TYB
Space Force delivers rapid tech awards for commercial industry
July 8, 2026
The Space Force awarded seven Other Transaction Authority agreements in May and June 2026 and plans to award an additional six in July for a total of 13 awards and more than $500M to a diverse coalition of commercial providers for advanced technology development in support of the Space Combat Power portfolio.
With the recent establishment of Portfolio Acquisition Executives, PAEs now have increased authority to make technology investments that are directly relevant to their most pressing needs for programs in their operational mission area.
“This kind of award illustrates how a ‘tech pull’ strategy enables Space Force capabilities keep pace with the threat,” said Col. Bryon McClain, acting Portfolio Acquisition Executive for Space Combat Power.
This acquisition effort is designed to rapidly integrate advanced commercial capabilities into the national security space architecture while aggressively bolstering the domestic space industrial base.
These efforts are also in partnership with the Air Force Research Laboratory, the Missile Defense Agency and National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and are capitalizing on their expertise and experience in these mission areas.
The selected vendors will immediately begin competing for Task Orders to prototype, test, and field technologies that support joint warfighting operations worldwide.
Additional details are not available due to operational security considerations.
https://www.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/4537826/space-force-delivers-rapid-tech-awards-for-commercial-industry/
moar Space Force
https://www.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/4535049/air-force-earns-top-accolades-in-2026-dow-environmental-awards/
https://x.com/SpaceForceCSO/status/2075025289164231148
https://x.com/USEmbassyWarsaw/status/2074421463289823462
https://x.com/SpaceForceCSO/status/2075014524625666460
still up for me
SpaceX Starlink Mission and Jellyfish
July 9, 2026
On Thursday, July 9 at 5:25 a.m. ET, Falcon 9 launched 29 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
This was the 36th flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched CRS-22, Crew-3, Turksat 5B, Crew-4, CRS-25, Eutelsat HOTBIRD 13G, SES O3B mPOWER-A, PSN SATRIA, Telkomsat Merah Putih 2, Galileo, Koreasat-6A, and now 25 Starlink missions.
Following stage separation, the first stage landed on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship, which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.
https://www.spacex.com/launches/sl-10-42
https://x.com/spacejellyalert/status/2075150714498638149
https://x.com/MattDevittWX/status/2075213125717008551
https://x.com/SpaceX/status/2075176864558006425
https://x.com/EdPiotrowski/status/2075153238949601750
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlP96NjHG0Y
US to let Ukraine produce Patriot interceptor missiles – Trump
Washington still refuses to provide more ammunition directly, as its stocks were reportedly depleted during the war with Iran
9 Jul, 2026 02:31 | Updated 9 Jul, 2026 04:32
he US could grant Ukraine a license to manufacture Patriot anti-aircraft missiles, President Donald Trump has said during a meeting with Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Türkiye.
He maintained, however, that Washington would not supply the missiles directly.
Ukraine has been heavily dependent on weapons from its Western backers throughout most of its conflict with Russia, which is now in its fifth year.
Zelensky has repeatedly blamed the West for arms shortages and delays in deliveries, while constantly demanding more aid, including Patriot missiles, saying Ukraine does not have enough interceptors to counter Russian airstrikes.
“We’re going to give a license to you to make Patriots. That’s pretty cool. This way, you can’t complain that we’re not giving them enough,” Trump told Zelensky during a meeting in Ankara on Wednesday.
“It’s a defensive weapon, which I like better than an offensive weapon,” Trump added.
While continuing to support Ukraine, Trump has at times attacked Zelensky, calling him “ungrateful,” and angered many in Kiev by suggesting that Ukraine may have to give up territory to Russia.
He has also criticized the previous administration of Joe Biden for aiding Ukraine unconditionally and stressed that European NATO members would pay for US weapons delivered to Kiev through the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) scheme.
The US burned through its arsenal of interceptors during the war with Iran, with an estimate by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) suggesting that the Pentagon used nearly half of its available Patriot missiles by April.
“We have Patriots, but we don’t have that many. We need them for ourselves too,” Trump said in response to a question on whether the US would send the missiles directly. He added that Ukraine could set up production “pretty quickly.”
Bloomberg reported that Ukraine would face challenges in obtaining parts to assemble the sophisticated weapons, considering that the existing supply chain is already strained.
“A Patriot missile takes years to build, meaning Ukrainian production of these missiles won’t materialize on the near-term timelines they need,” Becca Wasser, the publication’s defense lead, said.
Russia has warned that continued deliveries of Western arms make NATO members de facto participants in the conflict and risk triggering an all-out war.
In March, the Russian Defense Ministry published what it said are the addresses of companies involved in producing drone components for Ukraine on European territory. The ministry warned that European leaders are “dragging their countries into a war with Russia.”
Assembly lines for Patriot missiles in Ukraine would likely become high-priority targets for Russia. On Wednesday, the Defense Ministry announced strikes on several military sites across Ukraine, including a Samsung Ukraine facility it said was manufacturing components for FP-5 Flamingo cruise missiles.
https://www.rt.com/news/642782-ukraine-produce-patriot-missile-trump/
extra RT
https://www.rt.com/russia/642792-fsb-drone-assassination-plot/
https://www.rt.com/news/642715-polish-mep-tears-ukrainian-nazi-flag/
https://www.rt.com/news/642800-babis-nato-ukraine-strategy/
https://www.rt.com/news/642736-eu-parliament-poland-nazi-ukraine/
Ukrainian Drones Strike Russian Oil Sites and Tankers
July 9, 2026
Overnight Ukrainian drone attacks struck oil facilities and tankers in at least three Russian regions and knocked out power in partially occupied Ukraine, local authorities said Thursday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed strikes on oil depots in the Stavropol and Tver regions, a reserve fuel facility in an undisclosed region, an oil pumping station in the republic of Bashkortostan and a marine loading terminal in the Rostov region.
