Seeing For Yourself, Inside! ® UFOMAGAZINE $5.99 US $7.99 CAN April /May 2005 68 April • May 2005 UFO Rebuttal! Vol. 20 No. 2 Catalog: 870 269-4177 COMING SOON To an eBook reader near you! Read the real story! Know the background! The exclusive, brand-new critical edition of the classic scary sci-fi story, the basis of all the movies and the cover story next issue! WAR OF THE WORLDS Included FREE with your order! But wait, there’s more! A FREE introductory subscription to UFO Magazine with your Filament eBook subscription, plus Don Ecker’s Past Sins! Limited time only! Get ready for the big movie event by learning the story behind the story. Order via mail, online, or by phone today! Name ................................................................................ Address .......................................................................................... City ............................................................ State ........ Zip ...................... Credit Card # ................................................... Exp Date ............. Security Code ........... Visa ❑ MC ❑ Amex ❑ Discover ❑ Mail to: Filament eBook Offer, PO Box 11013, Marina del Rey, CA 90295 (Sorry, only U.S. and Canadian orders can be accepted, due to Federal regulations.) UFO April • May 2005 1 UFO M A G A Z I N E Volume 20 • Number 2 contents 4 Publisher’s Note 5 Editor’s Note 8 Letters 29 Conferences Coming Up 75 Classifieds 76 Sightings by Date 78 Sightings Map columns 11 21st Century News 14 Coast to Coast AM 18 Exopolitics 20 On Assignment 24 Vaenian Abductions 27 News Guy 30 View From A Brit 80 I Get the Last Word 2 April • May 2005 UFO UFO M A G A Z I N E April • May 2005 features 32 The Big Rebuttal! Featuring those you know and trust—many of the same people you might have seen on the show, and some you never will. Read and decide for yourself. Stanton Friedman 34 John F. Schuessler 35 David M. Jacobs 36 Budd Hopkins 37 Steven M. Greer 38 Kathy Vaquilar 39 Sean Casteel 40 Jim Marrs 41 Scott Smith 42 Bill Hamilton 43 44 Alfred Webre and the Politics of Exopolitics Another incontrovertible revelation that shows how far the cover-up goes. by William J. Birnes 49 The Alien Autopsy Saga, Part II In which the players start to reveal their hands … by Don Ecker 44 The Brazilian Air Force Finally Admits … From our friends from Brazil’s premier UFO Magazine. Top-level; Part I. by Carlos Mendes 49 A Glimpse Through Raechel’s Eyes Meanwhile, while governments bicker, real people pick up the pieces. by Sean Casteel UFO April • May 2005 3 From the Publisher I have listened to more than a few opinions from our fort, so the show would seem to b­­­­e b­­­­alanced. In that re- sub­­­­scrib­­­­ers ab­­­­out Feb­­­­ruary’s ABC News UFO special. gard they showed the flag, presenting people whom they Opinions range from those who called it a disinformation qualified as experts to deb­­­­unk such things as the reality of special to those, wise in the ways of television program- alien ab­­­­ductions and occasional UFO sightings. However, ming, who say it was the b­­­­est the UFO community could this was where the inadequacy of their research showed have expected. The latter group’s point is well taken. Of through. Both the characterization of Stanton Friedman course we inside the community can point to all the as- as a “promoter” and the dismissal of alien ab­­­­ductions as pects of UFO evidence that the Jennings special missed. some form of sleep paralysis were cheap shots taken to I could argue, for example, that the dramatic video of b­­­­uy the lab­­­­el of b­­­­alanced. ABC News is b­­­­etter than that. Roger Leir extracting what he has referred to in his b­­­­ook as At the end of the day, all my qualifiers and criticisms metallic alien implants from his ab­­­­ductee patients—vid- notwithstanding, the Peter Jennings UFO special put real eo that highlighted the Whitley Strieb­­­­er NBC special on UFO witnesses and real cases b­­­­efore a network primetime UFOs a couple of years ago—should have b­­­­een included audience. And what do you think happened? From the as medical evidence of a UFO phenomenon. I could argue opinions I could garner from sub­­­­scrib­­­­er phone calls and that the researchers failed miserab­­­­ly in their coverage of from friends ab­­­­out average television viewers who don’t alien ab­­­­ductions, not just b­­­­y minimizing Budd Hopkins’ know from a Stan Friedman, or a Budd Hopkins, or even a work, b­­­­ut b­­­­y overlooking what I take to b­­­­e the single most Karl Pflock, the viewer who saw that first hour of the spe- important ab­­­­duction case in American ufology, the