What 2021s UFO News Taught Us About Gov. Disclosure
2021 has been called the year of the UFO, with UFO news seemingly breaking every month, and it hasn’t stopped yet.
The Pentagon recently announced the formation of the “Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group” to replace the UAP Task Force, on the heels of the much-anticipated UAP report from the US government that came earlier the year.
To break down the events of the past year and provide context, Nick Pope, who worked for the UK’s Ministry of Defence on the UFO phenomenon, weighed in.
“2021 has been a huge year for the UFO topic, the big story, of course, was the preliminary assessment of unidentified aerial phenomena produced by the Office of Director of National Intelligence,” Pope said.
“It said that a lot of these sightings could not be explained even after a rigorous investigation by the military. It said that some of these cases appeared to display the hallmarks of advanced technology examples. Two examples of that are signature management and a degree of radiofrequency energy. So it was big and of course, work is continuing, there will be all sorts of follow-up.”
This year saw a number of senior government officials, some former, some in office, speak out on the issue of UFOs and potential extraterrestrial life.
“2021 absolutely saw an uptick in the number of senior people speaking out on this,” Pope said. “We had former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, we had former CIA Director James Woolsey, DNI Avril Haines, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, Jeff Bezos spoke, and a number of others. Again, it’s unprecedented I think, when we’ve had people like Luis Elizondo of course, speaking out on this for some time now. What we’re seeing now is a validation of a lot of that when the senior folks pile in and say ‘Yes, there is something to all this, and who am I to rule out the extraterrestrial hypothesis?’”
We’ve recently reported on Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s amendment to the national defense authorization act which included multiple groundbreaking UFO-related topics. That amendment was taken up in the National Defense Authorization Act and in an increasingly rare moment of bipartisanship, featured several republican co-sponsors and a call for open reporting.
“Senator Gillibrand and Senator Marco Rubio, who subsequently endorsed her amendment and put his name on it too, have said ‘Yes, whatever Congress gets,’ which will be classified, ‘there must be at least an annual report for the public and the media,’ which will be unclassified of course, as with the June 2021 preliminary assessment. But at least people will get something, that’s probably more than the Pentagon wanted to do,” Pope said.
Pope started studying the UFO phenomenon for the UK’s ministry in 1991. We asked if he’s seen a societal shift when it comes to UFO phenomena over the past 30 years.
“A critical mass has built upon this issue. Now certainly, I don’t know how it plays into the wider public, but in the circles in which I move, there’s an absolute acceptance now that this is something that was overlooked or stigmatized for too long,” Pope said. “The realization now I think, from within the government, from within Congress, that this is a safety of flight issue, a defense issue, and a potential national security challenge. The key takeaway is that folks are going to be taking this more seriously than they have before.”
How can we sum up 2021 and what can we look forward to in 2022 and beyond?
“As I look back on 2021 I think it’s a year of very solid progress. 2022 we’ll doubtless see a ramping up of the official research and investigation program. I mean we’ve got a lot of fabulous resources and capabilities that sit within the US. The problem is they’re no good if you don’t use them. What has been lacking is the will to use these resources, these capabilities, this expertise; to use all that to solve the UFO mystery. There’s a lot going on, a lot happened in 2021, but a lot to look forward to in 2022,” Pope said.
Hillary Clinton Met With Laurance S. Rockefeller to Discuss UFOs
In 1995, then-first lady Hillary Clinton took a trip to the Rockefeller Ranch in Jackson, WY, where she met with billionaire philanthropist Laurance S. Rockefeller. Of the many things the two discussed that weekend, one topic became the focal point of media coverage and subsequent rumblings within the world of ufology—a project that became known as The Rockefeller Initiative.
Rockefeller was a known proponent of the UFO disclosure movement, having funded a number of projects to prove the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence. His pursuit in bringing this issue to Clinton’s attention quickly became obvious, marked by the now-famous image of the two walking in the woods, Clinton holding a copy of “Are We Alone: Philosophical Implications of the Discovery of Extraterrestrial Life” by Paul Davies.
And while the Rockefeller Initiative was taken over by other ufologists after his death in 2004, Dr. Steven Greer says he had been involved in discussions with the late Rockefeller years before he famously met with the first lady.
Beginning in the early ‘90s, Dr. Greer began putting together materials from research he was conducting into the ET phenomenon. This consisted of countless reports from hundreds of government insiders, FAA personnel, and former military brass who wanted to come forward and testify in front of Congress about the uncanny, first-hand experiences they’d had with UFOs and ETs. Dr. Greer’s meticulous efforts would culminate in a public forum nearly a decade later at his highly publicized 2001 National Press Club event.
