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 Disclaimer : I write this for Renaud Marhic who does not have Internet
              access. --  
                               Emmanuel Marin 
                               Hanneton@frulm63.bitnet

 The Ummo case : UFO manipulation in Europe

 During January '66, several Spanish citizens from Madrid received
 anonymous letters mailed from Spain, but also from all over the world:
 Australia, Canada, Switzerland, West-Berlin, etc...
 These letters, which never mentioned the adress of the sender, carried
 the following stamp :

                                 )+(

  This is the stamp of a so-called "Unified government of the planet
  Ummo", and the letters were signed by a so-called "extraterrestrial
  expeditionary group" on a mission on Earth, and especially in Spain.
  The most important characteristic of these letters was that they
  contained, amongst unverifiable scientific topics, lots of clearly
  anti-Franco, anti-American, pro-communist statements.
  
  Some letters from Ummo (Ummo case consists of thousands of letters !)
  had been brought to the attention of the Spanish population thanks to
  the Spanish press, radio  and TV, and to the recipients. Some of them
  wrote books dealing with Ummo: 
        
        "Ummo : Another Inhabited Planet"          Fernando Sesma, 1967
        "Looking Toward The Edge Of The Universe"  Father Enrique Lopez 
                                                     Guerrero, 1968 
        "The Ummo Mystery"                         Antonio Ribera, 1975 
  
  The recipients had also created an association called ERIDANI, 
  in order to study the Ummo case.
  
  After 1975 and Franco's death, the letters were rarer, but they
  continued to denounce the USA, capitalism, American military policy, 
  etc... Since the eighties, some Spanish and French ufologists have 
  strongly suspected that Ummo was a political manipulation and that 
  Mr. Jose Luis Jordan Pena, the chairman of ERIDANI (!), was the 
  principal author of the mystification. But he strongly denied it.

  In April '93, Mr. Jose Luis Jordan Pena admitted for the very first
  time his guilt. He made the following statement to some Spanish
  journalists and ufologists : 
  
        "I am the man who has written the letters from Ummo." 
  
  But he absolutely refused to talk about his motive, his goals, and 
  the political aspects of the case. The French UFO network SOS OVNI 
  has published in its magazine Phenomena some papers about the 
  political aspects of Ummo and Jose Luis Jordan Pena. An investigator 
  of SOS OVNI has also published a book titled: 
  
        "Ummo Case : The Extraterrestrials Who Came In From The Cold"
  
  Today, the inquiry is still on-going. Here are some of the first 
  recipients of the letters in Spain (1966):

        Fernando Sesma : ufologist and esoterist.
        Alicia Araujo : secretary of the USA Embassy
        Dionisio Garrido : policeman
        Antonio Ribera : journalist and writer
        Raphael Farriols : chairman of industry
  
  Here are two typical statements of Ummo :
  
        1966 : "Mr Sesma, you are a man unknown in the scientific 
        field and in the  philosophical field, but you are a courageous 
        and independant man in a  country internationally reputed as 
        the most backward country in Europe, lead by a dictatorial 
        government connected with nazi and fascist experiences. Your 
        country is suffering from the opressions forbiding all 
        scientific, technological and ideological developments. 
        All the great intellectuals are in exile or have been punished 
        with death by the oligarchs like Garcia Lorca."

        1987 : "Gorbatchev is clever and honest (...) Marxism is the 
        best political way (...) AIDS has been created by the US Army."
  
  Any comments from persons knowledgeable in manipulation and
  disinformation on the following topics will be appreciated :

        -Why Ummo?
  
        -Did Jose Luis Jordan Pena work as an agent of disinformation 
         for the Soviet Union or for the Spanish communists?

        -Did the ex-KGB create the Ummo case for psychological war?

        -Has ufology often been manipulated like that ?