The 2nd Annual UAP Spectacular!
The 2nd Annual UAP Spectacular!
UAPs Over Ukraine (Part 3) - UAPs Discussed in Senate Committee and at NASA - Former DoD UAP Investigator Turns Whistleblower Regarding Craft Recovery Program
[Editorial Note]
1) It has been a year of writing at [G]Press. That was a goal. I intend to keep putting things up in this space, but I also have economic/professional/writing interests that beckon. Feel free to email any questions, comments, concerns, bones-to-pick, or topics you want me to write on. In the meantime, the [G]Press About page has a full-listing of the posts created over last year that were nested within the released issues sorted by category: gpress.substack.com/about.
2) DJT has been criminally indicted again — this time on federal charges by a grand jury in Florida. Read the indictment for yourself by clicking this sentence. When writing at [G]Press about the search warrant execution at the former President’s Florida clubhouse last August, the publicly available information at the time already seemed damning, and the recent indictment has even more — including tapes. A partial transcript in the indictment shows awareness that documents were not declassified while the former President was showing-off documents to people who did not have security clearances:
Country[A] is currently thought to be Iran according to CNN reporting. There are pictures in the indictment taken from devices of Trump staffers that include boxes stacked on ballroom stages, in bathrooms, and spilled out onto a floor. Probably most importantly are the allegations of the former President’s personal involvement in selecting documents and having his valet hide them from his own attorneys who then went on to make false statements to the government. Not an ideal client from an attorney perspective, and that’s before getting into the wacky and potentially self-incriminating social media posts. Speaking of understatements, this from Senator Romney of Utah: “Mr. Trump brought these charges upon himself by not only taking classified documents, but by refusing to simply return them when given numerous opportunities to do so.” Anyhow, arraignment is Tuesday.
Wishing you all the best,
Garrett
2nd Annual UAP Spectacular!
The 2nd Annual UAP Spectacular! was originally meant to come out this May and feature the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) Director Sean Kirkpatrick speaking with the Senate Armed Services Committee. The second bit was updates coming from the Ukrainian meteor-turned-UAP-researchers featured in last year’s UAP issue, and the culture review tie-in was going to be China’s sci-fi star, Liu Cixin, and his Three Body Problem trilogy that I read a couple months ago. However, the week I intended to write/finalize the post I got a GI bug and became very ill for a week. Seven pounds lighter with a trip to urgent care later and I was on the mend. Regardless, the timing may have been fortuitous because Director Kirkpatrick also spoke at NASA’s Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) Independent Study meeting at the end of May. Also, this past week The Debrief published a story about an ongoing matter regarding a reputable Department of Defense whistleblower alleging Congress has been illegally kept in the dark regarding crash and material recovery from “non-human intelligence” (or NHI).
UAP’s Over Kyiv (UAP’s Over Ukraine Part 3) - March
Last year, [G]Press looked at a study that came out of Ukraine regarding UAPs, which apparently drew inspiration from NASA’s recent independent study into UAPs. It was met with some criticism from an astronomer at Harvard University named Avi Loeb, who put out a five page paper (including cover sheet and source page) stating:
“…the distance of these dark objects must have been incorrectly overestimated by an order of magnitude, or else their bow shock in the Earth’s atmosphere would have generated a bright fireball with an easily detectable optical luminosity.”
Loeb offers equations on atmospheric friction to claim that ‘phantom’ classified UAPs were actually smaller, slower, and closer to Earth’s surface. Therefore, Loeb suggests they were probably artillery projectiles. The fastest UAPs that the Ukrainian team observed, classified as ‘cosmics,’ were not mentioned in the Loeb paper. Perhaps their luminosity satisfies Loeb’s search for a fireball? Apart from Loeb’s suggestion that calculations for phantoms were off, there is no competing or contradictory experimental data (attempt at replication). The Loeb response, while broaching the topic of extraterrestrial speculation, does not account for explanations that include more exotic forms of propulsion that might manipulate space-time while conforming to known physics like an Alcubierre drive.
