LOGO: Truthdig: Drilling Beneath the Headlines. A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman.Best Political Blog Winner, 2007 Webby Awards, People's Voice and Jury.   Exclusive Truthdig Merchandise - Gore Vidal signed first editions - Signed Mr. Fish prints
 
July 6, 2008
Log in / Register

 Choose a size
Text Size

Reports
On Black Patriotism
Obama’s Leap of Faith
Happy Oil Dependence Day

Arts & Culture

Digs
Inside the Data Mine

Ear to the Ground

A/V Booth

Truthdig Bazaar more items

 
Ear to the Ground

Time to Take UFOs Seriously?

Email this item Email    Print this item Print   
Posted on Nov 12, 2007
UFO???
news.bbc.co.uk

Since shortly after Project Blue Book was ordered closed in 1969, the U.S. government has officially ignored claims of UFO sightings, but an international group of former military officers and government officials says it’s time to take the potential national security threat seriously.

There was once a time when the Air Force looked into thousands of sightings, but the military has for years said it sees no need to resume its investigations.

BBC:

The group, which includes former military officers from seven countries, all say they have seen a UFO or have conducted research into the phenomenon.

However, the Air Force says nothing has happened in the past four decades to justify resuming investigations.

Every year thousands of people say they have seen UFOs in the United States and their claims are usually met with scepticism.

Read more

Email Newsletter

Get truth delivered to your inbox every week.

Previous item: Gore Puts Venture Money Where His Mouth Is

Next item: Take the Cost of the War and Double It

Jump to Comments

Advertisement


Elsewhere: .

Comments

Are you a Truthdig member yet? Login now, or register with Truthdig.

By Marshal, November 26, 2007 at 1:41 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

I have had this idea for a sci-fi book for a while.  But what if I’m right?  I do not believe man has landed on the moon.  Because of the radiation issue.  How come the Japanese probe did not do a fly by?  I do believe the moon rocks and soil where recovered, unmanned.  In my sci-fi I would offer an alternative.  The material recovered at Roswell is light enough to launch into space and protect from radiation.  It was used to make space suits and protective foil on the capsule and lander.  Thus the Apollo program was real and using the Roswell material in front of everybody. Problem is we can’t reproduce it and like a filter radiation eventually breaks thru.  No more manned solar system trips.  Instead international space station and shuttles remain under the Van Allen belt.  My next question is aliens or human time travel?  Other question, if I guessed right, am I in danger?

Report this

By Frank, November 16, 2007 at 4:01 pm #

According to many notable astronomers, planetary scientists and cosmologists, it is practically a statistical certainty that there is life on many other planets in the universe. According to many of the same people, it is even a mathematical probability that some of that life is far more technologically advanced than humanity. 

So why do many of these same scientists dismiss nearly all claims of UFO sightings as having nothing to do with extraterrestrials?

The problem is those mathematical probabilities include the bulk of the universe which is so distant that even at near-light-speed travel, journey times to Earth would have to be calculated in billions of years. That’s a pretty long ride in a little saucer. Just imagine all the pitstops for fuel, snacks, and map checks along the way. Seriously, though, the odds of alien life being advanced enough for intergalactic travel at a departure time of tens of millions or billions of years ago is dramatically lower.

And if ‘they’ are advanced enough to warp time/space or generate wormholes for travel to overcome these great distances and reduce travel time dramatically, they are not likely to be clunking around in anything resembling what the public would imagine as a spacecraft looking like, i.e. big flying hubcaps… I mean ‘saucers’.  A more likely option for aliens wanting to send exploration craft across vast distances of space via these advanced methods would be to dramatically reduce the risk and energy needed by miniaturization of the craft and eliminating organic life forms from the process (no little green men).  The best option might be to send something like redundant clusters of artificially intelligent nano-probes, which could explore not only Earth but your digestive tract or PC hard drive, without detection. Even we primitive humans will have advanced nano tech within the next 50 years, long before we master interstellar space travel.

So, while I would be surprised if there were no extraterrestrial intelligent life out there in the universe, I am highly skeptical of nearly every UFO account I have ever heard, with respect to aliens.  Mostly, it all sounds far too much like the average-joe conception of what a alien space craft might look like, as inspired by early sci-fi movies.

As for eyewitness testimony, consider the number of people around the world who claim to have seen ghosts/monsters/bigfoot/the Virgin Mary/etc.  In terms of scientific evidence, third-party human testimony is always the weakest link.

Now personally, I know for a fact that many reported sightings in recent years, including an account by a certain ex-governor, have very terrestrial, one might say… skunky origins. With respect to accounts of a giant, silent, hovering delta-shaped craft over the US at night...well, that’s your tax dollars at work, America. All I can tell you is Ferdinand von Zeppelin would be suitably impressed with how far some aircraft technologies have come since his day.

