Navy Says All UFO Videos Classified, Releasing Them 'Will Harm National Security' (vice.com) 111
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: The U.S. Navy says that releasing any additional UFO videos would "harm national security" and told a government transparency website that all of the government's UFO videos are classified information. In a Freedom of Information Act request response, the Navy told government transparency site The Black Vault that any public dissemination of new UFO videos "will harm national security as it may provide adversaries valuable information regarding Department of Defense/Navy operations, vulnerabilities, and/or capabilities. No portions of the videos can be segregated for release."
The Black Vault was seeking all videos "with the designation of 'unidentified aerial phenomena.'" This is an interesting response from the Navy because, often, military agencies will issue a so-called GLOMAR response, where they neither confirm nor deny that the records (in this case videos) exist, and refuse to say anything more. In this response, the Navy is admitting that it has more videos, and also gives a rationale for releasing three previous UFO videos.
"While three UAP videos were released in the past, the facts specific to those three videos are unique in that those videos were initially released via unofficial channels before official release," it said. "Those events were discussed extensively in the public domain; in fact, major news outlets conducted specials on these events. Given the amount of information in the public domain regarding these encounters, it was possible to release the files without further damage to national security."
The Black Vault was seeking all videos "with the designation of 'unidentified aerial phenomena.'" This is an interesting response from the Navy because, often, military agencies will issue a so-called GLOMAR response, where they neither confirm nor deny that the records (in this case videos) exist, and refuse to say anything more. In this response, the Navy is admitting that it has more videos, and also gives a rationale for releasing three previous UFO videos.
"While three UAP videos were released in the past, the facts specific to those three videos are unique in that those videos were initially released via unofficial channels before official release," it said. "Those events were discussed extensively in the public domain; in fact, major news outlets conducted specials on these events. Given the amount of information in the public domain regarding these encounters, it was possible to release the files without further damage to national security."
The real reason is probably ... (Score:1, Troll)
... about saving face. Anything that makes the military look vulnerable would cause people to lose confidence in the military propaganda.
National security my ass.
Re:The real reason is probably ... (Score:5, Interesting)
The reason is they're probably other US agency drones.
> remember ufos =/= extraterestials
For many, I think the most likely explanation are drones (or missiles) from other agencies.
Remember, the US alone has [17 independent Intelligence Agencies - only half of whom are under DoD](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Intelligence_Community). Most (if not all) have their own well funded classified drone programs with their own subcontractors.
If a classified drone belongs to any of:
* CIA
* CGI (coast guard intel under DHS)
* OICI (a DoE agency overseeing nukes)
* TFI (Treasury Department's terrorist agency)
* ONSI (Department of Justice's National Security Intelligence agency)
* I&A (Department of Homeland Security's Intel arm)
it would be a UFO to the DoD.
Because the way security clearances work, any given DoD budget requestor dude would have no "need to know" about the competing agencies programs. So all he would know is that it's Unidentified, it Flys, and it's an Object.... ... and that he needs a bigger budget to catch up.
Re: The real reason is probably ... (Score:3)
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If it was aliens we would've known already
If exposure means that someone we know to have been in a position to know has publicly stated that some UFOs are of extraterrestrial origin, then that's happened already. More than once.
I reminds me of an article on here some years back that made the claim that no conspiracy theories could possibly be true because if they were, they'd have been exposed already. It completely overlooked the simple fact that if we know about the conspiracy, then it's already been exposed.
It's the flip side to the credulous
Re: The real reason is probably ... (Score:5, Interesting)
Another probable reason is that it would reveal the capabilities of our planes, specifically the range of the cameras, the resolution, the color spectrum, refresh rate, ability to track, etc...
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I came here to say the same thing. If all the contact information is from the sensors on the intercept planes and on-board sensors from the ships, it might not be possible to release any data without showing exactly how detailed our sensors are.
Imagine the state patrol have a speed gun that tracks a car's speed, plus takes a photo of the car's license plate, the face of the driver for facial recognition, identifies the make, model, color, and unique accessories on the vehicle, and links into the state's ve
Re: The real reason is probably ... (Score:2)
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Re: The real reason is probably ... (Score:2)
Only on mobile. I learned recently that AC posting is still available on desktop browsers.
