Senator Schumer says that the Pentagon has already started to put the squeeze on whistleblowers - so those names appearing at the Hearings are being kept quiet.
Turf wars have started.
No bureaucrats - Direct Witnesses only -
Amendments are in the works for the NDAA

Sen. Schumer introducing UFO declassification bill

Good to see traction.

Good to see some politicians realising that the public have lost faith in them, and that if they don't follow through that... well, probably nothing, because the public doesn't actually mean that much, but still.

Not at all surprising about the Pentagon, but hopefully that will backfire as Congress will introduce greater protections for whistleblowers - and hopefully also greater sanctions on the Pentagon so that this squeeze gets shut down (unlikely entirely though).

I do note, however, that Stephen Greer was talking about having hundreds of witnesses and informants... Burchett was only talking a handful.

Schumer's bill... let's see if it passes, and how much is given up for it! I honestly doubt it will pass. Too much 'national security' (too bad they don't really need to justify that to anyone)

https://www.express.co.uk/news/us/1790929/UFO-UAP-records-declassified

Quote:
The majority leader of the US Senate has introduced new legislation that would declassify government records relating to unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs) and Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs).

New York Senator Chuck Schumer announced the new bill via social media and in the New York Times. It would create a commission with the authority to declassify government documents about UFOs in an attempt to force the government to share all that it knows about unidentified phenomena.

From the Black Vault - www.theblackvault.com
Video and Transcript -

Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) Public Hearing – In Full – April 19, 2023

Kirsten Gillibrand 00:12

Hearing will come to order. I’d first like to thank our witness, Dr. Shawn Kirkpatrick for testifying here and in today’s earlier closed session, and for as long and distinguished career, both in the intelligence community and in the department defense, Dr. Kirkpatrick is the director of the all domain anomaly resolution office or arrow, Congress established this office in law to get to the bottom of the very serious problem of unidentified anomalous phenomenon or UAP. Dr. Kirkpatrick has a very difficult mission. While we have made progress, there remains a stigma attached to these phenomenon. There is a vast and complex citizen engagement. And there’s also very challenging scientific and technical hurdles. So we appreciate the willingness of Dr. Kirkpatrick to lean in on this issue and the work that he has accomplished thus far. And we look forward to both his opening statement and his presentation of examples of the work arrow has done. In late 2017, m edia reports surfaced about activity set in motion. By the late long serving Majority Leader, Senator Harry Reid more than a decade ago, we learned that there was strong evidence of advanced technology reflected in the features and performance characteristics of many objects observed by our highly highly trained service members operating top of the line military equipment. We learned that for at least the past eight years, military pilots frequently encountered or unknown objects in controlled airspace off both the east and west coast across the continental United States. In test and training areas and ranges. We don’t know where they are, they come from who made them or how they operate. As former Deputy Secretary of Defense David Norquist observed had any of these objects had the label made in China, there will be an uproar in the government and media, there would be no stone unturned and no efforts spare to find out what we were dealing with. We can look at the recent incursion of the unidentified PRC high altitude balloon for as an example, because EPA because of the UFO stigma, the response has been irresponsibly anemic and slow. Congress established arrow we made it clear that we expect vigorous action we added very substantial initial funding for the office. But despite our best efforts, the President’s budget for fiscal was 23 and 24, requested only enough funding to defray the operating expenses of arrow. It included almost no funds to sustain the critical research and development necessary to support a serious investigation. It took a letter to Secretary Austin from Senator Rubio and me and 14 other senators to get the office temporary relief for the current fiscal year. In this hearing, I tend to probe a series of specific issues. And the recent incidents where multiple objects were shot down over North America, it seems that Pentagon leadership did not turn to arrow office. To play a leading role in advising the combatant commander, we need to know whether this will continue. We need to know whether the leadership and DOD will bring arrow into the decision making process in a visible way. And we need to know what role arrow will play in inter agency coordination after the NSC Working Group disbands. In the fiscal year 2023. national defense and intelligence authorization acts Congress established a direct reporting chain from the arrow director to the Deputy Secretary of Defense the role of the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for intelligence and security is limited to providing administrative support, we need to know how this direction is being implemented. UAP are frequently observed flying in extremely high or very low speeds and come in various sizes and shapes. During the recent shutdowns over North America. DOD disclosed disclosed that filters on radar systems were adjusted to allow for detection and tracking of diverse sets of objects for the first time. While opening the aperture can overload the real time analytic process. We cannot keep turning a blind eye to surveillance data that is critical to detecting and tracking UAP. We need to know whether Dr. Kirkpatrick can achieve the necessary control over sensor filters and the storage and access to raw surveillance data to find UAP anomalies. Finally, one of the TAs congress set for Arrow is serving as an open door for witnesses of UAP events, or participants in government activities related to UAPs to come forward securely and disclose what THEY KNOW without fear of retribution. For any possible violations of previously signed non disclosure agreements. Congress mandated that arrow set up a publicly discoverable and accessible process for Safe Disclosure. Well, we know that arrow has already conducted a significant number of interviews, many referred by Congress, we need to set up a public process that that and we need to know where that effort stands. With that I’d like to turn to Senator Ernst for her opening statement.

