France opens its official UFO archives

Science News

Mar 22, 2007, 18:52 GMT

Paris - France on Thursday became the first country to open its official archives on unidentified flying objects (UFO), said Jacques Patenet, the head of the UFO study group at the National Centre of Space Studies (CNES). 'It's a world first,' Patenet said. 'It's true that in the United States you can ask for information on a case-by-case basis. But we have done the opposite by putting all the information at the disposition of the public.' The archives are available at http://www.cnes-geipan.fr/geipan/ and currently contain 400 files, about one fourth of the approximately 1,600 UFO sightings reported in France since the 1950s. All of the files are scheduled to be online by the end of the year, Patenet said. 'We are working on the principle that there is nothing we will not put online with one exception: protecting an individual's privacy,' he noted. The files comprise principally witness statements taken by police officers, with personal data erased. Patenet cautioned that 'ufologists will not find any scoops or unknown cases in this database.' © 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

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S. HammonsMar 23rd, 2007 - 16:37:21

A recent article is associated with this. See article FORMER ARIZONA GOVERNOR SAYS HE SAW PHOENIX LIGHTS UFO, on AmericanChronicle.com, March 18, 2007. There are two other recent articles of interest on this topic. One is NEW DOCUMENTARY FILM FASTWALKERS ON UFOs, ETs PREMIERES IN PHOENIX, AmericanChronicle.com, February 22, 2007. The other related article is UFOs OVER IRAN COULD BE U.S. OPERATIONS, EXTRATERRESTRIAL VISITORS OR BOTH, AmericanChronicle.com, February 2, 2007.

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