8/6/10  #584
http://www.conspiracyjournal.com
Subscribe for free at our subscription page:
http://www.members.tripod.com/uforeview/subscribe.html
You can view this newsletter online at:
https://uforeview.tripod.com/conspiracyjournal584.html

Are you afraid of ghosts and monsters? How about aliens flying down in their space-craft to kidnap you from your bedroom at night?  Do you worry that the government is listening in on your private conversations? Or that the Men-In-Black are waiting for you just around the corner?

Well never fear - Conspiracy Journal is Here!  Yes that's right. Conspiracy Journal, your number one source of conspiracies, UFOs, the paranormal and more, is here once again to protect you from THEM, by keeping you informed on all the news and information that you won't hear on your local 6 o'clock news or read in your hometown newspaper.

This week Conspiracy Journal brings you such amazing stories as:

- Government vs Conspiracy Theorists -
- Winston Churchill 'Feared Panic' Over WWII UFO Incident -
-  Sea Serpent Photographed Off Coast of Devon -
-
The UFOs and Ghosts of Eastern Airlines -
AND: Radioactive Boars Rampaging Through Germany

All these exciting stories and MORE in this week's issue of
CONSPIRACY JOURNAL!

~ And Now, On With The Show! ~


NEW BOOK FROM CONSPIRACY JOURNAL!

CURSE OF THE MEN-IN-BLACK
RETURN OF THE UFO TERRORISTS



INCLUDES THE CLASSIC: THE UFO WARNING

WHO ARE THE MEN-IN-BLACK?

As one distressed UFO researcher put it, Ever since organized flying saucer research began, a disturbing number of serious investigators have suffered personal harassment, unusual accidents and even mysterious deaths. In some cases, sinister voices have whispered threats over the telephone and warned certain researchers to terminate specific projects they were focused on.

Recently, an increasing number of civilian UFOlogists have been visited by ominous strangers who have made it physically clear that their orders to discontinue all investigations would be enforced. Official disclaimers have only served to intensify the mystery of the bizarre incidents currently seeding chaos within the rank of civilian UFO investigators and instilling fear among those who witness flying saucer activity.

THE CASES ARE MANY! THE TRUTH FRIGHTENING!

Featured on the History Channel's UFO Hunters and on Coast to Coast AM, eminent investigator Tim Beckley details dozens of additional bone chilling encounters with the MIB who have become a curse on the rank and file members of the UFO community.

++ Shadowy "Grim Reaper" like figures stalk the streets of a north Iowa town. What are they concealing in the bags they go about hiding in the woods?

++ Radio Talk Show host is ordered by metallic voice over phone (unlisted number!) to "meet them on the Mount". . .known as a haunted place and the site of a number of mysterious deaths and disappearances.

++ A large floating platform the size of 3 football fields hovers near a nuclear power plant. Witnesses observe several small bald headed aliens accompanied by 9 foot giants. Trying to leave the area, their car refuses to start. They are surrounded by military personnel and their vehicle is ransacked. They are told never to speak of the incident OR ELSE!

++ In the cemetery where Charles Fort is buried ominous black vehicles disappear down side roads never to be seen again. They pass by on the gravel pavement going over grates without the sound of tires. The cemetery is also haunted by a big black dog and a couple who fly over the tombstones at dusk in their pajamas!

Are these sinister sindividuals simply government agents gone amuck in their harassment of witnesses and investigators who have dedicated their lives delving into the unexplainable? Or are they something far more sinister as evidence in this volume indicates? Perhaps the MIB are representatives of an extraterrestrial "police force," whose job is to keep the gates to a parallel universe closed tightly behind them.

FREE BONUS 60 Minute DVD!

This frightening book is now available exclusively for Conspiracy Journal subscribers at the special price of only $22.00, plus $5.00 shipping.  (YOU WON'T FIND A DEAL LIKE THIS ANYWHERE ELSE...SO GET YOUR COPY TODAY!)

