“A Kean Eye for UFOs”

Captain Ray Bowyer Speaking before the National Press Club 11/12/07

On Leslie Kean’s new book:

UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials

Go On the Record

A UFO Digest Book Review

By Chris Rutkowski

UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go On the Record
Harmony Books: NY. 2010. 335 pages.
 

The new book by Leslie Kean about UFOs is a problem. It’s quite unlike most other books about UFOs that have been published in recent memory, and it’s very good. It’s a problem because either every contributor to her edited collection of official testimonies and UFO case histories is a liar or completely misguided, or else she’s on to something important. Something about which scientists and the general public should pay attention.

UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go On the Record is a collection of essays, some penned by Kean herself, about officially-documented and investigated UFO cases that were considered unexplained by government and military investigators. And just as the longish title infers, testimony by well-placed individuals who are and were in positions to know the facts and details about significant UFO incidents show that there is something truly perplexing going on in the skies overhead.

This isn’t a book about UFO crashes or Roswell (although it’s mentioned in passing on a few pages) nor is it about abductions by aliens and implants surgically removed from toes and noses. Nor is it about messages imparted by aliens to selected individuals or psychic vectoring of lights by self-declared Terran emissaries.

Kean’s book is about facts. She details what really happened in specific and noteworthy UFO cases that in some instances made worldwide headlines and others were never made public. She cites official documents (not disputed documents) and interviews the military or government officials involved.

Arizona – April 1997

Kean’s capability as an investigative journalist is clearly evident throughout the book, and she has no interest in arm-waving exercises to dismiss witnesses’ observations simply on the basis that flying saucers cannot be real. At the same time, she effectively and deliberately distances herself from “undiscriminating UFO groups” and “extremists” who “market themselves as scholars or activists” and who “compound the public relations nightmare that UFOs already face within public discourse.”

In short, Kean’s work is one of the most important works in ufology published in decades. Her background in journalism and her passionate search for the truth has allowed her to seek out respected and staid individuals to tell the story behind what seems to be a most remarkable suppression of events and information.

If you would like more information or to purchase this book on amazon.com simply click on the book’s title: UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go On the Record

The Belgian Triangle UFO

(Photo enhanced  by Robert Morningstar)

She starts by introducing Major General Wilfrid de Brouwer, who was in charge of the military investigation of the Belgian UFO wave of 1989 and 1990. He effectively shoots down debunkers’ suggestions that the wave was caused by mass hysteria, helicopters or secret military maneuvers. Then, Captain Julio Miguel Guerra of the Portuguese Air Force describes a UFO which flew circles around his plane in 1982. A team of scientists and military investigators could not explain his experience. Later, Captain Ray Bowyer gives testament to the cigar-shaped UFOs past which he flew his commercial aircraft over the English Channel in 2007, and the associated puzzling radar returns.

<See UFO Editor’s Note below>

And so on. Retired military personnel and advisors come forward with statements and new testimony that UFO reports have been filed and investigated by various world governments, long after Project Blue Book declared UFO research as without any merit. Brazil, Britain, Chile, France and other countries have all been relatively transparent when it comes to release of UFO files, and yet, as Kean notes, the United States seems not to have any interest in the matter. Why?

Kean and her contributors all argue that the prevailing attitude of debunking UFO reports, accelerated during the Condon fiasco, should come to an end. They dare scientists who believe the “party line” that there are no credible and well-investigated unexplained UFO cases to wake up and take a real look at the collection of factual reports described in detail in Kean’s book.

Flying Saucers – “Serious Business” in Washington

If UFOs have no bearing on national security, Kean reasons, then why are military jets scrambled to chase seemingly solid radar returns? If there is no danger to aviation, why are pilots confounded by UFOs on routine flights across the country?  Why does the FAA refer pilots to Peter Davenport’s UFO Center?  Why wouldn’t the FAA prefer to thoroughly investigate their own pilots’ sightings? In one chapter, new evidence provided by the head of accident investigation within the FAA even suggests that the oft-noted 1986 JAL incident over Alaska was not as easily dismissed as some writers insist. And that “punch-hole cloud formation” over O’Hare? Kean wonders why the FAA didn’t investigate the incident in the name of transportation safety, and why won’t a single witness go on record about it?

