BY ELLEN MITCHELL - 01/12/24 - THE HILL
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House lawmakers left a Friday classified briefing on UFOs, referred to as unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) by the government, with mixed feelings, some frustrated with the limited information and some claiming they were given more clarity on last summer’s explosive testimony on the unexplained sightings.
The closed-door briefing at the Capitol Building — where Thomas Monheim, inspector general of the intelligence community, spoke with House Oversight and Accountability Committee members — lasted about 90 minutes and was meant to improve transparency around the government’s knowledge of UAP.
The secretive meeting comes after a hearing in July when the three former Defense Department officials told the panel’s national security subcommittee that UAP sightings could pose national security risks.
The public hearing featured jaw-dropping testimony from former military intelligence officer and whistleblower David Grusch, who asserted the Pentagon and other agencies are withholding information about UAP — including shrouding a “multi-decade” program trying to reverse engineer nonhuman technology the U.S. government has retrieved from crash sites and now possesses. The Pentagon denies his claims.
But several lawmakers emerged from the briefing saying they barely gleaned any new information about Grusch’s accusations.
“Let’s just say that all of us were very interested in the substance of his claims, and unfortunately, I didn’t get the answers that I was hoping for,” said Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), who was one of several members irked with the lack of new material at the briefing.
Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), meanwhile, said the briefing was just “more of the same.”
“It’s very compartmentalized; it’s like looking down the barrel of a .22 rifle. All they know is just right in that little circle,” he told reporters. “Now it’s just whack-a-mole — you go to the next [briefing], until we get some answers.”
Burchett, who says he believes in the existence of extraterrestrial life and accuses the U.S. government of covering up evidence of it, added that what was discussed Friday “verified what I thought.”
And Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) — part of the UAP Caucus but not the Oversight Committee — said what “most Americans fear is true,” claiming there is 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.”
But others were more optimistic, with Rep Eric Burlison (R-Mo.) telling reporters that the briefing gave lawmakers “a direction to go next, and that’s the key thing.”
“I think that some people were looking for things. 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.), meanwhile, said it’s reasonable to contend that “everyone that was in the room received probably new information.”
Garcia earlier this week introduced the Safe Airspace for Americans Act, along with Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.). The bill is meant to close the gap in UAP reporting by enabling civilian pilots and personnel to report encounters with the Federal Aviation Administration, which would send reports to the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, in exchange for legal safeguards.
The secrecy around UAP has frustrated and confused lawmakers, who argue that transparency on the topic is crucial for national security.
The most publicly visible UAP sightings have been relayed by military pilots, with some even appearing to capture the phenomena on camera.
But lawmakers have argued that when they try to get more information as to what exactly is happening and what the government knows, they’ve been stonewalled by the intelligence community, and even from within their own ranks.
“This is not about whether there are aliens or there are not aliens,” Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.), 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.”
Lawmakers investigating UAPs, or UFOs, remain frustrated after closed-door briefing with government watchdog
By Stefan Becket
January 12, 2024 / CBS News
Washington — House lawmakers emerging from a classified, closed-door briefing with an internal government watchdog on Friday said they remained frustrated in their attempts to get more information about explosive whistleblower claims made about unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAPs.
Thomas Monheim, the inspector general of the intelligence community, briefed members of the House Oversight Committee's national security subcommittee on Capitol Hill. The meeting came months after the subcommittee held a high-profile public hearing that featured tantalizing testimony from a former military intelligence officer-turned-whistleblower named David Grusch.
At the hearing in July, Grusch said he was informed of "a multi-decade UAP crash retrieval and reverse-engineering program" and accused the military of misappropriating funds to shield these operations from congressional oversight. He claimed he had interviewed officials who had direct knowledge of aircraft with "nonhuman" origins, and that so-called "biologics" were recovered from some craft. The Pentagon denied his claims.
The subcommittee has been leading the charge to improve transparency about what the government knows about anomalous phenomena. Rep. Glenn Grothman, a Republican from Wisconsin and the subcommittee's chairman, said before Friday's meeting that lawmakers were looking "to track down exactly what the military thinks of individual instances of these objects flying around."
The UAP briefing
Several lawmakers who emerged from the briefing on Capitol Hill said they were frustrated by the lack of new information about Grusch's allegations. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, a Democrat from Illinois, told reporters that lawmakers "haven't gotten the answers that we need."
