Ufo encounter 253

april/may 2010

253

45th year of publication

this issue: interview with brigadier socrates monteiro

-www.uforq.asn.au bimonthly

journal

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of

ufO

research

queensland

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ufO encounter issue

253

april/may 2010

cOmmittee Chairperson - Sheryl Gottschall (07) 3376 1780 Vice-Chairperson - Gale King Secretary - Lee Paqui Treasurer - Martin Gottschall Public Relations - Sheryl Gottschall & Tino Pezzimenti (07) 3376 1780 Membership - Gale King - (07) 3311 4948 Sightings - Martin Gottschall (07) 3376 1780 Book Sales - Sheryl Gottschall Librarian - Patricia McDougall Committee - Tino Pezzimenti Roy Kalecinski Mary-Ellen Tooma

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ufO encounter

from the

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proGramme Parkview Conference Room,

In April this year, eminent physicist Stephen Hawking announced loudly and very publicly that not only did alien life ‘probably’ (and he used the word advisedly) exist, but that if it comes knocking then we’d better make sure we don’t talk to it.

Stephen Hawking may be a physicist, but unfortunately he’s no psychologist. After he controversially conceded that intelligent life might exist outside the Earth, and after he warned us not to talk to it if we should meet it in a darkened space-lane, he then overlaid an entire gamut of nasty human behaviours onto our alien space brothers. Aliens will think and behave just like us, he opined.

Like the Spanish Conquistadors they would only visit Earth to pillage and plunder.

Of course. Excuse me for spluttering, but as if any of us could possibly imagine the thought processes of an alien mind – one could argue that we haven’t even figured out our own thought processes yet!

So what’s going on? Why this announcement, and why the negative slant that Hawing has placed upon it?

Conspiracy theorists amongst us (and I know you’re out there!) would posit that this could be part of a greater scheme, an evil, nasty and well-executed plan to turn humanity against any possible ET visitations before they happen. In effect, to have us ready with our pitchforks and burning brands well before ET arrives.

But maybe there is another reason Hawking has risked his professional standing in such a public manner? Maybe he knows something we don’t know? …Or maybe he has finally gone around the bend? Some might suggest the latter, given that two weeks after the ET announcement Hawking went on record to say that time travel is possible.

Not the behaviour of a scientist whose career (not to mention book sales) hinges on being taken seriously. And some would say it was only a matter of time – anyone who has spent enough time with their own thoughts for company would understand only too well how easy it is to slip into irrational thought patterns.

I’m sorry to sound so negative when I should be grateful for the end result.

Because for whatever reason, and because of whatever motivations, in one fell swoop a man hailed as the greatest thinker of our time has pushed the thinking of the rest of the planet a little over to the radical side.

He made Joe Blow in the street pause a little and think ‘Hmmm, maybe...’

I just hope Joe Blow and his billions of brothers and sisters have the maturity and intelligence to see past the negative sensationalism and keep those pitchforks in the cupboard.

At least until we’re sure…

ufO encounter

lee

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253 cOntains: sightings.........................................4 interview with brigadier socrates monteiro...............8 ufo case files of russia.......................................15 news .................................................16 There is no shame in not knowing; the shame lies in not finding out.

- Russian proverb 3

marcH - APRIL 2010 Maryborough, March 10 2010, 11.51pm At 11:51pm in Tinana Maryborough Queensland I lay in bed reading a book and glanced out my bedroom window at the stars. I don’t know why but I looked toward the end of my street to the west and noticed what at first I thought was a star. It was far too bright! I made my way to the front veranda and checked again it was no star. I called to my teenage daughter who was on the computer to come and check it out she was quite shocked by what we both saw. The object moved in a motion of a cross up, down, left, right. - blinking red and white and then moved in a clockwise circular motion.

Although this might seem stupid we leaned against the outside wall with our heads touching the wall so we had no movement in our body - we did this so as to make sure the object was moving and not our bodies’ movement creating the illusion of movement. On doing this it made our view of the objects movements more apparent.

Forestville, New South Wales, March 20 2010, 10.20pm I would like to report a sighting that’s just happened 20 minutes ago (10:20pm) approximately. I don’t live in Queensland but I just found this site and thought I should report it just in case someone else saw what I saw, or has seen something like it before.

Our toilet was being used by someone so I went outside to take a leak, and I looked up at the stars as I normally do and this dark black object was going right over my head. It was large – I’m not sure how big, you couldn’t really grasp its size and with the angle I was looking at, it probably wouldn’t be a good estimation anyway. I watched it for about 10 seconds until it had gone so far it had disappeared into the darkness.

You could sort of track it across the sky because of the faint lights on the bottom

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of it. It was weird, the lights were all over the bottom and there wouldn’t have been more than a dozen, but the lights were all sort of connected by beams of light. But it was so dull — if you were to look up at the stars and find the dullest looking star in terms of brightness, it would have been that bright.

I’ve included a basic drawing of it [below] — it all happened so quick that when I realised that it was something other than stars, I tried to admire it and take in its details. I called for my brother and he also caught a faint glimpse of it.

Apart from the picture I suppose all the information I can give you is that it was triangle-shaped, and that as it moved the stars that were visible disappeared until it passed over. I live in Forestville NSW, and the object was heading towards Chatswood, which is a southerly direction. I’ve flown enough and know enough about planes to know that this thing was bigger than an A380 easily. It was pretty quick — it wasn’t really strolling across the sky. Planes that fly over that high don’t go that fast, and there were no red or green lights that would be associated with standard commercial aircraft.

I don’t know if its related, but on Thursday (the 18th of March) we had two military helicopters flying over our house at least three times during the day, and really low as well. I think they were Apache helicopters and I remember thinking how cool it was, but I was intrigued as well because we’ve never had any military planes or helicopters fly over my suburb in the six or so years I’ve lived here. The nearest military base is Richmond, which is about one and a half hours drive away.

Varsity Lakes, QLD, March 28 2010, 7.00pm My wife and myself were sitting on our deck in Varsity Lakes, looking in a north westerly direction over the hinterland at about 7.00pm. We noticed an orange light, looking like a ball of fire. The object gradually climbed from about 3000 ft in a southerly direction to approximately 10000 ft, and then rose vertically until it was out of sight. We got our binoculars, by which time we noticed another object of the same description following the same trajectory. To our amazement another six of these objects followed, taking exactly the same path as the others. We have never seen anything like this before. I am a retired pilot, and ex-air force. I am very familiar with aircraft capabilities and recognition. These objects had no navigation lights, sound, or behaviour of an aeroplane. We are at a loss as to what we have seen — we are the average normal people who are very perplexed and excited by what we saw.

Oxley, Gold Coast, April 10 2010, 11.30am

Diagram of triangular object observed over Forestville NSW on March 20

I just wanted to report a sighting of an usual object in the sky. I was driving down Oxley Drive, Gold Coast, when I looked across to the southern sky and noticed a large white object about the size of a domestic plane. At first I thought it was a plane, and then it

ufO encounter

registered that it was oval in shape. I then looked more carefully at it, and as I did this it disappeared. It was just below the eye level one normally sees a plane.

This happened about 11.30 in the morning.

I drove a bit further along the road to the intersection lights. When I looked up at the sky again there was a black helicopter coming along towards the direction in which I saw the object. I then had to proceed along the road and didn’t see anything else.

Stanthorpe, Qld, April 10 2010, 11.10pm Myself and my partner watched a bright light in the western sky from 11:10 pm until 11:30pm approximately.

We watched the object from Stanthorpe township in the border ranges of Queensland. Its position was west-southwest of the town and it seemed to be situated over the Pikedale Station area between Stanthorpe and Texas. It presented as a very bright light with many luminous colours (blues reds yellows greens and oranges) emitting at very fast intervals. It moved in small smooth motions in a circular downward direction similar to a spiral, then returned to its original position each time.

It was not moving with the surrounding stars as it maintained a relative position with trees that surround our home. It disappeared at 11:33pm. It did not fly away, it merely vanished from the sky.

Stanthorpe, Qld, April 13 & 14 2010 (relates to previous report) Just an update — we have had sightings again over the past two nights approximately 15 degrees further to the north and much further away. One object was watched by my partner and her aunt at approximately 730pm Tuesday 13/4/ 10 to the south of Stanthorpe. It was moving in a slow pendulum style movement until a rescue helicopter heading to our hospital from Brisbane was over the township. The object made several high speed loops then shot to the east at amazing speed. It was emitting the same colourful lights and very bright white lights emitting from one side until it shot off. It was obvious that it was moving at great speed as it took barely a second to disappear from sight. My partner’s Aunt was, until this sighting, a total UFO sceptic. She has now in a week watched three such objects acting in similar ways over the district.

Amosfield area. We ascertained it was moving slowly but in a wobbly fashion, doing the occasional elliptical loop.

While we watched we saw a plane approach to its west, and as the plane got almost parallel with the object the light simply went out. We did not see it after that point. There is definitely some strange activity here at the moment.

For your information some 5 years back my family regularly watched lights around the town perimeter and we did report those as well. It was around the same time of year. Seems they like the cooler weather huh.

Ningi, Qld, April 13 2010 6.37pm I would like to report the sighting of an unidentified aerial object which happened this evening at approximately 1837 hours. The details are as follows: On the evening of Tuesday 13th April 2010, I was standing out on the lawn on the eastern side of the patio at the back of the house at Wattle Grove Drive, Ningi, facing east. With me were my daughter and my wife. We were having a smoke and a chat. The time was approximately 1837 hours. The night sky was relatively clear and the stars were quite visible.

My daughter called our attention to what she initially thought was a shooting star.

She quickly realised that it wasn’t because it wasn’t breaking up and it maintained its trajectory at the same height, course and speed. It was a little hard to see as it had a similar luminosity to a dull star and was about the size of an average star. Its direction of travel was approximately north-west to southeast. It appeared to be very high. Its speed was constant but quite fast for its height. I likened it to a fast jet fighter at low level. The duration of the sighting was approximately seven seconds. During that seven seconds, it travelled through approximately 45 degrees of horizontal arc. Its elevation or height above the eastern horizon was approximately 65 to 70 degrees. It had no flashing lights such as navigation or anti-collision lights, just a dull, steady

white light. There was no sound for the duration of the sighting. It disappeared after seven seconds.

Gold Coast, Qld, April 14 2010, 6.10pm I went outside to try and catch our bird which flew out of its cage and into a tree.

As soon as I got out I saw a HUGE light fall from the sky and it reached the ground before vanishing. I thought it was a meteor or something until I noticed another light in the distance. I thought it was a really bright star or something.

About five minutes later I noticed that the light moved about one centimetre to the left. I wasn’t paying full attention to it as I was trying to get my bird down.

