Les documents du KGB sont enfin dévoilés, les objets volants dans le ciel soviétique ont bien existés. Durant des décennies, l'activité ovni dans le ciel de l'Ex-URSS fut censurée. Les rapports d'observations sont désormais disponibles et ils permettent d'avoir une vision générale et non plus tronquée du phénomène ovni.

Au début de la Seconde Guerre mondiale, Winston Churchill, avec sa causticité habituelle, décrivit l'Union soviétique comme «une devinette enveloppée dans un mystère à l'intérieur d'une énigme». C'est de lui aussi que nous vient l'expression «rideau de fer» (en anglais, iron curtain), manière d'exprimer autrement le côté impénétrable de l'ancien bloc de l'Est. En dépit du fait qu'au cours des années qui suivirent l'effondrement de l'URSS, de nombreuses informations relatives à la culture et à l'histoire soviétiques soient devenues disponibles, la plaisanterie de Churchill demeure valide. Dans le cas de l'activité ovni dans l'ex-Union soviétique, elle semble presque être un euphémisme.

La lecture des dossiers ovnis du KGB prouve clairement que les autorités soviétiques étaient conscientes du phénomène ovni, mais que, conformément à l'esprit de méfiance qui prévalait lors de la Guerre Froide, elles se gardèrent bien de laisser filtrer la moindre information vers l'Occident. Aujourd'hui, les ufologues occidentaux peuvent étudier ces dossiers, ainsi que les nombreuses observations civiles d'ovnis qui se sont multipliées depuis 1991. Résultat : pour la première fois peut-être, les ufologues disposent d'une vision vraiment globale du phénomène ovni.

Si les dossiers du KGB sont rarement illustrés de photographies -à la différence des observations civiles d'ovnis-, ils portent par contre le sceau de l'administration. En ce sens, ils constituent des preuves fiables et démontrent qu'à l'Est comme à l'Ouest, le phénomène ovni fut consigne durant des décennies.

BOULES DE FEU OU OVNIS ?

L'une des observations d'ovnis les plus étonnantes qui soient détaillées dans les dossiers du KGB se produisit le 12 novembre 1985. Hasan Kayoumovitch Rakhimov était de garde dans une installation militaire connue sous le seul nom de «Poste Sept» lorsque, d'après son récit, «une boule jaune et bleue, de la taille d'un ballon de football, apparut soudainement... à environ 30- 40 mètres de l'endroit où je me tenais». Rakhimov affirma que l'ovni se trouvait initialement à une altitude de 10-15 mètres au-dessus du sol, mais que cette altitude variait sensiblement, l'engin évoluant au-dessus de la base en faisant des sauts. «Ayant effectué trois ou quatre sauts de 50 à 100 mètres, il se dirigea vers le chenil et disparut», raconte encore Rakhimov.

Les ufologues examinant les dossiers du KGB ont rapproché cette observation du phénomène des boules de feu. Toute- fois, une autre observation ovni qui s'était produite quelque temps plus tôt dans la même région a jeté quelques doutes sur cette théorie.

Deux civils qui étaient sortis pour chasser virent un ovni. «À 20h30, le 3 novembre 1985, se souvient l'un des hommes, je retournai à mon canot automobile et démarrai le moteur. C'est alors que j'aperçus un ovni se déplaçant à grande vitesse du nord vers le sud à une altitude plus haute que celle à laquelle vole un avion. L'ovni était un peu plus large qu'une étoile, et il émanait de lui comme un rayon de projecteur à un angle de 5-10°. Le temps était clair, et l'ovni était nettement visible contre le ciel étoile.

Le rayon de lumière couvrait entre un quart et un cinquième de la distance entre l'objet et le sol. Le rayon ne frappait pas le sol, mais s'éparpillait. Lorsque l'ovni se rapprocha, le moteur du bateau s'arrêta brusquement. Je pensai que les cahots avaient peut-être fait glisser le levier de vitesse en arrière. Je tirai sur la corde du démarreur après avoir vérifié le niveau de carburant et ouvert les gaz. Le moteur démarra immédiatement, mais comme il tournait je vis une lueur émanant de la bobine du système d'allumage. Ayant fonctionné cinq ou sept secondes, le moteur s'arrêta de nouveau. L'ovni stoppa d'un coup net, sans vraiment ralentir; il se trouvait alors juste au-dessus du canot. L'ovni se dirigea vers le sud en direction de Vladivostok, et là nous vîmes un satellite au-dessus de lui. L'ovni et le satellite se déplaçaient à la même vitesse et dans la même direction. Puis le projecteur s'éteint et l'ovni cessa d'être visible. »

