The War Department released Friday its first batch of “never-before-seen” files and videos on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomenon (UAP), some of them dating back nearly 80 years.
The disclosure comes two days after President Donald Trump, who ordered the release, predicted, “I think some of it’s going to be very interesting to people,” news outlets reported.
The Department of War posted news of the release on X, directing citizens to see the files for themselves at the website war.gov/ufo. It is the first of what is expected to be repeated file dumps in coming weeks.
“This release follows the direction of President Donald J. Trump to begin the process of identifying and declassifying government files related to UAP in the interest of total transparency,” the department said in a statement. “No other President or administration in history has followed through on this level of UAP transparency.”
The White House said in a statement to Fox News:
The latest UAP videos, photos, and original source documents from across the entire United States government are all in one place — no clearance required. While past administrations sought to discredit or dissuade the American people, President Trump is focused on providing maximum transparency to the public, who can ultimately make up their own minds about the information contained in these files.
The release is a function of Trump’s Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (PURSUE) program.
Various news outlets, social media, and podcasters like Benny Johnson have spent Friday perusing and reporting on the most perplexing files of the released material.
Included were videos of “bizarre-looking objects taken in the skies over Greece, Iraq, Japan, the United Arab Emirates and the U.S. across the decades,” the New York Post reported.
Intelligence reports, FBI case files of apparent eyewitness testimony, and public reports about possible sightings over the years also are included in the disclosure.
According to the Post:
The files also include a transcript of the Apollo 17 astronauts reporting “very bright particles or fragments or something that go drifting by as we maneuver… It looks like the 4th of July out of [astronaut Ron Evans’] window… They’re very jagged, angular fragments that are tumbling.”
An accompanying photo shows three dots appearing to hover in a triangular formation above the surface of the moon. The caption states “there is no consensus about the nature of the anomaly” but claims that a new, preliminary analysis indicated that it could be a “physical object.”
News clippings about apparent sightings dating back to the 1950s also are part of the 162 files in the release.
Questions about UAPs, previously known for years as UFOs, has persisted for decades, resulting in a virtual industry of interest that ranges from outlandish conspiracy theories to serious study by a secret Pentagon unit that was revealed by the New York Times in 2017.
News outlets, lawmakers, and researchers began to take the phenomena more seriously after disclosed defense department videos of UAPs showed them defying known principles of flight.
Former investigators in the Pentagon program like Luis Elizondo have repeatedly said the UAPs present a potential hazard to military and commercial aviation.
Most recently, interest was piqued again in February after former President Barack Obama told a podcaster that aliens were real and Fox News senior White House correspondent Peter Doocy asked President Trump directly about the existence of aliens.
“He gave classified information. He’s not supposed to be doing that,” Trump said of Obama. “I don’t know if they’re real or not. I can tell you, he gave classified information. He’s not supposed to be doing that — he made a big mistake. He took it out of classified information.”
That same month, President Trump ordered the release of all UAP files across all relevant agencies in an announcement on Truth Social.
“Based on the tremendous interest shown, I will be directing the Secretary of War, and other relevant Departments and Agencies, to begin the process of identifying and releasing Government files related to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs), and any and all other information connected to these highly complex, but extremely interesting and important, matters. GOD BLESS AMERICA!” he wrote.
Numerous intelligence agency heads commented on the release, calling it an unprecedented step in transparency.
While in past decades, military and government scientists often mocked the UFO phenomena, the release of the files signifies a dramatic shift in the federal government’s perception of the issue.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman embraced the idea of studying the phenomena in a statement Friday.
“At NASA, our job is to bring the brightest minds and most advanced scientific instruments to bear, follow the data, and share what we learn,” he said. “We will remain candid about what we know to be true, what we have yet to understand, and all that remains to be discovered.”
He added, “Exploration and the pursuit of knowledge are core to NASA’s mission as we endeavor to unlock the secrets of the universe.”
Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the author of the New York Times true crime best seller House of Secrets and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
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