The Grey

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Alien Lore No. 155 (in a collector's series) - A petition to the government to investigate UFO indidents

In 2007, an international group of scientists, aviators, politicians and generals, majors, colonels, military personnel, and even a governor, met, researched, and later held a press conference at the National Press Club as they released a petition asking the United States government to get real, and quit covering up--or at least quit avoiding seriously investigating at all--unexplained UFO incididents. Really, all they want to do is promote international cooperation among governments and the military in investigating UFOs. They're not saying there are aliens, or that we have been visited by aliens. They ask only that we investigate. There were a lot of respectable people on this panel--all of who saw something really weird that was never seriously researched or explained.

International Declaration to the United States Government
Facilitated by the Coalition for Freedom of Information
November 12, 2007

Preamble:

We, the signatories below, with backgrounds and careers in government, aviation, or the military, hereby present this declaration as a result of our common experience and purpose. While on active duty, each of us has either been a witness to an incident involving an unidentified flying object or has conducted an official investigation into UFO cases relevant to aviation safety, national security, or for the benefit of science.

We use the term “unidentified flying objects” (UFOs) simply to mean any airborne phenomena that cannot be identified or explained, a definition first used by the U.S. Air Force in the 1950’s. We make no claim as to the nature or origin of these objects.

While most UFO sightings can be explained as misidentifications of known objects or natural phenomena, those governments that have studied them, including some with which these signatories have been on staff, have consistently found that a small percentage of sightings defy conventional explanation. Reports of these incidents often involve credible witnesses such as police officers, military personnel, pilots and air traffic controllers, and include solid, official documentation.

Therefore:

We believe that for reasons of both national security and flight safety, every country should make an effort to identify any object in its airspace. Especially after the attacks of 9/11 it is no longer satisfactory to ignore radar returns for which no transponder data are available and/or which cannot be associated with performances of existing aircraft and helicopters. While civil aviation radars and air traffic controllers mainly rely on secondary radar, military air defense radars should be configured such as to detect and track any object in the air, even when static or operating at very slow or very high speeds.

In this regard, we refer to the incident that occurred at O’Hare International Airport in November, 2006 when a metallic disc was observed hovering over the United Airlines terminal for several minutes. Since it was not detected on radar, the Federal Aviation Administration declined to investigate. The FAA also did not accept the many corroborating reports from United Airlines pilots and other personnel at face value, dismissing the sighting as “weather.” We suggest that prejudice against the term 'UFO' and against reports of unknowns could lead officials to dismiss sightings that involve unconventional aircraft or unmanned aerial vehicles engaged in espionage or terrorist activity, especially when radar returns are not available.

However, important sightings have also been ignored when radar is not a factor. Even though hundreds of citizens witnessed a massive triangular object traveling over Arizona in 1997, the U.S. government ignored inquiries from state officials about the incident, and never offered the public any explanation about this invasion of US airspace by a strange, unknown flying machine. We believe this kind of disengagement represents both a missed opportunity and a potential risk.

We maintain that a restive, concerned public has the right to be informed of the facts about UFO incidents that are well-documented and involve multiple witnesses. In addition, science lacks potentially important knowledge that may be gained by the study of these events involving objects demonstrating speeds, maneuvers or other characteristics that challenge our current scientific paradigm.

Call-to-Action:

We, the undersigned, ask the United States to join in cooperation with those governments which, recognizing the reality of unidentified flying objects and related aviation safety concerns, have already set up their own investigative agencies. Following in the footsteps of its now defunct Project Blue Book, we propose that the United States Air Force reopen its research effort, or that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration initiate such a research effort, to address the international concerns stated herein, provide needed reassurance and increase scientific understanding.

We call on the United States of America to engage with us and with currently active officials around the world to address this problem in an ongoing dialogue, beginning with the gathering of some of the signatories below in Washington, DC on this 12th of November, 2007.

