03 Jan 2007
France's National Space Studies Centre (CNES) is to put its UFO archive online this spring.
A group within the organisation known as the Rare Aerospace Phenomena Study Department (SEPRA) has been collecting reports of UFO sightings and now has over 6,000 documents relating to "strange sightings".
Jacques Arnould, project leader at CNES, said that the organisation will put its whole archives online for world viewing by mid-February.
"Often the [sightings] are made to the Gendarmerie, which provides an official witness statement, and some come from airline pilots," Arnould told Reuters.
The reports cover some 1,200 UFO sightings within French national borders, and represent 30 years of investigations.
All names will be excised from the records before they go online to protect the privacy of the reporters.
The French government takes UFOs seriously, and former SEPRA director Jean-Jacques Vélasco is open-minded on the topic.
"Some people consider me as the authority who will systematically decree that all such phenomena are but the fruit of the imagination, or that they are all understood after analysis," he said in the CNES newsletter.
"For others, I am the person who will comfort them in their beliefs that little green men do exist."
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Finally some truth
After reading that a government of this world will finally go public and say what they do or dont know is refreshing to say the least.For years many governments have kept tight lipped on this hot topic while its citizens and officials alike kept seeing these unknowns.Maybe this spirit of openess will spread .One can only hope that one day we will all know what exactly is going on . I think the world has been conditioned enough to accept that we are not alone and havent been alone for many years now.Seth Shostack of SETI even said that in 10 years time we will know for sure.Now Im not sure how he can be so confident on his assumption unless he knows something many do not.In anycase its a a pretty confident statement to say something so bold .My own feeling is yes there is life elsewhere and we are just one of an infinite number of species out there in the cosmic gene pool.Thank you very much French Government for being open.Hopefully mine will follow soon.
Posted by: Michael 04 Jan 2007