By Donald Jeffries
For decades, thousands of people all over the world have reported seeing strange lights in the sky, dubbed “flying saucers” by Kenneth Arnold, who is associated with the first modern unidentified flying object (UFO) sighting in 1947 over Washington State.
These individuals were universally ridiculed by the mainstream media and establishment scientists in recent decades, though newspaper and TV reports were much more common from the 1940s through the 1960s. Celebrity astronomer Carl Sagan used to regularly go on “The Tonight Show” and scoff at UFO witnesses with fellow skeptic Johnny Carson. These witnesses received nothing but scorn for their efforts, often losing their jobs and the support of their families.
The U.S. government consistently played down these sightings and concealed a great deal of information from the public. In 1952, the Air Force launched Project Blue Book, led by Col. Edward Ruppelt, which set the template for future “investigations” like the Warren Commission and 9/11 Commission. The Air Force attributed many credible sightings to “swamp gas” or the planet Venus. They released the whitewash Condon Report, named for physicist Edward Condon, the individual in charge of the “investigation.” Among other things, the Condon Report concluded: “There was no evidence submitted to or discovered by the Air Force that sightings categorized as ‘unidentified’ represented technological developments or principles beyond the range of modern scientific knowledge; and there was no evidence indicating that sightings categorized as ‘unidentified’ were extraterrestrial vehicles.” (He also admitted that he wasn’t supposed to “come to that conclusion for another year,” a tacit admission that his conclusion was in place before his investigation even began.)
It is therefore natural for those who have researched UFOs, and dealt with the government coverup, to be suspicious of the recent sea change in attitude on the part of both government and their sycophants in the press. Tucker Carlson was among those on television to recently air reports about a subject that previously would have been laughed at by the heads of every network.
The new Netflix documentary “The Phenomenon” features contributions from major political figures like former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and former Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. The producers, and their establishment contributors, clearly infer that UFOs are a reality that must be seriously investigated. Reid says, at one point, that most of the real evidence held by the U.S. government “hasn’t seen the light of day.”
The documentary utilizes some highly respected UFO researchers, including French scientist and astrologer Jacques Vallee. It focuses attention on some of the most documented mass sightings, which have always been difficult for the government to dismiss. For instance, director James Fox examined an incident involving 110 Zimbabwe school children in 1994. One of the students, now an adult, spoke for all UFO witnesses past and present by declaring, “There was no reason for any of us to make that up.” In addition, one of their teachers, interviewed for the documentary, said, decades after the incident, that she regretted not telling the truth about the alleged encounter with a strange being with large black eyes, and that the children had told the truth.
The most mainstream news outlets imaginable, including CNN, gave “The Phenomenon” a glowing review—not the most confidence-building testimonial considering the lies that CNN has been spewing day in and day out for the last four years.
Another intriguing segment of the documentary includes information from once-secret USSR files in which Soviet reports of strange craft routinely disabling or activating nuclear missiles in their silos were discussed. Interestingly, the same things are alleged to have happened on multiple occasions at some of the most highly sensitive U.S. missile bases in America.
In April of this year, the same Pentagon that has stonewalled independent UFO researchers for years released video of what it termed “unidentified aerial phenomena,” along with navy pilots reacting in astonishment to the speed and maneuverability of the craft. The same media that has lampooned UFO witnesses relentlessly now expresses their approval. The Washington Post opined that the Pentagon footage “comes at the perfect time.” In June, the Senate Intelligence Committee voted to require U.S. intelligence agencies and the Defense Department to publicly release a detailed analysis of all phenomena related to unidentified aircraft. In July, the nation’s greatest repository of fake news, The New York Times, reported on the Pentagon’s new UFO unit, run out of the Office of Naval Intelligence. The newspaper breathlessly stated that the issue was finally “no longer in shadows.”
In August, the creation of the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAPTF) was announced by the Department of Defense, tasked to analyze and understand the “nature and origins” of UAPs. (UAP seems to have replaced UFO in official circles.) According to a press statement, the mission of the UAPTF “is to detect, analyze, and catalog UAPs that could potentially pose a threat to U.S. national security.” Mark Rodeghier, president and scientific director of the J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies in Chicago, reacted to the creation of the UAPTF by saying, “I remain cautiously optimistic for now. I would hope that as much information as possible is released to the public so we can all be informed on this potentially world-shattering subject.”
In 1980, the Air Force declared that “further scientific investigation of UFOs is unwarranted.” On August 3, 1997, the Times headlined a story: “CIA Admits Government Lied About UFO Sightings.” The coverup hasn’t been confined to this country, however. On Aug. 5, 2010, BBC News admitted: “Churchill Ordered UFO Cover-Up, National Archives Show.”
Why is the government suddenly opening up about this subject now? Are the rumors going back to a 1947 incident at Roswell, N.M. about extraterrestrials in our midst true? Or is this all related to another psy-op, run by the same malevolent forces behind all the others? One thing is for sure, “The Phenomenon” is probably worth the two hours it will take to watch it. As the film’s producer says, “I’m not screaming from the hilltops ‘ET is here!’ . . . I’m just saying, ‘Hey, look, there’s a serious situation going on, and this demands not only government transparency, but further investigation’.”
Donald Jeffries is a highly respected author and researcher whose work on the JFK, RFK and MLK assassinations and other high crimes of the Deep State has been read by millions of people across the world. Jeffries is also the author of three books currently being sold by the AFP Online Store.
