Iranian UFOs: OK, fine, whatever …

Herald Tribune-- OK, so, let’s get this straight. On Sept. 23, the Tehran Times reports that anti-aircraft batteries from the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps locked in on three UFOs over the Persian Gulf and shot one down. A debris search is underway near the islands of Khark and Khargou. There are no followup reports.

On Tuesday, not quite two weeks later, the regime flings two short-range missiles aloft during war-game exercises. Fox News runs footage of one of the launches. A slo-mo replay shows one of the clouds being sliced open by an apparent fast-moving UFO.

In 2007, Iran’s FARS News Agency reports that a UFO crashed in the Barez Mountains. A debate unfolds, without resolution. Some analysts argue it was probably a meteor; others say no, there was a spiral of smoke and an explosion. The article concludes: “Similar crash incidents have been witnessed frequently during the last year all across Iran, and officials believe that the objects could be spy planes or a hi-tech espionage device.”


It’s a notion that dates back to at least 2004. That’s when the BBC reports how “UFO fever is gripping Iran” following dozens of sightings across the country in April. “Scientists say the sightings are a result of natural phenomena,” the article states, “but many people say they are spy planes.”

The very next year, Pravda announces that Russia and Iran are joining efforts “to struggle against invasion of UFOs.” It adds, “The news may seem to be ridiculous at first sight, but it is actually a rather serious matter: UFOs pose a big threat to Iran in connection with its growing nuclear potential.”

UFOs, spy planes, meteors — the charade of euphemisms and misdirection goes back to the beginning of America’s adventure on the high frontier. A 1997 report called “The CIA’s Role in the Study of UFOs” provides a flawed glimpse into this hopeless mess.

Author Gerald Haines, an historian with the National Reconnaisance Organization, wrote that CIA spy planes like the U-2 and SR-71 accounted for “more than half” of all UFO sightings in the late 1950s and 1960s, but the priority was keeping the missions classified. “This led the Air Force,” Haines claimed, “to make misleading and deceptive statements to the public in order to allay public fears and to protect an extraordinarily sensitive national security project.”

Haines’ assertions were rebuffed by retired Project Blue Book USAF officers William Coleman and Robert Friend, who claimed the CIA’s percentages of mistaken identities were absurdly high, and that they never lied to the public about CIA aircraft. But who cares — that was a long time ago.

These days, without having to pay lip service to a public UFO study, the feds don’t have to breathe a word. They certainly wouldn’t hold a press conference to announce one of their spybirds had been shot down. And Iran would be too hip to crow about recovering American high technology. The only people left in the dark would be the ones who have to pay for it.