http://www.ufomag.co.uk/index.htm
'URGENT'
We earlier reported that hundreds of US surfers could not access the NASA material our ISP legend checked our site for problems
and found us clean, we therefore suspected a U.S. local fault. No other country reported problems but a couple of alert surfers
pointed out that we had a link that contained a 'space' and NETSCAPE could not handle this but INTERNET EXPLORER could. We have fixed that problem and I now wait to see if our U.S friends have further problems.
Russel Callaghan
LAUGHLIN PRESENTATION
A SPECIAL REPORT BY SALLY THOMKIN
Graham W. Birdsall, editor of UFO Magazine and his colleague Russel Callaghan returned to the United Kingdom on Sunday, 19 March and
were back at their desks first thing Monday morning to prepare this special report on their presentation made at the 9th International UFO Congress and Convention, in Laughlin, Nevada, on Saturday, 11 March.
Held in the River Palms Resort from 5-11 March, the Congress itself attracted one of the largest attendance's seen in recent years, prompting a visit by local fire and safety officials to ensure gangways and exit doors were kept free at all times.
Having arrived in the early hours of Sunday, 5 March, Graham and Russel entertained numerous requests from leading radio talk show hosts to speak candidly about their impending presentation during the week. These included 'Art Bell' (hosted by Whitley Streiber) and 21st Century Radio (hosted by Bob Hieronimus). Several interviews were
conducted for impending TV documentaries, including segments to be included in a forthcoming 12-part series by leading U.S. producer Paul Davids, the Learning Channel etc.
As well as taking in several lectures by other guest speakers, Graham and Russel took the opportunity to conduct several filmed interviews of their own with the likes of Rod Regehr, Peter Gersten and Ryan Wood
etc.
A comprehensive review of the Congress will appear in the May/June issue of UFO Magazine (on sale in the UK from 27 April).
THE PRESENTATION
Shortly after 9.00am on Saturday, 11 March, Graham & Russel took to the stage and over the course of some 75-minutes covered a series of topics that included: Animal Mutilations in the UK; UFO footage from
the UK; UFOs and the Media; Interview with a B-2 pilot (RAF Fairford 1999); The 'Phenomena' Exhibition (Australia) etc.
After a brief interval, the final 90-minutes was entirely devoted to The Secret NASA Transmissions: 'The Smoking Gun'. Split into relevant segments, the audience were first afforded a detailed background into how this material came to be in their possession, followed by a step-by-step guide that led to specific examples of the 'First and Second Space Phenomena'.
In between, the largely American audience were given their first look at Martyn Stubbs, the former Canadian Cable TV station manager who spent five years amassing some 2,500 hours of space shuttle transmissions which he dutifully recorded and logged on over 520
tapes.
REACTION
Even allowing for an audience made up for the most part of avid UFO enthusiasts, the NASA footage shown was deemed "highly significant"
by mainstream researchers among the audience.
Needless to say, approaches were made in the immediate aftermath by several individuals who expressed an interest in following up the
matter.
These included scientists who wish at this time to maintain a low profile but who told us they found the 'Second Space Phenomena'
(caught between two split fields) "absolutely fascinating".
Notable for their absence were debunkers and, sadly, representatives of the international media. Only one journalist of note was present, a female reporter from the Los Angles Times.
"This was particular frustrating," said Graham W. Birdsall. "We undertook an exhaustive effort to alert the media to our 11 March presentation through a detailed press release targeted at all the major
players - well in advance of our departure for the United States - but for reasons best known to them, the bulk failed to show."
Would those efforts continue?
"Absolutely," said Graham, who appeared aghast at the suggestion things had run their course. "No one, least of all me, believed that this footage, and all that it implies, would be readily embraced by the media and scientific community at large without the greatest possible struggle to overcome a deep-seated prejudice that is patently attached to anyone remotely connected with the UFO subject at large."
Several sceptics have attempted to dismiss the footage and suggested that it has been hyped up out of all proportion. What's your response to these charges?
"These people have their own agenda and 'shooting the messenger' comes a lot easier than attempting to answer a host of puzzling
questions posed by the NASA footage."
Such as?
"Well, we have claims that words uttered by NASA mission controllers to astronauts conducting a DoD mission don't conform to standard protocols. The implication is that phrases such as 'Discovery, you are ordered to stay Vector' must therefore be a hoax.
"It's that kind of debunking mentality we are up against, but the footage, from which that particular phrase was derived, stands up to
scrutiny.
"Footage shown of the STS-75 mission, which deployed and then 'lost' the tethered satellite has clearly dumbfounded a great many people, but debunkers naturally claim that anomalous activity seen at 100 miles distance around the Tether is simply debris'.
