UFO images lead to internal investigation at Border Guard Service

Pictures published in UFO magazine claimed to be taken by authorities

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Images published by the Finnish UFO Research Association FUFORA have lead to an internal investigation at the Guard Service.
      The infrared video images, which according to FUFORA depict unidentified flying objects, were published in an issue of the Ultra magazine and on the FUFORA Internet pages, as well as in the association’s publication Uforaportti 13 (UFO Report 13). The images are claimed to have been filmed by the authorities.
      According to the Gulf of Finland Coast Guard Commander Marko Tuominen, however, no images have been officially issued by the authorities for the use by the press.
     
The pictures were already published in April 2006, but they only became an issue within the Border Guard Service at the beginning of May this year, after an inquiry by a private citizen.
      "Similar [IR imaging] equipment is in use by other instances as well, and therefore this first went unnoticed", head of unit Juha-Mikko Hämäläinen explains.
      The Border Guard Staff is looking into whether an employee has misused official monitoring equipment and images and thus rendered himself guilty of malfeasance. According to Tuominen, the texts accompanying the published images claim that the official who handed over the images was employed by the Coast Guard. "The actual content of the images we have no need or ability to evaluate", said Marko Tuominen.
      Superintendent Pihla Keto from the Coast Guard Staff explains that a clarification on the matter has been ordered, after which, if need be, an examination will take place. "If there is a question, the question is whether an employee has committed some wrongdoing."
     
FUFORA has no intention of revealing the identity of the person who handed over the infrared images.
      The chairman of the organisation Tapani Koivula says it was agreed with the person who handed over the images that they could be made public once the individual had retired. "His only objective was to find out what the images were portraying."
      According to Koivula, FUFORA was not aware of who knew about the handing over the pictures at the time it took place. "We felt this matter was the responsibility of the indivdual who handed them over to us."


Links:
  FUFORA

Helsingin Sanomat