Activist Publishes Redacted Version of Classified Military UFO Report (vice.com) 96
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: Last June, the Department of Defense released a long-awaited and much-hyped document called "Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena," detailing the government's knowledge of UFOs and its programs trying to detect and catalog them. Many UFOlogists hoped that the "UFO report" would be a watershed moment in the field, showing that the government was taking UFOs seriously and, perhaps, explaining what the government thought they were. Unfortunately, the nine-page report was pretty underwhelming; for the most part it revealed things we already knew, and read primarily like a plea from the DoD for more funding. Tantalizingly, we were told that members of Congress received a classified briefing with more information that would likely never be released to the public.
John Greenewald, the government transparency virtuoso behind the Black Vault, however, has a gift for us today: A redacted version of the classified report, obtained by filing a mandatory declassification review. This version of the report is longer and much more interesting -- detailing, for example, the most "common shapes" of UFOs spotted by the military. Certain sections of the classified report, such as one called "And a Handful of UAP Appear to Demonstrate Advanced Technology," have far more detail on specific incidents that the Department of Defense cannot explain and that are not mentioned in the public report, including seemingly two different incidents witnessed by multiple pilots and officers in the Navy. A section called "UAP Probably Lack a Single Explanation" seemingly attempts to go into greater depth exploring what those explanations could be, and also has an extra redacted paragraph about what the DoD believes could be attributed to "Foreign Adversary Systems."
Most interestingly, redacted figures, images, and diagrams in the classified reports explain what the DoD believes to be the most "common shapes" of UFOs, as well as "less common/irregular shapes." These sections are completely omitted in the public report and are unfortunately redacted in the version of the report obtained by Greenewald. The classified report also explains that the FBI has investigated and will continue to investigate UFOs in an attempt to ascertain the causes of the phenomena; a redacted section seems to explain which instances it has investigated. "Given the national security implications associated with potential threats posed by UAP operating in close proximity to sensitive military activities, installations, critical infrastructure, or other national security sites, the FBI is positioned to use its investigative capabilities and authorities to support deliberate DoD and interagency efforts to determine attribution," the report reads.
John Greenewald, the government transparency virtuoso behind the Black Vault, however, has a gift for us today: A redacted version of the classified report, obtained by filing a mandatory declassification review. This version of the report is longer and much more interesting -- detailing, for example, the most "common shapes" of UFOs spotted by the military. Certain sections of the classified report, such as one called "And a Handful of UAP Appear to Demonstrate Advanced Technology," have far more detail on specific incidents that the Department of Defense cannot explain and that are not mentioned in the public report, including seemingly two different incidents witnessed by multiple pilots and officers in the Navy. A section called "UAP Probably Lack a Single Explanation" seemingly attempts to go into greater depth exploring what those explanations could be, and also has an extra redacted paragraph about what the DoD believes could be attributed to "Foreign Adversary Systems."
Most interestingly, redacted figures, images, and diagrams in the classified reports explain what the DoD believes to be the most "common shapes" of UFOs, as well as "less common/irregular shapes." These sections are completely omitted in the public report and are unfortunately redacted in the version of the report obtained by Greenewald. The classified report also explains that the FBI has investigated and will continue to investigate UFOs in an attempt to ascertain the causes of the phenomena; a redacted section seems to explain which instances it has investigated. "Given the national security implications associated with potential threats posed by UAP operating in close proximity to sensitive military activities, installations, critical infrastructure, or other national security sites, the FBI is positioned to use its investigative capabilities and authorities to support deliberate DoD and interagency efforts to determine attribution," the report reads.
This fills me with confidence (Score:3)
that our military has its priorities straight and can protect the national interest.
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/ sarcasm.
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Re: This fills me with confidence (Score:2)
That is the key, lots of slightly credible and also different reports. Many can be explained away, but some remain unidentified and unexplained.
Reports have called them benign even though unknown, because so far all have caused no known damage.
Conspiracy folks tend to focus on Little Green Men style aliens, and sure that is an improbable source. One that I find still "out there" but slightly more probable is the theory of time travel, possibly as a future planetary defense. Who knows but maybe the ancient
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Time travellers? Please. We all know they're Earth Defense Forces from parallel universes.
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You were in the Army Air Force in 1945. Let's guess you were 20 years old at the time...and that's optimistic given that the Army would had to have inducted and trained you in 2 years. It is now 2022, so that makes you 2022 - (1945 - 20) = 97 years old. And here you are on slashdot. While not totally outside the realm of possibility, I have my doubts.
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He's also a time traveller, idiot.
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What I need is a non-time-traveling machine, so I can stay in Saturday forever.
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D'oh!
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Congrats on your rich and interesting life journey, and congrats on "owning" a Slashdot troll at 96yrs old. I hope to be as engaged with the world as you are should I make it as far.
