"To The Stars" Releases Another Video, And Things Get Curiouser & Curiouser

As has been the case these past few months, discussions of Tom DeLonge, his To The Stars  "Public Benefit Corporation," and the supposed Pentagon UFO program, Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program, have sucked all of the air out of other UFO-related discussions. 

As you have undoubtedly heard unless you have been hiding under a rock, To The Stars Academy has released a third infrared UFO video, supposedly declassified by the recent Pentagon UFO Program. To The Stars claims to have a "chain of custody" for these videos, showing the process of their release by the Pentagon, but nobody has seen it. 

Also, why are all of the supposed Pentagon UFO videos in the infrared? Doesn't the military have ordinary video cameras? Undoubtedly they do, but when birds or balloons turn up on ordinary video, they are immediately recognized. Is it perhaps because they have no real understanding of how these FLIR devices operate, and lots of things thus become UFOs? And only the Raytheon FLIR systems on the F-18 ever turn up UFOs - no other cameras, and on no other aircraft?

Since everyone I talk to seems as confused as hell about which video is which, let's review these three videos, in the order that To The Stars presented them, and what we know about them.

1. 2004 USS NIMITZ FLIR1 VIDEO ("Tic Tac" video)

"It is the only official footage captured by a US Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet present at the 2004 Nimitz incident off the coast of San Diego."

2. GIMBAL: AUTHENTICATED UAP VIDEO ("Gimbal" video)

Supposedly taken off the coast of Florida in 2015.

3. 2015 GO FAST FOOTAGE ("Go Fast" video)

Supposedly taken somewhere off the east coast in 2015.

Frame showing supposed "UFO" in Go Fast video. That little dot in the middle, that's it.

Go Fast is, of course, the most recent video, and the subject of most of the recent discussion. The video as TTSA presents it to us, with analysis, is only two minutes long. The "UFO" itself is only visible for a few seconds, and is (as might be expected) just a featureless dot. But that is enough for it to be repeated endlessly across all the "serious" media as if it were proof of the arrival of aliens. The best critical examination of the Go Fast video thus far is on Mick West's Metabunk. West argues that the object's apparent rapid motion is due to the parallax effect of the aircraft's motion. There are several models of a 3-D representation showing the object and the jet, using the information provided in the FLIR display. The consensus seems to be that the object is about 10 feet across, and traveling slowly enough to be a bird or a balloon.

But wait, it gets curiouser: according to poster Blu3Skies on Reddit, 

if you look to the right side of the sensor overlays you'll see a 4 digit code...  That is the laser PRF code set for laser guided munitions.... Gimbal video is PRF code 1688. It took place in 2015 off the East Coast. Go Fast video is PRF code 1688. Articles sight [sic] it as taking place off the East Coast. Gimbal and Go Fast are both pieces of the same video it appears. No discrepancies in location or time as of now, however, this begs the question whether TTSA is cutting and feeding these videos to us to keep funds rolling in OR the gov is cutting/splicing and releasing them to TTSA intentionally this way.

So it appears that the Gimbal video, and the Go Fast video, were taken by the same aircraft, by the same pilot, on the same mission, and less than 20 minutes apart. While this has not been absolutely confirmed yet, it certainly appears to be true. Comparing the two videos, Mick West says that "The display configuration is all essentially the same. The time code at the bottom is in seconds, with a difference of 991 seconds (16.5 minutes) between the end of GO FAST (4254) and the start of GIMBAL (5245)" Others have remarked that the pilot's voice on the two videos sounds like the same guy, especially when he says "dude!".

Mick West compares the data displayed for Go Fast (left), and Gimbal (right)

This immediately raises some interesting issues:

• Doesn't To The Stars realize that these appear to be from the same video? If so, why didn't they tell us? If they didn't, the incompetence of their analysis is staggering.
• There are now only two, and not three, supposed Pentagon FLIR video recordings of UFOs. The supposed description "off the east coast in 2015" is compatible with "off the coast of Florida in 2015."
• One F-18 pilot in 2015 seems to have had a very busy and exciting day recording UFOs. What are the chances that two very different 'genuine UFOs' would be zooming around off the coast of Florida, less than 20 minutes apart, compared with the chances that these people don't know what the #$%^ they are talking about concerning these FLIR images?

Curiouser and Curiouser.....

Since To The Stars' first announcement of these supposed 'Pentagon UFO videos," lots of journalists and UFO researchers have filed Freedom of Information requests basically asking for absolutely everything pertaining to this supposed "Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program" (sometimes called the "Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program"). Having heard about so many requests, I pity the poor schmuck working in the Pentagon on whose desk all these requests land. However, nothing seems to be turning up.

One of the most prolific filers of Freedom of Information requests is John Greenewald of The Black Vault, a huge on-line repository of UFO-related documents and materials. On March 12 he updated an earlier posting about his FOIA requests related to TTSA, AATIP, etc., and what he found runs counter to DeLonge's narrative. As soon as "To The Stars" was announced in its press conference, Greenewald filed a FOIA request with the Department of Defense requesting all documents concerning the supposed AATIP program. He writes,

On November 27, 2017, the DOD responded with a “no records” determination.

There are three possibilities:

1) The DoD is lying — which under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) — if proven — is actually more of a damning situation than you might think.

2) The program is being blown out of proportion, is misinformation, or doesn’t even exist.

3) For whatever reason, the DoD doesn’t have an outline, mission statement, objectives, etc of the DOD Aviation Threat Program as my specific request asked for, but it does exist. It would be highly doubtful, but a possibility, so my “no records” response is simply directed at my specific request.

So, I have appealed the “no records” response, and have filed more FOIA requests — but something does not seem to add up.

In other words, the Department of Defense says that this supposed program, the cornerstone of To The Stars' message, never existed. Greenewald next filed a similar request concerning the AATIP with the NSA:

On 8 January 2018, the NSA told me that there were “no records” responsive to my request, which means, out of the  millions of pages within the entire Intellipedia collection, there is not a single reference to the program.   There could be many reasons for this, so this is just speculation, but it is interesting to note that there are countless mentions of classified programs within Intellipedia. When classified pages are found during searches, for examples, many of the Edward Snowden revelations (like  Wrangler), the NSA will acknowledge they are there, but exempts them from release. Another example, is my request on  Echelon.  This may have entered the realm of still heavily classified to the point they can’t even admit it’s there, and they give a GLOMAR response (“can neither confirm nor deny”). My point with these examples, is that the possible explanation that it is “still classified” and they are lying just does not fit (emphasis added).

Luis Elizondo, who reportedly ran the Pentagon's Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program.

Greenewald's next request was specifically for material relating to Luis Elizondo, the man who supposedly ran AATIP, now working for To The Stars as its Director of Global Security. (No longer supervising UFO investigations, he is now DeLonge's chief Bouncer.) He writes,

On February 12, 2018, the Department of Defense, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff office, in FOIA Case 18-F-0324, gave another rather odd  “no records response” to a request which had multiple parts.

1) The resignation letter of Mr. Luis Elizondo, DoD personnel who played a role in The Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program.
2) Any/all responses by Secretary of Defense James Mattis, or any other DoD official to Mr. Elizondo regarding his resignation.
3) Any/all letters, memos, recommendations, email, etc. sent from Mr. Elizondo, to any DoD official, regarding the declassification or public release of videos, as obtained by the Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program.
4) Any/all response to Mr. Elizondo, and his effort to get videos or material evidence in the Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program released to the public.

