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Soldier of Fortune and Corso

Date: Sun, 13 Jul 1997 17:47:04 -0800
From: ramm@alaska.net
To: campbell@ufomind.com
Subject: Soldier of Fortune and Corso

You wrote:
>The UFO vendors were clustered around the Roswell Convention Center,
>with a midway and tons of media outside. Inside the "Alien Trade
>Show," I spotted Philip Corso and his son ambling about.  Corso's
>co-writer William Birnes was also in Roswell, although I did not see
>him. I am told that he has a prominent affiliation with Soldier of
>Fortune Magazine. (The owner of it?)  What does this say about Corso?

Corso does not own it, to my knowledge, but I'm not positive.  Robert K.
Brown is the apparent driving force behind things.  Check their webpage
at:

http://www.sofmag.com/articleidx.html

The problems with Soldier of Fortune are obvious enough not to mention,
but they do some good things, believe it or not.

#1.  Believe it or not they are anti-militia, and have probably turned
more potential militia types away from the movement than all the
mainstream moralizers combined.  First of all, they can do this because
they have more access and more respect from that audience than the
conventional media.  Secondly, since they don't treat all of the militia
concerns and interests as worthy only of contempt, they are much better
at understanding what's happening. The articles critical of various
militia hysterias I've seen in SOF have been *much* more thorough and
convincing than those of the mainstream media- because SOF doesn't
consider such things to be barely worthy of notice.

#2.  For understanding the various conflicts of the world at *ground
level* I know of no better source.  The most obvious reason is that they
are willing to devote more time to such things in their articles, so
they can portray things more thoroughly.

To me, though, the main thing is that their reporters know what they are
looking at- and what it means.  There are lots of things that seem
trivial to a reporter without military experience (and most don't have
it) that are really quite significant.  Does that rifle have a magazine
in it?  Are those rounds going of in the distance artillery or mortars,
and what size?  What rank is this guy?  Your typical correspondent often
has no clue, or if they do they almost never grasp the implications.
The guys at SOF *do*, at least at the tactical level.

So what does the SOF connection say about Corso?  In my 10+ years of
reading SOF off on in, I'd say it tells us nothing we don't already
know: he's a militant and a nationalist. Well, if the connection is
real, it probably means he has good taste in firearms, so I guess that's
something new.

==================================================================

FROM: Glenn Campbell

I meant that William Birnes was supposed to be associated with Soldier
of Fortune, not Corso.