Shooting Down UFOs Could Risk Conflict With Extraterrestrials, Durham Professor Warns

Professor Michael Bohlander says UAP should generally be treated as non-aggressive unless they demonstrate hostile intent, while acknowledging there is no evidence they are extraterrestrial

Expert warns firing on UFOs without clear threat risks unlawful force and dangerous escalation

PHOTO Image: U.S. Department of War

Governments risk triggering a conflict humanity cannot win if they fire on unidentified flying objects that later turn out to be of non-human origin, a Durham University legal academic has warned.

Professor Michael Bohlander, the university's Chair in Global Law and SETI Policy, set out his argument in a commentary titled Should we Shoot Down UFOs?, published by Global Policy Journal on 30 September.

His case rests on a hypothetical. He does not claim that extraterrestrial craft have been shown to exist, and NASA says there is no evidence that unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) are extraterrestrial.

Call for Restraint Before Pulling the Trigger

Prof. Bohlander argues that UAP should generally be treated as non-aggressive unless they demonstrate hostile intent. Where an object's nature and intentions cannot be established, he says, the default should be protection rather than destruction. He also argues that the legal basis for attacking such an object is hard to establish.

He wrote that there is 'no guarantee' UAP would remain restrained if attacked, and that some 'may carry weapon systems equally advanced as their overall technology'. He questioned whether humanity should test them without good reason and a 'colourable case' that humans would prevail.

Prof Bohlander joined the German judiciary in 1991 and has served as an international judge at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers and as international co-investigating judge at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia.

Real-World Encounters Cited in Warning

UAP is a term used by US government agencies for observations that cannot immediately be attributed to known objects, actors or natural phenomena. The label does not itself indicate extraterrestrial origin.

Prof. Bohlander pointed to events in February 2023, when the US military shot down a Chinese high-altitude surveillance balloon off South Carolina. Three other unidentified objects were subsequently shot down over North American airspace.

Gen. Glen VanHerck, then NORAD commander, initially declined to rule out an extraterrestrial origin for the three objects, although officials later qualified the remark. Prof. Bohlander noted that the objects were reportedly observed without an apparent propulsion system. He said recordings of pilots' conversations during the Lake Huron encounter showed uncertainty over how to classify the object.

He also cited video shown at a 2025 US congressional hearing. Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert presented footage she said was taken on 30 October 2024, showing an MQ-9 drone tracking an object off Yemen while another launched a Hellfire missile. ABC News reported that the video appeared to show the missile bouncing off the object. No one has independently established what the object was.

Questions Over Secrecy and Rules of Engagement

Prof. Bohlander wrote that the US intelligence community has an 'iron grip' on the UAP environment. He argued there is little public transparency about the rules of engagement governing responses to such objects. That does not mean no rules exist, as such guidance can be classified.

Governments have released some UAP footage and records in recent years, but he maintains that important information remains too closed for public scrutiny.

Independent assessment of the precise origin and technical capabilities of the objects cited in his commentary is difficult, particularly where key data remains classified or has not been made publicly available.

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Satellite images of NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in California captured a strange detail: the legendary reconnaissance aircraft SR-71 Blackbird, tail number 844, disappeared from an open display area near Edwards Air Force Base. The aircraft, which had remained stationary for decades as a museum exhibit, was moved into a hangar for inspection. This immediately sparked a wave of rumors about the possible return to flight of the fastest jet aircraft in aviation history.

Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird with an experimental propulsion system from NASA in 1998. Photo: NASA

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman added fuel to the fire. During a presentation at a summit in Los Angeles, he unveiled a concept for a new aircraft with distinctive features — tail surfaces, cockpit design, and engines resembling those of the SR-71. Isaacman said that the space agency would soon once again fly “as high and fast as we did decades ago, and even faster.”

Records That Remain Unbroken

The SR-71 Blackbird reconnaissance aircraft made its first flight in December 1964 and entered service in early 1966. During 24 years of active service with the U.S. Air Force, the aircraft earned the status of the fastest and highest-flying production aircraft in the world.

Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird

In July 1976, the SR-71 set two absolute world records in its class:

• Speed: 3,529.56 km/h (more than Mach 3);
• Flight altitude: 25,929 meters.

Tail number 844 made its last official flight on October 9, 1999, after which it became part of a museum display.

Engineers’ Doubts

According to specialized publications, NASA did contact several former engineers and test personnel who had worked with the SR-71 in order to assess the possibility of reviving the project. However, the specialists themselves are highly skeptical.

Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird in a hangar before testing for NASA. Photo: NASA

Mike Relia, a 70-year-old veteran engineer of the U.S. Air Force and NASA, admitted that he was stunned by the question of restoring flight operations: “I wished them luck, but I do not believe it is possible under the current conditions.”

