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2/14/23: UNCOMFORTABLE FLYING OBJECT W/ DONALD R. SCHMITT

Posted on February 14th, 2023 by Clyde Lewis

Lately, thereundefineds been an increase in UFO sightings including some anomalous objects that were shot down by the military over Alaska, Canada, Lake Huron, and off the South Carolina coast. Simultaneously, strange crafts were observed over China, Poland, and Uruguay.  Pilots that engaged with the targets said the objects interfered with their sensors.  Regardless of what was shot down, the vague nature of these reports makes it a media spectacle and psychological operation.  Tonight on Ground Zero, Clyde Lewis talks with UFO researcher and author, Donald R. Schmitt about  UNCOMFORTABLE FLYING OBJECT.

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SHOW TRANSCRIPT: 

Today, we are in the middle of what can be called an increase in UFO sightings, the Navy admitting that they from time to time have encounters with them – and a recent flap of an asteroid near misses and very bright fireballs being sighted all over the world.

We assume that the biggest conversation yesterday at the water cooler was about the Super Bowl right? Well for some the answer is yes- but the reality is no for the majority.  While people were betting on the spread of the game undefined I can place bets that the biggest conversation swirled around the unidentified objects that have been shot down over Alaska, Canada, and Lake Huron.

Simultaneously, there were sightings over China, Poland and even Uruguay reported seeing these strange crafts which were not at all described as looking like balloons.

Descriptions varied from a silver cylindrical object the size of a car to a black octagon-shaped craft.

Also it was reported that pilots that engaged with the targets said the objects interfered with their sensors.

Regardless of what the final outcome of this scenario – it sounds like a classic, by the book UFO encounter.

The Washington, D.C. sightings of July 1952, also known as “the Big Flap,” hold a special place in the history of unidentified flying objects. Major American newspapers were reporting multiple credible sightings by civilian and military radar operators and pilots—so many that a special intelligence unit of the U.S. Air Force was sent in to investigate. What they found—or didn’t find—along with the Air Force’s official explanation, fueled some of the earliest conspiracy theories about a government plot to hide evidence of alien life.

According to The Washington Post, the number of UFO sightings reported to the Air Force jumped more than sixfold, from 23 in March 1952 to 148 in June. By July, the precise conditions were in place for a wildfire of UFO mania: widespread Cold War anxiety, mainstream press coverage of unexplained UFO incidents and a healthy dose of “midsummer madness.” All that was needed was a spark.

These sightings were the reason why the US Government established Project Blue Book undefined intensifying its public relations campaign to calm the republic of UFO hysteria.

But the latest reports of military might bring down unidentified craft has now sparked the imaginations of the people of the United States and Canada.

As a matter of fact, most news outlets report the incidents called the strange craft an unidentified object. While some outlets realized what they were reporting they immediately called them high altitude objects undefined which is arguable since they were at 40.000 feet and would interfere with commercial air traffic, That was the reason that the craft were called UFO_undefineds in the first place undefined and also what was absent was the military term UAP or unidentified aerial Phenomena.

They were unmanned, they did not have any evidence of a propulsion system and knew how to outsmart some radar systems as another UFO showed up over Montana and then disappeared.

Alongside the political conspiracy theories were suggestions that the aerial objects were extraterrestrial in origin. Photos of alleged UFOs were shared online and web searches for the term “UFO” soared around the world Sunday, according to information from Google Trends.

Online posts mentioning extraterrestrials increased by nearly 300% since the first balloon was identified, according to an analysis conducted for The Associated Press by Zignal Labs, a San Francisco-based media intelligence firm. Zignal’s review included millions of posts on platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Reddit.

“Don’t worry, just some of my friends of mine stopping by,” Elon Musk, the CEO of Twitter, Tesla and SpaceX, joked in a tweet Sunday.

Humor aside, while the details of the different claims vary, they have two things in common: a lack of evidence and a strong distrust of America’s elected leaders.

It is suspected that what was appearing were the so-called Tic Tacs.

