Phantoms and Monsters

War Report: Ghool
Just the Facts? Jersey City UFO Photo, Too Much Space Junk and Possible Abduction
This Week on 'Beyond the Edge' Radio: Christopher Quaratino - The Truth Behind the Amityville Horror

Posted: 02 Sep 2011 01:43 PM PDT

The following narrative was forwarded by a friend who owns a security company. The witness is one of his employees who started working for him after several years in Iraq and Afghanistan. He states that he worked for the U.S. Army Criminal Investigations (CID) before and during the conflicts. He left the service for unspecified reasons. This account is second-hand but I believe the witness' sincerity though he wishes to remain anonymous. The anecdote was written by the witness and has not been edited except for some spelling:

I was an investigator with CID from 2004-2009 and served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Most of my work was related to various schemes (bribery, money laundering, theft, etc.) by enlisted personnel.

In 2005 I was informed that I would be embedded with an Army infantry unit in a mountainous region in the Sulaymaniyah Governorate (northeast Iraq). Once I reached my assigned location we were briefed on strange activity that had occurred in a particular area just a few miles from the Iranian border.

We started the investigation by reading reports that came from a few local villagers who stated that people were being hunted in the mountains by an unknown creature. One man told me that the Iranians called it a 'ghool'. He had never seen it but it was described as a tall man-like creature with long arms and legs who fed on human flesh. I reported the information I gathered to my superiors after returning to the unit HQ.

A few days later I was ordered to return to the area of the strange activity and investigate further. An infantry squad with squad leader was assigned to accompany me. The general consensus was that it was likely a soldier who left his post (AWOL) and went batshit and started causing problems. Armed conflict can induce the worst in people to surface. If this was the case and the individual was killing non-combatants our job would be formidable.

After a few days of surveillance and searching we had no clue of what we were dealing with. If this was indeed a soldier or other civilian man we would have seen him or gathered some evidence. I was starting to believe that this was a wild goose chase but the villagers were animate that there was something hunting them.

One evening the squad leader and I were going over a report when we were alarmed by a god-awful scream that came from the direction of a mountain pass that we had just searched a few hours before. A few local people who had been outside quickly made their way home. It was obvious that they had heard this scream before.

Within the hour the squad and I were slowly entering the pass. It was night but the moon was very bright so we were able to see around a bit. We searched the entire area for several hours using night vision and high-intensity lights. We found nothing - not a footprint or remnant from any creature fitting the description.

I have always wondered what we heard that night. I have asked a few learned people for their opinion but with little satisfaction. There were many strange instances in Iraq that just never made the light of day. I heard of some but I'm positive most were just filed away.

NOTE: interesting story...there have been humanoid claims by the Persians for almost 900 years. There is a Persian story about Ameen and the Ghool and the 'Valley of the Angel of Death' as well as other folklore. I do hope that some of the strange phenomena experienced in Iraq and Afghanistan are disclosed at some point...Lon

Just the Facts? Jersey City UFO Photo, Too Much Space Junk and Possible Abduction

Posted: 02 Sep 2011 10:28 AM PDT

Spectacular UFO Photo - Jersey City, NJ

MUFON CMS - Last night in New York (Aug 30th) around 10pm I noticed from the apartment windows overlooking the Hudson looking out across to Jersey City from Lower Manhattan a hovering, stationary-seeming airborne object over Jersey City. It had a bright red light flashing regularly underneath. I enjoy aviation and frequently look out of the apartment windows to see what's what. I knew this wasn't a plane from first glance. I looked at it long and hard because it had an odd bulk to its shape. It seemed too big for a helicopter, and probably therefore was a Blimp. My feeling was that it was unidentifiable by the naked eye. It made me pretty inquisitive to know what it was. I watched it hardly moving, maybe progressing but very slow. Logic told me it HAD to be a helicopter, so i got on with other stuff. But when after 10 minutes I saw it was still there and had not changed position much, I decided to photograph it. These pictures were taken with an 8 second exposure. I zoomed one using iPhoto. The object is not something I recognise. It is probably some sort of balloon/blimp. But it would be interesting to know what type, and what it was doing. It continued slowly, progressing inland away from Jersey City for about an hour, the flashing red light very prominent and visible. My friends' kids came in not long after I had photographed it and I pointed out the object to them. It must have been seen by thousands. I am sure there is a sensible explanation.