(All Foreign Orders please email mrufo8@hotmail.com
for info on shipping costs and how to order)

OR -You can order with our secure order page:  
CLICK HERE TO ORDER

You can also phone in your credit card orders to Global Communications
24-hour hotline: 732-602-3407

And as always you can send a check or money order to:
Global Communications
P.O. Box 753
New Brunswick, NJ  08903

- THE WAR ON "SICK THINK" DEPARTMENT -

Government vs Conspiracy Theorists

The information free-for-all of the Internet in general and the conspiracy theories proliferating on it in particular continue to make our rulers nervous. Back in 2006 the US State Department had begun briefings against conspiracy theories and theorists. And they’re still at it. A State Department official, Todd Leventhal, is doing on-line rubbishing of conspiracy theories.

Leventhal has been trying to counter what used to be called “sick think” since the days of the Cold War. But times have changed: Leventhal’s claim that the pools of molten metal found in the rubble of the Twin Towers were aluminium from the planes is immediately shown to be nonsense by a Google search. Therein lies the problem for those who wish to maintain the official version of reality.

A more interesting and controversial potential official response to conspiracy theories has come from Professor Cass Sunstein, a former colleague of President Obama’s at the University of Chicago Law School.

In a paper published in 2008, Sunstein proposed “cognitive infiltration of extremist groups, whereby government agents or their allies (acting either virtually or in real space, and either openly or anonym­ously) will undermine the crippled epistemology (sic) of believers by planting doubts about the theories and stylized facts that circulate within such groups, thereby introducing beneficial cognitive diversity (sic).”

Sunstein suggested that government agents “might enter chat rooms, online social networks, or even real-space groups and attempt to undermine percolating conspiracy theories by raising doubts about their factual premises, causal logic or implications for political action.”

Covert operations against thinking? Shades of the FBI COINTELPRO (Counter Intelligence Program) operations against the American left in the Sixties and Seventies – shades, too, of the Soviet use of psychiatry to stifle dissent.

Of course, such operations would fail: the Net is too big to be manipulated this way, and the state’s agents would be identified and exposed PDQ. But will they try? And what should we read into the fact that Sunstein was appointed by President Obama to head the Federal Office of Information and Regulat­ory Affairs?

There is now a State Department website  devoted to rebutting conspiracy theories (http://www.america.gov/conspiracy_theories.html). This under the legend: “Conspiracy theories exist in the realm of myth, where imaginations run wild, fears trump facts, and evidence is ignored.”

The treatment of the handful of topics covered varies. The attempt to rebut some of the 9/11 theories is really quite good, though it has nothing to say about the recent demonstration of the presence of thermite, implying demolition, in the ruins. But the treatment of the Kennedy assassination  is just insulting. As his evidence against us conspiracy buffs, Levanthal uses Vincent Bugliosi’s 2007 restatement of the ‘lone assassin’ version and he quotes this section:

“Bugliosi notes that [Mark] Lane says that none of the doctors who treated Kennedy in Dallas observed a bullet entry wound in the back of his head. This would seem to indicate that Oswald, who was behind Kennedy, could not have been the assassin. But Bugliosi says the reason the doctors saw no entry wound is that they did not turn over Kennedy’s body to look at the back of his head. Their concern was treating his visible injuries to try to save his life.”

This is absurd. The doctors saw no bullet wound in the back of JFK’s head because there was no back to his head! And they were subsequently filmed demonstrating this, as anyone could see on YouTube – until the item was “removed for terms of use violation”.

Leventhal also gives a nice plug to David Aaronovitch’s latest book, which lampoons conspiracy theories, "Voodoo Histories: The Role of the Conspiracy Theory in Shaping Modern History." And so Times columnist Aaronovitch’s polit­ical odyssey reaches a kind of conclusion: a member of the Communist Party in the 1970s, he ends up being used by the State Department in its futile struggle against the forces of what the CIA termed ‘sick think’. And against the thousands of conspiracy theory sites, this State Department website will have about as much effect as a site appealing for sexual abstin­ence amidst the Net’s oceans of porn.

