Are aliens the one who prevented humanity from descending into a nuclear war? That's what a former NASA astronaut claims.
Edgar Mitchell, who was part of the Apollo 14 mission to the moon, gained notoriety with the dissemination of various conspiracy theories since his return from the moon in 1971.
Mitchell, the sixth man to set foot on the moon, was interviewed back in 2016, where he admitted to being convinced of the existence of aliens and extensively spoke about claims that aliens have visited Earth.
In that conversation with the Daily Mirror, he raised the astonishing claim that aliens were responsible for preventing a nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union during the peak tension of the Cold War.
Watch him talk about how aliens monitor us
During that conversation, Mitchell also discussed the White Sands missile testing facility in New Mexico.
He said, "White Sands was a testing ground for atomic weapons and that's what the extraterrestrials were interested in. They wanted to know about our military capabilities. My conversations with people in the military and intelligence community showed that the extraterrestrials were attempting to keep us from going to war and help us achieve peace on Earth."
White Sands Missile Range is where the first atomic bomb was detonated in 1945 and Mitchell claimed that the officers there told him that aliens were disabling missiles that flew above the site.
As you can expect, these claims did not pass unnoticed. Nigel Watson, a UFO expert, said at the time to IFL Science, "In my view, it's just another case of UFO fantasies and speculations. Trying to get at the facts is like herding cats."
Nick Pope, a former senior official in the British Defense Ministry who investigated UFOs, also addressed Mitchell's claims.
"Edgar is a very respected individual and it was an honor to meet him. However, most of the information he has is second-hand and not experienced firsthand. While he had access to government and military documents, he doesn't reveal his sources, so we can't be entirely sure about what he says."
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This is not the first time allegations have been made that aliens neutralize nuclear weapons and show an interest in military bases.
Bob Jacobs, a former US Air Force lieutenant, spoke to Larry King in 2008, where he claimed that during nuclear missile tests in the 1960s, a large object appeared in the sky, causing great confusion in the US military, which then instructed "never to speak of this incident again."
This claim was also echoed by Stephen Bassett, the founder of Paradigm Research Group, who has been trying for years to persuade the US government to investigate the disclosure of the "truth" about extraterrestrials and UFOs.
Watch Stephen Bassett talk about alien involvement in nuclear experiments
Bassett claimed that aliens neutralized human nuclear weapons to demonstrate how "useless" they are against their advanced technology.
When asked what motivates aliens to silence our nuclear weapons, Bassett argued that several eyewitnesses have observed aliens easily controlling our nuclear arsenal and added that it is not intended to threaten us, but merely to convey a message that these things are futile.
He stated in an interview with the Daily Star, "They keep turning off our nuclear weapons time and time again, but it doesn't mean they are evil. The eyewitnesses who have witnessed this believe that it's not an act of hostility, but rather to convey that these things are useless against them, and it only contributes to humanity killing each other. So why not get rid of it? That's their interpretation."