Washington, D.C., August 15, 2013 –
On 21 February 1955, Richard M. Bissell,
a senior CIA official, wrote a check on
an Agency account for $1.25 million
dollars and mailed it to the home of
Kelly Johnson, chief engineer at the
Lockheed Company's Burbank, California,
plant. According to a newly declassified
CIA history of the U-2 program obtained
under the Freedom of Information Act by
National Security Archive senior fellow
Jeffrey T. Richelson, the Agency was
about to sign a contract with Lockheed
for $22.5 million to build 20 U-2
aircraft, but the company needed a cash
infusion right away to keep the work
going. Through the use of "unvouchered"
funds — virtually free from any external
oversight or accounting — the CIA could
write checks to finance secret programs,
such as the U-2. As it turned out,
Lockheed produced the 20 aircraft at a
total of $18,977,597 (including $1.9
million in profit), or less than $1
million per plane. It was all "under
budget," a miracle in today's defense
contracting world.
What the CIA released in response to a
2005 Freedom of Information Act request
is a substantially less redacted version
of a history of two key aerial
reconnaissance programs. Written by
agency historians Gregory Pedlow and
Donald Welzenbach, and titled The
Central Intelligence Agency and Overhead
Reconnaissance: The U-2 and OXCART
Programs, 1954-1974, the study was
published in classified channels in
1992. Subsequently, a heavily redacted
version of the U-2 portion was
published, in 1998, by the agency's
Center for the Study of Intelligence as
a book, The CIA and the U-2 Program,
1954-1974, in conjunction with a CIA
conference on the U-2. The full study,
in redacted form, had been released in
response to FOIA requests.
The latest release is notable for the
significant amount of newly declassified
material with respect to the U-2 — with
regard to names of pilots, codenames and
cryptonyms, locations, funding and cover
arrangements, electronic countermeasures
equipment, organization, cooperation
with foreign governments, and
operations, particularly in Asia. In
addition, the release also contains
newly declassified on one manned and two
unmanned aerial reconnaissance efforts.
Specifically, newly declassified
material on:
The CIA's declassified map of Groom
Lake/Area 51.
Numerous references
to Area 51 and Groom Lake, with a map of
the area.
Names of all the
pilots who flew the U-2 missions that
are discussed in the history
A table (Appendix D)
which provides key data on all U-2
flights over the Soviet Union — date,
mission numbers, pilot, airfield,
payload, and route. Maps show all the
routes.
Cryptonyms and
codewords such as KWEXTRA-00,
KWGLITTER-00, OARFISH, HTNAMABLE,
KWCORK, MUDLARK (the project to gather
all available information about the
downing of Francis Gary Powers' U-2),
and HBJARGON (the U-2 base in Pakistan).
More than three pages
(pp. 153-157, previously deleted in
their entirety) on British participation
in the U-2 program. The authors note
that President Dwight Eisenhower viewed
British participation "as a way to
confuse the Soviets as to sponsorship of
particular overflights" as well to
spread the risk of failure.
An account (pp.
231-233, previously redacted in its
entirety) of U-2 operations from India,
between 1962 and 1967, triggered by the
1962 Sino-Indian war.
An account (pp.
222-230 ff., almost entirely deleted in
the previous release) of U.S.-sponsored
Chinese Nationalist U-2 operations,
including tables of the number of
overflight and peripheral missions each
year.
Details of Operation
FISH HAWK (pp. 249-251), the employment
of a U-2, launched off an aircraft
carrier in May 1964, to photograph the
French nuclear test site in the Pacific.
Discussions of a
manned low-altitude reconnaissance
program, STPOLLY, consisting of flights
over China during the 1960s by Chinese
Nationalist pilots.
An account (pp.
211-216) of U-2 operations in support of
CIA covert operations in support of the
1958 Indonesian rebellion and the
Tibetan rebellion against China.
Accounts (in Appendix
E) of two unmanned aerial reconnaissance
programs — AQUILINE and AXILLARY.
