Monday 20 May 2013

Citizen Hearing on Disclosure 'Highlights' Parts 1 & 2 (Special Editions)


By Mac's UFO News

The Citizen Hearing on Disclosure (April 29 - May 3, 2013)  brought 40+ researchers and government/agency witnesses to Washington DC to testify before six former members of the U.S. Congress on events and evidence supporting the truth of an extraterrestrial presence engaging the human race and a government policy to embargo that truth.





Spacing Out! Ep. 50 - Ben Hansen details his triangle UFO sighting in Huntington Beach

 
Published on 17 May 2013 By openmindstv
 
In this episode, we talk with Ben Hansen of SyFy's Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files about a recent UFO he witnessed in Huntington Beach, California. That and other UFO and space news on this episode of Spacing Out!
 

UFO over Chile and Argentina

 
Published on 11 May 2013 By MrB0OS
 
Residents of Argentina and Chile looked into the sky last night and saw this huge group of lights in the sky. Was it an alien space craft? Maybe a group of well controlled meteorites? Or, was this just another weather balloon?
 

Kepler Space Telescope's Planet-Hunting Days May Be Numbered, NASA Announces


By ALICIA CHANG

NASA's planet-hunting Kepler telescope is broken, potentially jeopardizing the search for other worlds where life could exist outside our solar system.

If engineers can't find a fix, the failure could mean an end to the $600 million mission's search, although the space agency wasn't ready to call it quits Wednesday. The telescope has discovered scores of planets but only two so far are the best candidates for habitable planets.

"I wouldn't call Kepler down-and-out just yet," said NASA sciences chief John Grunsfeld.


NASA said the spacecraft lost the second of four wheels that control its orientation in space. With only two working wheels left, it can't point at stars with the same precision.
In orbit around the sun, 40 million miles from Earth, Kepler is too far away to send astronauts on a repair mission like the way Grunsfeld and others fixed a mirror on the Hubble Space Telescope. Over the next several weeks, engineers on the ground will try to restart Kepler's faulty wheel or find a workaround. The telescope could be used for other purposes even if it can no longer track down planets.

Kepler was launched in 2009 in search of Earth-like planets. So far, it has confirmed 132 planets and spotted more than 2,700 potential ones. Its mission was supposed to be over by now, but last year, NASA agreed to keep Kepler running through 2016 at a cost of about $20 million a year.
Just last month, Kepler scientists announced the discovery of a distant duo that seems like ideal places for some sort of life to flourish. The other planets found by Kepler haven't fit all the criteria that would make them right for life of any kind – from microbes to man.
While ground telescopes can hunt for planets outside our solar system, Kepler is much more advanced and is the first space mission dedicated to that goal.

For the past four years, Kepler has focused its telescope on a faraway patch of the Milky Way hosting more than 150,000 stars, recording slight dips in brightness – a sign of a planet passing in front of the star.
Now "we can't point where we need to point. We can't gather data," deputy project manager Charles Sobeck told The Associated Press.
Scientists said there's a backlog of data that they still need to analyze even if Kepler stopped looking for planets.

"I think the most interesting, exciting discoveries are coming in the next two years. The mission is not over," said chief scientist William Borucki at the NASA Ames Research Center in Northern California, which manages the mission.

Scientists who have no role in the Kepler mission mourned the news. They said the latest loss means the spacecraft may not be able to determine how many Earth-size planets are in the "Goldilocks zone" where it's not too hot or too cold for water to exist in liquid form on the surface. And while they praised the data collected by Kepler so far, they said several more years of observations are needed to nail down that number.

"This is one of the saddest days in my life. A crippled Kepler may be able to do other things, but it cannot do the one thing it was designed to do," Alan Boss of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, who is not part of the Kepler team, said in an email.
In 2017, NASA plans to launch TESS – Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite – designed to search for planets around nearby stars.

UFOTV - The UFO Enigma of Flying Spheres

 
Published on 15 May 2013 By UFOTVstudios
 
They have been seen by thousands of eye witnesses. Since World War 2, strange Flying Spheres have been reported and filmed making impossible maneuvers compared to terrestrial aircraft. They can avoid radar and even disable tracking and flight instrumentation. They have been seen by military pilots, airline pilots, NASA space shuttle pilots, and even International Space Station personnel. Is their origin extraterrestrial? Despite all efforts, Flying Spheres still remain a mystery to UFO researchers. This program presents everything we now know about this amazing mystery along with a stunning selection of authentic video footage of the Flying Spheres.
 

Canadian UFO statistics continue to make TV News

 
Published on 15 May 2013 By Isaac Wilee
 
UFO sightings soar across Canada
Record numbers reported in all provinces except Saskatchewan and P.E.I.
Canadians reported nearly 2,000 sightings of unidentified flying objects last year, setting a new record a national survey found. The annual Canadian UFO Survey found that Canadians reported seeing 1,981 UFOs in 2012, nearly doubling the previous Reports.
 

