Jackie McGregor: Donald Trump’s cosmic smokescreen: a ‘UFO’ – Useful Front Operation?
We chased after the UFO in the car, it came to rest above Bellevue Zoo. The night was crisp and clear.
The object was circular, it made no sound, red, white and blue lights flashed around its perimeter...but what was it? Intergalactic visitors? The object appeared for the next three nights, staying perfectly still in the same spot, above the Cavehill. I could see it from my garden, then it was gone, never to return.
This was back in the 1980s. I never discovered what it was. My father said it was probably some sort of military surveillance technology, though I loved the thought that it might be visitors from outer space, perhaps Captain Kirk and Mr Spock observing us and concluding, “It’s life Jim, but not as we know it.” It was all rather exciting.
I wasn’t alone back then in my unidentified flying object spotting. UFO sightings in Northern Ireland are documented in Ministry of Defence files from 1981 to 1996, including reports of silent, egg-shaped crafts and objects near Belfast International Airport moving at around 3,000 mph.
A case was also noted in Trooperslane, Carrickfergus in 1986. In 2024, four UFO reports came from Crumlin, Belfast, Bangor, and Newtownabbey, with 2025 seeing more UFO reports, including three orange lights forming a triangle over Armagh that moved and dispersed.
A call was received from Cyprus Park, East Belfast reporting something above the airport/docks area and another was made from Norwood Court in Coleraine, the word “UFO” was heard before the line was cut off.
Additionally, two photos of an “orb-like” object were posted online last year. A witness claimed it disappeared on a “skyward trajectory.” The post sparked further claims of similar sightings near the Belfast docks and Holywood. It seems Northern Ireland is a favourite alien tourist spot.
Will we ever know what these mysterious crafts are? We may find out soon, thanks to President Trump.
‘The Donald’ posted on social media that the Defence Secretary and other agency heads should “begin the process of identifying and releasing government files related to alien and extra-terrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) and unidentified flying objects (UFO)s, and any other information connected to these highly complex, but extremely interesting and important, matters.”
This follows former President Obama’s confession to a podcaster that aliens were real, but he hadn’t seen them. He clarified later he saw no evidence of them in his time at the White House but since the universe is so vast, “odds are good we’re not alone.”
Trump cited “tremendous interest” from the public as the main reason for seeking the release of these files, or is it?
Some critics argue that the sudden decision to release the data is more about shifting attention from serious allegations to sensational topics. If the news is full of interstellar visitors and the mysteries of space it detracts from more probing questions that might make powerful men hot under the collar.
In this case UFO could be an acronym for “Useful Front Operation,” a ruse to deflect attention from the Jeffrey Epstein case.
Declassifying the UFO files feels like a calculated political manoeuvre to encourage people to concentrate on little green men and not the logs containing the names of little obscene men regarding close encounters on another flying vessel.