In the central Tver region, acting Governor Vitaly Korolyov said a storage tank at the Tver Oil Depot caught fire “as a result of efforts to repel” an overnight drone attack. Firefighters managed to contain the blaze by 7 a.m. local time, he added, noting that there were no injuries.
Stavropol region Governor Vladimir Vladimirov said an unspecified “industrial facility” caught fire in the attack, also adding that there were no injuries. An hour later, he said the flames reached combustible tanks, leading to an evacuation of nearby homes.
Authorities in the southern Rostov region said two oil tankers were damaged in a drone attack in the Sea of Azov, with one of them still on fire as of 7 a.m. Governor Yury Slyusar said there were no injuries and the crew members of both tankers were brought to safety.
Ukraine’s military said it struck 12 Russian tankers, one tugboat and one cargo ship in the Sea of Azov as part of efforts to “reduce the Russian aggressor’s military and economic potential.”
“The targeted vessels were used, among other things, to supply fuel and lubricants to Russian military groups, as well as to transport oil and oil products bypassing international sanctions,” Ukraine’s General Staff said.
In annexed Crimea, Moscow-backed authorities said one person was killed in a Ukrainian drone attack.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said it intercepted 73 Ukrainian drones across Russia and in annexed Crimea between Wednesday night and Thursday morning.
In the partially occupied Kherson region of southern Ukraine, Kremlin-installed authorities said air attacks “fully or partially” knocked out power across the Russian-held territory.
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2026/07/09/ukrainian-drones-strike-russian-oil-sites-and-tankers-a93206
other Russia and Ukraine
https://www.straitstimes.com/world/europe/russias-saratov-oil-refinery-at-a-halt-since-july-8-drone-attack-sources-say
https://united24media.com/war-in-ukraine/ukraine-strikes-key-russia-to-crimea-power-link-in-major-drone-attack-20598
https://united24media.com/world/putin-linked-100m-yacht-flees-st-petersburg-with-anti-drone-netting-amid-ukrainian-strikes-threat-20616
https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-crime/4142531-ssu-detains-spotter-coordinating-russian-missile-and-drone-strikes-on-cherkasy-region.html
https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/iran-news/2026-07-09/live-updates-901946
other Israel
https://vinnews.com/2026/07/09/idf-chief-of-staff-iran-campaign-not-over-major-operations-still-ahead/
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/netanyahu-idf-will-remain-in-lebanon-as-long-as-needed-well-maintain-regional-air-superiority/
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/defense-news/article-902052
https://worldisraelnews.com/watch-idf-destroys-terror-tunnels-in-fortified-lebanese-village/
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/us-military-delegation-headed-to-beirut-to-work-out-details-of-idf-handover-of-pilot-areas-to-lebanon/
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/defense-news/article-902049
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/islamic-jihad-commander-hamas-sniper-killed-in-separate-gaza-strikes-idf-says/
https://www.jns.org/news/israel-news/idf-detains-israelis-trying-to-cross-into-syria
https://www.jns.org/news/israel-news/zamir-idf-to-finalize-new-ai-drone-robotics-unit-structure
https://worldisraelnews.com/israel-says-gaza-aid-deliveries-are-significantly-exceeding-international-benchmarks/
Live Updates: Sirens continue to sound in Jordan, Kuwait, as Iran says US attacks disrupt opening of strait
July 9, 2026
July 9, 6:31 PM
Current round of fighting between US, Iran not expected to involve Israel, officials tell 'Post'
IDF officials do not expect Israel to be drawn into the US-Iran exchanges at this time.
The current round of fighting between the United States and Iran is not expected to spill over to Israel, The Jerusalem Post learned on Thursday.
IDF officials do not expect Israel to be drawn into the US-Iran exchanges at this time, though they said that the military is ready for any eventuality.
Additionally, the officials said that the current assumption is that Iran doesn't plan to drag Israel into the conflict, with no expected Iranian strikes in the near future.
July 9, 6:04 PM
Iran warns against further US military 'adventurism'
Araghchi said this after condemning US attacks on Iran as a violation of the Islamabad MoU.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi warned against any further US military "adventurism" on Thursday, after condemning US attacks on Iran as a violation of the Islamabad memorandum of understanding in a phone call with Pakistan's army chief, Iran's foreign ministry said.
July 9, 5:27 PM
IDF destroys 200 meters of Lebanon terror tunnels, finds weapons cache
The weapons cache included mortars, launchers, and RPG rockets, the IDF said.
Soldiers from the IDF's 551st Brigade and the Yahalom Unit located and dismantled two tunnel routes while operating in Majdal Zoun in southern Lebanon, the military said Thursday.
The two routes had a combined length of about 200 meters and contained living quarters, rocket launch shafts, and dozens of weapons.
The weapons cache included mortars, launchers, and RPG rockets, the IDF said.
Earlier in the week, troops also killed an armed terrorist near one of the tunnels.
