posted 02-27-2011 06:22 AM               

Space Shuttle Challenger Explosion: True FBI Files, Part 2 - FBI Freedom of Information Privacy Acts Section (Kindle version)

This is a terrible publication and I'm only posting here to warn others to stay away. The "book" seems to be a bunch of photocopied memos that came about as a request under the Freedom of Information Act. Most of the text is not readable, see screen grabs below. What I can glean from the readable text is the following: an alleged American military person may have been stationed in Germany and may have heard a rumor about an organization whose aim was "to get NASA"; a reporter filming the launch claims to have seen a bullet enter the ET just before the explosion; and the most preposterous claim, that the accident was a terrorist attack planned by Oriental Americans working at NASA, one of whom chose to die on the doomed flight.

The truth is we all know what brought Challenger down that cold morning in Florida. These ridiculous claims, and especially the last assertion, a blatant personal attack on an American astronaut who was one of the best and brightest persons in this country, makes me very angry. I don't know if it's illegal, or libelous, or whatever; but the bottom line is don't buy this book. The author has seen fit to omit their name from it (at least I couldn't find it) and that alone should tell you enough about this very poor attempt at a publication.

posted 02-27-2011 08:28 AM               

In the Challenger files (an earlier version of which I have as a PDF), you find there are a disturbing number of cranks who gave such tips to the FBI, alleging conspiracies and various other sorts of nefarious acts that were, in reality, nothing more than the products of diseased minds. However, that's what FBI files often turn out to be: a lot of these kinds of tips that often turn out to be worthless once investigated, but that are retained nonetheless and must be released under the Freedom of Information Act.

While some of the stuff in these files is indeed very offensive, it's not the fault of the book, its compilers, or the FBI; it's the fault of the deranged individuals who made up these stories and told them to the FBI in 1986.