After a nail-biting few months, the essential findings of the much-anticipated (by some) report from the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) or Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO) is now unofficially out there. Consistent with Liberty Nation reporting on the subject, the conclusions are as expected; not much there. The hype-induced excitement has infected everyone who had the slightest interest in knowing more about the plethora of unexplained objects in the atmosphere.
Legitimate UAP investigators want to see what the Intelligence Community (IC) and Department of Defense (DoD) would add to the list of UAP facts and information. Others expected new insights to fuel their fantastical extraterrestrial mind-musings. Both parties will, no doubt, be let down.
Inconclusive Conclusions
Though the official IC-DoD collaborative report has not been officially released, as a teaser, The New York Times on June 3 published a report on information provided by unnamed “senior administration officials briefed on the findings of the highly anticipated government report.” The sneak preview shows that:
- “American intelligence officials have found no evidence that aerial phenomena witnessed by navy pilots in recent years are alien spacecraft.” Rats, there goes the space aliens theory.
- “…they still cannot explain the unusual movements that have mystified scientist and military.” Well, that sucks. They still won’t tell us what the objects are.
- “The report determines that a vast majority of more than 120 incidents over the past two decades did not originate from any American military or other advanced US government technology.” Uh-oh. There goes the super-secret, faster-than-light, area 51 clandestine, revolutionary, fighter aircraft conspiracy story.
And that, folks, as the briefing suggests, “is about the only conclusive finding in the classified intelligence report.” The early results presented in a classified session to Congress validated Liberty Nation’s view: “People have seen flying objects that they cannot explain. We should study these sightings more thoroughly.”
And now we have the views on the yet-to-be-released unclassified IC-DoD assessment and, well, if you were expecting something meatier, you will be disappointed. Yet, not wishing to be a total buzz-kill, despite the snoozer of the UAP “findings,” there just might, possibly, be some glimmer of hope for those crushingly depressed over the “no space aliens” conclusions.
Writing for Fox News, Thomas Barrabi stoked the fires a bit for the diehards desperate to keep alive the notion of visits from outer space. Barrabi writes: “[T]he document may yield more questions than answers. The officials said that was ‘about the only conclusive finding’ from the report, which does not definitively rule out the possibility that the sightings were alien spacecraft.”
Defense Dept. Side-Step?
[bookpromo align=”right”] Oddly, though, the Defense Department, a collaborator on the report, has been eager to pass all the UAP-generated public interest to the DNI.
Consequently, the public is left wondering how much ownership of the report the Defense Department had or wanted. In a June 1 Pentagon press briefing, John Kirby, the assistant to the Secretary of Defense for public affairs, when asked about the report, dismissed the question on the timing of the release: “It will be DNI who will be making that report, obviously DoD has a role in helping flesh out the information that will be in that report, but as for specific timing I’d refer you to the DNI.”
Kirby explained the relationship between the DoD and the DNO in greater detail in an interview on ABC News, saying:
“We’re providing context and information that we have on these phenomena, and our focus is on, again, on supporting the DNI’s efforts to produce this report…The protection of methodologies is an important part of how the UAP Task Force operates…This is an intelligence-driven effort, and in intelligence matters, you always try to protect the sources and methods used in order to prevent potential adversaries from getting an idea of how we learn things.”
One explanation – and probably the most accurate explanation – for the DoD not taking more public interest in the Senate direction to look at UAPs is that the legislation was, after all, from the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and not the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC). Just as well, for the Pentagon, considering that DoD already has under its aegis the UAP Task Force charged with collecting data on inexplicable atmospheric object sightings – keeping further study alive.
On careful consideration, what else could the UAP report have said? It can’t be denied that a host of civilians and military personnel – on the ground, at sea, and in the air – continue to provide eyewitness accounts of objects flying or hovering or diving into the ocean for which they have no explanation. If there were a plausible, compelling explanation, the questions surrounding UAPs would be moot.
The views expressed are those of the author and not of any other affiliation.
~
Read more from Dave Patterson.