This March, Boris Zhilyaev (lead of the Ukrainian UAP paper), released a new UAPs over Kyiv paper detailing new observations. Appearing to show some awareness of how the published observations from the prior paper have been received, in the top-line summary there is language that this is not something to be casually dismissed with back-of-the-napkin math:
For UAP observations, we used a meteor station installed in Kyiv. We have identified three groups of objects (1) a group of bright spinning objects, (2) a group of bright structured objects and (3) a group of dark flying objects. Monitoring of the daytime sky led to the detection of bright and dark objects, moving at a speed from about 1M to 16M and sizes from about 20 to 100 meters. The detection of these objects is an experimental fact. Estimates of their characteristics follow from observational data. The authors do not interpret these objects. [Emphasis added]
The Ms in 1M and 16M stand for mach (speed of sound). With a speed of about 12,180 mph at close to 30,000 feet altitude, the fastest recent UAP observations are an order of magnitude less fast than the fastest observations from the first paper last year. In the most recent paper, the object described as moving at 16M was also reported to be the size of a football field (“102 ± 5 meters”) with the observations below:
These recent observations rely on one observatory in Kyiv. This was cited as a shortcoming for some observations in the Loeb paper. Where there is a second observation involved for a UAP, Loeb suggests it may be a satellite. It sounds like attempting consistent triangulation observations with a second site would address the main points of criticism regarding at least the particular size, range, and speed. Another area of concern was the possibility of insect interference. Zhilyaev and co.’s most recent paper shows observations made at different times of year and appear to show consistency regardless of when insect populations surge.
The other strange characteristics concerning UAP surface albedo and luminosity have been observed over time. The Zhilyaev paper remarks that at least the phantoms are capable of being frequently observed:
It is important to know how often phantoms can be observed. Practice shows that a set of observations lasting a few hours allows us to detect one object in a 3 x 3 degree area. For an area of 90 x 90 degrees, one can expect objects a thousand times more. Statistically, a phantom can be observed in the sky every few seconds. However, the brightness of the sky is highly dependent both on the distance of the object from the sun and atmospheric conditions. The real estimate can be an order of magnitude smaller.
With such a claimed high rate, and relatively inexpensive technology used in the observations, one might expect there to have been attempts at replication of these observations if nothing more than to disprove. I mean it sounds like something graduate students should attempt at a land grant university somewhere away from a major flight path. Instead it gets this equations based response from someone working at an establishment like Harvard University.
Interestingly, nearly a page of the five-page Loeb critique paper speculates about extraterrestrial intelligences sending out probe mother ships that send out smaller exploration probes. That kind of UAP origin speculation was not a claim being made or discussed in the Zhilyaev/Ukrainian paper. It turns out Loeb has other papers, including an interest in an interstellar near-earth object called ‘Oumuamua that Loeb thinks may be artificial and use its lightsail shape to rove around star systems:
Considering an artificial origin, one possibility is that ‘Oumuamua is a lightsail, floating in interstellar space as a debris from an advanced technological equipment (Loeb 2018). Lightsails with similar dimensions have been designed and constructed by our own civilization, including the IKAROS project and the Starshot Initiative.
…
Alternatively, a more exotic scenario is that ‘Oumuamua may be a fully operational probe sent intentionally to Earth vicinity by an alien civilization. Based on the PAN-STARRS1 survey characteristics, and assuming natural origins following random trajectories, Do et al. (2018) derived that the interstellar number density of ‘Oumuamua-like objects should be extremely high, ∼ 2 × 1015 pc−3, equivalent to ∼ 1015 ejected planetisimals per star, and a factor of 100 to 108 larger than predicted by theoretical models (Moro-Martin et al. 2009). This discrepancy is readily solved if ‘Oumuamua does not follow a random trajectory but is rather a targeted probe.
Loeb is also co-author of a draft released last March that is largely identical to the Ukraine UAP critique paper, but is called Physical Constraints on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena. Loeb’s co-author for that paper is the Director of the United States Department of Defense’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick.
DoD’s AARO Publicly Shares Most Common UAP’s Reported: Orb/Round/Sphere - April
On April 19th, the Director of the U.S. Government’s All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, sat for an hour hearing with the Senate Armed Services Committee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities chaired by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York. The Senator reminded those in attendance of a primary purpose of AARO:
“…as an open door for witnesses of UAP events or participants in government activities related to UAPs to come forward securely and disclose what they know without fear of retribution for any possible violations of previously signed nondisclosure agreements.”
Senate members and AARO representatives sat opposite long wooden tables in the cozy Russell Senate Office conference room. After Senator Gillibrand asked whether AARO played any part in identifying balloons [and whatnot] blown to smithereens earlier this year the AARO Director began his prepared statement.1
Once the AARO Director thanked Congress for its support and very pointedly said, “In our research AARO has found no credible evidence thus far of extraterrestrial activity, off-world technology, or objects that defy the known laws of physics.” Kirkpatrick went on to say AARO was currently handling about 650 UAP cases sourced primarily from and using Department of Defense or Intelligence Community personnel and technology. He stated that AARO is often able to identify the UAPs, which then make the UAPs turn into SEPs, or “someone else’s problem.” Meaning, the report goes to a relevant intelligence community or defense/energy research department.
