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UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record Paperback – August 2, 2011
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“A treasure trove of insightful and eye-opening information.”—Michio Kaku, PH.D., bestselling author of Physics of the Future
Leslie Kean, a veteran investigative reporter who has spent the past ten years studying the still-unexplained UFO phenomenon, reviewed hundreds of government documents, aviation reports, radar data, and case studies with corroborating physical evidence. She interviewed dozens of high-level officials and aviation witnesses from around the world. Among them, five Air Force generals and a host of high-level sources—including Fife Symington III, former governor of Arizona, and Nick Pope, former head of the British Defence Ministry’s UFO Investigative Unit—have written their own breathtaking, firsthand accounts about UFO encounters and investigations exclusively for this book.
With the support of former White House chief of staff John Podesta, Kean lifts the veil on decades of U.S. government misinformation about this mysterious phenomenon and presents irrefutable evidence that unknown flying objects—metallic, luminous, and seemingly able to maneuver in ways that defy the laws of physics—actually exist.
With a Foreword by John Podesta
“The most important book on the phenomenon in a generation.”—Journal of Scientific Exploration
“Written with penetrating depth and insight, the revelations in this book constitute a watershed event in lifting the taboo against rational discourse about this controversial subject.”—Harold E. Puthoff, PH.D., Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies at Austin
“Kean presents the most accurate, most credible reports on UFOs you will ever find. She may not have the final smoking gun, but I smell the gunpowder.”—Miles O’Brien, science correspondent for PBS’s NewsHour
- Print length352 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherThree Rivers Press
- Publication dateAugust 2, 2011
- Dimensions5.17 x 0.75 x 8 inches
- ISBN-100307717089
- ISBN-13978-0307717085
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Editorial Reviews
Review
—Michio Kaku, Ph.D. Author of Physics of the Impossible and host of Sci Fi Science on the Science Channel
“I was astonished by the care and precision of Leslie Kean’s research in this terrific book. Her analysis is carefully reasoned and to the point; her craftsmanship in organization and writing are superb. Her expose' raises important questions: Why does the US government create public distrust by neglecting this important topic? Why do its agencies avoid investigating cases of interference with flight operations and instead issue absurd cover-up stories? This book is ultimately an appeal to all scholars for an "extraordinary investigation of an extraordinary phenomenon.”
—Rudy Schild, Ph.D., Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
“Like me, Leslie Kean is an agnostic on the issue of UFOs. Her book is a fine piece of journalism - not about beliefs, but about facts. Kean presents the most accurate, most credible reports on UFO's you will ever find. She has fought long and hard to discover the facts and let the chips fall where they may. She may not have the final smoking gun, but I smell the gunpowder.”
—Miles O'Brien, former CNN space/science correspondent
“I find explanations offered by UFO enthusiasts and conspiracy theorists to be implausible, but I also have little patience with "deniers" who ridicule credible reports. Leslie Kean has found a thoughtful path between extreme views, documenting the UFO mystery with intelligence and insight. She makes a strong case for U.S. participation in official, international UFO investigations and for public dissemination of the results. The fascinating first-hand accounts make this a thought-provoking book, even for those of us who don’t know much about UFOs.”
—Neal Lane, Ph.D., Rice University; former Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
“If you don't know much about UFOs, you must read this book. If you think that UFO reports are nonsense, this book will disabuse you of that notion. Leslie Kean's UFOs informs readers at every level of knowledge and belief. It could, and should, become the "tipping point" that leads to public acceptance of the reality of UFOs and all of its implications.”
—Don Donderi, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, McGill University (Ret.)
“In an area of study where there aren’t many, this is a serious book. It is credible, clear, and compelling, without any farfetched jumps in logic and assumption. Its credibility begins on the first page with John Podesta and continues with case studies of extraordinary quality to the very end. Leslie Kean not only makes the case for, but calls for, a whole new concrete and realistic perspective on UFOs that has more honesty and integrity than any other that I have read. This is a book for anyone with an open mind.”
