UFO Info Wars

"And like, wow, that’s it? That’s all you’re gonna tell us? Really? And you want applause for your 'revolution'? This sounds like a big-time tactical error by BAASS. Who in their right mind hangs this kind of stuff on the line and expects people to walk away without asking some very basic questions? Who paid for this research? Bigelow? Uncle Sam? Both? When do we taxpayers get to see the results? How about the names of all the contributors? What are you thinking?" - Billy Cox, De Void, on BAASS public statement

BY Jack Brewer The UFO Trail 5-13-18

To The Stars Academy and its friends of the program are getting some justified scrutiny. If you're going to jump out there and make bold claims, perhaps it would be wise to give more thought to the initial statements if the best idea for follow up is to tell people you can't talk about it.

Advocate for transparency and the normally more tolerant than not Billy Cox came to question TTSA public relations, as described in his March 19 De Void post, TTSA needs a new game plan. Cox presented valid critical points of view about TTSA strategies and leadership while acknowledging the outfit indeed got the public talking UFOs.

In his May 7 offering, A question of ownership, Cox addressed, among other topics, what can reasonably be called a mind numbingly questionable public statement from Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS). The statement directly claims BAASS UFO investigation involved some 50 full-time staff, including retired military intelligence officers, scientists, analysts, and project managers "in adopting the novel approach of utilizing the human body as a readout system for dissecting interactions with the UFO phenomenon."

The BAASS statement continued:

The BAASS approach was to view the human body as a readout system for UFO effects by utilizing forensic technology, the tools of immunology, cell biology, genomics and neuroanatomy for in depth study of the effects of UFOs on humans. This approach marked a dramatic shift away from the traditional norms of relying on eyewitness testimony as the central evidentiary arm in UFO investigations. The approach aimed to bypass UFO deception and manipulation of human perception by utilizing molecular forensics to decipher the biological consequences of the phenomenon.

The result of applying this new approach was a revolution in delineating the threat level of UFOs.

It is more than reasonable to expect substantiating data. Researchers should be satisfied with no less than clear and supporting documentation of how involved the Defense Intelligence Agency was in funding such work (as previously claimed), what was reported to the DIA, and clarification of what is available for public release.

Scientific Method?

Arguably adding insult to injury, longtime Team Bigelow consultant Dr. Eric Davis made a social media post berating researchers attempting to clarify the circumstances through the Freedom of Information Act. What's more, Davis made some assertions about how the FOIA works, which were addressed and challenged as "blatantly false" by John Greenewald of The Black Vault.

While Greenewald's points are indeed valid, there was yet another statement in the Davis rant that deserves calling out. Davis wrote, "The multi-sensor and radar platforms data fusion plus F-18 pilot and warship observers, all analyzed and synthesized into a forensic picture that Tic-Tac shaped craft are non-terrestrial because all other possible explanations were scientifically eliminated according to the scientific method." Emphasis mine.

Okay, I'm not gonna take the time to get qualified experts to explain the scientific method and what's wrong with that statement, but suffice it to say there's plenty. I've spent a significant amount of time over the past eight years blogging about the sensational kinds of circumstances and statements as described above. I've covered the conspiracy mongering of Gen. Bert Stubblebine and his wife Dr. Rima Laibow, the evasiveness of Col. John Alexander, and the mind control and pro-ETH statements of Cmdr. C.B. Scott Jones, among much more.

I don't know what was wrong with these people. I don't claim to know why they thought themselves entitled to be exempt from providing documentation of their claims and/or accountability for their statements.

Maybe they truly believed the things they said. Maybe they were involved in orchestrated deceptions. Perhaps the very nature of their work led to some extent of irrationality over time. Maybe combinations of all of that apply, but one point should come through loud and clear: Statements from the intelligence community and its consultants can absolutely not be taken at face value, whatever the reasons. Verification is a must, and any given individual either demonstrates an understanding of the necessity of evidence available for public review or they do not.

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See Also:

Long-Awaited Government-Funded UFO Reports Now In The Public Domain

Executive Summary Report: UFO Encounter with the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group

Confidential Military Report on 'Tic Tac UFO Event' | VIDEO

REPORT YOUR UFO EXPERIENCE

Former CIA Insider’s Disclosures About UFOs: Why is This Link So Difficult to Post?