KENS NOTE: This case was logged into the New York MUFON CMS system. This case should be a New Jersey case. MUFON CMS system has a question on the form that is very confusing to witnesses. MUFON ask for the nearest city on the form. This is why many witnesses do not add the correct city the UFO was witnessed in. The witness adds the nearest city instead. Many MUFON cases are basically logging the wrong city for a UFO sighting. I have discovered this error and have passed this information to MUFON and again it goes on deaf ears. WTF.......Ken Pfeifer - World UFO Photos

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Too much space junk

Scientists in the US have warned Nasa that the amount of so-called space junk orbiting Earth is at tipping point.

A report by the National Research Council says the debris could cause fatal leaks in spaceships or destroy valuable satellites.

It calls for international regulations to limit the junk and more research into the possible use of launching large magnetic nets or giant umbrellas.

The debris includes clouds of minuscule fragments, old boosters and satellites.

Some computer models show the amount of orbital rubbish "has reached a tipping point, with enough currently in orbit to continually collide and create even more debris, raising the risk of spacecraft failures," the research council said in a statement on Thursday.

Hopes of limiting the amount of space junk in orbit suffered two major setbacks in recent years.

In 2007, China conducted an anti-satellite weapon test which destroyed a decommissioned weather satellite, smashing the object into 150,000 pieces larger than 1cm.

Two years later, two satellites - one defunct and one active - crashed in orbit, creating even more debris.

"Those two single events doubled the amount of fragments in Earth orbit and completely wiped out what we had done in the last 25 years," said Donald Kessler, who led the research.

There are 22,000 pieces of debris large enough to track from the ground, but smaller objects could still cause serious damage.

The International Space Station must occasionally dodge some of the junk, which flies around the Earth at speeds of up to 17,500 mph (28,164 km/h).

Dr Robert Massey, Royal Astronomical Society: "It is a serious issue"

In June, some debris narrowly missed the space station, forcing its six crew to go to their escape capsules and prepare for an emergency evacuation back to Earth.

The situation is critical, said Mr Kessler, a retired Nasa scientist, because colliding debris creates even more of the junk.

"We've lost control of the environment," he said.

The report makes no recommendations about how to clean up the field of debris.

But it refers to an earlier study for the Pentagon's science think-tank, the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa).

The Darpa report, dubbed "Catcher's Mitt", suggested a range of technologies, including harpoons, nets and an umbrella-shaped device that would sweep up the debris.

The aim would be to push the debris further towards the earth where it would burn up, or into a higher but safer orbit. - BBC

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Click image for larger version

UFO above my home...possible abduction

Harleysville, Pennsylvania: First thing is first I would like to apologize for the date being wrong on the "date of event" area. It was NOT approximately January 1st 2011. The website kept giving me an error saying that the date I put in was "later than the current date," even though I listed it clearly as "approximately October 15th 2010."

Sometime in the middle of October 2010, I was up late playing computer games in my bedroom on the second story of my home here in Harleysville, Pennsylvania. I was getting tired around 12:30am and decided to go to sleep around 1:00am. I fell asleep quite quickly in nothing but my boxers. Before I go into detail about the encounter I experienced, allow me to explain the layout of my room relative to the map I submitted.
My bedroom is on the second story on the southwest end of my home. I have 3 windows in my room on the front face of the house and have access to both the attic and the only fire escape on the building. This house used to be an old office building in which my bedroom was one of the offices used. My actual bed is located in the southwest corner next to a window and directly next to the fire escape door. This door has no handle on the outside and only a bar-release on the inside similar to what you would find on the inside of a school entrance door or office building. The door also has a 1.3x1.3 foot window in the top center. The actual fire escape on the outside of the door is nothing more than a metal platform and railing leading down the side of my house with metal stairs. I often use this to have a cigarette when I am at home since smoking inside the house is forbidden by the landlord. This goes to say I am quite familiar with what the scenery on the outside of my home looks like in this location.

I awoke on this day around 3am based on the dark of night outside, however, when I awoke I was already outside on my fire escape platform. I had not been dreaming as far as I could tell since everything was as it was when I am awake, and have had many vivid almost lucid dreams in the past, and I can tell you this was not that sensation. I was very groggy and confused as to how I had walked in my sleep. I have not sleepwalked since I was about 8 years old, and at this time I was 19 almost 20. I almost immediately noticed something very very large above me after this initial confusion, and took quick notice to my door being closed behind me leaving no way of re-entering my home.