—John L. Petersen, Founder & President of The Arlington Institute
“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. Leslie Kean provides a challenging analysis and she writes with penetrating depth and insight. The revelations in this book constitute a watershed event in lifting the taboo against rational discourse about this controversial subject.”
—Harold E. Puthoff, Ph.D., Director of The Institute for Advanced Studies at Austin
“When I started reading Leslie Kean’s UFOs, I found it very difficult to stop. This is an unprecedented assessment of what may be the greatest challenge ever presented to mankind. In an outstanding piece of investigative journalism, Kean provides a well-written and convincing appeal for change in dealing with a phenomenon that can no longer be ignored.”
—Jean-Claude Ribes, Ph.D., Paris Observatory (Ret.)
“For anyone who questions why - after more than fifty years of denial, ridicule, and dismissal - many scientists, academics, political figures, and military personnel still insist that the subject of UFOs should be taken seriously, this book provides the answer. Leslie Kean offers compelling documentation that physical objects, with flight characteristics not yet achievable by known technology, are being routinely reported in our skies. They represent a mystery that needs to be solved.”
—Stuart Appelle, Ph.D., Dean of the School of Science and Mathematics, State University of New York, Brockport
"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., Harper University Hospital, Wayne State University School of Medicine
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Majestic Craft with Powerful Beaming Spotlights
We begin this exploration on very solid ground, with a Major General’s firsthand chronicle of one of the most vivid and well- documented UFO cases ever. What you are about to read will demonstrate the dramatic, and very mysterious, physicality of UFOs— in this case, ones that were unusually bold. Although parts may sound like science fiction, they are not. The fact is that silent gliding or hovering objects, usually triangular, were seen by thousands of people and investigated by university scientists and government officials, yet they could never be explained. They left imprints on film, and although virtually impossible to detect on radar, they triggered the launching of Air Force F- 16s in anxious pursuit. The sightings occurred in a more than two- year “wave” over Belgium, beginning in late 1989.
To launch this book’s exploration into the UFO phenomenon, Belgian Major General Wilfried De Brouwer, now retired, has provided an exclusive account that includes some personal responses he has never expressed before. As chief of the Operations Division in the Air Staff, then Colonel De Brouwer played a prominent role, along with officials from other branches of government, in mobilizing various departments to try to identify the strange intruders that kept showing up unannounced over cities and countryside. “Hundreds of people saw a majestic triangular craft with a span of approximately a hundred and twenty feet and powerful beaming spotlights, moving very slowly without making any significant noise but, in several cases, accelerating to very high speeds,” De Brouwer stated publicly a few years ago, describing only the first night of the wave. Numerous police officers were among the initial group of witnesses, reporting from different locations as the multiple flying craft hovered and glided and lit up fields along their routes— the same officers who had joked dismissively when first receiving radio calls about the sightings. And the strange objects kept returning, for some unfathomable reason, to display themselves over the otherwise quiet territory of Belgium.
Colonel De Brouwer was tasked to handle the UFO wave by his country’s defense minister, Guy Coëme. After spending twenty years as a fighter pilot in the Belgian Air Force, De Brouwer had been appointed to the Strategic Planning Branch in NATO in 1983, while a colonel. He then became Wing Commander of the Belgian Air Force Transport Wing and, in 1989, chief of the Operations Division in the Air Staff. Promoted to Major General in 1991, he became Deputy Chief of Staff of the Belgian Air Force, in charge of operations, planning, and human resources. Beginning in 1995, after his retirement from the Air Force, he worked for more than ten years as a consultant for the United Nations to improve the UN Logistics rapid- response capabilities during emergencies. A man of great integrity and responsibility, De Brouwer was determined to do everything he could to find out what was invading Belgian airspace and repeatedly committing infractions of basic aviation rules.