Although I have an open appeal on the above with the DOD, it is noted they just wanted to forward my request to the Defense Intelligence Agency instead.  However, due to the fact that Mr. Elizondo stated clearly he worked within OSD (not DIA), and the NY TIMES among many other news outlets cited Mr. Elizondo’s resignation letter to Secretary of Defense James Mattis, at least that portion of my request would be at the office that just gave the “no records” response.

Something does not seem right, and I will post the results of the appeal when they become available.

So, to summarize, there are no documents to support what Elizondo says about AATIP, and their absence is very curious, especially since the Pentagon has verbally acknowledged the bare fact of the program's existence.

The product of legislation cosponsored by senators Harry Reid of Nevada and Daniel Inouye of Hawaii, the program, according to Pentagon spokesperson Audricia Harris, was primarily executed through a contract with Bigelow Aerospace—a company owned by Reid’s constituent and donor Robert Bigelow. 

However, there seem to be absolutely no documents associated with AATIP. And the Pentagon has unambiguously stated that they dd not release the  three videos that TTSA is claiming to have obtained from them:

"The Department of Defense did not release those videos. I cannot confirm their authenticity. I don't have any additional info to provide," said Tom Crosson, a spokesman for the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

Might AATIP have existed only as a "Rogue program," never actually sanctioned? Good luck to you in your research, Mr. Greenewald, let us hope you can get to the bottom of all this.

Pentagon UFO Papers - More Releases, More Confusion

So by now probably everyone has heard about the latest round of UFO-related documents released by the Pentagon via FOIA. And do they sound exciting, if the headlines are to be believed.

The tabloid Daily Mail reported, "UFOs sightings have left witnesses with radiation burns, brain damage and 'perceived time suspension', according to interviews in newly released Pentagon report from 2010". Luis Elizondo, whose claims of  having led the Pentagon's AATIP UFO investigation program are not supported by any documentary evidence, is said to have "confirmed" to Tucker Carlson on Fox news that UFOs have "caused harm" to humans. Even more surprisingly,

The second game-changing reveal Mr. Elizondo shared was shared during a discussion about how some pilots and other individuals who had come in close contact with UFOs had some negative brain damage and radiation burns. It was then that Mr. Elizondo pointed out that while this was indeed the case, there were also cases where exposed individuals had positive effects from the close contact with UFOs.

Mr. Elizondo then said some of these individuals suddenly developed artistic abilities, such as being able to "play the piano," even though they never had a lesson. Some of them also developed Extra Sensory Perception (ESP) skills, he said

Even the normally-reliable Space.com wrote  

Encounters with UFOs have reportedly left Americans suffering from radiation burns, brain and nervous system damage, and even "unaccounted for pregnancy," according to a massive database of U.S. government reports recently made public through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

citing as their authority The Sun.

Well, that's not accurate. 

Claims of physical effects following alleged UFO encounters are discussed in just one of the AAWSAP papers. Jack Brewer recently wrote a long posting for his Blog The UFO Trail titled  "The UFO Injury Study that Wasn't." In it he writes,

Dr. Christopher "Kit" Green is well known among those with an eye to the UFO genre for reasons including his work with the CIA and corporations controlled by Robert Bigelow. In approximately 2010 he provided a paper to Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies for inclusion in the Advanced Aerospace Weapon Systems Application Program. The AAWSAP contract was awarded to BAASS by the Defense Intelligence Agency. Green's paper, one of some 38 collected by BAASS at the time, is titled Anomalous Acute and Subacute Field Effects on Human Biological Tissues.

The paper attempts to summarize evidence of injury to human observers by "anomalous advanced aerospace systems," and argues the possibility such systems can be reverse engineered through clinical diagnosis of the injured observers. The paper was recently included among a batch of documents released by the DIA in response to FOIA requests but is not entirely new to those closely following the saga.

The newfound attention propelled the paper to be mischaracterized rather far and wide, misrepresented as portraying DIA official conclusions that people were seriously injured during otherworldly UFO encounters. In actuality, the paper was authored by a consultant who unequivocally stated during the April 6 phone call he absolutely believes the cases he studied are indicative of human technology.

So, according to the author of that paper, even if the reported physiological effects following a supposed UFO encounter are indeed accurate and relevant, they are the result of human technology, not of aliens. And remember that correlation does not imply causation.  Also remember that such claims have been circulating in UFOlogy for many years, reported by Jacques Vallee and many others. In one such case (the "Doctor X" case), a war veteran's serious wounds allegedly were immediately healed after he was struck by a beam of light from a UFO. But extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof, which clearly is lacking here.

Then there are accounts of an "unexpected pregnancy," "gynecological problems," or a woman's "missing pregnancy," after a UFO abduction. 

Marty Kottmeyer dug up these references for one of Dr. Green's 'unexplained pregnancy' cases.

The veteran Canadian UFO researcher Chris Rutkowski wrote on the Facebook group "UFO Updates" (April 11), "It's pretty sad, yes, that a wild claim by a Canadian contactee made it into a US government report without vetting of any kind. It makes you wonder if other "data" in the Pentagon reports are similar." Indeed. 

And while we're on the subject, we should note that Travis Walton has also reported the UFO abduction-related "missing pregnancy" of his (unnamed) girlfriend.

Then there is the matter of, what exactly did the Pentagon get for the $22 million that it gave to Bigelow Advanced Aerospace in accordance with AAWSAP?  For some time,  the only known output of the program was the 38 papers on weird science (known as DIRDs, "Defense Information Research Documents"), with subjects like "warp drives" and "positron propulsion." But wait - now there's more!

NEWSTALK BREAKFAST  [Ireland], April 1, 2022.
Colm Kelleher is interviewed: "Meet the Irishman who headed up The Pentagon search for UFOs". Kelleher worked on the Bigelow side of the $22 million AAWSAP contract.
https://www.newstalk.com/news/meet-the-irishman-who-headed-up-the-pentagon-search-for-ufos-1327563
"And by the end of the two-year programme, which the Defence Intelligence Agency funded, for $22m we had submitted 104 separate technical reports on UFOs."

If there were only 38 papers funded by the DIA under AAWSAP, I asked, what about the other 66 papers we hadn't heard about? Researcher Curt Collins pointed out that the recently-published book  Skinwalkers at the Pentagon: An Insiders' Account of the Secret Government UFO Program by James Lacatski, Colm Kelleher, and George Knapp, contains an appendix listing a jumble of papers supposedly representing all of AAWSAP's output, all thrown together in a way that makes them almost impossible to read or analyze. I took the liberty of inserting numbers and formatting characters into this list (below). All 38 of the DIRDs are included, and are so labelled. Here we see 106 items, not 104. Which brings up the question: When can we see the still-unreleased 68 remaining items?

 

Another thing that turned up in the recent documents: As Curt Collins observes, 

The disclosure finally makes it clear that the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Application Program (AAWSAP) and the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) were the same entity. AATIP was the “Unclassified Nickname” used by Senator Harry Reid when asking for Special Access Program status and funding for the project.

Perhaps, but it is difficult to reconcile this with certain previous statements by Lacatski, who we know headed up AAWSAP. He said,

But there was a difference between the two programs [mine and Elizondo's]. Ours [AAWSAP] had $22 million dollars in funding, his [AATIP] had zero. Ours looked at military and civilian investigations, his looked at military exclusively. And we had, of course, contractor and subcontractor support. He had no contractor support. But he did his thing, we did ours. But I can say that in direct answer to your question, we were the only game in town, I would say from 2008 through 2012

So far as I am aware, Elizondo has never disputed this statement, and has had only praise for Lacatski. So how to reconcile the question of comparing AAWSAP and AATIP? 

