In the past ten years or so, the UFO phenomenon has moved out of the realm of science fiction.  News stories now involve government admissions of actual cases.

As we evaluate those cases, we begin by making entirely plausible conclusions from ordinary evidence.  Then we gradually progress into somewhat uncertain areas, then by degrees into precarious speculation, and finally into the seemingly preposterous.  Weirdly, it is difficult to find the exact line that divides the plausible from the preposterous.  Where is that line?  Could it possibly be — possibly — that the preposterous conclusions are more accurate than we would like them to be?  Or are they impossible?

Let's start with the more believable elements of the UFO story and proceed in steps to the less believable, even the unbelievable, and try to find where accepted theory finally abandons reality — if it does.

It is widely accepted that the universe is large enough that there are possibly — even probably, almost certainly — advanced alien civilizations somewhere in the cosmos.  This is an entirely reasonable hypothesis — so much so that most scientists shrug their shoulders at its normalcy.  The general public seems to accept the idea as fact.  We do not panic at the thought.

Our departure from plausibility enters its next gradual step when we hear news reports of UFO sightings.  For decades, expert witnesses, including pilots and radar operators, have risked their careers and reputations by offering eyewitness testimony about what they saw.  In any given particular case, however, at least a little doubt can creep in.  What was that shiny light in the sky?  Was it an optical illusion?  Or was it really a spaceship from Mars?  We need more data.

There the matter stood for about fifty years, and everybody had a theory.  It was just swamp gas.  It was aliens.  It was an ordinary airplane.

Then came the release, by the government, of actual video evidence, and eyewitness testimony, from the USS Nimitz, USS Princeton, and USS Roosevelt.  The videos and testimony, both ship-board and from aircraft, are strong evidence that something unknown is in our skies.  What are they?  These incidents force us to make one or more of some very uncomfortable conclusions: something is very wrong with our surveillance capabilities, and with our pilots' observational skills, or else, they really did detect something of an extraordinary nature — extraordinary but unexplained.

Once again, we've reached a standstill.  The government promised to "study the matter."  Well, we've all heard that before.  It means, we'll get back to you, sometime, in the future, maybe.  Okay, never.

Enter a growing number of "whistleblowers," credible witnesses, government employees, who are using provisions in legislation to protect themselves from retaliation — retaliation for releasing classified information to members of Congress — members who legally have access to that information but have not been given it.

It is here that the reports get really murky.  Congress has constitutional responsibility to oversee government agencies, including secret agencies, to ensure that they are serving the Republic and not abusing it.  The problem is that those agencies will not voluntarily disclose anything that could embarrass them, or worse yet, incriminate them.  Heck, the FBI even refuses to disclose unclassified information about White House corruption, despite that the law requires its release.

Secrecy about UFOs, unwarranted at best, illegal at worst, has led to the truly unbelievable aspects of the UFO phenomenon.  Some have alleged that some of the secret, compartmentalized agencies of the government have closed themselves off from any scrutiny.  A term for that is "going rogue."  We can be reasonably sure that this does in fact happen.  The question is one of degree.  How bad is the situation?  How can we prove any one instance of it?

Some are alleging that the degree is unconstitutional, even criminal, and worse than all that, an actual attempt at usurpation (overthrow) of governmental authority. Could it really be that bad?

Senator Daniel Inouye (1924–2012), Medal of Honor recipient, actually alleged that there is a "shadowy government" that sometimes overrides the official, constitutional government of the United States.  This shadow government, according to others, is able to obtain crashed UFOs, secretly analyze them, and reverse-engineer flying prototypes that are sometimes reported as UFOs.

From there, the allegations get ever more bizarre, including reports of emissaries from other planets.

It seems utterly preposterous to think that this could really happen, and more preposterous yet that it could happen without leaks.  Unless, of course, the leaks are finally getting underway.

Stay tuned. 

Photo credit: YouTube screen grab.