major donald keyhoe: early pioneer of ufology

Major Donald Keyhoe, already an established writer, turned UFO researcher when editor Kevin Purdy of True magazine asked him to investigate early sightings in 1949. The Thomas F Mantell incident, a Kentucky Air National Guard pilot, who crashed to his death on January 7, 1948 in a Mustang P51 while in pursuit of a UFO, was among cases Keyhoe asked to examine. Mantell is assumed to have blacked out while in a steep climb. The observed UFO was reported from several vantage points: a control tower at Fort Knox, a Kentucky State Patrolman and observers at an Army air field in Ohio. The two surviving P51 pilots, also in pursuit, saw an object but called it later small and indistinct. The loss of life made UFO phenomena a much more serious issue after Mantell's reported death. The article written by Keyhoe sold well and expanded into the 1950 book (link to a freely available .pdf formatted version), "The Flying Saucers are Real," which sold over half a million copies.

Keyhoe followed with a subsequent book, Flying Saucers from Outer Space and involved in NICAP through fifties and sixties. A link to a 1958 Michael Wallace interview where Keyhoe discusses UFOs and contactees, also, the curious censorship of an earlier interview on Armstrong Circle Theater, which Keyhoe blamed on the Air Force. Is Keyhoe a disinfo agent? Keyhoe, a writer with military background, declared UFOs are from outer space. The present writer finds timeline of sightings that followed World War II closely, where Nazi UFO technology was possibly developed - an apparent continuity of interest!

hacker gary mckinnon update

Blogger Grant Lawrence reminds us in recent Alternet post, "Mckinnon has said consistently in numerous interviews that the US has advanced Space Fleets that are capable of star travel. He has never backed down from his assertions. Maybe Mckinnon has not said all he knows." A reader should ask what lies behind intense efforts to extradite McKinnon? Lawrence asks in a similar vein, "But what is making the US government so adamant about bringing Mckinnon to justice in the US?" Lawrence is led to a conclusion, the facts of the case would lead many of us, "maybe it is because Gary Mckinnon spilled the beans on what he saw and he shouldn’t have... Secret technologies are evidently supposed to be secret no matter how it would benefit humanity."


A 2006 Wired article, "'UFO Hacker' Tells What He Found," shows McKinnon freely providing details of his hacking adventure, "A NASA photographic expert said that there was a Building 8 at Johnson Space Center where they regularly airbrushed out images of UFOs from the high-resolution satellite imaging. I logged on to NASA and was able to access this department. They had huge, high-resolution images stored in their picture files. They had filtered and unfiltered, or processed and unprocessed, files. My dialup 56K connection was very slow trying to download one of these picture files. As this was happening, I had remote control of their desktop, and by adjusting it to 4-bit color and low screen resolution, I was able to briefly see one of these pictures. It was a silvery, cigar-shaped object with geodesic spheres on either side. There were no visible seams or riveting. There was no reference to the size of the object and the picture was taken presumably by a satellite looking down on it. The object didn't look manmade or anything like what we have created. Because I was using a Java application, I could only get a screenshot of the picture -- it did not go into my temporary internet files. At my crowning moment, someone at NASA discovered what I was doing and I was disconnected."

Is there more than McKinnon has revealed? It's the only sufficient explanation for the sustained pressure on the hacker, over the years, a constant reminder to remain quiet. You may view a previous blog entry on McKinnon's plight here. A recent update at Free Gary McKinnon shows news release of continued effort by US to extradite him. The present writer wonders, what else does McKinnon know and possibly holding back for his own safety?

jfk and ufos: alien psyop

A Daily Mail article reports on JFK memo obtained by a writer through the Freedom of Information Act(FOIA). The article implies UFOs may have been a motive in the President's assassination? It's more likely articles with unusual slants are floated in the media as a means of forming expectations, i.e., predictive programming. Is it Project Blue Beam?Are these stories more effective in shaping expectations when they come in clusters? A spate of similar articles with an alien theme surfaced in the media just a few months ago. Are they disinformation with an intent to pour a subconscious foundation to shape opinion and what to expect? Everyone will be mentally prepared and no one will be surprised when aliens make their presence known to us! Are they bogus documents? Yes, many questions asked with few answers. The present writer wouldn't be surprised, however, if aliens made their presence known and declare their mission to save us from ruining our planet!

