UFO ROUNDUP Volume 7 Number 24
Volume 7
Number 24
June 11, 2002
Editor: Joseph Trainor
E-mail: Masinaigan@aol.com
ALIENS LAND AT A SCHOOL IN SOUTHERN TURKEY
A UFO landed behind a primary school in southern Turkey on Wednesday, June 5, 2002, and more than one alien emerged from the craft.
The incident was witnessed by 45 people.
The witnesses were in the Santral district of Antalya, a seaport city on the Mediterranean located about 210 kilometers (126 miles) southwest of Ankara, the national capital. According to the Sirius Space Sciences Research Center, the witnesses "saw a UFO" pass over Antalya, followed by a "landing in the backyard of the Fatima Pirilti Primary School and saw an alien being getting out of the craft."
Murat Esici, age 11, an eyewitness, said, "He (the occupant) was emitting red rays from his eyes. His hands and feet were iron. He had a very big head, and he was 1.8 meters (6 feet) tall."
Sirius director Haktan Akdogan reported, "Murat was crying at the principal Halil Aldemir's office. It is said that he (the boy) lost his voice after his sighting."
"Students Zeynep Cipinar and Malan Donmez also claimed that they saw an unusual craft and an alien beside it. 'His eyes and hands were red,'" they reported, "'and a red light was emitting from his eyes.'"
The children "observed some alien beings getting out of the UFO. Murat, Zeynep and Malan explained the details to the principal of the school, Halil Aldemir, and described the alien they saw. The children were overcome with shock."
Akdogan interviewed the governor of Antalya, Ertugrul Dokuzoglu, by telephone and then flew to the southern city to interview the witnesses. (See the Turkish newspapers Milliyet and Aksam for June 6, 2002. Many thanks to Haktan Akdogan for this news report.)
(Editor's Note: Curiously, Jenny Laplante, 17, one of the eyewitnesses in the January 2002 UFO sighting in Inkerman, New Brunswick, Canada reported having a strange dream afterward about an alien with a big head and red eyes. See UFO Roundup, volume 7, number 10 for March 5, 2002, "UFOs sighted by many in New Brunswick, Canada," page 1. Are "the Redeyes" the latest alien race to visit Earth?)
SMALL GREEN ALIEN SEEN IN CENTRAL ARGENTINA
"The presence of a 'dwarf' or 'green midget' wandering the backyards of many neighborhoods in General Acha," a small city in Argentina's La Pampa province about 400 kilometers (250 miles) southwest of Buenos Aires, has been the latest subject of conversation. It appears to be a short green entity which runs away with haste when detected."
The small green humanoid turned up last week in the midst of the cattle mutilation scare still raging in the General Acha region. (See the following cattle mutilation story for the latest news from General Acha--J.T.)
"A resident of the barrio El Oeste (neighborhood) informed this newspaper (La Arena) that the entity appeared twice on her property, once in the morning and once in the afternoon."
"According to the woman, her husband was resting on both occasions, but when he reported to the backyard following his wife's screams, the mysterious entity vanished by rapidly climbing up a tree. While the man did not see the 'dwarf,' he gave his spouse the benefit of the doubt, stating that he has known her for 40 years and can vouch for her physical and mental health."
"All the witnesses agree that the entity is short in stature. Another resident stated that it moved so quickly that it was hard to describe it. The fact is that this entity, described as 'a green dwarf,' is causing a stir in the city (General Acha), and its manifestations have been the subject of conversation in many circles. The stories have already captivated radio audiences, and interest and curiosity about the subject continues to grow as time goes by." (See the Argentinian newspaper La Arena for June 6, 2002, "Strange dwarf reported in cattle mutilation area." muchas gracias a Scott Corrales, autor de los libros Chupacabras and Other Mysteries y Forbidden Mexico, y tambien Gloria Coluchi para eso articulo de diario.)
MORE CATTLE MUTILATED NEAR GENERAL ACHA
"Two more cows were found dead yesterday (Sunday, June 2, 2002) under very strange circumstances in a field owned by Mario Horacio Guinder some 15 kilometers (9 miles) away from General Acha, to the east of the city."
