NASA Releases UAP Report; Senate Pressures AARO; 30+ More Whistleblowers!
It’s been a busy few weeks! We briefly touch on the Alien Mummy story in Mexico, report on some House UFO gossip, including another upcoming UAP hearing. We look at reports that multiple senators have been pressuring AARO to do a better job protecting whistleblowers, and a new article claiming more than 30 additional whistleblowers have come forward to the ICIG directly. And lastly, we discuss the report released by NASA’s independent UAP study team, which manages to make a lot of solid recommendations about NASA’s role in gathering UAP data moving forward, while also being dismissive and condescending toward the topic in general.
QuickHits™
These are interesting bits of UFO news that we don’t have time to dive into this time, but they’re worth mentioning, and we’ll be following up on them in future episodes:
Alien Mummies
I haven’t had time to do a deep dive on this one yet, but the short version is the Mexican Congress held a UAP hearing including Ryan Graves and also a TV personality named Jaime Maussan. Jaime Maussan presented some mummified bodies that he claimed were aliens recovered from Peru. A serious study in 2021 concluded that “the head of the small body is largely made of a deteriorated llama braincase and other unidentified bones.” My gut says it’s fake, but we’ll see.
New Grusch Interview
A new interview with David Grusch dropped, and I haven’t had a chance to watch it yet, but I haven’t seen Reddit explode with any new claims, so I’m assuming it’s mostly covering the same information. There’s another documentary dropping in a few days, so I’ll be watching both of those.
Government Agencies Getting Ready for Disclosure?
We’ve seen a few odd information drops from some government agencies, including some documents from the Department of Energy, and some documents and videos from Customs & Border Protection. None of these are earth-shattering, but the community is interpreting this as government agencies preparing for the presumed passage of Sen Schumer’s disclosure bill. I’m not sure that holds water — based on what we learned about the tortured path of the AARO website, it’s hard to imagine agencies proactively adding UAP info when there’s not yet a legal requirement to do so, but who knows.
House UAP Gossip
- Rep. Luna says they’re still working on SCIF for Grusch
- Rep. Burchett says Speaker of the House McCarthy promised him another UAP hearing, but says they were denied the UAP select committee because “guys in intelligence were getting their feathers ruffled; they weren't getting any love.”
- Rep. Burchett said: “The next hearing is gonna be government. We've had the whistleblower witnesses, now we're gonna get the government in, and that's what I want to do.”
- Rep. Himes (top Dem on House Intel Committee) said there’s been “no discussion of UAP at all.”
- Rep. Burchett says “It’s very odd that they say that, when I was told by the Speaker that that was the reason why we couldn't have a select committee; because we stepped on their toes.”
ICIG Denies Looking Into Grusch’s Claims
- Back in August, the #HouseUAPGang (Reps Burchett, Luna, Moskowitz, and a few others) wrote a letter to the Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG) asking for information about the UAP programs Grusch testified about.
- The ICIG wrote back and after a lot of “we take our responsibilities seriously” finally got around to saying “it has not conducted any audit, inspection, evaluation, or review of alleged UP programs within the responsibility and authority of the DNI that would enable this office to provide a fulsome response to your questions.”
- Rep Burchett, “The IC IG office did nothing to look into the information they received from David Grusch on UAP crash retrieval programs? They have no information they can give to Congress??? Cover-up.”
- Matthew Pines, the director of intelligence at Krebs Stamos Group, points out this is a bit of wordplay. “The IC IG states that it has NOT conducted an ‘audit, inspection, evaluation, or review of alleged UAP programs…’ Note the official taxonomy for IC IG activities includes: ‘audits, investigations, inspections, and reviews.’ Is it curious that an ‘investigation’ is not denied?”
- He goes on in some detail about how these aren’t just synonyms. “Each word has a specific and formal bureaucratic meaning, with reference to different types of IC IG activities.” These different activities are handled by different divisions of the ICIG’s office. And specifically, “An audit or inspection is different than an investigation, which is the most serious of its activities (triggered by whistleblowers) & covered by specific statutory authority.”
- He concludes: “They went out of their way to stipulate each kind of activity they are NOT conducting. There is an art form to the non-denial denial in DC…”
- Related: Chuck McCullough, who was the first ICIG (and currently Grusch’s attorney) has said that IGs are very reluctant to talk to legislators because “Congress leaks like a sieve.”
Senate Pressures AARO to Protect Whistleblowers
- Back in July, Sen. Rounds had a classified briefing with AARO director Dr. Kirkpatrick, during which he pushed for better whistleblower protections. Asked about it recently, he said “I think it's a matter of participation by individuals who are concerned about the ability to be protected if they went to AARO. And so I think that's gonna be the challenge — is making sure that people who may have had any firsthand knowledge or wanted to share any information can do so,”
- Sen. Warner, chair of the Senate Intel Committee: “Every whistleblower, the committee’s treated with respect and fully heard out. Vice-Chairman Rubio and I have met recently with Dr. Kirkpatrick and reiterated our belief that this is a really serious topic and needs to be treated that way. And it's the first time that the federal government has put the resources and the scientific heft behind this effort, and we are absolutely very closely monitoring it.”
- Sen. Gillibrand says all these meetings with AARO about whistleblowers are not a coincidence. “These claims are very serious, and I take all of them very seriously. And I want to make sure our service members know they can come forward and disclose all projects they worked on. And it's important that the whistleblower community feels comfortable talking to AARO… so that AARO can do its job thoroughly. …If the whistleblowers don't come forward, they can't assess their claims, they can't find programs that they're talking about.”
Dozens More Whistleblowers Testify
- Journalist Michael Shellenberger published a new article claiming “at least 30 other whistleblowers working for the federal government or government contractors have given testimony, or a “protected disclosure,” to the Office of the Intelligence Community Inspector General (IC IG), the Defense Department Inspector General (DOD IG), or to Congress over the last several months, according to multiple sources.”
- Noted skeptic Mick West: “It'd be very interesting. You know, more people saying the same thing independently makes it more likely to be true.”
- Matthew Pines: “It’s either that dozens of highly cleared officials are in the grip of an enduring, bizarre delusion, are witting participants to a broad scale and long-running psychological deception, or they are relaying factual information on extraordinary covert programs.”
- The article included this: “Testimony has included both first-hand and second-hand reports of crash retrieval and reverse-engineering programs by US, Russian, and Chinese governments; the testing of materials obtained from retrieved craft; active and ongoing government disinformation operations; kinetic military action with UAPs; contact and collaboration with nonhuman intelligence (NHIs); and the successful reverse-engineering of a triangle-shaped craft with unconventional propulsion.”
NASA Releases UAP Study Team Report
- Short version: They worked closely with AARO on this report, and it shows. They tow the same line, dismissing all eyewitness testimony, and acting as though any UAP effort needs to start from zero with better sensors.
- NASA director Bill Nelson said the purpose of the study team was to help shift UAP dialog “from sensationalism to science.”
- Nicola Fox, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate said “UAP are one of our planet’s greatest mysteries, and it’s really due to the limited number of high-quality data. The language of scientists is data.”
The Report
- “When it comes to UAP, the challenge we have is that the data needed to explain these anomalous sightings often do not exist; this includes eyewitness reports, which on their own can be interesting and compelling, but aren’t reproducible and usually lack the information needed to make any definitive conclusions about a phenomenon’s provenance… Analysis of UAP data is hampered by poor sensor calibration, the lack of multiple measurements, the lack of sensor metadata, and the lack of baseline data. Making a concerted effort to improve all aspects is vital, and NASA’s expertise should be comprehensively leveraged as part of a robust and systematic data acquisition strategy within the whole-of-government framework.”
- They talk about decreasing negative stigma around UAP reporting, maybe using AI or machine learning to look for UAP, and suggest crowdsourcing data collection (though given their repeated insistence that none of the data is good enough, I don’t understand how smartphone videos would meet their needs).
- The report is littered with photos of odd atmospheric phenomena and weather balloons, echoing the “swamp gas” dismissiveness of Project Blue Book. The only UAP photos they include are ones that Kirkpatrick already explained.
The Press Conference and Reactions
- During the press conference, they announced that NASA appointed a Director UAP Research, but then wouldn’t name the person they appointed. They ended up releasing the name later that day after serious pushback, including Rep Burchett pointing out that’s likely illegal.
- Speaking of Ross Coulthart, he was pissed about a bit of sleight of hand that lent the report more credibility than it deserves: “They specifically state, ‘to date, in the peer-reviewed scientific literature, there is no conclusive evidence suggesting an extraterrestrial origin for UAPs.’ So the… overwhelming impression is that NASA’s panel was speaking on the basis of a review of all the evidence that NASA has acquired in its long history, the videos from the shuttle missions, the anomalous objects seen on Apollo missions and reported by astronauts… And that’s not true! …There’s an admission here that they only reviewed peer-reviewed scientific literature! Why?”
- Mark Rodeghier, director of the J Allen Center for UFO Studies, said “I won’t use a word as strong as foolish, but I think it’s misguided to pretend like we’re starting today from scratch, rather than to take advantage of what has been done. …In any science, you use as much data as you have. You don’t ignore data, even if it’s poor quality. You take that into account in your work, but you don’t pretend like it doesn’t exist and say we’re only going to use new data.”
- Chris Mellon, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, trying to chill the UFO community out: “When I set out on this journey, the goal was to get our government to take the UAP issue seriously and investigate appropriately. Now, in just 5 years, we have Congress, DOD, and NASA fully engaged. This is a huge achievement.”
References
- Rep. Luna: “Still working on a SCIF for Grusch.”
- Rep. Burchett: “Speaker promised another hearing, but no select committee because guys in intelligence were getting their feathers ruffled.”
- Rep. Burchett: “We’ve had the whistleblower, now we’re gonna get the government in.”
- Rep Burchett: “I was told we couldn’t have a select committee because we stepped on the Intel Committee’s toes.”
- Sen Rounds: “AARO needs to make sure whistleblowers can share info safely.”
- Sen Warner: “Rubio and I met with Kirkpatrick, this is a serious topic.”
- ICIG: “has not conducted any audit, inspection, evaluation, or review of alleged UAP programs”
- Rep. Burchett: “They have no info for Congress? Cover-up.”
- Matthew Pines: “Is it curious that an ‘investigation’ is not denied?”
- Chuck McCullough: “IGs are reluctant to speak to Congress because it leaks like a sieve.”
- Michael Shellenberger: Dozens Of Government UFO Whistleblowers Have Given Testimony To Congress, Pentagon, And Inspectors General, Say Sources
- NASA: UAP Independent Study Team Report (archive.org link)
- Red Sprite imagery: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11059
- NASA: NASA Shares UAP Independent Study Report; Names Director
- The Debrief: NASA’s UAP Independent Study Team Publishes Its Findings, as the Agency Appoints a New NASA Director of UAP Research
- Daily Mail: NASA panel 'neglected' wind data to claim GOFAST UFO 'drifted' in wind
- Ross Coulthart: “NASA only looked at peer-reviewed scientific literature.”
- Chris Mellon: “In just 5 years, we have Congress, DOD, and NASA engaged.”
Episode 29, posted on