Source: Fortean Times
http://www.forteantimes.com/strangedays/conspiracycorner/3211/
government_vs_conspiracy_theorists.html

- SECRET UFO FILES DEPARTMENT -

Winston Churchill 'Feared Panic' Over WWII UFO Incident

Winston Churchill was accused of ordering a cover-up of a Second World War encounter between a UFO and a RAF bomber because he feared public "panic" and loss of faith in religion, newly released secret files disclose.

The former Prime Minister allegedly banned reporting of the “bizarre” incident, off the east coast of England, for half a century amid fears disclosures about unidentified flying objects would create public hysteria.

He is said to have made the orders during a secret war meeting with US General Dwight Eisenhower, the then commander of the Allied Forces, at an undisclosed location in America during the latter part of the conflict.

The claims are contained in thousands of pages of declassified files on UFOs, released on Thursday online by the National Archives.

The 18 files, which cover from 1995 to 2003, are made up of more than 5,000 pages of reports, letters, and drawings drawn from correspondence with the public and questions raised in parliament.

The allegations involving Churchill were made by the grandson of one his personal bodyguards, an RAF officer who overheard the discussion, who wrote to the Ministry of Defence in 1999 inquiring about the incident after his grandfather disclosed details to his family.

According to the series of letters, written by the guard's grandson who is now a physicist from Leicester, a reconnaissance plane and its crew were returning from a mission over occupied Europe when they were involved in the war incident.

During their flight, on the English coast, possibly near Cumbria, their aircraft was approached by a metallic UFO which shadowed them.

Photographs of the object, which the crew claimed had “hovered noiselessly” near the plane, were taken by the crew.

Later, during discussions about the unexplained incident, the two men were claimed to have become so concerned by the incident that Churchill ordered it remain secret for 50 years or more.

During the meeting, a weapons expert dismissed suggestions the object was a missile as the event was "totally beyond any imagined capabilities of the time".

Another person at the meeting raised the possibility of a UFO, at which point Churchill ordered the report to be classified for at least half a century and reviewed by the prime minister to stop “panic” spreading.

“There was a general inability for either side to match a plausible account to these observations, and this caused a high degree of concern,” wrote the scientist, whose details are redacted.

"Mr Churchill is reported to have made a declaration to the effect of the following: 'This event should be immediately classified since it would create mass panic among the general population and destroy one's belief in the Church'."

Apart from telling his daughter – the scientist’s mother – about the incident when she was nine, the bodyguard, who was “greatly affected by his experience”, only disclosed the details to his wife on his deathbed in 1973.

The scientist, also an expert in astronomy who said he developed software for use in "spacecraft thermal engineering", was told years later by his mother.

Stressing he was not a “crackpot”, he said he wanted to investigate the science behind the incident after his grandfather, who was bound by the Official Secrets Act, remained convinced that the object was secret technology being tested by a foreign power.

After investigating the claims, an MoD official said there was no evidence to support the claims as all “UFO files before 1967 were destroyed after five years” due to insufficient public interest. This was supported by a Cabinet Office official.

While there was documents supporting the events, historians last night believed it more than likely occurred.

They said that Churchill had a known interest with UFOs, even asking for a report in 1952 on “flying saucers” and what it “amounted to”.

Dr David Clarke, author of The UFO files and Senior Lecturer in Journalism at Sheffield Hallam University, said the “fascinating” files showed the level of concern about such “bizarre incidents” during the war.

“It does tie in with what we already know as you have to remember that this was also long before the phrase UFO was created,” he said.

“I suspect there is an element of truth to the statement.”

Source: Telegraph (UK)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/ufo/7926037/UFO-files-
Winston-Churchill-feared-panic-over-Second-World-War-RAF-incident.html

- HAVING A BALL DEPARTMENT -

Ball Lightning: A Shocking (and Totally Inexplicable) Phenomenon

It skitters across the ground, floats in the air, is cold to the touch, and leaves scorch marks. It's been scientifically explained, or hey, it might be a total hallucination. It's ball lightning!

Ball lightning is the name given to a group of phenomena that have not been completely explained, or even agreed upon. Of the two words in its name, only the first is shared by all witnesses. According to most eyewitnesses, it glows and is shaped like a ball.