UNE QUEUE DE FLAMMES

Autre épisode détaillé par le KGB, celui qui implique un avion reliant Volgograd à Tbilissi, actuelle capitale de la Géorgie. Le 14 décembre 1987, l'équipage signala un «objet volant selon une trajectoire frontale à la nôtre, ressemblant à un avion dont les feux d'atterrissage seraient allumés et rentrés». L'équipage d'un autre avion fut plus succinct, mentionnant seulement une «queue de flammes» dans le sillage de l'ovni. Un témoin anonyme qui téléphona au contrôleur aérien de l'aéroport local affirma avoir aperçu un objet semblable à un «avion en feu traînant derrière lui une queue de flammes, volant au-dessus du village. Après un éclat de lumière évoquant une explosion -bien que ce ne fut accompagné d'aucun effet sonore-, l'avion disparut.» Le témoin ayant passé l'appel déclara qu'il n'avait pu repérer «ni débris, ni traces d'explosion». Voilà trois témoignages concomitants d'une affaire que d'aucuns tiennent pour un «Roswell soviétique» en puissance. Malheureusement, le dossier ne raconte pas les événements qui suivirent. Bien que la «queue de flammes» suggère un météore se consumant, ou peut-être un satellite ou d'autres débris spatiaux retombant sur la Terre, le fait que deux des témoins en parlent comme d'un avion ajoute au mystère. Il n'y eut pas de procès-verbaux relatifs à la découverte de débris d'accident. Comme bien souvent, les rapports du KGB interpellent cruellement, mais ne délivrent pas de conclusions qui pourraient servir de point de départ à une enquête ultérieure.

LA SIBERIE ET SES OVNIS

D'après les documents du KGB, entre 1987 et 1988 il y aurait eu un certain nombre d'apparitions ovnis au-dessus de la péninsule du Kamchatka, dans la pointe extrême-orientale de la Sibérie. Le personnel de la base de lancement de missiles de Koura observait régulièrement «les survols d'objets volants non identifiés en forme de boules». Le lieutenant supérieur Vasilevski et le soldat Kolosov, du «Site Trois» d'instrumentation télémétrique, assistèrent à l'apparition d'un ovni qui ressemblait à des «lumières montant lente- ment et passant du rouge au blanc». La durée de ces apparitions, qui furent signalées depuis trois endroits différents de la base, allait de trente secondes à trois minutes. Le phénomène fut également signalé par des officiers stationnés au sommet de la montagne de Lyzyk, près d'une autre base de missiles. Leurs témoignages sont sans doute plus importants car, en tant que militaires relativement haut placés -et dépendant de ce qui était encore un régime rigoureusement totalitaire-, ils mettaient directement en jeu leur crédibilité, bien plus que de simples soldats du rang.

Dans un rapport officiel, le lieutenant supérieur Vasilevski avança que les apparitions d'ovnis « correspondaient aux dates prévues de lancement de missiles lourds », remarquant aussi que «lorsque les lancements étaient ajournés, les objets n'apparaissaient plus». Cette affirmation est toutefois contredite par d'autres observations ; à la mi-décembre 1987, un adjudant et deux soldats virent une boule de lumière orange se déplaçant du nord au sud. Le même genre d'objet, ou très similaire, fut observé à deux autres occasions au cours du même mois et durant l'année qui suivit. Or toutes ces observations sibériennes ne correspondaient plus à des lancements de missiles.

LUMIÈRES ROUGES

L'apparition d'objets anormaux dans le ciel de la Russie et de l'Asie centrale soviétique se poursuivit au cours des dernières années de l'Union soviétique. Le 22 septembre 1989, dans la ville d'Astrakhan (située dans le sud-ouest de la Russie sur les bords de la mer Caspienne), une demi- douzaine de témoins virent un objet rouge et brillant, «en forme de goutte», dans le voisinage de la gare de Koxhevaya. Trois autres témoins décrivirent l'objet comme étant de couleur jaune. Il fut clairement observé, bien que par intervalles, durant une période allant de quarante-cinq à cinquante minutes.