Signed,

Vasily Alexeyev - Major General, Russian Air Force, Space Communications Center in Russia
Ricardo Bermudez S. - General, Brigada Aérea (Ret.); Former President of the CEFAA, Chile
Ray Bowyer - Captain, Aurigny Air Services, Channel Islands, UK
Wilfried De Brouwer - Major General, Deputy Chief of Staff Operations and Planning (Ret.)
Belgian Air Force
John Callahan - Division Chief of Accidents, Evaluations and Investigations, FAA (Ret.)
Don C. Donderi, Ph.D. - McGill University; Contract Researcher, Dept. of National Defence, Canada
Julio Cesar Chamorro Flores - Comandante Peruvian Air Force (Ret.); Founder of the OIFAA, 2001
Rodrigo Bravo Garrido - Officer Chilean Army, Military Pilot, Associate with CEFAA
Richard F. Haines, Ph.D. - Sr. NASA Research Scientist (Ret.)
Charles I. Halt - Col. USAF (Ret.), Former Director, Inspections Directorate, DOD I.G.
Parviz Jafari – General, Iranian Air Force (Ret)
Denis Letty - Major General, French Air Force (Ret.); Chairman of COMETA
Oscar Santa Maria - Commander and Fighter Pilot of the Peruvian Air Force (Ret).
Anthony Choy Montes - Lawyer, researcher with the OIFAA, Peruvian Air Force, 2001-2003
James Penniston – TSgt, US Air Force (Ret.)
Nick Pope - Ministry of Defence, UK, 1985-2006
Jean-Claude Ribes - Astronomer, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France, 1963-1998
Yves Sillard - Chair of the Steering Committee, GEIPAN in France
Fife Symington III - Governor of Arizona, 1991-1997

Contact: Leslie Kean www.freedomofinfo.org

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Digital Art: Frunobulax from Zeta Reticula

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District 9 Poster

I am looking forward to the District 9 movie. Crossing my fingers...


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Alien Lore No. 154 - Life on the moon?

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A couple of years ago, President George W. Bush gave a speech promising a return to the moon. We've shuttled back and forth to the International Space Station numerous times, but no one has returned to the moon since 1972.

One of the most visible and exciting facets of the space race was our ("our" here means earthlings) visits to the moon. As you know, there is a contingent of conspiracy theorists who claim we never actually landed there, and that the 18 manned and unmanned spacecraft landings on the moon were bogus--all filmed on a soundstage. Particularly, that first landing of Apollo 11 in 1969.

12 U.S. citizens have walked on the moon. That's it, as far as we know. (If you don't believe the story of The Skeleton On the Moon: See All This Is That, March 28, 2005).

Only a rocket (but not a balloon or jet) can actually increase its speed at high altitudes in the vacuum outside the Earth's atmosphere. Or at least that's what they say. But some people believe you don't need a rocket at all.

In the Southern Literary Messenger of June 1835, Edgar Allan Poe published the tale of Hans Pfaall, an unemployed bellows mender from Rotterdam, Holland, who worked clandestinely, and built a giant balloon. His goal was "to force a passage, if I could, to the moon." He gambled he could acclimatize to the extreme altitude [as have many mountain climbers over the years, although the highest they have reached is just over 29,000 feet].

Hans Pfaall took off on April 1, 1935 and, because of the thinning atmosphere, soon suffered spasms and began bleeding from the ears, nose, and eyes. He made it 'though: after 19 days in space, his balloon, the Flying Dutchman landed amidst a crowd of homely looking moon people, who "stood like a parcel of idiots, grinning in a ludicrous manner, and eyeing me and my balloon askant, with their arms set akimbo."

Despite the strange welcome, the world's first astronaut lived among the moon folk for five years. He then then wrote a letter to the Mayor of Rotterdam in which he described some of his experiences and begged to be allowed to return to earth, and Rotterdam.

A lunar messenger Pfaall entrusted with his letter reached Rotterdam (also by balloon) but "frightened to death by the savage appearance of the residents of Rotterdam," he couldn't be persuaded to land. He dropped the letter, and disappeared into the heavens without waiting for a reply, according to Poe.

The story snowballs from here. Imagine if you can, a telescope lens with a diameter of 24 feet and a weight of almost 15,000 pounds. With it, you could see insects on the moon, or so the readers of the New York Sun were told.

In August 1835, the 'paper reported the findings of British astronomer Sir John Herschel. In a six-part series, a reporter--Richard Adams Locke--told how Herschel used his custom-built telescope in a planetarium at the Cape of Good Hope (in Southern Africa), to spot many incredible species on the moon. Among them: horned bears, tailless beavers, and 4-foot-tall ape-like creatures with thick beards and large wings. Locke referred to them as "bat-men." There were bat-women too, and the bat-men and bat-women apparently engaged freely in randy behavior that Locke refused to describe, because their acts would be considered improper on earth.

Herschel was a legitimate, respected scientist who remained unaware of his "discoveries" for months. When word of Locke's confabulations reached him, he tried to debunk the story--but no one wanted to hear that!

