The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
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Deze blog is opgedragen aan mijn overleden echtgenote Lucienne.
In 2012 verloor ze haar moedige strijd tegen kanker!
In 2011 startte ik deze blog, omdat ik niet mocht stoppen met mijn UFO-onderzoek.
BEDANKT!!!
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UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
UFO's of UAP'S in België en de rest van de wereld Ontdek de Fascinerende Wereld van UFO's en UAP's: Jouw Bron voor Onthullende Informatie!
Ben jij ook gefascineerd door het onbekende? Wil je meer weten over UFO's en UAP's, niet alleen in België, maar over de hele wereld? Dan ben je op de juiste plek!
België: Het Kloppend Hart van UFO-onderzoek
In België is BUFON (Belgisch UFO-Netwerk) dé autoriteit op het gebied van UFO-onderzoek. Voor betrouwbare en objectieve informatie over deze intrigerende fenomenen, bezoek je zeker onze Facebook-pagina en deze blog. Maar dat is nog niet alles! Ontdek ook het Belgisch UFO-meldpunt en Caelestia, twee organisaties die diepgaand onderzoek verrichten, al zijn ze soms kritisch of sceptisch.
Nederland: Een Schat aan Informatie
Voor onze Nederlandse buren is er de schitterende website www.ufowijzer.nl, beheerd door Paul Harmans. Deze site biedt een schat aan informatie en artikelen die je niet wilt missen!
Internationaal: MUFON - De Wereldwijde Autoriteit
Neem ook een kijkje bij MUFON (Mutual UFO Network Inc.), een gerenommeerde Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in de VS en wereldwijd. MUFON is toegewijd aan de wetenschappelijke en analytische studie van het UFO-fenomeen, en hun maandelijkse tijdschrift, The MUFON UFO-Journal, is een must-read voor elke UFO-enthousiasteling. Bezoek hun website op www.mufon.com voor meer informatie.
Samenwerking en Toekomstvisie
Sinds 1 februari 2020 is Pieter niet alleen ex-president van BUFON, maar ook de voormalige nationale directeur van MUFON in Vlaanderen en Nederland. Dit creëert een sterke samenwerking met de Franse MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP, wat ons in staat stelt om nog meer waardevolle inzichten te delen.
Let op: Nepprofielen en Nieuwe Groeperingen
Pas op voor een nieuwe groepering die zich ook BUFON noemt, maar geen enkele connectie heeft met onze gevestigde organisatie. Hoewel zij de naam geregistreerd hebben, kunnen ze het rijke verleden en de expertise van onze groep niet evenaren. We wensen hen veel succes, maar we blijven de autoriteit in UFO-onderzoek!
Blijf Op De Hoogte!
Wil jij de laatste nieuwtjes over UFO's, ruimtevaart, archeologie, en meer? Volg ons dan en duik samen met ons in de fascinerende wereld van het onbekende! Sluit je aan bij de gemeenschap van nieuwsgierige geesten die net als jij verlangen naar antwoorden en avonturen in de sterren!
Heb je vragen of wil je meer weten? Aarzel dan niet om contact met ons op te nemen! Samen ontrafelen we het mysterie van de lucht en daarbuiten.
28-01-2022
The very real story of how UFOs shaped Middle East culture
The very real story of how UFOs shaped Middle East culture
From The Arabian Nights to alien ‘sightings’ over Dubai, the fantastical has a big impact.
Photo credit: SIDDHARTH SIVA
In late 2020, retired Israeli space security chief Haim Eshed became—for a brief time, at least—the most celebrated figure in the world of ufology. Already respected in aeronautics circles, Eshed shot to wider fame following an interview in Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, in which he claimed that aliens have not only visited Earth, but have joined humans in an inter-species “Galactic Federation.” As luck would have it, this headline-grabbing revelation coincided with the publication of Eshed’s as-told-to book The Universe Beyond the Horizon, which made similar claims. It’s unclear whether the disclosures made news on other planets.
At around the time Eshed was drip-feeding the world tales of interplanetary collaboration—coordinated, perhaps, from an underground base on Mars—the US Congress got in on the act, instructing the Pentagon to deliver a report on the 144 unresolved sightings of UFOs (or unidentified aerial phenomena—UAP—in the current parlance) recorded by the military since 2004. The paper, which came out in June, amounted to a series of observations which could be summed up as: dunno. Perhaps, as Eshed has suggested, the Federation is withholding full disclosure in order to avoid “mass hysteria.”
Believers, for their part, have remained unfazed by the lack of definitive answers, pointing to grainy military footage of inverted pyramids flitting across the sky, or dark blobs plunging into the sea, as evidence that the truth is not only out there, but right here. Even Dubai, not traditionally known as a destination for alien joyriders, was reportedly treated to a visitation in 2020, this time in the form of a huge saucer-shaped object hovering over the Arabian Gulf. As self-styled UFO-hunter Scott Waring put it in a subsequent blog: “looks like there is an alien base not far off the coast of Dubai.”
The 2016 sci-fi film Aerials, which depicts similar objects looming menacingly over Dubai, is said to be the first full-on alien-invasion movie shot in the UAE—possibly because the region as a whole has had more immediate conflicts on its mind. According to Dubai-based filmmaker S.A. Zaidi, however, his movie grows out of a longstanding, widespread regional interest in the subject. “I belonged to UFO clubs,” he says of his childhood. “I was a part of that geek culture.”
Zaidi is quick to add, though, that having a passion for science fiction does not make a person—or indeed a region—more inclined toward tin foil hats. He also objects to the idea that the Middle East’s supposed penchant for conspiracy theories—which he calls a “cultural stereotype”—transforms every errant weather balloon or odd-shaped cloud into a scene from Close Encounters. “After Aerials came out, my father kept asking me, ‘what do you think will happen if aliens actually land?’ I told him, ‘dad, I don’t know. It’s just a film.’”
That said, Dubai’s “UFO” was by no means the first in the region—Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Morocco are just some of the places that have reported sightings over the years (albeit mostly debunkable). The most notorious incident occurred in 1976, when glowing, fast-moving objects appeared in the skies over Tehran, and were deemed threatening enough that fighter pilots scrambled to intercept them.
More recently, The Washington Post ran an article on how UFOs have become a “national security worry” in the US. “The question is, what is it? What are its intentions? What are its capabilities?” said one former intelligence official in the piece, referring to the objects that have appeared on air-force pilots’ screens. Such comments may not point to mass hysteria, but they do suggest a kind of mass concern. As the late theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking put it: “meeting an advanced civilization could be like Native Americans encountering Columbus. That didn’t turn out so well.”
The aliens in Zaidi’s film Aerials are not of the city-incinerating variety—partly because he lacked the budget for global annihilation, partly because he was more interested in building a subtle tension, and partly because he doesn’t necessarily buy into the idea that aliens would come here with the aim of stirring trouble. “I’m not sure a race that had the ability to travel all this way would do it just to say, ‘hey, I’m going to take this laser out and zap you,’” he says. “Maybe they just came because they were interested.”
Zaidi’s reluctance to venture into fire and brimstone territory was also a matter of what he describes as cultural sensitivity. “When we made Aerials, maybe the region wasn’t ready for something like Independence Day, you know, where the beam comes down on the White House,” he says. “We have local landmarks in the film, Emirates Towers and so on, but we were not going to shoot lasers down on them. We were not going to show Dubai getting destroyed.” He pauses and adds: “Then again, your imagination takes you there whether you want it or not.”
Dubai-based filmmaker S.A. Zaidi says his alien-invasion movie grew out of UFO “geek culture.”
Back to the future
The day German academic Jörg Matthias Determann landed in Doha, he felt as though he’d stepped onto a different planet. “You see all these glass towers rising out of the sand,” he says. “From the inside of these air-conditioned buildings, you look out at this hot, inhospitable environment, and you almost feel as though you are in a city on Mars, some kind of future habitat, these glass containers where the heat and dust storms are being kept out.”
Determann, a professor of history specializing in science, technology, and society at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Qatar, believes the Middle East’s reputation as a “very traditional, conservative place” does not take into account its appetite for extravagant ideas. “Look at Dubai, which is about to open a Museum of the Future,” he says. “There is a broad interest in futuristic mega-projects here, a commitment to try things that haven’t been tried before. And there is a long history of this—rulers wanting to leave gigantic legacies, going back to the Pharaohs. The Emirates Mars mission is another of these mega projects.”
In his latest book, Islam, Science Fiction and Extraterrestrial Life: The Culture of Astrobiology in the Muslim World, Determann traces a line from groundbreaking astronomers in ancient Mesopotamia to the burgeoning interest in space exploration today. Along the way, he draws our attention to various cultural aspects that have made the Middle East fertile ground for stargazing, ranging from religion to commerce to the fantastical stories in One Thousand and One Nights (which became known as The Arabian Nights in English)—the latter of which, he says, could be seen as the root of it all.
It seems odd to think of The Arabian Nights as the starting point for regional futurism, given that its tales tend toward talking donkeys and vindictive demons rather than interstellar travel. Yet the collection has undoubtedly influenced generations of storytellers, who in turn have wielded an influence of their own. “No matter where you grew up, you couldn’t escape the power of these stories,” Determann says. “So you’ve always had these broadly speculative elements to culture here—you see it in the architecture, and in the science fiction I’ve had the pleasure of reading.”
Ahmed Salah Al-Mahdi, the Egyptian author of the dystopian novel Malaz: City of Resurrection, is currently working on a book about extremely unpleasant aliens touching down in the desert between Egypt and Libya. “I like imagining other worlds, life on other planets,” he says. “I read the stories in The Arabian Nights as a child and was fascinated by the magic, the heroes, the kingdoms. It created another world here in the Middle East. Anyone who wants to understand how to build fantasy worlds should read The Arabian Nights.”
Medieval folk tales, however, are not the only thing fueling imaginative storytelling in the region—or, for that matter, the willingness to accept that alien life forms may actually exist. In his book, Determann argues that Islamic beliefs—which accommodate ideas of multiple worlds and the existence of sentient, invisible beings—have played an important part, too. “To believe in the Quran,” he says, “is to believe that we are not alone.”
Following close behind religion, meanwhile, is the Middle East’s age-old role as a center for global trade. “Doha and Dubai are not so much desert cities as port cities—there’s a long tradition of going to distant shores,” Determann says. “This leads to stories of adventurers sailing off to strange lands, encountering strange creatures. You can see the movement of this over time: from seaport to airport, trading center to global aviation hub. The next step could be the spaceport. The urge to explore the unknown—that is something you can see here very clearly.”
Even the multicultural makeup of Gulf cities, Determann adds, leads back to this spirit of adventure and exploration. “One of the things I love about here is the coming together of so many cultures, like the cantina in Star Wars. There is an openness to the stranger, the alien.”
Ayham Jabr, “Damascus Under Siege”
(AYHAM JABR)
Battlefield Earth
If the idea of aliens flitting around our planet represents a kind of superstition, then there are strains of Middle East culture that foster this, too. “Many people believe in magic, its ability to affect lives,” says Al-Mahdi. “They’ll go to a man who they think will help them marry or divorce or have a child. They’ll take a piece of paper with the name of a loved one written on it, put it in water and drink it so they will be married. People really believe this stuff. It’s not fantasy, it’s something that exists. So, yes, a lot of people believe in aliens.”
Maybe so, but there is also a broad streak of pragmatism and skepticism here, epitomized by S.A. Zaidi’s aunt, who used to berate him for wasting his time reading stories with titles like Ray of Death. “She kept telling me I fantasize too much, go back to your schoolbooks,” he recalls. “This is not practical.” Then there are people like Syrian artist and filmmaker Ayham Jabr, for whom science fiction has a very practical purpose—namely, the idea that “fantasy can help the artist or writer to deliver his point.”
“Sci-fi provides a way to bypass censorship and address taboo subjects. You can present criticisms in a story about Mars, or about alien invaders, which gives you plausible deniability.”
As with many of his peers, Jabr got hooked on science fiction as a kid. “My family are artists, actors, screenwriters, so multiple cultures were in front of my eyes,” he says, going on to recall the fantasy TV shows he watched, the books he read, the tales of Pharaohs and kings. He has no time, though, for the conspiracy theorists and myth makers who occupy the margins of ufology. “There are so many fake, cheap stories, such as the one about the pyramids being used as fuel tanks for alien ships,” he says. “For some, this isn’t seen as fantasy but as theory.”
Religion, Jabr continues, also fired up his childhood imagination, though not always in a positive way. “My interest was coming from fear,” he says. “All these stories about the afterlife, Judgment Day, angels, and demons.” Fear is the prevailing emotion in Jabr’s Damascus Under Siege, a series of surreal collages that depict sinister-looking spacecraft either looming over the Syrian capital or shooting lasers into it—a representation of the country’s civil war rather than the prospect of an alien invasion.
“Science fiction provides a way to bypass censorship and address taboo subjects,” says Determann. “You could write a realistic story set in the present that criticizes authority, but that might get you into trouble. Or you can present the same criticisms in a story about a society on Mars, or about alien invaders, or about the future, which gives you plausible deniability.”
Al-Mahdi, too, admits to cloaking political and social provocations in fantasy. “I like to write post-apocalyptic novels, to imagine the collapse of what we have now and start anew—you can chop and change things however you like, and it is the same with alien invasions,” he says. “If you look closely, you’ll see I’m criticizing current regimes.”
Not all fantasies, however, fit this mold. It’s unlikely that the makers of the hammy 1959 Egyptian flick Journey to the Moon intended much more than a bit of harmless escapism. The same could be said of Rex Chouk, the Saudi artist whose works include trippy images of flying saucers hovering over the desert. As for the alien-invasion film Aerials, Zaidi says this: “I’d like to be able to say that we had underlying messages, but the reality is I’m just obsessed with UFOs.”
Ayham Jabr’s “The Guardian of Life”
(AYHAM JABR)
Brave new world
In 2007, former Syrian culture minister Riad Agha stood before a science fiction symposium in Damascus and delivered an address that, in its own way, provided a direct rebuttal to Zaidi’s skeptical aunt. “Man is an imaginative being,” Agha said to the assembled geeks. “The more he excels in imagining, the more he excels in innovation and invention.”
For Determann, the truth behind this statement is apparent in everything from Abu Dhabi’s futuristic Masdar City to the emerging Saudi-UAE space race. “There are three things you need before you can explore space,” he says. “You need knowledge and technology, you need money, and you need imagination. Before you go to Mars, you have to imagine going there.”
