UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record Read online

  For Paul

  CONTENTS

  Cover

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Foreword

  John Podesta

  Introduction

  Part 1: Objects of Unknown Origin

  1: Majestic Craft with Powerful Beaming Spotlights

  2: The UAP Wave over Belgium

  Major General Wilfried De Brouwer (Ret.)

  3: Pilots: A Unique Window into the Unknown

  4: Circled by a UFO

  Captain Júlio Miguel Guerra

  5: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena and Aviation Safety

  Richard F. Haines, Ph.D.

  6: Incursion at O’Hare Airport, 2006

  7: Gigantic UFOs over the English Channel, 2007

  Captain Ray Bowyer

  8: UFOs as Air Force Targets

  9: Dogfight over Tehran

  General Parviz Jafari (Ret.)

  10: Close Combat with a UFO

  Comandante Oscar Santa María Huertas (Ret.)

  Part 2: In the Line of Duty

  11: The Roots of UFO Debunking in America

  12: Taking the Phenomenon Seriously

  13: The Birth of COMETA

  Major General Denis Letty (Ret.)

  14: France and the UFO Question

  Jean-Jacques Velasco

  15: UFOs and the National Security Problem

  16: “A Powerful Desire to Do Nothing”

  17: The Real X-Files

  Nick Pope

  18: The Extraordinary Incident at Rendlesham Forest

  Sergeant James Penniston (Ret.)

  Colonel Charles I. Halt (Ret.)

  19: Chile: Aeronautics Cases and the Official Response

  General Ricardo Bermúdez Sanhueza (Ret.)

  Captain Rodrigo Bravo Garrido

  20: UFOs in Brazil

  Brigadier General José Carlos Pereira (Ret.)

  Part 3: A Call to Action

  21: Fighting Back: A New UFO Agency in America

  22: The FAA Investigates a UFO Event “That Never Happened”

  John J. Callahan

  23: Government Cover-up: Policy or Myth?

  24: Governor Fife Symington and Movement Toward Change

  25: Setting the Record Straight

  Governor Fife Symington III

  26: Engaging the U.S. Government

  27: Militant Agnosticism and the UFO Taboo

  Dr. Alexander Wendt and Dr. Raymond Duvall

  28: Facing an Extreme Challenge

  Acknowledgments

  About the Contributors

  About the Author

  Notes

  Copyright

  FOREWORD

  By John Podesta

  As someone interested in the question of UFOs, I think I have always understood the difference between fact and fiction. I guess you could call me a curious skeptic. But I’m skeptical about many things, including the notion that government always knows best, and that the people can’t be trusted with the truth. That’s why I’ve dedicated three decades of my life, in private practice, as counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee, at the White House under President Clinton, and now with the Center for American Progress, to the fundamental principle of protecting openness in government.

  Because of this commitment, I have supported the work of investigative journalist Leslie Kean and her organization, the Coalition for Freedom of Information, in their initiative, launched in 2001, to obtain documents about UFOs through the Freedom of Information Act. In the spirit of inquiry, Kean successfully sought an injunction in federal court on one important case, as was her right under the law.

  The time to pull the curtain back on this subject is long overdue. UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record involves just such an effort, and it appeals to open-minded people such as myself. Presenting the facts, the book includes statements from only the most credible sources—those in a position to know—about a fascinating phenomenon, the nature of which is yet to be determined. Kean and her impressive team of contributors make no untoward claims, but provide a rational analysis of the most pertinent information, much of it presented here firsthand in riveting detail, stating that further investigations are needed. Kean has more than done her homework as a dogged investigative reporter, diligently contending with this perplexing subject for ten years while having to face attitudes of ridicule and denial within government. Yet she persevered, and her book clearly leaves the taboo against taking UFOs seriously with no leg to stand on.

  Kean and her distinguished co-writers call for the establishment of a small U.S. government agency to cooperate with other countries that are already formally investigating, reviewing, and releasing information relevant to UFOs. This new agency would handle release of documents and any future investigations with openness and efficiency. It’s an idea worth considering, and it is definitely time for government, scientists, and aviation experts to work together in unraveling the questions about UFOs that have so far remained in the dark. It’s time to find out what the truth really is that’s out there. The American people—and people around the world—want to know, and they can handle the truth. UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record represents a pivotal step in that direction, laying the groundwork for a new way forward.

  INTRODUCTION

  Ten years ago, as an investigative reporter working for a California public radio station, I was suddenly confronted with a seemingly impossible reality. A colleague in Paris sent me an extraordinary new study by former high-ranking French officials documenting the existence of unidentified flying objects and exploring their potential impact on national security. Now known as the COMETA Report,1 this unprecedented white paper marked the first time in any country that a group of this size and stature had declared that UFOs—solid but as yet unexplained objects in the sky—constitute a real phenomenon warranting immediate international attention.