 

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Appendix I

    1. AAWSAP Contract Information AAWSAP Solicitation HHM402-08-R-0211, DIA, 18 August 2008 (39 pages) BAASS Proposal Volumes I, II, III, BAASS, 8 September 2008 (53 pages)

    2. AAWSAP Contract HHM402-08-C-0072, DIA, 22 September 2008 (5 pages)

    3. AAWSAP Contract HHM402-08-C-0072 Modification P00001-Option Year 1, DIA, 2 September 2009 (3 pages)

    4. AAWSAP Contract HHM402-08-C-0072 Modification P00002–Option Year 1, DIA, 2 February 2010 (6 pages)

    5. AAWSAP Contract HHM402-08-C-0072 Modification P00005–Extension, DIA, 28 September 2010 (4 pages)

    6. AAWSAP Contract HHM402-08-C-0072 Closeout-Completion 20 December 2010, U-0384, DIA, 3 June 2011 (2 pages)

    7. AAWSAP Designation of Contracting Officer’s Representative, U-988-08/ AE-2D, DIA, 20 October 2008 AAWSAP Contract HHM402-08-C-0072 Facility Clearance-BAASS, DSS, 4 March 2009 (11 pages)

    8. AAWSAP Special Access Program Request Letter–Senator Harry Reid (Majority Leader) to William Lynn III (Deputy Secretary of Defense), 24 June 2009 (4 pages)

    9. AAWSAP Production BAASS September 21–October 31 2008 Report: Facilities, Recruiting, Subcontracts (7 pages)

    10. AAWSAP Technical Studies 1-12 Approaches–EarthTech, November 2008 (125 pages)

    11. AAWSAP Technical Studies 1-12 Approaches–MUFON, November 2008 (26 pages)

    12. BAASS November 2008 Monthly Report: Facilities, Recruiting, Clearances, Project Management Plan, and Acquisition of UAP Databases (9 pages)

    13. BAASS Project Management Plan (Overview), 2 December 2008 (49 pages)

    14. AAWSAP Technical Studies 1-12 Approaches-John Schuessler, 23 October 2008–5 December 2008 (164 pages)

    15. AAWSAP CAPELLA Data Warehouse Development Plan–Jacques Vallee, 10 December 2008 (42 pages)

    16. BAASS December 2008 Monthly Report: Recruiting, Clearances, Acquisition of UAP Databases (8 pages)

    17. BAASS January 2009 Monthly Report: Recruiting, Clearances, Development of UAP Databases, Project Northern Tier, UAP Files at Los Alamos and DIA (13 pages)

    18. BAASS February 2009 Monthly Report: Recruiting, Clearances, Development of UAP Databases, UAP Files at Los Alamos, EarthTech Contract, Reporting from FAA, and British, Canadian, and Danish Governments UAP Reports Assessment (19 pages)

    19. BAASS March 2009 Monthly Report: Recruiting, Clearances, Development of UAP Databases, EarthTech Contract, Reporting from FAA, MUFON Contract, The UFO Assault on Brazil with its Epicenter at Colares (1977-2003) by John Schuessler, and British, Canadian, and Danish Governments UAP Reports Assessment (42 pages)

    20. Unmanned Autonomous Surveillance Platform–Prototype Design, BAASS, 6 April 2009 (7 pages)

    21. RAF Lakenheath F-15C Investigation, BAASS, 21 April 2009 (15 pages)

    22. BAASS April 2009 Monthly Report: Recruiting, Clearances, EarthTech Contract, MUFON Contract, Project Northern Tier, and British, Canadian, French, and Danish Governments UAP Reports Assessment (50 pages)

    23. Tic Tac (Nimitz Carrier Strike Group) Investigation, BAASS, 7 January 2009–18 May 2009 (28 pages)

    24. BAASS May 2009 Monthly Report: Additional Facilities, Recruiting, EarthTech Contract, MUFON Investigations, Deployment to Brazil, and British, Canadian, French, and Danish Governments UAP Reports Assessment (39 pages)

    25. CAPELLA Data Warehouse–NIDS Database Completion Summary, BAASS, 17 June 2009 (2 pages)

    26. BAASS June 2009 Monthly Report: Additional Facilities, Recruiting, EarthTech Contract, MUFON Investigations, Deployment to Brazil, Project Northern Tier, and British, Canadian, French, and Danish Governments UAP Reports Assessment (134 pages)

    27. Unexplained Aerial Phenomenon / Close Encounter–Lagol, CA, BAASS Case #090709-2, 5 July 2009–27 July 2009 (257 pages)

    28. BAASS July 2009 Ten Month Report: BAASS Investigations, Project Physics, Project Engagement, Project Cooperation, Project Blue Book Materials, Project Campus, Project Oral History, Project Database / Analysis Government Files, Project Northern Tier, Project Colares / Brazil, Outreach to South America (530 pages)

    29. BAASS August 2009 Monthly Report: Additional Facilities, Recruiting, MUFON Investigations, Project Northern Tier, Relations with South American Organizations, and Utah Ranch Investigations (129 pages)

    30. BAASS September 2009 Monthly Report: Additional Facilities, Recruiting, MUFON Investigations, Marley Woods Reconnaissance, and Utah Ranch Investigations (146 pages)

    31. BAASS October 2009 Monthly Report: Additional Facilities, Recruiting, MUFON Investigations, and Utah Ranch Investigations (193 pages)

    32. BAASS November 2009 Month Report: MUFON Investigations, Utah Ranch Investigations, and Blue Orb Incident (155 pages)

    33. DIRD 1: Advanced Nuclear Propulsion for Manned Deep Space Missions, Dr. Friedwardt Winterberg, Univ. of Nevada-Reno, 1 December 2009 (37 pages)

    34. Skinwalker Ridge Investigations, BAASS, 31 August 2009–9 December 2009 (141 pages)

    35. DIRD 2: Metallic Glasses: Status and Prospects for Aerospace Applications, Dr. Todd Hufnagel, Johns Hopkins Univ., 14 December 2009 (30 pages)

    36. DIRD 3: Aerospace Applications of Programmable Matter, Dr. Wil McCarthy, Ravenbrick, 14 December 2009 (20 pages)

    37. BAASS December 2009 Monthly Report: MUFON Investigations, Utah Ranch Investigations, and Russian Documents (144 pages)

    38. DIRD 4: Biomaterials, Dr. Bruce Towe, Arizona State Univ., 7 January 2010 (32 pages)

    39. DIRD 5: Materials for Advanced Aerospace Platforms, Dr. J. Williams, Ohio State Univ., 12 January 2010 (27 pages)

    40. DIRD 6: Pulsed High-Power Microwave Source Technology, Dr. James Wells, JW Enterprises, 28 January 2010 (37 pages)

    41. BAASS January 2010 Monthly Report: MUFON Investigations, Utah Ranch Investigations, and Analysis of UAP entering Water using ANSYS Software (108 pages)

    42. Remote Viewing of Utah Ranch by Joe McMoneagle, BAASS, 27 February 2010 (8 pages)

    43. BAASS February 2010 Monthly Report: BAASS-MUFON Relations, Utah Ranch Investigations (71 pages)

    44. Utah Ranch Investigation: August 2009-February 2010, BAASS (360 pages)

    45. DIRD 7: Invisibility Cloaking: Theory and Experiments, Dr. Ulf Leonhardt, Univ. of St. Andrews, 2 March 2010 (29 pages)

