General Nathan D. Twining, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1957-1960). As Lieutenant General in charge of the Air Force Air Materiel Command at Wright-Field, Ohio, he reported in 1947 on his investigation of UFO sightings to date: "a. The phenomena reported is something real and not visionary or fictitious. b. There are objects probably approximating the shape of a disc, of such appreciable size as to appear to be as large as a man-made aircraft. c. There is a possibility that some of the incidents may be caused by natural phenomena, such as meteors. d. The reported operating characteristics such as extreme rates of climb, maneuverability (particularly in roll), and action which must be considered evasive when sighted or contacted by friendly aircraft and radar, lend belief to the possibility that some of the objects are controlled either manually, automatically, or remotely." (Letter to the Commanding General of the U.S. Army Air Forces, September 23, 1947.) J. Edgar Hoover, in response to a government request to study UFOs: "I would do it, but before agreeing to do it, we must insist upon full access to discs recovered. For instance, in the L.A. [or La.] case, the Army grabbed it and would not let us have it for cursory examination." (Handwritten note to Clyde Tolson, July 15, 1947.) General Walter Bedell Smith, Director of the CIA from 1950-53 stated: "The Central Intelligence Agency has reviewed the current situation concerning unidentified flying objects which have created extensive speculation in the press and have been the subject of concern to Government organizations... Since 1947, approximately 2,000 official reports of sightings have been received and of these, about 20% are as yet unexplained. "It is my view that this situation has possible implications for our national security which transcend the interests of a single service. A broader, coordinated effort should be initiated to develop a firm scientific understanding of the several phenomena which apparently are involved in these reports..." (1952 memorandum to the National Security Council.) General Douglas MacArthur: "Because of the developments of science, all the countries on earth will have to unite to survive and to make a common front against attack by people from other planets. The politics of the future will be cosmic, or interplanetary." (The New York Times, October 8, 1955.) "You now face a new world - a world of change. The thrust into outer space of the satellite, spheres and missiles marked the beginning of another epoch in the long story of mankind - the chapter of the space age... We speak in strange terms: of harnessing the cosmic energy... of the primary target in war, no longer limited to the armed forces of an enemy, but instead to include his civil populations; of ultimate conflict between a united human race and the sinister forces of some other planetary galaxy..." (Address by General Douglas MacArthur to the United States Military Academy at West Point, May 12, 1962.) Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, Chief of Project Blue Book, from his book, The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects, 1956: "Every time I get skeptical, I think of the other reports made by experienced pilots and radar operators, scientists, and other people who know what they are looking at. These reports were thoroughly investigated and they are still unknowns. "We have no aircraft on this earth that can at will so handily outdistance our latest jets... The pilots, radar specialists, generals, industrialists, scientists, and the man on the street who have told me, 'I wouldn't have believed it either if I hadn't seen it myself,' knew what they were talking about. Maybe the Earth is being visited by interplanetary space ships." His comments on the Lubbock lights case: "When four college professors, a geologist, a chemist, a physicist and a petroleum engineer report seeing the same UFOs on fourteen different occasions, the event can be classified as, at least, unusual. Add the fact that hundreds of other people saw these UFOs and that they were photographed, and the story gets even better. Add a few more facts - that these UFOs were picked up on radar and that a few people got a close look at one of them, and the story begins to convince even the most ardent skeptic." (Ruppelt, Edward J., The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects, New York: Doubleday, 1956.) Admiral Roscoe Hillenkoetter, first Director of the CIA (1947-50). In 1957, he joined the Board of Governors of the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomenon (NICAP), a UFO investigating group. In 1960, he stated: "Unknown objects are operating under intelligent control... It is imperative that we learn where UFOs come from and what their purpose is..." (Maccabee, Bruce, "What The Admiral Knew: UFO, MJ-12 and R. Hillenkoetter," International UFO Reporter, Nov./Dec., 1986.) He also recommended: "It is time for the truth to be brought out in open Congressional hearings. Behind the scenes high ranking Air Force officers are soberly concerned about the UFOs. But through official secrecy and ridicule, many citizens are led to believe the unknown flying objects are nonsense." (Statement in a NICAP news