Practically nobody among the American people talks or is concerned about the UAP subject.
The issues are other: inflation, still lack enough formula to feed babies, violence in the streets, indolent district attorneys, rising crime, the terrible effects of climate change, and the war in Ukraine.
Therefore anybody, inside and outside the United States could legitimately wonder what and why is this surprising upsurge in the UAP theme.
Let us remember that apparently everything started with two already old incidents of 2004 and 2015 when US Navy pilots saw what they considered strange things flying over the area where they were performing military training.
That triggered a process that began with the creation of the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAPTF) on August 4, 2020, and ended with the creation of the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group [AOIMSG] on November 23, 2021.
After almost 50 years, on May 17, 2022, the House Intelligence Subcommittee on Counterintelligence, Counterterrorism, and Counterproliferation, opened a hearing on UAPs, considering them “a potential national security threat”.
That is why this subject was dealt with by this Subcommittee and not by the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, because the main concern was the national security and the safety of the pilots, and anything dealing with Space.
In the creation of the AOIMSG, there is no mention or reference to anything extraterrestrial.
And in the report to legislators, Scott Bray, Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence said: “We have detected no emanations…that would suggest it’s anything non-terrestrial in origin”; answering a question about “whether any of the objects was sending out unusual signals or apparent communications.”
Then, the question remains: why this sudden interest for the UAPs, when the USAF ended its program, the famous BlueBook on December 17, 1969?
Laurance Rockefeller, UFO mogul
The story begins with this man, in the midst of 1996.
Born on May 26, 1910, in New York, and deceased on July 11, 2004, also in New York, he was a businessman, financier, philanthropist, conservationist, and an active promoter of the UFO subject.
The well-known author Robert Sheaffer, wrote an article in Skeptical Inquirer of September-October 2014 under the title “Carl Sagan, Laurance Rockefeller, and UFOs”.
In that article, he reproduces something written by researcher Antonio Huneeus, who had collaborated with Rockefeller.
Huneeus said:
“Throughout the 1990s, billionaire philanthropist Laurance S. Rockefeller (1910-2004) sponsored and funded a number of UFO-related projects. This has come to be known as the Rockefeller UFO initiative since in some cases they went beyond funding and included an actual lobbying effort to the Clinton White House, undertaken by Rockefeller himself and his lawyer Henry Diamond, in the early and mid-90s.
A copy of the (UFO) Briefing Document was sent by Laurance Rockefeller to the White House Science and Technology advisor, Dr. John Gibbons, on February 29, 1996. In his cover letter, released under the Freedom of Information Act together with many other documents related to the Rockefeller UFO initiative, the late philanthropist wrote: “I sponsored this report because it seemed useful to bring together the most credible evidence about UFO sightings in the form of eyewitness reports, official statements, and scientific views. While I do not necessarily agree with every finding and conclusion, I do believe that the evidence presented indicates that this subject merits serious scientific study. Toward that end, I hope that our government, other governments, and the United Nations will cooperate in making any information they may have available.”
Later, in the same year, Sheaffer relates: “In a letter to Sagan dated October 17, 1996, Rockefeller wrote:
“We continue to share your interest in assessing the probability of extraterrestrial intelligence. We believe that while the approach through radio telescope inquiry might prove useful, other inquiries might be productive as well. As you well know, there is substantial anecdotal evidence of the existence of ETI and UFOs and little or no evidence of radio signals. Thus, we believe other avenues are worthy of serious scientific inquiry.”
Sheaffer commented: Sagan’s reply, dated November 6, 1996, was brief and
pointed:
“My view is that no amount of anecdotal evidence, unsubstantiated by physical evidence, is worth a single substantive bit of physical evidence. A million reports that the Earth is flat has no veridical value on the shape of the Earth.”
It was one of the latest written messages by Carl Sagan. Six weeks later he passed away, on December 20, 1996.
We have collected some additional information.
Rockefeller sponsored both financially and otherwise the effort to bring together three major UFO research organizations in America CUFOS — Centre for UFO Studies, FUFOR — Fund for UFO Research, and MUFON — Mutual UFO Network and produce the UFO Briefing Document under the authorship of well-known aviation historian Don Berliner.
