Many Military UFO Reports Are Just Foreign Spying or Airborne Trash (nytimes.com) 52
Government officials believe that surveillance operations by foreign powers and weather balloons or other airborne clutter explain most recent incidents of unidentified aerial phenomenon -- government-speak for U.F.O.s -- as well as many episodes in past years. From a report: The sightings have puzzled the Pentagon and intelligence agencies for years, fueling theories about visiting space aliens and spying by a hostile nation using advanced technology. But government officials say many of the incidents have far more ordinary explanations. Intelligence agencies are set to deliver a classified document to Congress by Monday updating a report made public last year that said nearly all of the incidents remain unexplained. The original document looked at 144 incidents between 2004 and 2021 that were reported by U.S. government sources, mostly American military personnel.
This article is based on interviews with American officials familiar with the findings of the Pentagon and intelligence agencies' examination of the incidents. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the classified work. Some of the incidents have been formally attributed to Chinese surveillance -- with relatively ordinary drone technology -- and others are also thought to be connected to Beijing. China, which has stolen plans for advanced fighter planes, wants to learn more about how the United States trains its military pilots, according to American officials.
This article is based on interviews with American officials familiar with the findings of the Pentagon and intelligence agencies' examination of the incidents. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the classified work. Some of the incidents have been formally attributed to Chinese surveillance -- with relatively ordinary drone technology -- and others are also thought to be connected to Beijing. China, which has stolen plans for advanced fighter planes, wants to learn more about how the United States trains its military pilots, according to American officials.
That's what they want you to believe (Score:4, Funny)
It is actually your own government spying on you.
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Careful there... During the recent years, the Slashdot community, has bought into the official government line concerning mr. Snowden
Whatever. Most of us knew Snowden was a whistle blower and a traitor at the same time. The first doesn't excuse the second.
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I don't agree that everyone out there thinks he is a traitor -- there are at least a few different movies/documentaries out that certainly do not cast him as a traitor. So either the authors of those screenplays are complicit liars, or they believe the alternative viewpoint that he upset the three-letter-agencies and was subsequently hung out to dry by politicians because it was an easy campaign talking point.
People in power don't like it when you air their dirty laundry for everyone to see. That's certainl
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I'm not saying that everyone thinks he is a traitor, there's at least you and me left. But I am saying that 99,99% of those who know him now think of him as a traitor. The Snowden movies came out some years ago now. The times when at least Slashdot considered him a hero are also bygone now. Times have changed.
What I am saying is that the public opinion has been made to turn around on itself. The same way that advertisement works and makes people buy cray, the same way also the hate and hysteria train of las
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It is actually your own government spying on you.
Or in the case of the US military, one branch spying on another.
Look at the UFO's that have been shadowing aircraft carriers. Obviously advanced drones of some kind. How much do you want to bet that they could be US Air Force drones? The Air Force goes to American political leadership and says "See, the Navy is obsolete. Our drones flew rings around them. Give US their budget instead".
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Don't forget the out of focus birds (Score:1)
and airplanes.
The 22 year old 2nd Lieutenant who reported it would be sad if you forgot.
Well... yeah (Score:3)
What else would they be?
Re: Well... yeah (Score:4, Funny)
Gay frog pdophiles bent on decriminalizing the use of magic mushrooms as queen side white bishops in chess competitions?
Re: Well... yeah (Score:1)
Oh I wasn't referring to the UFO loons, I was referring to the UFOs.
Ribbit. Ribbit.
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Somewhat Identified Flying Objects (Score:5, Funny)
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or Things in the Sky - TITS.
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Moving around up there, unpredictable motions violating the laws of physics. Get a good photo and milk it for all its worth.
Yes.. (Score:2)
"Weather" "Balloons" (Score:4)
Ah ja... the same weather balloon stories again that were used in Roswell....:-)
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The thing that got me was the 'airborne trash' or 'airborne clutter' part. What the fuck is that supposed to mean? Plastic bags being blown about by the wind?
Re:"Weather" "Balloons" (Score:4, Interesting)
The thing that got me was the 'airborne trash' or 'airborne clutter' part. What the fuck is that supposed to mean? Plastic bags being blown about by the wind?