Well, I initially thought that it had happened again. Every time I had tried to post a link to ex-CIA executive Victor Marchetti’s 1979 article about the agency’s “very sensitive activities” relating to UFOs, my posts disappeared into some as-yet unexplained black hole in cyberspace. Most recently, when I tried to join the conversation at Roswell researcher Dr. Kevin Randle’s blog on the thread titled “Reports of the Roswell Crash before Jesse Marcel's Revelations”, Randle told me that he had not received my post. My comment follows here:

By Robert Hastings The UFO Chronicles 4-1-16

Regarding reports of crashed UFOs prior to the re-emergence of the Roswell affair, as recounted by Jesse Marcel in 1978, I offer comments by former CIA executive Victor Marchetti, who left the agency in 1969 and wrote the best-selling exposé,The CIA and The Cult of Intelligencewhich laid bare some of the highly-illegal activities in which the agency engaged during the first two decades of its existence. [He wrote,]

‘During my years in the CIA, UFOs were not a subject of common discussion. But neither were they treated in a disdainful or derisive manner, especially not by the agency’s scientists. Instead, the topic was rarely discussed at internal meetings. It seemed to fall into the category of ‘very sensitive activities’...There were, however, rumors at high levels of the CIA…..rumors of unexplained sightings by qualified observers, of strange signals being received by the National Security Agency...and even of little gray men whose ships had crashed, or had been shot down, being kept ‘on ice’ by the Air Force at FTD (Foreign Technology Division) at Wright-Patterson AF Base in Dayton, Ohio.’

Yes, this was published in 1979, in the May issue of the now-defunct Second Look magazine—well after Marcel’s disclosures—but, again, Marchetti had resigned from the CIA some ten years earlier, therefore, the rumors he had heard had to have been circulating prior to that time.

I will also note that Marchetti’s use of the word ‘rumors’ results from his own non-involvement in the ‘very sensitive activities’ CIA had in play relating to the UFO phenomenon. Consequently, whatever information Marchetti was privy to derived from informal and probably unauthorized conversations he had with others at CIA headquarters.

But if accounts of crashed UFOs and alien bodies in cold storage were indeed discussed at ‘high levels’ within the agency, one might reasonably infer that those stories were being taken seriously.

Again, Randle initially told me that he never received this post via the normal Google Blogger route and was only able to post my comment after I sent a back-up in the body of an email to him. Today, however, he told me that he had eventually located the post. So, in this instance, the difficulties I have had posting Marchetti’s revelations in the past do not seem to apply.

Nevertheless, the issues I described at the beginning of this article did in fact occur—which prompted my sending the back-up message to Randle in the first place. A year or so ago, when I tried to post Marchetti’s exposé at journalist Billy Cox’ UFO blog, I was unable to do so. Although my posting effort was seemingly uneventful, he never received it. After Billy indicated as much, I tried again, but the second attempt met the same fate. Cox subsequently tried to post my comments himself, to his own blog, after I sent them to him in an email. He later told me that he had encountered the same unexplained and unprecedented problem. He eventually ended up posting the full text of Marchetti’s article in a follow-up piece.

In any case, the key point here is that former high-level CIA insider Victor Marchetti’s important revelations about the agency’s “very sensitive activities” relating to UFOs—decades after it had supposedly lost interest in the phenomenon—deserve widespread public attention. Therefore, I am asking persons reading this piece to forward the Cox article containing Marchetti’s disclosures to as many UFO and social media websites as possible.

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See Also:

How the CIA Views the UFO Phenomenon

Ex-CIA Official Says Stories of Crashed UFOs and Little Gray Men “on Ice” Discussed at a High-Level

The CIA’s Actual Involvement with UFOs: The Agency’s Public Statements are Deliberately Deceptive

REPORT YOUR UFO EXPERIENCE

Ex-CIA Official Says Stories of Crashed UFOs and Little Gray Men “on Ice” Discussed at a High-Level

By Robert Hastings www.ufohastings.com 2-28-15

     First, this article has absolutely nothing to do with the bogus claims currently being made by the promoters of the so-called Roswell Slides, which allegedly show the body of a dead alien. (I predict that this latest, regrettable chapter in ufological history will implode in the near future.)

No, my title refers to a far more credible revelation. Although Victor Marchetti, the former Special Assistant to CIA Director Richard Helms, first published intriguing information relating to high-level discussion of recovered UFOs and dead aliens in 1979, in an article published in Second Look magazine, most people are completely unaware of it.

Indeed, an online search for the piece, titled “How the CIA Views the UFO Phenomenon”, yields very few results. While the Internet provides access to vast numbers of UFO-related documents, books, articles and blogs, one of the most important pieces ever written on the topic, authored by a knowledgeable government insider, has been almost completely overlooked.

Interestingly, when I attempted to post Marchetti’s informed disclosures at a popular blog operated by journalist Billy Cox, my comments and link to the article disappeared into the cybervoid. Repeated attempts met the same fate and, when I subsequently asked Cox to post them for me, he encountered the same problem.

Cox later told me, “I managed to get your post on my blog just now, but it took some doing. When I tried to do it normally, by putting your name and email address in the cue fields, it simply wouldn’t post; I kept getting a message saying it had already been posted, which obviously it had not. And of course when I try to reply to your messages lately, it bounces back as undeliverable. I wound up having to publish it under my name, then going in behind the post and replacing my name/address with yours. Very strange, Robert.”