Beyond documentation of official military and government UFO case investigation, Kean seeks the root cause of cynicism and debunking of UFOs among journalists and academia. Detailed statements by the French COMETA investigators, for example, all scientists in their own right, are diametrically opposite to those made by debunkers. Official conclusions by military and government investigators in several countries collectively call for more serious and objective studies of UFO reports, especially in the light of a lack of explanations for some peculiar cases.

The simple way to debunk Kean’s work is to challenge each and every contributor’s official statements, insisting they are all in error or liars. But this in itself raises an important problem, too. Why would so many well-placed and qualified individuals, most with outstanding service records, make such statements? Not fame, surely. Not for monetary gain. Then why?

Kean carefully crafts her work in a logical and compelling manner, without wide-eyed believers’ fanaticism but with a rational approach that challenges the reader and leads toward her thesis that it’s time for a paradigm shift: a new Kuhnian “scientific revolution.” She restates and improves upon the skeptics’ rallying cry that “extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence” by making a sensible, subtle adjustment: “An extraordinary phenomenon demands an extraordinary investigation.”

Kean argues that, like many other countries around the globe, the United States should create a small official department to investigate UFO sightings in a timely manner and inform the public of details regarding their actions. This would not be simply a “public relations exercise” as Blue Book and been, but a way to reassure a frustrated public that its elected officials and taxpayer-funded military are actually doing their job at protecting American interests.

Kean presents the facts of many remarkable UFO cases, summarized in most instances by the witnesses themselves. Whereas some simply express their bewilderment at what they saw and the way in which official investigation transpired, because they are in positions to know the capabilities and limitations of terrestrial aircraft, they cannot contain themselves from concluding that they could have encountered an alien craft. It’s duly noted throughout the book that only a small fraction of UFO reports are unexplained, and a smaller fraction are thoroughly investigated and studied.

The fact that a real phenomenon is manifesting in terrestrial skies is the main premise of each section of the book. Based on Kean’s presentation, it is a logical and reasonable conclusion. And that’s a problem, because UFOs aren’t real, right?

Chris Rutkowski 

http://uforum.blogspot.com

August 4th, 2010

 Leslie Kean

Log On to Leslie’s website

http://www.UFOsOnTheRecord.Com

Order your copy of 

“UFOs: GENERALS and GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS

GO ON THE RECORD”
/
http://www.amazon.com/UFOs-Generals-Pilots-Government-Officials/dp/0307716848/ctoc

Capt. Ray Bowyer & Nick Pope at the National Press Club – November 12, 2007  

UFO Editor’s Additional Notes and Comments:

I had the privilege of attending Leslie’s National Press Club Conference on UFO Disclosure in Washington, DC in November 2007 and hearing the testimony of these distinguished experts first-hand.

I consider Leslie’s research and that NPC event to be a watershed in the history of UFOs and a line of demarcation in history, which ushered in a new epoch in “The Age of Flying Saucers”.

I encourage all those interested in UFOs and the world governments’ cover-up of this important subject to read this book.

On UFO Updates recently, a fellow unfamiliar with the exact details of the Englsh Channel sighting by Ray Bowyer made the following statement :

“Thirdly, there is no good evidence of “associated puzzling radar returns”

This fellow is not in possesion of the actual facts.

When I met Captain Ray Bowyer in Washington DC at the NPC UFO Conference on November 12th, 2007,  Bower showed me the printouts of the British ATC radar returns during a private conversation we had .  Ray told me that they were provided to him by the British Civil Aviation Authority and he expressed surprise that the “American FAA” withholds such data from American pilots

Captain Bowyer pointed out the solid returns from the 2 huge UFO objects, and the flight tracks of his aircraft and another that was flying in the same vicinity.

