Despite the expected criticism in the media, Reid said he is happy that the story has leaked to the public because he believes it to be scientific evidence of the phenomenon. He also justified the program by saying that it presented a potential security threat in the event that a foreign nation might acquire an advanced technology from the materials before the United States could.

The program was also criticized because it was awarded to Bigelow, an outspoken UFO enthusiast and friend of the senator. Reid denied any conflict of interest, saying that Bigelow was awarded the contract because he was the lowest bidder and willing to invest his own money in building the necessary infrastructure to store the exotic materials.

In television interviews and reports, large warehouses in the Nevada desert are shown during construction by Bigelow at his aerospace complex, where the materials supposedly remain.

There have been almost no details released to the public about these objects, though metallurgists are dubious of the claim that they could possess ‘unidentified alloys’ because they say they believe there are no metal alloys that are unidentifiable. While this may be true, there is always the possibility the word alloy was used to describe the materials in a way that conveys their exotic nature.

In a subsequent interview with one of the article’s authors, Ralph Blumenthal, the materials were described as, “technology, objects, whatever they are… some kind of compound that they don’t recognize.”

Beyond that, Blumenthal could provide no further description of what these materials might be.

Are UFO Materials Secure?

Robert Bigelow isn’t necessarily a familiar name for those who don’t pay attention to news in the UFO community or aerospace industry, making him an interesting choice to harbor alien technology. If the government has recovered materials from spacecraft, one might assume they would be stored in a high-security, underground bunker, rather than a civilian contractor’s warehouse.

According to a report, Bigelow’s company had 46 scientists studying the materials and analyzing military data on the phenomenon. ‘Rapid response teams’ were also formed and dispatched to scenes of UFO events to collect material and data, though how often those events occurred and where they occurred is unclear.

In addition to recovering and examining these materials, the program studied people who had contact with the objects and the physical effects they experienced. Again, there is a dearth of detail as to what that implies and in interviews with the authors of the article, this question is largely ignored. What were these physical effects and were they able to determine what caused them?

This has raised a multitude of questions by those who expect more detail from an esteemed media publication like the New York Times; a modicum of clarification when making such profound statements.

And though UFO enthusiasts are used to small drips of ambiguous detail like this, they’re also aware of disinformation campaigns of the past. This has led some to be wary of the possibility that this disclosure could be part of a controlled propaganda campaign by the government, whether the UFO insight is real or not.

TTSA has an impressive roster of members, with names some ufologists might be familiar with, like Dr. Hal Puthoff. Though some of the military and Defense Department members might be regarded with a bit more suspicion.

Luis Elizondo, the high-level intelligence officer from the Pentagon has a resume that cites a history of abstruse CIA operations. His former titles boast duties like ‘running clandestine source operations throughout Latin America and the Middle East’ and ‘supervising highly sensitive espionage and terrorism investigations around the world.’

The project is also being given information from high-ranking Air Force officers, one of which was fired for his drunken, churlish behavior on a trip to Russia. At the time, he oversaw 450 of the United States’ nuclear-armed, intercontinental ballistic missiles.

The choice of Tom Delonge as a medium for all of the information is strange as well, with a former-rock-star-turned-ufologist seeming to be an odd candidate for leading the disclosure of such impactful news. In leaked emails, Delonge is said to have been chosen because the government needed someone who is able to convey this information effectively with the youth.

Disclosing Highly Advanced Technology

For the next major release, Delonge has alluded to a potential unveiling of the technology observed by these craft that his company may have in its possession. He has hinted at the prospect of something like a reverse-engineered prototype released to the public as a sort of controlled disclosure.

One of the members of TTSA, Steve Justice, is the former head of Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Development Program, a.k.a. Skunk Works. Justice’s experience with the military contractor allegedly had him developing clandestine government projects at the infamous Area 51 Air Force base in Nevada, the site most commonly associated with alien aircraft technology.

Another high-ranking officer involved with Delonge was Major General William McCasland, Commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson in Ohio, another base historically involved in UFO studies and where debris from the Roswell crash is rumored to be stored.

McCasland is in charge of the Air Force’s $2.2 billion science and technology program as well as another $2.2 billion customer funded research and development program. According to a leaked email correspondence between Delonge and former Clinton campaign manager, John Podesta, McCasland has been in charge of the laboratory where the remains of the crashed UFO from Roswell are stored. Delonge says McCasland helped him form his team for TTSA.

In the midst of this convoluted story is the consistent undertone of security and threat from other nations. The Pentagon UFO study, aptly named the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, was established in the event that the U.S. might fall behind on discovering technology that could be weaponized, allowing its enemies to gain an upper hand.

At the same time the wiki-leaked Podesta emails are mired in the controversy of election hacking by the Russians, adding another opaque layer to an already hazy narrative.

At face value, the whole story is incredibly exciting and promises to deliver some long-awaited disclosure, though it’s hard not to think of previous disinformation attempts, in which the CIA has lead seekers in circles, sometimes driving them to the brink of insanity.

In this case though, it seems that the large-scale publicity and the list of qualified actors involved would be too publicized to be a disinformation stratagem, though controlled propaganda should never be ruled out.

For those in the UFO and paranormal space, anxiety is piqued with many waiting for the next drip of disclosure. Can we really expect a profound revelation from Delonge and TTSA, or should we proceed with suspicion?