John Keel and Operation Trojan Horse

{...} ...in early 1966, John Keel commenced a full-time investigation of UFOs and paranormal phenomena. Over a four-year period, Keel interviewed thousands of people in over twenty U.S. states. More than 2,000 books were reviewed in the course of this investigation, in addition to thousands of magazines, newsletters, and newspapers. Keel also subscribed to several newspaper-clipping services, which often generated up to 150 clippings for a single day during the 1966 and 1967 UFO "wave". {...}

Like contemporary 1960s researchers such as J. Allen Hynek and Jacques Vallée, Keel was initially hopeful that he could somehow validate the prevailing extraterrestrial visitation hypothesis. However, after one year of investigations, Keel realised that the extraterrestrial hypothesis was untenable. Indeed, both Hynek and Vallée eventually arrived at a similar conclusion.

As Keel himself wrote, "I abandoned the extraterrestrial hypothesis in 1967 when my own field investigations disclosed an astonishing overlap between psychic phenomena and UFOs... The objects and apparitions do not necessarily originate on another planet and may not even exist as permanent constructions of matter. It is more likely that we see what we want to see and interpret such visions according to our contemporary beliefs."

In UFOs: Operation Trojan Horse Keel argues that a non-human or spiritual intelligence source has staged whole events over a long period of time in order to propagate and reinforce certain erroneous belief systems. For example, the fairy faith in Middle Europe, vampire legends, mystery airships in 1897, mystery aeroplanes of the 1930s, mystery helicopters, anomalous creature sightings, poltergeist phenomena, balls of light, and UFOs. Keel conjectures that ultimately all of these anomalies are a cover for the real phenomenon.

In Our Haunted Planet, Keel coins the term "Ultraterrestrials" to describe the UFO occupants. He discusses the seldom-considered possibility that the alien "visitors" to Earth are not visitors at all, but an advanced Earth civilization, which may or may not be human.

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Saturday, December 15, 2007
_http://nybooktime.blogspot.com/2007/12/book-review-operation-trojan-horse-by.html

In May 1970, OPERATION TROJAN HORSE by John Keel was published by Putnam. While other authors of the day were trying to focus their attentions on UFO sightings in the skies, Keel alone widened his scope of investigation to include other unexplained phenomena in the American culture. Soon the others quickly began aping Keel's research.

"All over the world, hack writers sharpened their pencils, though, and stole from OTH as if the copyright laws did not exist. It became one of the most quoted and most plagiarized books in the field.", Keel wrote of his fellow colleagues.

So the question you might be asking yourself is: if this book is so important why didn't I hear of it? Well you can blame its rarity on Putnam publishing. In the early seventies the company decided to scale down it's UFO \ Occult division and focused more on adventure yarns and romance stories. So while Bantam was reprinting CHARIOTS OF THE GODS for the sixth time, OTH found it's way to the shelves of used book stores quickly to be snatched up by serious UFO researchers.

So what makes Keel's book so interesting? If I must sum it up to one thing it must be Keel's radical approach to viewing the unexplained such as UFOs, poltergeists, angels, and lake monsters as ultradimensional rather than extraterrestrial in origin. In other words, they're not from outer space but exist all around us - vibrating at different frequencies. And sometimes they cross over, or become part of our dimension.

Sometimes these occurrences became explained by the culture at the time as supernatural in origin. Here's an example:

"Demonology is not just another crackpot-ology ... The manifestations and occurrences described in this imposing literature are similar, if not entirely identical, to the UFO phenomenon itself. Victims of demonomania (possession) suffer the very same medical and emotional symptoms as the UFO contactee."

Keel also makes the same case for flying wheels and angels in the bible, voodoo, spiritualism, hauntings, and the occasional visit from a "man in black".

I would be remiss in my responsibilities as a book reviewer to insist that a UFO/Paranormal researcher should purchase a copy of John Keel's OPERATION TROJAN HORSE. The truth is that you should buy three copies; one for your personal library, the second to highlight, and the third to keep for the ages!

