Posted on 04/13/2009 11:39:11 AM PDT by TaraP
A former engineer at the top secret airfield "Area 51" in Nevada has spoken out about UFO sightings in the region in the 1960s, saying the witnessed flashes of light were part of top secret US aircraft experiments.
In an interview with ABC News, Thornton "T.D." Barnes, 72, a former special-projects engineer at Area 51 said: "No one really knew we existed. Even our wives didn't know where we were going when we left Monday morning and came back Friday evening."
Barnes was an electronics engineer for NASA who also specialised in advance radar and Soviet MiG fighter aircraft and was asked to join a team of CIA experts who would work on secret military projects at the infamous base.
UFO folklore has it that Area 51, about 80 miles north northwest of Las Vegas, is where captured aliens and their spacecraft have been stored by the US military. The conspiracy theory comes in part because of the preponderance of strange, unaccounted for lights that have been seen in the region of the top secret military base.
However Barnes poured cold water on the theory saying the "alien spaceships" were in fact light flashes from top secret spy planes being flown at 2,000 miles per hour at altitudes of 90,000 feet.
The experimental planes produced light flashes that some interpreted as alien spaceships and this was considered helpful by the team in covering their activities.
"We considered it to be a bonus," said Barnes. "They made it easier to conceal what we were doing."
However some ufologists have said the area has only been partly declassified and UFO work at the base may well have carried out though in a region unknown to engineers such as Barnes.
"Those guys who came forward may very well be telling the truth, with the caveat that they wouldn't know if there was something going on," said Stanton T. Friedman, a nuclear physicist, lecturer and top UFO researcher.
Friedman added that evidence coming out of places such as Area 51 proved how much was going on in the country without peoples' knowledge.
"National security has a real place in all of this stuff. There is no way to tell your friends without telling your enemies," he said. "A lot of Americans woke up to the fact that there's a lot going on that they don't get told about."
Great, so they should be really easy for you to post instead of playing 3 card monte.
You could try and play at
There’s a lot of rabid hostile ignorant clueless cheeky naysayers there. There’s almost a platoon or more of them there. You’d feel right at home.
Of course, there’s tons of evidence there but you need not put your hazmat suit on for it. It can be readily avoided if you stay off some forums.
Yawn and then the insults.
How about some quotes. You’re the one making the assertion, you’re the one that needs to do the research.
GROSSLY FLAWED ASSUMPTION AGAIN.
Have you always had such a limited perspective on reality?
I know I have been blessed with an uncommon capacity to think of more options and alternatives than most people as every brainstorming session I’ve ever been in has demonstrated.
However, what is it about naysayers on this topic when there’s at least 3-5 OTHER options, they can only see or only wrap their synapses around
ONE option . . . usually the silliest most absurd one.
Wow.
I didn’t realize the level of insight was
THAT LOW!
Incredible.
Lots of things are easy but no fun.
I don’t recall hiring you as my manager.
You’re the one who started out assaulting folks who merely wanted to discuss the topic reasonably and rationally.
Do your own research.
I’m not your agent.
I’m not your librarian.
I’m not your research clerk.
I didn’t assault anybody. Can you quote me assaulting somebody.
It’s not my research, YOU’RE the one making assertions. It’s YOUR research.
I might have assigned guilt by association. I’m not currently interested in going back and checking.
If I did, I’m sorry about that.
However, your wording, attitude and tone is consistent with those of the assaultive naysayers, FWIW.
My research? Really.
I happen to be the originator and manager of the FR UFO PING LIST.
I have lots of battle scars from that role.
I have studied the topic since 1960 actually. I thought it was 1962 but it was more likely 1960. Maybe that’s longer than you’ve been alive.
There are lots of mysteries and unknowns and disinformation in the field. There’s also a lot that’s been distilled out.
Those of us who have studied the topic for a long time have a distilled gestalt for some of the basic realities in the field.
We have no great compulsion to cast pearls into the hog wallow.
Not sure how many assertions even, about the topic, that I’ve made on this thread. I mostly came on to help defend TaraP against the ignorant hostiles.
Most naysayers seem to be of the perspective and to have the construction on reality that . . .
just because the UFO threads are beneath the dignity of most mods to dirty their hands with . . .
the naysayers can therefore swoop down on the UFO threads and poop all over the place with 100% impunity.
I don’t tend to suffer from that construction on reality.
That’s part of your problem. You assume anybody that asks a question is a naysayer, then you shout a bunch of insults, and never bother to even try to prove anything.
Yes your research. I assume you’ve done a bunch but the best you’ll present to anybody is root links to possibly related websites buried in posts filled with shouted insults. Boil down some essence, make sure to avoid the things you consider to be disinformation and hoaxes and bring it to the table. You talk a lot about logical errors, so obviously you know the rules of logical discourse, so you know that by those rules it’s the job of the asserter to defend the assertion.
If you don’t want to cast pearls before the hog wallow then why even have a ping list for discussion of the topic? Sounds like what you want is an echo chamber, nothing but true believers patting each other on the back. Discussions include questions, but you shout at all questions as flawed assumptions and balderdash by naysayers. You put yourself in a pretty bad light when a simple post of “got facts?” gets this: “GROSSLY FLAWED ASSUMPTIONS AGAIN”, for an answer. If there’s a grossly flawed assumption in asking you to present facts it would be an assumption in your favor (ie that you have facts that could be presented), screaming at the person pretty much says you don’t.
You’ve made lots of assertions on this thread. Including one about thousands of scientifically verified landings.
You complain a lot about the behavior of “naysayers”, but you’re the guy doing the most shouting, insulting, and general pooping. Golden rule, if you don’t want that kind of behavior on these threads then don’t behave that way.
No . . .
naysayers have a kind of DNA pattern, cheek, attitude, surliness . . . that’s not that difficult to detect.
Folks interested in serious fair-minded genuine dialogue on the topic come across entirely differently . . . virtually ALL THE TIME.
I’ve posted plenty about my research hereon.
And again the refusal. And again being everything you accuse the naysayers of (cheek, attitude and surliness).
Sorry but if you won’t present I have to write you off.
You haven’t posted any research on this thread.
No, eyewitness accounts and evidence are part of the documentation. What conclusion can you draw from the evidence that withstands “beyond a reasonable doubt”?
And what conclusion can you draw from the facts?
Hook me up with some proof positive of alien existence, in that case.
Get used to it. You’ll never get anything but personal attacks from the whacknut bunch.
LMAO! I said something VERY similar to the exact same person about a month or so ago.
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