Pentagon UFO Boss Fires Back at Congressional Hearing

AARO's Sean Kirkpatrick says Wednesday's UFO hearing was "insulting" to members of the Department of Defense.

By Adam Barnhardt

This week's UFO hearing on Capitol Hill was nothing short of "insulting" to members of the Department of Defense, according to one of the department's top officials. In a letter shared to his LinkedIn profile, Sean Kirkpatrick—the boss of the Pentagon's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO)—spoke out against the witnesses testifying to a House Oversight subcommittee.

"I cannot let yesterday's hearing pass without sharing how insulting it was to the officers of the Department of Defense and Intelligence Community who chose to join AARO, many with not unreasonable anxieties about the career risks this would entail," Kirkpatrick wrote in the letter. Since then, Kirkpatrick has confirmed the authenticity of the letter, which was initially visible to only the official's connections on the professional social network.

"They are truth-seekers, as am I," Kirkpatrick added. "But you certainly would not get that impression from yesterday's hearing."

During the hearing, testimony from retired Air Force Maj. David Grusch suggested he was made aware of cases where people where gravely wounded as a result of coming forward with information regarding UFOs and potential non-human life. Those are claims the Department of Defense has since denied.

The DoD "has no information that any individual has been harmed or killed as a result of providing information," Pentagon spokesperson Sue Gough said in a statement obtained by the Associated Press. That statement also claims the Pentagon has not discovered "any verifiable information to substantiate claims that any programs regarding the possession or reverse-engineering of extraterrestrial materials have existed in the past or exist currently."

While the House of Representatives will likely continue investigating the matter after the latest hearing, it would appear the Senate is preparing to introduce legislation that could declassify decades' worth of UFO-related documentation. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) revealed earlier this month he plans to introduce legislation that would force the Pentagon to declassify UAP reports after a certain amount of time.

"For decades, many Americans have been fascinated by objects mysterious and unexplained and it's long past time they get some answers," Schumer said in a statement released by his office. "The American public has a right to learn about technologies of unknown origins, non-human intelligence, and unexplainable phenomena."

Schumer's statement continued, "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. 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 surround these unexplained phenomena."

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