According to Relia, getting an airframe back into the air after it had spent 27 years exposed to open sun, wind, and sand would be an extremely difficult task.

Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird taking off. Photo: NASA

The main problem lies in the propulsion systems. Starting and maintaining them requires unique components, including the ignition chemical triethylborane, special high-temperature oils, hydraulic fluids, as well as specialized ground equipment and carts for removing the engines. Most of this equipment has been permanently lost. During the aircraft’s operational period, spare engines were also started every 180 days, while the current engines have been shut down for more than 30 years.

In addition, in 2007 the U.S. Air Force and NASA completely destroyed the remaining SR-71 spare parts, valued at about $600 million.

NASA’s Official Position

For now, the space agency is refraining from directly confirming any revival of the Blackbird. In comments to the media, NASA representatives said they appreciate the enormous public interest in the history of the SR-71, but currently have no additional information regarding the aircraft’s future.

Whether moving aircraft No. 844 is an attempt to give the legend a new life or merely a research step toward developing new hypersonic vehicles remains to be seen.

Previously, we reported on how the XB-1 aircraft broke the sound barrier live on air.

• Based on materials from firstpost.com

• Posted in News, Tech

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ExoMars mission poster

The main technological advantage of Rosalind Franklin will be its unique drill, capable of penetrating up to 2 m beneath the surface.

All previous Mars rovers studied samples taken from the surface or from only shallow depths. However, the Martian surface has been continuously bombarded by solar and cosmic radiation for billions of years, destroying any organic material. At a depth of 2 m, rocks have remained untouched and protected from radiation.

ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover during tests simulating Martian gravity. Source: ESA

Scientists do not expect to find living organisms. The rover’s goal is to detect biosignatures: chemical, molecular, or structural traces of ancient biological activity from the time when Mars was wet and habitable.

Panspermia and Common Ancestors

One of the mission’s most important questions concerns the panspermia hypothesis. During the early stages of the Solar System, around 3.8–4.1 billion years ago, Earth and Mars experienced intense meteorite bombardment. Rocks blasted into  space by powerful impacts could have traveled between the planets.

Illustration of the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover together with the spacecraft and landing module. Source: ESA

According to Professor of Planetary Mineralogy Susanne Schwenzer, if Martian biosignatures turn out to be similar to those on Earth, this could indicate the existence of a common ancestor. If, however, life on Mars is found to have emerged independently, it would show that biology in the Universe is a natural and widespread phenomenon when suitable conditions are present.

Oxia Planum

The rover will land near the equator in the Oxia Planum region. This location was chosen because of its rich deposits of ancient clay, which formed under prolonged exposure to water about 4 billion years ago. Clay minerals are excellent at preserving organic compounds.

To select the exact drilling site, the rover will use an entire suite of instruments:

• a panoramic camera from University College London to analyze the terrain;
• an infrared spectrometer from Aberystwyth University to determine mineral composition;
• a subsurface sounding radar to assess rock layers before the drill penetrates them.

Independent Decisions from Millions of Kilometers Away

Real-time control of the rover is impossible. A radio signal from Earth to Mars takes between 4 and 21 minutes, depending on the relative positions of the planets. Because of this, Rosalind Franklin will have a high level of autonomy.

Scientists involved in the mission note that any evidence of life on Mars could indicate a common origin with life on Earth. Source: REUTERS

The control center in Turin, Italy, will send general instructions, but the rover will independently avoid obstacles, choose its route, and carry out drilling. Engineers are currently testing autonomous driving and soil-sampling algorithms in Spain’s Tabernas Desert, whose dry terrain closely resembles that of Mars.

Previously, we explained why humanity is searching for life on Mars.

• Based on materials from Daily Galaxy

• Posted in News, Tech

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Most planets known to us form alongside their host stars within a shared protoplanetary disk. However, while analyzing data from space observations, an international team of scientists came across something unique: chemical and optical signatures of a gas giant that formed from the material left behind after its star died.

Artist’s illustration of a possible young planet that formed after its star became the white dwarf HS 0209+0832. Credit: Snehalata Sahu / University of Warwick

This young world now orbits the white dwarf HS 0209+0832, located approximately 270 light-years from Earth. The findings describing this phenomenon were published in Nature Astronomy.

A Niobium Signature and Clues from TESS

The main evidence for the birth of a second-generation planet came from the unusual composition of the white dwarf’s atmosphere. Using the Hubble  Space Telescope, astronomers detected a substantial concentration of niobium on the dead star’s surface.

