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August 11, 2008

Londra Toplum Postasi

UFO

by Fazile Zahyr

The sighting of a UFO this week has excited the Turkish media with pictures appearing in both tabloid style and more serious broadsheet papers this week. The flying object was spotted in the Karakopru area of Sanliurfa province towards 4am on Wednesday morning. Filmed by an amateur videographer the strangely glowing hexagonal ball of light hovered in the sky emitting red, green and white lights and moved both fast and erratically. After fifteen minutes it disappeared without a trace. As of yet no official explanation has been offered as to what it might be although internet comments vary between lauding a genuine sighting of a 'Green Fireball' phenomenon, non believers claiming the object is just a star filmed under magnification and the more cynical believing that these are American spy planes monitoring Turkey's border with Syria.

This is not the first instance of a UFO sighting in Turkey. They occur regularly with recent ones in Konya in March 2007 in the early evening which lasted on and off for a week and Istanbul on January 4th when people in the Yenibosna area of Istanbul saw a spinning circle with glowing white lights in the sky. The head of the Turkish Sirius UFO Space Sciences Research Centre Haktan Akdog(an claimed in August that in the last few months the number of sightings in Turkey, as in many other countries, has been increasing.

The largest concentration of sightings in Turkey and perhaps the best documented occurred between 2001 and 2002. This spate of sightings seem to have been triggered by the extraordinary events of June 7th 2001. Ten rural guardsmen from the village of Dondurmaz in Adyaman province were watchmen for the night. All of them claimed to have seen a bright light in the shape of a large circular 'tray' the size of a house glowing in the sky. They watched as it flew off in the direction of Ulubas, mountain and then winked out of existence.

When the men reported to their commander their statements were taken seriously and the governor of Adyaman province, Halil Isik, had them seperated and individually questioned. Not only did their accounts tally up but when asked to draw pictures of what they had seen all the sketches were uncannily similar. Mr. Isik felt the event was serious enough to send a report with the details to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and also informed Haktan Akdog at the Sirius organisation. By the 13th of June in the same year Sabah newspaper was leading with the headline 'Everyone searching for UFOs' in a story that detailed how in Usak locals had stoned an alien, in Gaziantep the police had videoed a UFO and that people all over the country were phoning in reports of strange occurrences to their local jandarma.

The reports continued in a slightly hysterical atmosphere well into 2002 and included an event in Gebze on the 31st of May 2002 where a UFO was visible and circling with projecting lights for over an hour. This was followed by Aksam newspaper printing the story on 1st June 2002 of Saffet Sap, an electronic technician from Beykoz, who managed to video a flying object like a black bug with seven or eight legs. Later in the year on the 9th of November Hurriyet newspaper ran the account of four commercial pilots from different planes who had all seen UFO's in the same patch of sky on the same day at the same time.

Haktan Akdog of Sirius seems to be a recurring figure in Turkish UFO lore commenting freely on each event and insisting on the importance of Turkey to alien life. His motives however may not just be scientific, he is also the owner of the Istanbul UFO museum that opened in 2002 (riding on the back of these multiple UFO events) and any extra interest in aliens will also encourage punters through the door of his museum. He also runs the museum as a fairly successful franchise, of the six UFO museums in the world three are in Turkey (Istanbul, Denizli and Goreme in Cappadocia) and his website www.siriusufo.org advertises for further partners to open other UFO branch museums. It is his clearly stated intention to open UFO museums all over Turkey to 'further the knowledge of the Turkish people and to attract tourists'. His organisation provide all the necessary materials and installations so each museum is a de facto copy of the first. Whether they are lucrative or not is not mentioned but when the Goreme museum opened in 2006 Hurriyet newspaper reported that they had 5000 visitors in one month alone. Apparently it was especially popular with the Japanese.

Whether extra terrestials exist or not is much debated but recent advances in science make the chances seem more likely. Animals known as extremophiles thrive in earth environments previously thought not to have been able to sustain life. From microbes found living without oxygen in volcanic fissures two miles down in deep ocean trenches to water bears (aka tardigrades) that can survive temperatures from nearly absolute zero to 303ºF and even live in a vacuum like that found in space. These minute living things have upended the understanding of what is needed for the survival of life.

Previously scientists has worked on the assumption that both oxygen and liquid water were key factors in sustaining life but now it sems that these are only important to some types of life. The 'rare earth' theory is falling out of favour to be replaced with the idea that life is adaptable and that the question that needs to be asked is what kind of environment other than our own might sustain living things. The chances of intelligent life with the technology to communicate is slimmer, it is possible that such worlds have been and gone. I.f life of this sort exists now they, like us would have the technology to recognise that earth is an 'interesting' planet and worth investigating. So why aren't they here? Some would say they are and the report of flying objects above Karakopru on Tuesday was a clear indication of just that.

July 5, 2008

Bristol Western Daily Press (UK)

Growing Belief That The Truth Is Out There...

The Ministry of Defence began to release its UFO files. A near- miss was reported between a UFO and a police helicopter. UFOs were filmed by soldiers over a military base. UFO stories made front page news in the press and a new documentary series is being screened on TV.

So what's going on? Is any of this linked and does it help answer that fundamental question: are we alone?

This story really starts on May 14 this year, when the Ministry of Defence began a four-year programme to release its entire archive of UFO files. The MoD has been investigating UFO sightings since the Fifties, not because the department believes in little green men but because the RAF and the MoD want to know about anything flying in British airspace - intruders are more likely to be Russian than Martian.

To date, the MoD has received more than 11,000 UFO reports. Some of the older material has been available for some time, but it is releasing all its UFO files because it receives more Freedom of Information Act requests about UFOs than for any other subject.