The many books and articles written on
the aerial reconnaissance programs,
particularly the U-2 and the OXCART (and
its Air Force variant, the SR-71),
include much information about these
topics, often with significant
accuracy.1 However, the newly released
material provides a combination of
significant new material, official
confirmation of — or corrections to —
what has been written, and official
acknowledgment that permits researchers
to follow up the disclosures with FOIA
or Mandatory Declassification Review
requests that may produce even more
information.2 Moreover, like any
historical study, the CIA history may
include errors that will require further
scrutiny by researchers in the field.
You can read the entire document online
at:
- HEARING THE
HA'NTS DEPARTMENT -
Poltergeist
Communication
By Lon Stickler
Several years ago, a reader asked me
about poltergeists and if these
entities had the ability to use
audible communication. There were a
few modern reports, but I wasn't sure
if these were exaggerations produced
by the witnesses. So I decided to look
over some of the prominent historical
cases and post a few that exhibit
authenticity even though the
commentary may be a bit folksy.
John Arnason, in his Icelandic Legends
gives an account of "The Devil at
Hjalta-stad" as written by the Sheriff
Hans Wium in a letter to Bishop
Haldorr Brynjolfsson in the autumn of
1750.
"The sheriff writes: “The Devil at
Hjalta-stad was outspoken enough this
past winter, although no one saw him.
I, along with others, had the
dishonour to hear him talking for
nearly two days, during which he
addressed myself and the minister, Sir
Grim, with words the like of which
‘eye hath not seen nor ear heard.’ As
soon as we reached the front of the
house there was heard in the door an
iron voice saying: ‘So Hans from Eyrar
is come now, and wishes to talk with
me, the ------ idiot.’ Compared with
other names that he gave me this might
be considered as flattering. When I
inquired who it was that addressed me
with such words, he answered in a
fierce voice, ‘I was called Lucifer at
first, but now I am called Devil and
Enemy.’ He threw at us both stones and
pieces of wood, as well as other
things, and broke two windows in the
minister’s room. He spoke so close to
us that he seemed to be just at our
side. There was an old woman there of
the name of Opia, whom he called his
wife, and a ‘heavenly blessed soul,’
and asked Sir Grim to marry them, with
various remarks of this kind, which I
will not recount."
“I have little
liking to write about his ongoings,
which were all disgraceful and
shameful, in accordance with the
nature of the actor. He repeated the
‘Pater Noster’ three times, answered
questions from the Catechism and the
Bible, said that the devils held
service in hell, and told what texts
and psalms they had for various
occasions. He asked us to give him
some of the food we had, and a drink
of tea, etc. I asked the fellow
whether God was good. He said, ‘Yes.’
Whether he was truthful. He answered,
‘Not one of his words can be doubted.’
Sir Grim asked him whether the devil
was good-looking. He answered: ‘He is
far better-looking than you, you
------ ugly snout!’ I asked him
whether the devils agreed well with
each other. He answered in a kind of
sobbing voice: ‘It is painful to know
that they never have peace.’ I bade
him say something to me in German, and
said to him Lass uns Teusc redre
(sic), but he answered as if he had
misunderstood me."
“When we went to
bed in the evening he shouted fiercely
in the middle of the floor, ‘On this
night I shall snatch you off to hell,
and you shall not rise up out of bed
as you lay down.’ During the evening
he wished the minister’s wife
good-night. The minister and I
continued to talk with him during the
night; among other things we asked him
what kind of weather it was outside.
He answered: ‘It is cold, with a north
wind.’ We asked if he was cold. He
answered: ‘I think I am both hot and
cold.’ I asked him loud he could
shout. He said, ‘So loud that the roof
would go off the house, and you all
would fall into a dead faint.’ I told
him to try it. He answered: ‘Do you
think I am come to amuse you, you
------ idiot?’ I asked him to show us
a little specimen. He said he would do
so, and gave three shouts, the last of
which was so fearful that I have never
heard anything worse, and doubt
whether I ever shall. Towards
daybreak, after he had parted from us
with the usual compliments, we fell
asleep."
“Next morning he
came in again, and began to waken up
people; he named each one by name, not
forgetting to add some nickname, and
asking whether so-and-so was awake.
