Former Director of National Intelligence, John Ratcliffe, speaks out

John Ratcliffe

John Ratcliffe was the United States Director of National Intelligence, between May 2020 and 20 January 2021, under the Trump administration. On 19 March 2021, he was interviewed by Maria Bartiromo, on FOX News Primetime. The following is a transcript of that segment, prepared by myself from a full length version, kindly supplied by Giuliano Marinkovic. This version is longer than the version being circulated on such social media sites as Twitter. 

Transcript

MB - Joining me right now, is the former Director of National Intelligence, John Ratcliffe. John it is great to see you tonight. Thank you such much for being here.

JR - You bet, Maria.

MB - John, you have seen, in your role, the most intelligence that anybody has seen other than the President, as the Director of National Intelligence. I have been wanting to ask you this next question for a while. I want to ask you about UFOs - Unidentified Flying Objects. The Pentagon is going to come out with a report by June 1st, and in the $2.3 trillion dollar omnibus appropriations legislation passed in January, it includes the Intelligence Authorization Act; money for the Pentagon to continue investigating UFOs. John, we are going to get this report June 1st, Can you tell us, have Unidentified Flying Objects been seen?

JR - Well sure. We have lots of reports about what we call Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon and this actually is a program that's been in place for a few years in terms of a task force that has been there under the National Defense Authorization Act, but as you correctly point out Maria, there's now a report that will be issued by the Pentagon, by the Secretary of Defense and the Director of National Intelligence. (KB - See comment 1 below.)

I actually wanted to get this information out and declassified (comment 2) before I left office, but we weren't able to get it down into an unclassified format that we could talk about quickly enough, but frankly there are a lot more sightings than have been made public. (comment 3.)

Some of those have been declassified. When we talk about sightings we're talking about objects that have been seen by Navy or Air Force pilots, or have been picked up by satellite imagery (comment 4) that, frankly, engage in actions that are difficult to explain; movements that are hard to replicate, that we don't have the technology for, or traveling at speeds that you know exceed the sound barrier without a sonic boom.

So, in short, things that we are observing that are difficult to explain. And so, you know, there's actually quite a few of those, and I think that that information is being gathered and will be put out in a way that the American people can see.

We always, when we see these things, Maria, we always look for a plausible explanation. Weather can cause disturbances - visual disturbances. Sometimes, we wonder whether or not our adversaries have technologies that are a little bit further down the road than we thought, or that we realized, but there are instances where we don't have good explanations for some of the things that we've seen. And, you know, when that information becomes declassified I'll be able to talk a little bit more about that.

MB - Can you tell us where it was seen?

JR - Actually all over the world. There have been sightings all over the world, and when we talk about sightings, the other thing I will tell you is, it's not just a pilot, or just a satellite or some intelligence collection. Usually we have multiple sensors that are picking up these things (comment 5.) And so, again, some of, they are, just, they're unexplained phenomenon and there's actually quite a few more than has been made public.

I think it will be healthy for as much of this information to get out as possible, so that the American people can see some of the things we have been dealing with.

MB - OK. Wow, that is pretty extraordinary. We so appreciate that, that you're talking to us about this. Can this year get any weirder. Pandemic, shutdown, UFOs. John Ratcliffe it's great to see you. Thank you so much ...

Comments

1. The report will be submitted by the Director of National Intelligence. Thus, Ratcliffe, had he still been in office would have been the individual submitting the report. As he was the DNI between May 2020 and 20 January 2021, you can reasonable state that he would have been briefed on the subject of UAP. The new Director of National Intelligence, under the Biden administration is Avril Haines.

2. "declassified before I left office..." This implies that some, if not all, of this information is currently/was previously, classified. Please take a look at my previous blog post where I discussed security classifications levels of UAP information. 

3. "lot more sightings than have been made public" Most of us would have believed this statement to be true, even before Ratcliffe made it.

