A new documentary film about the UFO/UAP mystery debuted this month, with testimony from nearly three dozen scientists and government officials about the need for transparency and honesty. But in spite of the overwhelming and unified message expressed in the film, major media outlets continue to insult, muddle, or ignore the topic, as well as insult the insiders who take it seriously. In this episode of Weaponized, George and Jeremy mention the premiere of "The Age of Disclosure" film in the context of hostile or incomplete media reports, in particular, a scathing Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal which slimed a key witness and whistleblower as a "mental patient," as well as a high-profile report by 60 Minutes which examined a five-year wave of "mystery drone" incursions. While laudable for taking on the drone mystery, 60 Minutes ignored, downplayed, and mischaracterized key evidence, testimony, and images from the most dramatic drone incidents, including the 2019 UAP swarms that buzzed the USS Omaha, USS Russell, and eight other Navy ships. The inference that those drones were launched from a cargo ship named Bass Strait is scurrilous and inaccurate. For decades, media organizations have ignored, ridiculed, attacked, or undermined the sanity and integrity of witnesses, whistleblowers, and legitimate inquiries, including the former UAP Task Force, which has had the effect of stifling and intimidating others from coming forward. GOT A TIP? Reach out to us at [email protected] ••• Watch Corbell's six-part UFO docuseries titled UFO REVOLUTION on TUBI here : https://tubitv.com/series/300002259/tmz-presents-ufo-revolution/season-2 Watch Knapp’s six-part UFO docuseries titled INVESTIGATION ALIEN on NETFLIX here : https://www.netflix.com/title/81674441 ••• For breaking news, follow Corbell & Knapp on all social media. Extras and bonuses from the episode can be found at WeaponizedPodcast.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What is the documentary 'The Age of Disclosure' about?
Yeah, it was great. So Age of Disclosure is the name of the movie. And we were invited to go see the premiere at South by Southwest. I didn't kind of realize that every single UFO person that I know was going to be there. It was fun, man. It was really cool to get together with everybody and to be able to see the movie before it kind of hits the screens. I heard a lot about it.
Obviously, we know almost everybody that's involved with it. I think it was a powerful collection of strong voices, some you've heard from before, but many you have not, all kind of talking about the same thing, which is that this is something we're going to have to contend with, which is the reality and presence of UFOs.
Yeah, the film makes it pretty clear from pretty high-level people that this topic has been confused on purpose, ignored, discredited, and that it's time for the secrecy to end. These are some pretty high-up intelligence people, defense intelligence people. We got to see Jay Stratton. We heard from Lou Elizondo. We saw our friend Ernie Klein.
There was a gathering of UFO luminaries like I have never seen before. Gary Nolan was there. It was a pretty cool time. Our friend Chris Ramsey was floating around as well. I think the film is going to move the needle a bit. How much, I don't know, because we don't know how it's going to be distributed yet. But it was great to go to Austin. It was great to see it.
And I can't wait for the public to see it.
For sure. I think that's all up to us. You know, this is a time. I think what Dan did in his movie is he brought together all the people that have been talking again that you've heard from and some you haven't. Just saying the same thing, just drilling it home. And I think that's so important. Visually, it's beautiful.
And I think the idea of having everybody in unison saying, this is something we have to contend with now. It will take the average person and it will make them say, hey, I have to address this. So I think the effects of any movie, because again, no single image, no single movie, no single thing. It's the weight, the body and the weight of evidence. It's how we respond to it.
So I think the power for me, what I see in products like that is that it brings it into pop culture and starts the dialogue and even can influence, you know, congressional, it can influence policy. And that's what I'm hoping is that when you get enough people of high credibility saying, got to fucking do something, then influence policy.
As we have learned over the years, there's always someone out there who will claim that this video, that photo, this case has been debunked. And all you have to do to debunk it is say it's debunked. I don't think there's any video or image in the history of ufology that someone hasn't said is debunked.
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Chapter 2: How did media outlets respond to the UFO topic?
Absolutely. So the Wall Street Journal article and the timing of it and the title of it and it coming out. It was to discourage, you know, it's the old thing. You know, serious people don't have serious discussions about something so unserious. You know, that was like the 60s mentality about UFOs. Yeah, it was to discourage, you know, real reporting on the issue.
It's going to have the reverse effect because people know too much now. I do want to say, I think David Grush is an amazing pick to have to help with this task force in whatever limited ability that they can get done remotely. regarding UAP, I think even if he can't disclose everything to them, what he can do is put them in the right direction.
I couldn't think of somebody better to help with a congressional task force than David. I want to make that really clear because I think that positive things can come from this. Now, 60 minutes, you bring that up. Now, look, man, I might have a different opinion than you on this because I'm looking at some details that it's not only...
poorly sourced it's it's it's a lie it's it's it's misleading and and it really bothered me so let me get your opinions first on the 60 minute piece and then i want to tell you what i think well i'll be good cop to your bad cop um
Because I'm glad they covered it. I'm glad to see 60 Minutes still interested. They did a huge piece a couple of years ago. It got a gigantic reaction from the public. The producer, we know, Graham Messick, he is interested in the subject. He's looking for ways to keep it in the public eye.
