NRO Whistleblower - June 06, 2023

WASHINGTON DC (WSAU) – On Monday, a former intelligence official claimed to have turned over material demonstrating the existence of very covert programs using undamaged and damaged alien craft.

Air Force veteran and whistleblower David Grusch, 36, said that the intelligence community is improperly withholding secret information about aircraft of non-human origin from Congress and the general public during an interview with News Nation.

According to the Debrief, Grusch held several posts after serving in the Air Force, some of which were with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO).

Between 2019 and 2021, he also represented a reconnaissance office at the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) Task Force.

The Debrief described several other prominent U.S. military and intelligence officials who described Grusch as “beyond reproach,” while others largely corroborated his account.

Grusch said that when he was a member of the UAP task group, he and his colleagues were denied access to a “broad crash retrieval program.” He also stated that he was denied access to “quite a number” of alien aircraft that had crashed or landed on Earth.

In addition to filing a whistleblower complaint, Grusch asserted that he had given Congress and the Intelligence Community Inspector General access to all of his data.

“A number of well-placed current and former officials have shared with me detailed information regarding this alleged program, including insights into the history, governing documents, and the location where a craft was allegedly abandoned and recovered,” Christopher Mellon, who held the position of Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence told The Debrief.

According to BBC, Sean Kirkpatrick, the director of the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution (AARO) of the Defense Department, claimed his organization receives “50 to 100-ish new reports each month” of odd aerial phenomena. However, he says two to five percent of those encounters may be “possibly really anomalous.”

A NASA panel released early studies on unidentified flying objects and aerial occurrences last week. They determined that more evidence is needed to understand the nature of many of these flying objects, but no one ruled out the possibility that they are extraterrestrial.

June 10, 2023 - Update

Attorneys from the Compass Rose Legal Group, who represented whistleblower David Grusch in his complaint to the Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG) regarding harassment he says he received during his investigation of a supposed UAP crash retrieval program within the Department of Defense, have issued a statement saying they have ended their formal association with the former intelligence officer.

This move comes just four days after Grusch revealed to the public the supposed existence of what he described as a crash retrieval program designed to collect and reverse engineer craft of “non-human origin” dating back at least ninety years.

The ICIG complaint filed by Compass Rose on behalf of Grusch alleged that people within the government retaliated against the former UAP Task Force analyst for his efforts to investigate and ultimately disclose the alleged program to members of Congress.

The formal statement from Grusch’s former attorneys, which was released on Friday, June 9^th, states:

Compass Rose Legal Group has successfully concluded its representation of former client David Grusch on matters limited to his reasonable belief that elements of the Intelligence Community improperly withheld or concealed alleged classified information from the U.S. Congress. The firm filed a narrowly-scoped whistleblower disclosure with the Intelligence Community Inspector General (“ICIG”) and associated personnel matters – and had represented Mr. Grusch since February 2022.

Recent media articles misstate the scope of the firm’s representation and include material misstatements of fact pertaining to our representation, which we have requested be corrected.

The whistleblower disclosure did not speak to the specifics of the alleged classified information that Mr. Grusch has now publicly characterized, and the substance of that information has always been outside of the scope of Compass Rose’s representation. Compass Rose took no position and takes no position on the contents of the withheld information.

“The ICIG found Mr. Grusch’s assertion that information was inappropriately concealed from Congress to be urgent and credible in response to the filed disclosure. Compass Rose brought this matter to the ICIG’s attention through lawful channels and successfully defended Mr. Grusch against retaliation.

“We wish our former client the very best in the next steps of his journey.

July 14, 2023 - THE ‘UAP DISCLOSURE ACT OF 2023’:

While it may or may not be a direct result of David Grusch's whistleblower testimony to Congress, new legislation whose purpose ostensibly is to bring transparency to the public with regard to what information the government may be holding on the subject.  The Debrief's Micah Hanks article on the subject is below:

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is leading a new effort that seeks to establish a commission to declassify United States government documents and other materials related to unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP).

The new legislation, currently referenced as the Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) Disclosure Act of 2023, will provide “the expeditious disclosure of unidentified anomalous phenomena records,” according to a version that appeared online on Friday. The legislation is expected to be introduced as an amendment to the annual National Defense Authorization Act.

“I am honored to carry on the legacy of my mentor and dear friend Harry Reid and fight for the transparency that the public has long demanded surrounding these unexplained phenomena,” Schumer said in a Tweet on Friday.

