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If you’re in the military and have ever seen what you believe to be a UFO, but were reluctant to mention it for fear of ridicule or, worse, repercussions that might end your career, take heart. Things may change.

A former military insider with top secret clearance who created Advanced Theoretical Physics — a group of top-level government officials and scientists brought together to study UFO reports — has just called on three of the highest-ranking military and intelligence officials in the Obama administration.

Retired Army Col. John Alexander has one goal: to ask Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, CIA Director Gen. David Petraeus and National Intelligence Director Gen. James Clapper to offer amnesty to anyone in the military who has been previously sworn to secrecy about UFOs.

“The issue has to do with this [notion of] disclosure,” said Alexander. “The assumption in the UFO community — and, frankly, the general population — is that UFOs are secret and all the information is automatically classified. My position is that is not true.”

Revealed exclusively to The Huffington Post, Alexander has sent letters to Panetta, Petraeus and Clapper, in which he proposes a no-cost, win-win solution for enhancing the U.S. government’s trust and confidence with the American public. He’s specifically referring to Unidentified Flying Objects.

A leading advocate for the development of non-lethal weapons, Alexander commanded Special Forces “A” Teams in Vietnam and Thailand in the 1960s. As a program manager for Los Alamos National Laboratory, he conducted non-lethal warfare briefings for the White House staff, National Security Council, members of Congress and senior defense officials.

“My supposition is that A) there’s no policy of [UFO] secrecy; and B) there are agents out there who think they’re supposed to keep it a secret, so they’re basically winging it. In other words, it’s easier to tell you to sit down and shut up then it is to figure things out,” Alexander, author of “UFOs: Myths, Conspiracies and Realities,” told HuffPost.

Alexander spent a quarter of a century maneuvering through top levels of the U.S. government and military, searching for the supposed decades-long UFO cover-up.

Not only could he not find a cover-up, Alexander came away from his investigation convinced UFO disclosure has already occurred on many levels.

The conclusions that his study group came up with in the 1980s included:

• Some UFOs are real and of unknown origin.
• About 5 percent of all sightings remain unexplained.
• Many sensor systems do have anomalous recordings.
• There are numerous UFO sightings reported by highly credible observers.
• There have been incidents involving interactions between UFOs and military systems.
• There have been interactions between UFOs and airplanes that raise safety issues.
• Over 70 percent of American adults believe the U.S. government is covering up information on the topic.
• Polls indicate that 20 percent of the global population believes aliens are here on Earth and living among us.

Alexander will publicly announce his amnesty request to the government this Thursday, when he appears at the National Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas, Nev.

The museum is the 37th and newest national museum of the United States. It tells the story — in an in-depth walking tour — of nuclear testing for America’s atomic energy program, which began in the Nevada desert in 1951.

Interestingly, this is a Smithsonian-affiliated museum that includes a recently unveiled exhibit about Area 51 — considered the most top secret military testing facility in the country — and contains UFO-related displays, including one entitled “Authentic Alien Artifact.”

Museum CEO and executive director Allan Palmer says it’s important to have Alexander speak about the need to get the word out to military personnel who would like to talk about UFOs but have been reticent for many years.

“I have known people who’ve seen things they couldn’t explain and were very reluctant to talk to anybody about it,” Palmer, a highly decorated former Air Force and Navy combat jet fighter, told The Huffington Post.

“The reason is because we all had very high-level security clearances,” he said. “Just the mention of seeing something that you didn’t know or you thought might be a UFO would be enough for a visit with the flight surgeon, if not the psychiatric staff at the base hospital.

“And that would be reason to pull your security clearance, at least temporarily, which means that you wouldn’t be flying and that would be a black mark on an aviator’s record. Seeing a UFO show up on your base could be perceived as [your] being unstable. At least as far as retribution or career penalties, if things could be lifted or suspended, that would probably help the process.”

In the letters sent to Panetta, Petraeus and Clapper, Alexander states that former military personnel “claim that they are bound by security oaths to never reveal the information or have been overtly threatened by government officials. Even death threats for divulging UFO information are reported.”

Alexander points out to the three government officials that occasionally “some level of secrecy has been invoked on U.S. military personnel.” He cites the case of Air Force pilot Milton Torres who was ordered to fire missiles at a gigantic UFO that appeared over Great Britain on Sept. 20, 1957.

“He was ordered to remain silent,” Alexander reminded the officials. “Threatened with losing his wings by an unknown official, Torres complied until the U.K. Ministry of Defense released the files in 2008. No U.S. report on the incident has ever been found. From many other instances, it appears that security personnel periodically have warned/threatened both military and civilian people about reporting UFO information.”

Alexander isn’t looking to get the government to reveal that some UFOs may be extraterrestrial craft. He only wants to promote an environment in which members of the military feel comfortable talking about their experiences.

If an official letter of amnesty were to come from Alexander’s efforts, he suggests the results could go in a couple of directions.

“I would think there’d be some who have information and believe they shouldn’t talk about it who would then feel free to do so,” he explained. “Conversely, I think there are some others who’ve been frankly making up stories and saying they have been threatened that will then either have to come forward and explain it or, more likely, will evaporate and run for cover.”