In some cases, yes. In other cases it could be those mylar balloons people buy for birthdays and celebrations which are filled with our depleting stores of helium, or ballons in general.
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Saw this the other day. Thought it was a plane while driving home, but it moved funny. Got closer and I saw 5 discs, so it was a drone clearly. Then closer still it was just 5 black balloons tied together, bobbing around and creating unusual shapes when seen from further away.
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It weirded me out, but I decided to stand and stare at it. After 10 minutes of trying to see more detail, I finally figured out it was actually just a plastic bag. Once you recognize it as a plastic bag, you can't unsee it as one.
I'm a weirdo in that I like walking around looking up at the sky or tall b
But, but, but... (Score:2)
Hey, now! Don't you dare try to confuse me with your reasonable and well thought out speculations and statements of the obvious! You're not going to dissuade me from believing my completely baseless conspiracy theories that easily!
Now, where did I put my tinfoil hat? [youtube.com]
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how about Russian Ka-52 alligator pilots?
Wrong way. Their pieces are fertilizing Ukrainian soil.
Ummm DUH (Score:2)
The recent information on this topic is very project blue book in nature. Of course the majority are explainable. Nobody is interested in the explained, we are interested in hearing about what remains.
this has been my experience (Score:2)
bugs on the telescope
commercial air traffic
space debris
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You may have intended that as a joke, but fireflies in a telescope were used as a plot device in Road to Morocco [wikipedia.org] back in 1942.
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Truth being stranger than fiction, etc.
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Remember all those triangle UFO sightings in the 7 (Score:3)
That were invisible to radar? Yeah, they kind of stopped once the F117 stealth fighter was revealed to the world.
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It proved easy enough to track and shoot down with 1960s SAMs.
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Those were just reflection artifacts from the camera itself. We have several highway cams in my state that do the same damn thing. I myself have a camera that drops artifacts into photos, except they're round (because they started life as condensation droplets). UFOs in every night shot.
Rubbish (Score:2)
"Nothing to see here folks" (Score:2)
Or maybe the religious leaders who earn Billions from donations don't want their source of revenue to stop
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correlation (Score:1)
Frequency of UFO reports correlates with level of marijuana use.
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Culture plays a lot into this. If there is nighttime paralysis, this used to be blamed on witches or demons, with details that matched what was popular at the time. Fast forward the toe 50s and lots of scifi movies and huge increases in science and technology, then these stories migrated to be about alien abductions more often, though the descriptions still point towards nighttime paralysis. Still some true believers in this out there.
The thing is, despite the legal trust in it, "I saw it with my own eye
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The brain fills in things it doesn't understand or clearly make out with things directly out of your culture.
My step mother sees ghosts. My father sees sasquatch.
UFOs became a sighting about as common as ghost sightings around the time they became part of the culture.
There's no mystery to it, other than trying to figure out how, or whether, to try to convince the easily duped that their vision and ignorance is in fact fallible.
But is it really trash? (Score:2)
So if we spotted the Millennium Falcon, would it be considered UFO, spacecraft or trash? I mean she might look like a piece of junk [tvtropes.org]...
Mars *is* foreign. (Score:2)
The disrespect (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, tell us what to believe (Score:1)
This is probably another attempt to white-wash the reality we are waking up to, that there are alien craft in our airspace and they have been here all along.
This is a classic tactic, do they believe we're just this stupid... it sounds desperate.
Humanity as a whole can handle Disclosure, we'll be just fine. Maybe not so much those that have been screwing with us, but that's another topic.
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Conspiracy nuts (Score:2)
Conspiracy nuts think UFO means "we can't understand what it is". It actually means "we didn't bother to look at it".
Think how many times a pilot sees something sparkling in the distance and just stays on course instead of veering off tens of miles. Well, there are your UFOs.
Don't want balloons starting a war (Score:2)
What bollicks (Score:1)
What bollicks, if it can be identified as a ballon or any thing else for that matter it is not a UFO, the meaning is in the name "Unidentified" means that it is not able to be identified.