Daily Archives: September 12, 2015

UFO expert Chase Kloetzke is in Melbourne from the US for the Edge of Reality Ufology conference. Picture: Brendan Francis

CHASE Kloetzke is adamant we are not alone — and says ufologists are close to lifting the lid on the mystery surrounding extraterrestrial life.

The leading American UFO investigator said mainstream science had opened up the door for ufologists to investigate physical traces of alien activity.

But she said it would take a big event such as Victoria’s Westall case in 1966 to reveal the full scope of the paranormal world — not the government revealing what it knows.

“I believe 100 per cent the government is covering up UFO activity,” she told the Sunday Herald Sun.

“One of the theories behind this is that they figured humanity couldn’t handle the truth.

“But eventually things will filter down.

Do you think we are alone in the universe? Have your say below.

“Most of us, as ufologists, feel we are coming up to a tipping point.

“Ten years ago I was the crazy lady down the road who investigated UFOs, and now people are actually standing up and listening.

“It’s not going to be the government coming clean. It’s going to take an event. But we are closer to getting answers.”

Ms Kloetzke, deputy director of the world’s biggest UFO organisation, Mutual UFO Network, is among the top minds of ufology who have gathered in Melbourne for the Edge of Reality Ufology conference.

About 130 people attended the conference at the Jasper Hotel in the CBD.

It is her first time in Australia and she said she feels like she is “in heaven” as the country is known for some of the most anomalous cases.

She said Australia was unique with its big open spaces that seemed to attract more UFOs.

Ms Kloetzke, author of Admissible: The Field Manual for investigating UFOs, Paranormal Activity and Strange Creatures, as well as children’s book Are Aliens Really Real, said UFO sightings and alien encounters were “escalating” with about 900 cases a month reported worldwide.

“’Those are just the citizens of the world that are reporting it — there’s many others who don’t,” she said.

She had one question for Victorians: “Who thinks we’re absolutely here all by ourselves?”

TOP 5 VICTORIAN CASES

The Westall UFO encounter

April 6, 1966

Playing on the sports oval at Westall High School in Clayton South, more than 200 students and teachers described witnessing a grey saucer-shaped craft with a slight purple hue fly over about 10.30am. The UFO shot over some pine trees, where it is believed to have briefly landed, leaving a mark on the ground.

The Valentich disappearance

October 21, 1978

Frederick Valentich, 20, disappeared while piloting a small aircraft over the Bass Straight from Moorabbin Airport to King Island in Tasmania. In his last radio calls, he described an unusual object hovering over the top of him. No trace of him or his Cessna was found.

The Rosedale water tank mystery

September 30, 1980

A 54-year-old farmhand on a property 8km from Rosedale in the Gippsland region woke at 1am to a screeching noise — and the cattle clearly distressed — and went outside to investigate. He described a dome object with a white top and orange underneath with circular windows or lights, hovering around a 10,000-gallon open-topped water tank. The UFO landed beside the tank, leaving a ring mark on the grass. The next day the full tank was mysteriously empty.

The Burkes Flat “bent headlight beams”

April 4, 1966

Around 8pm, Ron Sullivan witnessed an unusual object putting on a light display in a paddock while driving along Dunolly-St Arnaud Rd, near Bourkes Flat in central Victoria. He said his car’s headlights bent towards the UFO, causing him to veer off the road and almost hit a tree. Two days later, another driver died after hitting the tree Mr Sullivan had swerved to miss. Researchers ponder if that driver experienced the same phenomena.

The Kelly Cahill encounter

August 8, 1993

Mother Kelly Cahill was driving home with her husband and three children in the Dandenong foothills, near Belgrave, when they noticed the lights of a rounded craft with windows just after midnight. She recalls her whole family being abducted by aliens and how they controlled their minds and performed embarrassing procedures on them.

source:heraldsun.com.au

Local fishermen on Friday killed the first dolphins of the season in a controversial annual hunt that attracted global attention after it was featured in the Oscar-winning 2009 documentary “The Cove.”

An official with the local fishing union in the small town of Taiji said boats left early Friday morning and trapped a dozen dolphins.

“They have already been killed,” he added.

During the six-month hunt, people from the southwestern town corral hundreds of the mammals into a secluded bay and butcher them, turning the water crimson red.

The scene was featured in the documentary, drawing unwanted attention to the little coastal community.

Environmental campaigners visit the town every year to watch the gruesome event and authorities have boosted their presence to prevent clashes between locals and activists.

But the Taiji officials said only about half a dozen activists were there to see the killing and there were no altercations.

“It was quiet this year,” he added.

Activists from the group Sea Shepherd criticized the hunt online.

“Now in Taiji, Japan: a pod of 10-15 Risso’s dolphins is being slaughtered in the cove,” the group said on its Facebook page.

The town kicked off its hunt last week, but bad weather hampered efforts to trap the dolphins, officials said earlier.

Defenders of the hunt say it is a tradition and point out that the animals are not endangered, a position echoed by the Japanese government.

Some of the dolphins are sold to aquariums.