"As in earlier cases, the animals were missing certain organs." (For more on Argentina's surge of cattle mutilations, see UFO Roundup, volume 7, number 19 for May 7, 2002, "Three cattle mutilations reported in Argentina," page 1; UFO Roundup, volume 7, number 22, for May 28, 2002, "Another cow mutilated in central Argentina," page 4; and UFO Roundup, volume 7, number 23 for June 4, 2002, "Cattle mutilations spread in Argentina," page 1.)
"No traces were found on the premises, and the cause of death remained a mystery at the close of this edition. The two animals were found some 500 meters (1,650 feet) away from each other. Police authorities and a professional veterinarian went to the site and were stunned by the fact that one of the cows had an embryo 'cleanly' removed from its womb 'as though some type of laser beam had been used,' according to the veterinarian."
A couple of days later, "another dead cow was found mysteriously slain in a field in the Quehue region. The event occurred this time at the 'La Gilardina' ranch, located approximately 10 kilometers (6 miles) south of General Acha. The animal was missing certain organs as in similar cases, which now add up to more than ten."
"In an interview with La Arena, the officer in charge of the Quehue police station, Julio Acosta, stated that at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday (June 4, 2002), Angel Junco, the foreman at La Gilardina ranch, reported having found a dead cow that was white and drained of blood, missing the right half of its jaw, tongue, right eye and all of its udders. But unlike other cases, the animal had been completely hollowed out because its lungs were also missing."
"According to the information provided by Acosta, the event would have taken place during the early morning hours on Tuesday since Junco had been roaming the premises the day before and didn't come across anything unusual."
"The police investigation is under the command of Quehue deputy sheriff Julio Acosta from the police station located along Provincial Highway 18."
"Meanwhile, a resident of Quehue reported that at 10:30 p.m. on Monday night (June 3, 2002), when the (mutilation) event might have taken place, he had witnessed several intense lights in the direction of La Gilardina." (See the Argentinian newspaper La Arena for June 6, 2002, "Another dead cow found in the Quehue region." Muchas gracias a Scott Corrales y Gloria Coluchi para eso articulo de diario.)
FAMILY VIDEOTAPES UNUSUAL UFO OVER ISTANBUL
"While filming lightning scenes with his amateur videocamera, in the Anadolu Hisari section of Istanbul," the largest city in Turkey, "Saffet Sap, 42, an electrical engineer, and his sister, Serpil Sap, managed to capture an unusually-shaped UFO on their videotape."
"Sap explained, 'On (Sunday) the 26th of May (2002), at around 6:30 p.m., I was filming lightning strikes on my amateur camera, at a distance of about two kilometers, over Anadolu Hisari. At first I thought it was either a kite or a plane. Then the stationary object began to ascend in the air. It had seven or eight legs. There were green, yellow and red lights flashing on top of the object. Green smoke was also emitted from underneath towards the rear of the object. The object moved overhead and followed a very (straight) linear path towards the north.'"
"After hovering for a while, the unknown object departed slowly behind a hill. The witnesses watched it until it was out of sight. The entire spectacle lasted for three-and-a-half minutes."
Sirius Space Sciences Research Center analyzed the Sap video, center director Haktan Akdogan said, and ascertained a number of additional facts as a result.
One, "the object was inside the atmosphere, hovering at about 1,500 to 2,000 meters (4,950 to 9,900 feet) above the ground."
Two, "this unusually-shaped UFO appeared to have a row of round portholes (maybe ten of them--H.A.) around the outer edge, but they were not lit up."
Three, the UFO "was rotating around its own axis."
"It was also found that the object remained stationary from time to time and then started moving again, which challenges the law of gravity," Akdogan added.
(Many thanks to Haktan Akdogan and Sirius Space Sciences Research Center for this report.)
ORANGE FIREBALL STARTLES A MOTORIST IN GERMANY
On Saturday, June 1, 2002, the witness M.M. was driving on a road in the Schwarzwald just outside Wollbach in Baden-Wurtemberg state in Germany when a strange orange glow caught his attention.
"I saw the fireball in the village of Wollbach, near the city of Lorrach and the borders of France and Switzerland," M.M. reported, "The evening I saw the fireball, the orange lights were so large and so low that I initially thought it was some kind of street lamp. Then I pulled over and watched as the light rose slowly into the air and streaked across the sky."
