|
LTC Philip Corso:
Dingbat Extraordinairé
Introduction
One of the heroes of the MIA cult is the late retired Army Lieutenant Colonel Philip Corso. Corso surfaced from time to time in Congressional hearings and other venues claiming that he had been a special staff officer for Eisenhower and, in that capacity, he briefed Ike on intelligence reporting that proved that US POWs from Korea were being taken to the USSR. I will not go into the details here -- anyone who wishes can search the web for his name and find many MIA sites that celebrate Corso's stories.
Corso's claims regarding POWs taken to the USSR are nonsense. The few intelligence reports that he cites were preliminary reports that, under scrutiny, turn out not to be related to US POWs being moved from Korea to the USSR.
Instead of Corso's tales about US POWs, I would like to focus on his stories about UFOs. That's right -- UFOs. You know -- space aliens, flying saucers, "ET call home," and similar crap. After reviewing Corso and his relationship with little green men, I believe that you will be better able to judge his claims regarding US POWs.
Roswell
Before going any further, you need to know that the UFO cultists put a lot of credibility into a tale that a UFO crashed in the New Mexico desert in 1947. It makes my head hurt to think about this foolishness; if you want to know more, search the WWW for "Roswell." Get ready for multiple doses of weirdness when you do. The fact is that something really did crash there. Instead of a cruise liner of Martians, however, it was a piece of a secret Air Force project that launched balloons into the high atmosphere to pick up evidence of Soviet nuclear testing.
Enter Corso
My favorite bit of Corso-ology deals with his book The Day After Roswell, published in 1996. A brief review of the book would go something like this: Corso claims that he headed the Pentagon's foreign technology desk in the early sixties, served on President Dwight D. Eisenhower's National Security Council and was a member of the Warren Commission, set up to investigate the assassination of President John .F. Kennedy.
With those credentials in hand, Corso blows the lid off of the Roswell controversy. This is what Corso claims: An extraterrestrial craft crashed in Roswell, bodies were recovered, one was mortally wounded but still alive, only to die soon after. Corso, backed by documents and detail, claims that the technology we gleaned from the crash led to the development of -- get this -- the laser, fiber optics, silicon chips, kevlar, and particle beam weaponry -- and that's just the beginning.
From the Book Itself
The following is a quote from the dust jacket of Corso's book.
With unprecedented detail, Corso divulges how he spearheaded the Army's reverse-engineering project that "seeded" alien technology at American companies such as IBM, Hughes Aircraft, Bell Labs, and Dow Coming-without their knowledge. He describes the devices found aboard the Roswell craft, and how they were the precursors for today's integrated circuit chips, fiber optics, losers, and super-tenacity fibers. He also discusses the role alien technology played in shaping geopolitical policy and events: how it helped the United States surpass the Russians in space; spurred elaborate Army initiatives such as SDI, Horizon and HARP; and ultimately brought about the end of the Cold War.
This book also reveals the fact that Corso had gone well around the bend. His POW revelations are as credible as his Roswell tales. Corso died in July 1998. His mind had checked out long before.
A Close Look
Let's take a close look at Corso's claims as put forth in The Day After Roswell.
Senator Thurmond Discovers the Truth
Please note that the book cited here and thus the page references, are from the edition of the book without the now withdrawn foreword by Senator Strom Thurmond. Thurmond originally wrote a foreword for the book, praising Corso, a fellow South Carolinian. When Thurmond's staff told him about the wacky stuff in the book, he withdrew his foreword. That should begin to tell you something.
So, On With the Book
In the first place, Corso never comes out and states the exact location of the "crash site." He claims not to be very clear on such details even though he claims this event was the single biggest event in human history (pp 5 ff). This after he says that he had over two years(!) to study the files.
Corso and Wisner
Corso claims that in early 1961 he got the job of exploiting alien technology at the Foreign Technology desk of the Army's Research and Development section. (pp 50, 63-64,177). His military records indicate that he arrived at Army Research and Development HQ in the Pentagon on May 5, 1961. Corso states that a few days before this he was told by his boss, General Trudeau, that he was being followed by CIA personnel (pp 37, 44, 87, 107, 174, 185). This apparently upset Corso so much that he stormed into the office of CIA Director of Covert Operations. He identifies this person as Frank Weisner. (By the way the man's name is "Wisner" not "Weisner.") His office, Corso said, was in Langley, Virginia. He told Wisner that if he found anyone tailing him, he (Corso) would blow them away with a gun he would be carrying from then on.
