MUFON Executive Director Arrested on Child Solicitation Charges

7/15/2020

Note: As I said yesterday, I am not quitting blogging entirely. I will be posting less frequently, when news happens.

The Mutual UFO Network has had its share of controversies, from John Ventre's wildly racists 2018 social media screed (a controversy repeated in racist comments by Rhode Island MUFON official Ken Pfeiffer just last month) to the fake documents it pushed on its History Channel series, and the charges that Robert Bigelow served as a middleman to buy MUFON records to help the Pentagon research UFOs. Now MUFON is experiencing another black eye as its executive director Jan Harzan faces charges that he attempted to solicit sex from a police detective he thought was a 13-year-old girl. The Huntington Beach Police released information on the July 3 arrest yesterday:

In the past two weeks, detectives from the Huntington Beach Police Department's Special Enforcement Bureau have arrested two suspects on two separate incidents involving online crimes against children.

On July 3, detectives contacted a male by the name of Jan Harzan after Harzan solicited sexual activity from a detective he believed was a 13 year old girl. The suspect solicited the minor to meet for the purpose of engaging in sexual activity, and when the suspect agreed to meet the supposed minor, detectives were there to take him into custody.

UFO believers and conspiracy theorists have been wrapped up in the so-called Pizzagate conspiracy theory for years now, investigating claims that a vast network of aliens and Democrats were sexually exploiting children in locations such as the (non-existent) basement of a Washington, D.C. pizza parlor. Now Harzan has ended up on the other side of the popular ufology conspiracy, an alien-hunter who police say wanted to exploit children.

Fringe, paranormal, and occult groups don't have the best track record of dealing with predators. Frank Joseph, the former head of a U.S. Nazi Party, was convicted of sexual misconduct with children and spent years in prison for it. Nevertheless, the field let him rebrand himself, embraced his books about Atlantis and lost white races, and still welcomes him to conferences. At least one History Channel episode of America Unearthed was based on his work.

Vice has a longer article about MUFON's long history of bad behavior.

24 Comments

Nick Danger

7/15/2020 09:48:21 am

Mr. Colavito, I recommend to you the current Wayfair conspiracy, which seems to fit your interests in conspiracies such as pizzagate. A quick Google search should bring you to several articles from respected publications.

T. Franke link

7/15/2020 10:45:07 am

Sometimes, certain associations attract people for reasons the association was not thought for.

In early 19th century Germany, when political associations were forbidden, Germans with democratic opinions started to engage in local choir societies in huge numbers. Still in the 1950s you had to look at the members of the local choir societies in order to know who is a man of power and influence in a town.

Wasn't it the same for homosexuals? They gathered in certain associations and clubs hiding their sexual orientation. There are still remainders of this subculture, although slowly dissolving with growing acceptance of homosexuals in society.

So it is natural that the same happens for any kind of unwanted political or sexual orientation. Nazis can hide their ideas well in an environment of conspiracy theories, so they go there. Child abusers prefer environments with children ... of course. Or maybe they prefer male-dominated environments, because child abuse seems to be a domain of men, not women. And I am pretty sure that the UFO society has predominantly male members. Am I right?

Larry storch

7/15/2020 11:40:35 am

You weirdly make child molesters seem like another persecuted minority by referring to them as people with an “unwanted sexual orientation.”

7/15/2020 12:39:42 pm

Larry Storch, this is, of course, a question of perspective ..... so let me add my own perspective that I agree with having sexual relations with children unwanted.

Some ancient Greeks or 1960s liberals would see it differently. Or even 1980s. In Germany, the Green party, once leading the sexual revolution and now second after chancellor Merkel's party, dominating the German political landscape with its agenda, is haunted by its past:

"In the 1980s, some members of Germany's Green Party advocated the legalization of sex with minors. Now the party wants to come to terms with this dark chapter via an independent review of internal documents -- some of which show that the influence of pedophiles on the young party was much stronger than previously thought."
https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/past-pedophile-links-haunt-german-green-party-a-899544.html

Who knows where sexual norms and attitudes will go in the 21st century? One major driver in Europe will surely be the growing Muslim population. The question is whether it will be possible to make Muslim religious socities undergo reforms as did the Christian churches. Maybe, in 50 years, making young men Eunuchs will be popular again? Who knows.

7/15/2020 04:41:24 pm

Your personal prejudices notwithstanding, none of the five countries with the worst child sexual abuse problems have majority Muslim populations. The US and the UK made the list, so there is plenty of room for those societies to “undergo reforms.”

https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/child-sexual-abuse-top-5-countries-highest-rates-1436162

Reg

7/15/2020 05:54:04 pm

Rankings are contingent upon a given nation acknowledging particular actions as abuse to be reported in the first place. It also requires sophisticated mechanisms in place to collect data. In the U.S. and UK someone forcing a 12 year old girl to marry her first cousin would be reported very quickly. In some other societies it is not the type of thing even considered to be on the radar.

7/16/2020 08:05:25 am

Larry, Reg has hit the point. In certain societies, certain events are simply not recognized as child abuse, and even if so, there is nobody to count them.

The problem is neither Catholicism nor Islam, I suggest to call the problem "traditionalism". This means, not a kind of enlightened conservatism like Ratzinger lives it, but really denying rationality for the sake of religious dogmatism. Such traditionalism exist in every religion, sometimes more, sometimes less, and the remedy is reform, as demonstrated by the Catholic Church in Second Vatican Council.

Furthermore, the very reason for child abuse cannot be faith itself (which usually forbids sexual actions outside marriage) but certain traditions and structures which made people looking away when priests, imams, holy men, men of importance, men of big money, men of power are involved. Such traditions and structures potentially exist everywhere. They could even exist in atheist societies, too. Think of communist functionaries with unlimited power.

Quick googling reveals this article:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1122705/

“Officially, child abuse didn't exist under the Communist concept of a perfect society, ............. Soon after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989, it became very evident that child abuse was quite common in these countries.”

7/16/2020 05:22:52 pm

Between one person declaring pedophilia to be merely “an unwanted sexual orientation” — as if it’s not morally reprehensible on its face — and another person who’s bragging about his personal in-depth knowledge of various state loopholes to child sexual abuse laws, I’m definitely getting a pretty creepy vibe in this place. Anyway, I’m beginning to understand how “the true prevalence of child sexual abuse is not known” in the US. I’m also thankful that Jason will soon be ending comment sections on this blog.

Kent

7/16/2020 06:40:11 pm

Naive. Most religions and religious sects in the beginning, or to use baseball terms, the Big Inning, are schemes to have sex with what we today would call underage girls. I won't begin to talk about ancient Greece because others know so much more than I but in today's Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia, young boys are a favored flavor. I don't know about the ancient Egyptians' technology in this area.

7/16/2020 06:52:34 pm

@laarrystorch: He didn't say "majority" he said "growing". LA doesn't have to be majority Crip or Blood to have gang violence and NY and DC don't have to be majority Salvadoran for MS-13 members to do their little murder thing.

In this case the problem was Pakistanis:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rochdale_child_sex_abuse_ring

The Wikipedia article glosses over the incredible number of victims, and only 19 people were convicted.

7/16/2020 11:59:54 pm

@larrystorch: l apologize to you personally for knowing the law and OBEYING it, in the days when I actually had a chance. Sorry to say I don't have any stories about taking four frozen pizzas on a date. I don't know what your approach is, but good luck with it.

Your position here is basically "He KNOWS THE LAW! THAT PROVES HE IS A WITCH!" "Witch"?! That couldn't be funnier. Larry my lad, I'm not a witch, witches do my drycleaning. I am actually Satan.

Jeebus Christ, Larry. Calm the heck down.

Carter M.

7/23/2020 02:19:41 am

Unfortunately, Jason also conflates those he calls "UFO believers"--who sometimes are airliner, Navy or Air Force pilots, sailors photographing UAPs from destroyers (last year), airport radar personnel, police or scientific observers--with right wing "pizzagate" nutcases. It's for this type of overblown cynicism and ad hominem attacks that I won't miss the blog once it's gone. And Larry, ignore the shotgun spray nonsense by "Kent" poorly aimed at you.

7/16/2020 01:12:50 am

Let's be careful with that term "sex with minors". It's legal in The Netherlands, up to a point, and in quite a few U.S. states, up to a point, setting aside for the moment "Romeo and Juliet" exceptions.

In both cases, the "point" is age 16. Beyond that there be dragons.

"Sex with the underage" would be a more accurate, global, term

In one U.S. state, the minimum age for MARRIAGE is 12, in another, 13. Mississipi doesn't even care.