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Only on mobile. I learned recently that AC posting is still available on desktop browsers.
They probably couldn't figure out how to disable it, since Slashcode is written in old perl :)
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It's not available for me, and hasn't been for at least a year. Perhaps it's due to tracking-blocking features on my desktop?
Re: The real reason is probably ... (Score:2)
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Also tactics, logistics, vehicle capabilities (which you partially covered), potentially weapons systems, the list goes on. I've worked on classified projects and I get why we can't disclose some stuff, even if the public is completely aware of some of them, Let's just say a popular US military helicopter (which I last worked on in 2012) - I mean, we all know its loadout, range and a bunch of other things (sorry, I forget what's public and what's classified), but what do you know of its head's up display an
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Some of it has been aliens and I already know that already. Lots of people know that already but they're either sworn to secrecy by military authority or slandered as crackpots or both.
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What would we do if all those private scientists started finding evidence of them?
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They stay far away from anyone the public would actually listen to. They can time-travel as well, and they're not very competent about it but one trick they know how to do fairly well is undo any mistakes that actually critically expose them. One thing they've learned that regularly exposes them is making the mistake of contacting ethical scientists.
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So instead they only land in moonshineland and contact crackpots from hicksville.
A devilish, perfect plan.
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You joke, but if you rationally evaluate their technological capabilities (vast but not godlike, with a couple minor exceptions with regards to stealth and transport tech) and their intellectual capabilities (average to low at best) then you'd realize that people living out in the middle of nowhere, drunk on moonshine or whatever, are exactly the types of people most easy to prey on, and that's exactly why we see most of the abduction and eye-witness accounts from those regions, from those types of people.
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A civilization that is advanced enough for interstellar travel that actually wants to dominate a civilization that isn't will do so if they so please. The early colonists engaged with the natives and traded with them, and if they didn't want to trade, they just eliminated them. This is what would be expected from such a civilization. Barter with the local chieftain for resources and if they refuse, get rid of them and take what you want.
Actually, such a civilization, if out for conquest, would exactly abduc
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I said this before, and this is really important, so I'll say it again: THEY WERE ALREADY HERE. And there are a lot more of us now.
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... and they don't come for conquest. They come for sex tourism.
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Dude, you really have a problem with your rape fantasies. I'm outta here, if you need me, I'll be over in the shower.
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Oddly, the funniest explanation.
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If it was aliens we would've known already.
If it was aliens they would've already put us under intergalactic quarantine to avoid cultural contamination ... from us to them.
Re: The real reason is probably ... (Score:3)
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Dots Re: The real reason is probably ... (Score:1)
If the fidelity is so amazing, why are all the pictures of dots?
Do you realize the fidelity required to accurately capture a dot so it doesn't have "the jaggies" when you zoom in 1000x?
If it's more like a dot with small protrusions, it takes a very accurate camera to get the protrusions to show accurately and precisely.
No wonder the government wants to keep their high-tech cameras under wraps.
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Yeah, right. And using that logic the US should instantly release full technical details of all its secret military projects in order to scare foreign powers.
You really have zero understanding of human nature.
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Who said anything about trust? I'm just telling it the way it is.
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Re: The real reason is probably ... (Score:2)
If it wasnt for NATO Putin would have reinvaded half of eastern europe by now so I'd re-evaluate your cliched pacifist beliefs if I were you. Your ideology assumes there'll never be a psychopath in charge of weapon of mass destruction. Good luck with that.
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Its more an enthusiam for not being killed by a madman with weapons. Being armed is the best form of defense. No doubt in 1939 you'd have been telling france and the UK not to bother to fight Hitler.
People like you make me nauseous. You hide your cowardice beneath an ideology.
Keep the enemy guessing (Score:1)
The fact that US naval aviation has such huge superiority should be widely disseminated to ensure that no foreign power would dare to attack the USA in fear of instant frightful reprisal.
Ever met a world-class poker player who routinely laid all his cards on the table in the early rounds? Didn't think so.
As long as you can make the enemy think you almost certainly can wipe the floor with them if they attack you, you don't need to shout your capabilities from the mountain-tops. Nor should you.