Six jours plus tard, une autre observation eut lieu dans les parages. Cette fois, deux «points lumineux, violets et rouges, de près d'un mètre de diamètre » furent aperçus par plusieurs témoins près de la piste d'atterrissage de la base aérienne locale. Un mois plus tard, un objet semblable à la «goutte rouge» signalée plus tôt fut observé par de très nombreux témoins, aussi bien civils que militaires, tout près de Burkhala dans la région de Yagodinski.

DERNIÈRES OBSERVATIONS

Exactement neuf mois avant que l'Union soviétique elle-même ne cesse d'exister (novembre 1991), un certain nombre d'habitants de la ville d'Aleksandrov, près de Moscou, signalèrent avoir vu de vifs éclairs blancs dans le ciel, au-dessus de leurs maisons. Leurs descriptions de la formation de vol et de l'allure de ces «objets» diffèrent largement; tantôt on les a vus voler à quelques mètres du sol... tantôt à quatre ou cinq kilomètres d'altitude. La plus poignante de ces apparitions se produisit au-dessus de la flamme éternelle de la tombe du Soldat inconnu à Karabavano. L'«objet», quel qu'il ait été, fut décrit comme émanant une pulsation lumineuse qui éclairait l'ensemble du monument.

UN MYSTÈRE QUI SUBSISTE

Malgré ces nombreux témoignages et les autres apparitions d'ovnis consignées dans les dossiers du KGB, l'attitude des autorités soviétiques, à l'instar de leurs homologues britanniques et américains, oscille entre l'insouciance et le dédain. Et une vaste question se pose, cette question qui embarrasse, intrigue et effraie tout à la fois les ufologues depuis maintenant un demi-siècle. L'apparent manque d'intérêt pour les ovnis manifesté par les autorités -et ce quelle que soit leur obédience politique- vient-il du fait qu'elles n'y croient pas, ou faut-il croire qu'elles savent de quoi il retourne... mais qu'elles préfèrent le taire?

http://kebecleak.over-blog.com/article-censure-du-kgb-a-propos-des-ovnis-d-urss-116349310.html

Air Force UFO Rules Vanish After Huffington Post Inquiry

The military deleted a passage about unidentified flying objects from a 2008 Air Force personnel manual just days after The Huffington Post asked Pentagon officials about the purpose of the UFO section.

Before the recent revisions, the document -- Air Force Instruction 10-206 -- advised pilots, radar operators and other Air Force personnel on what to do when they encountered any unknown airborne objects. Now in the 2011 version, the reference to UFOs -- which simply means "unidentified flying objects," not necessarily spaceships with little green men -- has been eliminated.

What makes this so intriguing is that the U.S. government officially stopped investigating UFOs in 1969 with the termination of the Air Force's Project Blue Book.

HERE'S THE 2008 VERSION OF AFI 10-206 THAT REFERENCED UFOS ON P. 37:

Air Force AFI 2008

Credit: John Greenewald, Jr. -- TheBlackVault.com

The 22-year study, led by high-level military officials and academic experts, ruled that UFOs weren't extraterrestrial visitors, nor were they technologically advanced aircraft, nor were they a threat to national security.

With that, the military essentially shut the book on flying saucer research, concluding that "nothing has occurred that would support a resumption of UFO investigation by the Air Force."

"The reason why the military is claiming they don't investigate UFOs is because they don't want to respond to people like you," former Air Force Captain Robert Salas told The Huffington Post.

"They don't want to respond to reporters or to the public as to what the heck is going on, and it's been going on for so long. They just don't want to have to answer that question."

Yet more than 40 years after the close of Project Blue Book, there were still written orders on what Air Force personnel should do in the event they spotted a flying vehicle that couldn't be identified.

As recently as early September, Air Force members who came across anything they didn't recognize were told to note "altitude, direction of travel, speed, description of flight path and maneuvers, what first called attention to the object, how long was the object visible and how did the object disappear?"

Eyes in the sky and on the ground were commanded to treat a UFO as they would if they had seen a missile, hostile aircraft or unidentified submarine.

All details were required to be included in a report to NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command), which protects the airspace over the U.S. and Canada.

On Sept. 2, The Huffington Post made inquiries to the Air Force about the UFO directives. A spokesman said he'd arrange an interview with an appropriate officer. But before the interview was set up, the 111-page instruction manual was revised on Sept. 6, and the UFO instructions were deleted, as were other portions of the document, now shortened to 40 pages.

