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From: Blair Cummins <ufoblair@hotmail.com>
Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2000 12:38:51 -0800 (PST)
Fwd Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2000 18:24:29 -0500
Subject: NIDS Investigates Officer Sighting


Greetings list -

From: http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/lv-other/2000/jan/13/509709104.html

Local UFO team returns home after studying a reported sighting
By Kim Smith
LAS VEGAS SUN

Two members of a Las Vegas UFO research organization returned
home Wednesday after spending five days investigating a reported
Jan. 5 sighting of a UFO near the Missouri-Illinois border.

The National Institute for Discovery Science sent John Velier, a
former FBI agent, and Roger Pinson, a retired police officer, to
the St. Louis area Friday, Colm Kelleher, deputy administrator
for the institute, said.

The institute was founded in 1995 by Las Vegas businessman
Robert Bigelow, who wanted to see UFOs, cow mutilations and
paranormal phenomena studied by people who would use scientific
methods, Kelleher said.

Five retired law enforcement officers and four doctorate-level
scientists work out of the Las Vegas office, and an additional
15 doctorate-level scientists who work with the institute are
located around the country, Kelleher said.

"Our philosophy is to use scientific methods to get facts. We
are not trying to push an agenda," Kelleher said.

Velier and Pinson spoke with many of the people who reported
seeing a two-story high, arrowhead-shaped object make its way
over the Illinois towns of Lebanon, Shilow, Dupo and Millstadt
early Jan. 5. Four of the witnesses were police officers from
different jurisdictions, and all reported the object made no
noise and hovered between 500 and 1,000 feet above the ground.

"The descriptions were not atypical from the other reports we've
gotten, but we did have more eyewitnesses who appear to be
credible than in other incidents," Kelleher said. "Our telephone
investigation from here convinced us the police officers who
claimed they had seen the UFO appeared to be sane and that this
appeared to be a genuine sighting."

Kelleher declined to comment on the particulars of the
investigation but said the institute plans to release its report
within two weeks on its website at www.accessnv.com/nids. He
said Valier and Pinson are busy compiling their data now and
conducting further telephone interviews.

Typically investigators get detailed descriptions of what the
witnesses saw, particularly details that will may help
physicists determine what was seen, Kelleher said. They also ask
the witnesses if they've had any other UFO experiences or
suffered any psychological effects from the sighting.

Most UFO sightings are actually the result of people
"misperceiving normal phenomenon," Kelleher said. What people
think are alien spacecrafts are actually missile launches,
meteor showers, weather balloons or other normal occurrences.

"Over 90 percent are usually tracked down and explained by
misperceptions or delusions," Kelleher said. "Of course, we also
get hoaxes, some morning deejays calling us as pranksters."

Institute members only go to those sites that can't be explained
immediately, Kelleher said. Over the past five months, members
have gone to only three or four UFO or cow mutilation sites.

The institute has gotten between 200 and 300 calls during that
time frame, he said. The number of calls has gone up
dramatically in past months because the institute has been
urging law enforcement agencies and the media to make use of
it's hotline number, 1-702-798-1700.

Kelleher said the phone is staffed 16 hours a day and an
answering service is employed for the remaining eight hours.

The institute takes pains to ensure the privacy of people who
report unusual occurrences because the media has often either
ridiculed them or trivialized the reports, Kelleher said.

Surprisingly, in this case, "very few jokes have been made about
little green men," Kelleher said.

Bigelow, who owns the Budget Suites of America hotel chain, also
has pledged $500 million to build a 100-passenger luxury tourist
cruise ship that will orbit the moon. The headquarters for his
space tourism company is being built near Red Rock Canyon and is
expected to open in May 2001.

Bigelow also is well-known for being the benefactor of UNLV's
Consciousness Studies program, which studies the paranormal.

---

Best regards,

- Blair Cummins
ufoblair@hotmail.com