I guess my post about the breakaway civilization will have to wait another week. Sorry about that.
On July 23 2020, the New York Times published an article titled, “No Longer in the Shadows, Pentagon’s U.F.O. Unit Will Make Some Findings Public.” The article originally quoted Eric W. Davis, an astrophysicist and consultant for the Pentagon, when he described crashed UFOs as being, “off-world vehicles not made on this earth.” It also quoted retired Senator Harry Reid, former Senate majority leader as saying that crashes had occurred and that retrieved materials had been studied secretly for decades.
Wow.
Of course, this article sent a tsunami (not a ripple) through the UFO community, especially among the disclosure activists, who have been claiming that the government, and specifically the Pentagon, have been hiding their knowledge of UFOs, including crashed flying saucers and their pilots, for some 70 years. Ever since the so-called Roswell crash in 1947, the UFO community has been fighting to force the government to release what they’ve been hiding for so long – evidence of extraterrestrial visitations to earth.
But the government at least tried to present a sympathetic attitude. The Unites States Air Force publicly announced they were studying the UFO phenomena as far back as 1947 by establishing "Project Sign." It was short-lived, being shut down in 1949, but it was followed by "Project Grudge" in the same year. It fizzled out in 1951, and was replaced by "Project Blue Book," which started in 1952. Blue Book (the subject of a recently cancelled television series based on the original files) was much longer lived. Unfortunately, as a result of a report by a scientific committee called the "Condon Report," Blue Book was finally cancelled in 1969. The report concluded that there was nothing to the entire UFO phenomenon, just swamp gas, the planet Venus - you know, the usual suspects. Criticism from the UFO community was rife with accusations of bias and cover-up. What was supposed to be a sober, objective investigation into UFOs, designed to calm public fears turned out to be little more than a fiasco – more cover-up by the government and military.
Fast-forward to 2017, the New York Times ran an article about UFOs titled “Glowing Auras and ‘Black Money’: The Pentagon’s Mysterious UFO Program.” The article describes UFOs captured on gun cameras by Navy pilots during training exercises. What became known as the “Tictac” UFO incidents, the article also revealed the existence of a covert group within the Pentagon that was studying the Tictac incidents, and any other military encounters with UFOs. Called AATIP, short for “Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program,” the group was tasked with studying UFO encounters with the military to determine if they were a threat to National Security. Supposedly cancelled in 2012, several involved have since come forward and stated that it was still in operation as late as 2017. More cover-ups.
Good news, though. Luis Elizondo, the former director for AATIP, said that as of 2017, there is a new program, and “it no longer has to hide in the shadows. It will have a new transparency.” So it appears that the disclosure so many in the UFO community have fought so hard for, may finally be coming to pass.
Back to the Davis and Reid quotes. Upon reading them, many in the UFO community were shouting “Disclosure! Disclosure! Finally, we’re getting disclosure! It appears that the government is loosening their hold on UFO information they’ve been guarding for so long. Soon the public will know everything!”
Not so fast. It turns out the media has done what it so masterfully does all the time. It turns out the story was sensationalized, and the NYT mis-quoted Davis and Reid. The Times did print a disclaimer, admitting to their faux-pas, saying that Senator Reid “believed that crashes of objects of unknown origin may have occurred and that retrieved materials should be studied; he did not say that crashes had occurred and that retrieved materials had been studied secretly for decades.”
It’s funny – swap out a few little words (I’ve italicized them) and the entire meaning is changed. With regards to the Davis quotes, it is confusing at best. Snippets of longer comments are worded to support the sensationalist view of the article that there are in fact crashed “vehicles” and their fragments have indeed been studied. However, no hard proof is presented, just a story intended to sell copies of a newspaper.
Do I sound skeptical? Yes, and for good reason. One newspaper article, and an over-generalized, nebulous one at that, does not disclosure make. I can hear the air escaping form the disclosure balloon with a sad, disappointed whistle. Sorry folks, nothing to see here. Move on.
Keep in mind, the powers within the government have been sitting on UFO intel for some 70 years. Yes, I just said that. I do believe there is something to this whole government cover-up, and they’re very good at keeping their secrets. There needs to be a very good reason for them to start disclosing what they’ve spent millions of dollars and a lot of effort to keep secret for so long. What that reason might be, I couldn’t even speculate. But for now, the government’s secrets are safe. Locked away somewhere with the Roswell aliens and all of the other crash debris.
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