Everything else varies. Most reports say the balls are orange to beach ball size, but some say they've seen ball lightning the size of a bus. The ball can float, roll and bounce around solid objects, or do both. They're seen indoors or out. Ball lightning has reportedly been cold to the touch, left burn marks in rock, and electrocuted people. It fades away, or explodes and sputters out. Anything goes.

Since the exact properties of ball lightning are not agreed upon, a single explanation for the phenomena can't be reached. Those who believe that ball lightning is cool, consider it to be corona discharge – the same thing that is responsible for Saint Elmo's Fire, which produces light but not much heat. Those who believe it burns what it touches believe that it's a bunch of burning dust kicked up and ignited by lightning strikes. It could also be a plasma ball. Many explanations are out there.

One theory nosed its way ahead of the others in 2007, when Antonio Pavão and Gerson Paiva of Brazil's Federal University of Pernambuco reported making small glowing balls that bounced around the room and scorched their surroundings. These balls made of silicon particles which were shocked by scientists until they produce a burning vapor. The balls only lasted a few seconds in the lab before dissipating, a shorter time than some witnesses of ball lightning say the phenomenon endures in a natural environment, but otherwise the spitting image of the glowing balls that have baffled people for centuries.

But three years after Pavão and Paiva lit up silicon, Alexander Kendl and Joseph Peer from the University of Innsbruck in Austria put forward an alternate theory: ball lightning is just a hallucination brought on by a rapidly changing magnetic field. This is not as unbelievable as it sounds. Subjecting someone's brain to rapidly changing magnetic field can cause electrical activity, which in turn cause the neurons to cook up something good an crazy for the brain to see, hear, or think about. Psychiatrists sometimes use this technique to cause their patients to hallucinate (how forcing someone to hallucinate is therapeutic is something only your psychiatrist can explain). Seeing glowing lights is a common hallucination, so it makes sense that a lot of people would see such a thing if the very atmosphere around them is messing with their head.

There are problems with the idea. To hallucinate strongly, people would have to be closer to an area of intensely shifting magnetic fields than many observers of ball lightning have been. There have been plenty of accounts of ball lightning killing people and doing property damage. And of course there are those balls skittering around a lab.

Some statistics say that as many as one in thirty people have seen ball lightning, which means that there must be quite a few io9ers who have witnessed it. Have you seen it? How long did it last? How did it behave? Did you see any other strange things at the same time?

Source: io9
http://io9.com/5601177/ball-lightning-a-shocking-and-totally-inexplicable-phenomenon

- UNDER THE SEA DEPARTMENT -

Sea Serpent Photographed Off Coast of Devon

An unidentified sea creature with a long neck and small head has been photographed stalking a shoal of fish - just yards off the British coast.

The fish were so terrified they beached themselves just seconds later.

The strange "sea-serpent" creature was spotted just 30 yards off the Devon coast by locals who reported a sighting of what they first thought was a turtle.

But pictures taken by one of the baffled witnesses reveal its neck is far too long for any known sea turtle. Experts are scratching their heads and are totally baffled by the sighting.

Gill Pearce photographed the creature following a shoal of fish at Saltern Cove in Paignton, Devon, on July 27.

She at first thought it was a large sea turtle but baffled experts say it doesn't fit the description because the greenish- brown beast with a small reptile head has too long a neck.

Mrs Pearce reported her sighting to the Marine Conservation Society where it was studied by sea life experts.

"Gill Pearce spotted the creature about 20 metres from the bay at Saltern Cove, near Goodrington," said Clare Fischer from the MCS.

"It was observed at about 15.30 on 27 July but by the time she had got her camera it had moved further out.

"She spotted it following a shoal of fish which beached themselves in Saltern Cove.

"The creature remained in the sea, then went out again and followed the shoal - this indicates it's not a turtle as they only eat jellyfish.

"We would love to know if other people have seen anything like this in the same area and can help clear up the mystery."

Some people think the sea sighting could be linked to that of a sperm whale sighted off south Devon recently but Clare thinks not.

