ABOUT FRENCH SECRET SERVICE, GENDARMERIE AND UFOS, 

by Jean Bastide , co- MUFON Representative and FSR consultant for France

THE BOOK

A new French book seems to shed some light about the more subtle, rather artistic and kind of “low noise” link between UFOs, French Secret Service and the French Gendarmerie: “Dans les archives inédites des services secrets, Un siècle d’histoire et d’espionnage français / The realm of unpublished secret service files, a century of French history and spying” (1870-1989), by Bruno Fuligni: http://www.editions-iconoclaste.fr/spip.php?article1489, and :

http://www.servicehistorique.sga.defense.gouv.fr/Dans-les-archives-inedites-des.html.  Particularly in the chapter dealing with « Unmatched technological inventions: Radio interceptions made from the Eiffel Tower ; the first aerial photographs (1914-1918) ; Enigma and Nazi’s secret code ; the first French special services commandos ; Camera, counterfeit passports, false bottom counters, etc: a never seen before museum ; The tapped phones of the French embassy ; The Gendarmerie UFO files » ( Des inventions technologiques sans égales : Les interceptions radio de la tour Eiffel ; Les premières photographies aériennes (1914-1918) ; Enigma et les codes secrets des nazis ; Les premiers commandos des services spéciaux français ; Appareils photos, faux passeports, talonnettes à double fond, etc. : un musée jamais vu ; Une ambassade de France mise sur écoutes ; Les rapports de gendarmerie sur les OVNIS).

I can give now some precise details about the link established in this recent book between French Secret Service and UFOs. On November 14, 2010, Mr Yves Sillard has sent me an important e-mail. He is the illustrious former General Director of CNES (Centre National d’Etudes Spatiale / French National Space Center ), past graduate of the famous French “Ecole Polytechnique” (“X”), a devoted and impartial man, the designer of the “Ariane” rocket of Kourou, French Guyana, Chief Engineer of Weaponry, past Head of the Armaments General Delegation , DGA (Délégation Générale à l'Armement , that is to say the military research), founder of the GEPAN with Mr Claude Poher (for which I made little researches on UFO cases more than thirty years ago, GEPAN being now called GEIPAN ), now President of the Advisory Committee (Comité de pilotage) of the GEIPAN, namely the COPEIPAN:

“The UFO reports (compte-rendus OVNI) written in France by the French “Gendarmerie” (National Police Force) since tens of years (they are not written by the Secret Service ) are actually in the Record Defence Office and for the great part well-known by GEIPAN. They can be found on the internet site of French GEIPAN. A Gendarmerie Officer, having a training in history, is now doing, without being payed, voluntarily, in relationship with the GEIPAN, an exhaustive research of these policemen’s reports”
"Les CR d'observations d'OVNIs établis en France par la Gendarmerie depuis des décennies (et non par les services secrets) sont effectivement stockés aux archives du Ministère de la Défense et pour la plupart bien connus du GEIPAN. Ils se retrouvent donc sur le site Internet de ce dernier. Un officier de gendarmerie, ayant une formation d'historien, effectue par ailleurs bénévolement en liaison avec le GEIPAN une étude exhaustive de ces procès-verbaux."(e-mail of Nov. 14, 2010 16:34)

Nevertheless, this gives us -according to me- some serious, precious and implied clue of the actual obvious involvement of French secret service in that field, fact already well-known since many years by my French research group, the GEPA (Groupe d’Etude des Phénomènes Aériens / Study Group of Aerial Phenomena, whose President was the General Lionel-Max Chassin, from French Air Force, and whose name is very near that of the first CNES study group, the GEPAN (“N” for unknowns, “Non-identifiés”), presided by Mr Claude Poher ( who gives this name for paying homage to the courageous work of GEPA), so that … both were almost always mixed up nowadays. I said this involvement of secret service is obvious because Mr Edmond Campagnac, past graduate of the famous French “Ecole Polytechnique” (“X”) too, past president of GEPA too, gives us his testimony, for he has been able to consult very briefly - sort of “eyes-only” - these military archives in one of the site of French Record Defence ( see below). I can add that Mrs Francine Fouéré, still alive, recently phone me she has given a copy of GEPA’s books ( http://www.editions-tredaniel.com/phenomenes-spatiaux-p-3598.html) to the military library of the French Historical Defence Department from Vincennes, where they can now be found ( http://www.servicehistorique.sga.defense.gouv.fr/Consulter-des-documents-a.html).  
In the realm of French ufology, the figure of René Fouéré was very near… from the figure of General de Gaulle, up to a point, in certain respects, in so far as his intellectual stature, his quiet bravery, and his resolutely selfless, disinterested, impartial, totally uncommon attitude, were in fact very close. I can vouch for this, having been in close contact with René and Francine Fouéré since 1967.

