I have been watching all the old X-Files episodes on Hulu lately, making my way through the third season, circa 1996. But why watch a science fiction/horror show about government conspiracies involving extraterrestrials, when I can watch the real thing unfolding in the media right now?
Declassify the Documents?
I read in the New York Times this morning that Chuck Shumer, the senator from New York, wants to create a commission that will declassify government documents about UFOs1. There is bipartisan support, and part of the impetus for this legislation may be to corral the burgeoning conspiracy theories about government coverups. Schumer’s bill is modelled on legislation passed in 1992 allowing review of documents pertaining to the assassination of John F. Kennedy—an event that also generated many conspiracy theories. We have been here before.
Interest in what the government knows about these phenomena has increased since the recent release of military videos depicting hard to explain objects hovering and flying about. To date, the government has not released all the data it possesses, chiefly for reasons of national security. This resistance to full disclosure has frustrated congress and encouraged conspiracy theorists, hence the legislation.
Government officials have repeatedly denied that the videos and other material they have contain evidence of alien invasion. They have also denied that government agents have retrieved the wreckage of a crashed extraterrestrial vehicle or are warehousing material of extraterrestrial manufacture. Of course they would. Weirdly, the proposed legislation contains a provision allowing the government to claim any crashed spaceships that might be in private or corporate hands, “however unlikely that such things exist.” Hmmm.
Attack of the Metallic Orbs
The All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) has been collecting reports from around the world of “mysterious metallic orbs”.2 The spherical objects range in size from about 3 feet in diameter to the size of an automobile and are white, silver or metallic in color. They tend to appear at altitudes of 10,000 to 30,000 feet—where commercial aircraft fly. When spotted, the orbs can be stationary or move at speeds of up to Mach 2 apparently without exuding any thermal exhaust while they operate.
The AARO receives between 50 and 100 reports of these strange objects a month, though only 2%-5% are considered truly “anomalous”. However, sightings of unidentified anomalous objects increased dramatically following David Grusch’s allegations that special government programs are in possession of fragments and an intact vehicle of non-human origin—and have had these items for decades.
Write To Congress!
During a recent interview with Sean Hannity, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida reported that individuals with very high government clearance had come forward to claim that our government is “reverse engineering” fragments of exotic technology to advance our own technologies and defense systems. Senator Rubio could not say whether the allegation was true or not but opined that people with very high clearances involved in important projects for the government are either telling the truth or are crazy. Couldn’t they be both?
The All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) an agency of the Department of Defense, has stated that they have “not discovered any verifiable information to substantiate claims that any programs regarding the possession or reverse-engineering of any extraterrestrial materials have existed in the past or exist currently.” Of course they would.
Representative Tim Burchett of Tennessee, who is on the House Oversight Committee looking into UFOs and UAPs, has speculated that Earth would have no defense against an extra-terrestrial invasion.4 Technologically speaking, “…we are vastly out of our league” and the aliens could “…turn us into a charcoal briquette”.
Back in March, the Tennessee lawmaker Burchett reiterated the allegation that the U.S. government has recovered extraterrestrial technology and is attempting to reverse-engineer it—and that it has “recovered a craft at some point, and possible beings.”5 According to Burchett, the government may have been involved in this matter “… since 1947, probably since about 1897 in what was the Auroro Texas ‘UFO crash.”
Representative Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin has helpfully suggested that UAPs are either time travelling vehicles piloted by people from the future, or the manifestation of an ancient, technologically advanced culture that is just now revealing itself to the world after spending millennia in hiding.
“The Truth is Out There”, as the X-Files proclaimed at the beginning of every episode. But is it really? Who can get to the bottom of this UFO/UAP business now that Mulder and Scully are retired? Maybe we should ask the Cigarette Smoking Man: “What is the plan?”
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1“Bipartisan Measure Aims to Force Declassification of U.F.O. Records”, by Julian Barnes, New York Times, 7/14/23. UFOs are now officially called UAPs, though various government agencies dispute whether the unidentified phenomena are “aerial” or “anomalous”. Couldn’t they be both?
2 “Pentagon, NASA Have No Idea What Those Weird Flying Metallic Orbs Are”, by Joseph Curl. DailyWire.com, 7/12/23
3 “Senator Says UFO Claims May Be ‘Biggest Story in Human History”, by Daniel Chaitin. DailyWire.com, 7/12/23.
4 “Congressman has grim take after access to UFO footage: ‘We Can’t Handle It’”, by Chris Eberhart. FoxNews.com, 7/12/23.
5 “Congressman Says UFOs Can Fly Underwater, Government Has Been Covering Up Presence Since 1890s”, by Joseph Curl. DailyWire.com, 7/8/23.
6 “UFO Fervor Grabs Washington: Congressman Says UFOs May Be ‘Ancient Civilization,’ Senator Says Craft Retrievers Unaccountable”, by Joseph Curl. DailyWire.com, 7/5/23.
Egregoric Times 
As Scully says once in the series, “The truth is out there. But so are lies.”
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