There’s rarely a dull moment in the life of a paranormal news writer. Some weeks it’s time travelers. Other weeks it’s rock stars seeing UFOs. This week it’s Roswell witnesses. That may seem strange since the alleged crash of a spaceship in Roswell, New Mexico, occurred in 1947 and those who were or may have been involved are either deceased or well into their 90s. Yet earlier this week, recordings surfaced of what was said to be a student assistant to Albert Einstein who claimed to have accompanied him to multiple buildings in New Mexico where she claimed they saw a damaged spacecraft, five alien corpses and one living but injured alien. As people who remember fountain pens used to say, the ink was barely dry on that story when a new one surfaced – supposedly from the son of an alleged military witness to the crashed spaceship and dead aliens.

Did they look like this?

The story comes from the Mystery Planet website and is prefaced with an explanation that the original source is a 2010 letter to the late ufologist Stanton Friedman it obtained from his personal archive after this summer’s exhibition at the Fredericton Region Museum in honor of Friedman. The letter — dated January 26, 2010 – was said to be from Shawn (last name redacted) who claimed his father was a member of the 414th Fighter Group who was brought in to see the alleged spaceship and alien corpses. ‘Shawn’ claimed his father related the story to him in 1973 – 26 years after the incident. It’s a long letter (read it here) so here are some key quotes:

“My father said they were flying “hot” (armed), and it reminded him of fighter and bomber operations during the war. He said everything was definitely out of the ordinary. When he asked what was going on, an MP told him a rocket had crash-landed on the US soil. They landed at an air base in New Mexico and took trucks and jeeps to a remote piece of land.”

“The General knew of my father’s familiarity with advanced jet aircraft, and he asked my father to take a look at the wreckage and “see what he could make of it. My father said the wreckage was unlike anything he had ever seen before.”

“After examining the remains, my father reported to the general, “Kell, it is not one of ours, that’s for sure.” Asked whether he thought it was a rocket or a jet, he replied, “Neither.” The general asked my father if he thought the Russians had done it, and my father replied, “No, unless those inscriptions inside are in Russian.”

The wreckage was loaded onto two C-54s which left for Fort Worth with combat escorts … and aliens.

“Three small bodies packed in ice were loaded aboard his plane. They told him that they were the crew of the crashed ship. The ice was melting and, according to my father, the bodies were decomposing and smelled bad. He was able to examine the bodies and obviously thought they were not from this planet. This is what he told me about what he observed:

They were humanoid, with a head, two arms, two legs, two eyes, a mouth, a nose.
They had no ears or teeth.
They were small and fragile with unusually large heads.
They had large eyes but no lids.
They did not have genitalia.
They had six fingers on each hand.
They had skin that looked like that of a shark.
They were the perfect size and shape to fit the formed metal reclining seats he had seen among the wreckage.”

‘Shawn’ says his father kept in contact with military personnel involved with the alien spacecraft and crew, and found out it was saucer-shaped, writing on it was never deciphered, wiring was invisible to the naked eye, its materials seem to have been cultivated at the molecular level rather than manufactured, and more. Of the aliens, he says they were bioengineered robots that were fully integrated into the ship itself. They were also the source of its propulsion via “advanced form of telekinesis”. The ship appeared to have been hit by lightning, another intact ship was found, but neither could be reverse-engineered, nor could the aliens be cloned. It was also determined the ships traveled through time.

According to ‘Shawn’, his father swore him to secrecy but just before he died gave him a set of documents from what he said was a RAMP project on the propulsion system. While ‘Shawn’ could confirm that his father was associated with the Army Air Force (AAF), he could not validate the documents nor the story. It doesn’t appear that Mystery Planet could either, nor was it able to find a response to the letter, if it existed, from Stan Friedman – someone who would probably have at least acknowledged the letter.

Stanton Friedman

One last observation from Mystery Planet that may shed some light on what to make of this story – parts of it are similar to that of Colonel Philip J. Corso, author of “The Day After Roswell,” about his alleged involvement in the research of the Roswell Incident, who also claimed the aliens were bioengineered and responsible for the ship’s propulsion.

Corso’s story has been long debated. This letter probably won’t be – unless ‘Shawn’ comes forward with the alleged secret documents.

If these things come in threes, get ready for one more Roswell story soon.