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Some people come to sites like Slashdot just to start arguments or generally be negative. "Owning" them is to stylishly and conclusively prove them wrong. If you take the high ground of being reasonable and polite in doing it, all the better.
The person who challenged you may not really be a 'troll' (what they said was troll-ish, though) and you may not have been trying to slap them down, but the effect was the same.
Your bird art is really lovely! Great energy and terrific confidence in your lines. (I'm not
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Re: This fills me with confidence (Score:2)
Wow !
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It's kinda hilarious how people think technical things are only of interest to people like 14 and under. They can't imagine that "old" people have a life or any thoughts.
Hint: This entirely a failure of your own way of thinking - nothing to do with actual people of any particular age.
P.S. Are YOU really 14? Or just 12? Let's have the real answer now.
P.P.S. Making this doubly hilarious is the fact that slashdot itself is now over 25 years old - and wasn't established at the very beginning of the internet
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But this world today wherein the whole world is acting irrationally on the established scientific conclusions that global warming is rapidly progressing towards making the planet uninhabitable in a relatively short time
You mean where the whole world is irrationally pretending the problem will just go away? It's hard to tell what the intent of your ramble is.
None of this is reasonably believable nor even slightly acceptable.
It's all totally believable, and even trivially explainable. Which part are you having trouble with?
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That some find it acceptable is most frightening.
Two kinds of people do. One type thinks it's all made up, that God made this world for them and that therefore it's going to keep sustaining them. The other type thinks God wants them to bring about the end times. There's one common thread here...
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The Day After Roswell, by Col. Phillip J. Corso (Ret.)
If not a smokescreen, exactly why the military considers this to be in the national interest. An interesting read nonetheless.
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The Day After Roswell, by Col. Phillip J. Corso (Ret.)
You mean "Walter Mitty meets the man from Mars"? (wow, that reference is older than I am). The only reason I can see why that was allowed to be published is that it was useful to muddy the waters.
Re:This fills me with confidence (Score:4, Insightful)
They are putting something like 0.0001% of the defense budget towards investigating unexplained flying things that COULD be enemy drones, spy planes or other objects they don't want near military installations.
It's the crackpots outside the military that think "aliens!!!11!!one!!eleven" when the word "UFO" or "UAP" appears.
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I'd say it's up their with the New Age super soldier program they had in the 70s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Or the CIA's attempt to bridge the psychic gap with the Soviet Union.
https://www.cia.gov/readingroo... [cia.gov]
https://www.theblackvault.com/... [theblackvault.com]
Please note before saying conspiracy theory that first link is direct to the CIA, and yes it was a conspiracy, to waste taxpayer monies.
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It's the same basic idea: They realize it's a crackpot idea, but if there's even a tiny shred of truth to it, it would be irresponsible to NOT pursue it.
For example, even if you laugh about psychics, in the 70s and 80s there was enough serious academic interest in it to fall into the "most likely bullshit, but if the fringe is right, we can't let the Soviets figure it out first" category.
There's also a lot of research into new weapon ideas, most of which never go anywhere. It's essentially the same thing -
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And, of course, the people who
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If they really were super advanced weapons you would think that whoever build them would not be allowing them anywhere near the US military. They would want to keep them secret, away from any cameras.
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Any advanced technology can be used to make or at least improve a weapon. If aliens are here they must have much better tech than we do, and that technology has weapons research ramifications. So even if they were just surveillance drones, they'd still be weapons to us. Or weapons delivery systems.
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If they really were super advanced weapons
Nobody says they are. Maybe they're just the next generation of stealth tech, and whatever you might lose if they fall into US hands is less than what you hope to gain from spying on THEIR latest military tech?
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Denying there existence is denying reality - maybe you're the crackpot, living in your own little reality where UAP's don't exist..
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UAPs absolutely do exist in my reality.
What they are is UNexplained things. It's the aliens-aliens-aliens!!11!! society where UAPs don't exist, because you guys think that you have them explained. ;-)
Almost certainly true (Score:3)
"UAP Probably Lack a Single Explanation"
This is almost certainly true. And yet the urge by some people to jump to the conclusion that "it's aliens" is startling.
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Well of course there are multiple explanations.
The variety of alien species from unrelated planets will obviously have very different models of flying saucers, each with distinct shapes, lighting and propulsion systems.
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You are driving me crazy.
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Once I was scrolling through some UFO documentaries on the streaming box when my son walked by and remarked, "Don't do it. All it's going to do is make you mad."
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They are from the future.
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PROOF STAR TREK IS FAKE! (Score:2)
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The capabilities observed in these UAP/UFO/whatever are so far beyond anywhere the published science from any nation on Earth
Which UFO are you talking about in particular? A lot of them are just lens flares.
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The Nimitz encounter? Are you talking about this one?
https://www.history.com/videos... [history.com]
I see nothing in there that is beyond human capabilities.
