Disclosure Diaries Update #6

John Greenewald, who is known for submitting and publishing a constant stream of UAP-related Freedom of Information Requests (FOIA), unveiled the (heavily redacted) statements that Grusch submitted to the Defense Office of Prepublication and Security Review (DOPSR) before going public with his claims.

The release most notably contains a set of 10 question/answer pairs, which Grusch had prepared for review (ostensibly with his upcoming public appearances in mind). While the questions certainly align with the general gist of Grusch's claims, the answers to those questions were completely redacted. Three of the ten questions also appear to have been redacted.

At this time, it is not clear why questions/answers that were officially cleared for public release have been redacted so heavily for this FOIA request. An appeal will almost certainly be submitted to provide clarification.

The Department of Defense officially confirmed to Liberation Times that the US Air Force has submitted a report about an incident involving an unknown object that occurred earlier this year to AARO, which is the DoD's Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) office.

This incident was previously introduced into the public record by Rep. Gaetz during the July 26 UAP Hearing, where he made the following statement, emphasis mine (some sections [paraphrased/skipped] for brevity):

"Several months ago my office received a protected disclosure from Eglin Air Force Base indicating that there was a UAP incident that required my attention [...] We asked to see any of the evidence that had been taken by flight crew in this endeavor and to observe any radar signature.

[...after initially being denied access, Gaetz was eventually shown an image from the encounter...]

The image was of something that I am not able to attach to any human capability, either from the United States or from any of our adversaries. And I'm somewhat informed on the matter, having served on the Armed Services Committee for seven years, having served on the committee that oversees DARPA and advanced technologies for several years." Source, pages 41-42

AARO will look to publish a public report on the incident, once cleared.

The Oversight Committee invited NASA to conduct a bipartisan, full Committee, Member-level briefing on their findings. The briefing was closed to the public and media but additional public hearings on UAPs in the near future are anticipated to follow.

Rep. Burchett took to Twitter after the session to complain about the fact that NASA are seemingly acting "elusive" on the topic. NASA stated that they only explored unclassified sources during their investigations, much to the apparent frustration of Rep. Burchett amongst others.

It's unclear why a private briefing was necessary to brief Congress on an investigation with an unclassified scope.

The US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) released a variety of UAP-related documents and videos, most of which had already been circulating in the public sphere for some time. It is not clear what the specific motivation for this release was. Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, Christopher Mellon, appeared on NBC to elaborate. He used the opportunity to highlight the fact that he believes the general public is more than ready to see the full extent of various UAP-related videos the DoD has in its possession (that, to this day, have never been publicly released).

In a quick interview this week, Senator Mike Rounds (one of the co-sponsors of the UAP Disclosure Act of 2023) gives Ask a Pol a further glimpse into his thinking when asked directly to elaborate on the UAP topic:

“My concern from the Department of Defense is, I just don't simply want our ongoing programs disrupted or limited because of additional scrutiny on what we are doing and what our adversaries are doing in some very unique programs”

Rounds is quick to add: “These aren't new types of programs. They’re the types of programs that have always existed, stealth is a good example.”

• Steven Spielberg's production company will launch a 4 part docu-series covering UAP/UFO Encounters on Netflix on September 27 (Link)

• The SOL Foundation is holding its first annual conference at Stanford University on November 17-19, 2023. Covering everything from the scientific study of UAP data to philosophical questions raised by it to related global security issues, the meeting brings together Avi Loeb, Charles McCullough, Cristopher Mellon, Garry Nolan, Jacques Vallée, and other leading academic and government voices on UAP.

• While the US Senate passed the NDAA for FY24 – which included the UAP Disclosure Act of 2023 as an amendment – the coming months will still require Senators and Members of Congress to reconcile the two chambers’ versions of the NDAA and produce a final compromise bill. Most commentators don't expect this to happen before December 2023.
• Following the UAP hearing on the 26th of July, Members of Congress have called for a select committee with subpoena authority, to “go about the task of collecting information from the Pentagon and elsewhere” on unidentified flying objects. There have been conflicting messages from various Members of Congress on whether this is likely to happen anytime soon.
• According to Senator Gillibrand – an updated UAP report from AARO can be expected by January 2024. This update was originally expected in August 2023, but faced delays.
• Reps. Moskowitz, Luna, and Burchett have repeatedly stated their intent to hold field hearings to overcome stonewalling from the Pentagon and military establishment
  
  "I think we [Congress] should try to get into one of these places [housing UAP evidence]...and if they won't let us in I think we should have a field hearing right outside the building...and the military will have to explain why that is." – Rep. Moskowitz (D)
  
  It is currently unknown when we might expect that to occur.
• Several journalists have indicated that first-hand witnesses of the alleged UAP legacy programs are in the process of providing testimony/evidence to the relevant authorities (e.g. the IC IG) and/or are on the verge of making public statements in the near future (Example 1, example 2, example 3)