12/6/05: Leslie Kean tells Jerry about how she has uncovered evidence that the crash could not have been a Russian Space Probe, and how the investigations over the years have revealed that something did happen in the woods that night in rural Pennsylvania.
to read Leslie Kean's latest article on the Kecksburg Crash.
Leslie Kean, Research Director of the Coalition for Freedom of Information (CFI), a new, high profile organization based in Washington, DC that hopes to reveal the truth about what our government knows about UFOs. Leslie is a free-lance reporter and talk show host of the Pacifica Foundation public radio station in the San Francisco Bay Area.
During a recent exclusive interview on the Jerry Pippin UFO-Files Show, Leslie provided information about CFI and it's agenda, and tells Jerry about several investigations in which she is currently involved. UFOs have been causing serious safety concerns to commercial aviation. Leslie tells Jerry about government cover-ups of UFO activity with documented examples.
As Steven Spielberg's series "Taken" raises interest in government secrecy about UFOs, The Washington Post reports that Attorney General John Ashcroft has tightened the lid on the Freedom of Information Act. Ashcroft gave federal officers a green light to ignore the FOIA if they withhold records, and he'll even defend them in court.
The American people are already frustrated. Two-thirds of them believe that the government is withholding information about UFOs and 60 percent of adults want the information declassified if it is not a national security risk, according to a September Roper Poll.
So far, declassified records show that some UFOs are not science fiction. Unexplained objects have been well-documented by trained observers, such as pilots and military personnel. Some have landed and left ground traces in England, France and the United States.
"People have been digging through the files and investigating for years now. The files are quite convincing. The only thing that's lacking is the official stamp," says Apollo 14 astronaut Dr. Edgar Mitchell.
As a result, the Sci Fi Channel is publicly calling for the declassification of government documents on UFO activity. "It is important to separate science fiction from science fact, a line which is becoming increasingly blurred," says Bonnie Hammer, the network's president.
In October, Hammer joined President Clinton's former chief of staff John Podesta to support a new FOIA initiative by me and the Washington law firm of Lobel, Novins and Lamont.
"I think it's time to open the books on questions that have remained in the dark, on the question of government investigations of UFOs," Podesta said at a Washington news conference. "We ought to do it because it's right. We ought to do it because the American people can handle the truth, and we ought to do it because it's the law."
Investigative reporter Leslie Kean (right) talks to Stan Gordon, of Greensburg, at the site where an unidentified flying object is said to have landed near Kecksburg, Mt. Pleasant Township, in 1965. Kean is helping cable's Sci Fi Channel and the Coaltion for Freedom of Infoprmation investigate the incident with the help of Gordon, who said he has devoted 'years and years' to the case.
These records are more than 25 years old. They should be declassified and we should be able to see them for ourselves.
obvious national security implications, although this would not appear to justify the withholding of information about them.
According to North American Aerospace Defense Command logs, U.S. fighter jets attempted to pursue UFOs in 1975. Defense Department reports state that UFOs were also pursued after hovering over three supersensitive nuclear missile launch sites that same year.
And as recently as last July, two F-16s from Andrews Air Force Base were scrambled after radar detected an unknown aircraft. Military officials said they do not know what the jets were chasing, because whatever it was disappeared.
Earlier this month, the British Ministry of Defense released files on a famous multiple-witness case at Bentwaters Air Base in 1980. A memo by U.S. Deputy Base Commander Lt. Col. Charles Halt, as well as a tape recording at the scene, detail the landing of a glowing triangular craft that left three circular depressions and radiation 10 times higher than normal in a nearby forest.
weapons or "the entry of a vehicle from outer space," it "cannot fail to be of defense interest."
There is no longer an acceptable justification for the withholding of reports on UFO incidents decades old, whether they are of defense interest or not. Nor is it acceptable for the attorney general to refuse to enforce FOIA. The American people should not have to rely on science fiction for answers.
Leslie Kean is a reporter for Pacifica radio. She is research director of the Coalition for Freedom of Information, www.freedomofinfo.org.
She can be reached by e-mail at lkean@ix.netcom.com.
Copyright 2002, Caller.com. All Rights Reserved.
