To The Stars Academy of Arts & ScienceThe Pentagon has finally admitted it still investigates reports of UFOs or, as they call them, ‘unidentified aerial phenomena’.
In a recent statement, a spokesperson for the Department of Defense said a secret government initiative, called the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, ‘did pursue research and investigation into unidentified aerial phenomena’.
The spokesperson said the program shut down in 2012, though the DoD acknowledged it still investigates reports of sightings of UFOs.
Christopher Sherwood, spokesperson for the DoD, told the NY Post:
The Department of Defense is always concerned about maintaining positive identification of all aircraft in our operating environment, as well as identifying any foreign capability that may be a threat to the homeland.
The department will continue to investigate, through normal procedures, reports of unidentified aircraft encountered by US military aviators in order to ensure defense of the homeland and protection against strategic surprise by our nation’s adversaries.
According to Nick Pope, who investigated UFOs for the British government during the 1990s, the comments from DoD were a ‘bombshell revelation’.
GettyPope, a ‘leading expert on the unexplained and conspiracy theories’,said:
Previous official statements were ambiguous and left the door open to the possibility that AATIP was simply concerned with next-generation aviation threats from aircraft, missiles and drones — as skeptics claimed.
This new admission makes it clear that they really did study what the public would call ‘UFOs,’. It also shows the British influence, because UAP was the term we used in the Ministry of Defence to get away from the pop culture baggage that came with the term ‘UFO’.
John Greenewald Jr. – who runs a website called The Black Vault, detailing declassified government documents on UFOs and similar subjects – called the DoD’s admission ‘unprecedented’ in its openness.
Greenewald said:
I’m shocked they said it that way, and the reason is, is they’ve seemingly worked very hard not to say that.
So I think that’s a pretty powerful statement because now we have actual evidence — official evidence — that said, ‘Yes, AATIP did deal with UAP cases, phenomena, videos, photos, whatever.’
This video was captured off the east cost of America by the US Navy. It shows jets tracking an alleged UFO:
Greenewald hopes the Pentagon will release more information about the initiative, either voluntarily or by freedom of information requests, he added: ‘but at least we’re one step closer to the truth’.
In 2017, former Pentagon official Luis Elizondo admitted the existence of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, which was a reported $22 million government operation which studied UFOs.
Senator Harry Reid, from Nevada, where Area 51 is located, took credit for arranging the annual funding for the program.
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Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.