release, February 27, 1960.) General Curtis LeMay, Air Force Chief of Staff, in his 1965 autobiography, Mission With LeMay, stated that although the bulk of UFO reports could be explained as conventional or natural phenomena, some could not: "We had a number of reports from reputable individuals (well-educated serious-minded folks, scientists and fliers) who surely saw something. "Many of the mysteries might be explained away as weather balloons, stars, reflected lights, all sorts of odds and ends. I don't mean to say that, in the unclosed and unexplained or unexplainable instances, those were actually flying objects. All I can say is that no natural phenomena could be found to account for them... Repeat again: There were some cases we could not explain. Never could." (Statement from 1965 autobiography Mission With LeMay, with MacKinlay Kantor, New York: Doubleday, 1965.) Major General E.B. LeBaily, USAF Director of Information: "Many of the reports that cannot be explained have come from intelligent and technically well-qualified individuals whose integrity cannot be doubted." (September 28, 1965, letter to USAF Scientific Advisory Board requesting a review of the UFO project. Gillmor, Daniel S., ed. "Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects" (The Condon Report), New York Times Books, 1969.) General George S. Brown, USAF Chief of Staff, addressed the appearance of UFOs during the Vietnam War at a press conference: "I don't know whether this story has ever been told or not. They weren't called UFOs. They were called enemy helicopters. And they were only seen at night and they were only seen in certain places. They were seen up around the DMZ [demilitarized zone] in the early summer of '68. And this resulted in quite a little battle. And in the course of this, an Australian destroyer took a hit and we never found any enemy, we only found ourselves when this had all been sorted out. And this caused some shooting there, and there was no enemy at all involved but we always reacted. Always after dark. The same thing happened up at Pleiku at the Highlands in '69." (Department of Defense transcript of press conference in Illinois, October 16, 1973.) Lt. Col. Lawrence J. Coyne, U.S. Army Reserve helicopter pilot with 3,000 hours of flying time. He and other three airmen had a close encounter with a UFO on the night of October 18, 1973, while flying in a U.S. Army Bell Huey utility helicopter in the vicinity of Mansfield, Ohio. Lt. Coyne described his experience at a United Nations UFO hearing in 1978: "With the aircraft under my control, I observed the red-lighted object closing upon the helicopter at the same altitude at a high rate of speed. It became apparent a mid-air collision was about to happen unless evasive action was taken. "I looked out ahead of the helicopter and observed an aircraft I have never seen before. This craft positioned itself directly in front of the moving helicopter. This craft was 50 to 60 feet long with a grey metallic structure. On the front of this craft was a large steady bright red light. I could delineate where the red stopped on the structure of this craft because red was reflecting off the grey structure. The design of this craft was symmetrical in shape with a prominent aft indentation on the undercarriage. From this portion of the undercarriage, a green light, pyramid-shaped, emerged with the light initially in the trail position. This green light then swung 90 degrees, coming directly into the front windshield and lighting up the entire cockpit of the aircraft. All colors inside the cabin of the helicopter were absorbed by this green light. That includes the instrument panel lights on the aircraft. "As a result of my experience, I am convinced this object was real and that these types of incidents should require a thorough investigation. It is my own personal opinion that worldwide procedures need to be established to effectively study this phenomena through an international cooperative effort. The establishment of a Transponder Code for aircraft flying worldwide is needed, to identify to ground controllers that a pilot is indeed experiencing a UFO phenomena and that pilot anxiety can be reduced to provide safe effective flying, knowing he is under radar control." (Statement to the Special Political Committee of the United Nations, November 27, 1978.) Victor Marchetti, former CIA official: "We have, indeed, been contacted - perhaps even visited - by extraterrestrial beings, and the U.S. government, in collusion with the other national powers of the earth, is determined to keep this information from the general public. "The purpose of the international conspiracy is to maintain a workable stability among the nations of the world and for them, in turn, to retain institutional control over their respective populations. Thus, for these governments to admit that there are beings from outer space... with mentalities and technological capabilities obviously far superior to ours, could, once fully perceived by the average person, erode the foundations of the earth's traditional power structure. Political and legal systems, religions, economic and social institutions could all soon become meaningless in the mind of the public. The national oligarchical establishments, even