July 9, 5:19 PM
IDF strike kills October 7 terrorist, kidnapper in Gaza Strip
Also on Tuesday, Gazan sources claimed that a senior aid worker was also killed in an IDF strike.
The IDF, using Shin Bet intelligence, conducted a targeted strike in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday, killing terrorist Wahid Abu Salam, who previously served as commander of the Western Company in Khan Yunis.
On October 7, 2023, Salam raided Israeli territory and took part in the kidnapping of Israeli civilians in the Gaza Strip, and even took part in holding them captive in the southern Gaza Strip, according to the military.
The IDF added that Salam was also involved in more recent terror plots and posed an immediate threat to Israeli forces in the area.
Also on Tuesday, Gazan sources claimed that Mohammad al-Waheidi, a senior Palestinian member of Egypt's main aid organization, was also killed in a strike on his taxi in Gaza City. The strike killed three others, including two children aged 10 and 8, according to Reuters, citing local medics.
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July 9, 4:23 PM
‘Violating the spirit of the deal’: Iran abused lack of MoU safeguards to assume control of Hormuz
The recent attacks on Gulf nations are an attempt to circumvent the intent of Clause 5 of the MoU.
Tehran is using military coercion to force Gulf states to accept the Islamic Republic’s administration over the vital Strait of Hormuz, according to a new assessment by the Institute for the Study of War.
The recent attacks on Gulf nations are an attempt to circumvent the intent of Clause 5 of the memorandum of understanding, which calls for dialogue with Oman and Persian Gulf littoral states to define the future administration and maritime services in the Strait of Hormuz within the framework of international law.
Parliamentary National Security and Foreign Policy Commission member Alaeddin Boroujerdi insisted on Wednesday that commercial vessel traffic through the strait must occur under Iranian oversight and management, specifically through the IRGC Navy.
July 9, 4:22 PM
Iran retaliates with strikes on US Gulf assets as regional sirens sound
The retaliatory strikes come after the US struck around 90 sites overnight.
Sirens sounded across the Middle East as Iran launched retaliatory strikes on US assets in the Gulf Region on Thursday.
Iran's air force is flying fighter jets to "secure the skies over the funeral procession" of the former supreme leader Ali Khamenei in Mashhad, the regime-affiliated Fars news agency said.
The retaliatory strikes come after the US struck around 90 sites overnight from Wednesday to Thursday in Iran.
The most recent round of US strikes was completed early Thursday morning in Iran. The US military struck various sites throughout southern Iran "to further degrade Iran's ability to attack commercial shipping and innocent civil mariners in the Strait of Hormuz," the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement on X/Twitter.
July 9, 3:34 PM
Iran says US attacks disrupt reopening of Strait of Hormuz, statement
Iran's Revolutionary Guards Navy said on Thursday that US attacks on Iran and intervention in redirecting shipping through the Strait of Hormuz were disrupting the strategic waterway's gradual reopening and jeopardizing the interests of countries benefiting from it.
The Guards added that transit capacity under Iran's supervision had recovered to about 50% of pre-war levels over the past two weeks, and that it was being expanded only for vessels granted permits to use routes designated by Iran.
They warned that any further US intervention would draw a "crushing response."
July 9, 2:49 PM
Explosions heard in Bandar Abbas
Several explosions were heard in Iran's Bandar Abbas on Thursday, according to the semi-official Iranian state news agency Mehr.
July 9, 2:43 PM
Jordan intercepts Iranian missiles, no casualties
Jordan intercepted a reported 8 missiles launched from Iran, according to Jordan's state news agency. No casualties or damages were reported as a result of the attack.
July 9, 2:38 PM
Drone attack hits Iranian Kurdish opposition group camp northeast of Iraq's Erbil
A drone attack hit a camp belonging to an Iranian Kurdish opposition group northeast of Iraq's Erbil, security sources told Reuters on Thursday.
No casualties were immediately reported in the attack.
2/2
Joint Interagency Task Force 401 Publishes Counter-Drone Handbook
July 8, 2026
Joint Interagency Task Force 401 recently published a practical handbook designed to aid audiences across government, industry and academia in building a shared understanding of the drone threat and the basic principles of protecting against illicit drones.
The task force developed the guide, titled "Small Drones, Big Problems: A First Principles Approach to Countering-UAS," as part of its mission to synchronize counter-unmanned aircraft systems efforts across the War Department and federal interagency partners.
The handbook also establishes a common vocabulary and incorporates the latest information about UAS, including lessons learned from operations in the Middle East and on battlefields in Europe.
It explains how adversaries can use drones, outlines the key components of a layered drone defense and examines the factors that enable successful counter-UAS operations.
"It is crucial to build a common foundation for counter-drone efforts as we work with the entire government and interagency partners to respond to this growing threat," said Army Maj. Joe Amoroso, deputy chief of strategic initiatives for JIATF 401.
"This guide shares vital first principles and direct feedback from warfighters employing [counter]-UAS systems so the entire community has the means, methods and concepts for countering the defining threat of our time."
The handbook emphasizes a layered approach as the most effective defense against illicit drones, with a variety of tools available to counter threats.
It reinforces the importance of capabilities that go beyond technological solutions, including training for warfighters that equips them with the knowledge and permissions they need to respond to drone threats in real time.
Through this publication, JIATF 401 continues its mission to expand counter-UAS capability to warfighters at home and abroad.