IN JANUARY, Agence France Presse reported that a Siberian airport was shut for 1½ hours while a luminescent unidentified flying object hovered above its runway. Although it’s hard to imagine such an event taking place in the United States, a compelling October 2000 study by a retired aerospace scientist from NASA-Ames Research Center shows that similar incidents have occurred in American skies over the last 50 years. “Aviation Safety in America – A Previously Neglected Factor” presents more than 100 pilot and crew reports of encounters with unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) which appear to have compromised aviation safety.
Author Richard F. Haines, formerly NASA’s Chief of the Space Human Factors Office and a Raytheon contract scientist, is chief scientist for the National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena (NARCAP), a research organization founded last year. [ For further, in depth information about the National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena (NARCAP) and their research activities, CLICK HERE ]. In stunning detail, pilots and crew describe a range of geometric forms and lights inconsistent with known aircraft or natural phenomena. Bizarre objects paced aircraft at relatively near distances, sometimes disabling cockpit instruments, interrupting ground communications, or distracting the crew.
While flying over Lake Michigan in 1981, TWA Capt. Phil Schultz saw a “large, round, silver metal object” with dark portholes equally spaced around the circumference that “descended into the atmosphere from above,” according to his hand-written report. Schultz and his first officer braced themselves for a mid-air collision; the object suddenly made a high speed turn and departed.
Veteran Japan Airlines 747 Captain Kenju Terauchi reported a spectacular prolonged encounter over Alaska in 1986. “Most unexpectedly two space ships stopped in front of our face, shooting off lights," he said. "The inside cockpit shined brightly and I felt warm in the face." Despite the Federal Aviation Administration’s determination that he and his crew were stable, competent and professional, he was grounded for speaking out.
Ground systems operators have also been affected by UAP. “The element of surprise means a decrease in safety because it diverts the attention of air traffic controllers that should be focused on landing planes. That is a danger,” says Jim McClenahen, a recently retired FAA air traffic control specialist and NARCAP technical advisor.
In the 1950’s, pilots and crew reported seeing flying discs, cigar-shaped craft with portholes, and gyrating lights, all with extraordinary technical capabilities. Documents show the unexplained objects were considered a national security concern. By order of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, commercial pilots were required to report sightings and the unauthorized release of a UFO report could cost them ten years in prison or a $10,000 fine.
These pilots said they were interrogated by the Air Force, sometimes all night long, and then “treated like incompetents and told to keep quiet,” according to one pilot. “The Air Force tells you that the thing that paced your plane for 15 minutes was a mirage or a bolt of lightening,” he told the Star-Ledger. “Nuts to that. Who needs it?” As a result, many pilots “forget” to report their sightings at all, one pilot said.
The vast majority of sightings by American pilots are still not reported. The media perpetuates the censorship and ridicule, handicapping the collection of valuable data.
In contrast, other countries are openly investigating the impact of UAP on aviation safety. A 1999 French study by retired generals from the French Institute of Higher Studies for National Defense and a government agency with the National Center for Space Studies examined hundreds of well-documented pilot reports from around the world. The study could not explain a 1994 Air France viewing of a UAP that instantaneously disappeared as confirmed by radar and a 1995 Aerolineas Argentinas Boeing 727 encounter with a luminous object that extinguished airport lights as the plane attempted to land.
In 1997, the Chilean government formed the Committee for the Study of Anomalous Aerial Phenomena (CEFAA) following publicly acknowledged observations of unidentified flying objects at a remote Chilean airport. Both the French group and Gen. Ricardo Bermudez Sanhuesa, President of the CEFAA, have made overtures to the U.S. government for cooperation on this issue, with no response. General Bermudez, and Air Force Gen. Denis Letty, chairman of the French group, said in recent interviews that the Haines study has international significance and should be taken seriously.
Brian E. Smith, current head of the Aviation Safety Program at NASA-Ames, agrees. “There is objective evidence in pilot reports of unexplained events that may affect the safety of the aircraft, “ he says. “Yet getting people to take an objective look at this subject is sometimes like pulling teeth.” Indeed, the Airline Pilots Association (ALPA), our largest pilots union, and the Flight Safety Foundation, describing itself as “offering an objective view of aviation safety developments,” ignored NARCAP requests for a response to the study. In recent phone interviews with this reporter, representatives dismissed the report out of hand after glancing at the executive summary.