"They [sperm whales] wouldn't come that close inshore and the reptilian-like head counts that out - at least that's what the experts are saying!"

The sighting has caused a stir on the MCS website too where theories range from sea serpent to salt water crocodile.

An MCS spokesman said: "It was reported as a turtle as it had large front flippers and small back flippers and what appeared to be a shell but was also said to have a small head on a thin neck about two-feet long which craned above the surface like a Plesiosaur.

"It's described as being as long as a sea lion with a long neck which floated at the same height in the water all the time."

"This is not a fake.

"The problem is the distance and clarity from which the photos were taken.

"The lady thought it may have been a turtle - but turtles don't chase fish

"It was reported as a turtle as it had large front flippers and small back flippers and what appeared to be a shell.

"But it was also said to have a small head on a thin neck about two feet long, which craned above the surface like a Plesiosaur.

"No sea turtles do that with their heads and we do not know of similarly described freshwater turtles that grow so big.

"So at the moment it is 'unidentified' - the person who reported it has trawled the internet and says the closest ID fit is a giant green sea turtle - but the description of the head doesn't add up."

The organisation has now asked for people to keep a keen watch on the seas off South Devon and appealed for more photos to be taken., adding: "If you live or are visiting down near Saltern Cove Goodrington, near Paignton please keep your eyes on the sea and let us know if you see anything - and keep your camera by your side just in case."

Peter Richardson, MCS biodiversity programme manager, said: "It might be a green turtle but they are usually the size of a dinner plate.

"It could be another Lock Ness monster or a number of things.

"At the moment it's an unidentified mystery creature and we don't know what it is.

"Two people have reported seeing a creature about three metres long with a small head on a two-and-a-half foot neck which came out of the water to look around.

"From the photographs it looks like it could be a basking shark and the tail fin could have been mistaken for a head but the people who saw it said it had large flippers and was about the size of a sea lion.

"It could be a crocodile but they are not seen very often and I called the local zoo to ask if anything had escaped but they said they didn't know what it was.

"It would be great to find out what it is so we are asking people in the area to look out for it."

Source: This is Plymouth (UK)
http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/news/Mystery-ancient-sea-creature-stalks-
fish-death-coast-Devon/article-2474888-detail/article.html

- THE OFFICIAL AIRLINE OF THE PARANORMAL DEPARTMENT -

The UFOs and Ghosts of Eastern Airlines

Although Eastern Airlines dissolved in 1991, the association that this commercial passenger airline had with the paranormal for the majority of it’s life will live on. Eastern Airlines, at least for some of us, will always be associated with ghosts, UFOs and other unexplained phenomena.

The airline had a long (and documented) history of credible officials and employees who claimed to have had encounters with the paranormal.

Even though the airline officially denied the famous ghostly encounters associated with Eastern Airlines Flight 401, many former employees of the airline do still stand by their belief in the hauntings associated with that ill-fated flight.

Although the events reported are incredible in nature, the persons involved with the airlines and the events were considered to be credible.

Eastern Airlines was born normally enough. Established in 1926 as Pitcairn Aviation, the company won a government contract to fly U.S. mail between New York and Atlanta. By 1930, the name would change to Eastern Air Transport, then eventually would be called Eastern Airlines. In 1938, the airline was purchased by World War I flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker. The airline would become one of the “Big Four” airlines, along with United, American and TWA.

The purchase of the airline by Rickenbacker was made possible with the substantial financial backing of Laurance Rockefeller, a man who would fight later in his life for UFO disclosure by the U.S. government.

All persons and paranormal events presented in this article are associated with Eastern Airlines, but is by no means all-inclusive.

This third generation Rockefeller had an interest in aviation. After World War II, Laurance Rockefeller became friendly with Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, who had famously triumphed in many dogfights over Europe. Rockefeller had learned to fly by this time and was fascinated by Rickenbacker’s prediction of an approaching boom in commercial air travel.

The financial investment paid off for Rockefeller. Within a decade after Rockefeller’s considerable investment, Eastern Airlines had become the most profitable airline to emerge after World War II. Rockefeller was Eastern’s largest shareholder. Rockefeller also funded the McDonnell Aircraft Corporation.

