Bringing some excitement to Washington, purported UFO whistleblower David Grusch testified before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday. Grusch was joined by two former United States Navy aviators, Commander David Fravor (ret.) and Ryan Graves (ret.).
Grusch repeated assertions he had previously made and offered additional claims under oath. The centerpiece of Grusch's testimony focused on his allegation that elements of the U.S. government have worked alongside certain U.S. defense contractors in a multi-decade effort to retrieve UFOs of non-human origin in an attempt to reverse engineer those UFOs.
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While there is no public proof that Grusch's claims are accurate, and he himself says his knowledge is second-hand — though supported by documentary evidence, his professional credentials are impeccable.
Importantly, Grusch has now testified before Congress in an open setting under oath. Grusch's verified professional credentials are critical to his credibility. They stand him in contrast to other purported UFO whistleblowers such as Bob Lazar, a fantasist who invented his attendance at various universities and has undermined the deeper seriousness of this subject.
Seriousness matters.
After all, most UFOs are flares, misidentified aircraft, weather or hobby balloons, espionage systems, the product of fraudsters, weather phenomena, or drones. China's People's Liberation Army, for example, has operated a range of technical surveillance capabilities in U.S. military training areas. The PLA uses UFO stigma to disguise these efforts, with its own website noting that "balloons are emerging as viable, capable alternatives to aerial weapons that are less likely to be detected by enemy air defenses or often mistaken for UFOs." Still, a small subset of UFOs are almost certainly intelligently controlled machines of non-human origin.
In that regard, Grusch's testimony was critical in three ways.
First, Grusch allowed members of Congress who do not sit on the House Intelligence Committee to hear from him firsthand. Both high-profile and lower-profile members of Congress were in attendance. Politicians like Rep. Alexandra Ocasio Cortez (D-NY) and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) from very different ideological backgrounds were there.
This diversity of interest is important because there is circumstantial evidence to suggest that House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner (R-OH) is blocking certain UFO-related legislative and oversight efforts in Congress. Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN), who was instrumental in arranging this hearing, needs allies in his oversight efforts. Grusch likely delivered more allies via an impressive performance in which he appeared intelligent, poised, and persuasive.
At a minimum, Grusch has piqued the curiosity of Congress to explore this issue in a more open-minded fashion. As hearing chairman Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-WI) put it, "Several of us are going to look forward to getting some answers in a more confidential setting." Put another way, Grusch moved the ball forwards. And as much as some in the media, military, and scientific communities would wish it otherwise, the UFO ball is not going back into the box.
Second, Grusch has provided political capital for those members of Congress who believe that UFO-related government efforts are over-classified and unjustly remitted to the Armed Services and Intelligence Committees.
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A repeated line at Wednesday's hearing was the assertion by various members of Congress that the public deserves greater transparency as to what its government may or may not be doing. Considering the Constitutional foundations of American democracy, this is a hard argument to rebut. While there are legitimate UFO-related classification concerns about certain military and intelligence community sensor systems, this issue should not be in the sole possession of two Senate and House committees.
Finally, Grusch did not come across as insane. He was testifying under oath — if he turns out to be a fantasist, he is going to prison. But by withstanding Congressional scrutiny without provoking smirks, this was a successful hearing.