House hearing investigates UFO “whistleblower” claims – National & International News – WED 26Jul2023

House hearing investigates UFO “whistleblower” claims.

Mitch McConnell freezes during press conference before escorted away from podium.

NATIONAL NEWS

House hearing investigates UFO “whistleblower” claims

In a hearing before the House Oversight Committee, former US intelligence employee David Grusch shared stunning allegations that a cabal of executive branch agencies have possessed extraterrestrial vehicles and even biological evidence of “non-human” beings for decades. Grusch claims that these agencies and some private defense contractors have secretly been reverse engineering these partial and whole ET vessels to create new military advances.

Allegations like this are nothing new. Accounts of secret underground bunkers in the Western deserts and secretive UFO reverse-engineering projects have been around for decades. One of the most famous so-called insider whistleblowers is Bob Lazar, whose accounts Grusch closely echoes. However, unlike Lazar, who claimed to have examined alien crafts, Grusch admitted he had never seen any of these objects for himself. Instead, Grusch’s reports were based on “extensive interviews with high-level intelligence officials”.

What is new is the apparent readiness by elected officials to take these accounts seriously and investigate them. What’s more, several members of the Oversight Committee expressed frustration at being “stonewalled” by federal officials when the committee sought information ahead of the hearing.

Grusch claims people have been harmed to keep UFO secret

Grusch served for 14 years as an intelligence officer in the Air Force and National Geospatial Intelligence Agency. Until 2023, was as an analyst who served as the National Reconnaissance Office’s representative to the Pentagon’s All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), which was set up by Congress last year to investigate UAPs.

In June 2023, Grusch came forward as a whistleblower with claims that the federal government was withholding information on UAPs from Congress, and that the Pentagon had misappropriated funds for projects to evade Congressional oversight.

During the hearing, Grusch said he’d faced “brutal” retaliation for his claims which had harmed him both personally and professionally. He provided no further details, claiming he didn’t want to compromise an ongoing investigation of the retaliation against him. Rep. Tim Burchett (R- TN) asked Grusch if he knew of anyone who had been “harmed or injured” to keep extraterrestrial technology a secret. Grusch answered that he personally knew of such cases. When Burchett asked if anyone had been murdered, Grusch said that he had “directed people with that knowledge to the appropriate authorities”.

Prior statements to the media

Before today’s hearing, Grusch had made much more elaborate and alarming claims to the media, none of which he repeated under oath today, and several of which seem plucked from sci-fi lore.

For example, Grusch told one outlet the government possessed a UFO that was a “football-field kind of size”. This is reminiscent of the massive craft in the Will Smith movie “Independence Day” (1996).

Grusch also told a French newspaper that the US possessed a “bell-like craft” that was recovered in 1933 from a crash in northern Italy by Benito Mussolini’s government. This seems to refer to relatively recent lore around “Die Glocke”, a so-called Nazi wonder weapon, supposedly capable of everything from anti-gravity to time travel. However, the “Die Glocke” story seems to have been invented by a Polish journalist around 2001.

So much of Grusch’s story is exactly what the public and particularly UFO enthusiasts have been primed and waiting to have confirmed for decades. However, beyond Grusch’s own credentials, there is no evidence yet to back any of it up. Perhaps it’s a hoax, or perhaps the investigation will reveal something more substantive, if it is allowed to proceed. But for now, Grusch has offered no extraordinary evidence to support his extraordinary claims.

As journalist Garret Graff pointed out, the least believable thing about claims of this secretive government program is the assertion that the government has somehow kept a program this massive and momentous a secret for so long. “I think when you look at the government’s ability to keep secret other really important secrets,” Graff said, “there’s a lot of reason to doubt the capability of the government to do that”

Click here for the full story (opens in new tab).

Mitch McConnell freezes during press conference before escorted away from podium

During a press conference today discussing progress on passing next years National Defense Authorization Bill, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) trailed off in mid-sentence. He remained frozen, unblinking, and silent for about 20 seconds.

Finally, fellow Senators John Barrasso (R-WY), who is a doctor, and Joni Ernst (R-IA), approached him. Barrasso asked “Hey Mitch, anything else you wanted to say or should we just go back to your office?”. McConnell then seemed to regain his senses, and with his colleagues’ help, he stepped away from the podium without comment.

A few minutes later, McConnell returned to the podium and a reporter asked if McConnell would explain what happened previously, if it was related to a concussion he suffered earlier this year and whether he was still capable of doing his job. McConnell replied, “I’m fine” and then went on to answer other questions for several minutes, giving appropriate and sometimes lengthy and detailed answers.

The incident has raised speculation and concern about the 81-year-old Republican leader’s health.

See the full one-minute video here (opens in new tab).