New book alert - Soriano and Bouck

Dear readers,

Don't you love the winter months? This morning I woke up; looked out of the window, and there was fog everywhere - an errie sight. Knowing that I didn't have to rush off to work today made the decision even easier to roll over in bed, pick up a UFO book from "the pile by the bed" read it, and prepare this post in long hand in a note book.

Today's new book is "UFOs Above the Law" by Frank Soriano and James Bouck. The book was published last year by Schiffer Publishing Ltd, Atglen PA in the USA. ISBN 978-0-7643-3920-2. Although published last year it has only recently arrived on the shelves of Adelaide bookshops.

Authors:

The front inside cover of the book tells us that "Jim Bouck and Frank Soriano are two former law enforcement officers. Frank Soriano is a retired NYS Corrections Officer and Jim Bouck is a former NYS Park Police Officer. Both have had their own sightings and investigated many more of others." The sub-title of the book is "True Incidents of Law Enforcement Officers' Encounters with UFOs."

Approach;

"Because of our law enforcement background, we approach the subject of UFO investigation in a different way than that adopted by many researchers. Police officers are trained to observe, to collect, and evaluate evidence in a way that the layman is not." (p.11.)

"The reason we are writing this book is to give the law enforcement officer a backup when confronted by the skeptical public or other officers. We hope to show that there are hundreds, and even thousands of officers that see these objects and are not alone." (p.11.)

To set the scene for law enforcement reports the authors first take us on a quick review of the 1947 Arnold sighting; Roswell; the Lubbocks lights of 1951; the Betty and Barney Hill case; the 1952 Washington incidents; the Hudson Valley flap and the 1997 Phoenix lights episode. Then the next section covers sightings by military personnel, including the 1980 Rendelsham Forest episodes.

At page 32 we start "Police reports" featuring both known  (e.g.Zamora, 1964, Socorro); and unknown to me (e.g. Laconia, 1974, New Hampshire) UFO reports. Some of the case summaries include transcripts of taped communications between policer officers on duty and their base. While most cases are from the USA there are a scattering from elsewhere, including the UK, Brazil, Argentina and France (gathered from the Internet.) I did not see anything from Australia.

Police chases:

"Police chase" cases start on page 66, which includes a lengthy transcript on the Warren County, Ohio 2001 event. These cases are outlined in greater detail than cases previously described in the book.

Bob Pratt:

Former researcher Bob Pratt's "Police cases" feature in the next section (there are no chapter numbers in this book.) I found the December 27 1977, Charlotte, North Carolina case of two helicopter police officers of particular interest. There is also a lengthy piece about the 1966 Varginha, Brazil events.

The Government's response:

"As hard as the government appears to stay out of the UFO phenomena, it is burned deep in conspiracy, from the alleged UFO crash in Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947 to the current sightings." (p.141.)

This section covers the 1953 Robertson panel; the Condon report; sightings by NASA personnel; official US Projects such as Sign, Grudge, and Blue Book.

Despite the title and aim of the book, there is a section titled "UFO sightings by politicians and celebrities."

Abductions:

On starting to read this book I wondered if the evidence presented in it was going to include anything on the UFO abduction phenomenon. It does, in a section commencing page 156. there is an account of police Seargent Herbert, of Schirmer Ashland, Nebraska, who in 1967 reported an incident. Later under hypnosis he recalled an abduction/contactee experience.

The authors also present a little item on the New York, Brooklyn Bridge Case, investigated by Budd Hopkins in which "The primary witnesses of the abduction were NYPD officers..." (p.159.)

Personal sightings:

Two of the final sections of the book provide details of the authors' own UFO sightings.

The section from page 171 is headed "Conclusion," so what do the authors think is going on?

"For a number of years, certain questions have recurred concerning the origin of UFO crafts. Are they solid objects that travel through space, are they interdimensional crafts, or are they from here on Earth? They may be all three, or soemthing else altogether." (p.171.)