HERE'S THE UPDATED 2011 AFI 10-206 MANUAL WITH UFOs DELETED:

Air Force 10-206 2011

Credit: U.S. Air Force

For several weeks, military officials failed to respond to HuffPost inquiries about the rewritten manual, which included changes to areas unrelated to UFOs.

Finally, on Oct. 5, after several follow-up calls, an Air Force major emailed a response, informing HuffPost that UFO reporting is not a duty of the armed forces branch. He denied any cover-up, and instead said it was a coincidence that the document was updated after this news organization asked for an explanation.

"UFO reporting is a NORAD requirement, but not a requirement for Air Force operational reports," Air Force Maj. Chad Steffey told The Huffington Post in the e-mail.

"All Air Force Instructions are reviewed/revised on a regular basis (about every two to three years). For this revision, we merely deleted a procedure that did not apply to this AFI.

"For any other questions about requirements for UFO reporting, I'll have to refer you to NORAD," Steffey wrote.

Unlike the Air Force, officials at NORAD acknowledge that looking into UFOs is part of their job description.

Of course, most UFOs are eventually explained as something far less extraordinary than little green -- or grey -- men.

"When I talk about UFOs, it is literally an unidentified flying object, not an extraterrestrial," said John Cornelio, chief of media relations at NORAD headquarters at Peterson Air Force Base, Colo. "There is a blip on the radar, and we don't know what it is. And we're responsible for identifying what that object is. We know it's an aircraft of some sort, but we don't know who it is, and so have to go up and identify it."

But here's the big question: Did the Air Force really stop investigating UFOs in 1969 as they have repeatedly claimed throughout the ensuing decades?

"Absolutely not! They have continued to look into UFO cases," said Salas, co-author of "Faded Giant." "In fact, there are NORAD records from 1975 of UFO sightings -- and this was not any general aviation aircraft -- objects seen over missile sites and other bases.

"They scrambled jets to intercept these UFOs, which clearly operated at speeds that the jets couldn't keep up with, and they were sighted by a lot of people," Salas told HuffPost.

THIS DOCUMENT DETAILS A 1975 NORAD INCIDENT WHERE JETS COULDN'T CATCH UFOS:

Black Vault NORAD Doc1

Credit: John Greenewald, Jr. -- TheBlackVault.com

Salas is just one of many former military officers who have come forward in recent years to disclose their involvement with a variety of UFO incidents that occurred over several U.S. nuclear weapons sites, sightings that had been kept secret for decades.

"As a matter of fact, there was that incident in Wyoming last year where 50 ICBM missiles went down and the base commanders instructed the troops not to talk to anybody about this UFO that was seen over the base," said Salas.

It was a scenario too familiar to Salas, who in 1967 was monitoring a launch control center at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana. When UFOs appeared over the base, Salas recalled, "all of a sudden, we started getting bells and whistles going off. As we looked at the display board in front of us, sure enough, the missiles began going into an unlaunchable, or no-go, mode. They couldn't be launched."

In the aftermath of that event, Salas was debriefed by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, or AFOSI.

"After we told them our recollection of the incident, the AFOSI captain wanted us to sign papers, saying we'd never talk about this and swear we wouldn't even talk to our wives or any of the airmen on the base -- nobody!"

HuffPost News first received the 2008 Air Force procedure document from John Greenewald, creator of The Black Vault, the largest private online archive -- at 600,000 downloadable pages -- of declassified documents on UFOs, government secrets, conspiracies, biological nuclear weapons and terrorist activities.

CHECK OUT JOHN GREENEWALD HERE:

"When I first obtained AFI 10-206 in 2006, UFOs were in it, and were the same procedures as outlined in a previous Army-Navy-Air Force publication called JANAP-146, that was a joint U.S.-Canadian manual for reporting UFOs, that came after 1969," Greenewald, author of "Beyond UFO Secrecy," told HuffPost.

"They've had many opportunities to take [the UFO reference] off of this publication and now look at what happens," said Greenewald. "All of a sudden, when a major news outlet like Huffington Post starts asking questions about why UFOs are still on the books -- to have that media outlet not get a fast response, number one; and number two, the military completely re-writes the regulation, changes it and UFOs are nowhere to be found -- that's a fascinating coincidence."

