[meteorite-list] Sci-Fi Channel To Sue NASA For UFO Documents

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:28:33 2004
Message-ID: <200310211523.IAA11217_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/10/21/ufo.records.reut/

Sci-Fi channel to sue NASA for UFO documents
Reuters
October 21, 2003

NEW YORK -- The truth is out there, and the Sci-Fi Channel is
determined to find it, even if that means suing NASA, the Department of Defense,
the U.S. Army and Air Force for documents related to unidentified flying
objects.

Sci-Fi, a cable channel that airs fictional programming such as Battlestar
Galactica, as well as documentaries that explore the line between fact and
science fiction, is part of a group pressuring the federal government
to de-classify UFO information.

Last year Sci-Fi joined forces with an investigative journalist, a Washington,
DC law firm, and former President Clinton chief of staff John Podesta, to
gain release of documents relating to an incident it calls "the new Roswell,"
a UFO sighting in Kecksburg, Pennsylvania in 1965.

"Now, one year later, despite serious effort to uncover the facts, NASA and the
Department of Defense are still maintaining their wall of silence," said Sci-Fi
Channel president Bonnie Hammer. "Whether or not this has anything to do with
UFOs the public has the right to know."

Now the Sci-Fi Channel is supporting what could turn into a series of lawsuits,
first against NASA and then against the Department of Defense, the Army and
Air Force, to get classified documents released to the public.

The group said it expects to file the suit against NASA within a week.
Representatives from NASA and the Department of Defense were not immediately
available for comment.

NASA was chosen as the first agency to be sued because Sci-Fi and the groups'
attorney, Lee Helfrich of the Washington, DC-based firm, Lobel, Novins and
Lamont, believe that they've fully exhausted their administrative options
with the agency, a prerequisite for a judge to agree to hear the case.

While news organizations routinely pursue Freedom of Information Act requests
with the government, it's relatively rare for a cable channel, especially one
focused on fantasy, not the gathering of news, to pursue such a course of
action.

But Hammer sees a great deal of programming potential in pursuing government
documents related to UFO sightings, part of the channel's effort to "find the
line between science fiction and science fact."

"As we grow the channel, this will become more and more important," Hammer
said.

In December 1965, residents of Kecksburg, Pennsylvania watched a fireball
descend into a heavily-forested area 40 miles from Pittsburgh. That night
the area was cordoned off by the military, trucks and helicopters came and
went, and the town was briefly placed under martial law.

The next day, headlines in the Greensburg, Pennsylvania Tribune-Review read
"Unidentified Flying Object Falls Near Kecksburg" and "Army Ropes Off Area,"
but residents of Kecksburg were never told why the military cordoned off
the area and what, if anything, was found.

The results of Sci-Fi's new investigation into the incident will air Friday
in a documentary hosted by Bryant Gumbel called "The New Roswell: Kecksburg
Exposed."

In Kecksburg it hired a forestry expert from West Virginia University who
discovered growth patterns and core damage to trees there that support a "
traumatic event" in 1965.

Sci-Fi, a unit of Vivendi Universal, is among the assets recently sold to
General Electric Co.'s NBC. Hammer sees the integration with a network news
operation as a potential boon for Sci-Fi's newsgathering efforts.

"If it's something that seems credible, absolutely," said Hammer on the
potential of working with NBC journalists. "But we're not going to do it
just to create buzz."
Received on Tue 21 Oct 2003 11:23:48 AM PDT