What Can We Expect From the Pentagon’s UFO Report?
NY Magazine – By Matt Stieb – June 07, 2021
One of the many curiosities packed into the $2.3 billion omnibus spending and coronavirus-relief package passed by Congress in December was a stipulation requiring the Department of Defense and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to deliver an unclassified report on unidentified flying objects to Congress within six months, compiling what the government knows about about UFOs rocketing around over American airspace.
The report — which comes after a slow, four-year drip of reporting and government admissions on UFO sightings — could be delivered to Congress any day now. Regardless of what’s in it, the release will be the most direct and substantive U.S. government account of what officials call unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) ever made public. Below is a guide for those who want to believe — or at least understand what to expect from the Pentagon’s unprecedented act of transparency.
What does an early look at the report reveal?
On June 3, the New York Times reported that senior administration officials who were briefed on the UAP report had found no evidence that the objects seen by Navy pilots over the past decade are not of this Earth. Nevertheless, the Times states intelligence officials “still cannot explain the unusual movements that have mystified scientists and the military.”
According to the Times, the report also finds that the “vast majority” of 120 incidents analyzed did not involve U.S. military or government technology, which appears to “eliminate the possibility that Navy pilots who reported seeing unexplained aircraft might have encountered programs the government meant to keep secret.” Unfortunately for those hoping that the report will reveal a bounty of new information, the ruling out of U.S. technology “is about the only conclusive finding in the classified intelligence report.” A senior official briefed on the intelligence told the Times “without hesitation” that U.S. officials knew the technology was not American.
What could the report contain?
The legislation passed in December 2020 stipulates that the report must include “detailed analysis of unidentified aerial phenomena data and intelligence” collected by the Office of Naval Intelligence, the FBI, and the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force. (This is a program the Department of Defense created last summer to “detect, analyze and catalog UAPs that could potentially pose a threat to U.S. national security.”) It goes on to call for “a detailed description of an interagency process” for how such data will be collected and analyzed going forward, and recommendations for further UFO research and funding.
The report will likely provide details on several UFO sightings by Navy pilots that were reported in the New York Times in 2017, and later declassified by the Pentagon. While the pilots were shocked by the contours of the aircraft — often referred to as Tic-Tac or cigar-shaped — most alarming were the high velocities and immediate stops, with no apparent propulsion systems identified.
Further details on the report’s contents are scant. In March, former director of national intelligence John Ratcliffe offered some hints in a Fox News interview, saying it would describe events from “all over the world,” and that “there are a lot more sightings than have been made public.” As for what constitutes a sighting, Ratcliffe said, “we’re talking about objects that have been seen by Navy or Air Force pilots or have been picked up by satellite imagery that frankly engage in actions that are difficult to explain.”
When exactly will the report be made public?
The legislation President Trump signed on December 27 said intelligence officials should submit their report within 180 days, which would fall in late June. But as the Washington Post reported, it may not arrive on time:
Two factors might delay the report’s release: Agencies have missed similar congressional reporting deadlines in the past; and the provision is not technically binding, as the language was included in the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on the bill, not the bill itself.
“In other words, it isn’t statute, but the agencies/departments generally treat report language as bill language,” said one senior Senate aide familiar with the legislation.
Since the Senate Intelligence Committee called for an unclassified analysis, the report should eventually be available for all Americans to see. (A representative for committee chairman Mark Warner’s office could not provide an answer on how long the delay might be between the report’s delivery to the Committee and its release to the general public.) However, the legislation states that the report “may include a classified annex,” which could frustrate amateur UFO enthusiasts.
PS The final report will come out by June 25, 2021.
Posted by Teri Perticone
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