As soon as I noticed this however, I felt the urge to look at this large object hovering above me. As I looked up I noticed it was sort of rounded in shape but had many many lights on the underside of it. It was directly above me so I had no view of the sides of the object. The lights were a very very bright white. Nothing like any fluorescent bulb I have ever seen. These lights were flashing without any pattern it seemed and were located all over the underside of the object in rectangular and very long trapezoidal shapes. The object had to have been at least 250 feet in diameter, possibly larger.

The underside of the object also had many things jutting out from it with these lights on it as well, but I took a firm notice to one in particular. There was this large piece with the lights on the side of it coming out from the right of the object. It's shape was like an upside down cone with the end cut off. It resembled an air filter for a high performance engine in a car. It had symmetrical lights all around its sides that were identical to the ones on the underside of the object, however the bottom of this piece jutting out was a very very dark gray-black color.
When I had first looked up, the lights were so blinding that I had to shield my eyes with one hand to see they were flashing and their shapes and locations. I observed all of this within less than 90 seconds before I became very disoriented. I forgot what I was doing, where I was at, and who I was. Almost as if these lights were inducing an acute case of amnesia. The last thing I can remember before passing out was the strange sensation of floating. I had never experienced this before, but it was as if I were suddenly weightless. My feet were no longer touching the cold metal platform and I was no longer shielding my eyes. As soon as I was blinded by the lights that were flashing I seemed to lose consciousness, unless the lights caused me to forget everything leaving me no memory of anything afterwards.

Throughout these short minutes the object made absolutely no sound. It was as if it was making everything around it completely quiet. If you have ever heard the saying "Silence is Deafening," I would have to agree, there were no sounds made after I noticed the object above me. This was extremely strange since my home is on a main road, and relatively close to the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Hearing not even the sound of a cricket chirp or the hum of the highway was definitely weird. I also remember the silence being almost suffocating. It felt very heavy, as if it were making the air thick like soup.

In my short, and very close observation, I remember the object being about 20 to 40 feet above me and the space in between my house and the neighbors house, and the tree in between the front of our homes was blocking out a portion of this large object. There was no wind, as if Time had stopped in its tracks. This is all simply speculation, but it was what it seemed to me.

After I lost consciousness, it got extremely bizarre. I remember waking up without any senses except for my sight and sense of balance. I was laying down with my eyes looking upwards towards what seemed to be a ceiling. My eyes were not working correctly though. It was as if I had been administered eye drops that you would get at the doctors to dilate your pupils. Everything was very blurry and distorted. I remember very little, but I do remember everything was a green/brown/gray color around me. I also remember seeing strange objects above me that appeared to be tools or examination equipment above me, none of which seemed to be created by humans. It was very very blurry though so it was hard to tell if that was exactly what it was.

I then remember a figure move into view above me. I was unable to move at all, and my vision was very poor so I could discern nothing about this being other than it seemed a little taller than I am and it had appendages like a human being (arms, torso, head, legs, etc.). It did not speak to me, however, I seemed to hear a voice in my head. It was much less a voice than it was a feeling or emotion being conveyed. The very last thing I can remember was feeling very calm, as if this being was trying to help me in some sort of way. The "trying to help you" feeling I received was much less about me in particular, but more of a "you" as in "your race." I then saw one of the objects above me move slightly, and I lost consciousness again.

When I came to I was sitting on the edge of my bed. My bed was made very neatly as if I had never layed down at all that night. When i looked at my alarm clock, the time was about 4:45am. I tried to remember how I got there, but nothing came to mind. I tried to sleep, but my thoughts were buzzing faster than I could even keep up with. I could not sleep no matter how hard I tried that night. The only thing I kept asking myself was "Why wasn't I scared or afraid throughout this entire experience?"

I am not trying to garner attention in any way shape or form with this.. This is why I am choosing to remain anonymous. I just hope that maybe this can help somebody understand things a little better, even if I can not understand any of this myself.

I always thought the UFO phenomenon was a bunch of crap before this experience. Since this experience I have been haunted, and have wanted to tell somebody but have always been too afraid of being called a crackpot. The only person I have ever told this story to is my best friend, and he is probably the only person who will ever know who I am and what I witnessed. I have witnessed a few other strange occurrences that happened after this account I have just given you, but they are far less important I think.