THE BROADCASTING

A WARNING FOR ALL: COLMAR, ALSACE, 1954: THE FRENCH « SECRET DEFENCE » , A SAD REALITY OF “FRENCH IRON CURTAIN”, OR: WHEN FRANCE IS ACTING EXACTLY IN THE SAME WAY AS USA , RUSSIA OR CHINA. Plain exaggeration? Let us read carefully, however, the utterances of Mr Edmond Campagnac ( ex-President of GEPA and graduate of the Ecole Polytechnique of Paris, called “X” ) during the TV program about UFOs on the cable network “Planète Forum” in 2001: 
« There is in France an information source which is sadly pertaining to the Army, and called the “Gendarmerie”( national police force ). In the Gendarmerie, I can assure you I read observations made by units, by teams of “gendarmes” (police constables) which were marvels of written detailed description. In 1965, when Gaston Palewski was Minister of the Research in France, I was invited -as I was GEPA’s President at this time- to be asked precisely by him: « but how is it that in France, your review (“Phénomènes spatiaux”) has published reports like that (on UFOs), at the very time when there was not a single serious book published on this subject. In America there are plenty of books ». I answered « Yes indeed, Mister Palewski, it must be due to the fact that in France serious investigations are generally made by the « Gendarmerie » which is -as I said- belonging to the Army. Therefore, “ Secret Défense”( “state defence secret” ). Then he said me « would it be possible for you to investigate a little, in order to see what is to be found on the spot? ». I answered yes, at the condition of obtaining a pass, a safe conduct, enabling me to meet and see the Colonel who was at the time keeping an eye on these documents and reports and who was located exactly at the “n° 21, Boulevard de la Tour-Maubourg”(75007 Paris). On the following day, I got the thingummy and I was bursting in the room of poor Colonel who saw the thingy and who was literally to fling his arms round my neck and kiss me . With his ‘Corsican’ stress - he was from Corsica- he told me : « You are the very first coming to see me, how is it ?». The first report he let me consult, he told me, this one, it is absolutely fantastic. I give it shortly. A Sunday morning, during the year 1954, two bikers in the Colmar ( Alsace ) area , enjoyed driving. They reached a spot, a crossroads, and at each of the four branches of the crossroads, an unending line of old jalopies, and in the very middle of it they saw a kind of thing, and then they decided to near and they saw something with a saucer shape. They wished then to approach, they dismounted and at this very moment -a phenomenon to be later encountered ( in Ufology) in the world, starting at a precise point, it was as if a wall prevented them to go and walk further. Then, thereupon, the engines were taking off. They ( the policemen/gendarmes ) stopped all the witnesses, asked them for their identity cards and have their identity papers checked. They took moreover all the photos who had been taken. After that, they had gone in all the villages and townships in order to hear the municipal officials and town councillors to get to know about the fact if these guys were truthful or not. You saw so far it had gone. Aha, the file was at least ONE METER HIGH. On the occasion of the TV program « Les dossiers de l’écran » ( « The TV screen files »), I make up my mind to tell of this observation which was absolutely tremendous, incredible. A captain phoned me:« BEWARE, MISTER, “SECRET DEFENSE”! ». 

EPILOGUE

It goes without saying that this very file is totally unknown, even from CNES’s GEIPAN of Toulouse, as it was concealed since now 55 years due to the French army’s “secret defense”.
THE PROBLEM IS THAT UFOLOGISTS ARE THE GO-BETWEENS THE SECRET SERVICES- AND THEIR TOP SECRET FILES –AND THE JOURNALISTS, AS WE SAY IN FRENCH: WE ARE “ENTRE L’ARBRE ET L’ECORCE” ( BETWEEN THE TREE AND ITS BARK) , ISN’T IT? AS THE ARGENTINIAN AMATEUR ASTRONOMER AND UFOLOGIST CARLOS CLUGNIAC WROTE ME MORE THAN FORTY YEARS AGO, “THERE ARE TOO MANY RATS IN THE BAG”. SOME THIRTY FIVE YEARS AGO, TOO, A MR WILLIAM MOORE OF USA , NOTORIOUS INVOLUNTARY AGENT OF AMPLIFYING DISINFORMATION SPREADING THE SO-CALLED MJ-12 SECRET DOCUMENTS, SAID HE WAS TO TAKE A LEGAL ACTION AGAINST ME IF I CONTINUE TO TELL HIS PHOTO OF AN EXTRATERRESTRIAL DWARF IN SHINING SILVER FLYING SUIT/COVERALL BETWEEN TWO TALL MEN WITH LEATHER RAINCOATS WHO ARE HOLDING THEIR HANDS WITH DWARF’S HANDS, WAS A PURE, SHEER INVENTION AND THAT HE WAS A LIAR. I CAN PUBLY HIS LETTER. ASK Mr ROBERT HASTINGS OF USA WHAT HE IS THINKING ABOUT THIS, YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.

Note I have myself established in 1973 – 37 years ago- in a study sent on Sunday, November 25, 1973, that was received by Mr René Fouéré –then General Secretary of the GEPA, the correlation between nuclear atmospheric tests and the UFO phenomenon, based upon the data published in 1973 by the well-known FOA -FORSVARETS FORSKNINGSANSTALT / NDRI -NATIONAL DEFENCE RESEARCH INSTITUTE, STOCKHOLM , Sweden, and the statistics given by Mr. C.Poher, then privately published by the CNES/GEPAN. ( Zander, I.; Araskog, R., Nuclear Explosions 1945-1972, Basic Data, FOA 4 Report, A 4505-Al, Försvarets Forskningsanstalt , The Research Institute of the Swedish National Defence, Stockholm, Sweden, 1973; Poher C., Etude statistique des rapports d’observation du phénomène ovni,1971, p.51 : répartition temporelle des 825 cas mondiaux ( http://www.cnes-geipan.fr/documents/stat_poher_71.pdf ). How long does it take to the scientific community to recognize the urgency of this problem? Since 1947, 63 years have elapsed, and nothing has changed.

Mr Jean Bastide, France, November 17, 2010.

Note I am currently still in activity, in the French DGAC, as investigation officer for air traffic control in the "Bureau d'Enquêtes", "Investigation Office" (my name is not Fox Mulder, however, but... I study this subject since 1962) jean.bastide@aviation-civile.gouv.fr