Somewhere in the Skies - Top Ten UFO Stories of the Decade

Episode Date: December 30, 2019

On episode 141 of SOMEWHERE IN THE SKIES, the entire Rogue Planet crew is in attendance. As the year comes to a close, Jason McClellan, Maureen Elsberry, Shane Hurd, and Ryan run down the top 10 UFO-related stories from the past decade. Gary McKinnon Frank Kimbler Homeland Security UFO Area 51 “Declassified” Citizen Hearing Roswell Slides Hillary Clinton Commercial Flights & UFOs AATIP/TTSA Storm Area 51 Links to some things mentioned in this episode: Edge of Reality (Lee Speigel’s podcast) Citizen Hearing videos Patreon: www.patreon.com/somewhereskies YouTube Channel: CLICK HERE Official Store: CLICK HERE Order Ryan's Book by CLICKING HERE Twitter: @SomewhereSkies Instagram: @SomewhereSkiesPod Watch Mysteries Decoded for free at www.CWseed.com Opening Theme Song, "Ephemeral Reign" by Per Kiilstofte SOMEWHERE IN THE SKIES is part of the eOne podcast network. To learn more, CLICK HERE SOMEWHERE IN THE SKIES is sponsored by HelloFresh. To receive 50% off your first order, use promo code: SOMEWHERE at checkout by visiting www.HelloFresh.ca Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/somewhere-in-the-skies. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey y'all, Ryan Spreck here. As you all know, the Somewhere in the Sky's podcast is always free to consume. But it isn't free to create. That's why I've started the Somewhere in the Sky's Patreon campaign. On a monthly basis, you give what you think the show is worth. You'll be helping the show continue, grow, and to be something truly communal. And remember, there are rewards for each level of contribution, and the list is only growing. So please, help Somewhere in the Skies now by becoming a page.

To contribute and to learn more, visit www.pateron.com backslash SomewhereSkies. Thank you for your support. And now on with the show. Welcome to a very special episode of Somewhere in the Skies, where I'm joined by the entire crew over at rokeplanet.tv. And today, we're discussing the top 10 UFO stories of the decade. This is Somewhere in the Skies, with Ryan's bread. We've reached the end of another year and the end of a decade. As hard as it might be to believe, you'll soon be reading the year 2020 on your calendar. That's crazy. So since we're closing out a decade, today we're going to run down some of the top UFO-related stories from this past decade.

Now, this type of show is always a bit of a challenge for us to put together because so much happens during the span of a year, let alone. a decade. So narrowing it down to the top 10 stories is difficult to say the least. But we've managed to do that for you today. So let's get to it. Ryan, why don't you get us started off? Yeah, absolutely. So the first one we're going to cover here is back in 2001. And this is the Gary McKinnon case. I'm sure that name definitely rings a bell with a lot of people out there. But for anyone who doesn't know who this guy is, he was an IT expert in England, who in 2001 and 2002. He spent a lot of his free time hacking and breaching security defenses of NASA and other U.S.

military networks. And he said that he found a document entitled, quote, unquote, non-terrestrial officers, which was pretty intriguing, if he asked me. It was sort of like this Excel sheet that he recalls had the ranks and names of unknown individuals on it. So when he tried to search for the names of the ships, he was unable to find any, any mention of these people publicly, that is, and it made him believe that it was some sort of secret space program. So he started talking about this stuff. Meanwhile, his hacking would eventually be discovered, and he was arrested in late 2002 in England.

And he was said to have caused over hundreds of thousands of dollars in security breaches and damage. and following his arrest, he was also subject to a lengthy extradition battle. The U.S. wanted to punish him for the cybercrimes on U.S. computers and intelligence agencies and such. So he easily could have spent almost 70 years in jail for this, but in 2012, the newly appointed Prime Minister, Theresa May, she did not grant the extradition because of McKinnon's history with depression. and he was also suffering from Asperger's syndrome, and it would be extremely detrimental to his health, and it would make him highly suicidal, and it would go against his human rights, so she decided not to do that. But since then, McKinnon had to pay very high legal fees, and he is never allowed in the U.S. ever again.

And I actually got to speak with McKinnon briefly after all this happened to see what he was up to, And now he is doing the IT thing again. He's working for his own company, basically doing what he used to do, hacking. He's now working with cybersecurity. So it's kind of like one of these cases where the government will hire ex-cons to help them. It's pretty cool, I guess. But every now and again he talks about this stuff and what he found on those U.S. computers. And to this day, we still will never know what non-terrestrial officers actually means.

Well, and this was such a long, drawn-out saga. The Gary McKinnon saga, like you said, started, you know, in the early 2000s, but the extradition battle was still raging on in this past decade. In 2010, 2011, the headlines were nonstop. I mean, it seemed like almost every week we were hearing a new development in the Gary McKinnon case. And his mother was, was his really, leading the charge. He was his biggest advocate in leading the fight against extradition.

So that whole battle, you know, the U.S. trying to get him extradited and hearing all the health issues, the testimony, and then Theresa May finally saying, nope, not going to happen. Like, that was just generating tons and tons and tons of mainstream headlines. So it was kind of fun to follow along. Yeah, it was so cool, again, to see like a mainstream story going on between countries. all because a guy wanted to hack into computers to find out shit on UFOs. I think it's so cool. I love it.

I love it. Yeah, and think, too, the timing of it, this was pre-Snowden and pre-Wiki leaks. You know, and how it was handled, you know, was in that context. It'd be kind of interesting to see how it all be treated now, you know, if it were to have occurred now after all of that. Maybe, I mean, the U.S. was, they were rabid, man. They wanted him. They wanted him bad. And, you know, I don't know if they would go after him as hard today as they did back then.

But it is really fascinating. The fact that it was a UFO story, I mean, that's amazing. Yeah, and there was, you know, some speculation because a bunch of documents were released, FOIA requests, and nobody has exactly found the right documents to sort of verify all his claims, which makes you wonder, you know, where are they? And people are still actively trying to research this, and I think we'll see this stretch into 2020 and beyond. Yeah, and that's a good point.