When he saw they were all awake, he
said he was going to play with the
door now, and with that he threw the
door off its hinges with a sudden
jerk, and sent it far in upon the
floor. The strangest thing was that
when he threw anything it went down at
once, and then went back to its place
again, so it was evident that he
either went inside it or moved about
with it."
“The previous
evening he challenged me twice to come
out into the darkness to him, and this
is an angry voice, saying that he
would tear me limb from limb. I went
out and told him to come on, but
nothing happened. When I went back to
my place and asked him why he had not
fulfilled his promise, he said, ‘I had
no orders for it from my master.’ He
asked us whether we had ever heard the
like before, and when we said ‘Yes,’
he answered, ‘That is not true: the
like has never been heard at any
time.’ He had sung ‘The memory of
Jesus’ after I arrived there, and
talked frequently while the word of
God was being read. He said that he
did not mind this, but that he did not
like the ‘Cross-school Psalms,’ and
said it must have been a great idiot
who composed them. This enemy came
like a devil, departed as such, and
behaved himself as such while he was
present, nor would it befit any one
but the devil to declare all that he
said. At the same time it must be
added that I am not quite convinced
that it was a spirit, but my opinions
on this I cannot give here for lack of
time.”
In another literary work where the
sheriff's letter is given with some
variations and additions, an attempt
is made to explain the story. The
phenomena were said to have been
caused by a young man who had learned
ventriloquism abroad. Even if this art
could have been practiced so
successfully as to puzzle the sheriff
and others, it could hardly have taken
the door off its hinges and thrown it
into the room.
**********
Donald Ban and the Bocan - Scotland:
An 18th Century ‘Talking Poltergeist’
Case
A similar account titled "Donald Ban
and the Bocan” by W. A. Craigie, M.A.
was added to "Folk-Lore: A Quarterly
Review of Myth, Tradition, Institution
& Custom Being The Transactions of
the Folk-Lore Society and
Incorporating The Archaeological
Review and The Folk-Lore Journal" in
1895 and later published in The Book
of Dreams and Ghosts:
"It is fully a
hundred years since there died in
Lochaber a man named Donald Ban,
sometimes called “the son of Angus,”
but more frequently known as Donald
Ban of the Bocan. This surname was
derived from the troubles caused to
him by a bocan—a goblin—many of whose
doings are preserved in tradition."
"Donald drew his
origin from the honourable house of
Keppoch, and was the last of the
hunters of Macvic-Ronald. His home was
at Mounessee, and later at Inverlaire
in Glenspean, and his wife belonged to
the MacGregors of Rannoch. He went out
with the Prince, and was present at
the battle of Culloden. He fled from
the field, and took refuge in a
mountain shieling, having two guns
with him, but only one of them was
loaded. A company of soldiers came
upon him there, and although Donald
escaped by a back window, taking the
empty gun with him by mistake, he was
wounded in the leg by a shot from his
pursuers. The soldiers took him then,
and conveyed him to Inverness, where
he was thrown into prison to await his
trial. While he was in prison he had a
dream; he saw himself sitting and
drinking with Alastair MacCholla, and
Donald MacRonald Vor. The latter was
the man of whom it was said that he
had two hearts; he was taken prisoner
at Falkirk and executed at Carlisle.
Donald was more fortunate than his
friend, and was finally set free."
"It was after this
that the bocan began to trouble him;
and although Donald never revealed to
any man the secret of who the bocan
was (if indeed he knew it himself),
yet there were some who professed to
know that it was a “gillie” of
Donald’s who was killed at Culloden.
Their reason for believing this was
that on one occasion the man in
question had given away more to a poor
neighbour than Donald was pleased to
spare. Donald found fault with him,
and in the quarrel that followed the
man said, “I will be avenged for this,
alive or dead.”
"It was on the hill
that Donald first met with the bocan,
but he soon came to closer quarters,
and haunted the house in a most
annoying fashion. He injured the
members of the household, and
destroyed all the food, being
especially given to dirtying the
butter (a thing quite superfluous,
according to Captain Burt’s
description of Highland butter). On
one occasion a certain Ronald of
Aberardair was a guest in Donald’s
house, and Donald’s wife said, “Though
I put butter on the table for you
to-night, it will just be dirtied.” “I
will go with you to the butter-keg,”
said Ronald, “with my dirk in my hand,
and hold my bonnet over the keg, and
he will not dirty it this night.” So
the two went together to fetch the
butter, but it was dirtied just as
usual."