Finally about fifteen minutes later, I saw the light had moved backwards. I decided to walk out the front to see it. When I got out the front the light was gone. It wasn’t cloudy.

South Brisbane, Qld, April 15 2010, 9.50pm I’m in South Brisbane and I’ve just noticed something in the sky that I can’t explain. It’s been there for quite awhile now, looking west approximately 45 degrees vertically there is a constant white light. It appears stationary but it’s clear that there is a series of white lights flashing. At the top of the white light you can see a flashing red light, and just to the right of that you can see a flashing green light. I thought perhaps it was a plane but it’s remained stationary for some time now.

Lismore NSW, November 12 2009, reported April 2010 I am particularly curious to find out whether a car travelling behind me when I witnessed this has reported anything. I would love to speak to them as this has been on my mind.

Driving on the road between Bexhill and Lismore NSW, my partner noticed a big, bright orange-yellow round light in the sky. This object was also noted about 7.40pm in the same place on Tuesday 10 November 2009 by myself, and I had

Stanthorpe, Qld, April 22 2010 (relates to previous two reports) Again last night Thursday 22-4-10 at 6.45pm three of us watched a bright more yellowish light (no colours) pass to the north-east of Stanthorpe over the

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Drawing of object sighted at Lismore NSW, November 2009

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thought it unlike anything I had seen before as it disappeared suddenly behind a hill.

As we drew closer to Lismore, I saw a long, large object with three evenly spaced big bright blue lights along its side behind a grove of trees in a cow paddock. It was about the size of a large shed. [See drawing on previous page.]

As the lights disappeared behind the trees, I pushed my partner and yelled ‘What is that? What is that? Did you see the blue lights?!’

He saw the giant white light illuminating out of the trees from the object, and glimpses of the blue lights behind the trees. Neither of us could explain what it was.

There was another car behind us.

My partner then confirmed that he believed the light he saw to be something strange and suggested that maybe the lit up object behind the trees could be a UFO – which had been my instant reaction to what I saw.

On looking at the paddock the next day, it was clear that it had been recently slashed as the grass was very short, but the paddock was absolutely empty.

Birkdale, Qld, April 26 2010, 6.00-6.45pm Hi, my boyfriend and I were walking back from the shop tonight, which is at Birkdale QLD. There in the sky was a huge white glowing light. As we walked, this light did not move. We walked for a good half hour up Birkdale Road, and it was still there.

Once home I grabbed my binoculars and got in my car and drove down to Thornside to be near the sea, and there it was, much lower over the sae, and way over Wynnum, maybe even Shorncliffe way. I watched as it seemed to be twirling around, and the colours were changing, from red, blue, white.

Without the binoculars, it seemed to be an orange light, hovering over the water.

Gympie, 1996, reported January 2010 My experience occurred in 1996 around November. It was a Saturday night at about 7.00pm. I was in the passenger seat of a car with five other people ranging in age from 10 to 44 years old, travelling from Gympie to just near Tin Can Bay along the Gympie-Tin Can Bay road.

When we spotted a formation of five lights in the sky directly in front of us at about 45 degrees in the air on the horizon, this formation was stationary.

The formation looked like this:

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*** ** If I held a matchbox at arm’s length, that was how much space this formation took up in the sky. We casually observed this as we drove along for the next 3-5 minutes. As we pondered what it was, four of the lights seemed to suddenly disappear and one light was left that then started to do the most amazing manoeuvres all over the sky. By this stage we had parked the car and hopped out to get a better look.

The bright white light continued to do its extraordinary moves zigzagging, flashing from one point to another at extremely fast speeds then stopping, then starting what seemed like another lot of amazing manoeuvres. This continued for about three minutes until all of a sudden the light did the last of these moves and took off at incredible speed away from us towards the ocean and disappeared behind the tree line.

We hopped back in the car adamant we had seen a UFO, because no plane and no human could fly like that — and I say no human as the G forces that thing would have been doing would have instantly killed a person. I reckoned 50 gs.

This sighting is also linked to another sighting. The 44 year old woman I saw this craft with was with a friend of mine a week earlier and they said they had seen a silver disc near the Ginger Factory at Yandina. I find this quite amazing as this woman said months earlier that she would show both my friend and I UFOs at some stage. I look back now and think, how did she know this and how did she seem to be able to predict this? I know this sounds totally unbelievable but it is true - I think this woman has some kind of link with these things. I have not seen her for years but I do think she knew more than she let on.

Kingaroy, Queensland, 1986, reported March 2010 My sighting was around the year of Haley’s comet. I was coming home in the dark with my four young children and I said to them to keep an eye out for Haley’s comet. We lived in rural Kingaroy in Queensland. There were no street lights and the sky was very clear. I stopped the car as I saw something unusual in the sky. I got out and a light came very close and was getting closer — it could have been a helicopter but it made no noise. It kept getting closer and then hovered. I told the kids to get back in the van as I was a bit nervous about it. I then sped home, which was about a

kilometre up the road, got the kids out and this thing was in my sights once again and it still made no noise. It left then, moving very quickly across the sky at a very fast pace — still no noise — and was gone. I went inside told my husband and then rang the local police.

The officer was of no help, just telling me of a story in New Zealand. It something that still lives in my mind and am sure it was very unusual.

Mt Sheridan, North Queensland, 2005, reported April 2010 A number of years ago, about 2005 I think, I was sitting on my verandah at about 11.00pm looking in a westerly direction at the mountains in the Edmonton area in Cairns, North Queensland.

A white light like a white fluorescent ball came up above the mountain top, hovered for a minute, then moved slowly in an undulating up and down pattern for about two kilometres to the north and then slowly disappeared straight down either behind or into the mountain top. I thought it might be a helicopter.

About a minute later a second light came up from the same spot as the first. This was long and thin and looked for all the world to be a fluorescent tube but was about 5km away and I estimated it to be rather large due to its size and distance away from my viewing point. It too followed the same path as its predecessor, except completely unwavering, and disappeared vertically in the same spot. About a minute later another ball of light exactly the same as the first, emerged from the top of the mountain.

It stayed perfectly still for a while then, in an instant, accelerated so rapidly as to appear to have teleported itself to the spot where the first two lights had dropped out of view. This one then did the same in the same slow manner.

By this stage I knew I was observing some sort of craft of a higher level of manoeuvrability than people can build, so I knocked on my next door neighbour’s door to get them to verify what I was seeing. All three of us watched for about half an hour and nothing new happened, and having woken my neighbours they were not impressed. They never looked at me the same again. I know what I saw and it wasn’t an aircraft that man has made or has knowledge of. I spent a few more hours watching the mountain that night and many more nights since, and have never seen anything of a strange nature again.

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stanthorpe Carol Watson - Stanthorpe Skies mosaicart62@hotmail.com 0403 918 336 PO Box 513, Stanthorpe, QLD 4380

1993 Stanthorpe My husband and I used to walk the dog after supper. One evening we were walking along Mount Tully Road and we watched a searchlight beam move over the bush to our left. It moved fairly slowly and came close to us by about 20 metres. But there was no sound at all, no helicopter to explain it.

1999 Spring Bluff, near Toowoomba I went to the property of a man who was a Homeopath who lived on a bush property with his wife, a nurse. They bred Clydesdales and I went to take photographs because I was commissioned to make a lifesized Clydesdale horse in fibreglass. I turned up with my sketchbook and tape measure and they invited us to take tea. he then told me how his Clydesdale mare had been killed an mutilated. The unborn foal had been taken, part of the jaw and ear taken also. He found no tracks or apparent disturbance and although he informed the stock inspector, nothing was done. I had asked him if the remains had been properly examined but he said not. I had wondered if the jugular vein had been opened and blood drained

2009 July/August

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as I had heard that these animal mutilations might have been for blood ‘food’. he didn’t know and only mourned the loss of a friend and valuable breeding animal.

2006 Glen Aplin, 12 kms south of Stanthorpe I had called an ambulance for my husband who had severe chest pains. We lived on a dirt road - it was about 11pm and I stood outside the front door so that when the ambulance arrived I could flag them down.

As I stood idly staring ahead, I became aware of a very bright light, almost squarish, travelling slowly towards Stanthorpe. As I watched it descended and then disappeared. It took about 25 seconds.

2006 Glen Aplin, 10 kms south of Stanthorpe A woman friend who lives on the new England Highway used to sit out on her verandah in the evenings. On more than one occasion, just on dusk she noticed a bright light coming up parallel to the new England Highway, then at about her place they would turn at a right angle and continue on towards Stanthorpe. She would watch them descend and disappear

MAY PUBLIC MEETING FRIDAY MAY 28 2010, 7.30pm

Exopolitics and The Truth: Where Will It All Lead?

On September 25 2005, the Honourable Paul Hellyer, former Canadian Minister of Defence (196367), got up on stage at the University of Toronto's Convocation Hall, in front of 400 people and two professional TV film crews and said the following: "UFOs are as real as the airplanes that fly over our heads". The truth of Paul's words have reverberated around the planet ever since. Exopolitics Toronto, who hosted the event back then, is now known as Exopolitics Canada and is part of a 20+ member nation contingent of the Exopolitics World Network, organized by Stephen Bassett of Paradigm Research Group.

As the founding director of Exopolitics Canada, Mike Bird has a deeply vested interested in bringing about disclosure. Mike has seen 4 UFOs since 1975 and knows they are real. Mike's quest has him seeking to know who ETs are, where they are from, and why they show themselves as they have for at least the last 63 years...

Chermside Shopping Centre X

ce Room

GYMPIE ROAD

ufO encounter

2009 October, Severnlea, about 6 kms south of Stanthorpe Two woman friends had been out for a meal in Stanthorpe and were motoring home; they had not been drinking, they said. As they drove past the Topaz caravan park they notice a bright light slowly going east over the bush at Severnlea, it descended and then disappeared and I conjectured that it may have passed over the Ananda Palli buildings in Back Creek Road. The girl that told me this was quite embarrassed - she said that people would think you crazy if you told them you had seen something like this!

2009 November 25th. Glen Aplin A woman invited me onto her property and showed me the place where some orb like lights danced about - just about 50 metres from her house and she had found this disturbing. Some neighbours about 100 meters away from her moved out last year in a hurry, she told me, because apparently they had been really frightened by something - too frightened to even describe to her what had happened.

These people live close to the Severn River.

UFO RESEARCH QUEENSL AND QUEENSLAND HAS A

NEW VENUE!

MIKE BIRD - Exopolitics, Canada

Level 2, Parkview Conferen

Three people were sitting at Mountview Winery, Stirling Road, Glen Aplin at about 8pm. One was a pilot, and as they watched, they saw what looked like it could have been a helicopter coming from the direction of Mount Marley, Stanthorpe.