Heavy elements in white dwarfs usually sink rapidly into the interior under the influence of immense gravity, leaving only the lighter hydrogen and helium at the surface. The presence of niobium indicates that this material arrived at the star from an external source very recently. Scientists believe that intense ultraviolet radiation from the hot white dwarf is literally evaporating the nearby planet’s atmosphere, causing this material to fall onto the star.

Further evidence came from observations by TESS (the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite). The spacecraft recorded regular variations in the white dwarf’s brightness with a period of 4.4 days, characteristic of a large planet passing in front of the stellar disk.

Life from Stardust

The formation of first-generation planets still holds many mysteries, and the mechanism behind the emergence of second-generation planets is even more complex. In the case of HS 0209+0832, scientists propose the following scenario: during its red giant phase, the dying star may have engulfed a close companion, such as a brown dwarf or a small star with about 20% of the Sun’s mass.

This infall prevented the stellar material from dispersing completely into space. Instead, some of the gas and dust began swirling in a dense disk around the remaining stellar core, from which a new exoplanet eventually condensed.

The Future of the Solar System

For the scientific community, this discovery overturns existing ideas about the evolution of planetary systems. White dwarfs cool over tens of billions of years, making their surrounding habitable zones exceptionally stable. If second-generation planets can form under such conditions, they could potentially provide a refuge for life over periods far exceeding the age of our Universe.

The discovery also offers a direct illustration of the future of our own cosmic home. In a few billion years, the Sun will also become a white dwarf. Although Earth will evaporate during this process, a new world could emerge in our system from its remnants and the stellar ashes.

For now, the object near HS 0209+0832 remains a planet candidate. To definitively confirm its existence, the team plans to conduct additional observations using Hubble, Chandra, and the James Webb Space Telescope.

We previously discussed how scientists find exoplanets in space.

• Based on reporting by Reuters.

• Posted in News, Science

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Something About Russia Insisting Everything Is Fine After the Lab Leak Death Is Making Us Nervous

Shutterstock / Futurism

Last week, a 28-year-old employee at an anti-plague institute in the Siberian city of Irkutsk died at a regional hospital just two days after mysteriously falling ill.

Her unusual occupation drew an international media frenzy, sparking fears over another pandemic. The news sounded just a bit too much like the opening to a cheesy medical horror movie, with US secretary of state Marco Rubio saying that the US is “watching and monitoring” the case “closely.”

Former White House COVID-19 response coordinator Deborah Birx called the death “particularly concerning,” saying that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are “very much aware and tracking” the situation.

And something about Russian officials’ reassurances hasn’t quite quelled our fears. The deceased worker, Darya Shipilova, was diagnosed with “pneumonia of unknown etiology,” per the Moscow Times — a vague diagnosis that left plenty of questions unanswered.

It’s especially unsettling considering the lab has been studying the pneumonic plague, which develops when “bacteria spread to the lungs of a patient with untreated bubonic or septicemic plague, or when a person inhales infectious droplets coughed out by another person or animal with pneumonic plague,” per the CDC.

The Black Death, a global 14th century pandemic that’s believed to have killed tens of millions of people, included all three forms of plague: bubonic, septicemic and pneumonic.

There have been recent outbreaks of pneumonic plague in Madagascar, but there are no known cases of the country exporting plague cases to other countries.

Russian head of the republic of the neighboring Siberian region Buryatia Alexei Tsydenov at first threw fuel on the fire by claiming in a Telegram post that Shipilova had died of the plague — before adding the word “maybe” to his statement.

Many say there’s no reason to panic. Consumer safety watchdog Rospotrebnadzor said it found no evidence that any lab materials had anything to do with the tragic death and that were no signs of foul play or security breaches. Intriguingly, the watchdog confirmed that contact tracing revealed two cases of COVID-19 and two cases of rhinovirus, according to the Moscow Times — but no plague.

The World Health Organization has since publicly stated that the risk of an epidemic in Russia is low. Spokesperson Christian Lindmeier said in a statement today that “all ‌of the patients’ contacts have reportedly been identified and are being monitored for ‌illness, and none to date have shown ​symptoms of illness.”

The lab at the institute where Shipilova was employed is currently under lockdown, including 60 of her colleagues, forcing them to sleep on the floors and in chairs.

Characteristically, president Donald Trump appeared to have received some serious mixed messaging from his aides — or struggled to interpret the details for himself.

“I hate to see them having it,” he said, seemingly implying the existence of a plague outbreak in Russia, one of the United States’ biggest adversaries. “We’ll help. Everybody who has that kind of a problem, we’ll always help.”