That's cool. Shane, that's a big difference, yeah, with WikiLeaks and stuff. I mean, if we had what he discovered, that would be amazing, right? These transfer lists of people going to the USS Hill and Cotter and the USS LeMay. Like, you know, that's really huge stuff. But again, we don't have any of that because he didn't save any of that. And he also says he was high when he was doing this. So his memory is a little fuzzy too.

And there's a lot of stuff, but it's incredible claims. It would be great if we had some WikiLeaks like files that we could look at, but there's nothing. Yeah. I mean, it is fascinating. And it is plausible, you know, that he saw what he says he saw. But without any evidence, it is just that frustrating thing with ufology, man. You just, you can't get your hands around any friggin' proof, you know. It's so frustrating.

But, you know, I think it's plausible. And I think, you know, maybe he's sauced up. Maybe he didn't. I don't know. But it is pretty curious how hard the government went after him for it. Yeah. And that certainly fuels the fire, right? And gets his conspiracies going, you know, well, why would they go so hard after him if he didn't actually find what he says he found?

Why would they care? But, again, he did hack into military computers and cause all sorts of. of Damars. They're not going to go, oh, that's okay. You stay over there and everything's fine. We'll forget it. Water under the bridge. He must also be on a lot of legal hooks to where you notice like he has not spoken about the case and or, you know, gone, done the TV circuit or anything like that or started hopping around conferences and the UFO circuit. But not significantly. Right. I mean, they've, they've certainly had him at like, in the desert and stuff.

Like, there are these conferences where they have him. How did he get to the U.S. to go to contact in the desert? No, he did. It was a live video. Oh, gosh. All right. I was like, come on, guys.

Yeah, he's certainly done that. Not to the sort of, you can tell he's really trying to push the envelope and take advantage of the UFO phenomena circuit kind of thing. Good point. It's a really good point. All right, let's move on to the next one. our list. You guys might not agree with me on this one, but I'm including Frank Kimbler as one of the biggest stories of the decade. And here's why. So Frank made headlines multiple times

during the decade. And if you aren't familiar with him, Frank is a geologist and an instructor at the New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell, New Mexico. Back in 2010, he began making trips out to a remote area of the desert that is thought to be near where UFO supposedly crashed back in 1947. And being a scientist, Frank wanted to find physical evidence. So he used a metal detector and he found what he was looking for. He managed to find several small pieces of material. He submitted material for analysis.

And in one of the first tests he had done, his response to the results was, quote, either the lab made an analytical error or the material is not from Earth, end quote. He was excited by the isotopic analysis and he continued working to get get initial testing done throughout the decade. And then you might remember that in 2018, there was the whole drama with the Bureau of Land Management when they called Frank in for a meeting and there was the threat of his material being confiscated. Fortunately, Frank still has his Roswell material, but that incident generated some buzz. And I mean, there were so many mainstream headlines about that and about Frank's previous work and the test results and the claims made about this strange

Roswell material. So that really, really breached mainstream press around the world, generate a lot of headlines throughout the decade. And then at the beginning of 2019, Ryan got to get involved with this material, right, Ryan? Yeah, I got my hands all over this one. Yeah. Yeah. No, I love Frank to death. And I think it's incredible the dedication he has to trying to find the truth behind Roswell. I mean, I've spoken about this in the past. It's amazing the way he was able to locate the area first and foremost. And then I also got his materials tested, came up with vastly different results from his first tests, but that's what science is. You got to get this stuff reviewed over and over and over again. And I think it's fascinating.

Whatever Frank found out there is definitely extraordinary. I can, that's, That's all I can really say. It might not be extraterrestrial, but what we found out was that whatever that metal was, it should not have been in that desert in 1947. I can tell you that much. Hopefully more info on that in 2020. But we know now that the feds, I think, were monitoring Frank and his social networks and even a bunch of our names came up in those files because we were talking to Frank about it. So a little freaky, but I guess that's, like, social networks. And even a bunch of our names came up in those files because we were talking to Frank about it. So a little freaky. But I guess that. That's points for us. Yeah, but, you know, I think that this case is really awesome because what it does is it illustrates the importance of having true scientific investigation and that it actually yields stuff. So, right, he was able to find those metallic fragments because he was a geologist, not because he was just a dude out there that spent the time. I mean, there was science behind that. And that was well illustrated on your show, Ryan, on Mysteries Decoded. And so I thought, hey, that was very intriguing.

And then, you know, he's got the samples. He's handled them properly. And then, you know, there's something there, physical evidence. I mean, how scant is physical evidence, right? And so he's got that. And, you know, it has been analyzed and there's more there available to continue the analysis. So, I mean, to me, it just, his case really illustrates the value of, true science and getting the right people involved in this thing, and it will yield, you know,

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Save up to 40% your first year at lifelock.com slash Spotify. Terms apply. I think another good point to feed off of that, Shane, is that, you know, what's happening here is everyone says, oh, Roswell's such an old case. But when you look at all these old cases that have never really been solved or still considered by most to be unsolved, that there's still sometimes magic. And if we, you know, put the effort in and the science in, like you said, that we might be able to find clues that help shed light on these items that are still anomalous. And, yeah, you may think, oh, it's, you know, that happened in 1947.

Nothing will be out there. But you'd be surprised how stuff moves around, you know, shifts down because of changing landscape and water and everything else. and how you can still manage to potentially find clues or pieces of the puzzle. Yeah, we love Frank. And again, like you said, Shane, it's such a great point that in the UFO world, in the UFO field, tangible physical evidence is scarce. So when you have a case that has that, it's incredibly exciting. And there's still stuff going on with this case.

So I- And Frank's just a cool dude anyway. Frank is awesome. Did it send you guys money that I just somehow did not get? Check out lost in the mail. You know you agree. All right. So let's move on to the next one on the list.

Shane, you've got the next one. This is the, I'm going to read a little bit on this thing. This is the UFO incident that began about 9.20 p.m. on the evening of April 25th, 2013, at the Rafael Hernandez Airport in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. So many of you may have remember the video from this, but what it did is it included the crew of a DHC

8 turboprop aircraft from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency, which is a division of the Department of Homeland Security. And basically what happened is this flight recorded a thermal imaging camera on

a DH aircraft, recorded an object that exhibit characteristics it cannot be explained by known aircraft for natural phenomena. And so this thing, it moved through buildings and through trees and eventually over the ocean. And then the object appears to go in and out of the ocean without slowing down. And at the end of the video, it's either joined by another object or it breaks in two. And this case was analyzed thoroughly by the Scientific Coalition for UFO. And they kind of came up with this statement here I thought was great that kind of encapsulates the whole thing.

It says there is no explanation for an object capable of traveling underwater at over 90 miles per hour with minimal impact as it enters the water. Through the air at 120 miles per hour at low altitude, through a residential area without navigation lights. And finally to be able of splitting into two separate objects. no bird, no balloon, no aircraft, and no known drones have that capability. And I'll just mention, if you want to read the reporter, if anyone does out there, it's like a 161-page report, and it's on the website, ExploreSCU.org, and you can click it the whole report yourself. Yeah, that group certainly did the most robust look into that case, and that case at the time made substantial, headlines because, you know, for obvious reasons. As we know very well, the public and the media love UFO videos and certainly love UFO videos when they're coming from a military source.

And that's what we had in this case. So that was a great example of a military UFO video being circulated. Media ran wild with it. And people laid it up. I remember getting that link to the probably Morgan Beale or someone sent us the link to the 161 page document and I thought, oh shit, am I going to have to read this? Yes. And it's technical. I worked on it, but it's very technical. And it's good.

And that's a positive thing too, though. Yeah. I don't know if it's the same for you guys, but sometimes when I know these videos are coming from like the government or the military, I almost get a little scared to watch it because we can usually figure out with moments like, oh, well, it was this or it wasn't this. I'm afraid to look at videos like this because I really think sometimes my paradigm is going to get shifted. In this video really was one of those ones early on before all the tick tacks and all that crap. That this one was like,

oh my God, this could blow the lid wide open. But, you know, just like any story, it kind of fades into obscurity within weeks in today's world. So, yeah. Yeah. And that's a really good point, Ryan, because we're just look at how big of a mess like you said, and then it kind of drifted off into obscurity. And is that going to happen with the TikTok UFOs? Or is there now been such a big deal about it that it'll remain, you know, stay the test of time? I think it's human nature and we see it with every story that comes along, you know, whether it's UFOs or something in pop culture or anything else. You know, something's gigantic, earth-shattering news and it must get your attention right now and everybody's talking about it and a couple weeks later it's gone so but you know if you're

careful and you think about it so many of these things are are connected through history right even like you know we talked about frank and you know that happened in 47 but here we are in 2019 almost 2020 and there's still evidence yielded or like with this case the fact that that that object entered both the air and then the water to me that that relates directly to what you know happened with the nimitz case and and the TikTok and the A-Tips conclusion that, look, these things are transmedium. This is one of like the five important aspects of identifying a true UFO, right, as outlined by A-TIP. And one is that they have transmedian capabilities so they can fly in space, air, and water.

Now, in the Aguadilla case, obviously it was just observed that it entered both air and water. But still, that's remarkable because even at 95 miles an hour, I think, is what they clocked it at underwater. I mean, there are very few man-made objects that can do that right now. And then, let alone go in the water and fly, right? There's no man-made objects that do that. So, you know, it's pretty fascinating. So this stuff, I think in time, you know, when you look at the Aquedia case from 2013 in the context of the information we're learning now in 2019 or 17, 18, and 19, they're kind of all related. And so if you look at uphology and these cases from that 30,000 foot view,

and you can see that this stuff is connected. And I think that will help move us forward, too, because we learn that stuff, and then we build on it and we add to it. Yeah, those five observables are really a new driving force for me when I'm looking at this. I think it's an incredible way to record the data of these things, like how they maneuver We spend so much time talking about date and weather and this and that for a UFO case. But let's really look at the patterns of how these things are working. I think you're right, Shane.

I think something can be gleaned for that for sure. And this video proved that. Yeah, even from like a perspective as a Mufon investigator now, you know, I look at, you know, how can you define what a UFO is, right? I mean, we all kind of, you know, we think we know. but, you know, this is a scientific analysis and a demarcation of, you know, if this object observes these characteristics or exhibits them, then this is not conventional. I mean, that is awesome. And that's only something that very recently has come to the fore that we can define, you know,

what a UFO is by its performance characteristics and those other things. So, you know, I think that's absolutely huge. And in spite of the fact that we've been in it for 70 years, we are continuing to make progress. The more we bring science and technology into the hunt, you know, we are making, we're at least, you know, checking items off the list that it is not this. It is not that, right? Sooner or later, we're going to get down to a much more narrow window where we can say this is, you know, a true unknown. Well said. All right, let's move to the next one on the list.

and that would be the CIA declassifying Area 51. So Area 51 has been in pop culture for a few decades now, but up until 2013, the government denied the top secret base even existed. In August of 2013, the National Security Archive at George Washington University posted a CIA document obtained through a Freedom of Information Act in which the name Area 51 was not redacted. And although the document wasn't the first to name or to refer to Area 51 by its name, it essentially served as a sort of official outing or declassification of Area 51. And this story generated headlines around the world with the essential message that the CIA finally declassified Area 51.

So this was huge at the time. and the headlines this thing generated were crazy. And again, up to this point, there were still, you know, most people in the general public viewed Area 51 as something that just crazy conspiracy theorists talked about. They didn't think it was a real thing because the government said it wasn't a real thing. Absolutely. And this was also important.

It sounded so lame to us because we were like, oh, we already know, but that's our circle. but this was really important because it was a step in kind of proving that at least Bob Lazar knew that piece of information before it was released to the public as well. And it was kind of sort of confirming a few things that were said in those initial interviews. So not only was the government saying, yes, this was the nickname, it had a lot of implication behind it. And that sort of set the ground for, I'd say, interested parties to start. running saying while there's a lot more merit to this particular investigation of this secret base now. Yeah, and this story brought out Bob Lazar too, right? Remember the stories? He would comment on it.