related update: author tracks down witness to jfk assassination

weekly weird news: dead frozen two foot alien

It's a 21st century "dead alien" video set to eclipse last century's Roswell Alien Autopsy! A Daily Mail article reports how two walkers casually traversing, "the frozen wastes of Siberia," stumble upon a dead alien--and whip out a video cam! It's also been rumored a UFO went down near Irkutsk, last month. "Perhaps that was taken away and the body overlooked," said Igor Molovic, one of the pair that uploaded the video." The real news story is 700,000 views referenced in the Daily Mail article, upped to 900,000, by the time this TNT magazine article made it online. The views of a "dead alien" estimated at two feet tall exceed 2,000,000 as of this entry. Warning, you won't be able to get the image out of your mind, once viewed!

kecksburg ufo: non-believers vs believers

At 4:45pm on December 9, 1965, many reports of a fireball flooded phones at WHJB radio in nearby Greenburg, PA. Robert Gatty wrote the following story that appeared in the Tribune-Review the next morning, "Unidentified Flying Object Falls near Kecksburg — Army Ropes off Area," Authorities informed residents at the site, it was a meteor crash. By the next day, both, local authorities and the US government denied anything fell and nothing found! Stan Gordon, a 16-year old in 1965 and riveted to radio and TV coverage, marked a beginning of four decades of research into the Kecksburg incident.

Gordon provides perhaps the best description of the object. "...large enough for a man to stand inside of it. The object was a bronze-gold color, and appeared to be one solid piece of metal, displaying no rivets or seams. At the back of the acorn shape was..the bumper area.  Upon this area were unusual markings that..looked similar to ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics."

The following conclusions are made by Gordon after extensive interviews, "based on the accounts of multitudes of eyewitnesses which I have interviewed, I am convinced that an object did fall from the sky and apparently was removed by the military. Other witnesses say they saw NASA personnel at the scene that night also involved in the search".

A Sightings episode covers "bitter controversy" of a coverup and animosity between believers and non-believers in the Kecksburg UFO. There are professionals who argue for a meteor, "The Fireball of December 8, 1965-Part I," and others such as James Oberg argue debris from Kosmos 96, a failed Russian satellite.

Leslie Kean, an investigative reporter, provides a recent summary of the Kecksburg controversy, "Forty Years of Secrecy: NASA, The Military and the 1965 Kecksburg Crash<," and adds a couple of updates. In 2003, it was determined damage to top of trees in the woods near Kecksburg confirm something crashed there. Kean also cites Nicholas Johnston, a leading orbital debris expert, who asserts time of crash eliminates the Russian satellite.The present writer believes the strongest argument of an important event, is the fate of John Murphy, a WHJB reporter, who produced a radio special, "Object in the Woods". The WHJB office manager at the time reveals on this UFO files episode, Murphy received a visit by government men and lost all enthusiasm for the project and aired an edited broadcast.

The Wikipedia entry adds, "after the airing, Murphy became uncharacteristically despondent and completely stopped all investigation on the case and refused to talk to anyone about it again, and never gave clear reasons why. In February 1969, Murphy was struck and killed by an unidentified car in an apparent hit-and-run while crossing a road. The hit-and-run occurred near Ventura, California while Murphy was on vacation." Murphy's fate, irreconcilable differences among Kecksburg residents and numerous debunking efforts, are strongest arguments, for a government coverup of an important retrieval event!

1953 kinross incident and the moncla memories

On the evening of November 23, 1953, Lt. Felix Eugene Moncla Jr., pilot, and radar operator, Lt. Robert Wilson were scrambled in a F-89C Scorpion from Kinross AFB while on temporary assignment on the upper Michigan peninsula in pursuit of an unidentified "bogey". Radar operators tracked the F-89 and the unknown blip until they merged in an apparent collision and then disappeared. The Scorpion's last known position, according to this account, "...was about seventy miles off Keweenaw Point in upper Michigan, at an altitude of 8,000 feet, approximately 160 miles northwest of Soo Lock".

The Air Force served up weak explanations such as Moncla suffered vertigo. The radar blips explained away as "phantom echos" from the plane. There is, also, the coincidence of another F-89C that crashed earlier in the day on a training mission from Truax Field, and the pilot, a Moncla friend. The F-89 introduced in the late forties was viewed reliable by 1953. The incident remains a mystery to this day.