However, such dismissals may soon loose ground. Next Wednesday, John Callahan, former Division Chief of the Accidents and Investigations Branch of the FAA in Washington, DC, will disclose FAA documentation and subsequent CIA suppression of the Terauchi encounter over Alaska. Callahan will be joined by more than 20 other government and military witnesses, and dozens more on videotape, at a National Press Club briefing to challenge official secrecy about this subject.
Leslie Kean is a journalist and author based in the San Francisco Bay Area.
This story was released on the Knight Ridder wires by the Providence Journal (RI). It was also published in the San Francisco Examiner, the Huntsville Times (Alabama), the Duluth News Tribune (MN), the Fort Pierce Tribune (FLA), the Review Journal (Las Vegas), the Cincinnati Enquirer, the Montreal Gazette, the California Sun and VSD (France).
Last month's release of the first detailed satellite images of Area 51, the top-secret US Air Force test site in Nevada, prompted a Web site meltdown as people from across the nation logged on in search of clues about unidentified flying objects.
''The interest has been really phenomenal,'' said David Mountain, marketing director for Aerial Images Inc., which posted the high-resolution photographs of Area 51 on the Internet.
But those hoping to see signs that captured UFOs are stored at the site (as some aficionados have suggested) were destined to be disappointed. Most of Area 51's operations occur underground, making photos meaningless.
High-level officials - including retired generals from the French Institute of Higher Studies for National Defense, a government-financed strategic planning agency - recently took a giant step in openly challenging skepticism about UFOs.
''The number of sightings, which are completely unexplained despite the abundance and quality of data from them, is growing throughout the world,'' the team declared.
The authors note that about 5 percent of sightings on which there is solid documentation cannot be easily attributed to earthly sources, such as secret military exercises. This 5 percent seem ''to be completely unknown flying machines with exceptional performances that are guided by a natural or artificial intelligence,'' they say. Science has developed plausible models for travel from another solar system and for technology that could be used to propel the vehicles, the report points out.
Given the widespread skepticism about UFOs, many will quickly dismiss the generals' ''extraterrestrial hypothesis.'' But it is less easy to do so once the authors' credentials are considered. The study's originators are four-star General Bernard Norlain, former commander of the French Tactical Air Force and military counselor to the prime minister; General Denis Letty, an air force fighter pilot; and Andre Lebeau, former head of the National Center for Space Studies, the French equivalent of NASA.
They formed a 12-member ''Committee for In-depth Studies,'' abbreviated as COMETA, which authored the report. Other contributors included a three-star admiral, the national chief of police, and the head of a government agency studying the subject, as well as scientists and weapons engineers.
Why might the United States be interested - albeit, privately - in a subject often met with ridicule, or considered the domain of the irrational?
Further, the French report says that there have been ''visits above secret installations and missile bases'' and ''military aircraft shadowed'' in the United States.
And he says he is not alone in his concerns. ''There are those in high places in the government who share a growing interest in this subject,'' Miller reports.
If the US military is concerned about UFOs, it is not saying so publicly. Indeed, the French report chastises the United States for what it calls an ''impressive repressive arsenal'' on the subject, including a policy of disinformation and military regulations prohibiting public disclosure of UFO sightings.
Air Force Regulation 200-2, ''Unidentified Flying Objects Reporting,'' for example, prohibits the release to the public and the media of any data about ''those objects which are not explainable.'' An even more restrictive procedure is outlined in the Joint Army Navy Air Force Publication 146, which threatens to prosecute anyone under its jurisdiction - including pilots, civilian agencies, merchant marine captains, and even some fishing vessels - for disclosing reports of sightings relevant to US security.
The Defense Department maintains it can find no information acknowledging the existence of the triangular objects. In response to a suit by curious Arizonans, it provided details of its search to US District Court Judge Stephen M. McNamee of Phoenix. On March 30, McNamee concluded that ''a reasonable search was conducted'' even though no information was obtained, and he dismissed the case.
There is one government agency in the country that has taken steps to prepare for a UFO encounter. The Fire Officer's Guide to Disaster Control, second edition - used by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and taught at the seven universities offering degrees in fire science - warns of ''UFO hazards,'' such as electrical fields that cause blackouts, force fields, and physiological effects.
Distributed by The New York Times wire service and in the Pentagon’s international daily The Early Bird; published in the Irish Independent weekend magazine; VSD in France.