Some UFO stories were deliberate deception planted to hide real secrecy.

Evidence

Some UFO sightings are covert experiments in the manipulation of the belief systems of the public. And some cases simply did not happen. The stories about them, numerous rumors of crashed saucers and burned aliens, were not so much the result of delusions as the product of deception: rumors deliberately planted in the eager minds of gullible believers to hide more real facts about which it was felt that the public and the scientific community had no ‘need to know.’ — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 853

Categorization

• XREF: Ties to the book’s core argument in the claimed taste note about decorum toward corpses lying outside practical logic — here official deception rather than practical disclosure. Also echoes COINTELPRO disinformation tactics discussed later in the chapter. — connects to: A hoax TV broadcast seeded the elite-escape conspiracy into UFO lore — Michael Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic…, 431; Ufology’s dark side fused alien narratives with fears of secret government tyranny. — Michael Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic…, 479