"Things were worse
during the night and they could get no
sleep for the stones and clods that
came flying about the house. “The
bocan was throwing things out of the
walls, and they would hear them
rattling at the head of Donald’s bed.”
The minister came (Mr. John Mor
MacDougall was his name) and slept a
night or two in the house, but the
bocan kept away so long as he was
there. Another visitor, Angus
MacAlister Ban, whose grandson told
the tale, had more experience of the
bocan’s reality. “Something seized his
two big toes, and he could not get
free any more than if he had been
caught by the smith’s tongs. It was
the bocan, but he did nothing more to
him.” Some of the clergy, too, as well
as laymen of every rank, were
witnesses to the pranks which the
spirit carried on, but not even Donald
himself ever saw him in any shape
whatever. So famous did the affair
become that Donald was nearly ruined
by entertaining all the curious
strangers who came to see the facts
for themselves."
"In the end Donald
resolved to change his abode, to see
whether he could in that way escape
from the visitations. He took all his
possessions with him except a harrow,
which was left beside the wall of the
house, but before the party had gone
far on the road the harrow was seen
coming after them. “Stop, stop,” said
Donald; “if the harrow is coming after
us, we may just as well go back
again.” The mystery of the harrow is
not explained, but Donald did return
to his home, and made no further
attempt to escape from his troubles in
this way."
"If the bocan had a
spite at Donald, he was still worse
disposed towards his wife, the
MacGregor woman. On the night on which
he last made his presence felt, he
went on the roof of the house and
cried, “Are you asleep, Donald Ban?”
“Not just now,” said Donald. “Put out
that long grey tether, the MacGregor
wife,” said he. “I don’t think I’ll do
that to-night,” said Donald. “Come out
yourself, then,” said the bocan, “and
leave your bonnet.” The good-wife,
thinking that the bocan was outside
and would not hear her, whispered in
Donald’s ear as he was rising, “Won’t
you ask him when the Prince will
come?” The words, however, were hardly
out of her mouth when the bocan
answered her with, “Didn’t you get
enough of him before, you grey
tether?”
"Another account
says that at this last visit of the
bocan, he was saying that various
other spirits were along with him.
Donald’s wife said to her husband: “I
should think that if they were along
with him they would speak to us”; but
the bocan answered, “They are no more
able to speak than the sole of your
foot.” He then summoned Donald outside
as above. “I will come,” said Donald,
“and thanks be to the Good Being that
you have asked me.” Donald was taking
his dirk with him as he went out, but
the bocan said, “leave your dirk
inside, Donald, and your knife as
well.”
"Donald then went
outside, and the bocan led him on
through rivers and a birch-wood for
about three miles, till they came to
the river Fert. There the bocan
pointed out to Donald a hole in which
he had hidden some plough-irons while
he was alive. Donald proceeded to take
them out, and while doing so the two
eyes of the bocan were causing him
greater fear than anything else he
ever heard or saw. When he had got the
irons out of the hole, they went back
to Mounessie together, and parted that
night at the house of Donald Ban."
"The bocan was not
the only inhabitant of the
spirit-world that Donald Ban
encountered during his lifetime. A
cousin of his mother was said to have
been carried off by the fairies, and
one night Donald saw him among them,
dancing away with all his might.
Donald was also out hunting in the
year of the great snow, and at
nightfall he saw a man mounted on the
back of a deer ascending a great rock.
He heard the man saying, “Home, Donald
Ban,” and fortunately he took the
advice, for that night there fell
eleven feet of snow in the very spot
where he had intended to stay."
**********
The Bell Witch: An American Haunting
Tennessee is home to one of the most
disturbing ghost stories of all time:
The Bell Witch: An American Haunting
which was one of the earliest American
versions of a talking poltergeist. As
with all traditional American folk
stories there is modification and
exploitation in the media. There are
several books about the witch, but
many Americans heard the story for the
first time in the film An American
Haunting, which was released several
years ago and based on actual events.