"While there is no silver bullet to protect against drones, the threat can be mitigated if we are proactive, work with partners across the government and build a layered defense," said Army Brig. Gen. Matt Ross, task force director.
"We have faced novel challenges before, and we should not be intimidated by this one. We should lean in and take every possible step to prepare ourselves to dominate on the modern battlefield."
https://www.war.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/4538032/joint-interagency-task-force-401-publishes-counter-drone-handbook/
https://media.defense.gov/2026/Jul/08/2003958884/-1/-1/1/SMALL-DRONES-BIG-PROBLEMS-A-FIRST-PRINCIPLES-APPROACH-TO-COUNTER-UAS.PDF
other US drones
https://dronelife.com/2026/07/09/faa-clears-montis-drone-for-u-s-avalanche-control-operations/
Burlison Presses CIA and FBI for Records Related to 1996 Brazil UAP Incident
July 8, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Eric Burlison (R-MO), a member of the Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets, sent letters to Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Ratcliffe and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Kash Patel requesting an accounting of U.S. government records and potential investigative equities related to the January 1996 Varginha/Campinas, Brazil unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) incident.
While the letters do not ask the CIA or FBI to validate any particular public claim, recent public statements attributed to former Brazilian Defense Minister Aldo Rebelo concerning the 1996 Varginha case underscore the need for Congress to determine whether U.S. government records, flight records, liaison reporting, contractor records, or material-transfer documentation exist—and whether any continued restriction of those records remains legally justified.
The CIA letter requests that the agency review and produce to Congress records responsive to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Reference No. F-2023-00442, which sought records concerning U.S. government flights, transfers of materials, and coordination with Brazilian authorities during the period of January 14, 1996, through January 28, 1996, including activity in or near Campinas, São Paulo State, Brazil. In its January 10, 2025, response to that private FOIA request, the CIA neither confirmed nor denied the existence of responsive records, citing FOIA exemptions (b)(1) and (b)(3).
The FBI letter requests that the bureau determine whether investigative equities exist, preserve relevant records, conduct appropriate records searches, and provide Congress with a briefing concerning whether it possesses records, legal attaché reporting, domestic investigative equities, or information involving U.S.-government personnel, U.S. persons, federal contractors, U.S.-registered aircraft, or other federal interests connected to the same matter.
Rep. Burlison has previously requested that federally funded research and development centers, including MITRE and MIT Lincoln Laboratory, identify and preserve legacy UAP-related records.
These letters to the CIA and FBI apply the same basic principle to a decades-old international incident that agencies and contractors should not be able to place historically significant records beyond congressional review through classification, contract structures, mis-indexing, or custody transfers.
https://burlison.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/burlison.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/cia-foia-letter-request.pdf
https://burlison.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/burlison.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/fbi_investigation_request_1996_brazil_uap_crash.pdf
https://x.com/JoeKhalilTV/status/2074951804840743187
https://x.com/jamescfox/status/2074945560029650986
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGWjSE3hPeU (Rep. Eric Burlison issues a request to the FBI & CIA over a popular UFO case - Psicoactivo #1083)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHN95mmf6ho (Moment of Contact Full Movie)
https://burlison.house.gov/media/press-releases/burlison-presses-cia-and-fbi-records-related-1996-brazil-uap-incident
https://liesabove.com/articles/releasing-the-fuo-documents-is-not-enough-part-1-whistleblower-protections/
https://x.com/VanguardEnterpr/status/2074215052752695692
https://x.com/VanguardEnterpr/status/2074577440605634860
https://x.com/SunOfAbramelin/status/2074916270328225873
https://x.com/VanguardEnterpr/status/2075236282041499759
https://www.vanguardenterprise.org/
Releasing the UFO Files is Not Enough, The UFO Trojan Horse Part 1: Whistleblowers
08 Jul 2026
I came to the UFO topic a skeptic, and I was wrong. Whatever the ultimate origin, it's a Trojan Horse for very real terrestrial issues. Part 1 starts with whistleblowers, and the retaliation they faced for coming forward.
I came to the UFO topic a skeptic. Like most people, I assumed it was mostly prosaic explanations with a bit of disinformation mixed in, and I didn't expect to find anything real underneath. I was wrong.
Whatever the ultimate origin turns out to be, I've found the UFO topic is a Trojan Horse for very real terrestrial issues. Releasing the UFO files is not enough.
The flaws that allowed this to happen have to be fixed. This is Part 1 of a multipart series on those flaws, starting with whistleblowers and the retaliation they faced for coming forward.
Part 1: Whistleblowers
Part 2: Overclassification
Part 3: Oversight
Transparency Note: After this book's content was finished, I began working pro bono with whistleblowers, whistleblower groups, and nonprofits in the UAP space.
As a cybersecurity researcher, my interest was purely technical. I hoped to come across advanced malware worth writing about. My involvement should not be read as endorsing or dismissing anyone's claims.
The UFO Conspiracy Isn't a Theory
The UFO topic is often dismissed as a conspiracy theory. I used to call it one myself. But a conspiracy and a conspiracy theory are not the same thing.
Conspiracy. A secret plan or agreement between two or more people to do something unlawful or harmful.
Conspiracy theory. The belief that an event is the work of a secret plot by powerful groups, held even when other explanations are more probable.
