The U.S. intelligence community may finally reveal unidentified flying object (UFO) secrets to Congress this week when it delivers a mandatory report that will be available to the public, CNET reports. Here are some key things to know before the much-anticipated report drops. For years, pilots and other military personnel have been encountering strange things in the sky that have come to be called “unidentified aerial phenomena.” The change from “UFO” to “UAP” is in part a nod to the likelihood that some of the incidents may be explained by technical glitches or environmental phenomena rather than tangible objects. These reports sometimes get back to members of Congress, who then make a push for more investigations and disclosures about those phenomena. Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was particularly dedicated to this cause. In 2007 he helped funnel funds to a secret Pentagon initiative, the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, that ran through at least 2012. In 2017, former head of AATIP Luis Elizondo announced he had left the government and was joining the private To the Stars Academy of Arts and Sciences along with former Blink-182 frontman Tom DeLonge. Elizondo in 2017 leaked three famous videos of military encounters with UAP to the media, and in 2020 the U.S. Navy confirmed the veracity of these clips. It was in the wake of the Navy’s acknowledgement of UAP last year that Florida Sen. Marco Rubio added a section to a funding bill requiring the director of national intelligence to work with the military and intelligence community to submit a report “on unidentified aerial phenomena (also known as ‘anomalous aerial vehicles’), including observed airborne objects that have not been identified.” The report is expected to say that there is no evidence the UAP seen by military personnel are secret advanced American technology or alien spacecraft, but a possible alien explanation cannot be ruled out. That means the intelligence community seems to think that UAP have causes that are some combination of unknown, mundane, or originating with foreign or private entities. While the report is required to be public, it is allowed to have a classified annex. Officials told The New York Times that this addendum does not contain evidence of alien visitation. While no earth-shattering revelations should be expected, the report may include some juicy tidbits and puzzle pieces that help us better understand the UAP mystery. The deadline for the report is June 25, so we could see it any time between now and then.
https://www.cnet.com/news/that-pentagon-ufo-report-arrives-this-week-everything-you-need-to-know/