UFO Evidence and Censorship

Definition: UFO is an acronym for “unidentified flying object”

Significance: Many people who believe that UFOs are extraterrestrial spacecraft suspect that the US government has deliberately suppressed evidence of their existence

UFO sightings have been reported in various cultures for centuries; however, a July, 1947, sighting in Washington State is considered to have been the beginning of the modern era of UFO sighting. In the 1950s and 1960s the UFO phenomenon captured the public imagination as the world entered the space age, leading to an explosion in the number of alleged sightings and the popularization of the theory that UFOs are alien spacecraft—most famously, flying saucers. Since then tens of thousands of sightings have been reported from around the world, and though some have remained unexplained, none have been confirmed as evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence. If the existence of alien spacecraft visiting the earth were verified, it would raise serious concerns about the planet’s security until the intentions of the visitors were known. Travelers from other star systems would presumably have superior technology; if their intentions were hostile, they might pose a serious danger.

Most reported UFO sightings are explained as other phenomena, such as terrestrial aircraft, weather balloons, and cloud formations, but about 10 percent remain unexplained. Some UFO researchers, or ufologists, claim that not only are unexplained sightings evidence of the mystery of UFOs, but also some official explanations are incorrect or the result of intentional deception. A common claim is that one or more governments or other organizations are aware of the existence of alien visitors, but have covered up the facts through censorship and misinformation. As with other conspiracy theories, various reasons for the deceit may be given, such as government collaboration with aliens. Though many governments have conducted official UFO research, typically under the fear that UFOs represent secret technology of rival powers, and found no evidence of alien involvement, some ufologists consider such reports to be part of the conspiracy. Ufology is considered pseudoscience by most mainstream academics.

To believers, even more intriguing than sightings are occasional reports of spacecraft crashes from which alien bodies have allegedly been recovered. The most significant such event in modern times was an alleged UFO crash near Roswell, New Mexico, in July, 1947. Information about this incident was censored by the US military, and the crash received little attention for several decades. Some researchers believe that President Harry S. Truman began the secret Operation Majestic (MJ12) in 1947 to study the Roswell crash. The project’s existence has been debated, with the government refusing to confirm or deny it, as researchers have debated its existence.

According to some UFO researchers, a military project called Sign that began in December, 1947, concluded the following year that UFOs were indeed extraterrestrial. Ufologists have claimed that the military rejected this report and had it destroyed. They suggest the public was misled about the project name, the name was changed, and the project recommended its own termination, but was continued in 1949 as Project Blue Book. While Project Sign and Project Blue Book have been confirmed as real government programs investigating UFOs, they officially found no evidence of extraterrestrial activity.

After many people reported new UFO sightings over Washington, DC, in July, 1952, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) secretly convened the Robertson Panel to review the most promising incidents from Project Blue Book. The Robertson Panel viewed civilian interest in UFOs as threatening to orderly government, concluded that UFOs as alien visitors did not exist, and recommended covert surveillance of UFO organizations. Project Blue Book continued until 1969. Meanwhile, Project Moon Dust, a top-secret military project, allegedly conducted investigations in the 1960s, with Operation Blue Fly being the operational wing of the project. Moon Dust supposedly was involved in recovering spacecraft debris in Kecksburg, Pennsylvania, in 1965; in Sudan in 1967; in Nepal in 1968; and in other places. The US government has, however, denied that Project Moon Dust ever existed.

Parts of thousands of documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act suggest that governmental censorship of UFO issues began in 1947. Several reasons have been advanced for this censorship, including that the government wanted to unilaterally control any alien technological knowledge; that proof of the existence of aliens might cause people to distrust political or religious leaders; and that a malevolent alien presence might cause mass panic. Others have suggested the government intentionally manipulated public suspicions for various reasons, such as to distract from other secret projects or to sow disinformation among enemies. In addition to evidence of US government censorship of its own investigation into UFOs, many ufologists claim that much significant UFO evidence is suppressed by the government and the media. For decades, many serious scientists were reluctant to weigh in on UFO claims due to potential damage to their professional reputations. In contrast to the United States, the governments of some countries, including Mexico and Belgium, at times encouraged UFO interest and open research.

In 2013 a declassified CIA report from 1992 sparked interest due to its confirmation of the government's long-rumored Area 51 site in Nevada, which many ufologists had claimed was used to house recovered alien spacecraft and even extraterrestrial corpses. Though the report acknowledged the rumors of UFOs, it suggests that past sightings in the region were of secret U-2 spy planes from the base. Some ufologists dismissed the report as part of a continued coverup of other evidence of recovered UFOs.

Despite—or perhaps because of—censorship (and recognition by UFO believers that some reports are indeed hoaxes), polls have consistently shown considerable public belief in extraterrestrial life and visitation. A 1990 Gallup poll found that almost 50 percent of all Americans believed that UFOs are alien spacecraft. While a 2019 Gallup poll showed that figure had declined to 33 percent, it also found that 68 percent of Americans believed the US government knows more about UFOs than it made public. A 2020 Ipsos poll found 45 percent of American adult respondents believed alien UFOs had visited Earth.

Another wave of interest in UFOs and the related tangle of alleged censorship emerged in 2017 after media reports revealed a secret US government program, the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, had investigated what it called "unidentified aerial phenomena," or UAPs, from at least 2007 to 2012. Videos were leaked that apparently showed UFOs witnessed by US military personnel. In April 2020 the US Department of Defense (DOD) officially released the footage to confirm it was real and the phenomena were indeed considered unidentified. Lawmakers then passed a provision that required the DOD and US intelligence agencies to submit a report to Congress outlining what was known about UAPs. That report appeared in June 2021, confirming that the government had been steadily investigating UAPs and noting that 143 sightings by military pilots since 2005 could not be explained. The report did not state any evidence of extraterrestrial involvement, but also did not categorically rule out such a possibility. The report was hailed by many ufologists as a step toward greater government transparency and a sign that UFO research might gain wider scientific acceptance.

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