Over the past number of years a lot has been written about a crash of
an object at Kecksburg, Penn. on Dec.9,1965, and the movement of the
recovered object to WPAFB.

 In the Sept.1993 issue of Omni Mr. James Oberg " hinted " that the
cause of the crash was the Soviet Cosmos-96 probe. Following my
disclosure that Dr. Eric Walker, former President of Penn. State
University, and former high ranking government official involved with
the UFO situation from the start, had rushed to the Kecksburg crash site
- Mr. Oberg again hinted that Walker presence was indicative of the
crash of Cosmos-96.

 However during the internet debate, related to Mr. Oberg's theory, Mr.
Oberg chose to remain silent, except to send me a personal E-mail
questioning why I would trust Soviet statements on Cosmos-96. Mr. Oberg
chose to leave the defense of his position to TRW physicist Dr. Michael
Hofmeister, who unfortunately was ill prepared to defend Mr. Oberg's
theory. Dr. Hofmeister finally admitted that he had never even read Mr.
Oberg Omni article outlining the theory.

 James Oberg has always been described as an expert on the Soviet Space
Program, and as a hard-line UFO skeptic. He has been very vocal about
the accuracy of his information. " I've been waiting," James Oberg once
said, " for an ufonut to describe a factual error or checkable
counter-example to stuff I've been publishing since about, oh, 1974 or
so on UFOs, and so far no luck..."

 Because of these things many chose to accept Oberg Cosmos-96 theory
without checking. Because of Mr. Oberg outspoken confidence in his facts
concerning UFOs, it seemed strange that Mr. Oberg chose to stay out of
the defense of his pet theory relating to the Kecksburg crash, leaving
it for others not as smart as himself to defend.

 In preparation for a paper on the Kecksburg crash, I came across a
number of new pieces of information. Among those was an item that might
explain why Mr. Oberg has been so silent about his Cosmos-96 theory so
proudly displayed to the world in 1993. The quote is from David
Templeton's special investigation into the Kecksburg crash called " The
Uninvited " and written up in the Pittsburgh Press newspaper June 19,1991.
The quote speaks for itself;


" Oberg reviewed orbital coordinates for the probe that the Pittsburgh
Press obtained from the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
Although Cosmos-96's orbit crossed the Northeastern United States, he
said the tracking coordinates prove that it could not have come down in
Kecksburg at 4:46 p.m. - the hour the fireball was seen there... 
'Cosmos-96 is not guilty,' Oberg concluded."