I first came to know General De Brouwer personally when arranging his trip to Washington, D.C., in November 2007 to speak at an international press conference I organized with filmmaker James Fox. We brought together a panel of former high- ranking government, aviation, and military officials from seven countries to speak to the press about UFO incidents and investigations, which was filmed for a new documentary. We also wanted to give these courageous speakers the opportunity to meet their counterparts from other countries and talk privately over a period of days. Many of the contributors to this book met then for the first time.
General De Brouwer is extremely concerned about factual accuracy, conservative in his estimations, and meticulous in his attention to detail. He is a man who does not jump to conclusions, nor is he prone to exaggeration or embellishment. His concern for safeguarding the accurate record of events in Belgium has not let up, despite the passage of time. “Recently, when on the Internet, I discovered an accumulation of misinformation about the Belgian UFO wave,” he wrote me in an e- mail while we worked on editing his extensive text. “This incited me to react; I cannot accept that so- called researchers come forward with assumptions that are based on incorrect information. Testimonies of hundreds of people are neglected and attempts are made to convince outsiders that the observations were nothing more than misperceptions of ordinary craft. Also, the official statements of the Minister of Defense and the Air Force have been neglected or misinterpreted by these ‘researchers.’ ”
In one of our more recent conversations, I asked the general to refl act back on his experience during the Belgian UFO wave twenty years ago—which he says was unique but also frustrating, since they were unable to identify the trespassing craft. What impressed him most was the utmost sincerity of the witnesses he spoke to, many of whom were “highly qualified intellectuals genuinely overwhelmed by what they had seen and convinced that they were not dealing with conventional technology.” Unfortunately, they were often afraid to come forward because of the stigma attached to UFOs. “One person I had known for many years worked within NATO at the time,” De Brouwer said. “He was so astonished that he didn’t dare to mention it to anyone, not even to his wife. He only conveyed his experience to me on condition that I wouldn’t reveal his name.”
Product details
- Publisher : Three Rivers Press; 64518th edition (August 2, 2011)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 352 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0307717089
- ISBN-13 : 978-0307717085
- Item Weight : 2.31 pounds
- Dimensions : 5.17 x 0.75 x 8 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #28,484 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #11 in Military Policy (Books)
- #54 in UFOs (Books)
- #58 in Astronomy (Books)
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The intended audience is not the committed reader steeped in the lore of UFOs or discussions of the ETH and competing origin-hypotheses. Plenty of books explore these subjects and their readership is, against the mainstream, pitifully small and marginalised. Such works, however well-researched, are often self-published or condemned to share shelf-space with political CTs, channelling and new-age mush, undeservedly consigned to the ghetto of the kooky, ridiculed fringe.
Readers familiar with the works of Allen Hynek, Jacques Vallee, Tim Good, Jerry Clark, Stan Friedman, Richard Dolan and writers of similar calibre will find little new here, though they will find a few interesting nuggets. They are already persuaded of the evidence, and not the target audience for this book. These writers, collectively, have never effected political attitude-change: the contributors to this book are such serious, credible, high-profile people they just might.
Kean's target audience is professional academia, those involved in politics and the media, the skeptically-minded scientist with little familiarity with the subject matter due to its long contamination with fringe elements, and the concerned, civic-minded man or woman in the street who has never read a book on the issue and knows little of the powerful evidence for the existence of persistent strange aerial phenomena. The book is carefully crafted to bring the subject out of the UFO conference fringe and place it firmly centre-stage into the political and academic mainstream where it belongs; to make it a respectable and important subject for discussion. The argument is: These are responsible officials going on the record, and here is serious evidence of something real. You are irresponsible if you ignore this subject, or allow it to continue to be marginalised.
To this end, the book's tone is deliberately sceptical. The tag-line "Generals, Pilots and Government Officials go on the Record" describes exactly the content: only incontestable cases with multiple official witnesses plus supporting evidence have been chosen for inclusion. The author worked for years to contact and gain the confidence of these military pilots and high-profile government officials and to bring them together at the National Press Club in DC in November 2007. High priority is given to cases involving air force encounters; documented, confirmed, official. The contributors are truly international, confirming the global reach of the phenomenon.