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It's called "Keep them guessing."
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Yeah, they're probably more worried that someone will notice the tracking cameras in the F-18 are potato quality.
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Knowing what someone's capabilities are is the first step to defeating them (by inventing something that your enemy's capabilities don't work against, or by re-engineering that capability for yourself, now that you know it's possible). This has been known since at least the Roman times, and probably long before that.
So no, you don't tell the enemy everything you can do, until you're in a battle with them--and even then you don't *tell* them, you just use it against them. There are lots of examples from WW
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The reason is they're probably other US agency drones.
This story is whack because the Pentagon has already released some footage [militarytimes.com]. Claiming that all UFO videos are/must be classified is obvious horseshit, because they have already declassified some of them. We know, because we've seen them. So we can file that claim from the Navy under "obvious lie".
Your interpretation is also whack because of the videos we saw, MOST of them were trivially explainable as a sensor or lens artifact. The best explanation, i.e. the one that suits the available facts, is that they a
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because they have already declassified some of them
The ones they know about or have an explanation for. If they don't know what they are or which agency they belong to, they might not even know that they aren't supposed to talk about them.
But since they're already obviously lying to us
That would be counter productive. If these turn out to be DEA drug interdiction drones (for example), the Navy would look pretty stupid or incompetent claiming that they were lens flares. Your equipment is shit and now how can we trust you to defend us.
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No, what I'm talking about is the video footage they declassified where they say they don't know what it is, but it's obvious it's an artifact. We discussed it here when the crap was released. Once upon a time there would have been a related links section that would have had mostly a bunch of barely related shit, but probably would also have had a link to some relevant stories, maybe even that one. Probably not, though. It's too bad tagging never has really worked here, because I don't see what I want among
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Did you even read the article? It addresses this very question.
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You've seen the documentary on that, right? Iron Sky.
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Yea well, you could be more right than you are willing to believe. The actual threat could be much closer; the proverbial knife could be at these military officials' throats already. It is possible that the threat is clear and present but secrecy is also just going to make things worse. We need to know what's going on but we need to be prepared for the possibility that we already lost the first battle.
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Revealing capabilities of the U.S. Navy to the Chinese, Russians, and Iranians is not a good idea.
And the U.S. Military has already admitted it doesn't have the faintest of fuzzies on what they are and have admitted they have no defense for objects committing unspeakable acts against modern physics.
So I guess you should go back to winding up the propeller on your beanie.
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objects committing unspeakable acts against modern physics
Unspeakable by whom?
The aliens almost certainly have words for these acts, and the physiology necessary to enunciate those words clearly, assuming they "speak" at all.
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Anything that makes the military look vulnerable
So, a Vietnamese rice farmer?
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(probably military and/or surveilance) hardware, and not all of the people who have seen the
videos have adequate security clearance to know which ones are sensitive. Releasing the
ones that don't show anything sensitive, would focus attention on the other ones, among the
people who sent in the videos or did the initial sorting to weed out the obvious junk, or whatever.
Remember, this is coming from a government that t
Tipping their hand (Score:2)
So either they are US Government devices or the videos show US Government devices attempting to engage with them that would reveal US capabilities beyond what is currently known or the lack of those capabilities.
None of the above (Score:5, Insightful)
Russian or Chinese drones, or balloons, or flares, designed to test US interdiction response times and radar technology.
How well a country's radar system works is one of the most important pieces of information for an opposing air force. You design aircraft, missiles and attack strategies around that information. If you can get it by sending up a weather balloon, or sacrificing a few drones, you'd do it without thinking. It's low-risk and high value information.
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From sig: My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
Nice. Any interest in connecting it to the internet? It would be cool to have it up and running a minimalistic web server, just to say you did.
Data General Nova III (Score:2)
I've only fired it up a few times. It was originally paired with a logic analyzer, so I think that's what it is designed for. It has a couple of cards I couldn't find any information about, so I'm assuming that's what they are for. I have a hard drive interface card for it, too, but I'm sure the insanely old HD standard wouldn't connect to anything even remotely usable today.
