Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey,
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum. Here there's a reason why you
Speaker 1: may be hearing a lot about UFOs lately. Sometime in June,
Speaker 1: the Pentagon and the Director of National Intelligence will present
Speaker 1: to Congress an unclassified report about unusual sightings by U
Speaker 1: S service members of UFOs, that is, unidentified flying objects.
Speaker 1: National security folks, however, referred to them as unidentified aerial
Speaker 1: phenomena or u a p s. Apparently there have been
Speaker 1: a lot of reports of u a p s in
Speaker 1: recent years. We the general public just haven't heard much
Speaker 1: about them. Any. Rumblings of flying saucers buzzing in our
Speaker 1: atmosphere have been vehemently denied by the government for decades,
Speaker 1: that is, until recently. So what changed. In two thousand seven,
Speaker 1: the US government created the Aerospace Threat Identification Program or
Speaker 1: a t i P, a hush hush organization hidden away
Speaker 1: in the Pentagon. The program was charged with collecting and
Speaker 1: analyzing information regarding strange aerial objects that had been reported
Speaker 1: to the Department of Defense by service members through the years.
Speaker 1: In two thousand eight, lou Alesando joined the effort with
Speaker 1: twenty years experience running military operations under his belt, he
Speaker 1: was tapped to lead the program and sharpened its focus
Speaker 1: on national security. He fielded reports of u AP sightings,
Speaker 1: doing due diligence to vet them. One tucked away report
Speaker 1: that caught his eye was that of a strange tic
Speaker 1: tac shaped object over the Pacific Ocean, reported in November
Speaker 1: of two thousand four by two former U. S. Navy pilots.
Speaker 1: A radar from a ship that was part of their
Speaker 1: training group had detected quote multiple anomalous aerial vehicles in
Speaker 1: the horizon, descending eighty thousand feet that's twenty four thousand
Speaker 1: meters in less than a second. That's according to a
Speaker 1: sixty minutes report earlier dismay. The two pilots were sent
Speaker 1: out in separate aircraft to investigate, each with a weapons
Speaker 1: system officer in their back seat. As they approached, they
Speaker 1: saw an area of roiling water about the size of
Speaker 1: a seven thirty seven airplane. Hovering above it was this
Speaker 1: tic tac shaped object, making no predictable movements. The object
Speaker 1: had no markings, no wings, and no exhaust plumes. When
Speaker 1: one pilot flew in for a closer look, the object
Speaker 1: flew off, so fast it seemed to disappear. It was
Speaker 1: spotted seconds later on radar approximately sixty miles or a
Speaker 1: hundred kilometers away, And that report was just the tip
Speaker 1: of the iceberg. There were many more reports by naval
Speaker 1: aviators who witnessed strange cubes or triangles doing things that
Speaker 1: no known aircraft were capable of doing, stopping rapidly, turning instantly,
Speaker 1: and accelerating immediately to speeds of eleven thousand miles per
Speaker 1: hour that's eighteen thousand kilometers per hour or more. And
Speaker 1: they were doing these things in restricted air space, often
Speaker 1: an airspace designated for fighter jet training, such as off
Speaker 1: the coasts of San Diego, California, Virginia and Jacksonville, Florida.
Speaker 1: For the article this episode is based on how Stuff Works.
Speaker 1: Spoke with Alizondo in an email interview, and according to him,
Speaker 1: the UAP that have been tracked and monitored for decades
Speaker 1: exhibit what have become referred to as the five observables.
Speaker 1: These are anti gravity lift, sudden and instantaneous acceleration, hypersonic
Speaker 1: velocities without any visible signatures, sonic booms, or observable means
Speaker 1: of propulsion, low observe ability or cloaking and trans medium travel,
Speaker 1: meaning the ability to operate in extraordinary ways from the
Speaker 1: vacuum of space to the depths of the ocean without
Speaker 1: impedance or aerodynamic limitations. It's these characteristics that baffle national
Speaker 1: security experts the most. Alizondo said, we do not have
Speaker 1: anything in our arsenal that can perform in these ways,
Speaker 1: and we have a high degree of confidence that no
Speaker 1: known terrestrial ally or adversary possesses this technology. Either. Pilots
Speaker 1: have speculated that the objects were either secret US technology
Speaker 1: or adversary spy crafts. He said, Remember, we've been observing
Speaker 1: these performance characteristics for many decades. If a foreign adversary
Speaker 1: had developed these technologies seventy five years ago and we
Speaker 1: were still unaware they possessed it, it would be the
Speaker 1: most extraordinary intelligence failure in the United States history. So
Speaker 1: does that mean they're from outer space? Rather than jumping
Speaker 1: to conclusions, Alazando suggests that we open our minds to
Speaker 1: the possibilities. He said, these vehicles may originate from outer space,
Speaker 1: inner space, or even the space in between. We could
Speaker 1: be dealing with an advanced self replicating AI which communicates
Speaker 1: with itself instantaneously. Across fast distances using a quantum Internet.