Can you imagine a situation in which we, the people, are controlled not by hordes of jackbooted troops or militarized cops, but by the weather? If it sounds like a strange question, well, that’s because it is. If you think that such a thing is not a possibility, it’s very much a case of time to think again. Right now, the strange technology is being researched and developed that may allow for sudden thunderstorms, floods, lightning strikes, and even earthquakes to be directed to specific areas of the planet. That may even involve targeting specific people – perhaps protesters who, in their thousands, are taken out by a massive storm. And, who could prove that it wasn’t just the work of Mother Nature? No-one, that’s who – aside from those controlling the situation and who will be orchestrating the events. If you think that it’s only conspiracy theorists who believe that such a scenario could be real. In fact, you may be surprised at who has gone on the record as stating that not only is such a thing possible, but that the technology has been around – at experimental level, at least – for decades.

In August of 2001, the Guardian newspaper published an article that was titled “RAF rainmakers ’caused 1952 flood.'” In part, it stated: “On August 15, 1952, one of the worst flash floods ever to have occurred in Britain swept through the Devon village of Lynmouth. Thirty five people died as a torrent of 90m tons of water and thousands of tons of rock poured off saturated Exmoor and into the village destroying homes, bridges, shops and hotels. The disaster was officially termed ‘the hand of God’ but new evidence from previously classified government files suggests that a team of international scientists working with the RAF [Royal Air Force] was experimenting with artificial rainmaking in southern Britain in the same week and could possibly be implicated.”

(Nick Redfern)

Seven years later, in 2008, the BBC revealed the following: “In 2001, a BBC investigation discovered that classified documents on the secret experiments have gone missing. Survivors told how the air smelled of sulfur on the afternoon of the floods, and that the rain was so hard, it hurt people’s faces. The BBC unearthed fresh evidence about the alleged experiment, including RAF logbooks and personal testimony. The experiment was called ‘Operation Cumulus,’ but some people taking part dubbed it ‘Operation Witch Doctor.’ Alan Yates, who was a glider pilot, told how he flew over Bedfordshire as part of Operation Cumulus, spraying salt into the air. He was later told that there was a devastating downpour in Staines, 50 miles away.”  You may not be surprised to learn that the technology, today, is far in advance of that which was employed in the skies of England’s southwest in the early 1950s.

(Nick Redfern)

In April 1997, William S. Cohen, who was then the U.S. Secretary of Defense when Bill Clinton held the position of President of the United States, made an amazing and controversial statement to a packed audience at the University of Georgia, which is located in Athens. The conference at which the Secretary of Defense was speaking was The Conference on Terrorism, Weapons of Mass Destruction, and U.S. Strategy. Cohen came straight to the point and told the audience that certain bodies and people – who he elected not to name, which is intriguing – were then presently “…engaging in an eco-type of terrorism whereby they can alter the climate, set off earthquakes, volcanoes remotely through the use of Electro-Magnetic waves. So there are plenty of ingenious minds out there that are at work finding ways in which they can wreak terror upon other nations. It’s real.”

RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

Move over, Tic Tacs – you may be on the way to being replaced by a UAP that looks like … no, not another breath mint … a rubber duck! Before you scoff (and curse for having a “Rubber Ducky” earworm implanted in your brain), this comes from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and has been analyzed

“I am finally proud to present to you guys the very FIRST legitimate footage of a genuine UAP craft tracked for over 40 minutes by the department of Homeland Security using FLIR optics system in black hot mode. The footage was captured by an RC-26 reconnaissance plane looking for drug smugglers somewhere over Tuscon Arizona. The object was spotted 20 minutes into the footage and was tracked for a full 40 minutes until the footage ended.”

The video (watch the one hour recording here — the object appears in minute 20 and is followed until the end) was uploaded yesterday to the YouTube channel NY UAP DISCUSSION by Andy NY UAP – no other ID available at this time. ‘Andy’ announced he would release the video a few days before on the Witness Citizen UAP podcast. The video shows it was recorded on November 23, 2019, at about 9 pm.

Not that kind of rubber duck

“The object in question is traveling anywhere between 90-200 mph as it flies over the desert surface and is also changing direction as it flies. It is estimated to be about 5 or 6 ft long and looks to have a second smaller appendage that flies with it but it is still uncertain if the smaller orb like object is actually a part of the main one or separate from the main.”

