Immediate Release J. Barry Bitzer
July 28th, 1995 (202) 225-2245
Schiff Receives, Releases Roswell Report
(missing documents leave unanswered questions)
Washington: Congressman Steve Schiff today released the General Accounting
Office (GAO) report detailing results of a records audit related to events
surrounding a crash in 1947, near Roswell, New Mexico, and the military response.
The 20 page report is the result of constituent information requests to
Congressman Schiff and the difficulty he had getting answers from the
Department of Defense in the now 48-year-old
controversy.
Schiff said important documents, which may have shed more light on what
happened at Roswell, are missing. "The GAO report states that the outgoing
messages from Roswell Army Air Field (RAAF) for this period of time were
destroyed without proper authority. Schiff pointed out that these messages
would have shown how military officials in Roswell were explaining to
their superiors exactly what happened.
"It is my understanding that these outgoing messages were permanent
records, which should never have been destroyed. The GAO could not
identify who destroyed the messages, or why." But Schiff pointed out that
the GAO estimates that the messages were destroyed over 40 years ago,
making further inquiry about their destruction impractical.
Documents revealed by the report include an FBI teletype and reference in
a newsletter style internal forum at RAAF that refer to a "radar tracking
device" - a reference to a weather balloon.
Even though the weather balloon story has since been discredited by the US
Air Force, Schiff suggested that the authors of those communications may
have been repeating what they were told, rather than consciously adding to
what some believe is a "cover up."
"At least this effort caused the Air Force to acknowledge that the crashed
vehicle was no weather balloon," Schiff said. "That explanation never fit
the fact of high military security used at the time." The Air Force in
September, 1994 claimed that the crashed vehicle was a then-classified
device to detect evidence of possible Soviet nuclear testing.
Schiff also praised the efforts of the GAO, describing their work as
"professional, conscientious and thorough."
A two page letter discussing a related investigation into "Majestic 12"
was also delivered.
Schiff will be available to the media Saturday, July 29th, from 10:00 AM
to 2:00 PM (Eastern) at 2404 Rayburn MOB in Washington, DC and by
telephone: (202) 225-6316.
A copy of the report may be obtained by calling (202) 512-6000 and
referencing Document number GAO/NSIAD-95-187.