On June 20, 1977, Anglia TV in England caused an uproar when it broadcast a documentary called Alternative Three. By linking facts with half-truths, and by staging interviews with so-called "astronomers" and "astronauts," the makers suggested that both NASA's space program and the Cold War were decoys. The power elite in the USSR, the US, and Great Britain had in fact been working together on a secret project - Alternative Three - that had established bases on the moon and on Mars, so that they could escape the coming ecological nightmare on earth. Insiders who were deemed a security risk were callously murdered. Scientists had been abducted to do experiments in the space colonies. Even regular folks had been forced into slave labor on the moon and Mars.
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Alien Lore No. 153 - Parallel Unverse: earth's twin found

According to a copyrighted story published on May 18th in the Weekly World News, stunned scientists recently discovered two new planets 1,300 light-years away. "One of them is the exact twin of Earth in almost every detail. Some of these experts believe Planet Z is inhabited, by precise duplicates of every human being now living here on earth." Read the full story here.

Dr. Raymond Tufts, an astronomer and authority on the solar system said “It’s as if God were holding a great mirror up to Earth from across the universe.”
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Alien Lore No. 147 - Ten Signs Your Co-worker May Be An Alien

The Weekly World News has recently re-published their 10 warning signs that someone you know is actually an alien:

"Many people work side by side with space aliens who look human - but you can spot these visitors by looking for certain tip-offs.

Experts have listed 10 signs to watch for:

1. Weird or mismatched clothes. “Often aliens don’t fully understand the different styles, so they wear combinations that are in bad taste, such as checked pants with a striped shirt or a tuxedo jacket with blue jeans or sneakers,” noted Brad Steiger, a renowned UFO investigator and author.

2. Strange diet or unusual eating habits. Aliens might eat french fries with a spoon or gobble down large amounts of pills, the experts say.

3. Bizarre sense of humor. Aliens who don’t understand earthly humor may laugh during a serious company training film or tell jokes that no one understands, said Steiger.

4. Takes frequent sick days. An alien might need extra time off to “rejuvenate its energy,” said Dr. Thomas Easton, a theoretical biologist and futurist.

5. Keeps a hand-written or online diary. “Aliens are constantly gathering information,” Steiger said.

6. Misuses everyday items. “An alien may use white-out to paint its nails,” said Steiger.

7. Constant questions about customs of co-workers. Aliens who are trying to learn about our Earth culture may ask questions that seem to be stupid, Dr. Easton said. “For example, a co-worker may ask why so many Americans picnic on the Fourth of July,” noted Steiger.

8. Secretive about personal life-style and home. “An alien won’t discuss domestic details or talk about what it does at night or on weekends,” said Steiger.

9. Frequently talks to himself. “A space alien may not be used to speaking as we do, so an alien may practice speaking when it thinks it’s alone,” Steiger noted.

10. Displays a change of mood or physical reaction when near high-tech hardware. “An alien may experience a mood change when a microwave is turned on,” said Steiger.

The experts pointed out that a co-worker would have to display most if not all of these traits before you can positively identify him or her as a space alien.

Have you ever discovered one?"

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Alien Lore No. 141 - The psychic Sasquatch and their connection with The Greys

An interesting book just came to my attention via Jeff Clinton (the book is nearly ten years old): The Psychic Sasquatch: And Their UFO Connection by Jack Lapseritis.

Lapseritis contends that Bigfoot are "psychic and multidimensional," able to slip in and out of an unseen dimension, thus explaining how hard they are to pin down, shoot, capture, or photograph. Evidence is presented from first-hand accounts that Bigfoot works as a some sort of foot solder on earth, working with Extraterrestrials, as guards and scouts. The author is a UFOlogist and field investigator/scientist who has studied this issue for many years.

"In 1979, Mr. Lapseritis was first telepathically contacted by a Sasquatch and ET simultaneously, which was the shock of his life. To further complicate matters, the contact changed him and he developed psychic ability overnight, which triggered a spiritual transformation. At the time, he was Assistant Director of an urban Indian agency, worked as a hypno-therapist and had been lecturing at the Medical College of Wisconsin and was ill-prepared for such a happening. "

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Alien Lore No. 137 - A Montage of alien hostages captured by the U.S.

This video reprises, with a suitably creepy score, many of the famous alien/grey/hybrid/Martian photos that have been circling the internet for many years now. You may have seen some them previously here in Alien Lore Nos. 1-136.


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Video: Squeaky the Stunt Mouse & Andy Devine

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Alien Lore No. 133 - The KGB UFO Files

An interesting clip from the recently released KGB UFO files. One video in the archive includes video footage of an alleged mass abduction of Russians during the mid-80's.

The declassified Russian archives include several interesting possible UFO recordings... I am trying to locate the mass abduction video right now...



