The truth may be out there. But don't expect the feds to share what they know anytime soon on the recent spate of UFO sightings.

Some military and spy agencies are blocking or simply ignoring the effort to catalog what they have on "unidentified aerial phenomenon," according to multiple current and former government officials. And as a result, the Biden administration will likely delay a much-anticipated public report to Congress.

The Senate Intelligence Committee has asked the director of national intelligence to work with the Defense Department to provide a public accounting by June 25 on unexplained sightings of advanced aircraft and drones that have been reported by military personnel or captured by radar, satellites and other surveillance systems.

The request came after revelations in 2017 that the Pentagon was researching a series of unexplained intrusions into military airspace, including high-performance vehicles captured on video stalking Navy ships.

But those advising the investigations are advocating for significantly more time and resources to retrieve information from agencies that in some cases have shown reluctance, if not outright resistance, to sharing classified information. And they worry that without high-level involvement, it will be difficult to compel agencies to release what they have.

"Just getting access to the information, because of all the different security bureaucracies, that's an ordeal in itself," said Christopher Mellon, a former Pentagon intelligence official who lobbied for the disclosure provision and is continuing to advise policymakers on the issue.

For example, he asserts that a Pentagon task force established last August and led by the Navy has had few personnel or resources and only modest success acquiring reports, video or other evidence gathered by military systems.

The Pentagon task force is expected to be the primary military organization contributing to the wider government report.

"I know that the task force has been denied access to pertinent information by the Air Force and they have been stiff-armed by them," Mellon said in an interview. "That is disappointing but not unexpected."

The Air Force, which is historically most associated with UFOs from its investigations during the Cold War, deferred all questions on the subject to the Office of the Secretary of Defense, which has similarly said little publicly about the effort.

"To protect our people, maintain operational security and safeguard intelligence methods, we do not publicly discuss the details of the UAP observations, the task force or investigations," said Pentagon spokesperson Susan Gough, who declined to address the criticism.

The report due to Congress will include "a detailed analysis of unidentified phenomena data collected by" a host of means, including imaging satellites, eavesdropping equipment and human spies.

It also must include "a detailed analysis of data of the FBI, which was derived from investigations of intrusions of unidentified aerial phenomena data over restricted United States airspace." The report must contain "a detailed description of an interagency process for ensuring timely data collection and centralized analysis of all unidentified aerial phenomena reporting for the federal government, regardless of which service or agency acquired the information."

Gathering such information from across the national security bureaucracy is enormously challenging, Mellon said.

"They have to repeat that painful process with scores of different agencies," he said, citing the Army, CIA, National Reconnaissance Office, National Security Agency, Defense Intelligence Agency and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

A spokesperson for Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told POLITICO the report to Congress is in the works, but declined to offer further details. “We are aware of the requirement and will respond accordingly.”

Any delay in delivering it is likely to be perceived by a large segment of the public as an attempt by the government to hide what it knows.

But there is growing pressure from Congress for a more organized effort to compile what the government has learned and reveal how it is trying to solve the mysteries.

Sen. Marco Rubio, who was responsible for requesting the report, told Fox News this week that he does not believe military and intelligence agencies have come to any solid conclusions about the origin of the UFOs. But he insisted that the reports demand a more comprehensive intelligence-gathering effort.

"We have to try to know what it is," the Florida Republican said. "Maybe there's a logical explanation. Maybe it's foreign adversaries who made a technological leap?"

Rubio also held up the prospect that agencies will need more time to complete the report. "I'm not sure they are going to come in on time," he said. "I'm not sure by June 1 they have reached a hard conclusion about what they are dealing with and there may be more questions, or new questions, than full answers ..."

"I can tell you it is being taken more seriously now that it ever has been," he added.

The pressure to disclose what the government is doing has only intensified after recent comments from the former top intelligence official.

"We have lots of reports about what we call unmanned aerial phenomenon," John Ratcliffe, who served as director of national intelligence under former President Donald Trump, said in an interview with Fox News last week. "When we talk about sightings, we are talking about objects that have [been] seen by Navy or Air Force pilots, or have been picked up by satellite imagery that frankly engage in actions that are difficult to explain."

He cited "movements that are hard to replicate that we don't have the technology for ... or traveling at speeds that exceed the sound barrier without a sonic boom."

One such recent case, involving a swarm of unidentified "drones" that bedeviled a flotilla of Navy destroyers off the California coast in 2019, was revealed this week by the technology website The Drive.

But there has been enormous resistance inside the bureaucracy to being forthcoming, said Lue Elizondo, who led research on UAPs in the Pentagon until 2017 and publicly resigned in frustration that the issue was not being treated seriously enough.

"You have all the stigma and the taboo that is associated with it," said Elizondo, who serves as an informal adviser to the military. "Organizations whose mission this might fall squarely into are resisting adopting this mission. There's been so much public taboo about this for decades that no one wants to risk their professional careers and that of their bosses on a topic like this without being directed."

He also sees what he called "passive resistance," or "they're just not going to do anything to support it," such as applying resources or personnel to the activity.

Others see a lack of cooperation among different agencies and a desire to protect sensitive information that could benefit adversaries.

"One of the challenges that [the Defense Department] has had in the past is that a lot of these intelligence-gathering organizations, a lot of the military services' organizations that gather data on intrusions, are all extremely stovepiped and federated," said Ellen Lord, who served as undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment until January and was briefed on the Pentagon efforts.

She also said there may be valid reasons not to make it all public. "I think it is sometimes easy ... to go down a rabbit hole for the sci-fi, alien piece of this," she said in an interview. "In reality, there is a lot of technology that has been leveraged by our adversaries and we have ways to deal with that.

"But that is something that is not typically spoken about in public forums. Therein lies the challenge of some of these things," she added.

The secrecy surrounding the effort has been demonstrated by the Pentagon's refusal to even discuss any details of its UAP task force, not even how many personnel are assigned to it or what budget it has been given.

Elizondo believes there is little chance such obstacles can be overcome by June under the current level of effort and is advocating for an interim report that requests more time and resources. "We can do this right or we can do it right now," he said.

"It's certainly not sufficient time to provide a comprehensive, government-wide report that Congress not only expects, but that Congress deserves and frankly, so does the American people," he added.

Mellon thinks it could take months or longer. "In addition to the onerous job of trying get everyone to come clean," he said, "there will be a sensitive and probably difficult process of getting all the players ... to agree on the language and approve it. That process alone could take weeks or months."

Mellon also said the direct involvement of senior executive branch officials, including Haines and Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks, "is likely to prove necessary to compel the cooperation needed to do the job properly."

The good news," he added, "is the leadership on both sides appear to be taking this issue seriously and are acting in good faith."

Source: Politico
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/25/ufo-sightings-report-478104

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HERETICS - PAST AND PRESENT
By Brian Allan

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- GHOSTS OF TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT -

Mystery Unsolved: Ghost Ships Circling Off California
By Frank Jacobs

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NEW BIZARRE BAZAAR/CONSPIRACY JOURNAL #51

YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan -- The headquarters of U.S. Forces Japan may also be home to supernatural activity, according to a couple who claim to help anyone dealing with paranormal disturbances to rid their homes of unwanted spirits.

Chaplain (Capt.) Lance Brown, of Yokota's 374th Wing Staff Agency, and his wife, Karen Brown, who is working on a master's in counseling, have been performing home cleanses, or anointings, for the past eight years in homes where "odd things occur."

Supernatural activity is reported so often at this base in western Tokyo that it inspired a Facebook group, Yokota Ghost Hunter Club. Its members post about paranormal phenomena they've experienced at their homes and workplaces.

Lance is endorsed by the Pentecostal Church of God, and the home cleanses are not officially sanctioned by the Air Force, he told Stars and Stripes in an interview March 1.

"Ghosts or spiritual demonic activity, things of an evil nature, God combats that," he said. "We have the ability to be that beacon of hope as people invite us."

The Browns said their cleansings are sometimes about helping someone cope with anxiety, heartbreak or a troubled past than about literal evil spirits, though Lance said they are not suggesting the supposed presence of spirits is "all in the person's head."