I told Cox one might argue that efforts had been undertaken, by an unknown party, to block Marchetti’s revelations from being made more accessible online. Lest this charge seem too paranoid, I added that I had often had to endure such anomalies when attempting to communicate with my ex-military sources regarding their involvement in UFO incidents at nuclear weapons sites.

Furthermore, my attempts over the years to post those individuals’ disclosures at various blogs had frequently encountered the same sort of disconnects. Nevertheless, some of those dramatic revelations—involving UFOs shutting down American nuclear missiles—were livestreamed by CNN during my 2010 press conference in Washington D.C.:

In any case, Marchetti’s lengthy article contains important information about the CIA’s secret involvement, as well as its self-proclaimed non-involvement, with the UFO phenomenon. He writes, “I do know that the CIA and U.S. Government have been concerned over the UFO phenomenon for many years and that their attempts, both past and recent, to discount the significance of the phenomenon and to explain away the apparent lack of official interest in it have all the earmarkings of a classic intelligence cover-up.”

To give you a sense of the author’s importance, the agency once took Marchetti all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, to attempt to stop the publication of his tome, The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence, which subsequently became a best-seller in 1974. The disenchanted agency man had resigned from the CIA in 1969; his book was an unprecedented, historic exposé of his former employer’s numerous illegal activities—including spying on Americans, something forbidden by its charter—many of which were later investigated by Congress.

In short, Marchetti was especially dangerous to CIA simply because he knew so much about its operations, legal or not, and was willing to divulge them to the world as a hoped-for partial antidote.

While this same informed-observer status and careful, thoughtful analysis underpins Marchetti’s revelations about the agency’s relationship to UFOs, it must be remembered that CIA’s approach to all subjects is the use of compartmentalization, whereby any given individual’s knowledge is usually limited to one small part of a project or operation, to keep an overall understanding of the situation restricted to a very few high-level managers. The same was/is true with UFOs and, therefore, Marchetti can only report on what he personally knew, given that he was not involved with the agency’s apparent UFO projects/operations and had no need-to-know about them.

Nevertheless, his published comments are noteworthy. He writes:

During my years in the CIA, UFOs were not a subject of common discussion. But neither were they treated in a disdainful or derisive manner, especially not by the agency’s scientists. Instead, the topic was rarely discussed at internal meetings. It seemed to fall into the category of ‘very sensitive activities’...People simply did not talk about the UFO phenomenon.

There were, however, rumors at high levels of the CIA—rumors of...little gray men whose ships had crashed, or had been shot down, being kept ‘on ice’ by the Air Force at FTD (the Foreign Technology Division) at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.¹

Please note that Marchetti used the word “rumors”. Again, this is the result of his own non-involvement in whatever “very sensitive activities” CIA had going on relating to the UFO phenomenon. Consequently, whatever information Marchetti was privy to resulted from informal and undoubtedly unauthorized chitchat he had encountered in the corridors of CIA headquarters.

But if stories of crashed UFOs and the bodies of the crews being kept in cold storage were being discussed at “high levels” within the agency, one can infer that those rumors were taken seriously. One might also speculate that information about all of this had been secured by CIA agents, probably by spying on the U.S. Air Force.

One important aspect of Marchetti’s revelation is the timing of the discussion at CIA. Marchetti resigned in 1969, nearly a decade prior to the seminal disclosures by retired U.S. Army counterintelligence officer Jesse Marcel who, during a television interview in 1978, divulged that he had held in his hands wreckage from a craft “not of this Earth” that had crashed northwest of Roswell Army Air Field in July 1947.

Confirmation of this event originates with another credible person, USAF Brigadier General Arthur E. Exon, who has stated for the record that one or more plane-loads of that wreckage did indeed arrive at Wright Field (later renamed Wright-Patterson Air Force Base) shortly thereafter and was subjected to intense analysis by aeronautical engineers. During an audiotaped interview with Roswell researcher Dr. Kevin D. Randle, in 1990, Exon said:

...They knew they had something new in their hands. The metal and material was unknown to [everyone] I talked to. Whatever they found, I never heard what the [analytical] results were. A couple of guys thought it might be Russian, but the overall consensus was that the pieces were from space. Everyone from the White House on down knew that what we had found was not of this world within 24 hours of our finding it…Roswell was the recovery of a craft from space.²

All of Exon’s published comments regarding the matter may be read at roswellproof.homestead.com/exon.html.

A number of UFO debunkers have claimed that the Roswell UFO crash story is a “modern myth” that originated as a result of public fascination with the writings of Stanton Friedman, Bill Moore, and others in the 1979-80 time-frame, which incorporated Marcel’s candid remarks about his involvement in the discovery of the mysterious wreckage in 1947.