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Alien Lore No. 132 - The Alleged Alien Video

The alien video Jeff Peckman showed to the press Friday turned out to be somewhat less than convincing. To no one's great surprise, the video showed a Grey straight from central casting, looking much like the greys in Dark Skies and other filmed and televised representations of greys. Peckman prohibited photography during his presentation Friday (for more details, see Alien Lore No. 130 and Alien Lore No. 131). Although the presentation was "secure," this video has been floating around for a while. Here is a clip, that pretty much tells the whole story:



The video showing the alien has now been shown to the press, the Denver Post reports. The grainy three-minute-long video, shows a creature with big eyes looking through a window into a house, the Post said. But it was unclear if it was a puppet or an alien, or even an animation created in Maya and then blurred and "filmed up."

Peckman, who wants Denver to create an 18-member extraterrestrial affairs commission, screened the video for the media Friday at Metropolitan State College. The video was taken on July 17, 2003, in Nebraska by Stan Romanek, according to Alejandro Rojas, the education director of the Mutual UFO Network, who spoke at Friday's press conference.
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Alien Montage

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Alien Lore No. 120 - Jack Brummet observing an alien autopsy at Area 51

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click here for more Alien Lore links on All This Is That.

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Alien Lore No. 118 -- Video and lyrics: The Carpenters' Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft

Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft is unquestionably the nuttiest song The Carpenters ever recorded. . .so out there it qualifies as an Alien Lore entry on All This Is That. Aside from Sun Ra, not a lot of modern music has focused on "visitors" alien lore, or close encounters, and for the clean-cut mainstream Carpenters to perform this song was, even in those wacky times, a real mind-f***er!

Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft is a song by Klaatu, originally released in 1976. It was covered by the Carpenters with a crew of 160 musicians.

John Woloschuk, a member of Klaatu and one of the song's composers, said:
The idea for this track was suggested by an actual event that is described in The Flying Saucer Reader, a book by Jay David published in 1967. In March 1953 an organization known as the "International Flying Saucer Bureau" sent a bulletin to all its members urging them to participate in an experiment termed "World Contact Day" whereby, at a predetermined date and time, they would attempt to collectively send out a telepathic message to visitors from outer space. The message began with the words..."Calling occupants of interplanetary craft!"




Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft

In your mind you have capacities you know
To telepath messages through the vast unknown
Please close your eyes and concentrate
With every thought you think
Upon the recitation we're about to sing

Calling occupants of interplanetary craft
Calling occupants of interplanetary, most extraordinary craft

Calling occupants of interplanetary craft
Calling occupants of interplanetary craft
Calling occupants of interplanetary, most extraordinary craft

You've been observing our earth
And we'd like to make a contact with you
We are your friends

Calling occupants of interplanetary craft
Calling occupants of interplanetary ultra emissaries

We've been observing your earth
And one night we'll make a contact with you

We are your friends
Calling occupants of interplanetary quite extraordinary craft

And please come in pace we beseech you
(Only of love we will teach you)
Our earth may never survive (So don't come we beg you)
Please interstellar policemen
Won't you give us a sign give us a sign that we've reached you

With your mind you have ability to form
And transmit thought energy far beyond the norm
You close your eyes, you concentrate, together that's the way
To send a message we declare World Contact Day

Calling occupants of interplanetary craft
Calling occupants of interplanetary craft
Calling occupants of interplanetary, most extraordinary craft

Calling occupants
Calling occupants
Calling occupants of interplanetary, anti-adversary craft

We are your friends
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Painting: Alien

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All This Is That Reheated: The run-up to Roswell: Alien Lore No. 22

All this happened right here, in my own backyard, near Mount Rainier. The Arnold sighting was the first big national UFO story (circa 1947), and from there, the story got bigger and bigger.

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On June 24, 1947, the first American UFO sighting occurred. And it occurred right here, in the northwest, not far from Seattle.

Kenneth Arnold was flying a search route in his single-engine plane on the way to Yakima, Washington. Since it as such a clear sky, Arnold put his plane in cruise control. He sat back and watched the beautiful scenery around him.

Suddenly--out of the corner of his eye--Arnold saw some bright flashes of light. He looked over and saw nine bright objects hovering about 9,500 feet above the ground. The objects were heading north to south at about 1,700 miles an hour.

The saucers were heading toward Mount Rainier, so at first Arnold thought they were search planes. As he kept watching, the objects starting going in between Mount Rainier and Mount Adams. This was a distance of 47 miles. Every few seconds the objects would change course, and as they turned, Arnold tried to see tails or wings; there were none. When he drew the objects later on, they looked sort of like boomerangs.

