FRAUD BY DECEPTION
The TRUTH about Colin Andrews, The Walter Mitty of the Crop Circles
BY CANDI SWORLEN
INTRODUCTION
I had been interested in Crop Circles since the late 1980’s and I bought several books on the subject, including the impressive work Circular Evidence. Once I left my native Canada and came to the UK to study, I was able to spend the summer of 1990 and 91 looking up circles and even managing to visit the odd one or two with friends. Then University work had to prevail and, for while, Crop Circles took a back seat. It was in my third year as an undergraduate that I was told of a talk being given by someone who was an ‘expert’ on crop circles and I, with a couple of friends, cadged a lift to hear this man’s talk. The evening’s talks re-awoke the interest in crop circles and I began to find out more on the subject.
After graduating, I was lucky enough to find myself working for a design company in Salisbury. Some of my work brought me into close contact with people from Test Valley Borough Council. Again, this ensured that my interest in crop circles continued, after all, wasn’t it a one-time officer of that council, who’d carried out such important research into the phenomenon?
But; when I mentioned the name ‘Colin Andrews’ to my Test Valley contacts I was very surprised to find that they’d seemingly never heard of him! Was this, I wondered, evidence of the vast ‘cover-up’ which Andrews had always warned about? Was the ‘Establishment’ covering up the man’s very existence? I once read a lot on the web about Colin Andrews claiming to have met with a Government official and that this official told him that all the circles researchers would be ‘Taken out (humiliated) one by one’ except Colin, who was thought to be ‘trusted’. Now this statement could be a two-edged sword for Colin. Obviously, he was trying to claim that he -and only he- was ‘trusted’ to work with the Government. But it could also be construed to mean that Colin is actually a Government Agent himself and has been part and parcel of the ‘conspiracy’ he is always on about!
I resolved to look deeper into the subject and try and uncover the Truth.
What I found shocked me.
So, to find out the TRUTH about Colin Andrews, ‘Engineer’, ‘Senior Government Official’, ‘Crop Circles Researcher since 1983’………….Read on!
Candi Sworlen,
Odstock, Wiltshire, UK.
2007
THANKS for assistance…..
….are due to Abi Lansley-Price, Ruth Collier and Blaser Pfeiffer
Chapter One
My whole original belief was that the authors of Circular Evidence were Scientists. Furthermore, one, Colin Andrews, was the ‘Chief Electrical Engineer of Test Valley Borough Council’. The other, Pat Delgado, was a retired electro-mechanical engineer. Therefore, I reasoned, these two men were qualified to put forward the point of view that pervaded their book; namely, that ‘unknown’ forces and possibly beings/forces from another world were causing the crop circles and that the British Government were covering up this fact.
From reading many reports and articles by Andrews, I and presumably many others, felt that here was the ‘Voice of the People’, the ordinary, but qualified man from Andover who had the courage to openly publish his findings in the face of opposition from the authorities. Andrews often hinted and once or twice openly claimed that the other major figures in circles research at this time were not only mistaken in their findings (which were vastly different to Andrews’ own) but were actually part and parcel of the Government Cover-Up.
Several years on from my re-awakened interest in the subject and with a little time to spare, I thought that it was about time that Colin Andrews biography was written. I started spare-time research and what I began to uncover was almost as big a conspiracy of lies, fraud and deception as that which Andrews claimed was being levelled at himself. In fact, as all that follows is true with references and sources listed at the back of the booklet, it could be said that the conspiracy surrounding Colin Andrews is even bigger than the one he claims is put upon him by the Government. The problem I had, as things emerged from the depths that they’d been hidden in, was that Colin Andrews himself seemed to be at the centre of it all!
So, where do we start? Colin Andrews is a well-known name in the crop circles world. An Englishman who has lived in the USA since the early 1990’s his Hampshire (England) accent is tinged with American beliefs and mannerisms. His claims- that crop circles are a real phenomenon- are championed by many in the USA and in the UK. He has written several books on the subject and has appeared on TV programmes over the past 18 years, billed as an ‘Expert’ on the subject. He has, in the past, had quite a following by those who see him as a ‘guru’ not afraid to take on the establishment in his fight to get to the ‘truth’ about crop circles.
And who could fail to be impressed by Colin’s background? His website lists him as a ‘one time Senior Official in British Regional Government’; He apparently ‘advised the government of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’ about the circles and ‘caused questions to be asked in the House of Commons’. He is variously listed as ‘Chief Electrical Engineer for Test Valley Borough Council’, a ‘Chief Civil Engineer’ and ‘Dr. Andrews’ amongst other titles. He has listed qualifications such as ‘MASEE’ and ‘AILE’ after his name in the past. His claims to have researched crop circles since 1981/2 apparently put him way ahead of many of the first people who researched the subject. In fact, his ‘authority’ has enabled him to obtain significant sums of money from supporters to enable him to carry on his ’research’. He claims to have offices, full of computers and staffed for his ‘investigation group’, Circles Phenomena International in the USA and in Andover, UK.
It all sounds too good to be true.
And that is just what it is: too good to be true.