Joni Ernst 04:32

Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you Dr. Kirkpatrick for your testimony today. I’ll keep these remarks very brief so that we have maximum time for your briefing. The recent downing of the Chinese surveillance surveillance balloon and three other objects underscores the need for Domain Awareness. Adversaries like China and Russia are working to hold us interests including our homeland at risk. That’s why your testimony is so important. So look forward to a progress update on the establishment of your office. As members know your office evolved from the Navy led unidentified aerial phenomena task force to the all domain anomalous resolution office known as arrow. Dr. Kirkpatrick, your extensive background in science and technology, research and development and space makes you well suited to discuss these emerging challenges. My priority is that we understand the full range of threats posed by our adversaries in all domains. That is what the joint force needs to be prepared to fight and win in defense of our nation. This committee needs to know about Chinese or Russian advanced technology programs to exploit our vulnerabilities and it needs to know whether your office along with the IC has detected potential Chinese or Russian capabilities to surveil or attack us. Finally, we need to ensure efficient interagency coordination. multiple elements of the DOD and I see own a piece of this mission to add value arrows efforts cannot be redundant with others. Thank you again, we look forward to your testimony.

Kirsten Gillibrand 06:16

Dr. Kirkpatrick, you can give your testimony.

Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick 06:20

Thank you, Chairwoman geo brand, Ranking Member Ernst, and distinguished members of the subcommittee. It’s a privilege to be here today to testify on the defense defenses efforts to address unidentified anomalous phenomena. First, I want to thank Congress for its extensive and continued partnership as the department works to better understand and respond to UAP. In an effort to minimize technical and intelligence surprise, unidentified objects in any domain pose potential risks to safety and security, particularly from military personnel and capabilities. Congress and DOD agree that UAP cannot remain unexamined or unaddressed. We are grateful for sustained congressional engagement on this issue, which paved the way for the DoD establishment of the old domain anomaly resolution office in July of last year. Though arrow is still young office, the spotlight on UAP in recent months underscores the importance of its work and the need for UAP to be taken seriously as a matter of national security. All leadership that I’ve had the pleasure of working with whether dod i see DOD, civil, scientific or industrial view Congress as a critical partner in this endeavor. Arrow has accomplished much in the last nine months since it was established. The Aero team of more than three dozen experts is organized around four functional areas operations, scientific research, integrated analysis and strategic communications. And the nine months since arrows establishment, we’ve taken important steps to involve and improve UAP data collection, standardize the department’s UAP internal reporting requirements, and implement a framework for rigorous scientific and intelligence analysis, allowing us to resolve cases in a systematic and prioritized manner. Meanwhile, consistent with legislative direction arrow is also carefully reviewing and researching the US government’s UAP related historical record. Arrow is leading a focused effort to better characterize, understand and attribute UAP with priority given the UAP reports by DOD and IC personnel in or near areas of national security importance. DOD fully appreciates the eagerness for many quarters, especially here in Congress and in the American public to quickly resolve every UAP encountered across the globe from the distant past through today. It’s important to note however, arrow is the culmination of decades of DOD intelligence community and congressionally directed efforts to successfully