Would cover ups really happen?

[Inferno]

Conspiracy theories thrive on the idea that if a government discovers alien life it will cover up the discovery in order to some how benefit itself, perhaps hoping for new technologies to enhance their military.

Would this really happen? Or would the government be more likely to be quick to release the information and try to use it as an excuse to increase the budget for defence spending? Does a cover up really benefit a government?

[A'a]

Probably not. I don't see what advantage the government would gain by covering anything up. Any military gains could be hidden without covering up the discovery of alien life itself (which would be too big of a discovery to keep secret). I would think the only institutions that would have anything to lose by the discovery of alien life would be various religeous groups, but then again, they probably would not be able to.

[Maha Vailo]

I like to put it this way: How can the U. S. government cover up the presence of aliens when they can't even cover up an extramarital affair in the White House?

- Maha "you know who you are, Bill" Vailo

[Ilya]

Of course, according to diehard conspiracists Watergate, Monicagate, Iran-Contra, and all such blown conspiracies were blown on purpose, to convince us that "government can not keep a secret".

And according to really diehard conspiracists, the "official" US government is as much duped as the rest of us, and all governments are controlled by some shadowy organization. The fact that there is no evidence of such organization existing only proves how competent it is.

[Enzp]

The discovery lies unspecified here. How do I know it is too big to cover up? It depends on what the evidence is. It may be am alien fleet parking on the White House lawn, or it may be some small artifact discovered.

I think if they could, the govt would indeed keep it secret. They keep things secret precisely because they don't know what advantage it might give them. Let it out, any advantage evaporates. Keep it secret and who knows what advantage they may discover. KNowledge is power, don't share it.

Of course I think you are talking about something like a flying saucer full of technology landing. There would be no military use for a discovery of ancient buildings on mars. But I would think the administration would still like to keep it mum because they fear anything that might upset the applecart.

[Swift]

<skip>
I think if they could, the govt would indeed keep it secret. They keep things secret precisely because they don't know what advantage it might give them. Let it out, any advantage evaporates. Keep it secret and who knows what advantage they may discover. KNowledge is power, don't share it.

my bold
This is at first glance going to sound like a dumb question, but what exactly is "The Government"? People say that all the time like its a monolithic entity where all are in perfect sync and everything is under control. Even if we talk about just the Federal Government, the vast majority of it is just working stiffs and career people. Do you think some janitor at some national park in Iowa is going to not tell the world about some alien artifact he found? How do you think all the media (newspapers, TV news) get all this info from "unidentified government sources"? I think it silly to think that even if the President wanted to keep some information about aliens secret that it would take more than 24 hours before it was on CNN. Do you think the administration wanted to make the prisoner abuse stuff public (for example)? See how well they kept that secret.

[dgruss23]

Good points swift - and I think you have to throw other "governments" into this. For example, you can't get France and the U.S. to agree about much of anything - but both will conspire (with the rest of the worlds nations) to keep Aliens a secret for decades. I doubt it.

[sarongsong]

Phillip Corso, chief of the Army's Foreign Technology Division in 1961, covered this in his book, "The Day After Roswell".

[Bawheid]

Good points swift - and I think you have to throw other "governments" into this. For example, you can't get France and the U.S. to agree about much of anything - but both will conspire (with the rest of the worlds nations) to keep Aliens a secret for decades. I doubt it.

But the fact that THEY keep all goverments in line just shows how powerful THEY are.

*reaches for tinfoil hat and more uppercase letters*

[dgruss23]

Good points swift - and I think you have to throw other "governments" into this. For example, you can't get France and the U.S. to agree about much of anything - but both will conspire (with the rest of the worlds nations) to keep Aliens a secret for decades. I doubt it.

But the fact that THEY keep all goverments in line just shows how powerful THEY are.

*reaches for tinfoil hat and more uppercase letters*

How could I have forgotten about their power? Clearly every elected leader in the world has an Alien inside him/her controlling their thoughts. How foolish of me to miss that critical piece! #-o :)

[beskeptical]

Not to bring the politics in except to note differences. Some government officials are good at getting the public to discount information or at least pay little attention to it, while they may not be able to actually keep information from being released. Inevitable information releases can be delayed to be released when people are preoccupied with other things, released after they no longer have the same impact, or even released when they will have a greater impact. The Executive Branch, including the Pentagon has the most power to do this but the Legislative Branch, and all smaller government branches, state, county and city can also do it on a more local scale.

