ACLU Eyes Drones

The American Civil Liberties Union continued voicing its concern about the use of domestic drones Thursday, summarizing legislation efforts in an article titled, Drone Legislation: What's Being Proposed in the States?. The nonprofit activist organization also sent out emails urging recipients to take the situation seriously with subject lines reading, “Drones are like puppies (they'll follow you home).” The email addressed such issues as the use of unmanned aerial craft as surveillance tools by law enforcement agencies.

Drone Legislation, authored by ACLU advocacy and policy strategist Allie Bohm, detailed bills pending that include a variety of issues and contingencies, such as conditions dictating if or when domestic drones may eavesdrop or be equipped with weapons. Lawmakers are exploring such issues as the extent warrants will be required, and to what extents information may be used or stored when obtained accidentally. Circumstances surrounding photography, electronic data collection and similar complexities are at the center of debate.

Bohm pointed out how the approach to such issues differs greatly from state to state, as do some of the items up for discussion. Virginia, for instance, shot down a bill that prohibited drones from keeping tabs on hunters on private land, while California might offer tax breaks for drone manufacturers. Georgia, meanwhile, passed resolutions praising drone development. The ACLU reported that the Federal Aviation Adminstration estimated that as many as 30,000 drones could be filling American airspace by the end of the decade.

Seeking Witnesses to Casselberry July 4, 2004 Case

I am currently in the process of researching the Casselberry July 4, 2004 incident. Please contact me if you are a witness or interested party. Confidentiality will be respected.

The evening of July 4, 2004, the Orlando, Fla. suburb of Casselberry was the site of an incident described by initial witnesses as extraordinary. Approximately 9 p.m. a bright flash lit up the night and was followed by a lingering boom. While some suggested it was no more than lightning, others were insulted by the possible explanation, saying they never saw any such lightning before.

Yet others claimed to believe some type of object fell or crashed, and some went as far as to state on Internet message boards and similar sites that NASA personnel were dispatched to the area. Reports were submitted to UFO-related organizations and conspiracies were alleged.

Have a story to tell? Let me hear from you.

Mystery Drone Buzzes Commercial Airliner

CNN reported that an unmanned drone flew within 200 feet of a commercial airliner Monday. The Alitalia aircraft was flying over New York at 1750 feet and approaching JFK International Airport when the incident occurred.

The FAA and FBI are investigating, as the operator of the drone is unknown. The FBI released a statement saying the unmanned aircraft was black, no more than three feet wide and had four propellers.

CNN stated that Special Agent in Charge John Giacalone requested help from the public, saying, “The FBI is asking anyone with information about the unmanned aircraft or the operator to contact us. Our paramount concern is the safety of aircraft passengers and crew.”

'The Facade' by Dr. Michael S. Heiser

I recently purchased and read the novel, The Facade, written by Dr. Michael S. Heiser. The book is a supernatural thriller starring the UFO phenomenon.

Part One of my two-part post on the subject is a review of the novel, which I highly recommend purchasing. Part Two contains an interview with the author and biblical scholar, Dr. Heiser, which includes his comments on such topics as the possibilities of an advanced non-human intelligence, the powers that be and his experience within ufology.

Bhagavan Das Visits Central Florida

Bhagavan Das, 1960's counterculture icon, was prominently featured during the Temple of Sound Weekend held at Amrit Yoga Institute of Central Florida. A spiritual teacher, musician and performer, the guru was accompanied by his wife, Kali, during a Friday night presentation. Many follow such teachers in hopes of more healthily integrating life experience with deeper understandings of the nature of reality.

Bhagavan Das is credited with mentoring Ram Dass and opening for the Grateful Dead, among other items of note. More about the Friday night performance is described in my post, Bhagavan Das at Amrit Yoga Institute, at Orlando Paranormal Examiner.

Thought Drones Were New to the Skies? Think Again

A 1990 report prepared by the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA), an organization based in the US, stated that the military use of unmanned, remotely controlled air vehicles began no later than World War I. The report was presented to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and explained that remote controlled aircraft were operational during the 1920's in both the US and the UK.

The craft were initially rather limited in scope, the IDA reported, but by World War II radio-controlled aircraft were being upgraded to include cameras. Such efforts continued through the Korean War.

The Nite Gazelle, deployed during the Vietnam era.

A similar 2003 IDA report provided an overview of DARPA unclassified program activities since the 1970's. Unmanned aerial vehicles were given significant attention, including the wide use of remotely piloted vehicles, or RPVs, during the Vietnam War. RPVs successfully carried payloads, conducted reconnaissance, executed precision strikes and other advantageous maneuvers over SE Asia.

