Brian O'Leary and the Apollo Moon Landings Controversy

[Wade Frazier]

Hi:

I hope that this is OK, but I need to put this on the record someplace besides my site, and get it in a scholarly forum. This forum qualifies (my main presence is elsewhere in this forum (1, 2)). I am Brian O’Leary’s biographer until some professional writes his biography, and if free energy makes its appearance anytime soon, I am sure that there will be more than one professional biography written about him.

I am writing this because of the problems that I had with getting Brian’s words on the record regarding the Apollo Moon landings. I elicited what became his final statement on the issue because of the problems that I was having with his Wikipedia bio. Brian regretted his statements on the Moon landings until he died, as they were so blown out of proportion and eclipsed his life’s work in the public eye. Thankfully, Wikipedia’s editors eventually erased the entire Moon landings section, and I can live with Brian’s biography as it stands today. The Moon landings issue is trivial, compared to Brian’s life’s work. But I could not find one site, neither pro nor con on the Moon landings issue, which would host his final statement, so that it would “notable” enough so that Wikipedia’s “editors” would stop erasing my reference to Brian’s statement. This forum may not be “notable” enough either, but this seems like a good place to put it, and we will see what happens.

I have made my involvement in the Moon landings controversy clear: I never saw any evidence that survived scrutiny that supported the idea that the Moon landings were faked. If Brian had done his homework, he would have come to the same conclusion that I did, and I will always be sad that I never got him over the hump on the issue. Both camps tried to claim him as “one of theirs,” and Brian resisted that categorization until the end.

Brian had good reason for doubting the official story on space matters, and the primary reason was that he nearly died in an incident that shortened his life. As he began investigating the frontiers of science full time, after losing his job after refusing to work on Reagan’s Star Wars, free energy was one of many subjects that he dove into. The year after I met him, he mounted a UFO conference, and in its wake, high-ranking military officials “offered” to have Brian do classified UFO work. When Brian refused, he nearly died immediately afterward in an event that Brian considered a murder attempt, courtesy of the military. He was made an offer that he could not refuse. The event ruined his health and shortened his life.

At that company that Brian lost his position at for refusing to work on Star Wars, he helped get Buzz Aldrin a job and shared an office with him, and Brian certainly asked Buzz what it was like on the Moon (who wouldn’t?). A decade later, Brian became prominently involved in Greer’s Disclosure Project, as Ed Mitchell did, and Brian almost certainly asked Ed what the Moon was like. Anybody who knows much about Buzz and Ed knows that they could give some odd replies to the “What was it like on the Moon?” query. I don’t know what other Moon-walking astronauts Brian might have asked about their experiences, but Buzz’s and Ed’s odd responses, combined with Brian’s brush with death, combined with many other bizarre experiences in the milieu (Brian was not surprised at all when I told him of one close friend’s underground exotic technology show), combined with all the fervor that the Moon landings hoax proponents stirred up, and Brian’s good-natured approachability, led to the situation in which he made some public statements about his “skepticism” about the Moon landings.

His view was really quite tame. He never went to the Moon himself, so he could not 100% sure that they landed (who among us can? – I am about 99.99% sure), and that was really about the beginning and end of his involvement with the issue, but it got blown all out of proportion. Brian regretted what happened, and tried to set the record straight at his life’s end.

I need to do what I can to establish his statement so that he does not become a posthumous football for people trying to score political points.

Best,

Wade

[Wade Frazier]

Hi:

The other day, I thought, “Gee, I should have put Brian’s statement there, too.” Sometimes, I am slow to get it.

Without further ado, here it is:


Dr. Brian O'Leary's "final word" about the moon landing hoax or non-hoax issue

Often I'm confronted with my opinion about an issue which has polar-opposite constituencies. And now and then, that issue is couched in black-and-white terms which, as a scientist, I cannot be 100% sure of without further study. That regrettably happened regarding whether or not the Apollo lunar landings were hoaxed.

When confronted with these questions in the media, and in a speculative frame of mind (in my later years, I'm a fairly free thinker and so am a truth-seeker outside any vested interests whenever I can be), many related questions came to me and caused me to think more deeply about the issue: Wouldn't NASA want to save face in one or more of the lunar landings and have a backup scenario such as this, unlikely as this could be? Could at least some of the astronauts merely have orbited the Moon and not landed because of technical challenges at times during the race to the Moon?

