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  Date / Time: 11/26/2008 6:05 AM UTC

  Rod - FBI Investigation - Danichi's post
  

  By Rick Myers-Staff Reporter
  
  01/08/2008-WICHITA, Kansas. - Brandon Mowry still doesn't know for sure what he saw flash across six or seven video frames about six years ago, but knows for sure it was an unidentified flying object.
  
  Mowry, who attended school in Gering and graduated from Morrill High School in 1996, worked for the Star-Herald and Gering Courier while in high school and college, and he became part of a nationwide mystery because of video footage he shot while a photojournalist for an Albany, N.Y., television station.
  
  The television photojournalist will be part of the History Channel's "MonsterQuest" feature on Wednesday at 8 p.m. local time about Unidentified Flying Creatures.
  
  On Oct. 20, 2002, while working as a photojournalist for FOX 23 News in Albany, NY, Mowry, now almost 30, was at the Albany International Airport getting weather "bump shots" and photographing airplanes to use for the evening's weather segment.
  
  After photographing five or six planes he headed back to the station and went into the edit bay.
  
  "I really hadn't seen anything unusual," Mowry said during a recent interview. "I just happened to stop and pause (the video) and there was this thing that shot through. It was only six or seven frames, or about a quarter of a second, from the bottom right to the upper left."
  
  Not knowing what he saw, Mowry said he immediately pulled in the assignment editor.
  
  "Her mouth dropped," Mowry said.
  
  Immediately the Albany police were called, but Mowry said he had to go out and cover a car wreck. When he returned the newsroom had been sectioned off and everybody was being questioned about the young photojournalist and his honesty.
  
  Even the FBI got involved because of the ongoing security concerns in the nation. Mowry said he had to return to the airport and show investigators the location where he shot the video.
  
  The original video was confiscated and sent to Washington for analysis.
  
  "They found out it was legitimate," Mowry said. The station had the foresight to make copies of the original video shot by Mowry that has made the rounds since, portions of which can be found on YouTube and on Google by searching for Albany UFO.
  
  Mowry said he continued to be interviewed by the FBI and even had to undergo an extensive lie detector test, which agents at first said he had failed but later said he had passed.
  
  "That was one of the strangest and worst days of my life," he said. "I knew I really didn't do anything. I was just doing my job and it was on my tape."
  
  Within a short time Mowry was interviewed live on Fox and Friends and The Early Show with Hannah Storm and then things kind of died down.
  
  "I even was on the Art Bell radio show in the middle of the night," he said.
  
  Things kind of died down and Mowry said he didn't hear much for about five years and he moved on to KSNW, the NBC affiliate in Wichita, Kan.
  
  "I still don't know and the FBI still hasn't come up with an explanation of what it was," he said.
  
  Mowry said he heard from a producer at the History Channel that it was doing a show about "rods" - biological creatures that supposedly live in the upper atmosphere, and possibly what he might have captured on the video clip.
  
  According to the History Channel Web site: "For decades cameras have been capturing images of a flying, torpedo-like creature. So fast it cannot be seen with the naked eye. Some think it is a military weapon, others believe it may be a creature from another dimension. But just what is it? This MonsterQuest scientific journey will use super high-speed photography, physics and even a wind tunnel experiment to shed light on a creature simply referred to as Rods."
  
  MonsterQuest seeks to reveal the truth of legendary monster sightings around the world. Deploying the latest in hi-tech equipment, each episode scientifically examines the best evidence available, from pictures and video, to hair and bones, as well as the eyewitness accounts themselves.
  
  The History Channel flew Mowry to Albany to shoot reenactments from shooting the weather footage, the reaction of the assignment editor and even the interrogation by the FBI.
  
  "I guess I never thought of it as being a living creature," Mowry said, "but this is a documentary about rods. I'm curious to see if my video is the same as the others."
  
  Despite his newfound 15 minutes of fleeting fame, Mowry has his sights set on a just completed 22-minute documentary from raw footage on the Greensburg, Kan., tornado that devastated the small community. He hopes that piece and other work he is doing will propel him into a top 20 market, such as KUSA Channel 9 in Denver.
  