The problem with it was that the three lights were a different colour to helicopter lights (as the pilot said). Then, as it came close it totally and suddenly disappeared.

There was no sound.

Parkview Conference Room Level 2, Parkview, Wheller Gardens 956 Gympie Road, Chermside (entry point is opposite Chermside Shopping Centre)

PLEASE NOTE SPECIAL ENTRY FEES FOR THIS MEETING: $10.00 members, $15.00 non-members Further information: 07 3376 1780; info@uforq.asn.au Website: www.uforq.asn.au

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‘UFO technology is far ahead of ours’ says former Brazilian minister of Aeronautics Brigadier Socrates Monteiro "Over decades the military have been reporting UFO activity within the Brazilian territory. However, due to the lack of a reasonable explanation, these reports are left aside awaiting for the time when their nature and the identity of their crew can be understood", says former Brazilian minister of Aeronautics brigadier Socrates Monteiro to Brazilian UFO Magazine.

Introduction The latest military to join the UFO disclosure enthusiasm in Brazil states that the country’s ufologists are on the right path by searching for the official acknowledgement of UFO existence and their activities in Brazilian skies.

Furthermore, Lieutenant Brigadier Socrates da Costa Monteiro admits his wish to know our visitors’ technology by saying: “If, at my term as the Minister of Aeronautics, I were asked to disclose our secret files, I’d have that done”.

Such stance only adds to the list of officials who no longer agree with the secrecy involving the alien presence on Earth.

From 1990 to 1992, during the Collor administration, Monteiro served as a minister. He also occupied different high positions in the Brazilian armed forces.

Even after years of retirement from the Brazilian Air Force (FAB), he maintains his links with acting officials in numerous ranks in the military. As a commander of the Brasilia-based I

Centro Integrado de Defesa Aérea e Controle de Tráfego Aéreo (Cindacta I) our interviewee was in charge of the recording of UFO information for the whole country, especially for the Central and South-Eastern parts of Brazil.

Monteiro reveals that UFO sightings and radar detections were already common much before he took office. He further says that all cases were thoroughly registered by the Aeronautics and some were even investigated.

Having served as a pilot for the Brazilian Postal Service and a commander of important divisions such as the VII Comando Aéreo Regional (Comar VII), Monteiro keeps a vivid memory of his times in the military and talks for the first time about his interest in Ufology.

He further explains how the country dealt with the issue during his times as an officer on duty. Just like any other minister before him, Monteiro also had access to serious information on the presence of other cosmic species in his country. In this interview, he shares some

The brigadier (right) gives his interview to A. J. Gevaerd (centre), and Marco Petit examines recently released official documents

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A. J. Gevaerd Editor, Brazilian UFO Magazine www.ufo.com.br of those cases with the readers. Despite his more than 5,000 hours flying several types of aircraft, his experiences were never onboard, but on the ground with his wife, in Rio de Janeiro.

Brigadier Monteiro was also a commander at the Sao Paulo-based IV Comando Aério Regional (Comar 4), a body in control of South-Eastern air space in Brazil. Therefore, he was in charge of the area affected by the so-called Brazilian Official UFO Night, on 19 May 1986. This incident is one of the pillars to our campaign UFOs: Liberdade de Informação Já. As well known, on that occasion the Brazilian states of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, and Goias were swarmed by some 20 luminous flying circles with an estimated 100 meters in diameter each. Those lights were chased

by Brazilian F5E and Mirage jets which took off from Santa Cruz (RJ) and Anapolis (GO) airfields. “It was reported that those objects reached 4.000 km/h, but such speed is too high for our radars and caused them to loose accuracy”, he states.

In this exclusive interview to Revista UFO, Monteiro reveals a striking occurrence within Cindacta facilities at the city of Gama (DF) when he realized the crew of that object were in possession of highly advanced technology.

Even without authorization and not knowing how to act, his men at the base decided to open fire against the intruder.

But knowing of the incident, the brigadier ordered an immediate ceasefire, “They have a much more advanced technology. We don’t know how they would react to our actions”. Throughout the interview, Monteiro referred to our visitors as a more advanced species, but that didn’t seem to be a comfortable assertion from him. At the beginning of the talk, he called the phenomenon ‘magnetic abnormalities’, “since we lack a more appropriate term”. As the interview went on, the brigadier felt more comfortable and, laughing at his previous interpretation, acknowledged he was always aware of the

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extraterrestrial nature of the UFOs. As a friend of other military involved with UFO incidents, such as former Embraer’s chairman Ozires Silva and former minister of Aeronautics Octavio Moreira Lima, Monteiro confesses his immense curiosity about flying saucers. “I wished I could enter that ‘thing’ at once and see how it is”. He is also said to have made controversial comments on the Brazilian Official UFO Night, an occurrence now brought to light with the disclosure of important official documents by the Brazilian government. The Brigadier is quoted as having stated that “the Aeronautics have been recording these events for so many years” and that UFOs “went from 250 to 1.500 km/h in less then a second”. Monteiro may also have admitted that “FAB recorded the whole incident on magnetic tapes”. All these facts are now further elaborated by him.

The interviewee was open to the idea of other forms of intelligent life, but was also cautious when talking about it. After much insistence from his interviewers, Monteiro admits that not only he, but also other high ranking officers, are quite aware that we are being visited by more advanced cosmic species. “We know that they do not represent any threat. I am convinced that their approach is aimed to know us”. Such words become even more meaningful when uttered by the man responsible for the implementation of the Amazon Surveillance System (SIVAM) and the privatization of Embraer.

This remarkable interview, published by Revista UFO, shows readers that Lieutenant-Brigadier Socrates da Costa Monteiro is another important figure in the Brazilian military to acknowledge the seriousness of ufologists’ mission to research alien activity on Earth. He also expressed his support to the campaign UFOs: Liberdade de Informação Já, an initiative conducted by the Brazilian Committee of Ufologists (CBU). Following colleagues who previously spoke through Brazilian UFO magazine, Monteiro states that official institutions should support ufologists in their task to determine the nature of the UFO phenomenon.

THE INTERVIEW Brigadier, I should start by thanking you for being so kind in receiving us.

My first question is: Have you ever experienced any ufological event, be it in your military career, as a minister, or in your private life?

Well, it depends on what you call a “ufological event”. But I can say I’ve seen things that caught my attention. Even my wife was present at one of those occasions. It occurred at that night in which many objects were seen flying over Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, and Sao Jose dos Campos [The Brazilian Official UFO Night]. She was watching the Copacabana beach from the balcony of our flat in Rio and spotted a bizarre light in the sky. She

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was surprised, looked to me and said: “It’s a flying saucer”. When I saw the scene, especially my wife’s reaction, I joked: “I don’t know what that is, but if you tell someone I’ll punish you. You didn’t see anything, you don’t know anything. If you don’t keep quiet, you’ll get into trouble. I won’t say anything either”. Then I took my powerful Navy binoculars to better see that light.

What did you think that was? As an Air Force expert you must have rejected any known explanation...

Actually, I can’t say what that was.

Ozires Silva had a similar experience that same night. You know his story, right? He was travelling from Brasilia to Sao Jose dos Campos and saw an unidentified light following his aircraft, an Embraer’s Xingu. Ozires was interviewed by a TV channel the next day and declared, “That’s true. The light stood beside me following me for a long time changing from one side of the aircraft to another”. When I heard that I told him: “Now you’re in trouble. You won’t be able to hide it from anyone anymore”. He only laughed. Ozires was a colleague of mine at the military school and is a very close friend. When my wife heard his account, she said to him, “That’s it, Ozires. Socrates and I saw that too”. In another interview he even mentioned that experience I had with my wife. In the end, the case became well known. However, it would be difficult for me to give a personal account on the issue, since I have never seen anything really clear or something I could affirm was not of human nature.

There was never anything I could address by saying: “You are not a human being. You are an extraterrestrial”.

Therefore, I’ve never seen anything like that, but I’ve seen things in the sky which I call “electronic anomalies”.

And what would be “electronic anomalies”, Brigadier?

Those should be phenomena seen in the

sky for which we do not have a reasonable explanation. Let me explain it better, when I was a commander to the Centro Integrado de Defesa Aérea e Controle de Tráfego Aéreo (Cindacta), in Brasilia, there were many cases. As you know, Cindacta has a very sophisticated operational system. At the time of its implementation Latin America had only two similar ones – one was in the Mexico City subway, the other one was in Sao Paulo subway. Cindacta used to integrate all of Brazilian territory in real time by means of a powerful computer system. We recorded everything spotted by our radars and all was kept for 30 days. After that we used to clear the tapes in order to reuse it for new recordings.

Sometimes we had signals on the screen, objects that stopped and moved. We didn’t know what they were.

So we only took notes of all that and, by lacking a better definition, we called those artefacts as “electronic anomalies” [At that time the term “hotel traffic” was not in use]. We did so because they were electronic signals which we didn’t know how to interpret.

Besides this phenomenon, have you ever received any reports from locals about UFO sightings?

Yes, yes. Sometimes people came to me telling of things they had seen, both military and civilians. One case was special, since it seriously involved our facilities. Cindacta had radar and telecommunication facilities based in Gama, a Brasilia neighbour city. The commander in that base was Captain Joao Bernardo Vieira. I had just taken office at Cindacta’s command two months before. So, one night around 22h00, Vieira called me to report that radars in Gama had been spotting strange objects. “Commander, it’s full of flying saucers around here”, he said.

Then I told him: “Don’t be a fool, man.

What’s really going on there?” He

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insisted: “I’m no fool, they are really here, commander. They are throwing stones at us”. Vieira even said some soldiers had shot at the object so I ordered them to stop immediately.

“Don’t shoot anything. Get your people inside the barracks, I don’t want anyone close to that thing”. The objects had glowing lights that changed in colour and moved slowly around them.

This is impressive, but how could the aircraft throw stones at the soldiers?

Do you have any explanation for that?

That I don’t know, I only heard Vieira reporting: “They are throwing stones at us”. I think that a propulsion object may have raised stones from the ground, then soldiers around it might have thought they were being assaulted. Or it may be that pilots in that “thing” propelled a strong blast in order to raise stones and scare the soldiers in order to prevent them from a stronger response. They have a much more advanced technology and we don’t know how they would react to our response. Vieira told me around 25 soldiers were present, so I ordered them to get inside the base and receive a piece of paper in order to describe exactly what they had seen. “They are forbidden from talking to one another and you take measures to enforce that”, I told him. I wanted the soldiers to make their description of the events and Vieira to bring me their papers at Cindacta at 08h00 the next day. That’s what he did.

Did the shots hit the flying saucers?

No. What was the outcome of your investigation? Was it possible to determine what object was over Cindacta radars in Gama?

