180 Days, 9 Pages & Millions of Groans Heard Round the World
Well, that was pretty much pointless!
After more run-up media coverage than one could ever imagine or predict on a topic that was once only front-page headline fodder for the shabby tabloids at your favorite grocery store or newsstand, the “Preliminary Assessment of Unidentified Arial Phenomenon” from the Office of the Director of Intelligence (ODNI) landed late Friday afternoon, June 25, 2021. That gasping sound you heard was the millions of collective groans heard round the world as the whole 9 pages (!) of the report – the Unclassified” version – were read.
It took the ODNI office 180 days to produce the congressionally-mandated report. It took most who were expecting at least some more shoddy-looking infrared UAP/UFO videos and maybe some insightful standard case studies to go with them about 18 minutes or less to realize that fix was in. Again.
It’s hard to know where to begin to analyze this brief, non-stellar compilation of bureaucratic-speak: The report had “input from USD (I&S), DIA, FBI, NRO, NGA, NSA, Air Force, Army, Navy, Navy/ONI, DARPA, FAA, NOAA, NGA, ODNI/NIM-Emerging and Disruptive Technology, ODNI/National Counterintelligence and Security Center, and ODNI/National Intelligence Council.” That’s 17 agencies of one stripe or another! Perhaps someone inside one of these orgs will leak the classified version and we may find something of substance without all the subterfuge.
But a couple things in this first report are clear (they did say it was preliminary and more would be coming in another 90 days): It’s full of revealing shortcomings and worse, pronounced historical inaccuracies. But let’s try to look at it, ‘cuz you know, tax dollars at work….
THAT DAMNING OPENING SENTENCE IN THE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
1) “The limited amount of high-quality reporting on unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) hampers our ability to draw firm conclusions about the nature or intent of UAP,” says the opening sentence in the Executive Summary page 3. Hard to swallow. Our government – and major governments across the globe – have been reporting, analyzing and burying UAP/UFO phenomena observations for at least 74 years.
Why did they only look at reports between 2004 and 2021? The report claims they were limited by their “new unique, tailored reporting process,” which raises the question, weren’t other historical records using similar data collection processes deployed to offer a long-range view of what UAP/UFO’s are? But let me answer that: Of course they were.
MORE OF THE SAME
2) On page 4, the office weasel wiggles its way into a rationalization for its inabilities to know what we’re dealing with: “Limited data and inconsistency in reporting are key challenges to evaluating UAP.”
This defensive posture strikes me as grossly irresponsible. If the US government were a publicly held corporation – and in some ways that’s what our democracy occasionally resembles – the C-level leadership and board running this business would all be out on their tails for either failing to know what they are -- or for consistently failing to reveal what they are to “their shareholders” –the American people – for 70 years now!
3) HISTORICALLY INACCURATE & REALLY DISINGENOUS
The ODNI says Air Force data collection has been limited historically to a six-month pilot program in November 2020 to collect UAP data (pg. 7)
This is NONSENSE: The Air Force has been looking at this since the ‘40s with:
· Project SIGN 1947 & Project GRUDGE – 1948
· Project BLUEBOOK – 1952-1969 (that historical study was turned into a TV series, as this New York Times link explains)
· MOREOVER – According to Whitley Strieber, the Pentagon Admitted UFOs were “Not of this World 74 Years Ago,” in a 1947 classified memo from General Nathan Twining -- which was later released under the Freedom of Information Act -- stating that “the phenomenon reported is something real and not visionary or fictitious.”
“Twining went on to describe the ‘extreme rates of climb’ and other characteristics that precisely match the recorded capabilities of the objects in the [recently] released Naval footage.’”
TAKEAWAYS?
1) A TEASE: The report acknowledges that the military counted 144 UFO sightings predominantly occurring in 2019 that couldn’t be verified by any terrestrial explanation.
2) THEY WANT MORE MONEY – LIKE EVERY PUBLIC-FACING GOVERNMENT PROGRAM IN WASHINGTON! On pages 6 & 7 the report states that ODNI needs “more resources” and “more investment” to do its job better.
COMMENT: Maybe they could borrow from the Black Budget, where many so-called UAP/UFO programs are allegedly clandestinely funded).
Whew! this report was so exasperating to read that your chronicler needs to kick back and chill a bit with a classic on-topic tune from The Byrds (and video interpretation) that you will also hopefully enjoy.