"We have demonstrated beyond all reasonable doubt that some of this so-called 'debris' passes behind the Tether. At the same time, we have 'debris' moving to all points of the compass, and what was not made publicly known at the time, some of this 'debris' alters course to avoid collision."
Russel Callaghan has no doubt that this part of the STS-75 mission footage poses some real problems for NASA and their friends in the
debunking community.
"NASA's own astronauts on board the shuttle seem lost for answers - this after hastily switching cameras when a 'sphere' suddenly comes into view at 77 miles distance.
"But we have at least six occasions when these things pass behind the Tether, and it follows that because NASA themselves are telling us that the Tether is 12 miles long, then what we have here is a mile-long lake
of ice passing directly behind it.
"But after our presentation, we were approached by someone who claimed to have undertaken a comprehensive study of that particular footage - footage that he alleged to have covertly obtained and which later was stolen - in which a comparison study of molecular movement was set against anomalous activity in and around the Tether.
"That's something I feel sure we will return to as this story unfolds," said Russel.
But "the biggest puzzle of all" remains the 'Second Space Phenomena' said Graham.
"That's something that has confounded the few scientists who have had the opportunity to study it," he added.
You say that, but isn't it true that some of the people you claim were supportive of the phenomena have now distanced themselves?
"We have correspondence with Dr. Joseph Nuth III who comments about the 'First Space Phenomena'. He later told a TV producer in the UK he didn't see anything because his VCR has been broken for 18 months.
"Professor Weinberg of Simon Fraser university commented on the 'Second Space Phenomena' according to Martyn Stubbs and made due recommendations. Contacted by someone through the Internet, the professor at first denied any involvement, but later acknowledged he had met with Martyn (who had nothing but praise and admiration for Weinberg - this 'wonderful man') only that 'his (Martyn Stubbs) recollection of our conversation are not mine'.
"The fact is that Martyn was not alone when he met with Professor Weinberg and that their conversation can be independently verified.
"However one interprets the apparent distancing, the fact remains that Martyn Stubbs has come across something which to date, no one in the scientific community can readily explain. You simply cannot have
objects displaying all colours of the rainbow in that kind of hostile environment. If these were micro meteoroids, it would take an
atmosphere for them to burn up and give off these colours.
"The fact is that these things are self-illuminating, can only be discerned in split frames at one-sixtieth of a second, so whatever they are, they are real, they are travelling extremely fast and something is
causing them to generate heat and reflective light - they illuminate objects around them (hardly a video fault). You simply can't have one without the other."
Where do you go from here?
"The more scientists who view this footage, the more likely they will wish to study it further," said Russel Callaghan. "That's the bottom line with all of this. That's what Graham and I spoke of at Laughlin. We
don't know what we are dealing with here, but we have seen and heard enough these past few weeks to convince us both that people in high
office are extremely uncomfortable in entering into any discussion about the matter, to the point that some have used threatening legal jargon, only to withdraw it after receiving gentle reminders of what
they had to say a year or two ago.
"Perhaps they had indeed forgotten about things, but it has come back to haunt them."
That's all well and good, but how do you hope to persuade others in the scientific community, and especially the mainstream media to take this seriously?
"You never put all your eggs in one basket," said Graham.
"Remember, Martyn Stubbs recorded over 2,500 hours of NASA transmissions, and what has been disseminated thus far, while impressive, is but the tip of the proverbial iceberg. We are led to believe that NASA has now instigated a 20 to 40 minute delay between
reception at NASA and general distribution to broadcasters. If true, to 'buffer' that amount of material is not a cheap option, but why do it in the first place?
"Someone remarked at the end of our presentation that we would be glad now that it was all over. He couldn't have been wider off the mark. Our task has only just begun.
"We have opened up a huge can of worms by honouring our commitment to disseminate this material as widely as possible. We could have gone wholly commercial, recruited publicists, spin doctors and enlisted advertising agencies to market what could have been a
highly profitable enterprise. We did not.
"We published the facts in UFO Magazine, presented the same at Laughlin, uploaded free of charge the relevant segments on our
website (declining pay-per-view opportunities offered by several companies) and made available an in-depth video tape for those who sought greater clarity of image.
"I can only reiterate that this footage will not go away, and to reveal our future plans of how best to encourage science and the media to take a serious interest in all of this will only serve the interests of the
debunkers and those who seek to keep a tight rein on what has been released thus far.
"Hence, we would reiterate our appeal to those within the scientific community to put away your prejudice, have a look at what is
contained within this footage and ask of yourself this one solitary question: Why does NASA have a department of extraterrestrial
physics? Could it be that one is required to explore something that no earthbound physics can explain?"
