US authorities have promised to disclose data on unidentified anomalous phenomena
The Pentagon launches an online tool for reporting UFOs. The move signals that the US government is gradually revealing what it knows or doesn't know about unidentified anomalous phenomena.
The US Department of Defense has launched an online reporting tool for some encounters with unidentified anomalous phenomena formerly known as UFOs, as part of an expansion of its efforts to provide greater transparency in its research into unknown phenomena.
According to The Guardian, only current or former federal employees or those with «direct knowledge of U.S. government programs or Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) activities since 1945» are so far eligible to use the protected form, which was published Tuesday on the Department of Defense website with the somewhat bland title «Office of All Domain Anomaly Resolution.» (AARO).
US officials say the public will be able to submit reports soon. The move means the US government is moving closer to fulfilling its promise of full transparency about what it knows or doesn't know, about everything from strange flashes in the sky to the possibility of alien life to sightings of unusual aircraft.
The instrument's launch follows the appointment last month of former Pentagon official Mark McInerney as NASA's first director of UAP research and the space agency's pledge to enlist a worldwide army of civilian skywatchers to improve their observations and analyze the unknown.
A new form, as they say on the AARO website, “is intended to be an initial point of contact…it is not intended to convey potentially confidential or sensitive information”.
It states that second-hand information about UAPs or meetings with them is not welcome. Sean Kirkpatrick, director of AARO, told reporters on Tuesday that first-hand information, especially about government-involved UAP programs, is definitely out there and will be treated sensitively and confidentially.
«This reporting mechanism that is on the website is for people who think they have first-hand knowledge of the secret programs that the government is hiding,» he said. — If a pilot is flying over and he sees something in his airspace and needs to report it, it is transmitted through operational channels.
Conspiracy theories about the level of government involvement in UFO research and programs (UFO ) and the UAP and government awareness of them have circulated for decades, from rumors of a secret government facility containing alien spacecraft and life forms in Area 51 in the Mojave Desert to fictionalizations of the topic in popular television programs such as The X-Files.< /p>
Sean Kirkpatrick said that those who cling to such beliefs are likely to be disappointed.
“At this time, I have no evidence that there has ever been any program to carry out any or reverse engineering, some kind of extraterrestrial UAP program,” he said. – We do have a requirement by law to involve whistleblowers or other interviewees who believe that this does exist and may have information relevant to it.
Notably, he hinted at the prospect of an upcoming public dissemination some information that was previously kept secret.
“We have a package with a lot of new material that we have prepared for release. We have revealed some things that we are now declassifying. Not just operational videos, but historical documents,” he said, without going into detail.
He described it as “educational material that will help inform the public.”