While Andy NY UAP doesn’t reveal how he obtained this video of an unidentified 6-foot, 200 mph, rubber duck-shaped UAP, he does us a favor and shares it with Dave Falch, an experienced Depot Level Flir Technician who is also familiar with the USS Nimitz Tic Tac videos, having done that kind of work for Jeremy Corbell after he revealed those recordings. After saying on his own video that he talked to both ‘Andy’ and the person who leaked the video to him, Falch explains all of the measurements and readout seen during the video, then rules out birds, balloons, drones, and all other conventional explanations. It shows no heat signature, no propulsion and no moving parts. Falch believes it’s two distinct UAPs moving in harmony, but …

“I’m at a complete loss what this could be.”

‘Andy’ released the video to The Sun Online, which says it contacted everyone’s favorite former government UFO insider Luis Elizondo who said he thinks it’s balloons but would like to have it analyzed with the new AI being developed just for this purpose.

The Tic Tac UFO

After hearing these ‘expert’ opinions, watch the video again (rubber duck flies it around 20:30). What do you think now? It’s interesting and hard to tell if the video is real or fake. There’s no audio of pilot commentary, and neither ‘Andy’ nor Falch reveal the name of the video provider. It would definitely be helpful to have AI or members of the new government UAP investigation department take a look at it. Will that happen? Who knows. If it does, when if at all will we see the analysis? That’s the frustration of those waiting for gifts of UAP disclosure – it’s a lot of promises but few presents.

While we wait for answers, here’s something to help you remember the shape from your old pal Ernie.

Rubber duckie, you’re so fine
And I’m lucky that you’re mine
Rubber duckie, I’d like a whole pond of
Rubber duckie, I’m awfully fond of you.
“Rubber Ducky” — Sesame Street

When someone asks you what’s the weirdest UFO-themed, U.S. government document you’ve ever crossed paths with, it’s not easy to reply. However, I can say for sure that there’s one story that really stands out. Even to this day, and after more than a decade of looking into the file, I still don’t know what to think about it all. So, for that reason I’ll share it with you, the readers! I’m not sure if the document concerns a genuine UFO case, or if the key player in the story – an old man, at the time – was in the throes of Alzheimers or something similar. In a  November 13, 1952 document – titled Unconventional Flying Objects Sighted; And Portions Recovered By [First Name Deleted] McLean, Friona, Texas, prepared by the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and marked for the attention of the Director of Investigations at Washington, D.C. – the following was disclosed: “SYNOPSIS: Special Agent in Charge, Dallas, Texas, Texas Field Division, FBI, advised this district that [First Name Deleted] McLean of Friona, Texas, had reported seeing flying saucers at an unnamed point in New Mexico; had recovered three fragments which landed close to him; and had notified the Pentagon but hearing nothing had sold a portion of one object to a Russian scientist from the USSR Embassy.” That’s where it gets very strange.

The document continues: “FBI received information to the effect that McLean had written a letter to an unnamed friend in Amarillo, Texas, and it read in part as follows: “but to get back to flying saucers that are real, recently I was camped on a mountain in New Mexico and saw a dim light at first circling around up high. It circled in a mile across circle but kept descending. First the light was white but as it got lower it turned green and exploded showering light objects in all directions. Several of those fiery objects landed close to me, most of them were buried in the ground, but I gathered up three that were only partly buried and brought them home with me.'”

The document continued: “I notified the Pentagon in Washington what I had saw fall. I heard nothing from them but a Russian scientist from the U.S.S.R. Embassy did come and buy one half of one of those objects. It was so hard we had to use a sledge hammer to break into. In the center was a round hole or vacuum filled with fine powder. This scientist scraped every bit of the dust up and put it in a bottle. He claims the object was uranium and other unknown minerals.” The document adds: “Mr. and Mrs. McLean, Friona, Texas, were interviewed and Mr. McLean advised that he was a retired farmer. He stated that he had always been interested in meteors ever since he took a correspondence course concerning meteors some 50 years ago. McLean stated that in the spring of 1952 he was traveling in the eastern part of San Miguel County, New Mexico, with his wife, when he found a large deposit of a metal unknown to him. He stated that he picked up a piece of this metal and brought it back to Friona, Texas, with him. Mrs. McLean verified this statement inasmuch as she stated that she was with him at the time he picked up the metal.”

