The latest release of UFO files bring together conspiracy and cover-up allegations that even Winston Churchill can't escape.
And still they come. The Ministry of Defence has just released the latest batch of their UFO files, as part of an ongoing three-year collaboration between the MoD and the National Archives. There are 18 files and while that may not sound particularly impressive, this release – the sixth – runs to over 5,000 pages of documentation. The material comprises sighting reports, letters from the public and papers discussing how to handle the issue when it was raised in parliament – as it occasionally was.
There's an extraordinary claim about Winston Churchill, made by a scientist who wrote to the MoD claiming that his grandfather had been one of Churchill's bodyguards. It's alleged that Churchill met General Dwight D Eisenhower to discuss an incident in the second world war when an RAF aircraft returning from a bombing raid encountered a UFO capable of extraordinary speeds and manoeuvres. It was claimed that they agreed to keep this from the public, to prevent mass panic and to avoid the possibility that people's belief in God and the church would be shattered. MoD officials investigating the claim found no documents to support these allegations, though they admitted that prior to 1967, most UFO files had been destroyed after five years.
Some documents relate to the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) – more recently in the news due to their role in producing the so-called "dodgy dossier", which took us to war with Iraq. In 1957 the JIC discussed the UFO mystery at a meeting and concluded that four cases where UFOs had been tracked on radar remained unexplained. The report was delivered to the JIC by the air ministry's head of air intelligence. This sort of high-level interest always gets conspiracy theorists excited, particularly where the word "intelligence" appears anywhere near the phrase "UFO".
Indeed, allegations of cover-ups and conspiracies feature prominently in these files. There are accusations from the public that defence advisory notices were being used to prevent the media running UFO stories. There is correspondence about cases where it's alleged that UFOs crashed (one in Wales, another in the Peak District) and that the wreckage was spirited away by sinister government agents. There is speculation about secret prototype aircraft and even documents about UFO researchers being arrested after trying to break into RAF Rudloe Manor in Wiltshire, where they believed UFO secrets were kept.
The MoD's UFO files occasionally contain documents relating to other mysteries such as ghosts or crop circles. Some newly released documents tell the bizarre story of how, in 1990, a man presented himself at RAF Stanmore and said he'd had a dream about an attack at a military base in London. He felt it was a psychic warning. A few weeks later there was a terrorist bomb attack on the base at Stanmore. The RAF police launched an investigation.
My favourite case is that of the man who placed a bet at 100-1 that proof of alien visitation would be confirmed by the end of the 20th century. He then wrote to the MoD asking for evidence that would support his claim. The MoD gave the standard response, explaining that while the department remained open-minded about the possibilities, they had no such evidence. The man lost his bet.
Monday, August 9, 2010
UFO files ignored by Winston Churchill revealed
Former British prime minister Winston Churchill is well known as the country’s war time hero and it's probably safe to say he had plenty on his plate during World War II.
So when papers came across his desk reporting RAF pilots had had a close encounter with a UFO he didn't want to know - he just locked them away for 50 years.
Watch Video Here
So when papers came across his desk reporting RAF pilots had had a close encounter with a UFO he didn't want to know - he just locked them away for 50 years.
Watch Video Here
UFO Sightings: A Phenomenon That Should No Longer Be Ignored
by Al-Jafree Md Yusop
On July 7, an unidentified flying object (UFO) forced China’s Xiaoshan Airport in Hangzhou to cease operations. A flight crew preparing for descent first detected the object around 8:40pm and notified the air traffic control department. Aviation authorities responded within minutes, grounding outbound flights and diverting inbound ones to airports in Ningbo and Wuxi. This is one of the many examples of UFO sightings from all around the world.
UFO is the popular term for any apparent aerial phenomenon whose cause cannot be easily or immediately identified by the observer. It was first coined by the United States Air Force in 1952 after the first widely publicised US sighting, reported by private pilot Kenneth Arnold in June 1947 that gave rise to the popular terms "flying saucer" and "flying disc." The term UFO was popularly taken as a synonym for alien spacecraft and generally most discussions of UFOs revolve around this presumption. UFO enthusiasts and devotees have created organisations, religious cults have adopted extraterrestrial themes and, in general, the UFO concept has evolved into a prominent mythos in modern culture. When UFO is mentioned few subjects will come to mind. Area 51 and Roswell are two places are renown to those familiar with the terms UFO and extra-terrestrial.
AREA 51
Area 51 is a parcel of US military-controlled land in southern Nevada, apparently containing a secret aircraft testing facility. It is also known as Watertown, Dreamland, Paradise Ranch, The Farm, The Box, and The Directorate for Development Plans Area, and simply Groom Lake. It is also famed for being the birthplace of many UFO conspiracy theories.
Many people who believe in UFOs also believe “Area 51” is where the US Air Force keeps its stockpile of captured flying saucers and maybe an autopsied alien body or two. Others believe the military base in the southern Nevada desert is the testing grounds for America's most secret military machines, everything from the F-117 stealth fighter to electromagnetic pulse weapons.
There are several theories about how Area 51 got its name. The most popular is that the facility borders the Nevada Test Site (NTS). The NTS is mapped as a grid of squares that are numbered from one to 30 (with a few omissions). Area 51, while not part of this grid, borders Area 15. Many say the site got the name Area 51 by transposing the 1 and 5 of its neighbour. Another popular theory is that the number 51 was chosen because it was not likely to be used as part of the NTS system in the future, in case the NTS expanded later on.