The "Kinross Incident" takes quite a turn after Gordon Heath begins his personal research. Heath was born in Thunder Bay, Ontario Canada nine months after the incident on the other side of Lake Superior. The Canadian relates a pivotal trip as a child to the top of a hill with a man on the lake's shore. The tale can be heard in this Out There interview. The researcher learned the man was Robert Wilson. Wilson revealed the F-89 disappearance was due to a UFO and he was the pilot. Heath's experience is so deep and extensive he had DNA testing done. This personal odyssey is documented in "The Moncla Memories". It's hard to dismiss as confabulation or mental illness on Gord Heath's part, the interviews and one hour documentary are fascinating!

3/24 defcon: mobile, micro, mystery, messenger

at&t to purchase t-mobile for US$39b;
as strangling of the free internet begins continues*
microsoft, feds pull plug on spam network*
fbook traffic mysteriously passed through chinese isp*
goldman programmer gets 8yrs for code theft*
tracking your wi-fi trail at the airport*
first tweet & other communication firsts*
nasa 'messenger' enters orbit around mercury*
chavez says capitalism may have ended life on mars*
video: 'red' rocker sammy hagar abducted by aliens*

ufo base in world's deepest lake

A March 1st UFO sighting over Siberia tied to underwater alien base, "some locals blamed the event on a alien UFO base said to exist beneath Lake Baikal." Tangible facts are hard to come by, but circles in the thin ice of Lake Baikal (picture) are puzzling . Thermal activity and convection believed responsible for warm water columns that rise to melt surface ice. An article at the Earth Observatory page on NASA website, however, finds circle at south end of lake in relatively deep water a challenge to this belief.

In "UFO Encounters Of Russian Navy Released," the article reports in 1982 case, "a group of military divers training at Baikal spotted a group of humanoid creatures dressed in silvery suits. The encounter happened at a depth of 50 meters, and the divers tried to catch the strangers. Three of the seven men died, while four others were severely injured." In the March 1st sighting, first article also revealed, "only hours prior to this event, air-traffic controllers in Yakutks, Siberia claim to have picked up a UFO on radar traveling at 6000 mph at a height of 65000. When they tried to speak with the crew of that craft they heard bizarre cat noises being uttered to them."

Thousands of local Irkutsk residents witnessed a huge object, glowing pink and blue, hurtle towards earth, followed by a loud explosion heard over a wide area. Russian officials declared crash site classified and would not reveal location.

3/10 defcon: supermoon, double sun, mirage men

extreme 'supermoon' to take place next week*
mystery of two suns in chinese sky leaves scientists puzzled*
does the sun have jupiter-sized companion star in far reaches of solar system?*
persistent evidence of a jovian mass solar companion in the oort cloud*
'mirage men' book on paranoia, technology, psyops & ufo's*
giffords plans to attend husband's space shuttle launch*
US probes 'anonymous' hacker threat over wikileaks soldier*
manning's father condemns treatment of imprisoned son*
zuckerberg's dog, 'beast', gets facebook page*
google is america's british east india company*
video: new robot has incredibly realistic facial expressions*

dulce underground base mystery

Over twenty years ago, the underground base at Dulce, New Mexico was first exposed to public view with The Dulce Book by Branton. The base suspected to lie under the Archuleta Mesa on the Jicarilla Indian reservation, is rumored to be manned by Reptilians, Greysand humans in tense working relationships. Later, in the nineties, Phil Schneider reported his version of a battle in the late seventies, AKA "the Dulce Wars", which broke out with the Greys and resulted in the death of over sixty men here. A wide range of questionable research takes place underground in utmost secrecy at Dulce. The study of auras, dreams, and telepathy to hideous bio-genetic experiments are conducted on the seven levels. Level Six is called "Nightmare Hall" because of the dark nature of the experiments. Cattle mutilations (mutes) were prevalent around Dulce in the mid-seventies and a possible cross-species fetus discovered in an opened cow's womb before it could be retrieved. Gabe Valdez, former New Mexico state patrol officer, related the discovery on a 2009 UFO Hunters episode.

