Posted on 11/13/2007 1:23:06 PM PST by stainlessbanner
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic U.S. presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich may have been ridiculed for saying he had seen a UFO, but for some former military pilots and other observers, unidentified flying objects are no laughing matter.
An international panel of two dozen former pilots and government officials called on the U.S. government on Monday to reopen its generation-old UFO investigation as a matter of safety and security given continuing reports about flying discs, glowing spheres and other strange sightings.
"Especially after the attacks of 9/11, it is no longer satisfactory to ignore radar returns ... which cannot be associated with performances of existing aircraft and helicopters," they said in a statement released at a news conference.
The panellists from seven countries, including former senior military officers, said they had each seen a UFO or conducted an official investigation into UFO phenomena.
The subject of UFOs grabbed the spotlight in the U.S. presidential race last month when Kucinich, a member of Congress from Ohio, said during a televised debate with other Democratic candidates that he had seen one.
Former presidents Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter are both reported to have claimed UFO sightings.
Most turn out to be misidentified aircraft, satellites or meteors. A panellist who once worked for Britain's Ministry of Defense said 5 percent of incidents cannot be explained.
But the sightings are often dismissed by authorities without proper investigations, UFO activists say.
"It's a question of who you going to believe: your lying eyes or the government?" remarked John Callahan, a former Federal Aviation Administration investigator, who said the CIA in 1987 tried to hush up the sighting of a huge lighted ball four times the size of a jumbo jet in Alaska.
The panel, organized by a group dedicated to winning credibility for the study of UFOs, urged Washington to resume UFO investigations through the U.S. Air Force or NASA.
"It would certainly, I think, take a lot of angst out of this issue," said former Arizona Gov. Fife Symington, who said he was among hundreds who saw a delta-shaped craft with enormous lights silently traverse the sky near Phoenix in 1997.
The Air Force investigated 12,618 UFO reports from 1947 to 1969 in what was known as Project Blue Book. Investigators concluded that the incidents posed no threat and there was no evidence of space aliens or a super technology in operation.
"Since the termination of Project Blue Book, nothing has occurred that would support a resumption of UFO investigations," the Air Force said on its Web site.
WTF?? Is the latest kook theory that flying saucers crashed into the WTC and Pentagon?
So, why was PBB discontinued? 1969 was a long time ago.
I’m going out on a limb and saying, “Close-mindedness is worse than being a kook”
Named pilots might have some credibility.
NO “Government official”, Federal - State - or Local dog catcher has any credibility on any subject.
I think what people need to keep in mind is that a UFO is nothing more than an Unidentified Flying Object. There is absolutely no evidence that people who claim to have seen a UFO has actually observed aliens or spacecraft from beyond our solar system.
Good point, but I was referring to something else. I thought it was obvious, but perhaps not. Unless one would have no trouble concluding that the ‘trails’ bore little resemblance to those emitted by regular air traffic.
I have.
I actually have, too.
WOW!!!
I read Anatomy of a Phenomenon when it first came out, IIRC, around 1967? Kept it for a LONG time.
That would be entirely in keeping with amateur astronomers I have known. I have been looking for UFOs for half a century and so far a weather balloon and some military exercise with helicopters is the closest to an unknown. Saw a weather balloon explode at altitude while I was watching with my RFT at about 20x.
Dennis Kucinich deserves to be ridiculed at every opportunity, but the hundreds of ordinary people who claim to have sighted UFO’s do not. It is a continuing source of irritation to me that any and every time the media reports such a sighting, that report and the individual reporting it are treated with snide smiles and, even, outright ridicule. Since when did media stooges become experts on such phenomena? I, myself, have never seen a UFO, but I can’t believe that all of those who claim such sightings are anywhere near as crazy as the media newsreaders make them seem to be. Can any of those newsreading drones explain some of those most dramatic sightings? If so, please do. If not, wipe the snide smile off your faces!
I agree. I was like that until I saw a day light siting of a UFO in Alaska, 1985. Ever since then I just wanted to know what it was. And from the way it looked, it sure didn't look like anything I've ever seen before or since.
As I’ve said before, we don’t want to know whats out there.
They are not crazy. They actually saw something. It is the leap from seeing something to secret Gov’t pact with space aliens that has no logical basis.
I thought that proctologists were especially interested in UFO probes.
I agree with you, but there have been very, very few such claims by UFO witnesses. Most seem to want an explanation. Is that an unreasonable expectation?
Considering that possibly nobody knows what they saw, yes.
I used to believe there were U.F.O.’s, but not anymore since Dennis Kookooitch claims he saw one!! That is one subhuman disaster!!Now they could take me for a ride in one and I wouldn’t believe it.can you imagine, peopple actually vote for that fruitcake.
Weirdest thing that I saw was during a meteor shower. Some friends of mine and I were observing nice shower with high-powered binoculars and a pair of telescopes. We watched what appeared to be a meteorite streak downward, but the object made a 90 degree turn shortly after becoming visible and decelerated. I make no claim as to what it was, but I know what it wasn’t - ‘twas neither an aircraft nor a meteorite. Yes, I know the difference between a meteor and aircraft lights.
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