Editing Milton William Cooper (section)

== UFOs, aliens and the Illuminati ==
{{External media and documents|document1=[https://www.sacred-texts.com/ufo/usstiru.htm Text of Cooper's first post] to a UFO message board<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fbfsBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT94 | title=Pale Horse Rider: William Cooper, the Rise of Conspiracy, and the Fall of Trust in America | isbn=978-0-698-15798-9 | last1=Jacobson | first1=Mark | date=September 4, 2018 | publisher=Penguin }}</ref>}}
Cooper gained attention in [[Ufology]] circles in 1988 when he claimed to have seen secret documents while in the Navy describing governmental dealings with extraterrestrials, a topic on which he expounded in ''Behold a Pale Horse.''<ref name="Barkun2006" /> By one account he served as a "low level clerk" in the Navy, and as such would not have had the security clearance needed to access classified documents.<ref name="Kirk 2"/> In the Summer of 1988,  Cooper made his first public comments on the ParaNet [[Bulletin Board System]], an early UFO message board, claiming that in 1966 he was serving aboard the ''[[USS Tiru]]'' when he and fellow Navy personnel witnessed a metal craft "larger than a football field" repeatedly enter and exit the water.<ref name="Rider">{{cite book
 | last = Jacobson
 | first = Mark
 | year = 2018
 | title = Pale Horse Rider: William Cooper, the Rise of Conspiracy, and the Fall of Trust in America
 | publisher = Blue Rider Press
 | isbn = 978-0399169953
}}</ref>  
Cooper claimed he was instructed by superiors to never speak about the incident.<ref name="Rider"/> Biographer Mark Jacobson argues "the Tiru incident itself would not have done much to make Cooper's name in ufology. That opportunity came only a few days later" when he was contacted by fellow ParaNet poster [[John Olsen Lear|John Lear]]. Lear, the son of Learjet founder [[Bill Lear]], identified as a pilot who had flown missions for the CIA.<ref name="Rider"/>  Lear was the author of a post titled "The UFO Coverup" which incorporated [[Dulce Base|elements of mythos]] from [[Paul Bennewitz]], a ufologist who was later revealed to have been fed disinformation by American counter-intelligence agent [[Richard Doty]].<ref name="Rider"/><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TQ3BBAAAQBAJ|title = Mirage Men: A Journey into Disinformation, Paranoia and UFOs|isbn = 978-1849012409|last1 = Pilkington|first1 = Mark|year=2010| publisher=Little, Brown Book }}</ref>  Cooper soon visited Lear, and the two spent much time together from 1988 to 1990.<ref name="Rider"/>

Cooper's views were heavily influenced by Lear and his story of alien collusion with secret governmental forces.<ref name="Pioneer">{{Cite magazine|url=https://newrepublic.com/article/150922/pioneer-paranoia|title = A Pioneer of Paranoia|magazine = The New Republic|date = August 28, 2018|last1 = Dickey|first1 = Colin}}</ref> In 1989, the two released an "indictment" against the US Government for "aiding and abetting and concealing this Alien Nation which exists in our borders".<ref name="Pioneer"/>  In 2018, columnist [[Colin Dickey]] noted the pair's influence, writing "in the early years [UFO writers] did not, by and large, embrace strong political positions. They were the tip of a spear asserting that the number one thing we had to fear was not little green men, but the government that colluded with them, appropriating their technology against us."<ref name="Pioneer"/> Cooper and Lear's collaboration lasted for a few years, after which Cooper accused Lear of being a CIA plant.<ref name="Pioneer"/>