    46. DIRD 8: Positron Aerospace Propulsion, Dr. Gerald Smith, Positronics Research, 2 March 2010 (35 pages)

    47. DIRD 9: Space Access: Where We’ve Been . . . and Where We Could Go, Dr. Paul Czysz, HyperTech Concepts, 8 March 2010 (56 pages)

    48. DIRD 10: Inertial Electrostatic Confinement Fusion, Dr. George Miley, Univ. Of Illinois, 10 March 2010 (72 pages)

    49. DIRD 11: Anomalous Acute and Subacute Field Effects on Human Biological Tissues, Dr. Kit Green, Wayne State Univ. School of Medicine, 11 March 2010 (38 pages)

    50. DIRD 12: An Introduction to the Statistical Drake Equation, Dr. Claudio Maccone, International Academy of Astronautics, 11 March 2010 (55 pages)

    51. # 3 BAASS Project Management Plan Addendum Report: UAP Sightings–Niagara Falls, Canada, BAASS Case #200900000108000, 9 October 2009–21 March 2010 (393 pages)

    52. # 4 BAASS Project Management Plan Addendum Report: Paranormal Activity–Tennyson, IN, BAASS Case #20100000018000, 12 March 2010-18 March 2010 (174 pages)

    53. DIRD 13: The Role of Superconductors in Gravity Research, Dr. George Hathaway, Hathaway Consulting Services, 23 March 2010 (16 pages)

    54. DIRD 14: Technological Approaches to Controlling External Devices in the Absence of Limb-Operated Interfaces, Dr. Richard Genik II, Wayne State Univ. School of Medicine, 23 March 2010 (36 pages)

    55. DIRD 15: Metallic Spintronics, Dr. Maxim Tsoi, Univ. of Texas-Austin, 23 March 2010 (27 pages)

    56. DIRD 16: Advanced Space Propulsion Based on Vacuum (Spacetime Metric) Engineering, Dr. Hal Puthoff, EarthTech International, 29 March 2010 (17 pages)

    57. DIRD 17: Antigravity for Aerospace Applications, Dr. Eric Davis, EarthTech International, 30 March 2010 (44 pages)

    58. DIRD 18: Maverick Inventor versus Corporate Inventor: Where Will the Next Major Innovations Arise?, Dr. George Hathaway, Hathaway Consulting Services, 30 March 2010 (19 pages)

    59. DIRD 19: The Space-Communication Implications of Quantum Entanglement and Nonlocality, Dr. John Cramer, Univ. of Washington–Seattle, 30 March 2010 (32 pages)

    60. DIRD 20: BioSensors and BioMEMS: A Survey of the Present Field, Dr. Bruce Towe, Arizona State Univ., 31 March 2010 (45 pages)

    61. DIRD 21: State of the Art and Evolution of High Energy Laser Weapons, Dr. John Albertine, Directed Technologies, 31 March 2010 (31 pages)

    62. DIRD 22: State of the Art and Evolution of High Energy Laser Weapons, Dr. John Albertine, Directed Technologies, 31 March 2010 (classified edition)

    63. BAASS March 2010 Monthly Report: BAASS-MUFON Relations, HBCCUFO UAP Site, Utah Ranch Investigations, Niagara Falls Anomalies, and Tennyson, IN Anomalies (71 pages)

    64. DIRD 23: Warp Drive, Dark Energy, and the Manipulation of Extra Dimensions, Dr. Richard Obousy, Obousy Consulting and Dr. Eric Davis, EarthTech International, 2 April 2010 (33 pages)

    65. DIRD 24: Traversable Wormholes, Stargates, and Negative Energy, Dr. Eric Davis, EarthTech International, 6 April 2010 (42 pages)

    66. DIRD 25: High-Frequency Gravitational Wave Communications, Dr. Robert Baker, GravWave, 6 April 2010 (74 pages)

    67. DIRD 26: Concepts for Extracting Energy from the Quantum Vacuum, Dr. Eric Davis, EarthTech International, 6 April 2010 (57 pages)

    68. DIRD 27: Metamaterials for Aerospace Applications, Dr. Gennady Shvets, Univ. of Texas–Austin, 6 April 2010 (38 pages)

    69. # 5 BAASS Project Management Plan Addendum Report: Paranormal Activity–Buckeye, AZ, BAASS Case #20100000033000, 5 April 2010–8 April 2010 (275 pages)

    70. # 6 BAASS Project Management Plan Addendum Report: Triangle UAP-GA, BAASS Case #20090000032000, 14 September 2009–19 April 2010 (125 pages)

    71. Utah Ranch Investigation: 22-26 March 2010 and 19-23 April 2010, BAASS (60 pages)

    72. BAASS April 2010 Monthly Report: BAASS-MUFON Relations, HBCCUFO UAP Site, Utah Ranch Investigations, GA Anomalies and Buckeye, AZ Anomalies (252 pages)

    73. BAASS May 2010 Monthly Report: BAASS-MUFON Relations, HBCCUFO UAP Site, Utah Ranch Investigations, Blue Orb Anomaly, and Additional BAASS UAP Cases (117 pages)

    74. # 7 BAASS Project Management Plan Addendum Report: Investigation of a Reported Blue Orb Anomaly Involving Human Physiological Effects, 2 June 2010 (30 pages)

    75. # 8 BAASS Project Management Plan Addendum Report: Russian Thread III Project, 2 June 2010 (149 pages)

    76. # 9 BAASS Project Management Plan Addendum Report: Dominique Weinstein’s Pilot Database Analysis, 21 June 2010 (29 pages)

    77. # 10 BAASS Project Management Plan Addendum Report: Projects Sign / Grudge / Blue Book Database Analysis, 21 June 2010 (30 pages)

    78. # 11 BAASS Project Management Plan Addendum Report: Utah Ranch Database Analysis, 21 June 2010 (101 pages)

    79. # 12 BAASS Project Management Plan Addendum Report: Analysis of Small Red Spheres Obtained from Two Alleged UAP Landing Sites in the Soviet Union, 30 June 2010 (77 pages)

    80. BAASS June 2010 Monthly Report: BAASS-MUFON Relations, HBCCUFO UAP Site, Utah Ranch Investigations, Maxwell AFB Visit, Ellsworth AFB Investigation, UAP Landing Traces, and Additional BAASS Anomaly Cases (58 pages)

    81. BAASS July 2010 Monthly Report: BAASS-MUFON Relations, HBCCUFO UAP Site, Utah Ranch Investigations, Anomaly at Bigelow Aerospace, Window Rock, AZ Investigation, and Integrated Threat Analysis Summary (75 pages)

    82. BAASS Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Threat Assessment (Comprehensive Integrated Threat Assessment Addendum Report), 30 July 2010 (228 pages)

    83. BAASS August 2010 Monthly Report: BAASS-MUFON Relations, HBCCUFO UAP Site, Utah Ranch Investigations, and National Archives Visit (38 pages)

    84. BAASS September 2010 Monthly Report: BAASS-MUFON Relations, HBCCUFO UAP Site, Utah Ranch Investigations, DIMOC Visit GA Anomalies Follow-Up, and Sand Mountain / Fyffe, AL Investigation (116 pages)

    85. DIRD 28: Aneutronic Fusion Propulsion, Drs. V. Teofilo, R. White, S. Petrinec, Lockheed Martin, 1 November 2010 (36 pages)

