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?