Matt Eaton

Author

UFO video confirmation by US defence department an ‘unprecedented’ shift

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A US Navy fighter tracks an unidentified object in 2015.

The recent move by the US Department of Defence (DoD) to authenticate UFO videos released by the Navy as “unidentified” objects is a historic and unprecedented shift in messaging from the American military, according to Australian academic Adam Dodd.

On April 27, with the world focused on the COVID-19 pandemic, the Pentagon released a statement confirming that videos first made public by the New York Times in 2017 were authentic US Navy videos and that “the aerial phenomena observed in the videos remain characterised as unidentified”.

In its statement, the Pentagon said a “thorough review” by DoD had concluded the release of these videos “does not reveal any sensitive capabilities or systems”.

In other words, the objects in the videos were not top secret US aircraft.

The admission represented a reversal of the US military’s longstanding denial that objects defying classification have been observed flying in its airspace.

The announcement was reported widely in the US media, but there has been no commentary on the shift in public position, nor questions asked about why DoD had felt it necessary to make the statement.

University of Queensland communications researcher Dr Adam Dodd said the statement by the DoD represented “a historically unprecedented shift”.

Dr Dodd conducted a research project into the politics of the UFO phenomena in cold war America and spent three years preparing an article that was published in the journal Astropolitics in 2018.

University of Queensland researcher Dr Adam Dodd.

“The number one rule of government is, don’t admit to a problem you can’t offer a solution to,” Dr Dodd told me.

“But here, with the DoD public statement, they do seem to be admitting to a problem they can’t offer a solution to — except they’re saying this does not represent a threat to national security.”

‘Worth investigating’

University of Ohio political scientist Alexander Wendt said the DoD’s confirmation was the “first official release of unidentified UFO footage” by any government in the world.

“These are videos released by the Navy, and so I’m inclined to believe what I’m seeing,” Professor Wendt said.

“What’s striking is that the objects don’t behave like natural phenomena.

“One of the objects rotates as it’s flying against the wind, which is not normal — and the pilots are clearly under the impression that these objects are under intelligent control.”

Professor Wendt has long been critical of the scientific community’s treatment of UFO phenomena as “taboo” and unworthy of study.

“I defy anyone to watch those and come away thinking there’s nothing there worth investigating,” he said.

“Those pilots who spent thousands of hours in the sky, who are flying the most sophisticated machines in the entire world, are seeing something that they have never seen before and are completely blown away by it.”

Why now?

Dr Dodd said he wanted to know what had motivated the DoD to change its public position.

“My reading is that it’s unlikely to have been a response to immense public pressure,” he said.

“So maybe we can at least say that the incentive has come from within the organisation, but we’re still left with that question of why.

“If I had to pick, I’d choose [to think] what we’re seeing now is decisions being made internally within the DoD to acquaint the public with that reality in a gradual way rather than a shocking way that dumps everything on the public in one hit, I think that would be too disruptive.

“Part of it might be the sort of obfuscation that COVID-19 has spread across the news cycle.

“For a topic that’s already historically marginalized, I think maybe it was a safe bet on the part of the DoD that this announcement, despite its historical significance, would end up being marginalized or obscured by what’s dominating the news cycle, which is COVID-19, Donald Trump and political instability.”

The US Navy’s UFO videos were first released to the media in 2017 by former Pentagon official Luis Elizondo.

Mr Elizondo now works for research and lobby group To The Stars Academy (TTSA), founded by Blink 182 frontman and UFO enthusiast Tom DeLonge.

TTSA released a statement welcoming the DoD’s move as “the first time in history the Department of Defence has officially acknowledged the existence of unidentified aerial phenomena”.

In the statement, Mr Elizondo said: “We commend the leadership at the Department of Defence for sharing the truth and TTSA is optimistic that they will continue to share more information transparently as it becomes publicly available.”

Lighting a flame in a moral vacuum

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Review of American Dirt, by Jeanine Cummins

There is so much painful irony embedded in the idea that the borders of wealthy Western nations are under siege from illegal migration.

For Australia and the United States in particular, the ironies abound. Both nations were taken forcefully from their indigenous inhabitants, and both have become expert at ignoring the roles they play in creating the so-called migration crisis looming at their borders.

American Dirt is released in January 2020.

From the comfort and safety of most Australian suburbs, random acts of mass killing are so far removed from everyday experience that it’s impossible to imagine such an abomination being visited upon your family as anything other an act of random chaos.

Try to imagine a world in which such violence is a weekly occurrence. Now imagine the police are no help to you — because they are corrupt and on the payroll of the murderers.

Thus starts Jeanine Cummins’ gut-punching novel American Dirt, a book that puts names and faces to people so often demonised by Western political leaders as queue jumpers and ravenous hoards, but who all too often are desperate people running from the gravest of atrocities.

This is a book that poses a question too few of us dare ask ourselves: are we really civilised nations who turn our backs on such people?

American Dirt stares long and hard at the horror of Mexican drug cartels and the ways in which their power and money subverts law and decency, leaving no-one safe or beyond their reach.

It seeks to light a flame inside a moral vacuum, because such horrors are not external to us; they are bought and paid for by us.

The drug cartels are our creations. The money that spawns rivers of blood and turns young boys into murderous rapists is ours too. No arbitrary line in the sand absolves us of that responsibility.

There is so much pain in this novel, but there is also great hope and love and there are remarkable acts of kindness. It affirms that treasures such as these may long remain in greater abundance beyond our borders.

American Dirt is a powerful accomplishment.

Matt Eaton

Pagan’s Ark — you’ll love this

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My latest novella has just been published, but this one is only available when you join my mailing list.

Early feedback has been enormously positive.

Delighted was I to read fellow author Erin MacMichael describe it as “a superlative read”.

They say writers are a little bit like wine, that we get better with age.

I’m starting to believe there might be something to that.

So don’t just sit there… join my mailing list now and grab a copy of Pagan’s Ark.

When the world explodes you want to know what happens next

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To kick off 2018, let me start at the end.

More precisely, a book about the end: Lucifer’s Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.

Several people have recommended tackling this 1970s classic disaster novel.

So Christmas holidays… what better time?

The Hammer‘s premise is pretty straightforward — a massive comet collides with the Earth. Yet this book is anything but simple in execution.

The build-up is very deftly paced, but what’s most amazing is the portrait of America as disaster hits, especially the speed with which human society crumbles in the aftermath.

If you’re into post-apocalyptic fiction, this is an absolute classic.

It’s infused with curious 1970s sexual mores but this is just added flavour, it doesn’t really date the story.

Lucifer’s Hammer is certainly one of the original sources of paranoia for people across the globe who headed for the hills to await the end of the world… because what goes down here ain’t pretty.

But it is absolutely gripping.

It’s a long book — probably about 800 pages in old money. I read it on the Kindle (much easier to carry around when you’re travelling).

But I didn’t want it to end.

Which is sort of a strange thing to say about a book that is all about THE END.

It’s right up there with the best sci-fi of that era… definitely worth your consideration.

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