In fact, Determann continues, potential engineers and astronauts should be encouraged to immerse themselves in sci-fi. “There’s an idea that you can use space research to build a high-tech, knowledge-based economy, which the Emiratis have really bought into,” he says. “So if the aim is to inspire young people to go into space and contribute to that economy, we have to start early, building up the fascination long before they’re ready to study physics at university.”
Jasem Mutlaq, founder of the Ikarus Observatory in Kuwait, would likely agree. “It’s rare that you’ll find astronomers who are not fans of science fiction,” he says. “I grew up in the 80s watching Star Trek: The Next Generation. But the biggest impact of all was in 1997, when Contact was released. I was literally in tears when the movie was over. I’ve been hooked ever since.”
Like Mutlaq, Al-Mahdi grew up on a diet of science fiction, though his career took a different turn. “I wanted to be an astronaut, that was one of my childhood dreams,” he says with a laugh. “In high school I was good at chemistry and physics, but I liked poetry and literature more. I went to an engineering college, but then left for the faculty of the arts. So I was torn. In the end, I put both things together.”
Here, Mutlaq offers a word of caution. For him, the intermingling of science and science fiction is a positive thing, but not to the extent that it blurs the line between fantasy and reality. “Following the footsteps of Carl Sagan, I usually do not fall prey to conspiracy theories, especially those related to aliens roaming around,” he says. “While recent videos of UAP encounters are intriguing, they are not conclusive evidence for beings who traveled thousands of light years to go zipping over coastlines for a couple of seconds.”
And while Mutlaq will continue to gaze into the stars from his observatory, to read his sci-fi books, and abide by the moral standards of Captain Picard, he has learned to keep his own fantasies in check. “Alien life has yet to be proven scientifically, so we shouldn’t fall prey to our whims and wishes,” he says. “We ought to understand the universe as it is, not as what we aspire it to be.”
There are very few people who think to help mankind without considering any profit in return. After great inventor Nikola Tesla, Baltimore engineer Otis T. Carr was the only person who believed in Tesla’s free energy concept. He wanted to create a spacecraft that would run on free energy and take humans to Moon and other planets. His friendship with Tesla lasted until his death in 1943. He was a protégé of Tesla who constructed a number of fully functional flying saucers in the late 1950s.
Carr was born in West Virginia in 1904. He left school at the age of 13 and self-educated himself. He met Tesla for the first time in Manhattan in 1925 while working as a hotel clerk. The two men talked about the developments in technology and discussed energy productions. Carr, who reportedly discovered free energy, was inspired by Tesla.
Otis Carr holding Utron Electric Accumulator, 1957.
During an interview with The New York Herald Tribune in 1911, Tesla said:
“My flying machine will have neither wings nor propellers. You might see it on the ground and you would never guess that it was a flying machine. Yet it will be able to move at will through the air in any direction with perfect safety.”
Unfortunately, Tesla never had an opportunity to convert those ideas into a reality due to political and budget issues, but his disciple Carr claimed to have achieved harnessing power from gravity and built a spacecraft using it.
Schematic drawings for Otis T. Carr’s planned “Free Energy Research Institute” in Baltimore County, Maryland, 1958. Carr convinced investors to back him in his schemes to create Tesla-inspired flying saucers, antigravity devices, and free energy machines. Image credit: Rutgers University Press
In the 1950s, Carr was searching for investors for his saucers and free energy program. He became friends with a Baltimore man named Ralph Elsmo, who owned an advertising enterprise. After finding out about Carr’s ideas, Elsmo offered him a place to developing inventions using Tesla technology. Later, he set “OTC Enterprises, Inc.” In 1957, Carr was promoted by advertisers as the greatest scientist and was called a creator of the solution to power sources, free energy produced by the “Carrotto Gravity Motor.”
His most controversial invention was powered by the Utron Electric Accumulator, described as a fourth-dimensional space vehicle or the OTC-X1 spacecraft, in other words, a flying saucer.
Carr demonstrated his model of the spacecraft that he expected to fly to Moon
Carr could not have developed this technology if Tesla had not shared his ideas of antigravity propulsion with him years ago. In 1958, Carr claimed to have produced an anti-gravity technology that could be applied in a spacecraft. He asked for funding of around 20 million dollars to construct manufacturing facilities and build a machine (OTC-X1) that could fly to the Moon or any other planet in the solar system.
Prototype OTC-X1
He even approached the Pentagon and pitched them his OTC-X1 concept. Being interested, the Pentagon sent a team to investigate Carr’s offer. They visited his office in Baltimore and found his model useless. In 1958, the FBI started an investigation into Carr’s new spacecraft model, as they were concerned that it might attract the Soviet Union, but someone tipped them about criminal activity. They had reports of him selling some unregistered stock.
During a Project Camelot, Carr and technician Ralph Ring had been working closely on the design of flying saucers. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the two of them built a flying saucer powered by rotating electromagnets in conjunction with a number of small, ingenious capacitor-like devices called “Utrons.” They constructed several small-sized ships and a 45-foot craft that flew 10 miles at the speed of light.
“I was with two other engineers when we piloted the 45′ craft about ten miles. I thought it hadn’t moved – I thought it had failed. I was completely astonished when we realized that we had returned with samples of rocks and plants from our destination. It was a dramatic success. It was more like a kind of teleportation.”
“You must always work with Mother Nature. Force is never necessary. The laws of the physical universe are really very simple,” Ring said.
According to Carr, “Any vehicle accelerated to an axis rotation relative to its attractive inertial mass, immediately becomes activated by free-space-energy and acts as an independent force.”
On April 15, 1959, hundreds of people gathered in Oklahoma city for Otis Carr’s disk launch. They were invited to the launch of his 45 feet craft that would rise 400-600 feet in the air. However, the launch was postponed as Carr had been admitted into hospital, diagnosed with a lung hemorrhage.
Design of OTC-X1
Carr attracted the attention of World War II veteran US army officers Wayne Aho and Daniel Fry who accompanied him and helped his project to keep going. He claimed to launch for the Moon on December 7, 1959.
In 1947, Carr prepared the documentation, and later, in 1959, received a US patent No. 2.912.244 for a project of OTC-X1 spacecraft despite the fact that the United States Patent and Trademark Office had not recognized the idea of “perpetual motion machines” for a long time, and Carr’s device used just such a principle.
In 1960, Carr was found guilty of selling unregistered stock in Oklahoma and in January, he was charged in fraudulent of $50,000. He was sent to prison for 14 years and meanwhile, his lab was destroyed and all his prototypes were ceased by the government. His team members were asked not to make any contact with each other. After that, Carre lived in Pittsburgh until his death in 1982, continuing to try to interest investors in his technology.
Otis Carr was a victim like Tesla, who was left unnoticed and broke at the end of his life. People often talk about the intervention of the government and other forces opposing the advancement of Carr’s flying saucers. Besides, opponents of alternative energy regularly report fraud on the part of Carr.
UFOs have captured the popular imagination for the past seven decades. For most of this time, the subject has been treated with casual derision by mainstream media—as the butt of a lighthearted story at the end of the nightly news, underscored by X-Files music and obligatory references to “little green men.”
The media’s dismissive attitude towards UFOs stands in stark contrast to the views of numerous, highly-respected individuals in the spheres of politics and science who have, over the years, stated either publicly or confidentially their firm belief that the UFO enigma is not only worthy of serious study, but that it may even be representative of non-human intelligences.
Here are 10 of the most shocking statements about UFOs by scientists and government officials…
General Nathan Twining.
10. General Nathan Twining
General Nathan Twining served as Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force between 1953 and 1957, and as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff between 1957 and 1960. A highly distinguished officer, Twining rose through the ranks from a lowly private to a four-star general answering directly to the Secretary of Defense and the President himself.
In a once secret letter to Air Force Headquarters dated 23 September 1947, General Twining, then head of Air Materiel Command, stated that flying saucers were “real and not visionary or fictitious,” that they had “metallic or light reflecting surface[s],” that they were “circular or elliptical in shape, flat on bottom and domed on top,” and were sometimes sighted in “well-kept formation flights varying from three to nine objects.”
Twining’s unambiguous comments in this then-secret letter about the physical reality of flying saucers were in direct contradiction to the USAF’s public position at the time that UFO reports were the product of mass hysteria or misidentifications of mundane phenomena.
Wilbert. B. Smith.
9. Wilbert B. Smith
Between 1947 and 1969, the US Air Force operated UFO investigation projects under three different codenames: Sign, Grudge, and Blue Book. Less well known is that America’s Northern neighbour was also taking a keen interest in flying saucers during the Cold War. Between 1950 and 1954, the Canadian government officially operated its own UFO study project—Project Magnet—with the objective of collecting data about the phenomenon and applying it in the spheres of military engineering and technology. The project was headed by Wilbert Brockhouse Smith, a senior radio engineer for Transport Canada’s Broadcast and Measurements Section.
In a previously top secret Canadian government document dated 21 November, 1950, drawing from information he had obtained via the Canadian embassy in Washington D.C., Smith noted of UFOs that: “The matter is the most highly classified subject in the United States government, rating higher even than the H-bomb.”
Professor Hermann Oberth.
8. Hermann Oberth
One of the boldest perspectives on UFOs during the 1950s came from Professor Hermann Oberth. A pioneer of rocketry and astronautics, and mentor to Werhner von Braun, Oberth was arguably one of the most influential engineers of the 20th Century. In an article for the American Weekly on 24 October, 1954, Oberth wrote:
“It is my thesis that flying saucers are real and that they are space ships from another solar system. I think that they possibly are manned by intelligent observers who are members of a race that may have been investigating our earth for centuries. I think that they have been sent out to conduct systematic, long-range investigations, first of men, animals and vegetation, and more recently of atomic centers, armaments and centers of armament production. They obviously have not come as invaders, but I believe their present mission may be one of scientific investigation.”
Roscoe Hillenkoetter.
7. Roscoe Hillenkoetter
Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter became America’s first CIA Director in 1947 and, before that, was head of the Central Intelligence Group (CIG). He had previously been wounded during the attack on Pearl Harbor and commanded the USS Missouri in 1946. He retired from military service with the rank of Vice Admiral. In 1960, in a letter to Congress, Hillenkoetter famously wrote:
“Behind the scenes, high-ranking Air Force officers are soberly concerned about the UFOs. But through official secrecy and ridicule, many citizens are led to believe the unknown flying objects are nonsense. To hide the facts, the Air Force has silenced its personnel.”
Curiously, during his retirement years, Hillenkoetter joined the board of directors for the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP)—America’s leading civilian UFO investigations group. In their ground-breaking book,Clear Intent, authors Lawrence Fawcett and Barry Greenwood describe Hillenkoetter’s high-level involvement with NICAP as being a key move in the CIA’s successful infiltration and dismantling of NICAP. More men with CIA ties would join NICAP in the years to follow, and these individuals came to control the organization from within during the 1960s and 1970s as its founder, Donald Keyhoe, was pushing ever harder for government disclosure of UFO reality. Eventually, Keyhoe was ousted as NICAP Director by Joseph Bryan, former chief of the CIA’s psychological warfare staff. By 1980, NICAP was defunct.
Senator Barry Goldwater.
6. Barry Goldwater
Barry Goldwater was best known as the five-term Senator from Arizona and as the Republican Party nominee for President of the United States in 1964. Goldwater was a significant force in American politics across four decades. In an official United States Senate letter dated 28 March, 1975, in response to an enquiry regarding his publicly stated interest in UFOs, Goldwater wrote:
“About ten or twelve years ago I made an effort to find out what was in the building at Wright Patterson Air Force Base where the [UFO] information is stored that has been collected by the Air Force, and I was understandably denied this request. It is still classified above Top Secret.”
In another Senate letter, dated 19 Oct. 1981, Goldwater further stated: “I have had one long string of denials from chief after chief, so I have given up… this thing [the UFO issue] has gotten so highly classified… it is just impossible to get anything on it.”
Victor Marchetti.
5. Victor Marchetti
Victor Marchetti served in the CIA from 1955 to 1969. Towards the end of his CIA career, Marchetti worked for several months as special assistant to CIA Deputy Director Rufus Taylor. Marchetti was also involved in establishing the Top Secret Pine Gap satellite ground station near Alice Springs in Central Australia—long rumoured by UFO conspiracy theorists to be Australia’s Area 51.
“I do know that the CIA and the US government have been concerned over the UFO phenomenon for many years and that their attempts, both past and recent, to discount the significance of the phenomenon and to explain away the apparent lack of official interest in it have all the earmarks of a classic intelligence cover-up… My theory is that we have, indeed, been contacted – perhaps even visited – by extraterrestrial beings, and that the US government, in collusion with other national powers of the Earth, is determined to keep this information from the general public.”
Col. Gordon Cooper.
4. Gordon Cooper
The late, great astronaut Colonel Gordon Cooper was legendary for his role in the first human space flight program, Project Mercury, and his exploits were chronicled in the classic 1983 movie The Right Stuff (which co-starred Dennis Quaid as Cooper). Cooper had a number of UFO sightings during his military career and maintained until his death in 2004 that the US government had long been engaged in a large-scale UFO cover-up.
In a letter to Ambassador Griffith, Mission of Grenada to the United Nations in New York, dated 9 September, 1978, Cooper wrote:
“For many years I have lived with a secret, in a secrecy imposed on all specialists and astronauts. I can now reveal that every day, in the USA, our radar instruments capture objects of form and composition unknown to us… I feel that we need to have a top-level, coordinated program to scientifically collect and analyze data from all over the Earth concerning any type of encounter, and to determine how best to interface with these visitors in a friendly fashion.”
Lord Hill Norton.
3. Lord Hill Norton
One of the most high-ranking military officials (retired) ever to speak out on the UFO issue was the late five-star Admiral of the Fleet the Lord Hill Norton, who served as Britain’s Chief of Defence Staff and as Chairman of the NATO Military Committee. Lord Hill Norton maintained a longstanding interest in UFOs during his later years. In his foreword for Timothy Good’s bestselling expose of government UFO secrecy,Beyond Top Secret(1996), Lord Hill Norton wrote:
“The [UFO] evidence is now so consistent and so overwhelming that no reasonably intelligent person can deny that something unexplained is going on in our atmosphere… there is a cover-up: in the United States on a massive scale, in Great Britain, and in several other countries.”
Fife Symington.