However, in light of Marchetti’s revelations, this simply cannot be true. Given his resignation from CIA in 1969, he had to have heard those high level “rumors” about crashed UFOs and dead aliens stored at Wright-Patterson prior to that time.

In his article, Marchetti theorizes that the primary reason underlying the U.S. government’s refusal to acknowledge the reality of UFOs, if indeed the craft are piloted by alien beings, results from its fear that existing power structures would be fundamentally undermined by such an admission. He writes:

...the U.S. Government, in collusion with other national powers of the Earth, is determined to keep this information from the general public. The purpose of the international conspiracy is to maintain a workable stability among the nations of the world and for them, in turn, to retain institutional control over their respective populations. Thus, for these governments to admit there are beings from outer space attempting to contact us, beings with mentalities and technological capabilities obviously far superior to ours, could, once fully perceived by the average person, erode the foundations of the Earth's traditional power structure. Political and legal systems, religions, economic and social institutions could all soon become meaningless in the mind of the public. The national oligarchical establishments, even civilization as we know it, could collapse into anarchy. Such extreme conclusions are not necessarily valid, but they probably accurately reflect the fears of the "ruling class" of the major nations, whose leaders (particularly those in the intelligence business) have always advocated excessive governmental secrecy as being necessary to preserve "national security." The real reason for such secrecy is, of course, to keep the public uninformed, misinformed, and, therefore, malleable.³

Given that so much information, misinformation, disinformation, speculation, and general bullshit about UFOs is available on the Internet, one must of necessity carefully choose which material to ingest. Marchetti’s unique, informed, credible perspective should be added to the short list of must-reads.

References:

1. Marchetti, Victor, "How The CIA Views The UFO Phenomenon", Second Look, Vol. 1, No. 7, May 1979

2. Randle, Dr. Kevin D., Roswell UFO Crash Update: Exploring the Military Cover-up of the Century, Inner Light - Global Communications, February 1995

3. Marchetti, Victor, "How The CIA Views The UFO Phenomenon", Second Look, Vol. 1, No. 7, May 1979

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See Also:

How the CIA Views the UFO Phenomenon

Larry King Live: Debate Over Existence of UFOs

UFOs at Defense Sites Told in CIA Documents

REPORT YOUR UFO EXPERIENCE

Battle: Los Angeles | A Review By Billy Cox

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Goin’ down the road feelin’ bad

By Billy Cox
De Void
3-18-11

     I’ve got nothing against shoot-em-ups. I thought it was cool when the Guggenheim Museum got shot to pieces in “The International.” I liked what happened to Hitler in “Inglourious Basterds.” I just don’t want insulting or stupid. And I knew, going in, that “Battle: Los Angeles” was gonna be a dog.

The trailers had “this sucks” splashed all over them. Sixty-seven percent of Rotten Tomatoes critics went thumbs down; naturally, moviegoers gave it a 65 percent approval rating on the Tomatometer and made sure “Battle: Los Angeles” was last weekend’s big box-office winner. Ain’t that America.

Yet, I felt oddly compelled by this, this thing, vaguely nostalgic, the way I once tuned into Jerry Lewis telethons, anticipating the inevitable moment of awe that renders you mutestruck in a my god did I really just spend two hours of my life doing this kinda way.

The breathlessness on “B:LA” actually began last year before the trailers were even out, with the hardcores speculating that maybe this one was gonna hook into the legitimate 1942 UFO mystery that drew A-A fire over southern California. And no wonder. Promoters put together a teaser with a superficial nod to authenticity by interviewing real-life not-crazy people to discuss the original incident in particular and UFOs in general.

Also: Natalie Portman went from “Black Swan” and Oscar to Ashton Kutcher and “No Strings Attached,” OK fine, but seriously, how bad could Aaron Eckhart be? He was terrific in “Rabbit Hole.” Now there’s a guy who can’t possibly play dumb with a straight face. Right?

Fssshhht ….

Well. No reason to rehash this steaming tripeheap. Given the expectation levels, I can’t even say I was disappointed. You enter a sci-fi flick by suspending disbelief. Aliens with the physiological consistency of congealed salad who can figure out how to ply cosmic oceans — hell, they don’t have to shoot straight once they start conquering things. Aliens with the ability to sponge up every last drop of water on planet Earth don’t have to know their fascination with radio signals will get them blown to smithereens again and again and again. (Or, as the lady Marine put it, “They’re going down like bowling pins!”)

Mostly, “B:LA” left me hoping at least one of the terrified children would get hosed. Which would’ve been the biggest surprise in the film. Instead, I walked out of the theater feeling like a horrid human being.

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See Also:

VIDEO | NEW TRAILER: BATTLE: LOS ANGELES

The Battle of Los Angeles | Retired Military Officials and UFO Experts Discussed the 1942 Incident

Mysterious Craft Over South California, Causes Gunfire, Blackout . . .

