US Department of War - UAP Files - Tranche 5

[NorCal Dave]

If there is no real threat at all, it means a handful of UFO believers managed to trick Congress into creating an entire federal investigative infrastructure based on absolute nothingness, simply because they fell for internet stories and hazing rituals.

Agreed. That's a good summery. It's also the history of UFOs and government programs going back to the '50s. A group of people, both civilian and government/military get all riled up about UFOs, as in aliens. They exert political pressure and some sort of committee or program or investigation ensues for a period of time. Nothing comes of these efforts and they're shut down. After a while, a new group, often with the help of members of the previous group, once again get riled up about UFOs and expert political pressure for yet another useless program or investigation. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat......

In the current climate, with Trump being a populist, it's a bit easier. What he actually thinks, I have no idea, but if Luna, Burchette and others in Congress go along with his priorities, he'll throw them a UFO bone as needed.

These are official declassifications vetted by leadership and offices like AARO.

Maybe or kinda sorta. Recall, Representative Luna had a list of "anomalous videos" that she demanded be released. It seemed pretty obvious that UFO personality and YouTuber Jeremy Corbell had provided her with the list. He seems to get these videos from insiders, similar to Mathew Brown, that often use their phones to film a screen of something they think is anomalous. It may be that whoever originally recorded some blob knew exactly what it was, but some UFO enthusiast didn't, and passed it onto Corbell. It's also possible some of the leakers know what's in the video, but like to feed the UFO hype machine. Who knows?

Bottom line, Luna's list was likely from Corbell, who's list was likely from his UFO insiders and all of those have been released.

My speculation: The whole point of this exercise was to circumvent AARO. Kirkpatrick was no friend to the UFO community and AARO is looked at with suspicion. Recall Luna's chant to "defund AARO". They're ultimate goal was to get rid of AARO and replace it with a more UFO friendly program, hopefully staffed by the likes of Elizondo, Grusch, Corbell and others in the UFO infotainment complex.

Luna's list was passed to the White House who it seems just told AARO to release this stuff. The White House probably wasn't interested enough to get into a hassle about doing a way with the Congressionaly constituted AARO, so they just told AARO to give the Congress people what they asked for. I don't think AARO vetted much, if any of this stuff. They made a point of saying much of it was out of context or from unknown sources, then just released it, as told to do.

 

[Mick West]

My speculation: The whole point of this exercise was to circumvent AARO.

I agree. But the DOW PERSUE office seems to be just a thin layer mostly on top of AARO, with some FBI. I think Luna or Mace was pushing the FBI as a replacement for AARO. But AARO is deeply involved in the military stuff, whereas the FBI people seem to be just like MUFON, with blurry phone videos from the public and unverifiable eyewitness accounts. It would be fascinating to see exactly who all the people involved were, and what their journey has been up to this point.

 

[Fritzkquzerk]

I agree. But the DOW PERSUE office seems to be just a thin layer mostly on top of AARO, with some FBI. I think Luna or Mace was pushing the FBI as a replacement for AARO. But AARO is deeply involved in the military stuff, whereas the FBI people seem to be just like MUFON, with blurry phone videos from the public and unverifiable eyewitness accounts. It would be fascinating to see exactly who all the people involved were, and what their journey has been up to this point.

Well what could FBI do? They file reports from people, and that's it.
I guess 99% of the time citizens report something in the sky and by the time the police arrive, there's nothing left to see. It's not like they could provide videos.
For PURSUE, I suppose every video or photo we see it's reviewed (and maybe redacted) by AARO before release. It's not like a bunch of UFO buffs are publishing stuff.
I don't get why Kirkpatrick was disliked by the UFO guys. The other directors like Kosloski or Phillips are no different, they have the job to identify air clutter and aircraft, that's what they do. Must have something to do with the "no evidence of E.T. life" statements, but it's not just Kirkpatrick, if there's no E.T.s, then there's no E.T.s.

 

[NorCal Dave]

if there's no E.T.s, then there's no E.T.s.

No, no, my friend. If there's no E.T.s, it's because AARO is actively hiding the evidence. For some in the UFO world, the existence of aliens, government knowledge about that existence and things like crash retrieval programs are a giving. They are facts. Thus any government agency or program that does not provide the evidence for these facts, is part of the cover-up. AARO, and its leaders, are treated with extreme suspicion, if not outright hostility, by a large part of the UFO world.

Well what could FBI do? They file reports from people, and that's it.

They do a bit more than file reports. It is a Federal law enforcement and investigative agency. But, as Mick noted above, they don't really have access to military stuff the way AARO is supposed to have.

Again, my speculation: Some of us thought that the UFO congressional caucus with Luna, Burchette and others may have thought the FBI was a more UFO friendly environment. Or at least one that could be bent to their will a bit more. The Department of Defense has ~2.1M people in it, not counting National Guard members. It's a huge bureaucracy and even if Secretary Hegseth was amiable to the UFO caucus' concerns, he's got a pretty full plate. In addition, Congress mandated AARO, so Hegseth can't just do away with it or change the rules Congress created about how it operates, even if he had the time and inclination to deal with it. AARO is codified into law, so there not a lot they can do about it.

The FBI by contrast consists of ~ 38,000 and the current head, Kash Patel, is not at the Secretary level. They may have believed Patel could exercise much more control over any UFO investigations, and they could in turn exercise more control over Patel, or hoped he was friendly to their desires. There is no law backed AARO equivalent at the FBI, just whatever investigative group Patel sets up.

It's not like a bunch of UFO buffs are publishing stuff.

In a sense, they are. As noted, Luna's list likely came from Corbell and he likely got what became the list from his UFO connections inside the DoD. UFO buffs in the DoD passed on information about a number of videos to Corbell, who sent them to Luna and she and the others convinced the White House to release the videos on that list.

It should be noted, that in 5 full tranches (@NoParty ) nothing has really come of it. Those UFO folks in the infotainment world who need constant content will use some of the videos, but by and large, there's nothing Earth shattering in any of it.

As of November 2022, the department has over 1.4 million active-duty uniformed personnel in the six armed services,[7]​ and over 747,000 civilian employees.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Defense

The FBI employs approximately 38,000 people, including special agents and support professionals such as intelligence analysts, language specialists, scientists, and information technology specialists.

https://www.fbi.gov/about/faqs/how-many-people-work-for-the-fbi