More on the plague:

• Experts Confirm Outbreaks of Black Death, Brain-Eating Amoeba

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EXCLUSIVE - I saw unreleased UFO files at a secret meeting in the Tennessee mountains. We prayed after seeing what these 'humanoid beings' did... the world is not prepared

By CHRIS MELORE, US DEPUTY SCIENCE EDITOR

A pastor who claims he was whisked away to a secret UFO disclosure gathering in the Tennessee mountains has revealed chilling new details about the evidence he was shown. 

In May, the Daily Mail first reported that private meeting of intelligence insiders, former military and faith leaders was said to have taken place in February ahead of the government's release of its 'UFO files', a collection of declassified records concerning unidentified flying objects.

One of the supposed attendees, Pastor Joseph Zupetz, has disclosed vivid new details about what he saw, warning that the UFO files released by the Trump administration so far are nothing compared to what is still to come.

Far removed from the grainy, blurry UFO footage previously released by the government, Zupetz said he and five other Christian influencers were shown images of non-human beings that were startlingly clear and sent chills down his spine. 

The pastor said the secretive meeting, whose attendees he declined to identify, was organized by 'personnel now working within groups that investigate non-human intelligence issues involving UAPs (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena) and reverse-engineered craft.' 

'I was shown images that some of the people who were presenting to us had on their devices of real entities that they personally took photos of,' Zupetz told the Daily Mail.

'They took images of entities standing in the woods. They were very tall, they had very long appendages, some of them almost looked, and this is a crude way of saying it, almost like humanoid squid-type things.'

Congress recently requested 46 UFO videos from the Department of War, including one that viewers have claimed shows an angel flapping its wings

He claimed that other images featured 'tall, lanky, light beings,' with some completely see-through. 

Then, after leaving the two-hour meeting and boarding his flight back to Colorado, he noticed several glowing orbs hovering in the sky in the distance.

He recorded the strange encounter and shared the footage with the Daily Mail.

Zupetz said that during the flight, the plane was shaken so violently that he and other passengers began to pray.

When they looked back out the window, the orbs were gone from their view.

'We were flying in an aircraft, and we truly had an encounter with six orbs right outside the plane,' he said.

'We began to pray, and it stopped trembling. I thought that was very interesting. Now, maybe it was just turbulence, and we had a psychosomatic episode.' 

But, according to the pastor, he is convinced it was demonic and fears the encounter was linked to the meeting he had just attended. 

'Here I am, a faith-filled believer, and I'm seeing this, and it's making me question, like, okay, what is this? Is this demons? Is this angels? Is it high-level tech?' the pastor said.

Zupetz was one of several influential faith leaders who claimed to have attended private meetings held in Tennessee in February, where former government officials warned that information expected to be released this year could have profound implications for Christian beliefs.

The Daily Mail could not confirm that the meetings took place. But the evangelist Tony Merkel told us that he helped organize the meeting and was also in attendance.

Pastor Joseph Zuptz says he attended one of three secret meetings between faith leaders and former intelligence officials who believe UFO disclosure will shake the Christian faith

Faith leaders at multiple secret meetings throughout the US were allegedly shown images of real extraterrestrials, including a squid-like being with long limbs (Stock Image)

Merkel said the idea was to bring in key ministers who have a large reach within the Christian community to prepare people of faith for the potential disclosure of aliens.

On June 12, the third tranche of declassified files was released to the public, containing hundreds of pages of documents, images, videos and even audio recordings from NASA space flights.

However, Zupetz has admitted that he and his followers have not been shocked or convinced that extraterrestrial life existed after seeing these initial releases.

To this point, only a handful of videos disclosed by the Pentagon have shown clear footage of alleged UFOs, mostly metallic orbs, flying over the planet in great detail.

However, after attending the meeting in Tennessee, Zupetz and others were convinced the slow drip of UFO content from the government is designed to build a 'normalcy bias,' making strange things seem ordinary, to set up for a potentially Earth-shattering reveal in future. 

'They're going to continue to drip these things, drop them slowly, and it's not going to be shock and awe in the beginning. And this is what we were told,' Zupetz explained.

'Eventually, they will bring out an entity, a non-human biologic that they will either have speaking or communicating with, and when they do this, then it's going to be a little more shaking.'

The Pentagon's main UFO investigative unit has claimed that most reports of mysterious phenomena in the sky have been caused by explainable things, including balloons, drones and even bird sightings. 

To date, six batches of files have been released. 

A video released in the first wave of UFO files appeared to show a glowing object resembling an 'eight-pointed star' with uneven arms that has been compared to a craft from biblical times

Yet, despite the ongoing file dumps from the Pentagon and multiple members of Congress saying more evidence of real UFOs exists, the US government has maintained that there is no physical proof that aliens exist.

However, Zupetz and other faith leaders have presented an alternative theory, calling the appearance of strange craft, glowing orbs and non-human figures evidence of 'fallen angel technology.'

