Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox
Get our free Inside Washington email
Get our free Inside Washington email
A group of military whistleblowers testified under oath that they’ve seen unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and accused the government of being part of a cover-up.
GOP congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna, who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform’s Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets, chaired a panel Tuesday on unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs), another name for UFOs.
Air Force veterans Jeffrey Nuccetelli and Dylan Borland, as well as Navy veteran Alexandro Wiggins, spoke at the hearing, along with journalist George Knapp, a prominent figure in the UFO disclosure community.
Rep. Eric Burlison of Missouri showed the hearing mysterious, never-before-seen footage of “an orb or an unknown object” off the coast of Yemen on October 30, 2024, being struck by a Hellfire missile.
The object continued on its trajectory after being struck by the missile.
open image in gallery
“That’s a Hellfire missile smacking into that UFO and just bounce [sic] right off, and it kept going,” said Knapp.
“There’s a server where there’s a whole bank of these kinds of videos that Congress has not been allowed to see — that the public has not been allowed to see,” Knapp added, hinting at a cover-up.
Former Air Force military police officer, Nuccetelli, said the video provided “exceptional evidence” that UFOs exist. The witness told the hearing he experienced five unexplained incidents at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California between 2003 and 2005.
And Knapp claimed that government documents reveal that intelligence officials “admit” that UFOs are real.
“The documents from military and intelligence personnel behind closed doors admit that these things are real. They’re not fictitious,” Knapp said.”They can fly in formation, they’re evasive, and they outperform any aircraft known to exist, including ours. The public, of course, as I said, has been told something much different.”
Borland said he experienced “sustained reprisals” after blowing the whistle on unexplained sightings as a U.S. Air Force veteran.
open image in gallery
In 2012, Borland claimed he saw an “approximately 100ft equilateral triangle take off” from the Langley Air Force Base in Virginia where he was stationed at around 1:30 p.m.
He claimed his career was derailed after he shared his experience.
Wiggins, a Navy member who was speaking in a personal capacity, told of an incident he witnessed in February 2023. The objects he saw were “not consistent with conventional aircraft or drones,” he said.
While off the coast of southern California aboard the USS Jackson Navy ship, Wiggins claimed he saw a “self-luminous tic-tac-shaped object emerge from the ocean before linking up with three other similar objects.”
The objects sped up and disappeared, he said.
Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas, the Democratic ranking member of the committee, said that NASA has not found any evidence that UAPs have an extraterrestrial origin.
“While some people think of flying saucers when they hear these terms, it is vital that we focus on the real-world impact of UAPs on critical infrastructure, civilian safety, and national security,” Crockett said. “There is good reason to believe that most UAPs have origins far closer to home.”
