Pentagon ex-UFO chief says conspiracy theorists in government drive spending

The weird thing about UFO lore is the idea that a super-advanced civ would be roaming between the stars in large spinning hubcaps. Or weird glowing orbs.<p>I&#x27;m willing to believe it&#x27;s a big galaxy and we have NFI what&#x27;s going on out there.<p>But UFO mythology seems very human-scale and not so alien at all.

If von Neuman probes are possible, and some percentage of civilizations create them, then at least von Neuman probes <i>should</i> be here.<p>von Neuman probes solve the travel time, cost, and distance objections for ETI even if light speed is the absolute limit.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Self-replicating_spacecraft" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Self-replicating_spacecraft</a>

Whatever the truth may be, we now have people testifying in Congress - under oath - that the UFO phenomenon is real. David Grusch has gone through the official whistleblower process in order to make this happen, and there have been private briefings with the ICIG and members of Congress, who have given credence to his claims [1].<p>So while it&#x27;s difficult to know what the truth is at this point in time, it&#x27;s either that aliens are real or there are a lot of nutjobs in the US government.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;David_Grusch_UFO_whistleblower_claims" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;David_Grusch_UFO_whistleblower...</a>

This UFO investigation stuff is just a giant bandwagon, which people get on to for money, influence and power.<p>I don&#x27;t think there&#x27;s any extra-terrestrial activity going on here on Earth, period. Maybe elsewhere in the Universe and probably not in our solar system either.

Kirkpatrick has misrepresented things in the past. His whole thing is very suspicious and weird. I wouldn’t put too much weight on what he is saying here.

Why is this government officer, speaking just to a newspaper more reliable than the other government officer who spoke under oath?<p>There was legislation to bring transparency to the topic, and it was stripped at the last minute by 2 congressmen heavily funded by the defense industry. If this was all a rouse to get more funding, don&#x27;t you think they would&#x27;ve loved the legislation?

frustrating, because on the one hand, the explanation that all the &quot;UFO whistleblowing&quot; is all just a self-cycling money generator scheme by cranks with government jobs is the most obvious explanation. On the other, if you were a government desperately trying to hide the aliens, this is exactly the kind of spokesperson &#x2F; story you would come up with to throw everyone off the trail.<p>Nevertheless, reality prevails, ill go with choice A.

An alien visitation would be THE single most significant event to ever happen to humanity. The idea that it would be able to be kept secret is ridiculous.

I remain fascinated by UFOs&#x2F;UAPs. I have been this way since I was a child, although I went from &quot;I want to believe&quot; to &quot;This is an example of people being stupid&quot; and finally my current position.<p>UAPs are intermittent, non-reproducible phenomenon. Life is full of such experiences.<p>Sadly, when these experiences involve extraordinary experiences, they tend to make all of those involved look stupid. Turns out people and organizations don&#x27;t like looking stupid.<p>The reason National Security is so tied up in this area is that when or if a new weapons system is deployed against the U.S., it&#x27;s going to involve a lot of these exact kinds of reports. Any investigation into any of them is, in effect, an investigation into how the country learns from strange new things, like the Chinese joining the Korean War. These kinds of public investigations simply cannot occur.<p>I still love these stories, but I love them because they tell us what happens when a large organization comes across really weird stuff it has no labels or processes for.<p>There&#x27;s no conspiracy here, that&#x27;s my guess. Maybe a conspiracy of human nature.<p>The UFO&#x2F;UAP story is going nowhere, and it says a lot more about us than it does about anything in nature that anybody might encounter.<p>ADD: I&#x27;m glad Kirkpatrick is getting some reputational payback here. I&#x27;ll leave my opinions of his essay aside. I strongly support dragging out the Sagan response and banging on it again and again until folks finally focus on the real issues involved. Recommended reading: Hynek&#x27;s biography, &quot;The Close Encounters Man&quot; <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;Close-Encounters-Man-World-Believe&#x2F;dp&#x2F;0062484176" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;Close-Encounters-Man-World-Believe&#x2F;dp...</a>

I assume the government always has a certain level of spending on UFOs just because it might be a foreign vessel. But this spending should definitely not increase because of LGM hysteria.

This is such a common set of circumstances that the Obama administration coined a term for it: &quot;self-licking ice cream cones&quot;.