    86. DIRD 29: Cockpits in the Era of Breakthrough Flight, Dr. M. Millis, Tau Zero, 1 November 2010 (57 pages)

    87. DIRD 30: Aneutronic Fusion Propulsion, Dr. William Culbreth, Univ. Of Nevada-Las Vegas, 1 November 2010 (50 pages)

    88. DIRD 31: Laser Lightcraft Nanosatellites, Dr. Eric Davis, EarthTech International, 1 November 2010 (77 pages)

    89. DIRD 32: Ultracapacitors as Energy and Power Storage Devices for Commercial and Military Applications, Drs. J. Golightly and V. Teofilo, Lockheed Martin, 1 November 2010 (34 pages)

    90. DIRD 33: Detection and High Resolution Tracking of Vehicles at Hypersonic Velocities, Dr. William Culbreth, Univ. of Nevada-Las Vegas, 20 November 2010 (46 pages)

    91. DIRD 34: Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) Air Breathing Propulsion and Power for Aerospace Applications, Drs. S. Macheret and K. Goodfellow, Lockheed Martin, 21 November 2010 (32 pages)

    92. Summary Report on BAASS UAP Analysis Capabilities: TicTac and Sphere Assessments, 23 November 2010 (141 pages)

    93. DIRD 35: Quantum Computing and Utilizing Organic Molecules in Automation Technology, Dr. Richard Genik II, Wayne State Univ., 10 December 2010 (54 pages)

    94. DIRD 36: Cognitive Limits on Simultaneous Control of Multiple Unmanned Spacecraft, Dr. Richard Genik II, Wayne State Univ., 15 December 2010 (31 pages)

    95. DIRD 37: Negative Mass Propulsion, Dr. Friedwardt Winterberg, Univ. of Nevada-Reno, 3 January 2011 (43 pages)

    96. DIRD 38: Quantum Tomography of Negative Energy States in the Vacuum, Dr. Eric Davis, EarthTech International, 11 January 2011 (51 pages)

    97. Utah Ranch Events: 1 September 2007–2 April 2012, BAASS (26 pages)

    98. AAWSAP BAASS CAPELLA Data Warehouse CAPELLA Data Warehouse Database / Spreadsheet User’s Guide (12 pages)

    99. NIDS Spreadsheet (Historical 1946-2004), 11 September 2009 (1570 cases) Dominique Weinstein’s Pilot Spreadsheet (Historical 1942–2007), 3 June 2010 (483 records)

    100. Sign / Grudge / Blue Book Spreadsheet (Historical 1947-1969), 22 September 2010 (15674 cases, 577 unidentified)

    101. UFOCAT Spreadsheet (Historical 1000-2008), 4 February 2010 (203805 cases)

    102. Project Colares Spreadsheet (Historical 1977-1978), 28 January 2010 (356 cases)

    103. Canadian Release Spreadsheet (Historical 1971-1981), 24 February 2010 (795 cases)

    104. United Kingdom Release Spreadsheet (Historical 1950-1997), 9 June 2010 (2879 cases)

    105. BAASS Spreadsheet (Current Reporting 1999-2010), 16 April 2010 (27 cases)

    106. Utah Ranch Spreadsheet (Historical and Current Reporting 1950-2012), 3 April 2012 (582 cases)”

— From Skinwalkers at the Pentagon: An Insiders' Account of the Secret Government UFO Program by James Lacatski, Colm Kelleher, and George Knapp

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Bigelow's Researchers disclose Poltergeists and UFO Crashes

Dr. Eric Davis

This year's UFO news has, of course, been dominated by stories about a recent Pentagon UFO Study Program, news brought to you by rocker Tom DeLonge and his merry crew at To The Stars Academy. The UFO study is variously known as the "Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications" (AAWSAP) program, or the "Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program" or "Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program" (AATIP), depending on which source you consult. The main result of that program seems to have been to fund contracts for Robert Bigelow of Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies to study UFO reports, and to modify his buildings to house claimed (or expected) samples from crashed UFOs (more on this below).

Astrophysicist Dr. Eric Davis, who was a contractor for NASA's so-called "breakthrough propulsion project," has long been investigating weird things.  Davis had been one of the researchers residing at the supposedly haunted Skinwalker Ranch in Utah that was purchased by Bigelow to be studied by his National Institute for Discovery Sciences (NIDS) for its alleged paranormal infestations. Unfortunately, NIDS' diligent investigation produced little more than some exciting stories:

after several years of Gorman family trauma and of focused NIDS investigation, we managed to obtain very little physical evidence of anomalous phenomena, at least no physical evidence that could be considered as conclusive proof of anything (Hunt for the Skinwalker, p. 209).

So, all the King's Horses and all the King's Men and all the King's cameras and electronic recording devices could not document anything paranormal occurring at the Skinwalker Ranch, in spite of spending several years on-site trying to do so. In fact, they hinted that the presence of the NIDS team disturbed the phenomenon and caused it to go mostly into hiding. This 'shyness effect' is well-known among paranormal phenomena - UFOs, Bigfoot, telekinesis, etc. always make themselves sufficiently scarce to prevent investigators from nailing down any solid evidence of their existence.

 

Girl communicating with disembodied entities in the 1982 movie Poltergeist.

 

Davis was interviewed by George Knapp, long-time reporter on UFO subjects and longtime Bigelow associate (as well as co-author of Hunt for the Skinwalker with NIDS scientist Colm A. Kelleher), on the all-night high-weirdness radio show Coast to Coast AM on June 24, 2018. (The 71st birthday of Flying Saucers - Happy Kenneth Arnold Day!) One of the more interesting things Davis said on Coast to Coast was that a poltergeist apparently followed him home from Skinwalker ranch. The poltergeist phenomenon is "real," he said, and is closely related to the UFO phenomenon. Some people are more "receptive" to this than others, he explained. (Newsweek had earlier reported, "Pentagon's Secret UFO Program Investigated Poltergeist Connection to Alien Mystery.")

The explanation of the phenomena given in the 1982 movie Poltergeist was that the family's home had been built on an old Indian graveyard, and the spirits did not like being disturbed. Believe it or not, a similar explanation is offered for the alleged phenomena at the Skinwalker Ranch. Supposedly, nearby Fort Duchesne had been, after the American Civil War, staffed by so-called "Buffalo Soldiers," a segregated unit of African American soldiers who were all apparently Freemasons:

The Buffalo Soldiers of Fort Duchesne were full-fledged, ritual-practicing, secret-handshaking members of the world's best-known, most influential, and most mysterious male fraternity... A patch of ground that was once designated as the graveyard for the Buffalo Soldiers has since been covered over with houses built for the Ute tribe members... Is it possible that Indian opportunists may have disturbed the spirits of dead African-American soldiers who, in life, were steeped in the mystical arts? By building homes over a known graveyard, did the Utes awaken an unknown force that has since plagued them with ongoing appearances by unearthly beasts and other inexplicable phenomena?  (Kelleher and Knapp, Hunt for the Skinwalker, p. 21-22).

Davis also claimed that the government had a crashed UFO recovery program until 1989, when its funding was cut, in spite of its success in recovering UFO crash debris. AATIP was supposed to re-initiate the Crash Retrieval Program, but did not get funding for that. (In reality, the potential payoff from studying genuine alien UFO artifacts would be so high as to justify practically any expense to obtain them.)