[[Ufologists]] later asserted that some of the material Cooper claimed to have seen in Naval Intelligence documents was actually plagiarized by Cooper from their own research, including several items that the ufologists had fabricated as pranks.<ref>Doherty, Brian (December 7, 2001). Death Wish: How rebels punch their own ticket. [http://reason.com/archives/2001/12/07/death-wish Reason.com archive]. Retrieved February 5, 2013</ref> Don Ecker of ''[[UFO Magazine]]'' ran a series of exposés on Cooper in 1990.<ref>Ecker, Don. ''Bill Cooper''. [http://www.skeptictank.org/files//ufo2/cooperex.htm Skeptic Tank archive] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180419231144/http://www.skeptictank.org/files/ufo2/cooperex.htm |date=April 19, 2018 }}. Retrieved February 5, 2013</ref>

Cooper linked the Illuminati with his beliefs that extraterrestrials were secretly involved with the United States government, but later retracted these claims. He accused President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] of negotiating a treaty with extraterrestrials in 1954, which supposedly allowed the aliens to [[Alien abduction|abduct humans]] in exchange for technological assistance.<ref>[[Al Franken]], [[Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations]], [[Bantam Books]] 1996 p.122.</ref> Cooper then claimed that Eisenhower had established an inner circle of Illuminati to manage relations with the aliens and keep their presence a secret from the general public. Cooper believed that aliens "manipulated and/or ruled the human race through various secret societies, religions, magic, witchcraft, and the occult", and that even the Illuminati were unknowingly being manipulated by them.<ref name="Barkun2006" />

Cooper described the Illuminati as a secret international organization, controlled by the [[Bilderberg Group]], that conspired with the [[Knights of Columbus]], [[Freemasonry|Masons]], [[Skull and Bones]], and other organizations. Its ultimate goal, he said, was the establishment of a [[New World Order (conspiracy theory)|New World Order]]. According to Cooper, the Illuminati conspirators not only invented alien threats for their own gain, but actively conspired with extraterrestrials to take over the world.<ref name="Barkun2006" />  Cooper believed that [[James Forrestal]]'s fatal fall from a window on the sixteenth floor of [[Walter Reed National Military Medical Center|Bethesda Hospital]] was connected to the alleged secret committee [[Majestic 12]], and that [[JASON (advisory group)|JASON advisory group]] scientists reported to an elite group of [[Trilateral Commission]] and [[Council on Foreign Relations]] executive committee members who were high-ranking members of the Illuminati.<ref name="Landes2011" /><ref name="Goldwag2009" />

Cooper also claimed that the [[Antisemitism|antisemitic]] conspiracy theory forgery ''[[The Protocols of the Elders of Zion]]'' was actually an Illuminati work, and instructed readers to substitute "[[Priory of Sion|Sion]]" for "Zion", "Illuminati" for "Jews",  and "cattle" for "[[Goy]]im".<ref name="Goldwag2009" /><ref name="Cooper1991">{{cite book|author=Milton William Cooper|title=Behold a pale horse|url=https://archive.org/details/beholdpalehorse0000coop|url-access=registration|access-date=January 5, 2012|year= 1991|publisher=Light Technology Publishing|isbn=978-0-929385-22-8|page=[https://archive.org/details/beholdpalehorse0000coop/page/267 267]}}</ref><ref name="Chang2005">{{cite book|author=Jeff Chang|title=Can't stop, won't stop: a history of the hip-hop generation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4aofRcBRvMgC&pg=PA438|access-date=January 5, 2012|year= 2005|publisher=Macmillan|isbn=978-0-312-30143-9|page=438}}</ref> The publisher removed the chapter that was a reproduction of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion document from later printings of ''Behold a Pale Horse''.<ref name="azcentral2020">{{cite news|author1=Richard Ruelas|author2=Rob O'Dell|title=How William Cooper and his book 'Behold a Pale Horse' planted seeds of QAnon conspiracy theory|url=https://www.azcentral.com/in-depth/news/local/arizona-investigations/2020/10/01/behold-pale-horse-how-william-cooper-planted-seeds-qanon-theory/3488115001/|date=October 1, 2020|access-date=January 13, 2020|work=Arizona Republic}}</ref>