Pope Francis: His Jesuitical, Extraterrestrial, “False Prophet”, and Political Identities

"JESUITA, JESUITA, SED JESUS NON FUIT ITA" Latin Maxim

"Oh Jesuit, Oh Jesuit! But Jesus was not like this!"

Pope Francis: His Jesuitical, Extraterrestrial, “False Prophet”, and Political Identities

by Alfred Lambremont Webre, JD, MEd

VANCOUVER, BC - Already controversial within hours of his nomination to the Papacy, Argentine-born Pope Francis I has now been identified by informed hermeneutics researchers as the possible "Petrus Romanus" or "False Prophet" of the Book of Revelation.

March 13 is a significant date, both in Exopolitics and in the hermeneutical interpretation of Pope Francis !.

March 13, 2013, the date of Pope Francis I nomination, was the 16th anniversary of the Phoenix Light, a massive space craft that overflew Phoenix, AZ. on March 13, 1997. March 13, 1997 is a significant event in the Exopolitical community that follows the Extraterrestrial presence on Earth.

"Ironically, a major trial opened up in Buenos Aires on March 5, 2013 a week prior to Cardinal Bergoglio’s investiture as Pontiff. The ongoing trial in Buenos Aires is: 'to consider the totality of crimes carried out under Operation Condor, a coordinated campaign by various US-backed Latin American dictatorships in the 1970s and 1980s to hunt down, torture and murder tens of thousands of opponents of those regimes.'"

The Jesuit Oath Exposed

"Go ye, then, into all the world and take possession of all lands in the name of the Pope. He who will not accept him as the Vicar of Jesus and his Vice-Regent on earth, let him be accursed and exterminated."
Professor Arthur Noble

International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State (ITCCS.org) Arrest Warrant for Pope Francis I

A citizen's tribunal of conscience, the International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State (ITCCS.org) has issued an arrest warrant against Pope Francis I for alleged crimes he committed in Argentina. An ITCCS.org Jury concluded its case on January 30, 2013 for Pope Francis I predeccessor, Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI). "On February 4, 2013 a diplomatic note was issued to the Vatican Secretariat by a European government working with the ITCCS.org Common Law Court, concerning its impending Arrest Warrant against one of the accused, Joseph Ratzinger (aka Pope Benedict). On February 11, 2013 Joseph Ratzinger resigned as Pope," according to the ITCCS Secretariat.

 International Arrest Warrant issued against Pope Francis I, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, for Crimes against Humanity and Child Trafficking

Petrus Romanus

 Refering to the Prophecy of St. Malachy, one source states: "The Prophecy of the Popes (Latin: Prophetia Sancte Malachiae Archiepiscopi, de Summis Pontificibus) is a series of 112 short, cryptic phrases in Latin which purport to predict the Roman Catholic popes (along with a few antipopes), beginning with Pope Celestine II. The alleged prophecies were first published by Benedictine monk Arnold Wion in 1595. Wion attributes the prophecies to Saint Malachy, a 12th-century Archbishop of Armagh, Ireland.

"Given the very accurate description of popes up to 1590 and lack of accuracy after that year, historians generally conclude that the alleged prophecies are a fabrication written shortly before they were published. The Roman Catholic Church also dismisses them as forgery.[1][2] The prophecies may have been created in an attempt to suggest that Cardinal Girolamo Simoncelli's bid for the papacy in the second conclave of 1590 was divinely ordained.

"Proponents of the prophecies claim that Pope Benedict XVI corresponded to the pope described in the penultimate prophecy. The list ends with a pope identified as "Peter the Roman", whose pontificate will allegedly bring the destruction of the city of Rome and usher in the beginning of the Apocalypse."

 Chris Putnam, co author of the well-regarded hemeneutical book "Petrus Romanus: The Final Pope is Here" writes in Petrus Romanus Arrives on 3/13/2013 at 20:13 Hours! "That’s up to you decide. But the biblical prophecy alone points toward the papacy. Indeed this second beast is predicted to be viewed “like a lamb” and the accolades expressed on 3/13/2013 at 20:13 support that perception. This probably seems mean spirited to some but as protestants we feel well within our rights to assert that all claimants to Vicar “instead ”of Christ as false prophets. However, if the predictions of St. Francis of Assisi and St. Malachy are truly at their culmination, then the second beast, the one from the earth, who is called the “false prophet” (Rev. 16:13; 19:20; 20:10) or Petrus Romanus who will lead the world to worship the dragon [Anti-Christ], has arrived in Pope Francis but I am not a prophet… only time will tell."  

The Vatican, Jesuits & Extraterrestrials

Pope Francis I, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio to Italian immigrants to Argentina  is the first Jesuit Pope, and was director of the Jesuit order in Argentina under the military dictatorship in Argentina.

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SETI: The Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence in All the Wrong Places: Part One

What is the real purpose of SETI?

Has SETI found any signs of intelligent life somewhere out there in outer space? Or is this outfit misguided? Is it on a wild goose chase? Is it barking up the wrong tree? If so, is it being used covertly by some other faction, and for a different agenda?

SETI, which is an outdated, low-tech program whose mission is to Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence, seems to be clueless, or in denial of where these ETs actually are.

SETI has been vainly endeavoring to listen for and find radio transmissions from outer space indicating intelligent life countless light years away, but it seems likely that no intelligent beings are sending us such transmissions, at least not that we could detect with our barbaric technology. If extraterrestrials are sending us messages, it's more likely via some sophisticated technology that's way over our heads. It seems that SETI's problem is that it's looking in the wrong place - or places. The SETI scientists and supporters deny the strong possibility that aliens are closer to the Earth then they want to admit. Either the SETI team is ignorant of the presence of extraterrestrials near or on the Earth, or it's a front that is hiding that facts from us. It's even possible that SETI has been taken out of the loop of actual top-secret intelligence regarding UFOs and an alien presence near the Earth. I'm talking about the military and US government's loop.

An authority on the matter, Stanton Friedman says, "I am convinced that there is indeed overwhelming evidence that aliens have been visiting Earth, or being tracked by military radar systems, are abducting earthlings, and are being observed by pilots and others all across the Earth." (Flying Saucers and Science by Stanton T. Friedman)

Could it be that the SETI people are pawns, set up so the public is duped to think the government is indeed listening to signals from ETs out in deep space? When in fact it really isn't? Stanton Friedman asks, why listen to signals from deep space when aliens are right here, although concealed from the public in general?

"Remember that the SETI community is not actually seeking ET intelligence: They are seeking signals - not intelligence and not beings." Furthermore, Friedman says, "The respectable part of the UFO community deals with the overwhelming evidence that ETI has visited Earth; I can find no reason to believe any aliens are merely sending signals to us."

So while the naïve SETI listeners waste time awaiting ET signals from countless light-years away, in hopes to discover signs of intelligent life out there, the real ETs are busy flying around the Earth, landing on it from time to time, abducting humans, conducting cattle mutilations, and who knows what else.

Countless reports support such evidence, and numerous eyewitnesses continue to reveal their experiences. Hence, extraterrestrials are making a definite presence here on Earth, leaving SETI in the dark. But the government has been endeavoring to cleverly covering it all up. Not too successfully, actually. Too many people know the truth.

For those of you who have seen the movie Arrival, doesn't it indicate that SETI was looking in the wrong direction? Experts were listening "out there," while the real aliens were "down here" all along.

Although many consider SETI a fringe program, it's closer to the mainstream than other ET-seeking programs, with its diligent alien signal-listening agenda, since it comes off as more easily believable than the idea that actual aliens could be right here in our midst. It's too bad that the UFO debunkers are squashing out people who have had actual UFO sightings, alien abductions, alien implants, etc. Apparently the SETI team is amidst these stubborn debunkers who have prevented journalists and eyewitnesses from getting the real facts across to the public. Unfortunately, the lame stories of UFOs and ETs that are found in the tabloids, or science-fiction books and movies, suggest that the whole phenomenon seems too ridiculous to be believed. And that's exactly how the US government prefers it as part of their clever cover-up scheme. Isn't it pretty obvious that SETI is an intrinsic part of these government UFO cover-up conspiracies? Most likely this is the real reason SETI was created, or allowed to exist; not to actually ever listen to alien transmissions, but to hide the real facts that an alien presences is already here.

Friedman says it nicely: "SETI is an exercise in futility foisted off by the charismatic scientists on the press and some of the scientific community. I am sure the intelligence agency personnel in the know about alien visitations think SETI is a great system for misdirecting the attention of everyday people and the media interested in space and visitors from it."

So is SETI being used as a front for the government's secret agenda and cover-ups?

Is it all smoke signals or a smoke screen?

Copyright 2006 -2011 by R. R. Stark -- All Rights Reserved

The preceding article is from "Strange Reports from Zones Unknown," a collection of accounts involving the paranormal, Ufology, conspiracy theories, cover-ups, and other intriguing topics of the weird and unusual.

Strange Reports from Zones Unknown can be found at:
http://outeredgeofreality.com

A Chilling Insight Into the Extraterrestrial Life

I don't know how many people believe in extraterrestrial creatures. Evidence of aliens and their contact with the human race and life on planet earth can be traced back as far as written history goes. There is evidence in every culture around the world, including those lost millennia ago. Nobody is sure whether their visits indicate a future invasion or just to create a friendly contact.

(Our) History of Aliens:

Several ancient paintings from around the world showcase their bonding with alien culture. There is a photo of Nefertiti, the Goddess who lived in Ancient Egypt, When you notice this Goddess's head, her skull is extremely elongated, which would mean that her brain would be much larger than a normal human's. Therefore making her extremely intelligent. There is actually a statue of her in a museum in Egypt currently. Several pictures in Ancient Egypt portray some of the Gods or Goddesses with extremely large elongated heads.

There was a skull found in Peru, with an elongated back. This is clearly not a human skull, we have been fed a variety of unlogical explanations as to why this skull has this formation. Several like it were found in Peru with small variations

We were told in schools that the great pyramid of Egypt took 40 years to build and it's purpose was to bury 'a' pharoah. Come on guys, are we that dumb and were they? Of course not, who would spend 40 years of hard labor building a pyramid just to stuff a dead body in it after 40 years of hard work. That hardly sounds logical for such an obviously advanced culture as the Ancient Egyptians. They invented their own language for god sakes, are we to think they were dumb enough to spend 40 years sweating their guts out for only burying 1 body. That is one the stupidest thing we've been told of. In Mexico the group of pyramids including the pyramid of the sun are known by people in Mexico by legend as "Place where the gods touch the earth." In all evidence this probably means where the aliens landed. Where they touched the Earth... Think about it, the pyramids are large stone monuments in Mexico with steps going down the sides. What better purpose for the steps than to allow the aliens to climb down the pyramids to the ground. That is the most logical reason for their construction. And to think that a primitive race could build something so incredible is not that logical.

