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Forrestal Met British Defense Officials Week After Majestic 12 Directive in 1947

Reality Check with Ross Coulthart · Watergate, the JFK assassination and a UFO secret at the center of it all | Reality Check · June 18, 2026
Forrestal Met British Defense Officials Week After Majestic 12 Directive in 1947
Reality Check with Ross Coulthart
Reality Check with Ross Coulthart
Watergate, the JFK assassination and a UFO secret at the center of it all | Reality Check
"Within one week of the Truman directive to Bush and Forrestal to in fact set up Majestic 12 and to report directly to him at the beginning of October 1947, Forrestal then had a meeting with Sir Henry Tizard, who at that time was the chief scientific advisor to the Ministry of Defense."
Kaplan disclosed that Defense Secretary James Forrestal met with UK Chief Scientific Advisor Sir Henry Tizard within one week of the September 24, 1947 Truman directive establishing Majestic 12. Following the lunch with Forrestal and Vannevar Bush on October 1, 1947, Tizard returned to the UK and established a secret Flying Saucer Working Party in the Ministry of Defense. Kaplan verified these meetings through multiple contemporaneous diaries and UK Ministry documents stating only one copy of the report would be produced and sent to Tizard following 'the American lead' on secrecy.

About this episode

Host Ross Coulthart interviewed Jonathan Kaplan KC, a senior British barrister with over 50 years' experience in high-profile fraud and intelligence cases, about his newly published book on UFOs and the Majestic 12 documents. Kaplan, who served on the editorial board of Flying Saucer Review and personally delivered copies to Prince Philip's equerry at Buckingham Palace, applied his forensic legal skills to authenticate leaked government UFO documents. The conversation centered on previously undisclosed Majestic 12 documents retrieved from the late Timothy Cooper's archive, including a July 1949 Blair House meeting memo showing Truman and Eisenhower discussing atomic weapons production for potential space war against alien craft, and a 1953 CIA letter ordering secrecy around an alleged alien contact meeting at Holloman Air Force Base. Kaplan presented evidence he believes links the JFK assassination directly to Kennedy's intention to disclose UFO secrets, citing CIA contractor Frank Sturgis's alleged confession to NYPD detective Jim Rothstein that he was a grassy knoll gunman, and Howard Hunt's deathbed statement that Kennedy was killed 'because he was about to reveal the alien presence.' Kaplan authenticated documents through corroboration with presidential diaries, Atomic Energy Commission records, and contemporary sources unavailable when documents first surfaced in the 1980s. He disclosed Prince Philip's active UFO interest and Sir Peter Townsley's witness interviews at Buckingham Palace, including Townsley's account of meeting a mind-reading being seeking introduction to the Duke. Kaplan expressed skepticism about imminent disclosure under Trump, arguing intelligence agencies will never admit to murders, crashed craft retrievals, or contact with non-human intelligence, settling instead for acknowledging anomalous phenomena only.

Key takeaways

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