President Joe Biden ordered U.S. officials on Monday to create an interagency team to investigate “unidentified aerial phenomena” after recently ordering military officials to shoot down four flying objects through North American airspace over the last ten days.
“The president, through his national security adviser, has today directed an interagency team to study the broader policy implications for detection, analysis, and disposition of unidentified aerial objects that pose either safety or security risks,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said during a White House press briefing.
The announcement from NORAD comes amid national security concerns after U.S. officials shot down four objects over North America this month, including a Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina and three similar objects in Alaska, Michigan, and Canada.
“Every element of the government will redouble their efforts to understand and mitigate these events,” Kirby added.
None of the three most recent objects American forces shot down posed a threat, Kirby said, adding that no signs of communication or “maneuvering or had any propulsion capabilities” had come from the objects.
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) questioned why the Biden Administration would create an agency he helped establish in 2021.
“Why is the White House creating a new “interagency team” to monitor, investigate & report on unidentified aerial objects when we already have @DoD_AARO which we helped create over two years ago?” Rubio said on Twitter.
Department of Defense officials announced last year the establishment of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, which partners with other U.S. federal departments and agencies to detect, identify and attribute objects of interest, including anomalous, unidentified space, airborne, submerged, and transmedium objects, in several areas of interest.
Rubio, who serves on the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2021, proposed a bill that called for the Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon Task Force after reports indicated objects were flying over the top of U.S. military installations.
“My thing is very simple, we don’t know what that stuff is that’s flying over the top of our installations,” Rubio told TMZ at the time. “Let’s find out.”
Kirby said during the press conference on Monday Biden conducted the first-ever daily intelligence briefing session devoted to this phenomenon in June of 2021 after noting that such unidentified aerial phenomena had been reported for many years without explanation or deep examination by the government.
A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Monday as reported by NBC that Biden Administration officials are scheduled to brief all U.S. Senators on classified material about the unidentified objects on Tuesday morning.
Kirby said that U.S. officials are still determining the nature and origin of the three most recent objects.
“I don’t think the American people need to worry about aliens with respect to these crafts,” added Kirby.
U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command Air Force Gen. Glen VanHerck told reporters Sunday he has not ruled out “anything at this point” when asked if extraterrestrials were involved with the objects.
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