• October 10, 1987 OVERVIE

    From Rixter@RICKSBBS to all on Tue Dec 10 14:26:00 2024
    Captured from CLEVELAND FREENET, October 10, 1987
    OVERVIEW AND REWRITE OF PREVIOUS UFO RELATED UPLOADS
    [Rick Dell'aquilla]
    Astronomer Dr. Carl Sagan, the acknowledged guru of
    professional UFO "skeptics", has been quoted as saying,
    "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." Another
    of the better known of these professional UFO skeptics, Phil
    Klass, has admitted the possibility of intelligent life
    elsewhere than planet Earth, although he finds no convincing
    evidence that UFO phenomena indicate visitation to Earth by
    alien intelligence.
    In his book, COSMOS, Dr. Sagan postulates a formula that
    suggests that many, perhaps most, stars have planets, and that
    the number of potentialy technologically advanced civilizations
    in the Milky Way galaxy can be estimated by the formula:

    N* X fp X ne X f1 X fi X fe X fL = N,



    Where:

    N* is the number of stars in our galaxy (about 400 billion)
    fp is the fraction of stars with planetary systems (about 1/3)
    ne is the number of planets per system suitable for life (2)
    f1 is the fraction of the suitable planets on which
    life actually arises (about 1/3)
    fi is the fraction of inhabited planets on which intelligence
    evolved and
    fe the fraction of inhabited planets on which a technical
    civilization developed (fi X fe = 1/100) and
    fL is the fraction of a planetary lifetime over which the
    technical civilization survived. (< .0000001%)

    Dr. Sagan's computation indicates that N ( the number
    of extant technical civilizations in our Milky Way galaxy is
    about Ten Million (10,000,000). This means that even though
    only .0025% of the stars in the Milky Way have technologically
    adavanced civilizations, there are about Ten Million
    (10,000,000) such civilizations in our galaxy.



    Dr. Sagan's estimate of 10,000,000 inhabited and
    technologically advanced planets in our one galaxy, of, course,
    does not in and of itself prove that UFO phenomena represent a
    manifestation of any one of them. However, it does indicate
    that in dealing with matters of such magnitude, even assuming
    a "low probability", (in this case, .0025%) there remains an
    astoundingly large number of potentially inhabited and highly
    developed civilizations in our part of the universe.

    Highly unusual, startling, and completely credible
    documentation concerning UFOs has been disclosed under the
    Federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), is a statute by
    which citizens may compel the government to release certain
    documents. This documentation (7000 pages approx.) has been
    obtained by litigation with such agencies as the FBI, CIA, NSA,
    USAF, etc.). Much information is still being withheld from the
    public and remains to be disclosed, since the bulk of these
    documents have not been released by the government, under the
    "National Security" exemption in the statute. In view of the
    extraordinary revelations contained in these documents, there
    may be very much more, and even more disturbing, information
    yet to be revealed.
    The authenticity of the documents is not arguable,
    since they have been released directly from the federal agency
    involded to the U.S. District Courts.

    Among the UFO cases established by the official
    documentary evidence is the Bentwaters sighting of a few years
    ago. RAF Woodbridge/Bentwaters are two adjacent USAF bases
    (Strategic Air Command) on land in Eastern England leased
    by the U.S. Air Force from Great Britain. As such, these are
    high security installation and storage sites for nuclear
    weapons.
    Over the Christmas season of 1980, several British
    newspapers carried banner headlines of a unique UFO report,
    unique in the sense that the information was obtained through
    an OFFICIAL USAF DOCUMENT RELEASED UNDER THE FOIA. The report
    was prepared by the second in command of the base, Lt. Col
    Charles I. Halt, a trained observer with a military career he
    presumably would not wish to place in jeapordy with outlandish
    or otherwise unsubstantiated UFO claims. Yet, can one explain
    the fact that he has never retracted a word of the following
    report, was never reprimanded for making a false report, and
    indeed, was later promoted to Brig. General?