  "I was in Greenburg just five hours after it hit," he said.
  
  "That was one of the reasons I was looking forward to coming to Kansas, was to chase tornados."
  
  source and references:
  
  The Star-Herald - Scottsbluff, Nebraska, USA
  http://tinyurl.com/yoznq7
  
  ==============================

  ===============
  
  
  Albany, NY Fox TV UFO Case
   
  At 07:30 hrs. (Pacific) on Monday morning, October 21, 2002, the National UFO Reporting Center received a telephone call from a television news reporter, Mr. Dan Bazile, with FOX 23 news (a Clear Channel Communication-owned station), who apprised us that one of their photographers had inadvertently captured brief footage of a very bizarre object streaking across the sky near Albany, NY. He described that one of their photographers had been out on Sunday afternoon, October 20th, photographing aircraft at a nearby airport, and that the peculiar object had been detected in the news studio when the footage was being examined at slow speed.
   
  From that first telephone conversation, NUFORC was not left with a clear understanding of the nature of the object and its appearance, but Mr. Bazile offered to forward to NUFORC still images from the tape. NUFORC offered to help identify the object, if possible, and to put the station in touch with photo analysts, who might be able to assist in further analysis.
   
  In a second conversation with Mr. Bazile on Tuesday morning, October 22, he apprised NUFORC that the original video tape of the object had been forcibly "confiscated" from the "young photographer" by "four FBI agents," from the Albany, NY, FBI offices, a statement which now is in question. (Please see paragraphs below.) Mr. Bazile went on to describe how the agents had invited the photographer outside the station, and that the agents had then "taken" the "original" tape from the photographer, who had it on his person at the time of the meeting with the FBI personnel. When NUFORC suggested that such an act, in the absence of a court warrant, might be illegal, Mr. Bazile averred that he agreed with that assessment. However, he stated that the station still had in its possession several copies of the original tape.
   
  When NUFORC asked Mr. Bazile whether FOX 23 was planning to do a news report on the incident with the FBI, he responded that the station was "considering" that possibility, but such a decision was out of his hands. He then stated that in order to answer that question, he would like first to speak with his "supervisor" about the matter, and that he would call back "in a few minutes."
   
  After approximately 45 minutes had elapsed, NUFORC telephoned FOX 23 and requested to be put in touch with Mr. Bazile. After a short period of time, he came on the line, but after only a very short conversation he said he would like to put his supervisor, Mr. Dave Brown, Station News Director for FOX 23, on the line.
   
  During our 7-minute conversation with Mr. Brown, he stated that a copy of the tape had been provided to the personnel from the FBI by his station voluntarily, because his station "willingly co-operated with members of law enforcement." He added that he personally had provided the video to the FBI, that it had not been "taken" by them, as had been suggested by Mr. Bazile. Mr. Brown stated that he had arrived at work on Sunday evening "at about 8 or 9 o'clock," and that FBI personnel had been photographed in the station while they watched the tape, and that that footage had been aired by the station on Sunday night as a news report. Mr. Brown implied that this fact illustrated that there had been no "mystery" surrounding the FBI's interest in the footage, and that, in his opinion, no impropriety surrounded the transfer of the tape to the FBI personnel.
   
  Mr. Brown also added that he did not know whether the original tape had been provided to the FBI, or whether they had received a copy. However, he said that with digital tape, it really did not matter, since very little fidelity was lost in a copied tape.
   
  When asked how many representatives from the FBI had been present at the station on Sunday night, he said that he did not know, but there were at least two representatives from that office present. He said there might have been more, but he could not be certain, since "there were so many people present in the station that night."
   
  Mr. Brown closed the conversation with the statement that FOX 23 would not be devoting any more news coverage to the footage, suggesting that the story was now old news, and that, in his opinion, it did not warrant any further attention by his station.
   
