Amid bizarre rumors about the re-engineering of alien spacecraft and sightings of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) over the ‘secretive’ Area 51, an explosive Pentagon report released recently claims that UFO sightings were just conspiracy theories planted and amplified by it as a cover-up for classified military programs.
In July 2022, the Pentagon established the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) to investigate Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs) across air, sea, and space. As part of their study, the investigators, led by Sean Kirkpatrick, the first director of the AARO, reviewed government documents dating back to 1945 and interrogated current and former military officers.
The agency discovered that the US military intentionally planted UFO conspiracy theories, including those linked to Area 51, to hide classified weapons programs during the Cold War. This report, published by AARO, was first reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
“A tiny Pentagon office had spent months investigating conspiracy theories about secret Washington UFO programs when it uncovered a shocking truth: At least one of those theories had been fueled by the Pentagon itself,” the WSJ report stated.
According to the investigation, these disinformation efforts were aimed at concealing the testing of military equipment from people who had unintentionally witnessed classified military tests. The Pentagon disseminated disinformation, including photoshopped images of flying saucers. It is still unclear to investigators if these activities were centralised military programs or local efforts.
At least one of the theories was cooked to conceal the testing of the F-117 Night Hawk, the US Air Force’s first prime stealth fighter jet. In the 1980s, an Air Force colonel visited a Nevada bar near Area 51 and gave the owner forged photos of flying saucers near the secret government base. Thus, creating a frenzy over UFO sightings in the region.
The colonel, now retired, confessed to the Pentagon that he was following official orders to create a “smokescreen” to hide the F-117 testing. This was done because the military believed that hiding its new technology in the avalanche of conspiracy theories about Area 51 was the best way to conceal it from the Soviet Union’s eyes during the Cold War.
As planned, the UFO sightings became the most discussed subjects at the time, and the forged images were put up on the walls of the bar, signalling rising public interest.
The new findings are significant because ‘Area 51,’ which is a part of the Nevada Test and Training Range, has been a lightning rod for UFO speculation for decades. It has had the highest per-capita UFO sighting rate in the United States (820.9 per 100,000 residents).
For years, analysts believed that many of these UFO sightings were likely just classified military programs. And, they were right. In 2013, for instance, the CIA declassified documents confirming Area 51’s role in testing U-2 spy planes, SR-71 Blackbirds, and other advanced aircraft, explaining some UFO sightings as misidentified military projects.
However, doubts over military cover-ups have been around for only a while.
Kirkpatrick’s team discovered that the government purposefully kept people in the dark about covert military projects. For instance, retired Air Force Captain Robert Salas saw a UFO fly down over a nuclear missile test site in Montana in 1967.
At the time, all 10 nuclear missiles at the bunker and the electrical equipment were rendered inoperable by what was described as a flashing light. Salas insisted that he saw alien visitors. However, he was told never to discuss it with anyone.
Kirkpatrick’s team found that Salas was never informed that what he observed was a test of an emerging electromagnetic pulse to determine whether American silos could withstand the radiation of atomic weapons and respond in retaliation should the Soviet Union launch an initial attack. Salas was allowed to believe it was aliens that he had spotted.
If this deception was not enough, the Pentagon also involved officers and commanders to lend its lies more credibility. The WSJ report notes, ”For decades, certain new commanders of the Air Force’s most classified programs, as part of their induction briefings, would be handed a piece of paper with a photo of what looked like a flying saucer.”
Many of these commanders were told they were part of a program called “Yankee Blue,” which was designed to reverse-engineer extra-terrestrial technology. The unsuspecting officers bought this and signed non-disclosure agreements to keep it confidential.
The officers never found out that it was a ruse, and the practice continued unabated until 2023. According to the WSJ report, a memo was written by the defense secretary’s office in 2023, directing that the practice cease immediately; however, the harm had already been done.
No Aliens Or Extra-Terrestrial Technology Reported
AARO released an extensive report (hailed as historic) in March 2024, stating that there was no evidence that the US officials had encountered aliens. It asserted that most sightings were just misidentified ordinary objects, adding that some cases required further study.
It noted that tests of sophisticated US spy planes and space technologies in the 1950s and 1960s led to a surge in UFO encounters. There was “no evidence” that the US government had come across extraterrestrial life, the investigators wrote, adding that the majority of UFO sightings were ordinary objects from Earth.
“The proliferation of television programmes, books, movies, and the vast amount of internet and social media content centred on UAP-related topics most likely has influenced the public conversation on this topic, and reinforced these beliefs within some sections of the population,” it noted.
The investigators emphasised that there is a “particularly persistent narrative” that the government has retrieved spacecraft and extraterrestrial remains while plotting to conceal its alien research endeavors.
The report noted that officials have not found any evidence of extraterrestrial visitors despite approaching the claim with an open mind, thus addressing previous claims made by former US intelligence officer, David Grusch. In June 2023, Grusch alleged that the US government has operated a “multi-decade” program to recover and reverse-engineer crashed UAPs of “non-human origin,” including intact and partially intact vehicles, under a program named “Immaculate Constellation.”
Presenting the report, AARO stated that there are still 50 to 100 UAP sightings every month, highlighting ongoing conjecture regarding official cover-ups. However, at the time, the report made no mention of a potential cover-up.
Notably, the Pentagon has now acknowledged that not all of the information regarding the AARO’s findings has been released to the public, adding that the military claims it will be more open in its follow-up report later this year. “The department is committed to releasing a second volume of its Historical Record Report, to include AARO’s findings on reports of potential pranks and inauthentic materials,” the DOD said in a statement.
The new report is a welcome step towards the declassification of UFO/UAP files. However, it casts doubt over previous reports of sightings, in which several US officers have admitted to experiencing multiple UAPs in their careers. For example, a former US Navy pilot, Ryan Graves, who formerly piloted an F/A-18, told Fox News about an incident where two aircraft from his squadron flew side by side, and one of these unidentified objects flew directly between them. Graves said that a team member characterized the object as a “dark gray or black cube inside of a clear sphere.”
There are several such instances, which may or may not turn out to be an eyewash.
For now, more details and transparency from the Pentagon are awaited.
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