civilization as we now know it, could collapse into anarchy. "Such extreme conclusions are not necessarily valid, but they probably accurately reflect the fears of the 'ruling classes' of the major nations, whose leaders (particularly those in the intelligence business) have always advocated excessive governmental secrecy as being necessary to preserve 'national security.'" (Marchetti, Victor: "How the CIA Views the UFO Phenomenon," Second Look, Vol. 1, No.7, Washington, D.C., May 1979.) Harry S. Truman, at the time he was President, commented: "I can assure you that flying saucers, given that they exist, are not constructed by any power on earth." (April 4, 1950, White House Press Conference.) President Gerald Ford, in a letter he sent as a Congressman to L. Mendel Rivers, Chairman of the Armed Services Committee, on March 28, 1966: "No doubt, you have noted the recent flurry of newspaper stories about unidentified flying objects (UFOs). I have taken special interest in these accounts because many of the latest reported sightings have been in my home state of Michigan... Because I think there may be substance to some of these reports and because I believe the American people are entitled to a more thorough explanation than has been given them by the Air Force to date, I am proposing that either the Science and Astronautics Committee or the Armed Services Committee of the House, schedule hearings on the subject of UFOs and invite testimony from both the executive branch of the Government and some of the persons who claim to have seen UFOs... In the firm belief that the American public deserves a better explanation than that thus far given by the Air Force, I strongly recommend that there be a committee investigation of the UFO phenomena. I think we owe it to the people to establish credibility regarding UFOs and to produce the greatest possible enlightenment on this subject." (Committee on Armed Services of the House of Representatives, Eighty-Ninth Congress, Second Session, Hearing on Unidentified Flying Objects, April 5, 1966.) President Jimmy Carter during his election campaign in May 1976: "If I become President, I'll make every piece of information this country has about UFO sightings available to the public, and the scientists. I am convinced that UFOs exist because I've seen one... " (The National Enquirer, June 8, 1976, "The Night I Saw a UFO." Statement confirmed by White House special assistant media liaison, Jim Purks, in an April 20, 1979 letter.) President Ronald Reagan was often quoted referring to the possibility of an alien threat. Describing discussions held privately with General Secretary Gorbachev, he stated: "... when you stop to think that we're all God's children, wherever we may live in the world, I couldn't help but say to him, just think how easy his task and mine might be in these meetings that we held if suddenly there was a threat to this world from some other species from another planet outside in the universe. We'd forget all the little local differences that we have between our countries and we would find out once and for all that we really are all human beings here on this earth together." (White House transcript of "Remarks of the President to Fallston High School Students and Faculty," December 4, 1985.) In an address to the United Nations General Assembly in September 1987: "In our obsession with antagonisms of the moment, we often forget how much unites all the members of humanity. Perhaps we need some outside, universal threat to make us recognize this common bond. I occasionally think how quickly our differences worldwide would vanish if we were facing an alien threat from outside this world." (Speech to the United Nations General Assembly, Forty-second session, "Provisional Verbatim Record of the Fourth Meeting", September 21, 1987.) Representative John W. McCormack, (D-Massachusetts), Speaker of the House stated in a November 4, 1960 letter to Major Donald Keyhoe: "Some three years ago, [1957], as chairman of the House Select Committee on Outer Space out of which came the recently established NASA, my Select Committee held executive sessions on the matter of 'Unidentified Flying Objects.' We could not get much information at that time, although it was pretty well established by some in our minds that there were some objects flying around in space that were unexplainable." (Hall, Richard, The UFO Evidence, NICAP, 1964.) Representative Jerry L. Pettis, (R-California), stated in 1968 during the House Committee on Science and Astronautics hearing on UFOs: "Having spent a great deal of my life in the air, as a pilot... I know that many pilots... have seen phenomena that they could not explain. These men, most of whom have talked to me, have been very reticent to talk about this publicly, because of the ridicule that they were afraid would be heaped upon them... However, there is a phenomena here that isn't explained." (U.S. House of Representatives, Ninetieth Congress, Second session, July 29, 1968.) Senator Barry M. Goldwater, Sr., (R-Arizona), Republican presidential candidate (1964). In a letter to researcher Shlomo Arnon, dated March 28, 1975, he stated: "The subject of UFOs is one that has interested me for some long time. About ten or twelve years ago, I made an