'URGENT'
We earlier reported that hundreds of US surfers could not access the NASA material our ISP legend checked our site for problems
and found us clean, we therefore suspected a U.S. local fault. No other country reported problems but a couple of alert surfers
pointed out that we had a link that contained a 'space' and NETSCAPE could not handle this but INTERNET EXPLORER could. We have fixed that problem and I now wait to see if our U.S friends have further problems.
Russel Callaghan
LAUGHLIN PRESENTATION
A SPECIAL REPORT BY SALLY THOMKIN
Graham W. Birdsall, editor of UFO Magazine and his colleague Russel Callaghan returned to the United Kingdom on Sunday, 19 March and
were back at their desks first thing Monday morning to prepare this special report on their presentation made at the 9th International UFO Congress and Convention, in Laughlin, Nevada, on Saturday, 11 March.
Held in the River Palms Resort from 5-11 March, the Congress itself attracted one of the largest attendance's seen in recent years, prompting a visit by local fire and safety officials to ensure gangways and exit doors were kept free at all times.
Having arrived in the early hours of Sunday, 5 March, Graham and Russel entertained numerous requests from leading radio talk show hosts to speak candidly about their impending presentation during the week. These included 'Art Bell' (hosted by Whitley Streiber) and 21st Century Radio (hosted by Bob Hieronimus). Several interviews were
conducted for impending TV documentaries, including segments to be included in a forthcoming 12-part series by leading U.S. producer Paul Davids, the Learning Channel etc.
As well as taking in several lectures by other guest speakers, Graham and Russel took the opportunity to conduct several filmed interviews of their own with the likes of Rod Regehr, Peter Gersten and Ryan Wood
etc.
A comprehensive review of the Congress will appear in the May/June issue of UFO Magazine (on sale in the UK from 27 April).
THE PRESENTATION
Shortly after 9.00am on Saturday, 11 March, Graham & Russel took to the stage and over the course of some 75-minutes covered a series of topics that included: Animal Mutilations in the UK; UFO footage from
the UK; UFOs and the Media; Interview with a B-2 pilot (RAF Fairford 1999); The 'Phenomena' Exhibition (Australia) etc.
After a brief interval, the final 90-minutes was entirely devoted to The Secret NASA Transmissions: 'The Smoking Gun'. Split into relevant segments, the audience were first afforded a detailed background into how this material came to be in their possession, followed by a step-by-step guide that led to specific examples of the 'First and Second Space Phenomena'.
In between, the largely American audience were given their first look at Martyn Stubbs, the former Canadian Cable TV station manager who spent five years amassing some 2,500 hours of space shuttle transmissions which he dutifully recorded and logged on over 520
tapes.
REACTION
Even allowing for an audience made up for the most part of avid UFO enthusiasts, the NASA footage shown was deemed "highly significant"
by mainstream researchers among the audience.
Needless to say, approaches were made in the immediate aftermath by several individuals who expressed an interest in following up the
matter.
These included scientists who wish at this time to maintain a low profile but who told us they found the 'Second Space Phenomena'
(caught between two split fields) "absolutely fascinating".
Notable for their absence were debunkers and, sadly, representatives of the international media. Only one journalist of note was present, a female reporter from the Los Angles Times.
"This was particular frustrating," said Graham W. Birdsall. "We undertook an exhaustive effort to alert the media to our 11 March presentation through a detailed press release targeted at all the major
players - well in advance of our departure for the United States - but for reasons best known to them, the bulk failed to show."
Would those efforts continue?
"Absolutely," said Graham, who appeared aghast at the suggestion things had run their course. "No one, least of all me, believed that this footage, and all that it implies, would be readily embraced by the media and scientific community at large without the greatest possible struggle to overcome a deep-seated prejudice that is patently attached to anyone remotely connected with the UFO subject at large."
Several sceptics have attempted to dismiss the footage and suggested that it has been hyped up out of all proportion. What's your response to these charges?
"These people have their own agenda and 'shooting the messenger' comes a lot easier than attempting to answer a host of puzzling
questions posed by the NASA footage."
Such as?
"Well, we have claims that words uttered by NASA mission controllers to astronauts conducting a DoD mission don't conform to standard protocols. The implication is that phrases such as 'Discovery, you are ordered to stay Vector' must therefore be a hoax.
"It's that kind of debunking mentality we are up against, but the footage, from which that particular phrase was derived, stands up to
scrutiny.
"Footage shown of the STS-75 mission, which deployed and then 'lost' the tethered satellite has clearly dumbfounded a great many people, but debunkers naturally claim that anomalous activity seen at 100 miles distance around the Tether is simply debris'.