You know, the mainstream media outlets would get quotes from him. And I remember at Open Minds, we wrote a story about it. It was something like Bob Lazar is not impressed with the declassification of Area 51. He saw, yeah, so what else is new? Like, he was, oh, that's what I've been telling you. I remember back in, I think it was 95. Yeah, that's when they, like, those lawsuits against the base were made by, like, former employees because of the, like, the toxic fumes and everything that they had. A lot of people were dying out there. So, like, the government had to acknowledge that when the lawsuit came about.

And I remember hearing, like, specifically an Air Force attorney saying, your honor, their. is no name. There is no name for the operating location near Groom Lake. And that always gave me chills back when I heard about that. But the fact that like through like freedom of information requests and lawsuits, that's how we finally got the CIA to acknowledge it being Area 51. So I remember my phone blowing up that day. I don't know if it was the same for you guys. Almost as much as, you know, the current stuff going on. So I loved it. I thought it was awesome. I think that's with with anything like this, as soon as it starts making headlines. Yeah, my phone, my email blew up friends who, you know, aren't paying attention to this stuff.

But they thought for them it meant so much more than it did to me. Because they were like, what is this? There actually is a base there? What's happening? You have all the answers, don't you? Tell me what it is. Well, it is a slight vindification, right? If not for Bob, but for even uphology.

I mean, you know, we've all been throwing Area 51 around for a lot of decades. But, you know, official confirmation does kind of feel good in that way, right? Yeah. It gets it in the public's mind, and then all of a sudden it becomes real. Yeah. Yeah. It's also one of the best first-person shooter arcade games out there, I'm just saying. Yes. Yes.

Do you prefer Area 51 or the follow-up S-4? I did not know they made an S4. That's awesome. Yeah, they have a second one. I think it's called S4 or Site 4. Yeah. Yeah, they do have an area 51-2, basically. That is so weird.

I love it. I love it. And there's the one also that Nick Pope's part of, right? The more recent one, video game on that? Yes. I've got it. I'll have to look that. Okay, wait.

I did not know Nick Pope was doing some sort of video game action. I think it was he consulting on it or did he actually have some? I think he consulted on it. Yeah. Oh, that's funny. That is awesome. What won't that guy do? Let's be honest. I mean that in the best of ways. I mean that in the past ways. All right. Let's move on to the next one. So what have you got for the next item on our list, Shane? Oh, this is the citizen hearing on disclosure. So when we think about it, the last congressional hearing dealing with the extraterrestrial issue was before the House Science and Aeronautics Committee in July of 1968. So, you know, obviously. over 50 years ago. The citizen hearing on disclosure was a mock congressional hearing held in April and May of 2013 to do what they say the Congress has failed to do since 1968, and that is seek out the facts surrounding the most important issue of this or any other time, and that is evidence pointing toward an extraterrestrial presence engaging the human race. So what they did, this is,

the work of Stephen Bassett, the Paradigm Research Group, and they assembled this hearing. 42 persons, including researchers and military and political witnesses of Rankin Station. They came to the National Press Club, Washington, D.C., to testify before six former members of the United States Congress. And so they had this main ballroom set up in the National Press Club. It was configured to look like a Senate hearing room. There were press areas, audience areas, witnesses tables, committee tables, or professional protocols for congressional hearings that they followed as closely as possible. The committee members, these former congressmen and congresswomen received written statements from the

witnesses and they heard oral statements and they were allowed to ask questions just in a typical hearing. It was like 35 hours of testimony over five days. And then the entire thing was filmed. And that video is available to everyone on the Paradigm Research Group.org website. And it is pretty fascinating. It's really historical. And it captures a lot of testimony from people that, you know, eventually, probably in our lifetime, they'll be gone. And so this is a, you know, a historical record of that. Actually, we sent one of our colleagues at the time Antonio Huneas was present at the citizen hearings and Kenney gave us a behind the scenes look at what was happening.

And I think that, yeah, the importance of this, it's a faux hearing. The former senators and congressmen were paid to be there, or at least were offered money to be there. Not sure. They actually got their payout or not. But, you know, this is one of those things where it was trying to set up a professional environment for lawmakers to seriously look at the fact that there is credible people detailing very strange anomalous activity. And so I think that the effort, well, it's kind of, you know, oh, it's a faux hearing. You know, why do we care?

Well, we care because we're trying to get people to take this phenomenon. Seriously. So that's my two cents on it. And look at like it kind of paved the way in some weird, you know, bastardized way that now actual senators in office are being briefed on UFOs. So I mean, for as much as people may mock it because it was a mock hearing, I guess, I thought like Shane said, we now have these things on record from some of the most prominent witnesses out there. I mean, you know, you look at the Rendlesham guys, Jim Penniston and John Burroughs. That was some of the most amazing testimony I've heard from them at those hearings. And that's one of the most pivotal cases we have to rely on in uphology. So I think it was really cool to see some of these people all in one room doing this.

And then to hear the reactions from the former congressmen and women. Yes, they may have been paid, you know, to maybe seem interested. but I do think all of them were genuinely interested in what they were hearing. And in fact, I know some of them went on to then try to rally the troops and get actual congressmen to look at this. So, yeah, I thought it was a valiant effort for sure. It did seem like they were genuinely interested. And, you know, you mentioned them being paid. And unfortunately, there was plenty of mainstream press coverage that focused on that fact about how the dollar amount that they were paid to sit and

Listen to the crazy UFOs. But that was the unfortunate part about it, but it did generate a lot of positive headlines. And I guess we should point out, too, that Ruben Langdon and even Jeremy Corbell played a big role in the execution of the citizen hearing as well. You know, just looking back on it now, it's, it was a very novel approach on the issue of disclosure, right? So for, you know, 70 years, we've been banging away, trying to get something out of the government. It was just a different way to try and see if we could shake something loose. So I give Stephen Bassett credit for that thinking out of the box and trying something really different. And I think, you know, it did produce some meaningful results, not what we wanted, but, you know, still meaningful results.