The project was coordinated by Marie Galbraith's wife Evan Galbraith who was the American ambassador to France during the Reagan administration and Antonio Huneeus who contributed to the case histories section. UFO researchers Stanton Friedman and Timothy Good, major general Wilfred De Brouwer, deputy chief of the Royal Belgian Air Force; Dr. Claude Poher, founder of GEPAN Jean-Jacques Velasco, director of SEPRA also contributed to this effort.
Rockefeller’s effort saw limited success in America but in France, due to the efforts of Marie Galbraith, it resulted in the famous Cometa report of 1999.
Rockefeller also funded the research of the famous Harvard professor Dr. John Mack, author of the bestseller Abduction which dealt with the Alien abduction phenomenon, and the Disclosure Project of Dr. Steven Greer.
With the list of people mentioned one can appreciate how disoriented Mr. Rockefeller was.
Hillary Clinton and her campaign
The OBSERVER Newsletters published on January 16, 2016, an article written by Robin Seemangal under the title: “Extraterrestrial Lobbyst Explains Hillary Clinton’s Controversial UFO Statements”.
It is worthwhile to deal with this article because it illustrates very well the incidence of political interests and aspirations of the candidate for the Presidency, Hillary Clinton, related to the UFO subject.
Hillary Clinton with Laurance Rockefeller at the JY Ranch, Jackson Hole, Wyo., August 21, 1995. Clinton is carrying the book Are We Alone: Philosophical Implications of the Discovery of Extraterrestrial Life by Paul Davies. (Photo: National Archives)
“Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton recently made unusual comments regarding the existence of extraterrestrials during an editorial board meeting with New Hampshire’s Conway Daily Sun. “Yes, I’m going to get to the bottom of it,” said Ms. Clinton when questioned on the subject by reporter Daymond Steer. “I think we may have been visited already. We don’t know for sure.”
Ms. Clinton also indicated that her campaign chairman John Podesta had a great interest in the UFO phenomenon. “He has made me personally pledge we are going to get the information out,” said Mr. Clinton. “One way or another. Maybe we could have, like, a task force to go to Area 51.”
The article continues referring to John Podesta, whose last name the Americans pronounce “Pedesta”. Who is this guy?
“Mr. Podesta, who served as chief of staff to President Bill Clinton and advisor to President Barack Obama, has spoken publicly about the issue in the past. “It’s time to open the books on questions that have remained in the dark, on the question of government investigations of UFOs. It’s time to find out what the truth really is that’s out there,” said Mr. Podesta during a news conference at the National Press Club in 2002. “We ought to do it, really, because it’s right, because the American people, quite frankly, can handle the truth, and we ought to do it because it’s the law.”
Stephen Bassett, head of the Paradigm Research Group (PRG) was interviewed by The Washington Post reports Seemangal, and said:
“Twenty-three years after her husband’s administration was engaged by Laurance Rockefeller to release all UFO documents in government files and grant amnesty to government witnesses, Secretary Clinton has finally spoken to the extraterrestrial presence issue.”
“In 2002 and 2003 Mr. Podesta called for the release of UFO documents in government files. In 2010, he reiterated this theme in a foreword to the book UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record by Leslie Kean.”
As we all know, Leslie Kean together with Helene Cooper and Ralph Blumenthal were the authors of an article in The New York Times, under the suggestive title of Glowing Auras and ‘Black Money: The Pentagon’s Mysterious U.F.O. Program.
Harry Reid, Bigelow, and 22 million dollars for AATIP
This Senator is the key piece of the last chapter of this story that ends with the AOIMSG.
Reid was born on December 2, 1939, and died on December 28, 2021. He was a lawyer and Democrat politician that served as a Senator for the State of Nevada from 1987 until 2017. He became the leader of the Majority of the U.S. Senate from 2007 to 2015.
He and two other Senators, both deceased, Ted Stevens (Republican from Alaska) and Daniel Inouye (Democrat from Hawaii) proposed and won the approval of a $22 million fund to finance a project within the Department of Defense, initially called “ Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program” (AATIP) - which later changed its name to "Aerospace Threat", expanding the potential threat from the air and space fields.
The initiative started at the Department of Defense in 2007 and operated from 2008 to 2011. That means it lasted only 3 years and was closed 11 years ago.
Harry Reid was inspired and encouraged by his donor, billionaire Robert Bigelow, who owns the Budget Suites of America hotel chain and is the founder of Bigelow Aerospace which manufactures and develops expandable modules for the Space Station.