The reality is that far from being a senior, technically qualified engineer who advised a Prime Minister, Colin Andrews is, at best, an enthusiastic follower of UFO Mysteries with the gift of appearing to be an ordinary chap doing what he can to uncover the ‘truth’ and has been continuously misrepresented and misquoted by a mischievous press. At worst he is a fraud with an inferiority complex who has deceived people into handing over sums of money and has exaggerated his qualifications to give him status and standing which he would otherwise never have been able to command. Even his ‘offices’ for CPR do not exist as such.
What grounds do I have for stating this?
My starting point was one of the first instances (there have been quite a few…) where Colin Andrews claimed that he’d been forced to fight his corner, often with recourse to legal action, in order to continue publishing and talking about his findings with regard to crop circles. He bravely fought off every attempt to silence him-or so it seemed. I was to discover that there was another motive for silencing people who disagreed with his findings.
There is at least one book (1) which details one of these legal cases, that between Andrews and the UFO investigator mentioned earlier, Paul Fuller. The gist of the story was that Fuller had been the subject of furious solicitors’ letters on behalf of Andrews after he claimed, in private correspondence that certain things said by Andrews about his work status were somewhat exaggerated. Although it seemed that Fuller was correct, Andrews had managed to threaten him with a libel suit if he didn’t send written apologies.(2) All the more galling was the fact that Fuller apparently had proof that what he’d said in a letter about Andrews was fairly insignificant but true.(3) But, for some reason Andrews managed to shut Paul Fuller up…just for telling the truth in private correspondence.(4)
So what was it that upset Andrews (who, from what I read in the book Round in Circles seemed to me to be the main instigator of the legal action)? I was surprised to find that it wasn’t anything to do with covering up the truth that aliens and their forces were making circles or indeed anything to do with a fight between the common man and the government over the right to publish the ‘truth’. All it seemed to be about was the claim by Fuller that Andrews had somewhat exaggerated his position and job titles. Also that Andrews' co-authored book Circular Evidence was full of inaccuracies and misrepresentations,
I was to find that Paul Fuller did indeed have the proof that what he’d said in that private letter was true. And there were inaccuracies and misrepresentations in Circular Evidence. It isn’t, however, unknown for the odd inaccuracy to creep into a book’s first edition, having slipped by the proof-reader. This can happen in even the best prepared book and errata usually get inserted in later volumes and corrections made in later editions. Odd then that in the light of Andrews’ legal action against Fuller, this process did not appear to happen with Circular Evidence and the details of those inaccuracies and misrepresentations will be shown a little further on.
I tried to contact Paul Fuller but, having tracked him down eventually, he declined to comment on what he said was now a thing of the past. He was no longer researching crop circles, had not done so for many years and was not interested in any further involvement with Andrews.
(For the record, Professor Meaden, the other researcher from the 1980’s who had different findings to Colin Andrews, claiming that a natural but rare form of wind vortex was responsible for the circles, also declined to comment). So I started to look into Andrews’ claims that he had not knowingly misrepresented himself and that it was all the fault of the press and he couldn’t be held responsible for mistakes they made.
Colin and the Press
“I have always stated accurately what my position was with TVBC….”Colin Andrews 2004.
Let’s look at Andrews’ claims, starting with the one that he was not responsible for what the press wrote about him. That’s fair enough. Most people who have appeared in the public eye from time to time have been misrepresented once or twice in the press who don’t always seem to get it right and the odd mistake is allowed. But it is interesting to note that it isn’t just the press who make mistakes. From a random trawl of press articles, until 1989 Colin had variously been described as:
Source Day Month Year Title
Flying Saucer Review 1986
M.A.S.E.E., A.I.L.E.
Leicester Mercury 13 July 1987
Electricity specialist
The Guardian August 1988 …
Chief electrical engineer for
the Test Valley Borough Council,
Mr Andrews, and 11
scientific colleagues...
Sunday Observer 14 August 1988
An electrical engineer who works for the local council
The Sunday Express 19 May 1989 An
electrical expert with Test Valley Borough Council
Wiltshire Gazette & Herald 25 March 1989 An
electrical expert with Test Valley Borough Council
Telegraph Weekend Magazine June 1989
Chief civil engineer for the Test Valley Borough Council(TVBC)
London Evening Standard 3 July 1989 An
electrical engineer from Andover
TODAY newspaper 6 July 1989
Electrical engineer
Wiltshire Gazette & Herald 6 July 1989 An
electrical expert with the Test Valley Borough Council
The Sunday Times 9 July 1989 A
senior electrical engineer with the local borough council
Southern Evening Echo 12 July 1989 A
chief electrical engineer with Test Valley Council
Southern Evening Echo 13 July 1989 A
civil engineer with TVBC
Unknown paper 7 July 1989
Technical officer for TVBC
Southern Evening Echo 2 August 1989 A
civil engineer with TVBC
Hampshire Chronicle 3 August 1989
Local government officer
Wall Street Journal 28 August 1989 An
electrical engineer
Andover Advertiser 31 August 1989
Chief electrical engineer with Test Valley Borough Council
Now that’s a lot of job titles. Which is correct? In August 1988, a British National Daily newspaper claimed that Colin was ‘Chief Electrical Engineer of Test Valley Borough Council’ (5). He was also given that title in July 1989 (6) and August 1989 (7). If this was not correct, then surely Colin would have said something. Once or twice can be a mistake but more than that without correction is permitting a misrepresentation to be perpetuated. Surely Colin kept a scrapbook of his press cuttings? Surely he read the papers- especially where articles were referring to his early work? Have the press been wrong since 1988?
