UFO research remains one of the federal government’s most closely guarded secrets. Rep. Nancy Mace wants that to change.
The South Carolina Republican argues that an overclassification of data, including reports involving military and commercial pilots’ close and sometimes dangerous encounters with unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAP, only fuels more questions and undermines Americans’ faith in their government. Ms. Mace cited the annual budget for the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) as one example of unnecessary secrecy.
“I know how much AARO costs every year. I know how much they’re requesting for their future budget. But I can’t tell you that number — and it’s not zero — I can’t tell you that number, and it’s a pretty steep number, because that number is classified,” she told the Threat Status Weekly Podcast in an exclusive interview.
In a wide-ranging conversation, Ms. Mace also said it’s imperative that the U.S. government remain aggressive in cyberspace and push back against hacking operations by adversaries, in particular China. And she spoke highly of tech billionaire Elon Musk, who is heading President-elect Donald Trump’s commission to improve government efficiency, and his social media platform X, which she said is challenging the power and influence of left-leaning legacy media outlets and getting out previously suppressed viewpoints.
“I think disruption is good right now, 100%. Because disruption leads to truth,” she said.
Ms. Mace, who chairs the House Oversight subcommittee on cybersecurity, information technology, and government innovation, presided over a remarkable congressional hearing earlier this month that included claims by witnesses that the government has operated a decades-long UFO crash retrieval program, among many other bombshell accusations. The government has denied many of those, including the crash retrieval claims.
But the hearing underscored rapidly shifting attitudes on the subject, including on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers such as Ms. Mace are unafraid to push the issue into the public spotlight. She and other lawmakers are seeking greater legal protections for whistleblowers who come forward with new information about government UFO-research programs.
At a minimum, publicly available Pentagon information strongly suggests there is incredible aerospace technology being fielded today that the American public, and even most members of Congress, are unaware of.
“I’m not saying share everything. Maybe there are weapons programs we’re testing that it’s a fair thing we don’t want the American public to know about,” Ms. Mace said.
“But, you know, my question is: Does China, Russia or Iran, do they have access to this technology? If this technology exists and it’s in the hands of private contractors, as has been stated by multiple witnesses under oath now in the two [congressional] hearings, then are they skirting constitutional law to avoid disclosure to Congress? Yes. Is that breaking the law? Yes.”
“And then,” she added, “if it’s the private contractor, who has access to that information? Are there Chinese spies in that organization? Does China have access to it? Does Russia? Does Iran?”
In a worst-case scenario, Ms. Mace said, individuals or departments within the Pentagon, intelligence community and other corners the government could be keeping secrets from the White House itself.
“Are they keeping the president of the United States in the dark?” she said.
Official denials, mysterious encounters
The AARO’s most recent report tried to shoot down the most shocking allegations around UFOs.
“It is important to underscore that, to date, AARO has discovered no evidence of extraterrestrial beings, activity or technology,” the study reads in part.
But the report does acknowledge hundreds of mysterious encounters with UAP, most in the air but some also taking place in outer space. The AARO said it received 757 reports of UAP encounters during the reporting period, with 485 taking place between May 2023 and June 1, and another 272 taking place between 2021 and 2022 but not reported until recently.
The reports came from military personnel and other sources, such as the Federal Aviation Administration. Most of those incidents have not been resolved, meaning the origin or exact nature of the objects in question remains a mystery.
There are reasons to believe that at least some of them could pose direct threats to U.S. national security.
Just this week, U.S. Air Forces Europe said that mysterious drones were seen recently near the British bases RAF Lakenheath, RAF Mildenhall and RAF Feltwell. U.S. Air Force personnel operate out of each location and the American detachments there are a key piece of U.S. combat capabilities in Europe.
The most recent AARO report said that strange drones were seen flying over U.S. nuclear infrastructure, weapons and launch sites at least 18 times between May 2023 and June 1 of this year. And earlier this year, an unexplained drone swarm also flew over Langley Air Force Base in Virginia.
Such incidents have fueled fear that U.S. adversaries, perhaps China or Russia, are routinely flying drones over American military facilities as part of an intelligence-gathering operation that could involve groundbreaking technologies.
“If they are, it’s deeply concerning and Congress ought to know about it,” Ms. Mace said. “If there is an arms race, I want to make sure we’re winning it.”
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