Well, our soldiers are very primitive. As you know, soldiers are not very educated persons and have difficulties in precisely describing what they see. But it was possible to tell from their descriptions and drawings that they had witnessed something weird. It was something with changing colours that approached them very closely. One of them asked permission to open fire and that’s how the shooting began. All told the same story and I wrote that all down in a report which I sent to the Aeronautics Armed Forces (EMAER). I never expressed my opinion or made any guesses. The envelope I sent to EMAER contained all information I had and it was kept somewhere.

What does Captain Vieira says about it?

I lost contact with him. But recently, in a medical appointment I met a familiar face who asked me if I still remembered.

Before I could answer, the person smiled and said, “I am Vieira, Captain from Cindacta in Gama”. Of course I remembered, although many people had served under my command. “Vieira of the flying saucer?”, I said. “That’s me”, he replied. The funny thing is that it

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happened this week, only a few days before this interview. That was such a coincidence because I haven’t seen him for the last 20 years or so. I even told him about our interview and asked if he would also talk and he agreed, “Tell them to call me.”

Do you have any other case to tell?

Yes. There is another story from a doctor in Sao Paulo. I had to undergo a medical procedure called cinecoronoriography which is basically the ingestion of contrasts in order to visualize whether arteries are open or blocked. I didn’t want to do that in Rio, so I went to Sao Paulo to be examined at Hospital Sirio Libanes whose directors I know. I had helped them with problems regarding the clearance of equipment withheld by Infraero. They imported machines for medical examination, but didn’t have the money to collect them at the customs.

So we entered an agreement: I would authorize the clearance provided that they offer free treatment to a number of poor people. And so we did. They performed well their part in the deal.

Then how about the story you have to tell us?

The day following my exams many doctors came to my room to thank me for that agreement and so we talked.

When most of them had left, one stood in the room and started a chat about UFOs. I don’t remember his name, but he was very straight to the point, “Brigadier, can I ask you a question?” I said yes and he went on to say, “Do you believe in UFOs?” I was surprised and said, “Ah, doctor, that’s a very common question. I don’t know whether they exist or not, people believe what they want to believe”. So he told me he was from a countryside town in the state of Sao Paulo and had witnessed something there at 02h00 from the balcony of his hotel room, “It was a huge thing simply

descending on the city’s square”. I asked what huge thing was that and he replied straight away, “It was a flying saucer!”

Then he looked for my advice on what to do and asked if he could tell his story. I told him yes, he could do as he pleased, but I didn’t want to make any comments.

He described the object and said to be close to it, no more than 30 meters away.

I was impressed by his assertiveness and his will to state that what he saw was a flying saucer. I have never met him again and do not even know if he is still at the Hospital.

Have you heard of any cases regarding UFOs escorting airplanes?

Yes, sometimes Cindacta radars spot strange things. For example, pilots flying the Brasilia-Sao Paulo route used to report sightings of lights following their aircraft.

We used to ask them the usual questions such as the duration of the event, the altitude of the objects, things like that.

Our questions over the radio aimed to get more details on what they were claiming to have seen. Then we reported everything back to Aeronautics without expressing an opinion, which was the recommended procedure.

The procedure of reporting to EMAER was an established guideline or was it done at your own will?

Well, actually we did it like that because we didn’t know what else to do. And we didn’t express any opinion because we also didn’t know what to say. If I told them I’d seen a flying saucer, they [EMBAER officers] would ask me to describe it and I couldn’t describe anything, since they were all dots on the radar screen. So I only used to say, “Look, there’s a light here spotted by the radar. I’ll call it an ‘electronic anomaly’”. That was always the name I used to give to those phenomena, as I didn’t have a better definition to give.

Are there any cases involving pilots and UFOs that you could tell us?

The brigadier examines a map

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Some colleagues had told me about lights which changed colours and followed their aircraft. The lights seemed to come and go suddenly and at incredible speed. I heard many of these stories and researched about some as I’m a curious person. For example, I learned from the USAF’s Blue Book project that many pilots were followed by anomalies. Some of them even lost their lives, such as the case with Thomas Mantell, in January 1948. He disappeared after intercepting an undetected UFO. His aircraft was found in wrecks a few kilometres beyond the point in which he lost radar contact. Some people don’t believe it, some others do. Some people believe these are merely meteorological phenomena. As for myself, I believe that anything is possible.

Brigadier, as you know, the Brazilian Committee of Ufologists (CBU) launched a campaign five years ago aiming to have an official disclosure of government archives. The campaign UFOs: Liberdade de Informação has already achieved good results. On 20 May 2005, we were even inv ited by the Air Force commander, Luiz Carlos da Silva Bueno, to go to Brasilia and visit Cindacta and Comdabra facilities.

Yes, I know. You were received by Brigadier Atheneu Azambuja and were allowed to see some documents in a room.

As I can see, you’ve probably had access do documents from EMAER, who started to disclose their archives. As a Cindacta commander, I sent about 25 UFO sighting statements which must remain there till this day.

Were you ever aware of the involvement of the SNI in cases such as Operação Prato or any other UFO sightings in Brazil?

No. I knew only about EMAER. How about Operação Prato? What do you know about it?

Not much. I only know it occurred in the Amazon, in 1977, and was under Brigadier Protasio [Lopes de Oliveira].

As you know, I was a commander to the VII Comando Aéreo Regional (COMAR VII), in Manaus, and that all happened at the I Comando Aéreo Regional (COMAR I), which is in Belem.

Exactly. Operação Prato was prepared at COMAR I and carried out at the island of Colares, 80km from Belem.

Documents disclosed show routes, formats, and sizes of UFOs. All these [pointing to papers shown to him] are official government documents?

Did you have access to all that?

Yes, we did. These are copies from the originals and tell of all that happened at that time. Similarly interesting are the documents recently declassified which account for the occurrence of 19 May 1986, which had Ozires Silva

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as a main figure involved, the so-called Official UFO Night in Brazil.

That’s interesting. I can see here among the documents regarding that night there’s an incident report signed by Brigadier Jose Pessoa Cavalcanti de Albuquerque.

Yes. In that report he describes how the objects zigzagged, stopped, reached incredible speed, and so on.

It also states that the objects both chased and were chased by Brazilian jets.

I see. Decisions at the time were made by the Comando de Defesa Aérea (CODA), a body responsible for the monitoring of any non-identified objects which could pose a threat to the country.

CODA was the body in charge of the taking-off of Mirages and F-5Es and the interception of intruders. There (CODA) is where the search for anything unusual starts.

Now we know that thanks to this document disclosed by the government. However, there are still some topics missing in order to illustrate that night. For example, you were the commander of the IV Comando Aéreo Regional (COMAR IV), in Sao Paulo, which was the body directly in charge of the occurrence.

Did you follow the development of the incident?

No, I did not. That was the same night my wife witnessed those objects in Rio and I was with her when Mirages and F5Es were launched against the objects in Rio and Sao Paulo. At the same time, Ozires Silva was on his way from Brasilia to Sao Jose dos Campos and witnessed the phenomenon.

As the commander of COMAR IV didn’t you follow on the facts? There were statements published at the occasion which were quoted as being yours.

You were quoted as saying that those facts were long being reported and that FAB was aware of that. That was all published. What do you have to say about that?

Yes, now I remember. What I’m saying is that I didn’t have the opportunity to witness the event in real time. I only knew that radars had spotted unusual objects or, again, “electronic anomalies”. We put that all down in reports that were sent to EMAER, which was the appropriate reporting mechanism.

Did you get any answers from EMAER about that case or any other event reported to them? Also, did you receive any instructions as to how to behave in those circumstances?

No, but I know how they dealt with it.

When there was nothing to say or no plausible explanation to give, the reports were sent to the archives awaiting for the day when a possible explanation could arise.

Do you know if at any given time the government, EMAER or even CODA had established a committee in order to address these cases?

When I was a minister of Aeronautics and received that kind of report, I just did as usual: sent them to the appropriate files containing all of those similar cases.

That was a single folder so that we do not lose the origin of the reports. All was kept there. When we lacked an explanation, we simply waited for it to come up one day. I used to give orders for a research, but it was not an investigation or an inquiry. It was just an informal check-up.

Those check-ups were routine or were applied in only special cases?

It happened only in a few cases, when we consider it worth to investigate.

When the description of the event was a credible one, I tried to search for more concrete data.

How were those check-ups conducted?

I used to send someone to talk with locals from the place where the event occurred.

We talked to people who might be linked to what was reported. We also inspected the area followed by the witness, because such cases normally happened in the rural area or small cities, not in large urban centers. At least this is what we normally got. If I’m not mistaken, it has been happening in Brazil since the 1950s, when officers from Gravataí Air Base, state of Rio Grande do Sul, saw strange objects in the sky at broad daylight. I believe that was in 1954.

Were you already in the military at that time? What was your rank?

Yes, I was a Lieutenant at the Air Force.

The event was registered in Gravatai and caused great commotion, since highranking officials like Brigadier Jose Hernani were involved.

Brigadier, I’d like to return to the Brazilian Official UFO Night when jets were sent to intercept the objects. On that occasion you’ve said that FAB had been recording such cases for years.

You also said that the artefacts went from 250 to 1500 km/h in less than a second, which is confirmed by the documents recently disclosed by the government. What else can you say about it?

My technicians mentioned 4000 km/h, but that speed is too much for our radars. It makes them lose accuracy.

Therefore, we can not really state that they flew at that speed (4000 km/h).

However, they disappeared from radar screens so quickly that Cindacta’s system registered a not much reliable velocity assessment. We could not precisely assert 4000 km/h technically speaking.

What was certain is that the objects were at more or less 800 km/h, then suddenly sped up so quickly that they disappear from radar screens. Our technicians said that happened at 4000 km/h, but I do not endorse this assumption.

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When radars showed that the objects disappeared in that fashion, did you still think of “electronic anomalies” as an explanation?

Well, I still called it “electronic anomalies”, because I didn’t have any other name to give to it [laughing about his own definition].

But what do you think those objects were? What is your opinion?

I don’t think anything and do not have a personal say on that.

Have you ever considered those might be ships from another planet crewed by a superior intelligence?

I’d like to think like that. I’d like to be able to say I believe it, that I’m sure, but I’m kind of a sceptic about things I can not prove. However, if you ask me if I think that is all fabrication, I’d say no. I don’t think this is the case. But the point is I can not say what those things are.

I would insist in asking you: What do you think they are?

I think it’s very hard to say that nothing can exist beyond our knowledge or beyond our world. That would be false.

I wish I could say “they” are there, but I still had no opportunity for a close look. I have no concrete data to give to you regarding those objects. Believe me, I wish I could join you in order to research this “thing”, but I’m in no conditions for that.

