History

Re: Why Did the Government Cover up Roswell?

Al_Gore the Idiot — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 11:29:16 GMT

what led you to believe this?

Just assuming by looking at the photos.

Re: Why Did the Government Cover up Roswell?

Anenome — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 07:01:26 GMT

Yeah, I think it was very likely some sort of manned reconnaissance balloon that crashed. The whole ufo hysteria is a fascinating social phenomenon, but without substance.

Re: Why Did the Government Cover up Roswell?

Malachi — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 23:11:43 GMT

the craft was of the same technology of the era.

what led you to believe this?

Re: Why Did the Government Cover up Roswell?

Kakugo — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 19:59:51 GMT

The funny thing about Roswell is the alien crash story itself was probably an half-baked cover up attempt.

Yes, it was a balloon, but no ordinary balloon. Starting in 1945, the US intelligence apparatus really "bought into" unmanned balloons as reconnaisance tools. Leveraging both on Jean Piccard's work and Japanese fusen bakudan (the long range balloons used during WWII to carry incendiary devices to the US) technology, a long series of reconnaisance balllon programs was launched. Carrying such colorful names as SKYHOOK, GOPHER and GRANDSON, the main aim of this long campaign was spying on the Soviet nuclear program and their delivery systems (missiles, bombers etc). The history of these programs is hazy at best and large parts of it are still covered by secret: for example the Soviet archives make mention of a veritable wave of balloons launched in 1975, leading them and other countries to fill official complaints (as many balloons malfunctioned, became air traffic hazards and had to be shot down). If these balloons were from the US, they are still covered by secret.

The program the Roswell balloon belonged to MOGUL, a USAF operation aimed at detecting nuclear explosions from the propagation of sound waves in the upper atmosphere. It was a highly classified program, those existence was only admitted in 1972 and whose details only emerged in the late '80s. The Roswell base was a prime launch facility for MOGUL because of both good prevailing wind conditions and high security measures due to the presence of a bomber squadron trained in nuclear bombing operations. When a balloon crashed soon after launch (a fact confirmed by the de-secreted files) somebody had the brilliant idea of using a crashed flying saucer to have a good laugh. Apparently some big brass at Offutt (where the SAC headquarters were located) wasn't so amused and orders came down quickly to change the story to the "usual" weather balloon. Career military men are a humorless bunch and apparently somebody thought a nuclear-armed air force believing in flying saucers somehow detracted to the gravity of the Cold War.

However this doesn't mean there wasn't (or isn't) one or more highly classified US operation aimed at studying UFO/UAP. British intelligence documents obtained under FOI (the local equivalent of FOIA) admit as much, also mentioning another country (whose name was deleted by military censors) as taking UFO/UAP as something serious and worthy of discreet study. The sheer quantity of material gathered by sundry US intelligence agencies (AF ISR, ONI etc) hints at very least to the existence of very sizeable archives. However this is just cold data and data have to be processed to be useful or even to make sense.

Some people have said the study of UFO/UAP started to see if the phenomenon posed any threat to US national security and assertain if it was "Soviet stuff". The same people said once the military had contented itself with knowing there was no threat they just lost interest and brushed the whole thing under the carpet. It's well possible. We all know how the military work: if you cannot use it to kill people, it's a waste of time.

PS: if you want to answer to me please refrain from putting a ton of links in your posts. That's what usually happens when I talk about these things. i have been involved in UFO/UAP research since early 1983 and I have heard pretty much every "theory" under the sun. Thanks.

Re: Why Did the Government Cover up Roswell?

Al_Gore the Idiot — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 17:11:42 GMT

Guys, thanks for your responses. That seems to make some sense. It would be hard to believe that the "spacecraft" that crashed in Roswell was really a UFO, because the craft was of the same technology of the era. It would be far fetched to say that this vehicle would have the ability to travel unimaginable distances and the aliens would have survived.

Re: Why Did the Government Cover up Roswell?

Malachi — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 00:37:56 GMT

Theres a nasa report that says something to the effect that the results of full disclosure might be that our society experiences profound change, perhaps our way of life would be radically different. I will try to dig up a quote.

edited to add: I found it. Brookings report, here is a url to a gif:

http://www.enterprisemission.com/images/brook-7.gif

Anthropological files contain many examples of societies, sure of their place in the universe, which have disintegrated when they had to associate with previously unfamiliar societies espousing different ideas and different life ways; others that survived the experience usually did so by paying the price of changes in values and attitudes and behavior.

Re: Why Did the Government Cover up Roswell?

Aristophanes — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 23:27:25 GMT

I second eliotn.

The government has admitted that the SR-71 and U-2 were both developed at Area 51. it is likely that they crashed something at an earlier R&D facility and wanted the world to think that there was some kind of UFO so as to discourage speculation about developmental weakness. Don't forget the CIA thought it was clever to tie "cameras the size of fridges" to hot air balloons and float them over the USSR to take pictures...

Although...

Re: Why Did the Government Cover up Roswell?

eliotn — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 23:11:31 GMT

One theory is that they do it not because UFOs exist, but to encourage speculation that UFOs exist, as a way of covering up what the Air Force is really doing by encouraging false information/false conspiricy theories.

I will quote Clayton, who puts forth the argument:

"The DoD/CIA doubtless encourage UFO mania. Why? Well, if you're in the business of flying concept craft (unidentified aircraft) it helps to marginalize real sightings of these craft by encouraging people to go over the cliff into the fantastical. "I saw a UFO!" is much less believable than "I saw a very oddly shaped aircraft flying in very strange patterns not too far from the Air Force's secret aircraft testing base." It serves other purposes as well, though I won't go into those. This is just one example of zillions of disinfo/propaganda tricks."

Why Did the Government Cover up Roswell?

Al_Gore the Idiot — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 22:57:44 GMT

I'm intrigued by the Roswell incident. I've just watched the 40 minute Larry King segment on Roswell which aired four years ago. I have not heard of a compelling argument of why the government wants to suppress the incident. UFO conspiracists say the Gov fears the population would be panicked if they found out that UFOs really existed. Others say the government would be embarrassed to admit the existance UFOs, since our military's technology is vastly inferior to theirs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dixvfIbEuHo