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Info-ParaNet Newsletters Volume 1 Number 597
Info-ParaNet Newsletters Volume I Number 597
Thursday, October 8th 1992
(C) Copyright 1992 Paranet Information Service. All Rights Reserved.
Today's Topics:
Mystery Object
Gov't Secrecy
Wendelle Stevens
Alaskan Sitings
Kevin Randle on Roswell
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From: Mike.Keithly@p0.f608.n104.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Mike Keithly)
Subject: Mystery Object
Date: 5 Oct 92 05:01:01 GMT
* Forwarded from "Internet Astronomy Conference"
* Originally by Bill Nunnelee
* Originally to All
* Originally dated 4 Oct 1992, 18:22
From: bill.nunnelee@the-matrix.com (Bill Nunnelee)
Date: 3 Oct 92 13:58:00 GMT
Organization: The MATRIX BBS - Birmingham, AL - 205-323-2016
Message-ID: <624.413.uupcb@the-matrix.com>
Newsgroups: sci.astro
Several members of the Birmingham Astronomical Society observed an
unusual fireball (or possibily reentering space debris) on the night of
Wednesday September 30th at 8:17 CDT. Six of us were at a location
just south of the city when an object was noticed traveling across the
northern sky in an easterly direction (roughly from Corona Borealis to
Aries and passing very near the Andromeda Galaxy). The object was
approximately magnitude -1 or -2 and consisted of a pointlike head and a
30 degree or so "vapor trail"-like tail. It moved at a speed consitent
with a satellite in low Earth orbit...which is to say, fast for an
aircraft, yet very slow for a meteor. Of course, there was no source
for reflected light, and the object did not dim in what would have been
the Earth's shadow; in fact, its appearance remained extremely constant
from horizon to horizon (no tumbling, breaking up, lingering train, wind
dispersion, or noise). One observer using binoculars said that it
looked the same through them.
What really makes it interesting is that a second group of three
B.A.S.ers happened to see the same object from a location about 50
miles to the northeast. There, it took a more southerly path across the
sky. It passed between Beta and Gamma Lyrae, near Gamma Cygni, and near
Alpha Andromedae...parallel and roughly 20 degrees south of the first
track. This would seem to rule out any sort of high-flying aircraft.
One observer was even able to capture several seconds of it on video.
Since he had previously been recording other objects with the same
settings (Venus and crescent Moon at sunset), it should be possible to
get a good fix on its brightness.
We would very much be interested in any other observations of this
objects from amateur astronomers across the southeastern U.S. If we
could get good timings and/or positions, it should be possible to
determine its altitude precisely and perhaps its orbit as well.
--
Mike Keithly - via ParaNet node 1:104/422
UUCP: !scicom!paranet!User_Name
INTERNET: Mike.Keithly@p0.f608.n104.z1.FIDONET.ORG
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From: John.Powell@f601.n109.z1.FIDONET.ORG (John Powell)
Subject: Gov't Secrecy
Date: 4 Oct 92 23:18:02 GMT
"The High Cost of Secrecy." by Steven Aftergood and John E. Pike, Air &
Space; October/November, 1992. ISSN 0886-2257
Today, seemingly credible reports suggest the existence of a
new generation of classified aircraft. Numerous eyewitness accounts and
even videotape footage indicate that one or more types of stealthy or
hypersonic surveillance airplanes - successors, perhaps, to the recently
retired SR-71 Blackbird - may be undergoing flight tests over the
California desert.
There are cases to be made both for and against the
development of such aircraft. They could bring unique advantages to the
reconnaissance arena by providing continuous coverage of a battlefield,
where satellites offer only brief snapshots. And hypersonic aircraft
could provide imagery of a crisis area as rapidly as do satellites but
with greater flexibility. However, a stealth reconnaissance airplane
probably wouldn't match a satellite's speed in delivering information,
and a hypersonic aircraft, unable to loiter, could not provide the
long-term coverage a satellite can.
There is no legitimate reason why questions about the need for
these new aircraft cannot be debated in public. The new programs'
mission requirements, priority among competing needs, and costs are all
proper subjects for public consideration. Yet these programs are kept
hidden from public scrutiny.
