High StrangenessS


Grey Alien

UFOs and aliens are (probably) not what you think: An interview with Diana Walsh Pasulka

Prof. Diana Walsh Pasulka
Prof. Diana Walsh Pasulka
Diana Walsh Pasulka never imagined that her scholarly work in the field of religion would lead her to skulking around in the desert near Roswell, New Mexico, with one of the world's top scientists and a former high NASA official. She tells the story in her riveting 2019 book American Cosmic, in which Pasulka, a professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington, surveyed the then-current state of knowledge of UFOs and related phenomena.

Then came the shocking 2021 revelations by the U.S. government that it had been investigating UFOs — then renamed 'unidentified aerial phenomena,' or UAPs. In a series of strokes, the research that Pasulka and many others had been working on for years, even decades, received powerful vindication. Something really is out there — and top national security and intelligence officials have been for a very long time taking it more seriously than they wanted the public to know.

Whatever the 'aliens' really are, it is startling to discover that many of the most informed people in the UFO world doubt that they are creatures from other planets. What are they, then? On November 7th, Pasulka's latest volume hits bookstores, offering answers, but also raising new and important questions about that very issue. Encounters: Experiences With Nonhuman Intelligences (Macmillan), profiles a wide range of people who for various reasons have been drawn into the shadowy and mysterious world of UFOs, and whose testimonies move the phenomenon out of narrowly-drawn scientific categories, and well into the world of the religious and the paranormal.

Pasulka recently agreed to an interview about her work, her new book, and the emergence of a new form of religion tied to aliens, artificial intelligence, and high technology.

X

Confirmed: Pentagon UFO boss to step down next month

Kirkpatrick
© Defense Visual Information Distribution ServiceSean Kirkpatrick, the head of the Pentagon's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, testified before Congress in April.
The head of the Pentagon office responsible for investigating UFOs is stepping down from his post in December, he said in an exclusive interview Tuesday.

Sean Kirkpatrick, the head of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, is retiring from the federal government after nearly 18 months on the job. He deferred his planned retirement last year to take on the job atop AARO and now feels he has achieved his goals, he said.


Comment: One final job whitewashing for the PTB. The American people thank you for your service, Sean.


"I'm ready to move on. I have accomplished everything I said I was going to do," Kirkpatrick said, adding that he still wants to finish a few tasks, including wrapping up the first volume of a historical review of the unidentified anomalous phenomena issue, before leaving.


Comment: Given how poor those accomplishments have been, hopes aren't high for his historical review.


Kirkpatrick's deputy, Tim Phillips, will lead the office in an acting role until the Pentagon hires a permanent replacement, Kirkpatrick said.

A physicist, Kirkpatrick took on the role at AARO after spending decades in a variety of scientific jobs for the military.

Comment: Kirkpatrick can call his stint as AARO director a success. He managed to go all this time without having to field a single hardball question from journalists, and his only accomplishments were two lazy reports, a subpar website, and a Google form. Taxpayer money well spent!


Brain

The surprising psychology of UFO reporting

nlo ufo
Encounter in the desert

Page, Arizona, 1997

Lying on the warm, red desert sand, gazing up at the stars in the crystal-clear night, I watched satellites in low Earth orbit swiftly transit above me — objects that looked like stars but weren't — following predictable, straight trajectories unlike the flash of meteors and decidedly faster than the ultraslow movement of stars with the Earth's rotation.

Then, my heart skipped a beat as one of the satellites, at least that's what I thought it was, made an abrupt right-angle turn, roughly two degrees of visual angle (the width of my thumb at arm's length), shifting its trajectory and then proceeding straight again towards the far horizon.

My scientist's brain tried to make sense of what I'd just seen, calculating that the G forces of making such a startling change in direction would have torn any man-made satellite to pieces (moving laterally about 7 miles in a small fraction of a second) if, indeed, human technology could devise a propulsion system capable of causing such a move in low Earth orbit in the first place.

Had I just seen a UFO? Was it man-made, some kind of unknown natural phenomena, or... something not of this world?

Was I crazy, or what?

UFO 2

Critical concerns arise over US govt's UFO office amid uncertainty surrounding its director's future

Sean Kirkpatrick
© CopyrightSean Kirkpatrick, ex-Director of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), which the Department of Defense has tasked with studying UFOs
The U.S. Government's Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) Office was established with the aim of ensuring transparency for the public.

However, the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) now grapples with an increasing number of accusations related to concealment.

If its purpose was solely to enhance public perception, it appears to have fallen short.

The AARO's second annual report, unveiled in October 2023, was initially leaked to DefenseScoop, and additional insights, along with exclusive comments from its director, Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, were shared with CNN.