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" . . . Learning From Outer Space Lineup, Which Included Jacques Vallee Friedman, , and Nick Pope, Speakers Steeped in the Persistent UFO Controversy"

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Seeping slowly into the mainstream …

By Billy Cox
De Void
1-28-11

     A couple of days after returning from this week’s Global Competitiveness Forum in Saudi Arabia, veteran UFO researcher Stan Friedman is still a little puzzled by what it meant. The UFO part, anyway.

Now in its sixth year, the blue-chip event was sponsored by the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA), which was formed by the Royal Kingdom in 2000 to figure out, among other things, how to grow its economy after the oil dries up. Its Forum in Riyadh lays out major scratch to book heavyweights, from bankers to captains of industry to First World pols. This year, Tony Blair (again) and Bill Clinton took the stage.

But this was the first time the Forum made room for a “Learning From Outer Space” lineup, which included Friedman, Jacques Vallee, and Nick Pope, speakers steeped in the persistent UFO controversy. Throw in physicist Michio Kaku and an Islamic scholar — plus an allotment of audience Q&A time — and the scheduled 75-minute program didn’t leave much room for individual exposition.

Friedman held his power-point presentation to under 10 minutes. “I didn’t show slides of UFOs,” he says from his home in Fredericton, Canada. What he did was summarize the larger arc of his 2010 book Science Was Wrong, which cites numerous examples of flawed scientific predictions that erroneously extrapolated future advances based on conventional wisdom. Revolutions, he says, “come from doing things differently.”

Friedman says Vallee summarized 500 ancient sightings predating manned flight, and that Pope laid myriad ET theories, from SETI contact to microbial life, on the assembled, which numbered several hundred. The auditorium acoustics were a little shaky, and a few audience questions got lost in translation. But that was pretty much it. At least for now. No impromptu closed-door sessions, no take-it-to-the-next-level suggestions. But no jeers or snickers, either. With the arrival of peak oil, maybe derision over the unthinkable is becoming a luxury item.

“Well, I’m glad I went, it was fun,” Friedman says. “Maybe we planted some seeds, you never know. These are the kinds of people you want behind you when you’re serious about thinking outside the box.”

And it didn’t snow.

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See Also:

TONIGHT! | Exclusive: Stanton Friedman to Report on GCF Conference on The Joiner Report

UFO NEWS | Fredericton's Stanton Friedman; UFO Expert Has Been Asked To Be a Panelist at The Fifth Annual Global Competitiveness Forum

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UFOs & NUKES | "The Bogey Appeared to Explode in Mid Air and Land in a Field”

UFOs digging our nukes is not news

A few weeks ago, Frank Warren, who runs a Web site out of Sacramento called The UFO Chronicles, interviewed another retired USAF officer with a national-security secret. This guy was on launch-control duty at a Midwestern nuclear missile silo in the Sixties when a UFO buzzed the bunker he was assigned to and scared the spit out of topside security. Stories like these are becoming increasingly common. In his 2008 book UFOs and Nukes, New Mexico researcher Robert Hastings talked with military veterans who’ve placed UFOs stalking America’s A-bomb factories since the 1940s, from Hanford to Oak Ridge. Some 120 have shared their stories, and last September he brought seven of them together for a press conference in Washington.

By Billy Cox De Void 1-21-2011

Anyhow, during his efforts to verify the latest eyewitness account, Warren went noodling through the online USAF archives of the ancient and largely discredited Project Blue Book. And he found something he hadn’t bargained for — documentation of yet another UFO incursion at yet another missile field, and it wasn’t the one he was looking for.

This one occurred at Sept. 8, 1964, at Missouri’s Whiteman AFB, then bristling with Minuteman I warheads, and it was a real doozy. According to the report, the bogey “appeared to explode in mid air and land in a field.” But whatever it was, this “blue light” recovered, regained altitude, and “kept changing course” as it cruised multiple ICBM sites. “Efforts by mobile strike team to intercept failed,” the official continued in truncated English, and as the UFO exited restricted air space, “the chase was turned over to civil authorities.”

Unfortunately for the military, this incident couldn’t be contained because the state highway patrol initially logged it, and “the Secreaty (sic) of the Air Force needed this information in a hurry as someone had reported it to UPI and associated press also had info on it.” So the encounter has been out there for nearly 47 years. But Warren hadn’t heard of it. Nor had Hastings, the UFO go-to guy when it comes to nukes.

“Clearly, we’ve barely scratched the surface on these events,” says Hastings. “The officers are debriefed by OSI (the USAF Office of Special Investigations) when these things occur, they’ll all tell you this, but very few of those records have been declassified. You just hit a stone wall with FOIA, you get a blanket denial, that the OSI documents don’t exist. They’re obviously lying through their teeth.”