Report this

By Nobody Knows, November 15, 2007 at 12:19 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

Pilot UFO-type sightings are advocated by the National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena or http://www.NARCAP.org
Why not empower NARCAP to continue its work with pilots and aviation and let them sort this out? They are staffed by current and former NASA scientists including human factors experts and perceptual psychologists. It would be a simple matter to empower this little nonprofit to take this matter to the next level and perhaps resolve this situation.
You can fault an observer all you want to but when the observation involves multiple witnesses and radar then you simply have to be in denial to claim that there is nothing there and the witness is delusional.
FAAs James McGaha does pilots a great diservice with his disrespectful commentary regarding the veracity of pilot witnesses.
Just a bunch of sheep who don’t want to risk their careers.....

Report this

By Hammo, November 14, 2007 at 2:29 pm #

We seem to be getting more prepared to deal with this issue, and cope with the truth.

More info on this in the articles ...

Alleged briefing to President Reagan on UFOs posted online

AmericanChronicle.com
November 2, 2007

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle. asp?articleID=41939

- - -

Presidential debate brings UFO issue to the surface

AmericanChronicle.com
November 1, 2007

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle. asp?articleID=41800

Report this

By John Borowski, November 14, 2007 at 1:56 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

There are two types of UFO observers. One type, the phonies will go on TV to rake in big dollars. They will write books to rake in big dollars. The nut-cases will say they were raped by the flying saucer folks. The other type will state that they have seen a flying saucer (Terminology not politically correct) and will say no more. I take seriously the latter group. The most convincing of this group is that all over the world they will describe the flying saucer doings and their shapes that others around the world also describe without being aware of the other peoples descriptions. Many of these people have a great deal to lose as far as their reputation is concerned by stating truthfully what they saw. If they are a fact I would have no fear of them because they apparently have an extremely high spirituality. (Unlike the earthlings, they do not punch, stab, and kill) Not killing themselves off for billions of years confirms my belief. We must use powerful rockets and engines to fight against gravity to go into space. The flying saucer folks apparently get gravity to enhance their passage into space. If we knew how to do this we could use 2 flashlight batteries to lift the entire space station into space.

Report this

By Douglas Chalmers, November 14, 2007 at 2:29 am #

#113377 by Roger Lafontaine on 11/13 at 5:55 pm: “...They have been sighted not by thousands but by millions throughout the world. The governments have been covering this up and also seeding disinformation into the mix to make them seem irrational and crazy....”

The point of “UFO’s” or “God” is the concept that there is someone or something beyond the limiting conditions we experience as humans on Earth which/who can see us humans as we really are.

If you can grasp that, then you can see humanity as the hopeless crawling useless mites that they/we really are. If not, you can only go on suffering in total blindness of the reality of your existence, temporary as it is.

What is the use of this information? As we as a race are now in a position of being able to annihilate ourselves and the planet upon which we live, we must give up our precious self-centred and self-righteous viewpoit and learn to co-operate with each other and the laws of Nature - or we will soon cease to exist upon this Earth!

Report this

By Robert, November 13, 2007 at 11:07 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

I agree with others that suggest that this is just a: another way to distract us from the serious task at hand - handing our political leaders over to a world court so they can be prosecuted for being war criminals and b: someone wants millions for a foolish investigation.  I mean, who wants to feed the poor when you can investigate UFO’s.

UFO’s don’t appear to be doing any harm to anyone so why with all the bother?

Report this

By Herk, November 13, 2007 at 9:44 pm #

UFO stands for “Unidentified Flying Object.” The misleading word in that phrase is “flying.” Unidentified is easy - it means it has not yet been identified - we don’t know what it is. Object is also a bit misleading. They aren’t necessarily an object. They may be tenuous gas or a reflection of automobile lights.

Now, if you want to believe that they are extraterrestrial craft, you have to believe that some sort of being thinks it’s worth traveling across the cosmos for a very long time, perhaps thousands of years, to reach us, and for what purpose? Or you have to believe that there is some sort of magic that will defy the laws of physics. Perhaps there is, but I seriously doubt that it can be done. The distance is too great. Space is big.

We like to tell stories, and the more fantastic the better. What we have is a set of visual aids for our stories, many of which are obvious fakes, all of which still have that disclaimer: “Unidentified.”

In order for me to believe that these unidentified object are spacecraft of some sort, I’d need to have some physical evidence, bereft of conspiracy theories, that can be readily verified. I believe nothing that I hear and only about half of what I see, and I consider that to be a far more practical way of viewing the universe than credulity.

Report this

By Nap, November 13, 2007 at 9:11 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

“government officials says it’s time to take the potential national security threat seriously.” And they have! When the aliens come to control us they will see that we are already being controlled, well protected. Oh well, better luck the next planet

nap

Report this

By Roger Lafontaine, November 13, 2007 at 5:55 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

I believe the ufos are real. They have been sighted not by thousands but by millions throughout the world. The governments have been covering this up and also seeding disinformation into the mix to make them seem irrational and crazy. One of the most reliable groups on this is Stephen Greer’s CSETI. They have documented and recorded hundreds of eye-witness accounts. A lot of the abduction nonsense is hysterical and astrally driven. It is part of the fearmongering campaigns that our governments are famous for.

