From: john@maserati.mentorg.com (John Magnon)
Subject: Cutler-Twining memo ala' Friedman
Date: 1 Apr 94 21:27:17 GMT
Organization: Mentor Graphic Corp.


Some corrections and elaborations to my earlier post on the
Twining memo.

I can't verify who found the memo.  My book (UFOs and the Alien
Presence: Six Viewpoints) just says "it was found".

Here is a quote:

FRIEDMAN: "...(lots of stuff about Menzel deleted)...

	"There is another piece of paper that's important here,
found at the National Archive in July of 1985, roughly six or
seven months after the original MJ-12 documents. It's the only 
one we have in hard copy.  The others are on film so you can't 
check the paper, the ink, a lot of things.  This new one was a
memo from Ike's national security adviser, Robert Cutler, to
General Nathan Twining, at the time Chief of Staff of the Air
Force.  The subject was the National Security Council MJ-12 
special studies project.  It tells Twining that the briefing is going
to take place during the already scheduled meeting rather than 
after it as originally planned.  "More precise arrangements will
be explained to you upon arrival....Your concurrence in the above
change of arrangements is assumed."Very brief. July 14,
1954.  Top Secret, Restricted Security Information.  Rather
unusual labeling.  It's not signed.  It doesn't have a little "s"
with a slash next to it either.
	"We've looked at the contents of the documents and 
whatever else we can determine about them.  In the case of the
Cutler-Twining memo, we have the original paper, so you can
see the watermark on the onion skin with the name of the
company that made the paper.  We contacted them to find out when 
they made this particular paper, and we were told between 1953 and 1973.
That's good, it covers our time period.
	"I was challenged by one of the noisy negativists that the
type in the Cutler-Twining memo was the large pica type, while
the tradition at the White House was the small elite type.  They
gave nine samples to prove that.  Phillip J. Klass, the
biggest debunker in town, challenged me to provide any genuine
memoranda or letter from the National Security Council files 
of that time, 1953 to '55, done in the same size and style of type
as the Cutler-Twining memo.  To encourage me to respond more 
quickly, he offered me one hundred dollars each, up to a
maximum of ten (unfortunately!), for any such genuine memos.
I provided him with a couple of dozen, and I got my thousand-
dollar check.  There's no question, in other words, that it was
typed with exactly the same type-face that's used in other memos 
from that place and time.  That doesn't prove it's genuine, but
it comes close.
	"I've also checked a lot of the internal information.  The MJ-
12 document names a thirteenth man, Walter Bedell Smith, to replace
Secretary of Defense James Forrestal, who apparently 
committed suicide in 1949. (The medical record is still classi-
fied, incidentally.)  Walter Bedell Smith was head of the CIA,
succeeding Admiral Roscoe Hillenkoetter, who's named as the
briefing officer for this November 18, 1952 Eisenhower briefing.
It says Walter Bedell Smith became a permanent member on August
1, 1950, which , as I found out after a lot of digging, was the only
date in the first ten months of that year that he met with
President Truman, a short meeting at the west door of the 
White House, rather than the usual place, subject not disclosed.
Now, how would anybody know that?  The date of the Truman-Forrestal
memo, September 24, 1947, was the only date when 
Dr. Vannevar Bush, who's named in that memo and named as 
part of MJ-12, met with Truman in the last eight months of 1947.
He was accompanied by James Forrestal, to whom the memo is
addressed, and they had met for half an hour prior to going
there.  The date on the memo, September 24, 1947, has a period
after it, which is very peculiar indeed, except that Vannevar 
Bush's office always put a period after the date.  I've checked
with a lot of people who think there's nothing strange at all
about Forrestal and Bush creating something for Truman's
signature.  So, there's a lot of this kind of detail.  Getting back
to General Twining for a minute: that strange sentence, "Your
concurrence in the above change of arrangements is assumed."
Earlier, in 1981, we had found two Top Secret memos in the Twining
papers at the Library of Congress manuscript division, one of which
had almost exactly the same language."

So there it is, more or less straight from the horse's mouth. Any
typos are mine of course.

At a lecture last year, Friedman stated for the record that he now
believes the MJ-12 documents to be authentic, at least as far as he
is able to without the original documents.  He has found no evidence
disproving anything about the documents and he found many details 
that can be supported and corroborrated (like meeting dates, similar
document formats, type faces, etc.).  If its a hoax by Shandera
and Moore, then its the most beautiful, impossible, complicated
hoax ever.

I find his argument convincing.  Don't throw a lot of questions my
way about this, I'm just quoting inteview text and reporting what
Friedman has said.

... John ;-)>