US and other govts used UFOs to cover up?

[kittynh]

I have been trying to update my knowledge of UFOs beyond reading just Philip Klass and the good old Bad Astronomer. I really want to KNOW what the people that I get at the UFO site where I answer questions are reading. One thing I run across is books that seem to be balanced, not the over the top stuff like the Adamski book! Many of the books claim that the US Military used UFOs as a "cover" for other operations they were doing. The whole Roswell thing was to cover Operation Mogul, the high flying spy balloons.

I've even read that the French military kidnapped someone and covered it as a UFO abduction. And that the US military with the support of a UFO believer actually caused a man to have a nervous breakdown in order to continue their UFO charade!

The problem is this stuff is presented as fact, and I think it sort of furthers their cause. See, you CAN'T trust the military and government!

I'll try to get the cases in detail, the Roswell one seems to be told over and over enough that even I'm starting to think it must be true.

[dharlow]

Have you ever read Jim Moseley's Saucer Smear (www.martiansgohome.com)? Moseley's a believer that UFOs are paranormal (although not nut and bolt spacecraft) but he's fairly skeptical about most of the claims in the field and takes a pretty tongue-in-cheek attitude toward the whole thing. His monthly updates usually deal with the latest quakery being promoted. They are always entertaining. He wrote the very interesting Shockingly Close To the Truth: Confessions of a Grave-Robbing Ufologist. He's good friends with Phil Klass.

[geni]

Originally posted by kittynh
I'll try to get the cases in detail, the Roswell one seems to be told over and over enough that even I'm starting to think it must be true.

See

Klass, Philip J, "The GAO Roswell Report and Congressman Schiff," Skeptical Inquirer, November, 1995, p. 6.

[Beady]

Kitty, here's a reply I just posted to your original question in the Moon Landing Hoax thread:

Originally posted by kittynh
this is kind of off topic, so I think I'll start a new thread, but I keep reading that the US Military pushed the UFO theory frequently to cover up top secret stuff. (I have to read most of the woo literature to keep up on what the UFO people are reading). Any truth?

It's always possible, I suppose, but think about it: People have known about Area 51 for decades. It's probably the biggest tourist attraction in the US that has never actually been visited by a tourist. It has got to be the worst-kept official secret , ever. It is so badly-kept that I would be tempted to believe that both it and UFOs are blinds for the real facility and its projects. The only thing that stops me from believing that is, AFAIK, the Testors Model Company has an incredible record of producing plastic model kits of experimental aircraft that have not yet been made public.

BTW, I trust that we are both using "UFO" in the nutbar sense, as synonymous with "flying saucer." In actual fact, there are plenty of Unidentified Flying Objects operating out of Area 51, and everyone in the surrounding area "knows" about them.

Now, there apparently is some truth that the Soviets pushed UFOs as a cover, but I'd hate to be too insistent about it. I will, however, send an email to a friend of mine who's something of an authority on the subject.

[Francois Tremblay]

Anyone so gullible that he believes the government is competent enough to pull off a cover-up or conspiracy, has more problems than we can solve here.

[jmercer]

Originally posted by Francois Tremblay
Anyone so gullible that he believes the government is competent enough to pull off a cover-up or conspiracy, has more problems than we can solve here.

Holy cow. Snowballs in hell, flying pigs, etc... I'm actually going to agree with Francois on something! ;)

Although I would have felt better, Francois, if you had added the phrase "large-scale" before "cover-up". There's no doubt in my mind that the government is capable of pulling off small-scale stuff. :)

[Astrophotographer]

Originally posted by kittynh
The problem is this stuff is presented as fact, and I think it sort of furthers their cause. See, you CAN'T trust the military and government!

I'll try to get the cases in detail, the Roswell one seems to be told over and over enough that even I'm starting to think it must be true.

UFO groups have long stated that the US government (esp the USAF and CIA) have been covering up the "reality" of UFOs for decades. All of their writings are slanted towards this belief.

However, one must look at it from the USAF/CIA point of view. The Robertson panel felt that UFO reports could be used to clog military channels during an attack. The USAF initially felt that these UFO reports might represent a significant step in soviet technology and they might be actually invading the US air space. The purpose of project SIGN was to determine the source of the UFO reports but they failed to come up with any concrete answers. In the 1950s the CIA appeared to want some UFO reports to be explained away by various methods because they were actual observations of U2 and SR-71 aircraft. It seems that most of the cover-up claims have more to do with protecting national secrets than covering-up the "truth" about UFOs.