It’s good to document seeing things such as A. They don’t respond to radio calls (spy planes) B. Show up on radar (broken spy plane) C. No IFF (identify friend or foe) D. Have a team to investigate these occurrences when reported (tell spy agency their equipment is broke) E. Close reports when it’s our own equipment F. Document equipment issues which register faulty indications.<p>It fits a little better when UFO&#x2F;UAP doesn’t immediately push your mind into tall grey beings in a unique ship or little green men in a flying saucer.<p>These programs have multiple agendas. Push for the interesting one, hide the real one. The amount of money these companies get keeps engineers busy and butts in seats.<p>Look at a few contracts from DIA 2022. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.defense.gov&#x2F;News&#x2F;Contracts&#x2F;Contract&#x2F;Article&#x2F;3148681&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.defense.gov&#x2F;News&#x2F;Contracts&#x2F;Contract&#x2F;Article&#x2F;3148...</a>

This seems like just the sort of thing you would say if you were trying to hide something and discredit the whistleblowers. It could also be the truth. Or something in between. But there isn&#x27;t any particular reason to trust him.

That&#x27;s what you&#x27;d say to discredit people when you don&#x27;t want the truth to be revealed. Whatever the truth may be.

If there really was a conspiracy covering up UFOs and Alien activity there would be people and groups of power believing in this stuff. If there were we would see massive, on the scale of percentages of GDP, activity in recovering this technology in most nations worldwide. We dont see this kind of activity, so......

It is sad that out of all the things that happen in this space, this is the news article that gets to the front page.<p>Kirkpatrick has been contradicting himself for months now. Another recent Guardian article is more insightful. There has been a concerted effort to remove very specific parts from a new legislation about the disclosure of non-human intelligence and materials:<p>“If it is the case that there is no substance to the UFO&#x2F;UAP issue beyond misperceptions, paranoia, delusions, hallucinations, gullibility and disinformation then the government, military and academic organisations need to openly and transparently look under every alleged rock in this topic,” says clinical psychologist Daniel Stubbings of Cardiff Metropolitan University. “But they have chosen to do the exact opposite, which increases the suspicion that there is something to hide.”<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theguardian.com&#x2F;science&#x2F;2024&#x2F;jan&#x2F;14&#x2F;what-happens-if-we-have-been-visited-by-aliens-lied-to-ufos-uaps-grusch-congress" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theguardian.com&#x2F;science&#x2F;2024&#x2F;jan&#x2F;14&#x2F;what-happens...</a>

Kirkpatrick has been so disingenuous and should not be taken by his word.

“They’re some of the same people that have been working behind the scenes with Congress to write legislation,” Kirkpatrick told the In the Room With Peter Bergen podcast.<p>&gt;&gt; Isn&#x27;t this a conspiracy theory ?

I don&#x27;t know what&#x27;s going on, but it&#x27;s clear that there are vast sums of money going into illegal black programs beyond congressional oversight. I strongly suspect that Kirkpatrick&#x27;s role is to deflect public interest and criticism in order to maintain the status quo. I don&#x27;t trust a single word he says.<p>Regardless of whether or not there is alien life, our government should be forced to open up its secrets, whatever they may be. We don&#x27;t need any of this to stay safe.

&gt; Grusch last year about intact alien vehicles and non-human “biologics”, or biological matter, stored at a remote facility.<p>I have heard from military friends that they have seen and interacted with non-human creatures on US military bases.<p>These creatures even have a star associated with them.<p>They are referred to by scientists as Canis familiaris

The essential question is, always, why? Why are they doing it?<p>Obviously, many people participate in the movement to create chaos and a sense of powerlessness through disinformation (the true aim of propaganda), so people don&#x27;t know what to believe and quit. The Republican Party engages in a lot of it, I assume tactically - always stay on the offensive, keep the enemy reacting, etc. But what about the others? Are they organized? Are they sort-of lone wolves (or small packs) acting on the ideology they learned online?<p>And I think it&#x27;s been highly effective: I think that two decades ago, taking it seriously would have discredited you for life. Now that we&#x27;ve destroyed institutions and values like science, evidence and rationality, and embraced post-truth, it&#x27;s within the norm, even encouraged.<p>And almost nobody speaks up for science, evidence, truth. Nobody says it&#x27;s ridiculous nonsense (for so many reasons); everyone just stands back, reinforcing the sense of chaos and powerlessness. Where are the adults?