UFO debunker, aviation journalist Klass dies at 85

Daily Herald & Washington Post ^ | August 12, 2005 | Claudia Levy THE WASHINGTON POST

[Rockingham]

That is a fair reading of Klass, but he still served an important role: directly as a skeptic keeping UFOlogy from going off the rails, and indirectly, in endorsing the UFO subject as worthy of serious attention and inquiry.

As it is, Klass's long-running debate and lost bet with Stan Friedman over the validity of the MJ-12 documents does much to support their validity or -- at least as I am inclined to believe -- suggests that they were a sophisticated hoax, probably by US intelligence to entrap the Soviets.

A friend of mine with years of service in intelligence and with high level contacts has told me that many Pentagon and intelligence community scientists are privately UFO believers and that high level people who seem to know more evade serious discussion of the subject. I sometimes wonder if Klass knew more than he ever acknowledged.