And there’s more from the military file: “McLean was questioned concerning his statement in the above letter that he saw the material fall but stated that he did not remember writing any such information in the letter and emphatically stated that he did not see the material fall to earth. McLean stated that after he found this material and returned to Friona, Texas, he wrote letters to Senator Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas and Senator Clinton Anderson of New Mexico concerning the material. He stated that both senators replied requesting that he ship samples of this material to a Government Laboratory in Tucson, Arizona. McLean stated that he sent samples of this material to the Government Laboratory in Tucson, Arizona, and stated that they replied advising him that the material was part of a meteor. McLean was asked if he were still in possession of all this correspondence but stated that he had destroyed it all.”

(Nick Redfern)

The Air Force didn’t stop there: “McLean advised that shortly after he wrote to the two senators about this material he was visited by an unknown individual who, according to McLean, displayed the credentials of the Soviet Embassy. McLean was asked to describe the credentials of this person and stated that they were very similar to the credentials of the writer but that the writing was in Russian. McLean was then asked if he could read the writer’s credentials, and he stated that he could not read very well but he felt sure that they were in English. McLean could not place the time of this visit and could furnish no other information concerning this alleged individual with the exception of the fact that he stated that he thought this individual came from the Russian Consulate in Amarillo, Texas. McLean stated he was no longer in possession of any of the unknown material inasmuch as he had recently given the remainder of the material to his wife’s nephew, Mr. [Deleted] of Lawrenceville, Illinois.”

If that wasn’t enough, the file got stranger and stranger: “It was also pointed out that in the letter set out above McLean advised that he sold half of the material to the representative of the Russian Embassy. At the time of the interview he emphatically denied selling any of the material to the representative of the Russian Embassy and stated that he could not remember having made such a statement in the letter to the individual in Amarillo, Texas. Deputy Sheriff C.M. Jones, Friona, advised that he had known the subject for many years and advised that the subject is an elderly man approximately 71 years of age. Jones advised that the subject has nothing whatsoever to do and is somewhat of a dreamer. Jones explained that McLean dreams of various things and then thinks about them to the extent that he actually believes what he dreamed. Jones stated that the subject will then come to the downtown section of the little town of Friona and attempt to convince people that his dreams are actually the truth. Jones stated that the people of Friona, Texas, very seldom believe or put any faith in any matters discussed by the subject due to his mental condition.”

A man whose mind was deteriorating – and deteriorating fast – or a genuine Flying Saucer affair involving U.S. intelligence, UFO debris, and the Soviets? Or, possibly, a bit of everything? After so many years of looking into this case, I’m still not sure.

Freedom of access to information represents one of the most important aspects of life in democratic societies today. In the United States, the Freedom of Information Act has existed officially since 1967, and is generally recognized as a law that keeps the citizenry informed about occurrences within various branches of government.

According to a summary at the website of the Department of State, “The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) generally provides that any person has the right to request access to federal agency records or information except to the extent the records are protected from disclosure by any of nine exemptions contained in the law or by one of three special law enforcement record exclusions.”

However, there are instances on record that appear to convey the withholding or disappearance of information from government files that otherwise should have been subject to FOIA laws. In some cases, these incidents involved sightings of unidentified aerial phenomena over sensitive military installations.

Throughout the 1960s and 70s, a series of incidents involving UFO sightings over nuclear facilities occurred which aroused official concern. As early as 1966, some of the incidents had made headlines in regional newspapers: a story featured on the front page of The Minot Daily News on Tuesday, December 6, 1966, featured the following tantalizing title: “Minot Launch Control Center ‘Saucer’ Cited as One Indication of Outer Space Visitors.” A similar incident was also described by author Raymond Fowler in his book Casebook of a UFO Investigator, which told of UFO activity over Malmstrom Air Force Base that same year.

The incidents over Malmstrom would continue for several years, in fact, and much has been written about the UFO activities there which seemingly resulted in the shutdown of missile launch systems and other anomalies. However, in one case, official files that should have existed about one of the incidents were apparently destroyed, prompting questions about government agencies and their handling of information concerning incidents involving UFOs entering restricted airspace over nuclear facilities.

The events in question involve an incident that occurred on November 7, 1975, where personnel at Malmstrom were hearing noises they likened to “jet sounds” accompanied by lights in the sky. Simultaneously, the 24^th NORAD Region detected up to seven objects in the area at an altitude of approximately 1200 feet, moving southwest. When attempts were made by F-106 pilots to investigate, the objects would turn off their lights, and visual or radar contact could not be made. To the frustration of officials observing on the ground, once the F-106s left the area, the mystery objects turned their lights back on.