On the eastern side of Puerto Rico there is a place called, "El Yunque" rain forest. It is the only rain forest that United States of America owns. This forest is kind of a controversy to the government and the citizens of Puerto Rico. Problems have arisen between the government of Puerto Rico and the USA involving the ownership of said forest. But what comes to mind is, What is there in "El Yunque" that really interests the USA so much as to prohibit the entrance to the populace at certain hours at night, the strange involvement of military exercises late at night, the seeing of strange alien craft and its occupants?

The island of Puerto Rico was inhabited by Indians who believed this forest to be a sacred mountain where gods set foot from the sky, they believed their good god Yuquiyu lived there and often came down to teach them the ways of life. (Aliens)

Christopher Columbus discovered this island in 1493-1500 AD in his travels near the island at night he saw flashes of light coming from the mountains of the island calling them "Fires from Saint Peter", what today we would call a UFO.

Either the aliens loved the rain forest ambient, or they couldn't find a way to repair their ship and so opted to live inside it (this brings the theory that it was a passenger or colony ship). And so the Indians saw them as gods.

Alien Abduction:

There have been many unknown cases of Alien abduction .About 2500 odd people in the world have experienced missing time (abduction) .One of the most famous of them was the incident that happened on the night of October 10, 1973, wherein there was a UFO sighting by fifteen different witnesses who saw a strange, unknown object fly over a housing project in St. Tammany Parish, New Orleans, Louisiana was a redefining point of their lives. What happened exactly has still been kept under wraps.

The Unknown: (Classified information)

Likewise when a UFO crashed outside Roswell in July 1st, 1947, and was recovered by the military, their presence in our lives was broadcast around the world, only to be covered up the very next day by our government.

Major Philip J. Corso stumbled upon a few alien artifacts sent from Fort Bliss, Texas on 6th July, 1947. He had come across a goods vehicle in a warehouse that was off-limits and was just about to reprimand him, when the driver opened his truck door and showed Major Corso something both would've never even dreamt of. When the major gave a look inside one of the several crates he was dumb struck to see a four-foot, human-shaped creature with...bizarre-looking, four fingered hands...and a light-bulb shaped head. The eye sockets were oversized and almond-shaped and pointed down to its tiny nose, which didn't really protrude from its skull'. Corso found an army intelligence document that described the creature as an inhabitant of a craft that had been retrieved from Roswell, New Mexico As he shone his torch around the warehouse, he noticed that there were over 30 similar crates stacked against the walls. Major Corso quickly covered the crate , gazed at the driver and asked him to forget whatever he saw and that nothing of that kind was ever in his truck. It was later classified as a national secret .This information was recently enclosed by Corso in his book "A day at Roswell".

Later when the spaceship was checked by the authorities the first object that was found was a set of clear, flexible filaments, made of something like glass, wherein each individual strand conducted a beam of light along its length. They then found several wafer-thin squares of material that were about 5cm across and that appeared to be made from a type of plastic. A tiny pattern had been etched into the plastic. It was understood to be some type of advanced circuit board, the likes of which mankind had never seen before. The next item out of the crate was a greyish material, which, could not be bent, cut or torn without the material springing back to its original shape. It was a metal fibre with the physical properties of what we would call today 'supertenacity', relatively common now, but unheard at that time. Next was pair of dark, elliptical eyepieces. These were as thin as human skin and had originally been attached to the eyes of the creature allegedly recovered from the crash. The eyepieces illuminated images in low-light conditions. Although they didn't provide perfect night vision, they allowed the wearer to pick up shapes where previously none could be seen. He also came across a description and sketch of another device. It contained a power source, and looked like a stubby torch. However, the beam from this interstellar 'flashlight' was so intense that it caused objects to burst into flames. Scientists linked cattle mutilations with this device.

In this cattle mutilation, huge oval shaped incisions around the jaw bone and in most cases the exposed jaw is completely removed, and the tongue removed from a precise incision deep in the throat. Also observed is the additional removal of at least one eyeball, the sexual organs on both sexes. All organ removal and incisions are being done with surgical precision. This has led investigators to believe the use of some sort of high heat cutting device, such as this torch like device had been used.

But why cattle? Well the most feasible explanation might be that cattle blood is so similar to humans that it can be used in the lab to create human blood plasma. Indicating the aliens may be studying the cattle, to find out more about us. The investigators came to a conclusion that these alien creatures had just one intent in mind. That they were genetically altering humanoids and that they were harvesting biological specimens on earth for their own experiments.

Based on all these alien abductions scientists predict that crosses of aliens and humans are being made, so that they will be able to live amongst us without our knowing!!

Throughout the 1960s, several companies brought about a number of so-called 'miracle breakthroughs', and nearly all the objects that Corso saw and read about were in the documents or crates he examined that day in 1961. Fibre optics, integrated circuit chips, night-vision goggles, lasers and supertenacity fibres became commonplace. Corso claims that anyone who has used a CD palyer, a modern computer or made a transatlantic phone call has come into contact with alien technology.

If the aliens were hostile, and wanted our planet for its resources, they would have taken it away from us centuries ago when we still thought the earth was the center of the universe, not now when we have nuclear weapons, lasers, and space crafts of our own.

They may just be hiding it from us, I don't want however to go into conspiracy theories. I don't have any proof of that. The following picture and paragraph are in my mind absolute proof that advanced beings were here on Earth in Ancient History. To think that we are the only planet amongs the many billions of other planets in the universe with intelligent life on it is kind of arrogant and misguided. What makes us so special? Life can form in the most inhospitable of places like in the bottom of the oceans where there is no light, and where temperatures are very unfriendly. There is no doubt intelligent life out there somewhere. Someday we will surely meet some of them.

The overwhelming evidence of UFO's from past civilizations on Earth is the most convincing proof I can think of. Giant stone edifices like the Great Pyramid, or the Nazca Lines in Peru are some of the best proof. They still stand today while modern day UFO sightings only last a few minutes. There is no possible logical way found that our ancient cultures could have build such amazing monuments such as Machu Pichu, the Great Pyramid, The Nazca Lines or even Stonehenge. What most likely happened is that after doing many great things on Earth, these aliens took their stuff and left Earth leaving behind many proofs that they were once here.

Whether we choose to see the truth or not is up to us.

http://www.aboutmeaboutyouabouteverything.blogspot.com

Dark Conspiracies and Extraterrestrial Secrets, Part 3

We've been trying to narrow down what secrets the government has been hiding from us involving the whole UFO phenomenon. The problem is there's too much information and disinformation in circulation. There are conspiracy theorists, whistleblowers, alien abductees, UFO and alien eyewitnesses, UFO investigators, and so forth, some of which could be total crackpots, or just wild yarn-spinners. Then we have the disbelievers and skeptics, and the covert government operators, some of which are probably Men in Black, and then we have the military and the government and its intelligence agencies that are trying to cover something up. With all of these people and groups on the loose, how are we the public to know what to believe? How can we discern the truth from the lies?

Can we trust the whistleblowers, many of whom have written fascinating books on how they revealed the truth after keeping government secrets for so many years? Case in point: Col. Philip J. Corso, who wrote The Day After Roswell, claimed many questionable things in his book, one of which is that he inadvertently peaked into a crate containing a dead alien at Fort Riley. And his claim that our military maintained a space war with extraterrestrials, not to mention an alien Cold War, is highly questionable also. Although there is a lot of fascinating information in his book, I've been questioning its reliability now, especially since various skeptical individuals have accused Col.Corso of being just another whacked-out crackpot; and yet others have said his book contains a mixture of truth and unresolved data, if not fabrication. So the question is, was he an independent crackpot, or did the government deliberately send him on a mission to write a book filled with propaganda, containing half-lies and half-truths, in an attempt to further confuse the masses with disinformation? Or was he an honest whistleblower trying to reveal the truth of something he was once ordered to keeps secret from the public? We may never know, since he has recently died.

Bob Lazar is another so-called whistleblower who has come out of the government closet, who claimed that he analyzed an alien spacecraft at Area 51. Bob Lazar says he was part of a reverse-engineering operation with an extraterrestrial saucer craft, finding ways to use its propulsion systems for our own aircrafts. Critics have denied his claims, so it's hard to tell if he's just another crackpot, or someone trying to reveal the truth.

Jenny Randles is a UFO investigator who believes Men in Black have been harassing and silencing witnesses of UFO phenomena for the last several decades, at least since 1947. She also reports that they have been thwarting and scaring various UFO investigators also, to stop their research endeavors, sometimes quite successfully. After interviewing countless witnesses and reporting her case studies in her book, The Truth Behind Men In Black, it is obvious that these mysterious MIBs are a large factor in the ongoing UFO cover-ups, although it's still not clear exactly who or what they are, whether or not they represent the government, the military, extraterrestrials, or if they are simply masquerading hoaxers. Whoever they are, are they covering up more than just UFO sightings and alien abductions and alien encounters? The well-hidden truth of what the government is still trying to hide from us still eludes us, but will we ever find it? Will the whistleblowers and investigators and the eyewitnesses provide enough evidence to blow the lid off the whole UFO cover-up?

How long can the conspiracies and the cover-ups last? And how long will they last before it's too late? When we discover the truth, will it be right in our faces and will there be panic in the streets? Will there be huge flying discs hovering overhead in every major city?

Or is this imaginary scenario just another ploy, another titillating cover-up just to keep us busy while the government is still keeping its best-kept secret?

References:

The Truth behind Men in Black by Jenny Randles

The Day After Roswell by Col. Philip J. Corso

Saucers of the Illuminati by Jim Keith

Dreamland, a documentary about Area 51, on DVD

Copyright 2006 -2007 by R. R. Stark -- All Rights Reserved

The preceding article is from "Strange Reports from Zones Unknown," a collection of accounts involving the paranormal, Ufology, conspiracy theories, cover-ups, and other intriguing topics of the weird and unusual. You can find further articles and short stories written by R. R. Stark at:

Strange Reports from Zones Unknown:

http://www.bamblebrush.com/ssfm/blog/rss.asp

R. R. Stark’s Strange and Curious Stories:

[http://www.bamblebrush.com/online_books/rrstark/rrstark.asp]

Unidentified Flying Objects: The Extraterrestrial Hypothesis: Part Two

INTRODUCTION: With both the existence of pure theory and applied evidence supporting the plausibility of the UFO ETH - where the UFO remains a UFO after appropriate expert analysis has failed to find a more terrestrial explanation - lets look at a few more snippets of the phenomena.

FADS: A fad is a temporary fashion - a flavour of the month. Fads come, and fads go. For example, the big band/swing era; white wall tires and tail fins; hula hoops and yo-yos; the Charleston and the Twist; disco music, pet rocks, slicked back hair (greasy kids stuff) and wearing baseball caps on backwards; westerns on TV and the silver screen have mostly ridden off into the sunset; goldfish swallowing; miniskirts, bell bottom trousers and hot pants; and lots more. A fad can be anything that you adopt as a cultural value-adding to your lifestyle that sets you apart from the community at large, yet keeps you reasonably associated as being a part of your contemporaries, but which you could drop from your lifestyle if you wished or if you were required to. It's often the next 'must have' gadget that you just can't live without (so you are told), but which will be superseded in a year or two by the next 'must have' gadget Mark II.

