Dealing with mysterious flying objects hasn’t had anything shady about it in the USA for a few years now. There was even a hearing in Congress about it. But the political polarization doesn’t even stop at the aliens.
Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence Scott Bray plays video of “unidentified air object” at congressional hearing.
For the first time in fifty years, the US House of Representatives held a public hearing on UFOs last week. Or rather, “unidentified aerial phenomena” (UAP), as the military calls the phenomena to be on the safe side. It was announced that there had been 400 sightings of such objects in the last 20 years that could not be explained.
However, Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence (ONI), Scott Bray, admitted at the hearing that the UAP task force in his agency had no evidence that any of these inexplicable celestial objects were of extraterrestrial origin. Nonetheless, House Counterintelligence Subcommittee Chairman André Carson said: “EAPs are inexplicable, that’s true. But they are real. You need to be examined.”
More and more sightings
The number of sightings has steadily increased in recent years. This is due to the intensified observation, improved technology and the increased use of drones, it said at the hearing. The increase is also a result of the military’s efforts to demand the previously stigmatized reports of sightings of unidentified flying objects. Today, pilots are obliged to report such observations.
In June 2021, the American secret services presented a report on UAP that took the topic out of the shabby corner of conspiracy theories and made socially acceptable. Even unsuspecting people like former President Obama called for the topic to be freed from taboos and researched seriously.
After the Second World War, UFOs were still a phenomenon that politicians or members of the military could deal with without being suspected of being irrational. In 1969, however, the Air Force discontinued its fruitless UFO program “Project Blue Book” and from then on dealt with the subject more defensively. On the other hand, speculation ran rampant all the more wildly in the esoteric scene. It has also been repeatedly claimed that Washington is keeping information under wraps. This suspicion was not entirely unfounded.
Scramble of secrecy and rumours
the “New York Times” revealed in 2017 that the Pentagon has spent over $22 million annually since 2007 on the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, which investigates UFO apparitions. The program was officially ended in 2012, but apparently continued to be funded by the CIA afterwards. In 2020, the Pentagon announced the existence of the Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon Task Force. In November 2021, the follow-up project “Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group” was announced.
The secrecy has to do with the fact that some of the “UFOs” could be missiles from enemy states and the US wants to keep them in the dark about what they know. This lack of transparency promotes conspiracy theories. “Ufologists” keep claiming that in 1947 a UFO crashed near the small town of Roswell in New Mexico, which was then recovered along with the aliens, with the government covering up the incident.
mistrust at the hearing
Despite efforts to be objective at last week’s hearing, could not prevent murmurs and distrust. Republican Congressman Mike Gallagher requested that the Pentagon investigate an incident at Malstrom Air Base in Montana in which 10 ICBMs were inoperable for hours while a red-hot orb appeared in the sky. What he didn’t say is that the alleged phenomenon dates back 55 years.
Also “Roswell” was mentioned as well as alleged abductions by extraterrestrials. Because the officials put these rumors into perspective, Republican Congressman Tim Burchett accused them of cover-ups and bemoaned the arrogance of the Pentagon and Congress.
It is obviously not easy to admit the existence of “unidentified air objects” and at the same time to distance oneself from esotericism. Especially not in the heated political climate in the US, where all sorts of conspiracy theories are circulating, from the “Great Exchange” to Hillary Clinton’s alleged pedophile ring to the “stolen” presidential election. Even UFOs are instrumentalised for party bickering.
There is always a lot of room for interpretation
The biggest problem with the UFO topic is that the only option is the process of elimination – at least as long as the aliens do not clearly identify themselves. Some of the alleged UFO footage can be traced back to satellites, drones, airplanes or meteorological phenomena, but there is always a series of photos or videos that remain mysterious, also because many of these documents are noticeably out of focus.
In other words, you can falsify them but not verify them. Depending on your point of view, you can insist that these are spaceships. Or, on the contrary, dismiss any hint of mystery as humbug. It is also possible, as in the question of God, to take an agnostic standpoint and live with the corresponding ignorance.
The fact that both the “ufologists” and the “demystifiers” are often somewhat fanatical does not make the search for truth any easier. Last but not least: The fact that research is in the hands of the military and secret services perhaps guarantees a certain objectivity. However, it inevitably involves secrecy and promotes distrust and paranoia among UFO believers.