Pilots and generals go public about UFOs
Three experts concluded there was no tampering with a photo of a UFO over Belgium. SOFAM/Belgium photo; Gord Heath says he saw a UFO 11 years ago; author Leslie Kean wants the media to pay more attention to UFOs. Charles Miller photo.
In a new book by U.S. author Leslie Kean, former government officials in several countries say it’s time to take the subject seriously
More on the story
UBC professor Erik Rosolowsky searches for extraterrestrial life
Eleven years ago, on a clear August morning, Surrey resident Gord Heath witnessed something he’ll never forget.
At the time, he was living in a townhouse with a balcony at the back where he could watch the planes overhead, on their way to the airport on Sea Island in Richmond.
In an interview in the Georgia Straight boardroom, Heath said that as he was watching a plane cruise past, he noticed a contrail shoot at stunning speed over the aircraft before suddenly halting. Then the plume disappeared.
“It was travelling at least 10 times as fast as the jet,” Heath recalled. “When it stopped, it looked like a light in the sky.”
Heath said he ran inside to grab his binoculars. Upon closer examination, he claimed, the unidentified flying object resembled a sphere with a silvery-gold colour—not metallic, but with more of a pearly texture.
Approximately five minutes later, it floated away. “I was just kind of fascinated,” Heath stated. “It was, you know, ”˜Wow, that’s weird.’ ”
Afterward, Heath hooked up with the citizens’ group UFO B.C., which investigates sightings of unexplained aerial phenomena in this province and the Yukon.
Now a director of the organization, he spoke to the Straight a few days before the August 10 release of the book UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record (Harmony Books, $30.99), which has been widely anticipated by Heath and others interested in the subject.
Written by New York journalist Leslie Kean, UFOs advocates the creation of a small U.S. government office that will work with other countries already formally investigating and reporting on UFO sightings.
“The first step is to bring credibility to the subject—to make it clear within the mainstream that there are high-level military and government officials and aviation officials around the world who have been collecting data on these UFO events,” Kean told the Straight by phone from Wellfleet, Massachusetts. “And it’s worthy of consideration because of the credibility of those people.”
UFOs has attracted high praise from people you wouldn’t expect to be interested in flying saucers.
For example, research astronomer Rudy Schild of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics calls it a “terrific book, researched with great care and precision”.
Former president Bill Clinton’s director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Neal Lane, describes it as a “fascinating, thought-provoking book”. Renowned physicist Michio Kaku says it’s “bound to set the gold standard for UFO research”.
Clinton’s former chief of staff, John Podesta, wrote the foreword. He also cochaired President Barack Obama’s transition team.
“The American people—and people around the world—want to know, and they can handle the truth,” Podesta states in the book.
Kean said she first became interested in UFOs 10 years ago, when she received a copy of a 90-page report by retired generals, scientists, and space experts in France.
The group included a four-star general, a three-star admiral, and the former head of the French equivalent of NASA. The 13-member panel had spent three years reviewing various encounters between UFOs and pilots or military personnel.
According to UFOs, the document suggested that about five percent of UFO sightings cannot be easily attributed to earthly sources.
Instead, these experts wrote, the “extraterrestrial hypothesis” offered the best explanation.
Kean said her first article on the subject was for the Boston Globe, and was distributed nationally through the New York Times.
“I felt at that point I had a leg to stand on because I had published a story that was very legitimate,” she remarked. “But over the years, I haven’t communicated with very many journalists, to tell you the truth. I’m often surprised that more journalists don’t contact me and don’t want to jump in and follow up on some of these things themselves, especially journalists that have the backing of a major newspaper, like the Washington Post or the New York Times.”
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It is very likely that human beings have advanced technology that could create "UFO" type crafts. During the early 20th century, anti gravity research was big, with exemplary researchers like T Townsend Brown, Viktor Schauberger and others developing devices that defied conventional notions of gravity.
Then, as the paradigm shifted in science, all this research disappeared...
Where'd it go? Likely underground, continued in secret by elite military contractors and researchers.
So when you spot a UFO, there's a good chance there's a human being flying it.