"Everybody is wondering about the substance of those claims. And until we actually look at those specifically, and try to get answers about those, those claims are just going to be out there," he said. "And so that's what we needed to kind of delve into. And unfortunately, I just wasted time in there not kind of figuring out whether those were true."
.jpg)
House lawmakers left a Friday classified briefing on UFOs, referred to as unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) by the government, with mixed feelings, some frustrated with the limited information and some claiming they were given more clarity on last summer’s explosive testimony on the unexplained sightings.
The closed-door briefing at the Capitol Building — where Thomas Monheim, inspector general of the intelligence community, spoke with House Oversight and Accountability Committee members — lasted about 90 minutes and was meant to improve transparency around the government’s knowledge of UAP.
The secretive meeting comes after a hearing in July when the three former Defense Department officials told the panel’s national security subcommittee that UAP sightings could pose national security risks.
The public hearing featured jaw-dropping testimony from former military intelligence officer and whistleblower David Grusch, who asserted the Pentagon and other agencies are withholding information about UAP — including shrouding a “multi-decade” program trying to reverse engineer nonhuman technology the U.S. government has retrieved from crash sites and now possesses. The Pentagon denies his claims.
But several lawmakers emerged from the briefing saying they barely gleaned any new information about Grusch’s accusations.
“Let’s just say that all of us were very interested in the substance of his claims, and unfortunately, I didn’t get the answers that I was hoping for,” said Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), who was one of several members irked with the lack of new material at the briefing.
Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), meanwhile, said the briefing was just “more of the same.”
“It’s very compartmentalized; it’s like looking down the barrel of a .22 rifle. All they know is just right in that little circle,” he told reporters. “Now it’s just whack-a-mole — you go to the next [briefing], until we get some answers.”
Burchett, who says he believes in the existence of extraterrestrial life and accuses the U.S. government of covering up evidence of it, added that what was discussed Friday “verified what I thought.”
And Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) — part of the UAP Caucus but not the Oversight Committee — said what “most Americans fear is true,” claiming there is 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.”
But others were more optimistic, with Rep Eric Burlison (R-Mo.) telling reporters that the briefing gave lawmakers “a direction to go next, and that’s the key thing.”
“I think that some people were looking for things. 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.), meanwhile, said it’s reasonable to contend that “everyone that was in the room received probably new information.”
Garcia earlier this week introduced the Safe Airspace for Americans Act, along with Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.). The bill is meant to close the gap in UAP reporting by enabling civilian pilots and personnel to report encounters with the Federal Aviation Administration, which would send reports to the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, in exchange for legal safeguards.
The secrecy around UAP has frustrated and confused lawmakers, who argue that transparency on the topic is crucial for national security.
The most publicly visible UAP sightings have been relayed by military pilots, with some even appearing to capture the phenomena on camera.
But lawmakers have argued that when they try to get more information as to what exactly is happening and what the government knows, they’ve been stonewalled by the intelligence community, and even from within their own ranks.
“This is not about whether there are aliens or there are not aliens,” Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.), 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.”
Lawmakers investigating UAPs, or UFOs, remain frustrated after closed-door briefing with government watchdog
By Stefan Becket
January 12, 2024 / CBS News
Washington — House lawmakers emerging from a classified, closed-door briefing with an internal government watchdog on Friday said they remained frustrated in their attempts to get more information about explosive whistleblower claims made about unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAPs.
Thomas Monheim, the inspector general of the intelligence community, briefed members of the House Oversight Committee's national security subcommittee on Capitol Hill. The meeting came months after the subcommittee held a high-profile public hearing that featured tantalizing testimony from a former military intelligence officer-turned-whistleblower named David Grusch.
At the hearing in July, Grusch said he was informed of "a multi-decade UAP crash retrieval and reverse-engineering program" and accused the military of misappropriating funds to shield these operations from congressional oversight. He claimed he had interviewed officials who had direct knowledge of aircraft with "nonhuman" origins, and that so-called "biologics" were recovered from some craft. The Pentagon denied his claims.
The subcommittee has been leading the charge to improve transparency about what the government knows about anomalous phenomena. Rep. Glenn Grothman, a Republican from Wisconsin and the subcommittee's chairman, said before Friday's meeting that lawmakers were looking "to track down exactly what the military thinks of individual instances of these objects flying around."