Bill Whitaker, the correspondent for this piece, was also the correspondent in the previous report they did. I know that going in, he was nervous about what this might do to his career, but he stuck with it. He got a great response.
Obviously, they're not calling drones UFOs, and they're avoiding any implication that the things that were seen over New Jersey, over Langley Air Force Base, over Plant 42 in the Mojave Desert, over the bases in the U.K.,
that there's anything from outer space that they're, you know, kind of dismissing the idea that these are aliens or UFOs, but just covering the fact that these drones are mysterious, that they are coming from places we can't track. We can't track them when they leave. We're not able to bring them down. We, We can get into some details about that. And it's been going on a long time.
You know, I'm glad they covered it. And we were going to take issue with some of the things that they said in this report. But overall, I was I was happy with it. And we have no idea what challenges Graham Messick and Bill Whitaker have in trying to cover topics that a lot of people in mainstream media think are nonsense.
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Chapter 3: What are the implications of the Wall Street Journal's opinion piece?
And for a period, a year or so ago, these drones, mystery drones, are flying over Plant 42. Two years prior, Plant 42 had basically boasted, hey, we've got an electronic fence. We've got anti-drone technology. We're not worried about drones. Well, whatever they have, it didn't work because these things came in night after night, multiple different drones, different sizes.
They came from areas that were not trackable. They loitered over these very sensitive areas where very advanced platforms for our national security are being built and developed. And there was nothing that anyone could do. I know that security forces tried to follow them when they left after they... recorded whatever surveillance needs they had. They couldn't catch up to them.
They have no idea where they were launched. The proposal that maybe it's Chinese agents that, you know, are launching drones from some garage down there in these little towns, these little desert towns is preposterous. And it's an... indication that we have a real security problem with these drones, not only there, but in other examples that we're going to talk about.
You know, they gave lip service to this incident in the 60 Minutes story. I thought they could have done a lot better job because It was a serious matter, and we still don't know where those things came from, what their objective was. It was suggested to me, maybe it's a security test, that it is us flying things over sensitive places to see how personnel and systems will react.
That might explain some of them, but it doesn't explain all of them. And we saw that in the 60 Minutes report. They're talking to these high-level military guys. If anyone would know if this is a security test, it's them, and clearly it is not.
Yeah. I mean, if you're doing what they call like a red force operation, you know, where you're trying to see the vulnerabilities by doing these tests to see how they respond, you're going to notify the base commander. You're going to notify the people that need to know so that they don't have some kind of unconditioned response that is bad. So it's foolish. It's ridiculous.
It's like the White House coming out and saying, oh, nothing to see here. All of these things were FAA approved. We know that to not be true, not only from internal comms that we've seen, but from, you know, people high up in these regulatory bodies being like, if it was the FAA, we didn't know. So it's almost fundamentally ridiculous. But when you get Wall Street Journal in 60 minutes, kind of,
Moving over parts of the topic, especially 60 Minutes, inaccurately, then we have a real, Houston, we got a problem. And so, yeah, want to talk about a couple of those problems just so people get the facts right.
Yeah. I mean, in this piece, they reference stories that we helped break. Yeah. videos that we released to the public. The reason they have them is because we found them and put them out. But they referenced the 2019 drone swarms that were reported by these 10 U.S. Navy warships 100 miles out to sea off the Southern California coast. And it happened for several days in July of 2019.
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Chapter 4: What happened during the 2019 UAP swarms?
Like that's the connotation that comes with using that phrase, even though that is the proper phrase for what we saw and what we classify. Can you tell me a little bit why this doesn't fit with a conventional drone? We were always trying to listen and we couldn't really hear anything.
which is also different from what we've experienced with drones that are in close as these appeared to be, you would hear something a lot of times.
Like you would hear rotors, whirling of blades, something like that. Conventional propulsion.
Correct. For like more of a conventional drone, a national drone would still have like a low hum of an aircraft flying, which you would hear.
And you don't recall hearing that from these? What else in general just doesn't add up with the conventional drone idea?
Just in general, we were a good amount off of land, and I'm not sure if I can disclose exactly how far away we were, but it was not a range that a conventional drone should ever be able to traverse, especially for the amount of time that we were seeing these. Nothing we know of can stay out here for that long. The amount of time that we were seeing them was well beyond...
I mean, if they flew out there, they would probably need to fly back. So I know that it wasn't a civilian. It absolutely wasn't civilians. because there's nothing available or even that you could modify to do what we saw.