But who knows how much other good stuff is collecting dust in the Blue Book archives? Who actually has the time to pan through all that sediment?

“A lot of people presume that anything you find there is gonna be fluff,” says Warren. “I don’t think these UFO nuke reports are fluff; they sure caught my attention because they relate to national security.”

Underscoring, once again, the old quote by President Truman: “The only thing new in the world is the history we don’t know.”

Obviously there’s one helluva lot of that.

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See Also:

UFOs & NUKES | Whiteman AFB, Missouri: UFO Explodes, Lands Near Missile Sites; Strike Team Dispatched

UFO Over Hanford Atomic Plant Triggers 'Alert Condition'; Fighter Jets Scrambled!

Repeated UFO Activity Reported at Oakridge Atomic Energy Installation - Radar Jammed, Interceptors Scrambled!

REPORT YOUR UFO EXPERIENCE

THE JOINER REPORT Ahhh—Texas Tea . . . More Please!

By Frank Warren
The UFO Chronicles
© 5-23-09

     Living in the San Francisco Bay Area as a young lad, I was very fortunate to have been befriended by some Texas natives; through that association (and now life long friendship), I was introduced to “Texas Tea,” a very sweet, cool, savory beverage that I swear can save your life on a hot, sultry summer day.

Years later I would live in the grand state of Texas, and what was once a “special treat” on occasion, I came to learn was a “staple” amongst the populace—consuming this wondrous beverage, it seems was a stipulation in the Texas State Constitution (not really), which brings us to the theme of this piece: The Joiner Report.

Our regular readers are of course most familiar with Angelia Joiner, the former (mainstream) reporter of the Empire Tribune, located in what was then the sleepy little town of Stephenville, Texas.


Angelia was thrust onto the “UFO scene” by circumstance, in that she “covered” the extraordinary UFO events that took place in Stephenville in January of last year; accordingly she was credited with “breaking” the story to the world!

Although Angelia did not see the craft herself, not unlike direct eyewitnesses of major UFO events, by her own admission she states, "Ufology has turned my life upside down. Never thought I'd be here."

Angelia quickly found herself being bombarded by the larger components of the mainstream media, the networks and cable news channels, in a sense becoming a voice for many of the witnesses, eventually ending up on the Larry King Show.

From there she became the toast of Ufology so to speak, and made the rounds at several of the UFO conferences.

Somewhere in between all of that the Tribune felt her services were no longer needed; the consensus by most was that this was a foolish move on their part, and reflected negatively on management.

Having been smitten with the UFO bug, Angelia has kept her “reporter’s nose” pointing upward, ever mindful of UFO incidents, particularly in or around Stephenville and or the great state of Texas. This diligence would produce additional reports on UFO activity in the a fore mentioned localities.

The events that took place in Stephenville, along with the experiences from reporting the story and becoming enveloped by Ufology has recently culminated in a radio/podcast show fittingly entitled, The Joiner Report.

The premiere episode aired last Friday night (the 15th), and Angelia’s first guest was no other then the long time news anchor for CNN, “Miles O’Brien!”

In a quick Q & A for this piece I asked her why she chose Miles, and she replied:

"I like Miles and received questions and such about his departure from CNN. Many wanted to make a big deal about his leaving had to do with the UFO coverage he did in November. As he said, ‘It was more about greenbacks than greys.’ So I wanted to get word out about his feelings on that.

Also, he's a great guest that is normally not heard from in the UFO realm; so I thought listeners would like that.

Thanks to you for finding all those emails and one that worked!" [I provided O’Brien’s e-mail address]

Last night’s episode featured mainstream reporter “Billy Cox” who is one of the few on that side of the desk who has the guts to engage in the UFO topic! Although I was unable to listen to last night’s show, I look forward to taking it in when posted in the archives (hopefully today) at Angelia’s site: www.angeliajoiner.com

Just like “Texas tea,” The Joiner Report is down-home and most refreshing; it tantalizes the intellectual taste buds and should be a staple to your Ufological digest.

Next week’s guest will be documentary film-maker James Fox.

Listen To The Show Here

www.angeliajoiner.com

See Also:

Stephenville Lights Reporter, Angelia Joiner in The UFO Spotlight

Noted Reporter, 'Angelia Joiner' to Attend San Jose Symposium

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THE JOINER REPORT Tonight's Guest: Billy Cox

     

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Peculiar Craft Over Stephenville Leaves Witnesses Stunned!


Mysterious Objects Reported in Skies

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2008: Worst UFO Media Year Ever!

By Billy Cox
De Void
1-1-09

     2008 started out as just another mediocre year for the mainstream media’s ineptitude with UFO issues. But boy, did that ever change.

