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Trump Releases UFO Files with Rollout of New “Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters" (PURSUE)Trump Releases UFO Files with Rollout of New “Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters" (PURSUE)

The Department of War (DOW) released a batch of U.S. government documents related to unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) on Friday, as part of the rollout of its new Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (PURSUE).

“These files, hidden behind classifications, have long fueled justified speculation,” said U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth in a statement accompanying the release on Friday, adding that “it’s time the American people see it for themselves.”

“This release of declassified documents demonstrates the Trump Administration’s earnest commitment to unprecedented transparency,” Hegseth said.

“Today’s release is the first in what will be an ongoing joint declassification and release effort,” said Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard in a statement on Friday.

Friday’s release, which includes a trove of U.S. military imagery depicting what appear to be unidentified aerial objects, as well as NASA imagery from the Apollo era, and a collection of files from agencies that include the FBI, DOW, Department of State, and NASA from over the years, are said to be the first of an ongoing series of releases under the President’s PURSUE initiative.

The recent releases feature cases that were previously unresolved, which the DOW characterizes as incidents involving purported UAP for which “the government is unable to make a definitive determination on the nature of the observed phenomena,” citing insufficient data and other factors that may account for this.

Along similar lines, some of the UAP-related documents made available in the new DOW release appear to have been publicly available in various formats previously, including several documents related to past FBI inquiries into reports of aerial phenomena.

Significantly, the new versions appearing on the DOW’s PURSUE page are reportedly released with fewer redactions than previous versions made available by the FBI.

Although some of the newly released files do feature redactions, the DOW states that these were only made “to protect the identity of eyewitnesses, the location of government facilities, or potentially sensitive information about military sites not related to UAP.”

“No redactions have been made to any files released under President Trump’s directive concerning information about the nature or existence of any encounter reported as a UAP or related phenomena,” the DOW’s website states.

Based on Friday’s release, very little of the documentation appearing at the DOW’s website provides significant new insights into the nature of UAP, and the new web page appears to be poised mostly to serve as a one-stop clearinghouse for various past U.S. government records related to the subject.