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THE LIBERATION OF UFOLOGY, by John Rimmer

John Keel has written a very good mystery story called ‘Operation Trojan Horse’. He has also written a first-rate UFO textbook called ‘Operation Trojan Horse’. Many people will find this completely unacceptable and will criticise the writing of a textbook in the style of a mystery thriller. However in a subject so innately mysterious as ufology this is probably a valid way of writing. Many critics will probably write at great length about a number of errors of fact that appear in this book. Their criticism will be valid, and it is disappointing that these have been allowed to creep into a work of this nature. However, with the present lack of documentation in ufology cross-checking of facts and incidents is virtually impossible. These errors do not, however, invalidate the arguments of the book.

Not the least value of 0TH is the many signposts it plants, pointing out avenues of further research. The highlighting of the neglected flap years of the twenties and thirties should send ufologists rushing to local newspaper archives.

It would be impossible in a short review to give an adequate outline of Keel’s thesis. It would also be unethical, looking at the book as a mystery story, to give away the end. However it is not a whodunit. There is no last minute denouement in the locked drawing room when John Keel points out the guilty party. As Charles Bowen points out in his FSR review: “he cannot write his QED at the end of the exercise”. It is obvious on reading the book that this is not the object.

What Keel does demonstrate is something of the nature of the phenomenon. He acts in a way as the liberator of ufology, and in the process possibly destroys it as we know it. He certainly demonstrates the inadequacy of the phrase ‘unidentified flying object’. He liberates ufology from twenty-five years of oppression and misunderstanding. Oppression is caused when anything is forced into an enclosure that is too small for it, whether that is a physical or a psychological enclosure. In the past ufologists have thought that they had a fairly clearly designed phenomenon to study. Even those who tended to reject the ETH have thought of ufology in the rather limiting terms of investigating reports of objects seen. Keel demonstrates the inadequacy of these terms of reference by heaping upon this basic definition an extension that is infinitely greater than the original.

The book begins on familiar territory with the 1960 radar case, and an analysis of straightforward sighting reports. After that however each chapter adds some complexity to the basic phenomenon. By the end of the book the reader’s mind is reeling from the enormity of what has been said.

This is possibly one of those very rare books that alters one’s way of thinking about things. It is disturbing to have one’s ideas of reality assaulted so completely as Keel manages in OTH. Many people will find that their only defence against this assault is in total rejection, not only of the conclusions (which is a perfectly valid reaction), but also of the arguments. For example Keel produces evidence upon evidence that many aspects of the UFO problem are deliberate hoaxes by the forces that are the source of the phenomena. This is a conclusion that many will challenge. However, Keel develops this argument with a mass of data, with many incredible correlations, and with a sound logical argument. It is up to his critics to either show a fault in the reasoning, to challenge the evidence by double checking, or to provide an equal amount of counter-data.

An eminent British ufologist remarked that there are only four books essential reading for students of the phenomena: Charles Fort’s collected works, Passport to Magonia and the two Keel books. This selection might be a little Spartan but it accurately sums up the importance of John Keel’s contribution to the literature.

John Keel uncovers a universe of mystery incomprehensible in its complexity. At the same time he demonstrates that this is tied up, often in a ludicrously mundane manner, with normal people. A mystery that is possibly cosmic in extent yet as much a part of human life as the telephone, Cadillac, or even, so help us potato peelings in which it manifests itself. It would be trite to say that Keel knocks over the ETH. He challenges the framework of ufology as we know it, and poses the problem of what happens now. The evidence in the book, quite apart from the conclusions he arrives at, destroys ufology as we know it. To study the phenomenon as it is revealed in OTH and then to consider ourselves ufologists, is rather like attempting to study marine ecology and admitting we are only tadpole hunters. John Keel has liberated ufology. Are ufologists capable of liberating themselves?

It is something of a relief to turn from reviewing OTH to reviewing ‘Strange Creatures’ This is a far more straightforward book, and somewhat slighter. It is of course an integral part of OTH, and should be read in conjunction with it.

In ‘Strange Creatures’ Keel takes a look at all the many weird animals and pseudo-animals that have cropped up throughout the world in various ages. He attempts to distinguish between the apparently physically real creatures that are currently unknown to conventional Western science (although does ‘physically react have any meaning after OTH?) and the imponderably wide range of manifestations that are described by that unsatisfactory word, occult.