Programs whose cost, purpose, and very existence are withheld
from the public are known as "black" programs: they've included the
development of cruise missiles and stealth technology, propulsion
research, and other types of weapons systems and components. The
biggest and best known of these, however, are the aircraft programs.
Over the last several decades, many of the nation's most
advanced military aircraft have been developed in secrecy. From the U-2
spy plane to the B-2 bomber and beyond, critical programmatic and
funding decisions have been made beyond the sphere of public awareness
and debate.
As the history of these black aircraft programs has come to
light, it has become possible to achieve a new perspective on the
advantages and disadvantages of secrecy in this field. While classified
aircraft programs have yielded some of the most remarkable technological
achievements of our time, the secrecy surrounding them has become both
ineffective over the long term and counterproductive.
The mystique of the Lockheed Skunkworks, for example, is based
on a public perception of an unbroken string of successes, including,
notably, the U-2 and the SR-71. What is much less well known is that in
the 1950s these successes were punctuated by a notably unsuccessful
effort, the CL-400 Suntan. The Suntan, intended to surpass the U-2 in
high-altitude, long- range reconnaissance, consumed over $1 billion (in
1992 dollars) before engineers concluded that it could not meet its
mission requirements and the program was canceled.
More recently, excessive secrecy was identified as an
important cause of the collapse of the Navy's A-12 attack aircraft
program. The House Armed Services Committee reported in 1991 that
"special access restrictions on the A-12 program and the lack of
appropriately cleared auditors...prevented the program from receiving
adequate management control and oversight," leading to its cancellation
that year. The resulting loss to the taxpayers was in the
billion-dollar range.
Secrecy in military aerospace, as throughout government
generally, has exceeded all reasonable justifications. No one would
dispute that advanced military technologies require some degree of
protection. But it is clear that the secrecy surrounding classified
aircraft programs has reached the point of absurdity. According to an
_Air Power Journal_ report, F-117A stealth fighters were not called upon
in the 1986 air strike on Libya because using them in the raid would
have made denial of their existence more difficult.
In matters of science and technology, secrecy is at best of
limited effectiveness and is more often an obstacle to development. In
the best of circumstances, secrecy can offer some lead time over
competitors or adversaries who, sooner or later, are bound to duplicate
or independently achieve the desired goal.
But even such lead time may be far more limited than is
commonly assumed. A task force from the Defense Science Board, an
independent body that advises the Department of Defense, reported in
1970: "Never in the past has it been possible to keep secret the truly
important discoveries, such as the discovery that an atomic bomb can be
made to work or that hypersonic flight is possible...In spite of very
elaborate and costly measures taken independently by the U.S. and the
U.S.S.R. to preserve technical secrecy, neither the United Kingdom nor
China was long delayed in developing hydrogen weapons."
More importantly, secrecy tends to obstruct technological
development by inhibiting communication of useful information,
undermining peer review, increasing costs, generating public mistrust,
and, all too often, promoting fraud and abuse. Excellence in science
and technology does not always correlate with professional credentials,
much less with security clearances.
Excessive secrecy also renders some of the nation's most
talented engineers economically sterile, as it insulates their product
from the marketplace. At a time when economic security is more at risk
than military security, government restrictions on dissemination of
technical information are mounting. A reversal of this trend might have
important economic benefits, since some black program achievements may
have useful commercial applications, particularly in the fields of
propulsion, remote sensing, and materials science.
Finally, the cost of keeping secrets is becoming intolerable.
According to a defense department estimate, the bureaucracy of
government secrecy has exploded to the point that the cost of protecting
classified information in industry reached a stunning $13.8 billion in
1989 alone.
Classification extends so far beyond the genuinely sensitive
details of advanced military technologies that one might conclude it is
being used to protect controversial programs more from public awareness
than from hostile intelligence services. For years, the Pentagon
refused to disclose projected costs of the B-2 bomber program, claiming
that to do so "would provide information which might be of assistance to
the Soviets." At the same time, some Pentagon officials privately
acknowledged that such cost information would be of little use to the
Soviet Union. And of course it would be of even less use to
technologically lagging nations such as Libya, Iraq, or North Korea.