I hope this will help in some way shape or form. - MUFON CMS

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....say 'cheese'

It seems the 'Bigfoot', captured on a trial cam near Wellsville, NY was either posing for glamour shots or auditioning for the next 'Messin' With Sasquatch' commercials...Lon

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Australian Outlaw Ned Kelly's Remains Found

The remains of the legendary Australian outlaw Ned Kelly have been found at a former prison in Melbourne.

A DNA sample taken from a Melbourne school teacher, his sister's great grandson, confirmed the remains were those of Australia's most notorious criminal.

Doctors and forensic scientists identified the body, solving a decades-old mystery.

Kelly's remains were among many exhumed from the site of Melbourne's old Pentridge Prison in 2009.

The team established the skeleton belonged to Kelly through CT scans, X-rays, pathology, dental records and DNA.

Ned Kelly was hanged on 11th November 1880 after famously uttering the words: "Such is life."

His father, a Irishman, was sent to Australia as a convict.

As a young man he frequently clashed with the authorities fighting what he believed to be oppressive British rule.

He became a bushranger, the Australian equivalent of a highwayman, robbing banks and roaming with his gang.

After killing three policemen he was tracked down and arrested after a violent shootout in which his gang wore metal armour.

More books and songs have been written about Ned Kelly and his gang than any other Australian historical figures.

Victoria's Attorney-General Robert Clark said he was amazed by the work of the forensic team.

"This is an extraordinary achievement by our forensic team here in Victoria," he said.

"To think a group of scientists could identify the body of a man who was executed more than 130 years ago, moved and buried in a haphazard fashion among 33 other prisoners, most of whom are not identified, is amazing."

Kelly's family will be consulted on the appropriate resting place for his remains. - sky

This Week on 'Beyond the Edge' Radio: Christopher Quaratino - The Truth Behind the Amityville Horror

Posted: 02 Sep 2011 06:02 PM PDT

Christopher Quaratino, or AKA Christopher Lutz, was one of the children living in the infamous Amityville House during the time of its alleged haunting. Christopher talks to Eric and Lon about his childhood, and makes a challenge to the movie mongols. Don't miss this show! The truth behind the Amityville Horror!

The Amityville Horror

In December 1975, George and Kathleen Lutz and their three children moved into 112 Ocean Avenue, a large Dutch Colonial house in Amityville, a suburban neighborhood located on the south shore of Long Island, New York. Thirteen months before the Lutzes moved in, Ronald DeFeo, Jr. had shot and killed six members of his family at the house. After 28 days, the Lutzes left the house, claiming to have been terrorized by paranormal phenomena while living there.

The Book

112 Ocean Avenue remained empty for thirteen months after the DeFeo murders. In December 1975, George and Kathleen Lutz bought the house for what was considered to be a bargain price of $80,000. The six-bedroom house was built in Dutch Colonial style, and had a distinctive gambrel roof. It also had a swimming pool and a boathouse, as it was located on a canal. George and Kathy married in July 1975 and each had their own homes, but they wanted to start afresh with a new property. Kathy had three children from a previous marriage, Daniel, 9, Christopher, 7, and Melissa (Missy), 5. They also owned a crossbreed Malamute/Labrador dog named Harry. During their first inspection of the house, the real estate broker told them about the DeFeo murders of the previous November, and asked if this changed their opinion about wanting to buy it. After discussing the matter, they decided that it was not an issue.

The Lutz family moved in on December 23, 1975. Much of the DeFeo family furniture was still in the house, since it had been included as part of the deal. A friend of George Lutz learned about the history of the house, and insisted on having it blessed. At the time, George was a non-practicing Methodist and had no experience of what this would entail. Kathy was a non-practicing Catholic and explained the process. George knew a Catholic priest named Father Ray who agreed to carry out the house blessing. (In Anson's book the priest is referred to as Father Mancuso. This was done for reasons of privacy and the now-deceased priest's real name was Father Ralph J. Pecoraro).[2] Template:Listen Father Mancuso was a lawyer, a Judge of the Catholic Court and a psychotherapist who lived at the local Sacred Heart Rectory. He arrived to perform the blessing while George and Kathy were unpacking their belongings on the afternoon of December 23, 1975, and went in to the building to carry out the rites. When he flicked the first holy water and began to pray, he heard an audible, masculine voice demand that he "get out." When leaving the house, Father Mancuso did not mention this incident to either George or Kathy. On December 24, 1975, Father Mancuso telephoned George Lutz and advised him to stay out of the room where he had heard the mysterious voice. This was a room on the second floor that Kathy planned to use as a sewing room, and had formerly been the bedroom of Marc and John Matthew DeFeo. The telephone call was cut short by static, and following his visit to the house, Father Mancuso allegedly developed a high fever and blisters on his hands similar to stigmata.