Laurie Pope, who lives in one of Yokota's garden units, said she started to feel uncomfortable in her home last year.

"My 3-year-old daughter has been experiencing sleep regression the past year," she told Stars and Stripes over Facebook Messenger on March 1. "There have been several times when I would be watching her video monitor and I would see orbs of light in her room. There have been a few instances where I'd be in my bedroom and I would see a white streak of light run past the foot of my bed. And, more recently, my daughter has been saying she's seeing monsters and that she's scared."

Pope and her husband, Master Sgt. Austin Pope of the 374th Maintenance Squadron, decided that since Laurie is six months pregnant, they needed to do something to help their daughter feel less afraid and sleep through the night before bringing a new baby home.

The family found the Browns on Facebook, and, despite not identifying with any religion, decided to give it a try.

"I know it won't happen overnight, but I'm hoping we can all live more comfortably in our home regardless if there was a spirit existing here," Laurie said.

The Browns' anointing process starts with talking to the family about what is happening at home.

"We discuss what they are seeing, hearing and sensing to determine if it's just a creaky house or if something evil is going on here," Lance said. "Some people call it a 'spidey sense,' but we refer to it as a discernment of spirits, a heightened sense of things that are different or off."

They then apply anointing oil -- a mixture of frankincense, myrrh, aloes and herbs -- to anything that needs to be blessed, including people and objects. They also use incense and holy water.

"It's not as intense as movies like 'The Exorcist' or anything like that," Karen said. "After we have left, the situation has never gotten worse, ever."

The Popes, who had their home anointed March 1, are hopeful that the process worked for her family.

"My daughter still isn't sleeping through the night," Laurie said. "But I feel a much greater sense of peace being home alone, especially at night."

The Browns do the cleanses free of cost, judgment or disclosure, they said. People need not be religious to have a home cleansing, and the Browns said their objective is not to convert anyone's belief systems.

The couple said they received more calls at Yokota over the past year than they did at their previous assignment in Fort McConnell Air Force Base, Kansas. The Browns weren't certain exactly how many calls they have received on Yokota but explained that they receive a steady flow of requests, and had a cleansing arranged for right after their interview with Stars and Stripes.

Belief in hauntings, dark spirits and exorcisms is rooted in several factors, including religious beliefs about the afterlife and people's desire to connect and find patterns and significance in unusual or seemingly inexplicable incidents, according to Michael Shermer, a science historian and the founder of The Skeptics Society in Altadena, Calif.

"Incidents seem significant when you are looking for it," he said in a phone interview on March 9.

The uncertainty and restrictions associated with the yearlong coronavirus pandemic possibly amplifies stress and emotion, Lance said. Add to that the feeling of isolation and separation from family and friends that comes with living in a foreign country.

"These feelings can make someone more heightened to portals for spiritual activity," Lance said.

The Browns declined to share the details of specific cleansings, but said they have experienced fear and emotional responses themselves during some visits.

"It's not anything of Hollywood, but evil is a very real thing," Lance said. "You just sense an absolute darkness, and your skin tingles and the hair on the back of your neck raises and you get a sense of 'I don't want to be here.'"

Source: Military.com
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2021/03/18/air-force-chaplain-cleanses-yokota
-air-base-homes-where-odd-things-occur.html

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Somewhere in the wilds of Washington State is a bizarre geographic anomaly that locals believe may well be a gateway into another dimension. While the legend of the Devil’s Hole allegedly goes back for decades…if not centuries…the public at large did not become aware of the phenomenon until 1997, when legendary radio host and paranormal enthusiast, Art Bell, invited a man named Mel Waters to be interviewed on his globally syndicated radio program Coast to Coast AM.

Ellensburg, located in eastern Washington, and its surrounding valleys and Manastash Ridge are beautiful in any season. Some believe what lies beneath is a deep, dark hole with supernatural powers.

