No evidence of contact: Obama shuts down alien buzz

Former US President Barack Obama said he had seen no evidence of aliens “contacting us” after causing a stir on social media by saying aliens were real in a podcast over the weekend.

While being bombarded with questions by podcast host Brian Tyler Cohen, Obama was asked: “Are aliens real?”

“They’re real,” he replied, “But I haven’t seen them. And they’re not kept in Area 51.”

On Sunday night, the former president posted a statement on Instagram and appeared to clarify what he meant by his comments, which have since gone viral.

“I was trying to stay true to the spirit of the speed tour, but since it’s getting attention, let me clarify. Statistically, the universe is so vast that life is likely to exist there. But the distances between solar systems are so great that our chances of being visited by aliens are slim, and I’ve seen no evidence of extraterrestrial contact with us during my presidency. Really!”

The secrecy surrounding Area 51, a top-secret Cold War testing site in the Nevada desert, has long fueled conspiracy theories among UFO enthusiasts.

In 2013, the CIA acknowledged the existence of the site, but not UFO crashes, dark-eyed aliens or moon landings.

The declassified documents referred to the 20,700 square kilometer facility by name after US government officials refused to acknowledge it for decades.

The base became the testing ground for several top-secret aircraft in the 1950s, including the U-2 and later the B-2 stealth bomber.