David Grusch is a former midranking civilian intelligence officer and Air Force veteran. In July 2021, Grusch filed a whistleblower complaint to the Defense Department's inspector general alleging the existence of a covert public-private sector program to retrieve and exploit crashed, unidentified flying objects, or UFOs, or what the government refers to as unidentified aerial phenomena, or UAPs. Grusch subsequently briefed Congress on his assertions.
Writing for the Debrief last week, Leslie Kean and Ralph Blumenthal documented the broad substance of Grusch's claims. In response, the government and military have continued to deny that they have evidence of any such program existing. Grusch went into more detail on his claims during an interview with journalist Ross Coulthart that aired on NewsNation on Sunday evening. In that interview, Grusch claimed that the United States retains multiple craft originally constructed by a "non-human intelligence" and that the public and Congress are being lied to.
What should we make of these extraordinary claims?
First, Grusch's credentials and the Debrief's due diligence in its reporting stand up to at least provisional scrutiny.
Unlike Bob Lazar, a fantasist who claims he attended universities that have no record of him and worked on crashed UFOs near Area 51, Grusch's credentials are legitimate. We know that he served in the Air Force, including in the war in Afghanistan. We know he served with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and then at the National Reconnaissance Office. We know he served as the NRO's liaison to the then-UAP Task Force (now replaced by the All Domain Anomaly Office/AARO). Grusch appears to be well respected by those he served alongside. The Debrief's executive editor, Tim McMillan, has also explained how he examined Grusch's background and what the former Air Force officer was asserting to Kean and Blumenthal.
What Grusch describes about the supposed crash retrieval program also fits with how a project of this kind would have had to operate. That is to say, how a program of such profound import could remain secret over a period of decades. Grusch says that this entails the use of defense contractors and programs hidden within programs designed to limit congressional and executive branch oversight. While many UFOs are actually flares, balloons, or other airborne clutter, it is highly likely that a small subset of UFOs represent an unknown technical capability of unknown origin (i.e., not made in China, the U.S., or Russia). Although I have been unable to confirm it, I believe the U.S. government is in possession of UFO-related materials of exotic design. Grusch's claim that the U.S. has numerous intact crashed vehicles, however?
That's where things become more difficult.
First, the U.S. government and military retain multiple, extremely sensitive programs designed to secure and assess advanced foreign military technologies, including satellites, missile systems, aircraft, and an increasing array of drones. As I've reported, there has sometimes been conflation between these efforts and UFO-related investigations. Equally important, the unwillingness of different U.S. intelligence services to share information with one another means that conspiracy theories are sometimes born in the absence of one agency's understanding as to what is going on in another agency. As with the government's investigation of "Havana Syndrome," the politicization of intelligence analysis can also be an issue..................................................
Second, while Grusch claims certain knowledge of what he alleges, he himself admits that his information is second-hand in nature. Grusch says he was not personally part of a UFO exploitation program but rather spoke to numerous people involved with it. And while Grusch says he has provided Congress with the names and locations of people and efforts related to the program, we are not privy to this information. The divided reaction in Congress to Grusch's claims underlines the broader issue.
While House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) has expressed interest in holding a hearing on Grusch's claims, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner (R-OH) has expressed skepticism as to what Grusch is alleging. As a member of the Gang of Eight, Turner receives briefings on the most sensitive U.S. military and intelligence efforts. That he does not appear to believe Grusch would appear to suggest that Grusch's classified testimony to Congress has either not been corroborated or that Turner has not received adequate briefings.
This reflects a deeper concern in relation to the UFO subject and the U.S. government. Namely, that numerous people in the military, intelligence community, and Congress who have the clearances and credible mission-need-to-know about a UFO exploitation program apparently do not know about it. This could be because of the conspiracy that Grusch alleges or because such a program does not exist.
Still, Congress isn't backing away from the subject. If often behind the scenes, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and others on the Senate Intelligence and Armed Services committees remain heavily invested in conducting oversight on this. They are taking this action to the considerable frustration of the Pentagon and the intelligence community (though that frustration flows from a belief in these organizations that UFOs are a distraction rather than as part of an effort to mislead Congress).
What we need, then, is to learn what Grusch has told Congress and what follow-on investigations have discovered about what he has said. That said, Grusch's background and credentials are undeniably compelling. He appears to believe what he says. And even if he should not reflexively be believed, he cannot be ignored.
Ever heard of "Smile School". You appear to be a candidate 
