UFOs 2020: This thread is intended as a catch-up for people whose attention is newly drawn to recent published revelations regarding interest, by some organs of the U.S. government, in certain UFO events. This thread touches on some significant developments of the past 3 years.

Credit for expanding interest in the subject owes much to groundbreaking journalists, chief among them Tim McMillan of @debriefmedia. Check out his remarkable 12-2-20 piece on classified UFO reports and photos being circulated among intelligence agencies. https://www.thedebrief.org/fast-movers-and-transmedium-vehicles-the-pentagons-uap-task-force/

I am Douglas D. Johnson, a researcher-contributor affiliated, as a volunteer, with the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies -- a small, invitation-only research group. However, all views expressed through this Twitter account are my own, including everything in this thread.

In December 2017, the New York Times broke a story involving leaked videos of UFOs, taken by Navy pilots in 2004 and 2015 respectively. In 2020, the Pentagon officially released three such videos. The objects recorded remain "unidentified" despite years of analysis.

One video was associated with multi-day 2004 event involving multiple UFOs, including a dogfight-like close encounter (involving 4 officers) between unarmed F/A-18s and a 45-foot wingless device that completely outperformed the warplanes, then left at astonishing acceleration.

The stories also dealt with Luis Elizondo, a career intelligence officer who had investigated UFO incidents while working for the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence, under a portfolio known as the Advanced Aerospace Threat Investigation Project (AATIP), previously secret.

In his 2017 resignation memo sent to then Sec of Defense James Mattis, Elizondo argued that the defense/IC apparatus wasn't taking UFOs seriously enough. Some Pentagon sources later made murky statements apparently intended to cast doubt on Elizondo's role in investigating UFOs.

But Elizondo's bona fides were confirmed in reporting by McMillan, by former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and by other evidence. Elizondo told CNN in 2017, “My personal belief is there is very compelling evidence that we may not be alone.” More: https://twitter.com/ddeanjohnson/status/1262058488588574722?s=20

In 2018, the AATIP UFO portfolio was in some fashion transferred to the Office of Naval Intelligence, to an entity that became known as the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAPTF). During 2018-2020, the UAPTF has conducted numerous classified briefings for key members

of Congress -- and, as documents obtained by McMillan prove, to some top military leaders as well. McMillan reproduced a FOIA-obtained email indicating that among those briefed in Oct. 2019 were the Secretary of the Navy and the vice-chiefs of staff of the Navy and the Air Force.

Some informed observers believe that these briefings have included video evidence substantially clearer than the 3 leaked videos, testimony from Navy pilot witnesses, and assessments by veteran intelligence analysts. Briefing materials have apparently been classified TOP SECRET.

Emerging from one such classified briefing on 6-20-19, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), ranking Democrat on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said "the military and others are taking this issue seriously, which I think in previous generations may not have been the case."

Then, on 6-17-20, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) publicly acknowledged the existence of the UAPTF, in its public report on the FY 2021 Intelligence Authorization Act (IAA). This report, issued with bipartisan support, strongly endorsed the work of the UAPTF,

and admonished that "this [UAP] issue has lacked attention from senior leaders." Remarkably, the SSCI directed the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) to prepare an unclassified report on "anomalous aerial vehicles" within 180 days of enactment of the IAA.

The SSCI provided detailed guidance on the type of material it wishes to see in the DNI's UAP public report. However, it "may include a classified annex." SSCI Chairman Marco Rubio (R-Fl.) said on July 16, 2020, "We have things flying over our military bases and places where

we’re conducting military exercises, and we don’t know what it is and it isn’t ours... and they exhibit, potentially, technologies that you don't have at your own disposal--that to me is a national security risk, and one that we should be looking into.”

In this interview, Rubio said variations of “it isn’t ours" three times--noteworthy, in that SSCI chair is one of the small group of lawmakers who, by law, must be informed of, and shares oversight responsibility over, even the most-secret of “black” weapon-development programs.

Rubio went on, “It [UFO encounters] has impacted the Navy, for the most part. I have seen reports on this now for the better part of a decade. Other countries have had similar reports.”

Perhaps in response to the SSCI going public about the UAPTF, on 8-14-20, the Pentagon issued a statement read as formalizing and elevating the status of the UAPTF, under authority of the Deputy Secretary of Defense, the DoD's no. 2 official.

The Intelligence Authorization Act (to which SSCI UAP report is tied) passed the Senate in July, wrapped within the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). As of 12-2-20, the NDAA is mired in disputes over matters such as the naming of military bases and Big Tech regulation.

Further details on the complicated trajectory of the NDAA (with its UAP-report "cargo"), and some information on UAP-related events in the House of Representatives, may be found in one of my earlier threads: https://twitter.com/ddeanjohnson/status/1329586720644468738?s=20

Even if the NDAA should fail to become law, the SSCI directive for a public report on UAP stands as "the will of the Senate." This really should be given some weight by the new Director of National Intelligence, who will take office in early 2021, & by incoming Pentagon leaders.

However, much may depend on the attitudes of the new crop of political appointees and of the new President. We can anticipate continued resistance to disclosures by some entrenched bureaucracies within the DoD and the IC, on various grounds, & more attempts to muddy the waters.

As a further primer, I recommend a recently released documentary, "The Phenomenon," directed by @jamescfox. It includes appearances by a number of prominent political figures, including Reid, former White House Chief of Staff John Podesta, and ex-UN Ambassador Bill Richardson.

Asked by director James Fox whether the government has UFO evidence that has not been made public, former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid replied, “I'm saying most of it hasn't seen the light of day."

The groundbreaking reporting by @LtTimMcMillan at @Debriefmedia, 12-2-20, interjects volatile new elements into the mix. He reports, based on multiple active-duty intelligence sources, that the UAPTF sent out a classified report in 2018 that summarized the state

of UAP investigations, and stated clearly that the "non-human" hypothesis must be among those seriously considered. McMillan further reports that a summer 2020 UAPTF classified report, circulated widely in IC community, included “extremely clear” photograph

of a large triangular UFO, taken from a U.S. fighter. The object is said to have emerged from the ocean and accelerated rapidly out of sight, straight up. There is much, much more of interest in the article. Read it all here: https://www.thedebrief.org/fast-movers-and-transmedium-vehicles-the-pentagons-uap-task-force/

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