This cautious tone, the international perspective and the author's avoidance of contamination by book jacket-cover endorsement from anyone associated with the "UFO community" sets this book apart from other work on the subject. This will be extremely difficult for a debunker to deal with, and that is the intention. Journalistic standards are high, so there are no "anonymous whistleblowers", no ID kept secret, nothing flaky or un-checkable. These establishment people have gone ON THE RECORD, and write in total around half the content of the 302 pages of the book. Introducing the section written by Nick Pope, Kean writes: "He is yet another example of the many officials and military officers who, as they became acquainted with UFO investigations by accident, flexed their skeptical muscles only to find themselves absorbed by the unexpected power of the evidence they had initially expected to disprove." The accumulated evidence presented is virtually un-debunkable.
Kean contrasts the relatively open way the UFO subject has been managed in recent decades by nations such as France, Belgium, the UK, Brazil, Peru and others, with the history of stonewalling and ridicule from all government and military bodies in the USA. Since the closing of Blue Book, the phenomenon no longer officially exists in the USA even though pilots, operators of military facilities and ordinary folk encounter it all the time. It's an Orwellian environment. What is to be done?
In the third and final section of the book, the author explores the nature of UFO secrecy in the US. She sticks to the facts as known and documented, and acknowledges the unsupported speculations frequently put out by various people in the UFO field about the cover-up inhibit understanding of the issue and serve to marginalise the subject. Her reasoning is logical, thorough and grounded.
In Chapter 26, "Engaging the US Government," Kean lays out the reasoned objective sought by the CFI:
"The coalition is asking for responsible action on the part of the United States concerning UFOs. We make this request not as an accusation of wrongdoing in the past, but as an invitation to join an international, cooperative venture under way now...we are seeking the creation of a small government agency to investigate UFO incidents, and to act as a focal point for action at home and for research worldwide."
Her objective is to bring about legitimization of the subject, so that scientific interest might be encouraged and government grants enable scientists in the academic, research and aviation fields to pursue serious study free of ridicule. She is not impotently shouting for "Disclosure" whilst remaining forever shut outside. She, and the impressive contributors to this book, ask for official recognition of the UFO issue as real, and for the establishment of a small agency to co-ordinate international study as a first step. No assumptions about the origin of the phenomenon are made: just that it exists, and needs to be acknowledged as real. It's a reasoned, achievable objective, unarguable in the face of the unassailable evidence presented here. That's why this book might be the catalyst for permanent recognition of legitimacy: in other words, a game-changer.
The production quality of the book is first class and the writing from all contributors literate, straightforward and completely free of typos. It has a logical structure, is an easy and absorbing read containing nothing extraneous, concerned with the facts and testimonies. It builds a compelling argument. If you haven't read it yet, maybe you should.
Ms. Kean's book needs to be added to that latter list, and in my view it should be placed a long way up the pile, amongst the select few books on the subject that must be read by anyone, be they believer, skeptic or debunker who expects to be taken seriously in a real discussion on the subject.
Ms. Kean, an investigative journalist by trade, was first introduced to the subject of UFOs, or UAPs (Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon - not such a pejorative term) when in about 1999, a reporter colleague in Paris sent her a copy of the COMETA Report. This remarkable 90 page white paper, authored by a group of distinguished retired French generals, scientists and space experts, including the former head of the French equivalent of NASA, was a result of three years study analyzing records of military and pilot encounters with UFOs. No jokes about 'distinguished... French' being a tautology please.
Amongst the conclusions which startled Ms. Kean when she read the COMETA Report, was that when all factors on 'good' reports were considered, although about 95 percent were explainable there was a residue of about 5 percent of 'good' sightings which could not be explained by known natural phenomena or earthly sources, such as secret military tests. They concluded that this 5 percent seemed to be '...completely unknown flying machines with exceptional performance that are guided by a natural or artificial intelligence'.
