In the first half, UFO researcher Richard Dolan reacted to the White House administration's formal statement on UFOs. "The U.S. government has no evidence that any life exists outside our planet, or that an extraterrestrial presence has contacted or engaged any member of the human race," wrote Phil Larson of the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy. The message was in response to Stephen Bassett's petition posted on the We the People website calling for governmental UFO/ET disclosure. Though their response was "sophomoric," this is the first time the White House has made a public policy statement on this topic-- in the past, they let the Air Force do it, explained Dolan.
To say there is no evidence for the UFO phenomenon, "flies in the face of hundreds, and really thousands of pages of documents that the US government itself is responsible for," which show that something is definitely going on, he pointed out. They could have said this is a valid phenomenon that deserves more attention than its received, but the govt. wants to avoid addressing such topics as alien abduction and secret recovered technology, he continued. Dolan also talked about well documented UFO incidents, such as a case written up by the Coast Guard, which occurred in March 1988 over Lake Erie, in which an aerial object hovered over the frozen water, and caused the ice to break.
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In the latter half, folklore researcher Neil Arnold discussed mysterious creatures seen in London and the UK. There have been numerous sightings of 'big cats' around London, and while not native to the region, the lions, leopards, and panthers that are seen, might have originally been bought and sold there, and then released by their owners, he explained. Earlier sightings of such cats may relate to Victorian menageries or traveling circuses, in which the animals escaped or were released. On the canine side, witnesses have described "hellhounds," huge creatures with a shaggy look, and red fiery eyes. Their appearance is said to be a kind of omen, he noted.
Arnold detailed an incident from a few years ago, where a hair-covered creature was seen on a remote platform, and then walked through a wall. He also touched on lore about the Highgate Vampire, a 'phantom chicken,' flying snakes, and a horned creature seen at White Chapel. Some of the strange creatures that people report, as well as storied beings like leprechauns and dragons, he considers to be "beasts of the mind." They're not flesh and blood, but "very much part of the human psyche...not to say they're all in the mind in the skeptical sense, but these things are required and needed, and believed in...And if you believe in something enough, you can actually start it to happen," he commented.
News segment guests: Lauren Weinstein, Christian Wilde