Non-fads are anything that are personal choices yet are also really essential to your day-to-day existence - so a thing like eating isn't a fad. Sex isn't a fad. Social interactions aren't a fad. Even bicycles aren't faddish because they have become an overall essential, tried and true ways and means of transport. Or, non-fads could be anything that an outside reality clobbers you over the head with, like the weather, death and taxes!

To repeat, fads are temporary phenomena, only briefly imprinting themselves on our collective psyche before the next big thing comes along. What's the duration of a fad? There's no fixed time frame - clothing fashions can change drastically from one year to the next; the influence of a blockbuster TV series or a motion picture, or say toys - maybe over several years. TV series don't normally last more than one generation, usually far less. So, I'll pick an average of one generation, on the grounds that the next generation don't want to imitate or do like their parents did. They'd rather do their own thing in their own way. Kids born in the 1980's aren't likely to get to misty-eyed and nostalgic over Elvis and the Beatles and "I Love Lucy".

Well, UFOs (and crop circles) are both way over a generation old now. UFOs in fact are over three generations old by now and going strong. That in itself suggests to me that UFOs are not a mere passing fad, but reflecting a reality that's something more permanent or on-going.

Fads and non-fads appear in all manner of genres. There are fads in sports, say in baseball where for a while the accent is on power and home runs, yet a decade later it's the hit-and-run, the sacrifice bunt or fly, walks, and base stealing. Yet a non-fad in baseball is throwing strikes and not making defensive errors.

What about science? Unlike say 'cold fusion', SETI is not a scientific fad; it's gone on way too long for that. The man-on-the-Moon (Apollo) program however proved to be just that - a temporary blip on the landscape. Science graduates often have to choose career paths based on that's likely to be non-faddish, long-term science. For example, string theory has been a reasonable career path for physics students for many decades now, so string theory can no longer be considered a fad in physics.

One thing is pretty clear - participation in a fad is something voluntary. So, crop circles, if all are manufactured by humans, would have to be faddish, were it not for the long duration of the phenomena. If crop circles, at least in part, have nothing to do with human proclivities to hoax others, then there's no fad. UFO hoaxes are faddish; immediately jumping to conclusions of alien spaceships when seeing just a light in the sky is voluntary. But, if bona fide alien UFOs are a reality, then seeing one isn't voluntary and UFOs therefore aren't a fad.

The bottom line seems to be, if it proves to be ongoing, without any prior cultural background infrastructure, it's not a fad. If it's likely to die out within a generation or so, and it can be explained as a natural progression of what culturally has come before, then it's a fad.

So, are UFOs (and say crop circles) a passing fad? Are UFOs all in the mind, something we adopt as a temporary way of assisting us coping with current reality, perhaps a novelty to give us respite from the ordinary? Are UFOs a reflection of our existing culture, say as expressed via Hollywood themes? Or, are UFOs like the weather - ever present and hammering that point home to us? Does Hollywood reflect the actual presence of UFOs in their themes, or are films perpetuating them in a faddish sort of way?

The origin of the UFO phenomena, if one is to believe the idea that UFOs are all in the mind, was due to the onset of the Cold War, and hundreds of Hollywood films in the fifties played up to the red menace threat, often in the guise of alien invasions (can you recall that catch phrase 'look to the skies'?). So, if UFOs are a fad, shouldn't they have died out after the end of the Cold War and the demise of the red menace - reds under the beds? Whatever the origin of UFOs actually was, it does seem to be an origin independent of any cultural influences and no reasonable attempt to culturally explain them, and maintain their presence for over six decades, appears adequate.

Whatever bona fide unexplained UFOs are, they certainly aren't a fad, rather an ever ongoing phenomenon that's part and parcel of our environmental background, cause or causes unknown, but probably extraterrestrial IMHO.

HILL, BETTY & BARNEY: The Betty and Barney Hill UFO abduction case is a way more credible case than most. Why? Firstly, it was the first - no prior contamination and media saturation with the subject could have influenced them. Secondly, it's unlikely a mature couple (not teenagers or young adults), and an interracial middle-aged couple at that, with no particular interest in UFOs or sci-fi, would invent such an abduction tale detailing the same sorts of beings that we've come to know and love now - the greys. An interracial couple (this was the 60's) wouldn't need that sort of publicity, and they certainly didn't make any fortune out of eventually going public. Lastly, the alleged abduction didn't happen in their bedroom; it happened while they were driving their car back from holiday. So we have two witnesses giving the same story.

Further reading regarding Betty & Barney Hill:

Friedman, Stanton T. & Marden, Kathleen; Captured! The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience; New Page Books, Franklin Lakes, New Jersey; 2007: [Kathleen Marden is the late Betty Hill's niece and trustee of her estate.]

Fuller, John G.: The Interrupted Journey: Two Lost Hours "Aboard a Flying Saucer"; Dial Press, New York; 1966:

NAME DROPPING: There are physical scientists with professional academic qualifications, who took (or take) the UFO ETH (extraterrestrial hypothesis) question very seriously. Scientists like J. Allen Hynek (scientific advisor the USAF Project Blue Book), James E. McDonald, Jacques Vallee, Bruce Maccabee and Richard F. Haines.

I should also point out that both the former heads of the USAF Project Blue Book (Edward J. Ruppelt) and the British Dept. of Defence UFO study (Nick Pope) wrote books detailing their experiences, and both took the subject very seriously indeed.

Then there are former NASA astronauts like Gordon Cooper and Edgar Mitchell who have come out in no uncertain terms that the UFO ETH is not only plausible, but beyond doubt.

For every well known UFO debunker or sceptic, there's an equal and opposite pro-UFO = pro-ETH counterpart. In fact, based on over four decades of serious interest in this field, I've noted that there have been far more sceptics turned UFO = ETH believers, than the other way around.

ROSWELL 1947: My bits and pieces wouldn't be complete without reference to Roswell. I don't wish to say too much about the Roswell, N.M. case (July 1947), other than to point out that the then US Army Air Force admitted publicly, in the media, in newspapers, on radio, that they had captured one of those mysterious (and only recently sighted - the modern UFO era was just weeks old) flying discs. No amount of back-pedalling can alter that now historical fact. It's on the record. Look it up yourself! But wait, there's more, and I'm not making any of this up. Firstly, forget the dozens of after-the-fact investigators into Roswell and their tomes. The only thing that really counts here is first hand, on-the-spot, eye-witness accounts. When it comes to that, the name Marcel should ring your bells and whistles.

Major Jesse Marcel (Senior) was the Army Air Force (AAF) as it was then called, military officer directed to investigate the report of some mysterious debris scattered outside of town. Now to achieve a rank of Major, in the military, suggests you've been around for a while. You're not some newly commissioned greenhorn Second Louie. It suggests that one is competent enough to distinguish wheat from chaff. So, Major Marcel (Senior), upon on-site investigation of this crashed debris, became so excited that he actually took some of the debris home to show his family, waking up his young child (Jesse Marcel, Junior) in the middle of the night. It's the sort of thing a SETI scientist might excitedly do if s/he received 'that' signal. Afterward, of course, that, and all the other debris was collected by and turned over to the local AAF. Because of the unusual and highly suggestive other-worldly nature of the debris, the base commander ordered his public relations officer to issue a press statement that the AAF at Roswell had collected the crashed remains of one of these new fangled flying discs. Within 24 hours, higher authority directed that the story be changed and what had actually been recovered was a weather balloon. Major Marcel, the base commander and the press officer, being dutiful military types, just followed orders and said nothing - then. The actual debris was then flown off-site, off the Roswell base, first to Texas (where real weather balloon bits were displayed for a press conference), hence onwards elsewhere, but has apparently vanished now off the face of the Earth, unless of course it is still stored under classified wraps.

That a Major in the US AAF somehow could not tell the difference between debris from a crashed weather balloon (or even in yet another turnaround about-face, a Project Mogul balloon trail - well it's still just a balloon) and a metallic crashed disc is too implausible or incredible to believe or take seriously. It's like saying a SETI scientist couldn't tell the difference between Morse Code and the radio hiss from the Big Bang's cosmic microwave background radiation!

But wait, there's more! After Marcel (Senior) retired from the military, he went public with his side of the story - weather balloon? Not a snowballs chance in Hell. His son, 11 years old at the time daddy woke him up, became a medical doctor and also a career military officer. But he now too has spoken out publicly and written about his, and his father's encounters with what they both termed not-of-this-world technology. Marcel (Junior) remembers vividly that night and that material from the crashed disc collected by his father.

You can find relevant interviews with (now the late) Jesse Marcel (Senior), and his son, Dr. Jesse Marcel (Junior) on YouTube.

The Roswell AAF base commander (Colonel William Blanchard) was never reprimanded or disciplined for ordering the 'crashed disc' press release. In fact he eventually rose to the rank of that of Four-Star General.

The First Lieutenant, Walter Haut, who actually issued that press release, also issued a death bed affidavit attesting to the accuracy of the actual (no weather balloon) Roswell events.

Finally, the biggest 'giggle' factor detrimental to Roswell credibility are the reports of the alien bodies recovered. Why this should be so is beyond me for if UFOs are 'manned' by aliens, and if a UFO crashed, then it stands to reason that there will be alien bodies too - alive or dead. Of course one could argue that maybe the UFOs aren't 'manned', but remote controlled drones - we have such things ourselves. Maybe the alien is actually a form of extraterrestrial artificial intelligence - an onboard machine intelligence that controls/pilots the UFO, and resulting crash debris one couldn't tell the difference between the remains of the 'pilot' from the rest of the nuts and bolts. But back to the bodies - by analogy, on balance, it would seem odd for an airliner to crash and there be no bodies. I find the idea of 'alien bodies' to contribute no extra 'giggle' factor to the Roswell incident.

Further reading on Roswell:

Marcel, Jesse (Junior); The Roswell Legacy: The Untold Story of the First Military Officer at the 1947 Crash Site; New Page Books, Franklin Lakes, New Jersey; 2009:

SETI vs. UFOs: So sorry to have to say this, but UFOs have a lot more runs on the board than SETI (the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence), despite SETI being legit, accredited and accepted science and UFOs anything but. The track record for UFOs as a bona fide ETI subject is way better than the track record for SETI. As even UFO sceptics (like SETI scientists) have to acknowledge, some 5% to 10% of all UFO sightings or incidents remain hard core UFO sightings or incidents after proper analysis (and thus remain plausible or viable candidates for the UFO ETH) - the 'unknowns' category. If 5% to 10% of all interesting-at-first-glance SETI signals also proved, after proper analysis, to be legitimate 'unknowns'; 'WOW' signals after the one and only one such 'unknown' ever recorded, that would really set the SETI community abuzz. That one SETI "WOW" signal has withstood the test of time - it remains a bona fide SETI unknown. My point is that each and every one of those 5 to 10% bona-fide unexplainable UFO incidents is, for all practical purposes, a "WOW" event, equal in potential to the lone SETI "WOW" signal. In the case of the UFO, the collective of "WOW" events now number in the thousands to tens of thousands. As I said, UFOs have more "WOW" runs on the board than SETI.