The National Archives set up a website to host the first batch of files and the release made national and international news. Within a week, the National Archives had recorded nearly two million downloads. Clearly, there was huge public interest in this subject. The irony of this was that much of the 2,000 pages of documentation was comparatively mundane, consisting of one or two-page sighting reports, most of which were clearly generated by people misidentifying aircraft lights, bright stars and planets, satellites and meteors.

This interest was closely followed by two sensational new UFO encounters. In the first, late on the evening of June 7, three soldiers on guard duty at Tern Hill barracks in Shropshire sighted several UFOs over the base.

Regarding this as much as a security incident as anything else, one soldier, Corporal Mark Proctor, used a mobile phone to film the objects. Afterwards, they reported the incident up the chain of command and a report was duly forwarded to the MoD, where the episode is currently being investigated and the film footage analysed.

Somewhere along the way, someone tipped off a national newspaper about this and passed it a copy of the film. It ran the story on the front page, under the headline "Army spot UFOs over Shropshire".

A few hours later, in the early hours of June 8, a police helicopter was preparing to land at RAF St Athan in Wales. Suddenly, the crew of three saw a UFO pass close to their aircraft. Media reports of what happened next vary. One report states that a chase took place, with the crew only breaking off pursuit when they ran short of fuel and realised they stood no chance of catching the UFO.

A later report denied any chase took place. The shape of the UFO is also the subject of some confusion. The initial report stated that the object was disc-shaped, while a later statement issued by South Wales police confirmed that a UFO had been sighted by the crew, but the incident was clearly being played down.

"In today's skies there are a large number of aircraft which come in a range of different shapes and sizes," a police spokesperson commented. The MoD is still investigating, with rumours of secret prototype aircraft and Government cover-ups further muddying the waters.

These two high-profile sightings and the associated media coverage led to many other people coming forward to report their own sightings. And in an age when many people carry mobile phones with the facility to take photos and videos, many of these people had the footage to back up their claims.

The national newspaper I mentioned earlier has run further UFO stories over the past few days and its website now hosts a variety of photos, videos and other UFO stories. Other newspapers have also run UFO features as people contact them in increasing numbers, perhaps emboldened by the positive media coverage and thinking it less likely that they'll be disbelieved or ridiculed.

UFO fever is at an all-time high. I've seen most of the footage. Some is fairy obviously attributable to so-called Chinese lanterns - miniature hot air balloons let off in groups and used increasingly at weddings and other occasions. But some footage seems more intriguing.

As if all this wasn't enough, there's a new Channel Five documentary series focusing on the UFO mystery. Entitled Britain's Closest Encounters, the first episode in this four-part series was broadcast on Wednesday and featured the extraordinary story of the Berwyn Mountain incident, sometimes dubbed "The Welsh Roswell" - Roswell being the American town where UFO enthusiasts believe that a UFO crashed in 1947.

The Berwyn Mountain case took place on January 23, 1974. Some locals near the Berwyn Mountains in Llandrillo reported lights in the sky and an explosion. Police and mountain rescue teams launched a search, fearing an aircraft had crashed, but nothing was found.

Believers suggest an alien spacecraft crashed and that the government covered this up. Sceptics argue that meteors, coupled with an earth tremor known to have taken place at the time, explain the mystery.

Future episodes of the series will focus on other UFO incidents, including a wave of sightings from West Wales in 1977 and a case from last year where a commercial airline pilot, Ray Bowyer, saw two massive UFOs in the vicinity of the Channel Islands, with air traffic controllers picking up a target on radar, which they categorised as "unknown traffic."

So where does all this leave us? Extraterrestrials? Misidentifications? Hoaxes? I doubt that we'll resolve the issue. But these recent events have focused our attention on the UFO mystery. And with the new X-Files movie scheduled for release on August 1, many people continue to believe that the truth is out there.

- Nick Pope left the Ministry of Defence in 2006 after a 21-year career. From 1991 to 1994 his duties included investigating UFO sightings. While most sightings could be explained as misidentifications of ordinary objects, some are seen by police officers and pilots and are tracked on radar. He believes that whatever the true nature of the UFO phenomenon, it raises important defence and air safety issues.

March 12, 2008

Londra Toplum Postasi

UFO

by Fazile Zahyr

February 24, 2008

Farmington Daily Times

Aztec To Be Part Of Upcoming Disney Movie

by Lindsay Whitehurst

AZTEC — If Hollywood is like another planet, the Aztec UFO Symposium should fit in perfectly.

The two solar systems will collide when art and logos from the symposium appear on sets of the upcoming Disney re-make Witch Mountain.

"(Aztec) will have a big footprint," Los Angeles-based set decorator Kara Lindstrom said. Slated for a 2009 release, the movie features an alien brother and sister searching Earth for something that will save their planet while avoiding men who would exploit their powers.

In one scene, the pair, who look human, go to a UFO convention in Las Vegas, Nev., and end up on the run. One of the convention booths will be from the Aztec UFO Symposium.

Though it will be one of about 45 booths from UFO powerhouse cities like Roswell and Laughlin, Nev., Lindstrom said Aztec's booth will be two or three times as large as the others.

"They have a lot of art work and a lot of really good stuff," Lindstrom said. "Most conventions are not that visually interesting."

Shooting is slated to start in California in March, and the UFO convention scene shoot is in April. Though only extraterrestrial powers could discern the amount of screen time Aztec will get, its chances look good.

"It's background to an extremely big scene," Lindstrom said. "We'll take a week to shoot this thing." The contact started when Lindstrom found the symposium online. "We sent them T-shirts, cups, mugs, bags, big banners," and entries from the annual art contest, Aztec Librarian Leanne Hathcock said. "Ten years worth of stuff."

The positive, prompt response from the Aztec Library made it one of Lindstrom's favorites.

"I found a lot of people were kind of flakey", she said.

