Whitley Strieber Revives, “Drone UFO Flap?”

Whitley Strieber recently authorized the following email to be sent to his “Unknown Country” subscribers list (6th December 2007) and it was emailed on his behalf.

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This morning at 4:53 AM, Whitley Strieber saw a drone over Santa Monica , California . The Striebers are in California seeing friends, and Whitley has sent me the following email, with permission to publish it. He will write a journal entry about his experience that will be posted on Saturday, December 8.

And remember, there are a lot of people out there lying about the drones and trying to debunk them. But these people ignore ONE THING: Linda's interviews with credible eyewitnesses. Do not be deceived about this.

This was in his email:

“Well, in one sense the drones mystery is solved because at 4:53 this morning, I saw one.

I had an extremely restless night, full of complex and astounding dreams that I will record in a journal on my website. They also involved my book the Key and the crop circles, and have led me to a very clear understanding that there is a new level of consciousness available to us now. The dreams lasted from about 3:00 to the moment I woke up and saw the thing outside, which was at exactly 4:53. (I know the times because I sent one of my agents an email at 2:47 about a business matter, then went to bed and was shortly asleep. When I saw the drone, I was looking across the bedroom toward the window, with my wife's lighted clock just visible below the window.)

I woke up lying on my side, and saw the thing moving just below and in the bottom edge of the clouds. It was stormy. The object was enormous, and from where I was lying it must have been no more than a few hundred feet overhead. It appeared almost level with the line of the roof that is visible outside my window. It was moving toward our building at a stately pace, gliding easily, like a dirigible. I had the impression that it was quite large, but obviously, no way to tell for sure. Because of the clouds, I did not see the characteristic tall antennae on it, but I did see structure that looked a lot like what the bicyclists photographed. I immediately woke Anne up and went to the window. But we could not see it from the window.

I looked for a while, trying to see if I could spot some edge of it in the clouds. It had not been moving fast at all, so there was reason to believe it was still there. Not seeing it, I went to the dresser and got my cellphone, which has a camera in it, and put it beside the bed. I then lay down and turned over to the same position I had been in when I first saw it--and there the thing was again, clearly visible just below the cloud cover. Now it was much closer to the house. When I moved my head to get up again, I could no longer see it. When I returned to the original angle, I could see it again. This time, it was gliding west, toward the ocean, only its lower structure visible in the clouds. I opened the cellphone, in an attempt to take a picture of it from that angle, but by then it had passed beyond the edge of the window. I saw nothing more of it, but there is no question in my mind at all but that they are real.”

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At the time of writing this (Sunday 9th December) his journal has still to be updated and still shows the last entry to be the 27th November. Whitley Strieber has always said he can't prove (and as such didn't know) that the Drones were real and that perhaps the lessons learned from the full experience are more important than the nuts and bolts physical reality of the craft.

Well that all seems to have changed with this latest revelation, the first line of Whitley's recent email states:

“Well, in one sense the Drones mystery is solved because at 4:53 this morning, I saw one.”

And the last line of the email reaffirms this by stating that:

“There is no question in my mind at all but that they <the Drones> are real.”

There really is so little information to be gleamed from this brief correspondence that's partly why I've held off posting anything about it, but since Whitley's self-imposed deadline of the 8th December has come and gone with no sign of him updating his personal journal I thought it prudent to mention it.

Personally I do have great difficulties in believing that the entire account is simply nothing more than a fabrication, and I'm interested to see which path Whitley is planning on taking, hopefully it's not just the path that leads to his bank…..

IsaacCaret – Dragonfly Drone – UFO – Big Basin – High Resolution Image Update!!

This really is turning into the UFO story that refuses to disappear, at least without a fight!!

However, this time it's not a new sighting or information, but rather a release of a high resolution image from Linda Moulton Howe (LMH). It's one of the original 12 Big Basin Drone UFO images, and to be honest it's not before time.

Most people who have been following the Drone UFO case have been chomping at the bit for further details and many, many forum members have been constantly pestering LMH for the 12 original images from the Big Basin/Drone/UFO sighting in the high resolution that LMH publicly stated she had in her possession.

In fact (as UFOCasebook's Latitude pointed out) it was probably the forum user, “Ivo” over at the OMF that spurred the release as he emailed LMH the day before saying that forum user OnTheFence (a well respected and knowledgeable authority on the images) had made a connection between the Isaac linguistic primer and the Big Basin Drone UFO but was unable to further any investigation without the release of the hi-res images.

