$22 Million Spent On UFO Research by Pentagon - Secret Program Revealed
- 5 years ago
Pentagon Spent $22 Million on a Mysterious UFO Analysis Program - The X-Files are real, y’all. No, seriously, here is some wild news for anyone who, like me, cried at the end of Arrival, or perhaps fears that one day aliens will roll on through planet Earth and absolutely wreck our stuff.The Pentagon quietly ran a $22 million program to study unidentified flying objects from 2008 to 2012 at the behest of former Senator Harry Reid, the New York Times reported on Saturday, after considering numerous accounts of unexplained phenomena that could involve advanced technology developed by foreign governments or even aliens dropping in to spy on our crapsack world. For years, this program had federal contractors scurrying around trying to identify unexplained phenomena like Mulder and Scully instead of developing new and innovative ways to kill people.
The unclassified but secretive Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program was funded $22 million from 2008 to 2011, with the vast majority of the funding going to Bigelow Airspace. That’s a company conveniently owned by one of Reid’s friends and donors, Robert Bigelow, though the program was also approved by since-deceased (COINCIDENCE?) Senators Ted Stevens and Daniel Inouye. That $22 million enabled contractors to build a low-key Nevada warehouse for what they claimed was unidentified artifacts obtained from UFOs, as well as compile witness accounts:
Under Mr. Bigelow’s direction, the company modified buildings in Las Vegas for the storage of metal alloys and other materials that Mr. Elizondo and program contractors said had been recovered from unidentified aerial phenomena. Researchers also studied people who said they had experienced physical effects from encounters with the objects and examined them for any physiological changes. In addition, researchers spoke to military service members who had reported sightings of strange aircraft.
Reid has long held an interest in UFOs, and it’s certainly possible the program essentially amounted to good ol’ fashioned D.C. pork barrel spending at the behest of a dude with a weird hobby and a friend he could hook up with a sweet government contract. The feds have launched numerous investigations of UFOs and found very little, including the 1947-1969 Project Blue Book.
But according to the Times, Reid later decided AATIP had “made such extraordinary discoveries that he argued for heightened security to protect it,” requesting the deputy defense secretary list it as a “restricted special access program” which would keep its findings in the hands of just a few officials. AATIP analysts claimed compelling evidence the unidentified objects in question used some kind of next-generation propulsion technology and that the U.S. was incapable of defending against them if they turned hostile (yeah, sounds about right).
The unclassified but secretive Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program was funded $22 million from 2008 to 2011, with the vast majority of the funding going to Bigelow Airspace. That’s a company conveniently owned by one of Reid’s friends and donors, Robert Bigelow, though the program was also approved by since-deceased (COINCIDENCE?) Senators Ted Stevens and Daniel Inouye. That $22 million enabled contractors to build a low-key Nevada warehouse for what they claimed was unidentified artifacts obtained from UFOs, as well as compile witness accounts:
Under Mr. Bigelow’s direction, the company modified buildings in Las Vegas for the storage of metal alloys and other materials that Mr. Elizondo and program contractors said had been recovered from unidentified aerial phenomena. Researchers also studied people who said they had experienced physical effects from encounters with the objects and examined them for any physiological changes. In addition, researchers spoke to military service members who had reported sightings of strange aircraft.
Reid has long held an interest in UFOs, and it’s certainly possible the program essentially amounted to good ol’ fashioned D.C. pork barrel spending at the behest of a dude with a weird hobby and a friend he could hook up with a sweet government contract. The feds have launched numerous investigations of UFOs and found very little, including the 1947-1969 Project Blue Book.
But according to the Times, Reid later decided AATIP had “made such extraordinary discoveries that he argued for heightened security to protect it,” requesting the deputy defense secretary list it as a “restricted special access program” which would keep its findings in the hands of just a few officials. AATIP analysts claimed compelling evidence the unidentified objects in question used some kind of next-generation propulsion technology and that the U.S. was incapable of defending against them if they turned hostile (yeah, sounds about right).