109 lines
6.2 KiB
Plaintext
109 lines
6.2 KiB
Plaintext
SUBJECT: GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTATION OF UFOs, A HISTORY FILE: UFO1416
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MUFONET-BBS NETWORK - MUTUAL UFO NETWORK
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Contributed by: Georgia MUFON
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HISTORY OF THE GOVERNMENT'S DOCUMENTATION OF UFO'S
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The history of the official documentation of UFO's began in 1948 when the U.S.
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Air Force created "Project Sign". The following year this was reorganized in
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to "Project Grudge", and then into "Project Blue Book".
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The purpose of "Project Blue Book" was to investigate and evaluate UFO reports
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within the United States and at it's stations and properties in other countries
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with regard to any potential threat to national security, whether from foreign
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powers or from outer space. Critics claimed that the project lacked a
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scientifically qualified staff and that it was simply a "cover-up" operation
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meant to reassure an alarmed public.
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"Project Blue Book" proved to be quite effective, however. During it's 18
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years of activity it allumulated more than 12,600 reported cases in its files,
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almost all of which were eventually explained as mistaken natural phenomena or
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as known aircraft. But 701 sightings remained classified as "unidentified".
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In 1966 the U.S. Air Force sponsored an independent, stepped-up investigation
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of UFO's by a team of scientists from the University of Colorado headed by Dr.
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Edward U. Condon, a prominent physicist and former head of the American
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Association for the Advancement of Science. Of the 59 cases they selected for
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serious study during the next two years, 23 eluded explanation. In his final
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report, in 1969, Condon nevertheless concluded that a total of 21 years of UFO
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study had added nothing to scientific knowledge and that "further extensive
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study" was not warranted. He said, "it is safe to assume that no ILE
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[intelligent life elsewhere] outside of our solar system has any possibility of
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visiting earth in the next 10,000 years." To date, no one has determined the
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basis for Condon's estimate.
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Following publication of the Condon report, the U.S. Air Force agreed that
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UFO's posed no threat to national security and that there was no evidence the
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sighted objects were of extra- terrestrial origin. "Project Blue Book" was
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then terminated, and all of it's files were declassified. But the fact that
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other documents on UFO's remained classified prompted a few private UFO
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investigative groups to press for their release on the ground that the public
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is entitled to know all.
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Even today many UFO buffs believe that the real investigation of UFO's was --
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and is -- being secretly conducted by high-level government personnel. But at
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this time only private organizations are involved in serious research. Among
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the membership groups the best known are The Mutual UFO network (MUFON),
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founded in 1969; The National Investigation Committee on Aerial Phenomena
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(NICAP), founded in 1956 in Washington, D.C.; and the Aerial Phenomena
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research Organication (APRO), founded in 1952 by Jim and Coral Lorenzen. A
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highly regarded organization is the Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS), founded in
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1973 by astronomer Dr. J. Allen Hynek, who for years was scientific
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consultant to "Project Blue Book". By 1982 CUFOS had ammased a computerized
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list of 70,000 reported sightings from all over the world. About 80 percent of
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these were easily explained and dismissed; the other 20 percent remain subject
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to further explanation.
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Other countries, notably France, Britian, and Australia, also have civilian
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organizations that collect and seriously investigate UFO reports. Although
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awareness of the phenomenon is kept alive solely by private enterprise, reports
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of unidentified flying objects from all over the world continue to accumulate
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and further compound the most elusive mystery of our time.
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Some information has been released through lawsuits under the Freedom of
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Information Act, but most experts agree the government is still suppressing
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most of what it knows. Classified documents buried in musty government files
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show the government was aware of UFOs patrolling our skies as early as 1942.
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The documents, heavily edited, deal with reports compiled by the U.S. Air Force
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and its Office of Scientific Investigation (OSI), the FBI, the CIA, the
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National Security Agency and at least a dozen government-financed hush-hush
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units.
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Most of the documents support independent investigations made over the years by
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civilian researchers into sightings and close encounters. "We know there are
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more detailed and substantive reports of sighting and encounters buried in
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secret government files that have not been released on the grounds that they
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constitute a risk to the national security of the United States," says Gerald
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Inserra, a physicist and former NASA employee.
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Among other things, the documents hint of a secret agreement between the U.S.,
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Britian, France, Germany, Russia and other nations to keep confirmation of UFO
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sightings and other incidents relating to UFOs secret from the public.
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Despite the official government position, first formalized with the U.S. Air
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Force's "Project Blue Book", that UFOs are hallucinations and UFO researchers
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are little more than kooks, several of the secret documents clearly show the
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government not only believes UFOs are real, but that they might pose a threat
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to our security.
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The late J. Edgar Hoover ordered FBI agents to investigate all UFO reports
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because he feared they might be hoaxes instigated by the Russians to undermine
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American morale. Later memos from Hoover suggested he was shifting toward the
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view of the National Security Agency, which warned that the United States
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should "prepare itself for an invasion from outer space."
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=END=
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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**********************************************
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* THE U.F.O. BBS - http://www.ufobbs.com/ufo *
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********************************************** |