Part 1: The Tic Tac Heard Round the World
Almost exactly three years ago, the New York Times printed what by all accounts should have been the most important story in the history of science, if not the history of the world.
The world, however, yawned.
The Times ran two articles. One revealed that the Pentagon had a secret program to study UFOs, or Unidentified Aerial Vehicles as the military likes to call them which had run at least from 2007 to 2012. Small by Defense Department standards, the program, the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, AATIP, ostensibly was halted in 2012, though apparently continued at least through 2017 utilizing private funding sources. Fair enough. I would worry about a military that did not take at least a passing interest in unknown aircraft in our nation’s skies.
The second story on the same day featured video and interviews about a specific encounter of pilots and crew of the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz in 2004. Pilots were scrambled and engaged with a 40-foot-long, Tic-Tac-shaped aircraft that had no wings, no visible means of propulsion and which easily outperformed their military jets in ways that seemed to defy the laws of physics as we understand them. The object was tracked visually, as well as by state of the art radar and thermal imaging equipment.
So why did the world yawn? Because, I think, that was exactly the desired reaction. Whether the technology in the videos and described by the pilots was of earthly origin or represented extremely advanced terrestrial technology that for whatever reason now needs to be introduced to the world, the US military wanted the story, vague and incomplete as it is, to be released widely but in a way that would not create any sort of panic or social disruption.
Why do I think the goal was to inject this information into mainstream awareness in a controlled fashion? Well, for one thing, the Navy took two years to admit the videos were real and were unidentified. The original publication of the videos came from this man.
Tom DeLonge, best known as former lead singer of a rock band called Blink-182, is a central figure in what is seemingly the closest the US military has ever come to anything resembling the capital-D “Disclosure” that UFO enthusiasts have often believed was just around the corner. Despite his lack of scientific credentials, or, frankly, scientific knowledge, DeLonge managed to assemble an extremely impressive team of scientists and former defense and intelligence officials.
The story of how he came to be the central figurehead of these paradigm-shattering revelations is a story that is…how to say it…unlikely.
In fact, almost nothing about his organization, To the Stars Academy, makes sense. A for-profit entity, their business model, to the extent I can figure out, is an unlikely combination of entertainment ventures promoting the idea of alien visitation of earth (I guess that’s what the entertainment section is doing?) on the one hand and scientific research into the phenomenon on the other. This research will patent, and give the US military first dibs on, breakthrough technologies, apparently by studying blurry Youtube videos and analyzing material of questionable provenance which is claimed to be from crashed alien aircraft.
It was TTSA which first released these leaked videos of flight footage of the “tic tac” and other anomalous craft, and it was TTSA who brought Luis Elizondo, the former head of AATIP, on board just as the media flurry was getting under way. In fact, it was a meeting between author Leslie Keane and Elizondo along with intelligence officials and military contractors which kicked off the story in the Times, and that meeting was mere days before Elizondo and other prominent figures joined forces with DeLonge to create TTSA.
For now, I hope you will just stipulate with me that something genuinely unusual happened to the pilots and crew of the Nimitz. Sure, it’s possible that all of the pilots and crew who have been interviewed are in on an elaborate hoax, or were themselves victims of a hoax, but there are just too many moving parts there to seem plausible.
Full disclosure…ahem…I would love to be certain that these craft are what they appear to be. But I also know enough UFO history to keep my skeptic meter fully tuned…about the events themselves, yes, but especially concerning the people at TTSA and others promoting this carefully titrated bit of disclosure exposure therapy.
In addition to the maddeningly credulity of so many UFO “researchers” these days, there is a small group of men that has been greatly influencing (or disrupting, depending on your point of view) the course of ufology for decades. We know their names. We know who they work for. One of them has been quite open about his disinformation projects on behalf of Airforce intelligence.
Their goal is to promote, through deception, cloak and dagger theatrics, and promises of insider information, a basic narrative, a “core story,” of alien visitation to earth. It is safe to say that even our pop culture has been greatly influenced by their memetic magic.
Why they do what they do is another question. While some believe they are sincere seekers attempting to move the needle toward government disclosure, you will find them somewhere nearby most of the major UFO controversies and hoaxes of the last forty years.
Which is why it was disturbing to learn that one of these mindfuckers also just happens to be a co-founder of To the Stars Academy. His name is Hal Puthoff and his presence at TTSA is like the signpost to the unwary: Abandon all truth, ye who enter here.