Increasing the pressure on Japan, the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) suspended its Japanese chapter in April for using dolphins caught in Taiji.

The Japanese chapter later decided to stop buying dolphins from Taiji.

Last week, Taiji’s official website was hacked, leaving it temporarily inaccessible.

Anonymous, a loosely connected hacking collective, has listed 21 Japanese government websites as targets for cyberattacks as part of a bid to end the annual hunt.

But police said they have yet to connect the group to the attack on the Taiji website.

source:japantimes.co.jp

AUSTRALIAN jet fighters have completed their first operational mission into Syria, returning safely without releasing any weapons.

Two RAAF F/A-18A Hornets “searched for points of interest for enemy activity in eastern Syria” during the mission overnight, The Australian Air Task Group said in a statement on Saturday.

The Hornets were supported by a KC-30A air-to-air refuelling aircraft and an E-7A Airborne Early Warning and Control aircraft, reporting to the coalition’s air operations centre throughout the mission.

“Daesh controls a large amount of territory in eastern Syria that serves as a source of recruitment and oil revenues, and as a base from which it continues to launch attacks into Iraq,” ATG Commander, Air Commodore Stu Bellingham said.

He said the Hornets were prepared for short notice, high priority tasking, including surveillance and weapons release. No weapons were released during the mission, which was completed without incident.

It was the first air mission into Syria since the Abbott government’s decision this week to extend RAAF combat operations beyond Iraq.

source:heraldsun.com.au

Pressure is growing on countries outside Europe – particularly the Gulf states – to take in more refugees from the Syrian civil war. What are the facts?

In recent months the headlines have been dominated by increasing numbers of migrants and refugees – many of them fleeing the conflict in Syria – who are attempting to claim asylum in European countries.

Record numbers of people have been crossing the borders of the European Union illegally and applying for refugee status.

Millions more Syrian refugees are living closer to home, in Turkey, Lebanon and elsewhere in the middle east.

In the last week western governments including Britain, Australia and the United States have pledged to increase the numbers of refugees they take in, although some critics say the numbers are not enough.

Now pressure is growing on other countries involved in the Syrian crisis, in particular the oil-rich countries of the Persian Gulf, Iran and Russia, to open their doors to displaced people.
In Europe there are big differences in the numbers of Syrians claiming asylum in various countries.

The numbers range from handfuls to nearly 60,000 in Germany over the 12 months to June 2015. Britain saw just over 2,500 claims in that time.

These figures relate to people who are travelling to Europe and asking for asyum under EU rules once they arrive.

Other people are being taken directly from camps close to Syria and resettled in various countries who have offered to take in refugees under schemes run by the UN agency UNHCR.

Again, the numbers different countries have pledged to take in vary wildly, from handfuls to tens of thousands. And since these figures were published, some countries have increased their quotas.

The Gulf States

UNHCR figures suggest none of the six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council – Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – has pledged to take any refugees under UN schemes.

And the numbers of people applying for asylum in the Gulf Arab states appear to number in the handfuls too.

But these figures could be misleading. None of the GCC nations are signatories to the 1951 UN convention on refugees, so there may be people in those countries who have been given shelter but are not classed as refugees.

Reports suggest large numbers of Syrians may have migrated to the Gulf countries, with some sources estimating a Syrian population of 500,000 in Saudi Arabia.

But it is unclear how many of these people fled after the uprising of 2011, or what their legal status is. There are reports of Gulf states introducing more lenient visa conditions to make it easier for Syrians to stay and work.

UNHCR documents say donations from the Gulf – both from wealthy individuals and non-governmental organisations – have been generous.

A report published in May 2014 said: “The Syrian crisis has been a turning point in the history of humanitarian enterprise in terms of the increasing role assumed by Arab donors.

“Not only did Arab funding increase considerably, but the Gulf States have taken a leading role in organising fundraising events for the response.”

It added that Gulf donors and NGOs contributed nearly £600m to the Syrian crisis in 2013 alone. More recent figures are not available.

Iran

A key ally of the Assad regime, Iran appears to have pledged no assistance for Syrian refugees under the UN scheme, despite being a signatory to the UN conventions.

The Islamic Republic is already home to one of the biggest refugee populations in the world, with more than 900,000 people – mostly Shia Muslims – having fled to the country from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Russia

Despite its historic role as a leading ally of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, and a major arms supplier to the regime, Russia recently said it is not prepared to take in refugees.

Asked if Russia had been asked to take part in EU plans to resettle more Syrians, Kremlin Dmitry Peskov said: “We expect that for the most part that expenditures (for dealing with refugees) will fall on the countries linked to causing the catastrophic situation.”

Mr Peskov added that it was unlikely Russia would take part in any programme to help refugees from Syria.

Figures for how much humanitarian aid Russia has given to Syria are complicated by uncertainty over how much of the assistance is in fact military equipment.

Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov confirmed this week that Russian flights to Syria which had previously been described as “humanitarian” contained “both military equipment in accordance with current contracts and humanitarian aid”.

source:channel4.com