I thought I would do one final article (final for now, at least...) on the subject of my two previous articles. Namely, government surveillance of people with ties to Ufology. The two earlier ones were on (A)
the alien abduction issue and secret surveillance; and (B) how the FBI watched many of the UFO Contactees in the 1950s. This third feature in the series is a little different, as it deals with someone whose research has straddled the domains of both Ufology and Cryptozoology. His name is Jonathan Downes, the director of the U.K.-based
Center for Fortean Zoology. Jon's main Fortean passions are the likes of sea-serpents, Bigfoot, the Abominable Snowman and so on. He has, however, written a number of books that touch on UFOs to significant degrees, including
The Rising of the Moon and
The Island of Paradise.
It was May 1996 and Downes had been hanging out for a few days with a good friend of his named Tony "Doc" Shiels. If you don't know,
Shiels is a near-legendary and controversial figure (and magician) in the field of Forteana and a key player in the saga of the U.K.'s equivalent of Mothman: the
Owlman of Mawnan Woods, Cornwall, England. After a few days of hanging out at Jon's home, it was finally time to drive Shiels back to Plymouth Airport for a flight to Ireland, where Shiels lives. And that's when things went from strange to downright conspiratorial. Over to Jon...
"It was a Friday lunchtime in early May 1996. Alison [Jon's ex-wife] and I were beginning to suspect that we had strayed into a particularly far-fetched and badly scripted episode of
The X-Files. We were sitting in Plymouth Airport, waiting to put Tony on his plane back to Ireland, after one of his occasional visits.
Suddenly, the airport lounge seemed to be full of security guards. There were only about half a dozen men in uniform, but there were a number of rather sinister-looking men in black suits, wearing sunglasses, and looking quite menacing."
Continue reading Redfern's account on Mysterious Universe.
Comment: As Downes says later in his story, "It was a week when security at all airports and military bases had been stepped up because of a rumored Irish Republican Army blitz to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the Easter uprising." Moral of the story, just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they're not watching you. But they may not be watching you for the reason you think.
Comment: As Downes says later in his story, "It was a week when security at all airports and military bases had been stepped up because of a rumored Irish Republican Army blitz to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the Easter uprising." Moral of the story, just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they're not watching you. But they may not be watching you for the reason you think.