In this December 2024 panel, recorded while the New Jersey drone sightings dominated the news, Dr Steven Greer and Billy Carson argue that the drones were not extraterrestrial but part of a human-run psychological operation, and that the real contest over disclosure is about how the information is framed. Both warn that a staged alien-threat story could be used to justify weapons spending and urge viewers not to be steered by fear. The panel, hosted by Blake Cousins of 3rdPhaseOfMoon and tied to the documentary Battle for Disclosure, records their positions and predictions at that moment.
The topic matters because the late-2024 drone wave was one of the few UAP-adjacent stories to hold mainstream attention for weeks, drawing federal statements, flight restrictions and a flood of speculation. How people read a story like that shapes what they ask of their officials, and this panel's claims can now be set against what the authorities said afterwards.
What the video covers
Greer: the drones as a diversion (from about 2 min)
Greer says a group of senior insiders from what he calls black sites had decided to come forward by early January 2025 with evidence about retrieved craft and the human-made vehicles he calls advanced technology. In his account, the people running the covert programmes learned of this and responded with "a series of diversionary false flag events to confuse the public" and officials. He states plainly that the drones were human-made, not extraterrestrial.
Greer links this to a paper he says he wrote in 1999, which predicted that those keeping the secret would try to turn disclosure into an alien-invasion scenario that justified vast new military spending. All of this is Greer's claim and prediction as of December 2024; this article does not assess whether any such release took place.
He also says where he thinks disclosure should lead: toward peaceful contact with other civilisations and advanced energy technology used to end poverty and repair the environment, rather than weapons in space. Getting the information out, in his framing, is the easier part; the fight is over how it is interpreted.
Carson: scripted coverage and a money motive (from about 13 min)
Carson's first impression was that the coverage was scripted, with outlets using nearly identical language to take control of the narrative. He argues the motive is financial: a threat from space would justify large defence contracts to private firms that are harder to audit, funding projects that may never be finished.
He compares the drone story to the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident, when reports of an attack on the destroyer USS Maddox helped push the United States deeper into the Vietnam War, an attack he notes was later acknowledged not to have happened as reported. Greer agrees, saying he has long called the false-disclosure plan a cosmic Gulf of Tonkin.
Greer: why the hearings felt thin (from about 18 min)
Asked why congressional UAP hearings relied on second-hand witnesses, Greer says he gave committees a large portfolio of potential firsthand witnesses and that those people were not called. His broader point is that Congress lacks investigative capacity for the subject: he says a planned dedicated staff for one Senate inquiry never received funding and a House request for a funded select committee was denied. He says he is explaining the result, not excusing it.
Carson: an advanced civilisation would not invade with drones (from about 30 min)
Carson picks up on the word mothership, which had entered official and media language that week, and argues that such words are chosen with care. In his reading, language that pushes people into fear is a control tool, because "when a person gets into a state of fear they're easily controlled."
His central argument is one of scale and logic. A civilisation able to cross interstellar distances would not travel all that way to fire on people one at a time among eight billion, or fight a head-on battle with Earth's militaries. He says the image of an invasion by drones and laser fire comes from Hollywood, and presents his view as an opinion drawn from his research.
Greer: human-made craft and the briefing document (from about 34 min)
Greer claims that decades of reverse engineering have produced human-made craft that would look alien to almost anyone, and that the clunky drones over New Jersey are not what a serious staged event would use. He holds up what he says is a 312-page briefing document for the incoming administration, congressional leaders and other governments, and says about two-thirds of it is drawings and photographs of human-made craft, plus a one-page fact sheet separating staged phenomena from genuine ones.
He recounts Carol Rosin's account that in 1974 the rocket engineer Wernher von Braun described an alien threat as the last card that would be played to consolidate power. Greer closes by urging people inside these programmes to cooperate with legal authorities, and says he hopes any transition happens without violence.
Carson: the Robertson Panel and oversight (from about 50 min)
Asked about the battle ahead, Carson says "we're putting disclosure in the hands of the people where it actually belongs." Governments, he argues, are meant to work for the public, and fear has kept people from acting on that. He names the CIA as the centre of the secrecy, noting that it monitored the Air Force's Project Blue Book investigations and sponsored the 1953 Robertson Panel. His concern is that this secrecy operates without meaningful congressional or presidential oversight, which he calls the linchpin of the problem.
Closing: do not be stampeded (from about 64 min and 74 min)
Asked where the drones were coming from, Carson says probably multiple locations, and calls the wave a coordinated psychological operation testing public reaction and planting the idea of a larger attack. He rejects the end-of-the-world framing: "it's not the end of the world it's the beginning of the world." Greer adds that fear triggers a fight-or-flight response that overrides rational thought, which is why panic has been used to rush societies into bad decisions before.