Colin claimed in his legal notes to Fuller’s solicitor that it was the press which misrepresented him. OK, reasonable defence. Now, if most people had been in that position they would have made damned sure that, as far as possible, they were not misrepresented by the press again-as would be expected of Colin, especially after that legal tussle with Fuller.
To his everlasting credit, Pat Delgado, the other ‘injured party’ in the legal exchange, seems to have heeded this as evidence shows that thereafter his status of ‘Retired electro-mechanical engineer’ is mentioned correctly. But what of Colin Andrews? Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt. For the sake of argument, let us assume that say, 25% of those job titles were misrepresented by the press in the wake of the Crop Circles frenzy of publicity. That, I think, is fair enough. But, the misrepresentation continued after the libel threats and continues to the present day. The press cannot be held responsible, especially as nowadays, in 2006, hardly anyone outside the crop circles fraternity has heard of Colin Andrews.
Here’s another claim by Colin in a 2003 website interview:-
Colin:
‘…..I'd entered local government in 1974 as an electrical engineer and, following a series of very rapid promotions, I became a senior officer at the Test Valley Borough Council….’. (8) It should be noted here that I could find no evidence whatsoever of Colin’s ‘…series of rapid promotions…’.
In the best-selling book
Circular Evidence published in 1989 after the legal exchange in which Andrews was attempting to sue Fuller for libel, Colin is described twice: as ‘…Chief Electrical Engineer for Test Valley Borough Council responsible for all electrical installations in West Hampshire and for formulating, implementing and maintaining the arrangements for any civil emergency incident…..’ (9) and again: ’Chief Electrical Engineer for Test Valley Borough Council’ (10)
That Colin never had been ‘Chief Electrical Engineer’ of Test Valley or any other Borough Council was, of course, one of the claims made by Paul Fuller in that private letter to an American woman in 1989 and which Colin Andrews said was a position he’d never claimed to have held.(11)
Surely Andrews proof-read the manuscript? If not and this little error slipped by him, Delgado and the publishers, then there was another chance the following year when a follow-up book
Crop Circles-The Latest Evidence was published. There, on the title page, it clearly states that: ‘…..Colin Andrews is chief electrical engineer for Test Valley Borough Council…..’(12)
Small letters this time but the same impression is given-Andrews is a Senior Figure with an impressive technical knowledge. It undoubtedly gave him a lot of credibility with the press and the public. I would not doubt that Andrews knew that his job title had, once again, been written incorrectly and yet he again failed to do anything about it, knowing all the time that Paul Fuller’s claims had been correct. But, Fuller had been silenced and Colin was free to be what he wanted to be.
Someone.
And in case anyone thinks that these last two could have slipped somehow through the proof reader’s net and that Colin, given the benefit of the doubt, could have again failed to notice his false job title, consider this; in 1991 and again in 1992 he was again described as ‘Chief Electrical Engineer for Test Valley Borough Council’. (13,14) At other times he has variously been: ‘…..Chief Civil Engineer for Test Valley Borough Council…..’, (15) ‘…a senior electrical engineer with a borough council…’(16)
Let’s take a look at how the press could have got it wrong, just to give Colin the benefit of the doubt. I took a random trawl through a pile of hundreds of press cuttings about crop circles and took 31 newspaper articles concerning Colin and crop circles, dating from 1987-2003, and two books. This is what I found:
Colin is mentioned as
An Electrical Engineer 9 times
Chief Electrical Engineer 6 times#
Electrical Expert 3 times
Senior Electrical Engineer 2 times#
A Civil Engineer 2 times#
Electrical Specialist 1 time
Chief Civil Engineer 1 time#
Technical Officer 1 time#
Local Government Officer 1 time
Local Council Engineer 1 time
Former official of TVBC 1 time#
Director of Field Operations CCCS 1 time (?)
Former Senior Official in British regional Government 1 time**#
...and the nearest to the truth: Borough Council Electrician 1 time.
** this from Colin's website
# = known to be incorrect
By way of comparison, I studied 37 random newspaper articles about Dr Terence Meaden; NO books, NO websites - to make it fairer. The period covered was the same as that for Colin Andrews 1987-2003.These are the results:
Meaden is described as
'Dr Terence Meaden' 26 times
Above 'of TORRO' 11 times
Above 'of CERES' 2 times
Meteorologist 2 times
Physicist 2 times
Scientist 2 times
Consultant meteorologist 2 times
Author 2 times
Physics Graduate 1 time
Tornado expert 1 time
Local meteorologist 1 time
Amateur meteorologist 1 time
Professor of physics 1 time
Leading UK authority on crop circles 1 time
Oxford Poly research physicist 1 time
'Terrence' 1 time#
and they got his address wrong 1 time-'Bradford on Tone' instead of Bradford on Avon.#