The theory argues that UFO sightings that cannot be explained as advanced human technology or natural phenomena may actually be interdimensional beings described in the Bible and the controversial Book of Enoch. 

'I believe that they are fallen angel tech, or it is interdimensional abilities afforded to angels, rogue spirits or demonic powers that can manifest and appear,' Zupetz said, referring to the origins of the unexplained phenomena in our skies.

'I believe that is the big false flag thing, and the agenda they'll bring forward is saying, we originally are the ones that [seeded] you here. 

'The Bible you read is close, but it's not perfectly accurate, because now we're here to enlighten humanity, raise your consciousness, and bring you higher.'

Zupetz shared images of six orbs that surrounded his plane while leaving the secret meeting in Tennessee

Zupetz said his plane began shaking as the orbs surrounded the aircraft, and only stopped when the passengers began praying

Zupetz said believers who find themselves faced with similar sightings and questioning their faith should speak the name of Jesus during their encounters.

The pastor claimed that genuine good entities would respond positively, while deceptive ones would be triggered negatively.

The pastor also cited Steven Spielberg's latest film, 'Disclosure Day,' and the famed director's comments regarding believers in Jesus as more evidence of an ominous narrative being formed, which aligns with the Bible's darkest chapters.

During a CBS News interview, Spielberg reflected on how confirmation of intelligent life beyond Earth could affect religious faith, saying, 'The movie also takes the position of the church.

'What does this do to the fundamental beliefs that many of us have? Is God our God only on this planet? Or is God a god for every system where there's civilization and intelligent life, and even developing life?'

Zupetz said: 'When this disclosure happens, it's the narrative attached to it that'll become more and more negative towards Christianity.'

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NASA targets mysterious hole on the moon in hunt for vast underground cave

• READ MORE: I saw unreleased UFO files at a secret meeting in the Tennessee mountains. We prayed after seeing what these 'humanoid beings' did... the world is not prepared

By STACY LIBERATORE, US SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR

A mysterious hole on the moon's surface could open into a vast underground world.

NASA has selected a project to investigate the opening, known as the Marius Hills Pit, and determine whether it leads to a cavern that could shelter future astronauts from radiation and extreme temperatures.

The project, known as the Geophysical Instruments for Marius Lunar Pit Investigation (GIMLI), will combine ground-penetrating radar, seismic sensors and a device to measure the the local gravitational field to see below the surface. 

Located in one of the moon's most volcanically varied regions, the pit is about as deep as a 10-story building is tall, with an opening roughly the size of an American football field.

It is one of about 300 pits identified on the lunar surface, some of which could provide entrances to caves formed by ancient volcanic activity. It was found by Japan's SELENE spacecraft in 2009.

The team, which announced the project on Monday, said it also plans 'to study more than the possible underground structure.'

The surrounding area has experienced a long history of volcanic activity, and the walls of MHP expose layers of regolith and lava flows that normally remain buried. 

Examining these layers could show how lava once moved across and beneath the lunar landscape and whether individual eruptions were separated by long intervals. 

NASA has selected a project to investigate a hole on the lunar surface, known as the Marius Hills Pit. The initiative will determine whether it leads to a cavern that could shelter future astronauts from radiation and extreme temperatures

NASA has tapped the Planetary Science Institute (PSI) to lead the investigation.

The American space agency said that if such a cavern exists beneath the lunar surface, it could one day protect astronauts from radiation and the dramatic temperature swings on the lunar surface.

Radiation levels on the lunar surface are roughly 2.6 times higher than on the International Space Station (ISS), which orbits about 250 miles above Earth's surface, and about 200 times higher than on Earth.

If astronauts were exposed to such levels, they would face serious health risks, including cancer, cell damage and acute radiation sickness.

Rather than relying only on observations from above, GIMLI will provide researchers with an opportunity to examine Marius Hills Pit directly from the lunar surface. 

PSI Associate Director and Senior Scientist Than Putzig said in a statement: 'It's long been a desire of mine to reintroduce intentional active-source seismic methods to planetary science, as it has essentially not been done since the Apollo astronauts conducted the first seismic surveys on the moon.

'Combining that method with ground-penetrating radar and gravity measurements makes it all the more exciting, as these methods together will allow us to get a much better understanding of subsurface properties, including the anticipated detection of a lava tube extending away from the Marius Hills Pit.'

Even if an underground cave is not found, lunar pits are valuable because their walls expose otherwise hidden geology.

Located in one of the moon's most volcanically varied regions, the pit is about as deep as a 10-story building is tall, with an opening roughly the size of an American football field

Any underground spaces connected to them could also preserve evidence of the volcanic processes that helped shape the moon. 