    The report states:

    "1. Early in the morning of 27 Dec 80 (approximately
    0300L), two USAF security policemen saw unusual lights outside
    the back gate at RAF Woodbridge. Thinking an aircraft might
    have crashed or been forced down, they called for permission to
    go outside the gate to investigate. The on-duty chief respond-
    ed and allowed three patrolmen to proceed on foot. The indi-
    viduals reported seeing a strange glowing object in the forest.
    The object was described as being metallic in appearance and
    triangular in shape, approximately two to three meters across
    the base and approximately two meters high. It illuminated
    the entire forest with a white light. The object itself had
    a pulsing red light on top and a bank(s) of blue lights under-
    neath. The object was hovering or on legs. As the patrolmen
    approached the object, it maneuvered through the trees and
    disappeared. At this time the animals on a nearby farm went
    into a frenzy. The object was briefly sighted approximately
    an hour later near the back gate.

    2. The next day, three depressions 1 1/2" deep and 7"
    in diameter were found where the object had been sighted on the
    ground. The following night (29 Dec 80) the area was checked
    for radiation. Beta/gamma readings of 0.1 milliroentgens were
    recorded with peak readings in the three depressions and near
    the center of the triangle foRAGRAPHS 2 AND 3.
    (Emphasis added.)

    (Signed)
    Charles I. Halt, Lt. Col, USAF
    Deputy Base Commander "

    Moreover, in a 1984 CNN documentary on the Bentwaters
    case, current and former USAF security personnel independently
    confirmed the contents of the Halt report. A former military
    policeman, "Airman Gregg," stated, " I saw some kind of
    spaceship from someplace not of this Earth." A former Master
    Sgt., who was part of the team that investigated the landing
    site, said the team found three depressions in the soil, 12
    feet apart, in an equilateral triangle. One officer who is
    still on active duty with the USAF corroborated these
    statements and added that motion pictures and still photographs
    of the site were also taken. (denied by the USAF.)
    Lt. Col. Halt ordered a hightened state of alert for the
    following night, on which night a four-man perimiter patrol
    reported seeing strange lights in the sky outside the back gate
    that, "were unlike the pattern of any known aircraft." They
    requested and were given permission to investigate.
    They found that an INTENSE light was eminating from a
    clearing in the forest at the end of the runway. One security
    officer said that as they approached, all the hair on their
    bodies (even under their hats) stood on end, "like therre was a
    big static charge in the air." They loaded their M-16s. "We
    didn't know what we were encountering; and we knew it was
    something beyond our realm of experience. We had never
    experienced anything like that before. About that time, we
    decided to get the...out of there." The armed security police
    ran off and encountered about 30 more security police (led by
    Lt. Col. Halt) in about a half-dozen vehicles on a nearby road.
    Halt and a three man team, including Sgr. "B" ( a USAF
    security officer still on active duty) approached the
    clearing. The Sgt. later said, "right now, I do believe that
    UFOs exist. Up to this point, I had been skeptical. Now I
    believe there may have been someone else there."
    Larry Warren, a former security officer, has come forward
    without anonymity and has withstood a blistering attack by the
    professional skeptics on his personal integrity, who claimed he
    was a drug user or flat out, a liar. These unsubstantiated
    charges were later retracted by the skeptics. Warren maintains
    that more happened on the second night that is not included in
    the report or on the tape. Warren states, "I was very
    close...At one point we saw people, or whatever you want to
    call them, coming out. There were three of them..they stood
    there...actually floated...our base commander was there (Lt.
    Col. Gordon Williams)."

