US are powerless to stop UFOs entering airspace as Pentagon begins classified briefings on mystery craft, says lawmaker

THE US is “powerless to stop UFOs entering its airspace,” lawmakers have admitted as the Pentagon starts its classified briefings on mystery aircraft.

Lawmakers have also said national security agencies still aren’t taking the reports seriously of highly sophisticated and advanced flying craft of unknown origin violating the country’s airspace.

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Republican representative for Tennessee Tim Burchett, a member of the House Transportation Aviation Subcommittee, said the Department of Defense (DoD) is also part of a conspiracy withholding the truth.

Burchett said: “I don’t trust the Department of Defense to get this right since leadership there has always been part of a cover-up.

“It is clear from the public evidence that we don’t have full control of our airspace.

“That’s a national security issue and it’s also unacceptable.”

Five current and former military and intelligence officials and contractor personnel privy to the deliberations who were not authorized to speak publicly  believe real progress is being made to compel agencies to take a more proactive approach — and also be more transparent about what they might know about UFO sightings and technologies, according to a report by .

Concerns were raised after members  of the Senate Intelligence and Armed Services committees received the latest secret briefings on UFOs with calls for more analysts and surveillance systems dedicated to determining the aircrafts’ origin rather than just more reports about their existence.

Democrat Senator Kirsten Gillibrand described it as “an urgent issue”.

“Senator Gillibrand believes that the DoD needs to take this issue much more seriously and get in motion,” said one of her aides to the news site, who requested anonymity in order to discuss private conversations. “They have had ample time to implement these important provisions, and they need to show us that they are prepared to address this issue in the long-term.”

The briefings come four months after Congress passed the National Defense Authorization Act requiring the Pentagon to create the Anomaly Surveillance and Resolution Office.

The office, due to be fully operational by June, has the authority to pursue “any resource, capability, asset, or process” in order to  investigate “unidentified aerial phenomena” (UAP) – otherwise known as UFOs.

Under the legislation, the Pentagon office is meant to be developing an “intelligence collection and analysis plan to gain as much knowledge as possible regarding the technical and operational characteristics, origins, and intentions of unidentified aerial phenomena.”

The legislation, signed by President Joe Biden, also requires an annual report and semiannual briefings for Congress, including descriptions of all UAP incidents such as those “associated with military nuclear assets, including strategic nuclear weapons and nuclear-powered ships and submarines.”

PERMANENT UFO OFFICE

In response to the legislation, Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks, directed the creation of an Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchornization Group, overseeing the increased effort and establish the permanent UFO office, as required.

As part of its remit, it is to standardize UAP incidents reporting across the military and collect and analyse more intelligence.

Susan Gough, a department spokesperson told Politico in a statement: “The Department continues to brief Congress on our efforts regarding unidentified aerial phenomena, including our progress in standing up the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group, in accordance with the fiscal 2022 National Defense Authorization Act.”

“I cannot comment on specific engagements,” she added.

Expanding the investigation of UFOs, will need far resources and personnel being dedicated to the task, military and intelligence experts say.

FRUSTRATION OVER PROGRESS BEING MADE

Other members of Congress have also aired their frustration with the progress being made.

The top Republican on the intelligence panel, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, believes the Pentagon is not aggressively carrying out the direction from Congress.

“Rubio is definitely frustrated,” said one of the senator’s aides, who was not authorized to speak publicly, according to Politico. “They are not moving fast enough, not doing enough, not sharing enough.”

“The administration is aware of the concerns,” he added. “It is not at the level it needs to be.”

Scrutiny from Capitol Hill has increased since 2017, after Luis Elizondo, a former Pentagon official, went public with his concerns.

ENCOUNTERS WITH UFOS

Since then, Navy pilots have come forward to seemingly credible evidence and testimony about encounters with UFOs.

The Pentagon has also started releasing select footage showing mysterious aircraft captured on fighter jet cameras and ship radars.

“They are putting time in, they are doing work,” said a government contractor who has been enlisted. “They are going to put some bodies on it. I think they’ll probably file the reports back to Congress on time. And that is a big plus.”

Others have claimed that although officials are doing a better job at collecting reports of UAPs they remain reluctant to dedicate more assets to determine if some of the reported crafts could belong to foreign power or if they are extraterrestrial.

“I have seen everything we have [in the files] and I am very confident they are not ours,” a former senior intelligence official is quoted as saying, who had authority over the UFO portfolio, referring to classified US aircraft programs.

The contractor is also concerned that the new Pentagon panel “is going to receive reports and collate them but they’re not going to lead any organized, serious effort to find out what the hell’s going on, nor are they going to be in a position to press anybody else to do that.”

Congress wants “somebody to get on the stick over there and get to the bottom of it,” the contractor added.

That includes finding out where the sightings are most commonly being reported and then using technical systems to monitor those areas more closely and regularly.

NEED FOR SHARED INFORMATION

Elizondo has also said in the past that he believes an ongoing problem is that there are still “pockets of information” on UAPs within government that are not being shared with the new Pentagon body or Congress.

When some of those pockets do eventually reach committees via other channels, it undermines their confidence in the government’s ability to seek and provide answers.

“When they are made aware of information and data and videos and photos that are not being provided by DoD, it sets up a situation where the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing,” Elizondo said.

Elizondo also warned that the Pentagon is lumping the most baffling UAP reports in with the more readily identifiable objects commonly found in US airspace, such as drones or weather balloons and parts of discarded rockets.

The aim of the new law “is not to associate UAPs as an air clutter issue or space junk,” Elizondo said. “That should not be confused with clearly breakaway technologies that are being employed and demonstrated within our controlled US airspace.”

While the government UFO contractor did see signs of momentum he expected Congress would have to take more legislative action.

“I think there are pockets of people in different agencies who are enthusiastic,” he said. “But is it a focused effort? Is there somebody at a high level who is an advocate who owns this problem and is putting together a plan to get the answers that Congress wants? I think the answer to that is no.”

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