Unless you’ve recently been abducted, you’ve probably heard about the House Oversight Committee’s hearing on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP). Like most televised congressional hearings, it wasn’t exactly riveting television, but there are plenty of dedicated journalists here at Planetary Broadcast HQ who sat through the whole thing, and they tell me there were some exciting moments. 

The discussions around the watercooler have taken on a kind of “fight club” atmosphere, with conspiracy theorists, ufologists, and skeptics squaring off during every coffee break. Despite the animus (and black eyes) this engenders, I have allowed it to continue. Spirited debate is a vital part of journalism; plus, I’m skimming 5% off all the bets placed, so it’s a win-win. 

I sent our new intern, Sylvia, on a fact-finding mission to discover the points most hotly contested among the combatants. That may seem a bit much to give the new kid, but we need to know if she can survive the jungle of the newsroom, and it’s best to find out sooner rather than later. She came back a bit wild-eyed, but intact, so I think she will fit in around here just fine. Let’s take a look at what she brought in. 

First, consider the sources. The three witnesses, David Grusch, David Fravor, and Ryan Graves, are each veterans with many years of experience in military aviation. Grusch is a former Air Force pilot who served in Afghanistan, then went on to work for the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA) and the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). Fravor is a retired Navy pilot, best known for his description of a 2004 UAP as a “flying tic-tac.” The third witness, Ryan Graves, also a Naval aviator, was present at the “tic-tac” incident as well, and is now the executive director of the UAP advocacy group known as Americans for Safe Aerospace. In all my years of watching the UFO scene, I’ve never seen a group of whistleblowers with such quality bona fides.

A quick list of their assertions includes:

• The US government possesses debris from crashed UAPs 
• That debris includes “non-human biologics” 
• A UAP was seen performing maneuvers that would be impossible in any of our current aircraft
• The Pentagon has been attempting to collect and reassemble UAP debris for multiple decades
• This Pentagon project is funded by misappropriation, thus avoiding congressional oversight
• Further details can be provided, but only in a closed session, within a “sensitive compartmented information facility” (SCIF) because the information is still classified
• Persons have been injured and/or killed in order to maintain the secrecy surrounding the government’s UAP program

These are all fairly shocking revelations, and now a group of legislators are calling upon the Speaker of the House to form a select committee to investigate the government’s handling of UAPs. That is business as usual, but since the testimony of these witnesses points to a lengthy coverup perpetrated through a coordinated effort of civilian and military authorities, it might be time to do more than commission yet another toothless investigative committee. 

Perhaps the most interesting result of these revelations is the blasé reaction of US citizens. A Newsweek poll conducted before the hearing showed that 57% of registered voters believe that government agencies know more about UFO/UAPs than they have publicly revealed. This televised hearing may have pushed that number a bit higher, but it was competing with a circus of high-profile criminal indictments, so it didn’t make much of a splash in the news cycle. As we here at PBN have reported before, faith in all our institutions continues to wane, and any continued pretense about the nature of UPAs will only support that trend.

One thing you can have faith in, however, is our commitment at the Planetary Broadcast Network. Stay tuned, and we’ll keep you up to date on the government’s futile attempts to keep us all in the dark.