After years of investigation, one of the few things in this topic that I can definitively say isn't a theory is the conspiracy itself.
I've seen the retaliation firsthand. An op-ed never finished after a break-in. Cords cut. And account-takeover attempts conveniently timed just before they came forward for email addresses that are not public.
Scientific studies with predetermined conclusions meant to mislead the public and shape policy. Misappropriation of funds. Psychological operations aimed at the American public.
All of it in writing, by the programs that carried it out and the directors who ran them.
Members of both parties on the secrets task force say they cannot get straight answers.
Congressman Eric Burlison has said the Intelligence Community Inspector General found some of Grusch's allegations consistent with his account, that the programs weren't following the law, weren't reporting to Congress, and were overly compartmentalized.
What it couldn't establish was what the programs were actually doing, because it "had a hard time getting these programs to even respond."
Damned If You Do
Whistleblowers should be supported, protected, and even actively encouraged, because history keeps proving they are sometimes the only warning a country gets.
In 1934, Major General Smedley Butler, at his death the most decorated Marine in the country's history, testified under oath to Congress that a group of wealthy businessmen had tried to recruit him to lead a private army of veterans and overthrow President Roosevelt.
He was mocked. The New York Times called the story a "gigantic hoax." Then the House committee that looked into it concluded otherwise, finding "there is no question that these attempts were discussed, were planned, and might have been placed in execution when and if the financial backers deemed it expedient." No one was ever prosecuted. A coup against an elected president was planned, the only reason we know is that one general refused to go along, and the country's first instinct was to doubt him and charge no one.
If even he could be waved off, consider the calculation facing an ordinary employee deciding whether to come forward.
In December 2007, former CIA officer John Kiriakou became the first U.S. official to confirm on the record that the agency had waterboarded its prisoners, and to call it torture.
He was right, as the Senate's own investigation would later document in detail. It did not protect him. Four years later the Justice Department charged him, and in 2012 he pleaded guilty to disclosing the identity of a covert officer.
He served nearly two years in federal prison, and he remains the only person connected to the CIA's torture program to spend a day behind bars, punished not for the torture but for talking about it.
1/3
Gina Haspel, who had run one of the black sites, was named CIA director in 2018. As Kiriakou wrote that year:
"While I went to prison for disclosing the torture program, Haspel is about to get a promotion despite her connection to it."
In a June 2024 complaint to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a woman using the pseudonym Daniella Sparks alleged that the CIA's own Threat Management Unit and Office of General Counsel:
"repeatedly instructed myself and the other victims to make false statements to law enforcement and informed us that if we associated ourselves with CIA in any manner, we would be guilty of mishandling classified information."
The agency's own lawyers, in other words, allegedly warned assault victims that telling the police the truth would make them criminals.
Well before that complaint was filed, a CIA trainee named Rachel Cuda had already lived it. She did what a victim is supposed to do. She set out to report her assault. The FBI is federal and holds clearances.
The CIA's own security office is even supposed to keep an FBI agent embedded for cases exactly like hers. By her account, the Agency would not give her that contact, and handed her the FBI's open, public phone number instead.
Her lawsuit says she was told she could not reveal her affiliation with the CIA, or her attacker's, to any law enforcement without the Agency's advance permission. She says she was ordered not to discuss the assault with anyone, and warned that doing so "may violate federal law."
When the CIA finally agreed she could give her attacker's name to local police, in December 2022 she took it to the FBI and the Fairfax County police, and three days later, by her account, its Office of General Counsel told her that she had mishandled classified information.
She was not the only one. By the account of a 2025 study in the Yale Law & Policy Review, the Agency accused multiple victims of mishandling classified information for making the very reports it had authorized.
A new law was supposed to end the confusion, and it did not.
Nine months after it passed, at an internal CIA town hall reported by CNN, the agency's chief operating officer, Maura Burns, admitted officers were still unsure how to report a crime without breaking the rules on classified information.
"There's still some hesitation and reservation about that," she said. Overclassification is its own problem, and one I'll cover in Part 2.
"Dead Men Tell No Tales"
For as long as this subject has been around, so have rumors of intimidation, violence, and even murder.
At the July 2023 House Oversight hearing, Representative Tim Burchett asked David Grusch point-blank whether he knew of anyone who had been murdered to protect the secret.
Grusch said he had to be careful how he answered, that he had directed people with that knowledge to the appropriate authorities.
Lue Elizondo is best known publicly for AATIP, but his more consequential work was elsewhere, as Director of the National Programs Special Management Staff inside the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence.
In the documentary The Age of Disclosure, he went past rumor. He argued the government has killed U.S. citizens without due process before. "It's not done very often," he said, "but we can."
That phrase, without due process, is worth pausing on, because it is the whole difference between a lawful killing and a murder. The Fifth Amendment says the government cannot deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.
Due process is what the state owes you before it can take those things, a charge, a hearing, a judge, a chance to defend yourself. Take it away and the killing has no legal justification, and a deliberate killing with no justification is typically considered murder.
Nothing about a badge or a clearance changes that. An official who kills a citizen outside the law can be charged with murder like anyone else, even if that reckoning almost never comes.
The fear turns up even in accounts from people who were never public figures.
Kirk McConnell spent thirty-seven years as a congressional staffer on the Senate Armed Services Committee and both intelligence committees, about as sober an institutionalist as this subject attracts.
