Pentagon’s Release of UFO Videos a Big Deal for Believers in Extraterrestrial Life

Article by CBC Radio                            May 1, 2020                           (cbc.ca)

• On April 27th, the U.S. Department of Defense released three short UFO/UAP videos recorded in 2004 and 2015. Those same videos were posted online since 2017 by Tom DeLonge’s ‘To The Stars Academy of Arts & Sciences’. The DoD declassified the clips to “clear up any misconceptions” about whether the footage was real and “whether or not there is more to the videos.”

• Former British Defence Ministry UFO investigator Nick Pope says that “This new revelation, I think, takes us to some very interesting territory and at least lays the groundwork for serious adult conversation about this that goes beyond Sci-Fi memes.” For believers in extraterrestrial life, the Pentagon’s acknowledgement is a big deal. “After years of what they see as government denial, they think that this is a prelude to disclosure,” said Pope. “… the moment when the government formally acknowledges an extraterrestrial presence.”

• While the Pentagon offered no information about what’s actually seen in the three clips, some believe the pilots’ incredulous reactions to what they’re seeing indicates something bizarre. “The U.S. Navy top guns are not easily impressed in terms of things like speed and maneuverability,” Pope said. “So when they get excited, it tells you there’s something a little bit unusual about this, to say the least.” Whatever the videos show, it “doesn’t matter in a sense,” says Pope. “The important point is this subject has now come out of the fringe and into the mainstream.”

• Mick West, author of Escaping the Rabbit Hole: How to Debunk Conspiracy Theories Using Facts, Logic, and Respect, points out that the Navy essentially acknowledged the UAP videos back in September 2019. Says West, “These videos have been out for two years and the Navy has never really said that these are not real videos from Navy planes.”

• West isn’t fooled by UFO theories. He explains that the video of a rotating, potato-like object – indeed, “a whole fleet of them” as one Navy aviator exclaims in the Gimbal video, is simply “the heat signature of the jet engine” as it “flares up in the infrared [camera].” “It’s like if you shone a flashlight into a camera,” says West who is a licensed pilot, “you don’t see the flashlight itself, you just see a bright glare around it.” The rotation is nothing but a moving part in the camera’s lens. “[P]ilots will naturally see things in the sky that they can’t identify.”

• Although there may be logical explanations for the objects pictured in the videos, West says they may be kept confidential for national security reasons, no matter how benign. “The Navy probably has a very good idea of what types of things these are — that they’re drones or balloons or aircraft or whatever they are — but they’re not going to tell you about it because that’s part of a classified investigation,” he said.

• The Department of Defense said the objects in the video remain “characterized as ‘unidentified.'” Pope agrees that the government likely has the required intelligence to shed more clarity on what’s in the videos. West acknowledges that even when offered alternate explanations (ie: “drones or balloons or aircraft or whatever”), die-hard UFO believers won’t give up hope that the videos show proof of extraterrestrial life. West sees the UFO crowd’s interest as benign, so long as it veers into anti-government conspiracy that could prevent them from trusting important information, like health guidelines.

• That curiosity, Pope argues, allows humankind to ponder bigger, more philosophical questions. “What if there are other civilizations out there that will have profound implications for almost every aspect of human society: politics, religion, science, economics, philosophy?” “Let’s have that conversation, says Pope. “It would be interesting and it would be fun.”

• [Editor’s Note]   Well, there it is folks. Mick West has provided irrefutable proof … that he’s a highly educated idiot.

The Pentagon’s official release of footage that appears to show unidentified flying objects sets the stage for an “adult conversation” about a once fringe topic, a former British defence ministry investigator argues.

“This new revelation, I think, takes us to some very interesting territory and at least lays the groundwork for serious adult conversation about this that goes beyond Sci-Fi memes,” said Nick Pope, former head of the British government’s UFO research project.

On Monday, the U.S. Department of Defense released three short videos, recorded in 2004 and 2015, depicting what they call “unidentified aerial phenomena.”

Those same videos have been available online since 2017 when To The Stars Academy of Arts & Sciences, a company founded by former Blink-182 musician Tom DeLonge, posted them online.

In a release, the department says it declassified the clips to “clear up any misconceptions” about whether the footage was real and “whether or not there is more to the videos.”

For believers in extraterrestrial life, the Pentagon’s acknowledgement is a big deal, Pope says.

“After years of what they see as government denial, they think that this is a prelude to disclosure, the moment when the government formally acknowledges an extraterrestrial presence,” he told The Current’s Matt Galloway.

While Pope is far more cautious in his assessment of the videos’ contents — he is “unsure” of what they depict — he says whatever is shown “doesn’t matter in a sense.”

“The important point is this subject has now come out of the fringe and into the mainstream.”

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