This set will be different from the others she's helped create on movies such as French Kiss and Strange Days because many, though not all, of the sets are from real groups or events.

"It always looks better. You know if something is real or kind of fake," she said. "Real works."

This week, the Aztec City Commission approved contracts giving Flying Winnebago Productions Inc., a company created by Disney for the movie, the right to use photos, images and artwork from the symposium for $2,000.

"Some people pay to have their stuff appear on sets," Hathcock said. Though documentary crews have visited the symposium before, this is the largest amount the library has been paid, Hathcock said.

The movie is a remake of the 1975 film Escape To Witch Mountain about two orphan children with mysterious powers. It was followed by a sequel, Return From Witch Mountain three years later.

The new version stars Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson as a cab driver who advises and protects the children. AnnaSophia Robb, who was in Bridge To Terabithia, will play the sister.

"It's about aliens, but it's a family movie, really quite sweet," Lindstrom said.

The 10-year-old Aztec UFO Symposium is based on a possible 1948 spacecraft crash in Hart Canyon. Dozens of speakers and a few hundred people come each year to hear speakers on all things extraterrestrial and otherworldly.

The library is now accepting entries for the art contest. For more information, call (505) 334-7657.

February 20, 2008

Woodland Hills Daily Breeze

The Great L.A. Air Raid Mystery

by Stephanie Walton

Questions still abound over the Great Los Angeles Air Raid of 1942.

What was it that showed up on military radar screens the night of Feb. 24, 1942, prompting authorities to order a blackout and unleash an hourlong anti-aircraft barrage?

Could it have been enemy aircraft like those that attacked Pearl Harbor less than three months earlier? Was it just a weather balloon? Might it have been a UFO?

"What have we learned? Not much," said Steve Nelson, curator of the Fort MacArthur Museum in San Pedro, which housed some of the artillaryartillery used to protect the West Coast during World War II.

Decades later, it's difficult to imagine the tension gripping residents of Los Angeles and the rest of California. They were still reeling from the attack on Pearl Harbor and worried about a similar assault on the U.S. mainland.

Their fears were realized on Feb. 23, 1942, when a Japanese submarine surfaced and fired on an oil production facility near Santa Barbara. Reports circulated that the sub then headed south, in the direction of Los Angeles.

According to historical accounts by the California State Military Museum, U.S. naval intelligence issued a warning on Feb. 24 that an attack was expected in 10 hours, but the advisory was later lifted.

Then, early on Feb. 25, radar picked up an unidentified target 120 miles away from Los Angeles.

At 2:15 a.m., anti-aircraft gun batteries were alerted and were ready to fire minutes later.

At 2:21 a.m., the regional controller ordered a blackout. Information centers were flooded with reports of enemy planes "even though the mysterious object tracked in from the sea seems to have vanished," the museum's Web site said.

At 2:43 a.m., planes were reported near Long Beach and one coastal artillery colonel spotted "about 25 planes at 12,000" feet over Los Angeles.

At 3:06 a.m., a balloon carrying a red flare was seen over Santa Monica and four batteries of anti-aircraft artillery opened fire.

Reports of what happened afterward vary.

"Probably much of the confusion came from the fact that anti-aircraft shell bursts, caught by the searchlights, were themselves mistaken for enemy planes," the museum's Web site states.

Among those anti-aircraft batteries responding were the crews at Fort MacArthur who, according to veterans' reports, fired about seven rounds of 3-inch shells from guns mounted on the upper reservation, near where the Korean Friendship Bell stands today, Nelson said.

The number and type of aircraft reportedly seen over various parts of the Los Angeles area widely varied from one to 220 and from airplanes to balloons to a blimp.

Some eyewitnesses said that there were no planes.

And some people, in later years, have claimed that the objects were UFOs.

"Although reports were conflicting and every effort is being made to ascertain the facts, it is clear that no bombs were dropped and no planes were shot down," the Western Defense Command said in a Feb. 25, 1942, Associated Press story.

Those conflicting reports included the military.

Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson announced that as many as 15 aircraft, "possibly piloted by enemy agents," had flown over Los Angeles the morning of Feb. 25, according to an Associated Press report.

Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox said that "reports reaching him indicated the incident was a false alarm and that extensive reconnaissance had disclosed no evidence of planes," the same story said.

Whether an enemy aircraft flew over American soil, there were several casualties due to blackout conditions.

One occurred in Long Beach, where a police sergeant driving to headquarters was killed in a head-on collision with another driver, who had just come off duty at a shipyard.

Another death was attributed to a heart attack. A third man died of injuries suffered when he walked into an automobile while trying to catch a Pacific Electric train in heavier than normal morning traffic after the all-clear was sounded.

Despite the uncertainty over the cause of the events, public officials praised the efficiency of civil defense officials, air raid wardens and anti-aircraft batteries in response to the perceived threat.

Daily activities resumed after the all-clear was signaled at 7:21 a.m. although not without some glitches.

Newspaper reports noted pupils absent from school and employees late to work that day while others went hunting for souvenirs - anti-aircraft shrapnel.

stephanie.walton@dailybreeze.com

January 2, 2008

Wall Street Journal

What Kucinich Saw: Witnesses Describe His Close Encounter

by Michael M. Phillips

The 2008 presidential race has raised many questions about the candidates' personal histories. Will Barack Obama's past drug use preclude a White House future? Will Christian conservatives forgive Rudy Giuliani his two divorces? Will voters forgive Hillary Clinton for forgiving Bill?

And what exactly did Democratic candidate Dennis Kucinich see hovering above actress Shirley MacLaine's house 25 years ago?