When I reorganize my collection this winter maybe I'll find a spot to work on it. It's not mainframe-large, but it gobbles up a lot of
Thanks Re:None of the above (Score:1)
That guy's list of videos looks like a rabbit hole that will consume me for the next few weeks if I let it.
I haven't watched the follow-on videos, but it would be cool if he somehow managed to connect it to the internet.
https://www.youtube.com/c/AkBK... [youtube.com]
They took our jerbs (Score:1)
Sorry this is the looney bin conspiracy theorist discussion thread right? Cause THEY TOOK OUR JERBS
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You're gonna laugh when you find out they actually did take some jobs. Mostly they're here to rape and secondarily to do some highly unscientific social experimentation but they have actually also entered the work force in disguise in some places.
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The social experimentation is done on the orders of the Galactic Council of Scientific Social Experimentation, and it has a strict bylaw proscribing impersonating a test subject.
When are you nutters gonna get the facts?
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Now that's an outrage! Take away their visa, we have plenty of people very capable of doing that work already here!
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Anal Probes aren't necessary rape. Sometimes they're needed for research!
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Anal Probes aren't necessary rape. Sometimes they're needed for research!
That's what my proctologist said.
Funny thing about him, he says he's from a small town Kansas, he speaks with a rural Kansas accent, but he doesn't know much about that part of the state. Things that make you go "hmmm...."
Yes, it will harm the national security (Score:2)
..of Beta Orionis.
Videos show our capabilities (Score:5, Insightful)
How clean is the camera's image? How well does it track? What is its field of view? Resolution? These are all useful bits of info for foreign militaries.
Not to mention how the pilot makes the plane react.
Of course there's alien life in this huge universe. It's probably not here or anywhere close, though. This place is fucking huge.
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The sensor artifacts are the real kicker. The bugs in those ASIC chips can't just be updated away, and even if they do, lots of allies will still have the old chips, so it would be horrible for potential enemies to know about the sensor artifacts. What if they made a missile so it could mimic the artifacts?!
That's a lot scarier than space aliens.
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those sensors truly are awesome.. I wish private pilots could have them to avoid midair collisions (though they are a bit overkill probably)
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No doubt.
While a brand new fully loaded Cessna 172 is around the better part of a million dollars (yes, they go for anywhere between $500k-$750k new), those sensors can easily cost way more than that. After all, you're looking at a jet costing $75M or so.
The used fleet can go anywhere from $20,000 to $300k or so depending on how new and what level of equipment you want. Renovating it can easily add another $100k+.
But that's for people wanting to spend money. If you have a plane set
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The capabilities of private sector collision detection gear is probably similar, other than the hardening, since the objects you're avoiding are regular speed.
But a lot of people don't want the expense. And a lot of pilots hate it, because in congested airspace it gives them warnings. Sometimes those warning startle them, and they spend the next 15 years telling the story while proclaiming themselves to be too macho to need that pencil-necked-engineer safety shit ("that doesn't work anyway.")
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> How clean is the camera's image?
Gaussian blur
> How well does it track?
Shake filter
> What is its field of view?
Crop
> Resolution?
Downres.
The idea that they can't even release a limited still doesn't pass the sniff test.
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And with everything edited, people like you will complain that the government is hiding the truth.
I wish (Score:2)
is it because of the naval space platforms? (Score:1)
whatever happened to that guy anyway?
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He was found gazing at his belly button.
That is what you meant by "naval", right?
The reason is obvious (Score:2)
They're scared of the Jewish Space Laser.
That makes a lot of sense. (Score:5, Insightful)
The fact that they are unidentified, means that they were at the limit of what the technology used was capable of - if not, then they would have been identified for what they actually were. So releasing them gives precise information on the capabilities of whatever captured the information.
That is not including ones that could actually be images of some top secret development project, of other parts of the military, allies, or others.
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There's a huge amount of "Unidentified but Known" ones. Those are the ones they're not releasing, because someone called them and said "You're not going to identify them, but we know what they are, now stop."
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the thing is many of these objects are only "unidentified" as a matter of national security. Drones from myriad agencies with DoD and the Federal government. The Navy WILL not identify, for example, a DHS or CIA drone. Thus it is an unidentified flying object, even if the Navy has a PRETTY DARN GOOD IDEA exactly what it is.
