Then they need to... ...give a description of what the craft look like and how it is anomalous. They need to say and reveal as much as they can if we are to have any chance to debunk the claims.
But we can see what reported UAP look like in the released videos. Generally small on-screen features a few pixels across, often in IR, making shape/ features very difficult to interpret. Some show brightness/ shape fluctuations that indicate they might be birds beating their wings.
None are obviously novel technological artefacts, though a few might be small drones or balloons, maybe windblown debris, pyrotechnics, who knows.
Someone else's description won't change that primary evidence.
I agree that more information from the recording sensors/ platforms/ reporting personnel might help us understand what might be being shown, but it is clear some locations and flight information won't be given.
There's no evidence that AARO, or anyone else, has any better or clearer footage other than claims by a small number of people who don't produce any evidence other than hearsay. Some of those people also claim there are known crashed/ retrieved alien spacecraft, which has been categorically denied by NASA, AARO and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; when asked about the subject the White House and DoD referred to AARO's response.
Whatever files are released or explanations given, if it doesn't support their viewpoint "believers" will claim there is better evidence, which is being hidden, that does.
...and how it is anomalous.
They are "anomalous" because the people submitting the clips think, or claim, they might show something anomalous. (I don't think AARO's title helps much- they are the "All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office", which implies what they review is anomalous, a word that might have different meanings or connotations for different people).
If there was a Loch Ness Monster Reporting Office, it's possible it would receive accounts of sightings and perhaps photos/ video showing hard-to-identify features on Loch Ness that
might be signs of Nessie activity but which probably show something else.
Believers would claim the submitted material is evidence of the existence of Nessie, perhaps that the existence of The Loch Ness Monster Reporting Office in itself shows there must be an exciting Loch Ness phenomena.
This irrational refusal to learn more is making us look like dogmatists and them to look like the scientifically minded folks who want to see the data and evidences so that it can be analysed. We should be the ones that loudest demand disclosure.
That's assuming there's significant relevant information that hasn't been disclosed. This is the raison d'etre of the "disclosure movement",
External Quote:
The disclosure movement is a social movement that argues in favor of various conspiracy theories which allege that governments generally, or the United States government specifically, have secret information regarding UFOs and "non-human intelligence" – variously described as space aliens; "interdimensional" beings; beings originating on Earth or native to the atmosphere; demons; and even time travelers. The movement advocates for that supposed information to be declassified for purposes of human social and scientific advancement. The disclosure movement prophesizes a future event or process called "disclosure" that will mark the date upon which such declassification occurs.
Wikipedia,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disclosure_movement
I hope that if there were reliable evidence of extraterrestrial life, alien artefacts of any sort, or news of some extraordinary human technological breakthrough it would be shared. Military developments probably won't be in the short term; but it must be unlikely for a whole host of reasons that e.g. the USAF has developed antigravity drives or a means to tap vacuum energy at Wright-Patterson, or has flying saucers at Area 51.
The vast majority of astronomers and allied scientists who might be most likely to detect possible extraterrestrial biospheres, or even perhaps detect an alien signal or technosignature, are civilian academics with no links to the military or security services, sometimes working in multinational collaborations. Oumuamua and other extrasolar objects were made public by astronomers, and the speculations of some (e.g. Avi Loeb) are not suppressed (though they are questioned, which is entirely appropriate).
The "Wow!" signal and LGM-1 were both made public. (admittedly LGM-1, pulsar PSR B1919+21, was announced after its probable cause was established). At the times of their discoveries these were the best evidence of ETI. We haven't had better since.
Radio communication is cheap, its signals traversing space at the speed of light. Even a civilization at our level of development- just 170 human lifetimes since the development of agriculture- can send and receive radio signals over interstellar distances.
If we were to see strong evidence of ETI, it might be more likely to be in the form of something detected by radio astronomers than anything connected with the 80-year old UFO scene.
In short: USG has to answer to the accusations even if that means denying the existence of that material
We know that USG (or at least its agencies, including AARO) receives claims that things have been seen in the sky that haven't been identified.
That can't be denied, and isn't.
AARO has made it clear, like Blue Book in the past, that it can't identify everything described by eyewitnesses or shown in photos/ footage.
If something is unidentified, it can't be ruled out that it is somehow exotic, but that doesn't mean it is likely to be so.