Also, the government has kept things from being released, not because the information was an issue, but because something else about it was embarrassing to someone who had the power to suppress the information.

On some levels it is getting harder to suppress information. The Internet bloggers, for example, have turned out to be an army of investigators digging up news facts that only the best reporters have rivaled in the past. And the bloggers are really fast compared to a long investigation by a small team.

On other levels, the science of manipulating the 'public psyche' has reached new levels with billions invested in marketing research and the collection of so much data about people the manipulating can be fine tuned to the nth degree.

So information about UFOs could be suppressed if only a few people were privy to it in the initial discovery. A legitimate incident could be covered up by putting out parallel information that the witnesses were really just trying to sell the story to the tabloids and presenting 'experts' to explain away the information.

It would be hard to keep real UFO information suppressed if more than a few people who knew about it wanted to disclose the information. A lot of insiders are responsible for 'leaks' because they disagree with policies or actions of their superiors. Sometimes they go public. Sometimes they call their trusted journalist.

Under very limited circumstances evidence of extraterrestrial visitors to the Earth could be kept from the public.

The above discussion is only whether or not a cover up could happen. The evidence is very strong no cover ups are likely to have happened. The evidence is everything from the science of space travel, the likelihood of extraterrestrial life that has developed technology being anywhere close to Earth that we wouldn't have detected by other means like SETI, the very low odds if we had been visited the 'very limited' circumstances that would allow a cover up would have occurred, the unlikelihood everyone in the know would keep quiet, especially over time, and the few reasons that might motivate a cover up.

[Doodler]

Technically, anything various agencies deem classified or better in terms of secrecy can be called a cover up, and they do happen, some successfully (Air America, the Ultra cipher being broken), some spectacularly unsuccessfully (Watergate, Teapot Dome, Abu Graihb).

Any cover up by definition is basically the compartmentalizing of information that could be embarassing to the parties involved. As an example, because it was covered up at the time that Britain had cracked Germany's code, an attack on Coventry was known to be coming days in advance, but to protect the secret, nothing was done to stop it. I'm sure had that come out in the days immediately following the attack through a leak to the media, Churchill would not have remained Prime Minister.

So, do cover ups happen? Count on it. Are they all meant as malicious means of keeping the people from knowing the Truth? Not always. Secrets are a pain to keep, but they do get kept, sometimes for very solid reasons.

[R.A.F.]

I like to put it this way: How can the U. S. government cover up the presence of aliens when they can't even cover up an extramarital affair in the White House?

I agree...the question isn't would the Government cover "it" up, but could they cover it up...I just don't see how.

[beskeptical]

I like to put it this way: How can the U. S. government cover up the presence of aliens when they can't even cover up an extramarital affair in the White House?

I agree...the question isn't would the Government cover "it" up, but could they cover it up...I just don't see how.I can't give you examples without entering into forbidden political territory. But the single example of a single person failing to contain a personal secret is just over-reaching on conclusions for the amount of evidence there.

[Enzp]

The OP was that if a government discovered evidence of ET would they attempt to cover it up. I used the term "the govt" in the same sense. I refer to the military and intelligence sections. Obviously if the janitor at the post office finds it and goes on Ted Koppel, they can't cover it up very well. But you and I do not know what goes on at "area 51" and other secured locations, we don't know what goes on at NSA, we don't know where our nuclear submarine fleet is depoyed, and so on. ONly vague notions. "the government" - meaning those portions of it that are relevant to this sort of discussion - can and does keep secrets, and if something is discovered but not yet revealed to the public, it is not a stretch to think they can keep it that way. OR TRY, which was the original question.

I had assumed I would not have to explain that by government I did not mean the guys coming up with corn crop projections or the janitor. I will try to be more specific in the future.

So it would seem to me that should the military or intelligence community within our government discover evidence of ET, they would indeed attempt to cover it up or keep it secret from the general public.

If the janitor finds it first, I hope he makes a pile off it and retires in comfort.

[beskeptical]

If the question is "would they" and not "could they" then my post doesn't answer the right question. I answered 'could they' and 'is it very likely they have', yes and no respectively.

'Would they' totally depends on what evidence was found and whether or not there was a perceived benefit in withholding the information.

The one conspiracy theory I find hard to swallow is, 'the government is covering xyz up to prevent public panic'. Despite the minimal panic caused by the War of the Worlds radio program, I can't see any and/or all of the people who might be privy to some ET information having that belief. It's a Hollywood myth.