Yet approximately 15 percent of the defense department budget
for weapons acquisition is classified. The way this money is spent is
withheld not only from the public but even from the overwhelming
majority of members of Congress. The "special access" classification
system imposes restrictions on information that go above and beyond the
"need to know" requirements of the ordinary classification system.
It's worth emphasizing that oversight of aerospace programs
does not necessitate disclosure of all technical details, many of which
are likely to be properly classified. But special access restrictions
undermine the most minimal level of independent oversight and
accountability, as in the case of the A-12 program.
In fact, it appears that black aircraft programs are designed
only to penetrate Congressional airspace. That is, wasteful, dangerous,
or highly speculative programs will have a much better chance of being
funded by Congress if they are highly classified.
While some military programs of the past were justifiably
hidden from public view - most notably the Manhattan Project, which
developed the atomic bomb - the diminished strategic threat to the
United States and increasing budget pressures now dictate a new attitude
of increased openness and accountability in the hyper-classified field
of military aerospace. In a democracy, after all, the public has the
ultimate need to know.
[Steven Aftergood, Director of Project on Government Secrecy; John E.
Pike, Director of Space Policy Project, Federation of American
Scientists.]
___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.10
--
John Powell - via ParaNet node 1:104/422
UUCP: !scicom!paranet!User_Name
INTERNET: John.Powell@f601.n109.z1.FIDONET.ORG
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From: John.Powell@f601.n109.z1.FIDONET.ORG (John Powell)
Subject: Wendelle Stevens
Date: 4 Oct 92 23:21:04 GMT
[Front page of letter recieved 10/3/92 which included the
below-mentioned 1993 UFO Calendar. Recorded verbatim.]
___--------------------------------------------------------------------------
My Dear Friend:
First, I want to thank you for your valient effort to keep the
UFO JOURNAL OF FACT afloat and for your subscription. You have been a
very big help and we almost made it. We are not dead in the water yet
but we are not in a position to go to press yet either. We had
$2,000.00 to pay off on the last issue, the AUTUMN issue last Fall, and
because of our late payment we will have to have the full payment in
advance before we can go to press on the next one. That may still be a
few months away.
We will change from the SPRING, SUMMER, AUTUMN, WINTER dating
and will go directly to Vol. 2, No. 1 and so on, but those of you who
still stick with us will get your 3 issues of the journal and a 1993 UFO
Calendar as promised. We have some great Russian UFO material for the
next issue and some new UFO photographs to be printed in full page color
enlargements.
If you decide this is taking too long and do not want to wait
any more, I can offer you a $20.00 credit for trade-out and a 1993 UFO
Calendar (to be printed in October). or return of your $24.00
subscription payment by mid-December. In any case we consider you our
friend and loyal client and we want to keep you happy.
We do have 3 new books to go to press as soon as the economy
turns around and we can afford to print again. I will see to it that
you are advised as soon as we can get them on the press.
Many thanks for your patience and understanding.
<signed W. C. Stevens>
Wendelle C. Stevens
P.O. Box 17206
Tucson, AZ 85710
Tel. (602) 296-6753
___--------------------------------------------------------------------------
BTW, the UFO Calendar has some excellent pictures in it. I have no idea
if they're real or not...
Thanks, take care.
John.
-
<Absence of Evidence is not Evidence of Absence>
___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.10
--
John Powell - via ParaNet node 1:104/422
UUCP: !scicom!paranet!User_Name
INTERNET: John.Powell@f601.n109.z1.FIDONET.ORG
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From: Gary.Long@f601.n109.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Gary Long)
Subject: Alaskan Sitings
Date: 5 Oct 92 05:01:08 GMT
(1179) Wed 23 Sep 92 21:13
By: David Benn
To: All
Re: sightings
St:
------------------------------------------------------------
MSGID: 1:153/9.0 2ac14e5c
Hi! I've been an observer of this echo for the past month or so, an finally
have decided to speak up.
Someone (sorry can't remember names worth a damn.) was asking for info on other
peoples sightings. I'm a fairly skeptical person who doesn't beleive anything
I read, and only half of what I see, but I have seen 3 aerial objects that I
can't explain.
