Christian Baldwin He previously worked with the Media Research Center. Student of history and philosophy. Dedicated to the Pursuit of Truth. “In a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” – George Orwell Can send story tips on X to @MonteCristo1837
Journalist Michael Shellenberger testified Wednesday before the House Oversight Committee that the U.S. government-run program “Immaculate Constellations” has collected decades worth of still images and videos unseen by the general public.
“My understanding is that this is … the database is very large,” Shellenberger testified to Republican Louisiana Rep. Clay Higgins during the hearing. “It includes both the images, the videos, the still images as well as the human intelligences, the reports, the raw data of individuals having these experiences. To answer your question, yeah, I think we’re looking at a very large amount of data collected over many decades.”
According to Shellenberger, the program was run out of the Department of Defense (DOD) but was “held” at the White House.
Shellenberger also made public the whistleblower report disclosing the existence of the program. The U.S. government has documented many instances of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) of a variety of unusual shapes not associated with any known human craft, according to the report.
IMMACULATE CONSTELLATION – Report on the US government’s secret UAP (UFO) program
From a whistleblower and released today by @NancyMace and discussed in today’s Congressional hearing
FULL REPORT pic.twitter.com/FKCywpnhsU
— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) November 13, 2024
“On USG networks, there exists Infrared footage of and imagery of a grouping of vessels engaged in SIGINT [signals intelligence] and MASINT [measurement and signature intelligence] collection at night in a specific area of the Pacific Ocean,” the report reads. “In this footage, which was in close proximity to the vessels, a large equilateral triangle UAP suddenly appears directly over the ships. Three bright points are seen at each bottom corner of the UAP, which is observed to slowly rotate around a horizontal axis.” (RELATED: American Airman Who Leaked Classified Ukraine Documents Slapped With 15-Year Sentence)
An Aircraft carrier flight crew also spotted a “spherical UAP” hovering around the ship in a separate instance, according to the report.
“On-duty flight deck crew observed a small orange-red sphere maneuvering at high altitude above the CVN,” the report reads.
The report also documents that the crews’ awareness of time became distorted in the vicinity of the craft.
“The UAP maintained altitude and matched speed with the underway CVN for an uncertain period; observing personnel reported altered perceptions of time during the close encounter,” states the report. “The UAPs appeared to emit a soft orange-red light which, bizarrely, did not illuminate the surface of the ocean or the flight deck of the CVN despite the visual appearance of intense luminosity.”
Luis Elizondo, another hearing witness and former DOD official, described receiving reports of similar behavior by UAPs when he was in the DOD, which he described as “stalking.”
“I came across an email where the word ‘stalked’ was used in a very secure email between Navy officers discussing their ships being pursued by a UAP,” Elizondo testified to Republican Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna.
Retired Rear Admiral Tim Gallaudet described an incident that occurred in the 1980s where an unknown aquatic craft stalked a nuclear submarine.
“The one instance that was revealed to me was in the 80s on a nuclear-powered submarine and ballistic missile submarine that the object exhibited the characteristics of a Russian torpedo in terms of its speed of movement and closing rate with the submarine, and then it slowed,” Gallaudet reported. “And then it followed the submarine slowly in its wake for a period of minutes and then rapidly excited the scene.”
A United States nuclear-powered attack submarine is seen moored alongside the USS Conserver (ARS-39), a rescue and salvage ship, off Stonecutters Island, Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong, 30 December 1981.
The UAPs also showed signs of “communication” and intent, and in many cases, the UAPs appeared to be hostile, according to Elizondo.
“We have these things that are being observed over controlled US airspace and they’re not doing a very good job hiding themselves,” Elizondo stated. “They’re making it pretty obvious that they have the ability to even interfere with our nuclear equities and our nuclear readiness.”
When asked, all four witnesses were unclear as to the origins of these craft and three were certain that they were both intelligent and non-human.
“I don’t think it’s a stretch when you look at the diversity of life on this planet and the size of this universe to think that there might be more diverse, higher-order, non-human intelligences throughout the universe and that’s probably what’s visiting us,” said Gallaudet.
“The definition would be the ability to react to a stimulus in a manner that requires an intellectual thought process,” Elizondo argued.
“Artificial intelligence, ML [machine learning], machines,” remarked former NASA administrator Michael Gold.
“I just don’t know,” said Shellenberger.
After reports of UAPs came to public attention in 2023, Congress attached the Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Disclosure Act of 2023 to the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2024. The final version of the amendment required the government to set up a UAP records collection and review office but was devoid of many of the original provisions of the bill, such as mandating the creation of a government-wide independent review board or an independent disclosure process.