Tag: secrecy

How release of Pentagon’s secret UFO programme could be a ‘game-changer’

The US government is keeping tabs on any and all claims of UFO sightings as part of an ‘above top-secret’ programme, a whistleblower has alleged.

‘Immaculate Constellation’ is an alleged database of high-quality photographs, videos, firsthand accounts and electronic sensor evidence of UFOs.

Officials use the off-the-books programme to ‘detect’ and ‘quarantine’ UFO materials without congressional knowledge or oversight, according to a leaked report shared with the Substack newsletter Public.

American military and intelligence officials have a ‘high level of confidence in the accuracy and integrity of the data gathered’, which includes mentions of not only UFOs but ‘Alien Reproduction Vehicles’, or reverse-engineered crafts.

If confirmed, the very existence of ‘Immaculate Constellation’ would be a ‘game-changing development’, the UK’s top UFO expert told Metro.

In one sighting described in the report, ‘orb’ unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP), as UFOs are now officially known, swarmed an advanced fighter jet.

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 IMMACULATE CONSTELLATION? Could The Government Really Hide a Secret UFO Program?  

Recently, independent journalist and author Michael Shellenberger published an article on his subscription news site, Public, alleging that a new, unnamed government whistleblower had come forward. 

The whistleblower asserts that a highly classified program exists dedicated to unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), including the potential recovery and reverse-engineering of UAP technologies. 

This isn’t the first time a former or current government official has made similar claims. 

In 2023, The Debrief was the first media outlet to report that David Grusch, a former Air Force officer and intelligence specialist with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), had filed an official complaint with the Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG) alleging a DoD cover-up of UAP information and the recovery of alien technologies. 

According to Grusch, the U.S. government has recovered several vehicles “of exotic origin—attributed to non-human intelligence, whether extraterrestrial or otherwise unknown—based on their unique vehicle morphologies, material science analyses, and distinctive atomic arrangements and radiological signatures.” 

Grusch later reiterated these claims under oath in testimony before the Congressional Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs. 

However, in Shellenberger’s recent article, the purported whistleblower went a step further, revealing the name of a highly secretive Pentagon “Unacknowledged Special Access Program” (USAP) codenamed “IMMACULATE CONSTELLATION.” Reportedly, this program involves investigating, recovering, and attempting reverse engineering of alien technologies.

While interesting, in the grand scheme of things, this new whistleblower’s claims leave us in a familiar situation—a fascinating story that is nearly impossible to verify. However, this doesn’t mean the underlying theme of these whistleblower claims isn’t worth exploring. 

In his article, Shellenberger quotes the unnamed source as saying, “The Executive Branch has been managing UAP/NHI issues without Congressional knowledge, oversight, or authorization for some time, quite possibly decades.”

This statement raises a crucial question: is the U.S. government even capable of maintaining a program under such extreme secrecy, hidden even from Congressional oversight?

Given incidents like the Snowden leaks, the Vault 7 disclosures, and revelations about the CIA’s “enhanced interrogation techniques“ during the war on terror, it seems likely that if conclusive evidence of “non-human intelligence“ existed, it would have surfaced by now. 

Furthermore, the sheer amount of bureaucracy involved in any government operation makes the idea of hiding a secret UFO program not only from the public but also from Congress seem nearly impossible.

However, the truth might be more surprising… 

In the last two years, I received unsolicited phone calls from two different high-ranking government officials. Since these conversations were mutually agreed to be “off the record“ and this is an opinion piece, I’m not bound by The Debrief’s formal editorial policy requiring attribution that preserves their anonymity while confirming their credibility. 

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Heavily Redacted UAP Briefing Between UAP Task Force and NASA Released

A recent release of documents obtained through two Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests filed by The Black Vault in 2021 and 2022, has shed light on a briefing about Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (now referred to as Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena [UAP]) by the UAP Task Force (UAPTF) for NASA.

The UAPTF was a U.S. Department of Defense program established to investigate UAP reports, running from 2020 until its transition to the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group (AOIMSG) in 2021.

