------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BURSTING THE BALLOON THEORY 21/10/95 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Washington Post October 21, 1995, Saturday, Final Edition SECTION: OP-ED; Pg. A23; FREE FOR ALL The column by Guy Gugliotta [Federal Page, Oct. 10] on the efforts of Rep. Steven Schiff (R-N.M.) to get to the bottom of the 1947 UFO event near Roswell, N.M., completely misses the point. It involves a U.S. Air Force coverup, not science fiction. After Schiff was stonewalled by the Department of Defense and the Air Force, he turned to the General Accounting Office, which promptly launched an investigation. The Air Force then announced that the remains of a once-secret Project Mogul balloon train had been mistaken for unrecognizable and possibly unknown materials. In so doing, it ignored the detailed testimony of the most technically sophisticated witnesses, including Roswell Army Air Field intelligence officer Maj. Jesse Marcel. The Air Force also disregarded protocol by announcing its "discovery" to the public rather than sending it quietly to the GAO. Then, after the GAO completed its investigation and said it could find no evidence for a Project Mogul balloon train, the Air Force issued a 1,000-page report that repeated its original conclusion, supporting it with a record amount of irrelevant material. Those few with the patience to plow through this latest snow job will see that the only test balloons that could possibly have landed on the sheep ranch near Roswell were launched so long before the discovery of the debris that the balloons would have disintegrated. All that would have been left would have been some 1/4-inch balsa wood sticks and flimsy metalized paper. But the witnesses described extremely light and strong materials unfamiliar to them. Since the Air Force reports eliminated the crash of an airplane or a missile and a nuclear accident as possible causes of the wreckage, and the GAO eliminated balloons, what is left? The GAO report concluded: "The debate on what crashed at Roswell continues." -- Don Berliner ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DUNDEE LIGHT DISPLAY NOT UFOS 19/10/95 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dundee Evening Telegraph on 19 October 1995 A promotional event for a Dundee nightclub which provided a spectacular light display in the sky above the city, had locals scurrying to report UFO sightings last night. Many people were anxious to find out the source of the white light which bounced off the clouds and illuminated huge areas of the sky. Scott Robb of Tayport said "I thought Batman was in town, it looked like his sign in the sky." A woman from Hillbank gardens in Dundee described it as " A bit like a gas flame on a cooker. I went to shut the curtain and saw these lights across the sky". The source of the light was later revealed as a promotional exercise by the Madi Gras nightclub in south ward road to publicise its opening. The spokesman for the nightclub said the Civil Aviation Authority had been informed of the event. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BOSNIA TALKS BASE NOTES FOR "SPACE ALIENS" 18/10/95 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By Charles Aldinger WASHINGTON (Reuter) - Sprawling Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, where critical Bosnia peace talks will begin October 31, is more noted for its alleged dealings with space-tripping aliens than for international diplomacy. Secretary of State Warren Christopher announced Wednesday that the base, site of early flights by aircraft pioneers Orville and Wilbur Wright, had been picked for talks involving the presidents of Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia. Christopher and other officials said Wright-Patterson was picked for three reasons: well-guarded gates to keep reporters away, good housing facilities for heads of state and location of only an hour's flying time from Washington. With 23,000 personnel, the base is near Dayton in southwestern Ohio about 60 miles northeast of Cincinnati. It is both the largest employer in the area and the largest Air Force base in the United States. Although named for earlier aviators -- Frank Patterson was a military flier killed in a crash in 1918 -- the base has been associated in myth and fact with Project Blue Book, a U.S. Air Force investigation into Unidentified Flying Objects. Despite denials and an official report issued by the government in 1994, reports circulated by UFO fans continue to hold that the Air Force has bodies of extraterrestrial visitors stored in tunnels or frozen in lockers at the base. The reports circulate on the Internet and have been fodder for books, Hollywood films and television. Much of