I just want transparency. And healthcare. Not necessarily in that order.

So, Kirkpatrick himself is saying there's a "there" there now? And it's either alien or foreign, and then he says no evidence it's foreign? Am I reading this correctly? Maybe he's spilling the beans now that he's leaving idk.

Sounds interesting but maybe someone else can say why this might be BS or I'm over thinking it.

I would posit a 3rd possibility:

We already know our solar system is kind of at the ass-end of the Milky Way and distances to get here are VAST. So any intelligence with the capacity to get here would likely find little of actual interest here.

So what advanced technology WOULD have a vested interest in a) studying our culture and b) maintaining as little interference as possible?

Future humans. Somebody cracked time travel and, like good scientists, are studying their ancestors. Just like we use archaeology and paleontology.

This is a surprisingly well cited opinion piece from The Hill. Practically every paragraph has multiple citations linked, which can lead you down a rabbit hole in the subject of UAPs.

I stopped reading when they said that there is two "extraordinary" possibilities. A foreign nation doing surveillance or tests is not extraordinary ffs, it's almost the definition of something being ordinary. Again, it's all conjecture, no evidence of anything. Thrash article.