It has now been more than a month since the U.S. Air Force, on orders from President Joe Biden, engaged with and shot down three separate "unidentified flying objects" over the span of three days in mid-February.

However, the U.S. military has refused to release any photos or videos related to those three incidents since they are "classified," the Daily Mail reported.

That starkly contrasts with how the Biden administration swiftly authorized the release of photos and videos of other incidents that occurred both before and after the trio of "UFO" shootdowns that had received ample media coverage and raised questions about the security status of U.S. airspace.

The trio of "UFO" shootdowns in February

The Daily Mail reported that a Defense Department spokesperson acknowledged that the military has photos and videos of the three "UFOs" that were shot down over North America in February -- the first over Alaska on Feb. 10, the second over Canada's Yukon on Feb. 11, and the third over Lake Huron on Feb. 12.

All three of those objects were reportedly engaged by F-22 fighter jets using sidewinder missiles and notably followed just days after the highly publicized shootdown of a Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina after the craft had been tracked drifting across the continental U.S. for several days.

"I can tell you that there is not currently any images or video footage that we can release," an unnamed Pentagon spokesperson told the outlet. "The imagery remains classified, and I have not received any information as to the potential timeline on a change in classification."

FOIA request denied

That statement to the Daily Mail was in relation to a Freedom of Information Act request for still images and videos of the mid-February incidents filed that same month by a UFO researcher named John Greenewald.

In a recent post to his website, The Black Vault, Greenewald revealed that he had requested copies of "all visual imagery captured from the shootdown of balloons/Unidentified Aerial Objects," and specifically requested the inclusion of all classified and unclassified "photos, videos, cockpit footage, personal cell phone photos/videos take by the pilots could have given to the DoD, etc."

Unfortunately for him, or anyone else interested in seeing the photos and videos, the U.S. Air Force completely denied that request in a March 21 letter to the researcher, which stated in part that due to "the continued classification of information, the requested information is withheld and not releasable."

The Daily Mail further noted that an unnamed Air Force official said the release of the photos and videos in its possession could reveal "intelligence activities (including covert action), intelligence sources or methods, or cryptology," as well as "scientific, technological, or economic matters relating to the national security" of the U.S.

Greenewald announced that he intends to file an appeal against the decision to withhold the photos and videos of the three separate "UFO" shoot-down incidents.

Photos and videos swiftly released of other incidents

The Daily Mail pointed out that the decision to keep the photos and videos of those incidents secret, ostensibly over concerns of classification and national security, doesn't make sense given the fact that the Pentagon was quick to release photos and videos of other recent incidents that arguably posed an even greater risk of revealing classified information and national security.

For example, just prior to the three "UFO" incidents, there was a Chinese spy balloon shot down off the coast of South Carolina on Feb. 4, and according to an ABC News report on Feb. 22, the Pentagon publicly released photos taken of that balloon from inside a U.S. U-2 surveillance aircraft that was following the foreign craft one day earlier.

More recently, the New York Post reported on March 16 that the Pentagon released video footage of an incident days earlier over the Black Sea in which Russian fighter jets made two close passes and actually collided with a U.S. MQ-9 surveillance drone that damaged the drone and caused it to crash into the waters below.

Is the administration "embarrassed" to reveal that it wasted resources on non-threats?

The Daily Mail noted that in the initial days following the three "UFO" shootdown incidents, both the U.S. and Canadian governments had vowed to recover the wreckage of the unidentified objects but eventually called off the searches due to a reported inability to find anything.

The outlet speculated, "The reluctance to release footage of the F-22 Raptors intercepting the unidentified objects has led to speculation that the government knows what the objects are, but is simply embarrassed to reveal it to the public -- as they may have been as harmless as a hobbyist weather balloon."

Indeed, at least one of the objects is believed to be a $13 balloon with a transponder that had been previously released by a bottlecap collecting club in Illinois, and the Biden administration has been accused of overreacting after it sustained heavy but legitimate criticism for waiting so long before it finally engaged the Chinese spy balloon less than a week earlier.