the speculation involves a 1947 incident at Roswell, New Mexico, in which a supposed ``flying saucer'' crash was investigated. The Air Force issued a 25-page report in 1994 saying an analysis of photos showed it was nothing more than wreckage from a balloon used to check the atmosphere for possible soviet nuclear tests. But rumors have persisted that bodies of aliens were retrieved at the site and brought back to Wright-Patterson, and that the base has been the site of other secret research on alien visitors. Beyond rumor, the base has played a major role in U.S. military history. In recent years the B-2 Stealth bomber program was handled from there under wraps of secrecy. Guards are posted at all gates to the 8,145-acre facility and only military personnel and those with passes or business on the base are allowed to enter. ``It's a well-secured facility by virtue of limited access,'' said Air Force Major Clemens Gaines at the Pentagon. ''There are also other security means. If someone goes over the fence, I don't think it would go unnoticed.'' The peace talks will not be the base's first brush with the Balkan conflict. It announced earlier this month that its Medical Center will set up an interactive television link with Camp Pleso in Croatia for analysis of X-ray and other medical reports on wounded U.N. peacekeepers treated at the camp. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- KUALA LUMPUR UFO SIGHTING 18/10/95 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- New Straits Times KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 18 - Crowds of people have been gathering at a village in Malaysia's central Selangor state after news spread of sightings of an unidentified flying object (UFO) occupied by extra-terrestials with long ears and little red eyes. The New Straits Times newspaper reported on Wednesday that the UFO was said to have been sighted at least four times since September above forests at the Tanjung Sepat Laut village, south of the capital city Kuala Lumpur. Malaysians who claimed to have seen the spaceship said it was as big as a football field and several storeys high. They said it was encircled by flashing red, orange and green lights.No one has managed to take a photograph of the spaceship or the 60 centimetre (about two feet) tall aliens, the newspaper report said. One villager, among the hundreds who turned up on Tuesday in the hope of catching the spaceship, said he first thought the object was a low-flying airplane. "However, the same object returned a few days later, whizzed past the village and stopped about a kilometre (half a mile) away where it hovered about 100 metres in the air before disappearing again," he said. The Malaysian Air Force has dismissed the alleged sightings. "We have seen nothing on our air defence screens to indicate an UFO had violated Malaysian airspace," the New Straits Times quoted air force's deputy chief Major-General Ahmad Saruji Che Rus as saying. Director-General of Malaysia's Space Science Studies Division, Mazlan Othman, said the sightings may have been hallucinations. "Sights of faraway planets or stars glowing in the dark could be misconstrued as UFOs," the New Straits Times quoted her as saying. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SIGHTINGS ARE NOT UFOS 18/10/95 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Star (Malaysia) by : Shahanaz Sher Habib Kuala Lumpur: Mutual UFO Network, the worlds largest organisation studying UFOs does not believe that the sightings of "light-emitting flying objects in Kampung Sepat over the past month are UFOs. Its international director Walter Andrus said based on previous cases of sightings, UFOs usually moved in a configuration that could not be copied by any object on earth. "They move with tremendous speed, make fast right angles turns, stop, hover and start again," he said in a telephone interview from United States. He said a flying object which hovered over several hours was more likely to be "astronomical in nature." Andrus said from Mutual Network investigations of sightings from all over the world, 90 percent of the reports turned out to be "something mundane or explainable." Astronomer: Refraction not the cause bye : n/a The lights which have been appearing near which have been appearing near Kampung Tanjung Sepat Darat in Sepang are not due to an astronomical phenomenon, said a senior astronomer. Astronomical society of Malaysia member Dr. Ng Kim Chua said that going by witnesses' accounts that the lights were just above the forests, the lights could not have been due to atmospheric refraction. He said that it was unlikely that it could be an optical illusion like that found in the deserts. He said whatever the source of the lights was, it must