A cluster of young stars resembles an aerial burst
Sun, February 12, 2023
By Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Air Force general overseeing North American airspace said on Sunday after a series of shoot-downs of unidentified objects that he would not rule out aliens or any other explanation yet, deferring to U.S. intelligence experts.
Asked whether he had ruled out an extraterrestrial origin for three airborne objects shot down by U.S. warplanes in as many days, General Glen VanHerck said: "I'll let the intel community and the counterintelligence community figure that out. I haven't ruled out anything."
"At this point we continue to assess every threat or potential threat, unknown, that approaches North America with an attempt to identify it," said VanHerck, head of U.S. North American Aerospace Defense Command and Northern Command.
VanHerck's comments came during a Pentagon briefing on Sunday after a U.S. F-16 fighter jet shot down an octagonal-shaped object over Lake Huron on the U.S.-Canada border.
The incidents over the past three days follow the Feb. 4 downing of a Chinese balloon that put North American air defenses on high alert. U.S. officials said that balloon was being used for surveillance.Another U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the military had seen no evidence suggesting any of the objects in question were of extraterrestrial origin.
VanHerck said the military was unable to immediately determine the means by which any of the three latest objects were kept aloft or where they were coming from.
"We're calling them objects, not balloons, for a reason, said VanHerck.
The incidents come as the Pentagon has undertaken a new push in recent years to investigate military sightings of UFOs - rebranded in official government parlance as "unidentified aerial phenomena," or UAPs.
The government's effort to investigate anomalous, unidentified objects - whether they are in space, the skies or even underwater - has led to hundreds of documented reports that are being investigated, senior military leaders have said.
But the Pentagon says it has not found evidence to indicate Earthly visits from intelligent alien life.
Analysis of military sightings are conducted by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in conjunction with a newly created Pentagon bureau known as AARO, short for the cryptically named All Domain Anomaly Resolution Office.
Their first report to Congress in June 2021 examined 144 sightings by U.S. military aviators dating to 2004.
That study attributed one incident to a large, deflating balloon but found the rest were beyond the government's ability to explain without further analysis.
A report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence issued last month cited 366 additional sightings, mostly things like balloons, drones, birds or airborne clutter. But 171 remained officially unexplained.
"Some of these uncharacterized UAP appear to have demonstrated unusual flight characteristics or performance capabilities, and require further analysis," the office said in the report.
Sill, Ronald Moultrie, under secretary of defense for intelligence and security, told reporters in December that he had not seen anything in the files to indicate intelligent alien life.
"I have not seen anything in those holdings to date that would suggest that there has been an alien visitation, an alien crash or anything like that," Moultrie said.
(Reporting by Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali in Washington; Additional reporting by Joey Roulette in Washington and Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Tim Ahmann)
‘Object’ downed over Canada was small metallic balloon with payload, Pentagon memo says
Memo says ‘recovery/exploitation’ efforts underway to retrieve ‘object’ shot down in Yukon
Sravasti Dasgupta
Tuesday 14 February 2023
The unidentified object shot down over Canada on Saturday was a metallic balloon with a payload, according to a memo sent by the Pentagon.
This comes as intrigue has grown over some “objects”, as officials have come to call them, that were shot down after being spotted flying over US and Canadian airspace.
The intrigue over the objects came after the US identified a Chinese balloon it said was used for surveillance and shot it down off the South Carolina coast.
Subsequently, three other “objects” were identified across US and Canadian airspace and downed over the weekend.
An “object” was shot down near Deadhorse, Alaska on Friday, while another one was destroyed over the Yukon on Saturday. On Sunday, the US shot down what it called an octagonal object flying Lake Huron in the Great Lakes region.
The “object” downed in Canadian airspace on Saturday, however, appeared to be a “small, metallic balloon with a tethered payload below it,” reported CNN, citing the Pentagon memo sent to lawmakers on Monday.
It had was previously described as a “cylindrical object” that crossed near “US sensitive sites” before being downed, reported the news network.
The object shot down over Lake Huron in Michigan on Sunday “subsequently slowly descended” into the water after impact, according to defence officials writing the memo.
It added that “recovery/exploitation” efforts were underway to retrieve the object shot down in Yukon.
It said officials in US and Canada are attempting to identify debris.
The memo stated that the FBI is embedded with Canadian officials who are leading the investigation.
“It should not be assumed that the events of the past few days are connected,” said the memo.
On Monday, Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau claimed there appeared to be “some sort of a pattern” with the downing of the “objects”.
US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said on Monday, however, that there was no reason yet to believe the three flying “objects” were in any way connected to the Chinese “spy” balloon shot down by the US on 4 February.
Memo says ‘recovery/exploitation’ efforts underway to retrieve ‘object’ shot down in Yukon
Sravasti Dasgupta
Tuesday 14 February 2023
The unidentified object shot down over Canada on Saturday was a metallic balloon with a payload, according to a memo sent by the Pentagon.
This comes as intrigue has grown over some “objects”, as officials have come to call them, that were shot down after being spotted flying over US and Canadian airspace.
The intrigue over the objects came after the US identified a Chinese balloon it said was used for surveillance and shot it down off the South Carolina coast.
Subsequently, three other “objects” were identified across US and Canadian airspace and downed over the weekend.
An “object” was shot down near Deadhorse, Alaska on Friday, while another one was destroyed over the Yukon on Saturday. On Sunday, the US shot down what it called an octagonal object flying Lake Huron in the Great Lakes region.
The “object” downed in Canadian airspace on Saturday, however, appeared to be a “small, metallic balloon with a tethered payload below it,” reported CNN, citing the Pentagon memo sent to lawmakers on Monday.
It had was previously described as a “cylindrical object” that crossed near “US sensitive sites” before being downed, reported the news network.
The object shot down over Lake Huron in Michigan on Sunday “subsequently slowly descended” into the water after impact, according to defence officials writing the memo.
It added that “recovery/exploitation” efforts were underway to retrieve the object shot down in Yukon.
It said officials in US and Canada are attempting to identify debris.
The memo stated that the FBI is embedded with Canadian officials who are leading the investigation.
“It should not be assumed that the events of the past few days are connected,” said the memo.
On Monday, Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau claimed there appeared to be “some sort of a pattern” with the downing of the “objects”.
US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said on Monday, however, that there was no reason yet to believe the three flying “objects” were in any way connected to the Chinese “spy” balloon shot down by the US on 4 February.
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