In the late 1990s, a group of high-ranking French military officers, scientists and other officials gathered to study the UFO phenomenon objectively. Their main purposes were to ascertain whether there was anything to the idea of UFOs, and if so, to try to work out if the phenomenon had any possible implications for national security. Members of the group, called COMETA (“The committee for in-depth studies”), included army and air force Generals, an Admiral, the interior ministry’s former Chief of Police, the president of a photo analysis group, a political scientist, and former high-ranking members of French aerospace research groups. Several of the top brass involved had been weapons and engineering specialists.
The report took three years to compile. When it was finished, copies were presented to French president Jacques Chirac as well as to other high-ranking government officials and to media sources. The findings were surprising. Acording to the COMETA team, around 5% of the cases that they had studied had no possible explanation within the boundaries of current scientific and technical knowledge. They analysed a number of alternative theories which might allow for recorded events to be explained, and the only one which they felt allowed for all the observed facts was the extra-terrestrial hypothesis.
They did not reach that conclusion lightly. The incidents they cited were all well-documented cases with multiple witnesses, usually military personnel of good character. Most were backed up with strong physical evidence — radar logs, soil and plant samples, and so on. The authors also accused the USA of hoarding extra-terrestrial technology for military advantage, and of covering up facts in order to discredit UFO research. President Chirac reacted bravely, immediately pointing out that as the report was not attached to any government agency or department, it could not be described as official.
It took quite a long time, but there is an English translation of the COMETA report available on line. You can find it here. It makes for some fascinating reading. If you happen to speak French, the original is downloadable here.
I like Bob Wilson’s musings on UNFO’s.