Immediate Release
J. Barry Bitzer
July 28th, 1995
Washington: Congressman Steve Schiff today released the General Accounting Office (GAO) report detailing results of a records audit related to events surrounding a crash in 1947, near Roswell, New Mexico, and the military response.
The 20 page report is the result of constituent information requests to Congressman Schiff and the difficulty he had getting answers from the Department of Defense in the now 48-year-old controversy.
Schiff said important documents, which may have shed more light on what happened at Roswell, are missing. "The GAO report states that the outgoing messages from Roswell Army Air Field (RAAF) for this period of time were destroyed without proper authority. Schiff pointed out that these messages would have shown how military officials in Roswell were explaining to their superiors exactly what happened.
"It is my understanding that these outgoing messages were permanent records, which should never have been destroyed. The GAO could not identify who destroyed the messages, or why." But Schiff pointed out that the GAO estimates that the messages were destroyed over 40 years ago, making further inquiry about their destruction impractical.
Documents revealed by the report include an FBI teletype and reference in a newsletter style internal forum at RAAF that refer to a "radar tracking device" - a reference to a weather balloon. Even though the weather balloon story has since been discredited by the US Air Force, Schiff suggested that the authors of those communications may have been repeating what they were told, rather than consciously adding to what some believe is a "cover up."
"At least this effort caused the Air Force to acknowledge that the crashed vehicle was no weather balloon," Schiff said. "That explanation never fit the fact of high military security used at the time." The Air Force in September, 1994 claimed that the crashed vehicle was a then-classified device to detect evidence of possible Soviet nuclear testing.
Schiff also praised the efforts of the GAO, describing their work as "professional, conscientious and thorough."
A two page letter discussing a related investigation into "Majestic 12" was also delivered.
Schiff will be available to the media Saturday, July 29th, from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM (Eastern) at 2404 Rayburn MOB in Washington, DC and by telephone: (202) 225-6316.
A copy of the report may be obtained by calling (202) 512-6000 and referencing Document number GAO/NSIAD-95-187.
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