On Wednesday, a hearing titled “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Implications on National Security, Public Safety, and Government Transparency” will convene, called by the House Oversight Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs.
In a statement, the committee said it “will explore firsthand accounts of unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) and assess the federal government’s transparency and accountability regarding UAPs’ possible threats to U.S. national security.”
“This hearing will also highlight legislative efforts to bring transparency to UAPs and require the federal government to provide the American people with information about potential risks to public safety and national security,” it added.
The panel will hear the testimony of three witnesses: Ryan Graves, the executive director of Americans for Safe Aerospace, Rt. Commander David Fravor, the former commanding officer of the Navy’s Black Aces Squadron, and David Grusch, an Air Force veteran and former member of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency who served as the national reconnaissance officer representative for the Pentagon’s Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Task Force, a body tasked with researching UAP reports.
Grusch has presented himself as a whistleblower, claiming the US government has concealed its possession of alien spacecraft and the bodies of nonhuman species for several decades.
The hearing will be headed by Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN), one of several lawmakers who traveled to Eglin Air Force Base in Florida earlier this month for a briefing on UFOs that was blocked by the Pentagon.
“It had nothing to do with what we were told we would be down there for, and (Florida Rep.) Matt Gaetz basically said this meeting is over until you get us the info we asked for,” Buchett told a US media outlet. “And then, they said we weren’t eligible to see it, and now, they put out some release that myself and Rep. (Anna Paulina) Luna are not eligible to see that. That’s just a bunch of BS. The Pentagon knows better. This is why no one trusts the government.”
In interviews with US media, Grusch has claimed to possess evidence the US has “non-human origin technical vehicles” as well as bodies. He has refused to show his evidence to the media on national security grounds, but has so far only indicated that he knows about the alleged secret programs and their activities by word of mouth.
“I thought it was totally nuts and I thought at first I was being deceived, it was a ruse,” Grusch told one outlet. “People started to confide in me. Approach me. I have plenty of senior, former, intelligence officers that came to me, many of which I knew almost my whole career, that confided in me that they were part of a program.”
Fravor and Graves are two former F/A-18 Hornet pilots who have independently come forward with stories about their eerie encounters with UFOs during flight operations.
According to Fravor, he and another pilot had an “unsettling” experience in 2004 while flying over the Pacific Ocean, when they encountered a mysterious flying object that seemed to defy known physical laws. Aspects of his story have been corroborated by data from the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier they were flying from, such as the incredible speed of the UFO.
UFOs
Congress has acquired a more piqued interest in UFOs in recent years not so much because they suspect a government plot to conceal extraterrestrial visitors, but rather over fears that a dramatic spike in sightings is attributable to top secret experimental devices being tested by US adversaries.
Earlier this year, Congress mandated that the Pentagon submit annual reports on UFO investigations, including explanations.