Dimensions: A Casebook of Alien Contact - Above Top Secret

The observation had taken place early Sunday morning. The following Friday, local peoplediscovered some interesting items on a nearby beach. These consisted of a complete set ofprofessional underwater exploration equipment, a radioactivity tester, sonic signalers, along withtrousers and jackets with English-language labels.Suddenly the local police, with the assistance of the DST (French counterintelligence) and theSDECE (main intelligence arm of the French government), "discovered" that the whole sightingwas a case of underwater radiation detection. Such was the substance of the carefully designedrumor that began circulating.This is what I call the second coverup: the release of carefully contrived official "explanations" thatdo not really explain anything but which provide skeptics with an excuse for dismissing the story.Difficult cases are swept under the rug at all cost if psychological pressure on the witness is notenough to discourage him from telling his story in the first place.How could the discovery of some diving equipment "on a nearby beach" explain the twoobservations of the unidentified objects? What about the radar echo? The "explanation" iscompletely invalid, but it is typical of stories engineered to discredit witnesses and reassure localpopulations. These objectives are generally reached. The witnesses are intimidated, and the localpolice, the only source of accurate data, are generally anxious to see things return to normal.Besides, they have jobs to protect.We were fortunate to be able to investigate this case within a few days of the events, before thecoverup was organized. What would be the reaction of a scientist stumbling upon such a case a fewweeks or a few months later? He would simply brush it aside, and with some reason. The witnessesquickly become uncooperative; one of them stays home and will not talk to visitors; the local policeno longer have anything to say; the military radar operators in Cherbourg have recieved orders todeny their statements of the night in question; and the information that appears in the newspapers isconfused, garbled, and inaccurate.A local newspaper published a cartoon showing the little town of Carteret with a flying saucer and aMartian in the foreground. A smiling Frenchman has approached the little Martian and asks: "Whatkind of mileage do you get?" Laughter releases the lingering tension.In a later development, which will appear ironic in light of the coverup attempts at Carteret, aFrench Cabinet member acknowledged for the first time the reality of the UFO problem as a subjectfit for scientific research. In March 1974, the Minister of Defense, Robert Galley, agreed toparticipate in a series of radio interviews that included reports from witnesses and statements bythree French scientists who had studied the UFO phenomenon for many years: Dr. Pierre Guerin, ofthe Paris Astrophysical Institute; Dr. Claude Poher, head of scientific studies for the Frenchequivalent of NASA; and myself. What the Defense Minister told reporter Jean-Claude Bourret thatday might be a lesson for other government officials around the world:I am deeply convinced that we must regard these phenomena with an attitude of completelyopen mind. A number of breakthroughs have been made in the history of mankind becausesomeone has attempted to explain the unexplainable. Now, among these aerial phenomenathat have been gathered under the label of UFOs, it is undeniable that there are facts that areunexplained or badly explained.In 1954 the Defense Ministry created a special section for the gathering and study of witnessaccounts regarding these unidentified flying objects. I have before me a number of theseaccounts, that have developed over the years until 1970; there are approximately fifty ofthem. Among the earliest ones is a statement of personal observation by Lieutenant d'Emery,Jean, from Air Force Base 107 at Villacoublay, dated November 20, 1953. There are alsoreports from the Gendarmerie and some observations from pilots and Air Centercommanders. There are many elements, whose convergence is of concern, during the year1954. Therefore the attitude one must have is that of a completely open mind, an attitude inwhich one does not deny the observations a priori. Our ancestors in prior centuries musthave denied the reality of a number of things that seem to us today absolutely elementary,