After reading the some of the original
accounts of the haunting, I was
surprised on how accurate and detailed
the production was.
The Bell Witch is a story about John
and Elizabeth Bell and their children,
who lived in Adams in Robertson County
in the early 1800s. Some of the
original commentary from one of the
children follows:
"Kate Bates was a
member of our small community. One
day, she and my father argued over a
business deal. Over time, she became
more and more displeased with my
father, and legend has it that she
cast a spell over my family, cursing
us to be haunted for life.
"From then on, our
family was visited by an apparition or
ghost. She wasn't a friendly ghost, so
we referred to her as a witch. She
became known as the Bell Witch.
"At first, the Bell
Witch couldn't speak, and she
communicated in soft, whistlelike
sounds. Gradually, her voice
developed, and she felt free to
communicate with us verbally. In the
meantime, she was torturing our
family. At night, my sister and I
would lay in bed gripping our covers
tightly because she would be pulling
them off from the end of our bed.
"Occasionally, she
would hit us or scratch us, and she
wouldn't stop even when we cried. She
teased and tormented everyone in my
family except for my younger brother,
John Bell Jr. She liked John and would
protect him from harm and would harm
those who were cruel to him.
"Eventually, the
Bell Witch killed my father by
poisoning him. She put black,
poisonous liquid in his food. The
curse of the Bell Witch continued for
years, so my brothers, sisters and I
were forced to leave home. Our friends
and neighbors would often come and
stay in our home to experience the
haunting for themselves. We even had
visitors from other cities who
traveled to Adams just to see or hear
the Bell Witch. My parents would feed
and house our visitors, hoping that
the visitors would experience the
haunting, too.
"The people living
in Adams were so tired of the Bell
Witch and her trickery that they
excommunicated her from the town and
ordered her to live in a cave on the
outside of the city, where she still
lives today.
"If you are brave
enough, you can go to Adams, Tenn.,
and visit the cave where the Bell
Witch was sent to live. However, I
want you to be very careful!
The Missing
Headstone
The latest chapter
of Middle Tennessee's famed Bell Witch
story could be titled "The Tale of the
Homesick Headstone."
It begins in 1860,
when the 22-year-old
great-granddaughter of John Bell died
and was buried in the family cemetery,
her rest undisturbed until the
headstone disappeared about a century
later.
It ends earlier
this month, when the missing marker
turned up in Nashville, upside down
and broken in two.
"The stone was
found in Madison," said Tim Henson, a
local historian and curator of the
Adams Museum in the Robertson County
town. "It was used as a stepping stone
in someone's yard for at least 41
years."
Now the marker is
in its rightful place. Getting it
there had its spooky moments, which
seems fitting for a member of the
family at the center of one of the
South's most celebrated ghost stories.
In 1817, an angry
spirit took up residence on the Bell
farm in Adams, about an hour's drive
northwest of Nashville. Some people
identified her as Kate Batts, an
eccentric woman who believed John Bell
had cheated her in a land deal.
She tormented the
family, slapping, pinching and pulling
the children's hair. She sang hymns,
preached and plagued their father, who
fell into recurring bouts of illness
until he died in December 1820, a
terrible smell on his lips and a
mysterious bottle of black liquid
nearby.
The tale has been
the subject of books and movies,
including An American Haunting (2006).
And townspeople and tourists say Kate
still haunts today, throwing salad
spoons and blue balls in the air.
The supernatural
Bell mystique may extend to the
headstone of Mary Allen Bell Coke, if
the story its finder tells is any
indication.
The marker had made
its way to a trash bin in Madison,
where a homeowner found it years ago
and added it to the lawn.
"A contractor from
Springfield, working on that house,
brought it home," Henson said. The
contractor, Janie Hudgens, was
intrigued and went online to research
the dead woman. That led to funeral
director and Bell descendant Bob Bell
in Springfield, who called Henson.
Hudgens said that
after she and husband Sparky found the
stone, she made it her mission to find
out where it came from.
"I'm from Alabama,
and we respect the dead there,"
Hudgens said.
