Philip J. Klass

Philip Julian Klass (November 8 1919–August 9 2005) was born in Des Moines, Iowa and died in Merritt Island, Florida. He was an electrical engineer by training, and also a journalist, but he is probably best known as a leading debunker of UFOs, arguing especially against the extraterrestrial hypothesis.

Criticism of Klass

Klass's plasma conclusion met with considerable incredulity, even from some pronounced UFO skeptics; Klass was essentially invoking one mystery to explain another. Atmospheric physicist James E. McDonald offered a detailed rebuttal of Klass' plasma hypothesis. In part, McDonald wrote "My most basic objection to his plasma-UFO theory is that he does not confront the fact that the interesting UFO reports do not involve hazy, glowing, amorphous masses, but reportedly sharp-edged objects often exhibiting discernible structural details, carry discrete lights or port-like apertures, and maneuver for time-periods and in kinematical patterns that are extremely difficult to square with his plasma-UFO hypothesis. It also fails to deal quantitatively with parts of the argument that are, in terms of existing scientific knowledge, amenable to

Related Topics:
James E. McDonald - Plasma

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

quantitative analysis." http://dewoody.net/ufo/International_Scientific_Problem.html

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Klass and McDonald engaged in an often savagely adversarial relationship. Tom McIver writes that "Klass accused McDonald of misusing public funds, resulting in a traumatic government investigation and audit (in which he was cleared, though he committed suicide not long afterwards)."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Klass has often been accused of using unfair, baseless "dirty tricks" in efforts to discredit UFO researchers with whom he disagrees. Jerome Clark (a UFO researcher and vice president of the Center for UFO Studies) writes, "To destroy the UFO 'problem' Klass concluded that ufologists should be the target as much as the UFOs themselves. If the ufologists could be publicly shamed or embarrassed on any grounds (not just professional but personal as well), who would take their pronouncements about UFOs seriously?"

Related Topics:
Dirty tricks - Jerome Clark - Center for UFO Studies - Ufologists

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

McIver (a self-described "fellow skeptic") writes that many of Klass's opponents "have been subjected to ... smear treatment. Richard Kammann was a CSICOP Fellow who quit in disgust, appalled in particular at Klass's response to a once-loyal CSICOPer who dared to criticize the botched statistical methods of a CSICOP investigation. Klass's published response to this critic, said Kammann, contained 'so many smokescreens, red herrings, non sequiturs, quotes out of context, and misstatements' that it constituted 'intellectual fraud' if not outright cover-up. Not only did it ignore all the substantive points of the criticism, it was 'one huge ad hominem attack.' Klass 'ignored practically every specific point that Rawlins had made. Instead offered blatant ad hominem attack on Rawlins' motives and personality,

Related Topics:
Smear treatment - Richard Kammann - CSICOP - Red herring - Non sequitur - Cover-up - Ad hominem

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

bolstered with rhetorical ploys--including crude misquotation.' Describing his own attempts to reason with Klass, Kammann says: 'The Klass letter started a long and exasperating exchange in which he talked about everything but the statistical errors and the real cover-up. He kept me busy for a while answering irrelevant questions, while periodically attacking my objectivity, intelligence or integrity. From time to time, he threatened to expose my cover-up of scientific evidence he imagined he had uncovered regularly ignored all my serious answers and questions...'"

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Another example of such smear tactics has recently come to light, in a letter found by historian Rich Dolan in the Canadian national archives. When Klass discovered that UFO researcher Stanton T. Friedman, a former nuclear physicist, was emigrating to Canada with his family, Klass wrote the Canadian National Research Council a letter and called Friedman an "insidious threat" and a "clutching, octopus-like snake oil salesman and uber-charlatan... a destabilizing UFO believer."

Related Topics:
Stanton T. Friedman - Canadian National Research Council

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In 1983, Klass suggested that, as Clark writes, "that UFO cover-up proponents were serving the ends of Soviet foreign policy." Clark notes that this was a "new wrinkle" "in an unending stream of vitriol from the mouths and keyboards of CSICOP's bombast artists. After all, Klass and his CSICOP colleagues had already characterized us ufologists as antiscience cultists, cryptofascists, mental cases, money-grubbing exploiters, and raving irrationalists, and CSICOP chairman Paul Kurtz had repeatedly assured the press that societal acceptance of anomalies and the paranormal threatens the fabric of civilization." http://www.nicap.org/debunk1.htm

Related Topics:
UFO cover-up - Soviet - Cult - Cryptofascist - Mental - Paul Kurtz - Paranormal

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

However, Klass's defenders have questioned Clark's objectivity in assessing Klass, beyond their normal differences of opinion regarding UFOs. The men have butted heads on several occasions; in 1984, a series of friendly letters turned sour when Clark thought that one of Klass's jokes was a "death threat". Clark has also been accused of ignoring Klass's explanation on at least one occasion despite the fact that it was endorsed by the participants in the UFO case. Peter Brooksmith writes: "I've long found it interesting too that in his treatment of the RB-47 case in his UFO 'Encyclopedia', which is so admirable in so many other ways, Jerome dismisses Klass's interpretation of the data as a series of unlikely coincidences. But he doesn't mention that Klass presented that interpretation to the RB-47 crew, who agreed that the 'UFOs' were the product of human error & excitement combined with ghost echoes on the radar. This is a key item in Klass's analysis. Surely it was not just dislike for the man that led Jerome to omit it?" http://www.virtuallystrange.net/ufo/updates/1998/jun/m11-014.shtml)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Critics, however, point out that Klass's explanation for the RB-47 case was thoroughly demolished by researcher Brad Sparks, who found, among other things, that Klass had the RB-47 plane sometimes moving at impossible supersonic speeds in order to get portions of his explanation to work. Sparks also disproved the keystone of Klass's thesis, that the RB-47 microwave sensors were miscalibrated because of equipment malfunction. Thus, it is argued, it doesn't really matter if the participants endorsed Klass's explanation or not, since it was bogus.

Related Topics:
Supersonic - Microwave

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Questioning the accuracy of the above claims by critics about Klass's character, defenders like to point to instances where Klass behaved in a civil, reasonable manner when debating UFO research. An example given was a 1976 letter to Gordon Thayer (a Condon Report investigator), Klass wrote of his and Thayer's disagreements "there are several more basic issues. For these, I want to give you the maximum possible time to do your 'homework' to dig out the strongest possible supportive evidence for your viewpoint. Thus I shall raise them now to provide you at least three months time to find/locate supportive evidence (if same can be found)." http://www.parcellular.fsnet.co.uk/Klass-to-GDT-8-5-76.htm

Related Topics:
Gordon Thayer - Condon Report

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~