Sci Fi Channel-backed researcher sues NASA over UFO files

First Amendment Center Online ^ | Wednesday, December 17, 2003 | The Associated Press

[Momaw Nadon]

PITTSBURGH — A researcher backed by cable television’s Sci Fi Channel sued NASA for the release of records she contends the agency has of a UFO that reportedly crash landed and was recovered by government workers in southwestern Pennsylvania in 1965.

The lawsuit was filed Dec. 9 in U.S. District Court in Washington on behalf of Leslie Kean, a San Rafael, Calif., investigative reporter backed by the cable channel and a group called the Coalition for Freedom of Information.

“Our lawsuit is aimed at getting NASA to tell the public what it knew and when it knew it,” said Ed Rothschild, a lobbyist the Sci Fi Channel hired from the Washington firm PodestaMattoon, who is also identified as CFI’s executive director. Former President Clinton’s one-time chief of staff John Podesta is backing the Sci Fi Channel’s efforts, and his brother, Anthony, is a principal in the lobbying firm hired by the channel.

Bob Jacobs, a NASA spokesman, said he was unaware of the lawsuit and could not comment.

The filing marked the 38th anniversary of the Kecksburg UFO incident, which occurred in the unincorporated hamlet about 30 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.

Witnesses described a “fireball” in the evening sky, and a metallic, acorn-shaped object about 12 to 15 feet high and 8 to 12 feet in diameter that landed in the woods, according to news media accounts in the Tribune-Review of Greensburg and other outlets at the time.

Military personnel quickly surrounded the site, removed the object, threatened residents who tried to inquire about it, and left — later calling the object a “meteor,” according to news accounts.

James Romansky, 57, of Derry Township, was then a 19-year-old volunteer firefighter. He told the Associated Press that he was among those who drove to the landing site.

“Now, I’m prepared for a smashed-up airplane ... and I’m thinking, ‘What in the hell is this?’ I’m looking for wings, propellers, motors, a fuselage — but there’s none of that,” Romansky said. “There’s no rivet marks on it, no weld marks on it, no windows, no doors — no possible way of getting in and out of this thing that I seen.

“There was writing on it, but not writing that you or I could understand. I always referred to it as something like the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. There was dots and dashes and circles,” Romansky said.

The cable network announced in June that it was backing the effort to research the Kecksburg incident in promoting a documentary, “Out of the Blue,” which examined various UFO reports.

“This should have been done a long time ago,” Romansky said. “The United States government has given us a snow job for the last God knows when. I can’t understand it for the life of me. They can’t come out and say it’s nothing because I was 10, 20 feet away from it.”

Sci Fi Channel officials said they’re looking for an explanation of what occurred. They’re also looking for viewers.

A November 2002 documentary on the suspected 1947 UFO crash in Roswell, N.M., was the highest-rated special in the network’s 11-year history. It was seen by nearly 2.4 million people, or about 2 1/2times Sci Fi’s usual prime-time audience.

The lawsuit contends NASA has thwarted Kean’s efforts to retrieve official files on the incident by sending her irrelevant information or nothing in response to Freedom of Information Act requests.

[Momaw Nadon]

FYI and discussion

[Momaw Nadon]

Ping!

[VaBthang4]

Discussion: Some people need to grow the hell up and stop holding onto adult fairy tales.

There is no race of little gren men who know the secrets of interstellar travel, no secret spacecraft that'll help solve the mysteries of time and space, no alien bodies hidden in a far off out of sight US Military base.

All of this nonsense implying that Humans arent the beginning and end of God's plan for the universe.

News flash...we are it.

Maybe we could solve our own failures before chasing off after excuses for ourselves disguised as extra terrestrial haints.


-Life without Jesus.

[Reactionary]

If it happened, she's never going to get any information from NASA or anyone else.

Alien technology would be incredibly valuable. The records (if there are any) will never be - and should not be expected to be - released.

[Quix]

THANKS.

I think the program has noted such suits recently.

Thanks for the ping.

Are you on my UFO ping list? Do you want to be?

[Blood of Tyrants]

First of all, even if the documents exist, NASA will simply say, "What documents?".

