It's like clockwork: every few months someone knocks on the door of the American Congress with new revelations about UAPs, the "unidentified aerial phenomena" that everyone once called UFOs. This time it's former military and intelligence officials who lift the veil on alleged alien technologies hidden by the Pentagon. A familiar dance that has been repeated periodically since 1947, curiously intertwined with very earthly issues: misallocated funds, classified programs, inadequate oversight.
It is interesting how the mystery of unidentified flying objects always ends up illuminating the dark areas of American military bureaucracy.
A script already seen
It is not the first time that the US defense is in the spotlight for extraterrestrial issues. Since Trump he cleared customs the UAP theme during his presidency, it seems that these phenomena have become the perfect Trojan horse to penetrate the walls of the Pentagon. But what are they really looking for? Aliens or transparency?
Luis Elizondo, a former Defense Department official, talks about advanced technologies that monitor military installations. But his most interesting message concerns “misallocated public funds” and “programs hidden from elected officials.” Perhaps “we are the aliens“or rather, our inability to democratically control certain institutions.
UAP Revelations: The Mystery of Immaculate Constellation
The name sounds like something out of a Dan Brown novel: “Immaculate Constellation“. What would that be? A top-secret program from 2017. So secret that even mentioning it could trigger federal surveillance. Here you can find the full report of the statements made to the US Congress.
Does this remind you of anything? It's the same pattern as the Blue Book Project, of Majestic 12, of all those mysterious programs that periodically emerge and disappear. A bit like saying that on the outside of the folder you put the sticker of the little green men, and inside the folder you put a bit of whatever you want.
The Pentagon talks about 757 new UAP reports between May 2023 and June 2024. Numbers that seem precise but that, if you look at them carefully, above all tell of our ignorance: 444 cases do not have sufficient data for an evaluation. It's as if the message was: “We have the numbers, but we can't tell you what they mean.”
UAP Revelations, The Real Stakes
Republican lawmakers are demanding transparency, wanting to establish a review board, protecting whistleblowers. But this isn't the first time we've heard these demands. The real question is: why is the UAP issue being used for this battle? Maybe because it's the only way to talk about oversight and accountability without sounding like boring bureaucrats?
Futuro Prossimo is the only Italian popular science newspaper that follows the UFO theme in a “secular” way. It is not “orthodox” like the interesting blog of Flavio Vanetti in the Corriere della Sera. And it’s not even “gripping” like Netflix documentaries. Our approach is skeptical, detached and political, because everything is political.
Let's be clear: these topics intrigue everyone, they are suggestive. Everyone would like to know if the UAP revelations hide something true, and if we are alone in the universe and so on. But what interests us is trying to understand how this UAP story has become a sort of cold war between Congress and the Pentagon. On the one hand, officials who promise sensational revelations, on the other a rubber wall made of denials and classifications. In the middle, the increasingly pressing question of democratic control over military institutions.
A very terrestrial phenomenon
In the end, perhaps the truth is simpler than it seems. UAPs have become the perfect pretext to talk about something much more terrestrial: power, its management, its control. While we all look to the sky for flying saucers, the real game is played here on Earth, between the desks of Washington.
We don't know if there really are aliens out there. But we do know that here on Earth there is a very real battle for transparency and democratic control. And maybe, deep down, this is the real "inexplicable phenomenon" that should interest us. For this reason, we will continue to follow the story.
