Alejandro Rojas is a radio host for Open Minds Radio, editor and contributing writer for Open Minds magazine as well as OpenMinds.tv. For several years Alejandro was the official spokesperson for the Mutual UFO Network as the Director of Public Education. As a UFO/Paranormal researcher and journalist, Alejandro has spent many hours in the field investigating phenomena up close and personal. Alejandro has been interviewed by media organizations around the world, including the largest cable and network news agencies with several appearances on Coast to Coast AM.
Alejandro Rojas writes and blogs about science, entertainment, and the paranormal. Alejandro has spent many hours in the field investigating anomalous phenomena up close and personal. He is the editor and a contributing writer for OpenMinds.tv, and, among others, has been featured on the Travel Channel, Syfy, National Geographic, and E!.
keep in mind much more progress was made since this interview in THE BLOG 05/13/2013 08:52 am ET Updated Jul 13, 2013
While not all of the former Congress members at the Citizen Hearing on Disclosure last week were convinced that we are being visited by aliens, they all did say they were impressed by the high level of credibility of some of the witnesses they heard from.
Critics have pointed out that the committee members received $20,000 for their participation, so they would have been impressed by anything they had seen. However, their only requirement was to show up and participate. I think it would have been much easier for them to collect their checks and agree with reporters that it was a silly event. Instead, they are expressing their surprise that the credibility of witnesses is much higher than expected, and some are going so far as to say they are convinced that ET is visiting earth and the United Nations needs to investigate it. Among the witnesses were 10 retired U.S. Air Force servicemen, including pilots and officers. Most of them testified to being personally involved with UFO encounters. Two of the witnesses that riled the committee members to action were John Burroughs and Jim Penniston. In 1980, these two men were sent out into the forest surrounding an air base in the UK that was on lease by the USAF from the British government to investigate mysterious lights. They say they came upon a strange triangular craft. Penniston took notes on the details of the object, and even touched it, before the mysterious craft lifted up above the tree tops and took off at a tremendous speed.
These men have requested their service and medical records from this time period, and have been denied. Nick Pope, a former official with the British Ministry of Defence who was in charge of their UFO investigations, also testified. He says that in their investigation, the British MoD did find high levels of radiation in the area after Penniston and Burroughs had their encounter, and feels this may be the root of some of their medical problems. He is very concerned with the problems they are having retrieving their records.
The former Congress members agreed with Pope and vowed to aid the men in receiving their records. They even volunteered to draft and sign a letter to the White House demanding their records be released.
Other credible witnesses included a Peruvian Air Force pilot, a colonel from the Uruguayan Air Force, and a professor from China, all discussing UFO events that have taken place in their respective countries. A UFO researcher from Brazil discussed his group’s cooperation with the Brazilian government in investigating the phenomenon. They were even recently invited to the Brazilian Ministry of Defense to meet with military heads. It was not only the former Congress members who were impressed. Among the attendees was Edgar Cahn, a professor at the University of the District of Columbia School of Law, founder and co-chairperson of TimeBanks USA, a former special counsel and speechwriter for Attorney General Robert Kennedy under President John Kennedy’s administration, and the author of a number of books including No More Throwaway People.
Cahn told me that he found the testimony “very compelling and very exciting.” He went so far as to say he is concerned that if the military has recovered a crashed flying saucer that they are not sharing this information and the technology they may have obtained. Cahn seems to have been convinced by testimony given regarding the famous alleged UFO crash in Roswell, New Mexico. One of the witnesses that spoke to this event is Dr. Edgar Mitchell, a former Apollo astronaut. He grew up in the town of Roswell, and says some of the townsfolk who were around at the time have told him it really happened, and he believes them.
Former senator Mike Gravel has been the most out spoken about his feelings on what he heard at the hearing. He says, “There is no doubt in my mind that there is an extraterrestrial presence that is affecting the planet.”
He told the ABC News program Top Line that the conspiracy to keep this information secret, “goes right to the White House, and of course, once the White House takes a position, ‘well, there’s nothing going on’… it just goes down the chain of command, everyone stands toe.”
Four of the six former Congress members have pledged support for a proposal that has been drafted to the United Nations suggesting that they hold “a world conference addressing the possible evidence for an extraterrestrial presence engaging this planet.”
Stephen Bassett, the organizer of the event, says that they were not able to get this information while they were in Congress because they are told there is nothing to it, so they don’t spend the time to get to know more. It would be interesting to find out if current Congress members would find this testimony as compelling, and what actions they may be prompted to take.
