There are two separate questions:
Do UFOs or UAP (unidentified aerial phenomena) exist?
Does the USG (United States government) have a secret (say, waived SAP) program dealing with, and investing, such?
We know the USG has an overt, public program investigating UAP:
It is called the AARO, whose current director is Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick.
He explicitly denied any knowledge of secret government programs hiding information about UFOs:
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/extraterrestrial-technical-supremacy-top-concern-pentagon-ufo-investigator/story?id=101218299
“[Kirkpatrick] downplayed the possible existence of a secret program that he is not privy to, saying,
"Nothing has been denied us." ”
On the other hand, we have a variety of respectable apeople asserting there are one or more secret government programs dealing with such.
E.g.,
David Grusch
Christopher Mellon
Leslie Kean
Ross Coulthart
Michael Schallenberger
So who are we to believe?
Personally, given the weight of reports,
I go with the idea that a secret government SAP exists to deal with such.
But Dr. Kirkpatrick claims no knowledge of such.
"I know nothing."
An interesting situation.
We shall get more inputs on this in the future.
<hr />
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Here are some excerpts from the opening statements at the 2023-07-26 House Oversight Committee Hearing on UAP.
----
David Grusch:
https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Dave_G_HOC_Speech_FINAL_For_Trans.pdf
I became a Whistleblower, through a PPD-19 Urgent Concern filing with the Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG),
following concerning reports from multiple esteemed and credentialed current and former military and Intelligence Community individuals that
the US Government is operating with secrecy - above Congressional oversight - with regards to UAPs.
My testimony is based on information I have been given by individuals with a longstanding track record of legitimacy and service to this country –
many of whom also shared compelling evidence in the form of photography, official documentation, and classified oral testimony.
...
In 2019, the UAPTF director tasked me to identify
all Special Access Programs & Controlled Access Programs (SAPs/CAPs) we needed to satisfy our congressionally mandated mission.
At the time, due to my extensive executive-level intelligence support duties,
I was cleared to literally all relevant compartments and in a position of extreme trust in both my military and civilian capacities.
I was informed, in the course of my official duties,
of a multi-decade UAP crash retrieval and reverse engineering program
to which I was denied access to those additional read-on’s.
-----
Ryan Graves:
https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Ryan-HOC-Testimony.pdf
I have witnessed advanced UAP on multiple sensor systems firsthand,
and I'm here to voice the concerns of countless commercial aircrew and military veterans who have confided their similar encounters with me.
...
It has been more than a decade since
my squadron began witnessing advanced UAP demonstrating complex maneuvers on a regular basis,
and we still don’t have answers.
,..
I am also the Chair of the UAP Integration & Outreach Committee for the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, where
we have assembled a volunteer team of almost 80 PhDs and aerospace engineers dedicated to tackling the science around this issue.
...
1. As we convene here, UAP are in our airspace, but they are grossly underreported.
....
2. The stigma attached to UAP is real and powerful ...
...
3. The government knows more about UAP than shared publicly,
and excessive classification practices keep crucial information hidden.
...
Since 2021, all UAP videos are classified as secret or above.
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The government's official wrapup of the 7/26 hearing is here:
https://oversight.house.gov/release/hearing-wrap-up-lack-of-transparency-and-reporting-mechanisms-have-eroded-public-trust-on-governments-handling-of-uap-encounters%EF%BF%BC/
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Here are some gossipy reports from the post-September 2023 time frame:
2023-09-25
Dozens Of Government UFO Whistleblowers Have Given Testimony To Congress, Pentagon, And Inspectors General, Say Sources
Despite the growing number of UFO/UAP whistleblowers, the military and the intelligence communities are fighting greater disclosure
MICHAEL SHELLENBERGER, ANDREW MOHAR, AND PHOEBE SMITH
SEP 25, 2023
https://public.substack.com/p/dozens-of-government-ufo-whistleblowers
--
2023-10-02
The Congressional UFO Language Debate and Washington's Web of Conflicts and Interests
https://www.liberationtimes.com/home/the-congressional-ufo-language-debate-and-washingtons-web-of-conflicts-and-interests
---
2023-11-22
Christopher Mellon
SHOULD THE U.S. GOVERNMENT REVEAL WHAT IT KNOWS ABOUT UAP?
https://thedebrief.org/disclosure-and-national-security-should-the-u-s-government-reveal-what-it-knows-about-uap/
x
It is hard for me to imagine any of the politicians I’ve worked for over the years leaping at that opportunity. The sudden, unexpected confirmation of an ET presence on Earth would not only unsettle but inevitably terrify millions—if not billions—of people. And for what purpose? What chance would you have as President of moving forward on other vital issues on your agenda, given the tumult that would result? What reason is there to believe the net effect for society would be positive rather than negative?