As with OTH a major part of the value of this work is in the directions it gives for new aspects of study. It is a good, scary, flesh-creeping book to be read alone, late at night by the light of an oil lamp with the wind howling outside. It is a very good horror story. It is also an excellent and scientific catalogue of anomalous apparitions. As with OTH many people will find such a combination unacceptable. This however is how John Keel writes, it is purely a matter of literary style. As a final point, both these books have good indexes, which enhance their value as reference tools. This is unfortunately still a great rarity in UFO literature.

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In other words, they're not from outer space but exist all around us - vibrating at different frequencies. And sometimes they cross over, or become part of our dimension.

In ‘Strange Creatures’ Keel takes a look at all the many weird animals and pseudo-animals that have cropped up throughout the world in various ages. He attempts to distinguish between the apparently physically real creatures that are currently unknown to conventional Western science...and the imponderably wide range of manifestations that are described by that unsatisfactory word, occult.

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UFOs Unmasked said:

UFOs Unmasked



The Story of an Unfolding Cosmic Put-on



Are our skies haunted by an invisible parallel reality?

What sinister forces materialize, frighten and misguide the human race?

Will aerial phenomena and UFO entities interfere directly in world events?



John Keel, UFO Investigator

Author: Our Haunted Planet



The phenomenon [UFOs] is dependent on belief, and as more and more people

believe in flying saucers from other planets, the lower forces can manipulate

more people through false illumination.



I have been watching, with great consternation, the worldwide spread of the UFO

belief and its accompanying disease.



If it continues unchecked we may face a time when universal acceptance of the

fictitious space people will lead us to a modern faith in extra-terrestrials that will

enable them to interfere overtly in our affairs . . ."

Jacques Vallee, UFO Investigator Author: Messengers of Deception



I have written this book because I am concerned with the changes which would

be triggered by the belief in an outer-space invasion, real or simulated. . .



I continue to regard this phenomenon as a manifestation of a reality that is larger

and more complex than a simple visit by interplanetary travelers . . . I believe

there is a system around us that transcends time as it transcends space . . .



The UFOs are a physical manifestation that cannot be understood apart from

their psychic and symbolic reality. What we see here is not an alien invasion. It is

a control system which acts on humans and uses humans.




UFOs Unmasked

by Sidney Reiners



Hollywood turned its attention in the early 1980s to the ultimate frontier, the

universe. Following the intergalactic cops and robbers of Star Wars, but not a

spin-off or imitation of it, came Close Encounters of the Third Kind, a movie and

novel about a man who sees a UFO and, in spite of the government's best

efforts, arrives at a secret landing site and hitches a ride with spacemen who look

like raw bread dough. The thinly plotted story follows the popular theory that

UFOs are vehicles controlled by intelligent beings from other planets.



Search for the Truth



But is this the truth behind UFOs? If so, are the occupants friendly, or are they

technologically superior badniks about to enslave us and demolish our culture, as

happened in Africa and America under the impact of European civilization?



Although the history of UFOs is filled with cases of burns, assaults, emotional

disturbance, and even death, Close Encounters sought to allay our fears. When

the spaceship lands, the "ufonauts" show themselves to be very peaceful and

friendly, returning unharmed some pilots who had been missing since World War

II. (They hadn't even aged. How much friendlier can you get?)



But is that what those shimmering craft and glowing globs really are? Are they

run by beings, friendly or otherwise, from outer space, or could there be a

completely different explanation? And is there an even closer encounter - of the

fourth kind?



Solving the Mystery



John Keel, investigator of UFOs and related phenomena, believes we will solve

the mystery, not by tracking those elusive disks in the sky, but by studying the

contactees - not the obvious lunatics, but those perfectly normal men and women

who, while commuting to work or mowing the lawn encounter the ufonauts.



Take, for example, Elaine Thomas, forty-eight; Louise Smith, forty-four; and

Mona Stafford, thirty-five, all of high moral character and apparently conventional

living. The night of January 6, 1976, they were traveling from Stanford to Liberty,

Kentucky, where they live. At 11:30 PM they noticed a large, disk-shaped object

with a glowing white dome and colored lights. Mrs. Smith lost control of the car

as it suddenly sped to eighty-five mph and then was dragged backward. The

women passed out.




