The truth is out there

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/09/2024 (700 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Imagine that the conspiracy theories are true: the United States government has been covering up alien visitation on a grand scale. Now imagine that a whistleblower wants to expose the coverup and tell the world what’s really going on.

That’s the core message of Imminent by former U.S. intelligence officer Luis Elizondo, a book that has shot to the top of the New York Times bestseller list. Imminent is essentially a personal memoir, detailing how its writer earned top-secret security clearance as a U.S. counterintelligence officer and came to the realization that aliens are visiting Earth.

From his troubled youth, being bullied mercilessly at school, to his becoming the “Czar of Torture” and directing tortuous treatment of 9/11 zealots at Guantanamo Bay, Elizondo gives readers insight into his incredible life in and out of the military establishment. His domineering father, a Cuban revolutionary, made Elizondo learn to assemble and disassemble an AK-47 by the time he was seven years old and drive stick shortly after. He joined the military in his teenage years as a way to gain confidence and fit in with other boys his age. His tours of duty toughened him and increased his resolve to fight for justice, despite suffering PTSD and bouts of paranoia.

Which is where UFOs (or the preferred term, unidentified anomalous phenomena or UAP) come in.

Elizondo became an intelligence officer in the armed forces and found himself with a high security status that allowed him access to some of the most classified programs and projects at the Pentagon. He was part of the CIA’s Stargate project, which had selected personnel to effectively become “supersoldiers” and direct their mental abilities to “remote view” military targets from thousands of kilometres away. Using his powers, he purports to have invaded the dreams of adversaries and found captive American prisoners in underground cells in the Middle East.

But the topic that had his most intense focus was alien (or rather, non-human intelligence, NHI) intervention in human affairs. Elizondo writes that he was “read in” to things such as the recovery of alien bodies from crashed UFOs, the testing of mysterious material from the spacecraft, alien microchips implanted into servicemen and amazing military videos of “Tic Tac”-shaped objects defying gravity and literally flying circles around U.S. navy fighter jets over the ocean. (Many readers will have seen these videos on TV documentaries or YouTube.) In Imminent, Elizondo describes how these craft use huge energy sources to create “warp bubbles,” as seen in science fiction, although he insists this is fact.

Most of what Elizondo shares about UFOs in his book is not new, with many of the stories and claims dating back many years. What is different here is Elizondo’s sharing of his own personal struggles with the bizarre nature of what he has been told about aliens. He believes the world should know the truth about alien visitation, despite the cover-up at the highest level of government and a conspiracy of silence among scientists and politicians: “I have come to believe that long-running secrets end up disastrous to all nations… Secrets kept too long impede scientific progress. In this case, it affects everyone on the planet and so it’s better that all of humanity should know the truth.”

Elizondo’s involvement with UFOs came at a tremendous personal cost, not only affecting his employment and security status but also his home life. He claims that orb-like balls of energy appeared inside his house early on, terrifying his entire family. And later, when he resigned his post in order to openly discuss the cover-up, his family had to move across the country, then into a motor home, as his income decreased dramatically.

A good portion of Imminent details Elizondo’s internal struggles as he attempted to navigate the tepid waters of government bureaucracy and the halls of Congress. He negotiated with generals, senators and rock stars to try and get naysayers and skeptics to push for public disclosure of alien presence on Earth. He names names, both of his allies and those whom he implies might be part of a legacy program that is trying to keep the public in the dark.

Actual Disclosure (with a capital D) of the proof aliens are here has not occurred, nor does it seem truly imminent. Elizondo presents reality as he sees it — and that may be quite enough for hardcore believers.

Skeptics will point out (and have already) that the Pentagon denies there are crashed saucers or captured aliens and other writers have posited non-alien explanations in contradiction of Elizondo’s versions of stories and incidents.

Imminent even contains blacked-out sections of text that are suggested to be in compliance with U.S. federal and legal agreements — but then Elizondo also admits he was a counterintelligence operative, and his job was to confuse and misdirect.

Elizondo says his reason for publishing all this information is ultimately altruistic: “(A) more advanced intelligent life is likely observing us. Humanity needs to become more aware of our place in the universe and the potential consequence of our actions.”

Ultimately, it is all a matter of personal belief. The reader is left to choose whether aliens are here — or not.

Chris Rutkowski is a science journalist in Winnipeg.