UFO believers pursue case

BY SEAN D. HAMILL
CHICAGO TRIBUNE

Judge has told NASA to find the files

KECKSBURG, Pa. — The U.S. government says nothing of note happened in this small town in the hills of southwestern Pennsylvania on Dec. 9, 1965. A meteor may have passed by, but no alien ship or Russian space probe fell to Earth.

Still, Bill Bulebush, 82, says he knows what he saw, heard and smelled, despite the doubts of the government and others in Kecksburg.

“I looked up and saw it flying overhead and it was sizzling,” said Bulebush, a retired truck driver.

“I got to it 15 to 20 minutes after it landed. I saw it 10 to 15 feet away from behind a big tree — because I was worried it might blow up — and it smelled like sulfur or rotten eggs and was shaped like a huge acorn, about the size of a VW.”

Other people said that dozens of Army soldiers and three members of the Air Force showed up, and later that night a flatbed military truck took the object away.

Despite such accounts, the government has been “trying to make it out like we’re a bunch of liars,” Bulebush said.

But now he and his fellow believers may have their best chance to prove their case. A recent settlement in a 4-year-long Freedom of Information Act court battle requires NASA to comb for documents about the incident and report back periodically to the judge overseeing the case.

The lawsuit was filed in December 2003 in the District of Columbia by Leslie Kean, a freelance journalist, with financial support from the SciFi Channel.

SciFi had asked Kean in 2002 to find a solid UFO report, one with credible witnesses and possible physical evidence, to serve as a test case.

Kean pressed the case after she filed a Freedom of Information Act request in 2003 and NASA said it couldn’t find any documents related to Kecksburg.

But Kean knew the space agency had documents. Stan Gordon, a UFO and Bigfoot researcher with whom Kean was working, had information he got in response to a request he sent NASA in the 1990s.

The case boiled over on March 20 for federal Judge Emmet Sullivan, who had tried to move NASA along for more than 3 years.

According to a transcript of the hearing that day, Sullivan angrily referred to NASA’s search efforts as a “ball of yarn” that never fully answers the request, adding: “I can sense the plaintiff’s frustration because I’m frustrated.”

A settlement, reached Oct. 17, specifies how NASA will make a new search for records. Both sides will be required to report back to Sullivan periodically, starting this week.

(Source: http://www.freep.com)

GROUP SUCCESSFULLY SUES NASA TO RELEASE FILES

Exopolitics Toronto

In association with ZlandCommunications

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MEDIA RELEASE

GROUP SUCCESSFULLY SUES NASA TO RELEASE FILES

The world’s largest aerospace agency - NASA has been forced to release files it has steadfastly refused to release; until now. 

This court decision, as rendered is a milestone in the pursuit of free access to government files sequestered for over 40 years.

Toronto ON, Canada November 19 – The Coalition for Freedom of Information (CFi) has won a landmark decision in a settlement of a law suit against NASA in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Presiding Judge Emmet G. Sullivan approved a settlement that requires NASA to comb through hundreds of documents and provide copies to the plaintiff – journalist Leslie Kean and CFi under the watchful eye of the courts. Previously, as a result of NASA’s refusal to release its records concerning the 1965 Kecksburg PA incident, CFi filed the initial suit in December of 2003 after NASA’s refusal to release these files under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act.

NASA is required to declassify documents pertaining to the alleged crash site investigation which some witnesses indicate was in reality a controlled landing of an unidentified space-like craft.

John Podesta, former Chief of Staff in the Clinton White House and President of the Center of American Progress supports this action and has stated: “The time to pull the curtain back on this incident is long overdue. Leslie Kean’s victory is a triumph for open government and the spirit of inquiry.”

NASA is required to not only declassify relevant documents but explain redactions and to pay Kean’s court costs.

The entire incident captured the imagination of the town’s people of Kecksburg. It was described by many in Kecksburg as being a controlled landing of an unusual craft followed by a military recovery of a space-like object. The entire area was cordoned off by U.S. military personnel who investigated the site without providing an explanation about their investigations. Some witnesses reported having seen a large object being carried on a flat-bed truck – escorted by military vehicles – moving out of the town after the incident.

In this unprecedented court victory the public right to know has been upheld. This court victory also deals a significant blow to the U.S. government’s on-going silence and resistance to the release of certain records relating to unidentified flying objects following legitimate FOIA requests.

In a statement Leslie Kean indicated; “Finally, we hope to acquire the relevant documents about Kecksburg that are required by law. I look forward to working with NASA on the resolution of the terms set out by the court and to providing the public with the information it has been waiting for.”

Little is known about the type of files that will ultimately be released; whether or not the files will reveal an analysis of the object type, its composition, propulsion system if any, occupants – if any, or any of the other aspects of characteristics that are sometimes attributed to unidentified flying objects that have landed or crashed here on Earth.

More information on this incident can be obtained at: www.freedomofinfo.org.

For details on the SCI-FI Channel’s coverage see: http://www.scifi.com/kecksburg/