Thursday, July 24, 2008

What The Public Doesn't Know... Vol. I

This blog is over three years old now. In the early days, when a lot of my research into Wilbert Smith was published, there weren't more than a few dozen readers per day; the numbers have increased significantly since then. I've decided, largely as a result of Stan Friedman's accusation in his latest book Flying Saucers and Science that my views on Smith are nothing more than character assassination, to re-publish those old columns as an ongoing series under the title "What the Public Doesn't Know...", based on one of Friedman's four rules for debunkers (what the public doesn't know, don't tell them), which he himself employs on a regular basis. Friedman misrepresents my views and research (as well as the research of Brad Sparks), and then labels it as character assassination, instead of confronting the facts that he doesn't want you to know about. I figure you should hear the other side of the truth, as it were.

If after weighing all of the evidence, people still want to accept that Smith was the recipient of legitimate super-secret information about flying saucers from Dr. Robert Sarbacher, and that he really did run a super-secret flying saucer program in Canada, as Friedman would have you believe, that's fine - everyone is entitled to their opinion. But unlike Friedman, I'm a big believer that it should be an informed opinion, where all of the evidence is looked at in context.

So here is part 1 of the facts that Stan Friedman doesn't want you to know about when it comes to Wilbert Smith.

Wilbert Smith & the Department of Transport in 1950
(originally published 17 June, 2005)

I think it's important for people to understand just where Wilbert B. Smith fit in the governmental pecking order in 1950 when he met with Dr. Robert Sarbacher and was supposedly given information that was classified even higher than the H-Bomb.

On the theory that a picture is worth a thousand words, and because some ufologists have to be both led to the water, and then made to drink (and, in some cases, told what the water is), here is an organizational chart I put together of the Canadian Department of Transport in 1950, showing exactly where Smith fit in.

Note that this chart does not include all of the various civil servants from the other sections, like Meteorology or Canal Services, that would have been further up the proverbial food chain than Smith.

Now, I admit that we do things a bit different up here in Canada than our cousins in the United States, but not so differently that we would put someone like Wilbert Smith, a mid level (to be generous) civil servant in the Department of Transport, in charge of our flying saucer study. The fellas in the Department of Defence, the Royal Canadian Air Force, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (in charge of foreign and domestic intelligence) would have been, to say the least, a little "miffed."

So, one more time, here is what the pro-Smith ufologists are saying - Wilbert Smith, senior radio regulations engineer, was "in the know" about the biggest secret out there, while hundreds of senior American generals, admirals, scientists and officials were not.

If you believe that, I have a bridge in Brooklyn you may be interested in purchasing...

Wilbert Smith & The Department of Transport - Expenditures, 1950
(originally published 17 June, 2005)

As the old journalistic axiom goes, if you want to find the truth, follow the money.

If the question relates to just how important Wilbert Smith's work for the Department of Transport was in 1950, therefore, one should take a look at the Departmental expenditures, and see how much was devoted to Smith's section.

Here are the relevant figures from the Department of Transport (Canada) Annual Report, 1950 - 1951 (for the fiscal year ending 31 March 1951):

Total Department Expenditures - $ 78,901,296.55
Total Air Services Expenditures - $ 33,557,017.95
Total Telecommunications Division Expenditures - $ 10,458,484.61
Total Administration of Radio Act and Regulations Expenditures - $ 867,095.11

So, from the above we can see that the section in which Smith worked (Radio Act and Regulations) received the following:

- 1.10 % of total department expenditures
- 2.58 % of total section expenditures (Telecommunications Division being part of the Air Services Section)
- 8.29 % of total division expenditures (Radio Act and Regulations being a subsection of Telecommunications Division)

Contrast these expenditures with others that were far greater:

- $ 4,248,357.51 for Canal Services, Operation and Maintenance
- $ 4,064,678.03 for Aviation Radio Aids, Operation and Maintenance
- $ 1,216,860.25 for Telegraph and Telephone Service, Administration, Operation & Maintenance
- $ 6,413,037.11 for Airways and Airports, Construction and Improvement
- $ 1,087,573.81 for Departmental Administration

This is not to suggest that the work Smith's section did was unimportant; however, it does show that it was just a very small part of a very big operation. And remember - Smith wasn't even the head of the Radio Act and Regulations subsection.

Just the Canadian to whom I'd reveal the U.S. government's UFO secrets...

Paul Kimball

6 comments:

Don Maor said...

Paul:

Not very relevant data, in my opinion.

I think the point here is not in the fact that Smith did run or did not run a supersecret saucer study, or what was the real usefulness of the project he run. I think the relevant point here is that he received info that confirmed that Vannevar Bush was studying saucers in U.S.A. I feel the important country here is USA, not Canada (I am sorry).