As I recall, his flight track headed directly east toward Jersey and Gurnsey without deviation, while the other aircraft, at first heading west turned to cross behind Bowyer’s track, turning south (as if the other pilot had turned to take a look at the UFOs being reported by Ray Bowyer on the ATC radio frequency).  However, I can’t be absolutely sure that was the reason.   I was paying more attention to Ray’s own flight path and his relative position(s) to the 2 UFO returns, which were solid, one larger that the other (as he stated, a mile to a mile and a half) and the pattern on the radar printouts appeared to be exactly what Ray said he saw visually.

Captain Bowyer showed me 2 pages of radar return print outs,  different from each other, as they showed progress of his flight and the course of his craft over a 2 or 3 minute interval of time, as I recall.

I was very privileged to see them at all as he did not show them publicly during the National Press Club conference.  Ray only showed them to me after I informed him that I was an American private pilot and FAA certified Instrument Ground Instructor and, moreover, that I had also had my own in-flight encounters with UFOs. 

https://www.ufodigest.com/news/1006/encounters.html

Our meeting remains one of those memorable moments in life when 2 pilots share information in trust and confidence, and I’ve kept  this information to myself for almost 3 years. I am revealing this information to our readership now because of the skeptical, caustic comment and dismissal of the facts as noted above.

I am surprised that Captain Bowyer did not release the radar images for publication in Leslie’s book, as that would have prove the case positive beyond the shadow of a doubt, but that is his perogative.

Robert D. Morningstar
Editor, UFO Digest

August 10th, 2010

To sum up Leslie’s new book, we offer…

“A Second Opinion”

“Leslie Kean’s astonishing book is the finest piece of investigative journalism ever written on this subject. She has an incomparable ability to ‘give voice’ to a constituency of exceptionally qualified and unbiased first-hand observers. They are not from the fringe, not groupies, and not delusional. Rather, they are high-level military, intelligence, aerospace, and government officials who speak with authority while providing reports that document actual, physical craft.

“Kean’s book represents the FIRST important step toward a new U.S. government openness about UFOs. It brings forward a reality otherwise buried for far too long inside official mystery, and elevates the discourse above that of small-minded public discussions.” —

Christopher C. Green, MD, Ph.D.

Kean’s book has received praise from many other scientists, scholars, journalists and others.
 

“At last, a serious and thoughtful book about this controversial subject. Skeptics and true believers will find a treasure trove of insightful and eye opening information. This book is bound to set the gold standard for UFO research.”  Michio Kaku, Ph.D /Quantum Physicists
 

“In these pages we are confronted head-on by the UFO phenomenon as revealed firsthand by highly credible government officials and military aviation experts. Their credibility and integrity cannot be questioned, and their firsthand observations cannot be ignored.”  Harold E. “Hal” Puthoff, Ph.D
 

The forward to Kean’s book is written by former White House Chief Of Staff- John Podesta
 

John L. Petersen, founder and president of The Arlington Institute also pointed out that…
“In an area of study where there aren’t many, this is a serious book. It is credible, clear, and compelling.”

 

“Only a new generation can end the blackout. I wish I could be more upbeat and positive.
  But this society is progressing one funeral at a time.” —
  Harvard Astronomer Rudy Schild

 

“It was huge and it was truly something from out of this world, I should have said so from 

the beginning, at the time I thought I should play it down” 
—  Fife Symington
     Former Governor of Arizona



“Kean presents the most accurate, most credible reports on what is in our skies you will ever find,
  she has fought long and hard to discover the hidden facts and let the chips fall where they may”
—Miles O’ Brian
Former CNN Space/Science Correspondent.

OVER 420 GOVERNMENT AND CIVILIAN CONTRACTORS FOR THE GOVERNMENT ARE WILLING
TO TESTIFY BEFORE CONGRESS IF GIVEN IMMUNITY FROM THEIR OATHS OF SECRECY. 

http://www.disclosureproject.org/