The alleged video and photos real or not suggested that these craft were most definitely something that looked like an airstream trailer.

The big question is why are militaries of the U.S. and Canada suddenly deciding to shoot them down when for years they have not engaged them?

Most of the places the new UFOs were cited were in hostile winter environments.

The White house suggested that these objects were not a threat undefined and yet they shoot them down? Why are they not communicating effectively.

The President has said nothing in public about the situation. President Trudeau appeared to his people reassuring that Canada would protect their territorial sovereignty.

So far, we are being told there wasn’t a threat and that the unknown objects appeared to be harmless and yet we shot them down anyway.

None of this makes sense, which of course adds more fuel to conspiracy theories that these objects are quite possibly probes from an advanced civilization.

The federal government must balance the public’s desire to know the details with the need for secrecy regarding national security and defense.

But we can blame the media this time for actually indicating without coming out and just saying that we may have experienced a small alien invasion.

High-profile news stories and events often precede a spike in false and misleading claims- but if the media were forthright, we would not engage in strange theories-even when all of the earmarks of a UFO invasion were being reported by the media.

Jim Acosta of CNN kept saying over and over that the whole story of cylindrical objects -about the same size of a car sounds a bit odd and nothing at all like the Chinese balloon that was shot down over near the Carolinas.

China has claimed the balloon shot down February 4th was engaged in meteorological research. On Monday, China’s foreign ministry said 10 U.S. balloons had entered Chinese airspace without permission in the past year.

Beijing’s response to this latest diplomatic row seeks to portray China as the responsible actor, while sidestepping surveillance allegations made by the U.S,

On Monday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre did refute one viral claim to have emerged from the balloon saga.

“I know there have been questions and concerns about this, but there is no — again no indication — of aliens or extraterrestrial activity with these recent takedowns,” Jean-Pierre told reporters. “I wanted to make sure that the American people knew that all of you knew that and it was important for us to say that from here because we’ve been hearing a lot about it.”

But that contradicts a story in Reuters that said The U.S. Air Force general overseeing North American airspace said on Sunday that he would not rule out aliens or any other explanation yet, deferring to U.S. intelligence experts.

Asked whether he had ruled out an extraterrestrial origin for three airborne objects shot down by U.S. warplanes in as many days, General Glen VanHerck said: undefinedIundefinedll let the intel community and the counterintelligence community figure that out. I havenundefinedt ruled out anything.undefined

The White House said Monday it would create a team expected to study airborne objects and the potential security and safety risks they pose.

They are establishing yet another UFO taskforce.

The new group, created at the behest of national-security adviser Jake Sullivan, would comprise elements of the Pentagon, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Department of Homeland Security and other government agencies, said U.S. officials.

The group will look at the “broader policy implications” of the objects for detection, analysis and disposition, said John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, on Monday. “Every element of the government will redouble their efforts to understand and mitigate these events,” he said.

Mr. Kirby said there are no other known unidentified objects floating over U.S. airspace on Monday.

But U.S. officials said they couldn’t explain what the other three objects were, even after closely studying them in the air before shooting them down.

Some U.S. officials, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Sunday morning described the unidentified objects that had been shot down over Alaska on Friday and over Canada’s Yukon territory on Saturday as balloons.

Which contradicted reports of other objects shaped like Octagons that were also being detected over US and Canadian airspace-and there is still an elusive object still flying and disappearing over Montana.

The U.S. military continues to call them all unknown flying objects.

And of course Chuck Schumer that all-encompassing insufferable attention whore claims they are balloons even though nothing has been recovered.

Collection of the resulting debris has been stymied by severe weather and terrain, U.S. military officials said Monday. Officials believe the first debris will be pulled out of Lake Huron and quickly sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation lab at Quantico, Va., for analysis. U.S. officials have so far declined to provide any imagery of the items.

John Kirby said President Biden was first given a briefing on the issue of unidentified aerial phenomena in his presidential daily briefing June 21, 2021.

