Retired UK Ministry of Defense official, Nick Pope said that 2023 has been an “amazing” year for UFO disclosure. “I mean we’ve had story after story, revelation after revelation,” Pope said in the opening half of the program. Beginning with the Chinese spy balloon saga, he explained, and the subsequent incidents of unidentified objects shot down over American airspace. While the first incident was undeniably a spy balloon based on the evidence provided, he noted that the government has been more tight-lipped about the incidents that followed. “What’s really interesting about the story is the three other shoot downs – Northern Alaska, Yukon, and Lake Huron – and we’ve heard much less about those.” He noted that while there are reportedly photos, the U.S. military has said that releasing those photos would disclose the capabilities of their systems. But Pope said he didn’t completely buy that story, in part, he explained, because “almost the next week they released that really close, crystal-clear imagery of the Russian jet trying to bring down the Reaper drone.”
Pope also spoke about the resignation of All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) head Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, whose office is in charge of investigating UAPs. Pope said while there was “debate about whether he jumped or he was pushed” from what he gathered Dr. Kirkpatrick had reportedly “lost the confidence of those whistleblowers” who were disclosing information on UAPs. He said this was in part because of comments Kirkpatrick made about whistleblower David Grusch, and his failed attempts to have a conversation with Grusch, that some have interpreted as disparaging. Pope also discussed the possibility of the U.K. following suit and joining the U.S. in disclosing more information, and his belief that rather than one dramatic revelation, disclosure would take the form of small bits of information that the government will be forced to disclose at various points even if they don’t wish to. “This is an events led phenomenon, and it’s not necessarily within the government’s purview to say how this will unfold,” Pope said. “There are other forces at work here.”
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In the second half, paranormal historian and author Courtney McInvale spoke about haunted history as it relates to battlefields and locations associated with the American Revolutionary War and Civil War. She explained how her experiences with a historian father, her own family heritage in the Civil War, and growing up in a haunted New England home that was once investigated by the famed Ed and Lorraine Warren combined to help build her interest in battlefield ghosts.
She described how she used research skills, including skills she gained during her time researching cold cases for the FBI, to scour old newspaper archives and other historical records, such as the family histories of soldiers, to trace their stories. She started with historical ghost tours, she explained, but quickly realized she had enough information to fill several books. “As I was putting the tour together, I immediately started writing Haunted Mystic (about Mystic, Connecticut) and putting the information of the town in book format as well as tour format,” McInvale said. She related stories of seeing people in the background when conducting tours who then weren’t there when security investigated, as well as odd noises heard in person, and on audio recordings. She also shared some of the stories she has heard about individuals who have seen people who they take to be reenactors, in period dress, when no reenactors were actually present, before taking calls, answering questions, and hearing similar stories of phantom soldiers from listeners.
News Segment Guests: Howard Bloom / Michael Shedlock