UFOs - Leslie Kean [130]
Returning to the easier analysis, perhaps the sensitive research projects hidden within the U.S. government avoid dealing with UFOs simply because even our most specialized intelligence officials actually don’t know much about them and can see that there is nothing to be done one way or the other. The objects haven’t caused us harm and there are many other, more immediately dangerous and pressing issues to be addressed, involving human survival both economical and environmental. This would mean that the only cover-up in place is that which conceals any recognition that UFOs exist, and involves nothing more than that.
And this nonacknowledgment has its own logic. It makes sense that the authorities would have no motivation to announce publicly that there are apparently all-powerful unknown machines flying without restriction in our skies and beyond our control. Would our government want to acknowledge its own impotence in the face of something unidentified yet well-documented? Some authorities may worry about public panic, whether we know what they are or not. Even if the U.S. government acknowledged the presence of an unexplained phenomenon, the extraterrestrial hypothesis would become part of the debate, and if the thinking became that these likely are vehicles or drones from somewhere else, it would appear that they have complete power over us. What official body would want to unload such a bombshell in an already unstable world?
On the other hand, it is important to remember that the Belgian Air Force did just this in 1990, and other countries have done so, as well, in relationship to specific events, and no dire popular upheavals or waves of fear have disturbed these societies. Instead, people continued their regular lives with much less need than we find here in America to create alternative explanations or conspiracy theories in order to satisfy their natural human curiosity. Nonetheless, in this huge, multicultural country that sees itself as a planetary leader on many fronts, opening that door through any kind of organized official statement seems to remain entirely unappealing.
However, such government reticence must and can be overcome, or at least outflanked, according to former governor Fife Symington of Arizona, who has had unique experience—to say the least—on both sides of this complicated fence, leading to his current stance on the issue. Beginning with the landmark press conference of 2007, he and others from around the world have formed a united platform seeking a new approach. The citizens of the world, including Americans, are ready to move forward.
CHAPTER 24
Governor Fife Symington and Movement Toward Change
On March 13, 1997, a decade after the Hudson Valley UFO wave had quieted down, multiple triangular and V-shaped UFOs made a series of brazen new appearances, this time over the western United States.
It was a pleasant spring evening in Arizona, clear and still, and countless families were outside in larger than usual numbers gazing at the sky, because Comet Hale-Bopp was to be visible that night. Instead, beginning at about 8:00 p.m., they were provided with an even more astounding aerial spectacle: a series of massive, eerily silent craft gliding overhead like nothing they had ever seen before. One central object moved from the north, southeast across the state, traveling about 200 miles from Paulden to Tucson, passing near Phoenix and surrounding communities. It was on display between 8:15 and 9:30 p.m. Many hundreds—more likely thousands—saw it.
Police department phone lines were jammed and the local air force installation, Luke Air Force Base, was overwhelmed with calls. Reports of sightings from around the state flooded the lines at