Of note, DefenseScoop was given the exclusive scoop on Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks assuming direct oversight of the AARO in August 2023.

This week, many defense reporters, including a correspondent from DefenseScoop, were extended an invitation to pose questions to Dr. Kirkpatrick. This invitation followed the introduction of the new "secure" reporting feature on its website, implemented through Google Forms.

Liberation Times inquired with the Department of Defense (DoD) about why DefenseScoop received the AARO's recent report ahead of other publications. Spokesperson Sue Gough provided the following response:
"I have nothing for you on that."

UFO

Pentagon unveils UFO reporting portal for service members, government workers

Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder
© PentagonPentagon Press Secretary Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder
The Pentagon on Tuesday launched a new portal where current and former service members, government employees and contractors can report UFO sightings.

The secure online form will help the Department of Defense's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office compile accounts of unidentified aerial phenomena sightings to include in its congressionally mandated Historical Record Report, which is due to Congress by June 2024.

"This phase of the secure reporting mechanism is for current or former US government employees, service members, or contractors with direct knowledge of alleged US government programs or activities related to UAP dating back to 1945 to contact AARO to voluntarily submit a report," the Pentagon said in a statement.

Comment: Post-hearing interview with 8:30 / 10:21 Congressman Tim Burchett,




Eye 2

Tom DeLonge wonders if civilizations went extinct for disobeying aliens

Tom DeLonge
© Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for CoachellaTom DeLonge is pictured on April 14, 2023 in Indio, California. The "Monsters of California" director has spoken to Newsweek about UFOs, alien life forms, and time travel.
Blink-182 star Tom DeLonge has suggested that ancient civilizations could have been wiped out for angering alien life forms through disobedience.

Over the years, the musician, 47, has become a prominent voice in ufology, having launched the To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science back in 2017. It includes an entertainment arm that produces books and films, and a research branch that has aerospace and science divisions.

DeLonge told Newsweek that while he's passionate about studying unidentified flying objects (UFOs) — or advanced aerial threats — he believes that the life forms operating them likely have sinister intentions when it comes to the wellbeing of humans.

Addressing why aliens aren't a visual part of everyday life at this point, the star said: "All I can do is ask questions on things that I do feel I feel strongly about and some conversations that I've had that really make me feel things and think a certain way."

"But I think the one hand is not knowing how to defend against it, because we don't totally understand it," he added. "There's also the side that the other side could be [reluctant to] want us to know they're here because what they're doing is not good.

"And if we were to just come out and say, 'Hey, it's all here,' we don't know what kind of response it's going to provoke. Are they going to do something that's, that's horrible? I had one person tell me, they wonder are extinct civilizations evidence of those who didn't obey? Like, you don't know."

Wine

Pentagon UFO chief Dr Sean Kirkpatrick will be replaced by end of the year as whistleblowers accuse him of lying to the public and ignoring witnesses

kirkpatrick
Veteran Australian TV news broadcaster and investigative reporter Ross Coulthart, who conducted the first TV interview with David Grusch, said on social media that the apparent staff bio for Kirkpatrick at Oak Ridge National Laboratory's website 'requires explanation'
The Pentagon's UFO chief will resign by year's end — amid a wave of complaints accusing him of making false statements about UFO whistleblowers and fostering an 'atmosphere of disinterest,' the DailyMail.com understands.

'Four major candidates' have been interviewed to replace the current director of the Pentagon's UFO office, Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, following months of heated public sparring between the former CIA physicist, UFO whistleblowers and activists.

The Pentagon appears to have already 'made the decision' on Kirkpatrick's unnamed successor, according to one former Pentagon official with past involvement in related UFO investigation programs, who spoke with the DailyMail.com.

'Given their public affairs track record,' this ex-official said, 'they may not put out anything to the press until well after the change, but who knows? They might surprise us.'

The personnel shift marks the culmination of months of accusations and counter-accusations traded between Kirkpatrick and former intel officer David Grusch, who has alleged widespread illegalities stemming from a long-secret UFO program.

This week, Grusch publicly accused Kirkpatrick of lying about his office's efforts to investigate these claims, which had been laid out by Grusch last July under oath before Congress.

Previously, Kirkpatrick had described Grusch's same testimony, made before the House Oversight committee, as 'insulting [...] to the officers of the Department of Defense and Intelligence Community.'

But fellow UFO whistleblowers working with Grusch, some past and present DoD and Intelligence Community officers themselves, reportedly 'don't trust and never did trust Sean,' according to an attorney aiding their efforts.