Gareth Morgan, PSI Senior Scientist and Deputy Principal Investigator on the GIMLI program, said: 'Confirming a substantial lava tube would give us an insight into how volcanism operated on the moon.

'Lava tubes are a common feature of basaltic volcanism on Earth, so identifying them on the moon means we could use knowledge of such terrestrial caves to better understand lunar history.' 

The project comes as NASA plans to land astronauts on the moon during the Artemis IV mission in 2028. 

When the crew reaches the moon, two astronauts will descend to the surface and spend approximately a week near the South Pole of the moon conducting new science before returning to lunar orbit to join their crew for the journey back to Earth.

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UFO ties of missing scientist who vanished days after Trump's alien files order fuel new allegations

• READ MORE: New twist in mystery of dead and missing scientists: Experts uncover chilling link that ties four unsolved cases together... as questions swirl about unknown 'mentor'

By STACY LIBERATORE, US SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR

The mysterious disappearance of a retired Air Force general has drawn fresh attention after a UFO whistleblower made new claims about his connections.

William Neil McCasland, 68, vanished from his Albuquerque, New Mexico, home on February 27. 

His phone, wearable devices and prescription glasses were left behind.

More than seven months later, he remains missing.

McCasland once commanded the Air Force Research Laboratory, overseeing billions of dollars in military science and technology research, which has long been tied to conspiracy theories of the alleged storage of crashed UFO debris and alien bodies from Roswell.

Now, UFO whistleblower David Grusch, who testified under oath in 2023 that the US government has secretly operated programs to recover and reverse-engineer non-human spacecraft for decades, has claimed the general was involved in an effort to prepare Americans for UFO disclosure.

Speaking on Joe Rogan's podcast, the former intelligence officer linked that alleged effort to Hillary Clinton's pledge to release UFO files if elected president in 2016.

'It's very bizarre. And it's within a week of Trump coming out,' said Grusch, referring to McCasland disappearing days after the president's February 19 announcement to release all files related to UFOs and extraterrestrials. 

William Neil McCasland, 68, vanished from his Albuquerque, New Mexico, home on February 27. His phone, wearable devices and prescription glasses were left behind

McCasland held senior military research positions at both Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio and Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico.

He commanded the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson and previously led its Phillips Research Site at Kirtland.

His connections to UFO discussions attracted public attention in 2016, when WikiLeaks published hacked emails from Podesta’s account.

One message, dated January 25, 2016, and titled ‘General McCasland,’ described former Blink-182 frontman Tom DeLonge’s dealings with the retired general.

DeLonge shifted his career to push for government disclosure on unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP, co-founding To The Stars Academy, which explored UFOs and other phenomena. 

‘I’ve been working with him for four months. I just got done giving him a four-hour presentation on the entire project a few weeks ago,’ DeLonge wrote.

‘He not only knows what I’m trying to achieve, he helped assemble my advisory team.’

In the same email, DeLonge repeated the longstanding claim that material from the Roswell incident had been taken to Wright-Patterson, linking that allegation to the laboratory McCasland had commanded.  The message did not provide evidence to substantiate that claim.

UFO whistleblower David Grusch, who testified under oath in 2023 that the US government has secretly operated programs to recover and reverse-engineer non-human spacecraft for decades, has claimed the general was involved in an effort to prepare Americans for UFO disclosure 

Grusch told Rogan: 'John Podesta greenlit a... I'll call it acclimatization activity, a popularization activity. And, you know, that's why Tom DeLonge got his advisors. 

'That's why General McCasland talked to him.'

Podesta recently publicly acknowledged UFO discussions involving DeLonge and McCasland.

In an emailed response to PARADIGM, Podesta challenged Grusch’s explanation of their purpose.

‘That is probably not how I would characterize our interaction,’ Podesta wrote.

He recalled a conference call arranged by DeLonge that covered declassifying Defense Department files and reducing the stigma surrounding professionals taking UFOs seriously.

‘I have always maintained that the American people could handle the truth about UAPs and didn’t really need to be “acclimated,"' Podesta wrote.

Grusch claimed McCasland spoke with DeLonge because the former Blink-182 star could be of use. 

A surveillance image shows retired Air Force general William Neil McCasland the day before he vanished without a trace on February 27

'It was because they were given top cover to see Tom as a public figure who had the touch of the youth, rightly or wrongly,' he told Rogan.

'I mean, once again, there was an attempt, and I'm not going to judge them bad or good, but they were trying to prep the battlespace prior to 2016.' 

McCasland's wife, Susan Wilkerson, told local police in February that she does not believe there was any foul play involved in her husband's disappearance, but also told 911 dispatchers it appeared the general 'had planned not to be found.'

