Obama Says Aliens Are Real, But Not Hidden at Area 51

Former US President Barack Obama said in a podcast interview that aliens are 'real,' but he has not seen them in person and denied that there are any specimens hidden at the enigmatic military base 'Area 51' in Nevada. Afterwards, the journalist asked him what was the first issue he wanted to address when he began his presidency in 2009, to which Obama replied with a smile, picking up the thread: 'Where are the aliens?'. 'There are no underground facilities, unless there is a massive conspiracy and they are hiding it from the President of the United States,' he said. On Sunday, following the impact of that response, Obama clarified on Instagram that he did not see 'proof' that 'aliens have made contact with us' during his presidency, but he made an assumption 'because the universe is so vast that it is likely there is life out there'. He added, without going into further details: 'And they are not being hidden in... what's it called?'. At the end of an interview on journalist Brian Tyler Cohen's podcast, he proposes a quick round of questions and answers and asks him if aliens are real, to which the Democrat nods, with a brief comment: 'They are real, but I have not seen them'. The CIA declassified in 2013 documents that confirmed the existence of the military base 'Area 51', created by order of US President Dwight Eisenhower in the mid-1950s for the tests of the U-2 spy plane, capable of flying at high altitudes and covering very long distances. The secrecy that surrounded the base for decades generated a host of conspiracy theories, including that it housed extraterrestrial technology and classified information about UFOs.