UFO Intelligence Report Raises New Concerns About Government Transparency
Top lawmakers and analysts on government investigations into what the U.S. government calls Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon or UAPs are flummoxed by its latest attempt at transparency.
This image of an Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) was captured by the U.S. Navy during Naval Exercises off the East Coast of the United States in early 2022. Based on additional information and data from other UAP sightings, the UAP in the image were subsequently reclassified as unmanned aerial systems.
A new report from the intelligence office overseeing UFO investigations has done little to quell growing calls for greater transparency into the government’s handling of what it calls unidentified aerial phenomenon or UAPs.
Several senior members of Congress, including those responsible for ordering the review, almost immediately criticized the dearth of details in the 2022 annual report released Thursday afternoon by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence – the second such document since the government began to acknowledge publicly its analysis of UFO sightings, reported largely by military pilots.
Though they applauded the sharp increase in pilots’ reporting – a sign of a shift away from the stigma that discouraged aviators from acknowledging mysterious aerial encounters – the intelligence service and the Defense Department office that supports it must exercise more transparency in how it studies an issue with such broad interest and relevance, they say.
“We are making important progress in our ongoing efforts to understand these activities and what threat they may pose to America’s national security,” Sen Marco Rubio, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and instrumental in the legislation that instructed intelligence and military offices to study the aerial phenomena and report their findings, said in a statement.
The Florida Republican drew attention to one of the only new, tangible details from the report, which acknowledged the number of unexplained aerial sightings since 2004 is now 510, a significant jump from the 144 mentioned in last year’s document, including 247 new reports since March 2021.
Rubio, and others, criticized the DNI and the Pentagon’s new agency, known as the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office or AARO, for not presenting more information about an issue that matters as much to enthusiasts of the otherworldly as it does to those concerned about potentially dangerous new technologies fielded by earthbound powers.
“More needs to be done across the Defense Department and Intelligence Community to utilize existing sensors to collect and analyze more data on UAPs,” Rubio said. “I am committed to ensuring we get to the truth for the American people.”
“The DNI’s most recent UAP report reinforces what we already know,” Rep. Mike Gallagher of
Wisconsin, a Republican member of the House Intelligence Committee, said in a statement, “that we must figure out what our military aviators are observing in our airspace.”
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