Late last year, several simultaneous events took place in Paris involving unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP), including a filmed panel interview on ANews Security Web TV and the 3AF Sigma 2 technical committee conference.
While internationally renowned experts were in attendance there, the highlight of the first weekend of November was undoubtedly the Echo Event conference, held at the prestigious Sorbonne University.
After a short introduction by organizer Sarah Whiteneim and podcaster Vinnie Adams of the Disclosure Team, the first speaker appeared: former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Christopher Mellon.
Mellon became famous for releasing 3 videos of UAP to The New York Times and The Washington Post. In 2020, the Defense Department confirmed that they indeed showed legitimate unidentified objects.
Mr. Mellon began by quoting a NASA commentary describing UAP as one of the greatest mysteries of our time. He then hailed the progress made over the past five years, noting that in 2017, it was impossible to talk about the subject of UFOs, touting our contemporary era, where government agencies are finally getting to grips with the subject. According to Mellon, though, many questions remain unanswered:
- Where are these things coming from?
- What is their agenda?
- Is it possible some of those are some kind of probe or manifestation of alien intelligence?
He went on to recount the recent history of the AAWSAP and AATIP programs to study UAP, and his meeting with counter-intelligence officer Lue Elizondo. He then explained what prompted him to take the plunge and speak publicly about the national security problem posed by UAP: the memory of the Pearl Harbor attack, but even more importantly, that of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. At the time, Mellon recalls, the intelligence agencies had refused to collaborate, leading to the catastrophe. He recounted how he used unclassified Department of Defense videos showing these objects to “break the ice.”
But that wasn’t enough. Mellon recounted how he organized meetings between pilots and the Armed Services and Intelligence Committees of the US Congress. He pointed out, however, that he was not the first to do so and that there is a long tradition of US government officials trying to bring this issue to the attention of regulatory bodies.
He then explained the likelihood of other life existing in our galactic environment, the probability of it coming to Earth, the possible existence of credible evidence of such events, and the impact of possible contact.
Mellon then mentioned the various scientific studies showing the possibility of the appearance of life, the detection of amino acids on asteroids, and the number of habitable planets in the galaxy. He went on to list the current theories for rapid travel through the galaxy via Alcubierre propulsion or the use of wormholes. As for the absence of signals emitted from space, he explained that this is due to various technical, temporal, and semantic constraints.
Conversely, he explained how the Starshot Initiative, led by a single investor, would make it possible to send a human probe to Alpha Centauri. In this way, a civilization that appeared millions of years before our own would have had time to explore a large part of the galaxy, which could explain the presence of UAP close to Earth.
According to Mellon, only 10% of UAP sightings are reported to the authorities. Thus, millions of sightings could have taken place.
He then pointed out the temporal coincidence between Enrico Fermi’s statements exclaiming, “Where the hell is everybody?” and the concerns of security officials in his own laboratory about reports of UAP sightings. Christopher Mellon then showed a memo to Air Force security chiefs in Washington, D.C., indicating that the frequency of UAP sightings was such that action had to be taken.
Mellon went on to talk about the Nimitz case, the best in his opinion, as it boasts the largest number of corroborating testimonies, including that of Chad Underwood, author of the famous “Tic-Tac” video shot from his fighter.
He then provided a list of aeronautical capabilities that can be demonstrated by UAP:
- intelligent movement
- absence of supersonic and plasma bangs
- resistance to G-forces
- instantaneous acceleration
For him, these were not advanced American devices, stating: “We know what we have,” and there is no reason to believe that they were Russian or Chinese.
He went on to talk about the official reports issued by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. He praised the constant support of members of Congress who have not hesitated to put their reputations at risk in order to obtain information from the Department of Defense.
Mellon then discussed the Hampton Triangle case, which is symptomatic of the phenomenon of black triangle sightings throughout history, going well beyond the development of the F117 and B2, two aircraft based on the flying wing design often blamed for these sightings.
He then talked about waves of anomalous drones seen over strategic areas and a reduction in the size of the objects seen as time passes.
Mellon then turned to David Grusch’s recent revelations and his public House hearing. For him, the whistle-blower’s testimony concerning the presence of an illegal UAP recovery program is credible. He even stated that other sources in the US government have reported the same information to him. However, he doesn’t believe that the White House is sharing information on the subject voluntarily.
On the contrary, he believes that the only way to shed light on this subject would be for Congress to conduct an investigation similar to the CONTRA scandal, outside the control of the executive branch.
He explained that this subject would also be an opportunity to limit tensions on the planet, referring to President Ronald Reagan’s famous quote on the subject.
“I occasionally think how quickly our differences worldwide would vanish if we were facing an alien threat from outside this world. And yet, I ask you, is not an alien force already among us?” Regan famously said.