Using the Freedom of Information Act, Greenewald's 15-year crusade to pry government documents loose has yielded UFO reports from many government agencies, like the CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency, Department of Defense and the National Security Agency, documents that detail UFO accounts beyond 1969 and into more recent times.

"You can find UFO documents that stretch all the way into 2008 on the shelves of quite a few agencies," Greenewald pointed out. "The CIA and National Security Agency collected quite a bit of material after 1969. The UFO topic is of great importance that never went away."

At NORAD, Cornelio explains that they can't investigate every single UFO report that comes along.

"We have our specific role that we're responsible for, and that is to monitor threats to our nation," he said. "But at the end of the day, it's not our job to identify every unidentified object that's out there. I'm aware of the process by which the command center handles these things, and I don't believe it's something that's releasable."

Salas doesn't completely agree with Cornelio about the overall urgency that some UFO reports pose.

"Are you telling me they don't care about UFOs in general, whether they're from another planet or not? They do care; they care about anything in our air space," said Salas. "They can't just say, 'No, we don't investigate UFOs.' They can't make a blanket statement like that because that's their duty, their responsibility, to investigate UFOs.

"To me, they're talking out of both sides of their mouth."

UFOs: WHO DO YOU BELIEVE?

UFO Over Mojave Desert Sept. 9, 1985

This cigar-shaped UFO was photographed by general aviation pilot David Hastings as he piloted a Cessna Skymaster plane over the Mojave Desert on Sept. 9, 1985. There has never been an indication of hoax in this case, which remains unexplained to this day.
UFO Over Holloman Base

An unidentified flying object was photographed by a government employee over the Holloman Air Development Center in New Mexico in 1964. Conspiracy theorists have claimed the photo is proof that the U.S. government has been in contact with aliens.
Strange objects over France

While descending an Austrian mountain in 1954, photographer Erich Kaiser captured an image of what he called mysterious silvery-white flying objects.
Mexican Air Force Pilots Video

Mexican Air Force pilots filmed strange, brightly lit objects that moved quickly in the skies on March 5, 2004. Some scientists said the phenomenon could have been caused by gases in the atmosphere.
Roswell

America's most infamous UFO case centers in Roswell, N.M. Some people claimed an alien spacecraft crashed there in 1947; the military said it was a weather balloon.
Roswell dummies

The Air Force issued "The Roswell Report" in 1997. Countering claims that aliens were recovered at the New Mexico site, the report said military officials picked up 200-pound dummies, above, that were used in an experiment.
Alien in Brazil

Video grab close up. What looks like an alien creature with visible head, neck, arms and body standing in the Brazilian rainforest in Manaus, Brazil. In this Amaz-alien footage, a lone unidentified being appears to stand in the jungle of Brazil -- even arching its back -- just feet away from a bright flashing blue light. In what some allege as proof that Earth is being visited by aliens from another planet, the video was obtained by paranormal writer Mike Cohen who says the video was taken by two British tourists visiting the Manaus region of the Amazon jungle.
Crop Circle in Yogyakarta, Indonesia

A large circle and geometric pattern local residents say were created by a UFO appeared in a rice field in Krasakan hamlet in Sleman, Yogyakarta, on the morning of Jan. 23, 2011.
Stan Romanek film

Stan Romanek claimed that this still image from a three-minute video he shot in 2003 shows an alien looking into his home in Nebraska. In the film, a strange face appears to be popping up and down outside Romanek's window.
Sketch of UFO sighting

This eyewitness drawing of an alleged UFO sighting is in one of 19 once-secret files posted to the British National Archives website. The files cover sightings reported between 1986 and 1992. Although many of the reports were debunked, some remain unexplained.
France field markings

An investigator in 1989 measures markings that some said were left behind by a UFO in Normandy, France. France began releasing its "X-Files" on UFO sightings in 2007.
President Jimmy Carter

President Jimmy Carter, shown here in 1971, reported that he saw a UFO above Leary, Ga., in 1969. He filed a report about the sighting to the International UFO Bureau in 1973.
Astronaut Gordon Cooper

Astronaut Gordon Cooper, who piloted Mercury and Gemini space missions in the 1960s, once said he saw a "typical saucer shape, double-cylindrical shape, metallic" UFO. He was also outspoken on the idea that some UFOs were interplanetary vehicles visiting Earth.