2. Fife Symington
One of the most famous mass UFO sightings of the past 30 years has to be the Phoenix Lights incident, in which thousands of individuals reported seeing a series of stationary lights over the Arizonian capital on the night of March 13, 1997. A delta or triangular-shaped craft of immense proportions was also widely reported as travelling low and slow over Arizona more broadly on the same night. The US air force was quick to attribute the sightings to misidentifications of military flares, and the then-governor of Arizona, Fife Symington, joined the debunking bandwagon when he staged a comedic press conference in response to the concerns of his constituents, going so far as to parade a man in front of the cameras dressed a ridiculous rubber alien costume.
Unknown at that time, however, was that the Governor himself had been among the witnesses to the Phoenix Lights. 10 years later, speaking at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. in November of 2007, Fife Symington stated in front of the world’s media:
“In 1997, during my second term as governor of Arizona, I saw something that defied logic and challenged my reality… I witnessed a massive delta-shaped craft silently navigate over Squaw Peak, a mountain range in Phoenix, Arizona. It was truly breathtaking. I was absolutely stunned… As a pilot and a former Air Force Officer, I can definitively say that this craft did not resemble any man-made object I’d ever seen. The incident was witnessed by hundreds—if not thousands—of people in Arizona, and my office was besieged with phone calls from very concerned Arizonians. There are many high-ranking military, aviation and government officials who share my concerns… We want the government to stop putting out stories that perpetuate the myth that all UFOs can be explained away in down-to-earth conventional terms. Investigations need to be re-opened, documents need to be unsealed and the idea of an open dialogue can no longer be shunned. Incidents like these are not going away. When it comes to events of this nature that are still completely unsolved, we deserve more openness in government, especially our own.”
1. Luis Elizondo
In December 2017, the New York Times broke a dramatic story: the American government had been operating a secret UFO study program between 2008 and 2012 called the Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program (AATIP). The conclusions of the $22 million Pentagon project, which, according to the Times, continues quietly to this day, were that “aircraft” of apparently unearthly origin are routinely penetrating America’s airspace.
The man who headed the Pentagon UFO project, Luis Elizondo, told journalists that these “aircraft” or “UAPs (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena),” were performing manoeuvres that fly in the face of our known laws of physics. Even more shockingly, Elizondo revealed that the Pentagon has been recovering bizarre metal alloys from alleged UFO crashes which currently are being studied and stored by billionaire defense contractor Robert Bigelow.
Discussing the Pentagon UFO project live on air in December 2017, Elizondo told CNN:
“We have identified some very, very interesting anomalous types of aircraft… let’s call them ‘aircraft.’ Things that don’t have any obvious flight surfaces, any obvious forms of propulsion, and [that have] extreme manoeuvrability beyond the healthy G-forces of a human or anything biological; hypersonic velocities; low observability; [and] positive lift, seemingly defying the laws of aerodynamics.”
When encouraged by the news anchor to speculate as to the nature and origin of these mystery aircraft, Elizondo replied: “We’ve deliberately stayed away from going down the rabbit hole of ‘who’s behind the wheel and what are their intentions’… what we wanted to do was to let the data speak for itself.”
The anchor responded by nudging Elizondo again: “Let me ask you point blank the question: do you believe that life from somewhere else, while you ran this program, came here, visited, observed?” Elizondo stunningly replied: “There is very compelling evidence that we may not be alone.”
West Yorkshire, England, is what’s known as a metropolitan county and includes the larger cities of Leeds, Bradford and Wakefield, as well as enough smaller towns to have a population of over 2.3 million people … and a number of extraterrestrials. In a surprising report, the West Yorkshire police revealed their area of responsibility summoned them to at least nine instances where a county constituent reported an encounter with a UFO and/or extraterrestrials. Is West Yorkshire a UFO hotspot or should someone check the water supply?
An average day in West Yorkshire?
“Caller is reporting he thinks he has seen a UFO. He could (see) this ‘thing’ in the sky that kept appearing then disappearing. This occurred 22 times where ‘something flashed’ then it disappeared, then it flashed again. (He) says he watched this happen for approx 15 mins.”
Yorkshire Live recently provided a list of the West Yorkshire UFO and alien reports and many sound like this one from Morley, Leeds – unusual lights that could be planes, drones or those pesky Starlink satellites. However, some defy those explanations, like this one from Knottingley, Wakefield.
“Caller reporting white orbs in the sky; two shot off like shooting star; he’s seen some disappear; he has this on video; he’s seen 10 tonight; and they’re moving really weird; He can’t see them now. But he’s seen them last two nights. He’s just seen another now, and another one.”
Then there are the alien encounters, like this one from Skircoat, Halifax:
“Reporting he has seen an alien…he has seen something floating in the sky, talking to him.”
A woman in Weetwood, Leeds, reported being abducted, and a man in Skircoat, Halifax, said he had a close encounter.
“Reporting he has seen an alien…he has seen something floating in the sky, talking to him.”
While nine UFO/alien reports in one year in a county of 2.3 million residents might not qualify it as a paranormal hotspot (read about all of them here), West Yorkshire has a history of them that probably influences its police force to give the calls special attention. The most infamous involves former constable Alan Godfrey who claimed to have seen a UFO hovering over Burnley Road in Todmorden in 1980 and, under hypnosis, claimed to have been abducted and spent time in a spaceship. This was five months after finding the body of a missing man, Zigmund Adamski, who was reported to be strangely dressed, had his head shaved and sporting a bore a ring of burn marks, showed a slimy yellow-green substance seeping from a neck wound, and appeared to have been dropped into a railroad cola bin from a high altitude. To this day, Godfrey claims the two incidents ruined his life because of media coverage and investigations by the government.
Another typical day in West Yorkshire?
Then there was Russ Kellett, who in 2020 revealed a 1999 UFO abduction in Bingley, West Yorkshire, in which he remembers being in a spaceship with British pop star Robbie Williams. And in December 2021, a woman also from Todmorden broke her 40-year silence about witnessing a diamond-shaped UFO there in 1981 because it was approximately one year after Godfrey’s famous incident because she didn’t want her life ruined. Then there’s this — Todmorden has had unexplained cattle and sheep mutilations since the 1960s which many people blame on alien experiments, and there have been many alien big cat sightings which some have also attributed to ETs.
If you were a West Yorkshire constable, would you pay special attention to UFO and alien reports?
Or would you put in for a transfer to another county?
Another of what are considered the “classic” mass UFO sightings in the United States that have made their way into the lore and legends of UAP studies is the event that has come to be known as the St. Clair Triangle sighting of 2000 in southwestern Illinois. It’s also referred to as “the UFO Over Illinois,” the name of a television documentary released later the same year. Other shows and books have featured it prominently. Today The Debrief will look at the lore surrounding this event and compare it to the significant amount of original source data available.
We’ll begin with a brief summary of the details frequently seen in the ufology literature. The tale begins early in the morning on a frigid January 4th, 2000, in Highland, Illinois. 66-year-old miniature golf course owner Melvern Noll was stopping by his business to ensure the pipes hadn’t frozen. Upon exiting his building he saw a brightly lit object in the skies that he would go on to describe as looking like “a flying house with windows on the top and bottom.”
The stunned Noll quickly called the police to report what he had seen. The dispatcher he spoke to forwarded the information to Police Officer Ed Barton in Lebanon, Illinois. Barton initially responded skeptically, asking if the caller had been drunk, but went to investigate as instructed. Observing a bright light in the sky as he drove his cruiser, he closed in on the object before pulling over and exiting his vehicle. He would go on to report seeing a “huge” object in the sky that was triangular, longer than it was wide, with three white lights and one red light. It accelerated away at high speed to the southwest toward Shiloh, Illinois.
Shiloh Police Officer David Martin was on the lookout for the object and reported seeing something very similar before he too claimed that the slow-moving object sped off in the same direction at amazing speed. A third officer in Millstadt, Illinois, Craig Stevens, picked it up and reported it next. He even managed to snap a picture of it with a Polaroid camera. A fourth officer in Dupo, Illinois would later report seeing ‘something’ that might be related. Other civilian witnesses would chime in with their own accounts at later dates, but the object eventually disappeared after more than an hour of confirmed sightings.
Interestingly, musician Sufjan Stevens would go on to write a song about the event:
EXAMINING THE SOURCE DATA FOR MORE DETAILS
One of the larger challenges involved in examining any of these legendary sightings is how much “legend” winds up being inserted into popular reports over the years. Television documentaries and books supporting the extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH) can tend to focus on the more exotic aspects of a report while downplaying or even ignoring inconvenient anomalies in the data. Similarly, skeptics and debunkers will tend to latch onto inconsistencies while failing to acknowledge some of the more credible evidence. Today The Debrief will look at both with a (hopefully) more critical eye.
Rather than being forced to rely on the potentially fading memories of witnesses or the video simulations provided by video producers, the St. Clair triangle UFO event offers substantial original evidence from the time of the sighting. This trove includes not only transcripts of conversations between dispatchers and police officers, but original recordings of radio traffic and interviews with witnesses conducted shortly after the sighting. These are included in an excellent 2014 documentary from an investigative reporter who collected and released all of the source material.
One of the first areas of evidence to examine is the collection of descriptions of the UFO as originally reported by the witnesses. Some do seem to be consistent while others demonstrate disparities that have been seized upon by skeptics.
Melvern Noll, the miniature golf course owner, described “a flying house with windows in the top and bottom.” This is starkly different than the descriptions offered by law enforcement officials. But it has been suggested that Noll only saw the object for moments with no forewarning at four in the morning in the freezing cold before rushing to contact the police.
THE TESTIMONY OF THE POLICE OFFICERS
Officer Ed Barton in Lebanon, Illinois, at 4:21 am, described a triangular object, “longer than it was wide.” Barton estimated the altitude of the object as being between 1,000 and 1,500 feet. He described seeing three white lights and one red light. The object suddenly sped away, going eight miles in three seconds in the direction of Shiloh, Illinois. It is worth noting that in the original radio traffic recording, Barton describes how he was reaching into the squad car to grab his microphone. When he emerged, the object was far away. He did not actually see it accelerate at exotic speeds.
Shiloh Officer David Martin offered a roughly similar description at 4:23 am. He described it as being an “arrow shape, triangular-shaped object… floating in this sky over this field… with three big bright lights, lighting up the entire sky just beneath the flying object.” He put the altitude at 1,000 to 1,500 feet before the object moved to the far end of the fields “in the snap of a finger, the wink of an eye.” He heard no sound from the object despite having the windows of his cruiser down.
At 4:39 am Millstadt Police Officer Craig Stevens reports that he has an object in sight. “It’s huge.” He describes it as an “arrowhead-shaped object.” Stevens describes the craft as having “three lights to the rear, one in the center and two to either side.” Stevens adds an additional detail, saying that it is “concaved in the rear” rather than a pure triangle. But he also says “in the concave section” there is a strobing white light going side to side. His drawing makes it clear it’s the rear of the craft, not the bottom. He further describes a “red blinking light” that is on the bottom. He estimates that the object is between 500 and 2,000 feet in altitude. The object then “banked” and headed toward Dupo, Illinois.
At that point, Stevens grabbed a Polaroid camera out of his car and took a picture as it flew away. That should have been the most compelling piece of evidence, but sadly it’s not a very good photograph, showing only some blurry lights against a dark background.
One of Officer Stevens’ original polaroid images depicting illuninations purportedly associated with the massive traingular craft he observed (Credit: Craig Stevens).
Perhaps significantly, Officer Stevens says that he could hear a “low frequency buzzing noise” that seemed to be related to the craft.
At 5:03 am the final purported sighting by a law enforcement official is recorded. Officer Matt Jany is located in Dupo, Illinois, and has been on the lookout for the craft after following the radio traffic generated by the previous sightings. He claims to have spotted the object, but reports that it is “pretty far off” and he was looking at it through binoculars. He thought the lights looked “pretty bright” but it was “hard to tell.”
Officer Stevens is still on the radio and reiterates that the object was “about 500 feet above me and it was huge.” Jany responds, saying that “it’s usually where planes are. It’s not low at all.”
This discrepancy in the perceived altitude ties in with Jany’s description of the lights, at one point mentioning a blinking green light. The other reports only mentioned white and red lights. Green blinking lights (along with red ones) are typical of commercial airliners and are required by the FAA. These factors have led many analysts to conclude that Officer Jany did not see the same craft the other officer described and instead was simply seeing a conventional aircraft flying over the area. This would not be unusual since Dupo is located between the international airports in St. Louis and Chicago and also not far from an Air Force base.
At that point, Jany reports that dispatch told him that Lambert Airport is on the phone saying there is nothing in the area on their radar. This was a reference to Lambert International Airport in St. Louis.
THE AIR FORCE CONNECTION AND RADAR DATA
Some analysts seeking explanations for this event have put forth suggestions that nearby Scott Air Force Base might be involved, launching either misidentified conventional craft or experimental classified aerial vehicles. This is where the source data becomes highly intriguing and may suggest a governmental or military coverup. Two conflicting descriptions of Scott Air Force Base have emerged in previous analyses. One theory describes the base as having a 24-hour, fully staffed control tower, but claims that it was not online due to “an unexplained suspension of operations.” The other says that it’s primarily a hospital base with a small airfield and had no operations at 4 am. The original sources suggest that both of these descriptions miss the mark.
In the documentary linked above, the St. Clair Police radio dispatcher claims to have called Scott Air Force Base and was told they could see nothing on the radar. But later, Scott AFB personnel told a reporter from the Lebanon Advertiser that “Scott Air Force Base has denied any knowledge of the sighting, reporting that it “no longer has radar on the field and that control tower personnel were not on duty at that hour.”
The information supplied to both the police and journalists by Scott Air Force Base is not only contradictory but highly suspicious, to say the least. Also, the claims about the base in previous documentaries are frequently inaccurate, leading to many justifiable questions. First of all, the idea that the base is a small medical facility with limited airfield capability is flatly wrong.
Scott Air Force base has been in continuous operation since shortly after World War 2. It’s true that they have an impressive medical facility there (the 375th Medical Group), including a fleet of Learjet C-21 twin turbofan-engine aircraft used for medical transport and evacuations which can take place at any hour of the day. They also host a fleet of KC-135 Stratotankers used for in-flight refueling of other aviation assets at any time. These massive planes require a sizable airfield. On top of that, Scott Air Force Base boasts a group of C-40 B/C transports that ferry dignitaries around the globe and are the size of Air Force 1.
