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FBI Releases Document Confirming Roswell UFO

schwit1 writes "An investigator for the Air Force stated that three so-called flying saucers had been recovered in New Mexico. They were described as circular in shape with raised centers approximately 50 feet in diameter. Each one was occupied by three bodies of human shape, but only 3 feet tall dressed in metallic clothing of very fine texture."

32 of 481 comments (clear)

  1. Last words... by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 4, Funny

    Last noises heard from dying aliens: "Ack, ack, ack..."

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    1. Re:Last words... by thomasdz · · Score: 4, Funny

      Last noises heard from dying aliens: "Ack, ack, ack..."

      So the aliens either were trying to speak TCP/IP or they were related to Bloom County's "Bill the cat"?
      (or was somebody playing cowboy yodeling music somewhere near the crash site?)

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    2. Re:Last words... by Ekhymosis · · Score: 4, Funny

      Last noises heard from dying aliens: "Ack, ack, ack..."

      No no, the last words heard were: "Khaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnn!!!!"

      --
      Fighting over religion is like seeing whose imaginary friend is best.
    3. Re:Last words... by LifesABeach · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Past primitive human culture's ability to survive, after meeting in some way, an advanced culture when it takes its first crap, is pretty dismal. I can not help but think what it would be like for Leif Erikson vs. Princess Cruise Lines at the port of Port of Akureyri, Iceland, what the outcome would be.

      "What's in your wallet?" - Capital One, 2009

    4. Re:Last words... by Phoghat · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Um.... bill says "ack...............phhhhhhhhttt

      Last noises heard from dying aliens: "Ack, ack, ack..."

      On a slightly more serious note, no one here seems to be taking this even a little bit seriously ( and no, I'm not new here) It seems to me that this is the first acknowledgement by the government that the "Roswell Incident" was something real. That an actual alien craft was involved. No weather balloon, experimental Russian or American aircraft or anything else.

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  2. Questions. by webmistressrachel · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This raises more questions than answers. For a start, this really is on vault.fbi.gov servers, so either it's real or a VERY risky hoax.

    However, assuming it's real for now, WHY HAS THIS NOT LEAD TO A FLURRY OF OTHER EVIDENCE FROM ELSEWHERE?

    Clearly the mask is off now? The government know about saucers, otherwise there wouldn't be such a casual write-off at the end of the doc.

    So were they short Russians? Germans who found it in a barn after WWII and got it working? COME ON FBI, do your jobs and give us a proper INVESTIGATION!

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    1. Re:Questions. by ZosX · · Score: 5, Informative

      http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread685706/pg1

      Did some more research.... apparently this was declassified in the 70s and published in several books from that time. I don't know how much I would read into it.

    2. Re:Questions. by wonkavader · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Webmistressrachel, what this document says is that an FBI agent interviewed someone who heard a rumor.

      They did that a lot. They should be many, many documents just like this one, all mutually contradictory. It's to be expected.

    3. Re:Questions. by dkegel · · Score: 4, Insightful
    4. Re:Questions. by Chris+Burke · · Score: 5, Informative

      If there's one time to ever RTFA, it's when it's a government document supposedly admitting UFOs of the flying-saucer variety exist and were found near Roswell.

      Turns out this isn't that. It's the FBI noting that some dude claimed that two 50-foot saucers landed near Roswell because the nearby radar station disrupted their control mechanisms, and then doing nothing.

      "Disrupted by the radar you say? Ah of course. And where are these saucers? Oh they've mysteriously vanished since you saw them the night of the full moon. Got it. Thank you, citizen. We'll definitely look into that -- might be the Russians you know."

      Only other thing to say is -- good job, submitter. Made me look.

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    5. Re:Questions. by CharlyFoxtrot · · Score: 4, Insightful

      When I was young I thought there might be something to stories like these, then I grew up and realized that many people are doped up, drunk, compulsive liars or completely bat-shit insane. And some are all of those, all the time.

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    6. Re:Questions. by DamonHD · · Score: 5, Funny

      That's no way to speak of our elected representatives.

      Rgds

      Damon

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      http://m.earth.org.uk/
  3. Riiiiiight by DurendalMac · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The document almost makes it sound like hearsay. It says an investigator stated that, but then goes on to say that it was provided by an informant. Doesn't sound terribly sound, and it says that no further investigation was done, which probably means that the FBI had a good laugh about it and then filed it away.