The next thing they knew, they were driving to Louise's home, but instead of

being about midnight, it was 1:30 AM. Louise said her neck hurt. Mona looked

and saw a strange red mark like a burn. Elaine's neck had the same type of

mark.



Some time later, under hypnosis, the three ladies recalled a horrifying experience

in which strange beings had conducted painful physical examinations of them.

Detective James Young of the Lexington, Kentucky, police department

administered lie detector tests and concluded that "these women actually believe

they did experience an encounter."



This wording is significant. In recent times several contactees have passed

psychiatric and lie detector tests while solemnly stating that the UFOs are from

Clarion, Zomdic, Thythan, Blaau, or a large number of other planets with science-

fiction-type names, or, even more incredibly, from Venus, Mars, and Jupiter.



Who's Lying?



Who's lying? Somebody - or is it everybody? - is wrong but believes he is right.

The contactees may not be liars, but someone is. Could it be the ufonauts

themselves?



Recently some of those mysterious space beings in their flying machines have

abandoned their vehicles and appeared directly. One lady was lying in bed when

they supposedly entered, painlessly opened her cranium, and gave her an

"implant" that enables her to receive communications with them. Many others

claim to have had a similar experience, resulting in changes in behavior and

greater "cosmic consciousness." One man who says he has had an implant

relates that when he hears a beep he can go outside and see UFOs over his

house. Although many implant victims have been examined, even X-rays fail to

show anything material. What is going on?



The Ultra-terrestrials



Mr. Keel's intensive study of contactees has led him to a startling conclusion.

Although he remains an atheist and skeptic, he has become convinced that

UFOS are not from other worlds but from Earth - and not from a secret base

under the North Pole, either. He believes flying saucers are not machines at all,

but materializations of beings he calls ultraterrestrials. He feels this is the only

explanation that deals with all the various aspects of the phenomenon: flying at

astounding speeds with no sonic boom, apparently being metallic and yet

transparent, changing shape, making nearly right-angle turns at fantastic speed.



The phenomenon, be believes, receives overall guidance from "a great intelligence."


and "it makes itself visible from time to time . . . It can take any form

it desires, ranging from the shapes of airplanes to gigantic cylindrical spaceships.

It can manifest itself into seemingly living entities ranging from little green men to

awesome one-eyed giants. But none of these configurations is its true form."



Demonopoly



"The UFO phenomenon," he says, "is actually a staggering cosmic put-on, a joke

perpetrated by invisible entities who have always delighted in frightening, confusing, and

misleading the human race." That is quite a description for someone who doesn't believe

the Bible, isn't it? We would say he is describing demons.



But is he right? Is there an occult connection? Notice the comments of Miss Lynn Catoe,

of the Library of Congress, who read hundreds of UFO articles and books during the

compilation of a bibliography for the air force. "A large part of the UFO literature is linked

with mysticism and the metaphysical," she says. "It deals with subjects like mental

telepathy, automatic writing, and invisible entities."



Merging Evidence



More and more serious students of the problem are turning to what Christians

would call a spiritual explanation (in the sense of 1 Timothy 4:1, 1 John 4:1, and

Revelation 16:14), but in our age of disbelief in the supernatural it is expressed in

scientific terms. The late Dr. J. Allen Hynek, consultant for Close Encounters,

who has been called the Galileo of scientific ufology, believed UFOs may be part

of a "parallel reality" that inhabits our planet, undetected by us except as it

chooses otherwise.



Astronomer Jacques Valle says, "We are not dealing with successive waves of

visitations from space. We are dealing with a control system. . . I suggest it is

human belief that is being controlled and conditioned."



Kenneth Arnold, who originated the term "flying saucer," stated in 1955 that he

believed the "saucers" were not necessarily mechanical but a form of living

energy. The list of serious researchers holding a similar opinion is growing.



The Changing Game



There are several aspects of the UFO phenomenon that make investigators

doubt the "spacemen from other planets" or extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH).

One is the way it has manifested itself over the years, for it is not just since World

War II that UFOs have existed. Reports have occurred for centuries. A

considerable number were sighted in the 1800s, and the form they took then was

far different from what it is now.