  Following our conversation with Mr. Brown, NUFORC contacted the FBI offices in Albany [(518) 465-7551]. We spoke with Lisa Massaroni, a public affairs spokeswoman, who apprised us that to the best of her knowledge, the FBI office did have a copy of the tape, that their personnel were planning to analyze it, but that she did not know the status of the investigation. She directed us to her supervisor for any further questions, and added that he would be out of his office until October 24th.
   
  NUFORC also was contacted by a gentleman from Birmingham, AL, Mr. Brian Huff, a forensic video analyst, who had captured the video from the FOX 23 website, and who has analyzed the tape. We provide elements of his video analysis with this statement. Mr. Huff has stated to NUFORC that, based on his analysis of the footage, the object is genuine, and that it is not a superimposed image. He also stated that the object is on the other side of the clouds, which provides some perspective as to the size of the object, and its velocity, which Mr. Huff concludes is considerable. We extend our gratitude to Mr. Huff for sharing his analysis with NUFORC and Jeff Rense.
   
  Prepared by Peter B. Davenport, Director, National UFO Reporting Center on
  October 22, 2002.
  Peter B. Davenport, Director
  National UFO Reporting Center
  P. O. Box 45623 University Station
  Seattle, WA 98145
  director@ufocenter.com www.UFOCENTER.com
  Reporting Hotline: (206) 722-3000
   
   
  Forensic Video Analyst Certifies Object Is Genuine
   
  Note - The following data is from Mr. Brian Huff as sent to Peter Davenport...
   
  From Brian Huff
  Birmingham, Alabama
  10-22-2
   
  3d Forensic Graphics, Video editing, production and verification, Virtual crime scene 3d walkthoughs, Expert Witness and Consultant. Specializing in verification, visualization. and re-creation.
   
  Goal 1 - Verify authenticity of video with respect to object as an original embedded component.
  Goal 2 - Clarify shape and size for analysis and comparison.
  Goal 3 - Establish that object is not of the nature of a small "close proximity "rod" (as identified in the research of Jose Escamilla -ed) or insect illusion.
   
   
  Object Verification
  Direct color inversion of non-enhance video still. Objects in the atmosphere generally reflect the color of their environment-and appear somewhat as monochromatic images.  Direct color inversion is useful for detecting overlays, pasting, chromakey, and other methods used to "fake" photo and film.  An authentic image should invert to an alternative pseudo-monochromatic color scheme, with no obvious foreign colors or anmalies-sharp lines, etc
  
  
  
  ===================================
  
  On Sunday, October 20, 2002, at 4:20 p.m. EDT, FOX 23 News videographer, Brandon Mowry, was filming a weather segment for WXXA-TV in Albany, New York. While the camera was still running, he lifted the camera 180 degrees to get another shot of an airliner taking off. He did not know at the time that he caught ten frames (1/3rd second) of digital videotape of the jet airliner passing out of the upper right corner and a strange, missile-like, unidentified aerial object rapidly passing through sky and seemingly through a cloud estimated to be at 5,000 feet. He discovered the rapid object in the editing room and showed it to his colleagues. Someone called the police who went to the edit room, saw the tape, and promptly called the FBI. Here now is Brandon Mowry, the cameraman, with his story about what happened that day and with the FBI.
  
  Interview:
  Brandon Mowry, Videographer, Fox 23 News WXXA, Albany, New York:
  Last Sunday, nine days ago (Oct. 20, 2002), I was shooting a weather shot for the news that evening. I was at the Albany International Airport at the end of a runway. It was 4:30 p.m. EDT and I was filming a plane taking off towards me and eventually heading directly over my head. As I was following the plane, it came directly above me, I had to adjust the camera 180 degrees and catch the plane taking off away. It was during that adjustment when I wasn't looking through the viewfinder that this UFO, or ?, flew by. Like I said, I didn't notice it until I got back to the station. I drove directly back to the station, threw it into the edit machine and was checking the stillness of the shots, seeing which one would be best to use and saw this thing fly by. It was very, very fast. I saw it. I rewound it and paused it to see what it was. I saw something very, very strange. And very, very interesting. Then I grabbed the person closest to me who was an editor and showed him. He couldn't believe it. Then I began showing everybody else at the station. At that time, I decided that I needed to go out and shoot an accident. So, I left immediately and went and shot an accident. A half an hour later when I got back to the station, there were police there checking out the footage. They were in the process of calling their Captain to come in to check it out. Also, when the Captain got there, he took one look at it and called the FBI and the FBI was at the station within the hour.
  