Blackbox

Did you work on a secret government UFO program? The Pentagon is ready to believe you

ufo night
© Getty ImagesUFOs
A science fiction concept of a man with a torch looking at an alien UFO. Floating above a field on a spooky foggy night in the countryside.
If you worked for a clandestine government project on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena - formerly known as UFOs - then the Defense Department's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, or AARO, is giving you a chance to come forward.

Sean Kirkpatrick, director of AARO, said that his organization's website now features a form for current and former government employees, service members, and contractors with direct knowledge of alleged U.S. government programs or activities dealing with UAPs going back to 1945 to report what they know.


Comment: The form is a Google form - that's government competence for you. And you are not allowed to include any classified information on it. How exactly are employees of such programs - the very existence of which, let alone program names and details, are classified and protected by ironclad NDAs - supposed to say anything substantial?


"This reporting mechanism that is on the website is for people who think that they have firsthand knowledge of clandestine programs that the government is hiding," Kirkpatrick told reporters on Tuesday, which happened to be Halloween.

By law, AARO can receive any and all data about UAPs from the military and intelligence community including classified national security information, Kirkpatrick said during a news conference.


Comment: Maybe on paper they can. In practice, AARO will take your Google form submission, then perhaps give you a phone call on an unsecured line. They are a clown show, and by all appearances, Kirkpatrick is compromised and running AARO like Project Blue Book 2.0.


These reports will help AARO submit a historical record to Congress next June about alleged U.S. government UAP programs, Kirkpatrick said.

When asked why current and former government employees with direct knowledge of an ultra-secret government UAP program should trust AARO, Kirkpatrick said that his office is the authorized reporting authority for UAPs and anyone who comes forward would be protected under the Whistleblower Protection Act.

Nuke

US Nuclear Regulatory Commission confirms that it takes UFO threats 'seriously' and coordinates with federal partners

nuclear plant
A U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) spokesperson has told Liberation Times, that the agency takes potential threats from Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) "seriously" and "continuously coordinates" on such concerns with federal intelligence and law enforcement partners.

The spokesperson also underlined the distinction of "uncrewed aerial systems" such as drones versus UAP, which may have both prosaic and exotic explanations.

When asked by Liberation Times how seriously the NRC treats reports of UAP over nuclear sites and facilities it oversees, the spokesperson responded:
"The Nuclear Regulatory Commission takes potential threats from any aircraft, uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) or unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) seriously and requires nuclear power plant operators and certain other licensees to report any suspicious activity in the airspace over their facilities.

"The agency continuously coordinates on these and other potential concerns with federal intelligence and law enforcement partners and can take immediate and appropriate action to address any security threats to our licensed facilities."
The spokesperson specifically highlighted to Liberation Times that licensees are required to report any suspicious activity in the airspace above their facilities - licensee meaning any entity granted a general license or specific license to construct or operate a nuclear facility.

Comment: UFOs have always shown a particular interest in nuclear facilities, whether military or civilian - even uranium mines. See Robert Hastings's UFOs and Nukes and Christopher O'Brien's Stalking the Herd.


Jet5

Pentagon's UFO office prepares to release more information on February shootdowns following its latest report

alaska mountain
The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has told Liberation Times that it has provided a full briefing to Congress regarding the February 2023 shootdown of three unidentified objects over North America. Furthermore, the DoD intends to share additional information with the public.

Commenting to Liberation Times, DoD spokesperson, Susan Gough stated:
"We do not have further information to share at this time; those cases have been fully briefed to Congress are being prepared for public release."
However, the DoD could not confirm whether the forthcoming release of information would encompass imagery or footage, as stated by Gough:
"Further information on those cases will be provided once the information is cleared for public release. I cannot estimate when that will be nor whether it will include imagery."
The DoD informed Liberation Times that the three unidentified objects, which were shot down by U.S. fighter jets in February, were featured in the most recent unclassified report from its Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) office, known as the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO).

This development comes in the wake of recent criticism from commentators who questioned the DoD's justifications for withholding event footage. These criticisms arose because the DoD cited the use of sensitive technology as the reason for not releasing the footage, despite the same technology being showcased in recently released footage of a Chinese military intercept.

Comment: There may be more the the story of the February shootdowns. While the Lake Huron and Yukon ones were most likely balloons, there are questions about the Alaska event. The object was fired upon, but it's unclear whether it was successfully "shot down." The recovery effort was supposed to be easy, yet apparently nothing was found - or if it was, nothing has been revealed about its results. Even if this third object was also a balloon, the amount of secrecy that has surrounded the operation is curious.


See also: Read the 'secret' memo for Trudeau on unidentified object shot down over Yukon

For what it's worth, Schumer says they were all balloons: