Alien Lore No. 100: France Releases The Motherlode Of UFO Reports

France opened its files on UFOs Thursday when their space agency rolled out a website documenting 1,600 sightings in the last fifty years.

The archive will be updated as new cases are reported. It includes reports from obviously delusional crackpots to cases that still have scientists scratching their heads. The U.S. has been notoriously stingy with their files. Over the years, only a few documents have appeared under the Freedom of Information Act.

As you well know, UFOs have always engendered conspiracy theories about government cover-ups of findings of things so horrible and frightening that the public Must Never Know.

Of the 1,600 cases since 1954, nearly 25 percent are classified as "type D", meaning that "despite good or very good data and credible witnesses, we are confronted with something we can't explain."

The website appears to be seriously overloaded, but things should be better in a few days: www.cnes-geipan.fr

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