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- STILLWATER, NY - As the last
Halloween
of the millennium approaches, the hundreds of members of UFO
groups in
New York state are watching the skies more than ever and investigating
reports of unusual sightings. The 1990s have produced more sightings in
New York than in any decade since a small New Mexico town called Roswell
made unidentified flying objects a mainstream topic.
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- Consider these reports:
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- April 10,
1978 - A shiny
oval object is reported over
the treeline of Saratoga Lake. Witnesses said
that it moved sideways,
hovered, then descended and disappeared 40 minutes
later.
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- April 6,
1978 - A police
officer and his family report
a large oval object hovering near their home
in Baldwinsville, Onondaga
County. A bright flash of light followed 10
minutes later and power was
cut off to 3,000 homes. They said a helicopter
appeared and the object
flew away. Four others in two separate sightings
in the county report
similar sights the next night.
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- Oct. 17, 1973 - Sixteen
witnesses,
including a policeman, report a rotating object in the sky
with alternating
colored lights. For 40 minutes it hovered over
Gloversville, then darted
away.
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- These kinds of sightings are no
joke to those who take
them seriously. Databases are being compiled to
track for the first time
sightings nationwide and New York state,s more
than 200 reports since a
Saturn-shaped object was reported flying
slowly over Norwood, St. Lawrence,
on July 3, 1884.
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- "More and more
people are starting to be open to
this," said James Bouck, a state
regional director for the New York
chapter of the Mutual UFO Network,
and a UFO investigator. "More people
believe there is something
out there, something visiting us, or something
the government isn,t
telling us."
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- A Gallup poll in 1996 found that 71 percent of Americans
said
they believe the government is hiding something and that officials
know
about UFOs. Forty-five percent said they believe UFOs have visited,
and
12 percent said they have seen a UFO.
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- UFOs and aliens are linked to
the Halloween season by
more than costumes and Orson Wells, 1938
broadcast of a Martian invasion
that panicked thousands. Bouck, who is
compiling the state database, said
that now is the busiest time for
reports, despite the fact that more people
are outside in warmer
months.
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- However, skeptics maintain that there are simple, everyday
causes for 90 percent to95 percent of these reports. Two who will tell
you that are Bouck and Mike Scritchfield of Rochester, a UFO investigator
with the group Skywatch. Their objective is to prove the sightings are
anything but out of this world. They almost always do. But among the cases
for which no Earthly cause is determined, a few patterns appear to be
emerging:
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- These investigators aren,t the techno-geek conspiracy
theorists
of the X-Files or other TV programs and movies. Bouck is a state
auditor. Scritchfield, a retired chief warrant officer in Army
Intelligence,
is a college tennis coach working on his doctorate in
education. They don,t
say "these are reports of alien ships."
They call them as they
see them - objects that are unidentified,
flying.
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- "Some say we,ve been visited for breeding, or to
warn us
of impending doom, or just studying us. It depends on who,s idea
you
want to consider," said Bouck. "We want to stay open to the
possibility of whatever we learn - we don,t have enough information, we
don,t have a smoking gun."
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- Critics from government officials to science-based
magazines
such as The Skeptical Inquirer also point to a lack of proof.
Where is
even one chunk of hardware? One undeniable photo? A
footprint?
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- The counter-argument is as fervent as it is unprovable.
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- "I think there,s
substantial evidence that the government
knows a lot more than it,s
talking about," said Dana Schmidt, state
director of MUFON.
"If there,s nothing to it, one wants to know why
are they are
keeping the secretive approach?"
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- The theory has it that hardware
and more have been collected
and secreted away by the government for
research and to avoid mass panic.
One of these research sites was long
rumored, but never proven, to be at
the former Rome Air Force Base in
Oneida County.
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- The explosion of interest in UFOs fueled by television,
movies,
books and magazines could be because the government duped the
entertainment
industry.
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- "What better way to acclimate the public to the
idea of extra-terrestrial life?" said Scritchfield, who worked in
an Army Intelligence unit unrelated to the paranormal. "In a
counter-intelligence
mode, you start feeding bits and pieces. You get
the public accustomed
to thinking there is extra-terrestrial life out
there, and somewhere down
the road a ship lands in the mall in
Washington or the government makes
an announcement."
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