It was the most bizarre thing I've ever seen," he added, "I have no idea what it was. Has anyone else seen anything like this?"
Wollbach is located about 45 kilometers (27 miles) northeast of Basel, Switzerland. (Email Form Report)
SILVER DISC HOVERS OVER A POWER PLANT IN VENEZUELA
On Monday, June 3, 2002, "at 7:42 p.m., there (was) a UFO over the electricity-generating plant located in Bello Monte," a suburb of Caracas, the capital of Venezuela.
According to Venezuelan ufologist Martha Rosenthal, who received a phone call as the incident was happening, eyewitness Ricardo Delgado, age 11, said, "It is a flattened shiny disc with lights. They look like stadium lights--enormous--red, yellow and white, with quick color changes. The red color brightens, then dims."
Ricardo's "brother George, 16, and sister, Penelope, 14, also saw it. The object was stationary at first and then balanced smoothly until it disappeared and reappeared. This (sequence) occurred twice."
"His father, Enrique Delgado, claims it was not a satellite. The object's movement or displacement (first) drew their attention. Even though Ricardo has seen these (UFOs) at other times, he nonetheless remains very excited." (Muchas gracias a Scott Corrales y Martha Rosenthal de CEINPLA para esas noticias.)
SENSATIONAL FOSSILS FOUND NEAR LAKE ONTARIO
"Scientists investigating an abandoned quarry in Canada have found what appear to be the oldest known footprints of terrestrial creatures--foot-long (30 centimeter-long) critters resembling modern bugs that crawled from the sea onto the land and left tracks in sand dunes."
"The sandstone is 480 million to 500 million years old. Scientists believe the discovery region--just north of Lake Ontario outside Kingston, Ontario," Canada--"was a sandy beach on a primordial sea."
"The find, the scientists say, pushes back the colonization of land by about 40 million years and puts it in or near the late Cambrian Period, when the seas were starting to boil with large creatures."
"The tracks were saved from oblivion when quarry crews shunned the sandstone as unsuitable for commercial use."
"In cooperation with the quarry owner, the scientists are keeping the exact location of the find a secret to discourage looters and fossil hunters. The discovery is described in the May (2002) issue of the journal Geology by Dr. Robert MacNaughton, a scientists at the Geological Survey of Canada, who led the team, and five other Canadian and British scientists."
"In the past decade or so, specialists studying old rocks have steadily pushed back the time when sea animals are believed to have first come ashore."
"The date has gone from Silurian Period, which is generally accepted to have started 440 million years ago, to the Ordovician (Period), which started 490 million years ago, to the Cambrian (Period), which started 544 million years ago."
"The Cambrian was characterized by warm shallow seas (like the Arafura Sea between Indonesia and Australia today--J.T.) and the appearance of the first hard-shelled marine animals, like trilobites."
"The scientists said the Canadian find includes more than 25 sets of tracks that crisscross an area about the size of a small basketball court. Some of the footprints are deep enough to cast shadows."
"Typically, the tracks have a central area where the body and tail made impressions as the animal moved forward and parallel areas where rows of legs left multiple footprints." (See the Duluth, Minn. News-Tribune for June 6, 2002, "Canadian find pushes back life's move from sea to land," page 10A.)
(Editor's Comment: This find is really mind-blowing. It proves that there was animal life on both land and sea during the Cambrian Period half a billion years ago, and that these "insectoids" were contemporaneous with the trilobites, previously thought to be at the top of Cambrian evolution. Did both species evolve from a common, unknown ancestor? Are the newfound "insectoids" even indigenous to Earth?)
SCIENTISTS DISCOVER AN INCA RUIN IN THE JUNGLES OF PERU
"U.S. and British explorers said they have found a large Inca town that was lost for more than 400 years in the jungles of Peru."
"'This is the biggest thing I have come across in 20 years working in the area,' said the team's co-leader Hugh Thomson, a Fellow of Britain's reknowned Royal Geographic Society."
"'It felt like a once-in-a-lifetime experience when we found it,'" Thomson added, in an interview from his home in Bristol, UK.
"Working on a tip from a mule driver, four researchers spent three weeks cutting through (rain) forests. At the bottom of a valley carved by the Rio Yanama" in eastern Peru, "they found the site called Cota Coca."