Asked what convinced him the claims were real, he pointed to no single revelation, only "multiple moments," among them "listening to a particular witness or source who was himself visibly shaking at the prospect of revealing" what he had been exposed to.
"You go home," he said, "and you don't know what to do with yourself."
2/3
The government's own skeptic saw the same fear. Sean Kirkpatrick, the first director of AARO, noted his own investigators found a former Air Force officer visibly terrified, recounting how he had been read into a secret program called "Yankee Blue" and warned that if he ever spoke of it he could be "jailed or executed."
Part of why I did this investigation and wrote Lies Above is this. On podcasts, whistleblowers and former officials describing this retaliation can in some cases sound paranoid from the outside, or like they are embellishing to seem more credible.
After meeting some of them firsthand, seeing results of break-ins, surveillance, and hearing other private accounts I no longer doubt that it is happening.
Everyone Agrees. Nothing Changes.
Protecting whistleblowers is a rare thing both parties actually agree on. And it still never gets done. I will not pretend to know the perfect fix, but looking at whistleblower advocacy groups, there seem to be some straightforward and common-sense suggestions.
The Project on Government Oversight, a nonpartisan watchdog that testified before the House task force now handling declassification and UAP, has laid out six steps for Congress:
Give intelligence and military whistleblowers an independent place to report, with independent judges who can actually order relief when someone is punished for coming forward.
Overturn Navy v. Egan, the 1988 decision that lets an agency strip a security clearance, and end a career, with almost no outside review.
Hold the Pentagon to the same burden of proof as every civilian agency.
Let a whistleblower take a retaliation claim to court, in front of a jury.
Close the loophole that strips these protections from intelligence contractors.
Give the watchdog offices meant to police all of this real independence, and leaders who cannot be fired for doing their job.
Here's one I would add myself. The one piece of this system that actually rewards a whistleblower is the False Claims Act, which gives a person who exposes fraud against the government a share of whatever gets recovered, somewhere between 15 and 30 percent.
It works, but only if the money comes back. The government can decline the case, or move to dismiss it over the whistleblower's objection even when the fraud is real, and after the Supreme Court's 2023 ruling in Polansky that power is close to unreviewable.
If the government decides not to prosecute the case, it becomes the whistleblower's to carry, often after they have already lost their job for coming forward. The share actually rises, to between 25 and 30 percent, but the whistleblower now funds and runs the case alone.
The costs involved for legal cases can run into six figures, especially if they have to actually go to court. The cost and stress alone are enough to dissuade most whistleblowers.
Topping it off, the facts you would have to put in a complaint are the same ones whistleblowers are frequently threatened with prosecution for disclosing.
That is the box John Kiriakou was in. He went to prison for blowing the whistle. A decision that ends a fraud case, and someone's one shot at relief, should at least come with a stated reason they are allowed to appeal.
In the one national poll to put the question directly, 86 percent of Americans backed stronger legal protections for federal whistleblowers, including 78 percent of Republicans and 94 percent of Democrats.
Despite this, it still does not get done. One of the six fixes, closing the contractor loophole, passed the Senate unanimously and then stalled in the House.
A Call for Change
The people in this piece are not abstractions to me. I have sat across from some of them, and the reforms that would have protected them are not stalled because anyone is against them. They are stalled because Congress does not feel enough pressure to move.
You can be that pressure. Find your representative and your two senators, and tell them to pass these protections, starting with the contractor fix already through the Senate and waiting in the House.
It takes five minutes, and enough of them is the only thing that has ever moved a bill everyone claims to support.
3/3
https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/alien-mystery-deepens-nasa-insider-says-agency-holds-secret-archive-unreleased-ufo-footageq-1807874
https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/nasa-ufo-stigma-national-security-risk-1807889
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIyz79i5mUw
IBTimes saying hello
Alien Mystery Deepens: NASA Insider Says Agency Holds Secret Archive of Unreleased UFO FootageQ
09 July 2026, 3:05 PM BST
But did you see where it saidFootageQ?
A frustrated NASA insider is betting that the real UFO story lies not in old pilot reports, but in the silent reels of space footage still locked away.
Alien mystery is back on the agenda in Washington, after former NASA Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) study member Mike Gold claimed that US officials are now actively working on declassifying previously secret UFO material and urged investigators to scour NASA's vast space archives for unreleased footage.
In an interview with journalist Ross Coulthart, Gold said the next phase of disclosure would reach well beyond the three public 'tranches' of records already released under President Donald Trump.
The UFO and alien research community, which has complained that each new cache of government documents has looked more like a re-packaging exercise than a genuine lifting of the veil.
The earlier releases largely drawn from military reports and earth-based sightings generated headlines but left many observers unconvinced that the US government had shown its most sensitive hand, or anything that might settle long‑running questions about mysterious craft in the skies.
Gold, who served on NASA's independent UAP study team, argued that perception is at least partly accurate. According to his account, the three tranches published so far were never meant to be the end point.
Instead, he described them as the 'low-hanging fruit' of transparency, in which already‑known or easier‑to‑release material was packaged up for public consumption while more contentious files remained behind the classification wall.
'There's not a fourth tranche coming. There's an entire process… working on declassification,' Gold said, suggesting that the conversation inside government has shifted from whether to release records to how far and how fast officials can go.
His choice of words matters; 'process' is bureaucratic code for something grinding forward but resisting firm deadlines.
