2023-11-16

Why Garrett M. Graff is wrong, and stupid

I want to compare and contrast two public statements, by two public figures, 
Garrett M. Graff and Christopher Karl Mellon.

First, from Graff, in
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/11/16/us-government-ufos-military-00127376
Graff wrote
<blockquote>the project needs to be removed from the realm of the military and intelligence...</blockquote>
referring to government investigation of UFOs, or UAP.
That clearly brings up the issue of what should be, and needs to be, classified.

Now, consider what Christopher Mellon said, publicly, during an interview
https://youtu.be/aUUOracxDQY?t=12m25s
<blockquote>CUOMO: What is your baseline understanding of 
WHY the level of disclosure to the American public about anything related to UFOs or UAP or whatever you want to call them 
is zero?

...

https://youtu.be/aUUOracxDQY?t=13m30s

MELLON: Someone in the bureaucracy created what they call a "classification guide" 
that took the extreme position that anything to do with UAP 
shold automatically be classified...
...

----
https://youtu.be/aUUOracxDQY?t=18m05s

[F]ormer DNI Ratcliffe mentioned that we have satellite imagery of UAP.
He didn't describe it, he didn't go further in that description.
I think if that information were released or characterized it would go a considerable way towards helping the public and scientific community better understand what we're dealing with.
I'm aware of some of this information.
The problem is that many of these same sensors are used to support warfighting
and there is legitimate concern about compromising anything that gives our people an edge in combat.
Some of these sensors, the public and our adversaries don't even know exist.
Some of the most useful sensors in some cases are that highly classified and secret.
There are other cases like satellite imagery 
where the issue is trying to disguise the degree of resolution that we can get, and that sort of thing to make it harder for adversaries to plan around it.
Sometimes they don't draw the line in the right place, even some DoD officials have acknowledged to me.
...
But we do run into a legitimate problem in many cases with trying to share the information without compromising the capability.

---------
https://youtu.be/aUUOracxDQY?t=30m30s

[T]here absolutely is information the government has not shared 
and there's information they haven't even shared with Congress, 
classified information 
and that gets a bit arcane and complex.</blockquote>

So, according to Mellon, some of the sources being used to collect information about UFOs 
must be shrouded in secrecy, for national security reasons.
Who can argue with that?

My opinion:
To really investigate UAP, we Americans need to use America's very best sensors.
And, surprise, surprise, those best sensors are very classified, as to both their capabilities and, according to Christopher Mellon, in some cases their very existence.
Was that too hard for Graff to understand?
Or put in his article?