A bipartisan group of lawmakers are demanding federal officials provide more information about unidentified flying objects.<\/p>\n
During a Thursday news conference, U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida said federal officials have refused to allow them to see classified documents on UFOs, also known as unidentified aerial phenomena, despite whistleblowers coming forward with information claiming that the government has recovered such objects.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has become very clear and evident that there is an apparent attempt \u2014 an orchestrated attempt \u2014 to deny us this access,\u201d Luna said.<\/p>\n
Luna, a Republican who serves on the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, said she and other members of Congress have been denied information because they don\u2019t have proper security clearances.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we do not have the clearance, who does?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Luna and fellow Florida Reps. Matt Gaetz, a Republican, and Jared Moskowitz, a Democrat, urged congressional colleagues to pass an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act to require the Department of Defense to automatically declassify records relating to \u201cpublicly known sightings.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not about whether there are aliens or there are not aliens. Those are questions that I think remain unanswered,\u201d Moskowitz said Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe problem is, when we ask those questions, rather than being provided information that would prove it false, they stonewall the information, and that is what piques the interest.\u201d<\/p>\n
The objects were long derided by U.S. government officials as science fiction or the result of witnesses\u2019 imagination, but a 2021 federal task force<\/a> report found a handful of reported UFO incidents that \u201cappear to demonstrate advanced technology,\u201d with military aircraft picking up \u201cradio frequency (RF) energy\u201d with a few sightings.<\/p>\n The objects sometimes appeared to move against the wind, maneuver abruptly or at \u201cconsiderable speed,\u201d \u201cwithout discernable means of propulsion,\u201d the report stated.<\/p>\n Several whistleblowers have come forward claiming that the government has long known about the existence of unidentified aircraft and is spending money trying to reverse-engineer them.<\/p>\n One whistleblower, former Air Force intelligence officer David Grusch, testified under oath to Congress in July that the government has recovered crashed vessels and nonhuman \u201cbiologics.\u201d<\/a> The Pentagon has denied his claims.<\/p>\n People around the globe have reported witnessing unidentified aerial phenomena, including numerous<\/a> military<\/a> and<\/a> commercial<\/a> airline<\/a> pilots<\/a>. The then-governor of Arizona, Fife Symington, said he saw<\/a> a giant, silent, triangular-shaped craft fly over the state in 1997, an event known as the \u201cPhoenix lights.\u201d Former President Jimmy Carter wrote that he saw one in Georgia in 1969<\/a>, when he was governor.<\/p>\n In 2019, The New York Times reported that unidentified flying objects<\/a> had<\/a> been recorded on video<\/a> by U.S. Navy pilots, including one recorded off the coast of Jacksonville.<\/p>\n That report \u2014 and the videos of the craft \u2014 sparked an explosion of interest in UFOs from the public and some members of Congress, including Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who said the craft could pose a security threat. Other members of Congress have voiced concerns that the craft have been seen near nuclear missile sites<\/a>.<\/p>\n Americans have long been kept in the dark by the U.S. government about Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP). The time for transparency is now. We don\u2019t want the information in small bits and pieces over 25 years.<\/p>\n Gaetz said Thursday that when he, Luna and Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tennessee, sought a classified briefing on a reported UFO incident near Eglin Air Force Base, near Pensacola, they were initially denied. After hours of negotiation, they were eventually able to meet with a test pilot who saw and photographed the object.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was not something that I could classify as something that we would possess or capability that any of our adversaries possess,\u201d Gaetz said Thursday.<\/p>\n _____<\/p>\n