It began reliably enough early last January, when Editor & Publisher, the exhausted industry watchdog monitoring the extinction of newspapers and their advertising revenues, found time to chide The Wall Street Journal for wasting 1A real estate on UFOs. The WSJ actually played that story straight by tracking down fellow eyewitnesses to Dennis Kucinich’s 1982 UFO sighting. The E&P was just doing what it's supposed to do. Zzzz.

A few weeks later, the libertarian Cato Institute — those stalwart sentinels for government transparency — decided to terminate the services of adjunct scholar Dom Armentano for writing an op-ed piece in the Vero Beach News-Press. The economics professor’s crime? Advocating the declassification of federal records on UFOs. Had Armentano gotten the hook for writing about racism or some other more conventional corruption, this would’ve been news. But it was only UFOs. So who cared?

And as the months went by, UFOs continued to provide the media intelligentsia with easy rhetorical devices in which to gauge the stupidity of the American people. Eric Alterman flogged the horse in March: “Vastly more Americans believe in flying saucers and 9/11 conspiracy theories than believe in the notion of balance – much less ‘objective’ – in the mainstream news media” Nicolas Kristof took a whack in April: “There’s this embarrassing fact about the United States in the 21st century. Americans are as likely to believe in flying saucers as in evolution.”

So 2008 was shaping up as a garden-variety yawner. Until the drama over Stephenville, Tex., shook down. And as a result of the MSM’s evaporation in the aftermath of this still-unresolved national security fiasco, De Void has proclaimed 2008 as The Media’s Worst UFO Year Ever.

To be sure, there was an initial stampede to the Stephenville region shortly after Empire-Tribune reporter Angelia Joiner’s accounting of the Jan. 8 UFO incident made the wires. TV crews came from as far away as Japan to get the story, and why not? There were plenty of loquacious witnesses to the lit-up, bigger-than-an-aircraft-carrier flying machine that glided silently over the little cow town and reversed its course. Eyewitnesses included cops and a pilot. Better yet, several reported military jet fighters scrambling after it.

An Air Force Base at nearby Fort Worth denied it had planes in the air that night, which was good enough for Newsweek. The emaciated weekly magazine didn’t waste any precious print on the story, but it did run a “Web Exclusive” by a “lecturer in English at Yale University” who attributed the suppertime sighting to sleep deprivation.

But then, not quite two weeks after the incident, as the hoopla subsided, Carswell Field made the surprise announcement that yes, it did indeed have warplanes in the air on the 8th. Not one or two, but 10. Ten F-16s. “Routine training missions.” Its press release said nothing about the UFO. Which raised another question – why bother with issuing a press release at all? Why not just let the event die a natural death? The official statement went against the USAF's own interests. It meant the eyewitnesses were credible.

Carswell’s reversal generated another brief wire-service cycle, but it had nothing to fear from the media.

In May, Dateline NBC promoted a UFO ratings-month special called “Ten Close Encounters Caught on Tape.” Host Hoda Kotb was more into rhymes (“Tonight, an extraterrestrial creature feature!”) and lame cliches (“The experts can argue until they’re as green as the little men whose existence they debate”) as she reviewed UFO cases from as far back as half a century ago. This lady had network resources to work with. And she said nothing about Stephenville. Zilcho.

The reason for Carswell’s embarrassing press release became clear in July when the Mutual UFO Network uncorked an online bombshell – a 77-page evaluation of radar records from 4 to 8 p.m. on Sept. 8 near Stephenville.

In response to MUFON’s Freedom of Information Act request, the FAA produced a 139-meg CD tracking 2.8 million radar hits during that time span along the UFO flight corridor on a southeast beeline toward Crawford, site of President Bush’s “Western White House.” The timeline tapered off at 8 o’clock sharp, the end of MUFON’s request window – with the UFO just 10 miles from Bush’s ranch, and six miles from its restricted air space.

Although the F-16s ventured into unauthorized civilian air space and pulled to within a mile of the object, which carried no transponder and flew at speeds between 49 mph and 2,100 mph, they were nowhere near the craft when it reached Crawford. Neither Carswell nor any other Defense Department entity released radar data, but the former turned over its flight logs for that evening, all of which had been redacted.

“Four days after our FOIAs hit the FAA, they (the military) knew we’d show they had planes all over the place that night,” MUFON investigator Glen Schulze told De Void. “They didn’t have much choice. Fort Worth radar data shows the F-16s from takeoff the landing at Carswell Air Force Base.”

This was an incredible story. Especially the non-responses from various military bureaucracies. There was a brief allusion to the MUFON report on Larry “non sequitur” King. But no wire service coverage. Not even The Wall Street Journal. During the first public presentation of the data in San Jose, Calif., in July, the San Francisco Chronicle showed up, but its reporter didn’t have a clue.

“A chart full of purple dots and black arrows that may or may not indicate aliens flew over President Bush’s Texas ranch in January,” wrote Steve Rubenstein. “The dots and arrows on the chart are as plain as day.”