The idea that a base such as Scott would have “removed their radar” or not had anyone manning the control tower is implausible in the extreme. So the answers provided to both police dispatchers and local media outlets seem dubious. The responses were also contradictory in two regards. If you had no radar, why would you bother staffing an air control tower? And why would they say they had “nothing on the radar” if there was no radar? The Debrief reached out to the Public Affairs Office of Scott Airfield for comment but received no answer prior to publication.
THE SKEPTICS HAVE THEIR SAY
Debunkers have made spirited attempts to shoot down this story, raising some interesting possibilities. The most common of these is that all of the witnesses actually misidentified a blimp. It’s true that the location of the sightings was not far from the base of the American Blimp Company, later bought out by the Van Wagner Airship Group. Blimps are large and very quiet, often equipped with a variety of different types and colors of lights for advertising purposes. Also, the top speed of these blimps is roughly 45 mph depending on the wind, so a blimp could have made it from Lebanon to Dupo in the one-hour and three-minute period when the live reports were recorded.
The main problem with this avenue of debunking is that it’s entirely speculative. As already noted, a blimp could have made that journey and displayed lights that would be considered unusual. Some have spoken with people in the airship industry who agree that it’s plausible. But investigators checked with the American Blimp Company and later Van Wagner and none was able to produce a record of a flight by one of those ships on that date, though one would imagine that all trips by such an expensive aircraft would be recorded.
Further, a blimp could have made the trip in the time allowed if it flew directly to Dupo. But the various witnesses described the craft as slowing, stopping, and changing directions. Also, unless we are to dismiss the testimony of the officers in Lebanon and Shiloh, the craft they observed not only hovered but shot away at a stunning velocity. Blimps are simply not capable of that type of behavior.
CONCLUSIONS
As we have discovered, there are complicated aspects to the St. Clair Triangle sighting, and the legends that have grown around it in books and television programs do not always match the record. For one thing, such shows frequently depicted the “classic” triangle, with one bright white light on each corner of the craft fixed to the bottom and a red light in the center. None of the witnesses described the lights in that fashion. And the original witness, Melvern Noll, described something that sounded entirely different, so some level of skepticism may be warranted.
With that said, the descriptions provided by all but one of the law enforcement witnesses (who likely saw a conventional aircraft) are similar enough in terms of its physical appearance and curious flight characteristics that they are difficult to ignore. Their stories remained unchanged over the years.
The baffling responses from Scott Air Force base do little to discredit the witnesses. While it seems unlikely that such a base would be home to highly classified, exotic aircraft programs, they should have been able to provide corroborating radar data or at least a confirmation that they recorded no targets in the subject area. It is not inconceivable that they had standing orders to never comment on anything UFO-related. This is a pattern the Air Force has adhered to ever since the days of Project Blue Book.
The poor quality of the photograph taken by Officer Stevens is disappointing to researchers, but the fact that it was taken at night on a dated Polaroid Instamatic pointing up at the night sky makes it understandable. Additional electronic data would make the case much stronger, but the inexplicable responses from Scott Air Force Base at least suggest that such may have existed at one point.
In conclusion, the viability of this case rests heavily on the credibility of multiple professional witnesses from different locations who would seem unlikely in the extreme to have cooked up a tale of this sort as a hoax. The lack of electronic signature data is disappointing but perhaps understandable as we already discussed. And the alternative options offered by skeptics do little to explain away the recorded, original observations as misidentified mundane phenomena. As with most of these famous, multiple-witness sightings, the final determination remains in the eye of the beholder. But the available source evidence is compelling and none of the alternate explanations are very satisfying.
Follow and connect with author Jazz Shaw on Twitter:@JazzShaw
The great distances covered by visiting "aliens" may be ones of time rather than space, a recent book argues.
Close encounters with our future selves?
(Image credit: thortful.com)
Unidentified flying objects (UFOs) have captured the public's attention over the decades. As exoplanet detection is on the rise, why not consider that star-hopping visitors from afar might be buzzing through our friendly skies by taking an interstellar off-ramp to Earth?
On the other hand, could those piloting UFOs be us — our future progeny that have mastered the landscape of time and space? Perhaps those reports of people coming into contact with strange beings represent our distant human descendants, returning from the future to study us in their own evolutionary past.
The book was written by Michael Masters, a professor of biological anthropology at Montana Technological University in Butte. Masters thinks that – given the accelerating pace of change in science, technology, and engineering – it is likely that humans of the distant future could develop the knowledge and machinery necessary to return to the past.
The objective of the book, Masters said, is to spur a new and more informed discussion among believers and skeptics alike.
"I took a multidisciplinary approach in order to try and understand the oddities of this phenomenon," Masters told Space.com. "Our job as scientists is to be asking big questions and try to find answers to unknown questions. There's something going on here, and we should be having a conversation about this. We should be at the forefront of trying to find out what it is."
Human evolution
Dubbing these purported visitors "extratempestrials," Masters notes that close-encounter accounts typically describe UFO tenants as bipedal, hairless, human-like beings with large brains, large eyes, small noses and small mouths. Further, the creatures are often said to have the ability to communicate with us in our own languages and possess technology advanced beyond, but clearly built upon, today's technological prowess.
Masters believes that through a comprehensive analysis of consistent patterns of long-term biocultural change throughout human evolution — as well as recent advances in our understanding of time and time travel — we may begin to consider this future possibility in the context of a currently unexplained phenomenon.
"The book ties together those known aspects of our evolutionary history with what is still an unproven, unverified aspect of UFOs and aliens," he sai
But why not argue that ET is actually a traveler from across the vastness of space, from a distant planet? Wouldn't that be a simpler answer?
"I would argue it's the opposite," Masters responded. "We know we're here. We know humans exist. We know that we've had a long evolutionary history on this planet. And we know our technology is going to be more advanced in the future. I think the simplest explanation, innately, is that it is us. I'm just trying to offer what is likely the most parsimonious explanation."
Artist's view of an aerial encounter with an unidentified flying object. (Image credit: MUFON)
Archaeological tourism
As an anthropologist who has worked on and directed numerous archaeological digs in Africa, France and throughout the United States, Masters observes that it is easy to conceptualize just how much more could be learned about our own evolutionary history if we currently possessed the technology to visit past periods of time.
"The alleged abduction accounts are mostly scientific in nature. It's probably future anthropologists, historians, linguists that are coming back to get information in a way that we currently can't without access to that technology," Masters said.
"That said, I do think that some component of it is also tourism," he added. "Undoubtedly in the future, there are those that will pay a lot of money to have the opportunity to go back and observe their favorite period in history. Some of the most popular tourist sites are the pyramids of Giza and Machu Picchu in Peru … old and prehistoric sites."
Masters calls his UFO research "an evolving project."
"There's certainly still missing pieces of the puzzle," he said. "There are aspects of time that we don't yet understand. Wanted is a theory of quantum gravity, and we can meld general relativity and quantum mechanics. I'm just trying to put forth the best model I can based on current scientific knowledge. Hopefully, over time, we can continue to build on this."
Solve this mystery
"Masters postulates that using a multidisciplinary scientific approach to the UFO phenomenon will be what it takes to solve this mystery once and for all, and I couldn't agree more," said Jan Harzan, executive director of the nonprofit Mutual UFO Network (MUFON).
"The premise that UFOs are us from the future is one of many possibilities that MUFON is exploring to explain the UFO phenomenon. All we know for sure is that we are not alone," Harzan added. "Now the question becomes, 'Who are they?' And Masters makes a great case for the time-traveler hypothesis."
Tic-Tac-shaped objects were recently reported zipping through the sky by jet-fighter pilots and radar operators. The Pentagon's Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) was created to research and investigate Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP), including numerous videos of reported encounters, three of which were released to the public in 2017. (Image credit: U.S. Department of Defense/To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science)
'Highly dubious claim'
But not everybody is on board with the idea, as you might imagine.
"There is nothing in this book to take seriously, as it depends on the belief that 'time travel' is not only possible, but real," said Robert Sheaffer, a noted UFO skeptic.
Supposedly our distant descendants have mastered time travel, Sheaffer said, and have traveled back in time to visit us. "So, according to Masters, you just spin something fast enough and it will begin to warp space, and even send stuff backwards in time. This is a highly dubious claim," he said.
Moreover, Sheaffer said that Masters tries to deduce aliens' evolutionary history from witness descriptions, "suggesting that he takes such accounts far too literally."
David Darling is a British astronomer and science writer who has authored books on a sweeping array of topics – from gravity, Zen physics and astrobiology to teleportation and extraterrestrial life.
"I've often thought that if some UFOs are 'alien' craft, it's just as reasonable to suppose that they might be time machines from our own future than that they're spacecraft from other stars," Darling told Space.com. "The problem is the 'if.'
Darling said that, while some aerial phenomena have eluded easy identification, one of the least likely explanations, it seems to him, is that they're artificial and not of this world.
"Outside of the popular mythos of flying saucers and archetypal, big-brained aliens, there's precious little credible evidence that they exist," Darling said. "So, my issue with the book is not the ingenuity of its thesis, but the fact that there's really no need for such a thesis in the first place."
Reported UFOs take on all shapes and sizes. (Image credit: U.K. National Archives sightings chart, circa 1969)
Exotic physics?
Larry Lemke, a retired NASA aerospace engineer with an interest in the UFO phenomenon, finds the prospect of time-travelling visitors from the future intriguing
"The one thing that has become clear over the decades of sightings, if you believe the reports, is that these objects don't seem to be obeying the usual laws of aerodynamics and Newtonian mechanics," Lemke said, referring to the relationship, in the natural world, between force, mass and motion.
Toss in for good measure Einstein's theory of general relativity and its consequences, like wormholes and black holes, along with other exotic physics ideas such as the Alcubierre warp-drive bubble.
"There's a group of thinkers in the field of UFOs that point out that phenomena reported around some UFOs do, in fact, look exactly like general relativity effects," Lemke said. Missing time is a very common one."
Lemke said that the idea that somebody has figured out how to manipulate space-time, on a local scale with a low-energy approach, would explain a lot of things across the UFO phenomenon, including those baffling Tic-Tac-shaped objects recently reported by jet-fighter pilots and radar operators.
"No matter how much knowledge we have, how much we think we know, there's always some frontier beyond," he said. "And to understand that frontier is getting more and more esoteric."
Leonard David is the author of the recently released book,"Moon Rush: The New Space Race" published by National Geographic in May 2019. A longtime writer for Space.com, David has been reporting on the space industry for more than five decades. Follow us on Twitter@SpacedotcomorFacebook.
Trivia buffs will know that Italy contains two other countries within its boundaries – the famous Vatican City and the not-so-famous San Marino. The Most Serene Republic of San Marino is located in northeastern Italy, has a population of over 33,000, and is led by two equal heads of state known collectively as Captains Regent. The current Captains Regent may make San Marino more famous than Italy or Vatican City as they recently approved allowing the country to make a historic United Nations request to host periodic UFO/UAP conferences.
San Marino’s Mount Titan castle
“On January 12, 2022, in fact, an important meeting took place in San Marino. Dr. Roberto Pinotti and Dr. Augusto Casali were received by the Most Excellent Captains Regent [Capitani Reggenti], the Heads of State of the Republic of San Marino. The object of the cordial meeting, which lasted over an hour, was the presentation of the Titano Project to the highest authorities of the Republic.”
The meeting was announced by Paolo Guizzardi, creator and project manager of Project Titan (Titano Project) – named for Mount Titano, the highest peak in San Marino. Roberto Pinotti is the President of the Centro Ufologico Nazionale (CUN) of Italy, President of the International Coalition for Extraterrestrial Research (ICER), the UFO organizations behind the project, and former editor of UFO magazine. Pinotti is also the author of “UFO Contacts In Italy: Volume One : 1907 – 1978” which contains photos he claims are of real extraterrestrials that landed in Francavillia, Italy, starting in 1956.
The author of “UFO Contacts In Italy: Volume One : 1907 – 1978” is Dr. Robert Pinotti, the founder of the National UFO Center (CUN) who is considered to be a leading expert in European UFO sightings. In that capacity, he has acted as a UFO consultant for the Italian government and claims to have seen secret documents on encounters from the Italian Department of Defense.
Augusto Casali is San Marino’s former Minister of Tourism who previously helped hold a series of International Symposia on Unidentified Flying Objects under the auspices of the San Marino government.
“Dr. Pinotti then gave a clear picture of the latest developments of the situation in the USA that sees the full “clearance” of the UAP phenomenon, making it clear that the only reasonably foreseeable obstacle that could have had negative repercussions for San Marino was now overcome.”
According to Guizzardi, the Captains Regent were impressed with the presentation and like the idea of San Marino and Mount Titan becoming the new “Geneva of UFOs.” The next step is for Francesco Mussoni and Giacomo Simoncini, the current Captains Regent, to the Grand and General Council, San Marino’s legislative body, for approval. (They need to do this quickly because they only serve six month terms as Captains Regent). Since this is an international program, Guizzardi says the proposal would then be presented to the United Nations for a preliminary examination, discussion and ultimately a vote by the General Assembly.
I didn’t know there was another Geneva.
Project Titan obviously has two purposes – to tap into the rising interest of UFOs around the world by becoming a center for international meetings, and to use that publicity to turn it into a tourist attraction. It obviously has a high-powered and highly experienced UFO research team behind it. However, Pinotti points out that this was tried once before in 1978 by Sir Eric Gairy, then Prime Minister of Grenada, who made a similar proposal to the UN which was shut down by the UK.
Will San Marino become the “Geneva of UFOs”? Let’s hope so. It beats Area 51 in the summer.
On January 7, 1948, 25-year-old Captain Thomas F. Mantell, a Kentucky Air National Guard pilot, died in the crash of his P-51 Mustang fighter plane near Franklin, Kentucky, United States, after being sent in pursuit of an unidentified flying object (UFO). The event was among the most publicized early UFO incidents.
Later investigation by the United States Air Force's Project Blue Book indicated that Mantell may have died chasing a Skyhook balloon, which in 1948 was a top-secret project that he would not have known about.
Mantell pursued the object in a steep climb and disregarded suggestions to level his altitude. At high altitude he blacked out from a lack of oxygen; his plane went into a downward spiral and crashed.
While many will write this mystery off as having been solved, WartimeStories cannot come to that conclusion. he therefore will leave it to you, the listener, to decide for yourself what to believe after hearing the individual eyewitness accounts, those of various military personnel, regarding the strange unidentified flying objects they saw on January 7, 1948, from no less than three military bases in Kentucky and Ohio.
