MYSTERY WIRE — Two years ago today, the New York Times posted a story on its website that is still reverberating through UFO circles and government agencies.
The report revealed the existence of a program called AATIP — Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program — and it put a video into the public eye 13 years after an encounter with a UFO was captured during a military mission off the coast of Southern California.
The “Tic Tac” video, which the U.S. Navy acknowledged as authentic in May of 2019, captured the imagination of the UFO community and the public. The video shows an object that a Navy pilot launched from the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz had described in an up-close encounter.
But it was the report that the government spent $22 million studying UFOs, and former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid‘s involvement, that pulled the media into the story. The secret was out.
Since the report, media attention to the UFO topic has gained a foothold in mainstream reporting. It was no longer exclusively the butt of jokes in the media.
The report appeared online on Dec. 16, 2017, and was followed in print on Dec. 17.
Look for more reports on this topic this week.
