The Empire Strikes Back
Written by Christopher Sharp - 2 February 2024
America’s official Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) investigation has failed.
And the media is complicit.
Comments from its former Director Dr Sean Kirkpatrick have sought to discredit serious allegations regarding potentially illegal programs connected with materials of non-human origin.
Dr Kirkpatrick even suggested tic tac-shaped objects, such as the one which out-manoeuvred a top gun pilot in 2004 could be explained by a balloon produced in Florida.
Have no doubt - all the most pressing concerns and serious allegations regarding UAP are being buried and brushed aside.
Following the hollowing out of the UAP Disclosure Act (UAPDA), the vultures are circling and looking to put the genie back in the box.
The mainstream media is a pale shadow of its former self.
Long gone are the multi-sourced deep investigations searching for truth, no matter how alarming.
Instead, we are bombarded with opinions informed by the tainted views of Dr Kirkpatrick and a novice debunker.
The New York Times, historically known for its esteemed journalism, has shifted its coverage of the topic to a tone that is both patronizing and reminiscent of tabloid reporting.
Opinion is easy.
Easier than investigating a Department of Defense (DoD) which has failed to pass an audit for six years.
Easier than delving into the intelligence community, whose previous shortcomings resulted in a costly invasion of Iraq based on unreliable information.
In today’s age of journalism, any writer can spout off their ill-informed views. It takes time and hard work to do the deep digging - something not valued in much of today’s media landscape.
Instead of representing whistleblowers and investigating their claims, the media, in the instance of UAP, have turned into DoD and intelligence community propaganda machines.
And when it comes to framing key announcements and new reports, the DoD can count on publications it can leak to for primary definition.
The less awkward the questions, the better.
Dr Kirkpatrick, through one interview and one article, is now framing an upcoming Historical Record Report, released by his old office, the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO).
And undoubtedly, the report is now tainted by his views and botched investigation in which he failed to follow up with key witnesses. It lacks credibility now.
The DoD confirmed to me that his recent comments were reviewed by the Defense Office of Prepublication and Security Review (DOPSR).
They say Dr Kirkpatrick is now a private citizen, despite the fact that he remains an unpaid consultant for the AARO.
Dr Kirkpatrick, who represents the executive branch as an unpaid consultant, attacked the critical thinking skills of congressional members, discouraged them from investigating UAP and claimed investigations informed by whistleblowers were based on a ‘whirlwind of tall tales, fabrication and secondhand or thirdhand retellings of the same’.
No whistleblower in their right mind will now approach the AARO, especially with Dr Kirkpatrick still associated with the office. That means one part of its mission in investigating serious allegations regarding UAP is now dead.
The UAPDA attempted to stop the DoD and intelligence community from marking their own homework by providing an independent citizen review board.
That effort was allegedly halted in its tracks by some Congressional members linked heavily to military contractors implicated in potentially illegal UAP-related programs, which stood to lose their crown jewels, mostly through eminent domain language attached to the legislation.
The DoD and intelligence community have now been emboldened to stop the UAP conversation and ignore inconvenient allegations.
Such efforts have been led by Dr Kirkpatrick, someone placed into the position of AARO’s director by David M. Taylor, at the time Performing the Duties of the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence & Security—a person who, according to sources, has a track record of hostility towards the UAP topic. Dr Kirkpatrick revealed this in an interview with Peter Bergen, Vice President for Global Studies and Fellows at New America, a think tank whose funders include the U.S. Department of State, Department of Energy, Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin - the two defense contractors alleged to possess materials of non-human origin.
There have long been doubts about the credibility of AARO, dating back to its former inception as AOIMSG.
Matthew Pines, a civilian intelligence analyst commented on X that a DoD source confided in him that the AARO is ‘“entirely a disinformation activity” designed to “cover and distract” with “no qualms about misleading Congress.”’
Back in October 2022, one anonymous intelligence source told the Daily Mail:
'There are s***loads of classified videos that are pretty profound and pretty clear.
'They don't want to talk about this stuff, because they really, really don't know what the hell they are. That's the truth.'
But despite an orchestrated effort aided by an army of sceptical commentators and friendly DoD publications, Congress will not give up.
The first reason? The USA, the world’s most powerful nation doesn’t have control of its skies. On this, former Director of National Intelligence, John Ratcliffe stated:
"Objects that demonstrate technologies that seem to defy the law of physics and capabilities that we don't have as the world's superpower."
He added:
“Our role in the federal government is to provide for the common defense and we can’t do that if someone else has technologies that are better than what we have.”
The second reason? An alleged huge coverup of secretive programs relating to non-human materials hidden from Congress.
Be under no illusion, that elements of the executive branch are now at war with Congress.
In December 2023, Senator Schumer gave us a glimpse of why the DoD and intelligence community are fighting back. Schumer who has spoken to multiple credible sources and continues to liaise with the White House on the topic stated:
“The United States government has gathered a great deal of information about UAPs over many decades but has refused to share it with the American people. That is wrong and additionally, it breeds mistrust.
"We've also been notified by multiple credible sources that information on UAPs has also been withheld from Congress, which if true is a violation of laws requiring full notification to the legislative branch, especially as it relates to the four congressional leaders, the defence committees, and the intelligence committees."
The comments are at odds with those made by Dr Kirkpatrick, who disputes the credibility of whistblowers and suggests nothing but a few balloons are being hidden from the public.
Senior Congressional members have their own sources to verify claims of first-hand whistleblowers of alleged illegal UAP programs—many of whom have never spoken to Dr Kirkpatrick.
The Intelligence Community’s Inspector General (ICIG), a far more competent authority than the AARO, has given Congressional members no reason to doubt allegations by key UAP whistleblower David Grusch, a former senior intelligence official.
Following a meeting with the ICIG last month, Representative Moskowitz stated on X:
‘Based on what we heard many of Grusch[’s[ claims have merit!’
It hasn’t just been the DoD and intelligence community thwarting efforts. Defense contractors, for now (unless a resolution can be provided), allegedly do not wish to face legal and financial implications from disclosing their true assets—advanced materials of non-human intelligence.
The most significant challenge arising from resistance within the DoD, intelligence community, and defense contractors cannot be understated.
There are valid concerns communicated to Liberation Times by multiple sources that China and Russia are contemplating their own disclosure processes.
Don’t believe China or Russia are interested in UAP? China has now established its own UAP Office and in 2019 two events were organised by UFO groups within China and Russia devoted to an international research project at the United Nations.
In the event of such an occurrence, closed-off authoritarian regimes, rather than so-called free societies, would take the lead in providing transparency on this paradigm-changing topic.
American democracy would be plunged into a crisis, and the media, tasked with holding the government accountable, would suffer humiliation for not fulfilling its role in scrutinizing the government.