Where do these mysterious lights come from in the skies of the United States, videos of which have been flooding social networks in recent weeks? Across the Atlantic, reports of unidentified flying objects by residents of New Jersey or the New York region are increasing and, since mid-December, the controversy has been growing. The authorities are unable to provide complete reassurance and more or less conspiracy theories, such as the “Blue Beam project”, are flourishing.
“What do you think about drones in New Jersey? Project #BlueBeam?”questions the message which accompanies a video shared on X and viewed hundreds of thousands of times since Sunday December 15. We see clouds of lights flying over people who are visibly distraught. But this video has been identified and does not depict the American sky at all: it is in fact images showing Iranian missiles targeting Israel last October.
The fact remains that the “Blue Beam project” (literally, the “blue beam project” in French) is regularly cited to give meaning to the phenomenon. It was invented by Serge Monast, a Canadian conspiracy author, in a book of the same name, NASA’s Blue Beam projectpublished in 1994. “It doesn’t existdecides straight away, Rudy Reichstadt, journalist, director of the Conspiracy Watch site and co-host of the Complorama podcast.
“‘Project Blue Beam’ is a conspiracy theory made up about 30 years ago.”
Rudy Reichstadt, director of Compiracy Watchat franceinfo
According to Serge Monast, “a radical conspiracy theorist who has since diedsouligne Rudy Reichstadt, The UN, NASA and governments would work to establish a universal ‘New Age’ religion, an evil totalitarian regime, which would be led by the Antichrist to reduce humanity to slavery. One of the axes to achieve this would be, adds the journalist, “the projection of holograms in the sky of different parts of the world in order to manipulate the world population, in particular by making them believe in an extraterrestrial invasion, before finally subjugating them.”
This initially confidential theory gained post-mortem notoriety and spread thanks to the rise of the Internet. “We saw it resurface at the beginning of 2023,” notes the director of Compiracy Watch, at the time of the incident of the balloon from China flying over the United States before being shot down.
Concerning these phenomena observed in the sky, other conspiracy theories attempt to explain them. For Rudy Reichstadt, “It’s interesting because the myth of ‘Project Blue Beam’ conflicts with another conspiracy myth: that according to which aliens are already among us and are organized in what they call a ‘galactic federation'”. While “the supporters of the ‘Blue Beam project’ do not believe in extraterrestrials, which they believe are being used to accelerate a totalitarian project of universal domination, other believers think that they are really extraterrestrials”underlines the journalist.
People tend to believe these conspiracy theories more because they are more exposed to them with the Internet, and technological advancement makes them more conceivable. “It is no longer unimaginable to see drones linked together to create stunning animations that can make us think of giant holograms in the sky, admet Rudy Reichstadt, but there is not the beginning of a proof of what Serge Monast and the others put forward. The most logical thing is to think that they are drones and try to understand where they come from.” concludes the director of Conspiracy Watch.
American authorities are seeking to reassure the population about these drones seen in the northeast of the United States, but they are accused of not providing a sufficient response. Since last Thursday, certain Republican elected officials have been fueling panic by raising the threat of the involvement of a foreign state, such as Iran, Russia or even China, which would be behind these unidentified drones, without any evidence to support it. . On Friday, a small airport in New York State had to completely close its runways for an hour due to the appearance of “new drones”.
Donald Trump in turn invites himself into the controversy, calling for “fell” these drones on Friday and suggesting that “the government knows and wishes to maintain the suspense”. The president-elect subsequently announced that, as a precaution, he would not go to his Bedminster golf course the following weekend, located east of New York, judging that he “something strange is happening”.
“There are more than a million legal drones in the country and every day several thousand fly in a legal and authorized manner”
John Kirby, spokesperson for the National Security Councilat the White House
“We try in good faith to be as open and direct as possible”said a White House spokesperson on Monday. And on Tuesday, federal agencies once again asserted that drones do not represent “no risk to national security”. “Sightings to date include a combination of legal commercial drones, hobbyist drones, and law enforcement drones, as well as gliders, helicopters, and stars misidentified as drones.”add the federal police, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense and the FAA (the American aviation regulator) in a joint press release.