On Sunday, the head of U.S. Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command wouldn’t rule out that the airborne objects the Pentagon has been shooting down are connected to aliens or extraterrestrials.

“There is no, again, no indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity with these recent takedowns,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Monday.

The Pentagon has said the objects have been unmanned, and they cannot yet explain how the objects are powered, contributing to the mystery of the airborne object. Military officials have declined to describe the objects as balloons.

The Pentagon last summer formed the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office, which has reviewed 366 reports of unidentified aerial phenomena, or what most people refer to as UFOs. Of those, 171 “demonstrated unusual flight characteristics or performance capabilities, and require further analysis,” according to a report by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

Could these recent incidents be connected to the 171 objects that are mysterious?

Because the office is classified, the Pentagon wouldn’t say how much funding is allocated for the office, a Pentagon spokeswoman said Monday. The office is part of the Military Intelligence Program, which is composed of several offices and requested $26.6 billion for its fiscal year 2023 budget.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who led the push in Congress to establish AARO and chairs the subcommittee on emerging threats within the Senate Armed Services Committee, said she intends to hold a public hearing on the matter.

The purpose of creating AARO, Ms. Gillibrand said, is to make sure that service members are no longer stigmatized for forwarding and reporting on unidentified aerial phenomenon, and to make sure there is no retaliation.

A majority of Americans 57 percent believe there is intelligent life elsewhere in the galaxy. More than a quarter believe that those alien societies if they exist, would resemble ours.

While there are plenty of UFO believers that will tell you that many scientists and government officials are well aware of what is going on – we may have been too hasty in thinking that everyone is agreeing on what we are dealing with and whether or not UFOs are being piloted exclusively by extraterrestrial intelligence.

Even scientists who are actively involved in the search for alien life in the cosmos don’t like to speculate about exactly what they might find out there. It is now the job of scientists to spate the mythology from reality.

What can be reported now is that a number of scientists have been pouring over the little data available and marveling at the technology on display. Keep in mind that much of this UFO stuff is new to scientists that have in the past felt they were too sophisticated to investigate reports of flying saucers – or in this case flying Tic-Tacs.

We now have hard data and credible witnesses. We also now have the interest of politicians in Washington that have been briefed on these matters. We also now have a Space Force that was conveniently created after the public was informed about the close encounters of the military.

Now the people have experienced what only can be compared to the beginnings of War of the Worlds or Independence Day.

Some say this is disclosure others say it isn’t and others say that it isn’t the disclosure that was wanted but it is what we get under the circumstances.

In other words, you are not going to get the whole story– as the world powers are already talking about making space a fighting domain –even though in the past we were committed not to.

Both Russia and China continue to pursue anti-satellite weapons as a means to reduce the US and allied military effectiveness. Russia and China aim to have nondestructive and destructive counters pace weapons available for use during a potential future conflict.

Military reforms in both countries in the past few years indicate an increased focus on establishing operational forces designed to integrate attacks against space threats and services with military operations in other domains.

What is of particular concern is that Russia and China continue to launch “experimental” satellites that conduct sophisticated on-orbit activities, at least some of which are intended to advance counter-space capabilities. Some technologies with peaceful applications such as satellite inspection, refueling, and repair can also be used against adversarial spacecraft.

It was reported yesterday that Both Russia and China continue to pursue anti-satellite weapons as a means to reduce the US and allied military effectiveness. Russia and China aim to have nondestructive and destructive counters pace weapons available for use during a potential future conflict.

Military reforms in both countries in the past few years indicate an increased focus on establishing operational forces designed to integrate attacks against space threats and services with military operations in other domains.

What is of particular concern is that Astronomers reported that a Chinese satellite was caught on video beaming down green lasers over the Hawaiian Islands.

But the astronomers were baffled and just stated that a Chinese satellite was the most likely candidate for creating the laser sweep.

Most likely undefined means that they had no idea but rely on the simplest answer rather than saying it could have been a UFO of some kind.

Others speculated that it could have been thought to be from a NASA altimeter satellite.