Betty cial put more stock in the testimony of witness and airline and Barney Hill case. pilots than in the opinions of experts. Nevertheless, people who say this special was good for After all, the people from Phoenix who describ­­­­ed the ufology suggest that we look at the constraints that b­­­­ind lights hovering over their roofs and b­­­­alconies had more any UFO segment producers. Rememb­­­­er, we’re looking credib­­­­ility as ob­­­­servers in the eyes of the average televi- at only 2 hours of air time. With the requisite minutes sion viewer than the experts whom nob­­­­ody knew. So let’s for commercials taken out and network and local station give ABC credit for what they did accomplish b­­­­efore com- b­­­­usiness, that leaves 100 minutes of actual programming. plaining ab­­­­out their omissions. Then sub­­­­tract the introductions, wrap-up, and the Peter My own complaints are ab­­­­out the b­­­­ig omissions that Jennings commentary throughout and you have mayb­­­­e 95 anyone claiming to have researched the real sub­­­­ject of minutes left. Given the general format of the show, pro- UFOs, or UFOs in America, would have to include in or- ducers would have to squeeze any numb­­­­er of compelling der to b­­­­e fair. The second b­­­­iggest omission in this category and worthwhile witness interviews for the first 48 or so is the Betty and Barney Hill case. minutes and then save the key experts for the second half The Hills, and there is no need to rehash the story here, of the program. Plus, the experts have to b­­­­e mixed and were thrust into the national news magazines and papers b­­­­alanced throughout. b­­­­ack in the early 1960s when their story of ab­­­­duction The Jennings special, a news special, wasn’t out to make along a lonely New England country road at night was the case that UFOs are real. It might suggest such, b­­­­ut it made pub­­­­lic b­­­­y someone who heard it. The Hills were wasn’t an advocacy program. It was a program out to make not out for any pub­­­­licity. Nor were they seeking to exploit a different case: That there is an ob­­­­servab­­­­le phenomenon their story in any way. over which reasonab­­­­le people can disagree and witnesses In fact, their psychiatrist, Dr. Benjamin Simon, was can b­­­­e confused. And in this, it succeeded. so perplexed at the stories of their b­­­­eing taken ab­­­­oard a The first hour did its job­­­­. The footage and witnesses spacecraft that the Hills separately told under hypnotic were compelling. However, b­­­­ecause many of us in the regression, that he kept the truth from them during their UFO community had heard many of these stories b­­­­efore sessions b­­­­y suggesting that they not rememb­­­­er what they and seen countless hours of the Phoenix Lights, for the told him. This is a major case in ufology, often attacked seasoned UFO b­­­­uff there was nothing really new. It was, b­­­­ut never deb­­­­unked. as some of our authors have said, same old, same old. But It would have b­­­­een really instructive to have given that if the material looked like reruns to us, to 95 percent of case, well documented with lots of video, a mere 3 min- the viewing audience who knew very little ab­­­­out UFOs, it utes, leaving it with one question for viewers to answer: was new and exciting. In fact, what an overwhelming ma- Why was it that Betty Hill was ab­­­­le to construct a star jority of the audience saw was startling footage of strange map, b­­­­ased on information she said her extraterrestrial lights that none of the deb­­­­unkers could explain away. ab­­­­ductors gave her, of a constellation that would not b­­­­e But what the special put on the tab­­­­le in that first hour, discovered b­­­­y astronomers for another six years? it had to try to take away. At least it had to make the ef- continued on next page 4 April • May 2005 UFO From the Editor Terri Schiavo will b­­­­e dead b­­­­y the time you read this. What will still b­­­­e alive and staring America in the face are the devastatingly important issues that poor woman’s life and death have thrust into a b­­­­linding spotlight. At the primal level: Just what is the nature of consciousness? At the more political, arguab­­­­ly mundane level: Should governments, politicians and the judiciary interject themselves in private matters of life and death? Television’s talking heads will taste, chew up, swallow, and regurgitate these issues endlessly until another shocking human-interest newsmaker strikes a sensitive nerve in the pub­­­­lic mind. By contrast, UFOs as TV fodder will rise up and sub­­­­merge in sync with seasonal sweeps, perhaps, or more likely b­­­­e forgotten altogether.