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Phil Klass - A Spy for the FBI?

When Phil Klass died in 2005, more than a few

people said words to the effect of: Now that hesdead well be able to check his files and find out ifhe was working for the government.

The FBI subsequently released its files on Klass. Afew pages were withheld in the interests of nationalsecurity, which probably has nothing to do withUFOs and everything to do with some of thematerial about which Klass wrote, and was lookedinto for national security violations for having doneso, as well as redacted information within thereleased files, most of which seems to relate topersonal information, or sources and methods.

So was Klass an agent of the FBI?

Hardly.

The materials in the FBI files show that the FBI thought Klass was a pest, andthat they didnt have a great deal of respect for him or his opinions.

For example, a memo dated 21 February 1975 reveals that on the 18th ofFebruary, 1975, Klass called the Editor of the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin tocomplain about an article by famed ufologist Dr. J. Allen Hynek, The UFOMystery, which has appeared in the February, 1975 issue. According to thememo, Klass derided the decision to publish the article, suggested that bydoing so the FBI had given its endorsement to a hoax (that UFOs are extra-terrestrial in origin), and called Hynek a fraud. Klass then stated that he hadinvestigated UFO sightings with the thoroughness of the FBI over a period ofmany years (a statement which must have amused the FBI), and had not foundone shred of evidence that they were from beyond earths atmosphere.

When Klass was informed of the FBIs positive view of Dr. Hynek, especially thathe was affiliated with a leading university (Northwestern), Klass replied, Hewont be for long!

This didnt affect the FBIs assessment of Dr. Hynek, as is clear from the memo:All of his writings and public statements that were examined prior to the

http://redstarfilms.blogspot.com/2006/02/phil-klass-spy-for-fbi.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_J._Klasshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_J._Klasshttp://redstarfilms.blogspot.com/2006/02/phil-klass-spy-for-fbi.html

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publication of his article in the Bulletin disclose a meticulously objective andscientific view of the UFO phenomenon.

In other words, the exact opposite of the FBIs view of Klass. The memoconcludes by stating that, In view of Klasss intemperate criticism and often

irrational statements he made to support it, we should be most circumspect inany future contacts with him.

This was a remark that followed Klass from that point on whenever he dealt withthe FBI, often being referred to in later memos. For example, when Klass wrotetwo letters in 1987, the first to question whether the FBI employed psychics, andthe second to complain about a psychic being brought in to lecture to students atthe FBI Academy, the memo attached to the letters and the FBIs responsesincludes the reminder that the 1975 memo had stated in view of Klassintemperate criticism and often irrational statements it was recommended that

the Bureau be most circumspect in any future contacts with him.

Undeterred, Klass followed up on 14 June, 1975,with a letter to FBI DirectorClarence Kelley (pictured,at left) in which he wrote:

The enclosed photo-copy of a headline and featurestory in a recent issue of the tabloid The NationalTattleris a portent of the sort of FBI endorsementfor the flying-saucer myth that you can expect to see,

repeatedly, as a result of the article on UFOs carriedby the February issue of the Law Enforcement

Bulletin. That article was written by Dr. J. Allen Hynek, the spiritual leader of thevocal group of believers and kooks who claim that we are being visited byextraterrestrial spaceships. While the FBI did not endorse Hyneks views per se,the decision to publish his article and to alert law enforcement agencies as towhat to do if they land, has embroiled the agency for all time.

Klass continued:

The Hynek article published by the FBI encourages law enforcement officers totake the time from much more pressing duties to take calls from people whoreport seeing UFOs and to in turn relay such calls to Hyneks own UFO group.Surely in these times law enforcement officers have more useful things to occupytheir time and attention.

At the end of the letter, Klass offered to write an article for the Law EnforcementBulletin that would present the other side of the UFO issue.

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Kelleys response was contained in a letter he wrote dated 23 June, 1975:

Quite contrary to the news clipping you enclosed, Dr. Hyneks article has beenaccurately and rationally reported by the media throughout the country. None of

the responsible media, to my knowledge, have ignored the clearly stated themeof the article: [r]egardless of the source of UFOs or their legitimacy, thesesightings represented a real problem for law enforcement to whom personsnormally first report their observations. This is the only premise the FBI hasendorsed in publishing the article. I could not agree more with your implicationthat law enforcement personnel should look after their primary responsibility crime, not UFOs. This is precisely the reason we believe the Center for UFOStudies can help free law enforcement personnel from investigating and reportingon phenomena unassociated with crime.

Fairly kind words re: CUFOS from the FBI, and certainly not the disparagementof the UFO phenomenon for which Klass was no doubt hoping (Kelley politelydeclined Klasss offer to write an article in response to Hyneks).

Privately, FBI officials were scathing about Klass. Attached to the Kelley letter isa memo that states:

Klass is well known to us [He] is deficient in all points of his argument,particularly concerning the credentials of Dr. Hynek which would scarcely bebetter. Hynek has been associated professorially with some of the finest

universities in this country and is recognized in the most prestigious scientificcircles. On the otherhand, Klass has no such sterling reputation and has twicebeen under FBI investigation in connection with the unauthorized publication ofclassified information. Both of these cases have been closed.

This latter point, about Klass publishing classified materials without authorization,is ironic, given his role in the MJ-12 circus. Other memos in the file reveal thatthe only reason Klass wasnt prosecuted is that the classified information he hadused could not be declassified for the purposes of prosecution (Memo, 11 May,1976).

Lucky for Klass.

What can be gleaned from these files is a portrait of a man who was neitherrespected nor liked by the FBI, who was in fact seen as an accusatory andargumentative trouble-maker, and who could not be trusted, given both hisprevious publishing of classified material and his intemperate criticism andirrational statements (i.e. he was a loose cannon).

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In the vernacular?

He could be a mean-spirited pain in the ass no surprise there to manyufologists but he was also about as far from being an FBI agent as you could

get.

Paul Kimball