UFO ROUNDUP Volume 3 Number 28
Volume 3
Number 28
July 12, 1998
Editor: Joseph Trainor
E-mail: Masinaigan@aol.com
LIGHT PHENOMENON SEEN BY HUNDREDS IN UK
An unusual light phenomenon, which resembled a giant letter Z, was seen on both sides of the Irish Sea after 10:30 p.m. on Friday, July 10, 1998.
According to the BBC report, "A large meteorite is being blamed for hundreds of sightings along the west coast of Britain Friday evening. Initially authorities were baffled about the source of the lights, which looked like the letter Z or the number 2."
"Throughout Friday evening, police and coastguards from Cornwall to Scotland were inundated with calls from people who spotted the light, though most came from people living around the Irish Sea."
"Coastguards in Belfast said that they had received dozens of 999 calls and admitted they had seen the light in the sky...over the north coast of Ireland. A spokesman said the light had a large Z shape."
"'It was very prominent and was due north of the (Belfast) coastguard station. We were able to watch it from the window. I can say that I've never seen anything like this before.'"
"'It was a larger shape than the moon but, as we were unable to measure the distance, it was impossible to judge its actual size.'" (Editor's Note: It was a full moon Friday night.)
The Z-shaped light "appeared to be moving very slowly westwards. 'When we first saw this object, it was not completely dark (yet). It was higher than the clouds and occasionally it was obscured by passing clouds.'"
"Another report was received by Teesside Air Traffic Control near Middlesbrough, who reported seeing an object resembling the letter Q in the sky west of their position."
"In a statement, the (UK) Department of Transport said, 'The sightings were as far apart as Cornwall and the Clyde (in Scotland), west of Belfast (Northern Ireland) and east to Leeds. RAF Fylingdales early warning station reported no undue activity, as did Jodrell Bank. We can only summarise it is space debris or a comet.'"
On Saturday, July 11, "an airline pilot who landed at East Midlands Airport" provided "an explanation."
"The pilot reported seeing a large meteorite entering the atmosphere as he was flying from the UK to France. He claimed to have noticed it breaking up and leaving a long trail in its wake, which was forced by winds into shapes resembling the letters." (Many thanks to John Hayes for the BBC report.)
(Editor's Comment: Excuse me, but luminous meteor trails last between five and ten seconds--twenty seconds tops. They do not persist in the sky for over an hour. Whatever this phenomenon was, it was no meteor.)
BOOMERANG-SHAPED UFO SIGHTED IN SOUTHERN FRANCE
On Thursday, June 25, 1998, at about 11 p.m., Scottish photographer Stuart Conway and his friend, Wayne Wilson were on vacation in Montpezat, a village on the Lac Sainte Croix in Provence, on France's Mediterranean coast, when they spotted a UFO.
"Myself and a friend, Wayne Wilson, were sitting on the balcony of our hotel, chatting, and suddenly we saw this triangular object fly silently by," Stuart reported. "It seemed to be pretty close, and it had five or six dull yellowish lights. After a couple of seconds, it just faded out."
Conway used Photoshop software to reproduce the UFO he had seen. The image shows six yellow lights on the underside of a boomerang shape, in an arrangement reminiscent of the "Lubbock Lights" seen in Texas in 1952. There were three lights on each "wing" of the UFO. (Many thanks to Stuart Conway for this report.)
UFO FLAP STIRS TASMANIA
A UFO flap broke out in Australia's southern island state of Tasmania during the last days of May 1998.
On May 17, two witnesses spotted "a bright light to the east" in Lauderdale, Tasmania (Tas.) It looked to have red, white and blue colours. As they watched it rose up to 15 to 30 degrees" above the horizon at about 8:30 p.m.
On May 18, in Tasmania's Black Hills, two witnesses "watched for six seconds an oval light in the northern sky." Three times in succession, the UFO flashed. "It looks to have been a beam pointing straight at the ground below." As they watched, the UFO "moved very quickly to the northwest, then back to the north." This sighting also took place at 8:30 p.m.
The evening of May 21, two people in different locations in Kingston, Tas. saw a large bright UFO "move away to the west or northwest."
