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On August 2, 1997 the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) released a report CIA's Role in the Study of UFOs 1947-90 which detailed how the agency lied to the American public about UFOs. The UFO sightings were a convenient way for the CIA to divert attention away from their covert operation of secret spy planes. The admission helped reinforce some researchers' belief that individuals who saw a UFO could be viewing a secret spy plane, not an alien craft. The CIA knew that most of the reports of UFO sightings were really observations of their U-2 and SR-71 spy planes. These UFO sightings were investigated and attributed to natural phenomena such as ice crystals and temperature inversions. "Over half of all UFO reports from the late 1950's through the 1960's were accounted for by manned reconnaissance flights (namely the U-2) over the United States. This led the Air Force to make misleading and deceptive statements to the public in order to allay public fears and to protect an extraordinarily sensitive national security project. While perhaps justified, this deception added fuel to the later conspiracy theories and the cover-up controversy of the 1970s." 1 The report explains that the U-2 spy planes originally had silver bodies and 'reflected the rays from the sun, especially at sunrise and sunset…and they often appeared as fiery objects to observers below.'1 They later painted the U-2 planes black to make them more stealthy. The report was written by Gerald K. Haines who is now a historian working for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). US President Bill Clinton's CIA director, James Woolsey ordered the report to be created after he had been questioned about the CIA's involvement with UFOs. The report explains that the both the CIA and the United States Airforce conducted the UFO cover-up. During the Cold War, both agencies hid their interest in UFOs because they feared public knowledge of the agency's interest would make the UFO problem worse. Both the CIA and the US Air Force felt the UFO hysteria could be used by the Soviet Union to hide an attack on the United States. The report concludes that the CIA was very interested in the UFO problem until the early 1950s, but since has paid little attention to it. The release of the report served both sides of the UFO issue. The report provided evidence for UFO researchers who theorized that individuals who saw a UFO could be viewing a secret spy plane, not an alien craft. On the other hand, the report merely reinforced the distrust of the CIA held by individuals who feel the government has lied about extra terrestrial contact. They feel that if the CIA lied to the American public before, why should they trust what was written in the report?
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Related Books
[2] Good, Timothy
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While, the report merely reinforced the distrust of the CIA held by believers in a government cover-up of extra terrestrial contact.
