High StrangenessS


Top Secret

The Pentagon's new UAP report is seriously flawed

aaro
Last month the U.S. government's new UAP investigation office, the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), submitted a report to Congress entitled, "Report on the Historical Record of U.S. Government Involvement with Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena" (UAP, the new term for UFO). This new report is itself anomalous for several reasons.

First, who ever heard of a government report being submitted months before it was due? Especially one so rife with embarrassing errors in desperate need of additional fact-checking and revision? Was AARO Director Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick rushing to get the report out the door before departing, perhaps to ensure that his successor could not revise or reverse some of the report's conclusions?

Second, this appears to be the first AARO report submitted to Congress that the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) did not sign off on. I don't know why, but Avril Haines and her Office were quite right not to in this case, having spared themselves considerable embarrassment in the process.

Third, this is the most error-ridden and unsatisfactory government report I can recall reading during or after decades of government service. We all make mistakes, but this report is an outlier in terms of inaccuracies and errors. Were I reviewing this as a graduate student's thesis it would receive a failing grade for failing to understand the assignment, sloppy and inadequate research, and flawed interpretation of the data. Hopefully, long before it was submitted, the author would have consulted his or her professor and received some guidance and course correction to prevent such an unfortunate outcome.

UFO

Western US residents report the most UFO sightings

"It's difficult to explain why we have this many more sightings in the West."
UAP sighting
© David Wall/Getty Images
Those of us in the western U.S. who enjoy vast open spaces may also be more likely to report UFO sightings, a new study suggests.

An analysis of unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) reports (UAP is a new umbrella term that includes UFOs not just in the sky but also in space and underwater) suggests local environmental factors play a role in the number of UAP sightings reported.

The study, based on about 98,000 reports over 20 years as cataloged in an open-source, online dataset maintained by the National UFO Research Center (NUFORC), modeled how reported UAP sightings coincide with environmental variables such as light pollution and cloud cover, as well as things like proximity to airports and military installations. The results reveal the majority of reported sightings originate in the western U.S., along with a smaller hotspot in the northeastern U.S.

"It was completely unexpected," Richard Medina, a geographer at the University of Utah who led the study, told Space.com. "It's difficult to explain why we have this many more sightings in the West."

Blackbox

French couple 'disappears' while hiking in Madeira - Portuguese island records 6 'missing tourist' cases in 3 years

veronique laurent blond
Veronique and Laurent Blond, circled
The search for missing tourist couple Laurent and Véronique Blond on the north coast of the island of Madeira has been suspended since Tuesday due to bad weather, the public security police service (PSP) said today - adding that the operation could soon be called off for good.

"At the moment, weather conditions don't allow us to continue the search. It has been suspended. We are working on information and, depending on whether we have new information, we will decide whether or not to resume the search" explained Commissioner João Góis, speaking to journalists in Funchal.

Góis said that if the operation is resumed, the perimeter of the investigation will be widened, as the area closest to where the tourists were staying, in Fajã da Areia, in the parish and district of São Vicente, has already been " thoroughly searched more than once".

"On Monday, we searched again, because the weather conditions allowed it. We went out with our search, rescue and mountain rescue brigade and we also had the support of the Civil Protection and National Republican Guard drone teams," he said.

João Góis reiterated that "the possibility of not resuming the search" is now on the table if there is "no more evidence, no more information".

Comment: 'Missing 411' cases expert David Paulides discussed the 4 earlier cases of missing mountain-runners/hikers on Madeira in this episode of his show from December 2022:




Bomb

Flashback Alienated: Peter Levenda on the alien 'threat' narrative

Ex–Blink-182 member Tom DeLonge
© LeAnn MullerEx–Blink-182 member Tom DeLonge
There has been some Twitter controversy lately over a tweet from Tom DeLonge concerning the UFO Phenomenon and the threat it poses to human life on Earth. It seems that people have definite ideas about all of this, and they do not hesitate to make them known in response. This is my attempt to clarify my own position. I do not speak for Tom, of course, but I do believe that too many assumptions have been made by critics of Tom and of To The Stars that confuse the issue unnecessarily.

First of all, it seems that one of the major criticisms of Tom's position is that he is somehow a shill for the Pentagon or the CIA or some military group or cabal. I have seen the term "war monger" used, as well. If one takes the position that the Phenomenon is dangerous to humans, it stands to reason - according to this critique - that the person taking that position is a government stooge. What is the purpose of being a government stooge, then? Why, it's to increase US government defense spending, of course.

There are a few things wrong with that theory when it comes to the Phenomenon, however.