On May 28, at 8:07 p.m., two people "called to report a bright light low to their southwest near Mount Lloyd and Sandford. 'It looked to move back and forth, then a number of lights were seen moving about it.'"
That same evening, at 10 p.m., a witness in Sandford, Tas. reported "a similar light in the southwest. He says he saw two streaks of light in the sky, then noticed the bright light which hovered at 15 to 20 degrees, then faded out."
On May 31, at 1:10 a.m., a witness in Collinsvale, Tas., who had trouble getting to sleep, got up and watched "lights flashing outside for every three or four seconds." The source was a triangular UFO "with square areas of light" on the bottom, which hovered "in front of Big Rocky Hill northwest of his home. The size of the object seemed to cover 100 meters (330 feet) or more, as the lights flashed on and off for two minutes before everything went black."
The cases are being investigated by ufologists Keith Roberts and Paul Jackson of the Tasmanian UFO Investigation Centre. (See Australian UFO Reports and Experiences #5 for July 1998. Many thanks to editor Robert Frola for this news story.)
UFO AUTHOR AND WIFE INDICTED IN ARIZONA
Milton William Cooper, 55, author of the book BEHOLD A PALE HORSE, and his wife, Annie Mord-Horst, were indicted on tax charges in Arizona recently.
According to the Arizona Republic, "The U.S. Attorney for Arizona, Jose de Jesus Rivera, said federal agents will move carefully to arrest Cooper, who faces a four-count indictment that he failed to pay taxes from 1992 to 1994 and submitted false information to a bank to obtain a loan."
"'We are going to proceed with prudence and caution and handle this matter in due course,' Rivera said, declining to comment further."
"Apache County sheriff Art Lee said he has asked federal authorities to move cautiously against Cooper, who lives in a hilltop home in Eagar," a town on Arizona Highway 60 about 175 miles (280 kilometers) southeast of Flagstaff.
"After talking with Cooper," Sheriff Lee advised "federal authorities that 'it could deteriorate into an incident.'"
On Thursday, July 2, 1998, Cooper, whom the Arizona Republic says "claims to belong to 'the Second Continental Army of the Republic,'" a reputed militia group, posted a message on his website. The message reportedly read, "WARNING!! Any attempt by the federal government or anyone else to execute an unconstitutional and unlawful arrest could be met with armed resistance."
"In Phoenix, Thomas Nixon of the U.S. Marshal's Office said authorities wished to act cautiously as they enforce the arrest warrant 'because no federal agency wants any copies of Ruby Ridge and Waco.' But, Nixon added, 'Obviously, at some point we'll effect the arrest.'"
"One sympathizer, Glenn Jacobs, publisher of a small valley newspaper, who spoke to Cooper earlier this week. 'He told me he is not going to submit to arrest by the feds,' Jacobs said, 'He said if they're going to murder him, they're going to have to do it in the house, that this is where he has drawn his line in the sand, said that he's not going to retreat from it. I think he is expecting to be murdered by the FBI.'"
Cooper, whose book was published in 1991, was born on May 6, 1943 in Oklahoma, son of Lt. Col. Milton V. Cooper of the U.S. Air Force. After graduating from high school, he joined the Air Force for a four-year hitch and then joined the U.S. Navy.
In July 1966, Cooper was aboard the submarine USS Tiru, which was on a routine patrol in the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii, when he, officer of the deck Ensign Ball and another crewman reportedly sighted a very large saucer-shaped UFO.
Cooper described the UFO as "a huge disk rise from beneath the ocean, water streaming from the air around it, tumble lazily on its axis...It was a metal machine, of that there was no doubt whatsoever. It was intelligently controlled, of that I was equally sure. It was a dull color, kid of like pewter. There were no lights. There was no glow. I thought I had seen a row of what looked like portholes, but could not be certain. Radar reported contact at the same bearing and gave us a range of 3 nautical miles...The giant saucer shape plunged out of the clouds, tumbled, and pushing the water before it, opened up a hole in the ocean and disappeared from view."
After being debriefed by the Office of Naval Intelligence, Cooper was transferred to the gasoline tanker USS Tombigbee. From 1967 to 1969, he served in Vietnam.