effort to find out what was in the building at Wright Patterson Air Force Base where the information is stored that has been collected by the Air Force, and I was understandably denied the request. It is still classified above Top Secret. I have, however, heard that there is a plan under way to release some, if not all, of this material in the near future. I'm just as anxious to see this material as you are, and I hope we will not have to wait too much longer." (Good, T., Above Top Secret, New York: Quill William Morrow, 1988; Frontispiece.) In an April 11, 1979 letter to Mr. Lee M. Graham, he added: "It is true I was denied access to a facility at Wright-Patterson. Because I never got in, I can't tell you what was inside. We both know about the rumors. "Apart from that, let me make my position clear: I do not believe that we are the only planet of some two billion that exist that has life on it. I have never seen what I would call a UFO, but I have intelligent friends who have, so I can sort of argue either way." (Good, T., ibid.) Representative Steven H. Schiff, (R-New Mexico), in response to inquiries from his constituents in 1993 concerning a possible cover-up of the crash of an alleged UFO outside Roswell, NM in 1947, requested information from the Department of Defense. In a CBS radio interview in February 1994, he stated: "I wrote to the Dept. of Defense, laying out these allegations and asking them if someone could come over with the file and brief me on it. My intent was to simply release this back to whomever inquired, which is very routine in Congress. "The response I got was not routine. The response I got was a very brief letter from the Air Force saying that my request had been referred to the National Archives, without any further comment... and without any offer of any kind of assistance in retrieving it... So I went to the National Archives and the National Archives wrote a letter back to me saying they didn't have anything in their files on the Roswell incident... I just have to say this much: the way the Dept. of Defense has responded has not been routine." Having been given a "runaround" in his search, he instigated an inquiry by the GAO (General Accounting Office) in 1994 into the handling of Air Force files relating to this matter. "I did not ask the General Accounting Office to try once and for all to resolve this matter... What I asked the GAO to do was to assist me in locating whatever Air Force and Defense Department files would have existed on the subject, or an accounting of what happened to them. "To me the issue is government accountability. I think that people who want to see government records are entitled to see government records or to get an explanation of what happened to them, regardless of their reason, regardless of the subject matter. It was my intention simply to make that information public if I could... unless there is a present security reason why not - and I have to add real fast if the matter is classified 'military secret,' we members of Congress can't just go monkeying around in there anytime we want. There are procedures for us too and that's fine with me. "I was not told that we have a file that's classified. I was simply referred to an agency which I have to believe - now that I know the prominence of the Roswell incident - I have to believe the Dept. of Defense knew very well that I wasn't going to find anything in the National Archives when they sent me there twice. "It's difficult for me to understand even if there was a legitimate security concern in 1947, that it would be a present security concern these many years later. Frankly I am baffled by the lack of responsiveness on the part of the Defense Dept. on this one issue, I simply can't explain it." (Excerpts of Congressman Schiff's remarks on CBS radio's The Gil Gross Show, February 1994.) Argentine Navy. In the 1960s, the Argentine Navy was charged with the official investigation of UFO sightings, particularly those reported by its own personnel. A 1965 "Official UFO Report" prepared by Captain Sánchez Moreno from the Naval Air Station Comandante Espora in Bahía Blanca, revealed that: "Between 1950 and 1965, personnel of Argentina's Navy alone made 22 sightings of unidentified flying objects that were not airplanes, satellites, weather balloons or any type of known (aerial) vehicles. These 22 cases served as precedents for intensifying that investigation of the subject by the Navy. In the past two years, nine incidents have been recorded that are being studied by Captain Pagani and a team of military and civilian scientists and collaborators. Likewise, a meticulous questionnaire was drafted, printed and distributed to different bases. In a short time, the Service of Naval Intelligence was in possession of a stack of highly significant reports of testimonies. On the basis of this important documentation, it was possible to obtain a coherent overview of the problem." (Captain Sánchez Moreno, Informe Oficial O.V.N.I., Sumario S# A. 02778-DTO. OVNI, Naval Air Station Comandante Espora, in ICUFON Project World Authority for Spatial Affairs (W.A.S.A.), New York, 1979.) Captain Engineer Omar R. Pagani, Director of the Argentine Navy UFO investigation team in the 1960s. As a result of a series of observations