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Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey,

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Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum. Here there's a reason why you

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Speaker 1: may be hearing a lot about UFOs lately. Sometime in June,

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Speaker 1: the Pentagon and the Director of National Intelligence will present

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Speaker 1: to Congress an unclassified report about unusual sightings by U

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Speaker 1: S service members of UFOs, that is, unidentified flying objects.

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Speaker 1: National security folks, however, referred to them as unidentified aerial

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Speaker 1: phenomena or u a p s. Apparently there have been

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Speaker 1: a lot of reports of u a p s in

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Speaker 1: recent years. We the general public just haven't heard much

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Speaker 1: about them. Any. Rumblings of flying saucers buzzing in our

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Speaker 1: atmosphere have been vehemently denied by the government for decades,

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Speaker 1: that is, until recently. So what changed. In two thousand seven,

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Speaker 1: the US government created the Aerospace Threat Identification Program or

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Speaker 1: a t i P, a hush hush organization hidden away

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Speaker 1: in the Pentagon. The program was charged with collecting and

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Speaker 1: analyzing information regarding strange aerial objects that had been reported

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Speaker 1: to the Department of Defense by service members through the years.

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Speaker 1: In two thousand eight, lou Alesando joined the effort with

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Speaker 1: twenty years experience running military operations under his belt, he

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Speaker 1: was tapped to lead the program and sharpened its focus

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Speaker 1: on national security. He fielded reports of u AP sightings,

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Speaker 1: doing due diligence to vet them. One tucked away report

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Speaker 1: that caught his eye was that of a strange tic

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Speaker 1: tac shaped object over the Pacific Ocean, reported in November

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Speaker 1: of two thousand four by two former U. S. Navy pilots.

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Speaker 1: A radar from a ship that was part of their

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Speaker 1: training group had detected quote multiple anomalous aerial vehicles in

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Speaker 1: the horizon, descending eighty thousand feet that's twenty four thousand

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Speaker 1: meters in less than a second. That's according to a

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Speaker 1: sixty minutes report earlier dismay. The two pilots were sent

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Speaker 1: out in separate aircraft to investigate, each with a weapons

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Speaker 1: system officer in their back seat. As they approached, they

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Speaker 1: saw an area of roiling water about the size of

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Speaker 1: a seven thirty seven airplane. Hovering above it was this

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Speaker 1: tic tac shaped object, making no predictable movements. The object

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Speaker 1: had no markings, no wings, and no exhaust plumes. When

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Speaker 1: one pilot flew in for a closer look, the object

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Speaker 1: flew off, so fast it seemed to disappear. It was

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Speaker 1: spotted seconds later on radar approximately sixty miles or a

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Speaker 1: hundred kilometers away, And that report was just the tip

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Speaker 1: of the iceberg. There were many more reports by naval

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Speaker 1: aviators who witnessed strange cubes or triangles doing things that

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Speaker 1: no known aircraft were capable of doing, stopping rapidly, turning instantly,

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Speaker 1: and accelerating immediately to speeds of eleven thousand miles per

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Speaker 1: hour that's eighteen thousand kilometers per hour or more. And

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Speaker 1: they were doing these things in restricted air space, often

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Speaker 1: an airspace designated for fighter jet training, such as off

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Speaker 1: the coasts of San Diego, California, Virginia and Jacksonville, Florida.

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Speaker 1: For the article this episode is based on how Stuff Works.

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Speaker 1: Spoke with Alizondo in an email interview, and according to him,

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Speaker 1: the UAP that have been tracked and monitored for decades

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Speaker 1: exhibit what have become referred to as the five observables.

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Speaker 1: These are anti gravity lift, sudden and instantaneous acceleration, hypersonic

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Speaker 1: velocities without any visible signatures, sonic booms, or observable means

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Speaker 1: of propulsion, low observe ability or cloaking and trans medium travel,

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Speaker 1: meaning the ability to operate in extraordinary ways from the

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Speaker 1: vacuum of space to the depths of the ocean without

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Speaker 1: impedance or aerodynamic limitations. It's these characteristics that baffle national

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Speaker 1: security experts the most. Alizondo said, we do not have

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Speaker 1: anything in our arsenal that can perform in these ways,

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Speaker 1: and we have a high degree of confidence that no

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Speaker 1: known terrestrial ally or adversary possesses this technology. Either. Pilots

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Speaker 1: have speculated that the objects were either secret US technology

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Speaker 1: or adversary spy crafts. He said, Remember, we've been observing

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Speaker 1: these performance characteristics for many decades. If a foreign adversary

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Speaker 1: had developed these technologies seventy five years ago and we

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Speaker 1: were still unaware they possessed it, it would be the

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Speaker 1: most extraordinary intelligence failure in the United States history. So

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Speaker 1: does that mean they're from outer space? Rather than jumping

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Speaker 1: to conclusions, Alazando suggests that we open our minds to

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Speaker 1: the possibilities. He said, these vehicles may originate from outer space,

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Speaker 1: inner space, or even the space in between. We could

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Speaker 1: be dealing with an advanced self replicating AI which communicates

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Speaker 1: with itself instantaneously. Across fast distances using a quantum Internet.

