- ABCNews.com - That's according to a group of about 20
former government workers, many of them military and security officials,
who stepped forward on Wednesday to say they had witnessed evidence of
aliens and unidentified flying objects and called for congressional hearings
about such sightings.
-
- "These testimonies establish once and for all that
we are not alone," said Steven Greer, director of the Disclosure Project,
a nonprofit research organization dedicated to disclosing alleged alien
sightings.
-
- Greer, who organized the program at the National Press
Club in Washington, argued that the United States and other governments
have known about UFOs for at least 50 years and have been keeping the information
secret.
-
- Greer said there were some 400 witnesses who claim to
have firsthand experience with UFO sightings or alien evidence, and are
willing to testify before Congress.
-
- Among them is Daniel Sheehan, a well-known Washington
lawyer who is acting as counsel for members of Greer's group.
-
- Sheehan told reporters that during the Carter administration
he found out about government-held UFO information that then-CIA Director
George Bush, father of the current president, would not release.
-
- Sheehan said he was then led into the National Archives,
where he was shown photographs of captured UFOs, complete with what appeared
to be alien writing symbols, but he was only allowed to take notes on a
yellow legal pad. He traced the photos onto the cardboard back of his pad,
he said.
-
- International UFO Cabal? James Oberg, an ABCNEWS space
consultant and retired NASA engineer, says Greer has long argued "there's
this bizarre theory that there is a worldwide real X-file cabal that is
using UFO technology."
-
- But Oberg noted not every witness attending the conference
necessarily subscribed to Greer's theory, and says those attending the
press conference shouldn't be mocked.
-
- "People see strange things they can't understand,
and that can't be explained either then or in hindsight, and it's good
to keep documenting these, because often the mysterious sightings are things
of interest, to military intelligence or even to science."
-
- Oberg says people sometimes can be too quick to conclude
that the explanation is little green men.
-
- "Often, I've seen people jump to conclusions about
what they saw, because, after all, to have been scared by a distant fireball
can be embarrassing but to have encountered an alien space ship is more
exciting."
-
- Military Denies UFOs
-
- The U.S. government repeatedly has denied having any
evidence of alien species, though it investigated UFOs for decades.
-
- The Air Force was responsible for investigating alleged
sightings for the military. From 1947 to 1969, the service's Project Blue
Book at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, investigated 12,618 reported
sightings. It said it found explanations for all but 701, such as swamp
gas, airplane lights, weather balloons and other natural phenomena.
-
- Sightings for which explanations couldn't be determined
were categorized as sketchy reports that couldn't be pinned down.
-
- In 1997, the Air Force announced it was formally closing
its nearly 50-year investigation into the alleged alien sighting at Roswell,
N.M. It denied that there was evidence of a UFO at Roswell and that the
military covered it up.
-
- "Information obtained through exhaustive records
searches and interviews indicated the material recovered near Roswell was
consistent with a balloon device of the type used in a then-classified
project," said a Pentagon statement. "No records indicated, or
even hinted at, the recovery of 'alien' bodies or extraterrestrial materials."
-
- Alien Energy?
-
- In another statement Wednesday, Donna Hare, a former
NASA contract employee, said that Apollo astronauts saw an alien craft
when they landed on the moon, but were told not to reveal it. Hare's source
was a man who had been quarantined with the astronauts.
-
- Former Air Force Maj. George Filer III told reporters
that when he was at McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey, an alien craft
came down, and an alien got out and was shot by a military policeman.
-
- "Our security police went out there and found him
at the end of the runway dead," Filer said.
-
- "They asked me to brief the general staff,"
he said, but was later told not to. He said he would tell the story in
front of Congress.
-
- Filer is not new to UFO sightings. He has his own Web
site caled Filer's Files, where he says he also chased an alien ship over
England when flying for the U.S. Air Force.
-
- "I personally have observed a UFO both visually
and on radar. I've been chasing them ever since," he writes.
-
- Greer said extraterrestrials could provide a new, plentiful
source of energy that would supply the world's energy needs.
-
- Information from alien encounters, said Greer, could
also have significant impact on the global environment and the quest for
world peace.
-
- ABCNEWS' Katelynn Raymer in Washington and David Ruppe
in New York contributed to this report. _____
-
-
-
-
- Disclosure Press Conference Review
-
- By Dick Farley cloudrider@aol.com The American
UFO Newsletter 5-10-1
-
- I was there. (Actually I asked the last questions, of
Dan Sheehan and Steven Greer. Sheehan answered his but Greer "didn't
have time." Event over!) The event lasted two and a half hours; I
do not know how much of it is archived. It is supposed to remain on the
NPC site for six months, but you should watch it soon. I am told the Project
Discovery (CSETI & Paradigm Research Group) site has it too.
-
- The event was held in the ballroom (13th Floor) of the
National Press Club in Washington (14th and F. Streets, NW). While the
room is available for rental by anyone, it costs less if rented through
a Press Club member. According to the manager of catering for the NPC,
the Project Disclosure event was booked by Ms. Sarah MacClendon, a now-90-ish
veteran White House reporter who has been a thorn in the sides of many
Presidents who sought to keep the American people in the dark about something
Sarah believed we needed to know. This is important to consideration of
the Project Disclosure event.