At first, George and Kathy Lutz experienced nothing unusual in the house. Talking about their experiences subsequently, they reported that it was as if they "were each living in a different house."

Some of the experiences of the Lutz family at the house have been described as follows:

-George would wake up around 3:15 every morning and would go out to check the boathouse. Later he would learn that this was the estimated time of the DeFeo killings.
-The house was plagued by swarms of flies despite the winter weather.
-Kathy had vivid nightmares about the murders and discovered the order in which they occurred, and the rooms where they took place. The Lutzes' children also began sleeping on their stomachs, in the same way that the dead bodies in the DeFeo murders had been found.
-Kathy would feel a sensation as if "being embraced" in a loving manner, by an unseen force.
-Kathy discovered a small hidden room (around four feet by five feet) behind shelving in the basement. The walls were painted red and the room did not appear in the blueprints of the house. The room came to be known as "The Red Room." This room had a profound effect on their dog Harry, who refused to go near it and cowered as if sensing something negative.
-There were cold spots and odors of perfume and excrement in areas of the house where no wind drafts or piping would explain the source.
-While tending to the fire, George and Kathy saw the image of the devil with half his head blown out. It was burned into the soot in the back of the fireplace.
-The Lutzes' five year old daughter, Missy, developed an imaginary friend named "Jodie," a demonic pig-like creature with glowing red eyes.
-George would be woken up by the sound of the front door slamming. He would race downstairs to find the dog sleeping soundly at the front door. Nobody else heard the sound although it was loud enough to wake the house.
-George would hear what was described as a "German marching band tuning up" or what sounded like a clock radio playing not quite on frequency. When he went downstairs the noise would cease.
-George realized that he bore a strong resemblance to Ronald DeFeo, Jr., and began drinking at The Witches' Brew, the bar where DeFeo was once a regular customer.
-While checking the boathouse one night, George saw a pair of red eyes looking at him from Missy's bedroom window. When he went upstairs to her room, there was nothing to be found. Later it was suggested that it could have been "Jodie".
-While in bed, Kathy received red welts on her chest caused by an unseen force and was levitated two feet off the bed.
-Locks, doors and windows in the house were damaged by an unseen force.
-Cloven hoofprints attributed to an enormous pig appeared in the snow outside the house on January 1, 1976.
-Green slime oozed from walls in the hall, and also from the keyhole of the playroom door in the attic.
-A crucifix, hung in a closet by Kathy, revolved until it was upside down and gave off a sour smell.
-George tripped over a four foot high china lion which was an ornament in the living room, and was left with bite marks on one of his ankles.
-George saw Kathy transform into an old woman of ninety, "the hair wild, a shocking white, the face a mass of wrinkles and ugly lines, and saliva dripping from the toothless mouth."

After deciding that something was wrong with their house that they could not explain rationally, George and Kathy Lutz carried out a blessing of their own on January 8, 1976. George held a silver crucifix while they both recited the Lord's Prayer, and while in the living room George allegedly heard a chorus of voices telling them "Will you stop?!"

By mid-January 1976, and after another attempt at a house blessing by George and Kathy, they experienced what would turn out to be their final night in the house. The Lutzes declined to give a full account of the events that took place on this occasion, describing them as "too frightening."

After getting in touch with Father Mancuso, the Lutzes decided to take some belongings and stay at Kathy's mother's house in nearby Deer Park, New York until they had sorted out the problems with the house. They claimed that the phenomena followed them there, with the final scene of Anson's book describing "greenish-black slime" coming up the staircase towards them. On January 14, 1976 George and Kathy Lutz, with their three children and their dog Harry, left 112 Ocean Avenue leaving most of their possessions behind. The next day, a mover came in to remove all of the possessions to send to the Lutzes. He reported no paranormal phenomena while inside the house.

The book was written after Tam Mossman, an editor at the publishing house Prentice Hall, introduced George and Kathy Lutz to Jay Anson. The Lutzes did not work directly with Anson, but submitted around 45 hours of tape recorded recollections to him which were used as the basis of the book. Estimates of the sales of the book are around ten million copies from its numerous editions. Anson is said to have based the title of The Amityville Horror on "The Dunwich Horror" by H. P. Lovecraft, which was published in 1929. - horror-movies.wikia.com

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