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In other words - if something does things physical objects can't, it probably isn't a physical object.
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I was scrolling through some UFO documentaries on the streaming box when my son walked by and remarked, "Don't do it. All it's going to do is make you mad."
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I was scrolling through some UFO documentaries on the streaming box when my son walked by and remarked, "Don't do it. All it's going to do is make you mad."
Your son might have been partially right. You have posted this statement more than once already. So my question, is excessive compulsive disorder considered madness? I don't think it quite elevates to that level. I'll let you know when I have more time to think about it. Right now I need to get back to my spacetime induction interplanetary warp drive. Its running a little hot right now and needs some tweaks on the cryogenic control module.
Adventures in misreading (Score:2)
I first read the headline as Activision publishing the report, and I had to wonder why a video game company had it in the first place.
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Activision was the publisher for Quake, a decade or so ago...
Where do you THINK they got their inspiration from? :)
hold up - never be released??? (Score:2)
Tantalizingly, we were told that members of Congress received a classified briefing with more information that would likely never be released to the public
Nope. Sorry, but that is not acceptable in any form. You can put a reasonably delayed release upon it, but you absolutely cannot say that the public isn't ever able to see these reports. Obviously I'm voicing my own opinion here, rather than legal fact, but honestly this should be very obvious to any citizen. If you're willing to let your government simply bold face lie to you ad infinitum, then wtf is the point? Honestly. You might as well just hand them the keys to everything in your personal life right n
Re: hold up - never be released??? (Score:2)
because they clearly have your best interest in mind Of course they do. I mean, otherwise we wouldn't vote for them. Right?
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A Conspiracy!!! Damn, you caught us, now we'll have to figure out how put our 535 members and ll their aides on a new Conspiracy that won't leak so easily. Good work!
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All that is required is for people to be selfish, greedy, and lazy and EVERY conscious human has those traits. I'd bet on that over the certainty of death and taxes anyday.
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I can't see any justification for it being classified at all.
How is national security jeopardized by publishing the most common shape of UFOs?
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Welcome to the world of classification. In the current setup, declassification isn't automatic. The classification itself has a time limit, but there's no process that automatically publishes the document at the end of its classification period. You have to file a request to get the document published.
I'm not surprised this document is classified. It describes UAP detections by military sensors. The capability of those sensors is classified; revealing the full detail in these detection reports would mean re
This CHR(app) again (Score:2)
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There has never been a single evidence of aliens.
What are you talking about? The previous president complained about them on a daily basis!
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We've found the alien, guys!!!!
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80 percent of all human efforts are a waste of time and you focus such great ire on this. What's the matter, were you parents kidnapped by UFO believers when you were a child?
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> There has never been a single evidence of aliens.
Incorrect. [hulu.com] (The UFO Phenomenon documentary)
predictable values of classified info (Score:2)
page 9 of the PDF, among the alphabet soup of government agencies, one appears to be classified... it would obviously be the CIA...
Blurry cameras (Score:4, Insightful)
Why is it that UFO hunters haven't upgraded their cameras since the 1950s? Or at least learned how to focus the lens.
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Why is it that UFO hunters haven't upgraded their cameras since the 1950s? Or at least learned how to focus the lens.
Although it obviously doesn't help that most people don't walk around with a tripod, or that no UFOs so far conveniently announce that they are coming, so that a good picture or video can be set-up in advance, or that the digital cameras used by the average person don't do well in the typical low-light conditions of most UFO sightings, or that auto-focus systems used in those cameras don't do well under those conditions, either, there are a few notable exceptions, including a pretty spectacular video from 2
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You are linking to sites where viable explanations are known to exist, or the photos show clear evidence of fakery, or at the very least lack of credulity.
I posted a few links where I saw some uncommonly-clear photos and videos of purported UFOs. One of those sites had dozens if examples.
I made no claims of veracity. In fact, I specifically said "no comment" about the site with the most examples.
Meanwhile, you give some bullshit, hand-waving allegations; without a single example.
I think it is you that comes here lacking evidence.
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They have. Any clear footage makes identifying the object relatively easy, so you'll never see clear UFO footage. It's only the blurry footage that's hard to identify, which is what makes it UFO footage.
I'm not impressed (Score:3)
Some of these sightings will be from hostile nations. In fact, you'd only need one to be. If a single hostile nation has the capacity to send a manned vehicle or UAV across military sites with the sorts of sensors now available (LiDAR, for example, or if you include changes in mass as being of intelligence interest, the sorts of quantum clocks now in use) then those nations have a fantastically detailed understanding of those sites. Probably not good news with China seemingly taking the pressure from NATO as a reason to be sympathetic to Russia.
