Posted on 06/30/2023 10:54:32 AM PDT by RoosterRedux
The U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) has unanimously approved legislation containing language that appears intended to dig out any UAP-associated technology that is or ever was controlled by the federal government.
The new UAP/UFO provisions are being publicly reported in detail in this article for the first time anywhere.
The new UAP provisions are part of the Fiscal Year 2024 Intelligence Authorization Act (IAA, S. 2103), which was approved unanimously by the Senate Intelligence committee in a closed-door session on June 14. On June 21 I reported on the committee's action, but the text of the UAP amendment was not yet publicly available at that time. The committee formally filed the bill and it was assigned its number on June 22; it was posted on the Internet early on June 24.
The new UAP language (found in Section 1104 of the bill) would require "any person currently or formerly under contract with the Federal Government that has in their possession material or information provided by or derived from the Federal Government relating to unidentified anomalous phenomena that formerly or currently is protected by any form of special access or restricted access" to notify the director of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) within 60 days of enactment, and to provide within 180 days (six months) "a comprehensive list of all non-earth origin or exotic unidentified anomalous phenomena material" possessed and to make it available to the AARO director for "assessment, analysis, and inspection."
AARO is the Pentagon office established by Congress to conduct investigations of unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP), and to collect information on current and past federal government activity pertaining to UAP.
The legislation also would require the AARO director to notify designated congressional committees and leaders within 30 days after receiving any such notifications, information, or exotic materials.
The Intelligence committee legislation also includes what might be called a "safe harbor" provision, providing that if such a person complies with the notification and make-available deadlines, "No criminal or civil action may lie or be maintained in any Federal or State court against any person for receiving [UAP-related] material or information."
The "safe harbor" language might be read to imply that a private entity that obtained non-human technology from the government, and then held on to that material outside of the standard mechanisms for democratic oversight, perhaps profiting from it in some manner, might be in a legally tenuous position. If so, then such an amnesty period might smooth the way for timely and orderly disclosure. This reading of the provision is speculative; the committee has not yet published any explanatory material on the language.
Section 1104 of S. 2103 does not create any new criminal offenses. Neither does it confer any immunity for threats or acts of violence, perjury, or other crimes of the sorts sometimes alleged in stories about purported hidden government UFO programs.
A PDF file of the UAP-related section of the bill (Sec. 1104) is embedded immediately below this paragraph. Images of the seven UAP-related pages are displayed at the bottom of this article.
The seven-page committee amendment that is now Section 1104 of the bill was sponsored by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY). It was co-sponsored by Senators Michael Rounds (R-SD), John Cornyn (R-Tx.), and Marco Rubio (R-Fl). The language was adopted by the 17-member committee without dissent (see roster below), after which the overall bill was approved unanimously.
INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE "NOTIFICATION" LANGUAGE IS BACKED UP BY SWEEPING FUNDING BAN FOR NON-COMPLIANCE
Besides the notification and make-available requirements for UAP-related information and hardware, S. 2103 contains a sweeping prohibition on any future direct or indirect funding for any special-access program (SAP) activity related to unidentified anomalous phenomena (as that term is broadly defined in current law--see the box below), unless the program has been "formally, officially, explicitly, and specifically described, explained, and justified to the appropriate committees of Congress, congressional leadership, and the Director [of AARO]."
"Special access program" (SAP) refers to classified programs run by the military or certain other agencies, to which access is restricted to lists of specific persons, determined on a "need to know" basis. Within the Intelligence Community, a comparable program is referred to as a "controlled access program" (CAP). There are several different categories of SAP/CAPs, some more secret than others--but under statutes beefed up in recent years, every type of SAP/CAP is supposed to be reported to least a small number of designated members of Congress.
The designated "appropriate committees" are the intelligence, armed services, and appropriations committees of both houses of Congress. "Congressional leadership" is defined as the Speaker and minority leader in the House of Representatives, and the majority and minority leaders in the Senate. A total of 58 senators and 137 House members hold the positions that the bill designates to receive such notifications.
