David Burkett

Author of the book Lies Above: How the Pentagon Misled Congress and Cost America its Skies, and Cyber Security Researcher/Digital Forensics Expert

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Posts

Skepticism 12 Jul 2026

The Base Rate Doesn't Mean What Shermer Thinks It Means

Skeptic Michael Shermer recently discussed the base rate in a UFO debate, a genuinely useful tool, but he pointed it at the wrong question. How rare a thing is only sets where you start and low base rate raises evidentiary the bar. It doesn't lower the evidence.

30 min read

08 Jul 2026

Releasing the UFO Files is Not Enough, The UFO Trojan Horse Part 1: Whistleblowers

I came to the UFO topic a skeptic, and I was wrong. Whatever the ultimate origin, it's a Trojan Horse for very real terrestrial issues. Part 1 starts with whistleblowers, and the retaliation they faced for coming forward.

8 min read

28 Jun 2026

A "Missileman", a Journalist with a "Burning" Passion, and a "Hacker" Walk Into a UFO Conference

How I met the pseudonymous physicist "Missileman" and Rob Jones, a journalist, and how their work shaped my book. A look at the people behind Lies Above.

8 min read

26 Jun 2026

Lies Above Is Out Now

Lies Above is out now. A cybersecurity pro who detects deception for a living went looking for the honest skeptical take on the Navy UFO videos. He couldn't find one. What he found was 70 years of government secrecy, and he cites every word of it.

1 min read

Disinformation 18 Jun 2025

The Wall Street Journal’s UFO Coverage: A Case Study on Meta-Disinformation

For the past three years, I’ve been researching and writing a book on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP). It's been a true adventure that has been both intellectually stimulating and increasingly disheartening with regard to the state of modern national security reporting. While I was attending an academic

17 min read

Lies Above is out now.

Seventy years of government secrecy, and every word of it cited.

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