So LMH obliged with the release of ONE image. This was sent simultaneously to several forum members from several forums who had expressed an interest. However scant an offering this may seem it has appeared to manifest itself as the, “Missing link” between the Drone UFO sightings and he Isaac/CARET documentation.

The reason for this is a striking resemblance between Isaacs's linguistic primer and a couple of the panels on the Big Basin Drone. This is evident in the image below.

For bandwidth and display reasons I haven't used the original image, but it may be downloaded here.

While personally I feel there are a couple of problems with this catalogue of events, it seems the vast majority of people who are interested in this case have accepted the connection as definitive proof. Granted the vast majority I refer to were 100% believers before the release of this image, but nevertheless the new image has been embraced as, “The real deal” by many people who have followed the Drone UFO's.

And I must admit the similarities are certainly too much to simply dismiss out of hand, as can be seen in the image below.

So the plot thickens as the mystery deepens…………….

Mother and daughter describe Tahoe UFO sighting

Mother and daughter describe Tahoe UFO sighting (Tahoe Daily Tribune)

Charles Sizemore and Jeff Munson ( jmunson@tahoedailytribune.com)
July 6, 2007

Dawn Raimond, a 41-year-old resident of Round Hill, saw something strange in the sky over Lake Tahoe from the deck of her home on the evening of June 19. According to Raimond, she was sitting outside on her deck at about 11:40 p.m. looking at the stars, when she noticed moving lights in the sky.

"The stars starting moving," she said.

The lights were arranged straight up and down, according to Raimond, and then started spreading out. Raimond called her daughter, Raven, 20, outside to witness the strange lights. As the lights came closer to their house, the women were able to make out a strange object with two lights.

"It wasn't an airplane," Raven said.

The dark, triangle-shaped object traveled very fast across the lake toward their home, and then slowed down as it approached her house, Dawn said. The object was completely silent, making no noise. The object came within about 500 feet of their house, according to Dawn, when it came to a stop above the trees. The lights then began getting wider and wider, and then starting fading, Dawn said.

"It disappeared right in front of our eyes," said Dawn.

Dawn isn't sure what the object was, but is sure it wasn't an airplane. People have suggested to her that it may have been an airplane from the Naval Air Station in Fallon, or that perhaps it was a stealth fighter, but Dawn isn't convinced.

"I know what they look like and (there's) no way it was that. It was much bigger than that," Dawn said. What she is sure of is that she saw the object, and that she wasn't seeing things. The Raimonds' sighting comes just over a year after South Lake Tahoe resident Allan Brown saw, and videotaped, a UFO over Lake Tahoe . As reported on June 16, 2006, in the Tahoe Daily Tribune, Brown videotaped an object "dancing in the sky" over the lake in the early morning hours last June.

The latest sighting also comes as people recognize the 60th anniversary of the events of July 8, 1947, in Roswell , N.M. , when personnel from the Roswell Army Airfield issued a press release that they had found the remnants of a "flying disc" that had crashed on a ranch nearby. It was later that day that the Air Force corrected the RAAF, saying that it had been a downed weather balloon that was found. Over 30 years later, Major Jesse Marcel, who had been involved with the incident near Roswell, came forward to say that he believed the US military had covered up the recovery of an alien spacecraft, thus sparking the controversy that lives on today as to what was actually found on that ranch near Roswell.

For more information on Allan Brown's sighting last year and to see his video, visit www.TahoeDailyTribune.com, and do a search for "UFO."

Source: Tahoe Daily Tribune

The Entire 2007 Drone UFO Sightings, Reports And Images.

2007 DRONE REPORTS HISTORY (.PDF)

I was getting sick of constantly searching for already reported pieces of information regarding the Drone witnesses, chronology of sightings, photographs, time line, web site etc. etc.
So I decided to compile every 2007 Drone sighting, report and images gathered so far into an easily accessible PDF document.

The image sizes have been reduced to fit into this document and reduce download time, all of the original images may be viewed and saved by following the respective link in the Timeline History at the end of the document.

All except Rajman1977 who has since closed his Flikr account, so I’ve provided a download link to a file where these may be downloaded and viewed at their original size.

Please note that all of the documentation contained within is an exact representation of all of the original reports as they were made, including spelling mistakes etc.

Even if the reports are not everything that they claim to be, I am certainly becoming more intrigued with the increasingly revealing snippets of information which are slowly being released.

Download The Drone History .PDF file HERE

More Big Basin/Chad etc. UFO Photos

O.k. A jokes a joke, I'm not the only one getting sick of this, surely?