In 1971 an apparently rather brilliant model airplane enthusiast, Dr. John Foster, recommended DARPA scrap its designs and turn its attention to producing, more or less, souped up model planes. The cleverly simple concept initially resulted in the Praerie and Calere, each weighing about 75 pounds and powered by, of all things, lawn mower engines. Numerous additional models were subsequently produced. Their increasingly sophisticated capacities included reduced radar signatures and the addition of electronic warfare capabilities.

All was not always as stellar as the Department of Defense would have liked, however. IDA reported that the DARPA-Army collaboration on Praerie led to the Army's Aquila Program, a venture infamous for its lack of practicality.

The project succeeded in its objective to demonstrate an RPV could perform reconnaissance, acquire and identify targets, and survive. However, it dramatically overextended its original budget by the time it was axed in 1988. What's more, it was considered an acquisition nightmare, and, as IDA put it, “universally acknowledged as an example of what not to do in an advanced technology acquisition program.”

The effective but ill fated Aquila

Essentially, confusion developed within the ranks as to how Aquila should be deployed. IDA reported that a lack of cooperation between the branches ultimately undermined the program. Many believe it is such challenges that led to agencies such as DARPA and the CIA taking the lead in drone advancements, as opposed to allocating such operations to the services.

Production efforts of unmanned aerial vehicles continued, leading to projects such as Amber. The 1990's saw transitions from Amber into programs known as Tier I, Tier II and Tier III, representing production of drones with systematically increased capacities for stealthy flight, electronic warfare and lethal weaponry.

Drones were used in Iraq, Afghanistan and are of course deployed in current intelligence operations. They are also becoming more widely used in a variety of law enforcement and rescue operations.

The Associated Press recently reported that the Pentagon is creating a new prestigious medal for extraordinary achievement in cyber and drone warfare. It is the first addition of a medal since 1944. Many analysts suggest it exhibits an urgency allocated to high levels of performance and success in the field.

Whatever we may make of the ongoing saga of unmanned aerial vehicles, they are obviously here to stay. We can only speculate what related information may remain classified and to what extents it has effected ufology, but it might be advisable to take into consideration now and then.

Questions on Disclosure

Let's think about this disclosure thing a bit. As I understand it, there are some guys that consider themselves activists in something they call exopolitics. Those guys tell us we should join them in demanding Washington spill the beans they have long hoarded about aliens among us. I have some questions.

Why give the US government so much of the credit when it comes to keeping the lid on aliens? Can't the exos think of anywhere else to look for answers about the UFO phenomenon, anywhere at all?

Boulevard of disclosure a one-way street

Have any of those activists talked to Greer? Like, has anyone championing disclosure demanded Greer disclose data? Wouldn't it stand to reason that if you're spearheading public disclosure of the truth about aliens, you'd drop a guy an email that claims to have one in a box? If not, why not?

Okay, forget Greer. That situation is only of interest due to its continued public support in the face of such profound absurdity.

How about the Mutual UFO Network? Those guys and gals have been chasing saucers longer than some of us can remember, and it's tougher to get straight answers out of some of them than verification of election results from a third world country. Why aren't disclosure activists complaining about MUFON secrecy and double standards? Wouldn't it stand to reason that anyone sincerely interested in the truth would be hammering The Captain and the MUFON board of directors with the same persistence in which they hound White House staff?

Maybe the only thing MUFON could tell us was that after having bird-dogged thousands of UFO sightings and reports of alien abduction, it has absolutely no conclusive evidence whatsoever of any aliens. Even if that were the case, wouldn't that be something you would think should be published in the spirit of disclosing the truth?

Another thing... Genre icon Whitley Strieber claimed he has an implant in his ear. He also claimed it repeatedly dodged a scalpel during a doctor's attempts to remove it. Have any disclosure activists demanded Strieber disclose corroborating data? Why not? Wouldn't taking a look at the man's ear, or at the least asking him to cough up related data, seem like much more practical uses of resources than trying to send a million faxes to Washington? That would seem to be the case, anyway, if one were genuinely interested in the disclosure of actuality.

Have any activists made repeated demands of Robert Bigelow? Shouldn't they demand that he, like Uncle Sam, come clean in the name of truth, the public's right to know and all that? Aren't they curious what's in his files?

Scamming, naive or biased?

Rational individuals will simply suspect self-described disclosure activists are insincere, naive or without objectivity until circumstances such as questioned above are adequately addressed. Those activists might, however, continue to be rather successful at getting irrational individuals to climb on board.

The entire situation is unfortunate in that it stands to further divide the UFO community into its poorly conceived – even if comfortably preferred - sects of debunkers, believers and so on. It's the old 'you're either with us or against us' strategy, exploiting people into adopting naively simplistic perspectives in which intelligent inquiry is neither required, rewarded nor allowed.

There are aliens. The White House knows. Demand they say so.

There ya go. What more of a platform could you want out of an activist movement?