[knak]

The truth is out there.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Amen. IMHO, the alien crap was another plan of the evil one to get people distracted from church and Christ by believing in nonsense. When Christ raptures the church, the antichrist will claim that aliens were able to "beam them up" because their simple minded belief in silly religious superstitions. He will of course ignore that Muslims and Buddhists and others were left behind.

[VaBthang4]

Anything attempting to undermine the reality that we are the plan of the universe, intentionally created to display God's own righteousness and willingness to have us as His own Children, meant to rule over "all" His Creation [including the known universe] is straight outta the pit.

Any nitwit buying into UFO/Alien nonsense displays their own ignorance to the very foundation of human life....ironically, while they pretend to search for life somewhere else.

LOL

[Lucy Lake]

The records (if there are any) will never be - and should not be expected to be - released.

Why not?

[Calpernia]

What do you make of this? Unknown? Truth? Fiction? Possible?

[JmyBryan]

Though I agree with your criticism that those who look for UFOs for solutions/problems are victims, there is a great deal of unexplained evidence that warrants investigation.

Furthermore, it seems likely that our govt has already done a great deal of that.

[Reactionary]

"Why not?"

I've explained why. Alien technology, if it exists and is in our hands, would be incredibly valuable. The ability to advance thousands of years in technological development makes all this talk of FIOA and lawsuits merely naive chatter.

[Momaw Nadon]

News flash...we are it.

[VaBthang4]

Victims?

I didnt call them victims. Some maybe, most are willing dupes who if they are victims of anything...it'd be their own pride and vanity.

I'd rather investigate God's plan for my life instead of chasing the wind.

[VaBthang4]

...God gave them dominion over "all" the works of His hand...

Grow up.

[Prime Choice]

What strange logic these people possess. They think that UFOs only buzz around the United States and other major nations. What's more, they think that all nations on Earth can keep a perfect conspiracy in hushing it all up when one crashes.

Geez, looks like these guys need a new hat. Here's some material for one that'd fit.

[Lucy Lake]

Alien technology, if it exists and is in our hands, would be incredibly valuable.

Most of us would be happy to know if aliens exist, where their home is, and how long did it take to get here, what do they eat, etc; not everyone wants all the technical data.

[JmyBryan]

The Bible doesn't have a whole lot of comment on extraterrestrial visitation.

[new cruelty]

"Some people need to grow the hell up and stop holding onto adult fairy tales."

Don't hold back, vab, how do you really feel?

[VaBthang4]

ROTFLOL

[VaBthang4]

Here we go...

Alright, you cheesedoodles go find ET.

Give us a call when you do.

[WackyKat]

Discussion: Some people need to grow the hell up and stop holding onto adult fairy tales. ...... All of this nonsense implying that Humans arent the beginning and end of God's plan for the universe.

A motherlode of irony

[pctech]

calling Agents Mulder and Scully...........

[VaBthang4]

Yeah...

My position is the thin one. LOL

[Malsua]

>>A motherlode of irony<<

A Universe, billions of light years or more in diameter and God limits his infinite attention to a sphere about 8000 miles in diamater. Seems some people don't think God thinks very big.

[Happy2BMe]

good 1

[VaBthang4]

"God limits his infinite attention to a sphere about 8000 miles in diamater."

The lightbulb almost came on...

Must be some pretty important happenings going on in that 8000 miles huh?

[mhking]

I caught a piece of their Rendleshem UFO special this week...

Mind you, it was hosted by Bryant Gumbel (oh, how the "mighty" have fallen)...

Just damn.

If you want on the new list, FReepmail me. This IS a high-volume PING list...

[Momaw Nadon]

calling Agents Mulder and Scully...........

[Malsua]

Must be some pretty important happenings going on in that 8000 miles huh? No, methinks someone overstates their importance in a universe some hundreds of trillions of times larger than themself.

[Keith]

1. We have it.

2. we have used some of it already.

3. Some of it we haven't figured out yet...think of a 747 landing in a caveman's front yard. How long before he figures out how to operate and fly it? That's where we are with some of it.

4. The Gov't still isn't talking because they would have to address the abduction phenomenon...which they either can't stop, or made a deal to look the other way, depending on the USG sources we are working with in declassifying this heretofore black subject.