Some will be natural phenomena (ball lightning, undetected large meteorites, etc), which would imply that science in America is grotesquely underfunded and that universities aren't being held to a sufficiently high standard of teaching. We should know a hell of a lot more than we do, and those who graduate should understand a hell of a lot more of what is understood, but neither is true because Profit.
It is extremely unlikely, at best, that any of them are of extraterrestrial origin. There are good reasons for thinking that this would simply not be viable for any technology and that if aliens did have the technology to travel such distances, they also have the technology to not be detected and to also have the technology to not need to travel the intervening distance to/from targets of interest - an important consideration as it means that none of the UFOs travelling to or from places have the technology an alien civilization would need to be there to begin with, so are much less likely to be alien.
Further, at that point, they should also have the technology to learn everything needed remotely. After all, if you can build a starship that can travel 100 light-years whilst carrying enough large shuttles to account for all unexplained observations of flying saucers and flying cigar-shaped objects, you aught to be able to build one or more space platforms on which you've telescopes able to resolve fine details at a distance of 100 light-years at a wide range of frequencies. It would seem likely that the latter problem will be solved long before the former, you can use a platform on many targets over the same time it would take to merely scout one site in any detail, and all without letting anyone know.
I also imagine UAVs would be a lot more popular for any physical visits - lower costs, no life-support, no irritating inertial issues with having crew turned into clingfilm each time you suddenly change direction, that sort of thing. You'd only need manned visits for things that AIs and robotics couldn't do, but even now that's a dwindling list. And, of course, you only need robotics for things that remote sensing from your home world couldn't do -- and things that you can't persuade the locals to do for you (as per Sagan's Contact and Hoyle's A For Andromeda/Ossian's Ride, where building any technology is all outsourced to the natives).
All I'm seeing is a military that is incapable of defending its airspace preferring to classify failures beyond the reaches of oversight, and if there are aliens physically present, they're obviously too bloody stupid to pose any kind of threat.
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If a single hostile nation has the capacity to send a manned vehicle or UAV across military sites with the sorts of sensors now available (LiDAR, for example, or if you include changes in mass as being of intelligence interest, the sorts of quantum clocks now in use) then those nations have a fantastically detailed understanding of those sites.
Back in the 80s a spy satellite could read the headline on a newspaper lying on the ground on a clear day. Every nation we're reasonably worried about can be assumed to have higher-resolution photos than that of every interesting site in the country. They don't even need drone overflight.
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For something on the surface, we can assume you're absolutely correct on that. Are any of the possible extensions to this likely? Not really, but I'll list the ones I consider to be sufficiently different from what could be gleaned otherwise. I will not offer probabilities, I don't measure numbers that small.
https://core.ac.uk/download/pd... [core.ac.uk]
With LiDAR, you can find roads and trails that are hidden in the undergrowth, so presumably can also see hidden vehicles/buildings. Not sure how effective it would be at
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If you're going to try to sense stuff in buildings then your best bet is probably backscatter x-ray. I'm not sure how small you could feasibly make that, the mobile examples I've seen pictures of have been truck mounted. Detailed underground sensing at high resolution pretty much requires ground contact or the effective equivalent AFAIK, although using long-wave radio you can literally do low resolution underground mapping from space. Presumably that could be jammed using active means, however.
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Agreed on both. Medium resolution (shorter wavelengths than you could use from space) would be possible from the air and it's easier to replace the batteries if you're putting in a decent amount of power. Again, questions of added value versus added risk.
The size estimates for UFOs tend to indicate the 30-40 foot region, which would be about the size of a truck. So it's just about doable within the claims.
Leaping to conclusions (Score:2)
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When ball lightning shoots through your field and the next morning you find dead cows, some with unexplained burns, you jump to conclusions.
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When ball lightning shoots through your field and the next morning you find dead cows, some with unexplained burns, you jump to conclusions.
Yes: the cows have been dabbling in things bovines were not mean to know!
UFO's ??? Are they real??? (Score:1)
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Either show us or move on. I, for one am tired of the reports and fuzzy pics, etc...
We are only going to be on this Earth for a limited amount of time. This has been a curious subject for all my life up to this point and as of today, no announcement of aliens has come. I wanted resolution on this subject before I die and it does not look like this will happen. I have already distanced myself from such talk and discussion of this subject over the past several years as I do not think the government will announce anything of substance, just more denials.. Time to lay this to rest...
Unrealistic Expectations (Score:2)
Full disclosure of unidentified phenomena would essentially provide an annotated history of our surveillance and detection capabilities. This is simply never going to happen---at least not within the current political landscape.
An anomaly is impossible to analyze effectively without context such as location, time, storage media, and capture method.
Artifacts are common to all imaging technologies, and you cannot prove/disprove such effects without a detailed understanding of the operating environment.
So, the
“Demonstrate Advanced Technology” (Score:2)
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Aliens again? (Score:1)