Cooper was also involved in the Watergate affair, which led to the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon in August 1974.
On August 3, 1974, five days before President Nixon announced his resignation, and a couple of days before the House of Representatives called for impeachment hearings to begin, Cooper was working as the SPECAT (Special Category) radio operator at CINCPACFLT (Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet) headquarters in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii when he was asked to download a strange message on the KL-47 code machine.
The message read, "Upon receipt you are instructed to no longer accept direct orders from TOP HAT." (code name for President Nixon--J.T.)
According to Cooper, another SPECAT operator named Randall W. Terpstra received the same message while decoding radio traffic at a Marine amphibious brigade headquarters. The source of the message remains unknown. (See the Arizona Republic for July 3, 1998, "Militiaman taking on authorities" by Jerry Kammer. See also BEHOLD A PALE HORSE by Milton William Cooper, Light Technology Publishing, Sedona, Arizona, 1991, pages 19 to 23 and 184 to 194. Many thanks to Errol Bruce-Knapp for forwarding the article.)
UNUSUALLY BRIGHT METEOR SEEN IN OKLAHOMA
On Wednesday, June 24, 1998, at about 3 a.m., Frank F.was delivering newspapers "in a rural area of Oklahoma City. All of a sudden, everything lit up like daylight. I stopped my car and looked out the window. Almost directly overhead I saw a huge, white object that appeared to be a meteorite entering the atmosphere."
"It lasted only four to five seconds at the most. It was just white with some sparkling at the front of it. It seemed to be very low in the atmosphere because of how long and wide the streak was."
"I see meteorites and shooting stars at least two or three times a week and have never in my life observed one this huge or bright. I will definitely remember it the rest of my life. It would be nice, though, to hear from anyone else who may have seen it." (Email Interview)
COUPLE SEES BIZARRE UFO OVER PITTSBURGH SUBURB
On Tuesday, July 7, 1998, at 8:42 p.m., a couple in Ross Township, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh, "were observing the beautiful sunset. They were looking toward the western sky and noticed a black object above the top of some clouds that appeared to be stationary."
Looking at the object through a pair of World War II surplus U.S. Navy binoculars, the man said the UFO "was very high up" and "looked like the fuselage of a large aircraft but with no wings or rotor blades visible. As they watched the object appeared to slowly rise in altitude."
"Through the binoculars, the object looked like a helicopter fuselage, but again with no rotor blades or any lights visible. On top of the object, however, were two long projections described by the witness as looking like 'two big balloons' or 'like great lollipops.'"
"As the witnesses watched over the next several minutes, the object began turning from side to side... While the object was making these front-to-rear turns, the witness was able to see more of the long appendages and the top and underneath."
"After about six to ten minutes, the object seemed to pick up speed, still moving north, and the object was lost from sight behind the trees." (Many thanks to Pennsylvania ufologist Stan Gordon for this report.)
UFO TRAILS JETLINER OVER PENZANCE, CORNWALL
On Tuesday, June 30, 1998, David A. Dunworth, his wife and a friend were near Mounts Bay, in Penzance, Cornwall, UK when they sighted an unusual object in "the clear blue sky" at 9:10 a.m.
"Myself, my wife and a friend of ours witnessed a small circular white object trailing a jet. The object was about the size of an O on our keyboard and appeared to be circling an aircraft on route to London or Europe," i.e. heading east.
"The O-shaped object was bright white in colour and moved in the same direction as the jet (easterly) about one inch in an arc above the tail of the jet. We all watched as the object slowly circled the jet above the fuselage. The jet continued, probably unaware of their companion circling above them. As we watched, the object began to fade in colour and eventually disappeared all together, as if it had somehow disintegrated."
Penzance is located about 180 miles (288 kilometers) southwest of London. (Many thanks to Steve Wilson Sr. for this news story.)
ARIZONANS HUNT FOR BLACK HELICOPTER BASE
Persistent reports of black helicopters over Sedona, Arizona (population 7,720) have some local residents combing the nearby red rock canyons in search of a secret base.
