The Year Ahead for Disclosure
Mark Your Calendars
Congress has given the U.S. intelligence agencies until June 25th to get a report together on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena.
Happy New Year to UFO investigators, researchers and activists. It looks like 2021 has hit warp speed when it comes to a significant development in the study of UAP reality.
Fast review: Last June, the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence called for the Director of National Intelligence to put together a report on UAP activity within 180 days of the enactment of the Intelligence Authorization Act. The IAA was part of the omni bill passed by both houses of Congress and signed by the President to get the Covid relief funding out there. Bottom line, the Act has been enacted. The clock is now ticking.
Let’s get specific. The language in the bill (no. 116–233) is startling in its clarity.
The Committee supports the efforts of the Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon Task Force at the Office of Naval Intelligence to standardize collection and reporting on unidentified aerial phenomenon, any links they have to adversarial foreign governments, and the threat they pose to U.S. military assets and installations. However, the Committee remains concerned that there is no unified, comprehensive process within the Federal Government for collecting and analyzing intelligence on unidentified aerial phenomena, despite the potential threat…
Therefore, the Committee directs the DNI, in consultation with the Secretary of Defense and the heads of such other agencies as the Director and Secretary jointly consider relevant, to submit a report within 180 days of the date of enactment of the Act, to the congressional intelligence and armed services committees on unidentified aerial phenomena (also known as ‘‘anomalous aerial vehicles’’), including observed airborne objects that have not been identified.
When this language was first released, part of its shock value was also that it flat out says there is a Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon Task Force (UAPTF) operating within the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI).
What the Senators (lead by Acting Chairman Marco Rubio) didn’t know when they passed this out of their committee last June was that it would fall on President Biden’s watch. And, of course, Rubio is no longer chair in the new Congress when the Democrats control the Senate. The new Chairman will be Senator Mark Warner of Virginia.
New Blood at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence
This means that the current Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe won’t have to worry about it. He was not a bold stroke of independent thought, given the Trump Administration’s record on intelligence, and it’s not a loss.
That distinction now falls to a former Obama administration national security legal counsel and deputy adviser, Avril Haines, who becomes the first woman to oversee the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
Here’s what Biden said when he made the announcement of Haines and the rest of his intelligence appointees.
“I need a team ready on Day One to help me reclaim America’s seat at the head of the table, rally the world to meet the biggest challenges we face, and advance our security, prosperity, and values… We cannot meet the profound challenges of this new moment with old thinking and unchanged habits — or without diversity of background and perspective.”
Of course, he was talking about things like Russia, China, NATO, the EU, Iran, Israel, North Korea and on and on. Still, it reflects Biden’s mind-set as he prepares to take office. He will likely bring the same values to his handling of the UAP issue, particularly given that Kamala Harris sat on the committee that drafted the legislation.
Haines has worked with Biden going back to her tenure as deputy chief counsel to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 2007–2008 while he as its chairman. She worked at the White House starting in 2010 as a legal adviser to the national security adviser. In 2013, she became deputy director for the CIA and two years later she returned to the White House as principal deputy national security adviser — the first time a woman held either of those roles.
Let’s just say this. Avril Haines must already know a good deal about UAP. She also must know that her boss and his #2 have some deep knowledge themselves.
So, she will have to reach out as instructed to Biden’s Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to see what his thoughts are on handling this tricky issue and what he himself may already know. Then there is going to be a four-way discussion at minimum that will include Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Lloyd Austin and Avril Haines.
It gives me some sense of confidence to know that the table for that discussion is going to have two of its four seats reserved for tough, competent, intelligent women. This is a big decision for the world they are going to be faced with.
- Are they going to try to dodge the issue, to muddy the waters, to put the good stuff in the classified addendum and to generally slow the roll on the disclosure of UAP reality?
- Or are they going to use this report and its deadline as a chance to make a big leap forward, to start the discussion by admitting that UAP is real, we don’t make them, and we’re pretty sure that Russia and China don’t make them either?
Of course, it remains in the world of possibility that the Biden Administration will debate this and decide not now, given that they have the coronavirus, the economy and so many other issues on their plate.
More Cover-Up or Steps Toward the Truth?
Based on what the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) has asked for, it could be a whopper of a report. Here’s what the committee expects to hear from the Director of National Intelligence, no later than June 25, 2021.
1. A detailed analysis of unidentified aerial phenomena data and intelligence reporting collected or held by the Office of Naval Intelligence, including data and intelligence reporting held by the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force;
2. A detailed analysis of unidentified phenomena data collected by:
a. geospatial intelligence; b. signals intelligence; c. human intelligence; and d. measurement and signals intelligence;3. A detailed analysis of data of the FBI, which was derived from investigations of intrusions of unidentified aerial phe- nomena data over restricted United States airspace;
4. A detailed description of an interagency process for ensuring timely data collection and centralized analysis of all unidentified aerial phenomena reporting for the Federal Government, regardless of which service or agency acquired the information;
5. Identification of an official accountable for the process described in paragraph Four;
6. Identification of potential aerospace or other threats posed by the unidentified aerial phenomena to national security, and an assessment of whether this unidentified aerial phenomena activity may be attributed to one or more foreign adversaries;
7. Identification of any incidents or patterns that indicate a potential adversary may have achieved breakthrough aerospace capabilities that could put United States strategic or conventional forces at risk;
The legislation goes on to ask for recommendations about increased collection of data, enhanced R&D, etc.
Most importantly, it says the report needs to be submitted in unclassified form, but may include a classified annex.
I know, I know. It’s hard to believe that could actually be true. You need to see it with your own eyes. Here is the directive as contained in the Senate authorization. Seeing it on the official government typeface does make you blink a few times.
If You Have to Ask…
The War Zone has always written clearly and cogently on this subject. They make a spot-on observation:
Perhaps the most interesting, and worrisome, part of this provision is the apparent admission that the Senators in charge of overseeing America’s intelligence-gathering activities do not already have a good understanding of the interagency process for the centralized collection and analysis of data on UAPs from across the federal government, or who might be the top official in charge of that process, if it exists. It’s hard to understand how this could be the case after all this time given the possibility that these encounters could reflect threats to U.S. national security, including directly from America’s potential adversaries.
What Now?
To put a super-fine point on all of this, members of the Senate Intelligence Committee are seeking an unclassified review of UAP reality that is meant to be released to the American people.
Will it be another whitewash like the one put out by the U.S. Air Force’s Project Blue Book before they called it quits in 1969?
Or will it be something different? Something that could start the process in earnest and change history?
In my judgment, the odds are even at this point. More to come…