    1. Re:Riiiiiight by ThunderBird89 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Agreed, this is only a filing of the report, no follow-up. It's customary in every law enforcement organisation to file every report, no matter how stupid. Hell, I've heard about the police filing a report by a guy claiming every evening, after the news ran, the newscasters came out of his TV set, and beat him. No investigation was done, naturally, but the report had to be filed, as the SOP went.

      Just another sensationalist samzenpus headline, it would seem...

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    2. Re:Riiiiiight by dsheeks · · Score: 4, Funny

      Oh come on, you obviously don't understand anything about proper conspiracy theory analysis. Obviously no further investigation was done because it was covered up. That fact alone (no further investigation) absolutely proves without a shadow of a doubt that the report was true and that aliens were found, taken to be autopsied, and that the autopsy findings were ultimately linked directly to the Kennedy assassination. Boy oh boy oh boy oh boy... what's become of the Slashdot commenters these days...

  4. Hearsay by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    The document is a report outlining another individual's report. It's neither admission nor documentation of the incident by the FBI, just a record that someone has made a statement about the incident. It's worthless.

  5. April fools? by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 4, Funny

    Wow, I have been spending way too much time coding. I completely lost track of the date!

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  6. obligatory by austinpoet · · Score: 5, Funny

    does the document detail whether the base did, after all, belong to them?

  7. Read the article carefully by lscotte · · Score: 5, Informative

    Read the article carefully - it neither denies nor confirms anything. This is a report documenting what an informant said, and does not suggest any first hand knowledge about anything...

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  8. Al lwe need to know by BlindRobin · · Score: 5, Funny

    Is just how did Obama manage this from Kenya BEFORE hes was born, I bet Glen knows...

  9. Re:Great news! by zill · · Score: 4, Interesting

    According to Mr. _______ informant

    They debriefed their informant and recorded down what he said. It doesn't necessarily mean FBI actually believe the information provided. Under the FOIA you can't just destroy the document because the source wore a tin-foil hat.

  10. Re:Great news! by plover · · Score: 4, Funny

    We have confirmation the FBI is not a serious organization...

    "No, ma'am. We at the FBI do not have a sense of humor we're aware of."

    --
    John
  11. Dwarf test pilots by mkraft · · Score: 4, Informative

    The document says "so-called flying saucers" with 3 foot tall human shaped bodies wearing test pilot guard, No where does it say "aliens" in the document. They were obviously dwarf test pilots.

    1. Re:Dwarf test pilots by Peet42 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Actually, you're not so far off one of the more interesting "oddball" theories.

      Lets assume that something happened. There was a communication blackout, the local undertaker was asked to provide three child-sized coffins and thereafter the Army Air Force claim that nothing happened.

      The "oddball" theory is that a scaled-down test plane, manned by children crashed in the desert. Can you imagine the US Government ever admitting to that?

  12. Suspicious timing by Livius · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The problem with the Roswell folklore has always been that the story completely went away until the point in time when, coincidentally, the actual witnesses had died of old age.

  13. my personal theory by jollyreaper · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Area 51 is chock full of advanced but terrestrial technology. The government leaks this stuff seemingly confirming UFO's or half-assed and inadequate cover stories just to stir up conspiracy nuts. You tell someone you saw strange things in the sky over Groom Lake, people will smile and twirl their fingers in circles beside their heads.

    I think the odds of alien life in this universe are very good; I think the odds for intelligent life are also good. But unless there's some lovely scifi physics waiting out there for us, space travel seems like it'll be awfully damned expensive and complicated. And little green men in flying saucers seems a little too -- how should I put it --- mundane? Too mundane for an interstellar alien intelligence.

    When you consider that in light of the cheesy denials, it seems like it's not just paranoids getting worked up over nothing, it looks like the government is egging them on. Therefore my theory of using aliens to cover for the real secrets.

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    1. Re:my personal theory by sjames · · Score: 4, Funny

      How do you know that's not what they want you to believe?

  14. Re:brought down by RADAR? by eljasbo · · Score: 3, Funny

    As an avid follower of the x-files (at least until that awful final movie), i believe i have some expertise that can clarify this further. The alien craft do indeed manipulate the magnetic fields. However naturally magnetic materials can make this technology malfunction. The reason they crashed into the roswell desert is due to the high concentration of magnetite in the area that caused their guidance systems to go haywire. This magnetite concentration is also the reason ancient civilizations such as the Anasazi built villages among the hills in these parts, and why the illuminati have started creating modern villages in these parts to live when the new world order arrives. This magnetite rich environment protects any inhabitants from the powers an alien civilization uses to control humans, and is the only hope for human civilization to survive. The hybrid alien/human species will take over every other area of the planet, but those who live in the desert with the magnetite will survive and be able to repopulate the planet.