As you said before, FAB had been recording UFO sightings. Can you tell of any case which had these same proportions?

Yes, I consider the Gravatai case as a significant occurrence.

Besides the Gravatai incident and the Brazilian Official UFO Night, do you remember any other case in which jets were sent to intercept UFOs? No, there were none that I remember.

Besides, we had the habit of not commenting on things we could not prove. So we avoided talks on those cases because we lacked concrete data in order to identify the nature of those objects. There was also the issue of meteorological phenomena to be taken into consideration. Some balloons might reach incredible altitudes.

You’re right, but Cindacta radars and experienced jet pilots wouldn’t take one thing for another...

Sure, but every aspect must be considered. There is a meteorological phenomenon called St. Elmo’s fire, for example, which is a strong bluish light that can stood still or move. This one is often seen in cemeteries due to the decomposition of organic matter. The gas resulting from it generates a bluish light when in contact with the air. This is what we call St. Elmo’s fire.

There were many reports from pilots seeing St. Elmo’s fire. However, what

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they usually describe are more likely to be associated with ufological occurrences. The foo-fighters in II World War are an example.

All pilots have already seen the St. Elmo’s fire in the sky. I have seen it many times.

It might even enter the aircraft and cross through it. I’ve seen it very often over the Amazon when flying a C-47 or a DC-3 for the Brazilian postal service. I have more than 2000 hours of flight in that region and witnessed many electrical storms, which generate strange phenomena. There are a number of atmospheric effects to be considered – the electric fire or St. Elmo’s fire is only one of those. The light rests at the tip of the helix, then jumps from one side to another before going away. We got afraid of being burned. That happened to me several times. This is why pilots always think, “It’s the St. Elmo’s fire again, get ready” when there’s a light in the sky.

However, not everything can be explained like that, since St. Elmo’s fire is just a small luminous ball inside the cockpit.

There are much larger lights. Anyway, any commercial pilot flying over 10,000 meters have experienced that.

There is another statement allegedly yours regarding the Brazilian Official UFO night. It says that FAB had recorded the event on video. Is it true?

No. Actually the whole event was registered on magnetic tapes, not on video. Radars have the ability to record everything they detect. Then we keep these recordings for 30 days, as I said before. After that we clear the magnetic tapes not to let them pile up.

Even recordings of an event which triggered an interception operation in 19 May 1986 were deleted?

When there’s something like that we normally wait a little more before deleting the recordings. Maybe 2 or 3 months.

After that, recordings are deleted for the reasons I’ve already mentioned. But Cindacta has recorded things like that many times. Not once or twice, but many times. We always prepared reports and sent them without any comments, since we didn’t know what or how to explain.

Regarding this event or any other, have you ever been pressured by foreign governments to share information?

No. During my time as a minister that never happened, or it happened without my knowledge.

Brigadier Jose Carlos Pereira (EMAER) has already recorded hundreds of ufological sightings since the 1950s.

Do you confirm that?

Well, Pereira was a chief of EMAER. Therefore, these materials were in his desk for him to access anytime he wanted.

In recent interviews he states that “it’s time to end UFO secrecy”, and “secret files on UFOs should be disclosed”. He firmly supports our campaign UFOs: Liberdade de Informação Já. What do you think about these statements?

I think there are two possible interpretations. First, we need to disclose the files in order to clarify what the phenomenon is. Second, this is necessary in order to avoid people saying we are hiding the truth. I can anticipate people saying, “the government hides mysterious phenomena from its people”.

This is not true. So files must be opened at once in order to avoid this idea. We can not remain in an uncomfortable position regarding this issue.

Brigadier Pereira says exactly the same. He even says that people do not fear what is transparent, they fear what is opaque instead. He further says that the documents can not affect national security, do not pose a threat to the population and do not harm the privacy of people involved. Files must be disclosed. Do you agree with that?

No doubt about that. Actually, I didn’t open (the files) before, as a minister, because I was never asked to do so. If I were ever asked, I’d have them opened.

Would you do so even though they contain serious incidents such as the Official Night, in which FAB jets were sent to intercept objects of unknown nature?

Yes, even those cases must be disclosed.

Note that jets were launched but could not even approach the objects. We are talking about UFOs [not mentioning “electronic anomalies” anymore], and our aircraft could not even get close to them.

Do you think such impossibility to intercept the objects was due to their alleged superior technology?

Yes, [that’s why] we could not even get close to those things which reach thousands of kilometres per hour in less than a second. Ozires Silva saw that, my wife did, and so did I. As I described before, there was a bright light standing still in the sky. I was watching and waiting for it to turn left or right, but it didn’t.

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My conclusion was that it was flying directly towards me, although it seemed to be not moving.

What did you think that time?

I’m realistic about these matters. All I wanted was to enter that “thing” and see how that works. This idea had already gone through my mind long before.

What do you mean? When did that happen?

In 1950, when I was still a cadet. I was flying a training session over Barra da Tijuca and saw something similar to a balloon, as I can describe it. My trainer saw that as well and agreed that that could be a balloon, but the object suddenly disappeared. Not long after that, the magazine O Cruzeiro published a report entitled Disco Voador na Barra da Tijuca (Flying Saucer over Barra da Tijuca). If you check the magazine archives, you’ll get to the description of what was seen that day. I think that was the same object I saw during my training along with other colleagues. O Cruzeiro even mentioned that a group of aircraft flying that zone might have spotted the object. They were talking about us.

Indeed, a passage in Fernando Cleto Nunes Pereira’s book A Bíblia e os Discos Voadores (The Bible and the UFOs) [Editora Ediouro, 1986], says that a cadet from Campo dos Afonsos would have seen the UFO pictured by magazine O Cruzeiro.

It might be me or any other cadet. I saw that “thing” at Barra da Tijuca, which could be a balloon. That happened at the same time and same place in which the UFO was photographed. To my understanding, that was a balloon.

However, when O Cruzeiro hit the stands the next Sunday, the report defined that as a flying saucer. I didn’t see anything that seemed like a saucer, but only a balloon, as I can describe it. [When inquired about it, the interviewee revealed he was never aware of the controversy surrounding Ed Keffel’s pictures of an alleged UFO. Ed Keffel was a reporter for O Cruzeiro and worked in partnership with Joao Martins. Those pictures are considered to be a hoax by most of the Brazilian ufology community].

Was the object just hanging still in the air? Didn’t it move to any direction?

When you are flying, it’s difficult to observe the movement of other things in the sky. It’s hard to tell if that moved or not.

Brigadier, you already know that our main wish today is having government acknowledgement of UFOs existence as well as the disclosure of official archives. Brazilian ufologists also want to establish a research committee to work in cooperation with Air Force officials, be they retired

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or not. We wish to conduct joint operations for case analysis aiming both military and civil data files. Can we count on your support for that?

Of course you can. Sure. As for the Aeronautics as an institution I think that, if you’re able or lucky to reach most concrete data, they will use you in order to find explanations or collect more information.

How do you suggest we could approach the Aeronautics with such a proposal for a joint work?

It may be by finding out more new facts.

We have hundreds of facts. What we need now is an institutional and bureaucratic breakthrough so that our idea is officially made into effect.

How did you get access to all these information you’ve just brought to show me?

We made formal requests to the Aeronautics and many other bodies as part of procedures put in place after the Carta de Brasilia and, later on, by the Dossiê UFO Brasil [See UFO 155 and 158]. Most of the materials were released by the Centro de Documentação e Histórico da Aeronáutica (Cendoc).

If that was the case, I believe you should follow on the same path. The body you said has released most of the materials is, in fact, the most accessible one to that kind of proposal. I’ll see what I can get to you in that sense.

We thank you very much for that.

Regarding the time you served in Manaus as a commander to the VII Comando Aéreo Regional (COMAR VII), was there any UFO sighting you could tell us about?

No. Despite the intense air traffic in that area, I didn’t get any information of that kind. Roraima’s Boa Vista airport used to be the most requested one in Brazil that time due to mining activities in the region. There were more than 200 daily flights, normally monomotors. There was a huge exploration of cassiterite at that time.

Such an aircraft traffic demands extreme caution on the part of controllers, isn’t it?

Yes. That’s the reason why after two months in office as a minister I took the president to the region and proposed him the implementation of a surveillance system in order to keep track of anything that happens in the Amazon. This is what we know today as Sistema de Vigilância da Amazônia (SIVAM). It was prepared by the Armed Forces in order to monitor the air space in all of that area. The initiative has its civil part, which is denominated Sistema de Proteção da Amazônia (SIPAM). The president accepted the suggestion and the system was put in place years later.

When SIVAM started operations you were not at the Ministry anymore,

correct? Despite that fact, didn’t you know of any occurrence in the Amazon, either through civil or military pilots?

No, nothing. That time there was nothing in the Amazon, only rains.

Regarding the Official Night, there is another question. Some sectors in the press attempted to discredit the importance of the case, while others argued that the Air Force would never launch 7 jet fighters to intercept something of little importance. In fact, an operation like that would be too expensive.

Of course they wouldn’t. However, this kind of interception operation is short.

There’s no interception lasting 2 or 3 hours. It normally takes no more than 30 or 40 minutes. The aircraft goes, checks, identifies the target or not, then returns to the base. But you’re right, the costs are really high.

So you mean the Aeronautics would never deploy jets if the case was not very serious?

They would not, but let me tell you a story. During the conflict in Malvinas islands, in 1982, I was a commander at Cindacta when we spotted an aircraft entering Brazilian air space from the North, through Belem region. We knew that was a Russian Ilyushin flying from Havana to Buenos Aires whose route crossed Brazilian air space. We didn’t know the pilot, but we knew the Cuban ambassador to Argentina was onboard carrying US $200,000 – and that I don’t know what for. The aircraft entered Brazilian skies without contacting controllers in Brasilia. The Military Operations Centre immediately launched two Mirages against the intruder. It was a Thursday, the day before Good Friday, with a heavy storm falling over Brasilia.

The air strip was dark, we had lost the lights. So we put lamps on in order to make the taking-off possible. The Mirage would take off at 22h00 in order to intercept the Cuban aircraft. They ordered the intruder to come back and land in Brasilia, but their pilots pretended not to listen. Then the Mirages turned on their lights behind the Cuban aircraft and its pilots understood they had no other choice. So they returned and landed in Brasilia. What I want to say is that our system for interception really works! [emphatic] However, if the HIlyushin had not landed in Brasília, we wouldn’t know what to do, because none of our authorities would have the courage to authorize an attack against the intruder. Now it’s a different situation because we have a legislation regulating the possibility of putting an intruder down.