"When we found the
headstone, that bothered me. For three
nights straight, I was on the computer
till 3 or 4 in the morning looking for
where the tombstone belonged."
The night before
they were to give Henson the marker,
they were in bed with the room dark
when the screen came to life, static
crossing its screen. Not long after
she turned it off, "it came on again,
and it was on the page about the Bell
family."
Then there was the
wind, which she said "blew the
deadbolt-locked door open."
As she told Henson,
"I think this stone wants to get
home."
Henson recently
took it to the cemetery and placed it
on the grave, but that was just for a
brief visit. It'll remain in storage
until it can be safely and securely
displayed.
"We just want to
place it back in the Bell cemetery
that it belongs in," he said. "We know
within a foot or two where it's
supposed to go. We want to put it back
so that it can't be taken away again."
- tennessean.com
NOTE: These cases, in particular 'The
Bell Witch' incident, were
manifestations of self-created
entities. The vast majority of
poltergeist hauntings are actually an
unconscious genesis by a living human.
These entities do not 'talk'...though
communication through writing and
physical will have been well
documented. For example, the movie
Poltergeist depicted, for the most
part, a severe haunting. The entity
was not created by anyone in the
family...but gained energy through the
family's fear and anxiety. It was a
very entertaining film, but most of it
was simply conjecture. The San Pedro
Poltergeist - Jackie Hernandez and the
'The Entity' Investigation - Culver
City, CA - 1974 are good modern
examples of poltergeist hauntings. The
infamous Enfield Poltergeist case was
most likely a possession where the
victim somehow channeled an actual
spiritual entity. Unfortunately, many
Georgian and Victorian writers used
'poltergeist' as an incorrect
descriptor for most hauntings...Lon
Source: Pulse of the Paranormal
http://www.phantomsandmonsters.com/2013/08/poltergeist-communication.html
- ALIEN ANIMALS
DEPARTMENT -
From MIB to ABC
By Nick Redfern
During the early part of 1998, the
British Government’s House of Commons
held a fascinating and arguably
near-unique debate on the existence –
or otherwise – of a particular breed
of mystery animal that is widely
rumored, and even accepted by many, to
inhabit the confines of the British
Isles: the so-called Alien Big Cats,
or ABCs, as they have become
infamously known.
It scarcely needs mentioning that
Britain is not home to an indigenous
species of large cat. Nevertheless,
for decades amazing stories have
circulated from all across the nation
of sightings of large, predatory cats
that savagely feed on both livestock
and wild animals and that terrify,
intrigue and amaze the local populace
in the process. And, of course, the
media loves them, one and all.
As history has demonstrated, there now
exists a very large and credible body
of data in support of the notion that
the British Isles do have within their
midst a healthy and thriving
population of presently unidentified
large cats – such as the infamous
Beast of Bodmin and the Beast of
Exmoor that so hysterically dominated
the nation’s newspapers back in the
early-to-mid 1980s. But never mind
just the 1980s – reports continue to
thrive to this very day.
There is, however, an aspect of the
ABC mystery that doesn’t always get
the coverage it should: the strange
connection to the mysterious Men in
Black and “government officials” that,
allegedly, at least, are intent on
keeping any and all hard evidence of
the existence of the beasts under
wraps and out of the hands of the
public and the media. It might seem
strange that there could be a cover-up
of the ABC phenomenon in the UK, when
the media is practically reporting on
them – somewhere in the land – at
least a couple of times per week.
But, there’s a vast chasm between (A)
the press titillating and exciting
their readers with tales of large,
predatory cats on the loose and (B)
actually presenting hard evidence of
such creatures in the nation’s midst.
The stories of the big cats of the UK
undeniably entertain and intrigue the
British public. That, however, is very
different to – hypothetically -
someone finding a dead mountain lion
by the side of the road and the story
then becoming a stark and serious one
of potential man-eating proportions.
Clearly, we don’t see evidence of
sinister, black-garbed characters
popping up, and silencing witnesses,
every time an ABC is seen in the UK.