  The distinguished COMETA authors—thirteen retired generals, scientists, and space experts working independently of the French government—had spent three years analyzing military and pilot encounters with UFOs. In the cases they present, all conventional explanations of something natural or man-made had been eliminated by the authors and their associated teams of experts, and yet these objects were observed at close range by pilots, tracked on radar, and officially photographed. They achieved tremendous speeds and accelerations, made sharp, right-angle turns in a flash, and could stop and stand still in midair, seeming to defy the laws of physics. What could this mean? Since some of the military officers on the COMETA panel were serving with the French Institute of Higher Studies for National Defense, a government-financed strategic planning agency, their characterization of UFOs as a phenomenon with possible national security implications assumed a grave importance.

  In their ninety-page report, written with objectivity, clarity, and logic, the authors explained that about 5 percent of sightings—those for which there is enough solid documentation to eliminate other possibilities—cannot be easily attributed to earthly sources, such as secret military exercises or natural phenomena. This 5 percent seem to be “completely unknown flying machines with exceptional performances that are guided by a natural or artificial intelligence.” In its startling conclusion, the authors state that “numerous manifestations observed by reliable witnesses could be the work of craft of extraterrestrial origin.” In fact, they wrote, the most logical explanation for these sightings2 is “the extraterrestrial hypothesis.”

  This did not mean that they accepted this conclusion as fa
ct or had any particular beliefs about it one way or the other. They made very clear that the nature and origin of the objects remain unknown. By “hypothesis,” the authors simply meant an unproved theory, a possible, plausible explanation that needed to be tested before it could be decided, but remained only a thesis until that happened. However, the conviction with which they put forth this theory as the “most likely” solution to the puzzle, since others had been ruled out in so many cases, was provocative. Official data about UFOs from around the world was accessible to the members of the group, and they were determined to respond rationally, avoiding prejudice. They did so without reserve.

  Who were the people making these statements? Among them, all retired, were a four-star general,3 a three-star admiral, a Major General, and the former head of the French equivalent of NASA. It was their credentials that made the report worthy of serious consideration. Other military officers, engineers, scientists, a national chief of police, and the head of a government agency studying the phenomenon completed the impressive contributing group. The study was not a government-sanctioned one, but was undertaken independently, and then presented to the highest levels of government in France.

  The foreword states that the report “contributes toward stripping the phenomenon of UFOs of its irrational layer,” and indeed, the study achieved its goal. Yet the group arrived at a determination that most government officials and scientists in the United States would still consider far-fetched. Meanwhile, everyone agrees that if these UFOs were proven to be probes or vehicles from outside Earth, that would be a monumental development in human history, a milestone in the evolution of civilization. If there was even a slight possibility of such a discovery, I thought, it seemed well worth the effort for scientists to try to find out. And here was a highly respectable group from a sophisticated European country stating that such an outcome was a plausible and even likely expectation.

  This explains why and how I first became interested in the issue of UFOs, the question of what we actually do and don’t know about them, and how we might find out more. The COMETA Report was a catalyst. As much as I may have wanted to, it was hard for me to let it go, to simply return to my regular work and set it aside. I kept wondering, could there really be technological objects flying around that are not man-made? Couldn’t these craft possibly be highly secret American constructions, or advanced military test craft from some other country? No, said the generals and the rest of the high-level French panel. Countries do not fly experimental aircraft repeatedly in foreign airspace without informing the host country and then lie about it later. As I dug deeper, I learned that these objects have appeared for decades in a variety of shapes and sizes, sometimes in flaps or “waves,” all over the globe, demonstrating capabilities beyond our scientific understanding. This was not a myth. And maybe, I thought, the French generals and their colleagues knew even more than they disclosed.

  Not only did all the members stand by the conclusion, they also urged international action. The writers recommended that France establish “sectorial cooperation agreements with interested European and foreign countries” on the matter of UFOs, and that the European Union undertake diplomatic action with the United States, “exerting useful pressure to clarify this crucial issue which must fall within the scope of political and strategic alliances.” The report, titled “UFOs and Defense: What Should We Prepare For?,” is most fundamentally a call to action, a request for preparedness in anticipation of future encounters with the unknown objects.

  I had no idea where all this might lead—for me, for any government, or for our future.

  My French colleague called to follow up and explained that he had surreptitiously slipped me an advance English copy of the report, just translated. The news was being held for a later release, and so far the report had been published only in France. My friend knew that I was an open-minded freelance reporter with ties to many publishing outlets, and he wanted me to get a head start on the story rather than leave it to the conventional mainstream media, which rarely took UFOs seriously. “You are the only reporter in all of America to have the English version,” he told me excitedly over the phone from Paris. “It’s all yours. But don’t let anyone know where you got it.”

