Come visit us at one of our Roundtown UFO Society meetings on the 2nd Thursday of each month presently at the Pickaway County Public Library in Circleville starting at 6:00 pm and ending at 8:30 pm. There is usually a sign indicating where the meeting is.
Home of America's First Classic Close Encounter
& Circleville - Roswell Connection
The UFO Conspiracy: The First Forty Years
By Jenny Randies
Javelin Books, London. 1989, 224 pages
The UFO Conspiracy is both a chronological history of the UFO phenomenon from its modern era beginning in June 1947 and an expose of the world's governments secret investigations into UFOs. Since the book is by British ufologist Jenny Randies it contains much information about European sightings. The book does not take a point of view on UFO origins although there is some speculation about them possibly being either extraterrestrials or time travelers. What I liked best about the book is its documenting using quotes from officials in the know that the major governments are indeed secretly investigating UFOs while publicly ridiculing the military personnel and civilians who have reported seeing them. French Minister of Defense Robert Galley in an 1974 interview admitted the French government secretly collected information about UFOs. He stated that if the general public saw this data they would be surprised. "The accumulation of the information is actually rather perturbing". (page 181). Some countries such as Spain and Brazil and most recently Belgium have had a more open attitude toward showing UFO information with the public and cooperating with private civilian UFO investigators. Randies laments that the British government publicly denies the reality of the UFO phenomenon. England does not yet have a Freedom of Information Act like the U.S. has that allows the public to take legal action to see formerly classified documents that prove the security agencies were secretly interested in UFOs. The Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk, England case of December 1980 is an excellent example. Though the RAF base there of Woodbridge/Bentwaters is owned by the British Ministry of Defense, the staff are members of the U.S. Air Force. On the base there was a close encounter of a UFO by military personnel. Several Americans including Lt. Col. Charles Halt, the deputy commander of the NATO base, have endorsed the reality of the sighting whereas the British Ministry of Defense continues to deny that anything extraordinary happened and that the case didn't require investigation.
Most interesting are the numerous cases of military jets being sent to intercept UFOs. Included are documented cases from England in 19S6, Iran in 1976 and Spain in 1979. A document released under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act in 1976 states "when credible reportings of sightings are received the Air Force is attempting to send up jet interceptor planes in order to obtain a better view of these objects." Randies contends that jet gun cameras have taken close-up photos of UFOs but that the photos have been confiscated.
The UFO Conspiracy is one of the best books of UFOs and the cover-up of their existence that I have read.
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