Paul Bennewitz, a businessman who worked near Kirtland Air Force Base, became a UFO researcher after spotting lights over the Manzano underground nuclear storage area near his home. Bennewitz took pictures of saucers at Dulce when flying on business to the Denver area, he claimed also to monitor communications from the underground base. After bringing these claims to authorities attention, Bennewitz became the target of a disinformation campaign, grew increasingly paranoid and finally institutionalized. Bennewitz, who passed away in 2003, is credited with uncovering much of the Dulce story. Michael Salla provides an in-depth research paper on Paul Bennewitz at Exopolitics.


The Dulce book, as much a compilation of writings from Tal Levesque aka Jason Bishop, Val Valerian aka John Grace and John Lear as well as Branton aka Bruce Alan DeWalton, remains the best introduction. A 2009 UFO Hunters episode with Bill Birnes is well done and entertaining. A brief synopsis of the characters involved in the Dulce story, provided by Norio Hayakawa, are available here. Podcasts at the Jerry Pippin website covering the Dulce base are available here. Dulce fascinates like some tragic, horrible car accident where a person cannot seem to look away.

related: ufo files reveal 'rendlesham incident' papers missing

nebraska's 1884 roswell

Ranchers John Ellis and Alf Williamson witnessed the crash of an "aerolite" on June 6th, 1884 northwest of Max, NE in Dundy county. In the state's southwest corner, the county seat is Benkelman. A 2007 Daily Nebraskan article, "Nebraska may have had its own Roswell in 1884," recounts the cowboys' eyewitness accounts of this relatively obscure sighting. The two men thought, at first, it was a meteorite, but changed their minds when they saw the craft leave a swath, 20 x 80 feet, of molten sand. A fascinated Williamson could not turn himself away and suffered burns to his face. The object, estimated to be 60 ft long and cylindrically shaped with a 12 ft radius, left behind debris described as metal cogs and propeller screws. John Buder, a MUFON of Nebraska researcher, believes the incident spawned many that followed, including the 1897 Aurora, Texas airship mystery. "It was the second UFO crash Buder knows of, and the first to be recorded in newspapers of the time. But once the story came out, it started a worldwide wave of similar stories.."

A 2009 article, "Nebraska UFOs: Is There Anybody Out There?" offers UFO researcher Dale Bacon's perspective. Bacon recounts the incident, also, as an entertaining storyteller on YouTube, the Benkelman Nebraska, UFO Mystery. The researcher employs the historically accurate "aerolite", a reminder the term Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) was only first suggested in 1952 by Edward Ruppelt, head of Project Bluebook. Details may vary as Bacon describes the object at 12 x 6 feet. There are no surviving metal objects to corroborate the story, as a newspaper reported, after a hard rain two days later at a time when the object was still too hot, melted the craft, "like a spoonful of salt in water". This news account hurt the story's credibility at the time.

John Hubert (pictured), a High Plains Historical Society director, inspects a green glob of glass that may have been created in the 1884 crash as reported in a 2009 McCook Daily Gazette article. Robert Golka, a MIT scientist, is also interested and scours the country for samples, he observes "...green glass would correspond with the high temperatives involved". It's noted green glass is also produced from atomic blasts. The Benkelman UFO incident still has standing as a relatively credible though obscure story. Buder believes, " ...there's only a few dozen people in Nebraska who even know about it".

2/3 defcon: killswitch, bandwidth, floodgates

as egypt returns to the internet: lieberman says US internet killswitch bill is different than egypt's internet killswitch*
US tests system that beats internet censorship by dictatorships*
certified lies: detecting & defeating govt interception attacks against ssl*
vodafone volluded with egyptian regime's information warfare psyop*
metered bandwidth isn't about stopping bandwidth hogs; it's about preserving old media business models*
US p2p traffic lower than world average*
US cyber challenge partners with lockmart & microsoft*
US recruiting young cyber warriors*
docs in assange rape investigation leak onto web*
video: assange's boring 60 minutes interview*
no, hackers can't open hoover dam floodgates*
nasa spots 54 life-friendly planets*
video: ufo hovers over jerusalem*

william cooper: manipulated misinformant?

Norio Hayakawa, ufo researcher, recollects his association in "William Cooper: a manipulated misinformant of the 90's?" A personal view brings to life the late Cooper, author of underground classic, "Behold A Pale Horse." Hayakawa rubbed shoulders with Cooper at the dawn of the modern ufo movement in the late eighties, which meant observing Area 51 from the roadside and tops of ridges. Later, Cooper moved into the patriot movement and a popular shortwave radio program in the nineties, "The Hour of Our Time".