-
- It was well-connected, well-funded. There were references
to Zero-Point Energy, anti-grav and other claims of technical advances
some on this list are working on. You'll be happy to know you've already
succeeded and that your technologies hold the keys to "stopping global
warming" and "ending the energy crisis," among other benefits.
Of course, the weaponization of space was a primary focus of the organizers
(they're against it). But the real stars were the retired military officers
and FAA officials, who are agreeing to testify before a Congressional committee
if one can be prodded into holding open hearings on it.
-
- One area of advance hype that did not happen were appearances
via video tape of former astronauts Edgar Mitchell and Gordon Cooper. No
mention was made of this and there was no video tape shown. The 21 "in
person" witnesses each made a five-minute or less presentation, the
majority of which were coherent and persuasive. As I am not given to hyperbole,
and whatever one thinks about Greer and his gig, I do have to report that
the event itself was professionally run and very well received. There is
material now "out there" for intelligent public discussion of
UFOs and ET,s and if there are some on this list concerned about efforts
to "start up a new religion" for the Technocratic Age, do fasten
your seat belts, because here it comes! Now! Greer referred (without attribution)
to Arthur Clarke's characterization of this time as "the end of humanity's
childhood." I will leave it to you to see the event on the web.
-
- What Greer & Company have formed is something I have
called in the past a "nontraditional alliance," of former military
folks who are decidedly conservative patriots working alongside abject
liberals like Daniel Sheehan, who did legal work for the New York Times
on the Pentagon Papers case and later was involved in the Karen Silkwood
case (about Kerr-McGee's nuclear operations for DoE, in Texas, etc.). It
is a fascinating mix and again, well worth personal review & analysis
by each of you.
-
- It had an impressive array of witness (21 present in
the flesh), many with solid and public credentials. For the first time,
some "official" folks having UFO sightings or knowledge are saying,
in front of (a bank of 12-plus TV cameras and "real" press) that
they will testify before Congress. This is one initiative the "Majestic-12"
gang will find it impossible to ignore, and with Rumsfeld-Bush space policies
up for review, it will be along lines of opening up "black budget"
projects where Congress will dig.
-
- Again, regardless of one's perspective or bias about
the "players," today's event is singularly important because
it's the best executed such initiative we've ever had. I have my own views,
of course, about some of what was said. And no, I am NOT "drinking
the Kool-Aid" (none was served). But rather than burn up the Internet
with chaff and hearsay, this one is worth you science guys and others on-list
tuning in. More later and I certainly will respond to questions and to
clarify "hearsay," etc. It is important that this effort not
degenerate into simply more disinformation and angry invective, personal
attacks and accusations. Kudos to Greer and Steve Bassett for a program
well-conducted.
-
- As to "what it all means," what other motives
or agendas are in play here, that will take months to gauge. Some of the
"usual suspects" were present, of course, from the "Retail
UFOlogy of Usual Kind" cadres, no doubt to find and amplify the weakest
links or wildest tales, to again try and derail the campaign. But it won't
work this time around. As Greer noted, today's event is the start of "a
process."
-
- My sense is THIS disclosure initiative is getting support
from official, if not necessarily "political," levels in the
government and military, with an eye toward perhaps "cleaning up"
bad secrets from the Cold War corroding public confidence. There no doubt
are elements of the "Matrix of UFO Beliefs" this particular group
is not interested in addressing (at least publicly), such as "mind
control" allegations or "angelic/demonic" interpretations
of alien abductions, "hybridization" suspicions or the ultimate
intentions of the "visiting others."
-
- The mood expressed by principles of the organizing entities
(sorry, couldn't resist ;-) is decidedly "peaceful surrender"
to the "aliens," as Greer's rationale (as he expressed it during
the Q. & A. period) is that if "they" wanted to harm us they
already would have, given our bad treatment of them over the years. And
Greer, Sheehan and others are, of course, of the "belief" that
disclosure of what they are certain is at the heart of the UFO "cover-up"
will be a planetary unification stimulus, which Greer and obviously his
backers clearly favor. But for the present, Steven and his allies are focusing
on the "real sightings" of an unexplained kind, letting the retired
military and aviation officials "break trail" on it.
-
- I'm waiting to gauge the media penetration, "spin"
and any counterattacks before I weigh in with analysis or "local color."
But I am glad I went in person, and I had an opportunity to interview a
number of the witnesses one-on-one, without intervention or spinning by
the organizers. Let's see how the fallout and counterattacks by those who
do not favor "UFO disclosure" or "space demilitarization"
takes shape. Later! If it's real, it has a politics. Once "disclosure"
happens, the real debates begin!
-
- Regards, Dick Farley National Affairs Correspondent The
American UFO Newsletter Washington, DC USA Copyright 2001 by C. Richard
Farley, Jr.
-
- (Permission granted to reprint or repost this in its
entirety, with no editing or interspersed commentary, and not for commercial
gain without permission.)
-
- References: http://www.press.org http://www.DisclosureProject.org
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