at Argentine and Chilean meteorological stations on Deception Island, Antarctica, in June and July 1965, Captain Pagani disclosed at a press conference that: "The unidentified flying objects do exist. Their presence and intelligent displacement in the Argentine airspace has been proven. Their nature and origin is unknown and no judgement is made about them." (Sánchez Moreno, ibid.) In addition, the Argentine Navy Bulletin #172 of July 7, 1965 reported: "From the Navy post at the South Orkney Islands comes a message of extreme importance: during the passage of the strange object over the base [earlier the same day], two magnetometers in perfect working condition registered sudden and strong disturbances of the magnetic field (at 17:03 hrs.), which were recorded on their tapes." (Perissé, Captain D. A., "Deception Island UFO Sightings," in the MUFON 1987 International UFO Symposium Proceedings, Washington, D.C., June 1987.) Major-General Wilfred De Brouwer, Deputy Chief, Royal Belgian Air Force: "In any case, the Air Force has arrived to the conclusion that a certain number of anomalous phenomena has been produced within Belgian airspace. The numerous testimonies of ground observations compiled in this [SOBEPS] book, reinforced by the reports of the night of March 30-31 [1990], have led us to face the hypothesis that a certain number of unauthorized aerial activities have taken place. Until now, not a single trace of aggressiveness has been signalled; military or civilian air traffic has not been perturbed or threatened. We can therefore advance that the presumed activities do not constitute a concrete menace. "The day will come undoubtedly when the phenomenon will be observed with technological means of detection and collection that won't leave a single doubt about its origin. This should lift a part of the veil that has covered the [UFO] mystery for a long time. A mystery that continues to the present. But it exists, it is real, and that in itself is an important conclusion." (De Brouwer, W., "Postface" in SOBEPS' Vague d'OVNI sur la Belgique - Un Dossier Exceptionnel, Brussels: SOBEPS, 1991.) Brigadier General João Adil Oliveira, Chief of the Air Force General Staff Information Service (with the rank of Colonel), led the first official military UFO inquiry in Brazil in the mid-50s. In a "Briefing" to the Army War College in Rio de Janeiro on November 2, 1954, Col. Oliveira stated: "I wish to give you a summary of what is known in the world about 'flying discs,' of what is known about the opinion of qualified experts who have dealt with this matter. The problem of 'flying discs' has polarized the attention of the whole world, but it's serious and it deserves to be treated seriously. Almost all the governments of the great powers are interested in it, dealing with it in a serious and confidential manner, due to its military interest." (Col. Oliveira's Briefing included short summaries of several UFO incidents in the USA and Brazil. The full text was published in O'Cruzeiro magazine, Rio de Janeiro, December 11, 1954; reprinted in Martins, João, As Chaves do Mistério, Rio: HUNOS 1979.) Later promoted to the rank of Brigadier General, he was interviewed by the Brazilian press on February 28, 1958: "It is impossible to deny any more the existence of flying saucers at the present time... The flying saucer is not a ghost from another dimension or a mysterious dragon. It is a fact confirmed by material evidence. There are thousands of documents, photos, and sighting reports demonstrating its existence. For instance, when I went to the Air Force High command to discuss the flying saucers I called for ten witnesses - military (AF officers) and civilians - to report their evidence about the presence of flying saucers in the skies of Rio Grande do Sul, and over Gravataí AFB [Air Force Base]; some of them had seen UFOs with the naked eye, others with high powered optical instruments. For more than two hours the phenomenon was present in the sky, impressing the selected audience: officers, engineers, technicians, etc." ("How to doubt?," O Globo, Rio de Janeiro, February 28, 1958; cited in Fontes, Olavo, M.D., "UAO Sighting Over Trindade," The A.P.R.O. Bulletin, May 1960.) System of Investigation of Unidentified Aerial Objects (SIOANI). In 1969, the IV Aerial Zone in São Paulo (changed in 1973 to the IV Regional Aerial Command, IV COMAR) established a specialized UFO bureau called SIOANI, under Major (later Colonel) Gilberto Zani. A letter signed by Colonel João Glaser from the IV COMAR to the Brazilian UFO group CPDV, dated November 28, 1984, gives a summary of SIOANI's functions: "From 1969 to 1972, the ufological activities of this organization (SIOANI) were most varied, including the elaboration of information bulletins, a draft of SIOANI regulations, contacts with interested parties, panels, catalogs of contacts and others, always attempting to contribute in this field of research that was already well known in Brazil." (Os Documentos Oficiais da Força Aérea Brasileira, Centro para Pesquisas de Discos Vaodores (CPDV), Campo Grande, 1991.) Ministry of Aeronautics. A letter signed by Air Force Colonel Sergio Candiota da Silva, Assistant to the Minister of Aeronautics, to Brazilian UFO researcher Irene Granchi, dated