{"id":791148,"date":"2024-11-13T21:46:03","date_gmt":"2024-11-14T02:46:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=791148"},"modified":"2024-11-13T21:46:03","modified_gmt":"2024-11-14T02:46:03","slug":"congressional-hearing-fuels-fresh-debate-about-ufos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=791148","title":{"rendered":"Congressional Hearing Fuels Fresh Debate About UFOs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>An 11-page document that\u2019s attributed to a Pentagon whistleblower has provided new cases in the controversy over unidentified aerial phenomena \u2014 also known as UAPs, unidentified flying objects or UFOs.<\/p>\n<p>The document, released today in conjunction with a House subcommittee hearing on UAPs, lays out details about what\u2019s said to be a special access program called Immaculate Constellation. It accuses officials in the federal government\u2019s executive branch of a \u201ccriminal conspiracy\u201d that has been managing issues surrounding UAPs and evidence for non-human intelligence \u201cwithout congressional knowledge, oversight or authorization for some time, quite possibly decades.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Over the past few years, the Department of Defense has become more open to discussing UAP reports publicly, while insisting that there have been no substantiated reports of alien visitations. During today\u2019s hearing, lawmakers called on the Pentagon to be more transparent in its investigations.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"more-169302\"\/><\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<p>\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"UFO hearing LIVE: US Congress holds hearing\" width=\"1110\" height=\"624\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MFgXUXeGh6g?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>\u201cIt is clear, from my experience and what I\u2019ve seen, that there is something out there,\u201d said Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn. \u201cThe question is, is it ours? Is it someone else\u2019s? Or is it otherworldly? \u2026 We must know, and anyone who prevents us from gaining access to that information, I would consider that criminality, because we have U.S. personnel who may very well be in harm\u2019s way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The document claims that the Immaculate Constellation program has imagery and other data relating to encounters with a variety of anomalous objects. \u201cFrom 1991 to 2022, the most common UAP shapes reported in this [U.S. government] dataset were spheres\/orbs, discs\/saucers, ovals\/tic-tacs, triangles, boomerang\/arrowhead, and irregular\/organic,\u201d it said. The irregular objects were described as having a \u201cfloating brain\u201d or \u201cjellyfish\u201d appearance.<\/p>\n<p>Michael Shellenberger, an author and journalist who received the document from the purported whistleblower, said he verified the source\u2019s credentials and assured lawmakers that the document was authentic. He also said he\u2019s continuing to gather reports from other sources. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cSince my reporting on this Immaculate Constellation last month, another source came forward,\u201d Shellenberger said. \u201cHe told me that they saw a roughly 13-minute-long, high-definition, full-color video of a white orb UAP coming out of the ocean approximately 20 miles off the coast of Kuwait. It was filmed from a helicopter. Then halfway through the video, the person said, the orb is joined by another orb that briefly comes into the frame from the left before rapidly moving again out of the frame.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Shellenberger said there may be \u201chundreds, maybe thousands\u201d of UAP reports in the Immaculate Constellation database.<\/p>\n<p>Mick West, a retired software engineer who specializes in analyzing UAP reports, was generally skeptical of the claims made during the hearing, which was conducted jointly by two subcommittees under the aegis of the House Oversight Committee. Nevertheless, West was intrigued by the purported whistleblower report \u2014 and said the Pentagon\u2019s All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office, or AARO, should follow up.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe UFO document discussed in congressional testimony today contains descriptions of some interesting-sounding videos,\u201d West said in a posting to the X social-media platform. \u201cIf these exist, I urge @DoD_AARO to make as many of these videos public as possible and share their analysis so we can get some clarity ASAP.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>In addition to Shellenberger, the witnesses at today\u2019s hearing included retired Navy Rear Adm. Tim Gallaudet, who served as the acting administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration during the Trump administration; Luis Elizondo, a former intelligence official who is now an advocate for UAP disclosure; and Mike Gold, a former NASA associate administrator who was a member of NASA\u2019s independent UAP study panel and is now chief growth officer at Redwire.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Witnesses at the UAP hearing included, from left, Tim Gallaudet, Luis Elizondo, Michael Shellenberger and Mike Gold. (Credit: House Oversight Committee via YouTube)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In advance of the hearing, Gallaudet came in for some strong criticism from Sean Kirkpatrick, who was in charge of AARO in 2022-2023 and is now chief technology officer for defense and intelligence programs at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. \u201cMr. Gallaudet is clearly still bitter that I didn\u2019t hire him into AARO when he came looking for a job,\u201d Kirkpatrick said in a statement distributed on X. \u201cHis predisposed tendencies for conspiracies without evidence made him unsuitable for a job that required objectivity and evidence-based reason.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kirkpatrick and others involved in the UAP debate have suggested that the likeliest explanations for anomalous aerial sighting have to do with advanced technologies that are being secretly employed by rival nations, including Russia and China. But questions about potential alien intrusions, secret crash retrievals and exotic technologies repeatedly came up during the hearing.<\/p>\n<p>In response to such questions, Gallaudet said he believed some of the reports about UAPs could be attributed to non-human higher intelligence. Elizondo agreed. \u201cAlthough much of my government work on the UAP subject still remains classified, excessive secrecy has led to grave misdeeds against loyal civil servants, military personnel and the public \u2014 all to hide the fact that we are not alone in the cosmos,\u201d Elizondo said.<\/p>\n<p>In contrast, Gold declined to weigh in definitively on questions about extraterrestrials.  \u201cI just don\u2019t know,\u201d he said. \u201cI think we must be modest in our assumptions that we\u2019re looking for intelligence that could be biological. It might not.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For example, Gold said, some UAPs may be controlled by artificial intelligence. \u201cWe assume that all intelligence would be like us, and every time we look out in the universe, we are humbled relative to what we don\u2019t know, in terms of the forms of intelligence and what it may take,\u201d he said. \u201cl probably can\u2019t answer your question, but I think the ultimate answer is going to surprise us all.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The witnesses and the lawmakers seemed unanimous in their support for greater transparency about UAP sightings. Congress is currently considering legislation that would strengthen current requirements for UAP disclosure and whistleblower protection.<\/p>\n<p>Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., hinted that more information may be forthcoming when Donald Trump returns to the White House. \u201cThis has been bipartisan, bicameral,\u201d Moskowitz said. \u201cAs we get into a new administration, the president-elect has talked about opportunities to declassify information on UAPs, and I hope he lives up to that promise.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"sharedaddy sd-block sd-like jetpack-likes-widget-wrapper jetpack-likes-widget-unloaded\" id=\"like-post-wrapper-24000880-169302-67356225cb1cf\" data-src=\"https:\/\/widgets.wp.com\/likes\/?ver=13.2.3#blog_id=24000880&amp;post_id=169302&amp;origin=www.universetoday.com&amp;obj_id=24000880-169302-67356225cb1cf&amp;n=1\" data-name=\"like-post-frame-24000880-169302-67356225cb1cf\" data-title=\"Like or Reblog\">\n<h3 class=\"sd-title\">Like this:<\/h3>\n<p><span class=\"button\"><span>Like<\/span><\/span> <span class=\"loading\">Loading&#8230;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"sd-text-color\"\/><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.universetoday.com\/169302\/congressional-hearing-fuels-fresh-debate-about-ufos\/?rand=772204\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An 11-page document that\u2019s attributed to a Pentagon whistleblower has provided new cases in the controversy over unidentified aerial phenomena \u2014 also known as UAPs, unidentified flying objects or UFOs.&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":791149,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-791148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-genaero"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=791148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/791149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=791148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=791148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=791148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}