To the bemusement of the rest of the world, the House Oversight Committee in the US Congress held a hearing on UFOs this week, Wednesday 26 July.
Two of the witnesses at the hearing, David Fravor and Ryan Graves, are former US Navy pilots who say they have had UFO encounters.
Forward Looking InfraRed videos of these incidents are posted on the Department of Defense website.
They discussed how numerous military and civil pilots and radar operators see and track UFOs performing speeds and manoeuvres that seem to defy the laws of physics.
Sceptics believe such sightings are either misperceptions, sensor anomalies, or involve secret prototype aircraft, missiles or drones.
Grusch's testimony
The third witness at the hearing, David Grusch, is a former intelligence officer who served on the US government's Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force.
In testimony reminiscent of the infamous Roswell UFO incident, Grusch says the US government has recovered craft and bodies relating to what he calls a "non-human intelligence".
He undertook to pass specific details about this to Congressional representatives with the appropriate security clearances.
He said he blew the whistle because programs dealing with this are being run illegally, without proper Congressional oversight.
Grusch went further, talking about unspecified injuries that have befallen UFO witnesses, and threats and retribution against whistleblowers - including himself.
Separately, he filed a complaint with the Intelligence Community Inspector General, apparently containing specific details that were frustratingly missing from the hearing, because it was an unclassified session.
David Grusch, former National Reconnaissance Officer Representative of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Task Force at the U.S. Department of Defense, at the 'Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Implications on National Security, Public Safety, and Government Transparency' US Congress hearing on 26 July 2023. Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Key takeaways
Unlike pilot sightings, which are multifactorial, there's no middle ground here: Grusch's claims are either true or false.
Could he be a disgruntled former employee trying to cause trouble, or involved in a deception operation - either as a willing participant or as an unwilling dupe?
If his allegations are true, they would have profound implications for humanity.
Congress is trying to verify Grusch's claims - a process complicated by the highly classified nature of some UFO information, and by the fact that multiple committees and sub-committees, both in the Senate and the House of Representatives, are investigating.
Further Congressional hearings are likely.
In parallel, NASA is undertaking its own study into UFOs and is expected to report shortly.
And US lawmakers are drafting multiple UFO-related provisions for inclusion in next year's Defense Bill.
Whatever the truth about UFOs, there's bipartisan agreement that it's a serious national security issue.
Furthermore, the level of official engagement in the US is in stark contrast to the UK, where the Ministry of Defence terminated UFO investigations in 2009, and say they have no plans to re-engage.
You can find out more about UFO reports in the UK via the UK government website.
