Politician Calls Pentagon UFO Briefings a “Cover-up” – Others Demand More Disclosure

It’s difficult these days to find things U.S. politicians can agree upon, but one unlikely subject seems to be generating unity and frustration on both sides of the congressional aisle – UFOs. Really! While one went on television to call it a cover-up, others – including the Congress members who spearheaded the formation of the Pentagon UFO office and its commitment to disclosure – are claiming the military is not taking UFO reports seriously. What to the aliens think?

“The government is part of a cover-up, and they’re not going to disclose it to us because they don’t trust us enough to have enough sense to diagnose it. It’s very frustrating,”

It’s always puzzling (and frustrating) when a member of the government calls “the government” the problem, but that was the case recently with Representative Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) who appeared on a News Nation interview show to vent his frustrations with the Senate Intelligence and Armed Services committees which are responsible for enforcing the National Defense Authorization Act, which created the Pentagon’s Anomaly Surveillance and Resolution Office to pursue “any resource, capability, asset, or process” to investigate “unidentified aerial phenomena.” According to Burchett, they may be pursuing and investigating, but they‘re not reporting – which the office is required to do on a regular basis.

“There’s an arrogance in government at that level that we cannot handle what’s going on out there. It’s a bogus cover-up. It doesn’t fit and it’s about power and control.”

“It is clear from the public evidence that we don’t have full control of our airspace. That’s a national security issue and it’s also unacceptable,”

Some of that evidence is coming from Burchett’s state of Tennessee, which has its fair share of public UFO sightings – those are not investigated by the Pentagon because its focus is on military and airline encounters. Burchett is also a member of the House Transportation Aviation subcommittee, so he has both feet in the UFO game. However, he’s not the only one frustrated by the Pentagon’s work in this area.

“Senator Gillibrand believes that the DoD needs to take this issue much more seriously and get in motion. They have had ample time to implement these important provisions, and they need to show us that they are prepared to address this issue in the long-term.”

Politico received statements from staff members of Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), who is on both the Senate Intelligence and Armed Services committees and was the driving force behind including the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena amendment in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022. The “important provisions” her staffer (who name was withheld) refers to include more analysts and surveillance systems dedicated to determining a UAP’s origin. That is a clear security issue – whether its origin is domestic, foreign (friendly or enemy) or extraterrestrial.

“Rubio is definitely frustrated. They are not moving fast enough, not doing enough, not sharing enough.”

Senator Marco Rubio (R-Florida) agrees with Gillibrand, according to one of his unnamed staffers in a statement to Politico. He joined with his Democratic colleague in driving the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena amendment into existence and now wants to see some results.

“They are putting time in, they are doing work. They are going to put some bodies on it. I think they’ll probably file the reports back to Congress on time. And that is a big plus.”

While Congress passes the budgets, much of the money is spent on government contractors and one anonymous government contractor privy to the inner workings of the Anomaly Surveillance and Resolution Office expressed confidence to Politico that the first report – due in June – will be what these frustrated politicians are looking for. Is that for real or just the money talking?

“The government is part of a cover-up, and they’re not going to disclose it to us because they don’t trust us enough to have enough sense to diagnose it.”

Burchett’s comment is worth one last look. One main purpose of the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena amendment was to cut across departmental boundaries and establish a single location for UAP reports and investigations. He clearly believes this is not happening, yet by saying that “government is part of the cover-up” while he’s part of “the government” demonstrates the kind of world Joseph Heller descried so well over 60 years ago in “Catch-22.”

"Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them."

-- from "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller

Is this a definition of government UFO investigations?