"The lowest Age of Consent in the world is 11, in Nigeria. The age of consent is 12 in the Philippines and Angola, and 13 in Burkina Faso, Comoros, Niger, and Japan." <-- stolen from the internet, may or not be completely correct.

In other news, R.I.P. Mary Kaye LeTourneau. Such a pioneer! (NOT).

AMHC

7/15/2020 11:37:07 am

As a researcher you may find the Wayfair hoopla of note for it’s thinly veiled use of cultural Marxism and socialist realism/surrealism. I think you’ll be better able to explain the Art connection with Marxism than I can. They people pushing Pizzagate have not gotten a single pedophile arrested, nor have they sought any alliance with child trafficking organizations that would allow them to fundraise with a legitimate non profit to help protect children and adults caught up in human trafficking. There’s a danger in my opinion of decentering the subject of mental health: after all, Pizzagate followers believe in a conspiracy of Alien cannibals aka SATAN controlling the world a belief that can’t be verified anymore than a belief in God can. There is a real DANGER of substation of one groups mental illness for the others. People should BE AFRAID OF PIZZAGATE BELIEVERS. They are being manipulated - more than a new eschatology and a revamp of the notion of the second coming of Christ -

7/15/2020 12:24:04 pm

Model Chrissy Teigen blocks 1 MILLION Twitter users claiming she’s being harassed by psychopaths who claim she and her husband are on the flight logs of a Jeffrey Epstein’s Lolita Express. (I know it’s from the Daily Mail....but she’s been harassed for years now.)

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-8524591/Chrissy-Teigen-blocks-1-MILLION-people-Twitter-account-flooded-sick-psychopaths.html

Paul

7/15/2020 01:54:52 pm

Not saying the aliens made him do it, but, the aliens made him do it........

Thorwald Franke

7/15/2020 10:29:47 pm

14th Dec, 2017
Thorwald Franke
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

There are no traces because the Exodus did simply not happen. This is well demonstrated e.g. in the popular book "The Bible Unearthed" by Finkelstein and Silberman. Basically, for believers the Bible is no history book, but a book of believe and experience with God. The message of the Exodus story is important, not that it really happened

https://www.researchgate.net/post/Why_is_there_no_evidence_of_the_Exodus

7/16/2020 08:30:58 am

I did not post this here, but the posting's text of 2017 is cited correctly.

I wonder why the poster did not reveal his true name, why he faked my authorship, and why this comment should matter in the context of this discussion?

I recently received some spam mails trying to depict Jason as a fanatic antisemitic Catholic believer ..... it's all spam.

7/16/2020 06:57:23 pm

Maybe the person thinks you are pompous and preachy and thought it would take you down a peg, but it was still morally wrong. Ed Asner is not impressed.

An Over-Educated Grunt

7/16/2020 07:00:03 pm

The poster's typological signature (even if fist sounds better, it's not a telegraph) says it's a long time poster here from Britain that Jason once went so far as to IP-ban.

Ignore. Do not feed. Really not worth the oxygen he uses.

7/16/2020 07:02:56 pm

It's funny you should say that. I didn't know my opinion of MUFON could sink lower after re-watching (okay, listening) Hangar One. It was a terrible program, neither persuasive nor interesting, and the main thing it illuminated for me is just how desperately Ventre & Co. want to be special. Everything about them screams that they want to be the ones with the hidden secret knowledge, and... frankly, that also seems like the kind of person dumb enough to think a teenage girl he met online really wants to sleep with him.

Kal

7/18/2020 03:42:33 pm

These old gray fanatics caught redhanded should know better by now. If any woman, any at all, solicits you online, it is a trap. Duh. It would especially be a trap if someone is posing as a teen. Gross. Stay clear of that!
Assume nobody on here would actually fall for a scam that obvious. But then again, you're still arguing about pizzagate, which was almost four years ago.
Watergate was a GOP break in at the Watergate hotel's DNC offices. The alt right keeps forgetting thast when making that analogy. .

William Moisson Sr.

7/19/2020 03:59:36 pm

Mr. Colavito I'm sorry you are cutting back. I look forward to your weekly writings and will continue to.

UFO not

7/22/2020 12:22:09 am

I haven't visited here for a while, and am dismayed to learn of this. This site (aside from some of the comments) is where I come when I need a dose of sanity.

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