Justin A. Tribble of Citizens for UN Base Disclosure (CUNBD) reported that Sedona, the site of a recent UFO encounter, had been visited by black helicopters several times since a flurry of overflights back in April.
On July 6, 1998, Justin reported on his website, the group came into possession of a document dated April 10, 1998 that refers to unusual military operations in the Sedona area.
In particular, the document mentions "operational bases in Verde Valley," "Area 38 in Casper (sic) Mountain," underground facilities near the towns of Hope and Parker, and "Operation White Sword Headquarters between Sterling and Sign (sic) Canyon."
CUNBD pointed out the areas are known locally as Casner Mountain and Bear Sign Canyon.
The group was recently contacted by a Sedona hairdresser named Diane, who wrote, "Do you know where Sycamore Canyon is? Going toward Cottonwood on U.S. Highway 89A, turn right on Loy Butte Road and go as far back as you can. Once you reach the base of the mountain, you have to find the first trail that goes up and over the mountain. From there, all I know is that the 'base' is in that little valley."
Diane told the group that a friend of hers, a 21-year- old local man known as "Hot Shot," had made the climb with some friends and some night vision equipment. "When they went out there, it was late at night, and there were black Humvees, and with their night vision equipment they could see the opening into the old volcano where they keep the black helicopters."
Tribble commented, "We assume the area she's referring to is Sycamore Pass...between Casner Mountain and Black Mountain. There is, in fact, a 'little valley' as she describes, beyond the pass that leads into Sycamore Canyon." (Many thanks to Justin A. Tribble and CUNBD for this news story.) (Editor's Comment: Although this sounds like the usual black helicopter hearsay, I found the reference to an "Operation White Sword" intriguing. Last month's NATO amphibious training exercise near Stephenville, Newfoundland, Canada had a component called Gold Sword 4. See The Western Star of Newfoundland for June 17, 1998. Also, "Gold" and "Sword" were two of the beaches in the 1944 D-Day invasion of Normandy.)
EAGLE-NET WEBMASTER DESCRIBES SITE SHUTDOWN
The disappearance of EagleNet and its popular cyber-newspaper, Kent Steadman's CyberSpace Orbit, continues to generate controversy.
In a letter to UFO Roundup, EagleNet webmaster Todd Jumper described the sudden disappearance of the website from the Internet.
The EagleNet site, Todd reported, "is up and running again. I would like to share more information as to why it was shut down and the possibility of foul play."
"As soon as EagleNet was shut down, I contacted my server administrator. When I first contacted them, they were not sure why EagleNet was shut down." Then, he added, the server explained that "it was pointing to the wrong IA address and with the possibility that someone had been tampering with the server."
"Tech support told me that they would have EagleNet running again in a few hours. But instead these hours turned to days and then to about two weeks. I repeatedly contacted them every day by phone and email several times a day."
"Every time they either would not respond or refused to talk to me about the problem but confided that the server had been shut down but would not explain to me why."
On Sunday, July 5, 1998, Todd asked one of his assistant webmasters to contact Saturn Services Tech Support and pretend to be interested in a website. The assistant webmaster soon turned the conversation to EagleNet.
According to Todd, Tech Support reportedly told his assistant webmaster that "EagleNet had violated the policies and web traffic" guidelines and that "this account did not have unlimited traffic."
"This is not true, and we never violated any policies," Todd wrote, "They also told him they were concerned with Kent Steadman's CyberSpace Orbit and that it was bringing in too much traffic, which they claimed was 15 gigabytes, an amount which I find hard to believe."
Todd also asserted that NASA had asked "Kent Steadman and myself to remove certain images before and after the EagleNet server was shut down."
"When EagleNet was reactivated the past week... someone within EagleNet released a virus which went through our mailing list and caused several of our members' computers to crash."
On Thursday, July 9, 1998, EagleNet was restored, Todd added, and he alleged that "I have also received new threats from someone claiming to work for the CIA." (Email Interview)
DOWNLOADED SOHO IMAGES SHOW STRANGE OBJECT
UFO Roundup reader K. G. of Texas viewed video clippings of the controversial images from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), with which NASA lost contact two weeks ago.
The images were posted in Kent Steadman's CyberSpace Orbit and on a website operated by I Wonder Productions.