    Although the USAF originally maintained that "no audio-
    visual documentation of the incident exists," a FOIA action
    unearthed a 20 minute audio tape made by Lt. Col. Halt which
    describes segments of events over a seven hour period of this
    second night. Among routine recordings of the levels of
    radioactivity and the other evidence referred to in the Halt
    report, the tape describes Lt. Col. Halt's EYEWITNESS UFO
    SIGHTING made at the time of the recording. Skeptics have
    maintained that Lt. Col. Halt and his men mistakenly sighted
    the Orford lighthouse about ten miles away.
    Although a lighthouse beacon can be a source of a single
    light point, there the similarity to the Halt report and tape
    ends. Lighthouse beacons do not leave radioactive "Landing
    Marks" in the soil. A single beacon is not simultaneously
    visible in two different directions (180 degrees apart-north
    and south) In fact, at one point, Lt. Col. Halt describes four
    separate lights at the same time, that moved about
    independently of each other then disappeared.
    It is not likely that the beacon would have
    been shut off in the middle of the night, just as it is
    improbable that the Deputy Base Commander of a highly
    sensitive nuclear base (and at least a dozen of his men) could
    have confused a lighthouse beacon, in a location he was no
    doubt familiar with, with the highly unusual lights he
    describes--let alone that the confusion would have lasted in
    excess of one hour.
    The lighthouse explanation simply does not stand up
    under close scrutiny. When this position collapsed, the
    skeptics then turned to challenging the personal integrity of
    the men who spoke out--and the discussion got ugly. These men
    were alleged to be drug users and the skeptics maintained that
    these security personnel were, in the words of one noted
    skeptic, "hallucinating Keystone Cops."
    At one point, the tape records Lt. Col. Halt (excited and
    breathing rapidly) saying, "It's (the UFO) moving out...It's
    moving fast!" Another security officer remarks, "There's one
    on the right heading this way too!"
    Halt continues, "They're both heading north. Hey! Here!
    Here...Here he's coming from the south! He's coming toward us
    now! WEIRD!...Now we are observing what appears to be a beam
    coming down to the ground. THIS IS UNREAL!" To repeat, this
    is an authenticated audio tape, obtained under the FOIA, which
    has never been retracted by Lt. Col. (now Brig. General) Halt
    or any other USAF official.

    Any OBJECTIVE review of this evidence indicates that the
    government is (or should be) VERY interested in the matter of
    UFOs, despite its official position that it discontinued all
    investigations in 1969. Indeed, many scientists are convinced
    that more study of UFOs is needed.

    e conducted the investigation entirely on his own.

    On July 9, 1985, Senator Exon wrote a letter stating,
    "...while additional information on the subject of Bentwaters
    AND OTHER UNEXPLAINED UFO INCIDENTS (emphasis added) may exist,
    I can find no evidence of a coverup..."
    This letter was written significantly after the light-
    house explanation was first proposed and apparently the
    Senator also found the lighthouse description unacceptable,
    chosing rather to call the incident an "unexplained UFO
    incident."
    Although Senator Exon has refused further comment on
    Bentwaters, in a letter dated August 14, 1985, he stated,
    "I have put in more time on this matter than any other case
    since I have been a U.S. Senator." I leave it to the reader
    to judge the importance at least one busy U.S. Senator felt
    this matter demanded, to have taken so much time with this
    sighting. SOMETHING grabbed his interest.

    How do we know whether UFOs exist? We don't. What we do
    know is that an unusually large number of UFO reports exist,
    and that some, such as the Halt report, are indeed
    EXTRAORDINARY, in the sense mandated by Dr. Sagan. There are
    many common points shared by these reports (e.g. the types of
    phenomena reported, that the better the report the harder it is
    to explain away and that many reports are made by perfectly
    normal and sometimes highly trained personnel whose testimony
    on any other subject would be accepted in any court of law).
    We also know that our government and others continue to study
    UFOs, despite their official position that they do not. Many
    lawsuits have been filed under the Freedom of Information Act
    against the FBI, CIA, DIA, NSA, Air Force, Army, Navy, etc.,
    which have revealed many previously classified documents
    confirming that the government takes the matter VERY seriously
    and that there are far more such documents remaining which the
    government refuses to disclose.

    Perhaps the most open government involved in the study of
    UFOs is France, although even they recently tightened the
    security of these matters. In 1974, M. Robert Galley, the
    French Minister of Defense, gave an interview on French
    National Radio in which he stated that UFOs are real and that
    if the public were told the amount and quality of the evidence
    (such as radar sightings and fighter gun camera movies) they
    would be very disturbed. He also revealed in the interview
    that the government was passing UFO information on for
    evaluation by CNES (the French NASA). Dr. Claude Poher was in
    charge of the study there. By May 1, 1977, the work of Dr.
    Poher was so impressive that the French government put it on a
    much more official basis, gave the project a substantial grant
    of funds and created a new division of CNES under Poher's
    direction. This division was named GEPAN (which stands for
    Group into Unidentified Atmospheric Phenomena).
    About one year after the project started, Dr. Pierre
    Guerin, an astronomer working for the project wrote, "an
    intelligence controls the UFOs, and it is not ours." Later in
    the the article, Guerin said the the governments of the earth
    knew the truth about UFOs (that they came from an intelligence
    which coexisted with us on the planet and may actually control
    us!) but that they had no idea how to disclose this information
    and still maintain world order.
    GEPAN marked a new phase of open communication in official
    policy, and the project was very cooperative with ufologists,
    unlike governmental agencies in the United States. In a
    document dated February, 1979, GEPAN outlines how the study