# = known to be incorrect.
This survey should demonstrate that whilst we all acknowledge that the press do get facts wrong from time to time, if Colin was right and it was the press at fault for giving him the wrong job titles, then statistically we should expect Dr. Meaden to have been incorrectly described on as many occasions as Colin. He isn’t and this leads one to the conclusion that either Colin failed to correct all these false job descriptions awarded him by the press and others over the years, or he was giving those wrong titles and impressions himself. This latter is seemingly borne out by the fact that Colin allowed the title of Chief Electrical Engineer to be used with his name in the books that he wrote with Pat Delgado, and by the fact that Colin’s OWN WEBSITE describes him as a ‘….former Senior Official in British Regional Government….’ – which he plainly never was and never will be.(17)
Probably the one journalist who got it right was one who wrote in an article about the 1990 cropwatch Operation Blackbird :
‘…..Andrews,
a borough council electrician on a fortnight’s holiday…..’(18). This fits with what another researcher, discovered in 1989. This person phoned the TVBC and enquired after Colin Andrews, the ‘Chief Electrical Engineer’. The staff there hadn’t heard of Colin and had to look him up on a list of employees to find out who he was! Hardly the recognition a “Chief Electrical Engineer” deserved! Seriously, had Colin been the Chief Electrical Engineer, then he would not only have been well known to the switchboard staff but he would have had his own office, own secretary and staff. He had none of these. (19)
But, just to clarify the point and to examine the possibility that he could indeed have been an engineer of some importance, even if not actually ‘Chief Electrical Engineer’, I looked further into Colin’s background. The first task was to see just what qualified a person to be a Chief Electrical Engineer of a borough council in the period 1980-1990. To this end, I spoke with both a qualified Electrical Engineer, and also a qualified Associate Member of the Institute of Electrical Engineers (A.M.I.E.E.). This is what one of them said:
“To be a Chief Electrical Engineer for a council in the 1980/90’s you would have to hold an engineering degree, mechanical or electrical because in such a generalised post it’s more of a management job than an engineering job and there’s sufficient crossover to understand specifications from both disciplines. It’s possible that someone with the right experience could do it with an HNC. It’s really about putting stuff out to tender and knowing what you’re getting for your money.”
It is certain that Colin Andrews did not possess a degree in either mechanical or electrical engineering, nor did he appear to possess HNC so it can be safely stated that
he was not and never had been ‘Chief Electrical Engineer for Test Valley Borough Council’ at any stage in his career. It is a fact that Colin Andrews was in a position to put a stop to the press and publishers claiming he was ‘Chief Electrical Engineer’, especially after the legal exchange with Paul Fuller. He failed to do this and as seen above, even allowed two books bearing this claim to be published after he had caused a solicitor’s letter to be sent to Fuller stating that he, Colin, had never claimed to be Chief Electrical Engineer and giving his job title as ‘Technical Support Services Officer’ (20) – of which more later. The evidence for him at least allowing this misrepresentation to be perpetuated is overwhelming.
WHY ALL THE FUSS?
In order to demonstrate why there has been so much fuss about Colin’s status, we have to run through an imaginary scenario:
Let me set the scene. A series of newspaper reports are published concerning a local aerial phenomenon in, say, the Salisbury area. There is lots of publicity. A person starts to be interviewed, claiming he has some knowledge of the ‘otherworldy’ connection with this phenomenon. He is John Doe and claims to be ‘an expert’ on such matters. Magazine articles appear, written by Mr. Doe with the suffix ‘MEEPTU’ and ‘ARAFA’ after his name.’
Mr Doe is a good talker and appears on TV and radio talking about this phenomenon. He lets it be known that he has written a book about it. The book comes out and inside, in the foreword, Mr Doe claims to have been a leading authority on aerial phenomena and to have worked for British Aerospace as one of their leading engineers.
This all sounds very good, doesn’t it? The credentials give Mr Doe credibility with the public; surely he must know something about aerial activities? He is looked up to by many people: he is an ‘expert’.
The truth is somewhat different and rather mundane. John Doe is a time-served electrician. He actually worked for Lighting Technology, a (imaginary) company who maintained all sorts of lighting from car parks to street lights. His company had a three year contract to maintain the runway lights at a facility owned by British Aerospace. His credentials-those letters after his name?
Member of the Electrical Engineering and Plumbing Trade Union and Associate Member of the Royal Air Force Association. For the latter you do not even need to have been in the Air Force!
Mr Doe is little more than an ordinary electrician with an interest in flying saucers. Should this be found out, then Bang goes his standing in society, more so when he is up against REAL qualified experts with theories which do not match Mr Doe’s and with REAL qualifications permitting them to have letters after their name.
Let me emphasise that the above is NOT the story of Colin Andrews. It is merely an example of how mundane reality can be made to look interesting. Mr Doe did work ‘at’ British Aerospace, but not ‘For’ British Aerospace. It’s a play on words. To the ordinary man in the street, those strange letters after Mr Doe’s name seem to indicate that he is qualified to speak on matters concerning aerial activity.
CHAPTER TWO
Colin’s ‘Qualifications’
Colin Andrews as he likes to be seen: a ‘Star’ signing autographs for kids…..
(Picture by Blaser Pfeiffer/MBF)
Colin Andrews has always based his reputation on his being a ‘qualified’ man. Without these ‘qualifications’ – he is nothing. No ‘Voice of the Common Man’(my description) ; no ‘Scientist’, no ‘Chief Electrical Engineer’.
Nothing at all.
A Nobody.