Regarding the reason that moved Sarbacher to give info to Smith, it is matter of pure speculation. World and people are not perfect. Rules are not always followed. May be just happened that Smith asked for the info in a kindly and friendly way. On the other hand, Sarbacher may have had heard just rumors, so perhaps he had not been pressed at the moment by any silence rule, or secret oath. Or may be simply he found that Smith was friendly enough, and decided to tell him. The fact is that the info was given. As Stan says in his book, the Fact that you do not know how digestion works does not mean that you can not eat and use the energy and nutrients of the food. Stan is right.

Putting to questions: ¿What would be the reason to make the russians know about USA studies on flying saucers and saucer technology? What would be the reason to release to russians some info that is more secret than the H bomb ? May be USA wanted to be immediately infested with russian spyes?

Paul Kimball said...

Don,

Regarding the reason that moved Sarbacher to give info to Smith, it is matter of pure speculation. World and people are not perfect. Rules are not always followed. May be just happened that Smith asked for the info in a kindly and friendly way.

This is patently ridiculous. Again, it's all about the context, which non-historians, like Stan, and you it seems, have a lot of trouble with. This was the beginning of the Cold War, and a secret that was supposedly two points higher than the H-Bomb. It was a time when the United States was executing people who gave away information about the H-Bomb, and yet you suggest that Sarbacher would have just told Smith this because he was being friendly. Oh my.

Further, the one thing I agree with Stan on is his mantra that "you can't tell your friends without telling your enemies". True enough... particularly in Canada at the time, which leaked like a sieve (google "Gouzenko affair"). Again, it's all about context.

If what you suggest was true, and the information he gave Smith was legitimate, then Sarbacher would have been executed for treason... unless he had been officially authorized to give that information to Smith (extremely unlikely, given who Smith was), or - and this is the likeliest explanation - it was not true, and so there was nothing Sarbacher could be prosecuted for.

You and Stan can't have it both ways, however - you can't on the one hand say that people take their secrecy oaths seriously, even today, and then suggest on the other hand that a man who had information about the biggest secret ever would have casually leaked it to a guy like Smith (and here it is absolutely relevant to discuss, and understand, who Smith was and what he did).

Paul

Don Maor said...

All am I saying is that the world is not perfect. Leaks DO occur. Even you admit that at that time Canada was leaking as a sieve. Therefore, why do you absolutely deny the possibility that the USA was naturally leaking just a little bit?

I, "ETH facter" (as you may would call me), consider the world as being imperfect. In an imperfect world leaks DO occur, people DO make mistakes, people DO absurd things frequently, people DO sympathize mutually even if they are hierarchically related or unrelated, human aircraft DO crash probably almost every day, cars DO crash probably almost every minute, ET craft may crash sometimes (may be rarely), etc. Is there any problem in considering the world as imperfect?

Regarding your concern, you wrote:

"you can't on the one hand say that people take their secrecy oaths seriously, even today, and then suggest on the other hand that a man who had information about the biggest secret ever would have casually leaked it to a guy like Smith (and here it is absolutely relevant to discuss, and understand, who Smith was and what he did)”

Your arguments seem extremely strange to me. For instance, If Friedman was to believe that ALL the military personnel was firmly decided to NOT tell a single word about UFOs he certainly wouldn't even bothered to interview Jesse Marcel, or Colonel Dubose, etc. Sincerely, I believe you have a logic problem here. (Friedman was in MENSA, so I think he has no trouble with logic).

Indeed, I am convinced that secrets can be kept. They can be kept precisely due to strict rules, obedient men, etc. But I also know of many secrets that have not been kept. I know that some secrets have been broken by painstaking efforts of spies and researchers who search for the weaker link in the chain! And secrets that have been broken simply by mistakes of the people charged with keeping those secret. No contradictions here. Smith or Sarbacher were presumably some sort of weaker link, or someone made a mistake. The task of a researcher is to find such weaker links. No contradiction here.

In order to finish, in this Smith’s particular case, it is your person who is not accepting the Smith’s documents at their very face value, therefore the burden of proof is on you, to demonstrate what is the hidden value of Smith documents (be it some disinformation campaign against Russians or something of the sort).

Anonymous said...

Paul

Military rank is no guarantee to 'need to know' secrets. There is no reason why Smith could not have been read in to such a program. His particular skills are what would have counted, not his 'rank'.

Anonymous said...

Paul

"If what you suggest was true, and the information he gave Smith was legitimate, then Sarbacher would have been executed for treason... "

I don't think so. Only a fool who wanted to make the secret public would've committed to that track.

Anonymous said...

Paul

Again, I have to take issue with your presentation here. Context is indeed important but when you state that Sarbacher "casually leaked" the information, you suggest he was irresponsible. The fact is that this liaison remained secret for many years, demonstrating Smith's reliability in maintaining secrecy. I believe that there was some form of approved backchannel liaison between the two countries.