Roswell Festival-Goers Don’t Buy the Government’s UFO Report

Article by Ben Wolfgang                                                July 2, 2021                                                  (washingtontimes.com)

• A record crowd of UFO enthusiasts came to Roswell, New Mexico over the Fourth of July weekend for the annual Roswell UFO Festival, where thousands converge on the small town to partake of the alien-themed concerts, games, outdoor movie showings, yoga, and a host of other events.

• This year’s festival had a special intrigue as the Pentagon and Office of the Director of National Intelligence just released an unclassified UAP Task Force report that investigated 144 military encounters with unidentified craft and could only explain one as a deflating balloon. The study claimed that while UFOs involve “breakthrough technologies” that could come from the Chinese, the Russians, or even extraterrestrials, they are almost certainly a national security threat to the U.S.

• For Roswell festival-goers and professional researchers alike, that explanation is absurd. What the people really want to know is how much information the government is withholding from the American people. The typical Roswell festival-goer can handle the truth. Carla Smith, 33, her best friend, Liz Keneski, 34, came from Austin, Texas. “People are open to it,” says Smith, “which is the first step to anything, learning more about it, being open to it,” Smith is even open to the idea that some extraterrestrials can travel via consciousness, not through the physical domain. Such theories are no longer laughed off. “Now it’s cool to believe in it.”

• Debra Tucker, 52, and her mother Joyce Rowell, 75, traveled to Roswell from Tecumseh, Oklahoma. Taking a break from an alien-themed coffeehouse scavenger hunt, Rowell asked: “Why don’t they (the government) tell us the truth?” Tucker said she is open-minded to all possibilities, including that at least some UFO sightings could be connected to extraterrestrial life. “I definitely think it could be true,” she said. “I haven’t ever seen one but I think it’s definitely possible. There’s so much out there we don’t know about.”

• A guest speaker at the International UFO Museum and Research Center, UFO expert Kathleen Marden took exception to the government’s assertion that UFOs could be Chinese or Russian technology. “These objects can hover at 80,000 feet for hours on end. We can’t do that. They can drop in a couple of seconds to 20,000 feet and hover there, and then they can descend to 50 feet above the churn of the ocean and bounce back and forth like a ping pong ball. We can’t do that. They have aerodynamic capabilities that, as far as we know, no one on this planet can replicate,” Marden told The Washington Times. “If people want to explain that away as Russia or China, then why haven’t they invaded? Why haven’t they decided to rule the world?”

ROSWELL, New Mexico — The federal government’s recent landmark UFO study failed to offer the clear answers many hoped for.

In fact, Joyce Rowell was left with the same question she’s always had.

“Why don’t they tell us the truth?” Ms. Rowell, 75, said Friday as she and her daughter, Debra Tucker, searched for the next clue on an alien-themed scavenger hunt inside a cozy coffeehouse in downtown Roswell.

Ms. Rowell and Ms. Tucker, 52, traveled here from Tecumseh, Oklahoma, for the city’s annual UFO Festival, which has drawn a record crowd this year amid skyrocketing public interest in the subject and the release last week of the government’s widely anticipated unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) report.

Inside Roswell’s Stellar Coffee Co. — which boasts the “Spock Special,” “Martian Sunrise” and “Alien Soda” among its menu offerings — Ms. Tucker said she remains open-minded to all possibilities, including that at least some UFO sightings could be connected to extraterrestrial life.

“I definitely think it could be true,” she said. “I haven’t ever seen one but I think it’s definitely possible. There’s so much out there we don’t know about.”

Ms. Tucker and Ms. Rowell are among the thousands who came to Roswell this weekend for the seemingly endless agenda of alien-themed concerts, games, outdoor movie showings, yoga, and a host of other events. But beneath the family-friendly atmosphere are serious questions about just how much information the government is withholding from the American people.

The recent UAP report, released by the Pentagon and Office of the Director of National Intelligence, examined 144 military encounters with unidentified craft and could only explain one, which was believed to be a deflating balloon.

UFOs, the study said, could represent a major national security threat to the U.S. and may involve so-called “breakthrough technologies” that cannot be explained using today’s scientific knowledge.

While the document didn’t rule out extraterrestrials, it also raised the possibility that the craft could be high-tech Chinese or Russian vehicles or weapons. For Roswell festival-goers and professional researchers alike, that explanation is absurd.

“These objects can hover at 80,000 feet for hours on end. We can’t do that. They can drop in a couple of seconds to 20,000 feet and hover there, and then they can descend to 50 feet above the churn of the ocean and bounce back and forth like a ping pong ball. We can’t do that,” said author, researcher and social scientist Kathleen Marden, one of the UFO experts speaking this weekend at the city’s International UFO Museum and Research Center.

1:40 minute video on the Roswell UFO Festival 2021 (‘KRQE’ YouTube)

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