The second slide of AARO’s presentation gave UAP Reporting Trends from 1996 to 2023. Kirkpatrick pointed out the collection bias for the frequency of geographic location and altitude are more likely a result of simply having sensor systems/training ranges/bases in a geographic area along with the altitudes being the most commonly used and visible to air traffic. That being said, there appear to be some consistencies with regards to reported UAP characteristics and morphology.
About half (52%) of reported UAPs were said to be orb, round, or spherical shaped. Average reported size was 1-4 meters (about 4-16 feet). Most typical reported colors were white, silver, and/or translucent. Although “tictac” shape UAPs made a splash in media with the 2017 release of the Navy pilot videos, tictacs only accounted for 1% of reported UAPs, and strange “lights” just 5%. Another notable category was “Ambiguous Sensor Contact” at 22%, which includes radar and thermal imaging.
Video from two events were shown to the Committee. One event demonstrated how an airliner’s heat signature can obscure its actual shape and generate a false-positive UAP report. The video for the other event came from an MQ-9 Reaper drone over Iraq in 2022, and shows an unidentified metallic orb flying between the drone and the ground. The metallic orb UAP depicted had “characteristics and behavior consistent with other ‘metallic orb’ observations in the region.”
Reporting within government, as well as public-facing data collection was also discussed. A main theme throughout the meeting was that AARO will attempt to conduct its investigations in a scientific manner and be restrained in making grandiose claims without sufficient evidence in hand. At the same time, Director Kirkpatrick made it known that a lot of what is fielded from the public is not of good quality, and many satellites do not have the sensor/camera capability to pick up such small objects.
As if to emphasize this point of public interest and contribution — after the meeting concluded and the online broadcast microphones were shutoff — the court reporting transcript service kept going. For the curious, an “Audience Member” identifying themselves as a former marine approaches Senator Gillibrand and starts talking about driving all the way from Ohio stating “I have on my phone three different examples of glowing dots flying in circles or going over Sandia Labs and Kirkland[sic] Air Force Base.” The Senator tells him since he’s already here to give his video and envelope of cave drawing photos (depicting what he finds to be similar type objects) to Director Kirkpatrick, and Senator Gillibrand tells him “eventually we will have a website where you could just submit it and not have to go 600 miles.”
NASA’s UAP Independent Study With Special Guest: AARO’s Director Kirkpatrick - May
On Wednesday, May 31st, NASA’s UAP Independent Study held its own open committee meeting, and Kirkpatrick was a featured guest. As Kirkpatrick put it, the “efforts are complimentary.”
Kirkpatrick presented near-identical slides from the Senate Armed Services Committee. The slides had been updated with recently acquired Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) data that helped expand the pool of active AARO UAP cases from 650 to about 800. Percentage of reports involving orbs dropped slightly from 52% to 47% due to the inclusion of FAA and other recent data.
Kirkpatrick fielded questions from the NASA experts, including one about the “metallic orb” seen flying over Iraq in 2022 captured by the MQ-9 Reaper drone. One question was whether the orb might be an apparition caused by sensor malfunction or be otherwise nonphysical. Kirkpatrick directly responded that the orb “is a real object — absolutely.” The video of the orb in the AARO presentation “is a typical example of the thing that we see most of” and are seen “all over the world and we see them make very interesting maneuvers.” Some maneuvers Kirkpatrick found interesting were UAPs moving at twice the speed of sound against the wind with no visible means of propulsion.
The NASA conversation orbited around their lack of access to high-quality data. Therefore, their independent study had not really progressed outside of planning potential data collection methods that they could agree were high-quality and rigorous. Although crowd sourcing data was suggested for UAPs, it was pointed out that “imagery from an i-phone is generally not helpful unless you are right up on what you are looking at.” With regards to current sensor systems used by NASA, similar to the Department of Defense, most sensors are not calibrated for UAPs. The most common types of UAPs categorized by AARO are already smaller than most sensors are calibrated for, and they have no visible payload for weapons or other equipment, which contributes to them being less of an immediate concern for defense platforms.
Former DoD UAP Investigator Turns Whistleblower - June
As reported in the Debrief by Leslie Kean and Ralph Blumenthal:
A former intelligence official turned whistleblower has given Congress and the Intelligence Community Inspector General extensive classified information about deeply covert programs that he says possess retrieved intact and partially intact craft of non-human origin.
The information, he says, has been illegally withheld from Congress, and he filed a complaint alleging that he suffered illegal retaliation for his confidential disclosures, reported here for the first time.
