That is another possibility, Patsy. It has occurred to me too, that the governments might use such a ploy to distract people. I think it's more likely that they're covering up real visitations, but either alternative is possible. Governments regularly use a number of methods to focus public angst in some direction or another in order to get the public to back some fiscal policy or support some military effort or legislative change. Among those ploys are:

- stoking exaggerated fear of some other nation, as was done to justify the invasion of Iraq, for instance.

- stoking exaggerated fear of some domestic minority group

- promoting conflict between different groups in the domestic population through raising of extremely divisive issues, such as the building of a mosque at "Ground Zero", for example.

- promoting fear of space aliens through publicizing this or that incident or theory

- promoting fear of climate change or other environmental threats

And so on. Anything that makes the public fearful can also be used to strengthen the government's position, enlarge its powers, and limit civil rights. These sort of tactics have been used over and over again throughout history by governments who were intent upon increasing their control over their own public.