Are we being invaded by UFO’s or is it simply more government games being played out—both with other countries and its own citizens?
Pentagon and intelligence officials are trying to make sense of three unidentified flying objects over Alaska, Canada and Michigan that U.S. fighter jets shot down with missiles on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and the public is puzzled, and in some cases, worried, about them.
The latest of what officials persist in calling “objects,” had first been spotted on Saturday over Montana, initially sparking debate over whether it even existed, then eventually reappearing traveling eastward. It was then shot down over Lake Huron.
There are a few big questions around the episodes: Why are they being called “objects”? Why the sudden flurry of such events? And why does the government appear to be withholding information that the public is clamoring for?
For now, we have no answers, American officials claim they do not know what the objects were, much less their purpose or who sent them. At least that’s the official story.
For the second, it is not clear if there are suddenly more objects or if we are looking more closely after the first of these events, the incursion of the Chinese spy balloon that was initially sighted on February 2. One theory is that nothing has changed, it’s just that we have become hypervigilant and are shooting down objects that previously might have been allowed to pass.
After the transit of the spy balloon this month, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, adjusted its radar system to make it more sensitive. “We have been more closely scrutinizing our airspace at these altitudes, including enhancing our radar, which may at least partly explain the increase in objects that we’ve detected over the past week,” Melissa Dalton, the assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense and hemispheric affairs, said at a news conference on Sunday evening.
American officials have not completely discounted theories that there could indeed, be more objects to find. Some officials theorize that the objects could be from China, or another foreign power, and may be aimed at testing detection abilities after the spy balloon.
Throughout the weekend, officials said they were still trying to determine what the three objects were. The first, a Defense Department official said, is most likely not a balloon — and it broke into pieces after it was shot down on Friday. Saturday’s object was described by Canadian authorities as cylindrical, and American officials say it is more likely it was a balloon of some kind. Sunday’s object appeared unlikely to be a balloon, one official said.
U.S. officials said they are reviewing video and other sensor readings collected by the American pilots who observed the objects before their destruction. But the exact nature of the objects, where they are from and what they were intended for will not be confirmed until the F.B.I. and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police have the chance to thoroughly examine the debris, officials said.
Asked during a news conference on Sunday whether he had ruled out extraterrestrial origins, Gen. Glen D. VanHerck, the commander of the Air Force’s Northern Command, said, “I haven’t ruled out anything at this point.” But in interviews Sunday, national security officials discounted any thoughts that what the Air Force shot out of the sky represented any sort of alien visitors. No one, one senior official said, thinks these things are anything other than devices fashioned here on Earth.
Luis Elizondo, the military intelligence officer who ran the Pentagon’s U.F.O. program until 2017,
Said that for years, adversaries have sent low-tech gadgets into the skies above the United States. “What’s happening now is you have low-end technology being used to harass America,” he said in an interview. “It is a high-impact, low-cost way for China to do this, and the more you look up in the sky, the more you will see.”
“We can now assess flight patterns and trajectory in a much more scientific way,” said Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a New York Democrat who wrote the recent legislation mandating greater internal military reporting and analysis of aerial phenomena, leading to more documentation of sightings. “You need to know who’s using the technology and what it is.”
The most alarming theory under consideration by some U.S. officials is that the objects are sent by China or another power in an attempt to learn more about American radar or early warning systems. Montana GOP Sen. Steve Daines , along with other lawmakers, reportedly are infuriated at “the lack of transparency from the Biden administration”.
In the latest development of the conflict between the two countries, on Monday China claimed that more than 10 U.S. high-altitude balloons have flown in its airspace during the past year without its permission. Is the Chinese allegation made in good faith or is it just another stage in the intelligence gathering game where only the enemy ever does the spying and we are always the good guys?