  The challenge was both enticing and nerve-racking. Secretly, I started to look into the UFO subject more extensively, without telling any of my otherwise close colleagues at the radio station. I knew that I was exploring something most journalists considered ridiculous, or titillating at best, but otherwise irrelevant to the life-and-death struggles of human beings, issues that should be the focus of any responsible, progressive reporter. As the months passed and I became increasingly concerned about keeping my expanding interest quiet while producing and hosting a daily investigative news show, I began to feel as if I were covering up something shameful and forbidden, like the use of an illegal drug. In retrospect, the intensity of my worry and insecurity was overblown, but the taboo regarding UFOs had power over me, and it took a while before I felt armed with enough facts and insight to handle the attitudes of those I worked with so compatibly in every other respect.

  This was not an easy subject to take on, and I understand why other journalists haven’t done so. At first, I felt burdened by what seemed to be almost insurmountable obstacles. The UFO story was journalistically elusive, contaminated by conspiracy theories, disinformation, and just plain sloppiness, all of which had to be carefully separated from the legitimate material. The questions raised by the UFO phenomenon were deeply disturbing to our accustomed ways of thinking. The subject carried a terrible stigma and was therefore a professional risk for those publicly engaged with it. But it also pointed to something possibly revolutionary, something that could challenge our entire worldview. Although frightening, that made it all the more appealing to me, I have to confess. And the more I learned, the better I understood the validity of additional case studies and government documents shedding light on the UFO question. The aggregate data, the accumulation of evidence over decades, was utterly compelling and completely mystifying. Despite the problems, there was simply no way I could force myself to ignore it.

  As it turned out, that unsolicited report from France radically changed the course of my career as a journalist in ways I never could have imagined at the time. UFOs became the focus4 of my professional life after the publication of my first story about them in the Boston Globe. The editor of the Globe’s Sunday Forum, a weekly news analysis section in which I had published previously, was apprehensive about covering the subject of UFOs. It understandably unnerved her, but after much discussion she was courageous enough to run my lengthy story. I was extremely nervous about “coming out of the closet” professionally as a reporter who—God forbid!—found this silly subject worthy of attention. But I knew this was a scoop, and how could I resist? I broke the news of the COMETA Report, just as my French colleague had requested six months before, and the stature of the generals and others authoring the report carried the day, exempting me from ridicule. I even included additional analysis based on revelatory information spelled out in official U.S. government documents pertaining to UFOs and national security, all of which backed up the French perspective. To my delight, the article was distributed through the New York Times wire service and picked up by newspapers across the country. Clearly, there was national interest.

  People following the UFO subject were elated that at least one prestigious newspaper had taken the story seriously, and a congressional staffer even sent a complimentary letter to the Globe. I received numerous e-mails from witnesses to UFO events in response to the article, including a few pilots, who had so far never dared to come forward. My eyes were opened by this, and I had now crossed the point of no return.

  The story carried that disquieting quote—printed in black and white, clear as the other stories of the day with which it oddly mingled—about “completely unknown flying machines with exceptional performances that are guided by a natural or artificial intelligen
ce,” as described by the retired French officials. I naively thought this would have to generate some kind of news buzz, and that other journalists would eagerly jump in to pick up where I had left off. I knew there was disdain for UFOs in the culture, but I also knew that this was a breaking story passing muster with a leading mainstream paper. Amazingly, nothing happened. I had been exposed to another aspect of this strange world. It was the beginning of a rude awakening, a rite of passage into the perplexing reality that UFOs cannot be acknowledged at all, even as simply the unidentified flying objects that they are. It was as if everyone was pretending that they didn’t exist.

  Ever since the Globe story solidified my interest and increased my confidence, I have been focused on investigating and coming to terms with this subject—a process that never ends. Fundamentally, after many years of research and in-depth interviews with key players, I have learned that UFOs are a genuine scientific mystery. There have been extraordinary UFO sightings occurring in America for more than sixty years, many by pilots and military personnel, and many yielding physical evidence. Volumes of case studies have been published5 by qualified researchers and scientists since the 1950s, documenting UFO incidents all over the globe and leaving a solid record begging for further analysis by contemporary scientists.

  The most credible sources clearly recognized, and stated repeatedly, that we don’t yet know what the objects are—contrary to public assumptions that UFOs, by definition, are extraterrestrial spaceships. But I had to come to terms, over and over again, with the fact that these amazing, high-performance unidentified objects do exist, without question—just as the COMETA authors had unequivocally stated. There is enough data available to make this clear to anyone who decides to take the time to study it. Because that alone was so potentially explosive, I couldn’t quite understand the indifference it generated among those who took it seriously enough to rise above ridicule but who nonetheless remained blasé and disinterested.