Later, in 1961, Corso claims that Wisner was found dead by hanging in a London hotel room (p 87). The problem with all of this is that Wisner had been hospitalized and replaced as the top CIA covert operator three years earlier in August of 1958. He was replaced by, first, Richard Helms and later, permanently, by Richard Bissell on January 1, 1959. His title was CIA Chief of Clandestine Services. Bissell is famous as the head of the U-2 project and the Corona spy satellite project. He was also the architect of the Bay of Pigs fiasco. (New York Times front pages - April 21 and May 3, 1961). Surely Corso should have known all this because he (Corso) claims to have taken over the Corona project in 1961 (pp131-136).
Back to Wisner for a moment. Wisner was not even in the US in 1961 when Corso claims to have had confrontations with him -- Wisner had been sent overseas in the less demanding post of Station Chief in London. He was recalled from there in the spring of 1962, having served there from 1959. He resigned from the CIA in August of 1962. Corso could not have driven to his office in 1961 and slipped so easily through CIA security to confront him. Wisner had no office. And Corso could not have had this confrontation in May of 1961 in Langley, Virginia for the simple reason that the facility in Langley did not even open until September of 1961. Worst of all, Wisner died on October 29, 1965 - a suicide victim by his own shotgun at his farm in Galena, Maryland, not by hanging in a London hotel room as Corso claimed.
Moon bases to defend against alien attack!!!
Corso states that he had a personal meeting with Robert Kennedy in May of 1962 (pp 2, 37, 156, 191, 206, 255) and shortly after this meeting JFK announced the Apollo project to land men on the moon by the end of the decade. This happened, according to Corso, after he explained to RFK all about Project Horizon - a plan to keep aliens at bay from bases on the moon. (I am not making up any of this -- read the book.) The problem here is that JFK announced Apollo on May 21, 1961. But then maybe Corso had discovered time travel.
Corona
Let's take a quick look at Corso's claims about Project Corona. No one who actually worked on that could possibly screw things up as bad as Corso. He didn't even know that Corona was a CIA project. He proposes a ridiculous plot involving some agency hiding spy satellite payloads on another agency's satellites. This was needed, he says, because NASA had assumed control of "all satellite launchings," including the military's from 1958 until the 70's. (pp 126, 128-129, 138, 144-147, 155-157). This claim alone reveals Corso's total ignorance of such matters. NASA has never had control over military payloads. Ever hear of satellite launchings from Vandenburg AFB? NASA has no control over that, or any other, military facility.
Wait!! There's more!!!
In order to shorten this just a bit suffice it to say that Corso also reveals himself as the hero of the Cuban Missile Crisis (pp253-258), Reagan's SDI (pp 4-5, 78, 115, 243, 249-250, etc.), Korean POW revelations (pp 2, 37-38, 87), the exposure of KGB agents inside the CIA (pp 2, 37, 139, 141, 189), and the JFK assassination (pp 2, 87, 206, 208). There was a rumor prior to Corso's death in July 1998 that he was working on a book about the JFK assassination to be called The Day After Dallas. What a shame that the world missed his revelations in that regard.
Finally, It Really Gets Weird
Lastly, Corso is also the hero of the "war" we fought against aliens. It was he who negotiated a treaty that allowed us time to reverse engineer the weapons we needed (from the Roswell stuff, of course) to win that war (pp 268 ff). That's right -- Corso claims that we fought and won a war against space aliens. Don't ask for details about the unknown war that we fought against the aliens -- just believe it and understand that we are really lucky to have had Corso around all these years!!!!
I submit that Corso is the definition of "dingbat."
The end
Well, that's it. Corso, Hendon, Sejna, Mark Smith, "Bo" Gritz, "Chip" Beck, Jerry Mooney -- to name just a few -- why does the MIA issue attract these dingbats and mental midgets?
|