The first documented use of the name Area 51 comes from a film made by the company Lockheed Martin. There are also declassified documents from the 1960s and 1970s that refer to a facility called Area 51. Today, officials refer to the facility as an operating location near Groom Lake when speaking to the public – all official names for the site appear to be classified.
The name alone inspires thoughts of government conspiracies, secret "black" aircraft and alien technologies. Facts, myths and legends weave together in such a way that it can become difficult to separate reality from fiction.
S.E.T.I.
Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) is a serious scientific enterprise that began in 1959. It was came about after the publication of a paper in which Cornell researchers Philip Morrison and Guiseppe Cocconi discussed the suitability of radio waves as a communication medium, man's newly-acquired ability to eavesdrop on interstellar radio conversations and the optimum frequency at which to conduct a search.
Nowadays SETI is conducted by dedicated scientists every day. In the movie Contact, Jodie Foster's character, Ellie Arroway, searches the heavens with several large radio telescopes and receives a radio message from a distant star that has profound implications for humanity.
SETI is an extremely controversial scientific endeavour. Some scientists believe that it is a complete waste of time and money while others believe that detection of a signal from extra terrestrials would forever change our view of the universe.
Several SETI projects have been conducted since 1960. Some of the major ones are:
Project Ozma - The first SETI search, conducted by astronomer Frank Drake in 1960
Ohio State Big Ear SETI Project - Launched in 1973, detected a brief but unconfirmed signal called the WOW! signal in 1977 and was shut down in 1997 to make way for a golf course
Project SERENDIP - Launched by the University of California at Berkeley in 1979
NASA HRMS (High-resolution Microwave Survey) - Launched by NASA in 1982 and discontinued in 1993 when the U.S. Congress cut its funding
Project META (Mega-channel Extraterrestrial Assay) - Launched at Harvard University in 1985 to search 8.4 million 0.5-Hz channels
COSETI (Columbus Optical SETI) - Launched in 1990 as the first optical SETI search for laser signals from ET
Project BETA (Billion-channel Extraterrestrial Assay) - Launched at Harvard University in 1995 to search billions of channels
Project Phoenix - Launched in 1995, SETI Institute's continuation of the NASA SETI effort
Project Argus - Launched in 1996, SETI League's all-sky survey project
Southern SERENDIP - Launched in Australia in 1998, piggyback project to search the southern sky
SETI@home - Available as of 1999, screensaver program for analyzing SETI data using home computers.
FAMOUS UFO SIGHTINGS
Many people would tend to think that UFOs have only been reported since 1947. Although the so- called "modern era" of Ufology began with the Kenneth Arnold sighting in 1947, UFO reports go back to ancient times. Even cave drawings, sculptures, paintings, and folklore of yesteryear show an influence of flying machines on mankind.
One of the very first sightings of what could be a UFO occurred as early as 1865, over 35 years before the first known flight by the Wright brothers. Fortunately, there are still newspaper accounts of this and other early sightings of days long since passed.
Lumely's Discovery (1865)
The Missouri Democrat dated October 19, 1865 gives an account of the sighting of an unknown flying object under the headline of "A STRANGE STORY – REMARKABLE DISCOVERY." The story was reported by one James Lumley, who was a (animal) trapper. The report stated that "if" what Lumley reported was true, it would shake the foundations of the scientific world.
Lumely claims that, in the middle of September, he was trapping in the mountains at a location about 75-100 miles above the Great Falls of the Upper Missouri River. Just after sunset, Lumley saw a "bright, luminous, body" in the skies. This body moved very quickly to the East. After five seconds, the unknown object burst into pieces. He soon heard a thunderous explosion followed by a "rushing sound."
This explosion shook the ground. He could smell sulphur in the air. Though impressed by what he had seen and heard, the next day would bring even more remarkable discoveries.
About two miles from his campsite, he could see a path cut through the forest. Whatever had come through the area had levelled everything in its path. He soon discovered the cause of the great destruction, a giant object which was made of a rock-like material.
This object had been driven into the side of a mountain after ripping through the forest. This was much more than an asteroid or comet: the object was divided into compartments. Also, hieroglyphic-like symbols could be seen carved into the object's surface. He also discovered fragments of what appeared to be glass, and strange liquid-like stains located in several places on the object.
Almost humorously, the newspaper account ascertains that the object "had" to be a meteor which was used by extraterrestrials. Their theory was that these other-worldly beings travelled on meteors and would eventually land on Earth and put mankind into wholesale servitude.
The Roswell Incident (1947)
The most famous UFO case of all occurred near Corona, Mexico in 1947. Rancher Mac Brazel found strange crash debris on his morning rounds and reported his find to local radio station. Soon, the military from Roswell AFB was involved, and issued a press statement that the Air Force had captured a UFO. This statement was soon recanted.
During the first week of July, 1947 sheep rancher William W. "Mac" Brazel was making his rounds of the Foster Ranch, located near Corona. Brazel served as foreman of the facility. He lived on the ranch in a farmhouse although his wife and children lived in Tularosa to receive better schooling for his children. Brazel would become a major figure in the Roswell case although he never desired the attention it sent his way.