French engineer Henri Giffard built the first controllable dirigible in 1852, powered

by steam and plodding along at seven MPH. IN 1897 David Schwarz flew a few

miles when a gas leak brought him down. However, while earthlings were

struggling to develop the first dirigibles, the ufonauts were making close

encounters of the ludicrous kind in complex, speedy "airships" that looked as

though Rube Goldberg had designed them. At that point they didn't claim to be

from other planets, but some of the navigators looked Oriental (still a frequent

feature of the mysterious visitors).



The construction of the machines and the conduct of the navigators were as

varied, inconsistent, and absurd as today. Reliable witnesses claimed to have

run into them while the spacemen had landed for repairs, or they saw them drop

a wheel, a newspaper, a potato. The crew of one low-flying airship was heard

singing "Abide With me"! And all this before 1900, when Count Zeppelin flew

three and a half miles at 18 mph in his first airship.



Then, just as the Wright brothers began experimenting with flight, the UFOs

began appearing as graceful, speedy (for the times) airplanes. On August 30 and

31, 1910, a long black object flew over Manhattan, accompanied by the sound of

an engine. Hundreds of people saw it, complete with red and green lights, as it

circled the Metropolitan Life Building several times and swooped so low over

Madison Square that "it seemed to brush the top of the trees," the New York

Tribune of the date reported. In 1910 there were thirty-six licensed pilots and

fewer airplanes. None of the few pilots in the New York area was up that night. In

fact, they avoided hazardous Manhattan at any time.



After World War II, with man's tremendous advances in air engineering, UFOs

began taking the form we now see, being, as always, close enough to present

technology to be conceivable but advanced enough to be bewildering. and the

"plastic" qualities seem to have increased. Occasionally they have changed

shape before the eyes of witnesses, in some instances becoming transparent or

turning into what appear to be conventional craft, leaving the observer self-

doubting and embarrassed.



From Other Worlds?



Indeed, this marvelous malleability is another difficulty in the ETH. Suppose for a

moment we adopt that viewpoint, excluding all theological considerations.

Suppose life has just evolved. The chances of its happening once, anywhere,

place it in the realm of the virtually impossible, but just suppose. How often would

life evolve elsewhere? we can unhesitatingly give a mathematically valid answer:

never. But just suppose it did. And suppose some of those civilizations somehow

conquered space. The chance that they would stumble across our little speck in

the universe is so remote it probably cannot even be calculated. But if they did,



out of the numerous sightings of their craft we would surely expect to see some

basic patterns emerge.



But after analyzing 434 descriptions, the air force was unable to find one single

basic uniformity. Even ETH advocate Wendelle Stevens, who has collected over

a thousand UFO photos, admits, "There seems to be an almost infinite variety."

Evidently the humanoids never encountered Henry Ford!



The Occult Connection



The ufonauts are equally facile at varying their own appearance. Some have skin

like fish scales; others are furry. Some have eight-fingered hands; others no

arms. Their messages are also diverse, contradictory, and cultic. UFOs are

closely tied to poltergeists, reincarnation stories, supernormal knowledge of

languages, automatic writing, "prophecies," and communication with the

supposed spirits of the dead,



Israeli psychic Uri Geller believes his paranormal abilities began at age three of

four after being knocked unconscious by a silvery mass of light from the sky. He

now claims to have extensive contacts with the space beings.



Whether or not UFOs or their occupants exist as real objects or are the result of

hallucinations, either self-induced or imposed by a deceiving intelligence, the

most significant and irrefutable fact is that thousands of persons are being

influenced, even dominated by the phenomenon. A closer encounter of the fourth

kind may be the possession or obsession of the mind by these beings. And the

experience is essentially religious, with obvious elements of the occult.



For his book Revelation: The Divine Fire, researcher Brad Steiger interviewed

scores of psychics, would-be prophets, and contactees. He found that whether

they were in communion with what they believed to be spacemen, God and

angels, or the dead, the information they received was essentially the same. This

is true even of specific bits of information.



Central Control



For example, in 1967 mediums, psychics, and contactees around the world,

many of whom did not even know of one another's existence, all made the same

prediction, even phrased the same in different languages: about midnight,

December 24, a bright light would appear in the sky, and then - worldwide

holocaust.



It is obvious, the world did not end that night. But this is one of the beings’

favorite games: set people up by giving them accurate predictions and then slip



them the big one, the end of the world. Of course it doesn’t happen, and millions

become even bolder in their disbelief in any day of reckoning.