December 19, 1988, acknowledges that the Ministry investigates UFO reports: "His Excellency recognizes the importance of the [UFO] matter, to the extent that within the Ministry of Aeronautics there exists a Bureau in charge of studying the matter, receiving, analyzing and archiving chronologically the phenomena observed in Brazilian airspace that comes to the attention of this Ministry." (Os Documentos Oficiais, ibid.) Wilbert Smith, Senior radio engineer with the Department of Transport, headed Project Magnet, the first Canadian government UFO investigation in the 1950s. He stated in a Top Secret Memorandum: "The matter is the most highly classified subject in the United States Government, rating higher even than the H-bomb. Flying saucers exist. Their modus operandi is unknown but a concentrated effort is being made by a small group headed by Doctor Vannevar Bush. The entire matter is considered by the United States authorities to be of tremendous significance." (Department of Transport memorandum on "Geo-Magnetics," November 21, 1950.) Sir Winston Churchill, when Prime Minister, asked to be thoroughly briefed: "What does all this stuff about flying saucers amount to? What can it mean? What is the truth?" (July 28, 1952 memo to Secretary of State for Air, Lord Cherwell; reprinted in Good, T., ibid.) Prince Phillip, His Royal Highness, Duke of Edinburgh. Having been interested in the subject of UFOs since the early 1950s, he has stated: "There are many reasons to believe that they (UFOs) do exist: there is so much evidence from reliable witnesses." (Sunday Dispatch, London, March 28, 1954.) Air Chief Marshal Lord Dowding, Commander-in-Chief of RAF Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain, made the following comment to the press in 1954: "More than 10,000 sightings have been reported, the majority of which cannot be accounted for by any 'scientific' explanation... I am convinced that these objects do exist and that they are not manufactured by any nation on earth. I can therefore see no alternative to accepting the theory that they come from some extraterrestrial source." (Sunday Dispatch, London, July 11, 1954.) Earl of Kimberly, former Liberal Party spokesman on aerospace, and member of the House of Lords: "UFOs defy worldly logic... The human mind cannot begin to comprehend UFO characteristics: their propulsion, their sudden appearance, their disappearance, their great speeds, their silence, their manoeuvre, their apparent anti-gravity, their changing shapes." (House of Lords, Debate on Unidentified Flying Objects, HANSARD (Lords), vol. 397, no. 23, January 18, 1979.) Lord Davies of Leek, Member of the House of Lords: "If one human being out of tens of thousands who allege to have seen these phenomena is telling the truth, then there is a dire need for us to look into the matter." (Ibid.) Lord Rankeillour, Member of the House of Lords: "Many men have seen them [UFOs] and have not been mistaken. Who are we to doubt their word?... Only a few weeks ago a Palermo policeman photographed one, and four Italian Navy officers saw a 300-foot long fiery craft rising from the sea and disappearing into the sky... Why should these men of law enforcement and defense lie?" (Ibid.) Lord Hill-Norton (GCB), Chief of Defense Staff, Ministry of Defense, Great Britain (1971-73); Chairman, Military Committee of NATO (1974-77); Admiral of the Fleet; Member of House of Lords. In 1987, he wrote the Foreword to a book written by British UFO researcher Timothy Good, Above Top Secret, in which he stated: "The evidence that there are objects which have been seen in our atmosphere, and even on terra firma, that cannot be accounted for either as man-made objects or as any physical force or effect known to our scientists seems to me to be overwhelming... A very large number of sightings have been vouched for by persons whose credentials seem to me unimpeachable. It is striking that so many have been trained observers, such as police officers and airline or military pilots. Their observations have in many instances... been supported either by technical means such as radar or, even more convincingly, by... interference with electrical apparatus of one sort or another..." (Good, T., ibid.) General Lionel M. Chassin, Commanding General of the French Air Forces, and General Air Defense Coordinator, Allied Air Forces, Central Europe (NATO). From 1964 until his death in 1970, he was president of the French private UFO research group GEPA. "The number of thoughtful, intelligent, educated people in full possession of their faculties who have 'seen something' and described it, grows every day... We can... say categorically that mysterious objects have indeed appeared and continue to appear in the sky that surrounds us." He observed that some UFO sightings by different persons over a 24-hour period, when plotted on a map, revealed that the UFO appeared to travel in either a straight line or a large circle. Concerning these patterns, he concluded: "Webs and networks... unmistakably suggest a systematic aerial exploration and cannot be the result of chance. It indicates purposive and intelligent action." (Chassin, L., Foreword to the book by Michel Aime, Flying Saucers and the Straight Line Mystery, New York: Criterion Books, 