This fall, Ms. MacLaine revealed in her new book that the Ohio congressman had seen a UFO and felt "a connection in his heart and heard directions in his mind." In a Democratic presidential debate in late October, Mr. Kucinich acknowledged seeing something airborne that he couldn't identify and then defused the issue with a joke about opening a campaign office in Roswell, N.M., the capital of unexplained sightings.

Since then, the long-shot candidate has refused to elaborate on the experience.

Now, after keeping quiet about the incident for a quarter of a century, the two people who say they were at Mr. Kucinich's side that evening have come forward to describe an event which they say left them convinced that there's intelligent life in outer space.

"At no time did I feel afraid, even though I felt very small," says one witness, Paul Costanzo. "I sensed that I was in the presence of a greater technology and intelligence."

The close encounter, says Mr. Costanzo, took place in September 1982 at Ms. MacLaine's former home in Graham, Wash. -- an expansive estate on a ridge above the Puyallup River, with a view of Mount Rainier.

The 61-year-old Mr. Kucinich, who declined several requests to comment for this article, had been the wunderkind mayor of Cleveland in the late 1970s and had met Ms. MacLaine through Bella Abzug, the late New York congresswoman and feminist. The actress says she quickly realized she and Mr. Kucinich were kindred spirits. Years later he asked Ms. MacLaine to be the godmother of his daughter.

"We just thought the same," Ms. MacLaine says in an interview. "We have the same political points of view."

When Cleveland voters ousted Mr. Kucinich after one tumultuous term, Ms. MacLaine offered him her home as a sanctuary where he could write his memoirs. He lived there for the better part of a year.

Also in residence was Mr. Costanzo, a Juilliard-trained trumpet player and jujitsu black belt, who worked as Ms. MacLaine's assistant, personal trainer and bodyguard. He and Mr. Kucinich became good friends, and Mr. Costanzo, now 55 years old, served as deputy campaign director and security chief for the congressman's unsuccessful 2004 presidential run.

Ms. MacLaine -- well-known for her fascination with things mystical and extraterrestrial -- was in Canada that weekend in 1982, performing her one-woman show. But Mr. Costanzo's girlfriend at the time, a model and actress who is now 50 years old, was visiting when the UFO incident took place. She spoke after Mr. Costanzo requested she do so, and on condition that her name not be published.

Here's what happened, according to separate interviews with Mr. Costanzo and his former girlfriend:

The day was strange from the start. For hours, Mr. Kucinich, Mr. Costanzo and his companion noticed a high-pitched sound. "There was a sense that something extraordinary was happening all day," says the girlfriend. She and Mr. Costanzo say that none of the three consumed alcohol or took drugs.

As they sat down to a dinner, Mr. Kucinich spotted a light in the distance, to the left of Mount Rainier. Mr. Costanzo thought it was a helicopter.

But Mr. Kucinich walked outside to the deck to look through the telescope that he had bought Ms. MacLaine as a house gift. After a few minutes, Mr. Kucinich summoned the other two: "Guys, come on out here and look at this."

Mr. Costanzo and his girlfriend joined Mr. Kucinich, where they took turns peering through the telescope. What they saw in the far distance, according to both witnesses, was a hovering light, which soon divided into two, and then three.

After a few minutes, the lights moved closer and it became apparent that they were actually three charcoal-gray, triangular craft, flying in a tight wedge. The girlfriend remembers each triangle having red and green lights running down the edges, with a laser-like red light at the tail. Mr. Costanzo recalls white lights, but no tail.

Mr. Costanzo says each triangle was roughly the size of a large van, while his former girlfriend compares it to a "larger Cessna, smaller than a jet certainly." Neither recalls seeing any markings, landing gear, engines, windows or cockpits.

The craft approached to within 200 yards, suspended over the field just beyond the swimming pool. Both witnesses say it emitted a quiet, throbbing sound -- nothing like an airplane engine.

"There was a feeling of wanting to communicate something, but I didn't know what," says Mr. Costanzo.

The craft held steady in midair, for perhaps a minute, then sped away, Mr. Costanzo says. "Nothing had landed," he says. "No strange beings had disembarked. No obvious messages were beamed down. When they were completely out of sight, we all looked at each other disbelieving what we had seen."

At Mr. Kucinich's suggestion, they jotted down their impressions and drew pictures to memorialize the event. Mr. Kucinich kept the notes, according to Ms. MacLaine, who said he promised her recently that he would try to find them.

"It was proof to me that we're obviously not alone," says the girlfriend.

The next day, the group spotted what they thought to be military helicopters buzzing around the valley where they had made the sighting. And the high-pitched sound remained.

Mr. Kucinich called Ms. MacLaine in Canada to tell her what had happened. "He said it was beautiful, serene, and it moved him," says Ms. MacLaine, who is supporting Mr. Kucinich's candidacy. "He was not afraid of it, let's put it that way. Seeing something that close and sophisticated and gentle."

Ms. MacLaine says she has seen UFOs from a distance in New Mexico and Peru, but never up close. She was envious. "I'm the one who reports them, but they never make close visitation. What am I doing wrong?"

None of the three reported the incident to the authorities. And over the years that followed, they shared the story with very few people. "Unfortunately, people are ridiculed when they say they've had these kinds of experiences, which is why I never came forward with it," says the girlfriend.

Ms. MacLaine says she called Mr. Kucinich before she included his UFO sighting in her book, "Sage-ing while Age-ing," a recounting of her spiritual and professional journeys. "I can handle it," she says he told her.

More recently, Mr. Kucinich has dodged it. Approached by The Wall Street Journal for comment in December -- moments after he voted for a House resolution praising Christmas and Christianity -- Mr. Kucinich looked unblinkingly ahead: "I don't have any comment," he said.

Write to Michael M. Phillips at michael.phillips@wsj.com

November 23, 2007

Trenton Trentonian

Jersey girl sparks orgy of UFO talk

by Rick Murray

It was a Jersey girl who masterminded the coming-out party for a cadre of international dignitaries pushing for the U.S. government to re-open a serious investigation into the UFO phenomenon.

