Documents / Official release
This file, held under a National Aeronautics and Space Administration title, contains an English translation of the 1999 COMETA report "UFOs and Defense: What Should We Prepare For?", produced by a French association of former IHEDN auditors and first published in a special issue of VSD. It opens with a 2001 letter from Carol Rosin arranging a meeting. The report covers pilot testimonies, close encounters in France, GEPAN/SEPRA research and defense implications. Attached material includes a Leslie Kean article, a NARCAP description and a news item about a UFO at Barnaul airport.
From the source:Release of 2026-05-08 Incident: N/A. Released with redactions. NARA Record Group 255, catalogue id 413270. This file contains an independent report on UFOs written by the French association COMETA (previously published in the French magazine VDS in 1999), which details the results of a study by the Institute of Higher Studies for National Defence. The file also includes a letter from Carol Rosin in which she notes that she was spokesperson for von Braun during the last years of his life.
“The Pentagon”3 pages
SATURDAY 17 JUN E 2 000 - -------------------.J ~•:i\tlid•>l••i=id=-1-------------------- pol ittcal and strategic alliances... Why might other nations be inclined to take this ~ubject seriously? For one thing, declassified US government documents show that unexpla ined objec:ts wi th extraordinary technical capabilities pose challenges to military activity around the globe. For example, US fighter jets have been scramb led to pursue UFOs. according 10 North American Aerospace Defense Command logs and US Air Force doc ume nts. Iranian and Peruvian A ir Force planes attempted to shoot do wn unexplained objects d uring a ir e ncounte rs in 1976 and 1980. and Be lgian F- 16 's equipped wi th auto matically guided missiles pursued UFO's in 1990. Further, the French report says that there have been "visits above secret installations and missile bases•· and " military aircraft shadowed" in the US . Dr. Edgar Mitchell, the Apollo 14 as tro naut who was the sixth man to walk o n the moon. is o ne of ma ny supporters of in ternational cooperation on UFOs. Of the French report, he says, "It's sig nificaot that individuals of some st anding in the government, military a nd intelligence communiry in France came forth with this." Mitc hell, who holds a doctor of science degree from the prestigious Massachuse tts Institute of Techno logy, is convinced "at a confidence level above 90pc, that there is reality to all of this." He adds, "People have been digging through the fi les and investigating for years now. The files are quite convincing. The only thing that's lacking is the official stamp." He joins five-star Admiral Lord Hill-Norton, the former head of the British Ministry of Defense, in calling for US congressional fact-finding hearings into the UFO question. Hearings would include testimony by government witnesses from the Air Force, Army, Navy, NASA, private ind ustry and intelligence ope rations with personal, fi rst-hand knowledge of UFO phenomena a nd related projects. THE ASTRONAUT AMO THE INVESTIGATION Despite the fact that Mitche ll is a national hero and bas been honoured with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the US N Dist inguished Service Medal and the NASA Distinguished Service Medal, his request for an investigatio n has been ignored by U.S. officials . Nonetheless, the public' s interest in UFOs is undi minished. A ballot initiative underway in the US state of Missouri, and certified by the secretary of state in March, urges Congress to convene hearings. T he initiative states that "the Federal Government's handli ng of the UFO issue has contributed to the public cynic ism toward, and general mistrust of, government.·• US Naval Reserve Commander Willard H. Miller has been communicating this same concern to high level officials for a number of years. With o ver 30 years in Navy and Joint lnteragency o perations with the US Defense Department, Miller has participated in a series of previously undisclosed briefings for Pentagon brass about military policy regard ing UFOs. Like many. he says he worries that the military's lack of preparation for encounters with unexp lained c raft could provoke a dangerous confrontation when, and if, such an e ncounter occurs: " prec ipitous military decisio ns... he warns. "may lead to unnecessary confus ion, misapplication of forces. or possible catastrophic consequences. And he says he is not alone in his concerns. "There are those in high p laces in the government who share a growing interest in this subject," Miller reports. Miller retired in 1994 from active duty on the C urrent Operations Staff (13) of U.S . Atlantic Command, Norfolk, Virginia where he worked operations, intelligence, and special contingency issues . In a February, 2000 confidential memo prepared for this reporter, he spelled out the detai ls of meetings with named officials - including the Director o f the Defense Intelligence Agency, an Admiral on the Joint Staff. and the U.S. Atlantic Command's Director for Intellige nce - between 1989 and 2000. Miller concurs with the COMETA' s o bservation that there is no evide nce of hostility from UFOs ' 'The only threat to the national security of the United States is the continued denial of undeniable physical UFO occurrences and sightings to a public growing increasingly frustrated with its government's weak ex planations," Miller says. Air Force Regulation 200-2, "Unidenti fi ed Fly ing O bjects Reporting,·• prohibits the re lease to the public and the media any data about "those objects which arc not explainable" while allowing disclosure only of the UFOs that have been identified as " fam iliar o bjects." An even mo re restric ti ve procedure is outlined in the Joint Army Navy Air Force Pub lication 146, which provides co mmunications instructions for rcponing s ighti ngs re leva nt to US security. An yone "If we persist in refusing to recognize the existence of the UFOs, we will end up, one fine day, by 1nistaking them for the guided missiles of_an enemy - and the worst will be under its jurisdiction disclosing reports without authorization is subject to prosecution under the Espionage Act. Even the President of the United States recently had trouble accessing information on the subject. In 1995, philanthropist Laurence Rockefeller provided UFO briefing materials to President Clinton, Hillary C linton, and Presidential science advisor Jack Gibbons while they spent a weekend at Rockcfcllcrs ' Wyoming ranc h. Clinton then instructed Associate Attorn ey General at the Justice Department, Webster Hubbell. to investigate the existence of UFOs. as disclosed by Hubbell in his book, Friends i11 High Places. Despite this request from the Commander in Chief, Hubbell was unable to obtain information on BREAKING SILENCE: US Naval Reserve Comma11der Willard H. Milfer worries that the military 's lack of preparatio11 for e11co1111ters with 1111expfai11ed craft co11/d provoke co11fro11talio11. Leslie Ge11era/ Norlai11 f orci11g the establishme11t to think agai11 about those fights i11 the sky. Picl11res courtesy ofBernard Tho11a11el VSD photo archives. the subject. T HE D ECADES OF D I STR U S T ...................................... In earlier decades, issues that remain pertinent today were openly discussed. In 1960. for example, US Representative Leonard G. Wolf of Iowa entered an "urgent warning" from R.E. Hillenkoeller, a fonncr CIA Director and Navy vice admiral, into the Congressional Record that 'ccnain dangers are linked with unidentified 0ying objccis." Wolf cited Gen. LM. Chassin, NATO coordinator of Allied Air Service, warning that "If we persist in refusing to recognize the existence of the UFOs, we will end up, one fine day, by mistaking them for tl1e guided missiles of an enemy - and the worst will be upon us." TI1ese concerns were taken seriously enough to be incoll)Or.ited into the I971 • "Agreement on Measures to Reduce the Outbreak of Nuclear War" between the US and the Soviet Union. The treaty states tl1at the two countries will "notify each other immediately in the event of detection by missile warning systems of unidentified objects...if such occurrences could create a risk of outbreak of nuclear war between tlie two countries." The French report may open the door for nations to ~ more forthcoming once again. Chile, for example, is openly addressing it's own concerns about air safety and UFOs. TI1e now retired Chief of the Chilean Air Force has formed a commiuec witl1 civil aviation experts to study recent near collisions between UFOs and civilian airliners. As tlie international conversation about UFOs unfolds, sightings continue, as they have for decades. Perhaps the most notable recent US sighting took place in March 1997. Hundreds of people ·across tl1e state of Arizona reported seeing huge triangular objeclS, hovering silently in the night sky - a sighting that, as the state's Senator John McCain noted recently, has "never been fully explained." As recently as Jan. 5, 2000, four policemen at different locations in St. Claire County. Illinois. witnessed a huge, brightly lighted, triangular craft flying and hovering at I000 feet. One officer reported witnessing extreme rapid motion by the craft that cannot be explained in conventional terms. Nearby Scott Air Force base and the FAA pull)Ort to know nothing. The French Institute of Higher Studies for National Defense and the National Center for Space Studies remain several steps ahead of the United States military and _NASA. Perhaps the report by the bold French generals -- with its goal of "stripping the phenomenon of UFOs of its irrational layer" -- will be a catalyst for authorities around the world to publicly examine the issue of UFOs in a new light. ■ 14
Official release, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 94 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.