As the news of the Pentagon’s (official) confirmation of the To The Stars-facilitated release of the Pentagon UFO videos, as well as the Navy’s admittance of the UAP phenomena as real, there’s been a rise in interest that goes beyond the “UFO Twitter” crowd. The Pentagon’s acknowledgement and official release of the videos were supposed to fly under the radar with the Covid-19 global pandemic dominating the headlines, but it became a big news story that day on all major media outlets, and started an insurgence via social media.
While the New York Times had led the way with the initial coverage, other large outlets like VICE and Popular Mechanics have been vigilant in keeping the story afloat. It’s not just the mainstream journalists investigating, as bloggers,”Ufologists”, independent researchers, and a group that has closely followed all of this “UFO Twitter,” have all been digging. The digging, and debating has been going on beyond social media, as the Pentagon has denied the existence of the once Luis Elizondo-led Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, despite former Senator Harry Reid saying otherwise. The whole “is Elizondo who he says he is?” debate has been moot for those paying attention from the start, but there appears to be a concentrated effort within the Pentagon, and some in the currently Department Of Defense to try to dismiss these secret programs, despite simultaneously admitting the videos were indeed real.
Tim McMillan, a reporter for VICE’s tech section Motherboard, has been documenting the ongoing back and forth between Pentagon official statements, FOIA requests, and contradictions they have made about its own programs. Pentagon spokeswoman/ Office of the Secretary of Defense’s Public Affairs Officer Susan Gough has been at the forefront, as some e-mail communications that were shared have showed an attempt to possibly control the release of FOIA requests, ignore certain media requests, and potentially delay any further progress. McMillan understands that it is a lot more complicated than people think.
“The Pentagon Public Affairs office acknowledged there was a current UAP program in the DoD, they noted that the cognizant authority was the Undersecretary for Intelligence's Office,” said McMillan. “Whether people agree with this approach or not is another story, but what this means is just like any other intelligence effort (or operational security) information is often not going to be eagerly shared.Additionally, when it comes to the confusing and contradictory past DoD statements, you have a host of differing human factors at play. Indeed, one of those human factors assuredly stems from some in the DoD who don't want to discuss the topic publicly because it's taboo. Equally, you others whose ideological systems of belief make them consider the UFO topic to bed related to something supernaturally evil. You're also going to have some people from Luis Elizondo's former office (USD(I)) who are simply upset, and being vindictive for the way Elizondo went public. With the later group, they may not care or even really know anything about the UAP subject. Instead, the culture within the Intelligence Community is members are expected to live and die in the shadows. People who leave the IC and become public are often ostracized and made an example out of. This isn't just conjecture. If you look at the 2020 Defense Appropriations Bill, Sect. 5717 specifically lists a Congressionally mandated ‘Assessment of homeland security vulnerabilities associated with certain retired and former personnel of the Intelligence Community.’ Also something that's important to consider; within the DoD, there doesn't currently exist any of the typical bureaucratic framework for dealing with UAP events. In fact, by policy, UAP or UFOs don't even exist. For a system that's as formally rigid as the DoD, this alone creates a system of incidental obscurity that's far more effective than any organized cover-up. “
A quick look into Gough’s background may suggest her placement, and job description are strategic. Her official LinkedIn account states her current role as officially the Senior Strategic Planner and Spokesperson for the U.S. Department Of Defense. Prior to that role, she served for 2-years with Booz Allen Hamilton as a Associate, Strategic Communication Team where her job description stated:
“Provided expert advice to DoD and other U.S. Government agencies on strategic communication, organizational change, psychological operations, and information operations policy, concept, doctrine, plan, and strategy development and implementation. Provided full-time, on-site staff support to OSD Public Affairs.”
Besides Strategic Communication, listed under the group category of her LinkedIn is Psyop, which are psychological operations to convey selected information to audiences to influence their emotions, motives, and objective reasoning, and behavior of governments, organizations, groups, and individuals. Once “UFO Twitter” caught wind of this, and the possible blocking of FOIA requests, the independent researchers got to work.
Danny Silva from the SilvaRecord.com started a trend where UFO disclosure advocates put a red slash over their profile photos to stand in solidarity.
“I used the red backslash sign, or what I jokingly called the ‘Ghostbusters sign’ when I wrote a blog regarding whether a PAO was acting unethically by allegedly trying to thwart the release of UFO FOIAs,” said Silva. “I put the slash over the FOIA symbol in the blog’s graphic to illustrate the point. The next day, I jokingly started putting the slashes on Twitter user’s avatars, but it quickly became a popular protest/solidarity symbol since it was connected to the blog I had just published and became associated with UFO secrecy in general. “
It’s gone beyond just a trend, as many on social media have continued to tweet at elected officials, and Twitter user Taras W. Matla even drafted a prime example of how to properly write your elected official.
“Writing to politicians and even logging complaints through official channels is an avenue the public can take when trying to enact change,” Silva said. “Advocating via social media is a valuable way to motivate people to contact elected officials, and educate them on what wording could be used to get the point across effectively while avoiding stigma that plagues the loaded UFO topic.”
While grassroots efforts historically can bring change, it is going to take established institutions to continue to function properly to help any continued “disclosure.” There are just some things that can’t be disclosed due to ongoing national security issues, and confidentiality, and that is a pill Ufologists have had to swallow for a long time.
“Both the DoD and the news media are institutions,which are designed to uphold democratic freedoms and support the U.S. Constitution,” said McMillan. “When it comes to the UAP issue, I believe there exist good middle ground whereby national security risks can be mitigated, but information can also be made freely available. Regardless of any of the aforementioned varied reasons, I would encourage people to continue to demand accuracy and transparency from the DoD, and require them to uphold the freedom of the press as a fundamental liberty guaranteed by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Equally, the media outlets should ensure they are doing their due diligence to provide comprehensive and accurate information. “
-By MIKE DAMANTE
BONUS:
More with McMillan:
MCMILLAN: “Now, when it comes to the current complete silence, the truth is the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Office is really in a tough spot right now. They took over all public communications for UAP back in September, and by December they put out a mass email release to various journalists to, ‘clear the record,’ saying AAWSAP/AATIP had nothing to do with UAP and Luis Elizondo had no responsibilities within the program. Two months later, in Popular Mechanics, I revealed a wealth of evidence showing this previous statement was demonstratively false.
Ludwig Van Beethoven once said, ‘Nothing is more intolerable than to have to admit to yourself your own errors.’Yet, for the DoD, they're very familiar with identifying their own errors, however, it's virtually unbearable to consider admitting those errors publicly. For example, just two days ago I spoke with Susan Gough, and provided her with very specific information to see if this had any bearing on their past statements regarding Luis Elizondo's role with AATIP. Her response to me was, "Please keep in mind he left DoD over 3 years ago, and there are personnel and privacy matters involved." Consider for a moment how nonsensical that response is. Less than six months prior they had no problem saying what Elizondo wasn't responsible for, yet now, because he left ‘over 3 years ago’ it's all some grand mystery. Worth noting, he actually left less than three years ago. Not to mention, suddenly they're defaulting to the Privacy Act and suggesting they can't reveal Elizondo's role while with the DoD as a matter of federal statute. “