United States Air Force Confirms Its UFO Pilot Program Was NOT Extended As Sources Claim The Military Branch “Reprimanded” Officer For Reaching Out To UFO Task Force
Written by Christopher Sharp - 10 November 2022
The U.S Department of Defense (DoD) has confirmed to Liberation Times that the United States Air Force (USAF) did not extend its Unidentified Aerospace-undersea Phenomena (UAP) pilot program.
Furthermore, the DoD has refused to directly address allegations that USAF personnel were warned against participating with the UAP Task Force (UAPTF), and in another instance interrogated by the Department of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (OSI) for participating in a classified DoD chat room devoted to UAP issues.
Liberation Times has also learned new information about attempts by the USAF to crack down on officers attempting to cooperate with the UAPTF, and that the air force was actually willing to participate on the topic before executing a “180-degree turn.”
In June 2021 the UAP Preliminary Assessment, released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) including information regarding a USAF UAP pilot program. The report stated:
‘Although USAF data collection has been limited historically the USAF began a six-month pilot program in November 2020 to collect in the most likely areas to encounter UAP and is evaluating how to normalize future collection, reporting, and analysis across the entire Air Force.’
To find further details regarding the pilot program, Liberation Times reached out to the DoD.
In a response coordinated with the USAF, DoD spokesperson Susan Gough provided information regarding the status and conclusions of the pilot program. Gough confirmed that the program was not extended, stating:
“The U.S. Air Force pilot program mentioned in the preliminary report to Congress ended in the spring of 2021.
“Lessons learned from the pilot were used to improve support provided to the UAPTF and will be used to contribute to the efforts of AARO. If applicable, data gathered in the pilot was provided through command channels to the UAPTF.”
Despite an apparent willingness to work with the UAPTF and its successor, the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), a DoD source has made new claims on attempts by the USAF to undermine investigation efforts.
The source, who also told Liberation Times that the USAF was willing to participate with the UAPTF before making a U-turn, commented:
"In one instance, while the UAP Task Force was still the primary UAP interface for DoD, a mid-grade Air Force officer was reprimanded and admonished by their chain of command for reaching out to Task Force members.
“It seemed the Air Force was willing to participate one day, and the next, it executed a complete 180-degree turn."
Have USAF Efforts To Undermine Investigations Backfired?
Writing for The Debrief earlier this year, Christopher Mellon, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, suggested that the USAF was threatening its personnel for cooperating and participating in UAP investigation efforts.
According to Mellon, USAF oversight committees were advised last year that the air force warned its personnel not to approach the UAPTF without prior approval and that individuals participating in a classified DoD chat room devoted to UAP issues were subsequently interrogated by USAF OSI staff, who warned them against further participation.
When asked for comment, Gough, on behalf of the USAF said:
“We are not going to comment on alleged conversations with congressional oversight committees or in classified DoD fora, nor on alleged investigations by AFOSI.
“We can tell you that it is normal practice within military units to provide information on the proper chain of command for reporting within the unit and to support required congressional notifications.”
In response, the DoD source argued that the chain of command is broken, hence the new push via legislation encouraging whistleblowers to speak out. The source said:
“When the chain of command is broken, what does one do? The answer is whistleblower legislation.”
Liberation Times understands that multiple whistleblowers are now ready to speak with Congress and that their claims go beyond UAP sightings and incidents, but instead relate to retrieval and reverse engineering programs involving craft potentially from non-human intelligence.
Furthermore, once the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) 2023 is signed into law, further hearings are expected to follow.
It is uncertain whether those hearings would involve whistleblowers directly connected with such programs. But Liberation Times understands that it is highly likely that certain information will be made public, including confirmation of the existence of such programs.
Recent Attempts To Play Down The UAP Topic
Sources connected with efforts investigating UAP have declared their dissatisfaction with the USAF due to its lack of engagement and attempts to undermine efforts. Despite a lack of cooperation, USAF General, Glen VanHerck, Commander, for United States Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command, recently told New York Times journalist Julian Barnes:
“My job as the NORAD commander is to identify every single UAP… What I would report to you is I've yet to find one that had aliens or was the spaceship that we've identified.”
The attempt by the USAF to mock the topic is nothing new and VanHerck’s rhetoric reflects a recent article by Barnes on the UAP topic, where phrases such as ‘space aliens’ and ‘alien ships’ appear frequently.
Such language is at odds with concerns expressed by various congressional committees, concerned that UAP reflects technology far in advance of current U.S. capabilities and in some instances appears to defy the laws of physics. Furthermore, the UAP Preliminary Assessment of 2021 did conclude that the phenomena threaten air safety and possibly national security.
Any attempt to downplay the topic could potentially backfire, and Liberation Times has learned that certain members of Congress were unhappy with Julian Barnes’ recent New York Times article, which downplayed the findings of an upcoming unclassified UAP report from the ODNI.
It now appears that progress may accelerate in the upcoming months, which could potentially lead to answers relating to secretive UAP programs and cases which may have non prosaic explanations.