Majestic 12

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This article is about the purported secret committee called 'Majestic 12'. For o
ther uses, see Majestic 12 (disambiguation).
In UFO conspiracy theories, Majestic 12 (or MJ-12) is the code name of an allege
d secret committee of scientists, military leaders, and government officials, fo
rmed in 1947 by an executive order by U.S. President Harry S. Truman to facilita
te recovery and investigation of alien spacecraft. The concept originated in a s
eries of supposedly leaked secret government documents first circulated by ufolo
gists in 1984. Upon examination, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) decla
red the documents to be "completely bogus", and many ufologists consider them to
be an elaborate hoax.[1][2] Majestic 12 remains popular among some UFO conspira
cy theorists and the concept has appeared in popular culture including televisio
n, film and literature.
Contents [hide]
1
Origin
2
Alleged members
3
Popular culture
4
References
5
Further reading
6
External links
Origin[edit]
The concept of "Majestic Twelve" emerged during a period in the 1980s when ufolo
gists believed there had been a cover-up of the Roswell UFO incident and specula
ted some secretive upper tier of the United States government was responsible.[3
] Their suppositions appeared to be confirmed in 1984 when ufologist Jaime Shand
era received an envelope containing film which, when developed, showed images of
eight pages of documents that appeared to be briefing papers describing "Operat
ion Majestic Twelve".[3] The documents purported to reveal a secret committee of
twelve, supposedly authorized by United States President Harry S. Truman in 195
2, and explain how the crash of an alien spacecraft at Roswell in 1947 had been
concealed, how the recovered alien technology could be exploited, and how the Un
ited States should engage with extraterrestrial life in the future.[3][4]
Shandera and his ufologist colleagues Stanton T. Friedman and Bill Moore say the
y later received a series of anonymous messages that led them to find what has b
een called the "Cutler/Twining memo" in 1985 while searching declassified files
in the National Archives. Purporting to be written by General Nathan F. Twining
to President Eisenhower's assistant Robert Cutler and containing a reference to
Majestic 12, the memo is widely held to be a forgery, likely planted as part of
a hoax.[5] Historian Robert Goldberg wrote that the ufologists came to believe t
he story despite the documents being "obviously planted to bolster the legitimac
y of the briefing papers".[3]
Claiming to be connected to the United States Air Force Office of Special Invest
igations, a man named Richard Doty told filmmaker Linda Moulton Howe that the MJ
-12 story was true, and showed Howe unspecified documents purporting to prove th
e existence of small, grey humanoid aliens originating from the Zeta Reticuli st
ar system. Doty reportedly promised to supply Howe with film footage of UFOs and
an interview with an alien being, although no footage ever materialized.[3]
Soon, distrust and suspicion led to disagreements within the ufology community o
ver the authenticity of the MJ-12 documents, and Moore was accused of taking par
t in an elaborate hoax, while other ufologists and debunkers such as Philip J. K
lass were accused of being "disinformation agents".[4]
The FBI began its own investigation of the supposed "secret" documents and quick
ly formed doubts as to their authenticity. The United States Air Force Office of
Special Investigations stated that no such committee had ever been authorized o

r formed, and that the documents were bogus. The FBI subsequently declared the MJ12 documents to be "completely bogus. [2]
Later in 1996, a document called the MJ-12 "Special Operations Manual" circulate
d among ufologists. It is also widely considered to be a fake and "a continuatio
n of the MJ-12 myth".[6]
Ufologists Linda Moulton Howe and Stanton T. Friedman believe the MJ12 Documents
are authentic. Friedman examined the documents and has argued that the United S
tates government has conspired to cover up knowledge of a crashed extraterrestri
al spacecraft.[3]
According
n the UFO
n 1982 to
Pratt had

to journalist Howard Blum the name "Majestic 12" had been prefigured i
community when Bill Moore asked National Enquirer reporter Bob Pratt i
collaborate on a novel called MAJIK-12. Because of this, Blum writes,
always been inclined to think the Majestic 12 documents a hoax.[7]

Alleged members[edit]
The following individuals were described in the Majestic 12 documents as "design
ated members" of Majestic 12.[5]
Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter
Vannevar Bush
James Forrestal
Nathan F. Twining
Hoyt Vandenberg
Detlev Bronk
Jerome Clarke Hunsaker
Sidney Souers
Gordon Gray
Donald H. Menzel
Robert M. Montague
Lloyd Berkner
Popular culture[edit]
The Majestic 12 stories inspired the television series Dark Skies[8] and have ap
peared as a plot element in The X-Files,[9] as well as in the Electronic Arts AR
G 'Majestic'.
The 2005 video game Destroy All Humans! has the protagonist, an alien landed in
1950s rural America, fighting agents of "Majestic".
Alien abduction claimant Whitley Strieber wrote a novel called Majestic in 1989
that focused on the origins of MJ-12.[10]
MJ-12 is featured heavily in the Eidos Interactive game Deus Ex, released on PC
and Macintosh in 2000. The game was later released on the PlayStation 2, and aga
in on the PlayStation 3.
In the comic book series Atomic Robo, Majestic 12 is a top secret government age
ncy tasked with weaponizing so-called "Tesla-tech" uncovered by the FBI in the w
ake of Nikola Tesla's mysterious death. Founded by President Truman, under the a
dvice of Secretary of Defense Forrestal in 1947, Majestic 12 becomes Task Force
ULTRA after the events of Atomic Robo and the Savage Sword of Dr. Dinosaur.