The previous two nights, similar sightings of unidentified lights were made from launch sites south of Lewiston, Montana. And the following morning of November 9 shortly after 3 AM, another UFO was observed over Malmstrom.

Documents were later obtained in the form of a memorandum from the National Military Command Center, dated November 8, which gave a summary of the sightings. Copies were later obtained by researchers Larry Fawcett and Barry Greenwood, who made similar inquiries with the Air Force about the November 1975 sightings.

“All documentation at Malmstrom AFB has been destroyed in accordance with Air Force directives for the dates of the UFO sightings mentioned,” read a portion of an official response from the USAF regarding the incidents.

“Since when are all records of a serious incident or series of incidents of this magnitude destroyed,” asked Fawcett and Greenwood in their 1984 book Clear Intent. “We must conclude that either there is gross incompetence in the military’s handling of such situations, or that the UFOs, in these instances, presented so considerable a threat to the national security of the United States that the Air Force felt compelled to deliberately misinform the public, and, as a result, violated the Freedom of Information Act by stating that existing records had been destroyed.”

The destruction of records about the UFO sightings at Malmstrom in 1975 was not an isolated incident. In fact, similar occurrences elsewhere in the world suggest that the UFO issue has been handled similarly by other countries.

Journalist Ross Coulthart describes yet another instance of “lost” official records of a UFO incident in his book In Plain Sight, where he describes an incident on October 25, 1973, that occurred near Exmouth, Australia. Incidentally, the events in question transpired on the same evening that Secretary of State Henry Kissinger had been meeting with the National Security Council over a decision to move to Defcon III while then-President Nixon slept, in response to a message from the Soviets that Moscow was contemplating taking military action in the Middle East.

An Australian fire captain working with the U.S. Navy named Bill Lynn made the first observation of an object hovering over the Naval Communication Station North West Cape. Lynn later described in official documents what from his pickup truck he took to be a large, dark-colored object which he initially mistook for being a cloud formation. Moving closer and exiting the vehicle, it became evident that the object was large and spherical, and hovering silently while producing a sort of halo that Lynn thought was either rotating or perhaps pulsating. He watched the object for nearly four minutes before it “took off at tremendous speed” and vanished to the north.

Sightings reports were filed with the Royal Australian Air Force, indicating that there had been a second witness to the events in question. As Coulthart notes, copies of these reports were provided to researchers between 1974 and ’75, prior to the enactment of the freedom of information laws in Australia. Despite this, no similar records can be found today in the Australian National Archives.

“Curiously, there are now no records of this 1973 North West Cape sighting anywhere in declassified Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) sighting records from 1973,” Coulthart writes, adding that the “provenance of the original sightings reports is not in question.”

“It has never been explained why the original files recording the 1973 sighting were subsequently lost from Australian Defence Department files,” Coulthart says, “and it is to the great credit of the Defence Public Affairs staff of that era that they recognized the importance of seeing the 25 October 1973 sighting released to the public.

Arguably, had it not been for the earlier release of these sighting reports, no official documentation about them would exist today. The question remains as to how or why documentation of these seemingly very concerning incidents would have been lost or destroyed; it also raises the question of how often the loss of documents like these may occur.

While freedom of information laws do often grant researchers a glimpse at official documentation about UFO incidents involving the military, the law only works if records are kept… and as instances like those cited here seem to show, sometimes documents are either destroyed or simply go missing.

In light of this, how can the public be expected to have “freedom of information” if our governments can’t seem to preserve their own records about UFO activity over military installations?

The discovery of a 16-million-year-old tardigrade preserved in amber was an extremely rare find. In fact, it is only the third ever tardigrade that was found in amber to be completely described and named. The seemingly indestructible creature is incredibly tiny but exceptionally mighty and obviously couldn’t escape the amber that trapped it so many millions of years ago during the Miocene Epoch.

The new tardigrade species, which has been named Paradoryphoribius chronocaribbeus, belongs to a modern tardigrade superfamily called Isohypsibioidea. The new species found in amber was discovered in the Dominican Republic. The other two prehistoric tardigrades that were previous found in amber were the Milnesium swolenskyi that dated back 90 million years (it was described in 2000); and the Beorn leggi that lived 72 million years ago and was described back in 1964.

Tardigrades seem to be indestructible as they can survive freezing temperatures, high pressures, no oxygen, cosmic radiation, space vacuum, being boiled, and being fired out of a gun. Furthermore, they can dry themselves out and reconfigure once their surrounding conditions improve.