Another point is that say there's one extraterrestrial technologically advanced civilization reasonably close to by - say within 10 to 50 light-years. Say their radio leakage window of (our) opportunity for (our) successful SETI is 100 to 200 years before all transmission traffic is via fibre optical or other cable and the radio noise, their radio leakage, for all practical purpose ceases. So, SETI has up to 200 years to point an antenna tuned at the right frequency and pointed in the right direction to log up a success story. Now, what's the duration of our extraterrestrial civilization's attempts to boldly go - interstellar exploration? 100 years? 200 years? No, its way more than that because once started, even assuming the home planet goes kaput, exploration is ever ongoing. So the window of opportunity for us stay-at-home terrestrials to detect these boldly going extraterrestrials (and sooner of later we'd be accidentally stumbled over even if we hadn't been detected before-the-fact due to our bio-signatures - technological or otherwise) is also pretty unlimited. If they are not here now (UFOs), maybe there's some evidence they were here 200, 2000 or 20,000 years ago; or maybe tomorrow. The argument doesn't really alter that much if at all no matter how many technologically advanced (capable of both radio and interstellar travel) there are. Radio leakage is short term; exploration is long term. Therefore, UFOs are a better bet than SETI.

Now that's not an attack on SETI. I like SETI; it's good science. I wish SETI every success and if SETI captures THE signal tomorrow, I'd be delighted. It's just that SETI isn't the only game in town. UFO research is not a replacement for traditional SETI, but complementary.

SETI scientists & UFO ETH hunters have something in common - they both need the (deliberate or inadvertent) cooperation of what they seek - aliens (if aliens they be). SETI scientists need that radio (or optical or infrared) transmission. UFO hunters need UFOs to just bloody well stand still, or at least have the decency to crash in a public location!

STARGATE: SG-1 / USAF / UFO CONNECTION: "Stargate: SG-1" was a TV spin-off of the feature film "Stargate" that ran for ten seasons and featured several alien races that in the main had links to ancient terrestrial mythology. One such race was the Asgards, and as the name suggests had connection with our Old Norse mythology. The interesting bit was that in appearance, the Asgards just happen to look exactly like the standard 'greys' of modern UFO (Roswell and abduction, etc.) lore. This was I'm sure quite by design and no coincidence. This fictional show also confirmed several times over that Area 51 both housed and studied alien/extraterrestrial technology. And so, the fact that both 'greys' and Area 51 feature on the show makes one other observation and interesting observation. That other interesting bit is that the stargate in "Stargate: SG-1" was a (fictional) USAF top secret enterprise. The TV show featuring the stargate had the endorsement and cooperation of the actual USAF, probably because the TV show portrayed the USAF in a positive light. In fact, two actual then currently serving USAF Chiefs of Staff (4-star generals) appeared in the actual TV show as themselves! How's that for endorsement? So, we have the actual USAF assisting (by providing an advisory role, aircraft and personnel to the show) and endorsing a TV show that prominently featured UFO 'greys'. Okay, I'm probably reading way to much into that. In all probability the USAF connection probably had no actual relevance to any indirect approval of the UFO 'greys' in the show by the USAF. That 'endorsement' is just pure speculation on my part. So I do have to admit that there's probably no deep meaning underlying this connection, but I still find it interesting.

UNKNOWNS, THE: The fact, as most sceptics readily acknowledge, is that between 5 and 10 percent of all reported UFO incidents remain unidentified after investigation by those qualified to do so. This fact apparently excites the scientific, astrobiology, and SETI communities not one jot. But, as noted above, if SETI received out of all radio signals, 5% to 10% unexplained radio signals, ("WOW" signals), that of course would set the SETI community abuzz.

In a similar vein, if 5 to 10 percent of particle interactions were unexplainable by the current standard model of particle physics, that would set the physics community abuzz without question.

If the speed of light varied ever so slightly 5% to 10% of the times it were measured, the special relativity community would be agog, and extremely interested.

If 5 to 10 percent of galaxies showed a discrepancy between their red-shifts and their distances, that would set the cosmology community abuzz.

So, why the big scientific yawn over the apparently bona fide UFO's unidentified percentage? Perhaps it might take sociologists who study the sociology of science to pin that one down. There's a mystery just begging for serious attention here that has the potential for massive ramifications, not just scientific ones.

VALENTICH 1976: One of many, many highly unexplained UFO cases, is the events surrounding Frederick Valentich on 21 October 1978. It's more a case of where there's smoke, there's smoke, but smoke there certainly is, and lots of it.

In a nutshell, on the evening of that date, Mr. Valentich piloted a private plane from Melbourne, intended destination, King Island in Bass Strait. He took off only to shortly thereafter radio in that there was this UFO hovering over him. The UFO was spotted by several independent witnesses. While radioing his observations, all contact ceased; all communications abruptly ended. Mr. Valentich, plane and all, vanished without trace. An extensive air and sea search failed to find any sign of Mr. Valentich, or his plane. No oil slick, no floating wreckage, no body - nothing, zip, bugger-all. No trace has ever been found of pilot or plane - not then, not since, not ever. The weather had been perfect for night flying.

One obvious explanation was that Mr. Valentich staged his own disappearance, although friends and family could offer no reason why he would do so. Of course many people voluntarily disappear themselves for various reasons; many eventually are found, are caught or reappear voluntarily. But keep in mind; it wasn't just Mr. Valentich who disappeared. One entire aircraft vanished as well, never to be seen again. Surely if Mr. Valentich wanted to 'drop out', there were easier and less conspicuous ways of doing so. If he had deliberately gone walkabout, in these decades since of security cameras and computer facial software recognition technology, it would be hard to remain an unknown walkabout in any populated area.

Was suicide a motive? Again, no wreckage or body was ever found, and who would go to all the bother of reporting a non-existent UFO overhead - a non-existent UFO that happened to be independently reported by others.

And what of the plane since no wreckage was ever found floating on the surface of Bass Strait; washed up on beaches, or found on the ocean bottom - Bass Strait isn't that deep.

It's a mystery, and while it doesn't prove aliens nicked off with Mr. Valentich and plane, there's not that much wriggle room. Now multiply this sort of unexplained case by the thousands worldwide, and you do have the ETH as a plausible hypothesis.

Interestingly, despite my asking for a copy of the Valentich 'accident' case report in an official capacity related to my employment at the time, the Department of Transport (Air Safety Investigations Branch) refused. To this day, to the best of my knowledge, that report has never been publicly released.

Further reading regarding Valentich:

Haines, Richard F.; Melbourne Episode: Case Study of A Missing Pilot; L.D.A. Press, Los Altos, California; 1987: [Dr. Haines was at the time a research scientist for NASA and an accredited air safety investigations officer.]

WAR OF THE WORLDS SCENARIO: No, I don't mean by this that there is any analogy between the UFO ETH and alien invasion, a typical example being the "War of the Worlds" (be it the novel, the movies, the TV series, the musical, etc.). I refer here to the ultimate resolution of that alien war scenario - that ultimately what defeated the Martians were terrestrial microbes - bacteria to which the alien invaders had no resistance. That was a really excellent plot device - it was also lousy science! If there is one truism in biology, it is that cross-species infection is rare. There are of course a few exceptions to the cross-species infection rule, but they remain by far a minor, minor, minority. Micro-organisms tend to be species specific in terms of their nastiness. Thus, if I sneeze, my cats aren't in any danger of catching my cold - and vice versa. I'm not about to infect any of my garden plants by touching them with my dirty soiled hands - I'm not likely to become infected with deadly disease from a maple tree. If a wild bird has beak and feather disease and my cats should happen to catch and eat it - well, the bird was doomed anyway, and I'm not going to have to rush the feline predator off to the vet for shots! So, if it is relatively unlikely for one terrestrial species to be a contagion towards another terrestrial species (unless they are very closely related - evolutionary speaking), then what odds a terrestrial species will be deadly to an extraterrestrial species - and vice versa.

What's the point of all this? Well, if UFOs can be explained by the ETH, then it is unlikely in the extreme that the ETH exists in a species vacuum. That is, 'ufonauts' (for lack of a better term), will be associated with their extraterrestrial micro-organisms (maybe ever their extraterrestrial equivalents of head lice, mites, bedbugs, cockroaches and rats depending on how hygienic they are). We do not exist in a bacteria free environment, nor could we even if we wanted to. 'Ufonaut' bodies and their UFOs will be as 'bacteria-ridden' as our bodies, our homes, automobiles, and in fact any and all other bits and pieces of our environment. We haven't endured or experienced any pandemic or epidemic due to micro-organisms associated with 'ufonauts', and presumably 'ufonauts' haven't caught cold or smallpox or the measles from microbes associated with us, our cats, birds, or any other terrestrial life forms.

So, UFO sceptics can't invoke the "War of the Worlds" resolution as an argument that the UFO ETH is an invalid one. So, by all means, shake hands with ET (if you meet him/her/it) and don't worry about any resulting medical bill - it ain't gonna happen.

However, this does open up an interesting research area - one I've never, ever, seen mentioned in the UFO literature. That is, extraterrestrial microbiology. If UFOs are piloted by alien beings, biological beings that must be associated with extraterrestrial micro-organisms, then presumably said ET microbes have entered into our terrestrial biosphere. Presumably, said ET microbes would be so biochemically distinct or unique that any microbiologist examining same would immediately note that something was afoot! Of course, if you're not looking out for it, you're unlikely to find it or get that 'eureka' moment even if you do find it. Perhaps UFO abductees or UFO landing sites should be examined for the presence of extraterrestrial microbes.

So what then to make of the (late Sir) Fred Hoyle et al. claims or ideas that some of our terrestrial disease outbreaks originated from outer space? It's a variation on the panspermia idea - life on Earth originated from extraterrestrial microbiological life forms seeding our planet. Specifically that is, Earth's orbit intersects now and again a stream of bacteria-laden cometary dust and debris - germs from outer space - that impact Earth's atmosphere and ultimately filter down to ground level and do their infectious thing. Well, there's no conflict. The two sources of alien microbes are just that - two independent extraterrestrial sources that have no connection with each other. Of course relatively few experts in infectious diseases give any credibility to Hoyle's theory so that might eliminate that. Then too many scientists give any credibility to the UFO ETH, hence to alien microbes originating from that source. Whether none, one or both ideas have credibility doesn't result in any ultimate contradictions.