Commenting on this particular situation, in which he was deeply involved, Keel

says, “the UFO contactees received the same identical messages as the trance

mediums communing with spirits. . . .It was now clear (to me anyway) that all of

these people were tuned into a central source.”



Ripe for Belief



The religious nature of Close Encounters has impressed many viewers. Jay

Gould Baum, reviewer for the Wall Street Journal, says, in the February, 1978,

issue of Science Digest, “Close Encounters is filled with a familiar religious awe,

and infused with a belief in the actuality of UFOs . . . that is tantamount to faith.

And this faith - wondrous and thoroughly spiritual - is registered in nearly every

frame, reaching a climax in its messianic ending. For here we are shown the

actual landing of a UFO which, descending like the Star of Bethlehem, bathes the

world in heavenly light and emits musical tones that swell into a liturgical chant. .

. . We are being offered nothing less than epiphany.”



Mankind, unbelieving and self-willed, has largely destroyed faith in God and

belief in the supernatural through what he calls “science.” But gazing awestruck

into the heavens, we feel the crushing need to know “we are not alone” (the

motto of Close Encounters).



Return of the Gods



The morally ambivalent gods of mythology died many centuries ago, being edged

out of the cosmos by God’s revelation of Himself in Jesus Christ. But now we are

devoted to excluding Him from our concept of truth and reality (i.e., mathematics

and physics).



However, man’s need for the spiritual, impelled by his intuitive belief in something

greater than himself, continues. And so the gods have returned, not now clad in

royal vestments and hurling thunderbolts from Olympus but dressed in laboratory

style and darting laser beams from multicolored vehicles, bringing us little green

(or is it tall blue?) men to assure us the universe really is a place of life - and

maybe even of love.



These superior beings have conquered time, death, war, space, and nearly every

other limitation and defect. All this they claim to have done without the crudity of

a cross, the sweat and blood of a dying sacrifice, the guilt and humiliation of

being found sinful in ourselves, and without the repentance and self-denial of the

gospel. An so it has ever been since Eve, the first contactee, held communion


with an extraterrestrial intelligence speaking through a serpent at the tree of the

knowledge of good and evil in the garden of Eden.



Formula for Deception



Will UFOs and their charioteers play an important role in end-time events, or will

they continue as just one of the many paths seeming right to man but ending in

death? While we cannot be sure, the fact that the entire phenomenon has been

so carefully cultivated for decades on a worldwide scale indicates it is a major

ingredient in Satan’s formula for deception.



There are, for example, several ways it could support the rise and reign of

antichrist. By appearing as a menace to all life on Earth, it could precipitate a

rush toward world government, with democratic principles being lost in the panic.

On the other hand, friendly ufonauts could very persuasively advise us to follow

them if we want to solve all our problems as they have. And though he will not

be able to duplicate Jesus’ glorious return, Satan, the counterfeit Christ, must

arrive somehow.



Will he simply appear one day, or will he arrive in a “chariot of the gods”? (At

least one national Christian magazine has seriously suggested this as the way

Jesus may return and set up a kingdom on Earth.) We don’t know yet, and

although quoting the ufonauts is a little like quoting the mugger who yells help

when the police arrive, may there not inadvertently be much truth in the comment

of one contactee who claims he was told, “My friend, this earth is the battlefield of

Armageddon, and the battle is for men’s minds and souls”?

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GRiM said:

We don’t know yet, and

although quoting the ufonauts is a little like quoting the mugger who yells help

when the police arrive, may there not inadvertently be much truth in the comment

of one contactee who claims he was told, “My friend, this earth is the battlefield of

Armageddon, and the battle is for men’s minds and souls”?

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JEEP said:

I concluded that these pests are able to hone in on the distinct frequency of the plant they are wont to eat! Seems like a good explanation!

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Approaching Infinity said:

I'll try to put up some quotes when I get some time!

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Approaching Infinity said:

Just a quick note that Operation Trojan Horse was also printed with the title Why UFOs.

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Upon pulling this book for shipment, I discovered water in my storage area resulting from a recent storm. Your item was water damaged beyond recovery. I will not be able to fill your order. I have issued an immediate and full refund. Sorry, Dave

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