Rockefeller’s interests eventually evolved to include other flying objects, specifically UFOs. In 1993, Rockefeller and his niece Anne Bartley established the UFO Disclosure Initiative to the Clinton White House. They asked for all UFO information held by the government (including information held by the CIA and US Air Force) to be declassified and released to the public. The following year, in 1994, Rockefeller called for the declassification of the Roswell UFO Incident files, but the Air Force denied that the 1948 incident was UFO related. That same year, Clinton produced an Executive Order to declassify numerous documents in the National Archives, though the declassification was not specifically related to UFO information.

Rockefeller’s investment in Eastern Airlines in the late 1930?s set the stage for many paranormal events related to the airline, which may have spurred this interest in UFOs later in life.

Rockefeller’s friend, Eastern Airlines President Eddie Rickenbacker, once said about UFOs:

    “Flying saucers are real. Too many good men have seen them, that don’t have hallucinations.”

Rickenbacker spoke from experiences involving his own airline.

One of the very first reports of a UFO encounter by a commercial airline was reported by Eastern Airlines pilots in 1948.

The Chiles-Whitted Encounter

On July 24, 1948, two Eastern Airlines pilots reported that their Douglas DC-3 had nearly collided with a strange torpedo shaped object flying nearby. The object was seen within a few hundred feet by two very experienced pilots, Clarence Chiles and John Whitted. Both men were considered credible witnesses. They had both been decorated for their service as airmen during World War II.

The encounter occurred at about 2:45 a.m. Chiles spotted what was described as a hazy red cloud, said to be somewhat similar to aircraft exhaust. It was slightly above them, and to the front-right of the DC-3 by about half a mile. Chiles saw an aircraft and pointed it out to Whitted. Both men quickly realized that the object was unlike a jet plane, and was moving towards them at a very high rate speed. Within seconds, the craft was almost on top of them.

When recounting the event to Air Force intelligence, the men’s stories remained consistent. They said they had seen the object for about 10 to 15 seconds. Both men described the object they encountered as “cigar- or torpedo-shaped”, about 100 feet in length, and about three times the diameter of a B-29 bomber but had no wings, projections or fins. They heard no sound from the craft.

Chiles wrote a few weeks later: “there were two rows of windows, which indicated an upper and lower deck, from inside these windows a very bright light was glowing. Underneath the ship there was a blue glow of light.”

    “It [The Chiles-Witted Encounter] was a pivotal case for the personnel of the U.S. Air Force’s Project Sign, and was a main reason they championed the extraterrestrial hypothesis as the best explanation for UFOs.” – Wikipedia

Although most passengers were asleep, the passengers who witnessed the craft also gave consistent testimony to Project Sign.

During a two-week period in July, the United States Air Force responded to reports of unknown objects flying in the sky at a high rate of speed. One of those incidents involved an Eastern Airlines flight.

In the early hours of July 27, 1952, at 3:00 a.m, an Eastern Airlines flight over Washington was informed that an unknown object was in its vicinity, yet the crew saw nothing unusual. Personnel on the ground tracked the object on radar. When the flight crew was told that the object had moved directly behind their plane, the crew began a sharp turn to see for themselves. When the plane began to turn, the object disappeared from both the sky and the radar.

This incident was one of many that took place over a two-week period.

Almost eleven years later, in March of 1963, Eastern Airlines Flight 539 experienced unexplained phenomena that has not been solved to this day. The plane was on its way from New York to Washington when a fireball entered the plane at one end, traveled through to the other end and vanished near the toilet. No one was harmed by it, but passengers said that it smelled slightly like sulphur or nitrogen oxide.

    “I was seated near the front of the passenger cabin of an all-metal airliner (Eastern Airlines Flight EA 539) on a late night flight from New York to Washington. The aircraft encountered an electrical storm during which it was enveloped in a sudden bright and loud electrical discharge (0005 h EST). Some seconds after this, a glowing sphere a little more than 20 centimeters in diameter emerged from the pilot’s cabin and passed down the aisle of the aircraft approximately 50 centimeters from me, maintaining the same height and course for the whole distance over which it could be observed.” – Physicist Richard Jennison, published in Nature, 1971

Jennison also stated in the article that the object was blue-white in color and did not radiate any heat. He said that it moved at a “walking pace” about 2.5 feet above the floor.

