Material below provided to Dale Goudie by John Aultman.
John David Aultman
P.O. Box 2131
Hattiesburg, MS 39403-213
March 3, 1986
James J. Speiser
14634 N. Fountain Hills Blvd.
Fountain Hills, AZ 85268
Read your letter outlining Project Mask with interest and have given it considerable thought. From what you said about it, it appears to be a plan which, given sufficient work, planing, and a bit of luck, would have a shot at drawing out the government if they have such involvement in UFOs. I have made mental notes about the plan, and have included several pages which are some thoughts I have on what you wrote about the project. You may have already covered what I have put down, but I felt like it would be worthwhile to bounce some ideas and aspects around a little.
I think the ramblings will speak for themselves and will not restate them here. You can be certain that I will keep my mouth shut about it, and I disposed of your letter as you requested. I would be greatly interested in knowing if you develop PM any further. While my situation here would prevent me from doing any active role in it, I would be more than glad to bounce ideas back and forth and provide any help that I could.
Hope this finds you doing well,
Sincerely,
/s/ John
John Aultman
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IDEAS AND THOUGHTS ON PROJECT MASK
1. 20/20 or CNN might be the best outlets for this as far as the television media is concerned. Geraldo Rivera is no longer with 20/20 and is currently doing same sort of follow-up film on some of his older stories and is being financed by Ted Turner. (CNN did an investigative report, about 20 or 30 minutes long, on the England UFO case which is the closing case presented in Clear Intent. I have it on tape and could furnish you with a cassette of the audio if you are interested. It was interesting but has nothing Earthshattering.) One would also want to keep in mind the book rights, since if the project succeeded either way then good potential would exist.
2. This step gives me more pause for thought than any other step in the plan. I don’t really know anything about special effects of this sort, but it seems to me that the corpse would have to be extremely realistic to pass close inspection. It has also occurred to me whether you intend for the Authorities (either local or MIB) to gain possession of the corpse. Any extremely close examination of the corpse would reveal it as a fake. It would be putting too much to chance to assume that the Authorities would delay an examination of the corpse until after any debriefing. If the corpse were found out before the debriefing, then it seems to me that the project would be defeated because there would be no evidence to prove the objective of Project Mask either way.
The corpse and shot alien aspect would be an effective hook if it isn’t discovered to be a fake. One might also want other physical ‘evidence’ as part of the hook. Coming to mind are a ‘landing site’ and ground level light reports. The landing site could consist of the burned circle so often reported, along with landing support indentations and other evidence which have been reported in such cases.
The thought also came to mind that one might not want to overdo the hook. A ‘perfect’ sighting, too detailed (or too much of an appearance of a composite), might create suspicion as to its authenticity.
3. A decent creation of a flap would provide a good background. An isolated incident would stand out to much. One might also want to start the project during a flap of UFO sightings, although this would be harder to do. The flares are a good idea. It might be a good idea to test this part of the project out beforehand to see whether it would create any UFO reports and if so, how many. This would give a better idea of how long this would need to be done to create a desirable number of nocturnal light reports.
Do you remember the incident (I believe in Ohio) where a number of private pilots had strung additional lights on small planes and were flying in formation at night? There were a number of UFO reports generated by this, and if I recall correctly, no one reported hearing any engine noise from the planes. This could be an idea to work on in addition to the flares. However, it would pose a number of problems. First, the pilots would have to be recruited and taken into confidence. Second, either a private landing field (or possibly a pasture) would have to be secured to use as a base for the planes since it would be too risky to do anything of this mature from a public field. Finally., it would have more risk of being discovered, either by witnesses to the planes landing and/or taking off, or during one of the flights by other planes.
4. The right people at all stages would be extremely important. Since many reports of this sort come from rural farm or ranch areas, this would be a logical location. It would also provide more security from accidental detection. The most difficulty might be in locating a farmer or rancher willing to participate in the project and allow use of their property. As to the other people involved, one would have to have a sufficient number to properly enact the project, but the fewest possible would be better. It would also serve well to remember the old saying “Loose lips sink ships.” One “You’ll never guess what I’m involved in now” might destroy any chance of a successful project.
5. The taping of a debriefing session (or more, if more than one occurs) would be invaluable. It would place great weight either for or against the degree of government involvement as alleged by CAUS. However, the failure of such a debriefing to materialize would not necessary disprove that such debriefings do occur. They may have been halted, either permanently or temporarily, or the government might not buy the Mask sighting or may think that it does not warrant, for whatever reason, such a debriefing. Even so, if successfully carried out to this stage, project mask might well provide evidence of the MIB and/or government investigation of a lesser degree. It would seem, however, that with a shot alien involved, if such involvement does exist, then Project Mask would have the potential to bring it out.
The method of securing the tape will require a bit of work. It can not be assumed that access to the debriefing area can be secured prior to debriefing in order to bug it. Therefore, I assume that the method of securing a tape is to be placed upon the witness being debriefed. The obvious method would be a bug with someone else in Project Mask being nearby to record whatever comes over the bug. The risks here is that the distance from the debriefing room to where other Project personal can be might
be too far; the device might be accidentally or purposefully jammed; or it might be discovered either by physical detection or by its signal.
I don’t really think that this could be harmful to the United States, but one never knows what the government may do if it thinks someone is after it. Charges of some sort might be brought if the project succeeds or if it is discovered after the MIB are brought in, should such government involvement really exist. I think they would be hard pressed to prove espionage. Reports and debriefing notes of such involvement, if they would certainly be classified beyond the reach of most Americans (re: the efforts of Senator Barry Goldwater, which met with failure; doesn’t prove such involvement exists, but that there doesn’t prove that such involvement exists, but that there may be reports classified highly top secret). In this event they could claim an intent to breach the security of the country. There could be a twisted attempt to show that Project Mask was an attempt to get at these files, but I doubt that they could prove that. It would also be unwise to secure any deal with the media or otherwise before the execution of Project Mask whose terms might be used later to try to prove that the plan was an attempt to ‘con’ ABC, or whoever, out of money. Should the plan fall flat on its face, a news organization might feel that it has been embarrassed and try to recoup its money and/or a degree of revenge.
I think that Project Mask would have a chance of working if some details can be worked out and the hook, is convincing enough. I think that the hardest parts of the plan would be the financing and creation of the hook (the corpse) and the taping of any debriefing session which might occur. Once the hook is created, the most critical stage is its enactment. The participants must know what they are to do, If a debriefing does occur, then the testimony of whichever witness is taken in must not appear to be acted out, but rather the responses of Someone who has actually seen what is supposed to have occurred.
I agree that it would make for an interesting book or TV movie. Perhaps it could even be done in two parts. The first would go through the execution of the plan. The second would be the arrest and trial of the participants. Could get Raymond Burr to play the defense attorney and call it The Second Return of Perry Mason (but didn’t he only do murder, cases?) Oh well, at any rate I think it would be worthwhile to at least work out some more of Project Mask.
Article source http://www.cufon.org/cufon/mask/mask2.htm