NICAP-RESEARCH THREAD ON SARBACHER
18 Feb 2017
The Sarbacher - Smith interview was on Sept 15, not 12, 1950, and it
is not at all clear whether it was in-person or by telephone. The
sensational comments that the saucer subject was "classified two
points higher than the H-bomb" is absurd on its face as there has
never been a "point" system of classification, and the person
uttering the nonsense (Sarbacher) was either deliberately
misinforming Smith (I have some evidence suggesting it was 1950 CIA
disinformation) or didn't know such basic things as what the Atomic
Energy Act "RD" (Restricted Data) control system involved, nor the
Greek letter subdivisions of RD material not "points." No
substantiation has ever been found for any of this, not the "small
group," not the "two points higher," nothing. Something like
the design of the H-bomb was SECRET or TOP SECRET RD SIGMA-1 for
thermonuclear weapons design data, Sigma-2 for fission weapons, etc.
(Sigma-1 through 13 have been retired). I see no "insider"
knowledge of this by Sarbacher (or Smith).
Brad Sparks
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Hi, Fran,
I may be the only person on this list who actually spoke with
Sarbacher. He was a pleasant man who seemed sincere, but
nothing he said has added up in the decades since. I think his
testimony, whatever its inspiration (I don’t claim to know), is of
no value, barring independent confirmation which has never come to
light.
Jerry Clark
========
I agree that he was pleasant and seemed to be apologetic that he
couldn't recall all the details.
What he told me is substantially the same as what he wrote
to\ Steinman,
I seem to recall that Stan located one man who worked in the same
group as Sarbacher but he didn't know anything.
Bruce Maccabee
============
Sorry, Bruce, it had slipped my mind that you’d talked with
Sarbacher, too. I should have checked with my own account,
titled “Sarbacher Episode,” in the 2nd ed of my UFO
Encyclopedia (pp. 813-817). You’re mentioned there as having
interviewed the man. It sounds as if he said to you pretty
much what he said to me. In the entry I detail the various aspects,
including the roles played by William Steinman, Whitley Strieber,
and Philip Corso who exaggerated (i.e., lied about) Sarbacher’s
claims, which were already problematic if relatively modest compared
to those the fabulists attributed to him.
Jerry Clark