Rarely does delivering a report to Congress create such an expectation.
Beyond the borders of the United States, the fever rises.
Object of this unusual craze: the forthcoming delivery of a complete, detailed, exhaustive inventory of what the US military and intelligence know about "unidentified aerial phenomena", or PAN.
Better known to the general public as unidentified flying objects: the famous UFOs.
Expected this month, but likely to be delayed, the future paving stone will be available for consultation by all, because it is partially declassified.
Hence this growing excitement, palpable on social networks, where speculation on its content is rife.
"History is being written before the eyes of billions of humans," prophesies a fanatic on Twitter.
A sign that the subject, often mocked, is now taken seriously, the highly respected New York Times this week questioned Barack Obama on the challenges that Humanity would encounter in the event that UFOs came from elsewhere ... The former president has become a philosopher: “All my politics are based on the fact that we are these tiny organisms on this little point floating in the middle of space.
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Declassified videos
But should we expect shocking revelations about the existence of another form of intelligent life? According to indiscretions published Thursday in the New York Times, the government, at the end of the work carried out, could not "definitively exclude the theories according to which the phenomena observed by military pilots could be extraterrestrial spaceships". Without providing proof, either.
The document, the drafting of which was entrusted to the National Director of Intelligence (DNI), Avril Haines, and to the Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, must above all give pride of place to the aircraft intrusions observed in recent years in the airspace and the threat they pose to military installations. In its request, the Senate Intelligence Committee questions their possible links with other countries, not other worlds.
But if ufologists and other enthusiasts open to the extraterrestrial hypothesis want to believe it, it is because in recent years, languages have been loosened. In December 2017, several American media revealed the existence of an advanced aerospace threat identification program (AATIP), including UFOs, carried out since 2007, supposed to have stopped in 2012, but still active ten years later. , according to the New York Times (which the Pentagon will eventually recognize).
Its manager, Lue Elizondo, slammed the door two months earlier, apparently frustrated at the lack of interest in PAN's sightings.
Before leaving, he declassified three videos filmed between 2004 and 2015 on board fighter jets, showing what could look like flying devices with strange behaviors, capable of accelerating or suddenly changing direction, or of immerse yourself.
Shared with the press, they are viewed millions of times on the Internet and cheerfully commented on.
Since then, Lue Elizondo has been campaigning for a better exposure of the subject, alongside a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, Christopher Mellon.
The "ex" let go
The interest in the file is maintained by new leaks and by the regular statements of pilots and former intelligence executives which can give rise to the most diverse interpretations. Asked for a podcast last December, John Brennan, director of the CIA between 2013 and 2017, urges to remain "open-minded" on these unexplained encounters involving American soldiers.
He does not exclude that it is a "type of phenomena resulting from something that we do not yet understand and which could involve a type of activity which some might say constitutes a different form of life. ". Convoluted formula but unprecedented in the mouth of a former boss of the CIA. In April, it was James Woolsey, who had also headed the agency in the past, who agreed, in an interview with ufologist John Greenewald Jr., that he was no longer "as skeptical as he was. that it has been ”and that“ something is happening that surprises a series of experienced pilots of intelligent aircraft ”.
The words become more concrete, focus on the potential mass of communicable data.
In March, on Fox News, John Ratcliffe, chief intelligence officer under President Donald Trump, said there are "many more sightings than have been made public," adding that "some of them have been declassified ”.
“I don't understand why we haven't been more transparent in the past,” one of his predecessors, James Clapper, told CNN in mid-May.
He then reacts to an excerpt from the hit program "60 Minutes": a former Navy pilot recently explained that his crew saw UFOs "every day for at least two years"!
Cryptic communication
It is difficult to interpret a subject that has been taboo for so long thus breaking into the limelight. Is this a will of the authorities? If so, how far will they go? "There has been an evolution in communication from the authorities, it is indisputable", comments Luc Dini, aeronautical construction engineer. “This communication went through a certain number of denials, but followed by progressive confirmations of the authenticity of the data or of the program, which means that a certain progress has been made. "
Luc Dini puts forward two hypotheses: “Either the disclosure of information comes from the opposition of two contrary currents, one aiming to bring them to the attention of Congress and the public, the other being very reluctant.
Either, it is another process which is in play, where these contradictions would only be apparent, in which case it would be simply a way of communicating progressively on the subject.
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Thomas *, an independent French collaborator for an investigation site, carries out journalistic investigations into drone intrusions in American airspace, on the basis of documents requested from the administration.
He suspects the authorities of maintaining the vagueness between an exotic theme, UFOs, and a real national security problem.
“We asked for comments on the somewhat bizarre drone incursion reporting procedures.
We never had a single confirmation, he says.
As soon as we ask for somewhat detailed things, we kick in or we don't get back in touch.
On the other hand, as soon as somewhat sensationalist videos come out on Twitter and Facebook, within half an hour, the Pentagon recognizes that they are Navy videos and that it is studied in the context of the report.
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Everything in the annex ...
Within the Aeronautical and Astronautical Association of France (3AF), Luc Dini chairs a commission, Sigma 2, which scientifically and technically studies cases of unexplained sightings around the world.
It also plans to release a report on the NAPs before the summer, after a first summary already online.
"Cautious" on the infrared videos disclosed in the United States, the committee hopes that the forthcoming publication across the Atlantic will provide an opportunity for information sharing.
"To be able to take a serious interest in the cases that they are going to discuss and compare with others, it would be necessary to be able to access a certain number of data, measured or reconstructed, to their analysis reports, not just videos, not only photos, but detailed reports, ”observes Luc Dini.
However, only the main part of the report is declassified, as Lue Elizondo, the man by whom the case arose, explains: “It is understood that a more detailed classified annex can also be submitted and provide additional elements. .
This classified portion will necessarily remain out of public view in order to protect the sensitive sources and methods and other capabilities used to produce the report's conclusions.
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… Nothing in the conclusions?
"A priori, the public part should be 15-20 pages, without much dense inside", believes Thomas. According to the independent editor, the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAPTF), created in 2020 to identify all cases of observation and linchpin of the report, is a program "without much ambition": "It is not a service dedicated is a few people, who have other things to do in addition. The UAPTF depends, he adds, on an entity of the Navy which has a "large component of information literacy". Bad sign for transparency ...
But for Alain Juillet, former director of intelligence at the Directorate-General for External Security (DGSE), "the fact that the Americans are increasing the pressure and that they are releasing a report announced in advance as being very interesting may suggest that" they are going to say things that will probably shock a lot of people ”.
“When you're in intelligence, you know that in today's media world, a secret only holds for a while.
When you have phenomena like these, the first thought is that a country has invented remotely piloted devices.
The problem is that for twenty years that we have been talking about drones, there has been no rumor about a country that has developed this type of device, ”writes the ex-spy.
“So the question is: what is it?
The answer, soon?
* The first name has been changed