4. "or have been picked up by satellite imagery" A very interesting statement indeed. There have long been accounts given of such satellite detected UAP. As long ago as 1988, researcher Jacques Vallee (Forbidden Science: Volume 3) in a diary entry dated 28 June 1988, speaking about Hal Puthoff, wrote:

"Hal has seen a 2-inch thick file that details UFO observations by infra-red satellites: 'The objects arrive 3,000 miles above the Earth,' he told me. 'The satellites pick them up as they come near the surface and going away the same manner as they came in. Their infra-red signature shows a level of energy 15 times that of an aircraft carrier. But the data is so tightly classified nobody wants to talk about it.' "

5. "Usually we have multiple sensors that are picking up these things." Again, a confirmation of rumors or stories of which we are all aware.

What security classification level does the U.S. Department of Defense assign to information about UAP?

Christian Lambright

Blog readers may recall, that back in 2019 U.S. researcher Christian Lambright submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) for documents relating to the November 2004 U.S.S. Nimitz incidents. Later that year, Christian received a final response from ONI, which in part read:

"We have discovered certain briefing slides that are classified TOP SECRET...We have also determined that ONI possesses a video classified SECRET that ONI is not the Original Classification Authority for. ONI has forwarded your request to Naval Air Systems Command to make a determination on releasability..."

So, at least in relation to the 2004 Nimitz incidents, certain briefing slides are classified TOP SECRET and one video is SECRET. Below are images of part of the ONI response letter. 

Unclassified

On 27 April 2020, the DoD released copies of three declassified videos, namely FLIR, Gimbal and Go Fast. The official DoD release, in part, read:

"The Department of Defense has authorized the release of three unclassified Navy videos, one taken in November 2004 and the other two in January 2015. The released videos can be found at the Naval Air Systems Command FOIA Reading Room."

Note 

In order to release these three videos the DoD would have looked at their previous security classification system and declassified them, to "unclassified." Note that the OCA is Naval Air Systems Command, the same location in the Navy specified in the 2019 ONI statement, where it stated that it had located a video classified SECRET relating to the U.S.S. Nimitiz 2004 incident. Could it be that this SECRET video is in fact one of either FLIR, Gimbal or Go Fast? Or is it yet another Navy video? We just don't know. 

Marc Cecotti's research 

In a 13 March 2021 blog post, French researcher Marc Cecotti revealed details of internal U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) emails concerning Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests about UAP.

In one email, dated 10 July 2020, from Joseph Gradisher, N2N6 Strategic Engagements U.S. Navy; to Jeffrey Jones COMNAVSAFECEN, Deputy Director for Safety Priorities; part of the email read:

"Additionally, there is now a Security Classification Guidance document (at the SECRET) level, that addresses the UAP issue and what may/may not be discussed publicly."

What is a Security Classification Guidance document?

On the Internet I located a PDF document titled "Security Classification Guidance, Student Guide" a course designed for this who need to write/know about these guides. I will cite relevant portions of this document.

"When an Original Classification Authority or OCA, determines that information must be classified, he or she must also develop security classification guidance to communicate that determination to others."

"Develop clear and precise security classification guidance is critical because it ensures that all users of the information treat it consistently and protect it properly."

"Security classification guidance is any instruction or source that sets out the classification of a system, plan, program, mission or project."

Documents you can read 

The U.S. DoD has DoD Instruction 5200.01"DoD Information Security Program and Protection of Sensitive Compartmented Information" or SCI which establishes the general framework and responsibilities for DoD implementers of national policy a on classified national security information.

DoD manual 5200.01 Volumes one through three "DoD Information Security Program" is authorized from the above instruction.

DoD Manual 5200.45 "Instructions for Developing Security Classification Guides" provides detailed information on how to develop Security Classification guidance.

Back to the student guide

"The original classification decision is communicated through a Security Classification Guide or SCG. The SCG covers the specific item requiring classification, the classification level assigned, reason for classification and declassification instructions."

Speaking about SCG's it goes on to say that:

"To maximize usability for the greatest number of individuals, the guide should be unclassified...For some programs, however, they may need to be classified..."