Schulze, a resident of Littleton, Col., couldn’t even draw ink from the hometown media. But he pointed out that the Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News managed to cover Denver rez Jeff Peckman’s press conference, which advocated spending municipal funds on an extraterrestrial liaison committeee.

During the September sweeps, ABC Prime Time aired a rehash of Peter Jennings’ “Seeing Is Believing” report from 2005. There was a brief mention of Stephenville, but reporter David Muir didn’t bother to question military authorities about the FAA records. Which appear to have documented a serious breach of national security. Just for the record, when contacted by De Void, Carswell PIO Maj. Karl Lewis says his employer has no comment on what he describes as MUFON “speculation.”

Finally, in November, during the last ratings period of 2008, CNN’s Miles O’Brien filed a week-long UFO series (pre-empted by the terror attacks in Mumbai) without mentioning the Stephenville case once. Internet cassandras charge O’Brien was terminated immediately thereafter because he dared to venture into The Great Taboo. CNN said it canned O’Brien and its entire science staff as a cost-cutting measure, and there’s no reason to doubt that. No sinister government agency could've possibly been threatened by O’Brien’s UFO reporting.

Stephenville was the only UFO story that mattered in 2008, because it was one of those rare instances where federal records supported eyewitness accounts. It showcased a military response to a threat against the home of the United States president. And the Air Force got away with its lack of accountability (again) because the press wasn’t interested.

Which raises another question: If the MSM’s stunning financial collapse hits critical mass this year, will anyone notice?

More . . .

See Also:

UFOS: Keeping Anderson Cooper & CNN Honest
Part I

Jennings UFO Show—Coup de Théâtre (Part One)

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Life in a Vacuum

By Billy COx
De Void
12-6-08

     The public spat between the Mary Brogan Museum of Art & Science and the director of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee apparently has a happy ending. Following a letters-to-the-editor smackdown (De Void 11/14/08) about what does and doesn’t constitute legitimate science, Mag Lab director Dr. Greg Boebinger has accepted an invitation by Museum executive director, Chucha Barber, to join the Museum’s exhibits committee.

“We had an honest disagreement,” says Boebinger, who had blasted the Museum’s decision to host a Roswell UFO exhibit as an exercise in pseudoscience. “But we are allies on so many broader issues.”

With shrill religious zealots constantly challenging science textbooks, no doubt that’s true. But Boebinger is sticking by his guns on the original point of contention: “I’m happy to be on record stating that there’s no physical evidence with which we can work to make UFOs a real science.”

In Boebinger’s universe, more than half a century’s worth of radar returns on UFOs can all be discarded as weather balloons, hoaxes, Venus, or whatever. Which gives him a convenient pass to ignore current events.

Not only was Boebinger unfamiliar with the Mutual UFO Network’s lengthy analysis of the January 8 Stephenville Incident, in which voluminous civilian radar records corroborated eyewitness accounts on the ground, he didn’t even want to hear about it. Boebinger cut short De Void’s attempts to summarize the findings, which included hot pursuit by jet fighters.

“I’m really not interested in getting into debates over specifics like these. I’m a busy man,” he says, “and I don’t have time to figure out whether one palm reader is better than another. I don’t see it as my job to debunk every single claim.”

Smearing an entire category of data as pseudoscience without addressing the details evokes the insecurities of the 17th-century authorities who refused to look through Galileo’s telescope. In fact, this sort of breezy arrogance can produce the unintended consequences of driving rational people into the rocky shoals of fringe sirens who at least have a conversational command of the evidence.

Before his life was cut short at age 53 in 2000, Terence McKenna was anathema to many UFO researchers because of his assertions that the most reliable way to communicate with extraterrestrials was via hallucinogenic drugs. Spookysmart and lyrically gifted, McKenna has since attained immortality on the Internet and his words are frequently sampled at rave marathons. As the 21st century unfolds, scientists like Boebinger continue to edify McKenna’s arguments.

UFOs, McKenna said, “empower us to see science for the shell game that it is, to see the past 400 years of western culture for the pathetic narrowing of the spectrum of allowable phenomena that it is, to the point where people think that if you can’t bang on something with a hammer, it isn’t real.” He wondered “how much we would understand about electricity if our method of studying it was to stand on top of high hills and wait to be struck by lightning. It seems to me that’s the position we’re in vis-à-vis UFOs.”

As modern science continues to shirk its obligations of true skepticism, that vacuum is being filled with aggressive insults to its conventions. And as Terence McKenna proves – with apologies to Geico’s Neanderthals – it’s so easy even a dead man can do it.

More . . .

See Also:

UFOs & Science: If One Can't Attack the Data, Attack the People - It's Easier!

The Roswell Exhibit: Conservative Scientists Resort To Ad Hominem Attacks Against Noted Ufologist Stanton Friedman

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