Bipartisan legislation sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) aimed to establish a process with the ostensible goal of revealing the existence of “non-human intelligence” to the public. But the legislation, which is co-sponsored by three Republican and two Democratic senators, is now in jeopardy.

In comments yesterday on the Senate floor, Schumer stated that “House Republicans are also attempting to kill another commonsense, bipartisan measure passed by the Senate, which I was proud to cosponsor… to increase transparency around what the government does and does not know about unidentified aerial phenomena.”

According to reports, Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, and Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, are leading efforts to prevent any meaningful version of this provision from being added to the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act.

Members of Congress generally clamor for enhanced government oversight — a core function of the legislative branch — and transparency. So what could cause a small group of influential lawmakers to suddenly resist it?

  • dudinax@programming.dev
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    1 year ago

    Gee, I wonder why chairs of the Intelligence and Armed Services committees would want to prevent the release of information about heretofore unrevealed aircraft?

    • YoBuckStopsHere@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Drone technology is insane right now and the United States fields a massive arsenal of hypersonic highly maneuverable spy drones. It’s easier to claim it is space aliens than explain just how far out in front the CIA drones are.

      • TransplantedSconie@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        That’s what I’m guessing.

        UFOs are a convenient method of distraction for the military and the flying killbots they’ve invented.

        • Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          They’ve used this playbook before:

          By August 1988, Bennewitz was accusing his wife of being in control of the extraterrestrials. After attempting to barricade himself in his home using sandbags, his family admitted him to the mental health unit of Presbyterian Anna Kaseman Hospital; He remained under observation there for one month.

          On July 1, 1989, William Moore claimed that he tried to push Bennewitz into a mental breakdown by feeding him false information about aliens. This was corroborated by a declassified CIA document that claims Moore and another officer of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, Richard Doty, are responsible for a disinformation campaign against Bennewitz.

    • UndefinedIsNotAFunction@programming.devOP
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      1 year ago

      The amendment makes a very clear distinction between things we create and things we don’t and only deals with the latter. So, those projects would not be lumped into what gets released to the public. I’d sure like to know why our government has spent millions upon millions on these things if they don’t exist. It’s our tax dollars paying for it!

      • Hegar@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        I’d sure like to know why our government has spent millions upon millions on these things if they don’t exist.

        To get a near-peer adversary to spend even more money on nonsense.

        UFOs definitely don’t exist. First time round we pretended otherwise to get the russians to waste time and money researching bunk.

        This time round it’s directed at the Chinese.

        • UndefinedIsNotAFunction@programming.devOP
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          1 year ago

          You’re right! Which is why there’s a prededentially appointed panel containing a national security official, foreign service official, sociologist, economist, a scientist or engineer, and professional historian to help make these determinations and whether the information is deemed safe to release. Many great minds to make the decision rather than a single individual.

          Edit: Assuming Schumer’s amendment passes that is.

    • DarkGamer@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      If that’s what these UAPs are, wouldn’t they want people to know they have it as deterrent? These things have been observed for a very long time.

      • dudinax@programming.dev
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        1 year ago

        Because they might not be deterrents or they might not be ready yet. When the B-2 was first flown it was not admitted to by the gov. and it looked like a flying saucer. Once it was ready for use, the gov. admitted to it.

    • SCB@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Until the DoD can account for the 2 trillion dollars they can’t account for this audit, I have 0 interest in entertaining the obstruction of these officials.

      That’s American taxpayer money and we don’t even get “classified aerospace research” as a line item

      • EatYouWell@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        They can account for it, but the government can’t just make all of their defense spending public knowledge.

        • loxo@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          They still don’t account for it, they just get free money from US tax payers. The DoD is getting free hand outs.