The deserted Inca city is located 100 kilometers (60 miles) east of Cuzco, which had been the capital of Tahuatinsuyo, the Inca empire. The Rio Yanama valley is 1,850 meters (6,069 feet) above sea level.
(Editor's Note: The Incas called this region Antisuyo. Today it's known in Peru as El Oriente or la selva.)
"'It was a very privileged moment. This is a very substantial settlement, but you can pass within 10 feet (3 meters) of a ruin in the jungle and not know it is there,' said Thomson, who led the expedition with Gary Ziegler."
"He said there was no indication why the town had been abandoned and forgotten. There was no evidence of battle or looting, and the Incas appeared to have simply withdrawn from the area after the death of (the last Inca) Tupac Amaru in 1571."
(Editor's Comment: It's possible that an epidemic wiped out the population of Cota Coca, a disease caused by European viruses against which the indigenous people had no immunity. This happened in North America. When Hernando de Soto traveled along the Mississippi River, he found 50 towns and villages. But when French explorers returned to the same area a century later, there was not even a village left. When the Pilgrims arrived in Tolba Meneham (now Massachusetts) in 1620, they found a large town, Pawtuxet (now Plymouth, Mass.), completely abandoned. The leading sachem (chief) Massasoit told them that the population had been destroyed by a sickness.)
"'After finding Cota Coca, we will be going back to the area to search for more ruins,' Thomson said, 'If this settlement is there, there could well be others.'" (See USA Today for June 7, 2002, "Explorers find lost Inca town in Peru," page 11A.)
(Editor's Comment: Hurry up, Hugh. Right now every huaquero in Cuzco is talking about the giant golden idols, stacks of jewels and the legendary lost treasure of Atahualpa, all just lying around, waiting to be found in that Nuevo El Dorado, the Rio Yanama valley.)
From the UFO Files...
1908: UNFORGETTABLE FRANCISCO MARTO
June 11 marks the birthday of this son of Portugal, who in the last century has been making a strange odyssey from shepherd to UFO eyewitness to saint.
Francisco Marto was born on June 11, 1908 in Aljustrel, a vellage in the Serra da Aire of central Portugal, the son of Manuel Pedro Marto and Olimpia de Jesus dos Santos de Rosa. He was the youngest son and the ninth child to come along in the sizable Marto family.
It's conceivable that, had he lived, Francisco might still be alive today, on his 94th birthday. His cousin, Lucia Abobora dos Santos, the sole survivor among the youthful "seers of Fatima" turned 95 three months ago, and she's still living.
"Francisco was very much like his father. He was a handsome child with fine steady eyes and was generally amiable, considerate and polite."
Speaking of him in 1946, his father recalled, "He was never afraid of anything, either. He would go out boldly on the darkest and foggiest night, when others of his age would shrink from the vast unknown of the Serra. Or he would catch wild rabbits and foxes and make pets of them." And then with a touch of regret, he added, "What a man he would have been!"
He had a natural knack for music. "Francisco would sit on a stone in front of the Abobora cottage and play a tune on his pifaro, a little wooden fife that he treasured. Then he would follow them (cousin Lucia and sister Jacinta) to the threshing floor near the well, and watch with them until the stars began to come out...The glint of sunlight on drops of dew or on the gilded surface of a pond, the ruddy glare of late afternoon on the windows of houses in a neighboring village--anything of this sort was enough to make him cheerful for the rest of the day."
"Considering his (young) age there was a great deal of the detachment and the serenity of the saints in Francisco...This indifference was his chief defect, in Lucia's opinion, and was probably the reason why other children did not care much to play with him."
On March 11, 1910, along came the eleventh child in the Marto household, Jacinta, Francisco's younger sister and lifelong sidekick. As Lucia wrote in her 1937 memoir, "A very different person was the capricious and willful Jacinta, so much so, that no one would ever have suspected they were brother and sister, had they not resembled each other so noticeably, with their dark brown eyes, their well-spaced features, the firm comely mouths, the curve of their cheeks. But in temperament, no."
Although the Marian apparitions brought him to world attention in 1917, Francisco's involvement with the paranormal began just over a year earlier, in the late spring of 1916, when he was eight years old and Jacinta was six.