News magazine examines UFOs and government transparency

 
 
In an online article from The Week magazine, they examine the effect UFO research has had on government transparency. Interest in government sponsored UFO investigations has caused government agencies to make special concessions, and according to the article, some lawsuits initiated by UFO investigators have become landmark cases for governing what the government needs to release and how.
Kel McClanahan, an attorney specializing in national security and privacy law, told The Week, “Every major military agency receives an enormous amount of requests about UFOs.” He says they get a flood of requests every time the news reports a UFO sighting.
In particular they note the work of John Greenewald, the owner of the website TheBlackVault.com, who has amassed over 700,000 pages of government documents through Freedom of Information Act Requests (FOIA).
 
The Black Vault
The Black Vault website houses the hundreds of thousands of files
retrieved by John Greenewald via FOIA requests. (Credit: www.TheBlackVault.com)
 
The Week examines three cases in particular that have had a lasting effect on government transparency. The first is the case of Ground Saucer Watch versus the CIA. The Week refers to this as one case which Ground Saucer Watch lost. However, an article on the CIA’s website on their involvement in UFO research written by Gerald Haines, a historian for the National Reconnaissance Office, shows it was in fact two cases. The first of which was very successful (see clarification by Kel McClanahan in the comments below).
According to Haines, in 1975, William Spalding, the head of Ground Saucer Watch, requested all files related to the Robertson panel. The Robertson panel was a group brought together by the CIA in 1953 to review the Air Force’s UFO investigation. Upon receiving the files, Spaulding replied to the CIA accusing them of a cover-up. The CIA’s Information and Privacy Coordinator, Gene Wilson, replied “At no time prior to the formation of the Robertson Panel and subsequent to the issuance of the panel’s report has CIA engaged in the study of the UFO phenomena.” Haines wrote, “Wilson was ill informed.”
That is because Spaulding sued the CIA, unconvinced by Wilson’s response, and he won. The CIA was forced to conduct an extensive search for UFO files, and sure enough, they found 355 more documents, totalling around 900 pages. Most of these files were subsequently released to the public. 100 pages were withheld, “on national security grounds and to protect sources and methods.”
Ground Saucer Watch filed another lawsuit (see clarification by Kel McClanahan in the comments below) to get the remaining files, but according to the CIA, this lawsuit was dismissed in 1980. McClanahan told The Week that Ground Saucer Watch versus the CIA has since been cited in many other decisions. It helped set the parameters for what the government is expected to search for. It also prompted the CIA to put their UFO files on their website.

The second case is from 2007 when Leslie Kean sued NASA for information on a mysterious object that fell into the forest in Kecksburg, Pennsylvania in the 1960s. In this case the court ruled in Kean’s favor, agreeing that NASA had not adequately searched for the documents. NASA was ordered to conduct a more extensive search. Ultimately, NASA said they lost the files.
 
Leslie Kean
Leslie Kean, author of UFOs on the Record.
(Credit: ufosontherecord.com)
 
The final case The Week refers to is the Citizens Against UFO Secrecy versus the Department of Defense. McClanahan says this case is significant because of why the Citizens Against UFO Secrecy lost. They produced witnesses to testify that the DOD knew more than they were sharing, but the judge determined, “speculation that documents exist is insufficient to create a genuine issue of material fact.” The Week notes, “So even if Benghazi conspiracy theorists produced dozens of eyewitnesses to support a certain allegation, it makes no difference if the government doesn’t have any documentation of it.”
 
The Week makes the case that whether or not you think there is anything to the UFO debate, UFO research has had an effect on the government’s handling of FOIA. McClanahan asks, “What other advocacy group can say that they’re getting the government to proactively disclose everything there is to know about a subject?”

Bigelow Aerospace - What do they do with UFO reports?

 
Published on 17 May 2013 By Shepherd Johnson
 
Mike Gold - Director of Operations for Bigelow Aerospace is asked about the Bigelow's involvement with UFO reports. Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS) is referenced in the FAA Federal Aviation Regulations / Aeronautical Instruction Manual (FAR/AIM) as a place where pilots can submit UFO reports. Location: Smithsonian Air & Space Museum May 16, 2013
 

Aliens and the Government at the Citizens For Truth Hearing with Stephen Bassett

 
Published on 18 May 2013 By TheLipTV
 
The Citizens Hearing for Truth has wrapped up in Washington D.C. and Stephen Bassett updates us on what happened at the hearing for access to the government's information on aliens. Bassett also points to admissions made by people in the government on extraterrestrial encounters-even their manipulation of our nuclear weapons!
Sean Stone digs deep to bring Bassett's story to Buzzsaw.

