LESLIE KEAN is an independent investigative journalist with a background in freelance writing and radio broadcasting. She has contributed articles to dozens of publications here and abroad, including the Boston Globe, Philadelphia Inquirer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Providence Journal, International Herald Tribune, Globe and Mail, Sydney Morning Herald, Bangkok Post, The Nation, and The Journal for Scientific Exploration. Her stories have been syndicated through Knight Ridder/Tribune, Scripps-Howard, the New York Times wire service, Pacific News Service, and the National Publishers Association. While spending many years reporting on Burma, she co-authored Burma’s Revolution of the Spirit: The Struggle for Democratic Freedom and Dignity (Aperture, 1994), and she has contributed essays for a number of anthologies published between 1998 and 2009.
Kean was also a producer and on-air host for a daily investigative news program on KPFA radio, a Pacifica station. In 2002 she co-founded the Coalition for Freedom of Information (CFi), an independent alliance advocating for greater government openness on information about UFOs and for responsible coverage by the media based on a rational and credible approach. As director of the CFi, she was the plaintiff in a successful four-year Freedom of Information Act federal lawsuit against NASA. Kean was a producer for the 2009 independent documentary I Know What I Saw and is currently working with Break Thru Films, an award-winning film company, on a new feature documentary.
Copyright © 2010 by Leslie Kean
“The UAP Wave over Belgium” copyright © 2010 by Wilfried De Brouwer
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Harmony Books, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kean, Leslie.
UFOs : generals, pilots, and government officials go on the record / Leslie Kean. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
1. Unidentified flying objects—Research. 2. Unidentified flying objects—Sightings and encounters. 3. Public records. I. Title.
TL789.K357 2010
001.942—dc22
2010015221
eISBN: 978-0-307-71685-9
v3.0
,
1 Now known as the COMETA Report The acronym COMETA is an abbreviation for Comite d’Etudes Approfondies (Committee for In-Depth Studies), the name of the committee that conducted the study.
2 “the most logical explanation for these sightings” The COMETA Report, “UFOs and Defense: What Should We Prepare For?” Written by the French association COMETA, 1999. “Le rapport Cometa, les Ovni et la Defense, A quoi doint-on se preparer?” G.S. Presse Communication, 1999. Editions du Rocher, 2003. Appeared in the magazine VSD in France, July 1999.
3 Among them, all retired, were a four-star general COMETA members and contributors include: General Bernard Norlain, former commander of the French Tactical Air Force; Andre Lebeau, former head of CNES; General Denis Letty of the Air Force, former auditor (FA) of IHEDN; General Bruno Lemoine of the Air Force (FA of IHEDN); Admiral Marc Merlo (FA of IHEDN); Jean-Jacques Velasco, head of SEPRA/GEPAN; Michel Algrin, doctor in political sciences, attorney at law (FA of IHEDN); General Pierre Bescond, engineer for armaments (FA of IHEDN); Denis Blancher, chief national police superintendent at the Ministry of the Interior; Christian Marchal, chief engineer of the national corps des Mines, research director at the National Office of Aeronautical Research (ONERA); General Alain Orszag, Ph.D. in physics, engineer for armaments. Other contributors include Francois Louange, president of Fleximage, specialist in photo analysis; General Joseph Domange of the Air Force.
UFOs became the focus Leslie Kean, “UFO Theorists Gain Support Abroad, but Repression at Home,” Boston Sunday Globe, May 21, 2000.
5 Volumes of case studies have been published There are too many to mention, including many white papers, transcripts, magazine stories, journal articles, and books about a specific case or one particular aspect of UFO research. Much outstanding work is also published on a number of credible websites, and other books have been written more recently. The following works cover the UFO topic in general and were of particular importance to me personally during my first few years of study, from 1999 to 2001: Edward J. Ruppelt, The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects (Doubleday, 1956; revised edition 1959); Richard H. Hall, editor, The UFO Evidence (NICAP, 1964); Edward U. Condon, Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects (Bantam Books, 1969); J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience: A Scientific Inquiry (Marlowe & Company, 1972); David
