--- title: "Former US Director of National Intelligence Says He’s Seriously Puzzled by UFOs" description: "Former US Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe made some intriguing claims about the federal government's tracking of UFOs." date: "2021-03-22" modified: "2021-03-22" authors: - name: "Jon Christian" job_title: "Executive Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/former-us-director-national-intelligence-ufos" categories: - "Astronomy" - "Exobiology" - "Space" tags: - "aliens" - "government" - "the digest" - "ufos" --- # Former US Director of National Intelligence Says He’s Seriously Puzzled by UFOs ![Former US Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe made some intriguing claims about the federal government's tracking of UFOs.]() *\Image: Albert Antony via Unsplash\* ## UFO Sighting In an eyebrow-raising segment on *Fox News*, former US Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe made some intriguing claims about the federal government's tracking of unidentified flying objects (UFOs.) "Frankly, there are a lot more sightings than have been made public," he told *Fox* personality Maria Bartiromo. "Some of those have been declassified. And when we talk about sightings, we're talking about objects that have been seen by Navy or Air Force pilots, or have been picked up by satellite imagery, that frankly engage in actions that are difficult to explain, movements that are hard to replicate, that we don’t have the technology for." "I actually wanted to get this information out and declassify it before I left office, but we weren’t able to get it down into an unclassified format that we were able to talk about quickly enough," Ratcliffe added during the appearance. https://twitter.com/danielchaitin7/status/1373054999954087936?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1373054999954087936%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fus-news%2F2021%2Fmar%2F22%2Fus-government-ufo-report-sightings ## Attention Economy It's worth pointing out that Ratcliffe was Director of National Intelligence during the Trump administration, which wasn't a group of people with the world's strongest reputation for factual accuracy or even getting the story straight. Still, Ratcliffe joins a modestly long list of prominent former government figures, [including former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid](), who have forcefully stated that there's more to UFO sightings than meets the eye. It's always worth unpacking those claims. Acknowledging that military pilots and satellites have picked up imagery that's difficult to square with any known aircraft is one thing, but it's obviously a huge leap to claim that any one example is proof of, well, alien life. Is that what Ratcliffe is trying to say? Maybe. But he could also just be one more has-been, trying to steal one more news cycle. **READ MORE:** [UFO report details ‘difficult to explain’ sightings, says US ex-intelligence director]() \[*The Guardian*\] **More on UFOs:** [*New York Times: Navy Pilots Baffled by UFO Encounters*]() ## Author I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()