This again raises the question about directed energy weapons and the creation of lightning or lasers to affect the environment, triggering earthquakes, bad weather or even triggering volcanic activity.

The Chinese satellite they are talking about uses lasers for topographical scanning, or they’re also used for measuring stuff in Earth’s atmosphere.

Who knew?

The footage from Mauna Kea was taken on Saturday, Jan. 28, prior to the recent incident where a Chinese balloon traversed over the mainland U.S. before being shot down off the coast of South Carolina.

This again raises the question as to why the sudden incursion of spy satellites and so called balloons by China is not considered an act of war undefined unless some of them are not from China and that the Chinese Balloon was observing or tracking the UFOs themselves.

This would explain a lot now, wouldnundefinedt it?

Things are getting rather bizarre at the US Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). General Glen VanHerck, has abandoned any initial sense of frankness in discussing the destruction of these craft,s and again nothing is off the table.

“We’re calling them objects, not balloons, for a reason,” the general said cryptically in remarks made on February 12.

The line between extraterrestrial fantasies and human-made balloons can become cloudy or foggy.  Who can blame people for jumping to alien conclusions when it appears that this whole affair is a psy-op.

Regardless of what was shot down, the vague nature of the reports makes it a Psychological operation.

Tinfoil hats become charged up; fear finds a funnel to travel through.

The suggestion from the general that “the intel community and the counterintelligence community figure that out” signaled an avalanche of speculation.

This was given further impetus by VanHerck’s assertion that he “hadn’t ruled out anything” to a question on whether aliens featured in the mix. “At this point, we continue to assess every threat or potential threat unknown that approaches North America with an attempt to identify it.”

Again, what are we supposed to believe about this undefined and how are we supposed to believe the official story when it is being reported that a lot of the debris from the craft may never be found.

It is a modern-day Cold War UFO story, comparable to Roswell or The Rendlesham Incident.

The Cold War was characterized by ill-educated second guesses about performance, capability, and awareness of an inscrutable enemy.

There was always a threat of inflation, jousted in the dark and groped in the wilderness, finding a mirage of reality.  The UFO was always a convenient way of explaining the outrageous capabilities of craft that were able to scramble signals and elude radar.

That was then and it is the same now apparently.

It is a case of Deja’Vu -and the media appears to be incredulous.

Politicians are also showing their real loyalties and are taking advantage of the flap.

With the latest belligerent undertakings by the US government, an escalation is being encouraged by the hawks in Congress. Kirby, wishing to add a sting to the China effort, told the press that Biden, on coming to office, directed the US intelligence community to conduct a broad assessment of Chinese intelligence capabilities.

“We know that these [Chinese] surveillance balloons have crossed over dozens of countries on multiple continents around the world, including some of our closest allies and partners.”

This is hardly a unilateral game. Having accused Beijing of such airborne surveillance present and past, the Biden administration is now facing accusations of its own.

The US has conducted its own exercises in flying high-altitude balloons in its airspace – no fewer than 10 times last year. To that can be added hundreds of reconnaissance missions. “It’s very common that the US intrudes [into] others’ airspace,” remarked Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin, citing 657 sorties made by Washington in 2022 and 64 aircraft flights in January “over the South China Sea alone”.

Oops, this is a National Security fail undefined and maybe they would be better off saying it was an alien incursion or will they admit their mess up where our military has a policy of shooting down benign balloons.

This is a classic X-Files plot and we are living it in real-time.

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SHOW GUEST: DONALD R. SCHMITT

Donald R. Schmitt is a former co-director of the J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies in Chicago where he served as Director of Special Investigations for ten years. A six-time best-selling author, his first book, UFO Crash at Roswell, co-authored with Dr. Kevin D. Randle was made into the Golden Globe nominated best made for TV movie “Roswell.” Schmitt is also a co-founder of the International UFO Museum and Research Center in Roswell which has the largest UFO library and research center in the world.  He is Director of the International Coalition for Extraterrestrial Research.