These are questions that need to be addressed by those advocating the release of information confirming an extraterrestrial presence on Earth. Such information has the potential to be a genuine Pandora’s box, and it is, therefore, vital we think this through carefully before proceeding.
<Blockquote>This is a pressing issue, as various committees and members of Congress are seeking to determine whether the US government has incontrovertible proof of an extraterrestrial presence on Earth.
Such a revelation would undoubtedly be the most shocking, profound, and transformative discovery in human history.
Yet, despite the gravity of the issue, Congress has been proceeding without holding any hearings or requesting any studies to assess the impact of this potential bombshell.
It appears that our legislators are failing to heed the maxim,
“Don’t ask the question if you aren’t prepared for the answer.”
...
I want to challenge the recurring assertion that
<I>the UAP issue is primarily for scientists<I>,
not politicians or government officials.
Although UAP deserves serious attention from the scientific community, as NASA itself recently acknowledged,
national security considerations are inevitably paramount.</blockquote>
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2023-11-25
The following article explores how contact with aliens might affect the USG:
https://europeanconservative.com/articles/commentary/when-aliens-land-in-washington/
"Regardless of who is president when it comes to disclosing extraterrestrial contact,
his job will be at least as challenging as when Franklin D. Roosevelt led America through World War II.
He would have to exercise extraordinary discernment in the balancing of domestic needs against the demands and desires of foreign powers.
Just like a member of Congress, he would also have to withstand a formidable onslaught of lobbyists and political ‘friends’ of all kinds.
It is easy to drown in the UAP phenomenon, to lose sight of what it really is.
Since we have good reasons to believe that we are dealing with intelligently controlled machines (per the July Congressional hearings), we can safely conclude that we are dealing with alien visitors from another planet.
..."
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2023-12-22
A discussion of how the Schumer Amendment was watered down, by Marik von Rennenkampff:
https://thehill.com/opinion/congress-blog/4367689-congress-hunts-for-illegal-ufo-programs-as-the-media-shrug/
====================
2024-01-06
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-12931743/Top-secret-UFO-hearing-Congress-classified-illegal-crash-retrieval-program-intelligence-insider.html
Article suggests 1-12 briefing by ICIG Monheim to House Oversight Committee will be a waste of time.
Do they have TS/SCI clearances?
Let alone being read into the relevant compartments.
An insider points out that Grusch has spent hours briefing the House and Senate Intelligence Committees.
Those know what Grusch said.
But they don't seem to be leaking what he said.
Or maybe they did not seem his claims credible.
Here is the direct quote from the article:
<blockquote>
'David spent hours and hours and hours and hours with SSCI,' the source said. 'And then hours and hours and hours and hours with HPSCI.'
'All the staffers that he briefed were all cleared TS/SCI. They all had to have compartmented read-ins. It was a big deal.'
'It's not [House] Oversight that's going to do anything, you know? It's 'What is SSCI doing?' and 'What is HPSCI doing?'' the intel insider opined.
</blockquote>
-------
2024-01-09
For a detailed analysis of Congress's 2024 UAP Act, see
https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=15d9c2fc-9c48-420d-aad3-1165e71f1498
"On December 22, 2023, President Biden signed into law the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (“FY 2024 NDAA”). Sections 1841 through 1843 of the new law address Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (“UAP”).
..."
---
What led to the UAP Act of 2023 being watered down is discussed here:
https://thedebrief.org/regulation-v-eminent-domain-an-alternate-approach-to-the-unidentified-anomalous-phenomena-disclosure-act-of-2023/
" legislative power and unexplained phenomena collided
when U.S. Senators Charles Schumer and Mike Rounds introduced
the “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) Disclosure Act of 2023.”
...
in the context of UAP, a look at
the implications, ethical challenges, and legal complexities tied to
applying eminent domain to
technology of unknown origin and biological evidence of non-human intelligence (NHI)
is warranted. "
This is truly a quite literally bizarre intersection of issues.
--------
See also 2024-01-23
https://www.space.com/pentagon-us-military-declassify-secret-space-programs
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Here are several of Christopher Mellon's excellent Substack posts:
2021-07
2023-10-25
https://open.substack.com/pub/christopherkmellon/p/the-uap-report-and-the-uap-issue
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Issues involving UAP and the existence of highly classified USG programs related to them were discussed at length in a two-hour House of Representatives on November 13, 2024.
Here is an seven-minute summary of that hearing:
https://youtu.be/lN2FM4QauyY
A 20-minute summary is here:
https://youtu.be/0qq21BTzdyA
And here is a video of the full two-hour hearing:
https://youtu.be/Z5tzv0Mk7as
And here is a 40-minute Q&A postmortem of the hearing with Ross Coulthart:
https://www.youtube.com/live/bEMVdPqMjHI
