[Read Part 1 of this article here.]

American Ufologist Stephen Greer founded the Center for the Study of Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SCETI) in 1990 and then in 2001 set up the Disclosure Project, its purpose being to grant an amnesty to government whistle-blowers willing to share their insider knowledge about UFOs. And at its first conference on May 9 that year, Greer brought together over 60 military, aviation, government and scientific witnesses at the National Press Club in Washington DC to present their personal knowledge of UAP sightings and Extraterrestrial (ET) contact and technology. Many of these witnesses were breaching their security agreements when they testified in front of the media which eventually took their stories world-wide, but felt that it was more than time to end the secrecy. By 2021, the 20th anniversary of the Disclosure Project, over 800 individuals from high level defence contractors and military and intelligence departments had agreed and also came forward to add their experiences.

Hard upon the Disclosure Project’s first conference came another unexpected admission, this time from a senior member of the Roman Catholic Church. Monsignor Corado Balducci, a close friend of Pope Paul II and member of the Vatican Curia, said ‘ET encounters are not demonic… and deserve to be studied carefully.’ Jose Gabriel Funes, Director of the Vatican Observatories in both Italy and the US from 2006 until 2015, also said over several years that there was no conflict between the possibility of alien life – even intelligent life – and the teachings of the Catholic Church. This was somewhat remarkable since it is only 420 years since Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake by the Church for saying the same thing.

Then the media, both newspapers and TV, began to take the subject seriously. In December 2017 and March 2018 The New York Times, one of the main US newspapers, released three videos showing US Navy pilots trailing some ‘unidentified flying objects’, including a ‘tic-tac’ shaped craft over the USS Nimitz in 2004. These videos had apparently never been declassified for public release but it was later admitted that former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, Chris Mellon, had given them to the newspaper, after they were handed to him by a Defense Department official.

Also in 2017, The New York Times interviewed Luis Elizondo, a 22-year veteran of the Department of Defence with top security clearance. He was also the Director of a shadowy Pentagon programme, the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) which had been set up in 2007 to investigate aerial threats from UAPs. Officially, this was shut down in 2012 but unofficially continued to operate. Nevertheless, Elizondo had just resigned in protest at the excessive secrecy and the internal opposition to the declassifying of UAP reports. He then teamed up with Chris Mellon and others to bring the whole subject out into the open. In 2019, over two years, a TV Series ‘Unidentified: Inside America’s UFO investigation’ by both experts was aired on both US and UK channels.

Recently, Luis Elizondo, Nick Pope and former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe have had serious interviews with Tucker Carlson, a Fox News political host. Then in March 2021, the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies (BESA) published a paper which took for granted the existence of UAPs and instead was based on comments by Elizondo on what threats they might pose, but what decisive advantages their technology could provide and how likely these are to be developed and deployed.

However, little more can be accomplished until the public are officially informed that these UAPs exist. In March 2007, France began to partially declassify and disclose their files and a few months later the UK and other countries followed suit, while some nations have also officially established research committees on the phenomenon.

But it has to be said that in this matter, the USA is the most important player. Unless and until the US government admit that craft which display abilities way beyond those so far developed on Earth have been visiting their country since at least 1947, matters will go no further.

On seeking election, many US Presidents since at least John F Kennedy, have said that they would let the people know the truth about UAPs, although on election they have either been unwilling or unable to do so. But now, unless the Act is somehow supressed by the present government, the information which has been Out There will be disclosed in June 2021, thanks, perhaps surprisingly, to former President Trump.

One question remains, however: on learning the truth, shall we be excited, delighted — or horrified?

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