Hiding aliens to planting UFOs: What’s the TRUTH behind Area 51 rumours spread by US military?
The US Justice Department deliberately fuelled Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) conspiracy theories for decades, misleading the public and even their own personnel.
In recent years, theories have been built and circulated about Area 51 military base, a classified US Air Force facility in the Nevada desert, including stories of orb-like UFOs that US military pilots have spotted and mysterious sightings around military bases.
Far-right Republicans have also accused the purported “deep state” of hiding UFO-related truth from the public as well as the government.
According to the Wall Street Journal, a Department of Defence review found that in the 1980s, an Air Force colonel was sent on a mission to spread false information, hence creating rumours about it.
He then visited a bar near Area 51 and gave the owner fake photos of flying saucers, which raised new UFO rumours around the secretive military base.
The now-retired colonel later confessed to Pentagon investigators, saying that the mission was aimed to divert attention from the real purpose of the site, that was, testing the then-secret F-117 Nighthawk stealth aircraft.
According to officials, embedding the programme within alien folklore was the best way to shield it from Soviet surveillance during the Cold War.
The US defence agencies allegedly used these myths several times to protect sensitive military developments.
All this came into light when in July 2022, the Pentagon established the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) to investigate Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs) across air, sea, and space.
Sean Kirkpatrick, the first director of the AARO, reviewed government documents from 1945 and interrogated current and former military officers.
After the probe, it was found that the US military intentionally planted UFO conspiracy theories, including those linked to Area 51.
The Pentagon shared disinformation, including photoshopped images of flying saucers.