Although experts have mulled this one over and suggested possibilities like ball lightning, it remains unsolved 47 years later.

On September 14, 1972, Major Gerald Smith of the US Air Force was of the F-106 pilots scrambled under orders from NORAD (North American Air Defense Command) to investigate a UFO over West Palm Beach, Florida. The UFO was seen by many others, including an FAA supervisor, an Eastern Airlines captain, police and several civilians. It was also tracked on radar by Miami International Airport and Homestead AFB.

Frank Borman was an astronaut who flew two flights while with NASA. In 1970, he retired from the Air Force and NASA to become a special advisor to Eastern Airlines. By December of 1975, Borman rose to the rank of CEO and spent 11 years in the position.

Borman was no stranger to UFOs.

In December 1965, while in space on board the Gemini, Borman reportedly saw a UFO during the second orbit of the record-breaking 14-day flight. Borman reported that he spotted an unidentified craft some distance from their capsule. When reported to Gemini Control at Cape Kennedy, Borman was told that he was seeing the final stage of their own Titan booster rocket. Borman confirmed that he could see the booster rocket, but he could also see something else. What that something else was has long been speculated by UFO enthusiasts.

On Christmas Day 1968, while on board the Apollo 8, Borman was again associated with a UFO. Borman’s fellow astronaut James Lovell contacted Mission Control with an exchange that had UFO enthusiasts buzzing ever since.

    Apollo 8: Houston, Apollo 8. Over.
    Mission Control: Hello, Apollo 8. Loud and clear.
    Apollo 8: Please be informed there is a Santa Claus.
    Mission Control: That’s affirmative. You’re the best ones to know.

Despite the fact that it was Christmas day, many believe that “Santa Claus” was the code word for “UFO” on this particular mission.

However, during Borman’s tenure as CEO, he was more concerned with ghosts than with UFOs.

In particular, he attempted to quash rumors of a haunting that surrounded a 1972 Eastern Airlines crash that killed 101 crew and passengers.

This haunting became known all over the world as “The Ghost of Flight 401.”

Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 left New York’s JFK airport, bound for Miami International Airport, on December 29, 1972. The Lockheed L-1011 carried 163 passengers and 13 crew members. The flight was under the command of Captain Robert Loft, 55, a veteran Eastern Airline plot. His flight crew included First Officer Albert Stockstill, 39 and Second Officer (flight engineer) Donald Repo, 51.

The flight departed at 9:20 pm and crew and passengers enjoyed a routine flight until 11:32 pm. At this time, the flight was near its destination in Florida and the crew began to prepare for landing. First Officer Stockstill noticed that the landing gear indicator did not illuminate. The other crew members assisted Stockstill, but became distracted by it. While the crew was focused on the landing gear indicator, the plane crashed.

Stockstill died on impact as the plane crashed into the swampy Florida Everglades. Captain Robert Loft and Second Officer Donald Repo survived the crash, briefly. Captain Loft died before he could be pulled from the wreckage. Officer Repo died the next day.

Of the 176 people on board, 101 died.

Frank Borman, prior to becoming CEO of Eastern Airlines, arrived at the scene after the crash to assist with rescue efforts.

Over the next several months, the employees of Eastern Airlines began to report sightings of the dead crew members Loft and Repo on board another L-1011. Parts from Flight 401 were reportedly salvaged after the Flight 401 crash investigation and refitted into another L-1011 in service. Ghostly sightings began to be reported by those who knew Loft and Repo. Eastern’s management threatened dismissal to those caught spreading “ghost stories”, it was said.

By this time, the rumors of the haunting had spread far and wide. Television and books told the stories of the ghosts. By this time, Frank Borman was the CEO of Eastern Airlines. Borman called the stories of a haunting “garbage” and considered suing the producers of the 1978 made-for-TV movie The Ghost of Flight 401 for libel.

