From: Leslie Kean <lkean@ix.netcom.com>
Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2003 02:50:20 -0500
Fwd Date: Mon, 03 Mar 2003 12:10:03 -0500
Subject: Kecksburg Petition CFI Press Release - 03-03-03


CFI - Coalition For Freedom Of Information

Press Rlease

Monday, March 3, 2003


For further information:
Contact: Ed Rothschild (202) 879-9317
            Leslie Kean (415) 250-9791


SCI FI Channel and Coalition for Freedom of Information to
Support Petition for Federal Investigation into Kecksburg
Incident


Greensburg, PA - Lending their voices for a federal
investigation into the 1965 crash of an object in Kecksburg, PA,
representatives of SCI FI Channel and the Coalition for Freedom
of Information (CFI) today began a three-day visit to the
Kecksburg area and announced their support for a local petition
drive (www.signpetition.com) spear-headed by long-time
investigator Stan Gordon.

"By signing a petition, citizens here and elsewhere in the state
can help put public pressure on their congressional delegation
to request an investigation by the U.S. General Accounting
Office," said Larry Landsman, Director, Special Projects, SCI FI
Channel.

Something was seen in the sky and landed in the woods near
Kecksburg on December 9, 1965. Since then, the U.S. government
denies that anything fell - despite testimony from citizens who
saw the partially buried object in the woods and statements from
firefighters, reporters, dozens of witnesses, and newspaper
accounts confirming the military response to the area.

Noting that "Kecksburg is one of those historic, unexplained
incidents that requires a full public accounting," Leslie Kean,
an independent journalist and research director of CFI, said
that she has recently filed Freedom of Information Act requests
to numerous federal agencies and military services seeking
records from their involvement.

"This case is more than 37 years old," said Kean. "It's high
time for our government - whether it's the U.S. Air Force or
NASA or any other agency - to come clean and tell the public
what they know."

SCI FI Channel, which is supporting public advocacy efforts to
gain release of secret government records on unidentified aerial
phenomena, believes the government may be withholding
information about UFO activity. "On the one hand, government
agencies state that UFO sightings are not a threat to national
security, but nearly in the same breath they say that they
cannot reveal information on national security grounds. They
can't have it both ways," said Landsman.


The initiative has the support of John Podesta, President
Clinton's former chief of staff. "I think it's time to open the
books on questions that have remained in the dark, on the
question of government investigations of UFOs," Podesta said at
a news conference in Washington last October, launching the CFI
Freedom of Information effort.

Both Landsman and Kean say that the Pennsylvania petition asks
the right questions:

  - What landed near Kecksburg, PA on December 9, 1965?

  - Where did the orders come from for Army, Air Force, and NASA
    personnel to be dispatched to the scene?

  - Why did military personnel brandish weapons at local citizens
    to prevent the object from being observed?

  - What was the importance of the object that caused the military
    to rapidly respond to the Kecksburg area?

"Getting answers to these questions should be at the core of any
investigation. But to get such an investigation requires the
public to demand it," said Stan Gordon, who will be distributing
and collecting petitions through his office in Greensburg.

-----

Petition to Pennsylvania Congressional Delegation for
Investigation of 1965 "Kecksburg Incident"

Whereas, on December 9, 1965 something fell from the sky and
crashed in the woods near Kecksburg, Pennsylvania;

Whereas, for the past 37 years, citizens of Westmoreland County
and surrounding communities have attempted to find out what it
was;

Whereas, military personnel from the Army and Air Force as well
as NASA, were identified at the scene by eyewitnesses, including
news reporters and firefighters, as involved in the search, and
military vehicles were observed at or near the impact site;

Whereas, some witnesses reported seeing an object on the ground
prior to the arrival of the military;

Whereas, some witnesses state that a large covered object was
transported out of the area that night on a military flat bed
tractor-trailer truck;

Whereas, some witnesses report being stopped by armed U.S.
military officials who prevented them from approaching the
landing site;

Whereas, after all these years, our government continues to
insist that nothing was found and so far has refused to disclose
all the records on the incident;

Whereas, the Cold War is long gone;

And whereas, the public has a right to know what its government
discovered and answers to the following questions:

  -  What landed near Kecksburg, PA on December 9, 1965?

  -  Where did the orders come from for Army, Air Force, and NASA
     personnel to be dispatched to the scene?

  -  Why did military personnel brandish weapons at local
     citizens to prevent the object from being observed?

  -  What was the importance of the object that caused the
     military to rapidly respond to the Kecksburg area?

Therefore, be it resolved that we, the undersigned, believe that
the time has come to get answers from the Air Force, Army, and
NASA and hereby petition members of the Pennsylvania
Congressional Delegation to request an investigation by the U.S.
General Accounting Office that will obtain answers to these and
other questions related to the December 9, 1965 event.


For more background, see www.freedomofinfo.org . Please see
www.signpetition.com for a copy of the petition and information
about the petition drive.