Brazel, home for the night, was listening to a roaring thunderstorm, not uncommon for his location, but this night it seemed worse than ever. He thought that maybe he had heard an explosion. The next morning he was out again checking the livestock and riding fences for any breaks. A seven-year-old neighbour boy was with him. Riding into an open field, the two horsemen noticed a large area filled with some type of debris or wreckage. The wreckage was tiny pieces of shiny, metallic material. This material was unfamiliar to the rancher.
Brazel collected some of the unknown debris, and showed it George Wilcox of the Chaves County Sheriff's Office. Wilcox thought little of the material until he began to handle it. It was not like anything he had seen before. Wilcox was concerned enough to call Roswell Army Air Field. He talked to Major Jesse A. Marcell, and explained the situation of the discovery of the material at the Foster ranch. Marcell left the base to come to Roswell and see the material.
After interviewing Brazel, Marcell was on the way to the debris field, accompanied by Army Counter Intelligence Corps officer Sheridan Cavitt and Brazel. Marcell related the events of the search through the debris in his own words:
"When we arrived at the crash site, it was amazing to see the vast amount of area it covered... it scattered over an area of about three quarters of a mile long, I would say, and fairly wide, several hundred feet wide. It was definitely not a weather or tracking device, nor was it any sort of plane or missile."
This sighting is now referred to as the Roswell Incident.
UFO SIGHTINGS IN MALAYSIA
Malaysia too has its share of UFO sightings, the latest being the one reported to have occurred was in Tuaran, Sabah. On the July 19 this year a UFO was reported have been sighted at a beach resort here. A round blue object, which was said to be hovering in the sky near the Tuaran Beach Resort, was sighted by resort guests and employees.
The resort’s restaurant manager, James Dungil, 27, who were among the eyewitnesses, said the object was sighted on Saturday around 4pm.
“I was in the restaurant with some friends and saw some guests pointing up to the sky. We were curious so we went out to see what the commotion was all about and I saw a round transparent object in the sky,” he said.
James said he and some others then ran up to the resort’s family living room, located on the second floor, to have a better view.
“I managed to take one photo before it disappeared out of sight,” he said, adding that there was no sound or shining light when the object vanished.
Several other guests and employees, who claimed to have also spotted the object, said it hovered in the air for a few minutes before disappearing. Some even claimed that their cellular phones “went dead” when they tried to record the object with the devices. This phenomenon is a very familiar and classic description of a UFO sighting where there’s usually communication failure and total disruption of power supply.
Earlier in December 2003, a UFO was sighted hovering over a quiet village in northern Kedah state near the Thai border, the second such sighting there in two years. A nine-year-old boy saw a slow moving disc-like object about the size of a car emitting a greenish light spinning in the air over Banggol Cicar village near the town of Baling for about four minutes before it disappeared.
Not only have UFO been claimed to be witnessed, there are even witnesses’ account of those who had seen aliens in this country. In October 1995, a UFO was said to have been sighted at least four times since September that year above forests at the Tanjung Sepat Laut village, south of Kuala Lumpur. Villagers who claimed to have seen the spaceship said it was as big as a football field and several stories 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 60cm (about two feet) tall aliens in which the villagers claimed to have seen.
MALAYSIA'S FIRST UFO CONFERENCE
The subject of UFO sightings is so popular that a UFO Conference was held in 1995. The Conference was held on December 17, 1995 at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur. The attendance was overwhelming considering the unknown number of UFO watchers in the country and the cost of the event which was high for an average Malaysian. The media too came flocking to see such a strange Conference on a strange subject on a quiet Sunday. The coverage given in the media was above expectation.
With this Conference, the future for UFO researches in Malaysia and the region of Southeast Asia will be greatly strengthened. The general public is curious to know the truth behind the UFO phenomenon. What was being portrayed in the classic Steven Spielberg’s film Close Encounters of the Third Kind might be a reality when we will finally realised the human race is not alone in this universe.
On July 7, an unidentified flying object (UFO) forced China’s Xiaoshan Airport in Hangzhou to cease operations. A flight crew preparing for descent first detected the object around 8:40pm and notified the air traffic control department. Aviation authorities responded within minutes, grounding outbound flights and diverting inbound ones to airports in Ningbo and Wuxi. This is one of the many examples of UFO sightings from all around the world.
UFO is the popular term for any apparent aerial phenomenon whose cause cannot be easily or immediately identified by the observer. It was first coined by the United States Air Force in 1952 after the first widely publicised US sighting, reported by private pilot Kenneth Arnold in June 1947 that gave rise to the popular terms "flying saucer" and "flying disc." The term UFO was popularly taken as a synonym for alien spacecraft and generally most discussions of UFOs revolve around this presumption. UFO enthusiasts and devotees have created organisations, religious cults have adopted extraterrestrial themes and, in general, the UFO concept has evolved into a prominent mythos in modern culture. When UFO is mentioned few subjects will come to mind. Area 51 and Roswell are two places are renown to those familiar with the terms UFO and extra-terrestrial.
AREA 51
Area 51 is a parcel of US military-controlled land in southern Nevada, apparently containing a secret aircraft testing facility. It is also known as Watertown, Dreamland, Paradise Ranch, The Farm, The Box, and The Directorate for Development Plans Area, and simply Groom Lake. It is also famed for being the birthplace of many UFO conspiracy theories.