    operates. There are field workers, including an early warning
    team who can be rapidly sent to the scene of an incident. A
    team of scientists of various disciplines studies the
    information collected in well equipped laboratories.
    Psychologists evaluate witnesses. The National Police
    (Gendarmes) are to prepare reports of incidents to be passed on
    to GEPAN.
    Of 354 reports received in 1978, 53% involved close
    encounters, of which 25% were classified "unexplained" and 34%
    "potentially unknown but lacking probative data." GEPAN states
    that these alarming results "pose a real question after
    analysis by our experts." It was at this time that GEPAN
    decided that "great vigilance is necessary regarding the
    distribution and publication of these studies. We estimate
    that the witnesses we have met have really seen the things
    which they report to us...the study of the cause of these
    phenomena is capable of bringing forth new knowledge." In
    private, Poher and Guerin were going even farther, and the
    French government became worried. A new director, astronomer
    Dr. Alain Esterle, was appointed. Less GEPAN information was
    released, although Dr. Esterle stated in 1981 that the work of
    GEPAN was proving that UFOs were indeed alien.
    With the growth of its work and information collected by
    1982, GEPAN had tightened its security measures and a
    "reorganization" of GEPAN was instituted. Esterle was replaced
    by an engineer and Dr. Guerin released this statement in 1983:
    "It is not the scientists, naturally skeptical as they
    are, who induced the military and political leaders to refuse
    to take 'UFO stories' seriously. It is these authorities them-
    selves who are concealing from us what they know...and they
    have put it into the minds of the scientists to deny the
    existence of es believes that most sightings are misidenti-
    fications of prosaic objects, he estimates that 1,000 to 10,000
    reports from all over the world remain for which no
    conventional explanation is possible. He speculates that
    similar events have been occurring for centuries. But despite
    the literal "mountain" of evidence that has accumulated over
    the past 40 years of government interest in UFOs, including the
    GEPAN program in France, not one other government is willing to
    openly admit that there is anything curious in the UFO
    phenomena worthy of study, let alone a potential security
    problem.
    He cites a remarkable public apathy, a climate of
    ridicule by the media and an air of apparent indifference
    by the world governments. But, he says, this is only an
    apparent indifference, as the phenomena is undoubtedly
    being studied somewhere in some back rooms.
    For example, documents obtained under the FOIA from the
    CIA, NSA and other governmental agencies provide undeniable
    evidence of continuing official interest in UFOs. Noyes
    congratulates his former colleagues at the MOD on their
    ability to pretend to take no notice of the stranger incidents
    reported to them.
    Noyes believes that the Bentwaters case in 1980 is one of
    the most important UFO cases in history. It was this case that
    encouraged Noyes to finally write the UFO book he had long
    considered. He chose the fictional format because it permitted
    him to enter into various speculations which would not
    otherwise be possible.

    U. S. Senator Barry Goldwater (Arizona) is a retired USAF
    General, with TOP SECRET CLEARANCE, who attempted to gain
    access to a storage facility alleged to contain dead aliens at
    Wright-Patterson AFB. He was refused entry since he did not
    have, believe it or not, a high enough security clearance.

    On December 3, 1974, Goldwater wrote the following letter:

    "...I made an effort to get in the room at Wright-Patter-
    son Field where the information was stored and I was denied
    this request, understandably."

    On March 28, 1975, Senator Goldwater wrote again:

    "...The subject of UFOs has interested me for some time.
    I made an effort to find out what was in THE BUILDING AT
    WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE WHERE THE INFORMATION IS STORED
    THAT HAS BEEN COLLECTED BY THE AIR FORCE, and I was denied this
    request. IT IS STILL CLASSIFIED ABOVE TOP SECRET..." (Emphasis
    Added).

