Friday 20 January 2012

About Those Missing Roswell Files...


On July 28, 1995, the General Accounting Office's report on the Roswell affair surfaced from its National Security and International Affairs Division. And although the GAO's report did not provide any smoking-guns - or, rather, any old B&W photos of dead bodies and wreckage at the crash-site on the Foster Ranch, New Mexico - it did provide something interesting and controversial. And it's something that has been misinterpreted for years.

During the course of their search for records to try and better understand what had taken place at Roswell in early July 1947, the GAO learned that the entire outgoing messages from Roswell Army Air Field generated during the period that the event occurred were missing, and under circumstances that could not be fully determined and proved.

This, inevitably and very understandably, led certain Roswell researchers to proclaim that this was evidence of a significant event of UFO proportions having occurred, and which certain elements of officialdom were determined to keep forever hidden from the populace, the media, and the UFO research community - and possibly, even, from anyone else in government who might dare to come looking, such as investigators of the GAO.

And, maybe, that's precisely what happened.

But...the story is not quite as straightforward as that.

Time and again, I have heard UFO researchers say, words to the effect of: "Because the 1947 files are missing, this means the government or the Air Force pulled them years ago, so no-one could get to them."

Sure, that's not impossible. But, there's another issue. The files in question that are unavailable to us do not cover just the key period of the Roswell affair. Rather, they extend back as far as March 1945 and as late as December 1949 - practically into the 1950s, no less.

We are led to believe that if aliens crashed at Roswell, then it was an event out of the blue, with little or no advance notice, and certainly not something that had been anticipated for a significant period of time.

So, that being the case, why the need to pull files from as early as March 1945 to hide something that is said to have occurred, without much warning (if any), in the summer of 1947?

Proponents of the notion that aliens crashed at Roswell might say that the government was just being overly careful, and wanted to make sure that (a) nothing was left behind, and (b) nothing had been misplaced in an earlier collection of material, or indeed, within a later collection of material, possibly held in secure safes at the base. So, they chose the best and quickest option available to them and scooped up pretty much everything that covered approximately two years or so before, and up to two-and-a-half years after the crash.

And, maybe, that is exactly what happened.

On the other hand, one can make a valid argument that the vanished files issue has no bearing on Roswell, because the documents that are missing incude papers dating from two years before the event even took place.

This also offers a theory (and, granted, that's all it is) that there was another reason for the large-scale loss of material that the GAO sought to uncover.

Let's see what the GAO had to say about this matter of missing messages in its 1995 report:

"In addition to unit history reports, we also searched for other government records on the Roswell crash. In this regard, the Chief Archivist for the National Personnel Records Center provided us with documentation indicating that (1) RAAF records such as finance and accounting, supplies, buildings and grounds, and other general administrative matters from March 1945 through December 1949 and (2) RAAF outgoing messages from October 1946 through December 1949 were destroyed." [Bold emphasis mine.]

When the GAO demanded to know the reasons behind this development, they got an answer, as GAO files note:

"According to this official [the Chief Archivist for the National Personnel Records Center], the document disposition form did not properly indicate the authority under which the disposal action was taken. The Center’s Chief Archivist stated that from his personal experience, many of the Air Force organizational records covering this time period were destroyed without entering a citation for the governing disposition authority. Our review of records control forms showing the destruction of other records--including outgoing RAAF messages for 1950--supports the Chief Archivist’s viewpoint."

So, in other words, we have yet another explanation that does not include high-level conspiracy to explain the loss and destruction of files, but which says far more about bureaucracy. Note too that, on digging further, the GAO learned that 1950-era Roswell files had been destroyed as well, not just records up until December 1949 (which is something else that fails to get mentioned to any great degree by ET proponents of Roswell).

So, what's my point in all this? Well, this is my point: Yes, it certainly is intriguing that half-a-decade of certain files are missing from the old Roswell Army Air Field, and it may even be an issue of deep conspiracy.

Or, it may not be.

But, if UFO/Roswell researchers wish to maintain that the missing files from 1947 point to a specific cover-up of the Roswell event - and Roswell occurred out of the blue in July of that year - then they have to provide a viable reason as to why documentation dating back as far as March 1945 was pulled too, and why additional documentation remains missing from as late as 1950.

Saying "the outgoing Roswell messages from July 1947 are missing" is absolutely true, and it opens eyes and it catches the attention of people. Noting that, in reality, the files actually cover 1945 to 1950, and also cover general administrative issues at the base, is far less attention-grabbing.

The issue of the missing files is undeniably interesting and deeply worthy of further study, scrutiny, and investigation. But, if we are to remain balanced in our approach to addressing this aspect of the affair, we need to recognize that the "vanished documents" saga is not as clear-cut as it might seem, or as many might prefer it to be.

Increased activity reported by MUFON in 2012, but not just UFO sightings

It was just last week that Lee Speigel of the Huffington Post reported that the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) had already noticed an increase in UFO sighting reports in the first week of January compared to last year. And there was more activity reported by MUFON this week, but not related to UFO sightings.

