Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau received a secret memo about the shootdowns of two unidentified objects over Alaska and Canada in February, a communication that has spurred additional questions about what, exactly, was blown from the sky.
The heavily redacted memo was obtained by the Canadian news outlet CTV News through a Freedom of Information Act request.
U.S. Air Force jets shot down an object over Alaska on Feb. 10 and another over Canada's Yukon territory on Feb. 11. The shootdowns came after a shootdown of the Chinese spy balloon over South Carolina the week before.
Of interest in the secret memo sent to Trudeau dated Feb. 15 are two points. First is that the Feb. 11 shootdown was the 23rd Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) tracked by North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) at that point in 2023.
Most objects spotted by NORAD "are found to be innocuous and do not meet the higher threshold for higher reporting or engagement," the memo stated.
But UAP#23 was different, per the memo, since "the function, method of propulsion, or affiliation to any nation-state" was unverified, adding that, "It is unknown whether it poses an armed threat or has intelligence collection capabilities."
UAP#23 was reported as a "suspected balloon" that the memo warned might be a hazard if someone happened upon it.
"It is unknown whether it poses an armed threat or has intelligence collection capabilities," the memo said. "The area in which the impact occurred is a known (caribou) migration route, which opens the possibility of future accidental discovery by Indigenous hunters."
Second is the phrase "full exploitation." Trudeau was being informed that the "full exploitation" of what the U.S. shot down (UAP#20) on Feb. 10 over Alaska "had not yet been completed."
The U.S. intelligence services and military conduct Foreign Material Exploitation (FME) of items found at crash sites to ascertain how they operate and were built, according to the site The WarZone. However, the Biden administration said no wreckage was found from UAP#20.
Thus, it remains unclear exactly what exploitation, or information gathering, to which the memo was referring.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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