Many people who believe in UFOs also believe “Area 51” is where the US Air Force keeps its stockpile of captured flying saucers and maybe an autopsied alien body or two. Others believe the military base in the southern Nevada desert is the testing grounds for America's most secret military machines, everything from the F-117 stealth fighter to electromagnetic pulse weapons.
There are several theories about how Area 51 got its name. The most popular is that the facility borders the Nevada Test Site (NTS). The NTS is mapped as a grid of squares that are numbered from one to 30 (with a few omissions). Area 51, while not part of this grid, borders Area 15. Many say the site got the name Area 51 by transposing the 1 and 5 of its neighbour. Another popular theory is that the number 51 was chosen because it was not likely to be used as part of the NTS system in the future, in case the NTS expanded later on.
The first documented use of the name Area 51 comes from a film made by the company Lockheed Martin. There are also declassified documents from the 1960s and 1970s that refer to a facility called Area 51. Today, officials refer to the facility as an operating location near Groom Lake when speaking to the public – all official names for the site appear to be classified.
The name alone inspires thoughts of government conspiracies, secret "black" aircraft and alien technologies. Facts, myths and legends weave together in such a way that it can become difficult to separate reality from fiction.
S.E.T.I.
Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) is a serious scientific enterprise that began in 1959. It was came about after the publication of a paper in which Cornell researchers Philip Morrison and Guiseppe Cocconi discussed the suitability of radio waves as a communication medium, man's newly-acquired ability to eavesdrop on interstellar radio conversations and the optimum frequency at which to conduct a search.
Nowadays SETI is conducted by dedicated scientists every day. In the movie Contact, Jodie Foster's character, Ellie Arroway, searches the heavens with several large radio telescopes and receives a radio message from a distant star that has profound implications for humanity.
SETI is an extremely controversial scientific endeavour. Some scientists believe that it is a complete waste of time and money while others believe that detection of a signal from extra terrestrials would forever change our view of the universe.
Several SETI projects have been conducted since 1960. Some of the major ones are:
Project Ozma - The first SETI search, conducted by astronomer Frank Drake in 1960
Ohio State Big Ear SETI Project - Launched in 1973, detected a brief but unconfirmed signal called the WOW! signal in 1977 and was shut down in 1997 to make way for a golf course
Project SERENDIP - Launched by the University of California at Berkeley in 1979
NASA HRMS (High-resolution Microwave Survey) - Launched by NASA in 1982 and discontinued in 1993 when the U.S. Congress cut its funding
Project META (Mega-channel Extraterrestrial Assay) - Launched at Harvard University in 1985 to search 8.4 million 0.5-Hz channels
COSETI (Columbus Optical SETI) - Launched in 1990 as the first optical SETI search for laser signals from ET
Project BETA (Billion-channel Extraterrestrial Assay) - Launched at Harvard University in 1995 to search billions of channels
Project Phoenix - Launched in 1995, SETI Institute's continuation of the NASA SETI effort
Project Argus - Launched in 1996, SETI League's all-sky survey project
Southern SERENDIP - Launched in Australia in 1998, piggyback project to search the southern sky
SETI@home - Available as of 1999, screensaver program for analyzing SETI data using home computers.
FAMOUS UFO SIGHTINGS
Many people would tend to think that UFOs have only been reported since 1947. Although the so- called "modern era" of Ufology began with the Kenneth Arnold sighting in 1947, UFO reports go back to ancient times. Even cave drawings, sculptures, paintings, and folklore of yesteryear show an influence of flying machines on mankind.
One of the very first sightings of what could be a UFO occurred as early as 1865, over 35 years before the first known flight by the Wright brothers. Fortunately, there are still newspaper accounts of this and other early sightings of days long since passed.
Lumely's Discovery (1865)
The Missouri Democrat dated October 19, 1865 gives an account of the sighting of an unknown flying object under the headline of "A STRANGE STORY – REMARKABLE DISCOVERY." The story was reported by one James Lumley, who was a (animal) trapper. The report stated that "if" what Lumley reported was true, it would shake the foundations of the scientific world.
Lumely claims that, in the middle of September, he was trapping in the mountains at a location about 75-100 miles above the Great Falls of the Upper Missouri River. Just after sunset, Lumley saw a "bright, luminous, body" in the skies. This body moved very quickly to the East. After five seconds, the unknown object burst into pieces. He soon heard a thunderous explosion followed by a "rushing sound."
This explosion shook the ground. He could smell sulphur in the air. Though impressed by what he had seen and heard, the next day would bring even more remarkable discoveries.
About two miles from his campsite, he could see a path cut through the forest. Whatever had come through the area had levelled everything in its path. He soon discovered the cause of the great destruction, a giant object which was made of a rock-like material.
This object had been driven into the side of a mountain after ripping through the forest. This was much more than an asteroid or comet: the object was divided into compartments. Also, hieroglyphic-like symbols could be seen carved into the object's surface. He also discovered fragments of what appeared to be glass, and strange liquid-like stains located in several places on the object.
Almost humorously, the newspaper account ascertains that the object "had" to be a meteor which was used by extraterrestrials. Their theory was that these other-worldly beings travelled on meteors and would eventually land on Earth and put mankind into wholesale servitude.
The Roswell Incident (1947)
The most famous UFO case of all occurred near Corona, Mexico in 1947. Rancher Mac Brazel found strange crash debris on his morning rounds and reported his find to local radio station. Soon, the military from Roswell AFB was involved, and issued a press statement that the Air Force had captured a UFO. This statement was soon recanted.