So, you know, at least kudos stand for trying something different. And, you know, it's definitely, I think, great viewing. something everybody should have to look at. Yeah, definitely. And yeah, citizenhearing.org is another place you can go, watch all that testimony. Pretty fascinating stuff. So let's move on to the next item,

counting down our list. Ryan, what have you got? You've got our favorite, don't you? Okay. This is our favorite on the list. I don't know what I did to deserve this. Okay, okay, here we go. Bear with me, guys.

I'm going to try to get through this convoluted story as quickly as possible. This happened back in May of 2015, when our favorite Mexican UFO researcher, Hamey Mousan, he unveiled to the world what he says were slides and images of an alien from the Roswell UFO crash. He presented this to a huge audience at a stadium in Mexico City and streamed it across the world for a price, I might add. The images, they first became known by a man named Adam Doo, who brought them to Moussan. and several other Roswell investigators, including Don Schmidt and Tom Carey. And for almost a year, I think, they were kind of teasing this thing and promoting the idea that

they had this bombshell evidence that would blow the entire Roswell incident wide open. And then the day in May came, and we all saw the images, and I think all of us were a little less than satisfied. The image showed a very blurry image of a small being lying on a slab in front of some sort of glass casing, I believe. If I'm looking at the picture, right, there was a placard that sat below it, but could not be read by the human eye, of course. Blurry photos seemed to be a staple for the UFO field. But for over two hours at this Pax Stadium and a horribly streamed audience, Moussan invited researchers and scientists to speak, some of which actually. backed up the images, gave us a play-by-play of how they supposedly came to be and everything. And for some reason, Richard Dolan was there. He never thought the image was alien, but he was still

there speaking. I will never forgive him for that. But one slide was shown at the event, and later Hamimisan would post a second image on his Twitter account. So within 48 hours of this, a group of UFO researchers and tech-savvy individuals coined the Roswell Slides Research group. They were able to de-blur the image and figure out that the placard on the image said mummified body of a two-year-old boy. So immediately, some of the people started getting defensive that weren't involved, saying that the blurred photo is fake, this, that, this, that. But then more of the placard was de-blurred, and it read, at the time of the burial, the body was clothed in a slip-cover cotton shirt. Burial wrappings consisted of three small blankets. And the last line, which kind of blew this all wide open, was, quote, loaned by Mr. S. L. Palmer, San Francisco, California.

So this led other researchers to then look into it, and they found out that this guy, S.L. Palmer, had given this mummy that he'd found to this museum, the museum in Mesa Verde. And since then, mostly all involved have issued public apologies for getting everyone's hopes up. You know, Tom Carrey, Don Schmidt said, sorry, we got, our passion got the best of us. Hami Masan, I don't really know where he stands on all this today. But the main person that kind of started this all Adam do is like nowhere to be found. He was supposed to come out with a documentary about it. Never happened. We never saw these crystal clear copies that Adam supposedly has of these images either.

So, yeah, I think this is a huge black guy on the UFO community. this entire thing. And it really goes to show that when your passion and beliefs get ahead of you, it can really, really look bad for the rest of us. So, yeah, that was, that was rough. Well, UFOs are so, just the nature of UFOs with the mystery that they are. It's just so ridiculous for a researcher to come out and make grand claims. And both, I mean, everybody involved in this should have known better.

certainly not the individual who own these things claim to find them in a cigar box in a house or whatever he did I wanted to make a documentary with it it's not a UFO researcher but the UFO research is involved should have known better than to hype this thing up make grand claim and affirmatively say this was absolutely something we know we know better I was just going to say but that's happened so many times

in this decade you know it's not just It has, and that's what I'm saying. People should learn. And you can't make these grand claims because we're dealing with something so mysterious, so unknown, and being a responsible researcher, you just can't make claims like that unless you have definitive proof to back it up. These guys were operating under assumptions. They were operating under things that they've been told. They didn't see the test for themselves. They didn't get testing done by themselves.

They were being told things that Jaime was telling them that had been done by questionable doctors and all sorts of weird things with this whole case But they didn't personally know they hadn't done the research on it and they were hyping this thing from the stage You know at conferences and things saying we have definitive proof that Roswell was alien all this stuff really hyping it up And it just came back and slapped him so hard in the face You know, it's it's hard to believe that they managed to you know recuperate from that I mean it was it was a dirty time time for a while. I mean, even Rich Dullen was getting so much shit. And rightly so. I mean, everybody involved with this. It was just such an embarrassing debacle that people would make grand claims without, you know, being cautious without putting the thing out there saying,

hey, we found something interesting. It might be extraterrestrial. We don't know, but we're going to show you something. And we're working on this. We'll figure it out. We'll do testing, whatever we have to do to figure it out. But here's an interesting development in the case. Right. And I think this one really is an example of like how our field gets amnesia so easily. And I mean, I like to compare this, Jason, kind of to our good friend and colleague, Peter Robbins. I mean, this guy based almost half his career on one case, the Rendez Show case. And then to come to find out, like, the guy he worked with may have been less than

honest about his involvement. And what did Peter do? He admitted to it. He, like, stood up. He manned up, as it were. And he said, look, I messed up. and I want to move on from that and I want to do the right thing and let's just keep working at this. When members of this, whether they issued an apology or not, still aren't owning up to it, in my opinion, in terms of like how detrimental this was.

But again, like any story, it'll fade into obscurity like they all do. But this was more an example of good, diligent research by, you know, civilians and by like people behind their computers. this Roswell Slides Research Group. Jumped into action. They got to thank them. They did amazing, amazing work, and that's what we need. Well, I'm sure for, like, Richard and Tom and Don, that this case falls on a top 10 list of a different kind.

But, like, I mean, this decade has been a mark of, like, alleged alien mummies, and this is not the only embarrassing one. And since we're not covering them, going to do my due diligence. And this is very similar to the hype that was around the Atacama mummy. Oh, yeah. That was found that was less trailing, little Ada. Baby Ada, not to be mistaken for Baby Yoda.

Right. Huge in the news. And then unfortunately, I really, like, luckily, my name isn't totally associated with this. but Jason and I had to deal with Pepe, the squirrel monkey. Oh, boy. That was advertised as being an alien mummy, also from Jaime Mousan. And so, yeah, this is something that keeps appearing. And especially with items that look strange that are mummified, we don't know what it is.

