French Agency Releases Ufo Files: Don't Start
Serving The Crepes Just Yet!
Author: Bill Knell

CNES and Geipan placed over thirty years worth of UFO
investigation materials online as of Thursday, March 22, 2007.
CNES is the official French Space Agency and Geipan is an
agency of the French National Police. Are the files a hot
Smoking Gun, or just another order of cold French Fries?

CNES receives about fifty to one hundred UFO reports each year.
The investigative process they use is convoluted and quite
different from what most Americans would expect. Geipan
apparently does most of the field work, prepares reports and
passes everything on to CNES. Scientists and Engineers take a
look at that data and prepare some sort of final report or
appraisal of the matter in question.

Jacques Patenet, the aeronautical engineer who heads the office
for the study of "non-identified aerospatial phenomena" has said
that "the data that we are releasing doesn't demonstrate the
presence of extraterrestrial beings. But it doesn't demonstrate
the impossibility of such presence either. The questions remain
open."

On the day of the announcement and press conference, CNES
security was tight. While calling the release "a world first"
and glowing over his nation's openness about the UFO subject,
Patenet failed to explain the need "to screen out uninvited
UFOlogists" as an explanation for the added security. This
hardly provides evidence for anyone to believe the agency's
files represent a fair and unbias look at the phenomenon.
However, compared to the actions of their American counterpart,
this is like allowing people to walk into French Intelligence
Headquarters and browse through their files.

Every time American UFO Researchers ask their own space agency
for any information about astronaut encounters or unusual
phenomenon encountered by space probes, NASA clams up and sends
out the debunkers en force. Although many Astronauts have been
forthcoming and very honest about what they have seen in space,
the space agency always slams the door on them. More than a few
have been hit right between the eyes by NASA which claims that
the Astronaut statements were the results of space sickness,
fatigue or depression. But before we give the French too big a
pat on the back, let's look at what's being released.

The CNES-Geipan reports only represent what people have
reported to the French Government as UFO sightings and
encounters. This is in no way, shape or form a release of
information that allows us to examine all that the French know
about the phenomenon. Although the investigations have
obviously been handled in a more competent and professional
manner, this is really little more than a French version of the
U.S. Project Blue Book Report.

We have seen these types of releases before over the past
several decades. In each case, the information came from
individual government agencies, not the government itself. I
recall when everyone got all excited about the release of the
KFB files on UFOs. I was unimpressed. That's because I received
official Russian News Articles and private newsletters published
in countries once controlled by the Soviets for years before
that release. These were sent to me by serious researchers in
those countries who appreciated receiving materials from me.

Thanks to the efforts of Russian language students who donated
their time, most of what I received was quickly translated and
contained a huge amount of information about the UFO phenomenon
in Russia and Eastern Europe. Ironically, I could not find a
single incident mentioned in those articles and newsletters
that matched any in the KGB information releases. I felt then
and now that the information I received from those individuals
was as good or better than most of what was released by the
KGB.

In 1989 I had the opportunity to meet Marina Lavrentrevna
Vasliyevna Popovich at a press event in New York City. Marina
was a pilot in the Soviet Air Force, holder of thirteen world
aviation records and a former Test Cosmonaut. She spoke of
personal UFO encounters and those she had heard about from
other pilots. While the information was fascinating, it was not
anywhere near the best that her government had to offer about
UFOs and Extra-Terrestrial Life. UFO Researchers would be wise
to view the CNES-Geipan information in the same manner.

Like America, France is known for having two faces. Their
public face, and the one they use for behind the scenes
political posturing. A good example of this recently came to
light when it a secret communication between France and Israel
was leaked to the press. While publicly condemning Israel's
advance into Lebanon not long ago, the French Government
secretly encouraged them to invade Syria and institute a regime
change. The USA plays the same games.

During the 1990s, President Clinton announced that the
government had allowed secret radiation tests on American
Citizens. All he admitted was that small amounts of irradiated
materials were released into population centers or planted on
soldiers during military exercises. No one believes that was
all of it and everyone already knew about military exercises
held during and very close to atomic bomb tests. Clinton
certainly did not make mention of how the CIA implanted tiny
devices into the heads of U.S. and Canadian psychiatric
patients for over twenty years without permission. Nor did he
discuss any of the other government mind control or remote
viewing projects which have left large numbers of victims in
their wake.

Information releases like the latest from CNES and Geipan can
only be helpful in terms of research and data, but no one
should give France, Russia or any other nation credit for what
should have been done all along. It would be a mistake to offer
nations like these kudos for releasing bits and pieces of UFO
and other paranormal research data when so much still remains
secret.

You can view the CNES-Geipan website at
http://www.cnes-geipan.fr/

About The Author: Author: Bill Knell Word Count: Approx 990
About Bill: Bill Knell is a veteran UFO and Paranormal
Researcher, popular Speaker, Author and Consultant. Permission
is granted to use this articles (per terms of use at
http://www.ufoguy.com) at no charge with the inclusion of a
link to or publication.