1958.) M. Robert Galley, French Minister of Defense, interviewed on radio by Jean-Claude Bourret, on February 21, 1974, stated: "I must say that if listeners could see for themselves the mass of reports coming in from the airborne gendarmerie, from the mobile gendarmerie, and from the gendarmerie charged with the job of conducting investigations, all of which reports are forwarded by us to the National Center for Space Studies, then they would see that it is all pretty disturbing. "I believe that the attitude of spirit that we must adopt vis-a-vis this phenomena is an open one, that is to say that it doesn't consist in denying apriori, as our ancestors of previous centuries did deny many things that seem nowadays perfectly elementary." (Bourret, Jean-Claude, La nouvelle vague des soucoups volantes, Paris: editions france-empire, 1975.) French Space Agency. Since 1977, France has maintained an office for investigating UFO reports attached to the National Center for Space Studies (CNES) in Toulouse. The original bureau GEPAN (Groupe d'Etudes des Phénomènes Aérospatiaux) was changed in 1988 into the current SEPRA (Service d'Expertise des Phénomènes de Rentrées Atmosphériques). GEPAN/SEPRA has analyzed the best UFO reports collected by the National Gendarmerie, relying on laboratories and scientific centers throughout France for many of its investigations. After reviewing hundreds of UFO reports collected by the Gendarmerie between 1974 and 1978, nineteen experts at GEPAN completed a report of five volumes for the GEPAN Scientific Committee, supervised by Dr. Claude Poher, Ph.D. in astronomy, the founder and first director of GEPAN. The expert team concluded: "Taking into account the facts that we have gathered from the observers and from the location of their observations, we concluded that there generally can be said to be a material phenomenon behind the observations. In 60% of the cases reported here (references cited), the description of this phenomenon is apparently one of a flying machine whose origin, modes of lifting and/or propulsion are totally outside our knowledge. "The study of the observed phenomenon seems to us, by its extraordinary characteristics, potentially able to bring to humankind knowledge and eventually techniques of considerable importance. We suggest that a deep study of this phenomenon be undertaken with a high degree of priority." (GEPAN Report to the Scientific Committee, June 1978, Vol. 1, Chapter 4.) Jean-Jacques Velasco, the last head of GEPAN and current director of SEPRA at CNES Headquarters in Toulouse. In an interview with the French magazine Phénomèna, Velasco stated that SEPRA's primary task was tracking "satellite re-entries, which are more and more numerous, and secondly, to continue the activities of GEPAN, stopped in 1988." He further stated: "There are cases which remain unexplained... Let's say simply that the events which were registered and measured, particularly at Trans-en-Provence, but also in the case of l'Amarante [a CE-II on Oct. 21, 1982] and two others, allow us to suppose that there are phenomena which escape our understanding completely. I must say that this permits us to suppose that there is an intelligence behind the phenomena. But I believe it would be largely speculation to go beyond this point." (Petrakis, Perry & Marhic, Renaud, "Le SEPRA, côte coulisses," Phénomèna, No. 4, July-August 1991.) George Keleti, Minister of Defense: "I believe that we are not alone in the universe and other galaxies are also carrying life on the planets. I never saw any alien green men here on the Earth. Yes, I was a columnist [in Budapest's Ufomagazin] and I published UFO cases that were observed and registered within the Hungarian armed forces. I never stated that we are preparing any kind of action against UFO forces, I only pointed out to the public that, as a civilization, we would be unable to defend ourselves here on the Earth... Around Szolnok many UFO reports have been received from the Ministry of Defense, which obviously and logically means that they [UFOs] know very well where they have to land and what they have to do. It is remarkable indeed that the Hungarian newspapers, in general newspapers everywhere, reject the reports of the authorities." (Lenart, Attila, "Ask a Question to the Minister of Defense, George Keleti, are you afraid of a UFO invasion?," Nepszava, Budapest, August 18, 1994.) Air Marshall Roesmin Nurjadin, Commander-in-Chief of the Indonesian Air Force, stated in 1967: "UFOs sighted in Indonesia are identical with those sighted in other countries. Sometimes they pose a problem for our air defence and once we were obliged to open fire on them." (Letter to Yusuke J. Matsumura, May 5, 1967; reprinted in Good, T., ibid.) Air Commander J. Salutun, Member of Parliament and Secretary of the National Aerospace Council of the Republic of Indonesia, stated in 1974: "I am convinced that we must study the UFO problem seriously for reasons of sociology, technology and security... " (Letter published in UFO News, Vol. 6, No. 1, 1974, CBA International, Yokohama, Japan.) General Kanshi Ishikawa, Chief of Staff of Japan's Air Self-Defense Force; Commander of the 2nd Air Wing, Chitose Air Base. In 1967, he stated: "Much evidence tells us UFOs have been