Let's not immediately, just because it looks strange, jump to the extraterrestrial, conclusion. I think that's the most important thing any of us can do, like we say, you know, due diligence on research, put the science behind it. Then if it comes back saying, holy shit, this is legitimately extraterrestrial in nature, then let's tell the world. One day if I decide to reach the point to where I just want to completely trash my credibility and, you know, throw myself down the toilet, I'm going to pull out my old photos. with Pepe holding Pepe and kissing Pepe and everything. I'll post them around and tell people that I found an alien.

Step that you brought Pepe to light. Yeah, I could go back to some people and get some money and get a circus going. I'm sure we all have some photos from our UFO days that we don't want the public to see at this point. Oh, I posted most of them publicly, but making fun of it. But if I were to be a sleazy person and try to pass them off. is real. There would be some biters. Yeah, unfortunately that is so true. Yeah. All right. Well, the next item on our list was tremendously publicly visible. And we're talking about Hillary Clinton. So as she started hitting the campaign trail in her push for the White House, Hillary Clinton made

considerable headlines related to UFOs in 2016. Hillary and her husband, former U.S. President Bill Clinton are very vocal about their interest in UFOs. And during one of her publicity stops, when she was asked about UFOs, she commented, quote, I think we may have been visited already. We don't know for sure, end quote. And who could forget her appearance on Jimmy Come Alive, where she stated, quote, I would like us to go into those files and hopefully make as much of that public as possible. If there's nothing there, let's tell the people there's nothing there, end quote. Then there was the moment on that show when she explained to Kimmel that, quote, Unidentified aerial phenomena, or UAP, is the modern nomenclature for UFOs. Bill Clinton's

chief of staff, John Podesta, was also Hillary's campaign chairman. This former counselor to President Obama is a strong advocate for government transparency when it comes to knowledge of UFOs and files related to UFO phenomena. When Podesta left the White House, House, he began working on Clinton's campaign, and he publicly voiced regret over not being able to get the government UFO files released to the public. While on the campaign trail in 2016, when asked about Podesta, Hillary stated, quote, he has made me personally pledge, we are going to get the information out, end quote. She continued, quote, one way or another, maybe we could have like a task force, go to area 51, end quote.

Of course, Podessa generated considerable UFO headlines of his own, including those related to WikiLeaks, publishing his hacked emails, and some of those emails contained communications with Tom DeLong about UFOs. But, yeah, Hillary certainly generated countless UFO-related headlines around that time. That was pretty fun. Also, another headline she generated, unless somehow I missed that you said that, is, you know, the photo came out of her walking around with Lawrence Rockafone. And she was holding a book that everyone freaked out over. And they were like, what is it? And it finally came to light that the book was Paul Davies, are we alone? People went through the roof with that because that meant she was actively talking about extracistrial life with Lawrence Rockefeller and walking around his estate.

That happened prior to this decade. But the big solving of what the book was came out. Yeah. And she kind of, again, paved the way for other politicians. politicians like Bernie Sanders, Andrew Yang, they both has said like on the campaign run, like, oh yeah, totally. I'll disclose any info on that. We all know, like, they all say that and nothing ever happens.

But it was cool to see other representatives saying stuff about like, yeah, totally, I'll look into the topic. So that's cool. Well, and God bless Jimmy Kimmel. You know, that's his thing. Every politician who comes on, every president, you know, he loves asking about UFOs. He's done that with GW. you. He did that with Obama. He did that with Bill Clinton. Well, he's openly stated he will always ask that question.

Oh, yeah. He said, I will always, to every presidential hopeful, that is my number one question. That's so honest. He always says that, too. He's all, if I were elected president, the first thing I do is run in and say, tell me about the UFOs. I love Jimmy Kimmel. Love it. Yeah. Yeah, love it. Yep. Put him as your right in vote, guys. All right. Next on the list, Maureen, what is next? So some of the most exciting things that have happened over the last decade are a continuance of commercial flights seeing UFOs, especially near the end of 2017 and the beginning of 2018. There were some really exciting incidents of commercial pilots and unidentified flying objects, and these were reports that generated headlines that went all over the world. An unidentified craft was seen on October 25th, 2017, in the sky near the border of California and Oregon.

This UFO was seen visually by several commercial pilots, and they worked with ground controllers in an attempt to identify it. This unidentified white craft was seen by several pilots flying over Oregon, and fighter jets were scrambled to intercept and identified the unknown craft, but they were unsuccessful in locating it. The FAA and NORAD confirmed the incident occurred. So we have official proof this is not a flighty event. The craft was large enough to be seen at a distance by commercial traffic, reportedly traveled at incredible speeds, and it had limited radar reflectivity and was capable of executing hygiene maneuvers. So nobody knows what this is.

And this was really crazy. They thought maybe it was a drug plane, but it wasn't. so it traveled and they can't find it. The fact that fighter jets are scrambled is really cool, and a similar incident occurred on the afternoon of February 24th in 2018, and when two commercial airliners independently spotted a UFO, this took place in southeastern Arizona, knew the near-Mexico border,

and the cruise aboard these planes communicated with the Albuquerque Center air traffic control, reporting their visual sighting as it took place. And the entire incident for this one lasted only about six minutes. So one of the most important things about these commercial sidings and why we get really excited about them is because, A, pilots are trained to look for aircraft in the sky, ground controls trained to follow craft. And obviously, you're supposed to have your flight path in. So when unknown objects are spotted by these, you also have mass witnesses and you have a lot of science at your disposal already in order to try and identify something. while it's still in the air. And I know with the Oregon, California, they were really worried, you know, that, like I said,

it was drug trafficker headed up to the Canadian border. But this white object just basically disappeared after all these people had seen it. And the fighter jets, I mean, fighter jets move at incredible speeds, but not fast enough. Yeah, fighter jets couldn't find it. They went up and they're all, hello? Yeah, that is crazy. And one of the coolest thing about both of these cases is, thanks to the incredible work of Tyler Rogaway, we have all of the FAA recording from the communication with all of these pilots, with FAA, with NORAD,