Leslie Kean is the niece of Tom Kean, former two-term governor of New Jersey and lately the esteemed chair of the 911 Commission.

She was also one of the chief organizers for a recent conference staged at the National Press Club, during which former Arizona Governor Fife Symington, plus a former top FAA official, as well as governmental officials from various countries, talked turkey about UFOs.

Does Uncle Tom believe UFOs are real, as in “UFOs and you ... puffuct togethah!”?

His niece won’t say.

But Symington has become famous for his vivid description of his sighting of a huge delta-shaped aircraft that looked and moved like nothing on earth over the rugged Arizona landscape 10 years ago. Although acknowledging the craft didn’t appear to be of any human design, Symington, a former Air Force pilot, stopped short of saying he believed it to be a flying saucer of extraterrestrial origin.

He and 18 other dignitaries, including scientists and military leaders from countries as diverse as France and Iran, signed a declaration calling for the U.S. to resume the serious UFO investigations it abandoned some 40 years ago.

The declaration was the brainchild of Kean, a freelance writer and researcher who has made UFOs the focus of her work.

“I don’t know what UFOs are,” she said. “I haven’t drawn any conclusions.

Still, she said, the evidence is overwhelming that the UFO phenomenon must be reclaimed from the lunatic fringe and become the work of serious scientific and governmental inquiry.

Kean says the evidence is overwhelming: Thousands of credible observers worldwide — from airline pilots and astronauts to police officers and FAA tech personnel — have witnessed and carefully documented what are undeniably highly exotic, intelligently powered airborne phenomena.

“We do know there is a physical dimension to these things,” Kean said, alluding to the fringe theories about UFOs being part of the psychic or para-psychological realm.

“They have burnt people’s bodies, and we’ve had people actually touch them,” she said. “There’s no question we have to find out what these things are.”

Reliable and repeated reports from aviators indicate UFOS have regularly interfered with conventional aircraft, sometimes to the point of posing serious hazard, Kean supporters have noted.

To further the cause of intelligent UFO investigation, Kean has founded the Coalition of Freedom of Information, which recently pressed a law suit against NASA in quest of certain UFO files. Kean says a settlement was recently approved by a judge, which will compel NASA to disclose hundreds of such documents and provide copies to her.

Those files deal with a notorious incident in 1965, in which the government whisked away a downed UFO from Kecksburg, Pa.

“Witnesses described seeing a fireball in the evening sky, a controlled landing and a systematic military recovery of a spacecraft-like object,” Kean said. “As reported by local radio and newspapers, U.S. military personnel cordoned off the area, investigated the site and left without ever providing a full report of the incident other than to dismiss it as a meteor.”

No less a political celebrity than John Podesta, former chief of staff for President Clinton, has come out in support of Kean’s efforts.

“The time to pull the curtain back on this incident is long overdue,” Podesta said in a recent statement. “Leslie Kean’s victory is a triumph for open government and the spirit of inquiry.”

September 13, 2007

Canadian Press

Edmonton Conference Takes A Scientific Look At Whether We're Alone In The Universe

EDMONTON (CP) — After spending years laboriously searching for the faintest speck of evidence of life elsewhere in the universe, astrophysicist Jaymie Matthews says he wants far more than most to believe that aliens live among us.

"If they've come here, it means they've gotten here from a planet around another star, and that's my life's passion - I spend my life studying the light, the photons, coming from these distant suns, with telescopes, with instruments," said the University of British Columbia professor. "If I had the chance to go there and visit one, see it close up, and confirm or deny ideas I've had and expand upon them - hey, I'm first in line."

Researchers who study sightings of unidentified flying objects will get the chance to try to convince Matthews and members of the public that aliens have already made contact at a conference starting Friday called "UFOs and Intelligent Life in the Universe: Who's Out There?"

Speakers at the Telus World of Science include people who analyze UFO sightings from across Canada and the United States, as well as Stanton Friedman, a nuclear physicist who has lectured on the issue for 40 years.

"There's an enormous amount of evidence with which most people, especially the noisy negativists, as I call them, aren't familiar," says Friedman. He cites physical traces collected from the ground after sightings of flying saucers and instances where many people in planes and at airports all saw the same unidentified objects.

But Matthews, the self-professed "party-pooping scientist" of the bunch, says he has heard these arguments before and is going into the conference a little like Daniel into the lion's den, ready for a tussle.

"I think it's important for me to convey the scientific perspective for this, and I will not be hiding my skepticism about what the other speakers are presenting," he said, adding with a laugh that his stance might not make him the most popular person there.

"But really I'm the only person that's presenting the 'scientific' perspective in this."

These divergent opinions are exactly what Frank Florian, director of space science, and others at the Telus centre were after when they came up with a sort of "science on the edge" series that will soon become a regular feature.

"We have to realize that science is an evolving thing. It's not static - we're always learning new things," he said, adding the science centre staff will stress such critical thinking at the conference.

"Science doesn't have all the answers, and any scientist that says we know everything already, they're not going to be doing good science."

Florian said they're expecting about 200 people to take part in the two-day conference. Various polls have suggested that many Canadians - ranging from 40 to 60 per cent - believe we're not alone in the universe. Even Matthews acknowledges that most astronomers, himself included, believe life exists elsewhere in the universe - they just don't believe it has made its way here yet.

Another speaker, Winnipeg's Chris Rutkowski, tries to walk the line between the divergent opinions held by Matthews and Friedman. He helps compile a yearly UFO sighting count for across Canada, and while he hasn't found any definitive evidence for aliens, he isn't ready to discount the more than 5,000 reports they've compiled over 20 years.