Schumer’s amendment will seek to “increase transparency around Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) and further open scientific research,” according to a release that appeared on the Senate Democratic Majority website.

Schumer, who was also quoted in the release, said that Americans have “a right to learn about technologies of unknown origins, non-human intelligence, and unexplainable phenomena.”

“We are not only working to declassify what the government has previously learned about these phenomena but to create a pipeline for future research to be made public,” Schumer added.

The language of the amendment directs that “All Federal Government records related to unidentified anomalous phenomena should be preserved and centralized for historical and Federal Government purposes.”

It adds that all U.S. Federal Government records related to UAP should “carry a presumption of immediate disclosure” with the intent that they “should be eventually disclosed to enable the public to become fully informed about the history of the Federal Government’s knowledge and involvement surrounding unidentified anomalous phenomena.”

The amendment argues the necessity for new legislation related to UAP disclosure based partly on shortcomings of the current Freedom of Information Act, which “has proven inadequate in achieving the timely public disclosure of Government unidentified anomalous phenomena records that are subject to mandatory declassification review.”

“Legislation is necessary to restore proper oversight over unidentified anomalous phenomena records by elected officials in both the executive and legislative branches of the Federal Government that has otherwise been lacking as of the enactment of this Act,” the draft language states.

The Act also provides guidance for the “creation of the unidentified anomalous phenomena Records Collection at the National Archives and Records Administration,” along with the timely provision of any related UAP documents to the Archivist of the United States and the “public disclosure of such records.”

“The UAP Records Collection would carry the presumption of immediate disclosure,” read a portion of the statement issued on Friday, “which means that a review board would have to provide a reasoning for the documents to stay classified.”

Following the creation of the UAP Records Collection, the legislation further directs the creation of a UAP Records Review Board, an independent agency that would provide oversight regarding whether any records related to UAP may be candidates for postponement of disclosure.

Among the more outstanding components of the new legislation is the inclusion that the U.S. federal government will have “eminent domain over any and all recovered technologies of unknown origin (TUO) and biological evidence of non-human intelligence (NHI) that may be controlled by private persons or entities in the interests of the public good,” according to Friday’s statement.

Leading the amendment with Schumer is Senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity for the Armed Services Committee, with support from Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Senator Todd Young of Indiana, and Senator Martin Heinrich of New Mexico.

Schumer’s amendment, first reported by the New York Times on Thursday, has received bipartisan support and seeks to disclose materials related to UAP without compromising collection methods and other sensitive information.

Based on the new legislation, UAP records that are deemed releasable are to be publicly disclosed in their entirety no later than 25 years after their release following enactment of the new Act, with the stipulation that continued postponement may be determined if the President judges that their release may harm national security.

The amendment is reportedly being modeled after the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, which similarly mandated the release of documents pertaining to Kennedy’s Assassination in 1963 no later than 25 years following its enactment.

The new legislation introduced by Schumer was preceded by language approved by the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence late last month, which similarly focuses on revealing the existence of any technologies related to UAP currently in government holdings. First reported by Douglas Dean Johnson, the UAP provisions revealed in June are part of the Fiscal Year 2024 Intelligence Authorization Act and were unanimously approved by the Senate Intelligence Committee on June 14.

All the recent instances of UAP-related legislation follow the public revelation of claims involving the existence of craft of non-human origin allegedly in the U.S. government’s possession, first reported by The Debrief on June 5, 2023. At the center of those claims had been David Charles Grusch, a former employee of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) who served as the representative for the NGA to the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAPTF) from 2019 until 2021.

In 2017, it was revealed for the first time by the New York Times that former Majority Leader Harry Reid had sponsored a government program that investigated UAP and related phenomena.

“After that project became public, Senators, Congressmen, committees, and staff began to pursue this issue and uncovered a vast web of individuals and groups with ideas and stories to share,” Friday’s release on the website of the Senate Democratic Majority stated, adding that any relevant records on UAP have likely been withheld in “good faith” and with the intent of ensuring national security.

“However, hiding that information from both Congress and the public at large is simply unacceptable,” the release added.

In Friday’s release, Senator Rounds said the new bill aims to “assure credibility with regard to any investigation or record keeping of materials associated with Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena.”

“Relevant documents related to this issue should be preserved,” Rounds added. “Providing a central collection location and reputable review board to maintain the records adds to the credibility of any future investigations.”