Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., is leading calls to take reports of UAP (UFO) more seriously ahead of next month’s anticipated release of a government report on such sightings, reported Yahoo News.
“There’s a stigma on Capitol Hill. Some of my colleagues are very interested in this topic and some kind of giggle when you bring it up," Rubio told CBS’s "60 Minutes" in an interview broadcast Sunday.
Rubio has also called for a detailed analysis on unidentified aerial phenomena.
The goal is to “have a process to analyze the data every time it comes in," Rubio said.
There needs to be “a place where this is cataloged and constantly analyzed, until we get some answers. Maybe it has a very simple answer, maybe it doesn't," he added.
Rubio, who as acting Senate Intelligence Committee chair, additionally asked for an unclassified copy of the report to be released to Congress, and stated, "anything that enters an airspace that's not supposed to be there is a threat."
Rubio is not the only one with concerns.
Former Navy Lieutenant Ryan Graves told CBS's Bill Whitaker he and other members of his F/A-18 fighter squadron detected unexplained sightings of UAP in restricted airspace southeast of Virginia Beach "every day for at least a couple years," starting in 2014.
The Pentagon confirmed it could not identify images of these UAPs, which were shared with "60 Minutes."
Graves said he could not rule out technology developed by the governments of Russia or China.
"I am worried, frankly. ... if these were tactical jets from another country that were hanging out up there, it would be a massive issue," Graves said, "But because it looks slightly different, we're not willing to actually look at the problem in the face. We're happy to just ignore the fact that these are out there, watching us every day."
Lue Elizondo, the former director of the Pentagon's Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, told Whitaker sometimes there were "simple explanations" for UAPs, others not so simple, but they would go through due diligence.
"Is it some sort of new type of cruise missile technology that China has developed? Is it some sort of high-altitude balloon that's conducting reconnaissance?" Elizondo said. "Ultimately when you have exhausted all those what ifs and you're still left with the fact that this is in our airspace and it's real, that's when it becomes compelling, and that's when it becomes problematic."
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