Over the years, numerous UFO-themed movies have been made; some good, some bad, and some right in the middle. There is, however, one particular UFO caper that definitely deserves to be turned into a big-bucks movie. As you will see now. The strange story of the alleged UFO crash at Aztec, New Mexico in March 1948 – and the recovery of a number of dead “little men” at the site – is a real hotbed of lies, disinformation, and shady characters. Most of those same characters were best avoided by those with dollars to spare. The tale was made infamous in the pages of Frank Scully’s 1950 blockbuster, Behind the Flying Saucers; it was a book which turned out to be a huge seller. Today, the Aztec affair is seen by some ufologists as Roswell’s “little brother.” As its “skeleton in the cupboard” might be a far more apt description, however. Many researchers of the UFO phenomenon dismiss the Aztec incident as nothing but a hoax; one which was perpetrated by a shady businessman/conman named Silas Newton. His far-less-than-shining FBI file can be accessed, right now, at the FBI’s website, The Vault. When it came to stories of aliens from faraway worlds, making money was always the goal for Newton. And the only goal. Along for the ride with Newton was Leo Gebauer. He was a quasi-scientist and the Igor to Newton’s ego-driven Dr. Frankenstein. There is, though, a very interesting and extremely odd aspect to the Newton/Aztec story. It serves to demonstrate how the UFO phenomenon was becoming the tool of manipulative disinformation specialists in the intelligence community. And not just of the Soviet Union. The United States was getting into the strange game, too.
Rumors of the alleged Aztec crash quickly reached the FBI. The Bureau’s files on Aztec are now in the public domain, thanks to the the terms of the United States’ Freedom of Information Act.
Back in 1998, the late Karl Pflock, ufologist and CIA employee (and sometimes at the very same same time…), was approached by a still-anonymous source who had something very interesting to say about the Aztec caper, and about Newton too. It was a decidedly weird series of revelations that Pflock surely never anticipated receiving. To his dying day, Pflock refused to reveal the name of his informant in the shadows – rumors, however, were that the person may have been a nephew of Silas Newton – but, Pflock did say that all of the lunchtime meetings with his source occurred between July 11 and September 24, 1998 and took place in a restaurant in Bernalillo, New Mexico. So the story goes, Pflock’s informant had in their hands twenty-seven pages taken, or rather torn, from an old and faded, lined journal. No prizes for guessing who that journal had belonged to. That’s right, sly, old Silas Newton. Pflock was told that Newton had kept journals and diaries not just for years, but for decades. They were jammed with entertaining tales of sexual conquests, of Hollywood starlets, of the fleecing of the rich and the gullible, and of wild adventures across the United States. The outcome of all this? Newton decided, around the turn of the 1970s, that it was right about time for him to write-up his version of the Aztec controversy. It would surely have been a definitive page-turner. Death, however, inconveniently intervened in 1972, when Newton passed away in his mid-eighties. What happened to all of those journals is anyone’s guess.
(Nick Redfern)
Aztec, New Mexico: the site of a crashed UFO? It very much depends on who you ask and you believe
As for those few pages that Pflock was allowed to see – and to transcribe word for word – they tell a tale of undeniable weirdness. By his own admittance, and a couple of years after the Aztec story surfaced in Frank Scully’s book, Newton was clandestinely visited by two representatives of “a highly secret U.S. Government entity,” as Pflock carefully and tactfully described it. Those same representatives of the government told Newton, in no uncertain terms, that they knew his Aztec story was a complete and bald-faced lie. Utter bullshit, in fact. Incredibly, though, they wanted Newton to keep telling the tale to just about anyone and everyone who would listen. This caused Pflock to ponder on an amazing possibility: “Did the U.S. Government or someone associated with it use Newton to discredit the idea of crashed flying saucers so a real captured saucer or saucers could be more easily kept under wraps?” Far more intriguing, though, and highly relevant to the theme of this book, is the next question that Pflock posed: “Was this actually nothing to do with real saucers but instead some sort of psychological warfare operation [italics mine]?” With the Newton revelations in hand, Pflock, no later than 1999, came to believe that back in the early fifties someone in the government, the intelligence community, or the military of the United States – and maybe even a swirling combination of all three – wanted the Aztec story further circulated. The purpose: as a means to try and convince the Russians that the U.S. military had acquired, or captured, alien technology. When, in reality, it had no such thing in its possession at all.
(Nick Redfern)
Aztec, New Mexico, a cool, atmospheric place
For the record, in 2002, when Pflock and I were corresponding regularly on the matter of these particularly curious revelations, he told me that he had been able to confirm who the two men that approached Newton worked for and specifically when their meeting with Newton occurred. The time-frame was late March 1950 and the pair of spooks came from a small group within the CIA. Slightly more than a year later, Pflock learned, that very same group was absorbed into the Psychological Strategy Board. Staff at the President Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum state of the PSB that it… “……was established by Presidential Directive on April 4, 1951 ‘to authorize and provide for the more effective planning, coordination, and conduct within the framework of approved national policies, of psychological operations.’ An abbreviated version of the Presidential Directive was released to the public on June 20, 1951. The PSB was composed of the Undersecretary of State, the Deputy Secretary of Defense and the Director of Central Intelligence, or their designated representatives. The founding Presidential Directive instructed the PSB to report to the National Security Council “on the Board’s activities on the evaluation of the national psychological operations, including implementation of approved objectives, policies, and programs by the departments and agencies concerned.”
(Nick Redfern)
The late Karl Pflock, who was both a Ufologist and an employee of the CIA
Methinks that we are going to see more about this legendary, bizarre case…
When it comes to the matter of Area 51, the 1970s, and secret aircraft, there are two important issues that cannot be ignored. And they should not be ignored. One was the early development, out at Area 51, of what has become known as “Stealth” technology for aircraft. We’ll get right to the matters of the stealthy kind. It was in 1988 that both the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighterand the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit were unveiled for one and all to see. The completely black, triangular-shaped aircraft caught the world’s attention, primarily because of their strange, angular shapes. It’s intriguing to note that in 1982 a wave of encounters with what became known as “Flying Triangles” began over portions of New York State, specifically in Hudson Valley. In their 1988 book, Night Siege, authors Dr. J. Allen Hynek, Philip J. Imbrogno and Bob Pratt wrote: “Can 7,000 eyewitnesses be wrong? They were there to witness the huge, hovering object in the sky, three flashing lights, the eerie silence. They are ordinary people from all walks of life: stay-at-home moms, kids, business people, engineers. They tell their stories here, and they all agree on one thing: they saw the same massive object cruising over their backyards. And it was like nothing they had seen before…”
At the time when the Hudson Valley encounters were at their peak, it was reasonably assumed by UFO researchers just about here, there and everywhere that aliens had invaded and were scoping out the area to a massive degree. When, however, the Stealth planes were unleashed in 1988 – planes that looked eerily like the Hudson Valley “UFOs,” more than a few of those same ufologists came to wonder if what was seen over Hudson Valley was actually a top secret variation on the Stealth Fighter and the Stealth Bomber. Regardless of whether or not the Hudson Valley UFOs originated in the United States, or on a world far, far away, one of the most intriguing revelations that surfaced when the Stealth planes were revealed was the startling fact that they had been secretly flying not just for a few years, but since the 1970s – at Area 51. And, the secret (the top secret) had been skillfully contained for more than a decade.
If there is one thing that just about any and all military agencies want, it’s for their aircraft to be completely invulnerable. Well, while that’s a tall order, steps were taken in the early 1970s to create an aircraft that could not be detected on radar. It would, then, be the ultimate predator: quietly and carefully approaching its completely oblivious target. That is, until it was all too late. Lockheed Martin, the company which was secretly contracted to come up with a stealth-driven fighter, state that a pair of engineers, Dick Sherrer and Denys Overholser, “developed a computer program based on obscure German and Russian theories, which postulated that radar beams could be reflected by a series of carefully angled triangular panels,” which is precisely why both the B-2 and the F-117 look so odd. But, cool, too.
(Nick Redfern)
The late U.K. researcher, Omar Fowler, with a model of a “Flying Triangle”-type UFO
The most important development came in 1976. That was the year in which a program designated “Have Blue” was established as, to quote Lockheed Martin, “the stealth demonstrator that would lead to the F-117A Nighthawk.” Built out of aluminum and not much else, the aircraft was typified by the angular shape and futuristic-look. Although the Nighthawk remained unknown to virtually everyone until 1988, it was first test-flown on June 8, 1981, just one year before the Hudson Valley “UFOs” were first seen. Notably, the Nighthawk – while in test stage – was flown exclusively at night. And, while it seems unlikely that the F-117A was the culprit at Hudson Valley, perhaps a far more advanced stealth plane was. One of the most notable of all the missions that the Nighthawks took part in revolved around the invasion of Iraq in January of 1991. The radar-systems of the Iraqi military were woefully inadequate and, as a consequence, they flattened close to forty targets in no time at all; something which helped to bring the conflict to a close in a little more than forty days. Today, the Nighthawk is no more. It has been mothballed. But, how many other stealth aircraft – of highly advanced forms and technologies – remain hidden from prying eyes is anyone’s guess.
We need scientific analysis of satellite data on UAP
We need scientific analysis of satellite data on UAP
BY AVI LOEB, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR
Earlier this year, the U.S. military and intelligence community issued a report on unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP, also called UFOs). Before the report’s release, former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe stated, “we are talking about objects that have been seen by navy or air force pilots, or have been picked up by satellite imagery, that frankly engage in actions that are difficult to explain, movements that are hard to replicate, that we don’t have the technology for.”
The attention-grabbing part of this statement is the reference to "satellite imagery." I — and the hundreds of scientists engaged in studying UAP — have never seen any publicly released data on this. We would be extremely interested in analyzing any data on objects that enter the Earth's atmosphere and do not follow ballistic orbits like meteors. But no such data is currently available to open scientific analysis.
Of course, Ratcliffe’s quote is an insufficient basis for substantive scientific inquiry. But unclassified data, assembled by non-governmental satellites, could be made available to open scientific analysis.
Progress in our understanding of the related satellite imagery data may also stem from the new office established recently by the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2022. The office, to be created by mid-2022, will have the authority to start a coordinated effort of reporting and responding to UAPs and significantly improve data-sharing between agencies on UAP sightings. This new office will be administered jointly between the Secretary of Defense and the Director of National Intelligence, and it will empower military and civilian personnel as well as the intelligence community to report incidents and information involving UAP.
If the new office will determine that the objects in the satellite imagery data are so unusual that they cannot be human-made and hence are not a matter of national security, then it would make sense to subject the data to scientific analysis. A natural or an extraterrestrial origin, will be of international interest and benefit humanity as a whole and enrich our shared scientific knowledge.
Protocols for a possible contact with extraterrestrial intelligence were mostly inspired in the past by the possibility of detecting radio signals from planets around distant stars. Given that the nearest star system, Alpha Centauri, is 4.4 light-years away, such signals would require a decade or more for a round-trip conversation. As a result, they do not bear consequences to our immediate future.
But a different type of contact could deliver prompt implications. It concerns physical objects from another civilization that are already here, waiting to be noticed like a package in our mailbox. The arriving hardware need not be brainless but could possess artificial intelligence (AI), seeking information about the habitable planets around the sun.
An encounter of this type implies instant contact without a significant delay in communication time. The potential for an immediate engagement changes the response protocol relative a delayed radio signal.
Currently, there is no international agreement on how humanity should engage with a visiting object of extraterrestrial origin. It would be prudent to formulate guidelines before they are needed. Any engagement could have implications for the future of humanity and should not be left to the spontaneous whims of a small team of researchers.
We should weigh the risks and benefits that will result from different engagements. The decision tree on how to proceed will have branches that depend on the objects’ properties and behavior. Since it is difficult to forecast these unknowns in advance, decisions will have to be reached in real-time.
Deciphering the intent of an intelligent extraterrestrial equipment may resemble the challenge of breaking the code of an encryption device. We might need to rely on our AI systems in figuring out the intent of extraterrestrial AI systems.
A proper interpretation of prompt contact with extraterrestrial technologies could bring about the most significant advance in understanding of the reality around us in the entire history of humans.
Our historic migration out of Africa started about a hundred thousand years ago, but a future migration out of Earth may be triggered by a dialogue with a messenger from afar that does not resemble anything we had seen before.
AviLoeb is the head of the Galileo Project, founding director of Harvard University's Black Hole Initiative, director of the Institute for Theory and Computation at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, as well as the former chair of the astronomy department at Harvard University (2011-2020). He chairs the advisory board for the Breakthrough Starshot project and is a former member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and a former chair of the Board on Physics and Astronomy of the National Academies. He is the bestselling author of “Extraterrestrial:The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth” and a co-author of the textbook “Life in the Cosmos”, both published in 2021.
In November 2021, a photo from China’s Yutu 2 Rover was released showing. According to JP, a pseudonym for my longtime source who currently serves with the US Army, China’s space force (the People’s Liberation Army Strategy Support Force) and US Space Command have recently begun joint missions to explore the object, and that he participated in one of the first missions.
JP claims that early in the morning of December 23, he was sent to a secret research facility on the Moon on a triangle-shaped antigravity vehicle, and was then taken to the giant spacecraft that was partially submerged under the lunar surface. JP says part of the craft’s exterior had been discovered by China’s Yutu 2 rover, and that a joint operation to explore the craft, which was the size of two aircraft carriers had begun between US Space Command and the PLA’s space force.
JP said the giant alien spacecraft was discovered when it began to activate after an extraterrestrial fleet entered our solar system in October, and parked itself between Jupiter and Ganymede. JP participated in an earlier classified mission to Ganymede where he met with some of the extraterrestrial visitors. In this Exopolitics Today interview, JP discusses his role in the classified Moon mission and what he witnessed first-hand.
If anyone else currently serving in the US military would like to contact me regarding their own knowledge and/or experiences regarding recent Moon, Ganymede or other solar system missions, I can be reached at drsalla@exopolitics.org
Heartfelt thanks to my wife, Angelika Whitecliff, for her creative visuals and editing of this interview.
Michael Salla, Ph.D.
Update 5:45 pm, 12/31/2021 – JP has just informed me that he is currently facing disciplinary measures for releasing information about the classified Moon mission into the public arena. There are those in his direct military chain of command that assert the information was not supposed to be publicly released and want to punish him. Despite JP getting into trouble for his actions, and having to do “unpleasant jobs” as punishment, he intends to continue to reveal information, but emphasizes the need for his continued anonymity. He says that he is being protected by a lot of “white hats” that want the information to come out. I am working on another update concerning information JP received about Antarctica, which the “white hats” want to come out.]