The first occured several years ago when I was about 10 or so...a friend and I
were laying on our backs, staring up into the night sky, and showing off how
smart we were to each other by identifying stars (ie. big dipper, orion, etc).
After a while we noticed that directly overhead a "star" was twinkling away,
changing from red to green to blue to white, etc. etc....So what, stars are
supposed to twinkle, but then the "star" started moving...it went in a quick U
( about 2" long) shape from it's originl position to a point about 1/2"
(relatively speaking) away from it, and then looping back along the U to the
start. It repeated this movement several times while we watched it. Every
15-20 seconds it would start moving again and take about 5 seconds to make it's
loop. I noticed it first, but didn't comment on it. My friend noticed it too
and finally spoke up and pointed the "star" out to me and said "What star is
that?". I said that I had already been watching it for about 5 minutes and he
said "good, I thought I was seeing things...How the hell can a star move like
that? It ain't no star if you ask me."...so we then started thinking of what
it could be and decided it had to be Bug-Eyed Monsters in a UFO...scared
oursleves and went inside. No one inside would believe us (but then again how
many adults would) so we dropped the subject. All in all we watched this
movement for about 20 minutes.
My second and 3rd sightings were much more definite. They occured in the
spring of '88. Background..I was living on a farm about 60 miles from
Whitehorse,Y.T (7 miles from Carcross). The farm was/is located in a valley
between two lakes. The road is about 200' up the side of one of the mountains
and the valley is about 1 mile wide before going up another mountain. The
nearest neighbour was 4 miles away. There were 7 of us living on the farm at
the time. 3 bachelors and a couple with two young children. About 300' from
the house we had our barns (down the hill, level with the valley floor). Enough
geography.
The first sighting was just after the morning milking (goats) and
chores about 11 am. Three of us were heading back up to the house when
an object came over the mountain behind the house, flew over the house
about 200' high, flew over us , across the valley and up and over the
other mountain. It was a bright silvery-white disk, about 30 -35' in
diameter, made no sound at all, and took only about 5 seconds to make
it pass over us. We all saw it at the same time, stopped dead in our
tracks and turned to follow it , watching until it disappeared over the
crest of the far mountain.(BTW..the mountains are both about 10,000'
high). We then looked at each other and asked "Did you just see that?"
at the same time. We were all very calm about the whole thing, sort of
shook oursleves and continued on up to the house. We didn't really
talk much about it because none of us had any idea what it was other
than a "flying saucer". The other people living there didn't see
anything from inside the house.
(Continued...)
___
X SLMR 2.0 X I'm in shape...round's a shape isn't it?
PATH: 153/6 2 752 396/1 109/25 343 50 544
------------------------------------------------------------
(1180) Wed 23 Sep 92 21:47
By: David Benn
To: All
Re: sightings..continued
St:
------------------------------------------------------------
MSGID: 1:153/9.0 2ac15656
(Continued from previous message...)
Two nights later just after the night milking(10 pm...yes lazy farmers who
didn't like getting up at dawn :) )...I had locked up the animals in their
barns (except for the billy goat...he fancied himself a "gaurd dog" and
wouldn't stay inside, so we fianlly stopped trying to lock him in at night. He
was usefull in warning us of bears and such)..and was cleaning up the milking
stuff when two others in the house said"It's back!) and ran to the windows to
watch it. By the time I got there I could see it heading towards the barns with
a strong white light coming down from underneath it. It was totally silent as
it moved. As it crested the tops of the barns it came down in front of them and
the billy goat let out a holler. Thinking of reports of cattle mutilations,etc.
We (Three of us (one who hadnt' seen it the first time) headed down to the
barns to check on the animals. I didn't see it take off,but it was gone by the
time we got down to the barns. The animals were fine, but the billy goat was a
nervous wreck for the next week or two. He would jump at the slightest sound.
We figured that it suprised him by suddenly appearing over top of him. We
found no markings or tracks anywhere around the barns that we could see. So
after we satisfied ourselves that everything was OK we went back inside.(After
forcibly locking up the billy.)