Note

Gradisher's email dated 10 July 2020 to Jeffrey Jones states "...there is now a Security Classification Guidance document (at the SECRET) level..." Thus it would appear that this particular SCG is not unclassified, and is in fact classified at the SECRET level.

The Black Vault

In an article on The Black Vault dated, 13 March 2021,  about this UAP SCG,  John Greenewald wrote:

"The other great revelation with the email is the admission that a "Security Classification Guide" or SCG exists for the UAP topic. On a hunch, The Black Vault filed for this very document back in January 2021, and requests for the SCG remain open to both the Navy and OSD."

I am aware of at least one other, non-American, researcher who has submitted an FOIA request for this SCG.

We await the results of the FOIA requests for a copy of the DoD SCG which relates to UAP. 

Update: 24 December 2021

Yesterday, John Greenewald advised that he had received a copy of the CSG. Click here for details.

Jack Sarfatti - his ideas about the Tic Tac came from "a phone call from an alien"

 

For some time now, U.S. physicist Jack Sarfatti has been speaking out about his thoughts on the 2004 USS Nimitz encounters, with what has come to be known as the "Tic Tac" UAP. In short Sarfatti postulates that there is:

 "...evidence of extremely low power warp drive with time-travel-to-past capability in a meta-material fuselage controlled by a conscious AI post-quantum computer."

Who is Jack Sarfatti?

According to his LinkedIn page, Sarfatti was born 14 September 1939.  He received a BA in Physics from Cornell University (1956-1960); an M. S.  in Physics from University of California, San Diego (1965-1968); and a PhD in theoretical and mathematical physics from the University of California, Riverside (1968-1969.)

Career wise, the LinkedIn account tells us:

* Sep 1967 - Jun 1973, Assistant Professor of Physics, San Diego State

* Sep 1971 - Nov 1987, US Navy PACE -Instructor - teaching math to young sailors and marines onboard fighting ships at sea

* Jan 1980 - Dec 1986. Science advisor to Lawry Chickering Institute for Contemporary Studies - ISB. Helped formulate the Strategic Defense Initiative behind the scenes for Paul Nitze, Cap Weinberger and POTUS

* Jan 1996 - Present, CEO Sarfatti Group/ Internet Science Education Project.

His academic work

He has published numerous scientific articles, particularly in the areas of consciousness; quantum physics and astronomy. A sample of his work includes:

* "Toward a unified field theory of gravitation and strong interactions" Foundations of Physics, Vol. 5, 301-307. 1975

* "The Physical Roots of Consciousness" in Mishlove, J. "The Roots of Consciousness." Random House, 1975

* "Can the electroweak unified force be used to neutralize nuclear weapons?" Defense Analysis, Vol. 2 Issue 1. pp49-51. 1986

* "Dark Energy and Dark Matter from the same Vacuum condensate"  APS April Meeting 2003, B9. 012, 2003

* "Retro-Causal Holographic Dark Energy Coherent Vacuum Super-Solid Tetrad Emergent Gravity"  Cal Tech APS 10/30/10

* "Bohm Pilot Wave Post Quantum Theory" Retro causality workshop, The Embassy, 2017

Sarfatti has also published a number of books, including:

 * 1974 "Space Time and Beyond" by Bob Tober, in conversation with physicists Jack Sarfatti and Fred Alan Wolf.

* 2002. "Space Time and beyond 11"

* 2002. "Destiny Matrix"

* 2005 "Super Cosmos"

* 2020 "Sarfatti Lectures in Physics Volume One: The Principles of Metric Engineering Low Energy Low Speed Warp Drive"

Image courtesy Amazon Books

His personal website, features information on physics, cosmology, advanced propulsion, meta materials, quantum computing; a section headed "UFO sightings map;" and a weird desk area which provides information about Bigfoot, UFOs, sea monsters etc. His own blog includes pieces on a wide range of subjects including Robert Bigelow; quantum gravity, interviews with Luis Elizondo; much about UAP physics and his own theories;  

Where do his views originate?

