Congressional Hearing on UFOs and UAPs: NPR

Is intelligent alien life darting around in space – and even in the skies above us here on Earth? Has the US government covered up unexplained phenomena and used secret alien discoveries to advance its own technology?

These are some of the questions that members of Congress are discussing on Wednesday in a joint hearing by subcommittees of the House Oversight Committee. The title is: “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Uncovering the Truth.”

The Pentagon issued a report in March saying it had found no evidence of alien spacecraft.

Four experts are scheduled to testify at the public hearing, which begins at 11:30 a.m. ET. You can follow the proceedings live.

Extraordinary moments occurred at a similar hearing last year, notably when retired Maj. David Grusch, formerly a member of the Pentagon’s UAP task force, claimed that the U.S. government had recovered non-human “biologics” from crash sites and had long conducted a secret reverse mission . Engineering program to make progress on salvaged ships.

Grusch is not among the witnesses for the 2024 trial. Instead, the witnesses include:

Tim Gallaudet, Retired Rear Admiral, U.S. Navy; CEO of Ocean STL Consulting, LLC

“I received confirmation that UAPs interact with humanity in January 2015,” Gallaudet said in his written testimony.

He describes being part of a Marine exercise off the US East Coast that culminated in the famous “Go Fast” video in which the sensors of a Navy F/A-18 jet “recorded an unknown object, which had incomparable flight and structural properties”. in our arsenal.”

He was among a group of commanders involved in the exercise who received an email with the video sent by Fleet Forces Command’s operations officer, Gallaudet said.

“The very next day, the email disappeared from my account and those of the other recipients without explanation,” he said.

Luis Elizondo, Author and former Defense Department official

Elizondos Transcript is short and is sure to grab attention, claiming that a secret arms race is taking place on the world stage.

“Let me be clear: UAPs are real,” he writes. “Advanced technologies not developed by our government – ​​or any other government – ​​are monitoring sensitive military installations around the world. “In addition, the United States is in possession of UAP technologies, as are some of our adversaries.”

Elizondo is a former intelligence officer who later “led a highly sensitive special access program on behalf of the White House and the National Security Council,” according to his official biography.

“Until 2012 [Elizondo] “was the highest-ranking person in the Defense Department’s Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, a secret Pentagon unit that investigated unidentified anomalous phenomena,” his bio says, adding that he resigned in 2017.

Michael Gold, former NASA deputy administrator for space policy and partnerships; Member of the NASA UAP independent study team

Gold’s statement underscores the need for government agencies and scientists to “overcome the harmful stigma that continues to hinder scientific dialogue and open discussions about unexplained phenomena.”

“As the saying goes, the truth is out there,” Gold said, “we just have to be brave enough and courageous enough to face it.”

Michael Shellenberger, Founder of Public, a news portal on the Substack platform

Shellenberger’s testimony runs approximately 214 pages, including a lengthy timeline of UAP reports from 1947 to 2023.

Shellenberger is urging the White House and Congress to act, calling for the passage of UAP transparency laws and cutting funding for any related programs that are not disclosed to lawmakers.

“UAP transparency is bipartisan and critical to our national security,” his written statement said.

Reports of UFOs and UAPs are now more centralized

In 1977, President Carter asked NASA to consider resuming UFO studies, but the agency and the Air Force believed “Further investigation would do no good.”

However, in recent years there have been increased efforts to compile and centralize reporting on unexplained phenomena.

In July 2022, the US government established the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) to standardize reporting methods and data collection. It collects UAP reports from the military and the Federal Aviation Administration, including sightings reported to air traffic control by civilian pilots. The agency does not provide an opportunity for the public to submit a UAP report. It accepts “reports from current or former U.S. Government employees, military personnel, or contractor personnel with direct knowledge of U.S. Government programs or activities related to UAP dating back to 1945.”

The agency adds that potential applicants should not submit “potentially SECRET or unclassified information that is not publicly available (e.g., subject to export control regulations).”

There are also many historical records available

Due to high public interest, a number of UFO study records are available online, including a folder of UAP “case files” on the US Navy website. The FBI also has an online “vault” with records covering the period from 1947 to 1954.

As for the famous Project Blue Book, maintained by the US Air Force from 1947 to 1969, the documents related to the project are now kept by the US Air Force National Archiveswhich contains 37 cubic feet of case files and at least 5 additional cubic feet of files.

The majority of Blue Book investigations into 12,618 reported sightings have been solved or explained. — but 701 remained “unidentified,” the Air Force said. The service said none of the incidents posed a security threat or indicated capabilities beyond modern science. It added: “There was no evidence that the sightings categorized as ‘unidentified’ were of extraterrestrial vehicles.”