Former NASA official claims UFO sightings were used to hide military secrets
A former NASA investigator has blasted claims that aliens are visiting Earth and says the UFO hype has been used to "cover up" secret military technology.
Joseph Gutheinz, who once served as a senior special agent with NASA's Office of Inspector General, said that "people need to stop speculating and start demanding proof".
He said: "Prove it. Honestly, prove it. They've been claiming there have been UFOs since the 1940s. And, you know, Area 51 supposedly houses UFOs. Have someone go in, look at Area 51."
Gutheinz, now a criminal defence lawyer and professor, said he used to get regular calls from people who believed they had been abducted by aliens or had chips implanted in their brains.
He told Fox News: "What I used to tell my students was the possibility of anybody coming from another world to visit us was beyond unlikely. And what I would tell the people that would call me up with these tales about being visited by aliens, see a psychiatrist."
The specialist added the only real chance of alien life in our solar system lies on moons like Europa, Ganymede, Titan or Triton – and even then, it would just be microscopic.
He explained: "If there is life on any of those moons, it's possible. Again, it is primitive, it is microorganisms, it's nothing that's going to visit us in a flying saucer."
When asked whether sightings of UFOs might have spiritual or natural explanations, Gutheinz offered a simpler theory.
The expert said: "If you're seeing something up there, and it's real, it's coming from the Chinese or the Russians or your next-door neighbour flying around with their drone."
He claims that the rise in alien claims during the 1940s may have been sparked by Cold War secrecy.
Gutheinz said: "I believe early on, when all these UFO stories started coming up, it was because the military was probably testing some aircraft, and they didn't want the Russians to know about it.
"And so, if the UFO cover worked, I would not be surprised if there are people in the military and the government who played along with that in order to conceal our stealth technology.
"The bottom line is, I think we use the UFO cover to hide a lot of things."
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