Between three and five per cent of the reports can't be explained, he says.

"These reports are not necessarily proof that the aliens are invading, but it is definite proof that there are some very puzzling cases that deserve further investigation and study."

This won't be the last look the centre takes at a controversial topic from a scientific perspective, said Florian.

They're planning similar seminars on topics such as ghosts and Bigfoot over the next year, in which they'll bring together both believers and those who say the science isn't there.

"We just want to take a look at these things from a scientific perspective, and just say 'What if?' "

"We really want people to scrutinize this stuff."

September 3, 2007

Charleston Daily Mail

Physicist to speak at city UFO summit

Nuclear physicist Stanton Friedman arrives in West Virginia's capital Friday with "overwhelming evidence" that aliens from beyond have been visiting planet Earth for a long time.

Friedman is a keynoter for a special two-day UFO summit at the old Capitol Theater in Charleston, arranged by promoter Larry Bailey.

For almost half a century, Friedman has explored the UFO phenomenon and spent much of his time on the lecture circuit, meeting audiences on better than 600 campuses and appearing on national television interviews, including, of late, the "Larry King Show."

At every stop, his message never varies.

"UFOs are real, and the government has been covering them up in what I call the ¡cosmic Watergate,' " Friedman told The Register-Herald in a recent interview.

"I've never seen a flying saucer, but I've never seen a meteor or a gamma ray, but I think they're real, too."

No matter what side one takes in the UFO controversy, all must concede Friedman's scientific background.

For 14 years, he worked for no less giants than General Electric, General Motors, Westinghouse, McDonnell Douglass, TRW Systems and Aerojet General Nucleonics.

Friedman was the first scientific investigator to explore the Roswell incident and has been hard at it ever since, unearthing what he insists is a massive coverup by the government to deny the existence of alien craft.

"The flying saucer story is the biggest story of the millennium," he declares.

The linchpin of the UFO issue, of course, is Roswell.

It was there, back in 1947, that true believers say that two alien aircraft crash landed and the government recovered not only the debris from those ships but a number of alien bodies, but immediately moved into a sophisticated coverup to keep the lid on.

To cement the official lie that what landed was an aborted weather balloon, he says, the Army Air Force, as it was known back then, set loose such a device for the benefit of the press.

To those who mock his conclusions, Friedman is quick to ask if they have ever bothered to study the five major scientific studies used in his presentations. What he has learned is that 97 percent haven't.

Besides, scientific breakthroughs have seldom come without ridicule, even within the community of scientists.

In modern times, Friedman is swift to point out, the city of Troy, often dismissed as legend, a myth created in literature, was actually proven to have been a genuine place.

Skeptics often wonder why UFOs, if indeed real, haven't left behind some hard evidence and why they pick obscure locations such as a Kansas wheat field in which to set down, rather than downtown Detroit or bustling Dallas, For that matter, why hasn't a team of aliens touched down on the Rose Garden, walked up to the White House door and demanded to see the president.

Friedman alludes to violent contact between aliens and the U.S. Air Force -- a topic explored at length by the summit's other keynoter, author Frank Feschino -- as one reason.

August 27, 2007

Halifax Chronicle Herald (Nova Scotia, Canada)

Fredericton Honours World-Renowned Flying Saucer Expert

by Chris Morris

FREDERICTON — If alien visitors to Earth ever decide to formally introduce themselves to humankind, they should consider landing in Fredericton.

Not only is the New Brunswick capital friendly and accommodating, it's also the home of Stanton T. Friedman, nuclear physicist, lecturer and world-renowned prophet of extraterrestrial existence.

The city of Fredericton is proclaiming today as Stanton Friedman Day, an homage to the 73-year-old UFOlogist who has talked and written his way to the top ring of the galaxy of believers who say Earth is being visited by aliens.

Friedman has built himself a reputation as the ultimate authority on flying saucers, alien abductions and the infamous Roswell incident, considered by many to be the definitive UFO event in world history.

This year marks the 60th anniversay of that day near Roswell, N.M., when the U.S. army claimed briefly it had recovered an unidentified flying disc — triggering a flying saucer frenzy that endures to this day.

Although the U.S. military later backtracked, insisting the object was just a fancy weather balloon, that only gave birth to Friedman's other major area of study — the so-called "cosmic Watergate."

Friedman says his personal success owes much to the fact that people have an endless fascination with space and the unknown.

"Can you think of anything that touches more deeply on who we are, where we stand and the mystery and the coverup?" he says in an interview from his comfortable Fredericton home.

"People are excited because it opens up the universe to wonderful possibilities."

Fredericton Mayor Brad Woodside says Friedman is being honoured not only because of his tireless efforts in spreading the word about UFOs, but also because of his enthusiastic promotion of the city.

"Stanton has lived here for 27 years," Woodside says.

"He's not only a nuclear physicist but also a world-renowned UFOlogist. In just the past few months, he has appeared on Larry King Live, Fox News Live and he appeared on CBS Sunday Morning. He could live anywhere in the world but he has chosen to live in Fredericton. . . . We believe it is worth celebrating his celebrity."

Friedman, who was born and raised in New Jersey and began his career in California, says he's thrilled by the honour.

"I get friends in California saying to me, ‘Stan, don't you miss being in California? What are you doing back there?' And I say, ‘Yeah, I do miss the earthquakes and the horrible smog and the terrible traffic and the drive-by shootings and the drugs all over the place, but I've learned to do without those things.' "

Although Friedman has been a UFOlogist for more than 40 years, he has yet to see an alien spacecraft.

He says his belief is founded in the data he has uncovered over the years about flying saucers and various UFO events, most of it buried in U.S. government documents.

"I have never seen a flying saucer and I have never seen an alien. But remember, I chased neutrons and gamma rays for a lot of years as a physicist and never saw one of them either," he says.