Report this

By 7man, November 13, 2007 at 5:46 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

I love the way Princess Diana, OJ, UFOs etc. pop up whenever real news is to be ignored (the coming attack on Iran, Impeachment, war crimes, and yes the economic rape of the middle class). Shame on Truthdig for spreading any of this stuff.

Report this

By ROMAN YNEGES, November 13, 2007 at 3:12 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

UFOs are real! Think about it, a civilization develops control over gravity and has the ability to resist it or magnify it, or nullify it all together. Space travel becomes extremely possible because they would now be able to repel gravitons from where they are leaving from and bring into focus gravity from star systems they want to go to. Not far fetched, we just haven’t done it yet. Or, maybe we have. That kind of technology, if it were made public could actually become extremely dangerous. For instance, if your car used anti gravity propulsion, what’s to stop you from modifying it and making so powerful you went straight up? You could possibly die. Anyway, very possible. I’ve already seen these things move across the sky with my own eyes. Just because you haven’t seen a UFO doesn’t mean they don’t exist. This is not like bigfoot or chupacabres. This is not folklore!! These thing are real!!! Keep looking up in the sky throughout your life every once in a while and you are bound to see something up there you don’t normally see.

Report this

By cant discount all, November 13, 2007 at 2:20 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

The sightings overall, colorful or imprecise or hyperbolic, have made a joke of a subject which needs to be seriously explored. So far, 100% of the warm water planets with which we’re familiar harbor intelligent, technical civilizations. One planet, I know. But using whichever estimate, there are likely billions of earthlike planets with similar cosmic histories. It’s probably reasonable to expect there are thousands of spacefaring civilizations within our own galaxy. The good news is that they haven’t been here. There’s no point expecting that massive intellect and capability will ever attempt to offer inferiors, us, a moral or security standing of any consequence.

Report this

By John Borowski, November 13, 2007 at 1:16 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

What can the government say, they are flying over our airspace and we can’t do a damn thing about it. Anyone that understands the inability to understand the vastness of the universe knows that trillions of societies once lived or are now living in this universe. Virtually all the societies are insane like ours and when they developed nukes it was or is a given that they would destroy themselves. Only a few survived to live billions of years. For the destroyed civilizations it is because Mother Nature’ greatest attempt for human-kind has resulted in her greatest failure. What the flying saucer folks can do is analogous to a person that could be magically transformed from the nineteenth century to the twenty-first century. I’m sure he would think that we are gods or magicians by the way we can do things. Many of the flying saucers probably come from distant stars trillions of miles away. If you had a space ship that could go one hundred and eighty six thousand miles a second, it would take you 5 years to reach the nearest star in the universe. That speed would take you more than 7 times around the earth in one second. The fastest man has ever gone is to the moon. This speed would take you around the earth one time in one hour. When the flying folks go back home to tell their people that the craziest put round white cylinders in their mouths and set fire to it and then inhale the smoke they laugh their “bippies” off.

Report this

By QuyTran, November 13, 2007 at 11:17 am #

We still have Bush/Cheney so we don’t care about UFOs.

Report this

By John DiBiase Jr., November 13, 2007 at 8:17 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

I have seen two UFO’s in my lfetime. I am now 61 years od age. Meriden,CT.

Report this

By Herk, November 13, 2007 at 7:49 am #

The next time I see the Virgin Mary hovering over the end of my bed, I’ll be sure to ask her where these magical objects come from. As for the rest of you, look for clues in The Last Supper. Da Vinci hid a complete explanation in the tableware.

Report this

By David, November 13, 2007 at 7:37 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

Wait...let me guess; Seria is harboring extraterrestrials who are helping them develop weapons that will wipe the US off the map, and therefore we must invade. LOL!

Report this

By Frikken Kids, November 13, 2007 at 5:55 am #

UFOs should indeed be taken seriously in that it would be worth the time/money involved to figure out more definitively what it is people - including very knowledgeable and reputable pilots are seeing. 

Anyone who suggests that UFOs need to be taken seriously because aliens are abducting red-necks, mutilating cattle, making crop circles and posing a national security threat needs to be seriously committed to a mental institution.

Report this

By Douglas Chalmers, November 13, 2007 at 2:06 am #

Here’s a better one - in NanJing, China http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3Rc0HWPBII

Report this

By P. T., November 12, 2007 at 11:42 pm #

How much money do they want in order to fight against flying saucers?

Report this

By Scott, November 12, 2007 at 10:08 pm #

Every year thousands of people say they have seen UFOs in the United States and their claims are usually met with scepticism.

No doubt the reports on the US that aliens file back home are met with just as much scepticism.

I’d be more concerned about treating the potential for inter-galatic embarassment more seriously than security.

Report this

Add Your Comment

Posts by unregistered readers are moderated. Posts by members
are published immediately. Why wait? Register today!






Notify you when others comment on this article?


Are you a human?
Retype the word you see here.


Please read and abide by our comment policy.
By submitting this comment, you agree to this site's terms and conditions.

Newsletter

Get Truthdig in your inbox

Privacy Policy

 
Click here to advertise with Truthdig
 

 
Join the Liberal Blog Advertising Network
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman.
Copyright © 2008 Truthdig, L.L.C. All rights reserved.