He pointed out, however, that a shock may be necessary to get over the hump but insists that there are no hostile contacts or imminent dangers from UAP.
Christopher Mellon then referred to research into the physical effects suffered by witnesses in the vicinity of objects, carried out by 3AF’s Sigma 2 committee at a conference held the previous day, which The Debrief was able to attend.
He then opened a page in the history of science, recalling how flight was ridiculed at its inception while humanity went from flying to landing on the moon in less than a century.
He then explained how the Air Force uses a shuttle-like craft capable of going into space, sometimes mistaken for a UFO.
He closed his presentation by recalling the strong probability that other civilizations on other worlds may have developed and had ample time to arrive on Earth.
Speaking with the Debrief after his presentation, Christopher Mellon declared that the 3 videos used in 2017 were indeed “totally unclassified”. Asked about the existence of other similar unclassified material, but crisp and filmed in natural light, and whether it could be released to the public, he replied:
“It could be released, but I don’t think so, and part of the issue is that IR cameras, targeting cameras are not optical quality videos, and the second thing I would say is that there seems to be a field around these objects, an effect, you often will see like an almost halo or something around them, that also makes it harder to get a clear picture, right there you can see it in infrared. I don’t think that there is, really, any clear picture that they are in a position to release”.
On the ANews set, responding to a comment from The Debrief, Mellon said regarding David Grusch’s statements:
“There are senators who have said – including Senator Gillibrand, if this is true, they support transparency, release, so the world knows that this is true, let the American people know that this is true. Having said all that, I would say, ‘Don’t hold your breath.’ And the reason I would say that is, imagine that you are the president, and you are brought this issue. Who wants to hold a Press Conference and say yes, there are aliens here, but I don’t know where they came from, and I can’t protect you, and I don’t know what they are doing and what they are capable of? That’s a very hard press conference, and no politicians that I’ve ever met is gonna likely be inclined to do that. The denials that you hear right now are going to continue from the executive branch.”
“I don’t think that this issue is going to be resolved in the near future in terms of the truth of this coming out. We need to proceed with everything else that we can do in terms of supporting science and supporting research,” he added.
Luc Dini
Luc Dini, chairman of the Sigma 2 technical committee of France’s aeronautical and astronautical association, opened his presentation by explaining that there is a real need to record more and better data. He went on to show the work in progress on the study of UAP carried out by Sigma, and presented at the previous day’s conference at the 3AF premises. He recalled that as early as 1954, the French Air Force received ministerial directives to collect information on UAP, which it did for decades, with recorded radar traces. Luc Dini went on to explain that the presence of UAP over French territory was confirmed by Defense Minister Robert Galley in 1974.
He then reviewed the various official groups around the world that exist publicly and compared the shape of reported UAP with conventional objects in existence today. However, he pointed out that some aeronautical capabilities of these UAPs, capable of instantaneous turns, without changing speed and without a curved trajectory, exceed all current technological capabilities. He then showed photographs taken by the French military police showing UFOs, and reliable sighting reports from them.
He then explained how to interpret infrared images used by defense systems that show anomalies and can mislead opinions untrained in these technologies. From these data elements, however, he shows that an optical signature can be derived. He then showed cases of ball lightning and their own signature, enabling them to be differentiated from aeronautical objects or anomalies.
Continuing on the subject of UAP signatures, Luc Dini discussed ground traces, as well as physiological effects on the bodies of witnesses, as mentioned earlier by Christopher Mellon. He then showed a list of effects on the human body. Indeed, some witnesses seem to have been exposed to microwave radiation.
Jacques Vallée
Dr. Jacques Vallée began his presentation by praising the organization of the conference itself at the Sorbonne University – where he himself had been a student. He pointed out that this institution’s openness to the subject was a sign of the diminishing taboo on the subject of UFOs:
“We’re at an exceptional point. I don’t need to tell you that five years ago, a meeting like this at the Sorbonne would have been impossible. A lot has changed recently.”
He went on to describe the gradual opening up of institutions to the subject and then of his own research. He recounted a discussion with a former U.S. Army officer in charge of surveillance of the U.S. North Coast during the Second World War. The officer explained that while scientists were happy to explain 98% of sighting reports, it was the unexplained 2% that were really interesting. Indeed, in his field, if ever 2% of reports were unexplained, it would be strategically dramatic. He then quoted him:
“The 98% that can be explained have probably been supplied to me by the enemy, free of charge, but the remaining two percent can kill me, and their detection is going to cost a lot more.”
Jacques Vallée added that this is a lesson he has never forgotten, especially in view of recent official reports stating that the vast majority of incidents were explained. According to Vallée, what’s important is what’s unexplained.
