Page 42 - 201009 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - August 2010

August 2010_june_july_2009.qxd 30/08/2010 4:00 PM Page 42 42 From The ‘X’ Zone Newsroom Pilots and generals go public UFOs 10 years ago, when she received a copy numerous other naturally occurring events. “Most UFO sightings are meaningless,” about UFOs of a 90-page report by retired generals, she said. “They really can be explained. We’re scientists, and space experts in France. By Charlie Smith The group included a four-star general, a talking about a very specific group of sightings. three-star admiral, and the former head of the Those are the cases in my book.” Eleven years ago, on a clear August French equivalent of NASA. The 13-member She also emphasized that a UFO is morning, Surrey resident Gord Heath witnessed panel had spent three years reviewing various merely an object that cannot be identified, and something he’ll never forget. encounters between UFOs and pilots or military not necessarily an alien spacecraft. At the time, he was living in a personnel. “I can’t tell you how much of a barrier townhouse with a balcony at the back where he According to UFOs, the document that creates,” Kean said. “When you really, could watch the planes overhead, on their way suggested that about five percent of UFO properly define what a UFO means, it really has to the airport on Sea Island in Richmond. sightings cannot be easily attributed to earthly nothing to do with anyone’s belief system.” In an interview in the Georgia Straight sources. The first case cited in her book occurred boardroom, Heath said that as he was watching Instead, these experts wrote, the over Belgium during a two-year period a plane cruise past, he noticed a contrail shoot at “extraterrestrial hypothesis” offered the best beginning in late 1989. stunning speed over the aircraft before suddenly explanation. According to Maj. Wilfried De Brouwer, halting. Then the plume disappeared. Kean said her first article on the subject retired head of operations for the Belgian air “It was travelling at least 10 times as fast was for the Boston Globe, and was distributed staff, there were 143 sightings—observed by as the jet,” Heath recalled. “When it stopped, it nationally through the New York Times. 250 people—on a single evening in November looked like a light in the sky.” “I felt at that point I had a leg to stand on 1989. Among those filing reports were 13 police Heath said he ran inside to grab his because I had published a story that was very officers; 70 of the sightings were investigated. binoculars. Upon closer examination, he legitimate,” she remarked. “But over the years, De Brouwer writes that none could be claimed, the unidentified flying object I haven’t communicated with very many explained by conventional technology. resembled a sphere with a silvery-gold colour— journalists, to tell you the truth. I’m often Witnesses claimed that these large UFOs not metallic, but with more of a pearly texture. surprised that more journalists don’t contact me were able to hover motionless in the sky. U.S. Approximately five minutes later, it and don’t want to jump in and follow up on officials told De Brouwer that no stealth aircraft floated away. “I was just kind of fascinated,” some of these things themselves, especially were operating in the area. Heath stated. “It was, you know, ‘Wow, that’s journalists that have the backing of a major One Belgian man took two colour-slide weird.’ ” newspaper, like the Washington Post or the New photos of the UFOs, which were later examined Afterward, Heath hooked up with the York Times.” by a trio of researchers: former NASA senior citizens’ group UFO B.C., which investigates What makes Kean’s work different from scientist Richard Haines, French satellite- sightings of unexplained aerial phenomena in other UFO books are chapters written by pilots imagery specialist François Louange, and this province and the Yukon. and high-ranking military officials, who claim University of Paris-Sud professor André Now a director of the organization, he to have seen UFOs. Marion. spoke to the Straight a few days before the As well, there are essays by government They concluded that there was no August 10 release of the book UFOs: Generals, officials from several countries, including the tampering with the slide. Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the United Kingdom and France, who have Several years later, in a subsequent Record (Harmony Books, $30.99), which has investigated these phenomena. analysis using more sophisticated technology, been widely anticipated by Heath and others The man who ran the French Marion noticed a halo surrounding the UFO. It interested in the subject. government’s UFO agency for 21 years, Jean- was in the form of a snowflake pattern, similar Written by New York journalist Leslie Jacques Velasco, writes that a few cases involve to the appearance of iron filings in a magnetic Kean, UFOs advocates the creation of a small objects that are “distinct from ordinary field. U.S. government office that will work with phenomena”. Kean said these incidents generated other countries already formally investigating Moreover, they demonstrate “a physics media coverage in Belgium, but not much in and reporting on UFO sightings. seemingly far different from that which we North America. “The first step is to bring credibility to employ in our most technologically advanced UFOs also covers a wave of similar the subject—to make it clear within the countries”. sightings in New York’s Hudson Valley region mainstream that there are high-level military According to Velasco, that includes that lasted several years in the early 1980s. and government officials and aviation officials “stationary and silent flights, accelerations and Witnesses claimed at the time that these around the world who have been collecting data speeds defying the laws of inertia, effects on objects were as large as football fields and could on these UFO events,” Kean told the Straight by electronic navigation or transmission systems, travel at incredible speeds, either remaining phone from Wellfleet, Massachusetts. “And it’s and the apparent ability to induce electrical silent or emitting a humming noise. worthy of consideration because of the blackouts”. Kean said the Hudson Valley sightings credibility of those people.” He also states that in these rare cases, the generated no government investigations and UFOs has attracted high praise from UFOs appear to be under some kind of little media coverage in the U.S. people you wouldn’t expect to be interested in “intelligent control”. “How could it not be all over the front flying saucers. “I am fascinated with the possible pages?” she asked. For example, research astronomer Rudy correlation between nuclear activity, the Some of the more remarkable stories in Schild of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for location of nuclear weapon storage facilities, the book take place in South America, where Astrophysics calls it a “terrific book, researched and the presence of UFOs,” Velasco observes in there’s a keen interest in UFOs among military with great care and precision”. the book. “We can see on a graph the and government officials. Former president Bill Clinton’s director relationship between atomic explosions and Two retired high-ranking officers in the of the White House Office of Science and visual/radar sightings, by looking at the Chilean military, as well as a retired Brazilian Technology Policy, Neal Lane, describes it as a similarity in the two curves. We can’t be certain brigadier-general, have contributed chapters to “fascinating, thought-provoking book”. why, but perhaps UFOs are ‘monitoring,’ and UFOs. Renowned physicist Michio Kaku says it’s this activity was heightened during times of May 19, 1986, is known as “UFO night” “bound to set the gold standard for UFO dangerous nuclear activity on the planet.” in Brazil, writes Brig.-Gen. José Carlos Pereira; research”. During her interview with the Straight, on this date, radar showed 21 unidentified Clinton’s former chief of staff, John Kean pointed out that many things can be objects in the sky between São Paolo and Rio de Podesta, wrote the foreword. He also cochaired mistaken for a UFO. They include weather Janeiro. Pereira notes that jets carrying missiles President Barack Obama’s transition team. balloons, flares, planes flying in formation, were dispatched, but he didn’t feel that the “The American people—and people secret military aircraft, birds reflecting sunlight, UFOs posed a threat to national security. around the world—want to know, and they can blimps, helicopters, and planets such as Venus handle the truth,” Podesta states in the book. and Mars, as well as meteors, meteorites, and (Continued on Page 43) Kean said she first became interested in