resolve UAP encountered first and foremost by US military personnel, specifically navy and air force pilots. The law establishing aero is ambitious, and it will take time to realize the full mission. We cannot answer decades of questions about UAP all at once, but we must begin somewhere. While I assure you that arrow will follow scientific evidence wherever it leads. I ask for your patience as DoD first prioritizes safety and security of our military personnel and installations in all domains. After all, a UAP encountered first by highly capable DOD and IC platforms, featuring the nation’s most advanced sensors are those UAP most likely to be resolved by my office, assuming the data can be collected. If arrow succeeds in first improving the ability of military personnel to quickly and confidently resolve UAP they encounter. I believe that in time we will have greatly advanced the capability of the entire United States government including its civilian agencies to resolve UAP However, it would be naive to believe that the resolution of all UAP can be solely accomplished by the DOD and ice alone. We will need to prioritize collection and leverage authorities for monitoring all domains within the continental United States. Arrows ultimate success will require partnerships with the interagency industry partners, academia and the scientific community as well as the public. AARO is partnering with the services intelligence community, DOD as well as civil partners and across the US government to tap into the resources of the interagency. The UAP challenge is more an operational and scientific issue than it is an intelligence issue. As such, we are working with industry, academia and the scientific community which bring their own resources, ideas and expertise to this challenging problem set. Robust collaboration and peer review across a broad range of partners will promote greater objectivity and transparency in the study of UAP. I want to underscore today that only a very small percentage of UAP reports display signatures that could reasonably be described as anomalous. The majority of unidentified objects reported to arrow demonstrate mundane characteristics of balloons unmanned aerial systems clutter natural phenomena or other readily explainable sources. While a large number of cases in our holdings remain technically unresolved, this is primarily due to a lack of data associated with those cases. Without sufficient data, we are unable to reach defendable conclusions that meet the high scientific standards we set for resolution, and I will not close the case that I cannot defend the conclusions of. I recognize that this answer is unsatisfying to those who in good faith assume that what they see with their eyes with their cameras and worth their radars is incontrovertible evidence of extraordinary characteristics and performance. Yet time and again with sufficient scientific quality data, it is fact that UAP often, but not always, resolve into readily explainable sources. Humans are subjected to deception and illusions sensors to unexpected responses and malfunctions, and in some cases, intentional interference. Getting to the handful of cases that pass this level of scrutiny is the mission of Arrow. That is not to say that UAP once resolved are no longer of national security interest. However, on the contrary, learning that a UAP isn’t of exotic origin, but is instead just a quadcopter, or balloon leads to the question of who is operating that quadcopter and to what purpose? The answers to those questions will inform potential national security or law enforcement responses. Arrow is a member of the department’s support to the administration’s tiger team effort to deal with stratospheric objects such as the PRC high altitude balloon. While when previously unknown objects are successfully identified, it is Arrow’s role to quickly and efficiently hand off such readily explainable objects to the intelligence law enforcement or operational safety communities for further analysis and appropriate action. In other words, arrows mission is to turn UAP into SCP, somebody else’s problem.

Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick 13:21

The US government the DOD and the IC in particular has tremendous capabilities to deal with those encountered objects. In the wake of the PRC hab event. The interagency is working to better integrate and share information to address identifiable stratospheric objects, but that is not all arrows lane. Meanwhile, for the few cases in all domains space, air and sea that do demonstrate potentially anomalous characteristics, Arrow exists to help the DoD IC and interagency resolve those anomalous cases. In doing so AARO is approaching these cases with the highest level of objectivity, and analytic rigor. This includes physically testing and employing modeling and simulation validate our analyses and underlying theories, then peer reviewing those results within the US government, industry partners and appropriately cleared academic institutions before reaching any conclusions. I should also state clearly for the record that in our research arrow has found no credible evidence thus far of extra terrestrial activity offworld technology or objects that defy the known laws of physics. In the event sufficient scientific data wherever obtained, that a UAP encountered can only be explained by extraterrestrial origin. We are committed to working with our interagency partners at NASA, to appropriately inform us government’s leadership of its findings. For those few cases that have leaked to the public previously and subsequently commented on by the US government. I encourage those who hold alternative theories or views to submit your research to credible peer reviewed scientific journal. US arrow is working very hard to do the same. That is how science works, not by blog or social media. We know that there is tremendous public interest in UAP and a desire for answers from Arrow. By its very nature, the UAP challenge has for decades lent itself to mystery, sensationalism, and even conspiracy. For that reason, Eero remains committed to transparency, accountability and to sharing as much with the American public as we can, consistent with our obligation to protect not only intelligence sources and methods, but US and allied capabilities. However, arrows work will take time if we are committed to do it, right. It means adhering to the scientific method, and the highest standards of Research Integrity. It means being methodical and scrupulous. It means withholding judgment in favor of evidence, it means following the data where it leads wherever it leads. It means establishing scientific peer reviewed theoretical underpinnings of observed data. An arrow is committed to all of those standards. I’m proud of arrows progress over the last nine months, months, much remains to be done, but the hard work is underway. Thank you for your continued support. And before we turn to questions, I’m going to walk you through some of our analytical trends in a couple of cases that we’ve prepared. So one of the things that arrow does is high integrity analysis. As I’ve said, This chart represents the trend analysis of all the cases in arrows holdings right to date. What you’ll see on the left is a histogram of all of our reported sightings as a function of altitude. So most of our sightings occur in the 15 to 25,000 foot range. And that is ultimately because that’s where a lot of our aircraft are. On the far right upper corner, you’ll see a breakout of the morphologies of all of the UAP that are reported. Over half about 52% of what’s been reported to us are round, or spheres. The rest of those breakout into all kinds of different other shapes. The gray box is essentially there is no data on what its shape is either it wasn’t reported or the sensor did not collect it. The bottom map is a heat map of all reporting areas across the globe that we have available to us. What you’ll notice is that there is a heavy what we call collection bias both in altitude and in geographic location. That’s where all of our sensors exist. That’s where our training ranges are. That’s where our operational ranges are. That’s where all of our platforms are. In the middle, what we have done is reduce the most typically reported UAV characteristics to these fields, mostly round mostly one to four meters, white silver, translucent metallic 10,000 30,000 feet. With apparent velocities from stationary to Mach two, no thermal exhausts usually detected, we get intermittent radar returns, we get intermittent radio returns, and we get intermittent thermal signatures. That’s what we’re looking for, and trying to understand what that is. Next slide. So I’m going to walk you through two cases that we’ve declassified recently. This first one is an MQ nine in the Middle East, observing that blow up which is an apparent spherical object vo EO centers those are not IR if you want to go ahead and click that and play it you’ll see it come through the top of the screen, there it goes and then the camera will slew to follow it. You’ll see it pop in and out of the screen field of view there. This is essentially all of the data we have associated with this event from some years ago. It is going to be virtually impossible to fully identify that just based off of that video. Now what we can do and what we are doing is keeping that as part of that group of 52% to see what are the similarities, what are the trends across all these do we see these in a particular distribution? Do they all behave the same or not? As we get more data, we will be able to go back and look at these in a fuller context. How are we going to get more data, we are working with the joint staff to issue guidance to all the services and commands that will then establish what are the reporting requirements, the timeliness, and all of the data that is required to be delivered to us and retained from all the associated sensors. That historically hasn’t been the case. And it’s been happenstance that data has been collected. Next slide. This particular event, South Asia MQ nine, looking at another MQ nine, and what’s highlighted there in that red circle is an object that flies through the screen. Unlike the previous one, this one actually shows some really interesting things that everyone thought was truly anomalous to start with. First of all, it’s a high speed object, it’s flying in the field of regard of two MQ nines, second appears to have this trail behind it. All right, which, at first blush, you would think that looks like a propulsion trail. In reality, if you want to play the first slide, we’ll show you what that looks like in real time, first video. So we’re looking at that, there it goes. Once you play it again, and then pause it halfway through, right there. Alright, you might be able to see that trail there behind it. That’s actually not a real trail that is a sensor artifact. Each one of those little blobs is actually a representation of the object as it’s moving through. And later in the video as the as the camera slews, that trail actually follows the direction of the camera, not the direction of the object. We pulled these apart frame by frame, we were able to demonstrate that that is essentially a readout overlap of the image it’s a it’s a shadow image, right? It’s not real. Further, if you later, follow this all the way to end, it starts to resolve itself into that blob that’s in that picture on the top of that, right. And if you squint, it looks like an aircraft, because it actually turns out to be an aircraft, go ahead and put that on. So you’ll see the tail sort of pop out there. And so what you’re looking at is this is in the infrared. This is the heat signature off of the engines have a commuter aircraft that happened to be flying in the vicinity of where those two MQ nines were at.

Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick 22:50

Why am I showing you this? So the first one that I showed you, we don’t have resolved yet, right, that is an unresolved case, we are still studying this one we can resolve. But this is the kind of data that we have to work with, then the type of analysis that we have to do, which can be quite extensive when you have to pull these apart, frame by frame. Further, we’re now matching all of this with the models of all of those imaging sensors so that I can say, I can recreate this, I can actually show how the other sensors going to respond. All of these sensors don’t necessarily respond the way you think they do, especially out in the world and in the field. And I believe that’s all I have. And I will open it up for your questions. Thank you

continue reading at link -
https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/unidentified-anomalous-phenomena-uap-public-hearing-in-full-april-19-2023/

"Credible Evidence of UAP records" - DISCLOSURE ACT EXPLAINED

Chris Lehto provides an in-depth analysis of the full 64-page Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) Disclosure Act of 2023 in this episode of Lehto Files. He goes through the proposed legislation line-by-line, highlighting the most important sections and providing context, commentary, and thoughts on the implications of this historic act.

The UAP Disclosure Act was introduced by Senators Chuck Schumer and Mike Rounds to require the government to collect, analyze, and release information related to UAPs and unidentified flying objects. Modeled after the JFK Records Collection Act, this legislation aims to promote transparency and restore oversight on these matters which have been kept secret for too long.

In this nearly 60-minute deep dive, Chris breaks down the key points of the Act, including:

The formation of a UAP Records Review Board to facilitate disclosure
Congressional oversight from Select Committees in both the House and Senate
The process for review and release of UAP records to the public
Grounds on which the government could postpone disclosure of certain records
The concept of "Controlled Disclosure" and how information may be rolled out
The role of the President in making final determinations on disclosure
How recovered technologies and biological evidence could be obtained by the government
Appropriations authorized for carrying out the Act
Chris provides unique insights as a retired Lt. Colonel and former F-16 pilot throughout the analysis, noting important implications and remaining questions. He notes the historic nature of legislation containing terms like "Technologies of Unknown Origin" and "Non-Human Intelligence."

With impending congressional hearings on UAPs featuring David Grusch, Ryan Graves, and David Fravor, Chris sees this Act as part of an accelerating movement toward transparency. He sees public awareness as key to holding the government accountable to follow through on these policies as intended.

Thanks for watching, liking, and subscribing! It really helps the channel.
Support the channel at Patreon.com/chrislehto
Join the DeSci movement at UAPsociety.com

00:00 Intro
04:00 Reading the UAP Disclosure Act
14:00 Congressional Oversight
18:00 Review Board Formation
26:00 Grounds for Disclosure Postponement
32:00 Controlled Disclosure Plan
38:00 Technologies of Unknown Origin
44:00 Non-Human Intelligence
50:00 Public Disclosure Process
55:00 Final Thoughts

I heard somewhere that the Smithsonian Institute was exempt from disclosing anything they held related to UFO/UAP.
Anyone know where that information is?
Im sure someone went through the small print and found this.

One question it looks like the Senate Committee is going to need to ask next Wednesday is - "hypothetically, if any aliens or alien technology has been recovered by anyone in the defence forces, would that automatically become 'classified'?"

To be followed up with "if a UAP incident was later determined to be a terrestrial object (e.g., weather balloon, bird, plane, or even advanced technology from another country - would that automatically be classified?"

So, nail down the "classified" crap.

Similar to the above videos...

The 30min mark is hilarious ;D

Although they don't go as in-depth, line by line as Del's post above, I think this hits more of the nail's head, getting to the real important aspects of it (not so much the full legislation itself, but the significance of some of it), and how it should be seen in the light of a broader picture.

Really good point at 39mins - the wording of this legislation has been shown around and debated by a number of people, and so it's obvious that a lot of of those in Congress are on board with this.

I am presuming that most members of a party would never go against the majority leader - yes??

(I should also point out that even if members of congress don't believe in UFOs and that this is all a crock of shit, they have nothing to lose by voting to enact it (other than, maybe, their reputation for 'supporting' the idea. If there's no UFOs, and the bill goes through, and we find out there's no ETs - then they get proven correct! So, it's a win-win)