have had a power of its own, since any object coming within the gravitational pull of the earth would drop to the surface burn out. Meanwhile, Mutual UFO Network international Director Walter Andrus said extra- terrestrial beings are not green. He said the "green" alien was only a cartoonist's concept depicting "little green people from Mars." Andrus, who heads the world's largest organisation studying UFOs, said there has never been any record of green aliens in sightings. "Aliens recorded so far have all been between 122cm and 137cm tall and are white, chalk or grey," he said in a telephone interview from the United States on Tuesday. Some villagers in Kampong Tanjung Sepat had claimed to have seen two waist- high green aliens. The village has become the centre of attention because of sightings of "light- emitting flying objects" over the past month. Andrus said the organisation had previously received reports of UFO sightings in Malaysia, but upon investigations these turned out to be fakes. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- UFO VIDEO 18/10/95 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Brisbane Courier Mail SEOUL: Video footage purportedly showing unidentified flying objects in formation was shown on South Korean television yesterday. The footage, which ran for almost five minutes was reportedly taken on September 4 by a cable television cameraman north of Seoul. It showed a clear image of white, luminous saucer-shaped objects flying in formation against a blue sky. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- UFO FORMATION SAID TO BE FILMED BY SOUTH KOREAN TV CAMERAMAN 17/10/95 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 1995 Agence France Presse Footage purportedly showing unidentified flying objects (UFOs) in formation was aired on an evening primetime television newscast Monday that rivetted viewers across South Korea. The film, allegedly taken on September 4 by a local cable television cameraman north of Seoul, showed a clear image of white, luminous saucer-s haped objects flying in formation against a blue sky. The footage, aired for four minutes and 44 seconds, showed a big brilliant cluster comprising 10 small saucers that flew in parallel, in a vertical formation. "The flying objects were accidentally taken by my TV camera while I was on a trip to scout out locations," Lee Hee-Hong, 33, a cameraman for Kang won Cable News, said in a televised interview shown with his film. Kang said he had been reluctant to publicize the film for fear of ridicule. MBC television said it was the first UFO film footage taken in South Korea and shown unedited. Kang said the UFO film was taken in Kapyong, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) northeast of Seoul, the same place where a newspaper photographer allegedly tooka picture of what UFO experts described as a typical flying saucer on September 3. That photograph, taken by Kim Sun-Kyu of the Seoul newspaper Munhwa Ilbo, wasselected as one of the nation's best five news pictures for September by an association of South Korean photographers. In the first week of September, UFOs were witnessed by many people in the area, newspapers said, although scientists remained skeptical about the alleged sightings. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MOD FILES REVEAL NEW UFO CASES 15/10/95 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Sunday Times by Tim Kelsey and David Leppard DOZENS of incidents involving unidentified flying saucers (UFOs) have been revealed by the Ministry of Defence files kept secret for decades. They show the government took such reports seriously and wanted to allay public fears about claims of visiting alien aircraft. One document reports that two RAF planes were sent to intercept UFOs over the Strait of Dover in April 1957. Two objects were seen, but the Javelin jets were unable to track them on their radar. Fighter Command told ministers it believed the objects were other RAF jets on exercise. In another case the previous year, an RAF Venom jet was sent to investigate a UFO moving at very high speed picked up by radar. The pilot saw nothing, but two other aircraft scambled in pursuit made "a momentary contact". In 1963, an object that looked like a flying saucer was seen hovering by a hangar at RAF Cosford, near Wolverhampton, by two airmen. An MoD files records that "as they watched they saw a trap door in the upper part slowly open". An internal enquiry dismissed the incident as "a piece of youthful high spirits". The alledges sightings are detailed in files spanning more then a decade which have been uncovered at the Public Records Office. They were quietly released by Lord Henley, a defence minister, at the end of last year. In some cases, officials