And yet he has claimed ‘qualifications’ in the past; letters after his name. So now let’s look at the ‘qualifications’ for which there can be no doubt that Colin was definitely responsible for; his ‘qualifications’ of
M.A.S.E.E. and
A.I.L.E. published along with his name in an early article in ‘
Flying Saucer Review’. I asked the two REAL electrical engineers with whom I had spoken earlier, what they could tell me about these acronyms: Neither of the two engineers had ever heard of MASEE or AILE. In his book
Round in Circles (Schnabel, 1993) American author Jim Schnabel noted Colin’s ‘qualifications’ but couldn’t work out what they were. Odd, since Schnabel was an academic, one would have thought that the sort of qualifications an electrical engineer would have had would be easy to find in the academic circles in which Jim moved and had access to. Obviously they were quite elusive; It took a little searching, but I found the first one:
A.I.L.E.- stands for ‘Associate of the Institute of Lighting Engineers’. Sounds good, doesn’t it? It conjures up a picture of a highly qualified person. I spoke to the Institute who confirmed that Colin Andrews had indeed been an Associate member in the 1980’s. So, what qualifications did one require to be AILE? It must surely need some hard-earned technical qualification at least? No.
All you needed then to become an Associate (now renamed ‘Affiliate’) member of the ILE was to be, and to quote from their website:
“…..Over the age of 21 years and have an interest in lighting….”(21)
-Which is interesting in the light of later claims by Andrews to have been an Electrical Engineer. It is obvious even at that early stage (1986) that he didn’t appear to possess any electrical qualifications higher than City and Guilds otherwise he could have become a full member of the ILE. But don’t take my word for it, this is what the Institute of Lighting Engineers had to say in response to a request:
“…..Colin was an Associate…and should not have used the designatory letters after his name. The grade of Associate (now named ‘Affiliate’) is the lowest level of membership and only requires an ‘interest’ in lighting and the Institution’s work. No qualifications are necessary….”(22)
From which it appears that Colin was most probably, at best, an ordinary, time-served electrician. Let’s take a look at the usual progression for an ordinary electrician.
To start with, a person would normally serve an apprenticeship of four or five years, during which time he would take a series of exams set by the City & Guilds of London Institute, after which he would qualify as an electrician. If a person was quite bright, he/she could progress to a Technician stage, taking Ordinary and/or Higher National Certificates/ Diploma (ONC/HNC or OND/HND). To be a full member of the ILE a person would have to be ONC at least. So, I presumed at this stage that Colin Andrews was, at best, an ordinary time-served electrician who had eventually specialised in certain areas within his latter employer’s (The TVBC) service. However, as he had no real qualifications, why was he using MASEE and AILE after his name? The ILE told us that Colin had no right to use AILE after his name-it wasn’t a recognized title as, say, ‘A.M.I.E.E.’ (Associate Member of the Institute of Electrical Engineers) would be. There can be little doubt that Colin Andrews in these early years of his involvement with crop circles was already using false claims to boost his status.
The next set of Colin’s ‘qualifications’ was M.A.S.E.E: This set of initials which Colin at one time set after his name proved very difficult to track down. I tried the internet and found nothing. I asked members of the Institute of Electrical Engineers and they’d never heard of the name. Which was odd because if it was a recognized body which Colin was qualified enough to join, then surely the country’s most illustrious electrical engineering institute would have heard of it? The ‘M’ obviously stood for ‘Member (of)’ something, but what? Eventually, a member of the IEE advised me that he thought the initials might stand for ‘
Association of Supervisory Executive Engineers’. So, I did some more research and found that there was indeed such a body; the ASEE had their headquarters in a building in Surrey. I looked it up on the net and was able to confirm that the building had an address and a telephone/fax number-but what appeared at first glance to be a genuine recognized society or institute for electrical engineers had no web site.
This was a bit odd as even the smallest of such bodies have got websites. I tried to fax them: No luck; the fax machine was either out of order, didn’t work or had been disconnected. I tried to phone them and found that their phone number actually connected to a private address! The lady I spoke to said that the number used to belong to ‘…an Association of some sort but had been a private number for some years….’ Further research revealed that, rather than being an organization such as the IEE and requiring lots of academic qualifications for membership,
the ASEE was a trade organization that people could join, much in the same way as the ‘Federation of Master Builders’.
You didn’t need to be a qualified electrical engineer with a degree to join. It was very much the same as the Institute of Lighting Engineers: almost anyone could join at the lowest level. I wrote to the ‘Association’ enclosing a SAE but never got a reply. The address now seems to be the home of other trade organizations and the ASEE to have disappeared without trace.
So much for MASEE and AILE! Colin was a member of these organizations but at a level that required no engineering qualifications whatsoever! He again used these suffixes in his entry in ‘International UFO Library Magazine’ in 1992 where he clams to be MIEXE, AILE. ‘MIEXE’ being a different version of MASEE (23). In the same entry he is listed as ‘…Former senior officer in local government as Chief Electrical Engineer with the Test Valley Borough Council in West Hampshire, England…’ Actually, that entry in the International UFO library is worth looking at in detail, as it contains a host of inaccuracies, but, for now, let’s stay with Colin’s job at TVBC.
In his legal exchanges with Paul Fuller’s solicitor, Colin claimed that he was ‘Technical Support Services Officer’ and a copy of an extract from the TVBC Emergency Plan which came into my possession also labelled him as ‘Communications Officer’. This latter is not thought to be a general usage title but the position Colin would have taken in case of Emergency or Civil disruption. At that time this was taken as indicating that
Colin was responsible for ‘…..Demolition or shoring up dangerous buildings. Repairs to sewers, etc: clearance of roads in island agency only….’ All this however, came under the auspices of the TVBC Technical Services department whose Chief Technical Officer was a gentleman called Maurice Orchard. Mr Orchard’s deputy was Mr J.Barrell. The existence of these two posts proves that Andrews was at least two stages removed from the head of department.
