The Australasian Ufologist Magazine 2/2002 [antikvár]

^uest Editorialsomeone is Intercepting 1800 CallsWhat I am about to tell you is absolutely true but hard to believe.On Wednesday 29th of May, Brian Dickerson, President of UFO Research NSW made a phone call from his workplace to leave a message for Diane Harrison regarding the recent Mildura police sightings and their significance, on the 1800-77-22-88 number.When Brian phoned a woman answered "Can I help you". Brian somewhat consed by the live response said "I would like to report a UFO". The woman said "just a moment" the phone clicked and a male Australian voice said "Shane here. Can I help you?"Brian, by this stage totally bewildered by the goings on said "I would like to report a UFO". To which Shane responded "You need to talk to Wing Commander Gibson" (search initiated from same) "He is at lunch at the moment The number you need to ring is 1800 772288".Brian then rang the number again only to hear the recorded message. It appears clear that someone ismonitoring the hotline numberNobody from the Defence Dept would answer a phone call from the public using their Christian name only, so it isn't them, regardless of if Wing Commander Gibson exists or not.The whole situation reeks of unproffesionalism and seems to me someone hit the wrong switch when monitoring. Thus, Shane was left to come up with a story that would get the caller off the phone without too much further damage to the situation.Because of UFO organisations stance about the Governments of the world, particularly the USA, withholding information relating to the UFO phenomenon and their determination to have that information released i.e.: disclosure project, they have a title of "non friendly government organisations ".Admittedly, their security risk would be extremely low, but with increased funding released in the recent national budget for increased surveillance and intelligence funding for anti terrorist activity, ASIO, for instance, would now have the fundingand manpower to monitor ALL "non friendly government organisations " and I reckon that includes us.As to the ineptitude of the monitoring crew the cream of ASIO would monitor high risk organisations, with a sliding scale of competence and experience leading down to those organisations with an exfremely low terrorist risk factor, such as our group.If anyone has a better explanation for what happened, I for one would like to hear it.It has often been claimed by UFO Hotline duty roster folk, that anomalies have occurred whereby callins have apparently been stalled in relation to their message on the massage bank.Also, at times of high activity e.g.: Clovelly and Gosford sightings of last year, that people claimed that they could not get through to the hotline.Coincidence? Perhaps not. Doug MoffettAUFORN NSW State DirectorUFORNSW Media Liaison OfficerVOL.6 2www.contactpublishing.comTHE AUSTRALASIAN UFOLOGIST 3