The UAP briefing
Several lawmakers who emerged from the briefing on Capitol Hill said they were frustrated by the lack of new information about Grusch's allegations. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, a Democrat from Illinois, told reporters that lawmakers "haven't gotten the answers that we need."
"Everybody is wondering about the substance of those claims. And until we actually look at those specifically, and try to get answers about those, those claims are just going to be out there," he said. "And so that's what we needed to kind of delve into. And unfortunately, I just wasted time in there not kind of figuring out whether those were true."
From left, Ryan Graves, David Grusch and David Fravor arrive for a House subcommittee hearing on unidentified anomalous phenomena on July 26, 2023.
DREW ANGERER / GETTY IMAGES
GOP Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee said the subcommittee was playing "Whack-a-Mole" in its efforts to elicit information from the executive branch: "You go to the next [briefing], until we get some answers."
Others struck a more positive tone. Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the subcommittee, said he "would have loved to receive much more information," but added that "it's reasonable to say that everyone that was in the room received probably new information."
Garcia and Grothmann unveiled a new bipartisan bill this week that would enable civilian pilots and personnel to report UAP encounters with the FAA, which would then be required to send those reports to the Pentagon office investigating the phenomena. The bill, known as the Safe Airspace for Americans Act, would also offer protections for those who come forward.
Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz of Florida said the meeting was "the first real briefing that we've had, that we've now made, I would say, progress on some of the claims Mr. Grusch has made."
"This is the first time we kind of got a ruling on what the IG thinks of those claims. And so this meeting, unlike the one we had previously when we did this briefing, this one actually moved the needle," Moskowitz said.
What are UAPs?
"Unidentified anomalous phenomena" is the government's formal term for what used to be called unidentified flying objects, or UFOs. They encompass a broad range of strange objects or data points detected in the air, on land or at sea.
The most well-known UAPs have been reported by military pilots, who typically describe round or cylindrical objects traveling at impossibly high speeds with no apparent means of propulsion. Some of the objects have been caught on video.
The military has made a point of improving avenues for pilots to report UAPs in recent years and worked to reduce the stigma once associated with doing so. The Pentagon office dedicated to examining the encounters has received hundreds of reports in recent years.
Many UAP reports have been shown to have innocuous origins, but a subset has defied easy explanation. The issue has gained renewed attention from lawmakers over the past few years, with heightened concerns about the national security implications of unidentified objects flying in U.S. airspace.
GOP Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee said the subcommittee was playing "Whack-a-Mole" in its efforts to elicit information from the executive branch: "You go to the next [briefing], until we get some answers."
Others struck a more positive tone. Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the subcommittee, said he "would have loved to receive much more information," but added that "it's reasonable to say that everyone that was in the room received probably new information."
Garcia and Grothmann unveiled a new bipartisan bill this week that would enable civilian pilots and personnel to report UAP encounters with the FAA, which would then be required to send those reports to the Pentagon office investigating the phenomena. The bill, known as the Safe Airspace for Americans Act, would also offer protections for those who come forward.
Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz of Florida said the meeting was "the first real briefing that we've had, that we've now made, I would say, progress on some of the claims Mr. Grusch has made."
"This is the first time we kind of got a ruling on what the IG thinks of those claims. And so this meeting, unlike the one we had previously when we did this briefing, this one actually moved the needle," Moskowitz said.
What are UAPs?
"Unidentified anomalous phenomena" is the government's formal term for what used to be called unidentified flying objects, or UFOs. They encompass a broad range of strange objects or data points detected in the air, on land or at sea.
The most well-known UAPs have been reported by military pilots, who typically describe round or cylindrical objects traveling at impossibly high speeds with no apparent means of propulsion. Some of the objects have been caught on video.
The military has made a point of improving avenues for pilots to report UAPs in recent years and worked to reduce the stigma once associated with doing so. The Pentagon office dedicated to examining the encounters has received hundreds of reports in recent years.
Many UAP reports have been shown to have innocuous origins, but a subset has defied easy explanation. The issue has gained renewed attention from lawmakers over the past few years, with heightened concerns about the national security implications of unidentified objects flying in U.S. airspace.
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