"In fact, I've never seen Tokyo, but I'm convinced it's there."

Friedman, who refers to himself as "a wandering Jew," says he has so far lectured at more than 600 colleges, addressed more than 100 professional groups and toured all 50 American states, as well as nine Canadian provinces, the Yukon and 16 other countries.

He has no plans for retirement, but he admits he has been at it for a long time.

"One reason I'm beginning to feel old, I did Merv Griffin twice and he just died," he says ruefully.

"I have never seen a flying saucer and I have never seen an alien. I've never seen Tokyo, but I'm convinced it's there."

August 8, 2007

Denville Post Chronicle

Black Vault: John Greenewald Has A UFO Obsession

by Jack Ryan

Black Vault owner John Greenewald Jr. has been digging for the truth about extraterrestrials since he was a child. His online site the "Black Vault" may be the largest UFO information base in the world.

Motivated by his curiosity and empowered by the Freedom of Information Act, John Greenewald Jr. has assembled what may very well be the most comprehensive collection of UFO documents ever.

Over the past decade, John Greenewald Jr. has gathered half a million UFO-related government documents. And it's all online for anyone to see.

The Black Vault is currently down, however. Presumably, the Black Vault is down due to a massive influx of traffic generated from the notoriety, or maybe it was simply aliens, or a government conspiracy to hide the truth.

"I've learned specifically that the U.S. government and military cover up a lot," says Greenewald, according to Yahoo news. "It doesn't matter what subject you're dealing with, it doesn't matter what time frame you're dealing with."

The biggest cover-up of all, Greenewald says, is Area 51 in Nevada - the center of many UFO conspiracy theories. For years the government denied its very existence. It still doesn't appear on any maps. But Greenewald has a letter in his Black Vault from the Department of Energy acknowledging that Area 51 was annexed by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission in 1958, and that the area is currently part of Nellis Air Force Base.

As far as America's most famous UFO legend, the alleged crash of a flying saucer in the desert near Roswell, New Mexico, Greenewald says the government has changed its story many times.

August 3, 2007

Barrie Examiner (Ontario, Canada)

UFOs Spotted Over Orillia; Objects Described As Oblong Shapes

by Colin McKim

Scott Fraser has seen a few strange things in the night sky.

But he never had a camera with him.

That is until Sunday night at sunset, when four white oblong shapes burst like rockets over the western horizon, rose vertically some distance before whizzing south at high speed.

"I really honestly don't know what they were," said Fraser, who was standing on the Westmount Hill in Orillia near Tim Hortons photographing the burnt orange sunset when one of his friends spotted the first of the vaporous white shapes, followed by a second.

A pilot and flight instructor at the Lake Simcoe Regional Airport who saw Fraser's pictures thought they might me the contrails of military jets.

"Sometimes you see the vapour trail, but not the plane," said Don Sturdy. "But that's just a guess."

Sturdy said he's never seen clouds or vapour trails shaped exactly like the ones in Fraser's photos.

"It's interesting," he said.

Fraser thinks the manouevres the flying objects made were too quick and sharp for conventional aircraft.

"Planes can't turn 90 degrees," he said.

There are things in the universe beyond our knowledge, says Fraser, who once watched a glowing red object dart about over Lake Simcoe before accelerating out of sight.

"It keeps us wondering," he said.

Fraser has posted about eight photos on Face Book and friends are intrigued, but nobody has an answer.

He plans to make a short video for the website YouTube.com by running all the pictures in sequence to show how the objects crossed the sky.

July 29, 2007

Do UFOs really exist?

Edinburgh Scotsman (UK)

by Marc Horn

IT'S the weird and wonderful place where the men in grey suits from Whitehall meet the little green men from Mars.

The Ministry of Defence has for the first time opened its real-life 'X Files', detailing how its experts have examined photographs of UFOs hovering over the UK.

While the images range from the baffling to the risible, there is no doubting the seriousness that officials reserve for the issue of extraterrestrial life.

Correspondence between the MoD and members of the public who report sightings of strange objects reveals that Whitehall mandarins remain "totally open-minded" about the existence of UFOs.

The letters - obtained by Scotland on Sunday through the Freedom of Information Act - confirm that the MoD has a procedure of scrambling fighter planes to confront any unidentified craft or object that enters UK airspace.

Do you have any photographs of UFOs?

Share them with us by emailing them to sospics@scotlandonsunday.com

However, there are hints that at least some strange objects seen in the sky are of a distinctly terrestrial provenance.

In one letter, officials admit that military helicopters carry out low-flying combat training missions across Britain, and apologise for any alarm they may have caused.

The MoD has confirmed it receives more than 100 reports of UFO sightings every year, many of which come from Scotland.

Last year alone, the Ministry was sent five sets of photographs and videos purporting to show UFO activity.

One was sent by a concerned resident who last March reported seeing silent superfast "triangular craft" and other strange objects in the skies above the south of England.
He enclosed a picture that appears to show a ball of light moving at speed across the sky with an illuminated trail in its wake.

A lengthy official response from the MoD's Directorate of Air Staff is at pains to reassure the individual.

It states: "We remain totally open-minded, but to date we know of no evidence which substantiates the existence of these alleged phenomena.

"The MoD examines any reports of unidentified flying objects it receives, solely to establish whether what was seen might have some defence significance; namely whether there is any evidence that the UK's airspace might have been compromised by hostile or unauthorised air activity."

The letter claims the Ministry could not justify spending public money on being an "aerial identification service", but stresses that every precaution is taken to protect the integrity of UK airspace.
It adds: "I should inform you that low-flying training takes place throughout the UK.