Posted at Earth Files On June 17th, photos taken June 5th, Big Basin.

To view forum topic on the, "Big Basin/Chad/Rajman1977/Lake Tahoes UFO", to comment or to discuss this UFO sighting further, visit here.

Add Big Basin To Wave Of Californian UFO Photographs

May 2007 - Wave Of Californian UFO Photographs

May 2007 has certainly been an interesting time for anybody who watches for reports of UFO sightings and related phenomena. So far there has been four different sets of photographs released from four different (allegedly) individuals in a matter of five weeks (I don't say, “Allegedly different” meaning that there is a general consensus that it's the same person. I merely say alleged because of the witness's failure to come forward means that this cannot be dismissed at this point.)

The, “Chad UFO”

First of we had, “Chad” who was based vaguely somewhere in Central California. It was originally sent to the Coast 2 Coast Website with the following explanation.

“Last month (April 2007), my wife and I were on a walk when we noticed a very large, very strange "craft" in the sky. My wife took a picture with her cell phone camera (first photo below). A few days later a friend (and neighbor) lent me his camera and came with me to take photos of this "craft". We found it and took a number of very clear photos. Picture #4 is taken from right below this thing and I must give my friend credit as I was not brave enough to get close enough to take this picture myself! The craft is almost completely silent and moves very smoothly. It usually moves slowly until it decides to take off. Then it moves VERY quickly and is out of sight in the blink of an eye. MORE THAN ANYTHING I simply want to understand what this is and why it is here? We found your show with Google and I have listened for a few nights now. I have decided that if anyone can help me understand what this thing is, it is you and your audience. I must admit I am deeply unsettled by this thing. I have never seen anything like this in my life... Location: I would prefer not to say for now. “

Chad wrote back with additional info:

“Thank you so much for posting my photos! I hope someone can help identify this... First of all, I see this thing VERY often. Since it first appeared, I have probably seen this thing maybe 8 different times since the first appearance. My friend and I went out the next day after I first saw it to get the photos, but it was not there. Then we tried again the next day, and we found it within like 30 minutes and followed it for a while. Most of the time I see it out of windows in my house, in the distance. but I would say almost half of the hikes I have gone on in my area, I have seen it very close. It is very easy to photograph and...many neighbors aside from my friend have also seen it. It is almost totally silent but not quite. It makes kind of "crackling" noises. It's hard to describe them but they are only intermittent and not very loud, but you can notice them. Sometimes there is a very slight hum that sounds kind of mechanical, almost like when you are near very large power lines. But it is nothing loud like a jet engine, it is very quiet for the most part. It moves almost like an insect. If you have ever seen a bug on a pond, it is kind of like that. It is VERY smooth and slow most of the time, but then every now and then it will rotate very quickly and go VERY fast into another direction, then stop, and repeat the process all over again. There is just something very unnatural about the way it moves. Also, I have had maybe 4 headaches in the last week, and I am normally not the kind of person who really ever gets them. Also my wife has been tired and fatigued lately. She is about a month pregnant, and the doctor said fatigue is normal around this time, but I worry that it is a lot. Basically what I'm worried is that this "craft" has got some kind of radiation or something. Like I said, it sounds like power lines if you get close enough to it. Obviously I am worried for our health, especially with a baby on the way. I don’t know if they are related, but again, this is why I really hope someone can answer these questions! “

The photographs were either taken in the late April or on May 6th, this is still being investigated.

There were 6 photos in all and they were submitted via a scan. A lot of people claimed it as a hoax straight away due to the meta tags pointing to the use of the photo editing/manipulation software made famous by Adobe. But it quickly transpired that these were generated when Coast 2 Coast resized the pictures for use on their website.

Source/References : Chad (coasttocoastam.com)

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The, “Lake Tahoe UFO”

This was the second sighting and was reported to MUFON by, “MUFON Submitter 7013”. There were two photos taken with a camera phone and were posted to MUFON on, May 5, 2007. There were again from California and the statement was as follows.

"My husband and I were in Lake Tahoe over the weekend. We left on Friday afternoon and came back Monday morning. On Saturday at about 7 PM, I was walking out to my car to get a sweater when I saw this thing in the sky. It was pretty close I think, but still above the trees. It was moving and spinning slowly, heading towards my right.

"I was startled and confused at first and wanted to take a picture, but our camera was still inside so I took two pictures with my camera phone before it passed behind the roof of the house."