Not to mention, if I had the technology to cross the vast expanse of the universe, would I truly waste my time harassing a few backwards yokels stuck on a rock in a backwater part of a nondescript galaxy?
What is not explained are the UFOs (saucers) depicted in art of the renaissance era. How about the cave paintings of saucers, Egyptian hieroglyphs and such things?
I truly believe that there is life outside our planet. We got technology from them and we made it ours. Whether they gave it to us or we reverse engineered downed craft.. I dont know.
Ben Rich, head of Lockheed Martin's "Skunk Works" AKA Advanced Development Programs, reportedly said the following at a UCLA School of Engineering Alumni speech:
"We already have the means to travel among the stars, but these technologies are locked up in black projects and it would take an act of God to ever get them out to benefit humanity”¦.. anything you can imagine we already know how to do.”
"The U.S. Air Force has just given us a contract to take E.T. back home ...We also know how to travel to the stars."
Think about that last part a little. Not only does the U.S. Air Force know that E.T. exists, they know where his home is, and can take him there using existing technology.
Dolan also shows that the Air Force was embarrassed by the transparently faulty logic it was forced to employ in order to do this (a la Blue Book). Meanwhile, the intervention of Intelligence agencies further muddied the waters, as in the farcical Condon Report of 1969.
As for the phenomenon itself, there seems to be more than one phenomenon. I’d say the Belgian triangles are probably military. On the other hand, reports of ”˜nuts-and-bolts’ craft often veer into the realm of the totally bizarre. Nobody has ever debunked the 1961 Simonton encounter, in which a Wisconsin chicken farmer observed a saucer landing in his field, operated by what he called “Italians”. When he approached, one of the “Italians” indicated that he wanted some water. Simonton obliged and was given some pancakes in return.
The Extra Terrestrial Hypothesis fails to explain this and the thousands of other encounters that seem to be metaphysical in nature. I think this is by far the most interesting and vital aspect of the UFO question. It also appears to be as old as the planet.
And then there are Government-sponsored hoaxes, such as the Franck Fontaine abduction episode in France which Jacques Vallee traced to the military. If you look at just about any UFO cult in the US, like Heaven’s Gate, you will find behind-the-scenes manipulation by Intelligence agencies . So there’s a concurrent effort to a) publicly dismiss the phenomenon and b) seize and manipulate the phenomenon to its own ends.
Same goes for Steven Greer’s spooked-up Disclosure Project. Somebody wants us to focus on the Extra Terrestrial Hypothesis, meaning that the answer almost certainly lies elsewhere.
Meanwhile, this allows the doughheads at CSICOP to make the kinds of fallacious arguments offered by Lee Moller and ”˜Truman Peyote’. Too bad they can’t turn their laser sharp intellect on debunking James Randi.
The photo above looks quite similar to the Stealth bomber here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_Grumman_B-2_Spirit
I find it agravating that the media will pay attention to pilots and military personnel who talk about UFOs but they consistently IGNORE the 220+ high level military whistleblowers, 250+ airline pilots, 1200+ architects and engineers and 300+ 9/11 family members who say that 9/11 was an inside job.
As documented here:
http://www.patriotsquestion911.com/
What pray tell would you wish to be "debunked" with regards to James Randi? Certainly not his insistence on the use of the scientific method in approaching claims of the paranormal? Or are you really arguing for an uncritical acceptance of every crackpot theory brought forth by gibbering idiots? Our government can't keep their "top secret" secrets about the Afghan war out of the newspapers, what the hell makes you think they could bury interstellar travel with any greater skill?
If forced to choose between the rationalism of the Penn Gillette's and James Randi's of this world, and the gullible superstition of the "News of the World" crowd, I'll go with science, every time.
1. UFO's are alien space craft that traveled billions of km to mess up some crops and probe a few bums and there is a secret government cover-up.
2. UFO's are a combination of mistaken terrestrial objects, optical illusions, delusions and hoaxes.
And no, I'm absolutely not arguing for "critical acceptance of every crackpot theory brought forth by gibbering idiots." But you would dearly love to conflate gibbering idiots and crackpots with sincere witnesses and respected investigators, right? We already knew that when you jumped in with the words 'tin-foil hat', some ten seconds after this article was posted. What a tired and wholly transparent MO. Why can't you "skeptics" be more original?
