hi all,

some might find this of interest!! :-)

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php...show_article=1

france became the first country to open its files on ufos thursday when the
national space agency unveiled a website documenting more than 1,600 sightings
spanning five decades.
the online archives, which will be updated as new cases are reported, catalogues
in minute detail cases ranging from the easily dismissed to a handful that
continue to perplex even hard-nosed scientists.

"it is a world first," said jacques patenet, the aeronautical engineer who heads
the office for the study of "non-identified aerospatial phenomena."

known as ovnis in french, ufos have always generated intense interest along with
countless conspiracy theories about secretive government cover-ups of findings
deemed too sensitive or alarming for public consumption.

"cases such as the lady who reported seeing an object that looked like a flying
roll of toilet paper" are clearly not worth investigating, said patenet.

but many others involving multiple sightings -- in at least one case involving
thousands of people across france -- and evidence such as burn marks and radar
trackings showing flight patterns or accelerations that defy the laws of physics
are taken very seriously.

a phalanx of beefy security guards formed a barrier in front of the space agency
(cnes) headquarters where the announcement was made, "to screen out uninvited
ufologists," an official explained.


of the 1,600 cases registered since 1954, nearly 25 percent are classified as
"type d", meaning that "despite good or very good data and credible witnesses,
we are confronted with something we can't explain," patenet said.

on january 8, 1981 outside the town of trans-en-provence in southern france, for
example, a man working in a field reported hearing a strange whistling sound and
seeing a saucer-like object about 2.5 meters (eight feet) in diameter land in
his field about 50 meters (yards) away.

a dull-zinc grey, the saucer took off, he told police, almost immediately,
leaving burn marks. investigators took photos, and then collected and analyzed
samples, and to this day no satisfactory explanation has been made.

the nearly 1,000 witness who said they saw flashing lights in the sky on
november 5, 1990, by contrast, had simply seen a rocket fragment falling back
into earth's atmosphere.


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