"I ran around to the other side and was yelling to my husband to come out. We came around the other side and saw it just as it was going down behind some trees. He didn't get a good look at it, but he saw enough to convince him that it was something really strange.

"We decided to take a drive around the area to see if we could see it again, but we never did. We didn't see it the next day either. Since we were renting the cabin for the weekend we didn't know any nearby residents but I would bet at least a few other people saw it. It was very visible and very strange looking. I was definitely a little freaked out but my husband didn't seem very bothered by it. He was more interested in it than scared.

He wanted to drive around a lot longer trying to find it than I did! It didn't make any noise except for a very, very faint sound that is hard to describe but sounded like something vibrating. We both heard the sound although just barely. It moved in a very straight line when it went over the house but when we saw it on the other side of the house, when it was going down behind the trees, it made a very sharp turn. It didn't move like a helicopter or airplane, it was very "exact".

We did see one person on our drive who was a few blocks away taking a walk and asked him if he saw it, and he said no. Then we asked him if he heard any weird noise and tried to describe it as best we could, and he said he might have but he wasn't sure. By this time it was at least 20 minutes since we first saw the thing so who knows?”

Source/References: MUFON Submitter 7013 (http://www.mufon.com/)

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The, “Capitola UFO”

Capitola, California, photographed May16th 2007 and this time instead of a mainstream UFO website, the six photographs were instead posted to a newly formed Flikr account. The account name was, “Rajman1977.” Allegedly the posters real name was, “Rajinder Satyanarayana.”

Open Minds forum invited Rajman1977 to their forums and he accepted but disappeared after only a couple of posts. And after his Flikr account was upgraded to the pro version by one of the Forum members it was quickly hacked and several porn images and links were uploaded. The account was subsequently closed and no one has heard from him since. His accompanying report was as follows.

"This week I was visting my fiance's parents in Capitola (we were actually there to tell them about our engagement, in fact). We were eating dinner on the back porch when we noticed this "object" sort of hovering in the sky. The camera was still out from earlier so I grabbed it and tried to get some clear shots of it. It took off over the roof shortly after, so I ran into the street in front of the house to follow, trying to get more shots without wobbling around too much (which was harder than it sounds). It then came in lower over a telephone pole, where I was able to get a few more pictures, before it finally took off into the distance pretty fast. I thought it was gone but noticed it was still visible, so I grabbed a few more pictures.

At one point a car stopped to look as well. No one had any idea what this thing was, but everyone in the car was visibly freaked out by it. Once it was gone they told me to call the news and drove off. :) I'm not sure who else saw it in the neighborhood since I don't live down there, but I'm sure at least a few others must have noticed it. It was way too werid and way too close to go unnoticed. Once it was gone and I caught my breath I could barely stop my hands from shaking for the next hour or so. Needless to say, this is all we talked about for the rest of the night. None of us can figure out what it was (and that's saying something, because my fiance's dad is a mechanical engineer).

We sent a copy of the photos to their newspaper but haven't heard back yet. I dunno how long that kind of thing takes. There's also some writing on this thing, which I didn't recognize (and I read both English and Hindi). You can see it in a few of the pictures. Anyway, I created this Flickr account for the best of these pictures. I have no clue what this thing is so I'm putting it out there to see if anyone else saw it."

The Open Minds Forum also questioned him about which media company or outlet he contacted but Rajman1977 never offered an answer.

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The, “Big Basin UFO”

This time June 5th 2007 and the craft is photographed again, this time it has evolved massively!! It was originally posted to a private bulletin board and one of the admin contacted UfoCasebook.com with this email,

"Hi!

(I found a number of email addresses and was not sure which you checked most, so I just played it safe and sent to all of them. I hope this is okay.

My name is Jenna and I participate in a listserv for photographers in Saratoga, CA. Today a member named Stephen posted some pictures he took yesterday (the 5th) for a class assignment in the area around Big Basin. The pictures very clearly depict some kind of large object in the sky, and he was able to get two clear shots and one out-of-focus shot before it apparently disappeared. I recognized certain details on this object immediately because a friend had sent me your About.com article on different UFOs that have appeared recently with a similar appearance.

Now, I should mention that this is a private listserv for a very close-knit group. I have met almost everyone that participates in person and I have met Stephen in particular many times, so I take his word seriously.

We have been discussing it for the last couple of hours and I suggested we start by sending pictures to your web site since you clearly have some familiarity with this situation so far. Unfortunately I'm not a moderator of this listserv and can't give you access, but I can send you copies of the discussion as it develops if you would like to stay abreast. Let me know.