In the first place, US spending on defense far outstrips those of the next nine countries combined (and that includes China and Russia). No one needs Tom talking about UFOs to have any appreciable effect on the defense budget. The amount of money spent so far by the US government on UFO research is minuscule. If it were to double or triple, it would still be minuscule and not approach the cost of, for instance, the cheapest single line item in the 2017 Defense Budget of $89 million for rolling airframe missile systems (a surface-to-air system for defending ships against missile attacks). If we are not talking about UFO research, though, but defense systems against possible UFO attacks, then we have another problem:

Design

Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies publishes pattern study 1945-1975 military and public activities

uap scu
The Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies (SCU) released the following announcement:

Today, the SCU published the following peer-reviewed study: UAP Activity Pattern Study 1945-1975 Military and Public Activities, by SCU members Larry J. Hancock, Ian M. Porritt, Sean Grosvenor, and Larry Cates. The new study is the third in a series of examinations of unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) activity in the post-World War II era.

This new study examined UAP incidents over three decades (1945-1975), revealing a pattern of activity associated with public reports during the study period, and found that reports shifted from high visibility daylight observations at a distance to nighttime close approaches to the observers during the study period. In addition, the focus of UAP activity shifted from the military to the public arena, with increased close approaches to observers. UAP loitering for extended periods near the observers was found to have been observed primarily at night rather than in daylight. Military loitering incidents were reported more frequently from 1949 to 1959, while the public reporting loitering incidents became much more frequent during a short period from 1966-1967.

The nature of the UAP activity also changed over time, from an early period of high visibility - with frequent daylight observations of multiple UAPs (often observed to be disc-shaped) in controlled, interactive flight, with radical maneuvers such as instantaneous acceleration vertically from a hovering position, radar-tracked speeds exceeding 9,000 miles per hour, and 90 degree turns without speed changes. More often noted in military reports were evident activities such as radical speeds and acceleration and maneuvering multiple UAPs during interactive flight. In addition, reports of numerous objects in groups (primarily in the daytime) peaked in 1952 and trended downwards in subsequent years.

MIB

The unexplained: Giant Swedish archive logs paranormal phenomena

AI-generated image
© AI-generated image
Newspaper clippings, books and first-hand accounts of people who said they visited other planets are catalogued in a giant Swedish archive on paranormal phenomena, attracting the curious and researchers from around the world.

The Archives for the Unexplained (AFU) claims to be the world's biggest library of paranormal phenomena, with 4.2 kilometers (2.6 miles) of shelves running underground.

Clas Svahn, 65, and Anders Liljegren, 73, who run the archive located in the southeastern town of Norrkoping, say they are neither superstitious nor believers, but rather "curious investigators of the unknown".

The AFU — the name of both the library and the association that has collected documentation for more than 50 years — is mainly comprised of books, but also more original documents, such as first-hand accounts of paranormal activity recorded on tape and photos of ghosts.

"What we are building here at AFU is depository knowledge," explains Svahn, showing AFP journalists around the 700-square-metre (7,535-square-foot) library.

"We're trying to get as much as we can on... every kind of unsolved scientific mystery that we can find... to make this available for the world."

The library receives around 300 visits each year, by appointment only.

The archives are in the process of being digitalised and many of the documents can already by consulted on a server.

All that is needed is an access code, which the pair are more than happy to share.

UFO 2

The Pentagon's new historical review of UFOs picks and chooses its history

ufo report
A Department of Defense report released March 8 demonstrates that a seven decade-long trend of official obfuscation and deflection on unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) continues unabated.

The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office's (AARO) report, a congressionally mandated historical review of U.S. government involvement with UAP, found no evidence of "extraterrestrial technology." While that may be technically accurate, the Pentagon's lengthy report deliberately obscures a critical fact: Official records and public reporting are littered with evidence of unknown craft exhibiting what appears to be extraordinary technology.

In addition to critical omissions and at least one major misrepresentation, AARO's report must be scrutinized for its treatment of Capt. Edward Ruppelt. Ruppelt was the first director of the Air Force's decades-long UAP analysis (and, later, debunking) effort known as Project Blue Book.

Despite citing Ruppelt more than any other individual, AARO's report ignores the countless cases, including many involving simultaneous radar and visual observations, that left Ruppelt and the Air Force thoroughly baffled.

In one July 1952 incident, for example, a ground radar station scrambled an F-94C fighter jet to intercept a UFO. As Ruppelt recounts in his 1956 book, "The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects," "the radar operator in the '94 locked on to it, and as the airplane closed in the pilot and [radar operator] saw that they were headed directly toward a large, yellowish-orange light."

