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Stanton Friedman has done exhaustive research into the various claims of Bob Lazar and, as a
consequence, Friedman dismisses Lazar as a complete fraud. It's worthy of note that Friedman is, arguably, the
pre-eminent UFO researcher on the planet Earth - often
referred to as the "Grandfather of Ufology" his background as a real, bona-fide nuclear physicist
and his meticulous approach to ufological research have made him a living legend.
In short, I think that it's reasonable
to assume that (1) Friedman has no particular axe to grind with Lazar, and, (2) that his
research findings are honest, and, accurate. Also, for many years there was a web site online
(now defunct) owned by a gentleman named Tom Mahood
which also looked into Lazar's claims. In analyzing the case Mahood often relied on the subjective
findings of Friedman's research, but, Mahood also did a considerable amount of his own investigating; he had
a reasonable amount of correspondence with Bob
Lazar and his buddy, Gene Huff, as he endeavored to get to the bottom of things. Mahood's analysis struck me as
both scholarly, and, unbiased - he wasn't a "debunker", whatsoever, and Mahood initially found Lazar's claims
tantalizing. Under scrutiny, however, Mahood ultimately arrived at the same conclusion as Freidman - that Lazar
could not be believed.
At any rate, thanks to people like Stanton Friedman and Tom Mahood, we can feel pretty comfortable (in my opinion) accepting the
following points as reliable "facts":
- Lazar graduated in the bottom third of his
high school class.
- Despite this lackluster academic performance in high school, Lazar claims to have
attended various institutions of higher learning, including the
academically esteemed Massachusetts Institute of Technology (where he says that he earned a Masters degree
in physics). He states: "I wrote my thesis on MHD, which is magnetohydrodynamics".
He says that
he also has a Masters degree in electronics - from, well, somehwere....
At one time or another, Lazar claims to have attended the following schools:
- Pierce Junior College, California
- California Institute of Technology (Cal Tech)
- California State University at Northridge
- MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
The problems with the above: with the exception of Pierce College, not one of the schools listed above has any record of Lazar's attendence.
Further, when pressed, Lazar cannot recall the name of one instructor, academic advisor, study buddy, etc. at any of these schools.
And, similarly, Friedman found that virtually no staff members at any of these schools (with the exception of
Pierce Junior College) remembered ever meeting Bob Lazar - no one had ever heard of Lazar. Friedman did confirm that Lazar
took a few courses at Pierce College - that was all he could find.
A bit queer, as well, is Lazar's inability to recall the exact year of his graduation from MIT - certainly the capstone of
his academic career. When asked, he's given various dates and simply states that he can't recall the year with
certainty.
- Regarding the absence of documentation for his academic career Lazar purports that all of the important records
relating to his life - academic, and otherwise - have been systematically wiped out in a campaign mounted by some
clandestine force to simply "erase him as a human being".
- While it would be certainly be a formidable task to remove every paper trace of someone's
college career (and life) one could argue that this kind of scenario is, at least, a theoretical possibility.
- Conversely (relating to the previous list item) it would certainly be impossible to erase the memories of the
students and faculty at MIT (and all of the other colleges). There are extraordinary problems with Lazar's MIT claims.
As a gradute student Lazar would have worked very closely with an academic advisor (possibly more than one), been required to submit papers
for peer review, and more. Lazar could also claim that aliens flew him to Mars, sold him a piece of land, gave him a deed, and that
he erected a motel on the property. This may seem a stretch, as far as anologies go, but for anyone vaguley familiar with what's
involved in earning an advanced science degree from a college like MIT, it's not much of a stretch. Again, a graduate student
in physics would have a very high-profile, generally, and a great amount of interaction with faculty, peers, and - very often -
the scientific community at large.
A scenario in which a person completes a course of study, as detailed by Lazar, and is subsequently completely forgotten by virtually
everyone is tranparently ridiculous and impossible (irrespective of the missing paper trail). I think that most clear-thinking,
rational humn beings would have to say that Bob Lazar - at the very least - did not complete graduate studies in physics
at MIT (whether or not he was ever a student at MIT is less clear - though I believe it to be highly unlikely).
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