WASHINGTON, D.C. 1952: In July 1952, on two separate occasions, separated by one week, UFOs buzzed America's National Capitol, making long term incursions over restricted air space. They were tracked, independently, by various civilian and military radars. Military jet fighters were scrambled to intercept and identify the UFOs, but were outmatched and didn't succeed, although they were witnessed by the pilots. The objects were also witnessed from the ground. USAF Major-General John A. Samford, at the largest Pentagon press conference ever held since WWII, in late July 1952, made the statement with respect to the recent Washington D.C. UFO flap that these sightings were made by "credible observers of relatively incredible things". It's on the public record.

Now of course these sightings had to be explained by any means necessary since you just cannot admit to having unknown aerial objects fly over restricted air space. So the idea of 'temperature inversions' explained all - hogwash. It's amazing that the common occurrence of 'temperature inversions' had never before, and never since, caused such commotion.

THE END (For Now)

Science librarian; retired.

Unidentified Flying Objects: The Extraterrestrial Hypothesis: Part One

INTRODUCTION: The concept that aliens have and are visiting Planet Earth is plausible in both theory and observation. The theoretical part is often called the Fermi Paradox and it goes something like this: Extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI) with advanced technology is plausible; interstellar travel violates no laws of physics; the time it takes to explore our galaxy is a small fraction of the age of our galaxy (the parallel, the time it takes life forms - be it bacteria or humans - to explore the surface of Planet Earth is a small fraction of the age of Planet Earth); there are valid reasons to 'boldly go', not the least of which is that stars and planets don't last forever; lastly, we can't hide from potential alien eyes. The 'paradox' part comes into the picture only if you maintain that they should be here and they're not. If they're here, or have been here there's no paradox. Of course in the exceedingly unlikely event there is no 'they', never has been, well that too resolves the 'paradox'.

The compliment to the theory is actual observational evidence, both for past (ancient astronauts) and present (the UFO extraterrestrial hypothesis - UFO ETH). Even if human eyeball testimony isn't considered really 'evidence' and is questionable according to sceptics, there are various physical types of evidence, from various physical traces (ground markings; physiological effects on biological tissues, etc.) to radar returns, as well as photographic (for example the Trent family McMinnville, Oregon 1950 photos) and motion picture images (such as the Nick Mariana, Great Falls, Montana 1950 film and the Delbert Newhouse, Tremonton, Utah 1952 film) that have withstood critical/sceptical analysis.

With both the existence of pure theory and applied evidence supporting the plausibility of the UFO ETH - where the UFO remains a UFO after appropriate expert analysis has failed to find a more terrestrial explanation - lets look at a few snippets of the phenomena.

ALIEN ABDUCTIONS: The subset of UFO reports collectively lumped together as 'close encounters of the fourth kind' is a minefield, and like the subset of ufology collectively known as 'contactees', lots of middle-of-the-road UFO investigators steer clear of the subject. Lots of others don't and boldly go not so much into outer space, but inner space - the inner space of the mind. I see both pro and con on the merits of the abduction phenomena. For example:

Con: The appearance of the aliens, the greys, reflects a tad too closely the stereotype of what humans will look like many millennia from now - enlarged heads; atrophied bodies as the shift from physical to mental labour intensifies. The trend to less and less body hair (we're much less furry than our ape relations) continues until we're all bald all 'round. The aliens aren't human, but still very humanoid, perhaps too much so.

Con: What's the physics behind the obvious artificial gravity our abductees must be experiencing (since they don't report any weightlessness on the alien's spaceship which is presumably in Earth orbit)? From orientations reported, it's not the UFO rapidly revolving, since reports indicate their presence on a level floor between top and bottom, not on one of the outside walls. Aliens have obviously mastered physics unknown providing artificial gravity.

Con: You'd really think there would be hundreds or thousands of independent witnesses to all these home invasions and alien takeaways!

Pro: There's a very high degree of consistency in abduction scenarios that's independent of age, sex, race, nationality, religion, occupation, etc. that needs to be explained away by sceptics.

Pro: The abduction scenario reflects what our wildlife biologists do - capture, study, tag and release. We are to the aliens what animal species are to wildlife biologists.

Pro: It's difficult to explain why so many people would independently imagine or hallucinate or dream up the sort of obviously traumatic nightmare abduction scenario, especially when it involves painful invasive medical procedures. If you're that sort of masochistic person, wouldn't you dream that it was a mad scientist/medical doctor doing the kidnapping instead of aliens? Why aren't we flooded with abduction reports by demons taking one to the underworld, or by leprechauns taking their victims to - well wherever leprechauns call home?

I remember a time, now long ago, even before the start of any media coverage of abductions, when the idea of UFOs as extraterrestrial vehicles was one thing, logical and acceptable, but the idea of actual occupants was just too far out to be seriously entertained. Why is beyond me since I would have thought the two concepts would have fitted together like hand and glove. It's like saying a Boeing 747 airliner is okay, but an actual pilot? That's just too far fetched.

ANCIENT ASTRONAUTS: If aliens stumbled upon our humble abode it would likely as not have been millions, maybe billions of years ago. Alas, terrestrial critters around then (trilobites or dinosaurs) couldn't leave behind any record of their observations! It's only when humans developed that some sort of record could have been entered into. So, there's no contradiction with suggesting that 'ancient astronauts' are only ancient in human terms since that doesn't exclude the possibility they were around millions of years before that. One bit of suggestive I find interesting for the credibility of 'ancient astronauts' is that ancient cultures from around the globe have myths and legends of 'sky beings' - the Australian aborigines; the American Indians; the Mesoamericans - Inca, Aztecs, Mayans; the Egyptians; the cultures of the Indian subcontinent; and of course the Romans, Greeks and Norse cultures all had tales of 'sky beings'. I suspect that detailed research would find the presence of 'sky beings' universal, or nearly so. A human culture needing to invent imaginary friends from the sky is probably less likely than the reality, or the possible/probable reality of actual 'sky beings'. [As an aside, maybe trilobites and T-Rex aren't totally kaput - if ancient astronauts (UFO aliens) were around way back then, doing their abduction thing, then maybe the descendents of these prehistoric life forms are alive and well in some cosmic zoo!]

CENSORSHIP: I received an email from a SETI scientist along the line that cover-ups are the usual excuse for the claim there's no obvious public evidence for the UFO ETH, and that's an argument from ignorance, so it has no force. It's also implausible that every government in the world is participating in a cover-up. I'm guessing here, but I'd wager that scientist hasn't ever been in the military (I have) or worked for any defence, security or diplomatic related agencies.

Well, any time the powers-that-be classify, conceal, deny, cover-up things, you're in the dark so obviously any debate or argument to the contrary by you is an argument or debate from your relative ignorance because you don't have all of the facts.

Regarding the question of censorship/cover-ups over things alien in nature, things like Martian microbes are too inconsequential to try to hide; 'ancient astronauts' are too old for a government to worry about; SETI aliens (if SETI succeeds) are too far away to worry about; but UFOs are a different kettle of fish. The possibility that highly advanced aliens with unknown motives might be present here and now - well can you imagine any government admitting to the great unwashed that they really have no control over their airspace! Any government that had, by accident, obtained alien technology would certainly not share that information with anyone, including allies, and thus wouldn't admit same to their citizens. Of course not all countries and their respective governments may even have the appropriate data which to cover-up. You can't hide what you don't know about in the first place.

Take Area 51 (Groom Lake, Nevada). Even assuming that the location has bugger-all to do with UFOs doesn't negate secrecy going on. There's no denying the place exists. That's on the public record. Satellite and ground photographs exist. There's no getting around the fact that signs are posted around the site that there will be 'no trespassing' and that if you do, 'use of deadly force is authorised' to keep you out. [That includes SETI scientists!] That too is on the public record, filmed and documented. Translated, there are things going on at Area 51 the American government doesn't want anyone to know about. Pine Gap in Central Australia is another such location. Many more exist throughout the world. You want cover-ups / censorship and related - call it what you will. Well, something that immediately comes to mind was the Manhattan Project. Then there's that U-2 spy plane (and a whole range of stealth military aircraft that remained top secret while in development). Likewise, the Project Mogul package designed to detect foreign nuclear weapons testing, launched to high altitudes by balloon, as beloved as an explanation for Roswell.

Nobody can deny that the military has levels of classified security ratings ranging from confidential through to secret and top secret. Anyone suggesting that the Americans (or British, Australians, Chinese, Russians, etc.) don't have skeletons in their respective closets are in serious denial or in delusion mode. A UFO case might be classified not so much because it's a UFO, but because the surveillance equipment, type of radar or spy satellite, etc. might be classified.

The number of classified confidential / secret / top secret projects worldwide must number in the tens of thousands. The total number of classified confidential / secret / top secret documents (plus photos and films and related) must be in the millions. The number of multi-decades old classified projects and documents are unknown, but some surely exist. Something old by itself doesn't equal declassified. And it's not just the military - all sorts of government civilian and diplomatic projects and decisions remain under wraps for a whole variety of reasons.

There's no doubt in my mind that UFOs could be one of hundreds to thousands or more topics somewhat too-hot-to-handle and pretty much under classified wraps. That's a conclusion that's fairly obvious to me when it came to light, after much denial by the CIA, but pressured via Freedom-of-Information requests, that the CIA had some quite considerable interest in UFOs. Alas, FOI not withstanding, a vast percentage of the text from those released documents are blacked out. And that too is on the public record.

When it comes down to all things classified (a fancy word for cover-up because classified things are covered-up and tucked away out of sight) there is a phrase called 'need to know'. If you don't need to know, and you want to, that's a cover-up as far as you're concerned. Now Australia had a very long serving Prime Minister (John Howard) who was finally defeated in a 2007 general election, and left politics. I'm sure he knows many secrets - military and diplomatic - from his years in the top job. But, like all good citizens, he's not telling tales out of class. Ditto all American ex-presidents and Commonwealth PM's and all other manner of retired statesmen.

There's also the aspect or concept of 'the superiority complex'. The 'I know something that you don't know' - ha, ha, ha - that helps feed our egos. Maybe someone does have THE knowledge and THE proof positive of what UFOs are, but why should they share it with you hence share the Nobel Prize? Or, maybe they are just internally satisfied that they alone are blessed with THE answer and that's the be-all-and-end-all of the matter.

CONDON (UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO] INVESTIGATION & REPORT: The USAF UFO Project Bluebook investigation was becoming a public relations disaster. The more the Air Force tried to downgrade the issue, the more the public smelled whitewash. So, in order to bring in qualified, independent, experts, restore credibility (and get a reason to get out of the UFO business) the USAF turned to the University of Colorado, and respected physicist Edward U. Condon, to look into the UFO issue.

