 | By Larry W. Bryant ufoview.posterous.com 5-27-14 |
With its characteristically glacial FOIA-request processing speed, the U. S. Central Intelligence Agency has completed its handling of my freedom-of-information request of Aug. 12, 2011 (see Items 2.155 and 2.157 of my blog ufoview.tumblr.com )."Science consists only one half in knowing what is known; the other half is never pretending to know what is not.” — Max Eastman in his 1933 lecture “Literature in an Age of Science,” published by the University of Michigan Press in an anthology titled The Writer and His Craft (Ann Arbor paperback, 1956, edited by Roy W. Cowden)
By her letter to me of Dec. 12, 2013, CIA FOIA chief Michele Meeks pronounces Case No. F-2012-01584 closed — mainly by her enclosing a photocopy of a few UFO-related articles culled from the foreign press via the CIA-operated Open Source Center (formerly known as the Foreign Broadcast Information Service). These documents apparently originated from the intelligence-gathering pipeline of the U. S. Department of State (another outfit infamous for its pathetic compliance with FOIA requirements).
Here’s a synopsis of each article:
(1) An excerpt from the public affairs office of the U. S. Embassy in Amman, Jordan, titled “State PAO: Jordanian Media Highlights for 8-10 Jun 12.” The synopsis begins: “UFO may have been Russian missile test.” It goes on to explain, “After a spate of reports on social media of an unidentified flying object spotted near Jordan on Thursday night, June 7, 2012, Russian state-owned news agency Ria Novosti tweeted on Friday that it might have been a Russian ballistic missile test. Beat FM radio host Rob Stevens was among the first to report a sighting of the object just before 8:00 p.m. on Thursday, writing on Twitter that he had seen a UFO that ‘hovered, and then made a swirl and disappeared.’”
(2) An English-language item of June 10, 2012, from the Mehr News Agency in Tehran, Iran, titled “UFO Poses No Threat to Iran: Defense Minister.” The short report is prefaced by this notice from the OSC
staff: “[Computer-selected and disseminated without OSC editorial intervention.]” The report downplays the case in these words:
“Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi said on Sunday that the Islamic Republic of Iran air defense system has no problem and the UFO poses no threat to the country’s security. A mysterious light, which was seen over countries in the region including Syria, Israel, and Iran on Thursday night, has been confirmed by a number of sources, Yahoo News reported. There has been speculation that the strange sight might have been some sort of unidentified aircraft.”3) An English account of a Persian-language report, titled “FYI — YouTube users Upload Video Showing Luminous Objects in Iran’s Sky, 07 Jun 12.” It notes that “The YouTube video-sharing website on 7 June
carried several clips showing luminous objects seen in the sky in Iran. On 7 June social media users posted several pictures of the luminous objects. A 1-minute and 19-second video posted by user
‘aydeniz2010’ on 7 June shows a luminous object moving above buildings in Tabriz, East Azarbayjian Province. The video was headlined in Persian ‘a luminous and strange object passing across the sky of
Tabriz and Iran.’:
(4) An English-language article (online) from the April 28, 2012, edition of the Lahore newspaper “Pakistan Today” — a piece titled “Pakistan: UFO Caused Bhoja Airplane Crash in Islamabad, Claims
Report.” It begins: “The Bhoja Air Boeing 737 crash in Islamabad on April 20 could have been caused by Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) sighting by the pilot, unconfirmed reports say.” The article notes
that a “Russian news report on the crash shows footage of three mysterious lights moving in formation, leading to speculation in the UFO community that blame for the tragic accident might lie with an extraterrestrial craft, reported the Daily Mail. The news report suggests that the pilot might have been distracted by the object and complained to the control tower at Islamabad Airport as he made his approach. The official reason, however, is that plane’s fuel tanks exploded mid-air during a heavy thunderstorm, killing all 127 people on board.”
(5) An article titled “200-kilo [about 500 pounds] Metal ‘UFO Fragment’ Falls from Sky in Siberia” — from the Iranian online English-language newspaper “Tehran IRNA,” datelined New Delhi, March
23, 2012, IRNA. This account merits full quoting, as follows:
"A giant ‘UFO fragment,’ resembling a silvery dome, has fallen from the sky near a remote village in Siberia. The U-shaped object is currently under inspection by Russian experts, after being covertly removed under cover of night from the possession of villagers who found it. After discovering the device on Sunday, locals from the village of Otradnesnky had managed to drag the ‘UFO fragment’ from the thick forest where it had fallen, ani [sic] reported quoting Russian media. They attached it onto a trailer and took it through the snow to their village, where local inspectors then examined it before alerting Moscow authorities. In an official statement, Sergey Bobrov, who found the object, agreed to keep it safe. But following their stealthy removal of the 200-kilogram metal fragment, police have it under close guard, on orders from unnamed authorities. The device has not had its provenance confirmed as of yet. However, the object does not come from a rocket or missile or be in any way associated with terrestrial space technology, it has been announced. ‘The object found is not related to space technology. A final conclusion can be made after a detailed study of the object by experts,’ the Telegraph quoted Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, as saying. Experts have also examined the object to determine whether it poses a hazard. ‘We measured the radiation level near and inside the object. We found no radiation here,’ Yuri Bormykov, who heads the rescue service department of the Kuybyshevsky district in the Novosibirsk region, said. Valery Vasiliev, the head of the Kuybyshevsky Department for Civil Defense and Emergency Situations, said that part of the fragment is made of ultra-strong titanium.”