During the first week of July, 1947 sheep rancher William W. "Mac" Brazel was making his rounds of the Foster Ranch, located near Corona. Brazel served as foreman of the facility. He lived on the ranch in a farmhouse although his wife and children lived in Tularosa to receive better schooling for his children. Brazel would become a major figure in the Roswell case although he never desired the attention it sent his way.
Brazel, home for the night, was listening to a roaring thunderstorm, not uncommon for his location, but this night it seemed worse than ever. He thought that maybe he had heard an explosion. The next morning he was out again checking the livestock and riding fences for any breaks. A seven-year-old neighbour boy was with him. Riding into an open field, the two horsemen noticed a large area filled with some type of debris or wreckage. The wreckage was tiny pieces of shiny, metallic material. This material was unfamiliar to the rancher.
Brazel collected some of the unknown debris, and showed it George Wilcox of the Chaves County Sheriff's Office. Wilcox thought little of the material until he began to handle it. It was not like anything he had seen before. Wilcox was concerned enough to call Roswell Army Air Field. He talked to Major Jesse A. Marcell, and explained the situation of the discovery of the material at the Foster ranch. Marcell left the base to come to Roswell and see the material.
After interviewing Brazel, Marcell was on the way to the debris field, accompanied by Army Counter Intelligence Corps officer Sheridan Cavitt and Brazel. Marcell related the events of the search through the debris in his own words:
"When we arrived at the crash site, it was amazing to see the vast amount of area it covered... it scattered over an area of about three quarters of a mile long, I would say, and fairly wide, several hundred feet wide. It was definitely not a weather or tracking device, nor was it any sort of plane or missile."
This sighting is now referred to as the Roswell Incident.
UFO SIGHTINGS IN MALAYSIA
Malaysia too has its share of UFO sightings, the latest being the one reported to have occurred was in Tuaran, Sabah. On the July 19 this year a UFO was reported have been sighted at a beach resort here. A round blue object, which was said to be hovering in the sky near the Tuaran Beach Resort, was sighted by resort guests and employees.
The resort’s restaurant manager, James Dungil, 27, who were among the eyewitnesses, said the object was sighted on Saturday around 4pm.
“I was in the restaurant with some friends and saw some guests pointing up to the sky. We were curious so we went out to see what the commotion was all about and I saw a round transparent object in the sky,” he said.
James said he and some others then ran up to the resort’s family living room, located on the second floor, to have a better view.
“I managed to take one photo before it disappeared out of sight,” he said, adding that there was no sound or shining light when the object vanished.
Several other guests and employees, who claimed to have also spotted the object, said it hovered in the air for a few minutes before disappearing. Some even claimed that their cellular phones “went dead” when they tried to record the object with the devices. This phenomenon is a very familiar and classic description of a UFO sighting where there’s usually communication failure and total disruption of power supply.
Earlier in December 2003, a UFO was sighted hovering over a quiet village in northern Kedah state near the Thai border, the second such sighting there in two years. A nine-year-old boy saw a slow moving disc-like object about the size of a car emitting a greenish light spinning in the air over Banggol Cicar village near the town of Baling for about four minutes before it disappeared.
Not only have UFO been claimed to be witnessed, there are even witnesses’ account of those who had seen aliens in this country. In October 1995, a UFO was said to have been sighted at least four times since September that year above forests at the Tanjung Sepat Laut village, south of Kuala Lumpur. Villagers who claimed to have seen the spaceship said it was as big as a football field and several stories 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 60cm (about two feet) tall aliens in which the villagers claimed to have seen.
MALAYSIA'S FIRST UFO CONFERENCE
The subject of UFO sightings is so popular that a UFO Conference was held in 1995. The Conference was held on December 17, 1995 at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur. The attendance was overwhelming considering the unknown number of UFO watchers in the country and the cost of the event which was high for an average Malaysian. The media too came flocking to see such a strange Conference on a strange subject on a quiet Sunday. The coverage given in the media was above expectation.
With this Conference, the future for UFO researches in Malaysia and the region of Southeast Asia will be greatly strengthened. The general public is curious to know the truth behind the UFO phenomenon. What was being portrayed in the classic Steven Spielberg’s film Close Encounters of the Third Kind might be a reality when we will finally realised the human race is not alone in this universe.
UFO Caught Over Ireland -- or California
A video purporting to show a UFO drifting over Ireland is making the rounds in British tablets. But what does it really show?
The video, showing a triangular formation of lights ostensibly invisible to the naked eye, was posted to the Web site of British tabloid The Sun. The paper reports that experts reckon the sighting near Dublin could be a secret aircraft -- or a spacecraft.
Nick Pope, who probed mystery sightings for the U.K.'s Ministry of Defense, told the paper that "the video seems to have been taken through a night scope and presumably shows things not visible to the naked eye."
"It appears to show a structured craft moving at incredible speed. The configuration of the lights is unlike any aircraft I've ever seen. It's either some secret prototype aircraft or drone, or something considerably more exotic."
The Web site People's Daily Magazine pointed out that the video in question was posted to video-sharing Web site YouTube in December of 2008 -- where it is listed as having been filmed in Fremont, California.
