During a House Oversight Committee Oversight and Accountability subcommittee hearing on Wednesday, a former Pentagon official testified that information about Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs), or UFOs, was being withheld from the public by a “cabal.”
Luiz Elizondo, who claims to be the former head of the Defense Department’s Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), said the U.S. government has been investigating reports of UAPs for decades.
“Although much of my government work on the UAP subject still remains classified, excessive secrecy has led to grave misdeeds against loyal civil servants, military personnel, and the public – all to hide the fact that we are not alone in the cosmos,” Elizondo said. “A small cadre within our own government involved in the UAP topic has created a culture of suppression and intimidation that I have personally been victim to, along with many of my former colleagues.”
Elizondo proposed three “principal actions” that should be taken:
“First, Congress and the President should create a single point-of-contact responsible for a whole-of-government approach to the UAP issue. Currently, the White House, CIA, NASA, the Pentagon, Department of Energy, and others play a role, but no one seems to be in charge, leading to unchecked power and corruption.
“Second, we need a national UAP strategy that will promote transparency and help restore the American public’s trust at a time when the public’s trust is at an all-time low. This strategy should include a whole-of-government approach, including the academic and scientific communities, the private sector, and our international partners and allies.
“Third, Congress should create a protected environment so whistleblowers, desperate to do the right thing, can come forward without fear. As it currently stands, these whistleblowers suffer because of stigma, a code of silence, and concerns about retaliation. These whistleblowers should be encouraged to come forward in ways that protect them against any forms of retaliation. Policies and procedures should ensure that protection. And for those who refuse to cooperate, it is up to the Members of this Committee and other lawmakers to wield their subpoena power against hostile witnesses and prevent additional Government funding to those UAP efforts that remain hidden from Congressional oversight.”
Dr. Tim Gallaudet, a retired U.S. Navy rear admiral, also testified during Wednesday’s hearing about reported military encounters with UAPs.
“Confirmation that UAPs are interacting with humanity came for me in January 2015 when I was serving as the Commander of the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command. At the time, my personnel were participating in a pre-deployment naval exercise off the U.S. East Coast that included the USS Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group,” Dr. Galludet said.
Galludet said that during the exercise, he said he received an email on the Navy’s secure network from the operations officer of Fleet Forces Command. The subject line read in all capital letters: “URGENT SAFETY OF FLIGHT ISSUE,” he said.
He explained that the email was “brief but alarming, with words to the effect of, ‘If any of you know what these are, tell me ASAP. We are having multiple near-midair collisions, and if we do not resolve it soon, we will have to shut down the exercise.’”
Gallaudet said a now declassified video was attached to the email, which the very next day had disappeared from his inbox and the incident was never discussed again.
Gallaudet said the incident had always disturbed him for the remainder of his service and stressed that there is a public safety requirement for more government UAP transparency.
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The biggest development out of Wednesday’s hearing came from another witness, independent journalist Michael Shellenberger, who claimed sources inside the Pentagon revealed knowledge about a UAP program known as “Immaculate Constellation.”
“A source warned that simply printing the name ‘Immaculate Constellation’ could trigger government surveillance of me under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) of whoever publishes it,” Shellenberger said. “‘They won’t comment on it, but talking about it will put you in the danger zone,’ I was told. ‘They enforce the secrecy with a lot of vigor.'”
Shellenberger provided the subcommittee with a report from someone he has described as “a current or former US government official acting as a UAP whistleblower.”
Shellenberger said the whistleblower alleges that the DOD created the program “Immaculate Constellation” in 2017 after the New York Times published an article describing an informal Pentagon UAP program called “Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program,” or AATIP, headed by Elizondo.
Shellenberger explained that the whistleblower’s report includes seven categories of evidence, detailing various UAP sightings collected by technical assets and U.S. military personnel.
He explained that the report described “UAP characteristics that are difficult or impossible to observe with the human eye alone.”
Like other witnesses, Shellenberger is calling for more transparency.
“This issue cuts to the core of our democracy. UAP transparency is bi-partisan and critical to our national security. The incoming Congress and Administration should work together to address it as a matter of acute urgency. We deserve the truth,” he said.
You can read Shellenberger’s complete written testimony (PDF) here. Below is the alleged whistleblower’s report submitted to the subcommittee and published by Rep. Nancy Mace (PDF).