SIGHTINGS



Making A Federal
Case Out Of UFOs
The Arizona Republic
2-9-2000

 
They were there on a search for truth, or at least their version of it.
 
The federal courtroom was jampacked with observers, but they weren't there to watch the trial. The actual proceeding mattered very little.
 
 
In their minds, the verdict was already in: Alien beings are among us, and the government is engaged in an all-out campaign to keep it hush-hush.
 
 
The observers just showed up in the courtroom to glean evidence to support that view.
 
Peter Gersten, the attorney and founder of Citizens Against UFO Secrecy, sat waiting to argue his case. A man in a bright yellow jacket snapped open a briefcase and offered Gersten the beginnings of a book about the Kennedy assassination called Flame of Silence.
 
"I'm trying to get it to Art Bell," he told Gersten.
 
The attorney politely told him thanks but no thanks.
 
Gersten has filed three federal lawsuits in recent months. One, which sought wreckage from a purported 1947 UFO crash, was tossed out. Another, which asks the government to take action against the invading alien force, is pending.
 
Then there is the case heard Monday, asking the government to turn over all documents relating to a triangular object spotted all over the world. And in Phoenix.
 
"(We're) talking about an object that's been in existance for 20 years, the size of a football field, flying at treetop level, with no noise. And they don't know what it is," Gersten told the judge. "You would think it would be the Number 1 priority of the Department of Defense."
 
Richard Patrick, an assistant U.S. attorney, doesn't much look the part of a shadowy government figure bent on keeping a lid on the truth, but that's the role he played in the minds of the UFOlogists in the audience.
 
 
He said the government looked for the documents but didn't find any. He asked the judge to drop the matter, saying the search for paperwork on the spooky craft was "reasonable."
 
Problem is the word "reasonable" doesn't mean much to true believers.
 
Nothing the government said would be trusted or believed by the life forms in the courtroom, unless it helped prove their extraterrestrial views.
 
The only "reasonable" evidence they'd accept would be FBI agents coming into court with a red wagon filled with spacecraft wreckage and a dead alien or two.
 
And they're not alone. Seems like a lot of us like to suspend reason when it comes to reports of alien spacecraft.
 
Television reports about the infamous "Phoenix lights" of March 13, 1997, still say that there is no "reasonable" explanation for the orbs that appeared the night.
 
But there is an explanation. A very reasonable one.
 
An astronomer pointed his telescope at the strange hovering pattern around 8:30 p.m. that night and saw planes in formation. The bright lights people saw to the west of town around 10:30 p.m. that night coincide with planes dropping an unusual amount of flares over a gunnery range.
 
But those explanations are discounted in favor of the one that is more fun: Aliens are among us.
 
District Judge Stephen McNamee said he'd issue a ruling soon. But it won't matter much.
 
If UFOlogists lose the suit, they still win. They'll just have more proof that the government is hiding the real truth.
 
That truth being that the sky is filled with aliens, monitoring our thoughts and actions.
 
No wonder they just keep on flying.
 
---
 
 
 
From Robert M. Collins <rigoletto@sprintmail.com
2-10-2000
 
 
Jeff,
 
The only airplanes I saw in January '98 were those trying to make approches to the Sky Harbor Airport and circumnavigate around those bright Orange Orbs. I didn't have a telescope, just a pair of bushnell binoculars, but I could tell the difference.
 
I guess the Arizona Republic and that "Astronomer" can't. And those 737s, etc, et al weren't dropping flares: they were just trying to advoid those Orbs which were about 10 times bigger that they were.
 
I think those Arizona cowboys should get back on their horses and ride off into the sunset and leave the thinking to somebody else....Rmc
 
---
 
 
From William Hamilton <skywatcher22@earthlink.net, 2-10-00
 
Robert,
 
The so-called Astronomer who saw the planes was a teenager who had a Dobsonion telescope. He only glanced briefly at the lights through his eyepiece and thought they were on "squarish" wings. This guy got a lot of attention from the media. As far as I was concerned he had no better powers of observation than any other witness. When he spoke on TV at Village Labs I watched him. He was fidgeting all the time, and he would not make a eye contact with anyone. He was extremely nervous and I got the strong impression he was lying. His mother could not verify that he peeked through his scope at the lights.
 
His description did not match anyone else's description and for all I know he could have seen airplanes at a slightly different time and location and confused them with what everyone else saw at the time.
 
I know that Alan Moray of Arizona MUFON also claims that planes flew over Phoenix that night (3/13/97) and has publicly stated that my report on the sightings that night is erroneous! My report will be in the next issue of UFO magazine and I think people will be impressed by the eyewitness statements. More than one extremely large object (not formations) was seen by some very observant eyewitnesses.
 
The Arizona Republic's writer was a skeptic from the start so all he wants to write are amusing articles about UFOs. These journalists are dummies and could not think their way out of a paper bag.
 
Bill
 
 
Robert Collins wrote:
 
Bill; ok. When you get your copy of UFO Magazine, please make a copy and send. And, all those folks who said they saw airplanes were probably looking at the ones making approaches to the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport...the same ones I saw and those Orange Orbs right next to the approaching airplanes. It's what you want to believe, so you quote some kid with a telescope.....Rmc


 
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