The categories of activities covered by the prospective funding ban are defined in six expansive paragraphs, to include "any activities relating to," among other things, "Recruiting, employing, training, equipping, and operations of, and providing security for, government or contractor personnel with a primary, secondary, or contingency mission of capturing, recovering, and securing unidentified anomalous phenomena craft or pieces and components of such craft," and "managing and providing security for protecting activities and information relating to unidentified anomalous phenomena from disclosure." Also included is a broad range of activity related to reverse-engineering, including work on "any aerospace craft that uses propulsion technology other than chemical propellants, solar power, and electric ion thrust."
The UAP provision also contains a "Sense of Congress" subsection, which asserts that "due to the increasing potential for technology surprise from foreign adversaries and to ensure sufficient integration across the United States industrial base and avoid technology and security stovepipes...the Federal Government must expand awareness about any historical exotic technology antecedents previously provided by the Federal Government for research and development purposes."
A "sense of Congress" measure does not create substantive law, nor does it modify or limit the effect of any substantive provisions. "Sense of Congress" language merely provides an explanation or justification for substantive requirements. In this case, the stated justification seems to be that there is a compelling need for the U.S. government to step up its efforts to reverse-engineer any exotic technology that is within its reach, and the lawmakers have concluded that this requires a relaxation of some of the extreme secrecy controls that purportedly surround study of exotic technology.
The language seems in sync with past public claims by some persons purporting to have direct or indirect knowledge of UFO "crash retrieval" programs, who have asserted that such programs had made little progress over decades, because stringent secrecy has severely limited the scientific and engineering resources available to unravel the workings of devices or materials of purportedly non-human origin. Such claims were made, for example, by an unnamed military contractor quoted by Michael Shellenberger in a June 7, 2023 article titled, "U.S. Has 12 or More Alien Spacecraft, Say Military and Intelligence Contractors."
MORE UAP LANGUAGE COMING IN NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT
Gillibrand's amendment on UFO-related special access projects has become public as part of the Intelligence Authorization Act, but the SAP issue may be addressed as well as part of a different bill, the FY 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). In an interview reported by Matt Laslo of WIRED on June 13, Gillibrand said she would seek to add language to the NDAA cutting off funding for SAPs that are not properly reported to designated members of Congress. The Senate Armed Services Committee finished amending the NDAA on June 22, and then approved the bill on a vote of 24-1, but the text of the bill approved by the Senate Armed Services Committee is not yet publicly available. On June 23 Senator Gillibrand issued a press released stating that she had "secured full funding" for AARO during the committee session; her release did not mention any other UAP-related matter. An executive summary of the committee-approved NDAA also mentioned "increased funding" for AARO.
The National Defense Authorization Act sets policy and authorizes programs for most components of the military. The Intelligence Authorization Act sets policy for the Intelligence Community, which involves 18 agencies, both military and civilian. For lawmakers supportive of putting more light on any hidden UAP-related programs, having compatible language in both bills is ideal, since the subject matter straddles both realms. Having both committees speaking in concert may also be helpful in prodding a recalcitrant bureaucracy.
As part of last year's National Defense Authorization Act, enacted in December 2022, Congress mandated establishment of a "secure system" by which anyone involved in a past or current UAP or alien-tech research program may file reports with AARO. Under this new law, anyone utilizing this "secure system" to disclose UAP-related information will not be violating classification laws or non-disclosure agreements, and will enjoy legal protection from reprisals by the government or government contractors.
The 2022 law also states that the Secretary of Defense must report to designated key lawmakers within 72 hours if he determines that "an authorized disclosure [under the new system] relates to" a previously unreported UAP-related special-access program.
In addition, the 2022 law requires AARO to prepare a comprehensive report to Congress on government involvement in UFO matters, going back to January 1, 1945. The report is to include, among other things, "any program or activity that was protected by restricted access that has not been explicitly and clearly reported to Congress," and "any efforts to obfuscate, manipulate public opinion, hide, or other provide incorrect unclassified or classified information about unidentified anomalous phenomena or related activities." The report is due in June 2024. The law requires the Comptroller General, who heads the Governmental Accountability Office, an arm of Congress, to monitor the progress of the study and to periodically verbally brief designated lawmakers.
