Everyone is now serious about UFOs. But they reveal more about earthling politics | Andrew Gawthorpe

Next month the Pentagon will release a hotly anticipated report - but most Americans already believe in the most radical explanations for UFOs

The truth probably isn't out there, but something is. Next month, the Pentagon will deliver to Congress a long-awaited report on its research into what the military calls unidentified aerial phenomena but the rest of the world calls UFOs. Ever since the New York Times reported the existence of a $22m Pentagon program dedicated to studying reported sightings of UFOs by military personnel - along with startling videos of the phenomenon - a steady stream of leaks have followed. Senators from Harry Reid to Marco Rubio have weighed in, demanding the issue be taken seriously. Now even Barack Obama has said that for years the government has been seeing flying objects that we can't explain".

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