  WHAT IS ON YOUR VIDEOTAPE? It's very distinct, even when you don't blow it up. We zoomed in on it and kind of cleaned it up to take a closer look at it. It's a very thin rod or cylinder-shaped, round cylinder rod, dark, with two sets of wings. One set in the front and one set in the back. And the wings were white. Small little appendages. It looks a lot like a missile.
  
  I SAW A FRAME SOMEBODY E-MAILED ME AND I THOUGHT IT WAS EXTREMELY STRANGE IN STRUCTURE. BUT WHAT REALLY IMPRESSED ME WAS HOW ALMOST TRANSPARENT IT SEEMED. Right. I don't know. We talked with some ex-military personnel because a lot of people are saying this thing looks like a missile. A lot of people think it is some kind of secret military craft. He looked at it and said that it doesn't look like any missile he's ever seen before. But still, a lot of people are saying it looks like a missile. It resembles more of a missile than anything else. But it could be anything, you know.  The SR-17 Blackbird, I understand, and the B-2 bombers ­ the technology was there and we had those, the military had those 20 years before the public knew about them. Maybe this is something the military has that no one knows about. But it's just as possible that it could be a UFO.
  
  WHAT HAPPENED WHEN THE FBI GOT THERE? WHAT KIND OF QUESTIONS DID THEY ASK AND WHAT HAPPENED? OK. The FBI got to the station. Talked to me about half an hour in the break room and had me meet three other FBI agents up at the airport to show them exactly where I shot this thing, where it came from, what direction, where the plane was and everything like that. Then they confiscated my tape. It was the original tape. I said, 'I would like to keep this. I shot it.' They said, 'Well, it's evidence. You have to give it to us.' I didn't throw any punches or anything. I was a little upset, but I just did it. They took it and that tape is in Washington right now being analyzed, from what I can understand.
  
  AT THE FBI. Right. Then two days later, the FBI called me up in the morning and asked me to come down. They needed to ask me a couple of questions that they forgot to ask me. So, I went down and they talked to me in a little room for about an hour.
  
  THIS IS IN ALBANY? Right, in FBI headquarters here. And after they were done talking to me, then they said, 'You know what's next.' I said, 'What's that?' They said, 'We're going to ask you if you will take a polygraph test.' And I didn't have anything to hide so I said, 'Sure, I'll take one.' They took me to the New York State Police Department where there was a polygraph examiner and I went upstairs with him into a room. He told me how it worked, everything like that. They ran a couple of pre-tests on me to see if I was able to be polygraphed. I guess one out of ten people aren't. I was, though, according to them. Then they told me the questions that I was going to be asked. I was really nervous, but then they asked me and we ran through a kind of pre-test of everything they were going to ask me and then we did the actual test. And that took about three hours in this room with this guy.
  