Our government incidentally does a fine job of keeping its secrets. Not that there’s any reasonable comparison between the Afghan war and the UFO question. One is an ongoing and present matter of public debate, and the other has been aggressively and deliberately poisoned with disinformation for longer than either of us have been alive, unless you’re in your 70s.
“If forced to choose between the rationalism of the Penn Gillette's and James Randi's of this world, and the gullible superstition of the "News of the World" crowd, I'll go with science, every time.”
Thanks for consigning me to the “gullible” News of the World crowd you supercilious dink, but anyway – go for it. What a dreary and obvious universe it must be for you, and Penn, and Dr. James, and all the other smug 'rationalists' out there.
Hi GB, this is the Discovery Channel version of the UFO phenomenon. It's nonsense. It has nothing to do with the subject of the article, except to illuminate how the entire thing has been misrepresented.
" When I was a Corporate Manager of Fairchild Industries from 1974 through 1977, I met the late Dr Wernher Von Braun. We first met in early 1974. At that time, Von Braun was dying of cancer but he assured me that he would live a few more years to tell me about the game that was being played- that game being the effort to weaponize space, to control the Earth from space and space itself. Von Braun had a history of working with weapons systems. He escaped from Germany to come to this country and became a Vice President of Fairchild Industries when I had met him. Von Braun's purpose during the last years of his life, his dying years, was to educate the public and decision-makers about why space-based weapons are dumb, dangerous, destabilizing, too costly, unnecessary, unworkable, and an undesirable idea, and about the alternatives that are available.
As practically a deathbed speech, he educated me about those concepts and who the players were in this game. He gave me the responsibility, since he was dying, of continuing this effort to prevent the weaponization of outer space. When Wernher Von Braun was dying of cancer, he asked me to be his spokesperson, to appear on occasions when he was too ill to speak. I did this.
What was most interesting to me was a repetitive sentence that he said to me over and over again during the approximately four years that I had the opportunity to work with him. He said the strategy that was being used to educate the public and decision makers was to use scare tactics That was how we identify an enemy. The strategy that Wernher Von Braun taught me was that first the Russians are going to be considered to be the enemy. In fact, in 1974, they were the enemy, the identified enemy. We were told that they had "killer satellites". We were told that they were coming to get us and control us-that they were "Commies."
Then terrorists would be identified, and that was soon to follow. We heard a lot about terrorism. Then we were going to identify third-world country "crazies." We now call them Nations of Concern. But he said that would be the third enemy against whom we would build space-based weapons.
The next enemy was asteroids. Now, at this point he kind of chuckled the first time he said it.
Asteroids- against asteroids we are going to build space-based weapons.
And the funniest one of all was what he called aliens, extraterrestrials. That would be the final scare. And over and over and over during the four years that I knew him and was giving speeches for him, he would bring up that last card. "And remember Carol, the last card is the alien card. We are going to have to build space-based weapons against aliens and all of it is a lie."
I think I was too naí¯ve at that time to know the seriousness of the nature of the spin that was being put on the system. And now, the pieces are starting to fall into place. We are building a space-based weapons system on a premise that is a lie, a spin. Wernher Von Braun was trying to hint that to me back in the early 70's and right up until the moment when he died in 1977".
http://www.illuminati-news.com/ufos-and-aliens/html/carol_rosin.htm
Because sooner than later he'll exit the stage and a flood of documents and recordings will surface telling us who and what he really was. So do it, Skeptics, do it!
As to "decent photos"- we already covered that. There actually are decent ones, but I see them mostly as hoaxes.
Secondly, falling debris in the atmosphere (with headwinds beating on it as well) moves at a extremely slow rate compared to an average UFO, which have sometimes been caught on radar moving at thousands of miles per hour.
As to the last non-argument, you go into the wilderness expecting to find wildlife. You know it's probably there, you know it's not going to move so quickly you won't be able to snap it. People who do usually bring expensive equipment with them to do so. There's no telling where a UFO is going to show up so there's no reason to sit in your backyard with an expensive camera waiting.