GUEST BIO:
Stephen Bassett is a leading advocate for ending the 65-year government imposed truth embargo regarding an extraterrestrial presence engaging the human race. He is a political activist, lobbyist, commentator, the executive director of Paradigm Research Group and the Extraterrestrial Phenomena Political Action Committee (X-PPAC) and executive producer of the X-Conference. His work has been covered extensively by national and international media.
 

UFO expert shares insights, sightings


By Naomi Hall

Aliens likely walk among us and the federal government won’t admit it, says Butch Witkowski, director of the Lancaster-based UFO Research Center of Pennsylvania.
He spoke to a rapturous audience at the Levittown Library on Saturday in a free presentation called “UFOlogy and Much More” sponsored by the Friends of Levittown Library.Witkowski, of Lancaster, is the director of the UFO Research Center of PA, a nonprofit group of investigators dedicated to confirming the veracity of all manner of unexplained events.
The UFORCOP team travels across Pennsylvania to investigate reports of unidentified flying objects, legendary animals and monsters, the paranormal, reports of alien abduction, spontaneous combustion, unexplained mutilations and other highly strange events. The group has seven affiliated organizations across the country and one in Poland, Witkowski said.
“Hoaxing is 99 percent of this field. If we find a hoax, I expose it. I put it on the website. We will tell you the way it is,” Witkowski said. “We do not charge a fee for research. We do our own lab work. We don’t take somebody’s word for it.”
Witkowski said he didn’t believe in a government coverup involving aliens until he attended a conference in Washington in which a retired longtime news reporter and Washington insider told him aliens were real and lived among the citizenship.
“Why are they here?” one woman asked from the audience.
“Nobody knows,” Witkowski said. “There are theories. Some people say that they are us.”
Another question came from the audience: “Do you think that there’s a connection between UFOs and the Bermuda Triangle?”
“Yes,” Witkowski said, adding that there have been many UFO sightings over the ocean.
“Is there a government cover-up, and why?” asked one woman.
“Yes,” Witkowski answered. “There’s a government cover-up. Can you imagine what would happen if the government told you aliens live with us? They can’t do that. How could they admit that they’ve been lying to us all these years?”
Audience members who said they had seen unexplained objects in the sky shared their experiences with Witkowski and others in the audience.
“Are things out there? Absolutely. Do we know what they are? Absolutely not,” Witkowski told the crowd after hearing their stories.
Jack, a Fairless Hills resident who would only give his first name, attended the presentation after seeing a flier about it.
“I’ve had an interest in this. I used to be into this in the ‘90s,” Jack said. “I’ve never seen a UFO. I’m interested in the cryptozoology, the study of unknown animals.”
Witkowski encouraged everyone to visit www.paufosearch.com if they see something unexplained or want to speak with a researcher.

UFO Movie News


First full trailer for 'Europa Report'

By Robbie Graham

Check out the first full trailer for the upcoming sci-fi thriller Europa Report, which is described by Comingsoon.net as “a unique blend of documentary, alternative history and science fiction thriller [which] follows a contemporary mission to Jupiter's moon Europa, to investigate the possible existence of alien life within our solar system.”

 

Developed in close collaboration with NASA, JPL, SpaceX and other leaders in the scientific community, Europa Report “imagines the next step in manned space exploration and is based on recent scientific discoveries and theories.”
 
The film is due for theatrical release on August 2, and will be available On Demand from June 27.
 
Directed by Sebastian Cordero, Europa Report stars Sharlto Copley, Michael Nyqvist, Daniel Wu, Anamaria Marinca, Christian Camargo and Karolina Wydra. The film features music by Bear McCreary (Battlestar Galactica, The Walking Dead).

UFOs and Out-of-Body Experiences


 
By Nick Redfern
 
One of the most notable UFO encounters ever recorded occurred shortly after 11p.m. on October 18, 1973. That the prime witnesses were serving members of the U.S. Army Reserve only added to the credibility of the report. Having departed from Port Columbus, Ohio, their UH-1H helicopter was headed for its home base at Cleveland Hopkins Airport. Aboard were Captain Lawrence J. Coyne; Sergeant John Healey, the flight-medic; First Lieutenant Arrigo Jezzi, a chemical engineer; and a computer technician, Sergeant Robert Yanacsek. All seemed normal as the crew climbed into the air and kept the helicopter at a steady 2,500 feet altitude.
 