Gold did not promise a dramatic alien reveal on a particular date, or new crash‑retrieval documents ready to drop.
Instead, he painted a slower, more procedural picture in which the National Archives and other agencies are trying to identify what can be safely downgraded without colliding with national security rules or exposing intelligence methods.
In his reading, it is bureaucracy, not a grand, monolithic cover‑up, that is now doing much of the delaying.
1/2
NASA Archives And The Space-Based Alien Question
Gold's sharper criticism was reserved for where investigators have been looking. So far, most high‑profile UFO and UAP material has come from fighter jets, pilots and radar systems close to Earth.
Gold thinks that is only half the story. He wants a pivot towards NASA's own treasure trove of space‑based data tens of thousands of hours of footage and sensor logs gathered far above the atmosphere.
'I want to focus more on the space regime,' he said, arguing that any serious attempt to understand unknown objects naturally has to involve the vantage points that only NASA and allied agencies possess.
He pointed to previous comments from Christopher Mellon, a former Pentagon official and now head of the Disclosure Foundation board, who has been outspoken about the US holding quantities of unreleased UFO footage.
Gold's bluntest line was aimed at that gap in the record. 'We've gotten no data relative to our space‑based assets,' he said, before adding, 'and that's impossible.'
The implication is clear enough: if the US is monitoring low Earth orbit, the Moon and beyond with advanced instruments, it stretches credibility to suggest that nothing anomalous has ever shown up, or that every questionable frame of video has been dismissed without controversy.
None of this, to be clear, amounts to proof that alien craft are flitting through NASA imagery. Gold did not make that leap, and there remains no confirmed public evidence that any government holds verified alien technology or biological material.
Without those details, his comments sit in the grey zone between frustration and revelation a former insider insisting there is more material behind the curtain, but not yet able to show it.
Online Believers See Momentum In Slow Declassification
Despite that ambiguity, Gold's interview has been eagerly seized upon by parts of the online UFO community, who see it as a sign that the push for greater disclosure is still in motion.
On Reddit, one user welcomed his remarks as a counterweight to what they saw as creeping cynicism.
'Don't listen to the naysayers. Who cares if they call you gullible? Like we haven't heard that for the last 80 years, too?' the user wrote, dismissing the idea that disappointment so far should translate into giving up.
When another poster asked, '…why do you think this time will be different?,' the reply was blunt: officials had given 'no evidence they're going to stop,' coupled with the observation, 'I'm sure declassification takes time.'
That quiet patience is not universal. There remains a vocal strand of scepticism, both from those who think talk of alien craft is wildly overblown and from hard‑core believers who suspect that any public process will always keep the most dramatic truths locked away.
Gold's framing sits somewhere in the middle. He is not promising a Hollywood‑style reveal, but he is telling anyone who will listen that the official story is still being written, that the space‑age archives have barely been touched, and that the most interesting questions are not yet closed.
Nothing he described is independently confirmed, and until specific documents, images or videos are actually published and properly scrutinised every ambitious claim about hidden footage and secret repositories will need to be treated with a degree of caution.
2/2
Pastor who had UFO briefing: Beware of false prophecies
Updated: Jul 8, 2026 / 10:47 PM CDT
A Christian broadcaster who says he recently received a UFO briefing from government contractors warns the UAP disclosure movement could be used to deceive the masses.
Pastor Joseph Zupetz tells “Katie Pavlich Tonight” that he and some of his colleagues at a Nashville gathering met with knowledgeable sources who outlined plans to inform the public about extraterrestrial life.
At one point, he said, the contractors showed the pastors images of purported aliens.
“We didn’t fall apart like a $2 suitcase or start shaking,” he recalled. “It did indeed get my attention. You know, we’re in a world where you can falsify just about anything through digital augmentation or whatever.”
He said the presenters warned the pastors that the coming disclosure about nonhuman intelligence could be twisted.
“They began to share with us, ‘Hey, it’s coming,’ but here’s the deception. The deception is, the narrative will change from ‘We’re not alone in the universe’ to ‘We have a message for you.’
“And the message is going to be, ‘We have come to enlighten your consciousness … the Bible’s close, but here’s the full message.’”
Zupetz urged Christians not to fall for what effectively would be a false prophecy.
On the way home, the pastor said, said his plane was trailed by mysterious lights.
https://www.newsnationnow.com/space/ufo/pastor-joseph-z-ufo-deception/
https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/pastor-warns-ufo-disclosure-biblical-threat-1807857
https://x.com/InterstellarUAP/status/2075075030203941083
"They give you a hard time,” AOC complains it's harder to get SCIF briefings since leaving Oversight
Jul 09, 2026
Who?
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) — Member, Energy & Commerce Committee
Ask a Pol asks:
Have you had time to look at any of these three batches of UFO or UAP files the Pentagon’s been dropping? Or is the topic less interesting to you now?
Key AOC:
“No, it’s not that. It’s that I’m not on the committee of jurisdiction. I’ve moved off of Oversight,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez exclusively tells Ask a Pol UAP. “When you’re not on the committee of jurisdiction, they don’t tell us when these things go out.”
Caught our ear:
“If you try to see these for yourself, they give you a hard time,” AOC tells us. “They’re like, ‘why do you want to see this?’”
BONUS: AOC II — from June 2nd*
“It reminds me when they first released the Epstein files, and they were just like binders with nothing in them,” AOC told Ask a Pol UAP in a separate exchange on June 2, 2026 right after the Pentagon dropped the first batch of UFO files.