Drawing of Echiniscus testudo (species of tardigrade) on a grain of sand.

(Via Wikipedia)

Phil Barden, who is a biologist at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, noted, “The discovery of a fossil tardigrade is truly a once-in-a-generation event.” “What is so remarkable is that tardigrades are a ubiquitous ancient lineage that has seen it all on Earth, from the fall of the dinosaurs to the rise of terrestrial colonization of plants.” “Yet, they are like a ghost lineage for paleontologists with almost no fossil record. Finding any tardigrade fossil remains is an exciting moment where we can empirically see their progression through Earth history.”

As for the fossil found in the Dominican amber, it is very tiny, measuring a little more than half a millimeter in length. It was so small that the researchers had to use confocal microscopy to analyze it and it was a success as they said that it was the best-imaged fossil of a tardigrade so far.

In the image, they were able to spot the creature’s tiny claws and its foregut (mouth apparatus). “Even though externally it looked like a modern tardigrade, with confocal laser microscopy we could see it had this unique foregut organization that warranted for us to erect a new genus within this extant group of tardigrade superfamilies,” explained tardigradologist Marc Mapalo from Harvard University, adding, “Paradoryphoribius is the only genus that has this specific unique character arrangement in the superfamily Isohypsibioidea.”

A lot of things get trapped in amber.

The researchers went on to say that since the tardigrade that they found in the Dominican amber was exceptionally tiny, there could more examples in other amber deposits that have yet to be discovered. Pictures of the Paradoryphoribius chronocaribbeus inside the amber can be seen here.

Paradoryphoribius chronocaribbeus.

(Mapalo et al., Proc. R. Soc. B, 2021)

So smol! The tiny, preserved tardigrade found in Dominican amber is microscopic, measuring just over half a millimeter in length. This was too small for the researchers to see with a normal dissecting microscope, so they turned to confocal microscopy.

(Phillip Barden/Harvard/NJIT)

(Mapalo et al., Proc. R. Soc. B, 2021)

Above: Autofluorescence of Paradoryphoribius chronocaribbeus under confocal microscopy.

The study was published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences where it can be read in full.

If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.

The famous “Duck test” is accepted in many different fields, even though this kind of abductive reasoning does not positively prove its conclusion. The same could be said of another well-accepted practice – computer modeling and simulations. In other words, if the model says it’s a duck or a majority of the simulations say it’s a duck, then it’s probably a duck. This is a good place to start with a new simulation which shows that there’s probably an Earth- or Mars-sized planet orbiting beyond Neptune that was possibly pushed to the nether regions of the solar system by its giant gassy planets. Should we believe them … or duck when we question them?

Is it a duck?

Wait a minute! Are these simulations saying Planet Nine is not a giant but merely the size of Earth or Mars?

No, they’re not calling this duck Planet Nine … yet. Nor are they calling it Pluto’s Replacement Which Fits the Standard Planetary Size Criteria. Brett Gladman from the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of British Columbia, and Kathryn Volk of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona co-authored “Transneptunian Space” for the Annual Review of Astronomy and Physics in which they explain why the outer reaches of the Solar System need another planet.

“It seems unlikely that nature created four giant planet cores, but then nothing else larger than dwarf planets in the outer solar system.”

Many astronomers who don’t believe there’s a giant Planet Nine are nonetheless puzzled at there being only four small rocky planets and four gas giants in our solar system. Systems that can create those eight should have created more rocky planets beyond the gassy four, or even between two of them. It seems more likely that #9 was a Mars clone rather than a giant Planet Nine. But … if we can find little rocks like Pluto, Sedna, Eris and others, why haven’t astronomers located this bigger one?

Is it a duck?

“Our simulations found that in about half of the cases, all of the Mars-scale planets in the outer Solar System were ejected into interstellar space. But in the remaining half, one ‘rogue’ planet was left in an orbit similar to that of the detached population of Kuiper Belt objects.”

In another simulation reported in Inverse, astrophysicist Scott Tremaine found a case for a rogue rock planet that might have been moved from between the gassy giants to the area beyond them by the gassy giants themselves. It’s not so farfetched – astronomers agree that the planets, especially the gas giants, have moved around. However, it is farfetched that it hasn’t been discovered yet. All we have to go on so far is gut feelings, models and simulations, and the hope that stronger telescopes can get enough data from those sources to located the medium-sized remote planet – or prove the models wrong.