  WHAT KIND OF QUESTIONS DID THEY ASK YOU? The first and last questions were: 'Do you live in the United States?' That was the first question. The last question was: 'Do you live in Canada?' And all the questions in between were like, 'Have you ever lied to the FBI? Have you ever committed a felony? Did you tamper with that tape?' And one strange question was, 'Did you receive $500 from a Clifford somebody that used to work at Fox that wanted revenge on FOX because he got fired from there?'  I checked that out at the station and nobody has ever worked there named Clifford. So, I don't know what that was about. Then another, I went through with everything. Granted, I was nervous and my heart was pumping even through those questions like, 'Do you live in the United States?' My heart just started racing even though I had nothing to hide. Then they told me that after the test, they came and sat down in front of me and told me I didn't do too well. I said, 'What do you mean I didn't do too well?' They go, 'Well, you failed.' I said, 'What? I failed? That can't be!' He said, 'You're lying. You're not telling us something. It just doesn't add up, Brandon. There's too many coincidences here.' I just couldn't believe it. He kept pushing me and pushing me and saying, 'You're going to lose your job. This is going to be on the front page of the paper. You were on the radio show this morning. People are going to think you are insane. You are going to give FOX a bad name and you're going to lose your job. So, you better tell us what is going on.' And I just kept telling them. And he goes, 'What do you think is going to happen when that tape comes back and it says you tampered with it?' I said, 'That's impossible! I guarantee 100% when that tape comes back, it will not ­ it will say I did not tamper with it.' I just looked at him and he drove me to tears. He was just pushing me and pushing me and I did not know what was going on. He drove me to tears and then got up and grabbed the polygraph papers and left the room. I was in there for fifteen minutes by myself and all I could say over and over was, 'What's going on?' I couldn't believe it. What's going to happen? I'm not lying, you know? Then, a few minutes later, he comes back in and tells me, 'I'm sorry. I apologize. I re-examined the polygraph and it turns out you were telling the truth and I can't say I'm sorry enough.'
  
  WHEN DID THIS OCCUR? This was last Tuesday, a week ago today. I think it was a whole game. I think that was their whole plan to do exactly what they did to intimidate me and try to make me admit to something I didn't do and maybe it would go away.
  
  COULD YOU GO BACK TO THE EDITING ROOM WHEN THE FBI FIRST SHOWED UP ­ BECAUSE YOU WERE THERE, RIGHT? Right.
  
  WHAT WAS THE DEMEANOR WHEN THEY CAME INTO THE EDITING ROOM AND WHAT WERE THE FIRST THINGS THEY DID AND SAID AND ASKED THEN? They came in. There was only one guy at first and he came in and it was ­ he just kind of looked at it. You could tell, he was like, 'Wow!' look on his face. But it wasn't like anyone else who had seen it before who were like 'Wow, what is that?' He just kind of kept to himself. He had a notebook and he looked at it over and over and over. It was business after that. You could tell that this was something that is a problem or needs attention. And he went right at it and interviewed me and wrote down everything he asked me. He asked a bunch of questions about my past, stuff like that.
  
  HOW OLD ARE YOU? 24.
  
  AND YOU'VE BEEN WORKING IN TELEVISION FOR ABOUT 2.5 YEARS. Right.
  
  SO, YOU'VE REALLY GONE FROM HIGH SCHOOL TO WORK WITH A COUPLE OF YEARS IN COLLEGE. Right.
  
  SO, FOR THEM TO QUESTION EVEN YOUR BACKGROUND, THERE REALLY ISN'T MUCH FOR THEM TO QUESTION BECAUSE YOU HAVE BEEN WORKING AS A VIDEOGRAPHER FOR 2.5 YEARS RIGHT OUT OF SCHOOL? Right, yeah. They were asking people around at work when I wasn't around what kind of a person is Brandon? Would he ever do something like this? Does he seem like a person who would make up something like this? I don't see how ­ maybe they are doing their job. And that's good that they are covering all the bases. I hope they would do that. But this is on tape and the time line is documented. 4:20 I told them I shot that plane. The plane that was in the shot, they checked the airport and found out that that plane took off at 4:20. I was back at the station at 5 or before discovering this thing and showing it to everybody. So, that's 40 minutes I had to supposedly doctor this tape. Thirty of those minutes were spent in the news car on the way to the station. All I have in that news car is a scanner and a cell phone.
  
  YOU ARE SAYING WITHOUT QUESTION THAT YOU DIDN'T EVEN KNOW THAT THIS WAS ON THE TAPE UNTIL YOU SCREENED IT IN THE STATION? Exactly. I wasn't even looking through the viewfinder when this thing flew by. It's been 9 days now and we haven't heard anything. This tape has been in Washington for a week now and we haven't had any explanation as to what this thing is.
  
