Are there aliens out there? Inside the hearing in US Congress on UFOs

Is there alien life darting around in space? Are there unidentified flying objects (UFOs) in the skies above us? These questions are no longer just restricted to conspiracy theorists, as US lawmakers held a hearing on the matter on Wednesday (November 13).

The hearing by the subcommittees of the US House Oversight Committee, which surpassed two hours, comes after a similar one was held in July last year. During that session, the Pentagon was accused of running a secret UFO retrieval programme by whistleblower David Grusch. However, he presented no evidence to back his claims.

What came out of this new hearing? What have we learned about UFOs now?

‘We are not alone’

Luis Elizondo, a former Department of Defence official and among the four to testify on Wednesday in front of US lawmakers, said that unidentified flying objects (UFOs) , or as they are calling it unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) are real.

“Let me be clear: UAPs are clear,” he said. “Advanced technologies not made by our government, or any other government, are monitoring sensitive military installations around the globe.”

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In his testimony, he said that the US and some of its adversaries are in possession of UAP technology and are keeping it secret “to hide the fact that we are not alone in the cosmos.” “I believe we as Americans can handle the truth and I also believe the world deserves the truth,” he added.

A big revelation from his testimony came when Nancy Mace, the chair of the hearing, asked him if the government has a secret UAP crash retrieval programme to identify and reverse engineer aircraft it finds.

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Elizondo responded with a ‘yes’.

Mace also referred to Elizondo’s book in which he claimed that the US is “in possession of advanced technology made off-world by non-human intelligence”. Mace said, “In your book, you mentioned government employees who’ve been injured by UAPs placed on leave and receiving government compensation for their injuries. Is that correct?”

Elizondo said it was correct.

‘UAPs are interacting with humanity’

During the two-hour-long hearing, Dr Tim Gallaudet, a retired US Navy rear admiral, also testified to the presence of UFOs.

In his testimony, he described when he received an email about UFOs during a training exercise taking place off the East Coast. He said personnel aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier had a run-in with the UAPs during a military exercise in 2015.

“During this exercise, I received an email on the Navy’s secure network from the operations officer of Fleet Forces Command. The email was addressed to all subordinate commanders, and the subject line read in all capital letters: Urgent Safety of Flight Issue. The text of the email was brief but alarming, with words to the effect: ‘If any of you know what these are, tell me ASAP. We are having multiple near-midair collisions, and if we do not resolve it soon, we will have to shut down the exercise,” Gallaudet said.

He added, “The very next day, the email disappeared from my account and those of the other recipients without explanation. Moreover, the Commander of Fleet Forces and his operations officer never discussed the incident again.”

He also pushed back against the secrecy surrounding these unidentifiable and unexplainable phenomena. “We should boldly face this new reality and learn from it,” Gallaudet said.

He said that the US should hear whistleblowers who have come forward with their UAP experiences, rather than face ridicule for their claims.

‘Sitting on a trove of UAP visuals’

Michael Shellenberger, journalist and founder of the Public News service, in his testimony, said the Pentagon has a secret UFO retrieval programme called “Immaculate Constellation”. He claimed that “current or former government officials” had told him that the programme had “maybe thousands” of pieces of evidence showing UAPs.

“What the American people need to know is that the US, military and intelligence community are sitting on a huge amount of visual and other information: still photos, video, photos, other sensor information, and they have for a very long time,” Shellenberger said.

“And it’s not those fuzzy photos and videos that we’ve been given. There’s very clear, high resolution [files].”

Giving one such example of the visuals, he said, “A source told me they saw a 13-minute full-colour video of a ‘white orb UAP’ coming out of the ocean about 20 miles off the coast of Kuwait.

“It was filmed from a helicopter, then halfway through the video the person said the orb is joined by another orb that briefly comes into the frame from the left before rapidly moving out of the frame.”

Nasa should be called upon to help

US lawmakers also heard from Michael Gold, a former Nasa associate administrator and member of Nasa UAP Independent Study Team, during the testimony. Gold emphasised on the importance for government agencies and academics to “overcome the pernicious stigma that continues to impede scientific dialogue and open discussions” about unexplained phenomena.

“As the saying goes, the truth is out there,” Gold said, “We just need to be bold enough and brave enough to face it.”

He called on Nasa to do more research on UAPs, saying that it would make a “powerful statement.”

While theories on aliens have also existed, US lawmakers discussing and investigating this phenomenon is on the rise with the aim of destigmatising the issue.

It is unknown what comes out of this hearing, but one thing is certain: the allure and mystery of aliens and UFOs is going nowhere.

With inputs from agencies