I suspect the public hearing will be as underwhelming as last years was. The classified part seemed to have been exiting based on comments by congress critters.
10 key questions for this week’s historic UFO hearing
A bipartisan group of lawmakers is doubling down on solving the decades-old UFO mystery. On Wednesday, the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities will hold the second hearing on the phenomenon in over 50 years.
Congressional interest in UFOs (also known as “
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As a result, the Department of Defense established the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO). Importantly, Congress granted the office sweeping authority to scientifically analyze UFOs “that exceed the known state of the art in science or technology.” To cut through several layers of bureaucracy, lawmakers mandated that AARO’s director report to top Pentagon and intelligence community leadership.
The UAP office’s director will be the sole witness at Wednesday’s hearing. As such, lawmakers will likely ask about administrative matters, to include ensuring that AARO has the necessary funding to execute its scientific mission.
For their part, Republican senators are likely to sharply criticize the Biden administration’s response to the Chinese surveillance balloon shot down off the U.S. East Coast in February.
But federal law requires AARO to analyze “unidentified anomalous phenomena.” Since U.S. intelligence analysts tracked the massive Chinese surveillance balloon from launch (and even watched as unusual weather blew it off of its intended course), it was neither “anomalous” nor “unidentified.” The balloon incident, therefore, is not a relevant topic of discussion for a hearing focused on AARO.
Moreover, Pentagon analysts monitored a small number of Trump-era incursions by suspected spy balloons in real time. But, since the objects were officially unidentified, the reports were not disseminated beyond a tight circle of intelligence officials, leaving senior policymakers in the dark. Congress established AARO specifically to address such information sharing gaps.
Senators participating in this week’s hearing should focus instead on military reports of unknown craft exhibiting extraordinary flight characteristics. They may consider asking questions such as:
Questions at the link