Despite this, former Eastern Airlines employees still insist to this day that they saw the ghosts of Loft and Repo on board the other L-1011. Parts were said to have been removed from the plane. After the parts removal, there was no further mention of any more appearances by Loft and Repo.

After the 1972 crash, it was discovered that the indicator light that distracted the Flight 401 crew was caused by a burned-out light bulb. The landing gear could have been manually lowered with or without the light. The crash was due to the error of the crew. It is said that this is the reason Loft and Repo haunted Flight 401 – to keep future flights safe from human error.
Don Elkins, Eastern Airlines Pilot, UFO and Paranormal Researcher

Don Elkins held a B.S and M.S in Mechanical Engineering, and a Ph.D in philosophy. He served with distinction in the US Army during the Korean War. He was Professor of Physics and Engineering at the University of Louisville for twelve years. He was the founder and head of the University of Alaska’s mechanical engineering department. His main interest during his free time was related to researching UFOs and other areas of the paranormal.

In 1965, he left his position as tenured professor in order to devote more time to UFO and paranormal research. To better fit his research schedule, he became a pilot, then a Captain, for Eastern Airlines.

Elkins’ research would take him all over the United States, often flying in his own small plane to his research-related destinations.

Elkins committed suicide on November 7, 1984.

———–

It is unlikely that Eddie Rickenbacker and Laurance Rockefeller purchased Eastern Airlines for paranormal reasons.  Both men loved aviation and they shared a vision of being a part of the commercial passenger airline boom. Both men became believers in UFOs.

Some of the most well-known people and events associated with the paranormal will be forever associated with this airline.

Source: Tucson Citizen
http://tucsoncitizen.com/paranormal/tag/ghost-of-flight-401/

- COMING TO A DRIVE-IN NEAR YOU DEPARTMENT -

Radioactive Boars Rampaging Through Germany

It sounds like the plot of a B-movie, yet it’s bizarrely true: Radioactive boars are on the loose and thriving in Germany’s forests.

A succession of mild winters has left Germany scrambling to deal with a skyrocketing wild boar population. Tales of swarming beasts rampaging through city streets and attacking citizens occur with alarming regularity.

The problem has been aggravated by the lingering effects of the Chernobyl disaster from twenty-five years ago; a large portion of the wild animals are contaminated by radioactivity.

Poisonous radiation leaves the beasts completely inedible (wild boar is considered a delicacy in Germany), and the phenomenon is becoming expensive for the German government. In the last hunting season, 650,000 boar were shot versus 287,000 in the previous year. And due to atomic energy regulations, the government must buy contaminated animals from hunters who catch them.

Berlin compensated hunters to the tune of over $500,000 in 2009, writes German newspaper Der Spiegel -- quadruple the payment in 2007.

Though the Chernobyl explosion happened a quarter century ago, high levels of radiation remain in the region’s vegetation. And wild boars are especially susceptible because of their proclivity for mushrooms and truffles, which are especially efficient at absorbing radiation.

"In the regions where it is particularly problematic, all boar that are shot are checked for radiation," Andreas Leppmann from the German Hunting Federation told the paper. There are 70 measuring stations in Bavaria alone.

While general radioactivity in plants should continue to decrease, levels in fungi may even increase, leaving no end in sight for this issue. One expert told Der Spiegel that the problem will likely remain for at least another 50 years.

Source: Fox News
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/08/03/radioactive-boars-
rampaging-germany/?test=latestnews

Sign up today for Bizarre Bazaar and Conspiracy Journal Magazines

Click on banner to sign up for two FREE magazines!


UFO Digest


Cosmic Horizons - Sundays at 8:00pm Eastern
www.blogtalkradio.com



The Paracast
Sunday, 8:00–10:00 PM Central Time



UFO Casebook


UFO Magazine

Conspiracy Journal - Issue 584 8/6/10
http://www.conspiracyjournal.com
Subscribe for free at our subscription page:
http://www.members.tripod.com/uforeview/subscribe.html