with the sort of follow-up after the event of them trying to piece together the puzzle to figure out what the hell happened. It's so fascinating to listen to just the process of them trying to deal with a UFO in the sky. and these both generated so many headlines, and this is another example of something reaching just the general public, you know, pop culture. I can't tell you how many times I was asked about these cases by people who aren't into UFOs. They would come to me and say, hey,

so what's the deal with the planes that were over Oregon? What's the deal with that? It was really cool. Yeah, I know the other one that made a lot of headlines too was the one in, was it Ireland? Ireland, yeah. commercial pilots. That one too had some audio. And you can tell, like, all these flight tower operators and even the pilots, like, they are really dumbfounded by what they're seeing. And they

use the term UFO many, many times, which used to be a huge stigma. You never said that word when you're up there. But it seems that that might be changing a little bit as these cases and these phenomena are plaguing more and more of our commercial pilots. Yeah, you would think to a the way the TTSA and its popularity and unidentified in those sorts of things that now and of course with Fox News and Tucker Carouslin and those that you know the media is warming up a little bit to this and feels a little bit safer to report and probably not to mention the competition from the likes of you know Tyler Rogaway and and those sorts of publications as well right and you look at like cases back the Japan Airlines case you know Tata Hoochie's like put on

death duty after reporting UFO. I don't see that happening anymore. I'm sure their careers are just fine after reporting these things because times have changed and these things are more and more common. Well, and yeah, good point, Ryan. And another thing I think, you know, we live in an era of CYA, right? So I think a lot of these flight controllers, these pilots, they don't want to be responsible if something happens. So to cover their asses, they're going to report it. All right. So we're getting into things that took place much more recently. So the next item on our list will likely be fresh in your mind. And, of course, we're talking about ATIP and TTSA.

So on Wednesday, October 11th, 2017, Transmedia Company to the Stars, hosted a live stream event during which founder Tom DeLong announced a new endeavor for the company, which was To the Stars Academy of Arts and Science. TTSA has been the source of countless global headlines since its launch, including the well-known New York Times story published on December 15, 2017, that revealed the Pentagon's contemporary UFO study known as the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program. Don't forget those three Navy UFO videos.

Modification to the Navy's UFO reporting policy, government partnerships related to testing exotic material, and a UFO TV show on the History Channel. All these things generated multiple stories by media outlets around the world, and all are a result of the work up to the Stars Academy. Pretty remarkable how much that is just monopolized, really the bulk of the UFO community and the things we talk about, but UFO-related headlines that have been generated. It is the face of ephology.

There's no way to get around it. We can thank Tom DeLong for giving the topic. I think it's just dues, but at the same time, It's like when you have this one narrative out there now, it's tough. It's tough to be the signal again amongst all the noise. Yeah, absolutely. And that's true, too, to an extent if you think about it, it's like we're kind of being blinded to a lot of other potential stories that are probably happening right now. And we're in the dark because the news is focusing all on this one segment.

So got to keep our ears open to the underground stuff happening. Yeah, almost four years. years now we're talking about the fucking Tic Tac. Like, come on, let's move on them. It'll happen. It'll happen. But, you know, I think it's going to take. And, you know, we in the community, the UFO community, like to do a lot of bitching and moaning about mainstream media. And, you know, them not giving the attention to UFOs that it deserves.

But at the same time, you know, time shift. And we get, you know, some people from the UFO community writing for mainstream publications. And they really control the power. I mean, we've all written for mainstream publications and know how the media works. And, you know, you really do have a lot of power on the stories that you choose to write. And we're seeing right now from many of the UFO researchers, people from the UFO community, who are writing for mainstream outlets are really choosing just to write stories about things related to TTSA, when there are so many other things happening.

And I have to give credit, and I do you have to point out, the big void that has been in UFO reporting since Lee Spiegel left the Huffington Post. Lee Spiegel would certainly cover the big stories, but he would also find other smaller unknown stories to talk about. He would also do true investigative journalism and use his sources and go after stories

and do updates on those stories and really dig in and pull out some really fascinating things going on. And I think the UFO community is really missing that right now, a true general journalist who digs in and approaches this topic like a journalist and doesn't just focus on what they see posted on Facebook and UFO groups. You know, there's a lot more to UFOs than what's trending right now among UFO people. We miss you, Lee. Yeah, I miss you Lee. But he'll be coming back with a storm. I mean, he's got his podcast right now.

That's cool. And, you know, he's got the great film with James Fox that we're going to get in 2020. Okay, I've been living under a rock. I did not know Lee had a podcast. Can you please drop information about that? Yes, we will certainly post a link to Lee's podcast for sure. One cool thing, though, about the whole Nimitz case and the TTSA. And I don't know if it's, you know, it's probably a combination of, like,

the case itself and the, but also the timing that, you know, I do worry, like you say, Ryan, too, is, you know, too much focus on the singular thing. And if it gets resolved, I mean, I've even thought of this, what if, what if it gets resolved in a way like it, it's identified? Like, let's just say it is some program. Will that just all the sudden, you know, de-legitimize everything that, everything else other than that you know do we go back to the whole thing we've been experiencing for 70 years or not I mean that is a little bit of worry but you know I also appreciate the the fact that you know we needed something different to happen you know we've been plugging away for you know these 70 years and not really getting anywhere and and things really are different because of this case and this

issue and maybe the way it came out and maybe it is a bit about TS. TTSA and ATIP and all those things. But, I mean, the fact is, it is, it is change things. And I think that's pretty cool and exciting. But I think you're right. We'll also have to be careful and watchful that it doesn't change things in a, in a negative way where we do disregard everything else that's happening. Because there's still a ton of stuff happens every single day. So I decided to put that in.

I think the burden falls on us. It does. You know, in the community. We have to step up, right? We can sit here and bitch and moan about it. You know, we all still talk about TTSA because it is important things that are happening. It is newsworthy and relevant and people should know about it. But we also have to do our work and highlight other things and not get caught up in this singular mindset and continue painting that picture that only one thing is happening.