Dr. Hal Puthoff

Another of Bigelow's longtime researchers is Dr. Hal Puthoff, who operates the Institute for Advanced Studies in Austin, Texas (where Davis also works). Puthoff first achieved fame in the 1970s from his work with Russel Targ in supposedly validating the alleged 'psychic powers' of Uri Geller, which the magician and skeptic James Randi largely eviscerated. Since then Puthoff's main research has involved the so-called "Zero Point Energy," a way to supposedly extract vast amounts of energy from nothing (i.e., empty space). On June 8 Puthoff spoke at the conference of the Society for Scientific Exploration in Las Vegas, held jointly with the International Remote Viewing Association. (Puthoff is also a pioneering researcher in "remote viewing," the supposed technique for using one's psychic powers to peek into places that cannot otherwise be seen).

Puthoff told the SSE/IRVA,

metamaterials for aerospace use. I’d love to talk about really fancy materials, but they’re classified. However, there’s a lot of materials that have been picked up or provided even in the public domain. I’m going to give an example because it shows exactly what the structure is for how to deal with this. This is an open source sample. It was sent anonymously to talk show host Art Bell. The fellow claimed to be in the military. He said that this sample was picked up in a crash retrieval, and so he sent it by email. So what does that mean? Chain of custody non-existent.  Provenance questionable.  Could be a hoax. Could be some slag off of some foundry floor or whatever. However, it was an unusual sample, so we decided to take a look at it.

It was a multilayered bismuth and magnesium sample. Bismuth layers less than a human hair. Magnesium samples about ten-times the size of a human hair. Supposedly picked up in the crash retrieval of an Advanced Aerospace Vehicle. It looks like it’s been in a crash. The white lines are the bismuth; the darker areas are the magnesium separations. So the question was what about this material, so naturally we looked in all the national labs, we talked to metallurgists, we combed the entire structure of published papers. Nowhere could we find any evidence that anybody ever made one of these.

Secondly, some attempts were made to try to reproduce this material, but they couldn’t get the bismuth and magnesium layers to bond.

Thirdly, when we talked to people in the materials field who should know, they said we don’t know why anybody would want to make anything like this. It’s not obvious that it has any function.

Well, years later, decades later actually, finally our own science moves along. We move into an area called metamaterials, and it turns out exactly this combination of materials at exactly those dimensions turn out to be an excellent microscopic waveguide for very high frequency electromagnetic radiation terahertz frequencies. So, the wavelength is 60 microns, which is a pretty small size. But it turns out because of the metamaterial aspect of this material, those bismuth layers that act as waveguides can be one twentieth the size of the wavelength, and usually when you make a waveguide it’s gotta be about the size of the wavelength. So, in fact this turned out to be a material that would propagate sub-wavelength waveguide effects. Why somebody wants to do that we still don’t know the answer to that.

Photo of  the supposed  'ET sample' that Puthoff is talking about.

 Blogger Jason Colavito looked into Puthoff's claims about that supposed ET sample, and found "a potential solution." He noted,

The research that Puthoff said he did is the exact same research that [Linda Moulton] Howe claims to have done, point for point, and that strongly implies that they were not working entirely independently. Howe’s findings, though, were hardly conclusive. She asked electrical engineer Travis Taylor to do a literature search, and he couldn’t find reference to the magnesium-bismuth material.

This is clearly of a piece with the other bits of exotic metal that fellow Bigelow consultant and ufologist Jacques Vallée has been talking up for the past year. Vallée specifically identified the metal chunks he works with as being made of “magnesium” with unusual isotope ratios. DeLonge claimed that his lumps of metal are unnatural “alloys” that can bend space and time and counteract gravity. Where have heard that before? But specifically, he alleged that the metal was “3D-printed” with different layers of different metals. This is indistinguishable from Puthoff’s description of a sample made of multilayered bismuth and magnesium, and indeed, I found that DeLonge referred to “layered bismuth and magnesium metamaterials” being in his possession. Despite the superficial differences, I have trouble believing that Bigelow’s satellites—Puthoff, Vallée, and even DeLonge—aren’t all promoting variations of the same thing. Garry Nolan of To the Stars seemed to confirm this in describing the magnesium-bismuth metamaterials as alloys, alleging that they have unusual isotope ratios, and endorsing the overlapping claims found in all three of the other advocates’ allegations about the materials....

That there is something fishy in all of this can be seen in the fact that the magnesium-bismuth layering is not a new discovery but is widely discussed in fringe literature for decades. Linda Moulton Howe has been promoting it since the 1990s, and it appears routinely in twenty-first century books about anti-gravity technology and UFOs, going back at least to the early 2000s.... In 1996, Linda Moulton Howe commissioned technologist Nicholas A. Reiter, himself an anti-gravity researcher and a  fringe believer in UFOs and paranormal things, to investigate the “Roswell sample”—i.e. the same piece that Puthoff is now promoting. Reiter determined that it was earthly and, while unusual, was not impossible. In 2001, he updated his findings with this information: “The combination of bismuth and magnesium had eluded us for four years. But then one day, we found a reference to an obscure industrial process used in the refinement of lead. The process, called the Betterton-Krohl Process, uses molten magnesium floated over the surface of liquid lead. The magnesium sucks up, or pulls bismuth impurities out of the lead! Often, the magnesium is used over and over again…” Presumably, this is the same process that was patented in 1938, producing a thin crust of layered magnesium and bismuth, which is removed from the lead. When the magnesium is reused, new layers would form. (The Fortean Times endorsed this solution in 2016.) Remember that Vallée’s sample was specifically identified as slag—i.e., industrial debris. Howe refused to publicize Reiter’s results, preferring to string along the “alien” mystery. Of course, we would need a known sample made by the industrial process to test the “alien” versions against, but the distribution of the slag in industrialized nations (Vallée claims examples from France, Argentina, and America, for example) id s point in favor of this solution.

The new information here is that To the Stars seems to be collecting more of the same industrial waste that Linda Moulton Howe has been cycling through the UFO circuit for 22 years.

Unwelcoming signs at the entrance to the Skinwalker Ranch, which is private property

So popular has the subject of the "Skinwalker Ranch" become that its owners are frequently troubled by trespassers and by people trying to enter without authorization, or who camp out near its boundary. Bigelow no longer owns the Skinwalker Ranch. He sold it in April 2016 to a corporation called Adamantium Real Estate, LLC, whose description says that it provides "recreational facilities" and "special events" for "social entertainment purposes." However, "for business purposes the owner of Adamantium Real Estate has to remain anonymous." It has registered a Trademark on "Skinwalker" and "Skinwalker Ranch." The rumors that Adamantium will open a Skinwalker Theme Park seem to be unfounded..... 😏

As a favor to those who are tempted to enter the Skinwalker ranch illegally, as well as to its owner, let us take notice of this: The Bottle Hollow Recreation Area is a public recreation area, operated by the Ute tribe. Anyone can go there, for fishing, boating, and camping. And, we are informed in the Hunt for the Skinwalker (p. 23) that 

Bottle Hollow almost directly abuts Skinwalker Ranch...The reservoir has a mysterious legacy of its own, one that seems inextricably linked to the ranch... serpent sightings... giant snakes...strange lights...

So if you really feel the urge to check out claims concerning the Skinwalker Ranch for yourself, plan to spend a little time camping at Bottle Hollow, where you can stay up all night looking for cryptids and UFOs in the comfort of your own camp chair. (Just be careful not to pick up any Poltergeists that might follow you home.)
 

Bottle Hollow Reservoir, which is next to Skinwalker Ranch, and is also "haunted."