Colin was ‘Communications Officer’ and would have dealt with radio set ups and the like, in case of emergency or disaster. (24)
Further evidence from more recent times points to Colin Andrews’s ability to permit himself to be elevated to a status which he was not entitled to. In an independent view of Colin’s tendency to amplify his own status, Andy Thomas, writing in ‘
Swirled News’ about Colin speaking to the CCCS conference in Andover, UK, during August 2000 says:
“……Colin was not overtly quick to correct the impression that he was an eminent scientist/Dr/Professor……” (25)
Oh, and as recently as 1996, 7 years after he claimed, through a solicitor, that he had been misrepresented, he was using headed notepaper which claimed “ Colin Andrews- Best selling author, Broadcaster, Researcher & Founder CPR International.” on the bottom along with his FAKE ‘qualifications: ‘A.I.L.E.’ and ‘M.I.E.X.E’.
No chance there of his being ‘misrepresented’ or that others were claiming him to be something he wasn’t; No: This was Colin’s doing. His headed writing paper and his false claims. (See page at the end of this document)
CHAPTER THREE
During the course of this research, I came across this entry in the International UFO library whereby Colin was claiming, as late as 1992 (and three years AFTER he’d told a solicitor that he, Andrews, had NEVER claimed to be someone he wasn’t, nor misrepresented his position with TVBC) that he was a Senior Officer in local Government, amongst other things. It is worth looking at in detail, as it contains a host of inaccuracies and was most probably written by Colin and, if he didn’t write it, he most certainly was in a position to correct it and failed to do so, allowing these inaccuracies to be released into the public domain. This biography of Colin Andrews followed an article by Colin:-
“…..Colin Andrews is one of the world’s leading experts on the crop circles phenomenon. Co-found (sic) of the Circles Phenomenon Research group, his scientific investigations are responsible for much of the current information available on the subject……”
Let’s pause there and dissect the paragraph: Colin is ‘…..one of the world’s leading experts on the crop circles….’ OK. I won’t deny that Colin probably could have been described as that during the period the biography was written. He certainly co-founded the CPR. However, he is not a scientist and has not carried out any ‘scientific investigations’. He has carried out many, many investigations, but to label them as ‘scientific’ is being economical with the truth. He has never published a paper or papers which could be held up to scrutiny by other scientists. In fact, he has never been really sure what causes the crop circles; in the early days of his research, he always alluded darkly to ‘….an aerial component….’ being involved and has progressed to ‘Electro-magnetic fields’ being involved. But it is all hearsay. He’s never written a proper academic paper setting out his theories and reasons for them. As for being ‘…..responsible for much of the current information…..’ that’s stretching the imagination a bit far. There were many people, still are many people, who have theories and who publish them. There was so much information available in 1992 that Colin could not be responsible for most of it. Some of it-yes; but most of it-no.
Let’s move on.
“…..Andrews is a former senior officer in local government as Chief Electrical Engineer with the Test Valley Borough Council in West Hampshire, England…..”
Hold on. This isn’t true! Remember what Colin said in 1989? Remember what he said in 2004? Here it is again: “I have always stated accurately what my position was with TVBC….”Colin Andrews 2004
Colin was NEVER a ‘senior officer in local government’ at all. He entered Test Valley Council service as an electrician working at a council depot, eventually getting
an office job overseeing street lighting and car parks. This post was known as ‘Technical Support Services Officer’. As we already know, the TVBC did not have a Chief Electrical Engineer at that time and Colin Andrews was NOT QUALIFIED for the job, had it existed.
“…..For three years Colin advised the British Government on the circles phenomenon, supplying technical and scientific reports to the Under Secretary of State for the Margaret Thatcher Government…..”
Whoah!! Colin almost certainly sent reports about what he thought was responsible for the circles to all sorts of people, but a ‘Government Advisor’ he was not. He may well have sent ‘technical reports’ to some politician or other, (26) but ‘Scientific’? Never. The way this is worded sounds as if Colin was employed by the Government or asked to submit reports by them for further analysis. He wasn’t. It’s another play on words. And don’t forget, he’s always claiming that it was the government who were covering up the ‘truth’ about crop circles! So, if he believed that, why was he working for them? Has HE been the major disseminator of disinformation all along?
“…..As a result of his persistence, the subject was raised in the House of Commons and, under Andrews’ supervision, the largest surveillance project of its kind (Operation Blackbird-CS) was coordinated with the British Army to capture the formation of a circle on film…..”
Pants on fire!!! Yes, the subject was mentioned in the House of Commons, but, as I discovered, as a result of the press and publicity, and as a result of parliamentary questions raised on behalf of UFO investigators Paul Fuller and Jenny Randles,(27) not through the ‘dedicated efforts’ of Colin Andrews. And as for his supervising the largest etc, etc, well, his underwear must be blazing! Sure, it probably could claim to be the largest surveillance project of its kind. In fact, there is probably little doubt about that; but Colin DID NOT SUPERVISE IT! The project was not ‘coordinated with the British Army’ either, as we shall see.
