Jul 14, 2008 6:51 pm US/Mountain
UFO Briefing Held At Denver's Auraria Campus
By Matthew J. Buettner, cbs4denver.com
DENVER (CBS4) ―
A UFO Briefing was held all day Saturday in Denver with speakers from around the nation, including a Colorado man who claims to have video of an alien.
The purpose of the event, held at the St. Cajetan's Center on the Auraria Campus, was to provide the public with evidence of UFOs.
"From research to sightings, Colorado is a hot bed for information and experiences," Alejandro Rojas says on UFOThinkTank.com. Rojas is the Mutual UFO (MUFON) Network Director of Public Education. "We average over 100 reported sightings per year by concerned citizens who see things in the sky that they can't explain."
Also on hand at the event was Jeff Peckman, who claims there is a government conspiracy to hide evidence of aliens. Peckman started the Denver Ballot Initiative with the goal of creating an extraterrestrial commission to study the implication UFOs have on the citizens of Denver.
Peckman and his friend, Stan Romanek, who also spoke at the event, made news last month when they said they have a video they claim shows an alien peering through the window of Romanek's home when he lived in Nebraska. Reporters were allowed to view the video at the time, but only a still image was released to the media. The pair has a deal with a documentary company for the rights to the video. Some say the video looks legitimate, while others say it looked like a common extraterrestrial hoax.
Peckman and Romanek appeared on Larry King Live in June. Peckman also appeared by himself on David Letterman soon after news of the video was released.
"I'm not trying to force you into believing," Romanek said at the briefing. "You can come to that conclusion on your own."
Romanek claims to have been having strange experiences since December of 2000 after he went to Red Rocks to videotape the surroundings in hopes to get his girlfriend to visit. He claims to have seen a UFO with other witnesses and captured it on video.
After his first sighting he claimed to have many more, including a time when patrons of a retail store he managed informed him that there was a large "blinking object" hovering above the store. He said he went home that night and was woken up by a knock on his door at 2 a.m. He said his sister answered the door and he remembered seeing three beings that weren't human in his hallway.
The next morning, Romanek said his sister noticed strange marks on his back and wounds on his hands with the hair around his wrists gone. He said the wounds healed remarkably fast, but could be seen as fluorescent under a black light long after they healed.
"My friend Mark suggested I get in touch with MUFON," he said.
Rojas said MUFON made clear to him to note at the briefing that the organization has yet to investigate Romanek's claims, but he had been around Romanek long enough now that he believes him.
Other claims Romanek made are as follows:
• His van was the target of a UFO spotlight with many other witnesses at an intersection in Lakewood.
• He caught more video of a UFO at Old Stone House Park with many witnesses who filed reports that can be viewed on his Web site.
• The aliens have communicated with him through mental telepathy. He says they can communicate a whole idea in one "thought."
• He has video of a "ball of light" in his house he claims is extraterrestrial. The same ball of light could be seen on surveillance video from cameras he set up outside his house. The ball of light seems to go through a wall of his house.
• He said after being abducted he was once found on the top of his roof. Another time he was naked, outside with temperatures in the 20s.
Romanek said after moving to Colorado Springs, he has been repeatedly harassed by people he thinks might belong to the government. His friends have received strange voicemails from a person with a computerized voice (he said was from Audrey 3000 software) that seems to encourage him to continue talking about his ordeal and to be wary of the military. The voicemail told him he should leave Colorado Springs, the home of North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), Fort Carson, Peterson Air Force Base, the Air Force Space Command (AFSPC), Schriever Air Force Base, and the Air Force Academy.
He said in December of 2004 he was riding a bicycle to work and a black SUV cut him off. A passenger in the front got out and told him, "Keep your mouth shut!" He said he told them he would never stop talking about it and was assaulted. During the assault Romanek said two others got out of the SUV and he hit one with a chain and believes he seriously hurt him. A stun gun was then used on Romanek. Police responded quickly and the SUV fled. He was told a chase ensued and the SUV disappeared into a military base.
Romanek said the harassment continued and in February of 2005 his computer was hacked. When he got home he noticed his computer wasn't working and was frozen on a Web page with a CIA logo.
Another time he said he was with his family when a suspicious white car drove slowly by him while at a drive-in restaurant and his van instantly stopped running. The mechanic asked if the van had been "hit by lightning." All electronics on the van were fried. Romanek believes his van was hit by a high-power microwave (HPM), a military technology.
Romanek also says he is the constant victim of home break-ins, his TV and surveillance camera cords have been cut. He says he has been followed by helicopters during the day and night.
Other speakers at the event were Paola Harris, and international journalist who specializes in UFO research; Chuck Zukowski, who has worked with UFO investigators who specialize in the Roswell Incident; Jeff Danelek, an author from Denver who specializes in writing about the paranormal, religion, spirituality and more; and Joe Fex, a paranormal archivist. Alejandro Rojas also spoke at the event about the history regarding the military and other government involvement in the UFO phenomenon.
Additional ResourcesThe following groups were present at the event or were sponsors:
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