Author, skeptic shares down-to-earth explanation for UFOs shown in declassified videos

Record ID: 1623225

  • Title: Author, skeptic shares down-to-earth explanation for UFOs shown in declassified videos
  • Date: 24th June 2021
  • Summary: SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (JUNE 4, 2021) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) MICK WEST, UFO SKEPTIC , SAYING: "But really, it's kind of a lack of detail and rigor. I really don't get the sense that they really investigated these reports very much, beyond simple asking questions like,'do you know what this is', and then, 'no, I don't know what this is'. And it doesn't seem to have really gone very much beyond that." WHITE FLASH (SOUNDBITE) (English) MICK WEST, UFO SKEPTIC , SAYING: "And if there actually is some kind of foreign threat, it probably would be classified. The report that's coming out is going to have what's called a classified annex, which is just essentially a big database of all the information which is classified. They said specifically within that information there isn't evidence of aliens, but there may well be evidence of foreign intrusions into our airspace and the way the military is currently dealing with them. But that would be classified. That is secret. That isn't stuff that the public is going to know about because we don't want our adversaries to know about it."
  • Embargoed: 8th July 2021 04:13
  • Keywords: Congress Mick West Pentagon UAP UFO aliens report
  • Location: SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA/ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA/WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES/SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES/UNKNOWN LOCATION/INTERNET
  • City: SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA/ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA/WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES/SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES/UNKNOWN LOCATION/INTERNET
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Government/Politics,United States
  • Reuters ID: LVA005EISDBNR
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: INSTANCES OF PROFANITY IN UFO VIDEOS
    A leading UFO skeptic says a highly anticipated government report on unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) was inconclusive and lacked "detail and rigor".
    Public fascination with unidentified flying objects has been stoked in recent weeks by the forthcoming report, with UFO enthusiasts looking forward to revelations about unexplained sightings many believe the government has sought to discredit or cover up for decades.
    According to a scientific researcher, the excitement may be premature because the unclassified report is expected to have a classified annex, the details of which will not be disclosed to the public.
    "There may well be evidence of foreign intrusions into our airspace and the way the military is currently dealing with them. But that would be classified. That is secret. That isn't stuff that the public is going to know about because we don't want our adversaries to know about it, "said Mick West, an author who has investigated UAP claims and related theories of possible alien life on earth.
    West says the term UAP is a broadranging term to describe objects in the sky, but cautions against conflating their presence with alien spacecraft.
    "I think aliens are somewhere in the universe. It's a very big universe. What I'm skeptical of is the idea that they are here. And more specifically, I'm skeptical of the idea that we have evidence that they are here," West says.
    The report is due to be released towards the end of June, but according to preliminary details reported by the New York Times, U.S. intelligence officials found no evidence that unidentified aerial phenomena observed by Navy aviators in recent years were alien spacecraft, but the sightings remain unexplained.
    Many of the 120-plus sightings reviewed in the classified intelligence study from a Pentagon task force were reported by U.S. Navy personnel, while some involved foreign militaries, according to the Times.
    One unnamed senior U.S. official briefed on the report told the Times there was concern among American intelligence and military officials that China or Russia could be experimenting with hypersonic technology.
    The term "unidentified flying objects," or UFOs, has been largely supplanted in official government parlance by UAP, short for unidentified aerial phenomena, since December 2017.
    It was then that the Pentagon first went on record, in a New York Times article, acknowledging documented UAP encounters by its warplanes and ships and efforts to catalog them, marking a turnaround from decades of publicly treating the subject as taboo.
    In September 2019, the U.S. Navy confirmed to various U.S. media outlets that declassified military videos posted online purporting to show UFO sightings are authentic.
    The grainy black-and-white videos, titled "GIMBAL", "GOFAST" and "FLIR1" and that were taken aboard U.S Navy fighter jets in 2004 and 2015 were released over a period of four months in 2017 and 2018 by To The Stars Academy of Arts & Sciences.
    Senior U.S. officials cited in the Times article said the report's ambiguity meant the government was unable to definitively rule out theories that the unidentified phenomena might have been extraterrestrial in nature.
    West, who often posts videos on his YouTube page offering potential explanations behind the fast-moving objects seen in the videos, remains unconvinced.
    "An interesting unidentified flying object would be one that made some kind of amazing maneuvers. It's difficult to to record that with a single camera. So for me, the best evidence will be to see it from two cameras at the same time, one from one angle, one from another," says West.
    The unclassified version of the report expected to be submitted to Congress by June 25 will present few other conclusions, the newspaper said.
    (Production: Pavithra George)
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