This was the start of Ms Kean's personal journey and I heartily approve of the route she has taken and the travelogue she has written for those of us without her perseverance nor investigative skills.
Along the road, Ms. Kean has been joined, as the title implies, by serving and retired high ranking military officers, military and commercial pilots, space scientists and government officials from many countries whom she has persuaded and assisted to end decades of silence and go 'on the record' about their own UFO experiences.
Her witnesses include, amongst others:
- the Airforce General responsible for scrambling F 16 fighters to (unsuccessfully) chase the silent black triangles seen by thousands of witnesses, photographed and tracked on radar over Belgium in 1989 and 1990;
- the former United States Federal Aviation Administration Division Chief for Accident Investigations who followed up the 1986 Japan Air incident when a UFO 'larger than an aircraft carrier' circled a 747 over Alaska and was tracked on aircraft and ground radar;
- the Iranian Airforce Major (who retired as a General) who attempted to fire missiles on a giant brightly lit UFO over Tehran in 1976. His F-4 Phantom jet's airborne radar picked it up but when he tried to lock his missiles on to it his controls froze and he lost all of his instruments;
- the American missile launch officer who while on duty in 1967 in an underground command bunker at Malmstrom Airforce Base in Montana, watched ten Minuteman nuclear missiles shut down and go off-line within minutes of his top-side ground security calling to report a UFO hovering over the launch complex; and
- the American Deputy Commander of a nuclear armed Airbase in Suffolk who in 1980 investigated a UFO landing at his base involving physical and radiation traces along with multiple military and law enforcement witnesses.
Ms. Kean's whistle-blowers include serving and former military and government officials from France, Belgium, the UK, Chile, Peru, Iran, Portugal, former US military, aviation officials and NASA scientists and the former two-term Republican Governor of Arizona. The forward of the book was written by President Bill Clinton's Chief of White House Staff who also served on the National Security Council. These are not people with tinfoil pyramids on their heads.
I recall being thrilled by the COMETA Report when it came out and I had high hopes it would blow the lid off what I believe to be the greatest news story of our known human history. I was disappointed, not for the first time, when this didn't happen.
Ms. Kean's contributors include two prominent social/political scientists who explain the American and Western media 'taboo' against acknowledging UFOS quite clearly and that is one of the most interesting parts of the book, together with her discussion and analysis of the postulated American cover-up.
Ms. Kean goes to great lengths to stick to the facts and the book is comprehensively referenced and indexed. She repeatedly makes the point that even though COMETA and other serious investigators have concluded that the extraterrestrial hypothesis is the most likely explanation, it is by no means proven. All we really know for sure is that something unknown is flying around in our skies, all over the world, buzzing our aircraft, airports, cities (and nuclear weapons depots) and we not only can't stop them, we really have no idea what they are or whether they might be dangerous to us.
Her basic question is: isn't it time we stopped pretending there's nothing there and try to figure it out?
Seems like a reasonable proposition to me.
To all of you earnest, well-meaning (and ignorant) self-styled 'skeptics' who like to maintain the position that 'there is no reliable physical, photographic or other evidence to demonstrate the reality of the UFO phenomenon', you are flat out wrong and clearly have looked no further than the pages of James Randi's debunk-rag 'The Skeptical Enquirer' and the ends of your own nose.
Ms. Kean's book, easily read in a day, would be a good start to get you to uncross your eyes and look up. As one of the reviewers (the science correspondent for PBS's NewsHour) who is quoted on the cover puts it "She may not have the final smoking gun, but I smell the gunpowder".
Top reviews from other countries
One of my many questions/ thoughts, is there is no mention of human claims or crop circles or animal mutilation. Are we to assume that Travis Walton, Whitley Strieber etc invented their experiences? Not to mention Bob Lazar!
I recommend this book to all curious open minds.