I took a look back in the diaries of Jacques Vallee for the early history of where Sarfatti's ideas originated. There was an interesting diary entry in "Forbidden Science: Volume Three" (pp98-99) dated 27 July 1982:

"Walking through North Beach I passed Cafe Trieste where Jack Sarfatti was engaged in some passionate argument. He saw me and ran to catch me. So we ended up at Cafe Puccini, where I ordered a prosciutto sandwich and a cup of coffee , and listened to his theories.

Sarfatti's ideas are full of color, short on proofs. he 'confided' to me, as he does to everyone within earshot, that people close to Reagan, Meese and Caspar Weinberger support him; he hints he is close to Bechtel.

The wife of the American ambassador in Paris keeps calling him at Cafe Trieste and political pundit Bill Buckley listens to him. It is impossible to separate the real from the imaginary in all this.

Jack's life is a tapestry of stunning coincidences and romantic episodes. It is undeniable that he was a child prodigy. In 1953, age 15 (we are the same age) he was sitting in the Brooklyn library reading a math book on switching functions when he received a phone call from a mechanical voice that plunged him into a quasi hypnotic state. He only remembers one phone call but his mother states there was a series of them, always from the same bizarre voice.

The phone calls changed his life, he said. They led him to theorize about the energy of the vacuum and faster-than-light propulsion . He cites all the right authors, such as Coxeter, whose works I recently read. And he is certainly right when he says Einstein's theory is only a special case of a wider physics."

There are several other Vallee diary entries which speak of Sarfatti. In anotherr one, dated 22 September 1997, when alluding to the National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS) Vallee writes:

"You chaps are obviously part of the Others predicted to me in 1952 by a sort of conscious computer and spacecraft from the future that we will now attempt to build."

FATE magazine article 

In an April 2006 article by Preston Dennett, in "FATE" magazine we learn:

"In 1952 and 1953, when I was about 12 or 13 years old, I received a phone call...in which a mechanical sounding voice said it was a computer on board a flying saucer. They wanted to teach me something and would I be willing? This was my free choice. Would I be willing to be taught - to communicate with them? I remember a shiver going up my spine, because i said, 'Hey man, this is real.' Of course, I was a kid...but I said yes."

Sarfatti was impressed. he ran and got his friends, and they gathered together in his bedroom, awaiting the upcoming promised contact. Unfortunately, nothing occurred, and Sarfatti assumed at first that it was just a clever practical joke.

At this point, his memory of the event strangely ends. But according to Sarfatti's mother, the first phone call was followed by a series of similar phone calls - each giving Sarftatti information that would leave him forever changed. Says Sarfatti, 'My mother remembers this experience very well. It turns out that I had forgotten most of it. This was really something that occurred over several weeks..."

Here is another take on this series of phone calls:

"I was reading a book on computer switching circuits at home when the phone rang. I answered it and heard a strange sequence of clunking mechanical sounds. Then a metallic sounding voice comes on the line. A cold mechanical voice is the only way I can describe it. It gives a long series of numbers that I did not understand and then calls me 'Jack' and says it's a 'conscious computer onboard a spacecraft.' It may have said it was from the future, but I am not sure. However, that was the implication of what it said. Anyway, it says I've been selected to be one of '400 young receptive minds' to be part of a special project but that I must make the choice myself. The voice on the phone told me that I would begin to meet the others I was to work with in twenty years. I was scared and everything in me screamed to say NO! and hang up. I felt a strong jolt of electricity go up my spine to the base of my skull and I heard myself say YES. I was terrified and fascinated. The voice said 'Good, go out on your fire escape and we will send a ship to pick you up in ten minutes.' When I hung up I ran like a bat out of hell and found my friend Winky, who is now a homicide detective in Brooklyn. We, and a few other kids, went back to my apartment to wait for the flying saucer but it never came."

This then, was the beginning of Sarfatti's introduction to the topic.