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Richard Dolan on CNN's Glenn Beck
Show
January 3, 2007
On
November 6, 2006, a major UFO sighting occurred at Chicago’s O’Hare
International Airport. Multiple witnesses, including pilots, involving lying by
the FAA and United Airlines. All the good elements of a UFO plot-line.
I was interviewed along with Chicago Tribune journalist Jon Hilkevitch on the
Glenn Beck Show on January 3, 2007. A transcript is below. My own responses were
limited -- this was a quick 5 minute thing, and I really needed a better answer
to Beck's first question to me (e.g. "could this have been secret stealth-type
technology"). My own answer was, in my opinion, adequate but rather tame.
I mean, hell -- testing a secret technology over one of the world's busiest
airports? Good grief. In my defense, there was absolutely no preparation for
what he was going to ask me. He springs the question on you and you're on your
own.
Interested readers should also visit The National UFO Reporting Center, run by
Peter Davenport, who has a tremendous amount of data on the event.
Click here.
Transcript Below:
BECK: OK, illegal aliens may be a serious problem on our southern border and on
the northern border, but what about the aliens who may be crossing another
border? Oh, yes, the border above. That`s right.
We`re talking about outer space, aliens, extraterrestrials, Latoya Jackson, you
know, you know, they`re here, they`re among us. More and more people believe
that space aliens may be coming.
Now listen to this story, because this is an actual news story. This isn`t like
out of the "Weekly World News." Chicago O`Hare`s airport recently -- the United
Airlines employees claim they observed a flying saucer-like object hovering low
over the terminal for several minutes before bolting through the thick clouds
with such ferocity that it actually left like a creepy hole in the cloudy skies
overhead.
So what was it? A hoax? An alien attack? Were they observing us? Is this a
military operation? What was it?
Joining us now is UFO historian Richard Dolan and the guy who actually broke the
story. His name is John Hilkevitch. He is from Chicago and the "Chicago
Tribune."
John, let me start with you. The UFO witnesses in Chicago, they`re not nuts, are
they? They are like really fine, upstanding people?
JON HILKEVITCH, "CHICAGO TRIBUNE": And they`re very serious about this. They`re
all United Airlines employees, ranging from pilots to supervisors, who heard
chatter about this on the radio and raced out and saw it in the sky, aircraft
mechanics, veterans of O`Hare who have been there for a long time, know how
lights can play tricks in the sky, and they say this wasn`t that. This was a
real, metallic, gray object, low in the sky, and they want answers.
BECK: OK, do you believe them? Do you believe that they believe it or -- do you
believe that they really saw what they think they saw?
HILKEVITCH: I believe that what they`re reporting -- and it is real, and they
were concerned about safety. They`re not necessarily saying that this is a craft
from another galaxy...
BECK: Sure.
HILKEVITCH: ... but they`re saying this is an unidentified flying object, low in
the sky over the world`s second-busiest airport. It could pose a collision risk,
who knows, a security risk, in this era of post- 9/11. And they...
BECK: Now, let me go to Richard here. I`m sorry to interrupt. But let me go to
Richard for just a second and ask you, because isn`t this the same kind of thing
that, when we had the new stealth fighters out, everybody was saying, "It`s an
alien spacecraft." No, it`s just a secret military aircraft that we hadn`t
announced for years in advance.
Is there a possibility that you think that this is just some sort of military
aircraft that we haven`t released that we have?
RICHARD DOLAN, UFO HISTORIAN: Sure, anything is possible, Glenn. But if you want
to go that route, then I think what you need to do, to be honest about it, is go
back through the decades and, indeed, generations of reports that we`ve
collected of these types of objects that people have been seeing.
And let me just add that this is a phenomenon that not simply civilian people
have been dealing with, but U.S. military personnel had been encountering what
appear to be UFOs -- I don`t know what else you would call them -- objects that
military pilots have frequently said are disc- shaped, that look exotic, that
behave in unusual ways, and that have violated sensitive airspace time and again
for many, many years.
So if this is a secret, covert project, as many people have speculated, it seems
to be going on in a rather confrontational, provocative way, and that really
doesn`t have any explanation.
BECK: All right. So, John, you think that this is -- there was some sort of a
cover-up. At least the FAA was not real honest with you when you first asked,
right?
HILKEVITCH: Well, yes. I went to the FAA, and they said they have no reports of
this at all. I put in a Freedom of Information Act request, and then they got
back to me several days later, saying that, in reviewing the communication tapes
at O`Hare, they did come across chatter involving this object, and that a United
supervisor contacted the FAA manager in the tower and asked that they, the
controllers, had seen anything unusual.
Also, United Airlines told me that they had no reports of this, even though the
fact is that they were interviewing up to a dozen employees who reported
observing this, asking them to write reports, draw pictures.
After my story broke on Monday, United said, "Well, yes, we have been talking to
these employees."
BECK: OK, so, Richard, why would United, why would the FAA -- give me an
explanation why these guys would be hiding this stuff?
DOLAN: Well, I mean, one reason just might be that they`re embarrassed to come
out and say that, "Oh, yes, you know, we`ve got this UFO hanging out over O`Hare
and we don`t know what to do about it."
Let`s face it. If you`re running a large corporation or a bureaucracy, the last
thing you want to do is stick your neck out on an issue like this. And so it
doesn`t surprise me at all. And, in fact, this is, again, part of a long
history.
FAA, as well, has not always been forthcoming over many, many alleged cases. I
mean, witnesses have seen these very bizarre things for years and years. And
it`s very tough to get a straight answer out of a lot of government agencies or
other corporate bodies.
BECK: All right. And then, John, let me go back to you and ask -- I mean, jeez,
I saw Saddam Hussein hung with a cell phone camera. How come there`s no
pictures? Are there pictures? Is there video? Is there anything? Here it is,
over Chicago and O`Hare Airport, how come we don`t see any visuals?
HILKEVITCH: Well, pictures haven`t emerged yet, but I`m told that the flight
crew that was being pushed back, one of the pilots did open the wind screen,
look out, did identify this object, and he had a digital camera. He may have
taken some pictures.
We`re also hearing other reports that there may have been photographs from
camera phones and such that United Airlines may be aware of this. And I`m
working -- believe me -- to find these witnesses...
BECK: OK, if anybody has information on those witnesses, how do they get a hold
of you?
HILKEVITCH: Gosh, JHilkevitch@ChicagoTribune.com.
BECK: Yes, I mean, if you`ve got pictures, man, send them in, because I`d like
to see them, too. Thank you so much, guys. Appreciate it.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0701/03/gb.01.html