The COMETA Report
Originally published in France in 1999, the Cometa Report (titled UFOs and Defense: What Should We Prepare For?) made a valuable contribution to the subject of UFOs. The following is extracted from an opening statement contained in the report from French Air Force General Denis Letty and gives valuable background data on Cometa and its findings. “The accumulation of well-documented sightings made by credible witnesses forces us to consider from now on all of the hypotheses regarding the origin of unidentified flying objects, or UFOs, and the extraterrestrial hypothesis, in particular.” The document continues:
Although no characterized threat has been perceived to date in France, it seemed necessary to the former auditors of the Institut des Hautes Etudes de Defense Nationale (IHEDN) to take stock of the subject. Along with qualified experts from extremely varied backgrounds, they are grouped together to form a private in-depth fact-finding committee, which was christened COMETA. This committee was transformed into a COMETA association, which I chair.
COMETA members included: Air Force General Bruno Le Moine, weapons engineer General Pierre Bescond and Chief of Police Denis Blancher. Those who contributed to the study included: Edmond Campagnac, former Technical Director of Air France; Squadron Commander Michel Perrier; and Air Force General Joseph Domage. Among the subjects covered within the report are: the testimony of French pilots who had seen UFOs; close encounters in France; aeronautical cases from around the world; radar-based UFO incidents; and political, religious and scientific implications relating to the UFO mystery. The July 1947 events at Roswell, New Mexico are also covered in an appendix titled “The Roswell Affair – Disinformation.” This section makes a valuable contribution to the way in which the U.S. government’s program of disinformation has been utilized to successfully diffuse interest in, and confuse the truth surrounding, the Roswell UFO crash.