The fact is, I don't know these things for sure, but my statements have been manipulated by both opposing sides of the issue to imply I'm taking their side. I'm not, although one would get the impression that I am.

This flap is regrettable, because I have simply not sufficiently examined the scientific evidence on either side of the issue. So, in good conscience as a competent scientist, I cannot form an expert opinion without much more detailed research that could come out of an impartial investigation. I have chosen not to take the time to do the research needed to form an authoritative opinion. I'm sorry if the politicized nature of the debate seemed to have put me in the forefront of the debate, and for that I may have helped give both sides some ammunition to do so.

My choice now is simply to carry on with my own work rather than address issues relating to past events. My choice is partially based on a desire to focus on what we need to do NOW about our pressing global problems such as war, torture, injustice, climate change, environmental pollution, dirty energy and water, deforestation, nonrenewable resource exploitation and unsustainable environmental, health and agricultural practices. In these respects, my public persona mismatches who I really am and what I truly represent. So, I'd like to be relieved of the responsibility for having a strong polarized position on an issue about which I know little and cannot contribute much to the greater responsibility we have as a civilization.

With best wishes for a satisfactory resolution of the matter,

Brian O'Leary


Brian died a few months later, so it truly became his “final word” on the issue, and it would be nice if members of the Moon Landings Hoax debate respected it.

Best,

Wade

[Wade Frazier]

Hi:

On another thread, I wrote at length about my participation in the faked Moon landings issue, the adventures of being Brian’s biographer, and the hassles I endured with the Moon landings issue and his bio. It is my last word for now.

Best,

Wade

[Terry Felter]

I have not heard anything pro or con from any side of the issue in many months. Pre-haps the hoaxers gave up on him as he has died and can not provide anymore off the cuff statements.

[Wade Frazier]

Hi Terry:

It could be, and I will be very happy if this issue dies.

Best,

Wade

Edited June 29, 2016 by Wade Frazier

[Wade Frazier]

Hi:

This will be a space post. At the grocery stores this past week, I bought a TIME special edition on the Mission to Mars, and a LIFE special edition on the Space Race. I had two primary purposes for buying them. One was to see if the Space Race edition mentioned that Kennedy tried to end the Space Race and have a joint mission to the Moon with the Soviet Union, and there was not a peep. As one professor noted, “This is another aspect of the lunar landing program that has disappeared from memory.” There is a great deal of scholarship and speculation on JFK and the Space Race (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), but the LIFE issue plowed right through it, with no mention of JFK’s overtures for space cooperation, even before he became president.

The other purpose was to see if Brian was mentioned at all in TIME’s Mars issue. He almost was, when TIME noted, “By 1966, TIME was reporting that possible jobs for the newest class of NASA astronauts would include just such a trip [to Mars – ed.].” The only astronaut who was made that “offer” was Brian, and it was due to von Braun’s influence. With all of this Mars talk lately, it is “interesting” that I have yet to see Brian’s name mentioned. Buzz Aldrin tried selling cars for a while, and Brian got him a job and shared an office with him. Buzz wrote the foreword to that TIME issue. I am so happy that I was able to do Brian’s NASA biography while he was still alive, and get his Martian credentials on the record.

IMO, JFK was killed primarily because he tried to end the Cold War, and Doug Caddy’s amazing testimony, along with other documents, leads to a strong suspicion that the UFO situation was a key issue in JFK’s death, and that JFK’s planned sharing of the USA’s UFO information was the last straw. There is obviously plenty of controversy in that area, but I believe that the UFO situation weighed heavily. Brian had his life shortened when he began snooping into the UFO issue, and it may well have directly led to JFK’s death.

Best,

Wade

[Pamela Brown]

Hi:

This will be a space post. At the grocery stores this past week, I bought a TIME special edition on the Mission to Mars, and a LIFE special edition on the Space Race. I had two primary purposes for buying them. One was to see if the Space Race edition mentioned that Kennedy tried to end the Space Race and have a joint mission to the Moon with the Soviet Union, and there was not a peep. As one professor noted, “This is another aspect of the lunar landing program that has disappeared from memory.” There is a great deal of scholarship and speculation on JFK and the Space Race (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), but the LIFE issue plowed right through it, with no mention of JFK’s overtures for space cooperation, even before he became president.