This man ran the Pentagon's secretive UFO programme for a decade. We had some questions
This man ran the Pentagon's secretive UFO programme for a decade. We had some questions
Early last year, the US government officially acknowledged videos of “unidentified aerial phenomena” filmed by its Navy pilots. Was it evidence of extraterrestrials? Here, Luis Elizondo, the former Pentagon intelligence officer in charge of investigating these incidents, reveals (almost) all he knows…
There was a time when UFOs were for cranks. A time when serious news organisations wouldn’t cover them. A time when congress wasn’t demanding Defense Department reports on them. A time when their existence wasn’t freely acknowledged by American presidents (“There is footage and records of objects in the skies that we don’t know exactly what they are,” said Barack Obama in May) and also by ex-spy chiefs (“There are a lot more sightings than have been made public,” said former director of national intelligence John Ratcliffe in March). When it came to UFOs, there was a time when the US government’s official line was that it didn’t study them.
Luis Elizondo was instrumental in changing that.
In late 2017, he met with the freelance journalist Leslie Kean and revealed the existence of a $22 million (£16m) Pentagon programme investigating military reports of UFOs – a programme he had been in charge of since 2010. He had left the job the day before and decided to turn whistle-blower in the name of national security. As he put it in his resignation letter to secretary of defense Jim Mattis: “Bureaucratic challenges and inflexible mindsets continue to plague the department at all levels... The department must take serious the many accounts by the Navy and other services of unusual aerial systems interfering with military weapon platforms and displaying beyond next-generation capabilities... There remains a vital need to ascertain the capability and intent of these phenomena for the benefit of the armed forces and the nation.”
Luis ‘Lue’ Elizondo
Roger Kisby/New York Times/Redux/eyevine
Kean joined forces with two other reporters, one from the New York Times, and on 16 December 2017 the story appeared on the paper’s front page. It detailed the “Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program” set up in 2007 to investigate unidentified aerial phenomena or “UAP”, the term that has replaced the now stigmatised “UFO”. Many UAPs, the Times reported, appeared impossible to explain, lacking any visible means of lift but able to travel at unfathomable speed. What’s more, the story stated, Elizondo and his colleagues had “determined that the phenomena they had studied did not seem to originate from any country”.
But the reader didn’t have to take the Times’ word for all this. There were videos. An ally of Elizondo’s, former deputy assistant secretary of defense for intelligence Chris Mellon, had helped the reporters obtain footage shot from the cockpits of US Navy fighter jets. One of the videos corroborates arguably the most compelling UAP episode ever to come to light.
An F/A-18 Super Hornet
Ian Hitchcock
According to reports, it took place in November 2004, when pilots were flying training missions from the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier. While squadron leader commander David Fravor was in the air, he was asked to intercept a mysterious aircraft. Upon arrival at its coordinates, what he saw was extraordinary: a 40-foot object, resembling a huge white Tic Tac, that had no visible propulsion system, rotors, wings or exhaust plume. Yet Fravor says it was able to jam radar, react to his movements and run rings around his F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jet – turning so sharply it was as if the UAP had no inertia – before flying away faster than anything he had ever seen. Simply put, it defied the known laws of physics. Not only were there multiple eyewitnesses – including another pilot who filmed the Tic Tac using his plane’s targeting camera (this was the footage passed to the Times) – but the UAP was also detected by the radar of the nearby USS Princeton, an Aegis-class missile cruiser with state-of-the-art sensor systems.
Cmdr. David Fravor
New York Times / eyevine
In December 2017, Fravor also went on the record with the New York Times and later, in 2019, so did further Navy pilots, who said that in 2014 and 2015 they encountered UAPs “almost daily”. The Times’ reporting radically changed the conversation. After decades of ridicule and taboo, UAPs were suddenly a legitimate political and journalistic talking point. Elizondo ran with the momentum, discussing his work with the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) on major TV networks and, in tandem with the likes of Mellon, briefing officials behind the scenes in Washington and facilitating meetings between them and military members who had experienced UAPs. Through keeping the story alive, he hoped to compel the government to finally establish a more transparent, coordinated, thorough investigation into the phenomenon.
It hasn’t all been plain sailing: in 2019, a Pentagon spokesperson called into question Elizondo’s claim to have worked on AATIP. In response, former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid sent a letter to NBC News vouching for Elizondo’s story. “As one of the original sponsors of AATIP, I can state as a matter of record Lue Elizondo’s involvement and leadership role in this program,” Reid wrote.
A still from one of the US Navy videos showing a UAP
U.S. Department of Defense
Now, Elizondo’s hopes for government action have started to be realised. On 27 April 2020, the US Department Of Defense confirmed the veracity of theTimes’ UAP videos and released them officially into the public domain. In a statement, the Pentagon said, “The aerial phenomena observed in the videos remain characterized as ‘unidentified’.” In August that same year, the Pentagon announced a new UAP Task Force “to detect, analyse and catalogue UAPs that could potentially pose a threat to US national security”. And in June 2021, the Office Of The Director Of National Intelligence released a report to congress about the government’s work on the UAP issue. Of the 144 encounters studied, it stated, 143 could not be explained. It didn’t blame extraterrestrials, but nor did it rule that explanation out.
Inevitably, Elizondo has attracted considerable interest. There was a bidding war for his forthcoming book, he was recently named one ofPeople’s “100 Reasons To Love America In 2021” and he reveals toGQthat he is working on a new documentary about the UAP topic, although details are under wraps for now. But Elizondo says that he is doing more behind the scenes as a disclosure advocate than ever before. In addition to his role on the advisory board of the UAP think tank Skyfort, he retains high-level national security clearance and is employed as a government defence contractor, although he is not able to say what that work involves.
Luis Elizondo
Roger Kisby/New York Times/Redux/eyevine
One of the consequences of his efforts, he says, is a significant piece of legislation that is going through congress. The 2022 National Defense Authorization Act contains important developments for the study of UAPs. It requires that the secretary of defense sets up a permanent office to carry out the duties currently performed by the UAP Task Force but on a department-wide basis. This new office would have to submit an annual report to congressional committees on a range of its findings, including updates on efforts to track, understand, capture and exploit UAPs – as well as an assessment of health-related effects on those who encounter these strange flying objects. Elizondo calls it “historic”.
GQ spoke to Elizondo as he prepared to head to Washington, DC, to brief members of congress on how to work with foreign allies on the issue.
GQ: What makes you convinced that these flying objects haven’t been made by the US, the Chinese or any other government?
Luis Elizondo: We know it’s not the US because the US has already come out and admitted it’s not us. So now let’s talk about the potential for it to be a foreign adversarial technology. Well, if that were the case, this would be the greatest intelligence failure that this country has ever faced, including that of 9/11. Because some country, for more than 70 years, has managed to be able to conduct operations with a technology that surpasses anything that we’ve ever had or currently have. And they’ve been able to operate in and around our restricted airspace unchallenged
But the second reason is there’s a time aspect. I have in my possession official US government documentation that describes the exact same vehicle that we now call the Tic Tac [seen by the Nimitz pilots in 2004] being described in the early 1950s and early 1960s and performing in ways that, frankly, can outperform anything we have in our inventory. For some country to have developed hypersonic technology, instantaneous acceleration and basically transmedial travel in the early 1950s is absolutely preposterous.
The proposed new UAP office would have to report on health-related effects for individuals who have experienced UAPs. What kind of thing might happen if you were near one?
A lot. Let me give you a notional... I’ve got to be careful, I can’t speak too specifically, but one might imagine that you get a report from a pilot who says, “Lue, it’s really weird. I was flying and I got close to this thing and I came back home and it was like I got a sunburn. I was red for four days.” Well, that’s a sign of radiation. That’s not a sunburn; it’s a radiation burn. Then [a pilot] might say, if [they] had got a little closer, “Lue, I’m at the hospital. I’ve got symptoms that are indicative of microwave damage, meaning internal injuries, and even in my brain there’s some morphology there.” And then you might get somebody who gets really close and says, “You know, Lue, it’s really bizarre. It felt like I was there for only five minutes, but when I looked at my watch 30 minutes went by, but I only used five minutes’ worth of fuel. How is that possible?” Well, there’s a reason for that, we believe, and it probably has to do with warping of space time. And the closer you get to one of these vehicles, the more you may begin to experience space time relative to the vehicle and the environment.
Have you personally ever had a UAP sighting?
I prefer not to answer that. I do not want my own personal experiences or opinions or perspectives to skew the collection of data.
Before you were approached to be part of AATIP, you were a counterintelligence special agent hunting terrorists and drug traffickers. Why did they approach you?
I have no idea. I think probably because I wasn’t prone to any flights of fancy. I wasn’t a particular fan of science fiction. I do have some background in advanced aerospace technology. When I was a young special agent, I did “tech protect” [counterintelligence work to stop US technology from falling into enemy hands] of advanced avionics and my background was a scientist. At university, I had three majors: microbiology, immunology and parasitology.
You came to this not particularly caring about UFOs, but I have read there was a moment where you said to yourself, “Holy f***. This is real.” What was that moment?
It’s funny because the people in the office kind of giggled and they were like, “Oh, he just had his epiphany,” because everybody has one eventually in that office.
But what convinced you it was a real thing?
It was the overwhelming weight of evidence and data. I was talking to pilots routinely. There’s videos out there [in government, that the public haven’t seen] – there’s one that’s 23 minutes long. There’s another one where this thing is 50 feet away from the cockpit. I mean, it ain’t ours. We know that. Sometimes you just couldn’t believe it – you’d have seven or eight incidents in a single day. I’d get these emails from an admiral or a ship’s captain saying, “Lue, what do you want me to do? I can’t keep people below deck forever. These things are swarming my ship, they’re all over the place.” That’s tough. I kept promising the cavalry was coming and I’d have answers for them and the cavalry never came. Senior leadership didn’t want to deal with it.
Some people say theTimesvideos don’t show anything particularly amazing. What do you say to them?
The government has already admitted not only that they’re real, but that they truly are unidentified objects and they’re behaving in a very peculiar way. For example, you have an object that is at altitude, going at 120 knots against the wind, that is rotating at 90 degrees without losing altitude. Anybody who understands aerodynamics, when you’re flying an aircraft and you turn 90 degrees you lose lift, unless you’re in a hard bank. What makes those videos more compelling is not so much what you see, but what you don’t see. It’s the radar signatures, it’s the call signs from pilot to pilot, and pilot to ship, saying, “Hey, we’ve got a bogey up here.” And in one case you hear one of them say, “Look, we have a whole fleet of these things on the ASA [radar display].” Some of the pilots have come out and said there was actually a whole fleet of these things manoeuvring right off camera. The pilots are trained observers. They are trained to identify an aircraft silhouette at 20 miles away – an SU-22, a European Tornado, a Harrier or even an F-16 – and literally within a split moment’s notice be able to identify friend or foe and shoot it down. What they’re reporting doesn’t fit any type of parameters of any type of conventional aircraft that we know of.
When you initially spoke to theNew York Times, were you worried about repercussions?
I was getting calls all the time that the FBI was going to come and Swat my house. There was a point when I got a call like, “Hey, dude, you might have people visit you, like, in the next hour.” So in the middle of the night, I had to stash everything [copies of emails] in my neighbour’s barbecue grill just in case, because that was all the proof and the evidence of the fact that our government was really involved in this topic. It wasn’t easy. It caused a lot of stress on my wife and my daughters. Until recently they were still trying to come after my security clearance.
Do you have a sense of why they didn’t raid you and throw you in jail and instead let you carry on talking?
My personal opinion, which I rarely give because I have no way to substantiate this, [is] there were enough people on the inside that said, “Look, he was briefing the senior brass and you need to be careful because if you squeeze Lue too hard, you’re gonna have very, very senior people come to his defence.”
In your interviews, you tend to emphasise the interdimensional hypothesis that UAPs might not be from “outer space” but from another dimension. Do you think that the extraterrestrial hypothesis is even likely?
I think it’s just as likely as something that is interdimensional. I also think it’s possible that it’s something that has been on Earth for a very long time.
But you don’t have data that has particularly led you to think it could be interdimensional?
There’s information that both supports and negates that. What we do know is there’s a correlation with [UAPs being near or emerging from] water and then there’s also a correlation toward [UAPs appearing near] nuclear technology.
What’s your theory about the water correlation?
Could be as simple as a fuel stop. If you wanted to warp space time, there’s only two ways to do it: lots of energy or lots of mass. So if you wanted to mine something for its energy, you would start with hydrogen, because it’s a simple element. Even though hydrogen is abundant in the universe, it’s found primarily in a gaseous state, which makes it hard because it might take you 100 years to mine a nebula cloud sufficiently to use it as fuel. There is only one type of hydrogen configuration that is super dense that’s found in the universe and that’s liquid water. So in a relatively small amount of time you can mine enough hydrogen to do whatever you need to do with literally a bucket of water.
Let’s talk about crash retrievals and debris. Do you believe we have recovered a craft?
I have been told I have to be very careful how I answer this question. I am not allowed to expound upon anything I’ve already said. What I have said is that it is my opinion, my belief – a strong belief, hint, hint – that the US government is in possession of exotic material associated with UAPs. That is all I’m allowed to say.
Do you believe organic matter or beings have been recovered?
I am respectfully going to pass on that question. There’s a couple questions that I’m really not at liberty to discuss. That’s one of them.
Do you believe these ships may be manned?
They’re intelligently controlled, for sure, because they’re responding and reacting to our actions. That is for certain. They are absolutely intelligently controlled by something.
Is it your opinion that they’re more like drones or do you think they’ve got things inside them?
I suspect they have things inside them.
Why do you think they seem interested in military sites, nuclear sites particularly?
I’ve got some very specific theories. Nuclear technology is a gateway to understanding unlocking the atom. And once you do that, you have a potentially limitless supply of energy. It could very well be that we are a violent species that is on the cusp of understanding space-time and no longer going to be stuck in our little cage. And that could be a problem for an advanced species. Because, you know, we are not necessarily very peaceful to each other.
What’s the consensus around how these things fly?
Right now one of the leading theories out there is that someone has figured out a way to manipulate space-time and, in essence, master the idea of antigravity.
So if you see a UAP moving left to right, it’s not “flying” left to right, it’s bending that space towards it?
Correct. Current hypothesis is that it creates a bubble around it and that bubble is insulating itself from the space-time that all of us experience. And so, therefore, the way it experiences space-time within the bubble is fundamentally different from outside the bubble.
How many presidents have been briefed on the issue and do you know who engaged the most?
I know, as a matter of fact, three presidents have been briefed at some point, but I’m not going to disclose who they were and what was discussed. That’s not up for me to talk about.
In cultural depictions of UFOs, who do you think has got the closest to reality?
I would have to say Close Encounters Of The Third Kind. I just recently saw it for the first time and I was shocked at some of the performance characteristics and how they depicted the UAPs, because that is exactly how they’ve been described in some, up until recently, very classified US documents.
What in particular?
The description of how they do right-angle turns at very fast velocity, the illumination, the shapes of some of these craft. [Steven] Spielberg definitely had somebody on the inside that was giving him information, for sure. I mean there’s a lot of that movie that, if you know what you’re looking at, is very, very close to real life.
Some suggest that the post-2017 UAP disclosure narrative is actually just a government disinformation effort or psyops campaign. What do you say to that?
At no time since I’ve been involved with AATIP has my government been involved in an active disinformation campaign, other than initially denying that it was real. The United States government is not in the habit of conducting disinformation on American citizens. There was a time when our government did do that and got caught and so congress passed laws to make sure that will never happen again.
What can you tell us about what’s coming up in 2022, in terms of new evidence that may come to light or new developments?
I think we’ll see a lot more participation by the international community and a lot more transparency. We’re going to begin sharing information a lot more and I think people may be surprised just how much information is possessed on this topic by other countries. My only hope is that the UK will be able to do the same thing. Much for the same reason that the United States didn’t want to admit that UFOs were real, I suspect the UK [doesn’t] as well. What I can tell you is during my time in AATIP it was very apparent to me that there were certain elements within the royal family that were very interested in this topic. I will not elaborate any more than that. And I hope that those voices within the royal family can be heard, because it is an important topic, perhaps one of the greatest topics that affects all of mankind, all of humanity. And I think if we’re smart, this will be a topic that will help unify us and not divide us.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
The P̳e̳n̳t̳a̳g̳o̳n̳ continues to secretly investigate U̳F̳O̳s and is in possession of material from U̳F̳O̳ wrecks. At least this is what the Times newspaper said, which already discovered in December 2017 the existence of the so-called Advanced Program for the identification of aerospace threats (AATIP).
A journalistic investigation now claims that the U̳F̳O̳ search did not end in 2012, as the Air Force since 2017, together with the Department of Defense, launched the Special Force of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPTF) integrated within the Office of United States Naval Intelligence. This agency appears to have taken on the responsibilities of AATIP and could bring good news for U̳F̳O̳ enthusiasts in the coming months.
As anticipated, the US Senate Intelligence Committee has supported “the Unexplained Airborne Phenomena (UAP) Work Cell” so that the P̳e̳n̳t̳a̳g̳o̳n̳ has 180 days to submit a report to Congress. In fact, towards the end of 2020, the report presented by a pilot of a Super Hornet F / A-18 fighter plane that collided with one of these UAPs at the end of 2014 was made public.
The NY Times explains that some remains of the accident (U̳F̳O̳ fragments) were analyzed by Eric W. Davis, an astrophysicist who works as a subcontractor and consultant for the P̳e̳n̳t̳a̳g̳o̳n̳ and who claimed they were made of “non-human,” that we couldn’t be able to build “. Surely you’re referring here to the strange leagues that the director of AATIP spoke about on FOX News? We are facing ultimate proof that U̳F̳O̳s are spacecraft of e̳x̳t̳r̳a̳t̳e̳r̳r̳e̳s̳t̳r̳i̳a̳l̳ origin.
The Department of Defense has reports of vehicles not made on this planet.
According to information provided by the NY Times, Davis has released classified material to the Department of Defense about “vehicles not manufactured on this planet,” as well as other reports of the recovery of unexplained objects, to both the Senate Armed Services Committee and committee members. Senate intelligence, in particular to the interim president, Marco Rubio, Republican senator from Florida.
In an interview with CBS4, Rubio pointed out that “we have strange things flying over our military bases and the places where we are conducting military exercises.” Rubio added that “we don’t know what these things are. We know that they are not US projects or Chinese or Russian technology projects, so they are real security problems ”.
Former Nevada Senator Harry Reid also said the US government has materials of unexplained origin in his possession and suggests the government may have an a̳l̳i̳e̳n̳ spacecraft in his possession. Despite these claims, according to the Times, no evidence of the alleged a̳l̳i̳e̳n̳ technology is yet available.
A new video showing an unidentified flying object has appeared on the web. The U̳F̳O̳ was recorded on Lake Erie, in the US state of Ohio and in the video it is seen flying through the clouds and for a long moment it remains motionless on the surface of the lake. The author of the video confesses that he sees ships several times a year and they are getting closer and closer.
Other neighbors living near the lake also frequently report U̳F̳O̳s appearing. This suggests that Erie is a source of e̳x̳t̳r̳a̳t̳e̳r̳r̳e̳s̳t̳r̳i̳a̳l̳ activity and that the objects remain intentionally motionless for some time so that they can be filmed without problems.
Dr. Richard Sauder, philosopher and author of books on mysteries, says that “there is an underground base under Lake Erie, which is part of the great lakes that are on the border between the United States and Canada”.
Sauder believes there may be an e̳x̳t̳r̳a̳t̳e̳r̳r̳e̳s̳t̳r̳i̳a̳l̳ base beneath the water mantle of Lake Erie and is run by a̳l̳i̳e̳n̳ aquatic inhabitants. Furthermore, he is closely related to the U̳F̳O̳ phenomenon, when unknown flying objects were sighted in this place. “These U̳F̳O̳s are likely manned by an e̳x̳t̳r̳a̳t̳e̳r̳r̳e̳s̳t̳r̳i̳a̳l̳ species that lives under the sea floor and also has the technological advances that allow them to get out of this environment.”
“This lake is an appropriate place for underground constructions, they are easy to drill due to the existence of large deposits, and in this way flying objects can enter and exit without problems.”
A witness also reported the sighting of a large U̳F̳O̳ suspended over Lake Erie. “” A strange cone-shaped metal object with two bright lights that came out of the lake and then disappeared. ”
Iván T. Sanderson, a researcher and cryptozoologist, said that “unidentified underwater (or USO) objects are handled by these underwater inhabitants, which makes this lake a critical point for this activity.” Other witnesses have indicated this place as a mysterious area, where events that are considered very strange occur.
As stated by the Russian Ministry of Defense, since the beginning of 2021, Window-M, the Russian optical-electronic surveillance complex, has experienced a significant increase in unidentified space activity in near-Earth space.
“Window-M, the Russian optical-electronic complex for the detection of space objects located in Tajikistan, in the Sanglok mountains (Pamir mountain system) and at an altitude of 2200 meters above sea level, has detected the movement of about 30,000 (unidentified) space objects for four months from the beginning of 2021 ”, – reported the Russian space defense department.
A year earlier (2020), “Window-M” detected more than 25 thousand space objects.
The Russian Defense Ministry has specified that “Window-M” is a special optoelectronic complex that allows the monitoring of space objects in orbit in the range of altitudes from 50 to 120 thousand kilometers from the earth’s surface. It is interesting to note that at the maximum distance from the earth’s surface, the “Window-M” complex is able to recognize an object whose dimensions do not exceed the size of a tennis ball.
“Window-M” was put into experimental combat service in 1999. A modernization was carried out in 2014 where it received the “Window-M” designation. Since 1999, the complex has made 12.5 million measurements of space objects, more than 7.5 thousand new space objects in high orbit have been discovered, and about 800 spacecraft have been checked in working orbits.
The surveillance complex includes modern optoelectronic stations for the detection and collection of information on space objects, television detection equipment and next generation computer structures.
The Ancient History of UFOs and the Oppenheimer-Einstein Report
The Ancient History of UFOs and the Oppenheimer-Einstein Report
An unidentified flying object, or UFO, in its most general definition, is any apparent anomaly in the sky that is not identifiable as a known object or phenomenon. Although its definition encompasses any unexplained aerial phenomena, in popular culture the term has generally become synonymous with an extraterrestrial spacecraft.
UFO imagery within a prehistoric cave painting.
(Author provided)
UFO Sightings Throughout History
UFO sightings have been reported throughout recorded history and in various parts of the world, raising questions about life on other planets and whether extraterrestrials have visited Earth. They have become a major subject of interest, and the inspiration behind numerous films and books. However, sadly they are also the focus of intense ridicule.
For decades there has been a move, deliberate or not, to diminish the importance of UFOs and create a public belief that UFOs are part of some form of elaborate hoax. Nevertheless, unexplained aerial observations of UFOs have been reported throughout history, from prehistoric times up until the present day.
Some ancient depictions of flying objects in the sky were undoubtedly astronomical in nature, most probably comets, bright meteors and planets that can be seen with the naked eye, or atmospheric optical phenomena such as lenticular clouds. An example is Halley's Comet, which was recorded first by Chinese astronomers in 240 BC and possibly as early as 467 BC. Such sightings throughout history often were treated as supernatural portents, angels, or other religious omens.
However, we cannot just assume that what our ancient ancestors saw and recorded on cave walls or in ancient texts were astronomical or environmental phenomena. Like today’s sightings, there appears to be a small percentage of sightings that are simply inexplicable. Many of the records existing from our ancient past certainly arouse curiosity, such as the prehistoric cave painting above.
The cave painting bears a striking similarity to images painted hundreds of years later in the 16th century Summer’s Triumph Tapestry . UFO imagery on this tapestry also ties in closely with modern-day UFO accounts. There are also the Aboriginal cave paintings of the Wandjina sky beings , which appear to represent alien visitors.
Aboriginal Wandjina rock art on the Barnett River, Mount Elizabeth Station.
Proponents of the ancient astronaut perspective point to numerous myths and legends telling of so-called “ sky gods ” descending from the heavens, while historic texts dating back 4,000 years appear to describe flying spaceships. In the Vedic literature of India, such as the Rig Veda , the Mahabharata, and the Ramayana, there are many descriptions of flying machines called vimanas which were used in warfare in ancient times. The vimanas were said to be able to fly in the earth's atmosphere as well as into outer space, distant planets and be submerged underwater.
In the pyramids of Egypt, archaeologists have found hieroglyphs that resemble the UFOs that are described in sightings up to the present day. Centuries later, we have the pre-Columbian Quimbaya gold artifacts found in Central America, which appear to be perfect models of flying crafts. Later, in the medieval period, there was an abundance of art produced which appear to depict UFOs in the sky.
As debunkers correctly point out, none of these ancient depictions alone can be taken as conclusive evidence of the existence of extraterrestrial life . But they do, at the very least, raise the possibility that extraterrestrials have indeed visited Earth, and that just as people today regularly report sightings of unidentified objects in the sky, so to might our ancient ancestors have encountered objects that they could neither identify nor explain.
Detail of a 14th century painting entitled The Crucifixion, located above the altar at the Visoki Decani Monastery in Kosovo. It appears to depict a man in some kind of craft looking back over his shoulder.
UFO Scholarly Debate, Investigation and the Oppenheimer-Einstein Report
Considering the above, it therefore seems sensible that UFOs should be the subject of scholarly debate and scientific investigation. Instead, what we see today is an internet full of fake images, hoax videos, sensational Hollywood movies and misinformation that makes it virtually impossible for a legitimate researcher to separate fact from the very large haystack of fiction.
It also appears that our governments are not exactly forthcoming when it comes to offering information about their own research on the matter. We only need to look at the CIA announcement in August 2013 that Area 51 does exist, despite decades of denying its existence while brandishing anyone who dared to suggest it as a mere conspiracy theorist. Fortunately, there do exist some scientifically-driven organizations, such as SETI and MUFON (Mutual UFO Network), which take an objective approach to the study of UFOs.
This brings us to an unclassified top secret document written by Robert Oppenheimer, an American theoretical physicist, and Albert Einstein , a German theoretical physicist. Together they wrote a joint report entitled “Relationships with Inhabitants of Celestial Bodies”. The six-page document is the first archival evidence to use the phrase “Extraterrestrial Biological Entities” or EBEs. Dated June 1947, the Oppenheimer-Einstein report states that the presence of unidentified spacecraft is accepted as de facto by the military.
The Oppenheimer-Einstein report deals with issues related to UFOs and extraterrestrials: Where extra-terrestrials may come from, what the law say about it, what we should do in the event of colonization and/or integration of peoples, and why they are here. The document suggests that in the event that EBE's desire to settle here on earth there will be "profound change in traditional concepts" of law and the possible need for a new "Law Among Planetary Peoples."
Section of the 1947 Oppenheimer and Einstein report.
The Importance of the Oppenheimer-Einstein Report for UFO Scholarship
This document is important for two reasons. The first reason is that it addresses the possibility of life on other planets in a very logical and coherent way, before exploring what such a realization would mean. It also raises questions about why, if respected scientists such as Oppenheimer and Einstein are able to approach the subject in an academic way, are we unable to engage in such sensible discussion today?
The analysis presented by Oppenheimer and Einstein indicates that “disclosure” of extraterrestrial existence could cause irreversible damage to society. This raises the possibility that our governments today may already know of extraterrestrial existence but have considered the same issues raised by Oppenheimer and Einstein and ruled against public disclosure.
If humanity were told that that intelligent extraterrestrial beings not only exist but have been visiting our planets for thousands of years, what would happen. Could it be that confronted with such evidence would cause social upheaval in the domains of religion, society, law, and finance? If not addressed properly, could this cause chaos on planet Earth?
There are many questions that still need answers. The document suggests that EBEs could be more intelligent and technologically advanced than us, and asks why, if this were the case, they come to Earth in the first place? Would it be to conquer and inhabit Earth, to peacefully cooperate with humans, or to study us in the same way that we study any new species that we encounter? The document considers, if their civilization is more advanced than ours, how could a co-occupation of Earth be feasible?
Portion of the Oppenheimer and Einstein report, penned in 1947.
Can Humanity Handle Access to Advanced Extraterrestrial Technology?
Imagine the situation in which advanced technology is given to our civilization – powerful defense systems, unlimited energy, cloaking devices, space travel to other solar systems, instant transportation devices, and so on. Now considering the current state of our civilization and the people that govern it, what would such a release of technology mean? One word: Chaos.
Another reason that the Oppenheimer-Einstein report is important is because it addresses the presence of alien UFOs on our planet as a fact known to the military. It goes on to relate this knowledge to our invention of nuclear bombs – the single weapon that could eliminate life on Earth for many thousands of years.
It is not hard to understand that if UFOs are kept hidden from the public, it is for multiple reasons, which are logically addressed in this document. It is for these reasons, that we may never see a disclosure of extraterrestrial existence in our lifetime.
In the meantime, it seems that the most sensible approach is to keep an open mind. It is usually the case that a debate rages between two opposite extremes. One side wants to believe wholeheartedly that the cave art and mythological accounts are all descriptions of alien encounters and UFO sightings.
Meanwhile, the other side is so prepared to disbelieve that anything exists beyond the scope of their reason that they will ignore even the most blatant rendition. If scientists can overcome the ridicule and disparaging remarks that come with exploring the subject matter, perhaps one day we will find irrefutable evidence that UFOs and extraterrestrials do exist.
Top image: The Oppenheimer-Einstein report claims that alien UFOs on our planet is a fact known to the military.
‘Aliens in bedroom’: UFO sightings on the rise in Northern Ireland
These included a report of a spaceship and flashing lights in the Downpatrick area on 17 January.‘Aliens in bedroom’: UFO sightings on the rise in Northern Ireland
Police receive eight unexplained sightings in 2021, including white lights and ‘strange images’ on CCTV
An odd disc was reportedly seen in the sky in the Slemish area of County Antrim at the end of May.Photograph: Liam McBurney/PA PA Media
From mysterious discs over Slemish Mountain in County Antrim to strange images spotted on CCTV, unexplained sightings increased in Northern Ireland again last year.
Police received eight sightings in Northern Ireland during 2021, an increase from six such reports in 2020 and four in 2019.
These included a report of a spaceship and flashing lights in the Downpatrick area on 17 January.
In May police received two sightings reports, one of white lights after a helicopter in the Maghaberry area and an odd disc seen in the sky in the Slemish area of County Antrim at the end of the month.
In July there was a report of “strange images” on CCTV in a house in the Newtownabbey area and a dome-shaped object with eight lights in the sky reported in the Saintfield area.
In September a report was received in the Lisburn area of “aliens in bedroom”, while in October a detained patient reported having been abducted by aliens.
The final report of the year was of “unusual bright lights in the sky” in November.
UFO sighting reports on the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) database include unidentified flying objects (UFOs); aerial phenomena; unidentified aerial phenomena; lights in the sky; and aliens and extraterrestrials.
A PSNI spokesperson said no investigations had been carried out in relation to these incidents.
Nick Pope, who used to investigate reports of UFO sightings for the Ministry of Defence (MoD), said it was possible that more people spending more time at home during the pandemic may account for a rise in reported sightings.
“It’s difficult to say what lies behind the small increase in sightings,” he said.
“Covid-19 and lockdowns may have played a role, with people having more time on their hands during the pandemic, and perhaps spotting things that previously may have gone unnoticed.
“Another possibility is that people are following the situation in the United States, where Congress is taking the issue seriously and the Pentagon has launched a new UFO initiative.
“This may make people more likely to report something unusual that they’ve seen because it sends the message that the authorities take the matter seriously.”
However, Pope said he believed the true number of sightings was much higher.
“Sadly, the numbers are still fairly low, and I suspect there’s chronic underreporting, perhaps because of the perceived stigma,” he said.
“That’s possibly a consequence of the Ministry of Defence’s decision to stop investigating UFOs at the end of 2009.
“If the MoD restart investigations and ask the public to report anything unusual, I’m sure they’ll receive lots of reports.”
Humans are seeing more UFOs every year and NASA is recruiting priests
Humans are seeing more UFOs every year and NASA is recruiting priests
As the world witnesses more UFO sightings, here's how our history with it is changing NASA's recruitment process.
Weird features, larger than human eyes, short height, weird skin, different needs, this is what we remember about Jadoo, the cute, fictional alien who made a debut appearance in the Bollywood movie Koi Mil Gaya. Humankind has always been intrigued by extra-terrestials and their lives, and this movie just brought an alien closer home; to Bollywood, to be precise. (Of course, Hollywood has been getting aliens to Earth for more than 50 years now, since A Trip to the Moon, Aliens, etc.)
After these many years, it looks like reel-life items might possibly be true after all.
UFOs, also known as Unidentified Flying Objects, are a term for random incidents or objects in the air that cannot be explained because of lack of knowledge and technology. The number of UFO sightings reported over the years have been consistently increasing over certain parts of the world.
Photo: Getty Images
HISTORY
The first UFO that was witnessed on record was in 1639, by John Winthrop and many other men when they saw a large strange light going back and forth. Even Bible's Book of Ezekiel describes a mysterious ship appearing from the sky in Kuwait. Romans saw strange sightings back then and so did the 4th Century Chinese, who saw a "moon boat" floating over the country once every 12 years. Germans saw them in 1561 and the Britishers saw them during the World War II.
Photo: Getty Images
Though the first image of a UFO came only in 1870 from a sighting in New Hampshire, California and Florida have recorded the most number of UFO sightings in all these years, i.e, about 10,000 and 5,000 respectivey. Compared to this, Ireland's Police Department has recorded 4 sightings in 2019, 6 in 2020 and 8 in 2021. Looks like the UFOs are exploring new territories!
There were some who even saw these sightings in India in 1951. Read about it here.
Photo: Getty Images
SO WHAT DO THESE LOOK LIKE?
People have mentioned seeing a disc-type structure in the sky and naming it as ''a spaceship'' with flashing lights. Some have seen strange images on the CCTVs of homes while others have reported spotting 'unusual bright lights' in the sky. Some have seen a dome-shaped object with eight bright lights which move at a speed that was never known to exist. So if you get the gist, it's pretty advanced.
Photo: Getty Images
INTERESTING OBSERVATIONS
Almost 75% of all UFO sightings in the United States occur between 4 pm and midnight, and tend to peak between 9 and 10 pm.
WHAT AUTHORITIES ARE DOING
On June 25, 2021, the US National Intelligence released a UFO Report based on 144 UAP incidents (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena) noted by military aviators over the last 2 years. As per this report, the government had limited and inconsistent data to conclude if aliens exist. This lack of data did not confirm existence of aliens but also did not remove the possibility of their existence. So... ho bhi sakta hai, aur nahi bhi.
Photo: Getty Images
CLASSIFIED INFO DECLASSIFIED
The US government had classified the information on UFO sightings all these years and declassified it in 2020 by releasing recorded videos to clarify the matter to the public at large. They are now open to talk about this since it removes the taboo around reporting UFO incidents and also shows that the authorities take this 'seriously'. The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), on the other hand, just maintain a database about UFOs and unidentified aerial phenomena and have not really launched any investigation.
NASA IS UPDATING ITS RECRUITMENT STRATEGY
NASA, known to be the ultimate heaven for scientists, has recruited 24 theologians... meaning 24 people who have studied religion and religious beliefs about God. Why? The idea is to take the support of these heads as part of its efforts to determine how different religions around the world would react to contact with aliens. As reported by New York Post, Rev Dr Andrew Davison, a British priest and theologist at Cambridge University, is one of the 24 lucky ones.
What's interesting is how it coincides with the launch of James Webb Space Telescope, which is the most powerful telescope we have ever launched, to look at the oldest stars and galaxies that are capable of supporting life.
NASA clearly supports the exploration of a relationship between theology and astro-biology, and this recruitment is in line with its past actions. In 2014, NASA had granted $1.1 million to study worshippers’ interest and openness to scientific inquiry called the 'Societal Implications of Astrobiology Study'. This was to understand how religious beliefs and beliefs in existence of extra-terrestial aliens were linked.
Irrespective of what comes to awareness, only time will tell what exists in reality in this wide universe. Till then, Koi Mil Gaya and Netflix's "Top Secret UFO Projects: Declassified" are some stuff you can feast on.
Air Force bases have always attracted odd stories and conspiracies to them, and this seems to be true across the globe. MoD Boscombe Down is an air base on the outskirts of the town of Amesbury in Wiltshire, England, and the home of a military aircraft testing site owned by the MOD, the Ministry of Defence. Built in 1917, it was used by the British Aircraft and Armament Evaluation Establishment (AAEE) from 1939, and is currently operated by operated by a private military contractor called QinetiQ, which was created as part of the breakup of the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA) in 2001. It has always been heavily involved in flight testing and weapons development, and like many other bases of its kind, it has had its fair share of conspiracies swirling about it, and although its official capacity is evaluating aircraft used by the British Armed Forces, there have long been rumors of dark secret projects and UFOs, making it often referred to as “Britain’s Area 51.”
One of the many weird tales surrounding the base began on September 22, 1994, when numerous locals of the area reported hearing a very anomalous sound “like a freight train or a low-frequency rumbling or humming.” Although the base had many aircraft coming and going all the time, this sound was unlike anything anyone had ever heard before, strange enough to get people talking. All inquiries to the base were met with silence, and as far as the RAF was concerned, nothing strange had happened at all. Then, on September 26th 1994, something truly odd went down at Boscombe Down. On this evening an unknown aircraft malfunction occurred on Runway 23, either a crash or flight abortion, and the runway was immediately shut down and swiftly descended upon by military personnel. In addition, the main highway, the A303, that runs into Boscombe Down, was also completely closed off. Eyewitnesses would claim that the mysterious aircraft had been promptly covered with by a frame and tarpaulins, as a hive of activity and emergency vehicles swarmed around it. The response was incredibly fast and urgent for just a mere flight malfunction, and witnesses who actually saw the events playing out would say that the covered aircraft was partially visible under its coverings, charcoal grey in color, with an oddly elevated rear section, a canopy that appeared to hinge forward at the front, and inward canting twin fins at its rear section. This was about the best look anyone could get of it before the aircraft was quickly locked within a hangar.
Image by Steve Baxter
It all had the feel of something very hush hush, which was only made stronger when the next day U.K. special operations forces and two special operations aircraft arrived at the base, described as an Agusta A109 helicopter from the British Army’s 8 Flight AAC, and a Chinook from the RAF’s No. 7 Squadron, which witnesses would claim had seemed be securing the area as activity continued on the runway that looked like some sort of intense cleanup operation. The special operations helicopters tirelessly circled the area for several days as the activity on the ground continued, and in the meantime some other aircraft arrived as well. One of these was a USAF C-12 Huron, used by the DoD for air transport, and another was an unmarked Boeing 707, its origins unknown. What were all of these aircraft up to? Perhaps most unusual of all was a Boeing 737/T-43 which had the distinctive red and white markings of planes operated by the private contractor EG&G, who were most known for carrying out an array of black project clandestine flights for various aerospace companies and the military, as well as for running the planes that carried employees to and from the mysterious Groom Lake facility and Tonopah Test Range Airport, near Las Vegas, Nevada, both of which have plenty of their own conspiracies swirling around them.
Not long after this, a Lockheed C-5 Galaxy transport plane from the United States Air Force, in this case modified in order hold oversized cargo, arrived and allegedly was loaded with an unidentifiable tarpaulin-covered object from within the hangar and supposedly flown off towards the mysterious USAF Plant 42 Airport, known as a cutting-edge military aircraft manufacturing facility for various contractors including Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works and others. It would later be found that this plane had been suddenly diverted to Boscombe from its original flight plan to Ramstein Air Base in Germany. Even after the mysterious cargo was whisked away, Boscombe Down would continue to be frequented by various government aircraft, such as a plane registered with the CIA that arrived under heavy security.
It is clear that something very big went down at Boscombe Down, attracting the attention of the RAF, USAF, the CIA, and who knows who else, but it has never been clear just what that may have been. Researchers Ren Hoek and Marco Van der Welk would investigate the strange incident for two years, culminating in a March 1997 cover story in Air Forces Monthly, but they were never able to get to the bottom of what was really going on. Just about the only thing they could say for sure was that there as “no doubt that an incident did happen on the day in question and it has never been satisfactorily explained by the authorities.” The governments involved have not helped make anything clearer. Both the British Ministry of Defense and the U.S. Defense Department have always denied that the incident occurred, and have claimed that there were no flights of any sort of test aircraft on the night in question. So, what are we dealing with here?
One idea put forward by Hoek and Van der Welk is that this was some sort of very advanced top secret experimental reconnaissance aircraft, according to them most likely what is called the ASTRA (Advanced Stealth Reconnaissance Aircraft), a mysterious theoretical aircraft that has never been confirmed to actually exist but has been rumored for a long time in conspiracy circles. The ASTRA has often been blamed for sightings around the UK of mysterious “black triangle” UFOs that have never been explained, as have other alleged top-secret aircraft being supposedly developed at around the same time. One of these is the Hypersonic Aurora Spy-plane, as well as the so-called TR-3A “Black Manta,” purportedly a subsonic stealthy tactical reconnaissance aircraft. Of course, both the RAF and USAF have denied that any such aircraft have ever existed. Other theories are that the object at Boscombe may have been captured foreign tech or even a crashed UFO. The site The War Zone has done much in-depth research on the incident, filing various Freedom of Information Act requests and also speaking to author andNick Cook, who was the aviation editor at Jane’s Defense Weekly at the time and one of the first to break the story, who would say of the incident:
I definitely think something happened. The C-5 definitely came into Boscombe Down. I didn’t talk to the witnesses directly but I read enough witness testimony to say they saw something with a tarpaulin on it on the runway. It had to have been American or have had some American lineage in it in order for the C-5 to have turned up. There were quite a few rumors of joint black programs between the U.S. and the U.K. at the time. There was a lot of the Aurora stuff knocking around at the time but I don’t think it was Aurora. It sounded smaller, tactical, deployable, F-117-like. That sort of size. Certainly, something happened. What it was, I have no idea.
To this day, no one is really sure just what, if anything, went down that Autumn night in 1994 at Boscombe Down. What was that craft that was being so secretly whisked away and hidden? What was the meaning of all of those aircraft from different agencies descending upon the base in the wake of the incident, and just what did that cargo plane carry off? Was this some sort of highly sensitive and experimental aircraft or something else? No one really knows, and the incident at Boscombe Down remains an impenetrable mystery.
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Over mijzelf
Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
Ik ben een man en woon in Linter (België) en mijn beroep is Ik ben op rust..
Ik ben geboren op 18/10/1950 en ben nu dus 74 jaar jong.
Mijn hobby's zijn: Ufologie en andere esoterische onderwerpen.
Op deze blog vind je onder artikels, werk van mezelf. Mijn dank gaat ook naar André, Ingrid, Oliver, Paul, Vincent, Georges Filer en MUFON voor de bijdragen voor de verschillende categorieën...
Veel leesplezier en geef je mening over deze blog.