"In the event of conflict, helicopters are vulnerable to ground fire, and one of the vital skills that must be acquired by pilots is flying as closely as possible to the nap of the earth so that the aircraft is shielded and camouflaged by the features of the terrain.

"This type of training is spread as thinly as possible throughout the UK, so as not to concentrate activity over one area. I am sorry if this training has caused disturbance to you."
The MoD also received a succession of images of objects in the sky above Portsmouth harbour last July.

And in one decidedly eccentric letter last May, a concerned citizen warns the MoD that she and her husband are being menaced by invisible craft, the grey alien inhabitants of which have already abducted her in the past to "extract her DNA".

To support her case, she enclosed a photograph of an all-too-visible object (possibly a Frisbee or a satellite dish) "hovering" over a church.

In an impeccably polite response, MoD officials come to the sober conclusion that: "With regard to your particular observations, we are satisfied that there is no corroborating evidence to suggest that the UK's airspace has been breached by unauthorised aircraft."

In another response to an individual who claimed to have provided film evidence of UFO activity over the Clyde in Glasgow last year, an official states frankly: "I have viewed your video and I am content that it contains nothing of defence concern."

The MoD confirmed that in 2006 it received more than 100 reports of UFO sightings, including 12 from Scotland.

The previous year around 150 sightings were reported, with again a dozen coming from north of the Border. These included six reported sightings on the same day (September 14, 2005) in Fife and Perthshire of "bright white lights" in the sky.

The unidentified objects were sighted in Lochgelly, Glenrothes, Crieff, Letham, Blairgowrie and Kinross.

Nick Pope, who headed the MoD's UFO Project between 1991 and 1994, confirmed that reported sightings were taken extremely seriously.
"The MoD wants to know everything flying in the UK's air-defence range and investigate all sightings," he said.

Pope revealed that 95% of UFO reports turned out to either have obvious explanations or to be so vague that any investigation was impossible.

"The remaining 5% of cases were pretty interesting and remained unexplained even after a very thorough explanation. It doesn't prove that these objects were extraterrestrial, but you can't rule any option out."

The former MoD investigator even claimed that officials tried to copy the advanced technology of unidentified vehicles. "A number of reports were of silent triangular aircraft travelling at considerable speed," he said. "These and some other reports suggested some sort of propulsion system we would be extremely interested in.

"A lot of the serious UFO investigation was aimed at trying to ascertain things such as the aerodynamics of some of the UFOs, the avionics and the propulsion systems.
"We wanted to know if there was anything that we might learn from, regardless of what the source of these UFOs is.

Have you seen UFOs flying above Scotland or do you think the whole idea of little green men is pie in the sky? Tell us what you think and discuss extra-terrestrial matters with other readers.

June 17, 2007

Canadian Press

UFO group that offered briefings to GG pleased by pro-forma response

by John Ward

OTTAWA (CP) - A UFO researcher who offered to brief Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean on the presence of extraterrestrials is putting an optimistic spin on the pro-forma response he received from her office.

Victor Viggiani of Exopolitics Toronto, admits that the perfunctory reply could be seen as a polite brush off, but he's taking it as more than that.

The letter from the Governor General's office says Viggiani's concerns "would be best addressed by the Canadian Space Agency and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service."

You may wish to contact these organizations."

Said Viggiani: "You could interpret it in one way as a standard response. But we're interpreting it, I guess, in a positive way that we now have the Governor General's OK to pursue this thing in the Canadian security service . . . with her support.

"She's giving us sort of, quote unquote, her permission, consent, tacit permission to go forward with this."

In an e-mail to supporters, Viggiani said his group had "received direction from Jean's office to pursue this issue with Canada's space agency and CSIS."

The retired Toronto school principal has been a dedicated supporter of UFO research and a firm believer in extraterrestrials for years.

In a May 17 letter to the Governor General, Viggiani offered a private briefing by "citizen experts" including one-time Liberal defence minister Paul Hellyer.

Hellyer, a 1960s minister, has said he is convinced that UFOs are real and are evidence of extraterrestrial visitations.

He spoke at a UFO convention two years ago.

Viggiani's letter also asked: "Is Canada willing to be left behind the other G-7 countries as they begin to examine both the historical and future implications of contact with off-world civilizations?"

He believes that shadowy government agencies - and some governments - are aware of the existence of alien visitors and may actually have met them. He feels that governments are on the brink of announcing the extraterrestrial presence.

He also thinks that secret labs are reverse-engineering technology from crashed spacecraft that could solve energy and pollution problems forever.

He said he hopes the Governor General's letter will help him gain a high-level meeting with either the security service or the space agency.

"Any little bit of leverage that we can use to get people's attention in terms of who we notify about this ... we feel that this is very important."

At that meeting, he plans to lay out his group's documentation.

"What we want to do with them is ... brief them on what we know ... and just see what their response is."

He said he wants to know if there is a legitimate reason for keeping the reality of visiting aliens a secret.

"There may be an issue regarding this extraterrestrial presence that we may not want to know about," he said. "It may be something that's so clandestine and so dangerous for the human race to know that that's one of the reasons they're not releasing it.

"I'm not saying that that is the case. My opinion is just the opposite. They know about this and they're hiding it for other reasons."

Viggiani's approach to the Governor General comes 60 years to the month after the legendary incident credited with giving birth to the UFO phenomenon.

On June 25, 1947, a businessman named Kenneth Arnold was flying his private plane on a business trip near Mount Rainier, Wash., when he saw nine strange objects in the sky.

He told reporters later that they seemed to be able to fly faster than the speed of sound - in a day before any aircraft had broken the sound barrier - and their movement was like a "saucer" skipped over water.

Thus, the phrase "flying saucer" entered the language. Within weeks, hundreds of similar sightings were reported and thousands more have been recorded in the last six decades.

Arnold died in 1984 at the age of 69.