Kenneth Arnold landed and told some of his friends what had happened. Later he found himself surrounded by reporters. He told them that the motion of the strange objects was like that of skimming saucers. A reporter, named Bill Bequette, heard this and put the words "flying saucer" in his article about Arnold.

The next day there were headlines in papers all over the country about what Kenneth Arnold had seen. No one knew what the objects were, not even the United States government. The War Department was looking into what they were because they wanted ships that could travel as fast as these.

After Arnold's sighting, there were hundreds of reports of the strange flying disks every day. There was even one the same day. At the Cascade Mountains, a man named Fred Johnson reported 5 or 6 disks. They had a slight tail, were about thirty feet in diameter, and they reflected the sun when they turned. They weren't flying in any particular formation. As they flew by, Johnson's compass spun. This was the first report of any instrument being affected by the disks.

On June 25th, there were two major sightings. The first was made at Kansas City, Missouri. There were nine objects in loose formation. Another sighting was made by Lloyd Lowry in Pueblo, Colorado. There were two objects close together. It seemed as if one was chasing the other.

On the 26th, there were an incredible number of sightings from Utah, Arizona, Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico. There were sightings all over the south-west.

On the 27th, the reports started to change; they became more wide spread. Some came as far north as Canada and Michigan. The reports came from all over the world now.

It started to become a world-wide problem. No one knew what the objects were. Newspapers started to give explanations for what they thought the saucers were. Scientists thought that it was government research.

There are three main lines of speculation about just what had been seen. 1) The hexagon theory. The government was making hexagon shaped aircraft, and at high speeds, it gave the illusion of saucers. 2) They were remote-controlled rockets. 3) They were controlled by some hidden scientific group that was experimenting with different ways of travel.

Shortly thereafter, Roswell occurred and the era of UFOs, crop circles, abductions, cross-breeding, government conspiracies, and cattle mutilations had begun.
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Do you want to write an alien poem? Four poems by alienbot

I've always loved programmed poetry generators. I once wrote (a rather feeble) one in Borland's TurboProlog. Anyhow, jump here to write your own "alien poem."

jack engulfs the grass
by Alienbot

He kills jack
The sun twitches the Earth
It touches loneliness
The desert bleeds woman suddenly
jack ponders wounds inversely
The chamber door picks up brains gleefully
The desert eats love flawlessly
The forest sees tears
My central processing unit engulfs infinity silken
My computer kills the lips
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The spider freezes the grass warmly
by Alienbot

The carbon based unit embraces infinity
johnnie makes the Earth
The forest sees the monkey rapping
The stalk penetrates the monkey gleefully
Sex hates hearts
Everyone numbs woman
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The lesbian explodes woman
by Alienbot

The spider kills love
My brain sees love
My heartbeat eats man
The stalk knows reality
The forest feels the pulsating alien brain messily
The outsider kisses as she walks
My computer breaks love
The carbon based unit ponders love
Midnight penetrates infinity gently
jack binds reality suddenly
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The desert sees reality
by Alienbot

The grass knows as she walks
It breaks infinity
My computer penetrates baseball
The stalk picks up the lips
Thought destroys the torso silken
My central processing unit loves brains unabashedly
The stalk penetrates as she walks messily
Midnight invalidates jack
My central processing unit breaks the lips gleefully
Alien probe smiles at the raven
The stalk wants man
The stalk binds loneliness
No one is the moon
jack hates funny smells
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Stuart Miller of the UFO Review speaks out about the inter-UFOlogist sniping

One of my favorite sites for UFOlogy is the UFO Review, edited by Stuart Miller. They cover a wide range of paranormal and UFO, and cover the skeptics as well as the fanatic believers. They even link to All This Is That when we publish an article in the Alien Lore series, or art on the UFO or Grey phenomenon. In an editorial yesterday Stuart Miller wisely addressed the UFO wars here on earth:

"My criticisms are directed to those who are convinced science is the answer to the subject of UFOs. It is if we’re dealing with natural phenomena; it isn’t if we aren’t."

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Alien Lore No. 109/Donald Keyhoe's The Flying Saucers Are Real

Donald Keyhoe's The Flying Saucers Are Real, published in 1950, was one of the very first modern books published on UFO's and alien lore. This book's copyright was not renewed and it is now in the public domain.

This book provides a sort of blueprint for all of what I consider to be alien lore: the paranoia, allegations of government disinformation and cover-ups, the conclusion that the saucers are not a government research project, but come from somewhere else. This book was the cornerstone of alien mythology. And yet many of the cases studied in this book remain unexplained. . .

