THE PEOPLE HAVE A RIGHT TO KNOW! ROSWELL! ROSWELL!

The most famous of all UFO sightings has got to be the craft that supposedly crashed in the small town of Roswell, New Mexico on July 2, 1947. You can not talk about the possibilities of UFO's without bringing up Roswell. Everyone knows Roswell, even those who do not know anything about or recognize the existence of UFO's.

Whatever you believe the craft at Roswell to be (and if you're visiting this site, I think I can probably guess), you have to admit that something did crash there, and that the government was quite interested in it. Within a few days, the government (then under Harry Truman) had been to New Mexico, had gathered up whatever had been there, and had flown it to Wright-Peterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. (It's always the Air Force, isn't it? You never hear about the army doing stuff like this.) A couple days later, after this frantic search-and-rescue (or search-and-exterminate, depending on how you look it), the government reported that it had been a weather balloon. A weather balloon. You know, for a government notorious for cover-ups, you'd think they could come up with something better than that. Before base workers, however, knew not to say anything, the press was told that it was a "flying disc". A local radio station picked up an FBI transmission alerting Albuquerque of a "national security item".

Since Roswell, the search for EBEs and for UFOs has become a worldwide phenomenon. People from all walks of life, farmers, teachers, Air Force generals, astronauts, even US presidents (Jimmy Carter) have claimed to have seen UFO's. Several Air Force pilots and astronauts have reported mysteries meetings in the sky with unidentified spaceships. When hailed, they do not respond. Unidentifiable blimps often show up on radar, appearing suddenly, and then disappearing just as quickly. UFO sightings have even earned their own government investigation. Project Blue Book is sort of like an intergalactic guestbook. Blue Book holds the records of all UFO sightings (and meetings?) and their "explanations".

It is commonly believed that in order to deal with the surviving crewmembers of these ships, the government created Majestic 12, or MJ-12. Twelve men staff it, each with a background in either the military, the intelligence community, or the academic world. These men were responsible for the contact with extraterrestrial biological entities, and then for the concealment of this contact. Supposedly, at one point, there were four EBEs, two alive at the time of contact. They are now all dead and being held at a facility in Los Alamos, New Mexico (a la Independence Day). Some theorists believe that the government has set up normal communication channels with the various alien races they have made contact with.

The government does have one agency that was set up to investigate the possibility of extraterrestrials. Called the Roberston Panel, it was convened by the CIA (got to love the CIA) in January 1953. It reviewed the UFO reports, and dismissed every single one.

You'd think if they wanted to keep it secret, they just wouldn't say anything and not make up obviously untrue explanations and mock committees, but they do. So maybe Redux has it right and they do want the public to believe in EBEs. Or maybe the government is just really stupid. Personally, I'd put my money on the latter. But that just may be what they want us to believe…