In their summing up, Greer calls for more firsthand witnesses to come forward and for the technology to be used peacefully. Carson asks viewers to share what they learn, adding that "your collusion through silence puts you on the wrong side." In the final minutes (from about 81 min), Greer says disclosure will come from insiders rather than any president, that he plans to release most of his briefing document in redacted form, and that constituents should tell their representatives what they want done.
Key takeaways
- Greer and Carson both describe the New Jersey drones as human-made and part of a psychological operation, not extraterrestrial craft.
- Greer predicted in December 2024 that black-site insiders would release evidence by early January 2025.
- Carson argues a space-threat story would justify defence spending, and that an advanced civilisation would not invade with drones.
- Both frame fear as the main tool of control and urge viewers not to be stampeded.
- Carson cites the Gulf of Tonkin and the CIA-sponsored Robertson Panel as precedents for official narratives shaping belief.
Billy Carson's reading
Carson's position is consistent with what he argues elsewhere: the public holds more power than it realises, and fear is the lever used to make people hand it over. He reads the drone wave less as a mystery about objects in the sky than as a lesson in narrative control, with identical news scripts, loaded words and Hollywood imagery doing the work.
He places that view inside a longer history of official secrecy. His case for firsthand testimony runs through UAPs vs UFOs and the Disclosure Project testimony, and his reading of an earlier episode in which the military fired on aerial objects is in Is the US shooting down UFOs?. For the separate question of what classified space programmes are documented and what remains claim, see the secret space program explained.
What mainstream scholarship says
The official account of the drones differs sharply. In mid-December 2024, the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and the Department of Defense said in a joint statement that the sightings were mostly lawful commercial, hobbyist and law-enforcement drones, manned aircraft and stars mistaken for drones, with no national security or public safety risk found. On January 28, 2025, the White House said the drones had been authorised by the FAA to fly for research and other purposes. Greer's black-site claims have not been publicly substantiated, and the Pentagon's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office said in its 2024 historical review that it found no evidence the US government had reverse-engineered extraterrestrial technology.
The historical comparisons are partly accurate. North Vietnamese boats did engage the USS Maddox on August 2, 1964, but the second attack reported on August 4, cited in the push for the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, is now widely accepted not to have happened; a National Security Agency history declassified in 2005 reached that conclusion. The CIA did convene the Robertson Panel in January 1953; it found no evidence of a national security threat and recommended a public education effort to reduce interest in UFOs. Psychological operations are a real military discipline, but no public evidence shows the 2024 drone wave was one.
Watch, read and go deeper
For the congressional side, read the UAP hearings explained, 2017 to 2026. The early official studies, including the Robertson Panel and the Condon Report, are covered in Project Blue Book explained. On 4BK TV, Richard Dolan's UFO Chronicles traces government UFO secrecy in long form. For contact questions in the ancient record, start at the Anunnaki topic hub.
Frequently asked questions
What were the New Jersey drones?
They were a wave of reported drone sightings over New Jersey and nearby states in late 2024. Federal agencies said in December 2024 that most sightings were lawful drones, manned aircraft or stars, and in January 2025 the White House said the drones had been FAA-authorised for research. Greer and Carson argued at the time that the wave was a human-run psychological operation.
What did Dr Steven Greer predict about the drones and disclosure?
In this December 2024 panel, Greer said insiders from classified programmes would come forward with evidence by early January 2025, and that the drones were a diversion launched in response. He also said a 1999 paper of his predicted an alien-threat narrative would be used to justify weapons spending. These were his predictions at the time of recording.
Why does Billy Carson compare the drones to the Gulf of Tonkin?
Carson uses the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident as an example of an official story that helped launch a war and was later shown to be wrong in a key detail. Historians accept that the second reported attack on the USS Maddox did not happen. His point is that a space-threat story could be used the same way.
What was the Robertson Panel?
It was a group of scientists convened by the CIA in January 1953 to review UFO reports. It found no evidence of a national security threat and recommended a public education effort to reduce interest in the subject. Carson cites it as evidence of intelligence-agency influence over how UFOs were presented.
Sources mentioned
The panel centres on the documentary Battle for Disclosure (2024). Greer refers to a paper he says he wrote in 1999, the Disclosure Project's intelligence archive, his 312-page briefing document and Carol Rosin's account of Wernher von Braun's 1974 warning, and mentions the Condon Committee. Carson cites the Gulf of Tonkin incident and the USS Maddox, Project Blue Book and the 1953 Robertson Panel. For the official record, see the Robertson Panel's Report of the Scientific Advisory Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects (1953), the NSA history Skunks, Bogies, Silent Hounds, and the Flying Fish: The Gulf of Tonkin Mystery, 2-4 August 1964 (declassified 2005), the December 2024 DHS, FBI and Department of Defense joint statement, and AARO's Report on the Historical Record of U.S. Government Involvement with Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, Volume 1 (2024).