But, they have surfaced on more than a
few occasions when claims are made
about ABC corpses being found or seen
(by the side of a country road, for
instance). Merrily Harpur’s
book, Mystery Big Cats, includes a
number of cases that suggest the
British Government’s DEFRA – the
Department for Environment, Food and
Rural Affairs – may have played a role
in confiscating the evidence that
large, unknown cats really are
prowling around the British landscape.
Then there is the story of Maureen
Abbott. She saw, when she was in her
twenties, what she describes as a
large “black panther” [in reality,
black panthers are simply melanistic
big-cats, such as cougars and
leopards, whose bodies contain an
over-abundance of dark pigmentation],
late one Winter evening in either 1954
or 1955. Astonishingly, it was doing
nothing less than racing along the
track as she stood, alone, awaiting a
train on the Bakerloo Line of the
London Underground.
Describing the animal as running very
fast, she said that as it passed her,
it quickly looked in her direction,
with a menace-filled frown on its
visage, before vanishing into the
darkness of the tunnels. Although
Abbott did not see the creature again,
she has never forgotten her brief,
terrifying encounter with the unknown,
deep below the city of London.
And there is a very curious sequel to
Abbott’s encounter: two-days later,
she was visited at her home by a
government official who, while the
pair sat and drank cups of tea,
advised her, in fairly relaxed tones,
not to talk about the experience. Of
course, to a degree, this aspect of
Abbott’s story inevitably conjures up
and provokes Men in Black-style
imagery. If true, it suggests that
elements of the British Government may
wish to keep exceedingly quiet the
fact that wild animals are on the
loose in the heart of London’s old
tunnels.
Aside from visits by MIB types and the
confiscation of corpses – before the
truth comes tumbling out – there is
another angle of MIB lore that plays a
role in the ABC puzzle: that of
telephone interference. On many
occasions, witnesses to UFOs have
received strange and unsettling phone
calls in the wake of their encounters.
Strange, slightly foreign sounding,
voices warn people not to talk about
their encounters. Weird and unsettling
electronic bleeps and screeches, and
unintelligible rapid chatter, are
commonplace.
And that applies to the ABC issue too.
I can’t say that my records are
bulging on this angle, as they
certainly are not. But I do have seven
reports on file where witnesses were
on the receiving end of what can only
be described as telephone harassment.
Notably, in two of those seven cases,
the witnesses claimed to have seen the
bodies of dead ABCs: one was seen by
the side of a road near the English
village of Blakeney in 1986, by
a shift-worker on his way home, around
3.00 a.m. The other body was almost
literally stumbled upon, in October
1987, in an area of woodland
near the English town of Bradford on
Avon, during the early afternoon.
In both cases, the cats were very
large, powerful-looking, and
completely black in color. Neither
witness told anyone – outside of their
immediate family – anything about
their encounters, chiefly because they
had nothing to back up the claims. In
the first case, the witness returned
to the site at daybreak, around 7.00
a.m., and the body was gone.
In the second case, precisely the same
thing happened: when the frightened
witness told her husband what she had
seen, he accompanied her back to the
site, around 3 or 4 hours later, after
he returned home from work. That body,
too, had curiously vanished.
In both instances, however – and
despite neither party having made an
official report or having informed the
local press – the witnesses were on
the near-immediate receiving end of
curious phone calls, filled with what
can only be described as classic
MIB-type interference and
intimidation.
So, what’s going on? Do certain
elements of the British Government
know – with absolute certainty – that
the ABCs are 100 percent real? And, if
so, are they doing their very best to
prevent what is seen as an
entertaining mystery by most, from
mutating into something that could
provoke widespread concern, and
perhaps even hysteria, among the
population? Or, do the undeniable
MIB-like overtones to such cases
suggest the ABCs are less than flesh
and blood and far more
paranormal-themed? Maybe the truth
lies in a combination of both realms.
Whatever the answer, I can say for
sure that while the MIB-ABC angle does
not appear to be a major part of the
overall controversy, it is
one that should be treated seriously.
Someone, deep within the heart of
officialdom, may very well know
something that they don’t want the
rest of us to know…
Source: Mysterious Universe
http://mysteriousuniverse.org/2013/08/from-mib-to-abc/