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Pentagon Never Admitted Having Secret UFO Program. Until Now

'What was considered science fiction is now science fact'
By Michael Harthorne,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 16, 2017 2:44 PM CST

The truth, as they say, is out there. In 2007, former senator Harry Reid—along with former senators Ted Stevens and Daniel Inouye—used "so-called black money" to secretly fund a program inside the Defense Department to study and investigate reports of UFOs, particularly from US military personnel. Despite receiving $22 million in annual funding, the existence of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program has never been acknowledged by the Pentagon—until now, the New York Times reports. Documents from the program "describe sightings of aircraft that seemed to move at very high velocities with no visible signs of propulsion, or that hovered with no apparent means of lift." The program's former head, Luis Elizondo, describes evidence of "beyond-next-generation capabilities." And a 2009 Pentagon briefing on the program stated "what was considered science fiction is now science fact."

The Pentagon says the program was shuttered in 2012, following the deaths of Stevens and Inouye. But Elizondo says that's not the case. He says the funding may have stopped but program officials are continuing its work. Elizondo resigned in October over "excessive secrecy and internal opposition." He says the existence of things not appearing to originate from a known country "is not something any government or institution should classify." Reid maintains the program, parts of which are still classified, is "one of the good things I did in my congressional service" (it also happened to funnel millions to Reid's billionaire friend) and lobbied for even more security for the program in 2009 due to the exceptional progress it was making on UFOs. Read the full story here. (More UFOs stories.)

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