Clifford Clift, left, and David MacDonald, right. (credit: MUFON)

On Tuesday, January 17, the Greeley Tribune reported that MUFON’s International Director Clifford Clift will be stepping down from his post. Clift, who has occupied the position since March 2010, is resigning because he wants to spend more time with his family. David MacDonald, a MUFON board member who has served the organization as Assistant Director of Investigations, Star Team Administrator, and State Director of Kentucky, will be replacing Clift as International Director on February 1. Clift will reportedly remain active with the organization as he oversees the archives.

But the organization’s structure change isn’t the only major activity recently reported by MUFON.
MUFON Headquarters, currently based in Greeley, Colorado, will be relocating to Ohio. Roger Marsh of Examiner.com explains:
MacDonald will move MUFON International Headquarters to Cincinnati, OH, where he operates Global Airline Education Center and Campus. Being centrally located, the International Headquarters will be easily accessible to many more members. Cincinnati is within a 6-hour drive for 60 percent of the population of the United States.
Clift is asking everyone to have patience during this transition period. He recently stated, “Keep your eyes on the sky and let’s all welcome Mr. David MacDonald as MUFON’s new International Director.”
Clifford Clift will be speaking at the International UFO Congress on Wednesday, February 22 in Fountain Hills, Arizona.

Chilean General to Speak at UFO Conference


General (Ret.) Ricardo Bermudez will make a special announcement about official Chilean UFO Project at the 2012 International UFO Congress this February in Fountain Hills, Arizona.
Chilean Air Force General (Ret.) Ricardo Bermúdez, Director of Chile’s official Committee for the Study of Aerial Anomalous Phenomena (CEFAA) will address the International UFO Congress in Fountain Hills, AZ this February. This is the first time ever in the USA when a high-ranking military officer who runs an official government sponsored UFO project talks about the subject at a conference open to the general public.

General Ricardo Bermudez
Chilean Air Force retired general Ricardo Bermúdez, director of CEFAA. (Image credit: Antonio Huneeus)

“This is an incredibly exciting opportunity for us” says conference co-organizer Maureen Elsberry, “this is the first time in the U.S. that such a high-ranking government official has spoken to the public about an official government sponsored UFO project. It shows how serious other countries take the subject of UFOs. It’s something they feel is worthy of official investigation.”
General Bermúdez served as commander of the Third Air Brigade in southern Chile, Director of the Technical School of Aeronautics, Deputy Director of the Air Force Academy, and Air Attaché in London. He became Director of CEFAA shortly after Chile’s Directorate of Civil Aviation created this office in 1997.

CEFAA collects UFO cases mostly from commercial and military pilots. “The policy of CEFAA is to pursue solid cases with adequate scientific data,” stated Gen. Bermúdez, “but only if there is an indication that the safety of the aircraft might have been at risk.”
Such a case occurred in November of 2003 when a B 737-200 almost collided with a triangular formation of luminous spheres.
The co-pilot of the aircraft wrote in the official CEFAA report: “A few minutes after takeoff I observed a dark mass of triangular shape heading toward our aircraft. It approached us rapidly in a collision angle with us and I was able to skip it by making a right turn. When it passed next to us I observed a metallic object with a steely gray color which passed very quickly near the window of the commander of the aircraft.”
Gen. Bermúdez will outline the history, methodology and some of the best cases collected by CEFAA up to now. He is also expected to make an announcement about the need for an exchange of UFO data among different countries and between official and civilian research groups, to better understand this puzzling phenomenon.

(Left to right) Gen. Ricardo Bermúdez, Dr. Richard Haines, Gustavo Rodríguez and Antonio Huneeus at the FIDAE 2000 international aeronautical expo in Santiago, where a CEFAA Conference and Workshop took place. (Image credit: Richard Haines)

“The CEFAA’s official position has always been to recognize that something is happening in our skies, but we, as yet, do not know what it is,” he said.
Gen. Bermúdez will speak on Saturday February 25th at 1:00 P.M. at the Fort McDowell Resort & Conference Center in Fountain Hills, Arizona. More information about his presentation can be found at http://www.ufocongress.com.

About the International UFO Congress:
2012 International UFO Congress
The 2012 International UFO Congress will run Feb. 22-26 in Arizona

The International UFO Congress is an Arizona based organization dedicated to the dissemination of information related to many areas in ufology. It was established in 1991 and hosts an annual conference which is the largest of its kind in the United States. It features presentations given by authors, researchers, experts, enthusiasts, and those who have witnessed paranormal or anomalous phenomena from all over the world. It also provides a forum to discuss the experiences and findings. This event usually has over 20 Speakers, a Film Festival, tons of vendors as well as experiencer sessions. Topics generally covered are abduction, UFO sightings, UFO crashes, crop circles, paranormal experiences, government conspiracy and much more.

Open Minds Radio + UFO News Brief


Guest: Lee Speigel

Lee Speigel, Huffington Post writer and UFO researcher, will be joining us to go over the top UFO stories of 2011. This will include some of the top UFO videos, celebrity UFO news, government documents, and more. We will also talk a bit about the surge in UFO reports in the first few days of 2012 and his upcoming talk at the International UFO Congress. To read Lee’s stories, vist: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lee-speigel



Open Minds UFO News Brief