The long-awaited U.S. intelligence report on UFOs is expected to be released any day, between now and Friday, June 25. With new footage of reported UFO sightings going viral on social media in recent months, people are eagerly awaiting the government’s inner understanding of the subject of extraterrestrial life.
Here’s everything you need to know about the upcoming report.
What do we already know about the report?
Under the Trump administration, the Pentagon established the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force in August 2020, which was directed to “detect, analyze and catalogue” the growing number of unexplained events, while looking to understand the “nature and origins” of these crafts.
As noted by BBC News, “A classified version of the group’s report was provided to lawmakers earlier this month. Unnamed officials told US media that the report found no evidence of alien activity, but also did not rule it out.”
Do other countries care about UFOs?
According to former Senator Reid, multiple countries are investigating the subject of UFOs, thereby justifying the $22 million funding he obtained for the Pentagon’s original UFO program.
“We know that China is doing it,” Reid said in 2019. “We know that Russia, which is led by someone within the KGB, is doing it, too, so we better take a look at it, too.”
What have U.S. officials said about the subject?
Former U.S. military officials spoke with CNN’s Chris Cuomo in May regarding repeated encounters of UFOs by the military.
“… [W]e have recurring violations of U.S. airspace by unidentified vehicles. They are very capable, in some cases, more capable than anything in our own inventory. This has been going on for years. The truth is just emerging. We’ve had a massive intelligence failure. And we now have a threat, an unknown threat that we need to figure out,” said Chris Mellon, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence.
“Well, we clearly are vulnerable. And this has been going on for too long. Finally, our Congress is learning of this situation. They’re beginning to react. So we’ve got a lot of catch-up here. But it is – it is very concerning. It’s not an imminent crisis or imminent threat. There’s been no hostility. But there’s a lot of activity. And it’s increasingly bold. In some instances, recently, we’ve had these things swarming around warships off the coast of California, swarming around Strategic Missile Defense bases, in Guam, and other things. So, with all the tensions in the world, and China, and the rest, with the attack on the Saudi oil facilities, by drones, and so forth, it’s something we need to take seriously,” added Mellon.
Have U.S. presidents spoken about UFOs?
In mid-May, former President Barack Obama admitted that unidentified flying objects (UFOs) are real.
Appearing on CBS’ “The Late Late Show with James Corden,” Obama responded to the growing focus on the subject of UFOs.
“What is true, and I’m actually being serious here, is that there is footage and records of objects in the skies that we don’t know exactly what they are,” he said.
“We can’t explain how they move, their trajectory,” he said. “They did not have an easily explainable pattern. And so I think that people still take seriously, trying to investigate and figure out what that is.”
“But I have nothing to report to you today,” Obama noted.