*pardon the delay; the Senate Radio-TV Gallery Correspondents’ Association is still blocking Laslo from credentialing the Ask a Pol team, so he doesn’t have any help at the moment.
https://www.askapoluaps.com/p/aoc-pentagon-ufo-files-oversight-epstein-comparison
https://x.com/AskaPol_UAPs/status/2075252855833764034
New Claims Trump Has a UFO Speech Ready
July 8, 2026
>New Claims Trump Has a UFO Speech Ready
Did not materialize btw ICYMI
A claim that has circulated for months is back in the spotlight.
According to UK filmmaker Mark Christopher Lee, President Trump has a UFO disclosure speech written and ready, one that would confirm the government holds recovered craft and beings that are not from Earth.
Lee has been predicting a Trump disclosure moment since the start of this year, and he notes that back in January he said the Pentagon would begin releasing UFO files in the spring, which did happen.
He now describes the alleged draft as a form of soft disclosure that would reference past incidents such as the Navy’s Tic Tac encounter and the East Coast sightings, explain the years of secrecy, announce new declassification steps and a task force, and frame the subject not as a threat but as a chance to unite humanity.
Lee named aerospace billionaire Robert Bigelow, a major donor to Trump’s campaign, as one of his sources, and said Bigelow has taken credit for convincing the president to prepare the speech.
That detail lines up with reporting from Rolling Stone, referenced in yesterday’s update, describing a December 2025 meeting between Bigelow and cabinet member Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that reportedly turned to UFOs.
About two months later, Trump signed his directive ordering the file releases. Lee has been careful to add a warning, admitting he was, in his own words, misled by a Washington insider source who fed him earlier dates and then stopped taking his calls.
He has said he is not one hundred percent certain of the current claim.
The pattern concerns some observers. According to Eli Karetny, a political scientist and acting director of the Ralph Bunche Institute at the City University of New York, the June 9th briefing with whistleblower David Grusch had what he called a staged quality, unfolding in careful stages rather than all at once.
Lee argues the timing serves a purpose, letting Washington frame UFOs as a shared threat to allies and get ahead of Russia and China in what he calls a UFO Cold War.
France offered a something different. On June 29, members of parliament Pierre Henriette and Arnaud Saint-Martin hosted a four hour session on UAP inside the National Assembly, the first of its kind in French parliamentary history, drawing roughly 250 people.
Speakers from the European Space Agency and a French commission urged pilots to report sightings, and France noted its nearly fifty year old public office for studying reports, known as GEIPAN, housed within its space agency.
During a question period, naval historian Alexandre Sheldon-Duplaix asked why the panel had not mentioned American developments that same week, pointing to Representative Anna Paulina Luna’s request to protect whistleblowers and to Grusch’s testimony describing beings as walking humanlike forms or plasma-like entities. According to the account, the question was met with silence.
The public readiness question was also tested. According to a new national poll of more than 3000 adults released this month, more than 8in10 Americans said disclosure would be positive or have no measurable impact, while only about 6% expected a breakdown of civil society.
The same study reported that active duty military members and veterans describe witnessing these phenomena at far higher rates than civilians. Karetny’s concern is that framing the subject only as a threat hands power to whoever promises protection from it.
https://www.ufonews.co/post/new-claims-trump-has-a-ufo-speech-ready
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5Uh4IBHks8
https://x.com/Eyes_OnTheSkies
moar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6XhPe-3qvA (Vetted: BREAKING: Donald Trump Set To Give UFO Disclosure Speech)
==Danny Sheehan Sunday Series Part 4 (July 5, 2026)
Jul 8, 2026
We're on a mission to end secrecy around UFOs/UAP and ensure that disclosure benefits all of humanity.
Get involved, take action, and be part of a growing movement that stands for accountability, justice, and global cooperation. ⬇️
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KnqVW0ySyU
https://newparadigminstitute.org/take-action/campaign/citizens-for-disclosure/
https://x.com/danielsheehan45
extra disclosure dejour
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSy-257Qiqk (David Icke: Grasping This Is Vital. PLEASE SHARE.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0TPDg_SxfM (Destroying The Illusion: [7.8] Is Free Energy & AntiGravity Finally Here?, Iran War, Tyler Robinson Trial, Biohackers)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbrjw9z7FW8 (Journey to Truth: Project Pegasus - Team Light Interview with Tyler Kiwala and Rion De'Rouen)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irybN4vSfUE (Lauren Conlin: Melissa Casias: NEW & Bizarre Details that DON'T Add Up)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-cPWosO4VQ (My Lunch Break: Easter Island & Mu)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=873MNXONkHU (WeAreChange: He's About to CONFIRM Them Live on TV!)
The White House Will Become a Lighthouse | Kim Clement Prophecy
Jul 9, 2026
“The White House will become a lighthouse.”
Years before many of today’s events unfolded, Kim Clement shared a prophetic word about America that continues to spark discussion.
In this clip from CodeBreakers Live, Donné Clement Petruska explores the meaning behind one of Kim Clement’s most recognized prophecies and why so many believe it still carries significance today.
▶ Watch the full CodeBreakers Live episode for the complete context and discussion. https://youtube.com/live/K9W1lVpNE1I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tsd8dxZy47k
https://x.com/prophetkim
analytics, gotta know if they're ready for it or not