Local police have not had any updates in the case.

Grusch had previously claimed that McCasland was one of the officers who had been in charge of classified programs related to non-human craft recovery and reverse-engineering.

The whistleblower also alleged that McCasland had not been cooperative with lawmakers seeking to interview individuals with knowledge of America's alleged contact with extraterrestrials.

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Is ons leven op aarde afkomstig van buitenaardse wezens?

©The Daily Digest

Een theorie die ter discussie staat
Volgens de overheersende theorie ontstond het leven op aarde ongeveer 4 miljard jaar geleden uit organische moleculen, die zich ontwikkelden van eencellige micro-organismen tot de diversiteit aan levende wezens die we nu kennen. Toch zijn er steeds meer geluiden die deze opvatting bevragen.

©The Daily Digest

Abiogenese: anorganisch materiaal als basis
Deze hypothese, bekend als abiogenese, stelt dat leven is ontstaan uit niet-levend, dus anorganisch, materiaal. Eenvoudige verbindingen ontwikkelden zich tot complexe zelfreplicerende systemen (die zichzelf konden kopiëren met behulp van grondstoffen uit hun omgeving) dankzij verschillende chemische processen.

©The Daily Digest

Proces naar de eerste levensvormen
De omstandigheden waarin abiogenese plaatsvond kwamen overeen met de vroege ontwikkeling van de aarde. Ongeveer 4,5 miljard jaar geleden ontstond de planeet, en tijdens deze periode, tussen de door meteorietinslagen gevormde kraters gevuld met water en het hete magma van de mantel, ontstonden hydrothermale bronnen die het ideale milieu vormden voor het ontstaan van het eerste leven.

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Recent onderzoek werpt twijfels op
In juli 2025 publiceerde onderzoeker Robert G. Endres van Imperial College London een wetenschappelijke studie op arXiv getiteld 'The Irrational Probability of Being', waarin hij het onderwerp abiogenese analyseert. Hoewel hij deze mogelijkheid niet uitsluit, concludeert hij dat deze theorie vrijwel onmogelijk is.

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Toepassing van wiskundige modellen
Endres gebruikte verschillende wiskundige modellen om te berekenen hoeveel tijd het zou kosten voordat uit niet-levende elementen op natuurlijke wijze de eerste levende cel zou ontstaan.

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De tijden komen niet overeen
Op basis van deze veronderstelling ontdekte de Britse wiskundige dat de moleculen die essentieel zijn voor het creëren van leven zich veel sneller tot microbieel leven hadden moeten samenvoegen dan eigenlijk mogelijk is, aangezien ze normaal gesproken zouden afbreken voordat dit zou kunnen gebeuren.

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Te lang om aannemelijk te zijn
Voor Endres gaven de gebruikte modellen aan dat deze theorie uiterst onwaarschijnlijk is, vooral omdat het proces van trial-and-error dat hiervoor nodig zou zijn veel langer zou duren dan wat blijkt uit de bekende fossiele gegevens.

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Chemische reacties die leven veroorzaakten
Ook in zijn experimenten voor de studie kwam hij tot de conclusie dat de benodigde tijd niet overeenkwam, zelfs niet als, zoals abiogenese veronderstelt, katalysatoren betrokken zouden zijn die de reeks chemische reacties op gang brachten die nodig zijn voor het ontstaan van leven.

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Ongestructureerde systemen
Hieraan voegt hij het wetenschappelijk bewijs toe dat systemen de neiging hebben om chaotischer te worden in plaats van meer geordend, wat een duidelijk obstakel vormt voor het ontstaan van complexe en sterk georganiseerde structuren die essentieel zijn voor het ontstaan van leven.

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Onvoldoende onderbouwing
Endres sluit zijn onderzoek af met het in twijfel trekken van de abiogenese-theorie. Volgens hem kunnen we niet uitsluitend vertrouwen op deze natuurlijke chemische processen en toeval om afdoende te verklaren hoe leven op onze planeet ontstond in de context van de vroege aarde.

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Een grote uitdaging voor de biologische fysica
Desondanks benadrukt de wiskundige in zijn studie dat het ontstaan van leven niet onmogelijk is, maar dat er nog onvoldoende kennis is om dit volledig te begrijpen. Hiervoor zouden de onderliggende natuurkundige principes ontdekt moeten worden, wat een grote uitdaging blijft voor de biologische fysica.

©The Daily Digest

Wat als onze oorsprong buitenaards is?
Mocht de theorie dat leven door abiogenese ontstond worden weerlegd, dan overweegt Endres een alternatieve, niet nieuwe hypothese: wat als leven op aarde werd gebracht door buitenaardse wezens die de planeet aanpasten aan het leven?