The present writer suggests listening to Cooper's well-known Babylon Series. A must see 90 minute video is, "The Hour of Our Time -- The Legacy of William Cooper," narrated by associate Doyle Shamley, which includes Cooper's November 6, 2001 death at the authorities' hands in front of his home in Edgar, Arizona. Bill Cooper died almost two months after 9/11, an event he predicted in the preceding months.

Cooper influenced Hayakawa with "..his hypothesis on the 'Secret Government'. It really sounded so fresh at that time because unlike most UFO speakers of that time, he convincingly injected "UFOs" to a "one-world government" right-wing flavored conspiracy theory".  A very interesting note, Hayakawa could no longer buy the extraterrestrial hypothesis by 1993 and began to promote that "..the entire UFO phenomena was a brilliantly concocted, staged and manipulated man-made deception by elitists to bring about certain agendas".

"I was quite surprised to learn that, later on, Bill Cooper also began to depart from 'ufology' and was also beginning to hypothesize that "UFOs" had nothing to do with "aliens" but was a manipulation of the government to bring about fear to create a one-world government. Cooper began to admit that he most likely had been shown disinformation by the government while he was in military service. On this point, I truly commended Cooper for his admission. Cooper began to state that he was no longer a 'ufologist'. It was Cooper who coined the term 'ufoology' and I also commended him for it. We both totally departed from 'ufoology'."

Hayakawa spoke at Cooper's funeral on November 15, 2001 and did not pull punches in how he remembered Cooper with remarks such as obnoxious, egotistical and an alcoholic. The veteran ufo researcher does not believe Cooper was a paid disinfo agent. "I tend to believe that he was simply drawn into and manipulated into being an unwitting participant in this strange world of 'conspiratology'."

Was William Cooper drawn into the conspiracy movement or a paid disinfo agent? It cannot be overlooked Cooper was, at one time, in the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI). Cooper's naval career along with other objections supporting a disinfo view of the man, can be taken in at Bill Cooper Disinfo. A nice treatment of Cooper can be listened to here, it's pointed out on this podcast, Cooper held a very similar position to Fletcher Prouty. Cooper prepared briefs for the Pacific Fleet as Prouty did so at the Pentagon. William Cooper remains interesting and mysterious. It seems to the present writer, if Cooper was a disinfo agent the agenda gave up too much to misdirect us? On another level perhaps, it's all intended to confuse and distract?

the bob lazar story: s-4 sport model fueled by element 115

The Bob Lazar Story still fascinates, though, the first anonymous interview with George Knapp took place over 20 years ago. Lazar's credibility remains in question to this day, because of an inability to substantiate his background according to this timeline. It appears doubtful Lazar attended either CalTech or MIT and graduated in the bottom third of his 1976 high school class. Lazar still has his backers who found much evidence to support his claims. Lazar's six months in 1989 at Area 51's S-4 site to reverse engineer an alien disc in a project called Galileo, remains spellbinding--either way! You can view a credible Lazar in a well done interview about his experience here. The story propels us into the future with enough detail to pique curiosity.


Lazar's top secret government research career appears to have kicked into high gear by attending a lecture by famous nuclear physicist Edward Teller at Los Alamos, NM on June 28, 1982, where he met Teller. The scientist happened to have the Los Alamos Monitor newspaper opened to an article on Lazar's jet car demonstration of the day before. The article refers to Lazar as a physicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Teller is provided a resume according to Lazar, but elsewhere, the eccentric nuclear scientist is cited as not remembering ever meeting him. Teller, the father of the hydrogen bomb, is the character Dr. Strangelove is based so anything is possible here?

The details of the S-4 Sport Model (pictured) described by Lazar, seems more than a passing familiarity and captivates a reader's imagination! The physical description of the alien "sleek sport model" disc, acquired in trade from aliens, lends an air of realism if not credibility to the story. Three gravity amplifiers with wave guides located on the lowest level and a reactor fueled by Element 115 on the middle level, while avoiding a detailed description of the technology that can be surveyed here and here, does leave doubt whether this is a hoax? It's either a good psyop or it's the real thing! Norio Hayakawa, a veteran UFO researcher who still has questions, cannot decide whether Lazar is a fraud in an article here? It's just a fascinating story either way!

