The US is concealing a long-standing programme that retrieves and reverse engineers unidentified flying objects, a former Air Force intelligence officer testified to the Congress.
David Grusch, who led analysis of unexplained anomalous phenomena (UAP) within a US Department of Defence agency until 2023, told the House oversight committee in Washington that “non-human” beings had been found, as the issue of alien life received its highest-profile airing to date, according to The Guardian newspaper.
The hearing was prompted by claims from Grusch in June that the government was secretly harbouring alien spacecraft.
On Wednesday, Grusch reiterated some of those claims, the report said.
“I was informed, in the course of my official duties, of a multi-decade UAP crash retrieval and reverse-engineering programme, to which I was denied access,” Grusch told the committee. The Pentagon has denied his claims.
The hearing attracted intense global interest, and provided speculation and claims that the US is hiding evidence of alien life and technology – mixed with large doses of scepticism.
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Grusch filed a whistleblower complaint in 2022.
He said that in his role in the government he had been charged with investigating what military, defense and other agencies knew about aliens and alien craft, but alleged he had been prevented from accessing secret government UFO programmes, the report said.
He said he has faced “very brutal” retaliation as a result of his allegations, according to the report.
Grusch also spoke about intimidation measures he faced when looking to speak out about extraterrestrial phenomena, according to Bloomberg.
“I call it the Ministry of Terrorism,” he said of systems in place to keep members of the military from publicly discussing the topic.
The Defence Department created the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office in 2022 to investigate and keep records of sightings.
“The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) has 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,” Susan Gough, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said in an email.