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Buitenaardse interventie op aarde
"Is de aarde geterraformd of ontstond orde uit chaos onder het stille bestuur van de natuurkunde? Tegenwoordig overwegen mensen serieus het terraformen van Mars of Venus in wetenschappelijke tijdschriften. Als er geavanceerde beschavingen bestaan, is het niet onwaarschijnlijk dat zij soortgelijke ingrepen zouden proberen, uit nieuwsgierigheid, noodzaak of ontwerp," stelde Endres in zijn studie, zoals gerapporteerd door Popular Mechanics.

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Wat is terraforming?
Dit hypothetische proces, dat door sommige deskundigen wordt voorgesteld, bestaat uit het opzettelijk aanpassen van de omstandigheden van een planeet (zoals temperatuur, oppervlak, atmosfeer, enz.) om deze geschikt te maken voor leven en bewoonbaar te maken. Iets vergelijkbaars met wat sommigen vandaag met Mars willen doen.

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Al decennia aanwezig in sciencefiction
Dit onderwerp is niet alleen door de wetenschap behandeld, maar komt ook veelvuldig voor in films en boeken binnen het sciencefictiongenre. 'Star Trek' en '2001: A Space Odyssey' zijn daar goede voorbeelden van.

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Theorie van Francis Crick en Leslie Orgel
De theorieën over terraforming en gerichte panspermie (het doelbewust verspreiden van leven door buitenaardse wezens) ontstonden in de jaren 70 dankzij Leslie Orgel en Francis Crick (op de afbeelding één van de wetenschappers die hielp bij de identificatie van DNA). Zij suggereerden dat een buitenaardse beschaving die op het punt stond uit te sterven, leven op verschillende planeten zou hebben verspreid om zijn voortbestaan te waarborgen.

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Gerichte panspermie
Panspermie is een wetenschappelijke theorie die stelt dat leven de aarde kan hebben bereikt vanuit de ruimte, hetzij op natuurlijke wijze via moleculen of micro-organismen die door meteorieten, kometen of interstellair stof op aarde terechtkwamen, hetzij doelbewust overgebracht door een buitenaardse beschaving.

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Een radicale breuk met het bekende
"Hoewel het idee dat de aarde is geterraformd door geavanceerde buitenaardse wezens wellicht indruist tegen het principe van Occams scheermes uit de conventionele wetenschap, blijft gerichte panspermie, oorspronkelijk voorgesteld door Francis Crick en Leslie Orgel, een speculatief maar logisch openstaand alternatief", aldus Endres volgens Popular Mechanics.

©The Daily Digest

Een complexe, maar mogelijke optie
In dit opzicht onderschrijft Endres deze theorie met enige terughoudendheid. In zijn studie maakt hij duidelijk dat, hoewel een buitenaardse oorsprong van het leven onwaarschijnlijk is, het technisch gezien niet onmogelijk is en daarom niet volledig uitgesloten zou moeten worden binnen de wetenschappelijke gemeenschap.

{ The Daily Digest }

How did the ancient Egyptians create objects of such extraordinary precision — thousands of years before modern machinery, power tools, and computer-controlled manufacturing? 

Across Egypt, archaeologists have discovered hard-stone vessels with remarkably thin walls, perfectly polished surfaces, circular grooves, and astonishingly symmetrical forms. Massive granite sarcophagi appear to have been shaped and finished with a level of precision that seems, at first glance, almost impossible for their time. 

Then there are the drill cores, mysterious machining-like marks, and complex stone forms that raise an even deeper question: What tools were the ancient Egyptians actually using? 

Were these objects created entirely with the tools and techniques known from the archaeological record, using copper, stone abrasives, sand, pounding, grinding, and enormous amounts of time and skilled labor? Or do some of these artifacts preserve evidence of techniques that we have yet to fully understand? 

Modern experiments have demonstrated that surprisingly sophisticated stoneworking can be achieved using relatively simple tools when combined with abrasive materials, patience, skill, and careful technique. Yet some examples continue to provoke debate because of their extraordinary precision and the difficulty of reproducing certain features. 

In this documentary, we go beyond the mystery and examine the physical evidence. 

We will look closely at the sarcophagi, hard-stone vessels, Schist Disk, drill cores, circular grooves, thin walls, and geometric surfaces, comparing them with both ancient-tool experiments and modern manufacturing techniques. 

The question is not simply whether the ancient Egyptians were capable of remarkable craftsmanship but how such precision could have been achieved without modern machinery, were these techniques uniquely Egyptian or could ancient civilizations have received knowledge, guidance, or even direct assistance from an unknown intelligence, perhaps an advanced extraterrestrial civilization?

 

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