You can download the entire book free, and legally, at Project Gutenberg.

Here is Chapter One:
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IT WAS A strange assignment.

I picked up the telegram from my desk and read it a third time.

NEW YORK, N. Y., MAY 9, 1949

HAVE BEEN INVESTIGATING FLYING SAUCER MYSTERY. FIRST TIP HINTED GIGANTIC HOAX TO COVER UP OFFICIAL SECRET. BELIEVE IT MAY HAVE BEEN PLANTED TO HIDE REAL ANSWER. LOOKS LIKE TERRIFIC STORY. CAN YOU TAKE OVER WASHINGTON END?

KEN W. PURDY, EDITOR, TRUE MAGAZINE

I glanced out at the Potomac, recalling the first saucer story. As a pilot, I'd been skeptical of flying disks. Then reports had begun to pour in from Air Force and airline pilots. Apparently alarmed, the Air Force had ordered fighters to pursue the fast-flying saucers. In one mysterious chase, a pilot had been killed, and his death was unexplained. That had been seventeen months ago. Since then, the whole flying-saucer riddle had been hidden behind a curtain of Air Force secrecy.

And now, an assignment from True magazine on flying saucers.

Twenty-four hours later, I was in Ken Purdy's office.

"I've had men on this for two months," he told me. "I might as well warn you, it's a tough story to crack."

"You think it's a Russian missile?" I asked him. "Or an Air Force secret?"

"We've had several answers. None of them stacks up. But I'm positive one was deliberately planted when they found we were checking."

He told me the whole story of the work that had been done by the staff of True and of the reports sent in by competent writers. The deeper he delved into the mystery, the tougher the assignment got. The more I learned about flying saucers, the less I knew.

"There's one angle I want rechecked," Purdy said.

"You've heard of the Mantell case?"

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I nodded.

"O.K. Try to get the details of Mantell's radio report to Godman Tower. Before he was killed, he described the thing he was chasing--we know that much. Project 'Saucer' gave out a hint, but they've never released the transcript. Here's another lead. See if you can find anything about a secret picture, taken at Harmon Field, Newfoundland--it was around July 1947. I'll send you other ideas as I get them."

Before I left, Purdy wished me hick and told me that he would work in closest harmony with me.

"But watch out for fake tips," he said. "You'll probably run into some people at the Pentagon who'll talk to you 'off the record.' That handcuffs a writer. Look out they don't lead you into a blind alley. Even the Air Force statements and the Project 'Saucer' report contradict each other."

For six months, I worked with other investigators to solve the mystery of the disks. We checked a hundred sighting reports, frequently crossing the trail of Project "Saucer" teams and F.B.I. agents. Old records gave fantastic leads. So did Air Force plans for exploring space. Rocket experts, astronomers, Air Force officials and pilot gave us clues pointing to a startling solution. Many intelligent persons--including scientists--believe that the saucers contain spies from another planet.

When this first phase was ended, we were faced with a hard decision. We had uncovered important facts, We knew the saucers were real. If it was handled carefully, we believed the story would be in line with a secret Air Force policy.

It was finally decided to publish certain alternate conclusions. The Air Force was informed of True's intentions; no attempt was made to block publication.

In the January 1950 issue of True, I reported that we had reached the following conclusions:

1 The earth has been observed periodically by visitors from another planet.

2. This observation has increased markedly in the past two years.

"The only other possible explanation," I wrote, "is that,

{p. 9}

the saucers are extremely high-speed, long-range devices developed here on earth. Such an advance (which the Air Force has denied) would require an almost incredible leap in technical progress even for American scientists and designers."

Nation-wide press and radio comment followed the appearance of the article. This publicity was obviously greater than the Air Force had expected. Within twenty-four hours the Pentagon was deluged with telegrams, letters, and long-distance calls. Apparently fearing a panic, the Air Force hastily stated that flying-saucer reports--even those made by its own pilots and high-ranking officers--were mistakes or were caused by hysteria.[1]

But three days later, when it was plain that many Americans calmly accepted True's disclosures, the Air Force released a secret project "Saucer" file containing this significant statement:

"It will never be possible to say with certainty that any individual did not see a space ship, an enemy missile or other object."

In this same document there appears a confidential analysis of Air intelligence reports.[2] It is this summary that contains the official suggestion Of. space visitors' motives. After stating that such a civilization would obviously be far ahead of our own, the report adds:

"Since the acts of mankind most easily observed from a distance are A-bomb explosions, we should expect some relation to obtain between the time of the A-bomb explosions, the time at which the space ships are seen, and the time required for such ships to arrive from and return to home base."

