Schumer Says UFO Act Modeled on "Huge Success" of JFK Records Act

[Benjamin Cole]

You can't make this stuff up. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) says JFK Records Act was a "huge success." 

This is not a news story. It is direct from the website of Senate Democrats. 

https://www.democrats.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/majority-leader-schumer-and-republican-senator-mike-rounds-floor-colloquy-on-unidentified-anomalous-phenomena-provisions-in-the-ndaa-and-future-legislation-on-uaps

 

"Washington, D.C. – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today conducted a colloquy with Senator Mike Rounds (R-SD) on UAPs and advancing bipartisan legislation to increase government transparency and oversight in the NDAA. Below is the colloquy between Senator Schumer and Senator Rounds:

Leader Schumer: I see my friend, Senator Rounds, is on the floor and ask him to engage in a colloquy on an important set of provisions in the NDAA that deals with transparency, trust, and government oversight: the Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Disclosure Act that he and I co-sponsored and portions of which we will pass in the NDAA.

I say to my friend that Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena are of immense interest and curiosity to the American people.

But with that curiosity comes the risk for confusion, misinformation, and mistrust especially if the government isn’t prepared to be transparent.

The United States government has gathered a great deal of information about UAPs over many decades but has refused to share it with the American people. That is wrong and additionally breeds mistrust.

We have also been notified by multiple credible sources that information on UAPs has also been withheld from Congress, which if true is a violation of laws requiring full notification to the legislative branch – especially as it relates to the four congressional leaders, the defense committees, and the intelligence committee.

So, the bill I worked on with Senator Rounds offered a commonsense solution: let’s increase transparency on UAPs by using a model that works, by following what the federal government did thirty years ago with the JFK Assassination Records Collection Act. They established a presidentially-appointed board to review and release these records, and it was a huge success. We should do the same here with UAPs."

---30---

A huge success. BTW, I was a huge success in my baseball career.  

[Stu Wexler]

My high school students became the first class in K12 history to write a federal bill that became a law. We modeled it on the JFK Act-- the Civil Rights Cold Case Records and Collection Act of 2018. So we had the idea before Chuck 🙂

[Benjamin Cole]

1 hour ago, Stu Wexler said:

My high school students became the first class in K12 history to write a federal bill that became a law. We modeled it on the JFK Act-- the Civil Rights Cold Case Records and Collection Act of 2018. So we had the idea before Chuck 🙂

Congratulations to you and your class. 

Being 2018, I doubt you had a provision, "And the creation of a Transparency Board is expressly prohibited." 

 

[Larry Hancock]

Ben, the records act was a huge success - especially given that it included the ARRB, what we know now though its efforts as compared to what we had available when I started in this three decades and more ago is monumental.  We certainly don't have everything we want but it would be wrong to slam it as  unproductive. 

[Matt Allison]

Newsflash, Ben- it was a ginormous success. What in god's name are you talking about? good lord lol

[Benjamin Cole]

1 hour ago, Larry Hancock said:

Ben, the records act was a huge success - especially given that it included the ARRB, what we know now though its efforts as compared to what we had available when I started in this three decades and more ago is monumental.  We certainly don't have everything we want but it would be wrong to slam it as  unproductive. 

Larry-

OK, I will modify my statement. It was a mixed success. 

However, we really don't know yet if the JFK Records Act was a success or not: We do not know what is being withheld. 

We don't know what we don't know. 

Moreover, it actually stands to reason what is being withheld 60 years after the JFKA is exactly that which is the most sensitive----not sensitive for bona fide national security concerns, but for institutional or political reasons.  

I stand by my sentiment the JFK Records Act was not a huge success, along with my baseball career. 

[Larry Hancock]

Well Ben, we know what we did get - with the records collection and with the work of the ARRB.  Which is a huge step forward beyond what we knew about everything from the autopsy and related records to the operations of JMWAVE, of SAS, and revelations about things ranging from threats against the President in 1963 to the events of the first 48 hours that we had no clue to before ie NIPIC, storyboards, etc.   Arguably much of that was due to the work of the Board staff, but the UAP legislation called for just such a Board and staff which would have been able to do records "discovery" - something arguably at least as lacking in that venue. 

Say what you will, I certainly feel like we have come a great way - enabled by  the JFK records act and the work of the ARRB, and might have done so with the same model for UAP, these days even that can't even get the equivalent through Congress.

[Joe Bauer]

This reported in todays news:

'The Guardian' reports that if the truth about UFOs really is out there, the United States government isn't ready to talk about it yet. Despite promises of more transparency, Congress has acted to control the flow of information that is made public regarding UFOs. On December 14, Congress stripped measures regarding UFO records from a massive defense policy bill signed into law with bipartisan support. Those measures would have created a presidential commission to review records of UFO incidents. It also would have ordered the Department of Defense to declassify , "records relating to publicly known sightings of unidentified aerial phenomenon (UAP).". 'The Guardian' reports that provisions were included in the bill that ordered the National Archives to collect reports of , "UAPs, technologies of unknown origin and nonhuman intelligence."

[Benjamin Cole]

9 hours ago, Larry Hancock said:

Well Ben, we know what we did get - with the records collection and with the work of the ARRB.  Which is a huge step forward beyond what we knew about everything from the autopsy and related records to the operations of JMWAVE, of SAS, and revelations about things ranging from threats against the President in 1963 to the events of the first 48 hours that we had no clue to before ie NIPIC, storyboards, etc.   Arguably much of that was due to the work of the Board staff, but the UAP legislation called for just such a Board and staff which would have been able to do records "discovery" - something arguably at least as lacking in that venue. 