Unfortunately, Dr. Condon, as head of the independent investigation, proved to be more a liability than an asset. Staffers uncovered a memo by his higher echelon team that strongly suggested that he had already made his mind up even before the formal and serious study began, that UFOs were a non-issue. That produced such dissention in the ranks, and media publicity, that the internal politics just about shattered any credibility to the investigation. Some members quit and offered scathing rebuttals to the inner workings of the University of Colorado study. True to form, the final report apparently dumped poo on the subject, or at least the introductory / summary chapter written by Condon himself.

Now of course when you issue a 1000+ page report to the press, who have deadlines to meet, all they have time for is to digest the introductory / summary and write their articles from what that says. What is says is that there's no meat on the bone; the USAF should stop wasting time on the subject - which is exactly what the USAF wanted to hear - bail out from this PR nightmare. Subject closed. Unfortunately, things didn't quite turn out that way.

So I don't want anyone to tell me that the University of Colorado UFO investigation on behalf of the USAF, the Condon Report, closed the book on the subject - not unless you have real the entire report and not just that introductory / summary first chapter. There is no similarity between the questions the actual report raises and the summary conclusions reached as given in that first chapter. Few people have taken the time to separate the wheat from the chaff in the Condon Report. The first chapter is the chaff; the bulk of the report contains the wheat.

What you'll find in the non-Condon written bulk of the University of Colorado report is that case after case (well about 30% of cases in fact) are unexplainable. How Condon can say that there's nothing to the subject in the summary, while his team suggests that 30% of what you've investigated is anything but 'nothing', remains a perplexing historical mystery - except for that earlier leaked memo which showed that Condon, despite being a scientist, had a closed mind on the subject. So, read the entire report - do so, and then talk to me! Contrary to popular opinion, the Condon report proved the need for heightened investigation, not the need to abandon the investigation.

Further readings regarding the (University of Colorado) Condon Report:

Fuller, John G. (Editor); Aliens in the Skies: The New UFO Battle of the Scientists: The Scientific Rebuttal to the Condon Committee Report: Testimony by Six Leading Scientists Before the House Committee on Science and Astronautics July 29, 1968; G.P. Putnam's Sons, N.Y.; 1969:

Harkins, R. Roger & Saunders, David R; UFOs? Yes! Where the Condon Committee Went Wrong; Signet Books, N.Y.; 1968: [Saunders was a member of the University of Colorado UFO Study.]

University of Colorado & Gillmor, Daniel S. (Editor); Final Report of the Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects Conducted by the University of Colorado Under Contract to the United States Air Force; Bantam Books, N.Y.; 1969: [The Condon Committee Report.]

CROP CIRCLES: For better or worse, crop (or sometimes 'corn') circles have been associated with UFOs to a greater or lesser extent depending on whom you consult. Firstly, there's no doubt that crop circles exist - that's undisputed. Secondly, crop circles are the product of intelligence; there's no way Mother Nature can naturally make these complex geometric formations - that's undisputable. Thirdly, although there are isolated cases from other countries, crop circle formations are 99 & 44/100% reside in merry old England - no arguments there.

That third fact brings up question one: assuming crop circles are hoaxes, what is it about the British mind set that prompts them to commit these 'works of art'? That's never been explained. Maybe crop circle hoaxers might be reluctant to do their thing in the USA where farmers shoot first and ask questions later, but why not France, Canada, Australia and a host of other nations with major agricultural (crop) industries?

Question two, again assuming hoaxes, can the sum total of crop circle formations be explained by artistic human intelligence, keeping in mind the restraints of sheer numbers of circles; the period of limited darkness in which to operate (high summer in England); the fact that it is dark; the possibility of being caught (you don't want to use flashlights); not to mention additional time required for the ever increasing complexity of these crop circle formations?

Question three: assuming now not human, but extraterrestrial intelligence (the UFO connection - if any), what is the motive? Sceptics have pointed out, rightly so, that it is ludicrous in the extreme to suggest that extraterrestrials come here, from there (wherever there is) just to do geometrical graffiti using agricultural crops as their canvas! It's probably equally ludicrous to suggest that UFOs are alien tourist buses, the extraterrestrials on a holiday tourist tour, and England has been set aside as the area for extraterrestrial artists on tour to practice their art!

So, maybe crop circles are a smoking gun that we do live in a simulated Universe and on a simulated planet. All other 'rational' explanations are equally, if not more so, ridiculous. If extraterrestrials, their motive isn't at all obvious. If human in origin, crop circle graffiti should be way more widespread like ordinary back alley brick wall graffiti is, not to mention that a lot higher percentage of crop circle culprits or 'artists' should have been caught, tried, convicted, and fined for vandalism, destruction of private property and just plain trespassing.

EARLIER IS BETTER: the UFO phenomenon is now well over 60 years old. The public in this 21st Century has been well and truly saturated with UFO stories, mythology and lore. Thus, if Mr. or Mrs. Joe Blow Public reports anything UFO related today, well they have had a lot of previous bits and pieces to draw on - assuming they are making things up. However, if Mr. or Mrs. Joe Blow Public reported something from 1947, say through 1952, then that public saturation with all things ufological must have been quite a deal less. Thus, earlier reports seem to me to be more, all else being equal, credible - far less media, Hollywood, etc. coverage that could have had influence on the public mind.

That's of course not to say that everything post 1952 is bunk and junk. There have been many substantial solid cases over the most recent five decades. It's just the percentage of those types of cases, relative to the total, was probably higher and slightly more credible before the mythology solidified.

Abductions are an exception as the typical UFO abduction case didn't exist in the 40's and 50's; ditto astronaut sightings. But on balance, I'd place greater reliability and credibility in those earlier cases. One other reason for doing so is that today's CGI digital processing and manipulation of images can provide mind-boggling (but fake) UFO film and photographic 'evidence'. It was much harder to fake images in the 40's, 50's and 60's.

EVIDENCE: Many ideas or fads, be they in the sciences or the arts, don't last long - theories come and theories go and actual fashions and fashion in music change yearly. What's 'in' and what's 'out' is often pretty fickle. A lot of what was popular in 1947 (the birth year of the modern UFO era) has fallen by the wayside now - but, interestingly enough, not the UFO ETH. The UFO ETH is as popular as ever, maybe even more so now than in 1947, not that popularity equates of necessity to something factual. If a billion people believe a stupid idea - like an invisible friend who art in heaven - it's still a stupid idea. However, over six decades on, despite all the professional and amateur sceptics and the universal naysayer, the government denials, scientists professing 'no evidence', the 'giggle' factor and the 'silly season' publicity, the UFO ETH is alive and well thank you very much. Something must be driving this. Perhaps, at least to many of the great unwashed, there is some signal in the noise - some sort of evidence (albeit not physical enough to be acceptable to many professional scientists) that's swaying the general public.

It is suggested, with good reason, that the whole issue of the UFO ETH must be judged on the basis of the evidence. And, it is claimed, that the evidence for visitation is so poor that very few scientists find it convincing. And that is true, at least the part that few scientists, publicly at least, find the UFO ETH somewhat lacking in solid evidence. Thus, the UFO ETH has garnered somewhat of an aura of being a 'silly season' subject, unworthy of scientific study. [To be honest, I'd often like to survey academics / scientists for their private opinions!]

UFOs vs. evidence for the ETH - there is no absolute smoking gun - yet. I'd be the first to acknowledge that. I'd suggest however that this is a case of where there's smoke, there's smoke. The fire has yet to be seen through the smoke. There however has got to be something suggestive about the nature of that smoke to drive lots of people, even some quite intelligent people, to accept the possibility of the UFO ETH. I mean the idea just didn't pop out of the ether - out of thin air. Something very suggestive is driving it.

I would ask the question whether by evidence one means a physical artefact that can be put under the microscope, or is human testimony, the sort that would convict someone of a crime and put them on death row enough evidence? I'm 99% convinced scientists would say the former, yet the evidence for the UFO ETH is 99% the latter (plus a few radar returns and films). Actually IMHO it's ludicrous for UFO ETH sceptics to poo-poo and give the thumbs down to eyewitness testimony. After all, it's accurate eyewitness testimony that enables the trained investigators to properly identify the vast majority of UFO reports, turning them into identified flying objects. So, when sceptics need eyewitness testimony to be accurate and turn UFO cases into something with ordinary and mundane causes - that's fine. But when the tables are turned, sceptics turn turncoat as well so as to re-enforce their already-minds-made-up point of view. That is, eyewitness testimony that turns a UFO sighting into an unexplained bona fide UFO case, well then clearly the eyewitness testimony counts for nothing in terms of bona fide evidence.

Now there are lots of current concepts in science that have absolutely no evidence to support them, yet are taken quite seriously by physical scientists. A partial list would include concepts like the Multiverse, the Many Worlds interpretation of quantum physics, string theory, the Higgs Boson, the possible existence of ten or eleven dimensions, the Ekpyrotic (two branes colliding origin of the) Universe theory, and, shock horror for those interested in SETI, the total lack of any under-the-microscope, hard core evidence whatsoever for any intelligent life forms other than intelligent terrestrial life forms. Yet it is acceptable for scientists to research these areas without being subject to having their sanity questioned. I fail to see why the UFO ETH is an exception to this.

Scientists need more than 20 fingers and toes to list all of the there-is-no-evidence-for- these-way-out-theories in science that ultimately had to wait years, decades, longer even for experimental confirmation. If scientists had put these in the too hard basket, or dismissed them with a 'I just don't believe it - it can't be therefore it isn't' attitude, well we'd still all believe that the sun goes around the Earth, black holes would be confined to the pages of science fiction, and as for gravity bending light rays - forget it.

There are other 'the nature of the evidence' parallels with UFOs - physical phenomena that don't stand still; you can't poke and prod, put under the microscope, examine at your leisure and which are unpredictable in space and in time. Ball lightning comes to mind; ditto Transient Lunar Phenomena (TLP); and you can't rewind the clock and prepare for (instruments at the ready) and witness the one-off Tunguska event. There seems to be a double standard for evidence here. UFOs have a 'giggle factor'; ball lightning does not, yet both have theoretical underpinnings that make their existence plausible. In the case of UFOs, it's the Fermi Paradox as noted above.

Oh, by the way, that ultra overused phrase 'extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence' is nonsense. Claims of course require evidence, but the word 'extraordinary' is in the mind of the beholder. What's extraordinary to one is routine, boring, commonplace and downright bloody obvious to another. And speaking of the common phrase, another one is 'absence of evidence is not the same thing as evidence of absence'.

The end of part one.

Science librarian, retired.

UFOs: The Observational Reality Supporting Extraterrestrial Visitations

First I'd better define exactly what I mean by a UFO. To me, a bona-fide UFO is any UFO that remains a UFO after comprehensive investigation and analysis by qualified experts have failed to identify the object as any known natural or man-made phenomena. The tag 'unidentified' means that the conclusion was that it couldn't have even been a possible or probable natural or man-made phenomena, but what exactly it was remains totally 'unidentified' and probably forever unidentifiable. Observational evidence is suggestive that these bona fide UFOs could be extraterrestrial visitations - the extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH).

