Regarding the UFO debate: perhaps it's an older phenomenon currently cloaked in the guise of "extra-terrestials" and "science" because that represents the unknown in modern terms. There were airship scares with strange occupants across the states at the end of the 19th century, horse and cattle mutilations throughout recorded history, fairies and demons pre-industrial revolution (incubus and succubus are parallels to modern abductions in many ways). Jacques Valee's "Passport To Magonia" and Patrick Harpur's "Daimonic Reality" are good books summarising this approach to modern paranormal ideas. One of those areas the more you delve into, the less sense it makes.
Great! Though I bet that cows not looking forward to having its rectum excised in cruel & apparently pointless experiments by short assed grey guys from Zeta Reticuli.
I reckon it's the US military myself...who often play the UFO card to deflect serious attention from secret "black" projects.