Say what you will, I certainly feel like we have come a great way - enabled by  the JFK records act and the work of the ARRB, and might have done so with the same model for UAP, these days even that can't even get the equivalent through Congress.

LH--

I do not contest that valuable materials were released under the JFK Records Act.

Of course, your careful, diligent and circumspect work reflects some of the materials released. 

But it really sticks in my craw that the "best" or most truly informative JFK Records are likely still under lock-and-key, thanks to actions taken in two successive administrations. 

If I understand the muddled legal situation correctly, the Biden Administration has essentially proposed a permanent shutdown on the remaining materials. A snuff job.   They appear to be able to "get away with it." 

That is, when you get down to the real nitty-gritty, the JFK Records Act is toothless. 

Perhaps we were served some appetizers, and an aperitif. We were waiting for the main course...when the restaurant said, "Closing Time!"

 

 

 

 

 

[Larry Hancock]

I'm not sure how you/we would know the best records are still not being released?  Personally I'd bet anything really sensational (say like the Hosty note) or the JMWAVE inquiry into Cuban involvement in a conspiracy (which was confirmed to us via documents from the act's releases) went missing decades ago.  Sort of like the stuff from Angleton's private files - when an agency itself gets to decide what gets destroyed vs what is kept  you can pretty well guess how that will play out. 

Still, with the right staff and powers beyond that given even the ARRB with the JFK Act, I think the UAP legislation could have been at least equally effective if it has passed as written in the Senate. As it stands now there will nothing to truly force serious collections of UAP incidents, especially historical ones from within military files such as those at NORAD or the NMCC.

[Benjamin Cole]

48 minutes ago, Larry Hancock said:

I'm not sure how you/we would know the best records are still not being released?  Personally I'd bet anything really sensational (say like the Hosty note) or the JMWAVE inquiry into Cuban involvement in a conspiracy (which was confirmed to us via documents from the act's releases) went missing decades ago.  Sort of like the stuff from Angleton's private files - when an agency itself gets to decide what gets destroyed vs what is kept  you can pretty well guess how that will play out. 

Still, with the right staff and powers beyond that given even the ARRB with the JFK Act, I think the UAP legislation could have been at least equally effective if it has passed as written in the Senate. As it stands now there will nothing to truly force serious collections of UAP incidents, especially historical ones from within military files such as those at NORAD or the NMCC.

LH--

Jeff Morley has written about Joannides records, still under lock-and-key. I think some records on Bill Harvey are also black. That's just what I know about off the top of my head.

Again, I contend we are groping in the dark, because we don't know what we don't know. I am skeptical any JFK Records---variously estimated at 4,000 or 13,000 in total---would endanger national security. So why are they being suppressed? 

---30---

I wholeheartedly support complete transparency on anything related to UFOs. It is a fascinating topic. I confess I am still a skeptic---not sure how anything could travel as faster than the speed of light, or even close in practical terms. Which makes the earth a lonely place. 

So what are UFOs? I don't know. Obviously, people are seeing something. 

I do wish we had a few, indisputable camera-video images of UFOs. Not infra-reds, or radar, etc. 

In the old days, (I probably read my first book on UFOs in 1967) you had eyewitness accounts, and very few photos. There were numerous radar sightings of blips around US aircraft during the Washington DC UFO incidents of 1952. 

Bur today cameras are ubiquitous. Even on airplanes, webcams. 

Maybe you know: Are there any truly indisputable video images of a UFO? How does one tell a fake? 

[Larry Hancock]

Certifying UFO photos has always been a challenge, you needed the negative from a still camera or the film from an aircraft gun camera. There are a few of the latter that can be certified but the image is at such a distance and apparent speed it does not tell you much.  With digital cameras you need the metadata and full details of the camera system itself and even then somebody will come  up with a challenge.

Overall the images are not the key, its the elements of measured speed and acceleration including G loading on the structure itself that prove in truly unconventional performance i.e. technology.  We have had those number of instances of those for decades - from unidentifieds in Project Bluebook to the current AARO, its just a matter of facing up to the data and accepting it. 

Instead, now as back then, those incidents just get dumped in an unidentified bucket and there they stay - as far as I know the only people still looking them or doing serious studies are citizen researchers, outside both the military and academic establishments.  

 

 

 

[Joe Bauer]

2 hours ago, Benjamin Cole said:

Are there any truly indisputable video images of a UFO?

Of course there are.

My guess is our government and others as well have thousands of them.

[Benjamin Cole]

24 minutes ago, Joe Bauer said:

Of course there are.

My guess is our government and others as well have thousands of them.

My eyes are the size of saucer plates. 

Bring 'em on. 

I have seen some images in radar or infrared, very interesting, but I am never quite sure if some bored army-navy technicians are pulling our legs. 

I sure wish a UFO would fly over an NFL game, filmed by multiple TV and and smartphone cameras. 

Years back,  civilian commercial aircraft pilots would report "orange balls" that circled around their plane.

OK, now we have webcams. And? 

 

[Sandy Larsen]

7 hours ago, Benjamin Cole said:

That is, when you get down to the real nitty-gritty, the JFK Records Act is toothless. 

 

My wife served me a cup of coffee for breakfast today. I love coffee... it was delicious.

The coffee was cold by the time I took my last sip. That was the worst cup of coffee I've ever had in my life.