Posted on 10/23/2002 6:18:21 PM PDT by anncoulteriscool
Clinton aide slams Pentagon's UFO secrecy
One winter night in 1965, eyewitnesses saw a fireball streak over North America, bank, turn and appear to crash in western Pennsylvania. Then swarms of military personnel combed the area and a tarp-covered flatbed truck rumbled out of the woods.
Now a former White House chief of staff and an international investigative journalist want to know what the Pentagon knows, calling on it to release classified files about that and other incidents involving unidentified flying objects, or UFOs.
"It is time for the government to declassify records that are more than 25 years old and to provide scientists with data that will assist in determining the real nature of this phenomenon," ex-Clinton aide John Podesta said Tuesday.
A Pentagon spokesperson could not be reached for comment regarding the requests for information.
Despite earning little credence, cases of strange aerial phenomena that defy explanation abound -- whether witnessed by thousands of Arizona residents, commercial airline pilots or a U.S. president.
The new initiative is not setting out to prove the existence of aliens. Rather the group wants to legitimize the scientific investigation of unexplained aerial phenomena.
Podesta was one of numerous political and media heavyweights on hand in Washington, D.C., to announce a new group to gain access to secret government records about UFOs.
Specifically, the Coalition for Freedom of Information (CFI) is pressing the Air Force for documents involving Project Moon Dust and Operation Blue Fly, clandestine operations reported to have existed decades ago to investigate UFOs and retrieve objects of unknown origins.
One of the most mysterious cases, the Kecksburg, Pennsylvania incident of December 5, 1965, is the first cited in the group's request for records through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
Despite an official government story that the object was a meteorite, some eyewitnesses claimed that a military truck took an acorn-shaped object the size of a small car from the rural Pennsylvania crash site to an Air Force base in Ohio.
"We can't come up with a reason why this information is being withheld. The government won't even acknowledge that the incident took place but we know that it did," said Leslie Kean, a California-based freelance reporter who drafted the FOIA request.
In the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, the government did take the UFO search seriously and top generals considered the pros and cons of informing the U.S. public, Kean said, citing top secret memos.
In 1969, however, the Air Force terminated Project Blue Book, concluding that no reported UFOs were threats to national security.
Paradoxically, Kean notes, the military continues to deny some requests for UFO information by citing national security concerns.
Backed by the Sci-Fi channel, the CFI hopes to reduce the scientific ridicule factor in this country when the topic is UFOs.
"There's definitely evidence of strange phenomenon in the world. These are well documented," said Kean, who has written for The Nation, the Boston Globe and the International Herald Tribune.
"Most people don't think that there is evidence because they haven't look for it. There's such a little green men mindset in this culture. It's hard to work your way through that."
The CFI director Ed Rothschild also works for Podesta's public relations firm, PodestaMattoon, which is coordinating the new group at the behest of the Sci- Fi channel. He said the initiative was a call for serious investigation, not a publicity stunt for the cable network.
"The Sci-Fi channel has had an interest in [UFOs] for some time. The difference here is that they are focusing attention on the serious, factual side of the issue, and that scientists have not had a chance to thoroughly examine it," Rothschild said.
"Of course it could help programming. But Sci-Fi thought they had some resources they could bring to the table."
President Jimmy Carter said he was among a group that saw a UFO in 1969. The object seemed as bright as the moon and changed colors, he said.
The atomic bomb was not the only project to occupy government scientists in the 1940s. Antigravity technology, originally spearheaded by scientists in Nazi Germany, was another high priority, one that still may be in effect today. Now for the first time, a reporter with an unprecedented access to key sources in the intelligence and military communities reveals suppressed evidence that tells the story of a quest for a discovery that could prove as powerful as the A-bomb.
The Hunt for Zero Point explores the scientific speculation that a "zero point" of gravity exists in the universe and can be replicated here on Earth. The pressure to be the first nation to harness gravity is immense, as it means having the ability to build military planes of unlimited speed and range, along with the most deadly weaponry the world has ever seen. The ideal shape for a gravity-defying vehicle happens to be a perfect disk, making antigravity tests a possible explanation for the numerous UFO sightings of the past 50 years.
Chronicling the origins of antigravity research in the world's most advanced research facility, which was operated by the Third Reich during World War II, The Hunt for Zero Point traces U.S. involvement in the project, beginning with the recruitment of former Nazi scientists after the war. Drawn from interviews with those involved with the research and who visited labs in Europe and the United States, The Hunt for Zero Point journeys to the heart of the twentieth century's most puzzling unexplained phenomena.
Per Random House. Salon (whom one would assume would be sympathetic to Podesta's belief that The Truth Is Out There) drips with sarcasm in its "review".
So, physics consists of flat earth, earth is center of universe, and we'll burn you if you doubt.
Yet, here on Free Republic forty-eight hours ago was a thread on how Chinese spies had stolen rare earth technology from Ames Laboratory at the University of Iowa regarding certain compounds which change shape when charged with an electric current.
Leading us to question whether Hillary and Bill revert to hideous Aliens a la Sigourney Weaver's celluloid nemeses should we but remove their battery packs.
A Unified Theory For The Chancrous Beasts Which Slouched From Arkansas.
What, that a plane can fly through radar without a trace?
The world is full of fascinating mysteries, but Podesta's current interest is in publicity, not science.
The real mystery is how Bill Richardson can enable ChiCom espionage at Los Alamos National Laboratory and become governor of the state.
Fat rises; UFOs must be made of Crisco.
Paraphrasing: "Well, just because you work at the White House doesn't mean you have clearance...but why he's bringing it
now, I have no idea..."
The odd thing about it was that sNoory asked a legitimate question about a contemporary topic.
Hillery! said you could have her battery pack, when you can pry it from her cold dead thighs.
Ick.
I guess what I'm getting at is I'm backed up up from June, so I just heard the June show with Friedman and some other guy
a couple of days ago. Interesting character that can get away being a character.
Oh, ICK!
Thanks ever so much for that lovely image *shuddering* I shall now depart in search of a bone-saw and skull-key, that I might be able to scrub this image directly out of my mind. ICK. so much for breakfast.
Most conspiracy theorists (aka "kooks") place Rothschilds prominently in international political intrigue. This guy probably is not one of the famous Rothschilds, of course, but it's kind of funny to see the name in connection with UFOs and government cover-ups and the like.
The only way you could possibly get away with a big conspiracy is to not attempt to do much, and to hide in plain sight, and observe matters. When history hangs in the balance, you quietly and lightly place your finger on one side of the scales or another. Perhaps you arrange for someone to meet someone else, or get a certain loan when they need it, or a certain job, or to have someone discredited at just the right moment. You do not try to execute many grand plans, though.
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