As for Roswell, it seems the evidence is pretty good that what was discovered at the Brazel ranch were the remains of flight #4 from project Mogul. UFOlogists have come up with several arguments against it but, in my opinion, they have not falsified this explanation. The photographs show the types of materials used by project Mogul, flight #4 was launched within the time period to produce the debris field found by Brazel, and Brazels testimony was a very good description of what might be found in a project Mogul. The Roswell military did not have any information about what was going on concerning project Mogul and, based on the report in the Roswell daily dispatch of July 8th (http://www.project1947.com/fig/1947f.htm)(the day the material was brought in by Marcel). the radar reflector could have been misinterpreted to be an actual "flying disc". As a result, it was a case of mistaken identity. Higher authorities probably determined that the source may have been from Alamogordo and stressed that the final conclusion be a "weather balloon" and had a group from Alamogordo stage a balloon flight for the press a few days later. Nobody wanted press reporters snooping about Alamogordo and uncovering what the real purpose of the balloon flights were (which were for constant altitude testing and listening for noise from a potential soviet a-bomb test). This is the only evidence of a "cover-up".

I get fed up with the conspiracy angle used by most UFOlogists. Many of the reasons for "coverup" or "debunking" have reasonable explanations and have nothing to do with hiding aliens from the general public. If UFOlogists really had the goods, they could have exposed the cover-up long ago. They use the conspiracy story to cover-up their fifty years of failure to produce any reliable evidence to prove UFOs are alien spacecraft visiting the earth. (http://members.aol.com/tprinty/50years.html)

[kittynh]

What I'm wondering is if the US Government has used UFOs as a cover for other operations, as in a supposed dumping of "radioactive slag" from a plane onto a fishing boat. The book I read claimed that the Air Force pushed the UFO story to cover the accidental dropping of the "radioactive slag" onto a boat (killing a dog and injuring a child, it also "developed" a roll of film).

[Astrophotographer]

Originally posted by kittynh
What I'm wondering is if the US Government has used UFOs as a cover for other operations, as in a supposed dumping of "radioactive slag" from a plane onto a fishing boat. The book I read claimed that the Air Force pushed the UFO story to cover the accidental dropping of the "radioactive slag" onto a boat (killing a dog and injuring a child, it also "developed" a roll of film).

I guess that is a claim that can not be verified. Radioactive slag from an airplane? Seems unlikely but the strangest things have dropped out of airplanes both civilian and military. If it did really kill someone, there would be hell to pay and I doubt the military would claim that a "UFO" dropped it! As I stated, the military had used UFO reports to mask operations of secret aircraft such as the U2 and SR71. (http://www.ufoevidence.org/documents/doc837.htm)

[TeaBag420]

Originally posted by Astrophotographer
... In the 1950s the CIA appeared to want some UFO reports to be explained away by various methods because they were actual observations of U2 and SR-71 aircraft. It seems that most of the cover-up claims have more to do with protecting national secrets than covering-up the "truth" about UFOs.
...

Clearly they were trying to cover up a CIA time travel operation, since the first SR-71 wasn't built until the 1960's.

How anyone observed such high-flying (U2 and SR-71) and fast (SR-71) aircraft other than in takeoff or landing would be an interesting topic.

You're just making stuff up.

[Astrophotographer]

Originally posted by TeaBag420
Clearly they were trying to cover up a CIA time travel operation, since the first SR-71 wasn't built until the 1960's.

How anyone observed such high-flying (U2 and SR-71) and fast (SR-71) aircraft other than in takeoff or landing would be an interesting topic.

You're just making stuff up.

While the SR-71 was not built until the 1960s, the OXCART program had started in the late 1950s. However, no operational aircraft flew until the 1960s. So I misspoke when I stated the SR-71 caused reports in the 1950s.

As for the observation of these aircraft, the highly reflective nature of the original U-2s (which were silver) made the observable by pilots and ground based observers. According to the CIA report:


"The early U-2s were silver (they were later painted black) and reflected the rays from the sun, especially at sunrise and sunset. They often appeared as fiery objects to observers below. Air Force BLUE BOOK investigators aware of the secret U-2 flights tried to explain away such sightings by linking them to natural phenomena such as ice crystals and temperature inversions. By checking with the Agency's U-2 Project Staff in Washington, BLUE BOOK investigators were able to attribute many UFO sightings to U-2 flights. They were careful, however, not to reveal the true cause of the sighting to the public."



I suggest you read the Link (http://www.ufoevidence.org/documents/doc837.htm)

I didn't make it up, I just cited the source, which you did not bother to examine.