Speaker 1: Perhaps an advanced underwater civilization is native to our planet,
Speaker 1: and we're now advanced enough to be observing them moving
Speaker 1: to our oceans, airspace, and upper atmosphere. Year there has
Speaker 1: been no act of hostility or aggressive action taken by
Speaker 1: these objects, though Alzando pointed out that any time an
Speaker 1: advanced vehicle is operating in restricted airspace with impunity, you
Speaker 1: have to consider the possibility that they could be a
Speaker 1: threat if they wanted to be. He said, If we
Speaker 1: want to fully understand what we're observing and to communicate
Speaker 1: those findings to the public, we need a whole of
Speaker 1: government approach that is collaborative and transparent. Funding for a
Speaker 1: a t i P ran out in twelve, but Alzando
Speaker 1: continued to investigate U a p S sightings until seventeen,
Speaker 1: when he got fed up with the Pentagon skepticism and quent.
Speaker 1: Before he left, however, he deep classified three Navy videos
Speaker 1: of U a p S and then he started to
Speaker 1: spread the word. Meanwhile, one Christopher Mellen, former Deputy Assistant
Speaker 1: Secretary of Defense for Intelligence for Presidents Bill Clinton and
Speaker 1: George W. Bush, but acting as a civilian shared those
Speaker 1: declassified videos with The New York Times. He had to
Speaker 1: do it, he told sixty minutes to get the Department
Speaker 1: of Defense to take this national security issue seriously. Raising
Speaker 1: public awareness prompted Congress to take notice and the Pentagon
Speaker 1: to admit the existence of a a T I P.
Speaker 1: Last August, the Pentagon re enacted the program, changing the
Speaker 1: name to the u AP Task Force. Service members were
Speaker 1: finally given the green light to share reports of u
Speaker 1: AP sightings. When the then Intelligence Commitee Chairman, Senator Marco
Speaker 1: Rubio of Florida, was briefed on u AP s, he
Speaker 1: called on the Pentagon and the Director of National Intelligence
Speaker 1: to present Congress with an unclassified report of the sightings
Speaker 1: by June, which brings us to today. Alazonda said, Fortunately,
Speaker 1: both Congress and the d o D are prepared to
Speaker 1: take the subject seriously, and the remaining pushback against transparency
Speaker 1: is confined to a very small caudra of individuals whose
Speaker 1: grasp over the secrecy is quickly weakening. We're hearing enough
Speaker 1: of an outcry from our men and women in uniform
Speaker 1: and from the American people, and we have to take
Speaker 1: that seriously. It's become a liability for the Pentagon to
Speaker 1: exacerbate a cover up of these facts. So what will
Speaker 1: the report say? There's tons of data, videos, photos, telemetry
Speaker 1: signatures collected, and full electromagnetic spectrum analysis that will need
Speaker 1: to be sifted through in order to provide a complete report.
Speaker 1: Alsando said, it's quote far too much to be properly
Speaker 1: coalated within the eight day congressional mandate. I expect that
Speaker 1: this initial report will draw attention to the reality of UAP,
Speaker 1: the potential scientific and technological value that exists in better
Speaker 1: understanding how they operate, and the need for a permanent
Speaker 1: office in the US government to examine the data we
Speaker 1: collect in order to present to Congress and the American people.
Speaker 1: In other words, it may be more of a teaser,
Speaker 1: with more details to come in the following months and years.
Speaker 1: Today's episode is based on the article our Pentagon confirmed
Speaker 1: UFOs a national security threat on how stuff Works dot com,
Speaker 1: written by Jennifer Walker. Journey brain Stuff is a production
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio in partnership with how Stuffworks dot
Speaker 1: Com and is produced by Tyler Playing four more podcasts
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