K.G. described the UFO as "a spherical object with a line through the middle...There are different theories as to what it is--Saturn, a ball of (solar) plasma, or an alien cruiser."
"To the right of the sun is a spherical object with a horizontal line running through it. The entire object moves from right to left (in the video--J.T.) Before a solar flare erupts, a long vertical line appears to the left of the object, almost as if a shielding mechanism was engaged. The shield-like object appears to turn with the object and disappears when the flare dies down."
Sites where the "mystery object" video was available include the following:
(1) http://www.eagle-net.org/phikent/sun/06-12anx.gif
(2) http://www.eagle-net.org/phikent/sun/06-20c2an.gif
A still image could be found at http://www.eagle-net.org/phikent/sun/06-11det.jpg
(Email Interview)
(Editor's Comment: How about that. Another Saturn-shaped object, just like the one seen by amateur astronomer Chuck Shramek in November 1996. (See UFO Roundup, Volume 1, Number 38) What is this!? The return of the Hale Mary?) ...
from the UFO Files...
1947: UFOs CHASE A SMALL PLANE OVER UTAH
"On the clear sunlit afternoon of July 12, 1947, Earl 'Skip' Page, his wife, Beulah, and their nine- year-old son, Ronald, were flying a two-seater (private plane) from Las Vegas (Nevada) to Salt Lake City" when they nearly collided with a squadron of UFOs high above Utah Lake.
"At roughly 3:30 p.m., a group of silver-colored, disc-shaped objects zipped past the Pages' plane, coming within 50 feet of the aircraft at the same altitude."
Fifty-one years later, Beulah, now 82, and Ronald, 60, vividly remember the encounter.
"'At first we thought it was birds. We just saw the movement,' Beulah, a Salt Lake native said in a telephone interview from her home in Olympia, Wash. 'My husband turned the plane to where they were going and they zoomed away like crazy. It got kind of scary when we turned toward their direction. They just disappeared.'"
"The entire sighting lasted only a few minutes. The Pages didn't notice markings, windows or even how many objects were in the cluster. Ronald thinks there might have been three."
"'There was definitely something there,' said Ronald, who was squeezed in between his parents but had a good view of the sky. 'Those were the days before we had jet airplanes or anything like that. I'd seen fighter aircraft in those days, but they weren't anything like what we saw.'"
Arriving in Salt Lake City, the Pages told their story to relatives and friends. But, fearing ridicule, they declined to share it with the media.
"'I remember it made them nauseous because they didn't know what it was,' said Marilyn Page, Beulah's niece, who lives in Wyoming. 'It was just something completely new they'd never seen. It was kind of a shock."
Earl Page was born in Bountiful, Utah in 1911. In 1943, he moved his family from Salt Lake City to Hanford, Washington to work as an electrical engineer at the USA's then-secret plutonium processing plant in Hanford, Washington state. Page was maintenance supervisor at Hanford when he died of a heart attack in 1960.
Interestingly, the Hanford plant itself was visited by two daylight disc UFOs in 1953. (See the Desert News of Salt Lake City for July 6, 1997, "Family saw silver discs zipping through Utah's skies" by Zack van Eyck. Many thanks to Lou Farrish of UFO NEWSCLIPPING SERVICE for this story.)
FUN UFO WEBSITES: Citizens for UN Base Disclosure have a website at this URL--http://users.sedona.net/~redstone/6315.htm
Be sure to check out the news and features available at our parent site, UFOINFO. Drop in anytime at http://ufoinfo.com
Back issues of UFO Roundup can be accessed and downloaded at our webpage. Help yourself to the archive at http://ufoinfo.com/roundup
To our readers in France--Alain, Michel, Franck and Thierry--enjoy the Bastille Day holiday on Tuesday. Et, Michel, bonne chance en Montpezat.
Join us next weekend for more saucer news from "the paper that goes home--UFO Roundup. See you then.
UFO ROUNDUP: Copyright 1998 by Masinaigan Productions, Inc. Readers may post news items from UFO Roundup on their websites or in newsgroups provided that they credit the newsletter and its editor by name and list the date of issue in which the item first appeared.