The real reason behind the UFO story and video? The Sun is taking on the task of running the U.K.'s UFO-report bureau after Ministry of Defense closed it down last year.
A spokesman for the Ministry told The Sun, "We do not feel there is any military value in reviewing the public's sightings."
The video, showing a triangular formation of lights ostensibly invisible to the naked eye, was posted to the Web site of British tabloid The Sun. The paper reports that experts reckon the sighting near Dublin could be a secret aircraft -- or a spacecraft.
Nick Pope, who probed mystery sightings for the U.K.'s Ministry of Defense, told the paper that "the video seems to have been taken through a night scope and presumably shows things not visible to the naked eye."
"It appears to show a structured craft moving at incredible speed. The configuration of the lights is unlike any aircraft I've ever seen. It's either some secret prototype aircraft or drone, or something considerably more exotic."
The Web site People's Daily Magazine pointed out that the video in question was posted to video-sharing Web site YouTube in December of 2008 -- where it is listed as having been filmed in Fremont, California.
The real reason behind the UFO story and video? The Sun is taking on the task of running the U.K.'s UFO-report bureau after Ministry of Defense closed it down last year.
A spokesman for the Ministry told The Sun, "We do not feel there is any military value in reviewing the public's sightings."
Churchill Ordered UFO Coverup, Documents Suggest
In order to prevent a mass panic, Winston Churchill kept top secret a close encounter between a World War II pilot and an unexplained flying object, newly unclassified documents reveal.
The British prime minister said the unexplained incident should be kept secret for 50 years, fearing it would provoke a "mass panic."
The claim was discovered in files newly unclassified by the British Ministry of Defense. It came from a scientist who said his grandfather was one of Churchill's bodyguards.
According to the documents, details of the coverup emerged when the man wrote to the government in 1999 seeking to find out more about the incident. He described how his grandfather, who served with the Royal Air Force (RAF) in the war, was present when Churchill and U.S. General Dwight Eisenhower discussed how to deal with the UFO encounter.
The man, who is not named in the files, said Churchill was reported to have exclaimed, "This event should be immediately classified since it would create mass panic amongst the general population -- and destroy one's belief in the church."
The incident allegedly involved an RAF reconnaissance plane returning from a mission in France or Germany toward the end of the war. It was over or near the English coastline when it was allegedly suddenly intercepted by a strange metallic object that matched the aircraft's course and speed for a time before accelerating away and disappearing.
The mysterious files also reveal a lengthy history of reported close encounters over the years.
In one incident, a gambler approached the Defense Department for help after a local gambling parlor refused to pay out on his 100-1 bet that aliens would land on Earth before the end of the 20th century.
And an alien spaceship "20 times the size of a football field" is among the string of bizarre UFO sightings. The huge craft was reported to the military after it was seen hovering above Manchester airport in January 1995. In another report, a black U-shaped object was seen from Edinburgh travelling above a Scottish river without disturbing the water on October 9, 1995.
During the Cold War, RAF jets were scrambled 200 times a year to investigate UFOs picked up on radar. But this fell to zero after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Nick Pope, a former Ministry of Defense expert who worked on the official UFO files, told London paper The Sun, "Whatever you believe about UFOs, there's some fascinating material in these real life X-Files."
"Most of these sightings turned out to be misidentifications of things like aircraft lights or meteors, but a small proportion could not be explained."
The Sun contributed to this report.
The British prime minister said the unexplained incident should be kept secret for 50 years, fearing it would provoke a "mass panic."
The claim was discovered in files newly unclassified by the British Ministry of Defense. It came from a scientist who said his grandfather was one of Churchill's bodyguards.
According to the documents, details of the coverup emerged when the man wrote to the government in 1999 seeking to find out more about the incident. He described how his grandfather, who served with the Royal Air Force (RAF) in the war, was present when Churchill and U.S. General Dwight Eisenhower discussed how to deal with the UFO encounter.
The man, who is not named in the files, said Churchill was reported to have exclaimed, "This event should be immediately classified since it would create mass panic amongst the general population -- and destroy one's belief in the church."
The incident allegedly involved an RAF reconnaissance plane returning from a mission in France or Germany toward the end of the war. It was over or near the English coastline when it was allegedly suddenly intercepted by a strange metallic object that matched the aircraft's course and speed for a time before accelerating away and disappearing.
The mysterious files also reveal a lengthy history of reported close encounters over the years.
In one incident, a gambler approached the Defense Department for help after a local gambling parlor refused to pay out on his 100-1 bet that aliens would land on Earth before the end of the 20th century.
And an alien spaceship "20 times the size of a football field" is among the string of bizarre UFO sightings. The huge craft was reported to the military after it was seen hovering above Manchester airport in January 1995. In another report, a black U-shaped object was seen from Edinburgh travelling above a Scottish river without disturbing the water on October 9, 1995.
During the Cold War, RAF jets were scrambled 200 times a year to investigate UFOs picked up on radar. But this fell to zero after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Nick Pope, a former Ministry of Defense expert who worked on the official UFO files, told London paper The Sun, "Whatever you believe about UFOs, there's some fascinating material in these real life X-Files."
"Most of these sightings turned out to be misidentifications of things like aircraft lights or meteors, but a small proportion could not be explained."
The Sun contributed to this report.
