Leslie Kean - UFOs

The answer was exactly what he expected. And the results of his inquiry are spelled out in a U.S. government document, classified at the time, but since released through the Freedom of Information Act. The March 1990 memo “Belgium and the UFO Issue” notes that De Brouwer asked whether the objects were American B-2 or F-117 military aircraft, stating that he made the inquiry despite his clarity that “the alleged observations did not correspond in any way to the observable characteristics of either U.S. aircraft.” The document further states that “the USAF did confirm to the BAF [Belgian Air Force] and Belgian MOD [Ministry of Defense] that no USAF stealth aircraft were operating in the Ardennes area [8] 1 “no USAF stealth aircraft were operating in the Ardennes area” Joint Staff, Washington, D.C., Information Report #5049, “Belgium and the UFO Issue,” March 30, 1990. during the periods in question.” De Brouwer reported to me that he was also assured privately by an American official that the U.S. had no “black program” that could have caused these multiple sightings.

In 1992, Belgium’s defense minister, Leo Delcroix, confirmed this once again when replying to a letter from a French researcher. “Unfortunately, no explanation has been found to date,” he wrote. “The nature and origin of the phenomenon remain unknown. One theory can be definitely dismissed, however, since the Belgian Armed Forces have been positively assured by American authorities that there has never been any sort of American aerial test flight.” [9] 2 “there has never been any sort of American aerial test flight” Don Berliner, UFO Briefing Document (Dell Publishing/Random House, 1995), p. 144.

This is an important point to keep in mind when reading the witness accounts provided by De Brouwer. We’re stuck with a serious dilemma. Has the military from some country been testing new, extremely advanced craft since the mid-1970s, which is when reports of such triangular craft began? Was Belgium selected as the site for repeated test flights, monitored from a secret base somewhere? Common sense tells us that if a government had developed huge craft that can hover motionless only a few hundred feet up, and then speed off in the blink of an eye—all without making a sound—such technology would have revolutionized both air travel and modern warfare, and probably physics as well. In the two decades since the Belgian wave, the United States has been involved in three wars; had we possessed such advanced capabilities, they would surely have been put to use by now. If some government was secretly, and inexplicably, flying this marvel over Belgium, it would have had to lie to the Belgian authorities when inquiries were made and thus disrupt the partnership among NATO members, which is based on mutual respect and trust. And every person involved with the creation and flight of this highly advanced craft would have had to have kept the miraculous technology and its repeated test flights secret—indeed, no one has come forward and nothing about such an enterprise has ever leaked out. Nonetheless, in the minds of some, this will remain as a possibility, no matter how unlikely.

As far as General De Brouwer is concerned, that possibility has been completely ruled out. So, to his mind, what’s left? “I am approaching the UAP issue in a pragmatic way. I stick to the facts and avoid extrapolations to possible extraterrestrial activities,” General De Brouwer responded by e-mail. “Nevertheless, I encourage scientific research which should be based on the objective analysis of a number of observations reported during the Belgian wave. Such research should not exclude the extraterrestrial option.”

Lastly, I want to point out the significance of the close-up color photograph of an unidentified object that De Brouwer will present—one of the most revealing UFO images of all time. Readers might reasonably ask why there aren’t more unequivocal pictures and videos of the Belgian objects, since there were so many sightings. Partly, this was because of the strict requirements of the authorities regarding the acceptance of photographs; their screening methods eliminated all questionable and unverifiable images. In addition, it’s easy to forget that twenty years ago, cell phones and relatively inexpensive, consumer-level digital and video cameras were not yet in use. Most often, people did not have loaded cameras handy at the unpredictable times when UFOs passed overhead, such as at night while driving. In my conversations with many UFO witnesses over the years, I’ve learned that when observing something as awesome, and sometimes frightening, as a gigantic low-flying UFO, people become almost transfixed. They are seeing something that isn’t supposed to exist, something ominous, huge and silent, that was previously unimaginable. Most do not take their eyes off the otherworldly thing except maybe to quickly summon family members or friends within earshot. They keep staring, and the distraction of taking a picture is not on their minds. The craft is usually moving away, soon to be out of sight. They do not want to run inside the house to look for a camera, or unpack a bag in the trunk of the car to find one, or worry if it’s loaded. The moment is too unusual, too breathtaking.

Even when a picture is taken, it doesn’t always come out. If the lights are some distance away and the exposure too short, nothing shows up in the frame. Also, other characteristics of the UFO can inhibit the registering of its bright lights on film. In one case, a Belgian movie producer and two colleagues, [10] 3 a Belgian movie producer and two colleagues Marie-Thérèse de Brosses, from an interview with Professor Auguste Meessen, “An Unidentified Flying Object on the Radar of an F-16,” Paris Match , July 5, 1990. using high-sensitivity film, photographed one of the objects passing directly overhead. The photographer estimated its altitude to be only about 1,000 feet, with the object’s diameter six times that of a full moon. As a control, he photographed an ordinary airplane several minutes later in the same spot, using all the same settings on the camera.

On the pictures, however, the bright “spotlights” on the UFO, which to the viewers’ eyes had looked much, much brighter than the lights on the airplane, were hardly discernible. The triangular shape of the UFO, clearly visible to the naked eye, was also lost on the film. At the same time, the airplane lights came out brighter than those of the UFO, appearing just the way they had looked from the ground, even though the UFO was much closer to the observers than the airplane. Laboratory experiments show that this was likely due to the effect of infrared light around the UFO, which can cause even such an object to disappear altogether in a photograph. This could be one reason why so few usable pictures were received by investigators during the Belgian wave, and why bona fide UFO pictures are not as common as one might expect.

Witness drawings have an important role to play, encapsulating details imprinted in the memories of observers immediately after their sightings. Investigators can then make comparisons between renditions made in different locations at different times, or by multiple witnesses to the same event from different vantage points—all by people who don’t know each other. “The day will come, undoubtedly, when the phenomenon will be observed with the technological means necessary that won’t leave a single doubt about its origin,” General De Brouwer commented recently, with assurance. In the meantime, something physically, technologically real, yet completely unknown to any of us, repeatedly inserted itself into the skies over Belgium. We don’t know where it was from, where it was going, or why it was there. But the fact of its existence is remarkable enough and a sufficient challenge to those of us below, unable to do a thing about it.