This interview once again underscores the relevance of the question I asked the TTSA as to why they have no ufologists on their team. Elizondo says that in his opinion the meaning of the word UFO is in the eye of the beholder, which is an opinion that is entirely unsubstantiated when it comes to the way official USAF investigations prior to those he was involved with defined the word. In fact the word UFO was invented by the DoD ( specifically the USAF ), and their definition seems pretty much identical in intent to the way Zondo defines AATs ( Advanced Aerospace Threats ).
I think it’s perfectly reasonable observation to state that the term “UFO” is taken to mean different things to different people nowadays. The debunkers love to emphasize the “unidentified,” while those of us with a genuine interest in the phenomenon generally focus on the subset of reports that involve solid technological objects that demonstrate advanced exotic flight characteristics.
So the AATIP commonly used the term AAV (Advanced Aerospace Vehicles) to specify the category of significance, and sidestep the horrendous psychological baggage and controversy associated with the term “UFO.” Why that’s a problem for you or anyone else completely mystifies me.
The AATIP was not a USAF program – Mr. Elizondo ran the program as a civilian, and it was formed by Sen. Reid and others. So it was completely independent of past work in this area. I can see why you perceive that as a failing, but frankly I can see the value in starting with a clean slate and arriving at a totally independent conclusion based only the empirical evidence which they had direct access to and could subject to modern scientific analysis.
The intentional ignorance of the serious historical relevance of UFOs by Zondo and the TTSA draws their intent and competence with respect to the subject into serious question.
It’s churlish to call him “Zondo.” I thought you'd be above employing this kind of intellectually dishonest and purely rhetorical debate tactic - my mistake, I guess.
Completely independent analysis is a pillar of the scientific method for a reason. They started from scratch and analyzed modern reports and data using modern methodology and came to the same conclusion that other investigative efforts came to half a century ago using far less sophisticated instruments. That lends their findings even greater weight, which we should all be happy about, imo. Because nobody can assert that their conclusions were colored by any bias.
Essentially I'm seeing people who have little to no background or competency in ufology being made responsible for serious UFO investigation and analysis and the follow-up PR.
“Background” and “competency” are two totally independent factors. You don’t need background to exhibit a high level of competency, which Mr. Elizondo and the AATIP appear to have done. They reached the same conclusions that you and I have reached, and generated three dozen technical reports using professional scientists and modern military resources. We need to see those reports, but it sounds to me like this was the most scientifically competent investigation of this phenomenon that has ever been conducted. And he’s going around telling people that we’ve been right all along – yet you’re going around calling him “Zondo” and mounting semantic attacks because, what – he didn’t spend his time reading hundreds of mostly dubious books on the subject like Tom DeLonge did? He looked at the problem with clear objectivity, and with proper empirical methodology, and concluded that indeed there are highly sophisticated non-terrestrial devices operating our airspace from time to time. That works for me, and it should work for you too, imo.
On the so-called metamaterials. I've seen no substantial evidence that the materials in question are in fact metamaterials as defined by materials engineers. In other words materials that are unambiguously engineered in repeating patterns rather than simply made of an unusual combination of materials that are not engineered.
I've alluded to the Bob White artifact as an example in past posts. If one self-servingly twists the interpretations of what "engineered" means, one could say it was engineered. But when one knows how it's made, it's obvious that calling it engineered is misleading. So far we only have loosely associated anecdotes and unconfirmed claims about materials.
We haven’t seen any evidence of any kind regarding these materials – all we know is the little that has been said about them verbally. I think you’re conflating this metamaterial (and yes it’s a metamaterial – Mr. Elizondo had it scientifically analyzed while director of the AATIP), with Linda Moulton Howe’s industrial grinder residue material. I thought they might be the same thing at first also, but after examining this issue in detail in the thread that became so toxic that Bob had to lock it down, I no longer think so. The metamaterial that Mr. Elizondo has spoken about was found to have highly sophisticated manufacturing characteristics (DeLonge claimed that the atoms of the material are precisely aligned, and Mr. Elizondo has stated that the isotopic ratios are not naturally occurring on the earth), and it was estimated to be approx. 80 microns thick, totally unlikely the thick slab of lumpy rubbish that LMH looked into as “Arts Parts” years ago.
Zondo also alludes to people in ufology not being happy about the way they're handing things, and given the way people in ufology have been excluded from access to the actual evidence and their team, it shouldn't be any surprise. They're making claims about being all about disclosure and sharing while only superficially coming good on it.
I’ve been following this story very carefully, and if you have too, then you should be aware that they’ve released everything that’s gone through official declassification procedures, and much more is making its way through that process right now, including two dozen more videos. So it’s not TTSA that’s holding things up, it’s the DoD.
There’s only one thing the TTSA seems to have that they haven’t released yet – a third video clip that’s been declassified. After hearing Leslie Kean’s remarks on The Unexplained back in late December, it seems that she’s working on a new article and it will probably be published with that video clip. It think that’s a wise strategy – keep releasing compelling new data every few months to keep the topic alive in the public mind, and slowly but surely shift the conversation toward a serious, open public debate. Because public perception has a great deal of inertia, and a lot of people need time to process and accept the reality that we do in fact have alien devices operating in our airspace and that the DoD has known about it for a long time.
But I very seriously doubt that the DoD will ever let us see that metamaterial or the technical reports about it. Because if it is what they’re saying it is – a fragment of actual alien technology, then its defense significance is inestimable, so it may never be declassified.
I gather that’s why Tom Delonge announced on his Twitter page a few weeks ago that TTSA is going to try to independently replicate that material and its exotic physical properties, so we can see for ourselves.
Thanks. Something else I noticed when listening to Zondo's other appearances is that on one of them he said he had planned to simply exit the program and get a regular job and "fade quietly off into the sunset". On another he was all gung-ho to resign as if in protest to the secrecy so that he could become a shining knight for disclosure. Which is it exactly?
This came up in the NYT thread shortly before Bob locked it down. Apparently Mr. Elizondo was feeling fed up with the bureaucracy around this topic at the Pentagon, and was planning on leaving the program to go work in the private sector and leave this all behind him. Then he met with DeLonge and they decided to start the TTSA so they could let the public in on the AATIP's findings.
But if you want to make it into some kind of conspiracy theory, like S.R.I. and Realm and Hollywood_Tomfortas, knock yourself out.