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The Disclosure Project

A group of people who claim they have seen unidentified flying objects will soon ask Congress to open hearings into the matter.

Washington, D.C. -- Wednesday, members of The Disclosure Project, gathered to share their stories of UFO sightings before a crowd of believers and skeptics. Even in front of camera's members of the group stood up one by one to tell personal experiences involving what they said were UFO's. Steven Greer of The Disclosure Project said, “in reality the subject is laughed at because it is so serious. I have had grown men weep who are in the pentagon, who are members of congress who have said to me what are we going to do?”

There were more than 20 witnesses, some who had high security clearances at some point in their careers. Most were retired from the Air Force, Navy, Army and the FAA.

Retired U.S Army Sergeant Clifford Stone said he's been involved in UFO recoveries. “I know we are not alone in the universe. I know that the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence. It’s evidence that’s been denied to the American people.”

The Disclosure Project is calling on Congress to allow witnesses to testify under oath in open protected hearings. And, everyone on the panel pledged to tell Congress, under oath, what each one has witnessed.

The last time Congress held a hearing on UFOs was in 1968.

-- (News@search.engines), May 12, 2001

Answers

http://www.msnbc.com/local/fdddov/m42626.asp?cp1=1

UNH prof will testify in Washington that aliens do exist

By ROBERT EMERO Staff Writer

Durham, NH, May 7 - A University of New Hampshire professor will present evidence this week in Washington he says proves that aliens have visited Earth and the government is suppressing breakthrough technology we’ve stolen from them. "The implications of this are enormous," says Theodore Loder, a professor of chemical oceanology at UNH’;s Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space. "It’s going to chance the way we do things on the planet." Loder co-authored a briefing document which The Disclosure Project will release at the National Press Club on Wednesday. The project hopes to convince Congress to holed open hearings on extraterrestrials and pass legislation banning space-based weapons - nothing less than the human future hangs in the balance, he says. Although U.S. government investigations of UFO sightings from the 1940s to the 1980s reported no conclusive evidence of alien spacecraft, Loder said top-secret government agencies have been aware of extraterrestrial civilizations for decades. These "black" government projects are withholding antigravity propulsion devices and nonpolluting energy systems reverse engineered from alien spacecraft, according to Loder. If declassified and put to peaceful uses, he said, this technology would empower a new human civilization without want, poverty or environmental damage. The Disclosure Project said it will present more than 500 pages of testimony from military, intelligence, government, corporate and scientific witnesses, along with supporting government documentation. More than 100 witnesses have been videotaped and a four-hour tape of their testimony will also be presented at the press briefing. "That’s the kind of evidence that is very compelling," said Loder, who claims to have seen UFOs with his own eyes. "As a scientist, I base my science on a combination of things. One is observations." Loder has been a faculty member at the University of New Hampshire since 1972. He has led a number of projects focusing on the relationship between land-based runoff and the marine ecosystem. "He’s a fine teacher," said David Bartlett, assistant director of the institute where Loder works. "He’s a mentor for a number of students, including several graduate students." Despite the respect they have for his oceanographic studies, Bartlett said Loder has not convinced his colleagues of a government UFO cover-up. "I’m not aware of any change in views on the part of our scientific staff," he said. Loder said he has had a lifelong casual interest in UFO phenomena, but began serious study of the issues after learning they were real in the mid-1990s from a cousin who is a brigadier general in the Army National Guard Reserves. Since then he said he has devoted countless hours researching UFO sightings. He said he has briefed NASA and National Science Foundation scientists as well as congressional staff members on this government UFO cover-up. He has given talks and class lectures on the topic at UNH, Rotary Clubs and private groups. Such extracurricular activities are just that, said Bartlett. "It’s viewed as something that he does on his own time," he said. "It’s not endorsed by the institute or the university." In April 1997, Loder attended a three-hour closed congressional briefing on UFOs held in Washington, as a representative of Gov. Jeanne Shaheen. During these briefings he said he met a number of top- secret military witnesses who described events they observed firsthand to members of Congress. More than 