Former astronaut: Man not alone in universe
(CNN) -- Earth Day may fall later this week, but as far as former NASA astronaut Edgar Mitchell and other UFO enthusiasts are concerned, the real story is happening elsewhere.
Mitchell, who was part of the 1971 Apollo 14 moon mission, asserted Monday that extraterrestrial life exists, and that the truth is being concealed by the U.S. and other governments.
He delivered his remarks during an appearance at the National Press Club following the conclusion of the fifth annual X-Conference, a meeting of UFO activists and researchers studying the possibility of alien life forms.
Mankind has long wondered if we're "alone in the universe. [But] only in our period do we really have evidence. No, we're not alone," Mitchell said.
"Our destiny, in my opinion, and we might as well get started with it, is [to] become a part of the planetary community. ... We should be ready to reach out beyond our planet and beyond our solar system to find out what is really going on out there."
Mitchell grew up in Roswell, New Mexico, which some UFO believers maintain was the site of a UFO crash in 1947. He said residents of his hometown "had been hushed and told not to talk about their experience by military authorities." They had been warned of "dire consequences" if they did so.
But, he claimed, they "didn't want to go to the grave with their story. They wanted to tell somebody reliable. And being a local boy and having been to the moon, they considered me reliable enough to whisper in my ear their particular story."
Roughly 10 years ago, Mitchell claimed, he was finally given an appointment at Pentagon to discuss what he had been told.
An unnamed admiral working for the Joint Chiefs of Staff promised to uncover the truth behind the Roswell story, Mitchell said. The stories of a UFO crash "were confirmed," but the admiral was then denied access when he "tried to get into the inner workings of that process."
The same admiral, Mitchell claimed, now denies the story.
"I urge those who are doubtful: Read the books, read the lore, start to understand what has really been going on. Because there really is no doubt we are being visited," he said.
"The universe that we live in is much more wondrous, exciting, complex and far-reaching than we were ever able to know up to this point in time."
A NASA spokesman denied any cover-up.
"NASA does not track UFOs. NASA is not involved in any sort of cover-up about alien life on this planet or anywhere else -- period," Michael Cabbage said Monday.
Debates have continued about what happened at Roswell. The U.S. Air Force said in 1994 that wreckage recovered there in 1947 was most likely from a balloon-launched classified government project.
Stephen Bassett, head of the Paradigm Research Group (PRG), which hosted the X-Conference, said that the truth about extraterrestrial life is being suppressed because it is politically explosive.
"There is a third rail [in American politics], and that is the UFO question. It is many magnitudes more radioactive than Social Security ever dreamed to be," Bassett said.
Mitchell, who was part of the 1971 Apollo 14 moon mission, asserted Monday that extraterrestrial life exists, and that the truth is being concealed by the U.S. and other governments.
He delivered his remarks during an appearance at the National Press Club following the conclusion of the fifth annual X-Conference, a meeting of UFO activists and researchers studying the possibility of alien life forms.
Mankind has long wondered if we're "alone in the universe. [But] only in our period do we really have evidence. No, we're not alone," Mitchell said.
"Our destiny, in my opinion, and we might as well get started with it, is [to] become a part of the planetary community. ... We should be ready to reach out beyond our planet and beyond our solar system to find out what is really going on out there."
Mitchell grew up in Roswell, New Mexico, which some UFO believers maintain was the site of a UFO crash in 1947. He said residents of his hometown "had been hushed and told not to talk about their experience by military authorities." They had been warned of "dire consequences" if they did so.
But, he claimed, they "didn't want to go to the grave with their story. They wanted to tell somebody reliable. And being a local boy and having been to the moon, they considered me reliable enough to whisper in my ear their particular story."
Roughly 10 years ago, Mitchell claimed, he was finally given an appointment at Pentagon to discuss what he had been told.
An unnamed admiral working for the Joint Chiefs of Staff promised to uncover the truth behind the Roswell story, Mitchell said. The stories of a UFO crash "were confirmed," but the admiral was then denied access when he "tried to get into the inner workings of that process."
The same admiral, Mitchell claimed, now denies the story.
"I urge those who are doubtful: Read the books, read the lore, start to understand what has really been going on. Because there really is no doubt we are being visited," he said.
"The universe that we live in is much more wondrous, exciting, complex and far-reaching than we were ever able to know up to this point in time."
A NASA spokesman denied any cover-up.
"NASA does not track UFOs. NASA is not involved in any sort of cover-up about alien life on this planet or anywhere else -- period," Michael Cabbage said Monday.
Debates have continued about what happened at Roswell. The U.S. Air Force said in 1994 that wreckage recovered there in 1947 was most likely from a balloon-launched classified government project.
Stephen Bassett, head of the Paradigm Research Group (PRG), which hosted the X-Conference, said that the truth about extraterrestrial life is being suppressed because it is politically explosive.
"There is a third rail [in American politics], and that is the UFO question. It is many magnitudes more radioactive than Social Security ever dreamed to be," Bassett said.
UFO 'appeared above jazz stage at Glastonbury'
(CNN) -- An alien with a lemon-shaped head and a jazz-themed encounter with a UFO at the Glastonbury Festival are among hundreds of UFO sightings detailed in the latest batch of documents released Monday by the UK's Ministry of Defence.
Fourteen files, containing over 4,000 pages of UFO sightings from 1981 to 1996, have now been placed on Britain's National Archives database and are publicly available online.