the 1950 'farmington armada' incident

On March 17, 1950, between 11am and noon, half of the small town of Farmington, NM peered skywards and pointed to UFOs directly overhead--for a third consecutive day! High winds and dust storms prevented clear visibility according to a Farmington Daily Times article of the following day. Hundreds witnessed the objects that seemed to play tag and maneuver at 90 degree angles. Witnesses could attest the objects to be "saucer shaped " as some would fly on their edge to reveal their round form. The UFOs would also fly in formation with a larger and faster red leader in front. Speeds of the objects were estimated at 1,000 mph and flying at heights of 15-20,000 feet and numbered, by witness accounts, anywhere from dozens to hundreds. The sightings are popularly known as the "Farmington Armada".

James E McDonald, a noted UFO researcher, documented witness accounts 17 years later and concluded the objects could not be dismissed as cotton in the air, plasmas or the break up of a Skyhook balloon. McDonald checked with authorities and found no Skyhook Balloon launches for the time period, although a balloon break up still stands as the most likely "official explanation". There is a nice five minute video of Stanton Friedman, famous UFO investigator, who addresses the Farmington incident, beginning at the 2:30 mark.

earth must prepare for close encounter with aliens!

from guardian: World governments should prepare a co-ordinated action plan in case Earth is contacted by aliens, according to scientists. They argue that a branch of the UN must be given responsibility for "supra-Earth affairs" and formulate a plan for how to deal with extraterrestrials, should they appear. The comments are part of an extraterrestrial-themed edition of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A published today. In it, scientists examine all aspects of the search for extraterrestrial life, from astronomy and biology to the political and religious fallout that would result from alien contact. "Will a suitable process based on expert advice from proper and responsible scientists arise at all, or will interests of power and opportunism more probably set the scene?" asked Professor John Zarnecki of the Open University and Dr Martin Dominik of the University of St Andrews in the introductory paper. "A lack of co-ordination can be avoided by creating an overarching framework in a truly global effort governed by an international politically legitimated body." The pair argue that the UN has a ready-made mechanism for such a forum in its Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (Copuos).

flashback: united nations 'to appoint space ambassador to greet alien visitors' as hawking warns over making contact

weapons of mass deception

Mark Pilkington, author of Mirage Men, writes an excellent account of early ufology, from an intelligence point of view, in a Fortean Times article, "Weapons of Mass Deception". Pilkington begins with the Air Forces' "Project Grudge, an early effort "to study" unidentified flying objects (ufos), but intended primarily to suppress public interest. The effort proved successful, until Donald Keyhoe wrote a 1950 article that exposed the Air Force coverup in True Magazine, and later, expanded into a book, "The Flying Saucers Are Real". Keyhoe transformed ufos into a respectable topic, "the era of scientific ufology was born", writes Pilkington.

The ufo myth, as we know it, took form from a series of events, according to Pilkington, the first a film release in September 1951 of "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (link to full film) that "perfectly crystallised" the hopes and fears of the flying saucer movement, what an alien encounter could bring with Christ-like Klaatu's message of peace and his robot enforcer, Gort, capable of destroying the Earth. The film sparked a surge of ufo sightings and many within the armed services, which prompted the Air Force to issue JANAP 146(B), where servicemen could be imprisoned for up to ten years and fined 10,000 dollars for release of ufo information.


Another boost to ufology came from a Aprill 1952 Life Magazine article, "Have We Visitors from Space?", which surprised many by its pro-extraterrestrial message in light of the authors spending a year consulting with the Air Force.  US newspapers carried over 16,000 ufo news items in the first six months of 1952 alone. By this time, ufo phenomena made policymakers nervous, CIA Director Walter B. Smith wrote in a letter, "...problems associated with unidentified flying objects appear to have implications for psycho­logical warfare as well as for intelligence and operations.” Smith’s concerns would prove to be uncannily prescient." The nervousness--the result of a combination of technology and paranoia--that characterized the Cold War with the former Soviet Union. Authorities were at war with ufology.

"On two nights in July 1952, a number of unidentified objects blipped onto radar screens at Washington DC National Airport. At close to midnight on the first night, 19–20 July, seven objects were tracked 24km from the capital city, gradually homing in on the White House at about 160km/h. A bright, orange ball of light was seen from nearby Andrews Air Force Base, making “a kind of circular movement” according to an airman on the scene, before taking off at “an incredible speed” and disappearing. Six bright white, fast-moving lights were also spotted by the pilot of a passenger jet flying in the area," reports Pilkington.