admit they can find no explaination. In 1962 the RAF police launched an investigation after a motorist driving near Luton in the early hours saw "an object like a hovering craft flying approximately 30ft above the road surface ... An unknown force slowed him down to 20mph ... and then flew off". Local police said they believed the account to be genuine. Documents already published reveal that as long ago as 1952, Winston Churchill, then prime minister, ordered an enquiry into UFOs. Churchill asked in a memo to Lord Cherwell, then secretary of state for air: "What can it mean? What is the truth?" Cherwell replied there was nothing to it. But later files, including confidential briefings about UFO sightings up to the early 1960s, show a willingness to investigate. The files record another incident from Christmas 1961, where four police officers in Hessle, Humberside, saw "a bright yellow light moving noiselessly across the sky". For 20 minutes they watched as it passed south of Grimsby. The RAF later confirmed it had no activity in the area. The MoD denied it had tried to surpress evicence. "We don't indulge in a debate on whether there is life on other planets." said a ministry spokesman. "But there is no conspiracy ... There is nobody here with pointed ears." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- UFOS STAR ON ARGENTINE TV, PROMPT SECURITY ALERT IN CHILE 14/10/95 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By Roy S. Carson American Reporter Correspondent Caracas, Venezuela 10/14-15/95 BUENOS AIRES -- A huge saucer-shaped U.F.O., variously colored violet, red and green, has been filmed by a professional television cameraman at La Puerta in the central state of Cordova, according to reports by the Argentine state news agency Telam. Filming minutes before midnight Thursday, October 5, local cable TV station cameraman Gerardo Ferrero shot 15 minutes of high-quality video footage before the U.F.O. flew away. Ferrero had been alerted to the phenomenon by a neighbor who first observed the "saucer-like object" hovering in the sky. The Argentine air force has spent the last week examining the footage after also finding "jelly-like substances" and scorched earth marks at the San Carlos de Bariloche airport, 1,260 miles southeast of Buenos Aires. Their verdict on the video is that it cannot be explained, but it's being included in the investigation into another U.F.O. sighting in the area last July. The Argentine government has tried to discourage news reporting of the sighting because of a routine Latin American summit conference to be held in Bariloche October 16-17, with Latin America's heads of state, King Juan Carlos of Spain and the president of Portugal expected to be in attendance. The video photographer told Telam news agency he lost five minutes setting up his camera before he could start shooting the U.F.O. at a distance of 2-3 miles in a southeasterly direction from where he lives. "The U.F.O. pulses violet, green and red as it turned on an axis," Ferrero told the Telam state news agency. "Through my telephoto lens, I could see small windows in its circumference as it spun and moved up and down. I had difficulty keeping it in focus until I ran out of tape about 15 minutes into recording." "When I digitally enhanced the image in the technical studio, it was easy to see that it had the form of a plate or saucer and how it changed from place to place as though it was spinning." Nestor Etcharte, who saw a similar U.F.O. touch down in Bariloche in July, said he'd found three-foot-deep circular "footprints" on the flight path into Bariloche airport, and Air Force investigators who were called immediately to the scene by helicopter had found samples of "gelatine-like substances". Etcharte said the samples solidified to rock within hours and have since defied all attempts to cut or analyse them. That July U.F.O. experience was also witnessed by the passengers and crew of a commercial airliner, and a ground-crew had watched the U.F.O. fly parallel to the aircraft as it aborted a landing to avoid a collision. In parallel with Argentina's "close encounter," neighboring Chile has been put on a U.F.O. alert after a spate of sightings close to the capital, Santiago. Chile's armed forces (FACH), which issued the security alert, is apparently taking the U.F.O. "invasion" seriously. "The most recent sightings were last Saturday in the vicinity of Rancagua, 70 miles south of Santiago. Thousands of people witnessed the unidentified flying objects in the night sky," otherwise unnamed military investigation sources told the local daily newspaper, La Cuarta. The newspaper received an official notice of security alert from the FACH's 2nd Brigade Aerial Operations headquarters, and then interviewed witnesses who described the U.F.O.s as "large shining objects, mostly red on top and perhaps 10 feet in diameter, with an elongated oval shape and tail from which multi-colored sparks flew as the objects moved away." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE MEN IN BLACK: FACT OR FICTION? 13/10/95 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Visions of the Virgin Mary have been overtaken this century by sightings of extraterrestrial beings and visits from UFOs. While, in this logical age of Microsoft and the computer chip, rational people dismiss those visited as drunk, insane, credulous or sensation-seeking, the same people watch the "X Files" avidly. Mysteries have not lost their hold. PLAY: The Men In Black DATES: November COMPANY: SERIO ENSEMBLE 9 (press night), 10, 11 PLAYWRIGHT: Charles Serio 16, 17, 18 VENUE: The Pigeon Loft 23, 24, 25 443-445 Holloway Rd 30 December 1, 2 London N7 6LJ TIME: 8pm (directly behind NYT) TICKETS: ?7, ?4 PHONE: 0171-281-7683 0171-281-7745 The Men In Black takes as its theme the things in the world we can't explain and our reactions to them. In a futuristic society where everything can be - and is - measured scientifically, there is great power in the hands of the Doctor and his measuring team. But evidence of the Men In Black eludes them, despite the severe consequences to the witneses who experience these bizarre visitations. Are the Men In Black a fragment of the observers' unhinged thoughts, or do these "men" exist? In fact the Men In Black are a real phenomenon, recorded over the last 30 years in association with some UFO sightings. Accounts from witnesses agree: they are usually three in number, dressed in old fashioned suits and arriving in an unregistered Cadillac. But so far no one has furnished any evidence to support these claims. Utilising this obscure mystery, SERIO ENSEMBLE present a darkly comic piece, arguing strongly that we should leave space for the unknowable and imaginative in our world. If we push the unanswered questions out of sight, will they come back in awkward forms to trouble us? The play, set in a giant maze, uses text, dance and an original score to reproduce the baffling nature of these experiences convincingly, taking the audience back and forth in time to show both trigger and effect. The resulting narrative describes the crisis facing those who try for model citizenship in an increasingly technocratic world. MIB AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEW FOR FURTHER INFO, CONTACT: CHARLES TODD - 0171-281-7683 Do you wish to be a witness of the Men In Black? If so, make your way to the Pigeon Loft - address as above, on 9th November at 8pm. Don't be late or you may miss this premiere encounter!! Other visits by the MIB expected on Nov 10, 11, 16, 17, 18, 23, 24, 25, 30 and Dec 1 and 2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TV NEWS STORY ON AREA 51 11/10/95 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The following piece was broadcast on KLAS Television (CBS-Las Vegas) on10/11/95, in the 6:30 newscast. It was reported by investigative reporter George Knapp. (In this form you do not get to enjoy some great old film of the SR-71, A12 flying over the Nevada Desert, and taking off from Area 51. ROADRUNNERS DATE=10-11-95 THE SECRETS OF NEVADA'S AREA- 51 MILITARY BASE... MAY BE KNOWN ACCORDING TO SOME OF THE FIRST MEN WHO WORKED THERE. A GROUP OF TEST PILOTS AND CREW MEMBERS, KNOWN AS THE ROAD- RUNNERS, ARE IN TOWN THIS WEEK. THE ROADRUNNERS TALK ABOUT THEIR PLANES... BUT THE PLACES WHERE THEY FLEW. GEORGE KNAPP TELLS US THEIR STORY... IN THIS I-TEAM REPORT. george: FROM THE INNOCUOUS SIGN IN THE HOTEL LOBBY, A PASSERBY MIGHT THINK THE ROADRUNNERS ARE JUST ANOTHER SOCIAL GROUP, LIKE ELKS OR MASONS, HERE TO HAVE A GOOD TIME. BUT A QUICK LOOK AT THE PHOTO DISPLAY IN THEIR HOSPITALITY SUITE HINTS THERE'S MORE TO THESE GUYS THAN MEETS THE EYE... MOST OF THE ROADRUNNERS ARE EITHER TEST PILOTS OR SUPPORT STAFF WHO WORKED ON TOP SECRET AIRCRAFT PROGRAMS, MANY OF WHICH WERE BASED AT NEVADA'S INFAMOUS GROOM LAKE FACILITY. Jim Eastham/Test Pilot: At the time, I couldnt even tell my wife... george: EASTHAM IS THE THIRD MAN IN THE WORLD TO FLY THE A-12, FIRST OF THE FAMILY OF AIRCRAFT KNOWN AS THE BLACKBIRDS, THE FASTEST PLANES IN HUMAN HISTORY. THEY WERE BUILT IN THE EARLY 60'S AS REPLACEMENTS FOR THE CIA'S U-2 SPY PLANES, WHICH WERE ALREADY FLYING OUT OF AREA 51 AND OTHER BASES. Jim Goodall/Aviation Writer: They call it the Test site or the ranch, theycant say it exists officially. george: GOODALL HAS BECOME AN UNOFFICIAL MEMBER OF THE ROADRUNNERS AND HAS GLEANED PREVIOUSLY UNTOLD STORIES ABOUT AMERICA'S MOST SECRET PROJECTS. GROOM LAKE LOCATION WAS CHOSEN AS A BASE FOR