And if you might like to be the owner of your very own "haunted ranch," the Stardust Ranch is for sale in Arizona. "John Edmonds has been the owner of the Stardust Ranch in Arizona’s Rainbow Valley, around an hour west of Phoenix, since 1995. He claims that there has been continuous paranormal harassment from aliens for years, including repeated failed attempts to kidnap he and his wife." The asking price is $5 million."Edmonds says he has killed more than a dozen extraterrestrials on his rural Arizona ranch. The "greys," as he refers to the aliens, have repeatedly shown him that they do not come in peace." The cynic in me says that this is a brazen copy-cat attempt to duplicate Skinwalker's amazing success, although the realist in me thinks it is still possible that Edmonds is sincerely delusional. Bigelow reportedly sent one of his minions to check this out - they decided not to "bite."

 

Edmonds claims to have killed aliens with this sword, here seen in a pool of alien blood.

The Pentagon's AATIP Program and "Range Incursions" - Was This The Program's Real Purpose?

A photo of a sign along Highway 12 near Helena, Montana published in the Great Falls Tribune, Sept. 14.
"JAML" is the Jesse A. Marcel library, attempting to promote "UFO Disclosure".

What has been happening in the world of TTSA lately, besides starting their second round seeking funding? Researcher John Greenewald of The Black Vault has been publishing some excellent analyses of TTSA-related claims and information (and taking a lot of flak from those who don't like what he has found). He has confirmed once again that TTSA's famous three videos were not "released" by the Pentagon (as TTSA endlessly claims), but apparently leaked:

“The videos were never officially released to the general public by the DoD and should still be withheld,” said Pentagon Spokesperson Susan Gough to The Black Vault earlier this year. Mr. Gradisher, on behalf of the Navy, confirms the Pentagon’s position this week by adding, “The Navy has not released the videos to the general public.”

On September 11, Greenewald published the latest information he has received from the Pentagon. We finally have the dates for the three IR videos promoted by TTSA. “[The] dates are 14 November 2004 for ‘FLIR1’ and 21 January 2015 for both ‘Gimbal’ and ‘GoFast.’” This tends to confirm what I wrote earlier that "it appears that the Gimbal video, and the Go Fast video, were taken by the same aircraft, by the same pilot, on the same mission, and less than 20 minutes apart." So TTSA doesn't really have three different Navy UFO videos, just two. Or so it seems.

Tom DeLonge says that TTSA plans to build spaceships

Explaining the use of the term  "UAP,"  Joseph Gradisher, a spokesperson for the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Information Warfare, told Greenewald:

“the ‘Unidentified Aerial Phenomena’ terminology is used because it provides the basic descriptor for the sightings/observations of unauthorized/unidentified aircraft/objects that have been observed entering/operating in the airspace of various military-controlled training ranges.”

From this statement, it sounds as if the Navy is only concerned about objects entering military-controlled air spaces. Aviation maps clearly mark off certain "Military Operations Areas" that are prohibited or restricted  to civilian aircraft at certain times, elevations, etc to support military operations . According to the FAA, "MOAs are designated to contain nonhazardous, military flight activities including, but not limited to, air combat maneuvers, air intercepts, low altitude tactics, etc." If an unknown object enters one of those areas, the Navy investigates it as a UAP. If the object is elsewhere, they apparently don't care.

An example of a Military Operations area in Oregon

This same point was made by the Navy soon afterward in a different letter to the Swedish researcher Roger Glassel. Published in the Swedish magazine UFO-aktuellet and reproduced in part in the Facebook group UFO Updates, the Navy spokesman replied to a question about why the Navy recently changed their reporting guidelines for such incidents,  

We have updated guidelines and simplified the process to facilitate reporting of unidentified aerial phenomena in order to support an objective, data-driven analysis of the range incursions.

"Range incursions". Later in that same letter, the Navy spokesman again talks again about "range incursions", in response to a question about the terminology "UAS" and "UAP", 

The wide proliferation and availability of inexpensive unmanned aerial systems (UAS) isn’t contradictory, it’s just when the UAS is *NOT* immediately identifiable we refer to it as UAP. A quadcopter is immediately identifiable. As we have previously acknowledged, the number of incursions into our ranges has increased with that wide proliferation and availability of inexpensive UAS. Additionally, we use the generic UAP term in communications so as not to pre-judge the results of any investigation.

Any range incursion by unauthorized craft affects the safety of our aviators and/or the security of our operations. Our revised reporting guidance solicits reports of any unauthorized craft (UAP or UAS) observed within our ranges so that we may investigate that range incursion. Incursions/sightings since 2014 may be referred to as either UAS or UAP, depending on the circumstances surrounding the specific incident in question.

When I noted this on Facebook, Glassel added the following comment:

Yes, in a hearing in the Senate on March 8, 2017, General John Hyten stated the following. "Of recent concern have been the unauthorized flights of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) over Navy and Air Force installations. These intrusions represent a growing threat to the safety and security of nuclear weapons and personnel. Both the Navy and Air Force are working to field counter-UAS capabilities that can effectively detect, track, and, if necessary, engage small UAS vehicles."

This clearly seems to confirm my above comments about John Greenewald's latest info from the Pentagon. The Navy seems only concerned with what appear to be trespassers in their private military areas. Otherwise, they would have no need for AATIP.

Meet the Face of the Pentagon's "UAP Task Force" - Dr. Travis Taylor!

For some time now we have been hearing about the Pentagon's Task Force to investigate UAPs/UFOs. We didn't know who any of them were, but honestly we were not impressed by their investigative skills. They apparently were fooled by a Mylar balloon photographed by a pilot, described as an  “extremely clear” photograph of an unidentifiable triangular aircraft (but looking very much like a Batman party balloon). They did not understand that the 'triangle shaped objects' supposedly swarming US Navy ships were just out-of-focus images of an airplane, stars, and the planet Jupiter. And the Task Force apparently made little or no effort to seriously investigate the original Pentagon "big three" UAP videos, about which there is a great deal of analysis on Metabunk and elsewhere, suggesting they are prosaic objects. If the UAP Task Force believed that the object in the "go fast" video was actually "going fast," then they didn't understand simple geometry.

But on June 21, the UFO reporter with the mostest, George Knapp of KLAS-TV in Las Vegas, revealed one of the members of that task force to be none other than Dr. Travis Taylor: "Physicist reveals he’s a UFO hunter for the Pentagon".

Television viewers know astrophysicist Dr. Travis Taylor as an intrepid investigator of UFOs and the paranormal at Skinwalker Ranch and on other History Channel programs. Only a handful of people in the world knew that Taylor was leading a double life, secretly working as the chief scientist for the Pentagon’s UAP Task Force. 

“I would say other than the people who already knew on the task force, you’re the first person to figure it out, George,” Taylor said.

As a scientific prodigy, Taylor earned advanced degrees at a young age and has spent his entire adult life working on classified projects, first for the U.S. Army, then for defense contractors. He wrote a book about how the U.S. government should prepare for alien contact which caught the attention of Jay Stratton, a high-ranking intelligence official who has been involved with each of the Pentagon’s Secretive UFO investigations including AAWSAP, the largest UFO program of all, managed by the Defense Intelligence Agency, based at Bigelow Aerospace in Las Vegas, funded with $22 million secured by late U.S. Sen. Harry Reid.  Stratton worked with AAWSAP, then its successor program AATIP. Later, he took charge of a third effort, the UAP Task Force, long before Congress formally created that team.   