CHAPTER FOUR
Colin and ‘Operation Blackbird’
There are obviously more problems with Andrews’ claims when it comes to that 1990 cropwatch which many of us visited, Operation Blackbird. Probably, like myself, many people who went there and read about it thought that Colin and Pat Delgado were responsible for the whole thing, managing to get the BBC, various other TV companies and also the Army on board. This I have discovered, couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s again in books which were written years ago, but seem to have been ignored by Colin and others. Further evidence of Colin Andrews’ propensity to ‘exaggerate’ his involvement in things can be found in his and Pat Delgado’s second book
The Latest Evidence (Bloomsbury, London 1990) in which Colin says:
‘…..With the assistance of Pat, I co-ordinated an intensive surveillance called Operation Blackbird at the Westbury White Horse for three weeks during July 1990…….We had received the highest level of assistance from the British Army and private companies, including the BBC, Nippon Television, Civil Defence Supply, Cloud 9 limited, and Envin Scientific products…..’ (emphasis mine.)(28)
Sounds good, doesn’t it- Colin managing to arrange all this… let’s see what BBC producer/cameraman John Macnish, who was there, has to say:
‘....Mr Michihito Ogawa was planning a programme which aimed to solve the mystery (of the) circles aided by the power of ‘state of the art’ technology and the Japanese Yen. We agreed that the BBC and Nippon would run ‘Operation Blackbird’ and split the footage rights when the cameras recorded the all-important circle formation sequence. Pat and Colin would be responsible for selecting the finely-honed team of dedicated observers, and I would be responsible for assembling a bristling array of video hardware and the budget for the whole thing – about £15000.’ (29)
Interesting, isn’t it? Incidentally, ‘Ogawa’ is the Japanese film producer for Nippon TV, who, I discovered, were the REAL co-partners in the joint venture with the BBC. Colin and Pat were NOT the ‘co-ordinators’ of ‘Operation Blackbird’. They were involved, but were the organizers of the team of observers. The organizers of everything else were John Macnish and David Morgenstern for the BBC and Mr Ogawa for Nippon TV. Elsewhere, in a website interview (30) Colin claimed to have arranged the ‘several million pounds worth’ of cropwatch . Wrong on both the details of the cost and the level of his involvement. This is what Colin had to say:
Colin: '.....Well, it was a very sophisticated, well-planned, and extremely expensive surveillance operation, the largest of its kind anywhere, whereby we cordoned off acres of land and set up a whole collection of cameras and equipment in order to see if we could catch a crop circle being formed on film. We had more than a million pounds' worth of hi-tech equipment there, some of it on loan, some of it provided by the British Army, some of it paid for by the BBC and Nippon Television (Japan). It was a highly sophisticated operation set up in conjunction with the media and - in the event - the military, too. It was planned to go on for ten days....'
Interviewer: The military were involved?
Colin: '...It turned out that way, yes. Although I don't want to name names, I can say that within the first twenty-four hours - and remember we were on MoD land - two Army officers turned up and volunteered the technical assistance of the British Army. We were asked to leave the site for a confidential meeting with them, which took place in my car. We were offered the assistance of military personnel and equipment, but only if we would collaborate with them....'
What a lot of rubbish! We’ve seen above that there was only £15,000 worth of kit in use, so where does Colin get the other £985,000 from? Does he count the cost of everyone’s car and clothes as well? Even that wouldn’t get anywhere near a million. AND he strongly hints that HE was in charge when or course we know he wasn’t.
And they did not ‘…cordon off acres of land…’ either. It’s doubtful that they even covered an acre on top of the hill. The public were free to wander in and out of the roped-off area.
And what about the Army? For certain Colin did not have two soldiers volunteering the ‘technical assistance’ of the Army. They were there so where did they fit in? Well, just behind the area of Bratton castle – a hill fort from the Iron Age, lies Salisbury Plain and the British Army training grounds. The Army owns most of the land in and around the Plain and leases some of it back to farmers. As landlords, they were, naturally, interested in such an intensive surveillance operation at their back door, so to speak, and so a few soldiers were detailed to attend the operation-more to ensure that the public didn’t stray over the fences onto the training area than to note any involvement with UFOs. And again, if Colin was right, it begs the question – why does he think that the government were covering up the ‘truth’ about crop circles when HE was so closely involved with the government?
It still gives the impression that Colin Andrews must be the man employed by the government to make mockery of the whole subject, thereby ensuring that the ‘real truth’ stays covered up. He is Mr. Cover-Up! Assuming, that is, if you believe that sort of thing: I don’t.
But, just to be absolutely certain, I filed a request for information under the UK Freedom of Information Act. I asked what involvement the British Army had in ‘Operation Blackbird’ and in what way did they co-ordinate the event with Colin Andrews. When the information arrived, it was shocking, to say the least. The Army and the Ministry of Defence had NO involvement with the event at all. Remember, this is Freedom of Information-they can’t lie!
So: Colin is lying again; if the MoD and the Army had no involvement with the operation and had no interest in crop circles, then it follows that they had no involvement in jointly co-ordinating Blackbird. There was no ‘confidential meeting’ between the Army and Colin. He is lying and lying. It’s serious stuff, too. Such is the assumed self-importance of the man that he acts like a child in a school playground, making up stories to impress others and to boost his own ego. Blackbird was not jointly organised by Colin Andrews and Pat Delgado with the assistance of the British Army; No: it was organised by the BBC and Nippon TV as John Macnish recalls above.
