Instead of recognizing the preposterousness of the Air Force's contention outlined in the book that dead aliens witnesses saw in 1947 were actually anthropomorphic dummies used in high-altitude balloon drops in the 1950s, the mainstream media bought the story hook, line and sinker and never bothered to investigate the outrageous contention further.

Twelve years later, the "dummy" explanation is still referenced as a matter of fact by skeptic organizations and cable television documentaries that appear on channels such as the National Geographic Channel, which not surprisingly receives some government funding.

The 1997 book was actually a sequel to the Air Force's 1994 debunking volume, "The Roswell Report: Fact vs. Fiction in the New Mexico Desert." The first book contended that wreckage from a flying saucer seen by hundreds of witnesses was actually remnants of a weather balloon. The Air Force, after initially reporting in 1947 that it recovered a crashed flying saucer on a ranch outside of Roswell, quickly changed its story by saying the wreckage was only a downed weather balloon.

When Jesse Marcel Sr., a former Air Force major who was the top intelligence officer at the Roswell Army Air Forces Base at the time of the UFO crash, told noted UFO researcher Stanton Friedman in the late 1970s that the material he handled in 1947 was not of this world, it inspired numerous other witnesses to step forward and break their long silence. Many of the witnesses said some Army Air Forces personnel in 1947 threatened to kill them if they ever talked about what they saw or heard. As the story became bigger throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, the Air Force obviously felt pressured to make a statement. That statement was delivered in the Air Force's 1994 book, which contended the weather balloon was actually a balloon part of a top-secret project called Mogul. The balloon that fell on the ranch near Roswell, according to the Air Force, was used to determine whether Russia was detonating any atomic bombs.

The only problem with the 1994 book, which was written by Air Force Col. Richard L. Weaver and Air Force Captain James McAndrew, was that it did not offer an explanation to witness reports of alien bodies recovered at the site. Numerous first-hand and second-hand accounts of alien bodies had become a fascinating aspect of the Roswell story. The beings in many accounts were described as very thin, about four-feet tall in stature, having only four digits on each hand as opposed to five, being gray in color, having heads that appeared too large for their bodies, and sporting wide concave dark eyes.

Because the 1994 book failed to cover this integral part of the Roswell story, the Air Force ordered McAndrew to pen another book that offered an explanation. This must have been a tall order for McAndrew. After all, how does one dispel numerous accounts of dead alien bodies being made by Americans who have nothing to gain by going public with their knowledge? But McAndrew cleverly figured out a way - by making the witnesses appear stupid. He dug deep into the archives and discovered that anthropomorphic dummies were used by the Air Force to test the effects parachuting from incredible heights would have on a human being. Sometimes a dummy payload dropped from a great height would miss its intended target and dummies would be found first by unwitting citizens rather than Air Force personnel charged with making the recovery.

The only problem with making this the explanation in "Case Closed" was that the dummy drops occurred between 1953 and 1959, and not anywhere near 1947. But McAndrew realized that the best way to get around this discrepancy is to make the witnesses appear even more stupid by contending they got their years mixed up. McAndrew also made it a point not to interview the many first-hand and second-hand witnesses who claimed to see alien bodies. Instead, he stuck with a mere handful.

"Case Closed" is actually is a great comedic offering. Perhaps McAndrew missed his true calling? For instance, one of the witnesses interviewed by McAndrew was Gerald Anderson, who was a mere lad of five when he saw alien bodies in 1947. Anderson told McAndrew, according to the book, that when he saw the bodies, "'I thought they were plastic dolls … I didn't think they were real." Anderson also told McAndrew that the crashed saucer looked like a "'blimp,'" according to "Case Closed."

In his assessment of Anderson's statements, McAndrew concluded that Anderson's terms "strongly suggests that a balloon with an anthropomorphic dummy payload was the foundation for this testimony."

As for Anderson's statement that the crewmembers looked like "'plastic dolls.'" McAndrew opined that that "seems an odd choice of words to describe an extraterrestrial being and is a likely reference to an anthropomorphic dummy whose skin was made of plastic."

Oh, really? Why is it an odd choice of words? How does McAndrew know what an extraterrestrial being looks like if he supposedly never saw one? Later in the book, McAndrew states that "it is clear anthropomorphic dummies were responsible for these accounts." How is it clear? He interviewed only several witnesses, he offered no proof whatsoever to his contention, and the book in no way closes the case of Roswell. Every contention McAndrew makes in the book is his opinion. Although factual information regarding the Air Force dummy drop operation is presented, McAndrew takes it upon himself to tie it to the Roswell incident without factual information.

As for reports that aliens were seen at the Roswell AAF hospital in 1947, "Case Closed" contends that they are "most probably" rooted in an accident that occurred in 1959! Capt. Dan D. Fulgham, according to the book, suffered a "traumatic hematoma" on his forehead after being struck by a balloon gondola in Roswell. "Case Closed" even includes a photograph of Fulgham shortly after the accident wearing a large bandage on his head.

But how is Fulgham's accident "most probably" responsible for the events that were reported in Roswell in 1947? It happened 12 years later. How is that believable?

Why did no editor from the Washington Post or New York Times realize that McAndrew's contention was completely ridiculous and assign a slew of reporters on the story to uncover the truth? Did anybody in the mainstream media even read the book? Did they merely cut and paste excerpts from the Air Force press release and move on with their lives?

Regarding threats made to civilians, McAndrew stated that these allegations "are profoundly inaccurate." "Threats, intimidation, or other types of misconduct by Balloon Branch personnel would have served no purpose since without the cooperation of local persons, many recoveries (of weather balloons and dummies) would not have been possible," he wrote. The problem with McAndrew's statement here is that a number of civilians said they were threatened with death if they ever talked about what they saw or heard. They weren't being threatened to keep quiet about finding dummies or balloons in the desert. Of course, the military would never threaten civilians to keep quiet about dummies and/or balloons. Civilians would be threatened, however, if what they saw were a crashed flying saucer and dead alien bodies.

Why else would these numerous civilians, after years of keeping quiet, suddenly decide to break their collective silence? Did they all get together and decide that they would back up Marcel's story with lies of their own? No way. In the final analysis, the Air Force story is more incredible than the recovery of a flying saucer and alien bodies in 1947 Roswell.

Unfortunately, the mainstream media has done nothing to get to the bottom of this story. They have the resources and personnel to finally blow the lid off of Roswell and the entire UFO phenomenon. When the mainstream media does finally decide to get serious about UFOs, it should start by reading Richard M. Dolan's very excellent two-volume history of the U.S. government's cover-up, "UFOs and the National Security State," Friedman's "Flying Saucers and Science," and Thomas J. Carey's and Donald R. Schmitt's "Witness to Roswell." These researchers, among others, have been doing for years what the mainstream media has failed to do - find the truth.

Those in control of the mainstream media, in effect, are the true dummies of Roswell because they continue to drop the ball on the biggest story of all time.