The sightings range from lights in the sky to close contact with aliens, and the files contain detailed analysis on some of the UK's most popular cases -- a number of which remain officially unexplained.
In one incident in 1995, two men in their 20s from Staffordshire, central England, told police they saw an alien with a lemon-shaped head descend from a hovering UFO and tell them "We want you; come with us."
In another sighting recorded by defense officials in 1994, two women at the Glastonbury music festival reported seeing a UFO floating above the jazz stage.
However, 90 percent of cases have been accounted for. Multiple sightings of a brightly illuminated oval object in London during 1993 and 1994 were later explained as an airship advertising the launch of the Ford Mondeo car.
In 1993, more than 30 reports of illuminations over central England during a six-hour period led to senior defense staff being briefed, before it was established that the lights had been caused by a Russian rocket re-entering the atmosphere.
The documents reveal that in 1996 there were 608 sightings, a dramatic surge from the previous year's 117.
However, this may have less to do with exceptional levels of extra-terrestrial activity, than with the release of blockbuster film "Independence Day" and the popularity that year of sci-fi TV series "The X-Files."
David Clarke, a UFO expert and journalism lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University who has studied the files, said: "Obviously, films and TV programs raise awareness of UFOs and it's fascinating to see how that appears to lead more people to report what they see."
Clarke's comments certainly correspond with the other periods of high-frequency sightings in Britain -- one of the other busiest years was in 1978, the same year in which Steven Spielberg's alien-themed "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" was released.
The files also shed new light on Britain's own 'Roswell', the Rendlesham Forest sightings of December 1980 in which American air force men saw a series of mysterious lights in the trees at the perimeter of an air base used by the U.S. Air Force.
The then government of Margaret Thatcher was quick to dismiss the incident, but a letter from a former chief of defense staff in 1985 warned that the affair could prove a 'banana skin' for the Ministry of Defence.
"The case has puzzling and disquieting features which have never been satisfactorily explained ... which continue to preoccupy informed sections of the public," said the letter.
Other documents reveal a UFO incident in Belgium between 1989 and 1990 when Belgian Air Force F-16 fighters were scrambled to intercept abnormal, brightly-lit, triangular flying objects reported by police and others.
In November 1993 General Wilfried de Brouwer, chief of operations in the Belgian Air Staff, confirmed that the fighters had locked-on to something with their radar but were unable to explain what it was.
The MoD affirmed that there had been no threat to the UK and that it has never detected a "structured craft flying in UK airspace that has remained unidentified."
This latest release of documents represents the fourth set of UFO files released since 2008 as part of a three-year project in conjunction with the National Archives.
Fourteen files, containing over 4,000 pages of UFO sightings from 1981 to 1996, have now been placed on Britain's National Archives database and are publicly available online.
The sightings range from lights in the sky to close contact with aliens, and the files contain detailed analysis on some of the UK's most popular cases -- a number of which remain officially unexplained.
In one incident in 1995, two men in their 20s from Staffordshire, central England, told police they saw an alien with a lemon-shaped head descend from a hovering UFO and tell them "We want you; come with us."
In another sighting recorded by defense officials in 1994, two women at the Glastonbury music festival reported seeing a UFO floating above the jazz stage.
However, 90 percent of cases have been accounted for. Multiple sightings of a brightly illuminated oval object in London during 1993 and 1994 were later explained as an airship advertising the launch of the Ford Mondeo car.
In 1993, more than 30 reports of illuminations over central England during a six-hour period led to senior defense staff being briefed, before it was established that the lights had been caused by a Russian rocket re-entering the atmosphere.
The documents reveal that in 1996 there were 608 sightings, a dramatic surge from the previous year's 117.
However, this may have less to do with exceptional levels of extra-terrestrial activity, than with the release of blockbuster film "Independence Day" and the popularity that year of sci-fi TV series "The X-Files."
David Clarke, a UFO expert and journalism lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University who has studied the files, said: "Obviously, films and TV programs raise awareness of UFOs and it's fascinating to see how that appears to lead more people to report what they see."
Clarke's comments certainly correspond with the other periods of high-frequency sightings in Britain -- one of the other busiest years was in 1978, the same year in which Steven Spielberg's alien-themed "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" was released.
The files also shed new light on Britain's own 'Roswell', the Rendlesham Forest sightings of December 1980 in which American air force men saw a series of mysterious lights in the trees at the perimeter of an air base used by the U.S. Air Force.
The then government of Margaret Thatcher was quick to dismiss the incident, but a letter from a former chief of defense staff in 1985 warned that the affair could prove a 'banana skin' for the Ministry of Defence.
"The case has puzzling and disquieting features which have never been satisfactorily explained ... which continue to preoccupy informed sections of the public," said the letter.
Other documents reveal a UFO incident in Belgium between 1989 and 1990 when Belgian Air Force F-16 fighters were scrambled to intercept abnormal, brightly-lit, triangular flying objects reported by police and others.
In November 1993 General Wilfried de Brouwer, chief of operations in the Belgian Air Staff, confirmed that the fighters had locked-on to something with their radar but were unable to explain what it was.
The MoD affirmed that there had been no threat to the UK and that it has never detected a "structured craft flying in UK airspace that has remained unidentified."
This latest release of documents represents the fourth set of UFO files released since 2008 as part of a three-year project in conjunction with the National Archives.
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