[meteorite-list] Before Tucson

From: Michael L Blood <mlblood_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat Jan 8 03:35:28 2005
Message-ID: <BE04DB3E.158F8%mlblood_at_cox.net>

All list members:

If you disagree with the Pelissons, please write a letter to whom it
may concern and deliver it to Bruno & Carine in Tucson. If you are
not going to Tucson, please mail me your letters at:
"Meteorite Propaganda"
c/o Michael Blood
6106 Kerch St.
San Diego, CA
USA 92115-6628
and I will take it To Bruno & Carine to combat the outrageous and
irresponsible claims made on the web site mentioned in my
letter below:

Here is the letter I am taking - if you so choose, you may use any part of
it, rewording it as approptiate to fit your own circumstances:

To Whom It May Concern,

I have been a meteorite dealer and collector for well over 10 years. I
have been published in every meteorite periodical in the English speaking
world and author a monthly column in METEORITE TIMES.
I, my customers and my friends all collect meteorites, many of which come
from Africa.

The claim has been made by the Pelissons on their web site at
http://www.saharamet.com/meteorite/data/Sahara/Nwa.html
as follows:

"Smugglers, dealers, investors, all the people who buy, sell, trade and
publish documents about these meteorites want to conceal the truth. As
long as the collectors believe that unknown hunters wish to keep the
locations of their finds secret, that all these meteorites are good for
science and a good purchase, the business will go on! The plundering
of North Africa, the support to organized smuggling rings, the financing
of terrorism, all that happens behind the Moroccan border in Saharan
countries is of little concern for too many people today."

I know the vast majority of dealers who go to NW Africa to purchase
meteorites from nomads and other African nationals and a few who even
find them themselves. I know ALL of the US dealers and searchers who
engage in these activities. Not one single person I have spoken to has
ever seen or heard of one single incident to support these claims. They are
preposterous, slanderous and outrageous. Were the hundreds of collectors
in the meteorite community not so outraged by their claims, the Pelissons
would merely be the laughing stock of the the world meteorite community.
However, terrorism is NOT something anyone finds the least bit humorous
and for the Pelissons to claim a link between the meteorite dealers and
collectors with the terrorist community sickens as well as outrages and
flabbergasts every collector and dealer with whom I have discussed this
matter.

It is my understanding that at least one court is actually considering their
claims at this time and I would like to emphatically state that any
credibility given to these malicious and totally outrageous allegations
would be an error of colossal proportions and without evidence of any
foundation whatsoever.

Sincerely,
Michael Blood
Dealer, collector, author and auctioneer of meteorites.
Received on Sat 08 Jan 2005 03:35:10 AM PST