(In a previous report, which alternately warned and reassured the public, the Air Force stated that space travel outside the solar system is almost a certainty.[3])

Since 1949 there has been a steady increase in saucer sightings. Most of them have been authentic reports, which Air Force denials cannot disprove. In January, mystery

[1. Air Force press release 629-49, December 27, 1949.

2. Air Force Project "Saucer" December 30, 1949.

3. Air Force report M-26-49, Preliminary Studies on Flying saucers, April 27, 1949.]

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disks were reported over Kentucky, Indiana, Texas, Pennsylvania, and several other states. On the Seattle Anchorage route, an air freighter was paced for five minutes by a night-flying saucer. When the pilots tried to close in, the strange craft zoomed at terrific speed. Later, the airline head reported that Intelligence officers had quizzed the pilots for hours.

"From their questions," he said, "I could tell they had a good idea of what the saucers are. One officer admitted they did, but he wouldn't say any more."

Another peculiar incident occurred at Tucson, Arizona, on February 1. Just at dusk, a weird, fiery object raced westward over the city, astonishing hundreds in the streets below. The Tucson Daily Citizen ran the story next day with a double-banner headline:

FLYING SAUCER OVER TUCSON?

B-29 FAILS TO CATCH OBJECT

Flying saucer? Secret experimental plane? Or perhaps a scout craft from Mars? Certainly the strange aircraft that blazed a smoke trail over Tucson at dusk last night defies logical explanation. It was as mystifying to experienced pilots as to groundlings who have trouble in identifying conventional planes.

Cannonballing through the sky, some 30,000 feet aloft, was a fiery object shooting westward so fast it was impossible to gain any clear impression of its shape or size. . . .

At what must have been top speed the object spewed out light colored smoke, but almost directly over Tucson it appeared to hover for a few seconds. The smoke puffed out an angry black and then be came lighter as the strange missile appeared to gain speed"

The radio operator in the Davis-Monthan air force base control tower contacted First Lt. Roy L. Jones, taking off for a cross-country flight in a B-29, and asked him to investigate. Jones revved up his swift aerial tanker and still the unknown aircraft steadily pulled away toward California.

Dr. Edwin F. Carpenter, head of the University of

{p. 11}

Arizona department of astronomy, said he was certain that the object was not a meteor or other natural phenomenon. . . .

Switchboards Swamped

The Tucson police station was jammed with inquiries. Hundreds saw the object. Tom Bailey, 1411 E. 10th Street, thought it was a large airplane on fire. [A later check showed no planes missing.] He said it wavered from left to right as it passed over the mountains. Bailey also noticed that the craft appeared to slow perceptibly over Tucson. He said the smoke apparently came out in a thin, almost invisible stream, gaining substance within a few seconds.

This incident had an odd sequel the following day. Its significance was not lost on the Daily Citizen. It ran another front-page story, headlined:

WHAT DO YOU MEAN ONLY VAPOR TRAIL?

As though to prove itself blameless for tilting hundreds of Tucson heads skyward, the U.S. Air Force yesterday afternoon spent hours etching vapor trails through the skies over the city.

The demonstration proved conclusively to the satisfaction of most that the strange path of dark smoke blazed across the evening sky at dusk Wednesday was no vapor trail and did not emanate from any conventional airplane.

The Wednesday night spectacle was entirely dissimilar. Then, heavy smoke boiled and swirled in a broad, dark ribbon fanning out at least a mile in width and stretching across the sky in a straight line. Since there was no proof as to what caused the strange predark manifestation, and because even expert witnesses were unable to explain the appearance, the matter remains a subject for interesting speculation.

There is strong evidence that this story was deliberately kept off the press wires. The Associated Press and other wire services in Washington had no report. Requests for details by Frank Edwards, Mutual newscaster, and other

{p. 12}

radio commentators ran into a blank wall. At the Pentagon I was told that the Air Force had no knowledge of the sighting or the vapor-trail maneuvers.

On February 22 two similar glowing objects were seen above Boca Chica Naval Air Station at Key West. A plane sent tip to investigate was hopelessly outdistanced; it was obvious the things were at a great height. Back at the station, radarmen tracked the objects as they hovered for a moment above Key West. They were found to be at least fifty miles above the earth. After a few seconds, they accelerated at high speed and streaked out of sight.

On the following day Commander Augusto Orrego, a Chilean naval officer, reported that saucers had flown above his antarctic base.

