Actually, Richie, I have been led to believe that John Balderston originally posted his findings prior to the Niku VII expedition, but was prevailed upon by "the authorities" to remove his post so as not to embarass Ric at a time of maximum PR coverage. I was unaware of this until January, 2013, so my comment of last November was made with incomplete data.
"The noble Brutus hath told you Caesar was ambitious. If so it was a grievous fault, and grievously hath Caesar answered it."
If such a thing as you describe actually happened I can see how you might be misled into thinking that TIGHAR was trying to hide something,
but that is not the case. The sequence of events is very clear and available for anyone to check.
John Balderston
registered to post on the Forum on July 4, 2012 - the day AFTER the Niku VII expedition departed Honolulu.
Sometime before 4:30pm that day he apparently posted two or more annotated screen-captures in which he pointed out what he believed to be Electra components in the Wire & Rope video. At that time Richie Conroy and Jeff Victor-Hayden were posting similar screen-captures and speculating about various shapes in the coral.
At
4:30pm and again at
5:27pm, Jeff Neville posted IMO excellent cautions about the of scale and depth perception in the video.
At 5:57pm John Balderston posted:
"Hi all,
I took down my previous posts and replaced with single image of Niku reef slope. No colored circles, arrows and annotations. And oh yeah, I guess I pasted an aircraft image adjacent to the coral formation. Hmmm, maybe they are there for comparison purposes. Compare an airplane with coral? How weird, right?
Oh, and while I think of it, it’s a real shame that TIGHAR's AE search is baseless. Just think of all that money being spent, and nothing to see but coral!
Cheers, John"
At 6:34pm Jeff Neville took issue with John's comment that TIGHAR's search was "baseless." He also wrote, in part:
"All the clambor for 'wanting' stuff to 'be Electra stuff' in this footage and by so much written over it now as 'record' can be unseemly if we're not careful. It could almost make one wonder about folks wanting to be sure they are seen as calling it 'right' before anyone else should fruit eventually be found - a bit of a turn-off, I admit."
At 7:12pm John Balderston replied:
"Jeff, well said and appreciate your articulating. I get it - immediate change in tone."
Two days later, at 4:47pm on July 6,
John Balderston replied to a query from Greg Daspit and re-posted an image:
"Greg, I'm putting the still image back up, but passing on what I believe this is. I'm standing by for Niku VII team to explain what they've found. I will offer opinions regarding interpretation of this image: 1) the configuration in the foreground is proportionate and recognizable, 2) the round object is neither a tailwheel or a pulley. Cheers, John"
Nobody pressured John into doing anything and nobody suppressed anything. There was a free and open discussion on the Forum. I have searched my emails and the Forum records and can find no communication with John Balderston in July 2012 other than what is publicly available on the Forum. If John or anyone else has any correspondence that relates to this please make it public.
I also had not read the long thread alluded to in my post wherin you, Jeff Victor Hayden, and others spotted many man-made objects in the 2010 video as early as January, 2012, but were too timid to press your case when confronted by Ric's assertion that the squigglie was too small to be anything but a piece of insulation.
As I explained at the time, aboard KOK we were able to exactly match the "squiggle" in the video to an example of insulation that was in common use aboard KOK and many other vessels. I held the example in my hand. It was a no-brainer. Apparently you weren't in the room at the time. If I had had any idea it would become a big issue I would have taken photos or, better yet, held on to a piece of the stuff. I don't remember what it was called but I'll try to find out from the folks who were there.