A classified briefing on UFOs delivered to members of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee on Friday elicited a mixed response, with some saying they were dissatisfied by the fragmented information presented, while others were grateful to receive some more clarity.
Interest in UFOs, which officials now call unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), surged in July 2023 when the Oversight Committee invited Air Force veteran David Grusch to speak after he’d filed a formal complaint with the Inspector General of the U.S. intelligence community, claiming “the U.S. government is operating with secrecy—above Congressional oversight” on the subject.
David Grusch, former National Reconnaissance Officer Representative on the Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Task Force, arrives to testify during a House Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs hearing titled "Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Implications on National Security Public Safety and Government Transparency," on Capitol Hill in Washington, on July 26, 2023. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)
During that hearing, Mr. Grusch accused the Pentagon and its private contractors of covering up a “multi-decade” program to reverse-engineer technology retrieved from crashed UFOs piloted by “non-human” beings, or “biologics” as he called them.
He also mentioned knowledge of people harmed or injured in efforts to cover up or conceal the extraterrestrial technology program.
Though apparently only limited information was disclosed during Friday’s 90-minute briefing at the Capitol Building in Washington, the attendees agreed that the hearing seemed to confirm Mr. Grusch’s claims.
“Based on what we heard,” Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) said, “many of Grusch[’s] claims have merit!”
“I think everybody left there thinking and knowing that Grusch is legit—if they didn’t think that before,” attested Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.).
The Tennessee legislator, one of the stronger voices calling for transparency on the issue of UAPs, nevertheless left the meeting somewhat frustrated, saying the meeting was just “more of the same.”
“By design this issue is very compartmentalized,” he explained. “It’s like looking down the barrel of a .22 rifle. All they know is just right in that little circle.”
“Now it’s just whack-a-mole—you go to the next [briefing], until we get some answers.”
For Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) the limited information presented only proved there was a “concerted effort to conceal as much information as possible—both in Congress and to the general public.”
“I asked very specific questions and was unable to get specific answers,” he said. “And so that’s a problem, and we’re not going to stop until we get the truth.”
Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Mont.) was a bit more optimistic, calling the briefing a step in the right direction.
“I think that some people were looking for things,” he said. “This was not the venue to determine those things, but for me, I got a lot of clarity,” he added.
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) was glad that “everyone that was in the room received probably new information.”
Earlier this week, Mr. Garcia introduced the Safe Airspace for Americans Act, along with Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wisconsin), a bill that enables civilian pilots and personnel to report UAP sightings with the Federal Aviation Administration.
During the July hearing, Mr. Grusch said he hoped that unearthing the non-human reverse engineering programs will act as “a catalyst for a global reassessment of our priorities.”
A Pentagon spokesperson replied at the time that it has not found “any verifiable information to substantiate claims that any programs regarding the possession or reverse-engineering of extraterrestrial materials have existed in the past or exist currently.”
“This is not about whether there are aliens or there are not aliens,” Mr. Moskowitz, a member of the UAP Caucus, said in early December. “The problem is when we ask those questions, rather than being provided information that would prove it false, they stonewall the information, and that is what piques the interest.”