But wait, I hear screams of protest!

One could ague and come to a conclusion that while it is probable aliens would stumble over our humble abode in the cosmos, it's very improbable that it would happen within our lifetime; with the last couple of generations. It's vastly more probable a visitation would have happened in ancient times, prehistoric times, maybe millions if not billions of years ago. While there's something to be said for that, there is the counter argument that having visited once, the 'tourist attraction' we call Earth would become ongoing.

There's more than one sci-fi story published that plots alien scientists charting our newly formed solar system, surveyed Earth of course, about four billions of years ago, left some rubbish behind, and thus spawned the origin of terrestrial life!

Fast forward several billions of years and our alien scientists or explorers (biologists this time) picked up a trilobite or two for their interstellar zoo or museum collection. And I'd bet even aliens might have been fascinated with the dinosaurs! Perhaps in our hypothetical interstellar zoo, terrestrial dinosaurs continue to strut their stuff, having suffered a pre-historical UFO abduction!

Alas, the odds any physical evidence of such vastly ancient prehistoric visitations or surveys or expeditions would be so rare, eroded away or deeply buried, that such musings will probably forever remain just wild speculations. All witnesses are extinct now!

But moving from millions of prehistoric years ago to more recent prehistoric eras, up through and including ancient history, say within the last 100,000 years, then we might start getting some more concrete pictorial evidence (cave art) or other archaeological, anthropological or mythological evidence - which of course brings us to the topic of 'ancient astronauts'. All I'll say on that is that most of the popular literature on the subject is bovine fertilizer or pure balderdash. But I'm not going to be so rash as to go on record as saying all of it is.

There's a song by country-pop singer Shania Twain that goes something like "That don't impress me much". Specifically, when watching 'ancient astronaut' documentaries, or even reading the popular literature, I've never been impressed by the monuments argument that aliens either built them or helped humans to build them - monuments like Stonehenge or the pyramids (Egyptian or Mesoamerican) or the statutes on Easter Island. That's selling human abilities short. I'm also not impressed with so called ancient technologies - thousands of year old batteries for example that look about as alien as a Model T Ford.

What does impress me are various highly anomalous and alien in appearance historical art works - pictures, cave art, paintings, sculptures, etchings, some of massive size like the Nazca line drawings in Peru so obviously designed to be viewed from a high altitude. Also of interest is mythology and comparative mythology that might be suggestive of 'ancient astronauts'. These are legitimate and worthy areas for scholarly study, given the importance of the subject.

So, why the sudden surge in UFO activity in recent generations - 1947 to date? Well, maybe there hasn't been - a surge that is.

Contrast that with the period 1847 - 1910; or 1747 - 1810. Look at relevant factors like population levels and distribution; the sorts of terrestrial technology that could be misconstrued as alien spacecraft; the technology that can detect UFOs; communication factors; and social factors.

Relative to those eras, the modern UFO era has a far greater population base; the more people, the more sightings. The modern UFO era, unlike previous eras, has airships and aircraft and artificial satellites and flares and searchlights and all that jazz which can generate sightings. The modern UFO era has cameras (still and motion picture) and radar and other technologies that are subject to electromagnetic effects that help to document UFO activity today that couldn't have been documented 10 or 200 years ago. The modern UFO era, relative to 100 or 200 years prior, has way more communications - books, magazines, radio, TV, other mass media like newspapers, the Internet, films, and so on. If some UFOs are alien craft, the great unwashed is far more cognisant of it than our counterparts living 100 or 200 years ago. Lastly, 100 years ago, even more so 200 years ago, there wasn't the sort of outdoor nightlife activity we have today. After dark, you went to sleep; up at the crack of dawn. Yet UFOs are more readily detectable at night. It's easier to spot a bright light against a dark sky - but only if your outside.

For all those reasons, it might be the case that UFO activity hasn't really changed over historical periods. Then again, maybe it has.

Now if it ultimately turns out that 100% of UFOs have zilch to do with extraterrestrial intelligence; that there never has been ancient astronauts; that no alien picnickers left behind their garbage billions of years ago; that we never were on the receiving end of a cosmic Johnny Appleseed - if Planet Earth is not in any cosmic database, then maybe we are the proverbial be-all-and-end-all. We are the first intelligence to arise in the Universe - the first, maybe the only. However, that assumption runs counter to the Copernican Principle or the Principle of Mediocrity that in the overall cosmic scheme of things, we are just the average run-of-the-mill. So, let's not start off violating these cherished cosmological principles, rather go back to the assumption that some UFOs actually reinforce those principles.

Of course it is not sufficient enough for visiting aliens and their interstellar craft (UFOs if you will) to theoretically exist - there's got to be some kind of actual evidence - and it exists in spades.

There exists a phrase "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence"'. I've seen that in numerous books, and I understand it originates from the late and great Carl Sagan. Were Dr. Sagan alive today I'd take the comments to him, but seeing as how he's no longer available.

Claims require evidence. That's not in dispute. However, the word 'extraordinary' is in the mind of the beholder. What might be an extraordinary claim to you might not be an extraordinary claim to me, and vice versa. Murder is a more extraordinary crime than jaywalking, yet the same evidence (say a security camera film) will convict in both cases. You don't need twice the amount of evidence in a murder trial vis-à-vis being convicted of jaywalking. So, claims, of any kind, require enough evidence to convince anyone with an open mind - no more; no less.

If I, one of the great unwashed, were to make a claim that the double slit experiment provides evidence for the existence of parallel universes, or that a positron was actually nothing more than an electron going backwards in time, that would be extraordinary. If a professional scientist, a physicist, were to make the same claims, it's not extraordinary presumably because physicists know what they are talking about. Yet it's the same set of claims. They can't be both extraordinary and ordinary at the same time!

Many of the greatest and now accepted parts of science started out as an extraordinary claim - like quantum mechanics or relativity theory or the fact that the Earth goes around the Sun. But did these claims really need extraordinary (like double the experimental) evidence vis-à-vis other claims that are now equally parts of the accepted science we find in the textbooks? For open-minded people, especially scientists, such claims probably did not require extraordinary evidence.

Few scientists now dispute the (initially extraordinary) claim of the reality of ball lightning, yet not only is it far rarer than UFO sightings, it has less of a theoretical underpinning than the proposal that some UFOs have an extraterrestrial intelligence behind them. Ball lightning hasn't been put under a laboratory microscope any more than UFOs have. There are lots of parallels between ball lightning and UFOs for the sociologists of science to ponder. Yet one has credibility, one doesn't. Why? It makes relatively little sense.

It is said, and there is truth in this, that science and scientists do not have the time and resources to investigate every claim ever made about the natural world. There must be some ways and means of distinguishing reasonable from unreasonable (i.e. - extraordinary) claims. While I don't have an easy answer to that - though I'll give one immediately below - I'll just initially observe that there's been a lot of seemingly reasonable claims that are now only footnotes in the history of science, and a fair few unreasonable claims that are now part of the bedrock on which our sciences, technology and civilization rests.

However, instead of ordinary vs. extraordinary distinctions, I'd suggest important vs. relatively unimportant claims. Lots of claims, whether proven or unproven, aren't going to set the world on fire. Others have the potential to make for paradigm shifts in our understanding of the world and the cosmos. The equation UFOs = evidence for extraterrestrial intelligence is such an example. The claim needs to be investigated, yet not requiring massive more investigations than any other sort of scientific puzzle would require.

So, we desire evidence for the extraterrestrial nature of UFOs, not extraordinary evidence.

Skeptics would argue that the burden of proof that extraterrestrials are behind (at least some of) the UFO phenomena lies with the believers - those who claim such is the case. And that's true. But there's another side to that coin. Skeptics need to look at what evidence is presented and not have a mind-in-a-closet attitude.

What's the general evidence for UFOs? Well, you have multi-tens of thousands of sightings, probably six figures worth by now, many multi-witness sightings, more than a few independent multi-witness sightings; sightings by people used to outdoors aerial phenomena (like pilots), films and photographs that have defied the best experts to explain them in conventional terms, radar returns, physical traces, physiological effects on biological tissues, including humans, often more than one of these categories applies. You have a global phenomena, where countries from Australia, the USA, Canada, the United Kingdom, Spain, Belgium, France, Russia, Mexico, etc. have devoted considerable resources to finding answers to what some see as a 'silly season' with a high 'giggle' factor. That makes little logical sense - the 'giggle' factor, not the official investigations. There are neither psychological, sociological or cultural reasons to explain the origin of UFOs in general, nor specific UFO reports. It's all evidence, and grist for the mill. The crux of the matter is not lack of evidence; it is how that evidence is interpreted. So take the bona-fide UFO residue. Now what is this residue and what happens if you apply Occam's Razor to it? Well, maybe bona-fide UFOs are just ghosts, or angels, or the work of the devil, or some nation's secret weapons, or craft from an advanced civilization that inhabits our hollow Earth! Or, maybe the extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH) is the most plausible. I think Occam's Razor would err on the side of the ETH.

There must be something suggestive within the evidence to point in the ETH direction, and nearly from the very beginning of the modern UFO phenomena (June 1947). The idea or association didn't just pop out of the ether for no reason

The trouble with UFOs is that they won't stand still! You can't put them under a microscope, poke and prod them, or study and measure them at your leisure like you can most phenomena. You can't predict in advance where and when and for how long they will appear.

Anyone who poo-poos the extraterrestrial hypothesis for UFOs, "it can't be therefore it isn't", clearly hasn't actually studied the subject, read the literature, studied official government investigations and reports, done personal field investigations and interviewed witnesses. Out of all the hundreds of thousands of sightings, worldwide, over all these decades, all it takes is one (smoking gun) case to validate the extraterrestrial hypothesis. Is there anyone out there who can say for 100% certainty that at least one case isn't the real deal?

Now I don't want anyone to tell me that the University of Colorado UFO investigation on behalf of the USAF, the Condon Report, closed the book on the subject - not unless you have real the entire report and not just the introductory / summary first chapter. There is no similarity between the questions the actual report raises and the conclusions reached and given in that first chapter. Few people have taken the time to separate the wheat from the chaff in the Condon Report. The first chapter is the chaff; the bulk of the report contains the wheat. So, read the entire report - do so, and then talk to me!

Every major country has had, or does have, either an official UFO investigations programme, or at least investigates reports of UFOs - six decades after the 'fad' began! Australia, Canada, France, England, Belgium, the USA, etc., etc. all have or have had UFO investigation programs. So, conclusion number one is that senior officials took, and many still take, the phenomena quite seriously. FOI requests have shown serious interest in the UFO area by not only the USAF, but by the FBI and CIA as well, continuing even after the USAF supposedly got out of the UFO investigations area, as a result of the above cited Condon (University of Colorado) study. It's not just the great unwashed, low IQ, blue-collar population who are interested.

