‘Non-human’ spacecraft, biologics: What we learned from America’s UFO hearing

Here’s what we know from the ‘UFO hearing’.

1. 01

   Who is David Grusch and why did he turn into a whistleblower?

   The 36-year-old is a former intelligence official who had previously served in the US Air Force. He was a part of the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force, which works under the  Department of Defense. Set up in August 2020, the task force aims to detect, analyse and catalog Unidentified Aerial Phenomena that may pose a threat to US national security.

   Speaking at the hearing held by the House Oversight Committee's national security subcommittee on July 26, David Grusch said that he is asking Congress to hold the US government accountable and thoroughly investigate claims that it is secretly holding an alien spacecraft.

   "I became a whistleblower ... 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," he said.

2. 02

   What are his claims?

   This is not the first time that David Grusch has claimed that the US government has proof of UFOs. He has previously spoken to a variety of media outlets like News Nation, The Debrief and French newspaper Le Parisien, telling the latter that the US military had briefed some intelligence officials of "football field-sized" alien aircraft.

   In the congressional hearing, he said that he has been told of the presence of "a multi-decade UAP crash retrieval and reverse-engineering program," but was denied access to the program. He added that he has spoken to officials who knew of "non-human" origin aircrafts from which  "biologics" were recovered.

   "As I've stated publicly already in my News Nation interview, biologics came with some of these recoveries... Non-human and that was the assessment of people with direct knowledge on the program I talked to that are currently still on the program," he added.

3. 03

   Who else were there at the hearings?

   Besides Grusch, former US Navy pilot Ryan Graves, who is currently the executive director of Americans for Safe Aerospace, and Rt. Commander David Fravor were present at the hearing. They had both previously spoken about their experience encountering suspected UAPs.

   Graves said that his squadron had encountered "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" in Virginia Beach in 2014 and said that such 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."

   Fravor said that he encountered a suspected UAP in 2004. Describing it as a "smooth, seamless oval-shaped object", Fravor said that it hovered over the water off the California coast and climbed up rapidly before accelerating and disappearing. "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 added.

4. 04

   What next?

   During the course of the bipartisan hearing, lawmakers said that the need of the hour is to gain clarity on what the government does and does not know. The committee asked Grusch who they can call to testify in the committee's next hearing, to which Grusch said that he will provide a list of "cooperative and hostile" individuals in the government once the hearing is done.

   Members present at the hearing included Republican Representatives Kelly Armstrong, Andy Biggs, Tim Burchett, Matt Gaetz, Paul Gosar, Glenn Grothman, Clay Higgins and Democratic party Representatives Cori Bush, Maxwell Frost, Katie Porter, Jamie Raskin and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

5. 05

   What does the Pentagon say?

   In a statement, the Department of Defense denied allegations of a cover-up.

   Defense Department spokeswoman Sue Gough said investigators have not discovered “any verifiable information to substantiate claims that any programs regarding the possession or reverse-engineering of extraterrestrial materials have existed in the past or exist currently.” The statement did not address UFOs that are not suspected of being extraterrestrial objects, as per an Associated Press report.