SPY PLANES PRECISLY BECAUSE IT WAS IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE. THIS IS EARLY FOOTAGE OF A U-2 TAKING OFF FROM GROOM LAKE, A MOST INHOSPITABLE PLACE... Jim Goodall: it was remote in the middle of nowhere...they had 4 inch rocks blowing across the lake...they hunted gophers, rocks, drank a lot, but got the job done. Jim Gilliland/Test Pilot: I knew it was high and fast and great. super. george:GILLILAND IS THE FIRST MAN TO EVER FLY WHATS REGARED AS THE WORLD'S GREATEST PLANE---THE SR 71 BLACKBIRD, WHICH COULD COVER 35 MILES PER SECOND, 300 FEET PER SECOND FASTER THAN A BULLET FROM A 30-06. AT SUCH SPEEDS AND ALTITUDES, THE METALLIC SKIN OF THE SR 71 HEATS UP TO NEARLY 1100 DEGREES. Jim Gilliland: a self cleaning oven is about 425, a soldering iron is 800. that's the kind of temperatures...sustained. george:MANY OF THEIR FELLOW PILOTS DIED IN THE EARLY TESTS. MANY MORE DIED IN OPERATIONAL MISSIONS OVER HOSTILE NATIONS, BUT NO ENEMY EVERY SHOT DOWN A BLACKBIRD, ALTHOUGH MANY TRIED. Jim Gilliland: You know why they call them missiles. they miss. george: THE HEROISM OF TEST PILOTS WAS IMORTALIZED IN THE BOOK AND FILM, THE RIGHT STUFF, BUT DONT TRY APPLYING ANY OF THAT IMAGERY TO THE ROADRUNNERS.... IT'S HOLLYWOOD HOOPLA TO THEM. THEY TESTED THESE DANGEROUS PLANES BEFORE MILITARY PILOTS LIKE CHUCK YEAGER EVER CLIMBED INTO THE COCKPITS. AND THEY KEPT THEIR MOUTHS SHUT. 30 YEARS LATER, THEY'LL TALK ABOUT THEIR PLANES, BUT THEY STILL WONT SAY MUCH ABOUT THE BASE IN THE DESERT. george:Did you fly it in Nevada? Jim:well, i flew it anywhere the blackbird was flown. that's diplomatic.. ha ha.)) george:IN AN AGE OF MEDIA SATURATION, SECRETS CAN STILL BE KEPT, THE ROADRUNNERS SAY, AND SOME OF THE BEST SECRETS ARE RIGHT HERE IN NEVADA. Jim Goodall: There are things out there that are 30 years ahead of today, things you may not hear about for 50 years...things you may never hear about, cant conveive of. george:JIM GOODALL, WHO HAS WRITTEN A BOOK ABOUT THE HISTORY OF THE SR-71, THINKS THE ROADRUNNERS SHOULD BE HONORED AS GENUINE AMERICAN HEROES, LIKE THE ASTRONAUTS, AND IT'S HARD TO ARGUE WITH THAT. HOWEVER, IT'S IDDIFULT TO DO BECAUSE SO MUCH OF WHAT THEY DID REMAINS CLASSIFIED DECADES LATER. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SHOW US FILES ON ALIENS, SAY DEMONSTRATORS 10/10/95 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 1995 The Press Association Limited Press Association Newsfile Keith Manning, PA News The Government is keeping secret files on sightings of aliens in Britain, demonstrators outside the House of Commons claimed today. About 20 placard-carrying UFO watchers called on ministers to release the files. The demonstration was organised by the group Operation Right To Know whose UK co-ordinator John Holman said of the sightings: "There is more and more documentation - radio tapes, radar tapes and video footage and they are not all misidentifications." Mr Holman, a 46-year-old industrial designer, said there was a great deal of public interest in the subject. "There must be nearly 100 UFO groups in the country. "In America, 57% of the population accept there are UFOs which are something other than human. "What we are after are the military reports and pilot reports which have been collected over 50 years We want to know what the military assessments are and what recommendations were made to Government. "We are not in a Cold War situation now, so why should UFOs be deemed a threat?" Mr Holman said reports of a UFO landing close to a US base near Woodbridge in Suffolk 15 years ago was withheld by the Government, but surfaced in America under the Freedom of Information Act. He stressed: "I am as sceptical as the next person, but when I see video tapes and I don't know what they are - they are not balloons and they are not aircraft - I want to know." He also cited a Belgian military report from pilots who, in 1990, reported their jet had been "buzzed" by a UFO which accelerated from 150 knotsto 990 knots in seconds, beyond the endurance of human beings. "The Belgians made this report public, so why can't our Government release their reports?" said Mr Holman. He added that Operation Right To Know supported Nick Pope, an MoD official who worked for four years in the area of UFOs and who believed intheir existence. Among the demonstrators was Gordon Ormond, 46, a classical guitarist from Doncaster, who formed a UFO research group three years ago. He said: "I thinkone of the reasons why the Government keeps these reports from us is because it believes the British are psychologically unprepared. "The information should be made available to the British people, as it is in America under the Freedom of Information Act." Mr Ormond added: "I have been interested