5. Those who think this is all nonsense, you are welcome to your opinion, but since this younger generation is not being kept quiet with Cold War rationale, is preparing to blow the lid off of some of this stuff. I really no longer care who "believes" or not. It is eventually going to be revealed and accepted. The abductions are happening. Whether you choose to study any of the data and make your own judgement is completely your call. I know longer care who "believes" and who doesn't. Those who study these things, and who have worked with abductees know this is going on. Whether the media or public "believes" or not, is, frankly, irrelevant.

6. Those who want to be more educated can read. I recommend The Day after Roswell by Phillip Corso. Corso is the Army Colonel who blew the lid off the long secret medical experiments done by the PRK and Soviets on our prisoner from the Korean War. Before he died a year or so ago, he finally published his book about the work we did on the Roswell debris when he was assigned to put it to work in the Army's Foreign Technology division under General Arthur Trudeau. Some facts on Col. Corso's background can be found here

http://www.palmdigitalmedia.com/author/detail/1611

If you are interested in the abduction phenomenon, I recommend one by a skeptic...for skeptics:

Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind by C.D.B. Bryan, journalist and author of the bestselling Vietnam war book, Friendly Fire. Bryan went to a conference on the abduction problem that was quietly held at M.I.T. in 1992. This conference was organized by the M.I.T. Professor of Physics David Pritchard, and Harvard Professor of Psychiatry, and Pulizer Prize winning author, John Mack. Bryan fully expected to ridicule nutcases and expose charlatans bent on making money from a gullible public. At the end of the conference he was convinced something extraordinary was going on...and that this needs further investigation. Here is Publisher's Weekly's take on Bryan's book.

Bryan (Friendly Fire) brings top-notch reporting skills to this open-minded account of a five-day conference on UFO abductions held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1992. Many of the purported abductees, who spoke at the symposium and in subsequent interviews with Bryan, tell of being floated aboard spacecraft by gray, four-foot-tall creatures with big heads who subjected them to clinical examinations.

Bryan believes in the abductees' sincerity but remains undecided whether such experiences are encounters with nuts-and-bolts craft and real aliens, disturbances of the collective unconscious or something else.

Among the ufology heavyweights attending the conference were bestselling abduction researchers Budd Hopkins and David Jacobs, who believe aliens are conducting an ongoing breeding experiment with humans; Harvard psychiatrist John Mack (Abduction), who emphasizes that close encounters often involve personal transformation and growth; folklorist Thomas Bullard; and Sacramento psychologist Richard Boylan, who divulges his own recent encounter with three "interdimensional" beings in the New Mexico desert.

Bryan's thought-provoking report takes us to the frontiers of current UFO research and controversy. 50,000 first printing; BOMC and QPB selections.

Among my other many hobbies, I am a state director for Public Information for MUFON. Cheers.

[yooper]

Military satellite.

[Keith]

My bad...Corso died in 1998, not a "year or so ago...my how time has flown.

[The Duke]

Who is to say that these "aliens" are not actually another indigenous species ... who simply moved as far out of the neighborhood as they could when "modern" man came along?

[TheAngryClam]

You are aware of the irony that you support one adult fairy talk in order to talk down another, right?

[Bubba_Leroy]

"And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold ..." John, 10:16

It's an awfully big universe to have only one inhabited planet.

And no, I don't think any little green men have ever landed here. I just don't believe that G-d created all of those other billions of galaxies and stars just to look good in our sky.

[giznort]

Also, I recall, that Ezekiel "saw the wheel - way in the middle of the air" was quoted as having been a reference to an unearthly visitor.

I've read a lot of books on UFOs (in class in high school instead of US history, etc.) some good some really bad, but I've read numerous references that have included bible passages which some have interpreted as having been references to alien visitors.

You know, you think you've seen everything/know everything, and then something comes along that defies all explanation.

[Kirkwood]

I'm quite satisfied that there is life elsewhere in the vastness of the universe, including many variations of what we would consider intelligent life. However, the vast distances and the limitations imposed by the laws of physics prevents interstellar travel. We have never been visited because anyone intelligent enough to consider it, would also know that it is impossible.

[cyborg]

Wow this is right up there with Bill Bixby's Elvis specials.

[Desron13]

"A Universe, billions of light years or more in diameter and God limits his infinite attention to a sphere about 8000 miles in diamater. Seems some people don't think God thinks very big."

