The question of authenticity arose immediately. Called down to Intelligence headquarters for an interview, Barauna underwent a four-hour interrogation concerning the pictures. During the questioning he was asked, “If you were going to make a flying saucer appear on a negative, how would you proceed?” He replied, as he later told a reporter, “_Comandante_, I am an able photographer, specialized in trick photography, but I could not produce one that would withstand close and accurate examination.”[X-18] In spite of this modest disclaimer, some of the photographic evidence clearly suggested fraud, and a strong difference of opinion developed among government officials. Some accepted the pictures as a genuine record of a flying saucer; others pronounced them fakes. For several weeks the incident was kept secret, but when eventually someone took the prints to the President of Brazil, further concealment became impossible. Yielding to the persuasion of certain military advisers and newsmen, and against the advice of the Naval Ministry, he released the pictures to the press. [Illustration: PLATE V _a._ Pinched lightning, August 1961. This is believed to be the first photograph of a pinched lightning discharge. (CHAP. IX)] [Illustration: PLATE V _b._ Ball lightning, Lincoln, Nebraska, August 30, 1930. (CHAP. IX)] [Illustration: PLATE VI _a._ Trindade Island UFO, January 1958. (CHAP. X)] [Illustration: PLATE VI _b._ Taormina, Sicily, UFOs, 1954. (CHAP. X)] [Illustration: PLATE VII _a._ UFO at Boulder, Colorado, February 6, 1959. (CHAP. XII)] [Illustration: PLATE VII _b._ UFO over Norway, July 24, 1957. (CHAP. XII)] [Illustration: PLATE VIII _a._ Images produced by lens defects, Hamilton, Ohio, steel plant. (CHAP. XI)] [Illustration: PLATE VIII _b._ Ghost images produced by internal reflections in lens system. (CHAP. XII)] _The Brazilian Naval Ministry_ The photographs were published on February 21, five weeks after they were taken. Since the President had apparently accepted them at face value, the Naval Ministry was obviously in a difficult position; through an unofficial spokesman it issued a statement notable for its lack of enthusiasm: “On the morning of January 16, 1958, over the island of Trindade, the crew of the school ship _Almirante Saldanha_ sighted an unidentified aerial object for a few seconds. A civilian who was aboard the ship took some pictures of the object. The Navy has no connection with the case, and its only connection with the occurrence was the fact that the photographer was aboard the school ship, and came back with the ship to Rio.”[X-20] On the same day another Navy spokesman released a similar unofficial statement to _O Globo_: “The news about a flying saucer sighted over the Island of Trindade was received here with utmost reserve. There will be an investigation to verify the authenticity of the sightings and photos. No officer or sailor from the N.E. _Almirante Saldanha_ witnessed the event.”[X-20]