UH-1h-huey
 
But approximately ten miles from Mansfield, they noticed a “single red light” to the west that was moving slowly in a southerly direction. Initially they thought the object might be an F-100 aircraft operating out of Mansfield. Nevertheless, Coyne advised Yanacsek to “keep an eye on it.” These were wise words, as suddenly the unidentified light changed its course and began to head directly for them.
Captain Coyne immediately swung into action, putting the helicopter into an emergency descent, dropping 500 feet per minute. Equally alarming was the fact that radio contact with Mansfield Tower could no longer be established, and both UHF and VHF frequencies were utterly dead, too.
When it seemed that a fatal collision was all but imminent, the red light came to a halt, hovering menacingly in front of the helicopter and its startled crew. At that close proximity to the object, Captain Coyne and his team were able to determine that this was no mere light in the sky. Coyne, Healey, and Yanacsek agreed that the object before them was a large, gray-colored, cigar-shaped vehicle, which they described as being somewhat “domed,” and with “a suggestion of windows.” They could now see that the red light was coming from the bow section of the object.

redlight

Then without warning, a green “pyramid shaped” shaft of light emanated from the object, passed over the nose of the helicopter, swung up through the windshield, and entered the tinted, upper window panels. Suddenly the interior of the helicopter was bathed in an eerie green light. A handful of seconds later the object shot off toward Lake Erie. But the danger was still not over.
To the crew’s concern, the altimeter showed an altitude of 3,500 feet and a climbing ascent of 1,000 feet per minute, even though the stick was still geared for descent. The helicopter reached a height of 3,800 feet before Captain Coyne was able to safely and finally regain control of the helicopter. Shortly thereafter, all radio frequencies returned to normal and Coyne proceeded on to Cleveland Hopkins Airport without further problems.
While the UFO skeptic Philip J. Klass opined at the time that the crew had been spooked by nothing more mysterious than a “fireball of the Orinoid meteor shower,” this was never proved, and an in-depth study undertaken by investigator Jennie Zeidman for the Center for UFO Studies summarily ruled out any conventional aircraft as being responsible. Zeidman concisely and accurately concluded: “The case has maintained its high ‘strangeness-credibility’ rating after extended investigation and analysis.”
On several occasions in the immediate aftermath of their encounter, Captain Coyne received telephone calls from people identifying themselves as representatives of the Department of the Army, Surgeon General’s Office, asking if he, Coyne, had experienced any “unusual dreams” subsequent to the UFO incident. As it happened, not long before the Army’s call, Coyne had undergone a very vivid out-of-body experience.
Sgt. John Healey also reported being called about the incident and its aftermath. “As time would go by,” said Healey, “the Pentagon would call us up and ask us: ‘Well, has this incident happened to you since the occurrence?’ And in two of the instances that I recall, what they questioned me, was, number one: have I ever dreamed of body separation? And I have. I dreamed that I was dead in bed and that my spirit or whatever, was floating, looking down at me lying dead in bed. And the other thing was had I ever dreamed of anything spherical in shape; which definitely had not occurred to me.”
That the Army’s Surgeon General’s Office was interested in both out-of-body experiences and the nature of death and the after-life in the early-to-mid 1970s is not in doubt. For example, a September 1975 document titled Soviet and Czechoslovakian Parapsychology Research that had been prepared for the Defense Intelligence Agency by the SGO’s Medical Intelligence and Information Agency contains a section titled Out-of-the-body Phenomena that focuses on the research of Sheila Ostrander and Lynn Schroeder who “reported that the Soviets were studying out-of-the-body phenomena in Yogis.”

Ostrander, a Canadian, and Schroeder, an American, were the authors of the classic 1971 book, Psychic Discoveries behind the Iron Curtain. In June 1968, the pair was invited to attend an international conference on ESP in Moscow. The invite had come from Edward Naumov, a leading figure at the time in Soviet psi research.

51glcXRjYqL._SY300_

With the late 1960s seeing the emergence of a more relaxed atmosphere of discussion in such controversial areas of research in the Soviet Union, Ostrander and Schroeder began contacting Soviet scientists and researchers in an effort to understand the scale of investigations being undertaken behind the Iron Curtain. This ultimately led to the publication of their book.

Interestingly, the Soviet and Czechoslovakian Parapsychology Research document also displays interest in the issue of unusual, and somewhat unsettling, occurrences reported at the moment of death within the animal kingdom. Referring to the work of Russian scientist Pavel Naumov, the document states:
“Naumov conducted animal bio-communication studies between a submerged Soviet Navy submarine and a shore research station: these tests involved a mother rabbit and her newborn litter and occurred around 1956. According to Naumov, Soviet scientists placed the baby rabbits aboard the submarine. They kept the mother rabbit in a laboratory on shore where they implanted electrodes in her brain.”
The document continues: “ When the submarine was submerged, assistants killed the rabbits one by one. At each precise moment of death, the mother rabbit’s brain produced detectable and recordable reactions. As late as 1970 the precise protocol and results of this test described by Naumov were believed to be classified.”
Of course, all this begs two important questions, which I will leave you to ponder on: (A) Why is the world of officialdom interested in out-of-body experiences; and (B) why was someone, also in officialdom, making a connection between that curious phenomenon and UFOs?