Of a total of $22 million approved for AATIP, to be sent in two installments of 11 million each, the vast majority ended up in Bigelow's hands, with a small amount going to the Department of Defense.
Probably you think that it was unfair. W do think so too, but you know how politicians work in the United States.
Expectation… of what?
Probably the first question that comes to mind is why?
And the answercould be found to be the same as why the USAF started to investigate “flying saucers”, later called “UFOs” after the decision taken by Captain Edward J. Ruppelt when he was the head of Project Blue Book.
The reason then was the Cold War and the prevention that the USSR could fly over the U.S.A. with airplanes or missiles. That is why the USAF created the Ground Observer Corps, with a manual and instructions about how to explore the sky, how to identify an enemy airplane or missile, and how to ring the alarm in case it happened.
Now there is no Cold War but the adversaries have duplicated. Now there are Russia and China, and once again sounds the alarm.
Is it possible that one of those, or both, is spying on the military maneuvers of the US Navy?
Are that lousy quality and old images taken with an infrared camera enough reason to start once again investigating the now-called UAPs?
As per those photographs, they have been dismissed by analysts. But still are the declarations of pilots and reporters that like to exploit mystery and potential danger.
So first came AATIP, then UAPTF, and later AOIMSG, and more recently the same NASA.
AOIMSG has an increased budget and the perspective to create a medium-size bureaucracy.
It emerges from their very documents that UAPTF, AOIMSG and NASA do not deal with any extraterrestrial presence; not on Earth nor in Space.
Therefore, we are constrained to think about some human origin of what could possibly lead to this decision of the legislators.
The most advanced and extraordinary technology never tested before, could be the answer.
As the UAPTF said—“USG [United States Government] or Industry Developmental Programs: Some UAP observations could be attributable to developments and classified programs by U.S. entities.”
Added to AOIMSG, NASA also decided to deal independently with the UAP subject, under the premise that the Administration has “to ensure the safety of aircraft”.
In the announcement, NASA also indicates that “There is no evidence UAPs are extra-terrestrial in origin”.
As if it were not enough, after the first legislative hearing on UAP, the web page “Military.com” gave information under the title: “Congress’ First Military UFO Hearing in 50 Years Deflates Speculation on Alien Spacecraft”
If there is not a “wave” of UAP reports –as was in old times dealing with F.S. and UFOs— if balloons and drones have created alarm among the Navy personnel –the Air Force has been reluctant to deal again with a subject that consumed money and efforts for nothing— why such a noise and why is the government trying to please alien fanatics and pseudo-researchers?
One only can speculate. Maybe the presence of certain individuals with political relations at a high level, and even some influential billionaires, could have exerted pressure on legislators to take this initiative.
Maybe some individuals that dropped their employment or are without employment after having worked at a high level for the government, using the media, finally obtained a law that in a certain way could benefit them through a special contract.
An author said that all this issue has been dealt with by people of the Democratic Party.
But that is not totally true, because Senator Reid –a Democrat— had the company of Ted Stevens, Republican Senator for Alaska.
And now, among the legislators that workeon the law that created the AOIMSG, was Senator Marco Rubio, Republican for the State of Florida.
But it is also true that the current Administrator of NASA, Bill Nelson ,is an American politician and attorney, a member of the Democratic Party that previously served as Senator from Florida from 2001 to 2019.
Some people tend simply to say that in times of crisis, the UFO subject has been a good scapegoat for tensions, desperation, and anger.
But, if the UFO subject was able to play that role before, we risk saying: not this time.
Therefore, the only thing that is left is to wait for the report that the AOIMSG will present to legislators and the public at the end of October 2022.
Depending of that report, we should be able to get a vision about the future of the AOIMSG, and if there would be a justification for its existence, or the lack of something inexplicable will determine the closing of its activity.
But there could be a great reason to maintain the work of the AOIMSG, and that is a possible military confrontation with China.
And also a domestic reason: on November 2022 there are going to be what are called “Mid Term Elections”, where Representatives and Senators are elected. There would be a strong competence for positions in both Cameras and candidates will need money for their campaigns.
If they supported the interest on UAP from some people that could contribute with money to their campaigns, that would be a factor that also could explain why at this moment, this subject has got such relevance.
Milton W. Hourcade
Iowa City, July 14, 2022
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