Comment: Here's a typical example from the AARO report:
Although many UAP/UFO cases remain unsolved, based on the lack of evidence of the extraterrestrial origin of even one UAP report and the assessment that all resolved cases to date have ordinary explanations, AARO assess sightings and claims of extraterrestrial visitations have been influenced by a range of factors.
The logic behind this sentence is tortuous and misleading. First, it acknowledges that "unknowns" remain. However, it downplays this by engaging in circular logic: "all resolved cases to date have ordinary explanations." Naturally, if there are unknowns, they only cases able to be resolved would be those with ordinary explanations. It is a meaningless sentence.


UFO

Veteran paratrooper reveals British special forces recovered downed UFO in northern England in late 1980s

uk crash
British special forces recovered a downed 'non-human' craft in northern England in the late 1980s, a former UK paratrooper and military intelligence officer claims.

Franc Milburn, a veteran of the British Army's elite Parachute Regiment, tells DailyMail.com he has spoken with a member of the MI6-run unit that conducted the alleged operation.

Milburn said he also spoke to UK Royal Air Force crew who chased and fired on a pair of 'disc-shaped' UFOs that traveled at hypersonic speeds outstripping their fighter jets.

Milburn refused to reveal the identity of his former elite comrade, citing security and his desire to remain anonymous. DailyMail.com will refer to him using the alias 'John.'

But in an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com, Milburn divulged eye-popping details of the story told to him by his ex-Special Forces friend after both had left the Army - saying that he wanted to support recent US whistleblowers' claims of a secret UFO crash retrieval program.

Blue Planet

Forget UFOs, ex-US Navy officer warns of unidentified underwater objects

The tipping point for the collapse of a key Atlantic Ocean current
© HadelProductions/Getty Images
The sightings of so-called unidentified flying objects (UFOs) have received much attention in the past few years, with the US Congress holding a briefing on the issue last year. The Pentagon debunked these sightings, clarifying in a report earlier this month that they have found no evidence of extra-terrestrial technology. But incidents like these, whenever reported, generate huge interest across the world. A retired US admiral has now warned about unidentified submarines saying they pose "real threat" to international maritime security.

Rear Admiral and oceanographer Tim Gallaudet authored a white paper for Sol Foundation, a think tank, in which he mentioned that unidentified submersible objects (USOs) need urgent attention.

Gallaudet also said that these "large lighted craft" could be lurking in the unexplored depths of our oceans.


Comment: The Sol Foundation also published a second paper, "UAP in Crowded Skies: Atmospheric and Orbital Threat Reduction in an Age of Geopolitical Uncertainty", written by Peter Skafish and David Grusch, with input from the rest of the Foundation members. It is available here.


Blackbox

Mysterious 'drones' swarmed Langley AFB for weeks

F-22 Raptor
© USAFA pair of F-22 Raptor stealth fighters turn on final approach to Langley Air Force Base in Virginia.
Langley Air Force Base, located in one of the most strategic areas of the country, across the Chesapeake Bay from the sprawling Naval Station Norfolk and the open Atlantic, was at the epicenter of waves of mysterious drone incursions that occurred throughout December. The War Zone has been investigating these incidents and the response to them for months. We know that they were so troubling and persistent that they prompted bringing in advanced assets from around the U.S. government, including one of NASA's WB-57F high-flying research planes. Now the U.S. Air Force has confirmed to us that they did indeed occur and provided details on the timeframe and diversity of drones involved.

This spate of bizarre drone incursions deeply underscores the still-growing threats that uncrewed aerial systems present on and off traditional battlefields, and to military and critical civilian infrastructure, issues The War Zone has been highlighting in great detail for years.

"The installation first observed UAS [uncrewed aerial systems] activities the evening of December 6 [2023] and experienced multiple incursions throughout the month of December. The number of UASs fluctuated and they ranged in size/configuration," a spokesperson for Langley Air Force Base told The War Zone in a statement earlier today. "None of the incursions appeared to exhibit hostile intent but anything flying in our restricted airspace can pose a threat to flight safety. The FAA was made aware of the UAS incursions."


Comment: The UAS designation can be applied to a UAP solely based on its size. In other words, if it's a UAP that happens to be smaller than a jet fighter, it may be classified by military observers as a UAS, even though it is technically unidentified.


"To protect operational security, we do not discuss impacts to operations," the statement added. "We don't discuss our specific force protection measures but retain the right to protect the installation. Langley continues to monitor our air space and work with local law enforcement and other federal agencies to ensure the safety of base personnel, facilities, and assets."