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Speaker 1: Perhaps an advanced underwater civilization is native to our planet,

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Speaker 1: and we're now advanced enough to be observing them moving

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Speaker 1: to our oceans, airspace, and upper atmosphere. Year there has

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Speaker 1: been no act of hostility or aggressive action taken by

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Speaker 1: these objects, though Alzando pointed out that any time an

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Speaker 1: advanced vehicle is operating in restricted airspace with impunity, you

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Speaker 1: have to consider the possibility that they could be a

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Speaker 1: threat if they wanted to be. He said, If we

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Speaker 1: want to fully understand what we're observing and to communicate

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Speaker 1: those findings to the public, we need a whole of

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Speaker 1: government approach that is collaborative and transparent. Funding for a

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Speaker 1: a t i P ran out in twelve, but Alzando

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Speaker 1: continued to investigate U a p S sightings until seventeen,

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Speaker 1: when he got fed up with the Pentagon skepticism and quent.

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Speaker 1: Before he left, however, he deep classified three Navy videos

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Speaker 1: of U a p S and then he started to

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Speaker 1: spread the word. Meanwhile, one Christopher Mellen, former Deputy Assistant

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Speaker 1: Secretary of Defense for Intelligence for Presidents Bill Clinton and

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Speaker 1: George W. Bush, but acting as a civilian shared those

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Speaker 1: declassified videos with The New York Times. He had to

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Speaker 1: do it, he told sixty minutes to get the Department

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Speaker 1: of Defense to take this national security issue seriously. Raising

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Speaker 1: public awareness prompted Congress to take notice and the Pentagon

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Speaker 1: to admit the existence of a a T I P.

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Speaker 1: Last August, the Pentagon re enacted the program, changing the

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Speaker 1: name to the u AP Task Force. Service members were

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Speaker 1: finally given the green light to share reports of u

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Speaker 1: AP sightings. When the then Intelligence Commitee Chairman, Senator Marco

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Speaker 1: Rubio of Florida, was briefed on u AP s, he

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Speaker 1: called on the Pentagon and the Director of National Intelligence

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Speaker 1: to present Congress with an unclassified report of the sightings

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Speaker 1: by June, which brings us to today. Alazonda said, Fortunately,

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Speaker 1: both Congress and the d o D are prepared to

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Speaker 1: take the subject seriously, and the remaining pushback against transparency

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Speaker 1: is confined to a very small caudra of individuals whose

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Speaker 1: grasp over the secrecy is quickly weakening. We're hearing enough

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Speaker 1: of an outcry from our men and women in uniform

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Speaker 1: and from the American people, and we have to take

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Speaker 1: that seriously. It's become a liability for the Pentagon to

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Speaker 1: exacerbate a cover up of these facts. So what will

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Speaker 1: the report say? There's tons of data, videos, photos, telemetry

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Speaker 1: signatures collected, and full electromagnetic spectrum analysis that will need

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Speaker 1: to be sifted through in order to provide a complete report.

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Speaker 1: Alsando said, it's quote far too much to be properly

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Speaker 1: coalated within the eight day congressional mandate. I expect that

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Speaker 1: this initial report will draw attention to the reality of UAP,

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Speaker 1: the potential scientific and technological value that exists in better

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Speaker 1: understanding how they operate, and the need for a permanent

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Speaker 1: office in the US government to examine the data we

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Speaker 1: collect in order to present to Congress and the American people.

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Speaker 1: In other words, it may be more of a teaser,

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Speaker 1: with more details to come in the following months and years.

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Speaker 1: Today's episode is based on the article our Pentagon confirmed

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Speaker 1: UFOs a national security threat on how stuff Works dot com,

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Speaker 1: written by Jennifer Walker. Journey brain Stuff is a production

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Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio in partnership with how Stuffworks dot

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Speaker 1: Com and is produced by Tyler Playing four more podcasts

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Speaker 1: my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

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Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,