On 19 May 1986, Brazilian jets could not force the UFOs to land. The recently disclosed report tells how every jet was launched, what they saw, and how they unsuccessfully tried to approach the objects. There

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were times when they turned from hunter to prey. One of the UFOs reached 180km/h in a matter of seconds going from the Atlantic Ocean inwards at the Sao Paulo coast, then turned back to chase the Brazilian jets.

That’s true. What we see is that one can not approach these objects. During this specific incident the pilots tried many times, but the UFOs simply sped up and left them behind.

Impressive. And all was recorded by ground and cockpit radars. The UFOs were being observed both by the pilots and Ozires Silva.

Those were “visual electronic anomalies” [laughing more each time when quoting the term].

Have you had the chance to talk to those pilots or other military involved, such as the commander of Comando de Defesa Aérea (CODA), Major Ney Cerqueira, now a retired Colonel? Or have you talked to the then minister of Aeronautics, Brigadier Octavio Moreira Lima?

No. I didn’t talk to them because I had no intentions of carrying out a profound investigation on that. I knew it would lead us nowhere.

How did you know it would lead you nowhere?

Because it was always like this, at least here in Brazil.

But researching takes us somewhere, at least.

Yes. One day we’re going to get there.

Sources say that 21 round-shaped objects, 100m in diameter each, were involved.

Such a massive manifestation of UFOs wouldn’t be a threat to national security, to civil air traffic, especially at the time of the occurrence?

No, we knew there wasn’t any threat.

We were convinced that their intention was to know better.

To know what or who? Us? Yes, to know us.

So it means you admit “they” exist and are intelligent beings trying to know us.

Well, they were electronic anomalies [laughing even more]...

At a time when even the government discloses information it’s becoming more and more difficult to deny it, isn’t it?

URU

My friend, I can assure you one thing: if I had any concrete evidence about the reality of UFOs, I would pass it on to you immediately. Unfortunately I don’t have any, but I do know a lot of credible people who experienced the phenomenon and I can give you their names. For example, Jose Aluizio Borges, a general manager to Banco Real. He was at his farm near Campo Grande (MS) and saw a flying saucer. “It was a huge light that crossed in front of us in the middle of the night”, he told me.

So your friend was impressed just like you when you saw that light together with your wife?

Yes. Humans are naturally inclined to look for the unknown. Brazilians have such inheritance from the Portuguese people.

Some 300 years ago, someone called Bartolomeu Gusmao did something incredible. He made a small balloon go up inside the Portuguese royal palace, so that he could prove his point that flying was possible. Before that, when he was only describing what he would do, everybody laughed. Then, when people saw the balloon going up, they started to clap.

Gusmao then asked the king’s permission to develop that means of transport. After him, how many people got inspired to conduct similar experiments? Would you believe that someone thought about that means of transport 300 years ago?

You have mentioned the event within Cindacta facilities in Gama. Do you know of any other case in which UFOs were shot at by the military? Do you know of any jet fighters having targeted objects in the air?

I don’t know any case of that. Actually, at the time we followed the doctrine of nonaggression.

That doctrine was enforced by whom?

By no one. That was just a logical conclusion, once we knew that an artefact capable of such flying manoeuvres could never be hit. It would be crazy on our part to attempt anything against it. We knew that and no one would be fool enough to try an attack. That “thing” could simply pulverize us with a beam of light.

However, we were never prevented from trying to approach the ships in order to see them closely. Actually, all the military were dying to see a UFO at close range.

Was that a formal doctrine within your regulations?

No, it was rather informal. It was a natural behaviour for pilots and commanders.

One would ask, “Hey, would you shoot that?” and the other would reply, “Of

course not. I’m not stupid”. In fact, as we didn’t believe one could get even close to those objects, we never had a procedure to be adopted in these cases.

Brigadier Jose Carlos Pereira confirms that on the Official Night Mirages and F-5Es were carrying missiles. Didn’t they have the intention to fire?

No. They had missiles because that was a mission for interception when all aircraft take off carrying weapons. That was just in case, because if force is needed we must be ready whether to defend or to attack.

Wasn’t there any fear on the part of the military that the jets could be viewed as a threat by the UFOs? Yes, I feared that. I wanted to check, but not to get much closer [The interviewee falls into contradiction, since we previously stated he couldn’t have followed the Official Night because he was in Rio]. Also, how could they know we carried weapons?

Maybe they have technology enough to detect it.

Yes, it can be. Technology is an interesting point. We know that our limit is the speed of light, for now. However, we shall cross that frontier one day. Only then maybe we can understand what is happening today.

Brigadier, what do you say about all the huge amount of documents still held at official archives? What should be done about that?

What should be done is what is being done, that is, the disclosure triggered by ufologists. The government should call for intelligent people who are interested in the subject and put those materials in their hands – or at least facilitate their access to those files.

Do you support our campaign UFOs: Liberdade de Informação Já which calls for the government to open those files?

You can be sure about that! Files must be opened and you should go on with your campaign towards the government in order to make that happen [emphatic].

Then you come to tell me what you’ve got besides what you already have now.

This interview was conducted in collaboration with Marco A. Petit, Francisco Pires de Campo, and Arthur S. Ferreira Neto, consultants and coeditors to the Brazilian UFO Magazine.

All rights reserved. Thanks to the volunteer translator Eduardo Rado, from the Brazilian UFO Magazine team: www.ufo.com.br

publications

URU PUBLICATIONS, PO Box 202 Katoomba NSW, 2780 Phone 02 4782 3441; Email randhgilroy@optusnet.com.au

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ufO encounter

UFO Case Files of RUSSIA Philip Mantle & Paul Stonehill ISBN: 978-907126-03-1 Healings of Atlantis Ltd, Hayes Middlesex England www.healingsofatlantis.com

Review by Malcolm Robinson To my knowledge there are very few books that have been written on UFO sightings over Russia from British authors so it was a great pleasure to be given this book to review. Like most British UFOlogists, I was aware as we all are that Russia too has been touched by the UFO presence and has probably seen more UFO sightings than any other country. This book dots the I’s and crosses the T’s Big Style. It is an enormously researched book which comprises on all you need to know about UFO sightings over Russian from the very early days right through to present day.

The authors have put a lot of work into this book segmenting their case work into specific easy to find chapters. Of course writing a book of this nature does rely heavily (for both authors) on the information coming through their Russian counterparts, and both Philip and Paul have had to rely on the many Russian contacts in their little black diary. Sceptics may question the reliability of UFO information coming through from their Russian counterparts, is it reliable, could it not have been better researched, how do we know for sure that the information imparted is truly factual? Well I’ll tell you this if even a tiny fraction of this book is real in the sense that all the reports happened as reported, then boy we really do have a UFO presence to ponder.

The authors themselves do accept the above, they also are well aware that quite a fair percent of these Russian UFO sightings may well be down to secret Russia Military rocket tests. However, there are enough meaty cases in this book which go way beyond what would appear to be any rocket tests that certainly made me sit up. For me though, what makes this book a cracker is definitely the KGB Files of UFOs & USOs (Unidentifiable Submersible Objects). Then there are the specific regions of Russian which hold mysterious areas where strange things happen. Let us take a quick look at some of the interesting bits of the book that I come across whilst doing this review.

The Tunguska event of 1908 is carefully looked at and quite a diverse series of explanations are pondered over. Whatever it was, it surely was the biggest event of its kind in the world. But was it a flying saucer or something more mundane? As I say a wide variety of explanations are looked at.

Leonid Kulik was one of the main researchers who actually visited the Tunguska event and we learn about his expedition and the problems they faced.

We also learn that in the autumn of 1944 a Soviet Yak-40 aircraft flew over the area of the Tunguska event where its instruments failed and the plane crashed. What could be an early example of animal mutilation

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occurred in the 1860’s (reported in the 1950’s). A man witnessed humanoid ‘beings’ standing next to a cow which had its belly slit open. They seemed quite curious at the stomach of the cow; could this be Russia’s, if not the world’s, first reported animal mutilation? Well if we believe this report then maybe so.

The book moves onto the early years of UFO reports over Russia and we learn that under Stalin’s brutal regime, occult and paranormal related subjects were all banned (although surprisingly Stalin himself had an interest in such matters, so what was the crack there!).

There was little if any material on UFOs and the paranormal during Stalin’s reign, it wasn’t until many years later that Russian citizens started to learn what was in their skies wasn’t all their own technology!

A quite incredible tale of a chest which contained drawings of orbital stations, hangers for spaceships etc, was found in Kiev in 1953 what was going on here? Then there was the Petrozavodsk phenomenon of 1977 where a strange pulsating luminance fell on Karelia. Windows in houses melted and loads of UFO reports were reported in the area, all this and much more occurred in this Russian town. Most people will have heard about Chernobyl and the terrible nuclear accident that occurred there, what some people might not know is that this area has a high concentration of UFO reports.

Probably one of the stranger things that I found in this book was what the authors refer to as anomalous zones where weird things happen. Take for instance the Dalnegorsk crash. Three years after the crash of a strange object in this area, we learn that insects avoided the place; people’s bodies were affected in a whole manner of ways. The area also affected mechanical and electrical equipment.

Again I ask, was it a UFO/Flying Saucer or something from the Russia Air force?

One of the biggest UFO cases that I was aware of coming from Russia was the Voronezh Incident where not only UFOs were sighted, but strange creatures as well! Yet another strange anomalous area where strange things happen is the ‘M’ Triangle and the authors go to great lengths to tell us all about it. Believe me, this is really really bizarre.

There is so much info in this book that I seriously cannot get it all into this review.

The authors look at strange explosions, UFO window areas, buried UFOs ( The Tallin Object), another BIG chapter is the one on UFOs over Soviet Nuclear Installations, wow what an amazing chapter that is. Triangular UFOs are also discussed as are Soviet Military encounters with UFOs. Again, what an important chapter that is. UFOs over Soviet battlefields are also discussed. MIG

jets chasing UFOs are also looked at. You’re not short of some amazing UFO Incidents in this book.

Another belter of a chapter was the one on USOs (Unidentified submersible objects). This chapter contains some amazing cases, most of whom were witnessed by high standing academic people. Then there were the Soviet nuclear submarines who encountered strange sounds which they couldn’t account for. Soviet Naval observers of UFOs are mentioned and several tales by them are looked at.

Yet another classic chapter was the one on the KGB and its UFO Files -- again, what can I say? This chapter really shows us that there clearly is something strange going on. As if the book couldn’t get any better, IT DOES. Soviet Cosmonauts and ‘their’ UFO sightings are looked at, and just like the American astronauts, their Russian counterparts have also seen their fair share of UFOs. Russian astronomers and their UFO sightings are looked at, again these astronomers know their skies and yet what they have seen defies explanation. The authors put together a chapter on some of Russia’s UFOlogists and we see how busy they have been over the years trying to find out the truth as to what is in their skies.