For now, it’s not yet a duck. Or a mini-Planet Nine either.

If, as my Body Snatchers in the Desert book on the Roswell affair suggests, certain key events in the summer of 1947 – of a perceived flying saucer nature – had far less to do with the actions of aliens and far more to do with matters of a classified, military nature, then it would be most reasonable to assume that (a) discussions of such a possibility would have been flying around Washington, D.C., and (b) the government, and people in the military, would have been secretly digging deep to try and determine if this was indeed the case. Guess what? That is exactly what happened. Although many UFO investigators have said that the government’s worries and concerns about UFOs in ’47 were provoked by fear of them having definitive alien or Soviet origins, we have prime evidence in our hands that demonstrates the domestic “secret weapon” angle was one most definitely discussed – and even accepted – at an official level, as we shall now see. It is a crucial part of the argument that at least some UFOs are not from faraway worlds, but from right here.

(Nick Redfern)

In early July 1947, Brigadier General George F. Schulgen, who was the Chief of the Requirements Intelligence Branch of Army Air Corps Intelligence, met with Special Agent S.W. Reynolds of the FBI. The purpose: to determine if the Army Air Force could solicit the assistance of the Bureau on a regular basis in its investigation of the growing flying saucer controversy. General Schulgen advised Reynolds that, “every effort must be undertaken in order to run down and ascertain whether or not the flying discs are a fact and, if so, to learn all about them.” The foremost thought on General Schulgen’s mind, at the time, was that the saucers were probably man-made in origin. He had another theory, too, and confided in Special Agent Reynolds that, “the first reported sightings might have been by individuals of Communist sympathies with the view to causing hysteria and fear of a secret weapon.” It was for this reason that the Army Air Force sought the FBI’s assistance.

General Schulgen pledged to the FBI “all the facilities of [my] office as to results obtained.” He outlined a plan that would involve the FBI in both locating and questioning witnesses to UFO sightings to ascertain whether they were sincere in their statements that they had seen flying saucers, or whether their statements were prompted by personal desire for publicity or subversive reasons. According to declassified FBI files, Schulgen was careful to advise Reynolds too that: “It has been established that the flying discs are not the result of any Army or Navy experiment.” But, was that statement the literal truth? Was someone keeping the FBI in the dark? Following the meeting between Schulgen and Reynolds, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover instructed his agents to begin investigations into flying saucer sightings, specifically in the manner suggested by General Schulgen. As a result of these investigations, on August 15, 1947 the FBI learned of the distinct possibility that the military’s involvement in the flying saucer subject extended beyond that of mere observer. In a memorandum to Edward A. Tamm, the FBI Assistant Director, D.M. Ladd of the Bureau’s Domestic Intelligence Division wrote the following:

(Nick Redfern) The Legendary Crash Site Outside of Roswell, New Mexico

“The Director advised on August 14, 1947, that the Los Angeles papers were carrying headlines indicating that Soviet espionage agents had been instructed to determine the facts relative to the flying discs. The article carried a Washington date line and indicated that Red espionage agents had been ordered to solve the question of the flying discs, the Russians being of the opinion that this might be some new form of defense perfected by the American military [italics mine]. The article further recalled that during the recent war pieces of tin foil had been dropped in the air for the purpose of off-setting the value of radar being used by the enemy forces and that these aluminum discs might be a new development along this line. The Director inquired as to whether the Bureau had any such information.”

(Nick Redfern) Hanging Out at Roswell a Couple of Years Ago

Suspecting that, if the Russians were snooping around, the saucers just had to be American in origin, Special Agent Reynolds of the FBI’s Liaison Section was directed by J. Edgar Hoover to make further inquiries with the Air Force. Answers were sorely needed. Answers came, too. But, they weren’t the ones you might expect them to have been. On August 19, 1947, Reynolds met with a Lieutenant Colonel George D. Garrett and the entire secret weapon issue was discussed frankly and openly, as were the potential consequences should the Bureau uncover details of a top-secret, domestic research-and-development program. Following their very candid exchange, a remarkable memorandum captioned “Flying Discs” was prepared by Reynolds for the attention of Hoover. It is this document, perhaps, more than any other, which indicates that the American military was testing flying saucer-type aircraft in the summer of 1947. Or, craft that were not circular-shaped but which still came under the UFO banner, such as massive balloon arrays. Somewhere in all of this are the strands that place the Roswell affair  into the “human experimentation” category.

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