The Pentagon set up a new investigative unit to probe puzzling UFO sightings and incidents reportedly encountered by U.S. military personnel, officials have confirmed.
According to moguldom.com, the creation of the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force, or UAPTF, continues an effort begun in recent years to investigate unexplained aerial incidents encountered by the U.S. military.
“The Department of Defense and the military departments take any incursions by unauthorized aircraft into our training ranges or designated airspace very seriously and examine each report,” the Pentagon said in a press release.
“This includes examinations of incursions that are initially reported as UAP (unidentified aerial phenomena) when the observer cannot immediately identify what he or she is observing.”
In April, the Pentagon declassified three videos captured by U.S. Navy pilots that appear to show unidentified flying objects. Two of the videos contain U.S. service members commenting on how quickly the object moves while another speculates that the unidentifiable object could be a drone.
In June, the Senate Intelligence Committee voted that the Pentagon and intelligence community leaders should provide a public analysis of the encounters, CNBC reported.
“The Department of Defense established the UAPTF to improve its understanding of, and gain insight into, the nature and origins of UAPs,” the Pentagon said in the press release. “The mission of the task force is to detect, analyze and catalog UAPs that could potentially pose a threat to U.S. national security … the safety of our personnel and the security of our operations are of paramount concern.”
President Donald Trump has described the U.S. Navy footage as “a hell of a video” and told Reuters that he wonders “if it’s real.” For the Nation Of Islam, the long-held belief in UFOs is no secret.
While NOI is better known for promoting Black nationalism and self-reliance, the idea of seeking the divine in the skies is deeply rooted in the Chicago-based organization. In his speeches and writing, the late leader Elijah Muhammad described a massive hovering object loaded with weapons he called “The Mother Plane”.
Capable of great destruction, The Mother Plane or wheel also contains the “wisdom to purify the planet,” Minister Louis Farrakhan said during the 2010 Saviour’s Day speech. The wheel — which he said many people call a UFO — hasn’t harmed anyone yet and there have been government attempts to cover up proof of it.
In the past, the Navy confirmed that it had top-secret files of a UFO encounter, but said at the time that sharing the information with the public “would cause exceptionally grave damage to the National Security of the United States.”
The task force’s work will remain classified but that could change if a proposal for an unclassified report on UFOs by Senate Select Committee on Intelligence’s proposal is adopted by the full Senate and House of Representatives, ABC News reported.