At the end of the day, there is no denying that this book will be a classic in the annals of world UFOlogy. I say this because when you read this book you soon discover that it contains a mountain of research, the ground it covers is extensive. These are not willynilly wee lights in the sky, the vast majority of these cases are complex, they are above nuclear installations, and they have been followed by MIG jets and a whole lot more. Russia as we know is a massive country -- there are undoubtedly thousands of UFO reports that we will probably never know as they may not have been recorded. Thankfully UFOlogy in Russia has grown extensively over the years. Those Stalin years are well behind them and people are not frightened any more to report these strange aerial devices.

Yes a fair percent of these UFO reports may well be down to secret Russian Military/Air Force testing of prototype devices, that goes without saying, but when all is said and done, this wonderful book will show you that the sheer volume of UFO reports in Russia is simply incredible. One thing’s for sure, when you finish this book your scepticism (if you had any in the first place) will surely have gone, such is the masterful research by both authors in providing us with a book that is destined to be a classic.

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CAN Y OU HEAR ME YOU NOW? April 24, 2010 Elizabeth Quill, http:// www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/ 58042/title/Can_you_hear_me_now%3F

The Earth is going silent. Digital television signals delivered by cable and satellite are quickly replacing analogue broadcasts and reducing the number and power of radio waves leaking into space.

For viewers at home, it means more channels and pictures of unsurpassed clarity. But for scientists seeking signs of advanced civilizations beyond the solar system, this sudden radio silence makes the search fuzzier.

Since traditional searches for extraterrestrial intelligence, collectively dubbed SETI, have assumed that the path to intelligence proceeds similarly throughout the galaxy, SETI researchers are now wondering: If extraterrestrials can’t hear us, how will we hear them?

Some serious rethinking may need to be done. Much of the hunt for signals from ET so far has been based on a fading fad — a century-long blip of radio mania — rather than an enduring characteristic of galactic societies.

It’s not just television. Military radar, once the prime outgoing evidence for intelligence on Earth, now jumps from channel to channel, to confuse enemies trying to jam the signal. And the power radiated by cell phones is spread across more than a thousand channels, making the waves — to a planetary outsider — indistinguishable from noise.

“Our improving technology is causing the Earth to become less visible,” says astronomer Frank Drake, SETI’s paterfamilias.“If we are the model for the universe, that is bad news.”

For SETI researchers, that bad news comes after 50 years of no news. Since Drake first turned a radio telescope to the nearby stars Tau Ceti and Epsilon Eridani in 1960, there have been no signs of ET phoning Earth or phoning home — or phoning any other intelligence in the galaxy, for that matter.“We have all seen our little bumps in the night, but we have never had repeated signals,” says Paul Horowitz of Harvard University.

SETI efforts are expanding the search to a wider range of electromagnetic channels, both at radio and optical frequencies.

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Some researchers propose new detection possibilities based on forecasts of what technologies extraterrestrials hundreds or even a million years ahead of Earthlings might possess. Other alien hunters argue for casting an even wider net, challenging scientists to open their minds to any unexplained signals as possible subtle footprints of life from beyond.

After all, now would be an unfortunate time for SETI to die. Evidence for potential life outside the solar system is piling up in the form of planets orbiting other stars. At the time of Drake’s first search, no one knew whether such planets existed. Astronomers have since found more than 400 exoplanets, and NASA’s Kepler mission is scanning the skies to find any that resemble Earth.

“All of astronomy has come to embrace this idea that there must be life out there,” says Gerald Harp of the SETI Institute, a nonprofit organization in Mountain View, Calif., that has been the powerhouse behind much of SETI. The challenge:“Out there” is a pretty big place.

As Davies has argued, maybe discovering ET does indeed depend on a thought revolution. Fifty years of signal-less searching suggests that the problem could lie not with the aliens among the stars, but with ourselves.

If human technology currently scanning the stars is not up to snuff for detecting ET’s messages, then SETI is a waiting game.

But if human imagination is the limiting factor, then a mental shake-up may be just what’s needed to spot an interstellar dispatch amid the seeming silence of space.

RUSSIA TO HALT SP ACE TOURS SPACE March 4 2010 http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/ 1832162/russia_to_halt_space_tours/ index.html

As NASA looks toward the retirement of its Shuttle program later this year, Russia announced Wednesday it will halt its space tourism program and concentrate on getting professional crews to the International Space Station once the U.S. space program folds, according to a recent Reuters report.

Russia, which already sends crews to the ISS aboard its single-use three-man ships, will double the number of its manned missions to four this year to gear up for the

extra crews it will be transporting once NASA retires its shuttle fleet at the end of the year.“This year will see the last shuttle mission, and from this moment Russia will not only become the sole nation sending crews, but ... also the only country ensuring the crew’s safety,” Sergei Krikalyov, the head of the Russian Cosmonauts’Training Center, told reporters in Star City outside Moscow.

“As for (space) tourists ... there are now going to be six crew members, and it will be impossible to ferry a tourist each time there is a new crew shift in orbit, and for some time there will be a break in these journeys,” Krikalyov said.

Krikalyov did not offer a timeline for when space tourism would be picked up again, although he did say it would depend on how long it takes NASA to build a new space vehicle to replace its Shuttle. He said that the U.S. targets 2014 as the deadline, but there could be many delays.

PARIS CAR CRASH: OCCUP ANTS OCCUPANTS DISAPPEARED MOMENT ARILY” MOMENTARIL March 8 2010 http://www.ghosttheory.com/2010/03/09/ paris-car-crash-occupants-dissappearedmomentarily

Details of a recent car crash in Paris are now surfacing after an embargo placed by the authorities on reporting the incident has now been lifted.

Full details are unclear at this time but it is understood that two vehicles were involved in the crash and that it took place near the Eiffel Tower, although the exact location is being kept secret. Parisian traffic police were keen to play down several rumours that have started to circulate amongst those who witnessed the crash and the events that led up to it.

These include alleged witness statements that claim a bright light could be seen emanating from at least one of the vehicles before it collided with the other. In other statements, witnesses walking on the nearby pavement were reported to have seen the occupants of one of the vehicles ‘disappear’ momentarily at one stage.

The Parisian traffic police have denied the validity or existence of the statements and also confirmed that there were four bodies present in the vehicles, two in each. All were male and were said to have been badly burnt in the subsequent fire after the crash.

ufO encounter

SCOTTISH POLICE BELIEVED IN LOCH NESS MONSTER April 28, 2010 http://au.news.yahoo.com/queensland/a//entertainment/7119580/scottish-policeonce-believed-in-loch-ness-monster/

Newly released documents on display in Scotland show that during the 1930s, police in Scotland were convinced some sort of creature inhabited the Highlands lake — so sure, in fact, that they worried about how to protect it from big-game hunters.

The files from the National Archive of Scotland show that local officials asked Britain’s Parliament to investigate the issue and confirm the monster’s existence — in the interests of science.“That there is some strange creature in Loch Ness now seems beyond doubt,” wrote William Fraser, a senior police officer, “but that the police have any power to protect it is very doubtful.”

The Nessie Files, kept secret for 70 years, were revealed as part of an exhibition on government secrecy.The exhibit examines how governments once kept almost everything secret, and how attitudes evolved to move toward more open government in modern times.

Archivist Tristram Clarke said the letters reveal that some people sincerely believed there was a monster in the loch — though the cool response from the government suggests there plenty of detractors. If nothing else, Clarke said the Fraser letter proves that the police were under pressure to protect the monster — whatever it was.

Fraser’s letter to officials in London warned that he feared hunters Peter Kent and Marion Stirling were “determined to catch the monster dead or alive” and planned to use a“special harpoon gun.”Kent was preparing a major operation including 20 experienced hunters and Fraser said he warned of the “desirability of having the creature left alone.”

The idea didn’t get very far in the end.The files show that it was deemed better not to kill the monster — or the myth — by stationing cameras or observers around the lake.

Though the number of sightings has tailed off recently, devoted believers continue to scour the loch. Gary Campbell of the Official Loch Ness monster club lives in hope of finding Nessie one day.“Fourteen years ago I saw a hump break the water on the loch, I took a double take and then more of it appeared,”he said.“I haven’t seen anything since, but I keep looking. It probably cost me my social life.”

Earth, according to a Russian scientist.

According to the Fox News reports, Dr Yuri Labvin, president of the Tunguska Spatial Phenomenon Foundation, insists that an alien spacecraft sacrificed itself to prevent a gigantic meteor from slamming into the planet above Siberia on June 30, 1908.

Most scientists say an exploding meteorite caused 1908’s Tunguska event, which flattened 80 million trees across 100 miles.

But Labvin thinks quartz slabs with strange markings found at the site are remnants of an alien control panel, which fell to the ground after the UFO slammed into the giant rock.

“We don’t have any technologies that can print such kind of drawings on crystals,” Labvin told the Macedonian International News Agency.“We also found ferrum silicate that can not be produced anywhere, except in space.”

BUREAU OF METEOROL OGY METEOROLOGY RADAR IMAGES SHOW MYSTERIOUS PA TTERNS April 2 2010 4 http://www.news.com.au/weird-truefreaky/bueau-of-mereology-cant-explainmysterious-patters-on-radar-system/storye6frflri-1225848774377

They are the digital-age equivalent of crop circles - mysterious patterns appearing on the Bureau of Meteorology’s national radar system without any explanation. And the random images, described as red stars, rings of fire and white doughnuts are sending online conspiracy websites into meltdown.

The anomalies first began on January 15 when an “iced doughnut” appeared over Kalgoorlie in WA. Satellite imagery showed there was no cloud over the area at the time to explain the unusual phenomenon but farmers’ online comments claimed it was “unusually hot” all day. It was followed by a bizarre red star over Broome on January 22 and a sinister spiral burst over Melbourne described by amateur radar buffs as the Ring Of Fire Fault.

The Bureau, which did not respond to repeated requests for comment, has acknowledged the anomalies on its popular website. It has since posted a disclaimer above the national loop feed putting the images down to “occasional interference to the radar data”.

Conspiracy websites, however, have lit up with dozens of breathless theories behind the strange anomalies from alien involvement, secret military testing to government weather modification.

One theory gaining traction online is the belief the US military has expanded its High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program. Based at a remote research station in Alaska, the HAARP project involves shooting extremely high frequency radar bursts into the upper reaches of the atmosphere to see what happens after particles of the ionosphere are temporarily excited.

Ostensibly the research is to study the effects of solar flares on radio communications and improve missile detection and navigation systems. But, unlike the failed cloud seeding experiments of yesteryear, conspiracy theorists claim HAARP is engaged in a sophisticated form of weather modification and that testing is also being done from a secret facility near Exmouth in Western Australia.

UK electrical engineer and crop circle expert Colin Andrews said Australians deserve an explanation.“Until [the Bureau of Meteorology] make a formal and complete response to all the various strange patterns, one can only speculate about what is taking place,” he said.

Mr Andrews urged people concerned by the bizarre radar symbols and strange weather patterns to contact the Bureau of Meteorology or a government representative.

UFO SA VED THE SAVED EARTH IN SUICIDE MISSION http://www.hindustantimes.com/NewsFeed/world/UFO-saved-earth-in-suicidemission-Russian-scientist/Article1415891.aspx

An alien spacecraft crashed into a giant meteor 100 years ago to stop it from hitting

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[One of the mysterious radar anomalies picked up by Australian Bureau of Meteorology radar]

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Another theory suggests the anomalies appear before major weather events such as cyclones Olga and Paul and the violent storms which hit Victoria in recent weeks.

Others argue objects in the atmosphere emitting powerful radiation could be behind the mystery.

ARE ALIENS ABOUT TO INVADE AUSTRALIA? April 29 2010 The Daily Telegraph, http://tinyurl.com/ 2asezae

A mass of UFO sightings has Territorians wondering if we are on the brink of an alien invasion. There have been seven separate Top End UFO sightings reported in the past week. Hardly a night has passed without a sighting of some“unexplained phenomena” since the first sighting last week.

Almost all of the sightings have been in Darwin’s rural areas. The first sighting was reported by a woman who wanted to be identified only as Shirel on April 21.She said she saw the strange lights from her Humpty Doo home hovering over Howard Springs.

“The lights were really low in the sky, really bright,with flashing dots,”she said.“Three of them formed a semi-circle and they hovered over the area for at least half an hour.”

There were three separate sightings on Friday night, including British backpacker Kylie Myers who said she had“never believed in anything like UFOs” before her strange encounter.The 27-year-old tourist said she turned into a “believer”. Ms Myers said she stopped her car on the side of the road to grab her camera from the glovebox, but the light disappeared. “It was pretty spooky.”

There were more sightings at Coolalinga on Saturday, Acacia Hills on Sunday and again in Howard Springs on Tuesday.

But astronomer Geoff Carr yesterday told the Northern Territory News he was “far from believing any of this UFO stuff”.“Unless aliens have found a way to travel faster than light speed, it’s a doubtful thing to believe they came to visit us,” he said.

DON T T ALK TO DON’T TALK ALIENS, WARNS STEPHEN HAWKING http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/ science/space/article7107207.ece

The aliens are out there and Earth had better watch out, at least according to Stephen Hawking. He has suggested that extraterrestrials are almost certain to exist — but that instead of seeking them out, humanity should be doing all it that can to avoid any contact. The suggestions come in a new documentary series in which Hawking, one of the world’s leading scientists, will set out his latest thinking on some of the universe’s greatest mysteries.

Alien life, he will suggest, is almost certain to exist in many other parts of the universe:

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not just in planets, but perhaps in the centre of stars or even floating in interplanetary space. Hawking’s logic on aliens is, for him, unusually simple.The universe, he points out, has 100 billion galaxies, each containing hundreds of millions of stars. In such a big place, Earth is unlikely to be the only planet where life has evolved.

“To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational,” he said. “The real challenge is to work out what aliens might actually be like.”

The answer, he suggests, is that most of it will be the equivalent of microbes or simple animals — the sort of life that has dominated Earth for most of its history.

One scene in his documentary for the Discovery Channel shows herds of twolegged herbivores browsing on an alien cliffface where they are picked off by flying, yellow lizard-like predators. Another shows glowing fluorescent aquatic animals forming vast shoals in the oceans thought to underlie the thick ice coating Europa, one of the moons of Jupiter. Such scenes are speculative, but Hawking uses them to lead on to a serious point: that a few life forms could be intelligent and pose a threat.

Hawking believes that contact with such a species could be devastating for humanity.

He suggests that aliens might simply raid Earth for its resources and then move on:“We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet. I imagine they might exist in massive ships, having used up all the resources from their home planet. Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonise whatever planets they can reach.”

He concludes that trying to make contact with alien races is “a little too risky”. He said: “If aliens ever visit us, I think the outcome would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn’t turn out very well for the Native Americans.”

EARTH MICROBES MA Y CONT AMINA TE MAY CONTAMINA AMINATE THE SEARCH FOR LIFE ON MARS http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/ 04/100427111252.htm

The search for life on Mars remains a goal of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program and Astrobiology Institutes. To preserve the pristine environments, the bioloads on spacecraft headed to Mars are subject to sterilization designed to prevent the contamination of the Martian surface. Despite sterilization efforts made to reduce the bioload on spacecraft, recent studies have shown that diverse microbial communities remain at the time of launch. The sterile nature of spacecraft assembly facilities ensures that only the most resilient species survive, including acinetobacter, bacillus, escherichia, staphylococcus and streptococcus.

Researchers from the University of Central Florida replicated Mars-like conditions by

inducing desiccation, hypobaria, low temperatures, and UV irradiation. During the week-long study they found that Escherichia coli a potential spacecraft contaminant, may likely survive but not grow on the surface of Mars if it were shielded from UV irradiation by thin layers of dust or UV-protected niches in spacecraft.

“If long-term microbial survival is possible on Mars, then past and future explorations of Mars may provide the microbial inoculum for seeding Mars with terrestrial life,” say the researchers.“Thus, a diversity of microbial species should be studied to characterize their potential for long term survival on Mars.”

COULD MYTHICAL SPRITES’ BE UFOS? http://www.hindustantimes.com/NewsFeed/lifeanduniverse/Could-mythicalsprites-be-mysterious-UFOs/Article1383016.aspx

In legend, sprites are trolls, elves and other spirits that dance high above our ozone layer. But, scientists at Tel Aviv University have discovered that some very real “sprites” are zipping across the atmosphere as well, providing a possible explanation for those other legendary denizens of the skies, UFOs. According to Professor Colin Price, head of the Geophysics and Planetary Sciences Department at Tel Aviv University, thunderstorms are the catalyst for a newly discovered natural phenomenon he calls “sprites.” He and his colleagues are one of the leading teams in the world studying the phenomenon, and Professor Price leads the study of “winter sprites”¯ those that appear only in the northern hemisphere’s winter months.

“Sprites appear above most thunderstorms, but we didn’t see them until recently.They are high in the sky and last for only a fraction of a second,” explained Professor Price.

Sprites are described as flashes high in the atmosphere, between 35 and 80 miles from the ground, much higher than the 7 to 10 miles where regular lightning bolts usually occur.

“Lightning from the thunderstorm excites the electric field above, producing a flash of light called a sprite,” explained Prof.

Price. “We now understand that only a specific type of lightning is the trigger that initiates sprites aloft,” he added.

"Sprites, which only occur in conjunction with thunderstorms, never occur on their own, and are cousins to similar natural phenomenon dubbed by atmospheric electricians as 'elves', 'goblins' and 'trolls'," Prof. Price said.

These flashes are so named because they appear to “dance” in the sky, which may explain some UFO sightings.

ufO encounter

ufO research queensland

inc

www. uforq. asn. au email: info@uforq.asn.au phone: 07 3376 1780

be com e a member bec ome Membership with UFO Research Queensland Inc costs $30.00 annually for membership [$40.00 AUD for International members]. Membership entitles you to benefits such as discounts on meeting entry, Library membership, and sees six issues of UFO Encounter delivered to your door. Cheques and money orders should be made payable to ‘UFO Research Queensland Inc’ and mailed to UFO Research Queensland Inc, PO Box 15222, City East, Queensland, 4002. Overseas applications should be made by International Money Order or bank drafts in Australian dollars.

publi c meetings public Public Meetings are held on the last Friday of every month [except December] at 7.30pm sharp.

Meetings are held at the Parkview Conference Room Level 2, Parkview, Wheller Gardens 956 Gympie Road, Chermside [see map below] (opposite Chermside Shopping Centre)

Admission is $5.00 for members and $8.00 for non-members.

PLEASE NOTE: Membership cards MUST be produced for member-discounted entry.

For further enquiries call 07 3376 1780.

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ufOr q library ufOrq The Library now has over 500 books, videos and DVDs on its shelves, with new additions being made all the time - which makes it the largest UFO library in the Southern Hemisphere! Members are able to borrow books, periodicals, dvds, videos, audiotapes and other items on a monthly basis. Items are available to borrow and return at Public Meetings.

LIBRARY MEMBERSHIP IS FREE TO UFORQ MEMBERS

ufO encounter

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-ufO research queensland inc

www.uforq.asn.au email: info@uforq.asn.au

affiliates uforq ipswich [qld]

Public Meetings are held at the Ipswich Trades Hall, Third Floor, 4 Bell Street, Ipswich, on the first Friday of the month, commencing at 7.30pm. Admission: $4.00. contact: David Keyworth; (07) 3282 8795

sightings hOtlines

gympie ufo and Brisbane - Martin Gottschall (07) 3376 1780 paranormal research [qld] Public Meetings are held on the first Wednesday of every month at the

Gympie - Roma Ravn (07) 5486 4458 Community Centreplace, 24 Lawrence St, Gympie, Ipswich - David Keyworth (07) 3282 8795 commencing at 7.30pm. Admission: $3.00.

Toowoomba - Andrew & Lisa Pearson-Webb (07) 4638 1997 contact: Roma Ravn; (0754) 864 458 or Carlo Riva, (0754) 852 116 Stanthorpe - Carol Watson 0403 918 336 ufohsar - ufo hotline Tully - Claire Noble (07) 4068 1538 and abduction research or email - info@uforq.asn.au

gympie [qld]

contact: Carlo Riva; (0754) 852 116

stanthorpe [qld]

contact: Carol Watson; Stanthorpe Skies, 0403 918 336 PO Box 513, Stanthorpe, QLD 4380; email: mosaicart62@hotmail.com

toowoomba [qld]

contact: Andrew & Lisa Pearson-Webb, 07 4638 1997 / 0422936276, email: andrewgwebb@bigpond.com

consciousness development and research group [qld] contact: Kay McCullock ND, CDRG and CSETI Working Group; 0429 641 222 email: cdrg.contact@gmail.com

blue mountains ufo research group [nsw] contact: Rex Gilroy; (02) 4782 3441; email: randhgilroy@optusnet.com.au website: http://www.mysteriousaustralia.com/rexufo/australian-ufos-mainpage.html

cosmic connections [sa]

contact: Kevin Robb; 0406362340; email: krobb@bigbutton.com.au website: http://www.australiancosmicconnection.com.au/ 20

ufO encounter