tracked by radar; so, UFOs are real and they may come from outer space... UFO photographs and various materials show scientifically that there are more advanced people piloting the saucers and motherships." (1967 interview published in UFO News, ibid.) Toshiki Kaifu, Prime Minister, gave a brief interview to students of Waseda University in Tokyo in November 1989. The question of whether Japan had an official UFO organization was discussed: "Japan does not have such organizations at a government level... If young people display a serious interest in similar phenomena, we should perhaps think of forming a UFO-data collecting group under the auspices of the Ministry of Education." (Ovsyannikov, Vladimir, "Toshiki Kaifu: 'I want to believe in my dream'," New Times, Moscow, April 16-22, 1991.) A year later, concerning an upcoming Symposium on Space and UFOs, he stated: "First of all, I told a magazine this past January that, as an underdeveloped country with regards to the UFO problem, Japan had to take into account what should be done about the UFO question, and that we had to spend more time on these matters. In addition, I said that someone had to solve the UFO problem with far reaching vision at the same time. Secondly, I believe it is a reasonable time to take the UFO problem seriously as a reality... I hope that this Symposium will contribute to peace on earth from the point of view of outer space, and take the first step toward the international cooperation in the field of UFOs. From the point of view of 'people' in outer space, all human beings on earth are the same people, regardless of whether they are American, Russian, Japanese, or whoever." (Letter to Mayor Shiotani, dated June 24, 1990, endorsing a forthcoming Space & UFO Symposium in Hakui City, Ishikawa prefecture.) General Carlos Castro Cavero, General in the Spanish Air Force, at one time Commander of Spain's Third Aerial Region. In a 1976 interview with journalist J.J. Benítez, he acknowledged that UFOs were taken quite seriously by the Spanish military. He added: "Everything is in a process of investigation both in the United States and in Spain, as well as in the rest of the world... Look, as a General, as a military man, I have the same position as the one officially held by the Ministry [of Defense]. Now, from a personal position, as Carlos Castro Cavero, I believe that UFOs are spaceships or extraterrestrial craft... The nations of the world are currently working together in the investigation of the UFO phenomenon. There is an international exchange of data. Maybe when this group of nations acquire more precise and definite information, it will be possible to release the news to the world." During the same interview, the General described a daytime UFO sighting at his ranch near Zaragoza: "I myself have observed one [UFO] for more than an hour... It was an extremely bright object, which remained stationary there for that length of time and then shot off towards Egea de los Caballeros, covering the distance of twenty kilometers in less than two seconds. No human device is capable of such a speed." He added that the Spanish Air Ministry investigated UFO cases, including instances in which pilots had flown alongside UFOs, but when they tried to get closer, the UFOs moved away at fantastic speeds. The investigations were kept confidential at the time, but in 1992 the Spanish Air Force finally began to declassify its UFO files systematically. (Benítez, J.J., La Gaceta del Norte, Bilbao, Spain, June 27, 1976.) Mikhail Gorbachev, in a speech to the International Forum, "For a Nuclear-Free World and the Survival of Humanity," at the Grand Kremlin Palace in Moscow on February 16, 1987 stated: "In spite of all the differences between us, we must all learn to preserve our one big family of humanity. At our meeting in Geneva, the U.S. President said that if the earth faced an invasion by extraterrestrials, the United States and the Soviet Union would join forces to repel such an invasion. I shall not dispute the hypothesis, though I think it's early yet to worry about such an intrusion." (Soviet Life Supplement, May 1987.) In reply to the question, "Does the USSR government study UFOs?," asked while visiting the Uralmash plant in Sverdlovsk on April 26th, 1990, he answered: "I know that there are scientific organizations which study this problem." (Pravda, April 27, 1990; Major General Pavel Popovich in a letter to Colman S. Von Keviczky, July 31, 1991.) On July 22, 1985, in western Zimbabwe, a UFO was witnessed by dozens of persons on the ground and in the control tower at Bulawayo Airport, as well as by the pilots of two Hawk jets that were scrambled to pursue it. The UFO was also tracked on radar. The UFO was very bright and rounded, with a short cone above it, and evaded the Hawk jets. Air Marshal Azim Daudpota: "This was no ordinary UFO. Scores of people saw it. It was no illusion, no deception, no imagination." (The Times, London, August 3, 1985.) Air Commodore David Thorne, Director General of Operations in a October 24, 1985 letter to Timothy Good stated: "[Although not speaking officially], as far as my Air Staff is concerned, we believe implicitly that the unexplained UFOs are from some civilization beyond our planet." (Good, T., ibid.)