I said it before and I applaud every effort. that anybody's doing. You know, I think TTSA is doing fantastic stuff. I wish them all the luck with everything they do. That's great. I'm glad they're doing it. I think SETI is great. People like to hate on SETI.

They're all, oh, what a waste of time, what a waste of money. Hey, I'm glad somebody's doing that. Somebody should be doing all the things all the time. And I'm glad when somebody steps up and wants to take this piece and work on that. Take this piece and focus on that. We need all these things going at the same time. And when you have somebody who steps up and wants to do part of that, I celebrate that. And I think that's wonderful.

We all have to do our part. It doesn't hurt us individually or as a whole with the UFO community if there's one group doing something that's getting more visibility than what we're doing. That's just pride that gets in the way. And that hurts research. Yep. We need competition. That's why there's a dunk of donuts across from Starbucks. Like we need to get this kick in the ass every now and again.

And Jason, I do have to add, like, above my desk right now, I'm not kidding you, I literally have, we need all the things all the time. Oh, that's amazing. I'll send you a phone. I love that, Ryan. Yeah, I think that's the mantra of this decade. Yes. All right. Well, let's move into the last thing on our list.

So, finally, we can't talk about the top 10 UFO-related stories of the decade without mentioning Storm Area 51. Storm Area 51 started as a joke by college student Maddie Roberts. He created a Facebook event on June 27th, 2019, titled Storm Area 51. They can't stop all of us. Roberts later acknowledged that he created the event as a joke after watching Area 51 whistleblower Bob Lazar and filmmaker Jeremy Corbell on the Joe Rogan experience. But still, millions of people said they were going to this event. the media went crazy with this story. The military and local authorities got freaked out

and local residents were pretty darn unhappy with the thought of millions of people descending on their properties in rural Nevada. The event quickly morphed into a festival which then morphed into multiple festivals. Then just a week before the event, Maddie Roberts pulled out of the event that he'd been planning with the Little Alien in Rachel Nevada

and did a different event. So, yeah, I sloped together something in downtown Las Vegas instead. Although the few thousand people who turned out for this event had fun at really what was a silly weekend, the whole debacle was publicly considered a flop. And many of the resulting headlines didn't sugarcoat it either. They were headlines like Storm Area 51 brings fewer alien enthusiasts than authorities expected. Area 51 storming to see aliens fails to materialize and Storm Area 51 Base Camp ends early due to low attendance.

Just a few of the headlines that painted the unfortunate picture. The pop culture effect of this thing is still being seen. We recently learned that, now I'm citing my sources here, guys, because I'm responsible. But we recently learned that Pornhub's 2019 year in review revealed that alien was the second most popular search term on the porn website for the year. Oh my God. Porn Hub also revealed that searches for the term Area 51 surged from zero to 160,000, just a few days after the Facebook event went viral.

And if you're not aroused by stats from a porn site, maybe Google will do it for you. According to Google's year in search 2019 data, Area 51 raid was the year's fourth biggest trending news story. And that's not all. What is Area 51 was the top what is question of the year on Google? And where is area 51 was the third most popular where is question of the year on Google? That's insane. just showing the impact that this silly little event had on the general public and on pop culture. It's unfortunate.

Yeah, it really is, Maureen. I was going to say the same thing. I mean, cool, fun. Like, I love sharing the memes and everything. But, like, imagine if something spread this much that, like, benefited anyone, anyone in the world. It's, like, sick and ailing people or poor people or the environment. Like, just imagine what kind of impact that could have. Instead, it was a stupid meme about Area 50.

It hurts me, but I guess this is a very good segue way to drop the point that we didn't say top 10 most credible UFO sightings of the last decade. These are more stories. It was a generated buzz, yeah. Right, generated buzz. And I think that's important to note because we're going to get people saying, what? How are you listing this top 10 listing? Yes. Plus, I had to throw that one in there because it gave me.

an excuse to cite porn hub. That's true. When else could we ever do that on a... I'm sure we'll do it again sometime, but it is a first for this show, citing porn stats. So again, it's pretty challenging to put together the list for a show like this because there are so many UFO-related stories making headlines every year. Trimming it down to the best stories is tough.

A few of the other stories we considered adding were the Baltic Sea UFO, If you remember that one, that generated a lot of headlines, primarily because this random thing that these treasure hunters found at the bottom of the ocean looked like the Millennium Falcon. So that generated its own headlines right there because of the Star Wars tie-in. There was also a great case with hundreds of UFOs along India's border in 2012. And that was an ongoing case that there were multiple updates as the case was being investigated by the government. and that went unsolved. It was a fascinating case to follow and one of my favorites, certainly the decade.

Then there were the MOD UFO files. The MOD claims they released all of their UFO files, and that was something to follow throughout multiple years as they gradually released batches of incredible UFO files from their UFO desk when they were collecting and investigating UFOs. So that was fascinating. Then there was Annie Jacobson. That was one that generated a lot of headlines, too.

with her book that came out about Area 51 and the infamous chapter about Roswell, where she claimed that the Roswell bodies that were recovered, allegedly recovered in Roswell, were those of mutilated children done by Joseph Mengela. So that generated quite a stir, created headlines, and got a lot of negative response from the UFO community, especially by one Stan Friedman who penned a nice rebuttal to her basically calling her crazy

Yeah, I guess we should mention too The passing of Stan Friedman being a big one this decade Yes, yeah Yeah, and maybe that's something that In future years I might do for a year reviews Talking about things that were big news For the UFO community, you know certain losses in the community, and we've certainly seen a lot of those.

We're seeing them more and more as time passes because a lot of, you know, the old researchers from the beginning of the modern UFO era are nearing their end. So, going to happen. Thanks again for hanging out with us today. I'm Jason McClellan. I'm Ryan Sperry. I'm Ryan Sprigg. And I'm Shane Hurd.

Do us a favor, friends. Always treat the UFO subject with the cautious and responsible skepticism it deserves. Question everything. Have the courage to form your own opinions. Keep truth as the focus of your quest, even if the truth conflicts with your opinions. And, of course, stay strange. And happy holidays. D-dun-da-da-d-d-d-d-d-do.

We did. Thank you, ma'am. Crisis. Mary Chrysler.