You can find more coverage of the Citizen Hearing on Disclosure at OpenmInds.tv.
Writer, reporter, and paranormal expert Lee Speigel is the former host of NBC Radio’s “The Edge of Reality.” He produced and hosted nearly 1,500 programs on unexplained phenomena over an eight-year period at NBC Radio, and previously worked at Westwood One Radio and ABCNews.com. He is the only person in history to produce, in 1978, a major presentation at the United Nations on the subject of UFOs.
Revelations in a set of hacked emails released by WikiLeaks earlier this month have sparked new conversations about UFOs and speculation that extraterrestrials have been visiting Earth. But a very significant ― and possibly overlooked ― group of WikiLeaks items relevant to the topic was released on May 18, 2015.
WikiLeaks posted more than half a million U.S. State Department diplomatic documents from 1978 detailing America’s interactions with countries all around the world ― including Grenada Prime Minister Eric Gairy’s efforts to organize a United Nations-based committee to research and investigate global UFO reports. Many of the documents, written by American UN officials, indicated how closely they were monitoring Grenada’s UFO-related activities.
One document, from Nov. 18, 1978, revealed my involvement in helping Grenada to produce a credible UFO presentation.
I had an opportunity in early 1978 to meet Gairy in New York to present an idea about how I thought the UN would pay attention to his UFO crusade. Through his ambassadors, I gave him a copy of a documentary record album, “UFOs: The Credibility Factor,” that I produced for CBS Inc. in 1975.
Gairy and I met, and after I convinced him I could bring a very credible group of speakers to the UN, he agreed to sponsor my proposal (see image below). Shortly after a handshake deal, he made me a temporary delegate-adviser of Grenada and the rest was, well, history.
The following image shows part of the group I brought together in July 1978 to meet with UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim. He wanted to know what we were planning to do at our November event in front of the Special Political Committee, which included representatives from the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.
Another cable posted on WikiLeaks, from Nov. 24, 1978, refers to Ambassador Richard Petree’s meeting with Grenada representatives “to discuss their UFO resolution. Ambassador Petree acknowledged the high level of interest in UFOs among some elements of the private sector and scientific community … and pointed to the budgetary impact as a major concern of the U.S. and other countries.”
On Nov. 28, 1978, the day after our presentation at the UN, this document was sent through official channels, detailing the actual UFO event, describing what each of the invited scientific and military speakers had to say to the member nations.
A few days after that, on Dec. 2, 1978, a follow-up cable was transmitted, including the following:
Subsequent to the introduction of the Grenadian UFO resolution, Misoff [Mission Officer] has engaged in two separate informal negotiating sessions, which included representation from Austria, USSR and Grenada, in an attempt to arrive at a mutually acceptable compromise solution to the problem.
A draft decision to be taken by the Special Political Committee (SPC) has been agreed upon by the participants in the informal negotiations, subject to concurrence of their respective capitals. We think referral of the [UFO] matter to the Outer Space Committee (OSC) without a preordained mandate as to what action is to be taken, provides the flexibility the OSC needs to take whatever action it deems appropriate.
It will also obviate the need to vote on a resolution (and gamble on the results).
The following week brought forth another document, on Dec. 8, 1978, which stated:
“The General Assembly invites interested member states to take appropriate steps to coordinate on a national level scientific research and investigation into extraterrestrial life, including unidentified flying objects, and to inform the secretary-general of the observations, research and evaluation of such activities.”
It was further suggested that Grenada’s views on UFOs could be discussed in 1979. Unfortunately, that didn’t come to pass, as Grenada Prime Minister Gairy was overthrown in a 1979 coup.
Needless to say, without the Gairy-based initiative on UFOs, it was quietly relegated to Grenada’s back burner.
This is the tip of the UFO-UN iceberg. It shows how the subject of UFOs wasn’t merely officially ridiculed or slapped aside. There was, and perhaps still is, some interest there, just waiting to emerge.
JAIME MAUSSAN – APPOINTED OUR EARTHLY AMBASSADOR TO THE STAR RACES
Already showing on some of our other pages in this series this is serving as a reminder of the passions and genuine humility so inherent in man and women just like Jaime Maussan. Brave and unafraid they are in the face of ridicule and mockery, many more will stand up and be counted to speak of their own personal experiences…It simply must be told….