So in the 60 Minutes piece, they're showing, I believe it was USS Russell, where on the night they're doing drone, because that's all you can write when you're seeing something that does not appear to be able to hold a human. It makes sense. Of course, it's a drone. But what you're trying to do is, one, say the Pentagon knew and didn't dispel speculation that they were UFOs or UAPs.
And that is absolutely 100% false. And then additionally, you're implying that the word drone had any meaning in these ship logs. It is not only false, it is disingenuous. I have to say, it really pisses me off because I could have put them in touch with... dozens of direct eyewitnesses that could have told them the real shebang, what was going on.
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Chapter 5: Why is the term 'drone' misleading in the context of UFOs?
We had our friend active Navy commander guts, John Gutierrez on, and we had a dialogue about some of these swarms. And one of the things that I believe it was in that episode we provided was audio from the individual in charge of monitoring through surveillance equipment, the bass straight in real time,
This individual, if you remember the audio, he wanted to be able to say, yep, yep, we see where they're landing and launching from. Problem is, they weren't. I want to talk about origin. There's been a lot of talk that these objects, if not launched from land, that they were launched from a merchant vessel. So the Bass Strait is a lot of people are trying to pin this on the Bass Strait.
Can you tell me a little bit about that, about origin and what you know about the Bass Strait?
This was the closest that we ever came to on our ship, figuring a possible origin outside of coming from land somehow. Like you said, traversing those 30 to 50 miles that we were from the nearest islands. So at one point, we did see what looked like multiple air contacts around a merchant ship that was operating in our vicinity of our strike group. And it was a foreign flag merchant ship.
And we reached out to them. They denied they weren't a vessel of interest that we had been worried about or anything. But I think it was like five to 10 of the aircraft circling around it. And we never saw it actually land on this vessel.
Was it your impression that the contacts did not belong to the merchant vessel? And can you verify that you asked the merchant vessel and they denied that they were theirs?
Yeah, I can verify the latter for sure. And that was also why I sort of skirted around saying many details about that merchant vessel because I wasn't, I'm not sure where the investigation went afterwards. I sort of helped compose the message that we sent off because I'd seen it. And like I said, we didn't see them land on it. And that was what we really wanted to see.
Like we really wanted to see either a launch or a landing. We didn't know if possibly this vessel had a foreign nations intelligence detachment on board or something like that doing this. They did deny they were the source and they also never landed or launched them. So. Right. Really wanted to see that because we just wanted an answer because we were tired of it.
It was not launching, was not receiving the drones as much as we wanted it to. Like we were like, this is the source. This has to be it. We finally figured it out. And it seemed like it probably wasn't just based on the fact that we never saw them land or take off. They weren't.
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Chapter 6: What is the significance of the Bass Strait in UFO history?
And as we heard from witnesses, sometimes 30 or 40 of them coming over that base were The Langley folks had to move the F-22s out of there. We can speculate about what else might be at Langley. And maybe in the future, we're going to talk about what it might have drawn column unidentifieds to that particular base.
But, you know, so in this 60 Minutes piece for these high ups in the military admit we don't know who's flying them, what their job is, where they're from, who's responsible because they are unidentified. But I recall Jay Stratton, when he was in charge of the UAP task force, getting slammed by police. media pundits who said, you know, it's really your fault that we can't detect these things.
The UAP Task Force is so interested in trying to track UFOs that NORAD is completely unprepared for things like the Chinese balloons that were such a big story, the Dronapalooza for a couple of weeks a few years ago. You know, that's your fault, UAP Task Force, because you want us to look for UFOs, which is the complete opposite of what is the case.
They've been making the case that we need to look for unconventional objects in our space, including drones, including balloons. And NORAD, which is, you know, kind of programmed, their sensors are programmed to look for bombers and missiles, which we perceive as a threat, but they don't look for these kinds of things.
And as we heard in that 60 Minutes story, we don't even have the capability to detect low-flying small objects that invade restricted airspace.
UAP task force was a task force specifically dedicated to UAP has nothing to do with the type of work that NORAD does. Like we have great Raytheon technology out on Guam that have incredible capability to be able to perceive, you know, threats and things coming in even very small into our atmosphere. So yeah, that's a kind of slide a hand thing again.
So I do want to reel it in a little bit and I will be more encouraging. I do want to say I am, I am stoked that 60 minutes did a piece. you know, personal message to Graham. Keep it up, dude. We need you, you know, keep doing it.
I would just say, you know, treading into the territory of reporting on things that are as important as I believe the 2019 thing is that you want to get it right and not propagate false information. I know as journalists, if we make a mistake. We try to repent and repair, and we try to put that out.
But this is one of those situations where we need to call it out, like our friend Merrick did, saying, hey, if you're going to talk about this case, put the most important piece of footage out there with all the corroborative sensor data. Don't just mention it. Put out the radar. Put out the USS Omaha FLIR footage. Really dive in. Otherwise, we're doing a disservice.
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