02.17.20. The Real X-Files: Inside the Government's UFO Program

<p>On this special edition of <em>The Micah Hanks Program</em>, after opening news pertaining to astronomy and the search by scientists for extraterrestrial life, we are joined by freelance investigative reporter Lt. Tim McMillan, who recently published an article in <em>Popular Mechanics </em>which gives us the most complete perspective to-date of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), a mysterious Pentagon program that studied unexplained aerial phenomenon. McMillan gives us new details about the program's former director, Luis Elizondo, and his involvement with the Pentagon effort to study UAP, as well as the role of Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS), which had been subcontracted for the study. More importantly, McMillan explains why much of what the program entailed has been kept off-the-books and had been intended to remain that way.</p> <p>Then in hour two, we are joined by a pioneer in the field of UFO research, Bruce Maccabee Ph.D., a physicist and researcher whose investigations into UFOs began in the 1960s. Over the ensuing decades, he worked not only to apply science to UFO investigations, but also in appealing to the government for information it has on the topic of unidentified flying objects. This led to Maccabee's acquisition of FBI files, popularly known as the Bureau's "Flying Saucer File", which Maccabee calls "The Real X-Files."</p> <p>The name is more than just a play on the popular 1990s television program <em>The X-Files</em>, however. As Maccabee notes, several of the files in the trove of documents he obtained from the FBI decades ago contained the label "Security Matter-X", which Maccabee notes had indicated there was information contained therein which might be deemed "unreliable"... in this case, pertaining to UFOs. We discuss Maccabee's history of research into the phenomenon, and what they mean more broadly for UFO studies, and the U.S. government's involvement in them over the decades.</p> <p><strong>Enjoy <em>The Micah Hanks Program</em>? <a hre