  15. Re:Last Modified Date by sjames · · Score: 4, Funny

    All right now, aliens in Roswell is one thing, but you actually expect me to believe a government agency has a sense of humor?

  16. Re:It's the NUKE CODES! by Ungrounded+Lightning · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I thought this was a reference to early sightings of over the horizon nuclear tests that needed to be suppressed, during the time of Oppenheimer.

    I had been assuming the stories were a "second cover".

    This is a psychological ploy allegedly used by security agencies to hide things that are really important and worth the effort. They set up two cover stories: The first cover story is public and something plausible. The second cover story is nutty and withheld, but evidence for it is planted. When somebody realizes that the first cover is a lie and digs deeper they encounter the planted evidence for the mind-numbingly wild second cover. Then they are placed in the position of either looking like a fruitcake or giving up. (After all, anything they dig up on the REAL story could also be another lie.)

    If it is a second cover, the existence of such a memo in the archives could just be a leftover piece of the planted evidence.

    As for what's behind the hypothetical second cover, an explanation released a few years back seems plausible: Balloon-lofted high-altitude drop tests of a predecessor to the mercury capsule reentry heat shield - which looked a lot like the contemporary depictions of flying saucers.

    The Cold War was raging at the time and the early space program was military and extremely secret. So tests on the first cut at retrieving people and devices from orbit would logically be performed at a remote, highly-classified, military aircraft test site, with the agencies going to extreme lengths to cover the work from spies, just as they did with the Manhattan Project.

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  17. Re:Great news! by JWSmythe · · Score: 3, Informative

    Check the memo on the FBI site.

        Mr. [redacted] informant was an investigator for the USAF. Not just some random civilian, or someone who thought they knew something.

        There would have been no further investigation necessary, as the USAF was already investigating, and any further investigation would be done by them, and any information necessary would be reported back to the FBI.

        Pretty much, another agency had control and jurisdiction on the case, and possession of all materials relating to the case. There was nothing for the FBI to do. What were their options? Demand access to now (as of the minute the military touched it) classified materials? Good luck there. I'm surprised the FBI was provided with as much detail as they were given.

        If that were to happen today, it may be something more like "We found something, and are investigating." Or as was provided to the public "Nothing to see here. Just a weather balloon. Move on." Use tthe official USAF aircraft identification chart for identifying unknown flying objects.

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  18. Not proof, hearsay. by Narcogen · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You fail reading comprehension.

    The document is produced by Guy Hottel and addressed to the director of the FBI.

    In the document, Hottel writes that the information referred to in the document was provided to a special agent whose name is redacted. So we've already got a chain of four links here: the FBI Director, Guy Hottel at Strategic Air Command, the unnamed Special Agent, and the SA's source, whose name is also redacted after the preposition "by" in the first sentence.

    Inside that, we have the contents of the report, which is that an Air Force investigator, also unnamed, stated that three bodies and three objects were recovered. The SA's source may have been the investigator, or an intermediary, the document isn't entirely clear on that. However, the long redacted portion of the first sentence after the word "by" would seem to indicate information beyond a mere name; perhaps a title, organization, or other contextual information. Such such information was redacted in the first paragraph, but the title "investigator" and the organization name "Air Force(s)" would seem to indicate that these two individuals are distinct. So that would give us five individuals: FBI Director, Guy Hottel, the Special Agent, his informant, and the Air Force investigator.

    Everything in the document is essentially preceded by: The FBI acknowledges that SAC reports that a Special Agent says that an informant told him that an Air Force investigator stated... and it's all three years after the alleged events in New Mexico.

    There's a word for this. It's "hearsay". In this case, it's four times removed from the only person who is actually named in the document: Guy Hottel at SAC. Putting hearsay in a document doesn't make the contents official; it's just acknowledgement on the part of FBI that people made statements-- in this case, some people made statements about what other people told them that other people told them that other people told them, with three of the individuals involved unnamed.

    The important part of the document is the last paragraph-- what the Special Agent did as a result of the informant's statement: "no further investigation was attempted". In other words, it wasn't credible enough to even bother looking into.

    The only question here is why Slashdot's editors, more than sixty years later, aren't as astute as that Special Agent.