GRUSCH ALLEGATIONS BACKDROP FOR THE NEW SENATE COMMITTEE PROPOSALS
The new UAP initiatives in the Senate come in the wake of reports in the media, beginning on June 5, 2023, regarding allegations by David Grusch, who in April retired from a level GS-15 position (colonel equivalent) as an intelligence officer with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). Grusch's allegations were first reported in an article that appeared on the website The Debrief on June 5, written by Leslie Kean and Ralph Blumenthal, and were elaborated on in interviews with journalist Ross Coulthart, broadcast on News Nation, and in other statements.
Grusch said that while assigned to the interagency UAP Task Force (a UAP-investigating body that preceded AARO), he received classified information from multiple "current and former senior intelligence officers" who said they were part of or had knowledge of a longstanding, highly secret program, which Grusch termed "a broad [UFO] crash-retrieval program." He said his sources told him that this program is engaged in attempts to reverse-engineer "quite a number" of "technical vehicles, call it spacecraft if you will" of non-human origin.
"The allegations themselves are breathtaking," Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hi.), a member of the Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, told WIRED's Matt Laslo. "It could be a game changer, or it could be a crank."
Kean-Blumenthal and Coulthart reported that Grusch initially reported on his findings to the Inspector General of the Department of Defense in July 2021, an action that Grusch later alleged somehow triggered various reprisals against him. The perpetrators of the alleged reprisals have not been publicly identified.
In May 2022, Grusch submitted a complaint to the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community (ICIG), employing a longstanding law, the Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act (ICWPA) ((50 U.S.C. ยง 3033(k)(5)), which spells out a process for members of certain intelligence agency to report matters defined as being of "urgent concern," including serious violations of law, willful withholding of information from Congress, and some types of reprisals. The law requires that the Senate and House intelligence committees to receive notification of any "urgent concern" complaint, if the ICIG finds it to be "credible," which he did in this case; the committees were notified in July 2022.
Subsequently, staff persons to the two intelligence committees separately conducted extended sworn interviews of Grusch regarding his allegations. Grusch also provided sworn statements and classified information to the inspectors general. It appears that investigations into Grusch's disclosures are ongoing by both the ICIG and the Inspector General of the Defense Department.
Yeah that will scare them into turning it over...
Laughable.
This is from the blog of a fellow who covers Congress re: this matter. I copied and pasted most of his article above, but there are links, images, and additional text at source.
What will be the deep deep state’s response to this?
They will do as they have done for decades - deny, deny, deny they have anything.
six months from now , cocaine mitch announces “ I have met with the aliens and they are insisting any body but TRUMP... “ this is critical in light of our coming elections...
ROFL
Where is all this non Earth wreckage coming from. Are the aliens using Earth to run demolition derbies.?
Nothing unexplainable will be turned over.
This is all bogus.
It's like, you can turn it over now legally. In fact, NOT turning it over is now illegal.
You base that conclusion on what?
Unlisted Special Access Program. Nobody knows those exist, so how would they verify compliance?
Man... this could be even more fun than a “gun buyback” event.
It looks like a tug of war.
What we can't see is what is going on behind the scenes.
I think we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg of the wrestling match between Congress and various special access programs.
Make possessing materials the same government denied existing, illegal to own and to henceforth be regulated.
Too funny.
“standard mechanisms for democratic oversight”
Is that code word for Deep State?
No new criminal offense for ignoring this demand. In other words, they can do whatever they want.
Chinese & Russian aggression
Rampant inflation
illegal migration
Biden family corruption
“we’re coming for your children”
Green energy boondoggles
.........
HEY LOOK! UFOs!
The non-Earthers do not care what the US Senate writes legislation about. No materials shown until they give the OK, which will not be anytime soon.
US Senate can go pound sand which they are good at.
It looks like a tug of war.
—
With one side trying to pull a cement building over with a string.
Based on what we have see of AARO so far, whistleblowers are wise NOT to speak to AARO and Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick. AARO and Kirkpatrick are under the thumb of Ronald Moultrie, Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence & Security (USDI&S)...and Moultrie ain't talkin'.
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