20 witnesses will attend the press briefing Wednesday, according to the Disclosure Project, including John Callahan, former division chief of the Accidents and Investigations branch of the Federal Aviation Administration; Major George A. Filer III, former Air Force Intelligence; and Graham Bethune, retired Navy commander pilot with top-secret clearance. "If one person stands up and says something, nobody listens," said Loder. "If a lot of people stand up and say something, particularly if they have these credentials, we listen." Callahan’s testimony recounts a 1986 Japanese Airlines 747 flight that was followed by a UFO for 31 minutes over Alaska. The pilot described it as a huge ball with lights running around it, about four times the size of the 747, according to Callahan. After meeting with CIA and FBI agents and members of president Ronald Reagan’s Scientific Study Group about the incident, Callahan said the CIA agents told everyone assembled, "We never had this meeting." "He said this is the first time they ever had 30 minutes of radar data on a UFO. And they are all itching to get their hands onto the data and to find out what really goes on," Callahan said in his testimony. "He says if they come out and tell the American public that they ran into a UFO out there, it would cause panic across the country. So therefore, you can’t talk about it." Callahan’s testimony also touched on the stigma many people attach to those who claim to have seen a UFO. "The only ones that see a UFO in the TV programs are the rednecks out in the country that are out coon hunting or alligator hunting at night. You don’t find anybody with any kind of smarts or some professional individual saying, ‘Hey, last night let me tell you what I saw.’ They don’t display that in the United States," he said. "So if you talk about seeing a UFO, you are putting yourself in a funny kind of category. That’s probably one of the reasons why you don’t hear about it anymore. But as far as I’m concerned, I saw a UFO chase a Japanese 747 across the sky for over half an hour on radar. And it’s faster than anything that I know of in our government." The witness testimony reveals that the military has shot down extraterrestrial spacecraft, retrieved them and studied their technology in places like Area 51, a top secret Air Force base in Nevada, and Roswell, N.M., since at least the 1940s and possibly as early as the 1930s, according to Loder. "Holy mackerel, there’s tons of evidence," said Loder. "If this was any other subject other than UFOs, which have been debunked very well by the CIA ... we’d be dumping tons of research money into it." Tom McDonough, a senior scientist at the Skeptic Society, does not believe such scenarios, however. "I find them entertaining, but unconvincing." said McDonough. "There’s no really good, hard evidence." The Skeptic Society is an organization of scientists, scholars, historians, magicians, and professors. It’s mission is to serve as an educational tool for those seeking clarification and viewpoints on controversial ideas and claims. McDonough attributed the popularity of UFO conspiracy scenarios to "an emotional longing for something bigger than us ... an older, wiser creature like Yoda out there." Not that McDonough doesn’t want to believe. "I would love for an alien to land outside my door," said McDonough, who is also coordinator for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence at the Planetary Society in Pasadena, Calif. "And I would get in a flying saucer in a minute." In fact, McDonough said that he and most of his colleagues believe there is alien life elsewhere in the universe. "There’s a number of scientists doing SETI around the world and almost all of them believe that extraterrestrial life exists, but I don’t know of any of them that believe they have been here." The SETI project, which no longer receives any government funding, is now sponsored by the Planetary Society and the SETI Institute. Project Phoenix, it’s most well known endeavor, targets sun-like stars with the giant Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico. Scientists sift through the static of space noise it receives looking for alien transmissions. Now nearly 3 million home computer users are assisting them with SETI@Home. This screensaver software analyzes small chunks of the data from Arecibo while a computer is not in use. For information on how to get involved, go to www.planetary.org. McDonough said he even supports the aims of the Disclosure Project. "I wish them the best of luck and would like to see more openness in government," he said. "What we’ll probably find out is there are a lot of Cold War aircraft and tanks in secret storage." But while the group’s goals may be harmless, McDonough said that claiming the planet’s environmental problems will be solved by alien technology is not. "It is a real danger if people think this way because, as far as we know, no one is going to solve our problems except us," he said.

-- (News@search.engines), May 13, 2001.

My kingdom for a line break.

-- Macster (old_friend_w/@new.name), May 13, 2001.