By Alex Seitz-Wald -
NBC News
WASHINGTON - The US Government is finally getting back to the UFO issue.
And depending on which UFO believer you ask, this is either a historic step to get to the bottom of the conspiracies or a ploy to regain control of the narrative, and possibly even to prepare for interplanetary warfare.
The creation of a new office, signed into law just before the New Year, to study "unidentified aerial phenomena" has divided a loose community of activists, researchers and pseudoscientists seeking evidence that we are not alone in the universe.
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Some praise the legislation that creates the new office, included in section 1683 of the huge National Defense Authorization Act, for bringing new resources, rigor and officiality to the investigation of a phenomenon - and a potential threat to national security- that has long been stigmatized in a way that makes it difficult to study.
"Our national security efforts depend on air supremacy and these phenomena challenge our dominance
," explained Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-New York, who spearheaded the bipartisan measure.
"The United States needs a coordinated effort to take control and understand whether these aerial phenomena belong to a foreign government or something else entirely."
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Washington has not formally studied UFOs extensively in decades, so one might expect the news to be cause for celebration among so-called ufologists.
But the movement has long believed that the government is covering up the biggest secret in history, so many find it hard to believe that the feds want to do more than clamp down after several years in which it became socially acceptable. for former CIA presidents and directors to speak publicly of strange things they had seen in the skies.
On social media and in forums such as AboveTopSecret, the nerve center of ufology and conspiracy theories, there has been a debate about whether the new office represents the beginning of the end of the alleged cover-up or its resurgence.
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"This is an issue with a demonstrable history of secrecy, and anything that is not a re-opening of information is subject to further, possibly inappropriate, control," explained Ron James, a spokesman for the Mutual UFO Network, who calls himself "The oldest and largest UFO organization in the world."
“We do not see that this means that new resources are going to be devoted to the matter.
We believe that considerable resources have always been dedicated at some level within government and deep industry, ”added James.
Luis Elizondo and Christopher Mellon, former members of the Administration who helped spark a renewed interest in Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, or FANI, as they are more commonly known now, by posting videos of military aircraft, applauded Gillibrand's amendment, but they worry that it has been diluted before final approval and that it will be buried by the Pentagon.
In an opinion piece in The Hill newspaper, Elizondo criticized the Pentagon's decision to locate the new UAP office within the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security, which, according to him, is the “perfect place to put it "If" we want 70 more years of secrecy on this issue. "
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Activists complain about the lack of civil involvement in the new Pentagon office and assume that it will limit itself to classifying everything it finds interesting, so that its unclassified reports to Congress will be little more than fig leaves.
Dr Steven Greer, who retired from the ER to pursue alien hunting as the self-described "world UFO expert," is opposed to the idea that UFOs should be treated as a national security threat.
Mary Alice Sandberg poses for a photo in a converted Sprinter Campervan next to Area 51 graffiti on January 24, 2021 in Alamo, Nevada.Josh Brasted / Getty Images
In his opinion, the aliens are here to help us and the military-industrial complex is exaggerating its danger and creating the US Space Force to prepare for an interplanetary war, arguing that films like
Independence Day
are part of “a false narrative. created by covert groups that strive to generate fear of the ETs ”.
But Stephen Bassett, the only lobbyist in Washington dedicated to the "formal recognition by the United States Government of an extraterrestrial presence," as his official lobbying statement puts it, sees this moment as the culmination of all that he and others have been through. working.
“No, this is not a new Diplomatic Services and Psychological Operations (Psyops) program.
It is a planned effort to end the truth embargo, ”said Bassett.
"Although I appreciate those who are skeptical, that group has tried to find the dark side of each event: the hidden hand."
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Rather than a renewed cover-up, Bassett sees the new office as one piece in a multi-year plan by a faction of insiders to finally force the government to reveal that it has had contact with aliens for decades.
“This is a radical change brought about by the work of thousands of people and activists over 70 years.
But some of these people can't help but see it as a smart black ops mission, "he said.
Meanwhile, the national security apparatus has more earthly concerns.
The Defense Department rushed to create the new Air Objects Management and Identification Synchronization Group, which "will synchronize the efforts of the entire Department and the US Government to detect, identify and attribute objects of interest," according to the Pentagon.
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The Army has made it clear that it is primarily focused on incursions into restricted airspace, such as military bases, and has spoken more about drones and new technologies developed by the Russians, Chinese, and other Earthlings.
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The language of the legislation itself goes a bit further, calling for rapid on-the-ground investigations of FANI incidents, including “adverse physiological effects”.
It provides for "materials testing, medical studies and theoretical model development", as well as possible future investments, to "replicate any advanced features and performance" discovered.
For Mick West, a prominent UFO debunker and villain of ufologists, the believers have "somehow hijacked the real problems," which is that military pilots have seen things they cannot explain.
"If you read the text of this legislation, it seems to reflect the concerns of believers in the extraterrestrial hypothesis," he noted.
"Now the military is kind of forced to go through some silly hoops while doing some serious work," he added.
Whatever the new office reveals, he worries that it will only further convince those who want to believe, either because they will say that the government is finally acknowledging the truth about aliens or because it continues to cover up the good.
"I think it will clarify some things, but it will also add fuel to the fire," he said.