France to publish UFO archive online
CNES has collected statements and documents for almost 30 years
Reuters

PARIS - The French space agency said it will publish its archive of UFO sightings and other phenomena online, but will keep the names of those who reported them off the site to protect them from pestering by space fanatics.

Jacques Arnould, an official at the National Space Studies Centre, said the French database of around 1,600 incidents would go live in late January or mid-February.

He said the CNES had been collecting statements and documents for almost 30 years to archive and study them.

Often they are made to the Gendarmerie, which provides an official witness statement ... and some come from airline pilots," he said by telephone.

Given the success of films about visitations from outer space like "E.T.", "Close Encounters of The Third Kind" and "Independence Day", the CNES archive is likely to prove a hit.

It consists of around 6,000 reports, many relating to the same incident, filed by the public and airline professionals. Their names would not be published to protect their privacy, Anould said.

Advances in technology over the past three decades had prompted the decision to put the archive online, he said, adding it would likely be available via the CNES Web site.

Source

Sounds nice. Hope it doesn't get delayed by "technical difficulties" or complications... >.>

Ohh it will, just look at the first little bitty bit,

" The French space agency said it will publish its archive of UFO sightings and other phenomena online, but will keep the names of those who reported them off the site to protect them from pestering by space fanatics"

Ok thats not a good start is it? WTF disclose all the info so no one can question the people involved. Oh wait a sec it's just the space fenatics that want the truth? So only those that can contain information are the ones that can control the information. Hmm damn where did I put the tin foil, F the aliens, there the least of my worries.

http://www.cufos.org/cometa.html

COMETA Report

In 1999 an important document was published in France entitled, UFOs and Defense: What must we be prepared for? ("Les Ovni Et La Defense: A quoi doit-on se préparer?"). This ninety-page report is the result of an in-depth study of UFOs, covering many aspects of the subject, especially questions of national defense. The study was carried out over several years by an independent group of former "auditors" at the Institute of Advanced Studies for National Defense, or IHEDN, and by qualified experts from various fields. Before its public release, it has been sent to French President Jacques Chirac and to Prime Minister Lionel Jospin. The report is prefaced by General Bernard Norlain of the Air Force, former Director of IHEDN, and it begins with a preamble by André Lebeau, former President of the National Center for Space Studies (Centre National D’études Spatiales), or CNES, the French equivalent of NASA. The group itself, collective author of the report, is an association of experts, many of whom are or have been auditors of IHEDN, and it is presided over by General Denis Letty of the Air Force, former auditor (FA) of IHEDN.

http://www.ufoevidence.org/topics/Cometa.htm

Can't wait to see what the French have found. (no offence to the French people)

I'm a big skeptic that they will publish the truth, because it reminds me of an article on wikipedia about French ufologist Jacques Vallée, this is why:

"In May 1955, Vallée first sighted a flying saucer over his Pontoise home. Six years later in 1961, while working on the staff of the French Space Committee, Vallée witnessed the destruction of the tracking tapes of unknown objects orbiting the earth. These events contributed to Vallée's long-standing interest in the UFO phenomenon."