    Other prominent Amercans have also gone on record that
    the UFO phenomena is worthy of serious study, for example:

    1. President Carter asked NASA to explore the
    possibility of investigating UFOs.

    2. When he was in Congress, President Ford called for
    Congressional investigations of UFOs.

    3. Astronaut Gordon Cooper said, "I believe that these
    extraterrestrial vehicles and their crews are visiting this
    planet from other planets."

    4. General Nathan Twining, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs
    of Staff and reputed member of MJ-12, wrote a secret memo on
    September 23, 1947, in which he stated to the Commanding
    General of the Army Air Forces on the subject of "Flying
    Discs":
    " a. The phenomenon reported is something REAL and not
    visionary or fictitious.
    b. There are objects probably approximating the shape
    of a disc, of such appreciable size as to appear to
    be as large as a man-made aircraft.
    c. There is a possibility that some of the incidents
    may be caused by natural phenomena, such as
    meteors.
    d. The reported operating characteristics such as
    extreme rates of climb, maneuverability (particularly
    in roll), and action which must be considered EVASIVE
    when sighted or contacted by friendly aircraft and
    radar, lend belief to the possibility that some of the
    objects are controlled either manually, automatically
    or remotely." (Emphasis in Original).

    It is now clear that the U.S. Air Force Project Blue
    Book was merely a public relations effort to show something
    being "done" about UFOs. It is equally clear that the real
    effort was, and continues to be conducted elsewhere.
    In 1969, the U.S. Air Force closed it's public UFO data
    gathering effort known as "Project Blue Book." Since that
    time, all inquiries to the Air force requesting information on
    UFOs were met with standard form letters indicating that,
    since 1969, the Air Force no longer is involved in UFO
    investigation and that the reports gathered by Project Blue
    Book have been archived and are available elsewhere.

    Lawsuits under the Freedom of Information Act have
    obtained significant official documentation verifying an on-
    going uninterrupted concern with UFO investigations by the Air
    Force, belying its publicly stated position on the matter.
    A Joint Army Navy Air Force Publication (JANAP 146)
    requires reports of any sighting which could be a threat to
    national security. UFOs continue to be sighted by military
    personnel and are reported under this regulation.
    Indeed, important UFO sightings and reports, even before
    1969, were not processed under Project Blue Book, but were and
    are collected and investigated elsewhere by the military. An
    Air Force document dated October 20, 1969, which proposed
    termination of Project Blue Book, states, "Reports of
    Unidentified Flying Objects which could affect national
    security are made in accordance with JANAP 146 or Air Force
    Manual 55-11, AND ARE NOT PART OF THE BLUE BOOK SYSTEM
    (Emphasis Added)...reports of UFOs which could affect national
    security should continue to be handled through standarddeemed to constitute a threat to national
    security under JANAP 146, are considered by the regulation as
    something different than missles and aircraft.

    Moreover, the term "UFO," as used in these regulations,
    is given very clear definition. Illustrations in Air Force
    Intelligence manuals at least as far back as 1953 represent
    UFOs as large, disc-shaped craft with transparent domes and
    portholes around the edges. A U.S. Navy publication (OPNAV 94-
    P-3B), titled "MERINT Radiotelegraph Procedure," shows UFOs as
    a separate class from missles and aircraft. In fact, an
    illustration under the UFO heading shows a Saturn-shaped disc.

    Obviously, this does not even approach "final proof" of
    the existence of UFOs. But it does constitute EXTRAORDINARY
    EVIDENCE as suggested by Dr. Sagan in that it establishes that
    those responsible in our government take a serious attitude
    toward UFOs, despite the public pronouncements to the
    contrary. The official documents released under the FOIA
    establish an intense governmental interest in UFOs over at
    least the past 40 years. These monumental efforts are
    completely irreconcilable with the notion that UFOs are nothing
    more than the imaginations and misidentifications of a
    misguided and gullible populace.

    In reviewing the many uploads to this board, I felt there
    should be a more streamlined way to present the above ideas for
    consideration and discussion. Your responses are invited. ---------------------------------------


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