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Pentagon acknowledges existence of program to explore UFOs

Plenty of people claim to have seen UFOs or alien encounters. (File Photo)

The US military has confirmed the existence of a Pentagon program to explore UFOs.

Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White confirmed to Politico that the Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program (AATIP), a $22 million program to investigate unidentified flying objects, once existed and that it was run by Luis Elizondo, who resigned in early October, according to a report on Saturday.

“The Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program ended in the 2012 timeframe,” the spokeswoman said. “It was determined that there were other, higher priority issues that merited funding and it was in the best interest of the DoD [Department of Defense] to make a change.”

She declined to answer detailed questions about the secret search.

“The DoD takes seriously all threats and potential threats to our people, our assets, and our mission and takes action whenever credible information is developed,” said White (pictured below).

Elizondo, the career intelligence officer who ran the initiative, told US Secretary of Defense James Mattis after his resignation that efforts at the office were not being taken seriously.

"We tried to work within the system," Elizondo told Politico in a recent interview. "We were trying to take the voodoo out of voodoo science."

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Ever since his resignation, he has recounted numerous sightings by Navy pilots and other observers of aircraft with capabilities far beyond what is currently considered aerodynamically possible.

"If a Russian 'Bear' bomber comes in near California, it is all over the news," he said. "These are coming in the skies over our facilities. Nothing but crickets."

One of the motivations behind the program was fear of coming under attack by other superpowers possibly in possession of a highly advanced technology to build such objects.

“Was this China or Russia trying to do something or has some propulsion system we are not familiar with?” said a former staffer on condition of anonymity.

The AATIP was initiated in 2009 by then-Democratic Senator Harry Reid, with the support of the late Senators Daniel Inouye and Republican Ted Stevens.

Reid, the Senate majority leader at the time, was persuaded to take the measure by aerospace titan Bob Bigelow.

Bigelow believes that extraterrestrial visitors frequently travel to Earth.


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