in UFOs for 35 years and I have collected many reports. "It's really only through experience over a period of time that you get a better idea of what people are talking about so you can go out and examine the evidence and try to make something of it." Phillip Lambro, a composer from Los Angeles and a member of the Raelian Movement, whose aim is to create an embassy for extra terrestrials, was al so among the demonstrators outside the Commons. He said: "Since 1954 there have been 50 million reports worldwide of UFO sightings. "What people have to understand is that there are advanced intelligent beings who are able to co-operate in a way which we on Earth seem unable to do. "We live in a soap opera mentality and we've got to get beyond that." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CONGRESS TO GET RARE PEEK INTO U.S. SPY KIT 10/10/95 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WASHINGTON (Reuter) - Leaders of the House Intelligence Committee said Tuesday they would hold a public hearing next week to get a rare peek into the spy world's tool kit for the 21st century. The Oct. 18 hearing, fourth in the panel's series on reshaping the CIA and its sister intelligence outfits, ``will help us understand leading-edge technology developments and their potential effect,'' Republican Chairman Larry Combest and ranking Democratic member Norman Dicks said in a joint statement. Combest of Texas and Dicks of Washington said the hearing would look at how technology can be brought to bear in all aspects of intelligence and examine what the bureaucracy should be doing to manage it. Witnesses are Norman Augustine, president of Lockheed-Martin Corp.; Paul Kaminski, under secretary of defense for acquistion and technology, and Edward McCracken, chairman and chief executive of Silicion Graphics Inc. Among topics of interest to the panel, a staff member said, are data- processing technology for the mountains of ``open source'' data that can be collected without secrecy, and computer programs that can recognize changes in satellite pictures of such things as forest cover. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HOW THE STARS ARE SPACED OUT ON UFOS. 08/10/95 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The People, Page 9 FAMOUS PEOPLE WHO ARE UFO ENTHUSIASTS By: David Jack SOME of the world's top film, pop and sporting stars are spaced out on UFOs, a new book has revealed. Even former American president Richard Nixon admits he has had a Close Encounter. And John Lennon was once "buzzed" by a flying saucer on the balcony of his New York apartment. Assistant May Pang, who saw it too, said: "It looked like a flattened cone with a brilliant light on top." Singer David Bowie, who starred as The Man Who Fell To Earth, saw so many UFOs when he was a kid that he produced a magazine about them. He said: "They came over so regularly we could time them. "Sometimes they stood still, other times they moved so fast it was har d to keep a steady eye on them." Former boxing champion Muhammad Ali has seen SIXTEEN different UFOs. "If you look into the sky in the early morning you see them playing tag between the stars," he said. Star Trek actor William Shatner is also a believer. He told Timothy Green Beckley, author of UFOs Among the Stars, how a ghostly motor-cyclist led him to safety after his own bike crashed in Amer ica's Mojave Desert. When weary Shatner finally reached civilisation, he spotted an "object glistening in the heavens" as his mysterious guide suddenly disappeared. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BY JUPITOR! ASTRONOMER FINDS A SISTER OF THE SUN 08/10/95 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Mail on Sunday newspaper. Astronomers believe they have finally found a star with an orbiting planetary system - just like our Sun. Scientists have long been searching for confirmation that planets exist around other stars as possible sites on which extraterrestrial life could exist. Now Michael Mayor, from the Geneva observatory, has told colleagues in Florence that he has found an object roughly the size of Jupiter orbiting close to a star called 51 Pegasus. Initial evidence suggests that it is indeed a planet. If it is, scientists say there could be other, smaller planets orbiting with it - possibly similar to Earth. Although it is 42 lights years away, 51 Pegasus is visible to the naked eye and is in the same galaxy as the Sun - the Milky Way. The 'planet' takes just four days to orbit 51 Pegasus, against Earth's 365-day solar orbit, and has a surface temperature of 1,000C, Mayor says. Its presence was deduced by observing irregularities in the star's movements, which fit precisely the gravitational effect a large, orbiting body would have on a star.