FLASH! Phoenix UFO Sightings Recieve Coverage in USA Today and NBC Nightly News...

...by Glen Boyd.

Wednesday, June 18, may well be remembered as the day the national news media took notice of the most significant UFO event since the Roswell incident 50 years ago. Today's editions of USA Today and NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw both featured stories on the Arizona UFO flap.

The Arizona flap (also called the "Phoenix Sightings") became big news to the UFO research community last March 13 when an enormous object (or objects, depending on whom you talk to) was observed over several Arizona cities by thousands of witnesses and videotaped by dozens of them. The object is most often described as a series of six lights forming a v-formation and trailed by a seventh light. The other most common descriptives are that it is enormous -- reports describe it as anywhere from three football fields to a mile long -- and silent as it passes. The object was seen by Arizona air traffic controllers who reported that it did not register on their radar screens.

Today's USA Today devoted a full page in its "A section" to the story... complete with pictures, testimony from witnesses, and even what seemed to be a subtle call for someone to investigate the story. Neither Arizona State and City, or federal Government Officials have investigated the story so far. The Air Force has also passed, citing their usual "sorry, not in the UFO business..." party line. A Phoenix city councilwoman, Frances Barwood, is pressing for an investigation. In the meantime, as one witness puts it in the USA Today report, "It's like having 50,000 people watch a football game in a stadium, then having someone tell us we weren't there."

The NBC Nightly News report was not as positive as the USA Today story, despite showing spectacular video footage of the object. The report centered heavily on the UFO mania sweeping America in light of the usual culprits -- everything from the movie, Independence Day, to the publicity surrounding the 50th Anniversary of the Roswell incident.

Still, it was an odd sight watching Tom Brokaw snicker about things "back here on Earth" as the video of an enormous object with six lights of intense brightness covering the entire Phoenix skyline played directly behind him. Either he wasn't seeing the same thing as his audience or he was in total denial!

ROSWELLAPALOOZA

With the 50th Anniversary of the purported crash of a UFO and its crew in Roswell, New Mexico, rapidly approaching, the Roswell story seems to be everywhere right now. At your local newsstand, you'll find Roswell comic books, a commemorative magazine (with an equally "commemorative" $10 price tag), and Roswell cover stories on everything from Popular Mechanics to Time magazine.

The Time story is noteworthy for its very one-sided treatment of the Roswell Incident... going so far as to infer the 1995 congressional General Accounting Office investigation report reached much the same conclusion as an Air Force report released at the same time which determined the crashed object to be a Project Mogul weather balloon. In fact, Congressman Schiff complained loudly of documents relevant to his investigation having been mysteriously destroyed. The Time report makes no mention of this.

Meanwhile, get ready for yet another official Air Force explanation. According to Time, a report to be released later this month will explain the presence of "bodies" at the crash site. The last Air Force report (the "Mogul" story) neglected to do that because, according to Col. Richard Weaver, "since we proved there were no UFOs, that automatically meant there were no bodies."

Weaver goes on to explain the bodies reported by Roswell witnesses this way. Seems the Air Force conducted experiments where they would drop dummies out of balloons flying at high altitude to determine the effects of impact. The "dummies" we're 3.5 to 4 feet tall, bluish in color, with ho hair, ears, or eyebrows. "People who saw them mistook them for aliens," according to Weaver.

Meanwhile, Senator Strom Thurmond's office has issued a statement taking issue with the foreword Thurmond wrote for the controversial book "The Day After Roswell" by Col. Phillip J. Corso (Ret.). In the book, Corso claims that, as Chief of the Army's Foreign Technology Division, he "stewarded" the alien artifacts recovered from an alien ship which crashed at Roswell. He goes on to claim that reverse engineering of the artifacts resulted in such modern technologies as fiber optics and integrated curcuit chips.

Thurmond writes a nice introduction to the book which verifies Corso's military and intelligence credentials. He has, however, since disavowed the book claiming he was led to believe that the forward he wrote would be for an entirely different book about Corso's life... rather than the "Roswell Exposé" which has hit the stands.

"The Day After Roswell's" co-author, William J. Birnes, has, according to an internet source, since stated that he stands by the book... including the inclusion of Thurmond's foreword, and that he had Thurmond's permission and knowledge of the foreword and "has his release to prove it."

Article used by permission of the author:Glen Boyd

Email:alkiguy@ix.netcom.com

Website:UFOrmation