http://www.metacafe.com/channels/CaptainDisillusion/

Could it be possible that Forrestal was the first guinea pig of the CIA in the use of LSD? LSD provoked a lot of jumping off-windows in the past…

Well, that came across as a bit ranty-
and I confess I haven’t had a chance to read the MUFON document you cite-
( In a good cause-I’m re-reading PROJECT
BETA ) but I’ll give it a look.

Anyway, I take your point about only
hearing about the failures, but the nature of some of those failures are
the sort of thing I’m talking about-
killing Castro with poisoned cigars,
missing the Hungarian uprising, missing
the Tet offensive, letting MK Ultra
out of the bag…the review cites a
number of other ‘failures’ that, taken as a whole, don’t argue for the Agency
being in the most competent hands for
any length of time, under any adminsitration.

Not that we don’t have plenty of other
gangs of spooks who might[/i]might[i]
be a bit better about the business…

I saw that video about six months back. It’s pretty funny. Looks like some sort of wobbly model made to look like an antigravity craft. I probably didn’t link to it because no one else seemed to care at the time. It’s still only racked up 2600 views, as opposed to the 2.5 million for the first Haiti video.

The Enquirer UFO stuff that I was referring to was back in the late 1970s. If you look up the paper on this period from this year’s MUFON convention, there is quite a bit of discussion about it.

I don’t think that the CIA is (or was) “largely incompetent,” although if it was, that may have been due to the management. We hear mostly about it’s failures. The successes may be covered up because like any of us, they like to use things that have worked before, and telling anyone erases the option.

Yeah, these videos are fun to watch. I don’t see how they would have any lasting impact on the public perception of the phenomenon, since most will realize that UFO pictures and video are now worth virtually squat.

I agree with you also, Greg. In the XXIst century a picture of movie is no longer proof of anything. I guess we all slowly came to realize after we saw “Forrest Gump”

Nevertheless, what’s your take on THIS other clip?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nm9RxWN1Gfs&mode=related&search=

It may be what you wrote: Maybe among these clips we could find a genuine UFO, but we can no longer be certain of anything; maybe someone decide to pull this off when he realized that digital camcorders that were once a time exclusive of professionals are now in the hands of many common people, so a good video of a UFO was bound to appear sooner or later…

On the other hand, having just read a review of a new history of the CIA (”Leagcy of Ashes” I think-the review
was at THE ECONOMIST ) that describes
that service as largely incompetent
throughout its history, maybe its not
so far-fetched…

In any case, I’m delighted to see these
videos, real or ‘faked’.

Thanks for the comments, which I agree with. We have entered an era (starting about 10 years ago) when UFO pictures and video are just about worthless as evidence.

Skeptics (or “fundamentalist skeptics,” as I call those whom you are referring to) will never be convinced by anything, so even if they bring up these videos to support their cause, it’s a very weak argument.

If you had hoaxed a video, and many thousands were discussing it, I would of course put a link up. The UFO giggle factor is not going to be increased by more dumb videos.

You are mistaken if you think I write at this blog in some sort of misguided crusade to convince anyone that UFOs should be taken seriously by more people. That will not happen until the phenomenon decides that it will, or someone who is important on the world stage (a prime minister or a president perhaps) makes some sort of unequivocal announcement, which is unlikely.

Obviously, we have differing opinions on what is “useful” information. Your comment is like calling a newspaper misguided because it covers silly stories.

I also notice that you failed to get my “spoonful of sugar” analogy, or simply ignored it. We recieved new comments up on other, unrelated posts within a day or so of this one.

If you are “offering directions to the lost” you must have some fairly objective but correct view of the phenomenon which escapes the rest of us.

In any case, I will continue to put up links to videos or anything else I find interesting from any standpoint. If you want only pure, “scientific” commentary, you can visit the Society for Scientific Exploration or CUFOs or any number of other places.

I invite you to look around on the site. We have hundreds of other posts that discuss far more than dubious videos.

If I hoaxed a UFO video, I do not believe you would post it on your site for me, and give it the same amount of time and attention you did the Haiti videos, because it would not meet the criteria for sensationalism. Nobody would care if I hoaxed a video, unless I got it on Oprah or CNN first. All that undeserved attention that the Haiti videos is generating is not only going to encourage more hoaxers to try and outdo each other now, but it will increase the giggle factor of the UFO community. I can see it now: amateur wannabee directors from all around the world are going to fake a video and send it to the UFO community to see if they can make a name for themselves too. It is like a contest sponsored by the UFO community, and you are contributing to that mentality by giving the Haiti videos your undeserved attention as well. You are being gullible, not because the video fooled you (it may have, I do not know), but because you believed it was worth giving your time and attention to. Did you believe that the video was so “important” and is influencing “millions of people”, that you had to step in and say something to undo all that influence somehow? Is it working? I think not.

There is no point in “looking at all facets” of a subject, if those facets contribute nothing useful. The Haiti videos contribute nothing useful to UFOlogy. I do not know or understand more about UFOs than I did before I saw the videos…do you? If the Haiti videos were so “important” to our knowledge and understanding of the UFO phenomenon, then would not more UFO articles from the National Enquirer or “TV videos” from Kal Korff “contribute” just as much to UFOlogy as well? Clearly these things are not worth our time and attention. They should be ignored because science is all about the pursuit of truth, not the pursuit of rumors and opinions and hoaxes and childish name calling.

I am not jumping on the bandwagon, otherwise I would not be anonymous. That is not what “jumping on the bandwagon” means. I would be getting rich or famous off of it, if that were the case. I am merely on the sidelines, watching the parade go by, offering directions to the lost.