UFOs aren't commercial aircraft, Steve. They appear and disappear anywhere and everywhere. No one knows their flightplans. So all of your skeptic nonsense is still ...nonsense. I guess the Nobel committee is justified in not recognizing your genius.
I saw this. Of course, I understand that no one should believe the words of an anonymous stranger on the internet. I don't recount this story to convince either the 'believers' or the 'skeptics'. Both have set their worldviews by ideology rather than direct observation and analysis.
But I am convinced that at least _some_ such objects do exist, that they are physical - made of matter - and that they exhibit a performance envelope far beyond any aerodynamic craft in production then or today. I didn't see the occupants, if there were any. I don't know its purpose, other than it appeared intelligently controlled.
But nearly sixteen years later, I'm still bothered by what I saw. Something very real is going on. What that is: extraterrestrial aliens, terrestrial technology, a kind of space-faring life form, or any other speculation, is beyond my expertise. But no longer do I ridicule those who claim to have seen such things. For to do so would be to ridicule my own experience.
From the summer of 2001 till June 2003 (next to Stanley park), then continuing till Feb. 2005 in a different apt, I had some of the strangest, unexplainable experiences ever. Something that I'm still struggling with and have a very hard time accepting (I'm a non-believer). I'll just comment on what relates to this article. One summer evening in 2002, I saw something reflecting the setting sun in Stanley Park. I lived on the 3rd floor and faced the park. It was quite a distance away, so I grabbed my binoculars and low and behold, saw a cylinder floating in the air amongst the trees and it was reflecting the quickly setting sun. I got a good 10 minutes of it and then couldn't see it anymore once the sun was off it. To this day I have no clue what it was and why it was tucked high in the trees. Also, not sure if it was associated with the many strange things that were happening to me at the time, but it was interesting to look at.
I think that there already are world government agencies that work on this including Canada. Look at how little they reveal about something like Joint Task Force Two. If that can be kept a secret then so can this.
What I can't understand is why governments are still keeping it all a secret. Possibly, it's because they don't know what they are either. And just imagine, if you flew over a nuclear military site they'd blast you out of the sky, yet UFO's fly over them with impugnity.
The secrety has to be beyond just for military reasons. There must be more profound implications that stretch across social, religious, and economic touchstones.
Recently, British military documents that were declassified showed that Winston Churchill rendered a UFO incident involving a WW Two pilot secret for 50 years. He did so after discussing the incident with U.S. general Eisenhower, saying that it had the potential to create mass panic and cause people to lose faith in God. This over a mere sighting - what did Eisenhower say and what more do they know?
This isn't a popluar subject Charlie, so good on you for covering all sides to the issue and giving it some seriousl play.
In around 1980, on a clear night, I was with a friend riding the chairlift on Mt. Seymour. We both saw two elliptical objects fly over the mountain from left to right (roughly west to east). They were not self-illuminated and were only visible (for about 5 seconds) because of the bright ski hill lights reflecting off of the snow into the sky. They were a dull, olive green. It was difficult to estimate the size, speed and distance of the objects (this depends on the size and shape of the cone of light from the ski hill), but if I had to guess, I'd say that they were both at least as big as a two-story house and were traveling well beyond the speed of sound. They were silent and there were no sonic booms. They were not birds, planes, helicopters, weather balloons, meteors, Venus, the moon, or swamp gas.
I'm not making any extraordinary claims here. I don't know what my friend and I saw on Mt. Seymour.
There are many excellent videos. The most amazing is the huge spiral that appeared over Norway at the time President Obama was addressing the nobel Committee. (Or approximately that time--I saw it in news reports when I was watching to see the speech). If I recall correctly, this was "explained" by governments as a Russian Space Launch gone wrong. That was a completely absurd explanation if one had SEEN the videos.
put down the conspiracy books and start learning physics. the more you understand the universe the more you realize nobody is ever gonna want to come here. we aren't the center of the universe, why would aliens with interstellar capabilities come check out a planet with already raped and depleted resources run by cavemen?