Dr. Travis Taylor uses his knowledge of astronomy to help seekers of buried treasure (so far unsuccessfully).

So now we know the names of two members of the UAP Task Force - Jay Stratton and Travis Taylor. Blogger Jason Colavito wasted no time in responding:

Travis Taylor Admits to Being a Paid Government UFO Researcher... While serving in this capacity, Taylor appeared on CBS Sunday Morning in 2021 to analyze UFO videos and comment on the imminent UFO report without disclosing to CBS or to the audience that he was a paid government UFO researcher working on that very report. He has appeared since then on both Ancient Aliens and The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch to analyze and research UFOs without disclosing to the audience that he served as a paid government analyst of the same material he discussed on the History channel as an “independent” analyst. Taylor also works for a defense contractor analyzing UFOs for the federal government. Taylor and his former UAPTF boss both now work for the same contractor.

The shocking lack of ethics astonishes even me, as does the incestuous relationship between government UFO “research” and cable TV UFO media. This is the second time a star of a History channel show “investigating” UFOs admitted to also serving as a paid government UFO researcher. Lue Elizondo’s lawyer, Danny Sheehan, recently admitted that Elizondo has been the lead UFO analyst for Space Command, during a period when he presented himself in the media—including on 60 Minutes as well as his History channel show Unidentified—as an independent ex-government analyst...

We should all be disgusted that the Pentagon and Congress continue to patronize the same crew of lying spooks and kooks orbiting Skinwalker Ranch—people who have turned up no evidence of aliens or space ghosts after decades of taxpayer-subsidized research, people who frequent shows claiming racist space aliens had sex with prehistoric women, people who grift across UFO conferences and media, people who have no compunction about lying to the public while collecting media and government checks. It’s corrupt, and bright red line that should never be crossed.

Dr. Taylor is a big star on the "History" channel (I use parentheses because that channel no longer presents shows about actual history, but instead promotes far-out claims.) He appeared on  The Curse Of Oak Island (Episode "Rock Solid," Season 6) to suggest that a constellation map superimposed over Oak Island yields the location of buried treasure of the Knights Templar. (Those avid treasure hunters have now been searching Oak Island for eight seasons, but have yet to find the treasure.)

Dr. Taylor is a regular guest on The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch, where (among other feats) he devised a "startling experiment" that "proves alien civilization." (How it proves that is not explained.)

He has even appeared on Ancient Aliens, where he teamed up with Giorgio Tsoukalos to test the flight characteristics of a model aircraft made from descriptions of sky vehicles called "Vimanas" in ancient Hindu texts. They found that it's a good aerodynamic design!

Travis Taylor and Giorgio Tsoukalos check out a supposed aircraft design from ancient aliens

Dr Taylor told George Knapp,

One of the primary jobs of the task force was to write a report to Congress summarizing the known evidence about UFOs.  The team had already created a classified briefing consisting of the most intriguing military encounters, starting with the 2004 Tic Tac incident. The task force whittled down a huge database into 144 of the very best cases. Dr. Taylor helped write the final report.

“We picked sources that were, we knew had a chain of custody of the data,” Taylor said. “And out of those 144 to 143 of them, we still couldn’t figure out what they were, where they came from and what their intent was.”

I'm starting to see why the Task Force was so unsuccessful in identifying its UAPs! 

New: Panel Discussion/Debate - Robert Anton Wilson, Robert Sheaffer, and Ivan Stang (1991).

I have recently posted to YouTube a panel discussion/debate I did with the late Robert Anton Wilson, well-known science fiction author and longtime gadfly to the skeptics; and Ivan Stang, founder of the satiric religion, the Church of the Subgenius, whose deity Bob promises to give you "slack." (Wilson was fondly known as "Pope Bob" in that Church.)  This panel took place at Phenomicon, Atlanta, Georgia, in November, 1991. 

Stang, Wilson, Sheaffer

Robert Anton Wilson (1932-2007) was the author of many popular books, including The Illuminatus! Trilogy, Schrödinger's Cat Trilogy, and Cosmic Trigger I: The Final Secret of the Illuminati. He also wrote plays: Wilhelm Reich in Hell (Wilson believed Reich to be a victim of Inquisitorial zeal by the Establishment), and his plays Cosmic Trigger and Illuminatus were adapted from his books. Wilson served as an associate editor of Playboy Magazine from 1965 to 1971, where he edited the Playboy Forum letters section. He was friends with Timothy Leary, Richard Alpert, Alan Watts, William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg.

While Wilson often wrote about conspiracies and conspiracy theories, he was not exactly a believer in them. He used them as examples of different ways of thinking, different "reality tunnels," and he obviously appreciated them for their humorous angles. But neither was he a complete disbeliever in such conspiracies, either. He claimed to be a "skeptic," but for him this meant being as skeptical of science as of pseudoscience. A believer in many far-out things, he wrote a book proclaiming the skeptics' group CSICOP to be a "New Inquisition" (which I reviewed in the Skeptical Inquirer, Fall 1989). He referred to skepticism as "Irrational Rationalism and the Citadel of Science."  Wilson's hatred of James "The Amazing" Randi ran deep and profound, even though I'm pretty sure they never met.

I had been pretty much the only skeptic to engage Wilson and his rather absurd criticisms, which were nonetheless widely read and cited by his supporters. My review of Wilson's attack on CSICOP, The New Inquisition, will provide some background on our disputes. Wilson proclaims himself to be a "guerrila ontologist," and on the panel we discuss what that means, and whether or not that makes him a "terrorist"? 😏  From my review:

Should you catch Wilson in an embarrassing howler, he just laughs at you, hinting that the part you object to was not supposed to be taken seriously. Apparently Wilson operates on the principle that all claims should be treated as equals, whether prosaic or bizarre, and that only the dogmatic discriminate against something merely because it makes no sense. If you doubt literal rains of frogs, or sightings of a centaur, it is only because you are blinded by the conventions of your "reality tunnel." Tune in, turn on, and believe all manner of things; you might even see a "man with warty green skin and pointy ears, dancing," as Wilson did on the day following one of his "trips" on peyote.

Wilson had something of a rockstar quality to his followers. Stang has posted a related video of Wilson preaching about "Bob" at this same conference, which shows the atmosphere, and the adulation Willson inspired in certain cirtcles. Search YouTube, and you will find a great deal of Robert Anton Wilson there.

Since none of the other skeptics bothered to engage Wilson or his criticisms, I naturally became the target of his accusations of closed-mindedness. In Cosmic Trigger II (1991), Wilson wrote,

A man from the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal [meaning me] recently complained that when he tells people some things in my book are batshit crazy, they tell him he lacks a sense of humor. I fear somebody in the CIA is also going to have that problem, because the CIA reality-tunnel is as rigid and paranoid as that of CSICOP (p. 234).

Wilson often used the example of the CIA as the pinnacle of establishment closed-mindedness. But the irony here is, we now know that the CIA, and other Defense Department agencies, secretly experimented with ESP and Remote Viewing in a big way. The CIA funded the testing of Uri Geller at SRI, with Kit Green, now prominent in UFOlogy because of his involvement with Bigelow, AATIP, and the Skinwalker Ranch, as the CIA's "handler" for the Geller contract (see Phenomena by Annie Jacobsen for an in-depth account from now-declassified documents of how the Pentagon and the CIA and the NSA dived into such woo).

And this one, too. I think he wanted me
to denounce it!

Wilson sent me his latest book, in 1990.

Remember this nonsense? Ivan Stang invented it.