Other intelligence officials, both active and retired, with knowledge of these programs through their work in various agencies, have independently provided similar, corroborating information, both on and off the record.
The whistleblower, David Charles Grusch, 36, a decorated former combat officer in Afghanistan, is a veteran of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). He served as the reconnaissance office’s representative to the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force from 2019-2021. From late 2021 to July 2022, he was the NGA’s co-lead for UAP analysis and its representative to the task force.
The cable news channel NewsNation, ran an exlcusive hour interview with Grusch that aired yesterday (June 11). Grusch did not go into detail on the classified material that has been provided to the Inspector General or Congress past what he has been cleared by the Pentagon at this point to speak on. Although Grusch claims to have seen interesting photographs and documents — and spoken to many people in the military and intelligence community — he has not himself directly seen any recovered craft. That appeared to be largely by design as Grusch states that the “UAP Task force was refused access to a broad crash retrieval program.”
Due to power disparities between Title 10 and Title 50 authorities, the UAP Task force (different from but similar to AARO as being Title 10 rather than 50) was allegedly stone-walled.
From the NewsNation interview I came away with these interesting points from Grusch:
Elements within government are not being forthright with the government’s own UAP investigation programs.
Claims Italy recovered a partially intact UAP in the 1930s from Magenta, Italy, which the United States recovered during WWII in part thanks to information from the Vatican.
Private corporations were allowed access to UAP material in order to study it and create asymmetric advantages in warfare, and sell related breakthrough technology back to the US government at a profit.
The term of art is Non-Human Intelligence, or NHI, rather than something like extraterrestrial because origin was considered unconfirmed. Some UAPs may be coming from a “different spatial dimension” rather than from a distant solar system.
Grusch claims to have been initially skeptical regarding NHI related crash-retrieval, and at first regarded it as likely disinformation or a cover story for other classified projects.
UAP craft itself can be biologically hazardous to humans.
Described one type of UAP as being as large as a football field.
There has been an extensive disinformation campaign aimed at the American public by elements of the United States government concerning the UAP topic. Bits of falsehood often accompany true information with the point to later make true information hard to distinguish from the false, or stigmatize the information source. Claims that the 1994 Roswell Crash Report released to the public is an example of a government sponsored public disinformation campaign.
Rival nations have their own retrieval programs.
Regarding current AARO Director Sean Kirkpatrick, Grusch said that he has known him for eight years. Grusch thinks AARO either has or will run into the same stonewalling that the UAP Task Force did, and ultimately come short of accessing information relevant to its purpose. Grusch brought up some of his concerns to Kirkpatrick, but said that Kirkpatrick had “not followed up with me.”
Disinformation Caveat-Post
The 2014 documentary Mirage Men, tells the story of a U.S. government sponsored deception operation directed at a U.S. citizen named Paul Bennewitz. Bennewitz owned a scientific instrument manufacturing company and lived in a house with a view of Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico. At night near the airfield he would sometimes see lights take off vertically, fly fast towards a mountainous area, and then rapidly descend vertically. Bennewitz eventually starts using his own sensitive scientific sensors and starts picking up emissions from the Air Force base, and thought the timing of certain signals were related to what he had seen prior, and that it may be from elsewhere. After reaching out to Kirtland Air Force base he piques their interest because he was essentially spying on the base.
In short, government actors got to work sowing the seeds of disinformation along with kernels of truth to get Bennewitz even more attached to an increasingly elaborate idea of extraterrestrial craft being loaned to humans. Eventually the Air Force ceases the interactions with Bennewitz, and Bennewitz’s handler informs him that he had been strung along as part of an authorized counter-intelligence operation. However, Bennewitz finds himself psychologically unwell and unable to escape the shell deception that had been built for him. In a twist, Richard Doty, the handler, states that at a later date he himself began getting briefings regarding non-human intelligence and advanced technology that he regarded as fantastical. Doty then began questioning whether he in turn was being made a target for disinformation due to his proximity to highly classified projects. In the documentary, Doty states that it was also not just the Air Force involved in the Bennewitz disinformation campaign, but other agencies in the government as well.
Apart from the workplace retaliation aspects of Grusch’s complaint, the concern is knowing how much is fact or fiction planted somewhere by government entities and/or private contractors. Even though in this day and age many, including Grusch, appear to be aware of this potential, and the Inspector General found the complaint urgent and credible, it is still something to keep in the back of ones mind.
Poem for 2023.06.12
Vertical rebar
Designated tagging wall
Right-angle pathways
Out-and-About Photo for 2023.06.12
Ladybug traversing a sunflower stem.