Trump (Score:2)
Does anyone have Trump's phone number? I bet he has some of those documents still stored away somewhere in his house. We just need to play up his machismo, and he'll be sure to share!
Translation: (Score:2)
If you don't know - you can't know
If you know you know, you know and we said so you know but now we won't say.
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Yeah, yeah, I know.
OT: sig should go first on this one (Score:1)
Your post makes more sense with your sig first:
Sig: We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Post: Yeah, yeah, I know.
Makes a lot of sense to me. (Score:2)
Releasing the videos would reveal information about the camera used to record the video and whatever the camera was attached to at the time it recorded the video (drone, fighter jet, ship, whatever) and that could give the bad guys information they don't have.
Also if the video contains footage of a US asset in some way interacting with the subject of the video releasing it would provide information about the US assets depicted in the video.
Plus if there is even the slightest evidence to suggest that whateve
Project Aurora, etc (Score:2)
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> I expect that these may advanced unmanned American drones, perhaps the mythical project Aurora. The less imagery leaks out, the better.
If so the DoD lied to Congress under oath.
In a real Republic they would be jailed for doing so. Nothing will happen either way, of course, as long as the Lockheed checks keep clearing on the PAC's accounts.
Pretty amazing. (Score:2)
I mean, it's only been some seventy or so years and they've improved from ships that swung back and forth like an ill-adjusted ceiling fan to the sleek and ultra stable versions they fly today.
Simply amazing what contact with a more primitive civilization light years away can do to improve your own tech.
Reading the high ranked comments (Score:1)
it seems to raise the question as to how many Military Industrial Complex (MIC) personnel are frequenting Slashdot,
What seems to go over the heads of those comments being ranked high is the claim of such advanced technology being beyond our military defenses.
Instead a focus on MIC defenses against lesser tech. Are the occupants of the UFO here to eat us or not? The point is, In the event, they are not here to harm any humans and can disarm nuclear weapons, as has been claimed they have done,
geeez, Tell me i
It's not aliens (Score:2)
It's just technology. America spends trillions on military spending. If they DON'T have Stark Technologies' predator-camouflage anti-gravity battle drones that move at mach 1000 THAT would be surprising.
No Democracy (Score:2)
If you don't know what your government is doing you have no way to even judge who would be your best Representative.
The Espionage Act killed Representative Democracy. Now they laugh in your face.
Because maybe... (Score:2)
Because it would highlight our helplessness and weaknesses?
The secret they're protecting? (Score:1)
It's an innovative new strategy that secures resources for future security initiatives, thereby increasing national security. It's called lying and making shit up and scaring the public. First created by "them" and refined in contemporary society by the Bushes.
And that means they're spy planes. (Score:2)
If alien were here, there'd be no point keeping it secret for "national security" reasons because any Earth nation up against an enemy that's mastered interstellar travel HAS no security at all against that race. Be it via FTL, or Bussard ramjets, or antimatter valkyries, or even just a slow generation ship; any alien race capable of getting here could absolutely curbstomp any Earth nation that was foolish enough to fight them. So... spy planes.
A while back, I read a book about Lockheed's Skunk Works... I
Given how all UFOs videos are extremely pixelated (Score:2)
Flash Gordon (Score:2)
UFO's (Score:1)
Unidentified means that there are not:
- Drones
- Misslies
- Aircraft
- Balloons
- Weather phenomena
etc.
It means that many naval intelligence officers have tried to identify what these are, but cannot, so they remain unidentified. Often these phenomena will be incorrectly identified as something which they are not, or explained away just to get them off the list of unidentified objects.
Yet the fact remains there are objects flying around in our atmosphere which cannot be identified by military experts, people wh
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"Unidentified means that there are not:" No. It means we don't know what they are. They could be any of those things, we just can't tell (or maybe we can eliminate some of those explanations in any particular case, but not necessarily all).
"the fact remains there are objects flying around" No. They might be the equivalent of mirages, or images intentionally created by someone, or glitches in the computer system that interprets the radar or camera returns, or lots of other things, without being "objects