The DC overflights resulted in a media flurry, a press conference called the largest since World War II. The event described by Edward Ruppelt, first head of the Air Force Project Blue Book and coined the term "ufo", as a chaotic affair in his 1956 memoir, "The Report on Unidentied Flying Objects".  A link to a .mp3 recording of Ruppelt's book, which can be downloaded for free, is available here  from Librivox--very nice.

Leon Davidson, a chemical engineer at Los Alamos in the late forties, is the lost prophet of ufology, according to Pilkington.  The engineer joined a ufo group at Los Alamos fascinated by the green fireballs seen in New Mexico.  Davidson came to believe "...secret military tests lay behind these and most other UFO incidents, including the Washington overflights."

Davidson recognized similarities between descriptions of radar blips over Washington DC and those created by electronic counter measures and felt he knew who was behind it. "ECM + CIA = UFO or How to Cause a Radar Sighting" was an essay written by Davidson to expose the intelligence source responsible for the sightings. A great case is made for an intelligence operation by the engineer and points out the DC event was predicted by a CIA scientist and related to Ruppelt just a few days before it occurred!

"So were the Washington UFOs an early attempt to put the galloping ghosts under human control,"  Pilkington asks rhetorically in conclusion?   The author believes the ufo community would look different today if it had paid attention to the lost prophet, Davidson!  Pilkington's conclusion is the sightings are black operations not aliens!  A great read--a story that just keeps on giving!

battle of los angeles

Air raid sirens first screamed at 2:25 am and the city of Los Angeles called for a blackout early on February 25, 1942. The 12,000 air raid wardens were shocked by what followed, from 3:36 am until 4:14 am, at least, 1,440 anti-aircraft shells were fired intermittently with deafening blasts. The UFO caught in the searchlights (pictured), did not fire and apparently was not harmed! There were six deaths as a result of the air raid, three by scrapnel and three heart attacks. The military announced it was a weather ballloon.  This enigmatic incident became known as the Battle of Los Angeles. Here is a link to the original CBS radio broadcast by Bryan Palmer on February 26, 1942.

An eyewitness, only identified as Katie, a volunteer air warden made the following observations, "It was a lovely pale orange and about the most beautiful thing you've ever seen. I could see it perfectly because it was very close. It was big!... They sent fighter planes up (the Army denied any of its fighters were in action) and I watched them in groups approach it and then turn away. There were shooting at it but it didn't seem to matter." The Japanese maintained after the war, they did not fly any aircraft that night over Los Angeles!

Here is a link to a more recent NBC recap of the night, which includes a brief interview with UFO researcher Jose Escamilla. Escamilla points out the obvious, "if they can't bring down a weather balloon with over 1,500 rounds of anti-craft scrapnel, 12 lb weaponry, what are they going to do with a real enemy target?" The incident proved too embarassing, and a possible explanation, why the battle over Los Angeles has gone underreported.

An interesting footnote, on March 5, 1942, General George C Marshall, wrote a top secret memo to the President, "regarding the air raid over Los Angeles it was learned by Army G2 that Rear Admiral Anderson...recovered an unidentified airplane off the coast of California ...with no bearing on conventional explanation...This Headquarters has come to the determination that the mystery airplanes are in fact not earthly and according to top secret intelligence sources they are in all probability of interplanetary origin."

incident at kearney, ne

Reinhold O. Schmidt, a grain buyer, spotted a UFO on November 5, 1957 just southeast of Kearney, NE - or it spotted him? Schmidt recalled his UFO encounter and its human crew in print. The aftermath of the sighting included much persuasion by authorities to change his account and a brief stay at a nearby mental hospital. It is one of the better known contactee stories, Schmidt related the crew spoke High German to him. Schmidt's life changed and included a flight underneath the North Pole and joined a lecture circuit with the Director of Washington Saucer Intelligence. Schmidt spent time in prison, later, after having swindled money from elderly women who sought cancer cures. A book and film were made of Schmidt's contacts by the same title, "Edge of Tomorrow".

12/23 defcon: spectacles & seizures

the wikileaks spectacle*
apple bans lame wikileaks app*
dhs seized domains based on bad evidence*
new zealand military releases ufo files*