"The three children had led their sheep" into a grotto on the side of O Cabeco (Portuguese for The Head), a promontory at Cova da Iria, near Fatima. "Suddenly, a gust of wind startled them. Instinctively they turned about toward the plain, for around them everything was calm."
"Above the olive trees that covered the slope below them they saw a dazzling light, and in the midst of it, coming toward them, a human form. It was white, whiter than snow, and it seemed like a crystal statue radiant throughout with sunlight. As it drew nearer, they could make it out to be a youth of fourteen or fifteen, superhumanly beautiful."
Approaching the children, the entity said, "Do not be afraid. I am the Angel of Peace. Pray with me."
After praying for an end to the then-raging World War I, the angel instructed Francisco, Lucia and Jacinta to return to Cova da Iria on a monthly basis.
Unknown to the children, however, others in the region had also seen the entity. In July 1946, Maria da Freitas, the daughter of a famous editor of the newspaper O Seculo, said "that long before she had heard anything about the apparitions at Fatima, a woman of the district repeated to her an apparently absurd tale brought home by her daughter, who said she and some others had seen 'a white man without any head floating in the air.'" (Editor's Comment: The senora's father, of course, initially refused to print these reports in O Seculo, lest they "impede the progress of the socialist revolution." Which appears to be the sad fate of most paranormal phenomena, for as Charles Fort pointed out, the scissors is mightier than the pen AND the sword.)
Three more angel visitations followed. And then, on Sunday, May 13, 1917, while tending the sheep at the Cova, the children "were startled by a flash so brilliant that they took it to be lightning. Without stopping to ask how it could have come from a cloudless sky, they ran helter-skelter down the slope toward a certain (evergreen) oak, or carrasqueira, about a hundred yards or more southwest of where they'd been playing. They had just found shelter under its thick, wide-spreading foliage when there was a second flash of light. Again frightened, the children left the tree and darted toward the east, a distance of perhaps another hundred yards. Then they stopped in amazement. For just before them, on top of a small evergreen called the azinheira--it was about three feet (0.9 meters) high, and its glossy leaves had prickles on them, like cactus--they saw a ball of light. And in the center of it stood a Lady."
Although she did not identify herself until much later, the Virgin Mary (birth name: Miriam bat-Joachim) urged Francisco and the girls to recite their Rosary daily and pray for an end to the war. She also swore them to secrecy, a secret that remained secret for all of five hours before seven-year-old Jacinta blurted it out to her mother when the Martos returned from a market trip to Batalha.
The news spread swiftly through Aljustrel, provoking mostly laughter and a good deal of amazement, consternation and downright hostility.
"'Did you ever hear anything like it!?'"
"'Such brats! They should be punished.'"
"'It's the parents' fault."
"'They haven't enough switches to keep them in line.'"
And then there was the uncharitable nun, who remarked, "Francisco Marto--a saint!? That will happen when they elect a Polack the Pope!"
(Editor's Comment: Will somebody down there in Purgatory kindly help the sister extract the foot from her mouth?)
The hostility nearly became unbearable for Lucia. Frightened that the family's precarious financial situation might worsen, the girl's abusive mother twice beat her with a broomstick and ordered her to recant. Lucia was mightily tempted to do so.
As June 13, the day of the Lady's promised return approached, she informed her cousins that she would not be returning to Cova da Iria.
"'And how can we go without you?'" Francisco asked, "'If you are the one who has to talk?'"
Lucia: "I'm not going."
Francisco: "Well, I'm going."
Jacinta: "And so am I, because that Lady told us to."
Francisco: "Look, are you going tomorrow?"
Lucia: "I'm not going. I told you, I'm never going any more."
Francisco: "Don't you see it can't be the devil? God is already sad over so many sins, and now he will be sadder still."
Lucia: "I tell you, I'm not going!"
But, in the end, Francisco proved persuasive, and Lucia accompanied her cousins to Cova da Iria for the second apparition. And this time a crowd went with them.
By July, news of the apparitions had reached Lisboa. Magalhaes Lima, the Illuminati's deputy in the region, ordered his subordinate, Arturo de Oliveira Santos, the administrator of Ourem, to "do something" about the kids. Santos, also known as "the Tinsmith," had the police arrest them in August. The children were locked up with thieves, pimps, murderers and alcoholics. But if the Illuminati were hoping the inmates would do their dirty work for them, they were disappointed.