The other purpose was to see if Brian was mentioned at all in TIME’s Mars issue. He almost was, when TIME noted, “By 1966, TIME was reporting that possible jobs for the newest class of NASA astronauts would include just such a trip [to Mars – ed.].” The only astronaut who was made that “offer” was Brian, and it was due to von Braun’s influence. With all of this Mars talk lately, it is “interesting” that I have yet to see Brian’s name mentioned. Buzz Aldrin tried selling cars for a while, and Brian got him a job and shared an office with him. Buzz wrote the foreword to that TIME issue. I am so happy that I was able to do Brian’s NASA biography while he was still alive, and get his Martian credentials on the record.

IMO, JFK was killed primarily because he tried to end the Cold War, and Doug Caddy’s amazing testimony, along with other documents, leads to a strong suspicion that the UFO situation was a key issue in JFK’s death, and that JFK’s planned sharing of the USA’s UFO information was the last straw. There is obviously plenty of controversy in that area, but I believe that the UFO situation weighed heavily. Brian had his life shortened when he began snooping into the UFO issue, and it may well have directly led to JFK’s death.

Best,

Wade

Interesting points. It is my thinking that it was JFk's wanting to work with the Soviets that was the final straw. This would have also been the dream of Werhner von Braun who had to split his team in two at the end of WWII.

JFK went to visit Wernher von Braun just a few days before the assassination at Cape Canaveral: https://www.jfklibrary.org/~/media/assets/Foundation/NASA%20and%20Space/JFK%20at%20Cape%20Canaveral.jpg

You won't find much definition of this trip at the JFK Library or of JFK's wish to work with the Soviets. WVB has been airbrushed out of much of space history.

Edited October 11, 2016 by Pamela Brown

[Wade Frazier]

Hi Pamela, yes, IMO, trying to end the Cold War was what cost JFK his life. That was the ultimate cause, and proposing a joint mission to the Moon (more erosion of the Cold War) may have been the last straw, and if Doug Caddy's testimony is relevant, sharing UFO/ET information with the Soviets was the final nail in JFK's coffin. FYI, von Braun was very prominent in those TIME/LIFE issues.

Best,

Wade

Edited October 11, 2016 by Wade Frazier

[Evan Burton]

You are forgetting that Eisenhower proposed the "Open Skies" policy, which the Soviet government of the time rejected.

[Wade Frazier]

Hi Evan:

Not sure what you are driving at. Do you mean that Eisenhower was trying to end the Cold War? Ike’s next move after Open Skies was the U-2 program. The scholarly opinion of Open Skies is divided as to how genuine it was, and Ike later admitted that it was a Cold War ploy.

With Mr. Brinksmanship John Foster Dulles as his secretary of state and his Nazi-lover brother Allen as the chief spook (who tried to get a Hollywood movie made that cast Karl Wolff as a heroic figure, and that went too far even for Hollywood), I think that there was little chance of Ike getting very friendly with the Soviets. His overthrow of the Guatemalan government directly led to what happened in Cuba. A lot could be discussed on those topics, and I am sure that I have a lot to learn on them. However…

JFK was a reluctant imperialist, while Ike was far more enthusiastic. JFK definitely did not bow to his advisors on Cuba in particular (Dulles, Joint Chiefs, etc.), and took a very different foreign policy direction. That was unacceptable to TPTB, and after his death, JFK’s Alliance for Progress became one more Rockefeller tool, the USA began overthrowing elected Latin American governments at will, bludgeoning Southeast Asia, etc. The Cold War was part and parcel of it. JFK stumped for the test ban treaty, and do you think that Ike would have proposed a joint mission to the Moon?

These are big subjects, obviously. I hail more from the Parenti side of the house than the Chomskyan one (his take on JFK is not mine), on what JFK did to get himself killed. JFK was the least imperial American president since World War II, and his attempts to end the Cold War and pull in the USA’s imperial horns were unacceptable to the corporate order.

Best,

Wade

Edited October 14, 2016 by Wade Frazier