Great point. Traveling at a rate of speed that would take you around the earth at the equator seven times in one second, it would take you about three years to reach the nearest star. Not to sound like Carl Segan, but there are billions of stars in our galaxy alone and then there are billions of galaxies observable in the universe. It sure seems like god went through a lot of trouble just to put life on this one little dust mote located at the very edge of one unremarkable little galaxy out of all those billions. Personally, I would frankly be astounded if the universe isn't teeming with life. I don't know if any of them are dropping in on us or not but there sure are allot of credible people who have seen allot of unexplainable things. This includes both my parents who came rushing into the house one night when I was about 9 and turned on the TV just in time to hear the local news caster reporting in a condescending tone of voice, "Well, this must be the night for people to see flying saucers. It must be a full moon." What they both reported seeing while driving south on I75 just north of Detroit was a very large circular object with counter rotating colorful bands of light moving just faster than the traffic. When it got to be what seemed like about half a mile ahead of them, it suddenly moved of at a tangent to the freeway at what my father called "an impossible rate of acceleration.” They said it did this without making any decernable sound above the noise of the freeway. My father was college educated and was a First Class Quartermaster in the Navy during World War Two. Trust me, he was not given to flights of fancy. My mother noted that the drivers in the cars around them were all seeing the same thing. While I have not seen any UFOs myself, let alone any little green men. I remember clearly that night to this very day. I have rarely seen my parents so shaken. Just something for the "Alone in the universe" crowd to chew on.

[B-Chan]

I suspect that the reason this “UFO” was and remains such a mystery is that the U.S. government wants it that way — not because it was of non-human origin, but because it was an experimental Soviet combat spacecraft that accidentally crashed in Pennsylvania instead of in central Asia as its designers intended. Back in the mid 1960s, the USSR was in the process of developing a family of space combat vehicles based upon their then-new Soyuz class spacecraft., and the re-entry capsule of a Soyuz looks a lot like this UFO was supposed to have looked. Check the illustration of the Soyuz re-entry capsule at the above link: it is acorn-shaped, about the right size, and was no doubt covered wth weird, alien (Russian!) writing!

I don't see any evidence to support the idea that this UFO was a spaceship from another world. My guess is that the Air Force realized the Russians had whiffed one, tracked this sucker as it fell and quickly recovered it for study, allowing the "alien UFO" legend to grow to divert media attention from the fact that we had a top-secret Soviet spacecraft in our possession.

[WackyKat]

However, the vast distances and the limitations imposed by the laws of physics prevents interstellar travel. We have never been visited because anyone intelligent enough to consider it, would also know that it is impossible.

You're making a huge assumption-that we know all there is to know about physics.

I think 10,000 years from now, we might very well have discovered a way to travel interstellar distances quickly

Why couldn't other, much older, civilizations have already made the same discovery?I'm not saying I'm convinced ETs have visited the earth, I'm just saying that it is in the realm of possibility

[DouglasKC]

I suspect that the reason this “UFO” was and remains such a mystery is that the U.S. government wants it that way — not because it was of non-human origin, but because it was an experimental Soviet combat spacecraft that accidentally crashed in Pennsylvania instead of in central Asia as its designers intended. Back in the mid 1960s, the USSR was in the process of developing a family of space combat vehicles based upon their then-new Soyuz class spacecraft., and the re-entry capsule of a Soyuz looks a lot like this UFO was supposed to have looked. Check the illustration of the Soyuz re-entry capsule at the above link: it is acorn-shaped, about the right size, and was no doubt covered wth weird, alien (Russian!) writing!

This bears repeating because this is exactly what happened....

[VaBthang4]

Haha...the fold was Israel...the other sheep are gentiles.

Like I said earlier..."foundational".

[VaBthang4]

I cant overstate my importance if I am a Son of God.

You sell yourself short...dont hate on me for not doing the same.

[ALASKA]

"In my father's house there are many mansions"

[servantoftheservant]

sincere question.....how do you know God limited himself to having 'children' on one tiny little planet, in one tiny little solar system on the outer edges of one tiny little galaxy ....in a universe of untold numbers of galaxies?

[LibWhacker]

Do you know how silly NASA's Blaxfyvian lawyers are going to make this woman look? Best damn lawyers in the Milky Way.

[TheDon]

In a related story, Howard Dean is suing the Bush Administration for the release of records showing that President Bush knew about 9-11 before it happened.