SUMMARY OF AUGUST 27, 2008 EMAIL CORRESPONDENCE WITH MICHAEL HORN

Billy Meier publicist, Michael Horn, runs the website www.theyfly.com. On August 27, 2008 he admitted to intentionally posting false and misleading articles on his website in order to deceive the public about the claims of Billy Meier. What follows is an edited summary of that admission. You can read the original/unedited series of August 27, 2008 emails here. You can read the Independent Investigations Group's press release concerning this event here.

The circumstances that led to this admission of guilt began with this email sent by Michael Horn to Derek Bartholomaus of the Independent Investigations Group (IIG) and others.

From: Michael Horn
Date: August 27, 2008 12:22:32 PM PDT
To: Derek Bartholomaus, James Underdown, Philip Plait, Michael Shermer
Subject: Early Warning System

Yoo hoo, Derek!

Since I'm always gracious enough to give you plenty of warning of how thoroughly I'm going to reveal and skewer your incompetence, I hope that you didn't think that I had forgotten about yet another faux pas of yours, i.e. your claim that Marcel Vogel had used - are you ready - an electron scanning microscope to detect the presence of thulium in the metal sample!

And of course you're on record for all the world to see (which it is and they are, etc.) making that silly, false, statement. 

I hope that you have informed your fellow pseudo-scientists of your planned transition into the field of satire and comedy, as it will eliminate the necessity for them to do a Vaughn Rees on you.

But let's keep you around just a little bit longer as your contribution to the success of my personal mission, with visitors to my site from 137 countries, is obviously worthy of acknowledgement...and further promotion.

You pal,

MH

Derek Bartholomaus then responded with this email:

From: Derek Bartholomaus
Date: August 27, 2008 12:55:49 PM PDT
To: Michael Horn
Cc: James Underdown, Philip Plait, Michael Shermer
Subject: Re: Early Warning System

Hello Michael.

I would be happy to tell you where I got that piece of information.  It came from a website that you may be familiar with called www.theyfly.com.  If you go to the "Evidence" pulldown menu on the front page and click on "Scientific Analysis of Evidence" you will get the attached PDF [article is called “MeierEvidence.pdf].

On page 2 it states the following:
Marcel Vogel: Research chemist for IBM for twenty-two years, held thirty-two patents, and invented the magnetic disk coating memory system still used in IBM disk memories. A specialist in the conversion of energy inside crystals, Vogel probed crystalline structures with the most complete optical microscopic equipment available in the world - a system of scanning electron microscopes costing $250,000. Lieut. Col. Wendelle Stevens, USAF (Ret.): One of the original investigators in the Meier case. In 1979, he sent Vogel crystals and metal samples Meier had received from the Plejaren. Vogel reported, ”When I touched the oxide with a stainless steel probe, red streaks appeared and the oxide coating disappeared. I just touched the metal like that, and it started to deoxidize and become a pure metal. I have never seen a phenomenon like that before.” Of another metal sample containing nearly every element in the periodic table, Vogel stated, “Each pure element was bonded to each of the others, yet somehow retained its own identity.” At 500 X magnification thulium was revealed. “Thulium exists only in minute amounts. It is exceedingly expensive, far beyond platinum, and rare to come by. Someone would have to have an extensive metallurgical knowledge even to be aware of a composition of this type", said Vogel. At 1600 X Vogel said, "A whole new world appears in the specimen. There are structures within structures - very unusual." At 2500 X he found that the sample was, “metal, but at the same time ... it is crystal!"

I agree that publicly stating such a thing for several years is silly and incompetent, but the incompetence is all yours Michael.  And your incompetence has been on display to the world since, at least, 2004.

I look forward to your soon to be published press release announcing your incompetence.  By the way, don't bother updating your website in order to hide your incompetence because I have already saved an archive of it in its current form.

Have a good day.

Derek Bartholomaus
Independent Investigations Group

Michael Horn then responded with the following:

From: Michael Horn
Date: August 27, 2008 1:17:42 PM PDT
To: Derek Bartholomaus
Cc: James Underdown, Philip Plait, Michael Shermer
Subject: Re: Early Warning System

Hi Derek,

Yes, thanks for taking the hook on that one too! Of course that's where you found it.

We left that one there but put the correct info, for all the world to see at http://theyfly.com/PDF/Scientific%20Experts.PDF

This is where Michael Horn revealed that he intentionally posted false and misleading articles on his website in order to deceive the public about the claims of Billy Meier.  Derek Bartholomaus then responded with the following email:

From: Derek Bartholomaus
Date: August 27, 2008 1:38:25 PM PDT
To: Michael Horn
Cc: James Underdown, Philip Plait, Michael Shermer
Subject: Re: Early Warning System

Hello Michael.

Thank you for admitting on the record that your website intentionally posts false, misleading, or fraudulent articles in order to try and support the claims of Billy Meier.

-Derek

After receiving this Michael Horn then replied with:

From: Michael Horn
Date: August 27, 2008 2:35:32 PM PDT
To: Derek Bartholomaus
Cc: James Underdown, Philip Plait, Michael Shermer
Subject: Re: Early Warning System

Not at all.

MH

And so it is with this final remark that Michael Horn confirms his guilt that he did knowingly, and intentionally, post false and misleading articles on his website in order to deceive the public about the UFO claims of Billy Meier.  And just so that there is not any confusion as to what Michael Horn meant when he wrote “not at all” here is the etymology of that phrase from the All Experts website:  “The phrase 'not at all' is akin to similar shorthand phrases such as 'don't mention it', 'my pleasure', 'you're welcome', etc.”

This is not the first time that proponents of Billy Meier have published false and misleading articles about the claims of Billy Meier, but it is the first time that one of them has publicly admitted to doing so.