Stephen has given me permission to contact you with his photos and information and you may email him directly if you wish. We don't have any special need for anonymity on this matter and if you would like to post this email along with the photos you may do so. I would be interested in hearing from the other photographers of this kind of craft in particular and seeing what this is all about! The following is his first listserv email which was sent earlier this afternoon:

'Stephen 06/06/2007 14:42:31 PST

“Hey guys

okay, where to begin -- yesterday I was up around big basin for my assignment like I've been mentioning for the last couple weeks -- the theme for those that don't remember was photographing something at a small scale against a large scale backdrop to contrast scales and to play with depth of field etc -- I chose to photograph a couple of flower/weed things growing right on the edge of a drop off with the valley in the background -- I'm still using the rebel xt I bought off mark which is slr so I'm looking at everything through a viewfinder when I notice something _appear_ in the distance, like just pop out of nowhere --

I look up and there is this _huge_ who-knows-what-the-xxx _floating_ in the distance and rotating very slowly and jerkily (is that a word lol) -- almost by reflex I take another shot which is focused in on it this time and go to stand up but practically fall over because I cant even think straight --

I was able to get one more shot which came out kind of blurred and then the thing _vanished_ -- like, as in, now you see it now you don't -- I attached the pictures so you guys can check them out before I really decide to do something with them -- are these going to the 6 o'clock news or what -- any feedback would be great before i make a major decision here -- also btw I attached three pictures the first is when it _first_ appeared right as I was taking a shot of the flowers but I wanted you guys to see everything i saw -- sorry I only got 3 pix but this thing was seriously gone in like a matter of secs

also btw -- I am planning to return to the area this weekend with the camera and anyone else who wants to join me -- I'm seriously going to spend all day hiking around to see if it shows up again if it does I am going to get a million shots of this thing if it does -- you seriously have to see it to even believe it so _anyone_ who wants to come me let me know -- the more people that see this the better because I don't even need to tell you that so far this is a pretty crazy situation and I want some witnesses to back me up”

Stephen

Jenna L.

Freelance/Wedding Photographer

Source/References : Jenna.L. (ufocasebook.com)

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For all the vast majority of people are screaming hoax there is a little bit of history attached to these objects, first of all way back in 1999 a photograph was submitted to UfOEvidence.org. The original photo is on the left but I’ve rotated it and blew it up a little so that you can see it has indeed some similarities to the recent wave of UFO sightings in California.

Source: UfoEvidence.org

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And secondly we have a more recent one which again is remarkably similar the recent sightings except it has a lot fewer appendages. This was photographed in Birmingham, Alabama in 2006.

Source : EarthFiles.com

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It's certainly intriguing!!

I personally believe they are man-made, the fact that the craft has text on them that is obviously a bastardized foreign language or a morphed sci-fi one is testament in itself. It still doesn't stop me being intrigued by the motivations of the original posters.

I have a great deal of difficulty believing that it is just a viral marketing campaign as has been suggested. And I must admit to being amazed at what people with a knowledge of 3D software packages have been able to create within a couple of days or so. Here's one of the better ones from YouTube,

(DON'T GET CONFUSED THIS IS 100% CGI!!)

You can see the kind of interest this has generated on the internet, so it's very strange that nobody from the media has picked up on it or more likely the media are just ignoring it. Is this because they are well aware of what can be created with, “Off the shelf software” or is there another agenda? Puzzling as they all jumped on board with the, “O'Hare Airport UFO sighting – Nov 7 th 2006” and again with, “Guernsey Pilot Spots UFO – April 23 rd 2007.”

For all this is widely perceived as a hoax I'm still looking forward to the truth coming out and I think the full experience will still prove to be something a landmark case in the field of UFO research, even if it is for all of the wrong reasons. You can't help but feel as though it's all some sort of test, with each witness and sighting offering a little more information and detail, or is it just offering enough rope to hang themselves with?

There are many unanswered questions and many investigations currently underway, so hopefully some sort of truth should be imminent. But until the true identities of Chad & co. is finally revealed I believe that their sightings, reasoning and motivations will provide much speculation & discussion on the UFO subject and the more people that get interested and start asking questions as a result of these craft then the more chance we may have of getting some concrete answers.

To view forum topic on the, "Big Basin/Chad/Rajman1977/Lake Tahoes UFO", to comment or to discuss this UFO sighting further, visit here.