"After that, Lucia remembers," Francisco was "quite the little man, taking care of his sister and his cousin. It was Jacinta who burst into tears when the last hope of a visit from Our Lady forsook them."
"'Our parents will never see us again!' she wailed, 'They will never hear any more about us!'"
"'Don't cry, Jacinta,' said her brother, 'Let's offer this to Jesus for poor sinners, as that Lady told us to do.' And raising his eyes to heaven, he made this offering, 'My Jesus, this is for your love and for the conversion of sinners!'"
Faced with a public outcry, Santos released the pint-sized seers. And the apparitions continued, resulting in the tumultuous events of October 13, 1917, the "globe of light" and "solar miracle" witnessed by 30,000 people.
In the months that followed, Francisco faced a new challenge--making the transition from seer to celebrity. In April 1918, a motorcar--a rare sight in rural Aljustrel--pulled into the plaza. Out came half a dozen women in spring finery and those oversized hats so fashionable that year. Having a pretty good idea why they were in town, Francisco told the girls, "Climb the tree--quick! They won't be able to see us in those hats."
Sure enough, Lucia reported, the trio sat in the branches of a carrasqueira while the celebrity-hunters walked directly beneath them and "never once looked up."
A couple of months later, some enterprising fellows showed up at the Marto home, laid out an array of rosary beads, crucifixes and other religious items, and asked Francisco to bless them. Puzzled, Francisco said, "Why do you ask me to bless them? Take them to a priest. He can bless them. I cannot."
Then he was even more puzzled and a little hurt when "the men departed, hurling insults at him." Alas, Francisco had much to learn about the cash-value of being a celebrity.
But he never had the opportunity. In December 1918, the Spanish influenza epidemic reached this remote region of the Serra da Aire, and on December 23, two days before Christmas, Francisco and Jacinta were struck down.
"During the first weeks of his illness, he could not leave his bed. 'He suffered with heroic patience during the time of sickness,'" Lucia wrote, "'If he was too weak to say (the Rosary), he was much distressed. On certain days, when he could be up and felt strong enough to go out, he would climb up to Cova da Iria."
"Toward the end of February (1919) the little boy's sickness grew much worse. He had to go back to bed. One day Lucia asked her cousin, 'Francisco, do you suffer much?'"
"'Bastante (Portuguese for Enough--J.T.),'" he replied, "'But it doesn't matter. I suffer to console Our Lord, and in a little while I shall be with him.'"
On April 2, 1919, Francisco took a turn for the worse and shortly thereafter received the last rites of the Roman Catholic Church. Two days later, "the fourth of April, at about six o'clock, he said to his mother: 'Mama, look at the beautiful light near the door!'"
"Then his face was brightened with an angelic smile, and without a groan, he gently expired. Born on June 11, 1908 (died on April 4, 1919), he was not yet eleven years old."
Least known of the three Fatima seers, we can say of Francisco Marto what his aged still-grieving father said in 1947, "What a man he would have made." (See Our Lady of Fatima by William Thomas Walsh, Macmillan Co., New York, N.Y., 1947, pages 13, 22, 24, 25, 51, 52, 78, 111, 166, 167 and 168; La Meraviglie di Fatima by Father Luis Gonzaga da Fonseca S.J., Edizione Paoline, Roma, 1967,, pages 18, 19, 94, 95, 116, 117, 122 and 123; The Sun Danced at Fatima by Joseph A. Pelletier, Image Books, Doubleday and Co., Garden City, N.Y., 1983, pages 55, 56, 67, 88, 89, 133 and 134; also Fatima, das portugeisches Lourdes by Ludwig Fischer, Ph. D., 1930. And for Jacinta's biography, see UFO Roundup, volume 5, number 10 for March 9, 2000, "1910: Unforgettable Jacinta Marto.")
That's it for this week. Join us in seven days for more UFO, Fortean and paranormal news from around the planet Earth, brought to you by "the paper that goes home--UFO Roundup." See you then.
UFO ROUNDUP: Copyright 2002 by Masinaigan Productions, all rights reserved. Readers may post news items from UFO Roundup on their websites or in news groups provided that they credit the newsletter and its editor by name and list the date of issue in which the item first appeared.
