Sean Kirkpatrick, director of the Pentagon's newly formed All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), issued a statement challenging whistleblowers' bombshell testimony on Wednesday
The head of the Pentagon's UFO office has slammed Wednesday's shocking congressional hearing in which three whistleblowers claimed they had firsthand encounters or knowledge about secret government programs involving technology that is 'non-human.'
Sean Kirkpatrick issued a statement Friday denying some of the witnesses' claims - drawing a fiery rebuke from lawmakers.
David Grusch, a former top intelligence official, on Wednesday testified that in his role liaising with Kirkpatrick's office on UFOs he discovered the government was keeping crashed non-human spacecraft secret from the public and, illegally, from Congress.
But in his statement Kirkpatrick called the testimony 'insulting' and claims Grusch was 'never a representative' to his unit, officially called the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO).
Comment: Kirkpatrick is clearly revealing himself to be a bought-and-paid-for shill for the Pentagon and their aim to maintain secrecy around this topic of topics.
The claims directly contradict Grusch's previous description of his government roles, vetted by both the House Oversight Committee and media, that he served as the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA) lead on UFOs reporting to AARO until April this year.
David Grusch - a former high-ranking intelligence official - was one of three military whistleblowers on Wednesday who testified under oath he spoke to members of secret programs involving technology far surpassing the US's capabilities
Grusch last month claimed he had knowledge about an alien spacecraft that crashed in Northern Italy in 1933 and was later captured by American forces at the end of World War II. Pictured above is an artist's rendering of the saucer
Kirkpatrick, in a personal statement reportedly posted on his LinkedIn page, slammed the hearing, saying he was 'deeply disappointed at the denigration' of civil and Defense staff.
Comment: Because Grusch's testimony and integrity reveals them for the liars that Kirkpatrick and his bosses are.
'I cannot let yesterday's hearing pass without sharing how insulting it was to the officers of the Department of Defense and Intelligence Community,' he wrote.
Comment: "I'm insulted that you're calling me a liar, even though I'm a liar."
'To be clear, AARO has yet to find any credible evidence to support the allegations of any reverse engineering program for non-human technology.'
Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna, who was instrumental in organizing Wednesday's congressional hearing, ripped into Kirkpatrick for criticizing the hearing's witnesses, including two former Navy pilots who encountered strange objects over the ocean moving in ways that 'defy physics'.
'That's crazy to me that they would even try to discredit them,' the Florida Republican told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview.
'The fact that Kirkpatrick just tried to discredit the other two witnesses that were legitimate pilots for the military, that had the "Gimbal" and "Tic Tac" videos that were confirmed by DoD is the exact reason why I think people don't trust AARO.
'The evidence was brought forward by multiple veterans who actually had confirmed video footage of the tic tac and gimbal, of advanced technologies that exist,' she added.
'The DoD even admitted it. Like, what are they talking about?'
In November 2004 Fravor encountered a strange 'tic tac'-shaped object while flying his jet in a training exercise off the coast of southern California. Another pilot filmed it on infrared video, a clip which was then leaked to the New York Times in 2017.
Graves had a similar UFO encounter around 2015 off the US east coast, and his fellow pilots got the object, which he described as a cube within a sphere, on video too.
The Department of Defense has authenticated three videos of the objects seen by the pilots David Fravor and Ryan Graves, shot from their fellow pilots' jets, and has not provided an explanation for the accounts of their incredible speed and agility.
The comments from the top DoD official and the lawmaker set the stage for a blazing row that is erupting after the bombshell testimony this week - as Luna vowed to follow Grusch's claims by interviewing more witnesses, issuing subpoenas and demanding documents from the Pentagon.
© EPARyan Graves, a former pilot, Air Force and intelligence agency veteran David Grusch and Navy veteran fighter pilot Commander David Fravor testified under oath that they had firsthand encounters or knowledge about secret government programs involving technology that is 'non-human'
Ryan Graves, a former pilot, Air Force and intelligence agency veteran David Grusch and Navy veteran fighter pilot Commander David Fravor testified under oath that they had firsthand encounters or knowledge about secret government programs involving technology that is 'non-human'
David Fravor discussed the Tic Tac-shaped object seen in the sky over California on November 10, 2004 Video of what the Navy could trace of the object was leaked in 2017, and the Pentagon declassified the case in 2020
Kirkpatrick's statement said: 'none of the whistleblowers from yesterday's hearing ever worked for AARO or was ever a representative to AARO, contrary to statements made in testimony and in the media.'
A source close to Grusch described his roles to DailyMail.com as first the National Reconnaissance Office representative to the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force, a previous incarnation of AARO.
Grusch then moved to the NGA as 'co-lead who reported to AARO, and was responsive to AARO tasking,' the source said.
They said proof of his role would be readily available from Grusch's NGA performance report and government emails - though neither have been publicly released yet.
Defense news magazine The Debrief got the first interview with Grusch in June. It reported he 'served as the reconnaissance office's representative to the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force from 2019-2021.'
The site said that 'from late 2021 to July 2022, he was the NGA's co-lead for UAP analysis and its representative to the task force.'
Grusch also described his role in a televised interview with cable channel NewsNation last month.
Luna said the House Oversight Committee conducted an extensive background check before the hearings that verified his government roles.
'Oversight did and also NewsNation were apparently provided documentation and confirmed it,' she said.
Among Grusch's eye-popping claims at Wednesday's hearing were suggestions the government may have been involved in murder, while covering up its alleged UFO secrets.
Grusch told lawmakers that he was scared for his own life after becoming a whistleblower.
UFO researcher Dean Johnson posted a copy of the statement on Twitter Friday
'Allegations by [hearing] witnesses of retaliation, to include physical assault and hints of murder, are extraordinarily serious, which is why law enforcement is a critical member of the AARO team, specifically to address and take swift action should anyone come forward with such claims,' Kirkpatrick wrote in his statement.
He said testimony would lead viewers to wrongly conclude 'AARO has been ineffective, non-transparent, and delinquent in its legislated mission.'
The UFO office chief said instead his staff 'have been working diligently, tirelessly, and often in the face of harassment and animosity, to satisfy their Congressionally-mandated mission. They are truth-seekers, as am I. But you certainly would not get that impression from yesterday's hearing.'
Kirkpatrick also claimed Grusch 'refused to speak with AARO'. But Grusch testified under oath that he previously met with the AARO boss, told him about the alleged crashed craft cover up, and that Kirkpatrick did not bother to follow up.
UFO researcher Dean Johnson posted a copy of the statement on Twitter Friday, saying he 'received verification directly from Dr. Kirkpatrick that he wrote it' on Thursday.
Kirkpatrick said in the statement it was 'my own personal observations and opinions, which do not necessarily represent official DoD or IC positions.'
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Comment: Kirkpatrick, and by extension the Pentagon itself, are being caught out in their lies for all the world to see:
UPDATE: Pentagon spokeswoman Susan Gough has been running damage control on Kirkpatrick's unprofessional outburst. She told The Debrief: Gough herself is as shady as they come:
She wrote an unclassified paper essentially saying that military public relations is inseparable from psychological operations. Reminder that it is technically illegal for the military to run psyops on the American public, but that won't stop people like Gough (and perhaps Kirkpatrick).
Rep. Luna, who co-headed the hearing last week, responded to Kirkpatrick's screed: Luna also told the Liberation Times: