By Tyler Durden | Zero Hedge
US intelligence has released a much anticipated wide-ranging report on military and government agencies’ encounters with UFOs, or what the report calls unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP). The now-declassified Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) report which has been sent to Congress was made public late in the day Friday and reveals the US government has encountered over 140 instances of UAP.
As The Hill notes of the report, out of 144 encounters listed since 2004, “just one was identified with high confidence while the others remain a mystery” — with varied explanations accounting for the bulk of the sightings including possible natural atmospheric phenomena, “airborne clutter” such as balloons, for example, advanced aircraft or projectiles by foreign adversaries, or even experimental programs done under top-secret classification by the US government. The one identified or explainable sighting was determined to “likely” have been “a large, deflating balloon”.
For 143 of the cases analyzed, the report concluded “lack sufficient information in our dataset to attribute incidents to specific explanations”. And it said there are “no clear indications that there is any non-terrestrial explanation” for the aircraft.
But as many UFO enthusiasts have pointed out, the report doesn’t rule out alien activity altogether either. Indeed what’s being dubbed the Feds’ UFO report is also leaving the possibility open to “other” explanations in its nine pages (including that objects might be extra-terrestrial), particularly in 18 of the instances for which there’s currently no plausible scientific explanation accounting for how the aerial objects moved:
In the 18 cases, U.S. government observers reported “unusual” movement or flight characteristics, the report released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence stated.
The objects “appeared to remain stationary in winds aloft, move against the wind, maneuver abruptly, or move at considerable speed, without discernible means of propulsion,” the report stated. Some of them released radio frequency energy that was picked up and processed by U.S. military aircraft.
The strange flight characteristics “could be the result of sensor errors, spoofing or observer misperception and require additional rigorous analysis,” the report added. Of these, the report underscored that “We are conducting further analysis to determine if breakthrough technologies were demonstrated.”
Naval and other military aviators have recently gone public with their encounters with “UFOs”…
Retired Navy Lieutenant Commander Alex Dietrich was among several aviators from aircraft carrier USS Nimitz involved in a 2004 encounter with an unknown aircraft. As the U.S. government prepares to issue a report on UFOs, Dietrich recalls her experience https://t.co/pINcdXMFsh pic.twitter.com/19IQpgcpNB
— Reuters (@Reuters) June 25, 2021
“There are probably multiple types of UAP requiring different explanations based on the range of appearances and behaviors described in the available reporting,” the report explained. “Although most of the UAP described in our dataset probably remain unidentified due to limited data or challenges to collection processing or analysis, we may require additional scientific knowledge to successfully collect on, analyze and characterize some of them,” it added.
In a separate statement the Pentagon sought to assure the public that it “takes reports of incursions – by an aerial object, identified or unidentified – very seriously, and investigates each one.”
This is particularly given the distinct possibility that some or many UAP sightings may represent “sophisticated collection against U.S. military activities by a foreign government or demonstrate a breakthrough aerospace technology by a potential adversary.”
This is the only part of the #UFOreport that's going to get any attention from anyone who matters. pic.twitter.com/6Wy43uCYEF
— Caitlin Johnstone ⏳ (@caitoz) June 25, 2021
For example, Russia has made huge leaps in its hypersonic missile program, with China also considered to be on the way.
Interestingly, both of these countries and their advancing, cutting-edge defense technology programs find explicit mention in the ODNI report.
Here's the UFO report. Summary:
– No direct mention of the possibility of extraterrestrial origin
– Repeatedly says phenomena could pose a national security threat
– Explicitly names advanced technologies by Russia and China as a potential origin for UFOshttps://t.co/1EkWyYljdC pic.twitter.com/uyA635eRlb— Caitlin Johnstone ⏳ (@caitoz) June 25, 2021
Some Congressional leaders have already dubbed this new report “inconclusive” but have also said it’s a step in the right direction in terms of accounting for “risks to aviation” or possible secretive advanced programs of America’s enemies.
Public interest was recently reignited in the wake of leaked Navy videos purporting to show UFO sightings, short of video clips of which went mainstream in the past year.
Meanwhile, some observers are questioning why it’s suddenly the case that UFO theories and speculation are going mainstream, even to the point that US intelligence is releasing a rare study to the public.
According to independent journalist and geopolitical commentator Caitlin Johnstone, “the fact that Russia or China magically leapfrogging US technology by centuries seventy years ago has been validated as a possibility by the report is a gift to cold warriors eager to ramp up aggressions and inflame a high-budget arms race.”
Read the full ODNI report here.
