What happened
On 13 November 2024 two House Oversight subcommittees, led by Representatives Nancy Mace and Glenn Grothman, held a joint hearing titled 'Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Exposing the Truth.' Retired Rear Admiral Tim Gallaudet, a former Navy oceanographer, said that in January 2015 he received an urgent Fleet Forces email warning of multiple near midair collisions with unknown objects during an East Coast exercise, with the GoFast video attached, and that the email vanished from recipients' accounts the next day. Luis Elizondo, the former AATIP official, testified that UAP are real, that advanced technologies not made by any government monitor sensitive military sites, and that the US possesses UAP technology in a secret arms race. Journalist Michael Shellenberger submitted a document from an anonymous whistleblower describing an alleged unacknowledged special access program called Immaculate Constellation that collects UAP imagery. Former NASA official Michael Gold, a member of NASA's UAP study team, urged combating stigma and putting NASA's credibility to work. All four said they believed the government was concealing UAP evidence.
The original account
Let me be clear. UAP are real. Advanced technologies not made by our government or any other government are monitoring sensitive military installations around the globe. Furthermore, the U.S. is in possession of UAP technologies, as are some of our adversaries.
Testimony of Luis Elizondo, House Oversight joint subcommittee hearing, 13 November 2024 (official transcript, US government work)
The official explanation
The witnesses' claims rest largely on personal accounts, secondhand reports and an anonymous document whose authenticity has not been publicly verified. AARO's March 2024 report had already concluded that claims of reverse-engineering programs were inaccurate. AARO's FY2024 report, released the next day, said the office had found no evidence of extraterrestrial beings, activity or technology. Elizondo declined to answer several questions in open session, citing restrictions he had signed.
The anomalous case
This hearing paired a retired two-star admiral with the former head of the Pentagon's own UAP program, both testifying under oath. Gallaudet's account is specific: a named command, a subject line warning of a safety of flight issue, multiple near collisions, and an email he says disappeared overnight. Elizondo, who said he once managed a special access program for the White House and National Security Council, told Congress the US holds UAP technology and that a small cadre had intimidated and investigated whistleblowers to keep it hidden. Asked by Representative Robert Garcia what UAP might be, Gallaudet said there was strong evidence they are nonhuman, higher intelligence. Shellenberger's whistleblower document, entered into the record, describes high-quality imagery and signatures intelligence collected on UAP. Congress now had multiple insiders describing the same hidden structure.
The strongest argument that this was something genuinely unknown or classified, with each claim attributed to the person who made it.
Documents
- Hearing transcript, Serial No. 118-135 (GovInfo) transcript, govinfo.gov
- Hearing page official, oversight.house.gov
Sources
- Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Exposing the Truth (hearing transcript) U.S. Government Publishing Office (GovInfo)
- Experts testify before lawmakers that the U.S. is running secret UAP programs NPR (via KPBS)
- Pentagon received hundreds of new UAP reports, but says no evidence of extraterrestrial activity NBC News
Witness reports elsewhere
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