Colin’s job was to organise a ‘finely-honed’ team of observers-some of whom were consequently revealed, in 1992, to have been hoaxing circles themselves!
It’s time to look further at Colin and the British Government. Let’s look at some blurb by Colin:
“…..Andrews is an electrical engineer by profession and a former senior officer in British regional Government. For three years Colin advised the British Government on the crop circle phenomenon, supplying technical and scientific reports to the Under-Secretary of State for the environment (Rt. Hon. Nicholas Ridley, M.P.) in the Margaret Thatcher cabinet. As a result of his persistence, the subject was raised in the House of Commons....”
Copy of the letter from the MoD regarding the British Army’s alleged involvement with ‘Operation Blackbird’
OK, so we’ve dealt with these errors previously, but let’s look into this in more detail. Here’s a clip from the
Andover Advertiser, 20 July 1990:
“….Andover’s MP asked to help with mystery of corn circles
The secret of the corn circles could be revealed by Government-funded research into the phenomenon after Andover MP, Sir David Mitchell, was given a guided tour of circles by local expert, Colin Andrews.
Mr Andrews had asked the MP to attempt to persuade the Government to take an interest and after the visit David Mitchell met environment minister, David Trippier, his chief scientific adviser and agriculture ministry experts to discuss the mystery.
That has led to the Government-funded Natural Environment Research Council being asked to start investigations.
Colin Andrews commented: ‘The mystery is nowhere near being cracked but I feel optimistic for the first time. David Mitchell was quite bowled over and could not quite believe what he was looking at. He took copious notes and photographs.’
The biggest surveillance of circles begins, for three weeks, on MoD land on the edge of Salisbury Plain this weekend, involving investigators from the UK, Germany, America and Japan. (This was Operation Blackbird-CS)
Whatever is found Andrews is sure of one thing – freakish weather is not responsible and he told an international conference in Oxford of his views.
‘….It was intellectual dishonesty. They only gave examples which fitted a weather theory.(31) I got up and blew that apart…..’
Busty Taylor, Andover’s other circle researcher, was also present…..”
Well, what do we make of that? Notice that in this article, and the later one in the
Hampshire Chronicle, it is all Andrews making the claim – nowhere is there a direct quote from Sir David Mitchell, MP. Perhaps his role in the affair is not to be divulged by anyone except Andrews! And he isn’t quite telling the truth here about the Oxford Conference; No; Hang on, let’s be fair to poor old Colin: perhaps I ought to make allowances - OK, he was telling the truth – I take it all back. Yes, he DID stand up! That bit’s true! But as for ‘….blowing (the weather theory) apart…’ No. He had his little tantrum and was very rude to Professor Meaden because the conference didn’t go HIS (Andrews’) way but all he did was voice HIS opinion to a room full of people who had come to listen to the weather-based theory! For goodness’ sake what did he expect?
I have spoken to several people who attended that Oxford conference and all agree that Andrews is wrong to claim that he ‘…blew it apart…’
As for the other organisations involved in ‘Blackbird’, Cloud 9 is a company that ran a remote telescopic camera and detector system, known as ‘Skystalk’ and had been engaged not by Colin or Pat, but by the BBC. Civil Defence Supply provided lighting equipment and high intensity lamps, floodlights and portable non-generator lighting, Dragon Portable Searchlights and accessories. I contacted Civil Defence Supply who confirmed that they had indeed been at ‘Blackbird’ but after all this time could not recall accurately whether it was Nippon TV or the BBC who had engaged them. It certainly wasn’t Colin. (They did tell me about a series of clever hoaxes which were perpetrated on the hapless ‘Blackbird’ watchers and which were filmed and proven to be hoaxes but never publicised.) There were some good stories about ‘Blackbird’ which have never been told, but these are beyond the remit of this document.
However, it has been claimed that Colin Andrews could not recognise a hoaxed crop circle if it jumped up and bit him on the nose. He has often said that ‘….We can eliminate the hoax theory once and for all…..’ so when a newspaper reported that 98 circles had appeared in heather near Hay-on-Wye in July 1989,
Colin was able to state quite clearly that there was no human element involved. He and others flew over the circles (they didn’t visit them in person…..) and were, by all accounts, quite happy with their ‘authenticity’.
Then a reporter from BBC Wales actually went to the site of these circles and found out the truth. They were circles made by a farmer who dragged a rake behind his tractor, as he had done each and every summer for many years in order to attract young grouse to the area! The young birds apparently feed on the exposed shoots of the heather. I suppose Colin was right, though…they weren’t deliberate hoaxes…..
Tongue out of cheek, Colin’s ability to tell one famous brand of washing powder from a lesser one failed to stand up to scrutiny on more than one other occasion, especially that at Blackbird where he was caught out in full view of the world’s press.
The way Colin has allowed this to be written, it sounds as though he sat down with the army and planned it all. We now not only know that he didn’t – we’ve proved that he didn’t! And let’s not forget that when the infamous event at ‘Blackbird’ eventually happened, Colin was at home in bed rather than on site, ‘supervising’. Let’s move on again.
