I Attended The First UAP/UFO Disclosure Rally In New York City
It was a brisk morning. Thursday morning, March 21. Second day of spring. It felt more like February but at least it wasn’t raining. Midtown Manhattan was bustling. People on the go. Making money moves. The metropolis was abuzz. I exited the subway at Grand Central Station and headed uptown.
I reached my destination. 49th Street and Third Avenue. A tall office building. Inside was the office of Senator Chuck Schumer (DEM, NY). Outside on the sidewalk were gathered a group of about 25 people. Some were holding banners that read “HERO” with the face of Lue Elizondo plastered on front.
I knew I was in the right place. I had arrived at the first Disclosure NOW rally to support U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) in his advocacy for the disclosure of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP).
The rally, sponsored by Citizens for Disclosure NOW, is pushing for more Congressional hearings with whistleblowers to reveal to the public “as much as possible what the government knows about the UAP phenomenon without jeopardizing national security.”
A dapper gentleman in a pinstripe suite was giving interviews to a small contingent of press gathered about him. Once I saw my opening, I approached.
“My name is Osvaldo Franco,” he said shaking my hand. “I am the director of Citizens for Disclosure NOW. We operate out of New York City. I’m a UFOlogist and researcher and an activist.”
“What is the purpose for this rally?” I asked. Franco said:
“Ideally, we’re trying to support our Congressmen and Senators and our whistleblowers. That’s what’s most important. We’ve had a lot of activity over the last five, six years on social media but we need more than that. We need to put feet on the ground. We have to have names and faces, we have to make this a real political reform movement and this is the first step . . . and we’re going to keep doing this until we have disclosure.”
I was impressed by Franco’s determination. It seems like what the disclosure movement needs. Especially in light of the dismal effort put out by the Pentagon earlier this month. Their published report on UAPs was effectively a big nothing burger.
But nothing in this society gets accomplished without effort from the taxpayers. Grass roots movements start from the bottom up. Our politicians need that extra push to get the momentum over the hump. Senator Schumer tried back in 2023.
Schumer submitted proposed legislation about UAPs/UFOs to be included in the National Defense Authorization Act. This 64 page document included specific mentions of UFOs, flying saucers and non-human intelligences.
It proposed eminent domain powers that would allow the government to acquire crashed UFOs and alien bodies from private citizens should the opportunity arise. Unfortunately, Schumer’s amendment was cut out of the finalized version of the NDAA.
Two weeks ago, the Pentagon released their UFO assessment titled "Report on the Historical Record of U.S. Government Involvement with Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) Volume I." It asserted that no evidence supports claims that the government has reverse-engineered alien craft and technology, adding:
“AARO found no evidence that any USG investigation, academic-sponsored research, or official review panel has confirmed that any sighting of a UAP represented extraterrestrial technology.”
I asked Osvaldo Franco his opinion on the report.
“It’s nonsense,” he said. “It’s insulting nonsense. It’s an attempt to try to smother the subject, as the officials have always done. It didn’t work this time either. It bounced off even more so. And mostly because, luckily, people like Louis Elizondo, Christopher Mellon and others have literally gone over their heads and briefed their bosses . . . things may be a little slow right now but it takes time for things to happen.”
The current rally is a joint production of Citizens for Disclosure NOW and the New Paradigm Institute. Kevin Wright is a consultant with the New Paradigm Institute and I chatted with him about the objectives of NPI. He said its purpose was to “bring forward more transparency disclosure from the government about UAPs.”
To attain this objective, NPI is setting up a bunch of grass roots organizations around the country and keeping elected officials accountable for transparency. The present rally is to thank Schumer for his past efforts but also to hold his feet to the fire, urging for more legislation in this effort.
The New Paradigm Institute was founded by Danny Sheehan, an attorney who’s name is attached to some very high profile cases indeed.
Sheehan is a Harvard educated lawyer and his illustrious career began in the 1970s when he participated in the legal proceedings of the Pentagon Papers and Watergate Break-in case.
Later, he was involved in the Silkwood case and the La Penca Bombings (Iran-Contra) and others.
In the UFO field, he was the counselor in the controversial case involving Harvard University psychiatrist John E. Mack.
I mingled in the crowd for a while, rubbing shoulders with the activists who had come to rally for UFOs. One woman, Lauren Todd, traveled from Spartanburg, South Carolina to be at the rally. She is a veteran of the U.S. Army, stationed at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
“I am absolutely 100% for disclosure,” Todd told me. “I feel that the public needs to know exactly what’s going on, where their money is going. Every one of us is a taxpayer, and so we deserve to know.”
A man approached and introduced himself as Julio Barriere. With his dark shades and gaunt face, he struck me as a dead ringer for paranoid conspiracy theorist Dale Gribble, long time neighbor of Hank Hill on the cartoon series King of the Hill.
“I have triangular motherships,” he said to me, “and a fleet of UFOs following me around the world, and I have this on videos.”
“Tell me more,” I said.
“I’ve got a video that’s by the United Nations three blocks away. Triangular motherships. I’ve been sharing it with the people in this group here.”
He explained that the reason why he was at the rally was that he wanted to “wake the world up to the truth that we have benevolent extraterrestrials that are worried about us; that we are going to destroy each other.”
“That’s a lot to unpack,” I said. “Let’s start from the beginning.”
I eat this stuff up for breakfast.
References:
Chrissy Newton
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Andrew K. Arnett is a writer and producer. He has been published in Paranoia Magazine, New Dawn, Nexus, Konbini and Alien Buddha Press. He lives in Brooklyn, NY and hunts ghosts with the Brooklyn Paranormal Society. Find him on Twitter: @AndrewArnett