"During the bright antarctic night," be said, "we saw flying saucers, one above the other, turning at tremendous speeds. We have photographs to prove what we saw."

Early in March, Ken Purdy phoned the latest development in the investigation. He had just received a tip predicting a flurry of saucer publicity during March. It had come from an important source in Washington.

"You know what it probably means," he said. "The same thing we talked about last month. But why were we tipped off in advance?"

"It's one more piece in the pattern," I said. "If the tip's on the level, then they're stepping up the program."

Within three days, reports began to pour in--from Peru, Cuba, Mexico, Turkey, and other parts of the world. Then on March 9 a gleaming metallic disk was sighted over Dayton, Ohio. Observers at Vandalia Airport phoned Wright-Patterson Field. Scores of Air Force pilots and groundmen watched the disk, as fighters raced up in pursuit. The mysterious object streaked vertically skyward, hovered for a while miles above the earth, and then disappeared. A secret report was rushed to the Civil Aeronautics Authority in Washington, then turned over to Air Force Intelligence.

Soon after this Dr. Craig Hunter, director of a medical supply firm, reported a huge elliptical saucer flying at a low altitude in Pennsylvania. He described it as metallic, with a slotted outer rim and a rotating ring just inside. {p. 13} On top of this sighting, thousands of people at Farmington, New Mexico, watched a large formation of disks pass high above the city.

Throughout all these reports, the Air Force refused to admit the existence of flying saucers. On March 18 it flatly denied they were Air Force secret missiles or space-exploration devices.

Three days later, a Chicago and Southern airliner crew saw a fast-flying disk near Stuttgart, Arkansas. The circular craft, blinking a strange blue-white light, pulled up in an arc at terrific speed. The two pilots said they glimpsed lighted ports on the lower side as the saucer zoomed above them. The lights had a soft fluorescence, unlike anything they had seen.

There was one peculiar angle in the Arkansas incident. There was no apparent attempt to muzzle the two pilots, as in earlier airline cases. Instead, a United Press interview was quickly arranged, for nation-wide publication. In this wire story Captain Jack Adams and First Officer G. W. Anderson made two statements:

"We firmly believe that the flying saucer we saw over Arkansas was a secret experimental type aircraft--not a visitor from outer space. . . .

"We know the Air Force has denied there is anything to this flying-saucer business, but we're both experienced pilots and we're not easily fooled."

The day after this story appeared, I was discussing it with an airline official in Washington.

"That's an odd thing," he said. "The Air Force could have persuaded those pilots--or the line president--to hush the thing up. It looks as if they wanted that story broadcast."

"You mean the whole thing was planted?"

"I won't say that, though it could have been. Probably they did see something. But they might have been told what to say about it."

"Any idea why?"

He looked at me sharply. "You and Purdy probably know the answer. At a guess, I'd say it might have been planned to offset that Navy commander's report--the one on the White Sands sightings."

{p. 14}

The White Sands case had puzzled many skeptics, because the Pentagon had cleared the published report. The author, Commander R. B. McLaughlin, was a regular Navy officer. As a Navy rocket expert, he had been stationed at the White Sands Rocket Proving Ground in New Mexico. In his published article he described three disk sightings at White Sands.

One of the disks, a huge elliptical craft, was tracked by scientists with precision instruments at five miles per second. That's 18,000 miles per hour. It was found to be flying fifty-six miles above the earth. Two other disks, smaller types, were watched from five observation posts on hills at the proving ground. Circling at incredible speed, the two disks paced an Army high-altitude rocket that had just been launched, then speeded up and swiftly outclimbed the projectile.

Commander McLaughlin's report, giving dates and factual details, was cleared by the Department of Defense. So was a later nation-wide broadcast.

Then the Air Force made its routine denial.

Why was McLaughlin, a regular Navy officer subject to security screening, permitted to give out this story? Was it an incredible slip-up? Or was it part of some carefully thought-out plan? I believe it was part of an elaborate program to prepare the American people for a dramatic disclosure.

For almost a year I have watched the behind-the-scenes maneuvers of those who guide this program. In the following chapters I have tried to show the strange developments in our search for the answer; the carefully misleading tips, the blind alleys we entered, the unexpected assistance, the confidential leads, and the stunning contradictions.

It has been a complicated jigsaw puzzle. Only by seeing all parts of this intricate picture can you begin to glimpse the reasons for this stubbornly hidden secret.

The official explanation may be imminent. When it is finally revealed, I believe the elaborate preparation--even the wide deceit involved--will be fully justified in the minds of the American people.
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