The July 26 Congressional Hearing

 

For those interested, yes, I did sit through the whole UFO, I mean UAP, Congressional Hearing. And, no, unlike so many of my colleagues, I was unimpressed. I heard and saw nothing new here. I knew days ago, who the witnesses would be, and hoped that some of David Grusch’s sources would be revealed. With hints about sources, we could have begun the process of verification but without them, we just have some interesting tales that might be more fiction than fact.

The Hearing Room and the witnesses, back to the camera.

Here are some of the things that I noticed. There was a great deal of talk about transparency, but little talk about sources, sightings or results. There was a great deal of talk about national security, and most of us could figure out what that meant. Revelation that the US was in possession of alien spacecraft, or rather proof of that, could certainly affect national security. Our competitors in world would fear what we might learn about the operation of alien spacecraft and what sort of an advantage that would give us.

Representative Glenn Grothman, who chaired the panel asked if the witnesses thought that UAP pose a threat to national security.

Hearing chair, Rep. Glenn Grothman.

Commander David Fravor, the Navy pilot involved with the tic-tac sighting said, “Yes, and here’s why. The technology we faced was far superior to anything that we had… if you have one and you reversed engineered one, you could go into space, go someplace, drop down in a matter of seconds and do whatever it wants and leaves and there is nothing we can do about it.”

Grothman asked about what kind of information is being hidden. Grusch, the alleged whistleblower said, “I can speak to that briefly in an unclassified matter…” But said nothing that he hadn’t said before and offered nothing in the way of evidence for his opinion.

Grusch was the one I wanted to hear and he was asked, finally, about the US having UAPs (he meant alien spacecraft) and said, “Absolutely, after interviewing over 40 witnesses over four years, I know the exact locations and those locations were supplied to the Inspector General… I actually had some people with first-hand knowledge provide protected disclosure to the Inspector General…”

David Grusch testifying in front of the Committee.

Which, of course, told us nothing that we didn’t know. As I have said, repeatedly, Don Schmitt, Tom Carey and I have talked with first-hand witnesses and we didn’t suggest it was information that couldn’t be shared in an open forum. We named names, cited locations, and even have some documentation related to all this.

Representative Tim Burchett asked if anyone had been harmed and Grusch said, “Yes, personally.” But it seemed that he was referring to interference with his job and bullying by his superiors. He said, “It was very brutal and very unfortunate, some of the tactics used to hurt me both professionally and personally.”

Representative Tim Burchett asking questions.

Again, Don, Tom and I have interviewed many people who reported they had been threatened. We specifically mentioned threats related to the Roswell UFO crash that included members of the military, the sheriff and several civilians. All documented in the various books that include names and dates. Just this month, I reviewed one of those cases when I spoke to Tim Saunders about what his father, Patrick Saunders had told him. You can read all that here:

http://kevinrandle.blogspot.com/2023/07/patrick-saunders-covert-roswell.html

Burchett asked if he knew of anyone having been murdered. Grusch said, “I have to be careful answering that question. I directed people with the that knowledge to the appropriate authorities.” He said he was willing to discuss this in a closed environment, but gave us no hints about who that might have been killed, when the murder or murders might have happened, and where the investigation now stood.

Grusch continued in this vein throughout the hearing. He was asked for specifics, provided none, but suggested he would get into that in closed hearings. So much for transparency.

Representative Jared Moskowitz asked if he, Grusch, had met with people with a direct knowledge of non-human craft. Grusch said that he had personally interviewed those individuals. Again, Don, Tom, and I can say the same thing, citing specific generals and colonels, all of whom can be placed in positions to have witnessed these things. We talked with former counterintelligence agents (later Air Force OSI agents who had direct knowledge). We have also talked with civilians who had specific and direct knowledge such as Bill Brazel.

Moskowitz followed up by asking about crash sites and crash imagery. Grusch said, “I can’t go beyond what I have already stated publicly.” I thought that was a nice dodge of the question. This was the sort of thing that interested me, but each time someone had approached specifics, the answer was the same. Can’t go into it beyond what he had already said.

In what was an important question that I think was missed by many, Rep. Burchett asked about when the US became aware of these alien craft. Grusch said, “I like to use the term non-human (who really cares what you like). I don’t like to denote origin. It keeps the aperture open both scientifically and (he trailed off here and didn’t finish that thought)” and then said, “Like I have discussed publicly, the 1930s.”

This is a reference to the 1933 Italian crash, which colleagues in Italy have said is a hoax. I will note that even if true, the US wouldn’t have learned about it until the mid-1940s. I did a longer post on it and you can read it here:

http://kevinrandle.blogspot.com/2023/06/david-grush-and-1933-italian-ufo-crash.html

Now we come to the nitty gritty. Burchett asked for the names and the titles of the people with direct first-hand knowledge about crash retrievals. And Grusch said, ‘I can’t discuss that publicly, but I did provide that information to both the intel committees and the Inspector General.”

This was what I had waited for. Names, organizations, maybe even a date or two but Grusch provided nothing other than that vague reference to the 1930s. He had said all this before.

While Ryan Graves, the other Navy pilot talked about interviewing some thirty other pilots about their encounters (without providing any names) he did mention a big sighting at Edwards Air Force Base by Boeing engineers and contractors. I mention this only because I didn’t want to leave him out. He was the third witness who didn’t add much to what we already knew about his experiences.

I suppose I should mention that I had written, in The Washington Nationals, a book about the sightings of UFOs over Washington, D.C., information about pilot sightings at that time, including interviews with Air Force pilots involved in attempted intercepts of UFOs. Again, complete with names, locations and other source material.

And, of course, the Project Blue Book files are filled with the names of pilots who had reported UFOs. Since the end of Blue Book, hundreds of other pilots have reported seeing UFOs. In fact, I interviewed a man who had been an alternative pilot on Air Force One during the Kennedy administration who told me that he had seen a domed disk flying off the wing of his fighter in the years before he had flown Air Force One.

Finally, I mention this only because it was so jarring. Representative Eric Burlison wondered how these craft could travel billions of light years and then crash. It seemed to boggle his mind that a race that could conquer interstellar flight would end up crashing. Of course, they really didn’t have to travel billions of light years. The closest star system to Earth is a mere 4.1 light years away. And yes, the technology that would allow travel across that distance is still beyond our capability but his point was irrelevant.

In the end, we heard more about transparency and national security, and there were even some questions about black funding that had little to do with the purpose of the hearing. We didn’t get any specifics that we didn’t already have and we learned nothing that we didn’t already know… except that Grusch sticks with the 1933 Italian crash. Someone should tell him that it might just be a hoax and he should forget about it.