U.F.O. RELATED FACTS

 

In September 1977, a Phoenix, Arizona UFO group filed a lawsuit against the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) under the freedom of information act. William Spaulding, director of Ground Saucer Watch Incorporated, alleged that the agency possessed thousands of documents about its involvement with UFO's and had actively conspired to keep them secret from the public by denying their existence.

The case was backed by Citizens Against UFO Secrecy, a national body, and the CIA lost. A Washington judge ordered them to search their files for all UFO material. A total of 10,000 pages were found, but only 900 released, the rest being withheld on national security grounds.

Nevertheless, Citizens Against UFO Secrecy hailed it as a victory. Even the admission that files existed was a breakthrough against the blanket of governmental obfuscation.

No reason was ever given for the tight security net thrown round an area near Mendoza in western Argentina in January 1964. But rumours that a UFO had lost speed and crashed, with tiny aliens in luminous suits aboard, in the foothills of the Andes, circulated for some years and a photograph smuggled to the Flying Saucer Review magazine showed a mysterious cigar-shaped object, about 13 feet long, lying in rough scrubland.

Police at Fort Beaufort, South Africa, fired shots from only eight yards when a glowing metallic object landed on June 26, 1972. But the bullets had no effect. The machine merely took off with a humming noise.

Aggression by man against UFO's is nothing new. According to the US Air Force Academy textbook, "supposed airships were treated as demon-ships in Ireland in about 1000 AD and in Lyons, France, 'admitted' space travellers were killed in around 840 AD."

 

THE FIRST UFO ON FILM

 

Two Swiss astronomers from Basle observed a spindle-like object, surrounded by a glowing outer ring, pass in front of the sun on August 9, 1762. The sighting corresponded with a shape seen over Mexico by hundreds of people in the 1880's. The photograph which Professor Bonilla took there through a telescope at Zacatecas observatory on August 12, 1883 is believed to be the first photograph ever taken of a UFO.

 

ADMISSIONS FROM MEN OF AUTHORITY

 

The Royal Air Force's late Air Chief Marshal, Lord Dowding, was a staunch believer in UFO's . As early as 1954, he said: "I have never seen a flying saucer, yet I believe they exist. Cumulative evidence has been assembled in such quantity that, for me at any rate, it brings complete conviction. "There is no alternative to accepting the theory that they come from an extra-terrestrial source. For the first time in recorded history, intelligible communication may become possible between the Earth and other planets."

Although Dowding admitted never having seen a flying saucer, he would have received numerous reports of UFO sightings by the fliers under his command during World War Two.

On February 28, 1960, Admiral Roscoe Hillenkoetter, the former director of Central Intelligence Agency, made the following statements in The New York Times;

"Through official secrecy andridicule, many citizens are led to believe that the unknown flying objects are nonsense."

"To hide the facts, the Air Force has silenced its personnel."

Despite America's policy of denying the possibility of UFO's, its armed forces have drawn up procedures to deal with them. In 1957, a CIA source admitted: "One thing is for sure, we're being observed from outer space."

 

CIA AND USAF INSTIGATE "COVER UP"

 

In 1954, military-style curbs were imposed on commercial airline pilots. These effectively prevented them from reporting sightings of UFO's to the media and public in general. One month later, pilots of the United States Air Force were threatened with 10 years in jail should they fail to maintain absolute secrecy, concerning sightings. Airline pilots were also encouraged to keep quiet by being told that a fine of 10,000 dollars would be enforced, should they fail to meet demands.

 

SCIENTISTS WHO KNEW TOO MUCH?

 

Suicide verdicts were recorded on two top US scientists who died after studying UFO's, having decided that they were extra-terrestrial spaceships investigating life on Earth. Atmospheric physician Professor James McDonald, of the University of Arizona, was found with a bullet in his head in 1971 and astronomer Professor Robert Jessup claimed: "He knew too much, they wanted him out of the way". But fellow scientists felt both men had suffered depression after battling for years against a wall of governmental UFO denials and evasions, and the scorn of sceptical colleagues.