“For too long, the stigma associated with UAPs has gotten in the way of good intelligence analysis“
By Nathan Lockley
First published – Thursday, May 19th 2022
Earlier this week, we saw something that hasn’t happened for over half a century: An open hearing from the US congress on UFOs. The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence held a public hearing and it was the first one on UFOs/UAPs since 1968. This was followed by a behind-closed-doors briefing going through the more secretive parts of their findings. Surely this would be fantastic news for the ufology community but it has received very mixed reactions.
We heard that the task force responsible for investigating military UAP sightings has now had 400 reports and they even showed a couple of pieces of footage captured by military personnel. There was also an overwhelming use of the phrase “national security threat”.
Some in the UFO community seemed to have hopes of confirmation of extraterrestrial life or revealing hidden secrets etc. Obviously, this was never going to actually happen. I did reach out to some to ask for their opinions on the hearing.
Gary Heseltine, editor of UFO Truth Magazine and Vice President of ICER (international coalition for extraterrestrial research) had this to say:
“So the first congressional hearing in decades has come and gone. What did we learn?”
“We learned that the newly established body to collect data on UAP has now amassed some 400 reports which included some historical cases (not specified) and it seems the majority have not been identified. For those that thought that the intelligence community would roll up and say it was ‘aliens’ then that was never going to happen.”
“I think you have to read between the lines with this hearing. Let’s look at some positives – without a shadow of a doubt, the biggest positive is that the hearing took place at all! The fact that it was being live streamed to all corners of the world is also a huge positive.”
“Next, the conduct and seriousness that the hearing took place in was a huge step forward in my opinion. It was a serious congressional session and both speakers looked distinctly uncomfortable with what was largely poorly worded questions on the UAP issue. There was no ridicule factor from the two speakers, nor from the chair, Senator Carson. There was a recognition from the two speakers that it was time to stop the stigma that has so dogged serious research into the subject of UFO/UAP.”
“There was an admission that there had been 11 ‘near misses’ with UAP and 18 that defied conventional technology and physics. Yes, all from the 25 June 2021 report but nevertheless it was still good for these officials to acknowledge these statistics in an open congressional hearing setting.”
“Some negatives: the majority of the senators who asked questions were poorly worded and some tried to infer that the sightings were likely to be foreign technology. Where were Senators Rubio, Gallego, Gillibrand, Heinrich etc with more focused questions for the two speakers? It was a missed opportunity. It was embarrassing as the officials tried for several minutes to get a still image of the UAP involved in the newly disclosed video sequence. Better preparation was needed.”
“However, the most embarrassing and pertinent segment of the entire proceedings was when a senator asked if either speaker had seen documentation relating to the shutdown of US nuclear ballistic missiles. Neither speaker was seemingly aware of nuclear shutdowns. Their faces were a picture and with them, it showed how far this new office and its officials were out of touch with the ‘best evidence’ of UFO/UAP.”
“Either they were genuinely unaware of the missile shutdowns or they weren’t prepared to comment publicly on the matter and pretended not to know i.e., they lied. Either way, it was a very difficult moment for them but it was hugely significant that the issue had been raised at all in this hugely important area with the world looking on in the live streaming world of media.”
“Whilst the proceedings were not hugely exciting and there was a lack of detail, the true impact and implications of this first hearing could be huge in my opinion. The media who have so far struggled to take the subject seriously will now have to acknowledge in ever more serious tones that there is a real story going on and devote more coverage and true investigation into it. Yes, small steps but with huge implications in my opinion.”