Customer Reviews

You Can't Tell the People (Hb)

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Gorgina does a good job of this one. This subject has been of keen interest to me for many years now, and having read so many accounts of the Rendlesham case, this one is the most sober account I have so far read. It brings out new accounts from the U.S. Airmen, based at RAF Bentwaters and Woodbridge, in the early eighties. A good investigative account by all means, backed up by new facts. Since the book was published the UK government has released documents proving they were interested in this case. A Great read about an ongoing event

Highly recommended.

The late Georgina Bruni (who died of cancer in 2008 aged 61) was a trained private investigator and successful writer/magazine editor with connections to leading politicians and senior military figures. These contacts, together with her single-minded professionalism, made possible direct access to many witnesses to the events at RAF Bentwaters in December 1980 who had not previously gone on the record. "You Can't Tell the People", her book on this most famous incident of UFO-military-base-intrusion is the most thoroughly researched, comprehensive and wide-ranging yet written.

The book's title is a direct quote from former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher when discussing the UFO/ET issue with the author in an unguarded moment at a public function in London in the spring of 1997, three years prior to the book's publication. The comment was prompted by asking the former PM her views on the testimony of several leading scientists and former military men recently interviewed by Bruni in the USA who had claimed they had been secretly working with recovered alien technology. Sure enough, the former PM knew something about this and cautioned her to make sure she "got the facts right" and as a politician "you can't tell the people." This most revealing conversation was then interrupted by the intervention of the former PM's security men.

The book is a factual and comprehensive piece of detective work which leaves no stone unturned, and extremely well-organised. Right off the bat, the author summarises in a short chapter the "major players" in the event: Commander of the 81st Tactical Fighter Wing Major General Gordon Williams, Base Commander (of both Bentwaters and Woodbridge) in 1980 Colonel Ted Conrad, later Base Commander Colonel Sam Morgan, Deputy Base Commander Colonel Charles Halt (author of the famous "Halt Memorandum"), AFOSI Deputy Base Commander Wayne Persinger and in all, 29 leading USAF witnesses or participants plus RAF, Suffolk Police and civilian witnesses. Bruni hunted them all down, interviewed them all, and presents their sometimes extensive and detailed testimonies for the record.

The history of this enigmatic area of Suffolk and of the twin bases is explored, and the author toured the now-decommissioned bases including the underground areas prior to embarking on the project. The extraordinary incidents between 26-29 December 1980 and their gradual emergence into the public domain are described in a logical, chronological narrative. Each chapter introduces the perspective of a new witness or group of witnesses: Gordon Williams, Larry Warren, Timothy Egercic. The evidence of John Burroughs, Jim Penniston, Edward Cabansag, Adrian Bustinza and Charles Halt each gets an entire chapter, as does the local police file, AFOSI, civilian witnesses and other base personnel. The case builds and builds.

The author draws all this evidence together in the final chapters, concluding the "case for the UFO" visiting Rendlesham Forest in December 1980 is unassailable, and that the governments of both the UK and the USA covered it up and did their best to discredit witnesses. She presents a compelling case. The theory that the Orford Ness Lighthouse explains the events is comprehensively discredited to the point where only a deluded fool could possibly give it any credence. What exactly are these UFOs visiting us? She goes through the usual hypotheses: secret hi-tech human technology, inter-dimensional phenomena, time travellers. Although the Extra-Terrestrial Hypothesis remains unproven it's the strongest candidate, says Bruni; however, such speculation is not the issue. The issue is that SOMETHING UNKNOWN landed on more than one night and left broken tree branches, imprints of landing gear in a triangular pattern on the forest floor (plaster casts taken) and soil baked hard and changed at the molecular level (samples analysed, with control samples); the craft "adversely affected the nuclear ordnance" by firing beams of light down through the steel-reinforced concrete storage bunkers into the nuclear weapons; multiple highly credible witnesses testify to having interacted with the "visitors"; a paper trail of official documentation was generated inside the USAF and between the USAF and the UK Government, and the whole incident was subsequently downplayed and covered up by the authorities.

So in summary, "You can't Tell the People" is one of the most compelling and deeply-researched books on the UFO subject in general and on the Rendlesham Forest incident in particular, driven by an impressive quantity of original field research, supported by a large number of first-time-on-the-record interviews and substantial official documentation. Georgina Bruni was a great writer and investigator, her untimely demise in 2008 was a loss to the field and this fine original work deserves a five-star rating.

It's interesting to speculate if, having supplied the book's title, Baroness Thatcher has read this book. If not, she should - and so should you.

Georgina Bruni (since passed away) has written an encyclopedic account of her investigation into the Rendlesham - Bentwaters UFO case. Half a dozen books have been written based on the accounts of military men who purport to have been there when the object landed in the forest. Each book has the viewpoint of its principal, and each shifts the story just enough to create doubt in the mind of objective observers. Investigative journalist Bruni has written an account based on her exhaustive interviews with the usual suspects as well as many secondary players involved who have not been interviewed in the past. Her strength is the ability to be tenacious in resolving conflicts among the many accounts, and when unable to do so, to point out the questionable claims and her personal feelings about the credibility of those involved.

From my perspective, she has managed to chronicle the many conflicting accounts of Larry Warren and Peter Robbins, two of the most prominent who have written about "the British Roswell", and to call into question many of the statements made by Warren. To her credit, she does not dismiss the accounts out of hand, but feels, as many do, that Warren has been "messed with" by the intelligence types of AFOSI. Bruni points out that many of the low level men involved have kept quiet as instructed by the military, while their tight lipped superiors have enjoyed rapid advancement in their careers. To read her chapters detailing the years long process of securing interviews and updating her files, carefully cross checking her facts and dates, one has to admire her unwillingness to simply go for the sensational in this story.

Bruni spent years on this book, and it shows. This is the one volume that looks at each of the principals in the case and sums up her personal verdict that something was there, and as probably extraterrestrial in origin. This is the last (and best) word on how things stand today on the Bentwaters Case.

Her intriguing title stems from an interview with Prime Minister Thatcher in which she was told: "You must get your facts straight, and you can't tell the people". Make of that what you will.

This book explains a lot of the werid things that exsisted and have exsisted on this twin base complex. I was stationed here and can testify there is a lot of strange events around here. I have served or rather stood on Security Post 18 and know that area as well as anyone. Late at night it is a creepy location to be in on watch. The woods this occurred in are to say the least spooky. I was stationed at this base before this happened but I still know many of the people referenced here. This book and one other by Warren cover the whole incident in great detail. They are and this one especially is well worth the read. As the book title says...."you cant tell the people". I am generally a disbeliever in UFO events but this one has been testified to by numerous trained people I knew and I respect their narration of the event and suspect these men really did see this.