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unbeknownst even to those issuing the orders muzzling subordinates, a small yet powerful core group is actively hiding explosive knowledge, such as the extraterrestrial origin of at least some UFOs. At least this is 1. : ota what many—even conservative—analysts have come to believe. As far-fetched as it sounds, this radical supposition cannot be dismissed out of hand. Documents prove that the UFO phenomenon became a concern to the Air Force, the CIA, and the FBI as long ago as the late 1940s, thereby giving U.S. authorities ample time to collect the best data and study physical evidence. Obviously the military would have been extremely interested in the technological capabilities demonstrated by these objects, if they could ever get access to them. We must consider the possibility that enough concise data—even physical material retrieved from crashed UFOs—could have been obtained and studied in secret. If our government officials were ea hungry to discover some of the keys to these exotic new technologies, or thought we were on the verge of unearthing a new physics, something from another space-time perhaps, these discoveries could give America unimaginable new capabilities. Of course, such a study would have been daunting and could take decades. No matter how intense, scientists might still not be able to figure out very much about the workings or origins of UFOs, given the sophisticated, perhaps undecipherable technological systems, so remarkable that they seem almost like magic to us. The analogy has been made to a group of cavemen suddenly coming into possession of a television set, before even understanding the fundamental concepts of electricity or radio waves. Of course, this is pure speculation. But even if our covert scientists made very little progress on understanding what we had, it's not a stretch to imagine that those in charge would have been extremely careful to keep such revolutionary information away from any "enemy" countries or rogue nations, including the Soviet Union during the Cold War. They would have been mindful of any future economic benefits that could result from these exotic technologies as well, and would likely want to ensure that U.S. corporations would be the exclusive beneficiaries ° 1 wat 1 these give Ne) of any breakthroughs. As discussed previously, some official documents of the forties and fifties clearly show that, having eliminated the option of the phenomenon being some new manifestation within the natural world, a number of highly placed officials did take the position that UFOs were interplanetary. An inclination to withhold from the public information about something so unthinkable is conceivable given its potentially vast implications. Perhaps those in possession of the secret just wanted to put off its release until more was learned, but that day never came. Also, reflecting back to Nick Pope's "threat - capability + intent" equation, there would have been much concern about inherent dangers. A rational governmental response would have been to understand and control the situation as much as possible