He went on to state that, thanks to the development of new means of detection over the last ten years, UAP sightings can no longer be dismissed or quickly explained away as “optical illusions, errors or hallucinations” as was once the case.
In the rest of his presentation, he showed an analysis model coupling the level of strangeness and the number of reports. The number of reports decreases from category 4 onwards when an object lands close to the witnesses. The effect increases further in category 5, where creatures are sighted. In most cases, however, witnesses refuse to report the sighting to government agencies.
In the strangest categories 6 and 7, witnesses are even less willing to talk about it for fear of ridicule – for example, in cases of abduction. Speaking of a witness whose life had been turned upside down by such an event, Dr. Vallée said:
“My advice in such cases is: don’t get hypnotized by just anyone. If this hypnosis is badly done, all the hypnoses, perhaps professional ones, which you’ll do later, will come back to the first hypnosis.
On the other hand, there are other psychological methods I’ve come to know… To refer these witnesses to specialists who can use much more convincing and much more effective methods than hypnosis.”
He went on to declare that it is these testimonies that will form the future of his research.
Regarding the outcome of his analysis, he considered: “Current methods of analysis are insufficient, even blind, in the face of a majority of reports, which themselves derive from an unknown number of observations by the global public.” Dr. Vallée puts this down to the large number of unreported cases due to religious or spiritual frameworks explaining the phenomenon in a way other than a technological or exotic way.
As far as investigations by military authorities are concerned, Vallée said they are only competent in a minority of cases. In this regard, he claimed to have had access to a memorandum from aerospace company Raytheon, the army contractor that manufactured the infrared cameras used to film the 3 UAP videos released in 2017. In this memo, the company absolves itself of any interpretation of the images, stating that the function of these cameras is to detect the nozzles of a target aircraft, not to film unconventional craft. Jacques Vallée insisted that this type of report is vital for research, as they are highly technical and precise on the capabilities of the tools recording UAP.
However, to treat these objects as enemies simply because they can’t be intercepted would, in his view, be dangerous. It would lead to the subject being treated summarily and excessively under pressure from the public. This would lead to a political response to the problem when they are poorly informed on the subject.
In conclusion, he explained: “The future of the study of the phenomenon will depend on a balance of power between an American Congress that wants to know the truth and the major companies specializing in military devices and space, whose silence can be interpreted in two different ways: either as an admission of failure – rumors claim that certain analyses of recovered objects have been abandoned; or, on the contrary, as a desire to exploit the information in real cases to launch the next generations of transmedia, or even antigravitational craft.”
“The real danger lies in the absence of broader, more accessible and more fundamental research, aimed as much at biology as at physical performance.”
“Beyond the normal protection of certain secret experiments, it’s time for the major countries to open up the files more widely to the global scientific community.”
Asked by The Debrief about the blockages preventing the development of large-scale scientific studies, Jacques Vallée responded, “There are several; there’s a main blockage, from any government, of not triggering a movement of opinion – religious if need be, for example.”
“That’s uncontrollable from a scientific point of view. My answer to this is that [is] if the revelation had been made in the 70s, it would have interested mainly scientists; if it had been made in the 90s, it would have interested politicians; if it were made now, indeed, the danger would be greater. There are conflicting interpretations in society because there is so much frustration from the public’s point of view, which governments are not aware of. From that point of view, I think the revelation is going to be more difficult, especially as when it adopts something, the government does it in a hurry because it’s a political imbroglio: either you want to get the credit for being the man who’s going to liberate such and such, or on the contrary be someone who’s going to limit access. So it becomes very difficult. Whereas, if it had been done by scientists – for example, scientists can reveal that there may be another universe next to ours; it’s a major revelation, but it doesn’t affect people in everyday life, so it’s not a problem – and if UFOs had been revealed in this way, at the beginning, everything would have gone well. Of course, there would have been controversy. Controversy is normal in science. A revelation today poses problems.”
The list of experts who spoke at these three events is too long to mention here but includes Harvard Professor of Astronomy Dr. Avi Loeb, former DGSE Director of Foreign Intelligence Alain Juillet, Research Engineer and Doctor of Physics Philippe Guillemant, Fighter Pilot and Flight Safety Officer Jack Krine and former Director of the Centre National d’Etude Spatial Paul Bescond.
Such an avalanche of personalities from the scientific world no longer hesitating to lend their faces to this subject is bound to leave a mark. What’s more, barely two weeks later, the inaugural conference of the SOL Foundation was held–another gathering of researchers around the same theme, at another prestigious university–Stanford. A sign of the times?
Baptiste Friscourt is a certified visual arts instructor based in France. You can follow his work online via Sentinel News: https://sentinelnews.substack.com/