  YOU HAVE A GOOD DUB OF IT? Yeah. It's a 2nd generation dub, but this is digital video. I think the big thing about this is that we shot it on really good equipment, a $20,000 camera, whereas most, a lot of, UFOs are shot on home videos. And this thing ­ what saved me here ­ people have said this is an insect. 'It's an insect close to the screen.' Or, 'It's an error in the tape.' But that's all discredited because if you see the whole video, there is one cloud in the upper left hand corner and this thing goes behind that cloud. It's so easy to see. That's not an insect, you know!
  
  IT'S SOMETHING AS FAR AWAY AS THE CLOUD AND GOES BEHIND IT AND HAS THIS VERY STRANGE, LONG, MISSILE-LIKE STRUCTURE WITH THESE APPENDAGES AT THE FRONT AND BACK AND HAS WHAT SEEMS TO BE ALMOST AN EFFORT TO CLOAK ITSELF IN A KIND OF INVISIBILITY THAT REFLECTS THE BLUE SKY. I never thought of it like that but I guess you could say that. Yeah. I guess you could say that.
  
  I'M ALSO CURIOUS IF IN THAT FIRST ARRIVAL OF THE FBI IN THE EDITING ROOM, DID THE FELLOW WHO WAS TAKING NOTES ASK TO YOU OR ANYONE ELSE AT THE STATION ABOUT THIS BEING AN UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECT IN THE CONTEXT OF SOMETHING EXTRATERRESTRIAL? No, no, they never said anything like that. There was a lot of talk around the station like that. But, no ­ the FBI never said anything like that. But I would like to add that this thing that is flying through the screen ­ it's only ­ we checked what the cloud ceiling was that day. And the cloud ceiling was 5000 feet. This thing was at least 5,000 feet in the air and it was almost as long as that plane, which is about 300 feet in the air, from that (longer) distance. And it's only on the screen for about 7 frames. We shoot, those cameras shoot 30 frames a second. So this thing was in the screen for a third of a second. And it's that far away. When you see like a jet up there flying, it looks like it's a snail because it's so far away because of our perception, it looks like it's going slow. But this thing is just ­ a third of a second through that frame and it's gone at least 5,000 feet in the air. I mean, I don't know of anything that can go that fast that's on earth.
  
  HOW BIG IS IT REALLY? Exactly. It looks huge and it's so far away. It's got to be hundreds of feet in length and going thousands of miles an hour.
  
  WHEN YOU WERE LAST TUESDAY SUBJECTED TO THAT LIE DETECTOR TEST FOR THE THREE HOURS AND ALL OF THE QUESTIONS THAT WERE ASKED, DID ANYONE IN THAT PROCESS EVER EVEN BRING UP THE LETTERS 'UFO' OR 'EXTRATERRESTRIAL?' No. No. Not at all.
  
  DID THEY BRING UP ANY WORDS AT ALL THAT WOULD SUGGEST THEY EVEN HAD AN IDEA WHAT IT MIGHT BE? No. What was weird was at the end. I had tears in my eyes when I came back down. The agent who brought me to the New York State Police Dept. He was downstairs and the other guy who administered the test looked at the agent and he said, 'Brandon is a little upset with me.' Tears are rolling down my face. He's like, 'I told him that I misread the polygraph test and I told him that he didn't pass and he got a little upset with me, but he did OK.' And then the guy just looked at me, the FBI agent, and smiled and goes, 'I knew you would pass. I knew you would do it. I just knew you were telling the truth." And he was shaking my hand. But he said, 'We still don't know what this thing is and I'm going to need your help to find out what this thing is.' And I just looked at him. In the heat of the moment, I was so upset. It was close to one of, on the top of the list, of one of the worst days in my life emotionally. He looks at me and says, 'I'm going to need your help. I'm going to give you a call. You still need to help us figure out what this is.'"
  
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