The requests specifically asked for “all communications, emails or otherwise, between the UAP Task Force, and NASA,” after it was revealed in NASA FOIA Case 21-HQ-F-00507 that the UAPTF had requested NASA brief them on UAPs in September 2020. That case sought all communications between the task force and NASA. A second case was filed in 2022 to specifically request a “classified slide deck on Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon (UAP), created by Jay Stratton, that was shown to NASA and likely other agencies in October of 2020” also revealed by previously released documents.

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NASA Denies Existence of Classified Briefings on James Webb Telescope Discoveries

In recent weeks, rumors spread rapidly on social media suggesting that NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) had made an extraordinary discovery—potentially alien life—and that members of Congress had been briefed about it.

The rumors intensified after U.S. Representative Andre Carson, who had previously chaired a congressional hearing on unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs), declined to answer a question about classified briefings when asked by @AskaPol_UAPs run by journalist Matt Laslo on X.

The speculation prompted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, filed by The Black Vault on September 22, 2024, seeking any records—classified or unclassified—about JWST briefings provided to Congress, particularly related to the telescope’s findings. The request aimed to clarify whether any congressional briefings had been held about significant discoveries made by JWST, which has been in operation since 2021.

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The Intelligence Support Activity – one of America’s most secretive special operations units

Established in 1981, the U.S. Army Intelligence Support Activity was created in the wake of the failed attempt to rescue the American hostages from Tehran. Very likely, this is the first time you hear about this unit – and for good reason.

A combination of a special operations and an intelligence-gathering outfit, Intelligence Support Activity operates in the shadows. For over 40 years, the unit has been paving the way for other secretive special missions units, such as the Army Delta Force and Navy’s SEAL Team 6. ISA is one of JSOC’s Tier 1 units, along with Delta Force, SEAL Team 6, and the Air Force’s 24th Special Tactics Squadron.

As to how the unit came to be, much like the rest of the U.S. special operations community, it arose from disaster and the ashes of defeat.

This is how an emergency created one of the military’s most secretive units.

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Man Spots Secret US Military Spacecraft With Amateur Telescope

Just six weeks after spotting a secret Chinese spaceplane, an amateur astronomer in Austria is back at it again.

In an interview with Space.com, sky watcher Felix Schöfbänker described how he came to capture imagery of Pentagon craft that nobody knows much about.

Using a 14-inch Dobsonian telescope that’s optimized to track satellites, the Austrian astrophotographer cross-referenced the images he captured with specs from various spy satellites launched by the Pentagon.

While most of what he’s spotted recently have been known crafts deployed by the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), including the Boeing-built Future Image Architecture (FIA)-Radar satellites and some Keyhole (KH)-11 orbiters, one stood out to Schöfbänker as nothing he’s seen before.

“In July, I managed to get a look at a satellite called ‘USA 290,’ which is suspected of possibly being another KH-11,” he told Space.com. “But my image shows a different kind of design, which doesn’t look like a typical KH-11.”

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White House Correspondents’ Association Outraged Over Joe Biden’s Secretive Quad Meetings with World Leaders at Delaware Home

Joe Biden is a champion at doing things off the radar and secretively.

Whether it is campaigning from the basement or taking more vacations in a month than financially strapped Americans can take in a year under his failed economy, he knows how to avoid the press.

Fox News reports that Biden is meeting privately with the three other world leaders of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) at his Delaware estate away from the press and away from any probative questions.

The White House released statements acknowledging Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida had already met with Biden. On Saturday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was seen arriving at his home.

The excessively private meetings have engendered outrage from the White House Correspondents’ Association.

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Government Refuses to Publish Data on Crime and Welfare By Immigration Status or Nationality

The Government is refusing to publish data on crime and welfare claims by immigration status or nationality, making it impossible to ascertain the impact of immigration on society and the economy, says Matt Goodwin on Substack. Here’s an excerpt.

