Sunday, April 09, 2006
Liars
Today's Sunday Telegraph carries an interesting report about the sort of people we are all too familiar with in ufology - those who tell lies about their military service. The people mentioned in the reports are not ufologists so it perhaps took a little longer to unmask them, as their stories - unlike those of some of those who claim to know about UFO crashes, etc. - had a certain plausibility.
One of these people was Lisa Jane Phillips, a prize-winning university student at Meredith College who was also a US Air Force pilot, with the rank of captain, who flew over to Afghanistan or Iraq at weekends. Her college was so impressed that it waived tuition fees of $42,178 and invited her into tutorials to talk to other students about "what it's really like over there".
This went on for over three years until Frank Strickland, "Meredith's on-campus police chief", finally became suspicious. As a veteran of Vietnam, he found her stories of weekend sorties to the Middle East "a little far fetched". He finally became really incredulous when he noticed that "one of the many medals on Phillips's chest was awarded to those who had seen action in the Second World War", which was a bit odd for someone aged 34. When interviewed by the FBI, Phillips admitted that she had never served in the American armed forces.
Now Congressman John Salazar of Colorado has introduced a bill to increase the penalties for practising such deceptions.
At least those mentioned in this report admitted their guilt when they were found out, unlike certain ufologists and persons claiming knowledge of UFO secrets who insist that their military records must have been destroyed or tampered with as part of an evil government conspiracy. It is apparently not uncommon for people to lie about their military service and it is even more common for them to lie about their professional and academic qualifications.
Some of these dishonest folk are rather crafty, though. They never lie about anything that can be independently verified, so you can't easily catch them out, even though some of their claims seem just a teeny bit implausible. Does that remind you of certain prominent ufologists?
One of these people was Lisa Jane Phillips, a prize-winning university student at Meredith College who was also a US Air Force pilot, with the rank of captain, who flew over to Afghanistan or Iraq at weekends. Her college was so impressed that it waived tuition fees of $42,178 and invited her into tutorials to talk to other students about "what it's really like over there".
This went on for over three years until Frank Strickland, "Meredith's on-campus police chief", finally became suspicious. As a veteran of Vietnam, he found her stories of weekend sorties to the Middle East "a little far fetched". He finally became really incredulous when he noticed that "one of the many medals on Phillips's chest was awarded to those who had seen action in the Second World War", which was a bit odd for someone aged 34. When interviewed by the FBI, Phillips admitted that she had never served in the American armed forces.
Now Congressman John Salazar of Colorado has introduced a bill to increase the penalties for practising such deceptions.
At least those mentioned in this report admitted their guilt when they were found out, unlike certain ufologists and persons claiming knowledge of UFO secrets who insist that their military records must have been destroyed or tampered with as part of an evil government conspiracy. It is apparently not uncommon for people to lie about their military service and it is even more common for them to lie about their professional and academic qualifications.
Some of these dishonest folk are rather crafty, though. They never lie about anything that can be independently verified, so you can't easily catch them out, even though some of their claims seem just a teeny bit implausible. Does that remind you of certain prominent ufologists?
# posted by John Harney @ 18:35 