For decades residents from the Manastash Ridge region have talked about one of the most unusual aspects of the sprawling landscape that haloed their hometown. Hidden nearby, on a densely forested parcel of private property, was a seemingly bottomless well that was surrounded by an aura of mystery and danger.

This unfathomably deep pit was said to be about 9-feet in diameter and was shored up with hand placed bricks to a depth of nearly 15-feet until it gave way to earthen walls. The hole had been known to locals for generations — and to Native Americans before them — and had been used as an unofficial dumping ground for everything from defunct refrigerators to old tires and television tubes to livestock and pet carcasses.

A man named Red Elk is one of the only people alive known to have ever seen the mysterious hole. A Native American Shaman, or medicine man, Red Elk said his dad first showed him the hole in 1961.

"He said 'This is an endless hole,'" Red Elk said.

Red Elk's been back many times and said strange things happen every time he goes near it.

"People get it confused with what I call the devil's hole," he said.

According to Red Elk, the hole was well known to the indigenous peoples, as well as local and federal authorities, and was believed to be an unbelievable 24 and 28-miles deep.

The medicine man also speculated that pit served as a tunnel which connected to Mt. Rainier and that it might be associated with both UFOs and vile, quasi-reptilian entities that allegedly dwell deep within the bowls of the Earth known as “reptoids.” A Washington native by the name of Jay Nickell also claimed to have stumbled across the Devil’s Hole while exploring the region as a teen.

Other folks who stumbled across the site notice an eerie sensation that would wash over them when they neared the pit. They also noted that birds and other crearures seemed to give the allegedly “evil” hole a wide berth and that the rim of the pit was lined with the bones of small animals.  Over the years visitors would come and go, but none of them would make a mark quite as deep as the next owner of the property…a man named Mel Waters.

Waters, who claims he and his wife bought the property sometime in 1993, discovered the hole soon afterwards and — much like all those who came before him — used it as a convenient (if environmentally unfriendly) rubbish bin.

It wouldn’t be long, however, before he became irresistably drawn to this strange hollow. In particular Waters became fascinated by the its’ inexplicable ability to “devour” all that was thrown within.

"I brought the dogs with me." Waters said on the show. "They wouldn't go anywhere near the damn thing."

Waters said the hole had a three-foot stone wall around it. It seemed bottomless to him, so he used an old shark fisherman's trick -- sending thousands of feet of fishing line down.

"What I did, was I sent down a roll of lifesavers," he said. "So when it hit water the lifesavers would dissolve."

But the lifesavers came back up whole -- no water -- so how deep was this hole? Waters said he believed it descended miles into the earth and he heard strange stories about its powers.

"One guy claims that he threw his departed canine down into the hole," he said. "He swears the dog actually came back to him."

In the winter of 1997, Waters sent a FAX to a man who was, at the time, the preeminent disseminator of paranormal information, radio presenter and Coast to Coast AM founder, Art Bell. Bell became intrigued by Waters and his “never ending hole” and on February 21st, 1997, Waters was invited to speak on Bell’s hugely popular late night program.

Bell and Waters discussed some of the more the scintillating secrets — though not the precise and clandestine location — of the Devil’s Hole and it soon became apparent that millions of listeners were enthralled by Waters and his unusual tale. Within a few short hours this weird cavity graduated from local legend to legitimate paranormal phenomenon. The story proved so popular that Waters again spoke to Bell just three nights later.

Within months of appearing on Coast to Coast, Waters and the Devil’s Hole — which would soon be re-dubbed “Mel’s Hole” by Bell’s enormous fan base — would gain a significant amount of notoriety. Waters claimed that he was beset by a series of odd events not long after he went public with his information regarding the hole.

The first strange incident occurred while Waters was on his own property en route to the Devil’s Hole. Waters planned to continue his research when he was suddenly stopped by a pair of men identifying themselves as “government agents.” These agents — one in plain clothes and two in military regalia — informed him that there had been a plane crash nearby and that the area had been cordoned off.

The plainclothes further stated that no one but military personnel would be allowed into the restricted area. Waters then noticed men wearing yellow hazard suits milling around behind the trio that were blocking his path. Waters, angered at being denied access to his own property, demanded that they let him pass and that’s when these so-called agents got down to brass tacks. According to Waters the agents proceed to inform him that if he did not follow their instructions he would be falsely accused and arrested for concealing a meth lab on his land. It is presumable that the evidence of this lab would have been manufactured if necessary.

Red Elk claims the government has a secret base there.

"An underground base, a very small, underground base," he said.

That's how Red Elk explains the white boxes covering the area on some satellite images.

He also said he's seen "alien activity" in the area.

"A huge space craft, one, will appear and hover over the hole," he said.

That's what he said happens during Summer Solstice, when space men load and unload things at the hole before flying away.

In the years that have followed Waters revelations concerning the first Devil’s Hole, there have been sporadic expeditions into the woods around Manastash Ridge, but no one has ever managed to find the mystical pit… and Waters himself seems just as enigmatic.

Some say that the government filled the hole in when they were finished using it for whatever arcane purposes they had, others suggest that a shed like structure has been erected over the site to hide it from prying eyes. There are also some who feel that aliens protect the space with a sort of “cloaking device” and still others who are, understandably, convinced that the darn thing never existed in the first place and that Waters, for reasons known only to him, made the whole thing up.

Believers in the existence of the Devil’s Hole have posted satellite images from Google Earth, which indicate that the area where the 9-foot pit in should be was “covered up” with white blocks.

Skeptics counter by saying that the satellite photos have been altered to protect the military’s training facilities. They also add that there is no official record of Waters ever living, voting or owning property in the region. In fact, there seems to be little evidence that a man named Mel Waters ever existed.

Of course, if Waters’ admittedly bizarre tales are true and there actually is a top secret geographic anomaly of apparent military significance located in the proximity of the Yakima Firing Range and the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, then it goes without saying that military officials would go to great lengths to conceal what actually exists in the expanse, even to the point of doctoring photos and erasing identity, registration and tax records.

Ellensburg Public Library Historian Milton Wagy said the story became a sensation after Waters went on the radio.

He said the phone rang off the hook with all kinds of stories about the hole -- some explainable -- some not.

He's still trying to solve the mystery of what happened to the library's file on Mel's Hole.

"Well it just disappeared, which lends itself to the mysteriousness of Mel's Hole," Wagy said. "Did Mel take it? Did it just kind of rise out of the locked file cabinet."You never know there might be a hole out there."

Now the question who, is anyone can find Mel's Hole and prove its existence?

Source: KOMO News
http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Eastern-Washington-hole-shrouded-in-mystery
-138913254.html?tab=video&c=y 

MENTOR, Ohio — Do you believe in ghosts?

It's a question that many Lake County residents have found themselves asking over the past few weeks due to "supernatural haunts" caught on video.

In recent weeks, members in Mentor, Ohio Facebook groups have posted videos and images of a "mysterious" object or person. This mysterious image appears to be all white and moving very quickly. WKYC was able to obtain some of those images and videos from residents.

3News spoke with officials from the Mentor Police Department and were even able to retrieve the police report based on information that was sent.

In the report, it states that police officers were dispatched on March 10 around 10:40 p.m., to the area of Bellflower Elementary in reference to a suspicious incident.

The caller reported seeing a 7-year-old girl running northbound in the area. As one officer approached Wyatt's Greenhouse, he spotted a child fitting the description from the caller.

"I was surprised by what I saw, the person appeared to be a small child, running rather erect and too quickly for a child," the report says.

When the officer got out of the vehicle to try and catch the child, nobody was in the area. The officer continued along the building expecting to see a child crying, or scared, but still no signs of anyone.

Multiple other departments were searching the area and had no luck finding a child. After the search, the responding officer checked the dashcam video and found no child on the dashcam video, which was saved as an "investigative encounter."

Shortly after trying to find the child on foot and the use of a K9, the drone team was deployed to search the responding area and did not locate anything suspicious.

Is it really ghosts? Could it just be young pranksters? Who knows!

Source: WKYC
https://www.wkyc.com/article/news/local/lake-county/mentor-residents-spot-ghosts
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