There was a truly remarkable revelation in the U.K. Parliament this week and one you probably missed. … [It] was quietly made by a renegade Conservative Member of Parliament during a committee discussion about immigration, with Nigel Farage and Reform MPs looking on. What was the revelation? Well, brace yourself because there wasn’t one but a series of bombshells, each one more mind-boggling than the last and each one underlining how it’s not populists who are stoking misinformation — it’s the elite class.

The revelations — by the respected and rigorous Neil O’Brien, Conservative MP for Harborough, Oadby, and Wigston — really are devastating.

He pointed to not just a Government but an entire political system that is either deliberately concealing masses of information from voters about the impact of immigration, or is doing so through sheer incompetence.

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The Intercept Sues to Release 911 Recordings From Trump Rally Shooting

The Intercept filed a lawsuit on Monday to force county officials in Pennsylvania to release 911 recordings from the July rally in which former President Donald Trump was injured in an apparent assassination attempt. Despite the public’s “compelling” interest in these materials, Butler County refuses to hand them over without a court order.

Almost two months after the July 13 shooting, questions remain about the timeline of law enforcement officials’ response and coordination, including when rally attendees first alerted them to the gunman climbing onto a nearby roof. Police from Butler Township released body camera footage showing their frantic real-time response from multiple perspectives.

But Butler County insists that releasing the 911 calls might jeopardize investigations into what happened.

“Simply put, there is no accountability without public access,” said Melissa Bevan Melewsky, media law counsel for the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association. “The county should reverse its denial so that the nation has a better understanding of what happened and can work to prevent similar attacks in the future.” 

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Federal Judge Rules Inmate Death Records Can Remain Secret Because They Could Embarrass Prison Officials

In response to a public records lawsuit filed by the Reason Foundation, the nonprofit that publishes Reason, a federal judge has ruled the U.S. government can hide findings about whether people who died in federal prison received adequate medical care, partly out of fear that those records could be used to criticize prison officials.

U.S. District Court Judge for the District of Columbia Christopher R. Cooper issued an opinion in August that the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) was largely not required to disclose redacted information from mortality reviews of in-custody deaths in two federal women’s prisons that have been the subject of numerous accusations of medical neglect.

In addition to finding that the mortality reviews were part of the BOP’s decision-making process, Cooper wrote that the BOP had successfully demonstrated that releasing the records would result in foreseeable harm to the agency. The judge wrote that a declaration from a BOP official credibly established that the mortality reviews could be used to “criticize” or “ridicule” the agency. 

“And, as described above, she notes that the members of the Mortality Review Committee would be ‘deter[red] . . . from acknowledging mistakes’ if they feared those mistakes would be publicized,” Cooper continued.

Reason Foundation, represented by the law office of Deborah Golden, filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit last year against the BOP seeking mortality reviews of in-custody deaths at FCI Aliceville, a federal women’s prison in Alabama, and FMC Carswell, a federal prison in Texas that is the only medical center for incarcerated women in the BOP system.

Whenever a federal inmate dies, a committee reviews the circumstances and whether BOP policies were violated. The committee then gives recommendations on how care could have been improved. That information could reveal whether the BOP is aware of medical neglect within its walls and how bad the problem is.

Reason reported in 2020 on allegations of fatal medical neglect inside FCI Aliceville. Numerous current and former inmates, as well as their families, said in interviews, desperate letters, and lawsuits that women inside FCI Aliceville faced disastrous delays in health care. They described monthslong waits for doctor appointments and routine procedures, skepticism and retaliation from staff, and terrible pain and fear.

Seeking to learn more, Reason filed a FOIA request in May 2020 for inmate mortality reviews at FCI Aliceville, as well as FMC Carswell. 

When the BOP finally released mortality reviews from FMC Carswell three years later, it redacted any information that would indicate if there was substandard care, such as the review committee’s findings on the timeliness and appropriateness of care; problems encountered during the medical emergency; whether there was adequate documentation in the patient’s medical files; and whether the patient received appropriate care per the BOP’s policies.

The BOP withheld that information under exemption b(5) of the FOIA, which protects “predecisional” or deliberative communications between officials. The National Security Archive dubbed it the “withhold it because you want to” exemption.

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