The next day we got a visit from a firend who live on the other side of the
mountain at our backs, also a farmer. During our casual b.s ing over coffee
he asked "Did you see anything odd last night?" We looked at each other and
then I asked "why?" Apparently about 10pm the night before he and his wife we
had just gone to bed when a "very bright light like a searchlight lit up the
bedroom." (Direct quote) It came from outside. So he went to the window and
couldn't see the source of the light...he figured it was overhead. He grabbed
his gun and headed outside but the light was gone...he saw a light dissapear
over the crest of the mountain(between us) but could say what it was. Both he
and his wife commented on the fact that there was no sound whatsoever. We told
them what we had seen, but since she was scared and he was adimant that those
things don't exist cuz god only made man, we dropped the subject.
A few days later while in town I stopped in at a friends (local J.P.) who was
also a farmer to see about buying a few of her ducklings. While haggling over a
price she mentioned that they had been woken up by a hell of a noise coming
from their animals and they thought they saw a light but weren't positive. They
thought the light was coming from the road (obscurred from their view by trees
and brush) but they didn't hear a vehicle. All their animals we wide awake
when they checked on them which they found odd because the birds go to sleep
about 5 pm. at that time of year. I told her about our sighting and the other
farmer's, but she said that if we were right she didn't want to know about it.
At the time I found it odd that we three were the only farmers in the area
(except for a ranch over the mountain across from us) and had all had an odd
experience. Also we all emphasised the lack of noise. If anyone who has lived
in the North or the sticks can attest to it is very quiet. We could hear a car
coming about 3 miles away and during the cold clear nights of early spring it
is absolutely silent. As a "related note" a local trance medium claimed to
have been in contact with some aliens at about the same time, who she claimed
were only there for observation and quite harmless. She/they also claimed to
use something on or in the mountains as a fuel source and were charging their
batteries(or equivalent).
All I can say on the matter is that I saw some form of aircraft that is unlike
any normal one I have ever seen or heard of. It travelled silently, quickly,
and moved with purpose. It was either "manned" or piloted remotely. I figure
that if a God did create us and the universe
--
Gary Long - via ParaNet node 1:104/422
UUCP: !scicom!paranet!User_Name
INTERNET: Gary.Long@f601.n109.z1.FIDONET.ORG
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From: Michael.Corbin@p0.f428.n104.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Michael Corbin)
Subject: Kevin Randle on Roswell
Date: 7 Oct 92 10:52:01 GMT
This article was taken from Air&Space magazine October/November
1992.
Reprinted without permission. Prepared by Michael Keithly.
In a response to a letter of authenticity of the Roswell events
Kevin Randle replied.
The events that took place near Roswell, New Mexico in July 1947
are well documented. The question is no longer if something
happened, but what happened, and why it is still being hidden 45
years later. Colonel (later Brigadier General) Thomas J. Dubose
was the chief of staff of the Eighth Air Force, the parent unit
of the 509th Bomb Group, at Roswell in July 1947. He has
repeatedly, on audio and video tape, that the balloon explanation
was designed to "get the reporters of Ramey's back" (Brigadier
Roger Ramey, Commanding Officer of the Eighth Air Force). In
other words, one of the officers who was there has said that the
balloon explanation was nothing more than a cover story.
There is also Brigadier General Arthur Exon, who was later the
base commander at Wright-Patterson but who was a lieutenant
colonel at Wright Field in 1947. On audio tape, he has said that
many of the people at Wright field believe the debris recovered
near Roswell was extraterrestrial. He also described his own
flight over the crash site, telling us he saw the gouge created
when the craft crashed, as well as the tire marks of the military
vehicles that had driven over the field.
Here are two sources who seem to confirm much of the Roswell
tale. Both talk of aspects of the case about which they can
provide first hand testimony. There is much more about this that
must be explored. I believe the debris was extraterrestrial, but
in any event, it is clear that something more than a balloon was
recovered near Roswell.
Kevin D. Randle
Co-Author UFO Crash at Roswell.
Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
END OF ARTICLE
--
Michael Corbin - via ParaNet node 1:104/422
UUCP: !scicom!paranet!User_Name
INTERNET: Michael.Corbin@p0.f428.n104.z1.FIDONET.ORG
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