In contrast, have you ever heard of, or are you aware of, government bodies investigating Bigfoot sightings, or ghosts, or spoon bending, or the Bermuda Triangle (in general - specific incidents are of course investigated by relevant safety maritime and/or aviation and/or military authorities), or the Ouija board or astrology? You probably have not, because these concepts aren't taken seriously, and the public would be outraged if their tax dollars were so used.

As an aside, I find it interesting that the American Congress has often voted against publicly funding SETI (legit science if there ever was). To this day SETI is mainly funded by private individuals and institutions. However, the American Congress has never voted down, cut, or denied funds to the USAF to investigate UFOs. That's interesting. I'm not aware of any American congressman or senator ever arguing or voting against official government funding spent investigating UFOs - how very, very interesting. Are you aware of any? What's also interesting is that Freedom of Information (FOI) requests have revealed that both the FBI and the CIA have had an intense interest in the subject, despite pre-FOI denials of any interest. So, that's a lot of top level interest in a silly-season subject with a high 'giggle' factor. Read into it what you will.

Each and every UFO investigation has yielded up a reasonable percentage of cases that despite the best scientific and/or military scrutiny remain unknown as to what the ultimate cause was. That is not in dispute.

Unknown cases include not only independent multiple witness testimony, but physical evidence - photographs, motion pictures, radar returns, electromagnetic effects, physiological and psychological effects and physical ground traces. That is not is dispute. You'll find documentation in the official government investigations and reports.

There are professional scientists, senior military officials*, senior government officials, and a host of other people in responsible positions who have witnessed UFOs (airline and military pilots; astronauts, police officers, etc.) who have either spoken out as pro-UFO or a minimum state that this is a legitimate phenomenon. That is not in dispute - it is on the public record.

What we need is a/the smoking gun. Not quite THE smoking gun, but one of many, may highly unexplained UFO cases, is the events surrounding Frederick Valentich on 21 October 1978. It's more a case of where there's smoke, there's smoke, but smoke there certainly is, and lots of it.

In a nutshell, on the evening of that date, Mr. Valentich piloted a private plane from Melbourne, intended destination, King Island in Bass Strait. He took off only to shortly thereafter radio in that there was this UFO hovering over him. The UFO was spotted by several independent witnesses. While radioing his observations, all contact ceased; all communications abruptly ended. Mr. Valentich, plane and all, vanished without trace. An extensive air and sea search failed to find any sign of Mr. Valentich, or his plane. No oil slick, no floating wreckage, no body - nothing, zip, bugger-all. No trace has ever been found of pilot or plane - not then, not since, not ever. The weather had been perfect for night flying.

One obvious explanation was that Mr. Valentich staged his own disappearance, although friends and family could offer no reason why he would do so. Of course many people voluntarily disappear themselves for various reasons; many eventually are found, are caught or reappear voluntarily. But keep in mind; it wasn't just Mr. Valentich who disappeared. One entire aircraft vanished as well, never to be seen again. Surely if Mr. Valentich wanted to 'drop out', there were easier and less conspicuous ways of doing so. If he had deliberately gone walkabout, in these decades since of security cameras and computer facial software recognition technology, it would be hard to remain an unknown walkabout in any populated area.

Was suicide a motive? Again, no wreckage or body was ever found, and who would go to all the bother of reporting a non-existent UFO overhead - a non-existent UFO that happened to be independently reported by others.

And what of the plane since no wreckage was ever found floating on the surface of Bass Strait; washed up on beaches, or found on the ocean bottom - Bass Strait isn't that deep.

It's a mystery, and while it doesn't prove aliens nicked off with Mr. Valentich and plane, there's not that much wriggle room. Now multiply this sort of unexplained case by the thousands worldwide, and you do have the ETH as a plausible hypothesis.

Interestingly, despite my asking for a copy of the Valentich 'accident' case report in an official capacity related to my employment at the time, the Department of Transport (Air Safety Investigations Branch) refused. To this day, to the best of my knowledge, that report has never been publicly released.

Those who have investigated UFOs with maximum time, energy and resources are of course those from government agencies, representing the government. Therein lays a problem. No government is ever going to admit - assuming an extraterrestrial intelligence behind UFOs - that is doesn't have full control over its airspace. No government is ever going to admit it is near powerless against possible invaders, including a hypothetical extraterrestrial one. Any government that has insights into the artificial (extraterrestrial) nature of UFOs technology is certainly not going to share that information with other governments, however allied, far less their great unwashed Joe Doe public.

Now skeptics will argue that some countries with official UFO investigations programs have shut them down (or at last that's the official line). There are two possible reasons for that, assuming everything is on the up and up. The obvious one, to sceptics, is that there's nothing to the subject - time, money, manpower, resources have been wasted and it's time to bail out and cut the losses. The quite less obvious one is that we now know what we needed to know and therefore there's no point in carrying on. That means either a secret admission that we're helpless no matter what, so no point, or there's been a conclusion that UFOs pose no threat, so again no particular point in carrying out more studies. In fact, if you example the reasons governments (American and British immediately come to mind) have given for getting out of the UFO business is that phrase - 'no threat' - UFOs, whatever they are, or aren't, pose 'no threat' Note that there's never a definitive statement that absolutely no UFO has represent extraterrestrial intelligence technology, that aliens aren't here, it's always that UFOs pose 'no threat' and therefore we've got better things to do - like dealing with things that are threatening! That 'no threat' phrase might represent a possibility that the powers-that-be know more than they're telling - 'no threat' means different things to those in the know vis-à-vis the great unwashed who might not be quite as convinced if they knew what the powers-that-be knew. That's a good reason for not confiding in the great unwashed!

UFOs pose 'no threat'. That's the real justification for bailing out. And while such statements usually have an additional proviso that no evidence of extraterrestrial activity has been uncovered, the government can not claim there's no aliens about - absence of evidence is not the same as evidence of absence. Specifically, it's difficult to draw the conclusion that no UFO sightings can be attributed to extraterrestrial activity with all investigations leave behind a statistically significant residue of unknowns; unsolved UFO sightings. I'm not talking here about cases 'solved' within categories of possible this, or probable that, or even insufficient data, but totally unknown, as in we haven't a bloody clue in (or out) of this world as to what the sighting actually was even though we had apparently sufficient data to suss it all out. It's a case of your guess is as good as mine. Now if the sum total of all unknowns were countable on the fingers of one hand that result might be dismissible. However, the unknowns usually account for about 7% or thereabouts of officially investigated cases; cases investigated by government officials, usually the military, aided with civilian scientific expertise as required. In the case of the Condon Committee University of Colorado UFO study, if memory serves, reading the entire text reveals an unknowns rate of about 30%, but then they did select the best of the best of the previous unsolved cases to try their luck against.

The unknown cases residue provides an interesting challenge to science and scientists - those with an open mind anyway. There's a scientific wealth of gold in them thar hills to be research and mined. There's nothing less than the possible proof of the existence of extraterrestrial intelligent life at stake.

This wouldn't be complete without reference to Roswell. I don't wish to say too much about the Roswell, N.M. case (July 1947), other than to point out that the then US Army Air Force admitted publicly, in the media, in newspapers, on radio, that they had captured one of those mysterious (and only recently sighted - the modern UFO era was just weeks old) flying discs. No amount of back-pedalling can alter that now historical fact. It's on the record. Look it up yourself!

I'm in a bit of a quandary about which UFO era is the best for mining. Ordinarily I'd say the earlier the better in that contamination is limited or reduced. Thus, the first (or close to the first) visual sighting or the first (or near first) physical trace case or the first (or second or third) this or that. Alas, that means going back to say the first five to ten years of the modern era - 1947-1957. Witnesses and associated evidence has been diminished over the interval between then and now, even if original documentation still exists. Latter eras are better, but recent cases have a greater chance of having been influenced by what has come before. All else being equal, I'd mine those first ten years, but that's me.

Do I have the smoking gun? No, otherwise I'd be booking my flight to Stockholm to receive the Nobel Prize! Does the smoking gun exist in the raw unknowns' data? I don't know, but it doesn't hurt for it to be combed through again.

So, why aren't scientists jumping at the chance to prove the ETH? Why no serious academic study of the phenomena. I mean there's probably a Nobel Prize at stake, just waiting for that scientist, or team of scientists, to boldly go and prove the ETH. Well, it's basically because the entire subject of alien visitations, whether UFOs or ancient astronauts, have been hijacked by extreme elements - the lunatic fringe. Thus, the field has achieved a high 'giggle' or 'silly season' reputation. Newly minted academics, looking to establish themselves as bona-fide serious scientists, ingrain themselves with their peers (who largely control promotions, funding, etc.). That means, they tackle serious topics - not 'giggle' factor and 'silly season' topics, unless they want their careers nipped in the proverbial bud. And so, in public at least, you tend to get attitudes along the lines of 'everybody knows that it's nonsense', 'it can't be, therefore it isn't' or 'don't confuse me with facts, my superior's mind is made up therefore my mind is made up'. And so it's a vicious circle. Only serious scientific study will remove the 'silly season', 'giggle' factor; but the 'silly season', 'giggle factor' prevents serious scientific study.

Anyway, there are two sides to this situation! All the government secrecy - and secrecy has well and truly been documented - could come unstuck, could be immediately negated, if an extraterrestrial UFO lands in Central Park (or equivalent). So, why doesn't said extraterrestrials so land with a 'take me to your leader'?

Firstly, there is obvious danger in interpreting / comprehending / understanding an alien mind-set or psychology or behaviour. I mean intelligent human mind-sets / psychology / behaviour is hardly a rigorous science. If what makes us tick is problematical, what hope do we have understanding, even up to an equal degree, intelligent aliens?

All of which brings me to possible motives for an alien race(s) to come calling and stick around. There's thousands of sci-fi stories, films, TV shows, even academic texts dealing with this. Perhaps one or more of the following makes sense.

Firstly, we have tourism. That's quite comprehensible to us.

Secondly, and most likely IMHO, we have a scientific (experimentation, observation, curiosity, specimen gathering, etc.) rational.

Thirdly, and probably most common in the sci-fi literature, Earth is 'target earth' for proposes of colonization, war, invasion. They want our resources, even if not our women!

There's the possible motive central to diplomatic and foreign relations. They want us to come join their interstellar federation.

Fifthly, maybe it's something we haven't yet thought of - or can't think of, alien psychology being totally outside our realm of comprehension.

So, in conclusion, where is everybody? IMHO, 'They're heeeere.'

And, I think we're property!

*For example, USAF Major-General John A. Samford, at a Pentagon press conference in late July 1952 made the statement with respect to the then recent Washington D.C. UFO flap that these sightings were by "credible observers of relatively incredible things". It's on the public record.

Science librarian; retired.