What’s this about aliens?

Testifying at a hearing organised by the House of Representatives’ Subcommittee on National Security at the Border and Foreign Affairs, David Grusch, a former Air Force intelligence officer, alleged that the U.S government. is concealing a longstanding programme that retrieves and reverse engineers unidentified flying objects.

Grusch said that he was informed of the alleged multi-decade-long programme through his official duties but was denied access to additional information. Grusch led UAP analysis for a U.S. Department of Defense agency 2023. His comments come as part of an effort by Congress to pressure intelligence agencies for greater transparency regarding the existence of unidentified anomalous phenomena – i.e. UFOs or unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs). 

Over the course of two hours, three witnesses – including Grusch and two former U.S. Navy aviators – shared their accounts and personal experiences. The most serious acknowledgement yet that these mysterious sightings may have more weight than we realised, all three noted that anomalous phenomena are a potential threat to national security but that current reporting systems are inadequate to properly investigate UAP encounters. 

On the topic of extraterrestrial life, Grusch alleged that the U.S. government has likely been aware of “non-human” activity since the 1930s. The Pentagon denied Grusch’s claims of a coverup. 

Grusch also claimed to have knowledge of “people who have been harmed or injured” in the course of government efforts to conceal such information. Asked whether he had ever feared for his own life, he replied by saying, “Yes, definitely”. 

Responding to his comments, Defense Department spokeswoman Sue Gough said that investigators have not discovered “any verifiable information to substantiate claims that any programmes regarding the possession or reverse-engineering of extraterrestrial materials have existed in the past or exist currently.” 

Back in June, Grusch alleged that the government was secretly harbouring alien spacecraft, also suggesting that the U.S. is in possession of non-human bodies. “As I’ve stated publicly already in my NewsNation interview, biologics came with some of these recoveries.” These biologics were “non-human”, he continued, adding, that “that was the assessment of people with direct knowledge on the programme I talked to, that are currently still on the programme.”

He himself had never seen any of the alien craft he believes the government to be concealing, but 40 witnesses he spoke to assured him they do exist.

In that same NewsNation interview, Grusch claimed that the government had “very large” alien craft. He told Le Parisien, a French newspaper, that the U.S. had possession of a “bell-like craft” which Benito Mussolini’s government had recovered in northern Italy in 1933. 

Unsurprisingly, the hearing has attracted worldwide attention, particularly following an increase in reported sightings by military personnel and pilots in recent years.

However, there are still sceptics out there, many of whom pointed out that Grusch was notably less forthcoming about these encounters when under oath. “Very interesting to me that Dave Grusch is unwilling to state and repeat under oath at the #UFOHearings the most explosive (and outlandish) of his claims from his NewsNation interview,” journalist Garrett M. Graff tweeted. “He seems to be very carefully dancing around repeating them.”

Very interesting to me that Dave Grusch is unwilling to state and repeat under oath at the #UFOHearings the most explosive (and outlandish) of his claims from his NewsNation interview. He seems to be very carefully dancing around repeating them.

— Garrett M. Graff (@vermontgmg) July 26, 2023

“Grusch, under questioning, is using classification as a clear crutch to avoid answering hard questions in public at #UFOHearings about his most outlandish claims,” he continued. Speaking at the hearing, Republican congressman Tim Burchett, commented, “We’re not bringing little green men or flying saucers into the hearing. Sorry to disappoint about half y’all. We’re just going to get to the facts.”

“We’re going to uncover the cover-up, and I hope this is just the beginning of many more hearings and many more people coming forward about this,” he added.

In addition to Grusch, the panel also heard testimony from Ryan Graves, a former Navy pilot, and David Fravor. CBS News reports that Graves was an F-18 pilot stationed in Virginia Beach. His squadron first began detecting unknown objects in 2014. He described them as “dark grey or black cubes… inside of a clear sphere, where the apex or tips of the cubes were touching the inside of that sphere.”

He claimed that UAP encounters were “not rare or isolated.” “If everyone could see the sensor and video data I witnessed, our national conversation would change,” Graves said. “I urge us to put aside stigma and address the security and safety issue this topic represents. If UAP are foreign drones, it is an urgent national security problem. If it is something else, it is an issue for science. In either case, unidentified objects are a concern for flight safety. The American people deserve to know what is happening in our skies. It is long overdue.”

Meanwhile, Fravor, recounted an encounter he had with a tic-tac-shaped UAP back in 2004 – footage of the encounter was released in 2017 and publicly verified by the U.S. Navy two years later.  He told the subcommittee that he and another pilot spotted the smooth, oval-shaped object hovering over the water before it rapidly climbed about 12,000 feet in the air. It then accelerated and disappeared. It was detected roughly 60 miles away less than a minute later. Fravor returned to an aircraft carrier and mentioned the object to other pilots who were getting ready to take off, and they managed to get it on video.

“I think what we experienced was, like I said, well beyond the material science and the capabilities that we had at the time, that we have currently or that we’re going to have in the next 10 to 20 years,” he commented.

The Pentagon’s All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office, which Congress established last year to investigate the incidents, has investigated roughly 800 reports of UAP as of May. While military officials have said most cases have innocuous origins, many others remain unexplained. Both Republicans and Democrats have called for investigations and military transparency. 

Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash