Tim Mellon,
Although you have failed to respond to my “simple question – what are your going to do with it?” - i.e. now that the plane, in your opinion, has been found - perhaps you will respond to the following.
I am sure you realize that you are riding on our collective (past, current and future) Forum and TIGHAR members and sponsors back’s who have supported Niku I thru VI. Niku VII wouldn’t have happened if a solid foundation for the Niku hypothesis hadn’t been laid down by previous expeditions, artifact analysis, forensic imaging efforts and fact finding research - e.g. the “bones papers”, zipper, compact, bottle shapes, etc.
Frankly, your $1M contribution is a drop in the bucket compared to the multi-$1M’s given to TIGHAR over the years, not to mention the hundreds of thousand man/woman hours spent/donated by many many people, with the single purpose of solving this mystery.
I agree with Jeff Neville’s comment in his recent posting; “In tone, and with the most respect I can muster for it, your comment above strongly implies to me that you have more confidence in your ability to fight on turf where money can carry you further than publicly-digested assertions in a non-judicial venue might.”
This “tone”, in my opinion, borders on arrogance. Such arrogance tends to turn normal men and women off in today’s world. Once turned off most people will tune out the personality espousing such and thereby declaring such a person irrelevant.
Tim, I would sorely hate to see you becoming irrelevant as I do see some value – although it is fading fast – in your continued participation in this endeavor.
In closing, I know TIGHAR, its members and sponsors will crack this nut with or without your participation. If it turns out your future participation becomes irrelevant I hope a valuable lesson is learned by all. Only you can turn this eventually around.
Ted Campbell