"We have demonstrated beyond all reasonable doubt that some of this so-called 'debris' passes behind the Tether. At the same time, we have 'debris' moving to all points of the compass, and what was not made publicly known at the time, some of this 'debris' alters course to avoid collision."
Russel Callaghan has no doubt that this part of the STS-75 mission footage poses some real problems for NASA and their friends in the
debunking community.
"NASA's own astronauts on board the shuttle seem lost for answers - this after hastily switching cameras when a 'sphere' suddenly comes into view at 77 miles distance.
"But we have at least six occasions when these things pass behind the Tether, and it follows that because NASA themselves are telling us that the Tether is 12 miles long, then what we have here is a mile-long lake
of ice passing directly behind it.
"But after our presentation, we were approached by someone who claimed to have undertaken a comprehensive study of that particular footage - footage that he alleged to have covertly obtained and which later was stolen - in which a comparison study of molecular movement was set against anomalous activity in and around the Tether.
"That's something I feel sure we will return to as this story unfolds," said Russel.
But "the biggest puzzle of all" remains the 'Second Space Phenomena' said Graham.
"That's something that has confounded the few scientists who have had the opportunity to study it," he added.
You say that, but isn't it true that some of the people you claim were supportive of the phenomena have now distanced themselves?
"We have correspondence with Dr. Joseph Nuth III who comments about the 'First Space Phenomena'. He later told a TV producer in the UK he didn't see anything because his VCR has been broken for 18 months.
"Professor Weinberg of Simon Fraser university commented on the 'Second Space Phenomena' according to Martyn Stubbs and made due recommendations. Contacted by someone through the Internet, the professor at first denied any involvement, but later acknowledged he had met with Martyn (who had nothing but praise and admiration for Weinberg - this 'wonderful man') only that 'his (Martyn Stubbs) recollection of our conversation are not mine'.
"The fact is that Martyn was not alone when he met with Professor Weinberg and that their conversation can be independently verified.
"However one interprets the apparent distancing, the fact remains that Martyn Stubbs has come across something which to date, no one in the scientific community can readily explain. You simply cannot have
objects displaying all colours of the rainbow in that kind of hostile environment. If these were micro meteoroids, it would take an
atmosphere for them to burn up and give off these colours.
"The fact is that these things are self-illuminating, can only be discerned in split frames at one-sixtieth of a second, so whatever they are, they are real, they are travelling extremely fast and something is
causing them to generate heat and reflective light - they illuminate objects around them (hardly a video fault). You simply can't have one without the other."
Where do you go from here?
"The more scientists who view this footage, the more likely they will wish to study it further," said Russel Callaghan. "That's the bottom line with all of this. That's what Graham and I spoke of at Laughlin. We
don't know what we are dealing with here, but we have seen and heard enough these past few weeks to convince us both that people in high
office are extremely uncomfortable in entering into any discussion about the matter, to the point that some have used threatening legal jargon, only to withdraw it after receiving gentle reminders of what
they had to say a year or two ago.
"Perhaps they had indeed forgotten about things, but it has come back to haunt them."
That's all well and good, but how do you hope to persuade others in the scientific community, and especially the mainstream media to take this seriously?
"You never put all your eggs in one basket," said Graham.
"Remember, Martyn Stubbs recorded over 2,500 hours of NASA transmissions, and what has been disseminated thus far, while impressive, is but the tip of the proverbial iceberg. We are led to believe that NASA has now instigated a 20 to 40 minute delay between
reception at NASA and general distribution to broadcasters. If true, to 'buffer' that amount of material is not a cheap option, but why do it in the first place?
"Someone remarked at the end of our presentation that we would be glad now that it was all over. He couldn't have been wider off the mark. Our task has only just begun.
"We have opened up a huge can of worms by honouring our commitment to disseminate this material as widely as possible. We could have gone wholly commercial, recruited publicists, spin doctors and enlisted advertising agencies to market what could have been a
highly profitable enterprise. We did not.
"We published the facts in UFO Magazine, presented the same at Laughlin, uploaded free of charge the relevant segments on our
website (declining pay-per-view opportunities offered by several companies) and made available an in-depth video tape for those who sought greater clarity of image.
"I can only reiterate that this footage will not go away, and to reveal our future plans of how best to encourage science and the media to take a serious interest in all of this will only serve the interests of the
debunkers and those who seek to keep a tight rein on what has been released thus far.
"Hence, we would reiterate our appeal to those within the scientific community to put away your prejudice, have a look at what is
contained within this footage and ask of yourself this one solitary question: Why does NASA have a department of extraterrestrial
physics? Could it be that one is required to explore something that no earthbound physics can explain?"