Link

Employee enjoyed chicken salad sandwich and crisps while commuters waited, rail operator Southeastern says staff are ‘required to take mandatory breaks’

Commuters were left fuming after their train home was delayed for almost an hour because the guard was having his dinner. The ticket inspector tucked into a chicken salad sandwich and a bag of crisps while more than 50 rail users waited to catch the 22.17 service from Ashford International in Kent to Maidstone East railway station.

Frustrated passengers were told by an employee of rail operator Southeastern – recently voted the UK’s worst train company in a poll by consumer magazine Which? – that although a driver was on board the train it could not leave without the guard. When asked what the guard was doing, commuters – desperately trying to get home after trains around the south east were disrupted by lightning strikes – were told ‘he’s having his nosh’ and couldn’t start his shift until he had finished his one-hour dinner break.

Furious commuter Colin Bird, 43, said: ‘Everyone just stood around with their mouths open. ‘It was perhaps the most ridiculous excuse anyone had ever heard for a train running late.’

Mr Bird, an advertising worker from Maidstone, added: ‘You would have thought the guard could have just eaten his chicken sandwich on board the train rather than sitting tucked away in an office somewhere. ‘The train services were bad enough on that day and everyone just wanted to get home – but this guy had to take an hour off to eat his dinner.’

Another commuter Claire Bennett, 40, said she paid £4,800 for an annual train ticket and that the train only left at around 11.10pm – almost an hour after it was due to depart. She said: ‘I’ve heard all types of excused from Southeastern but this was a first. ‘None of the passengers had eaten their dinner either – I was seething.’ She said that once on the train – which takes 30 minutes to get from Ashford to Maidstone – nobody came round to check their tickets, meaning the guard was ‘redundant’.

A Southeastern spokesman confirmed the incident, which took place on April 19, but said it ‘had a duty’ to follow official health and safety guidelines.

She said train crew staff were ‘required to take mandatory breaks’, adding: ‘We understand the frustration when services are delayed and we’re sorry the journey took longer than usual.’

Daily Mail Link

Train services in Kent and Sussex have been disrupted following a lightning strike and a derailment.

Lightning damaged signalling equipment at St Pancras International causing trains to be cancelled or delayed from about 14:00 BST.

A freight train also later derailed near Robertsbridge in East Sussex.

Services were stopped between Hastings and Robertsbridge, with buses replacing trains. Southeastern said the delays were likely to continue on Thursday.

No passenger trains were involved in the freight train derailment.

BBC Link

Report:

At 1510 0Y23, PE, 1431 St Leonards West Marina – Tonbridge, passed RB6 signal on the Up line on approach to Mountfield Tunnel at red and became derailed all wheels on the friction drag which protects the Single line through Mountfield Tunnel. When questioned, the driver stated that they believed RB6 signal had been displaying a green aspect, although on interview the allegation against the signal was withdrawn (group 02 cause). After consultation with GBRf (FOC), the driver was judged unfit to continue and was relieved on site. Operations staff attended and confirmed that the adjacent line was not obstructed but the locomotive was leaning towards the Single line, so the movement of passing trains risked the locomotive leaning further both lines remained blocked. A recovery engineer was mobilised to form a plan of recovery whilst additional staff were arranged to facilitate the organisation of the emergency T3 possession. A shuttle service was implemented as far as Robertsbridge where buses would take passengers onwards to Hastings. The recovery engineer arrived on site at 1829, and an emergency possession was taken at 1853. At 2015 it was reported that a breakdown crane would be required on site to assist in rerailing the locomotive. The Bescot crane was arranged, departing at 0518. Rerailing was not expected to be completed until 1600 (Thu) with track repairs being completed at around 1900 (Thu). Incident was ongoing at close of this Report.
TRUST 753041 FPEI = 14 cancelled = 34 part = 32 trains = 300 mins.

*****

With reference to the item in this section of yesterday’s report regarding the derailment of 0Y23 following the Category ‘A’ SPAD at RB6 signal at Mountfield Tunnel :- The breakdown crane arrived on site at 0945. Rerailing was completed at 1100 and repairs to damaged infrastructure commenced. The possession was given up by 1500 with all remedial work complete, however, track circuit ‘NB’ through Mountfield Tunnel remained in a failed state. Pilotworking was implemented whilst technicians continued testing throughout the afternoon / evening. At 1630 GB Railfreight advised that the driver of 0Y23 had reported that RB5 signal had been displaying a green aspect and they had expected RB6 signal to be displaying a proceed aspect, instead of the red aspect at the time of the incident. A site conference was held regarding the alleged irregular signal sequence and a wrongside failure test plan was formulated. At 2200 non-destructive testing of RB5 signal commenced. By 2255 technicians reported that the track circuit had remained stabilised and normal signalling was authorised. Destructive testing commenced and had not been finalised at the close of report, although agreement was reached that destructive testing would be deferred until after close of service on Friday 27th April and in the interim RB5 signal would be restricted to display a maximum single yellow aspect, with a points operator at RB8 points.
TRUST 753041 FPEI = 16 full = 44 part = 70 trains = 655 mins.
Fault Nos.243664 & 243742. CCIL 845605.