss all of UFOlogy.

There is nothing to suggest that is the case. You can not falsely accuse someone of wrongdoing unless you have evidence. Carrion has a different view compared to others about Roswell. All well and good. Personally, I liked what he had to say. But either way one persons opinion. Is just that an opinion. Something unusual happened at Roswell in 1947. And that's my opinion.

 

[Trajanus]

There is nothing to suggest that is the case. You can not falsely accuse someone of wrongdoing unless you have evidence.

I know, I wasn't accusing him. I just thought it was suspicious. IIRC some government agent infiltrated NICAP some time ago, so it wouldn't be surprising.

 

[Kieran]

I know, I wasn't accusing him. I just thought it was suspicious. IIRC some government agent infiltrated NICAP some time ago, so it wouldn't be surprising.

I guess if you believe in conspiracies. It probably has been discussed as a possibility. But it's a Possibility. That has never been proven as a fact. We have to be careful. As this is a Deflamation of Carrion's character.

 

[Gene Steinberg]

I guess if you believe in conspiracies. It probably has been discussed as a possibility. But it's a Possibility. That has never been proven as a fact. We have to be careful. As this is a Deflamation of Carrion's character.

Remember that NICAP's board was riddled with former military figures, including a person who was once head of the CIA. So it's not as if the possibility should come as a surprise to anyone, although Major Donald Keyhoe, the group's Director who recruited all those people, had a good excuse. After all, the people who understand the possibility of UFO secrecy would best be able to combat it.

 

[Kieran]

Remember that NICAP's board was riddled with former military figures, including a person who was once head of the CIA. So it's not as if the possibility should come as a surprise to anyone, although Major Donald Keyhoe, the group's Director who recruited all those people, had a good excuse. After all, the people who understand the possibility of UFO secrecy would best be able to combat it.

Agree totally Gene.

 

[Trajanus]

Major Donald Keyhoe, the group's Director who recruited all those people, had a good excuse.

There was an allegation that Keyhoe himself was a government agent. Even Adamski was said to have a CIA handler.

 

[Trajanus]

I guess if you believe in conspiracies. It probably has been discussed as a possibility. But it's a Possibility. That has never been proven as a fact. We have to be careful.

Right, we shouldn't make accusations without good evidence. But we should also be alert to possible infiltration, and investigate further.

 

[Schuyler]

Remember that NICAP's board was riddled with former military figures, including a person who was once head of the CIA. So it's not as if the possibility should come as a surprise to anyone, although Major Donald Keyhoe, the group's Director who recruited all those people, had a good excuse. After all, the people who understand the possibility of UFO secrecy would best be able to combat it.

That's one of Dolan's major theses, but remember that people like Don Ecker and Richard Hall dispute that quite vehemently. Ecker discussed this very issue on an episode of The Paracast. Hall tackled this specific issue in his review of Dolan's first book in: <link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CMichael%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <wunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <wontGrowAutofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]-->International UFO Reporter, Vol. 26:1, Spring, 2001, pp.13-16. This, unfortunately, is not on-line, but is available from IUR. In it, Hall says:

Having been intimately involved in both NICAP and the Colorado UFO Project, I read the chapters about them with great interest. Unfortunately, the author makes several errors in the primary chapter about NICAP (pp. 270-346) and his interpretation of NICAP history is seriously flawed. He open his reporting about NICAP (p. 269) by asserting that the leaders of this new group were unaware that “the CIA was already on board.” Then he describes two former CIA people who were among the Washington, D.C., area doctors, lawyers, scientists, and other professionals who originally organized NICAP, and states (p. 270) that they “covertly influenced the organization throughout its existence.”

This is simply not true. The two gentlemen named were associated with NICAP only for a few months during its organizational period, and never at all when it became operational. By the time Donald Keyhoe took over early in 1957, they were long gone and never heard from again. Their influence therefore, was nonexistent. As of 1957, the NICAP board contained a few military officers, clergymen, and other solid citizens who had no CIA ties whatsoever.

What happened in the declining years of NICAP after publication of the Condon report is another story, when various CIA-connected people were involved (though the charge that Stewart Nixon was one of them is without any factual support that I am aware of). The author here suggests that NICAP’s demise may have been “assisted suicide,” and that is at least a plausible interpretation of the events at that time. However, from 1958 through 1970 I was at the center of NICAP affairs and can emphatically state that there was no CIA (or any other intelligence agency) influence on NICAP during those years.

Both Adm. Hillenkoetter, whose CIA connection was well known and an asset to the organization, and Col. Bryan, whose CIA background was not known at the time, openly supported our goals and expressed a belief in the extraterrestrial origin of UFOs. More importantly for the author’s interpretation, both men were remote from the office and had no influence whatsoever on the day-to-day operations of NICAP.

Of course, Dolan says Hall is wrong, yet he cites Hall over 200 times between his two books, which is over 10% of ALL his citations. I think Hall at least deserves a hearing on this issue, and that it override (at least for me) this vague meme that "The CIA killed NICAP" which folks recall without remembering exactly where they heard it or what evidence there actually is to support it.

What I find kind of frustrating is people claiming people have "ties to the CIA" on the flimsiest of grounds, then asserting anything they do in their entire lives thereafter is suspect because. of course, they must be a mole and still on the CIA payroll, even though their association with the CIA in the first place is based on the vaguest speculation.<link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CMichael%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com<img src=" images="" smilies="" redface.gif="" border="0" alt="" title="Embarrassment" smilieid="2" class="inlineimg"></o:smarttagtype> You could, if you researched it well enough, claim that I, myself, have "ties" to the intelligence community--and more than one! They also are stronger and could be better documented than Carrion's supposed "ties" by virtue of the fact he was enlisted in the armed forces.

Just based on my statement alone you can now assert I am a CIA mole bent on the destruction of any serious UFO research and that I still have CIA connections. Please don't let abject speculation get in the way of facts. It's much more fun to pretend otherwise.