Former US President Barack Obama said in a podcast interview that extraterrestrials 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 the state of Nevada. At the end of an interview on journalist Brian Tyler Cohen's podcast, Obama was asked a rapid round of questions, including whether extraterrestrials are real. The Democrat nodded briefly and commented: 'They are real, but I have not seen them.' He added without going into further details: 'And they are not being hidden in... what's it called? There are no underground facilities, unless there's a massive conspiracy and they are hiding it from the President of the United States.' Later, the journalist asked what was the first issue Obama wanted to address when he began his presidency in 2009. To this, Obama replied with a smile, picking up the thread: 'Where are the extraterrestrials?' On Sunday, following the impact of that response, Obama clarified on Instagram that he did not see 'proof' that 'extraterrestrials have made contact with us' during his presidency, but he made a guess 'because the universe is so vast that it is probable that there is life out there.' 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 trials 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 endless conspiracy theories, including that it housed technology of extraterrestrial origin and classified information about UFOs.
