preliminary assessment, the origin of these objects remains unexplained due to insufficient data. In particular, the report does not present any evidence for a non-human intelligence behind the phenomenon.
On the other hand, as mainstream media underlines, it does not rule out an alien origin either. This is in line with what a senior U.S. official told REUTERS:
»Asked about potential alien explanations, one of the officials said: »That’s not the purpose of the task force, to evaluate any sort of search for extraterrestrial life. … That’s not what we were charged with doing.«
»Of the 144 reports we are dealing with here, we have no clear indications that there is any nonterrestrial explanation for them – but we will go wherever the data takes us,« the senior official added.19
Against the background of all the above (being just a small part of the UFO material), there can be absolutely no doubt about the reality of the UFO phenomenon. The sheer volume of evidence is simply overwhelming. Therefore, it is high time for us to finally leave behind the tedious and unnecessary discussion about the reality of UFOs and to continue from here.
But what does it actually mean when we acknowledge the reality of UFOs? First of all, it is only that objects with extraordinary flight characteristics move in our atmosphere, the origin of which is unknown. However, this observation leads to the crucial question: WHAT are UFOs? The answer to this question is indeed a matter of widely differing opinions. Even previously unknown natural phenomena could be considered, there are no limits to the imagination. Such a natural phenomenon should, however, be able to explain the repeatedly observed properties of UFOs in all their complexity. For example, the famous Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung believed in a mental phenomenon. According to his theory, the collective unconscious creates the UFO appearances by projecting the inner psyche into the outer reality. Why and how the hypothetical collective unconscious achieves this remains open.
Maybe we don’t have to go so far as to explain something unknown with something else unknown. Behind the mysterious celestial phenomena could quite simply be a secret advanced technology of earthly origin, such as that of the U.S. military. And finally, of course, the so-called extraterrestrial hypothesis is offered, according to which UFOs are flight devices of an extraterrestrial civilization. While evidence for one of these theories seems difficult to grasp or at least inaccessible to us (at the moment), we can try to gather enough evidence from publicly available sources to give preference to one of these options.
Our natural sciences, especially physics and biology, have undergone an unprecedented evolution over the last hundred years. We have advanced into areas of knowledge that were previously closed to mankind. In miles-long particle accelerators we observe the behavior of elementary particles, while elsewhere we try to decipher our genetic structure. Could it be that in this flood of new data we have overlooked something decisive? Is there possibly a natural process that can explain the sudden appearance and flight characteristics of UFOs as well as other often associated (e.g. paranormal) effects? A simple natural phenomenon, which is subject to the laws of our known physics, should in any case be eliminated. The strange objects often show an »intelligent« behavior, for example when they track airplanes or appear above nuclear installations and apparently render them inoperative. There is really not the slightest hint of a natural process that could demonstrate such purposeful behavior.
Luckily, there are other options left. First of all, there is still the possibility that the many thousands of sightings can be traced back to an extremely advanced but nevertheless earthly technology. In this case, however, it will be necessary to differentiate. Undoubtedly, it is absolutely possible to explain some of the more recent sightings with secret military developments, such as novel espionage and stealth technology. But the many early UFO sightings after the end of the Second World War remain problematic. It was precisely the flood of UFO sightings over U.S. territory by civilian and military witnesses that urged the U.S. military to set up Project Blue Book. It is also not conceivable that a nation other than one of the two superpowers had the necessary technical capabilities at that time. In the end, neither the Soviet Union nor the USA can be considered as originators. The Russians would hardly have tested such progressive knowledge above American soil. Otherwise they would not only have run the risk of the sophisticated technology falling into the hands of their opponents, but also, quite incidentally, of a Third World War being triggered. Therefore, Luis Elizondo as well as former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe have both stated in several interviews that in their opinion Russia and China cannot be made responsible for all these UFO sightings, especially not the early ones.20
It can also be ruled out that the Americans used secret test aircraft to panic the crews of their own nuclear launch facilities and provoke an atomic war (now confirmed by the Pentagon: »The report also found the vast majority of incidents documented over the past two decades did not originate from any American military or other advanced U.S. government technology …«21). At least in one case of such a UFO sighting, an atomic launch sequence was even set in motion temporarily. Renowned UFO researcher Robert Hastings details these incidents in his book UFOs and Nukes, for which he researched for decades including interviews with over one hundred and fifty witnesses. But also the UFO researcher and author Raymond Fowler reported already in 1990 about the special interest of UFOs in nuclear weapons and the concern of the U.S. military about the appearance of unknown flying objects over neuralgic facilities like the Los Alamos Atomic Energy Commission Project.22 Fowler quotes from a document formerly classified as secret dated 2 January 1952, addressed to the Director of Air Force Intelligence, Major General Samford.23 The document mentions »persistent reports of unusual flying objects over parts of the United States, particularly the east and west coast and in the vicinity of atomic energy production and testing facilities«.24 In the same year, General Samford held a press conference at the Pentagon on UFO sightings, extracts of which are available on YouTube.25 Raymond Fowler also reports that employees of the Minuteman nuclear missile program informed him in 1966 on the disruption of launch control equipment during UFO sightings over the missile sites on Strategic Command Bases.26 Robert Hastings describes similar cases in his 2008 book.
THE EXTRATERRESTRIAL HYPOTHESIS
This only leaves the so-called extraterrestrial hypothesis, which is also preferred by the authors of the famous COMETA Report from 1999 (»strong presumptions exist in its favor«).27 The authors of this investigation report on UFOs and the witnesses cited therein include, among others:
— Denis Blancher, Chief Inspector of the Gendarmerie in the Ministry of the Interior
— Edmond Campagnac, former Technical Director of Air France
— Joseph Domange, General of the French Air Force
— Professor André Lebeau, former Head of the French National Space Agency CNES (Centre National d’Études Spatiales)
— Bruno Le Moine, former General of the French Air Force
— Denis Letty, retired Major General of the French Air Force
— Christian Marchal, Chief Engineer in the Corps des Mines and Research Director at the French National Space Research Institute ONERA
— Bernard Norlain, four-star general, former commander of the tactical air force of France and former head of the Institut des Hautes Etudes de Défense Nationale (IHEDN)
— Jean-Jacques Vélasco, head of the French investigation group on unidentified airspace phenomena SEPRA (now GEIPAN), part of the French space agency CNES.
Even though COMETA is not a governmental research group, an investigation report that has been drafted by such heavyweights as the former head of the French space agency CNES, Professor André Lebeau, as well as General Letty and General Norlain, must be taken seriously. Why only very few media reported about it remains a mystery. The extraterrestrial hypothesis cited in the COMETA Report states that the UFO phenomenon is the result of alien intelligence. Specifically,