'True' or 'crazy'? UFO whistleblowers coming 'out of the woodwork'

In a June 26 interview with NewsNation, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) stated that multiple individuals had corroborated a whistleblower’s explosive allegations of a secret, decades-long UFO crash retrieval and reverse-engineering effort.

As the top Republican on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and a member of the so-called Gang of Eight, Rubio’s extraordinary comments carry particular weight.

According to Rubio, only one of two remarkable outcomes will ultimately explain recent developments, “Either what [the whistleblower] is saying is partially true or entirely true," he said, "or we have some really smart, educated people with high clearances and very important positions in our government who are crazy and are leading us on a goose chase.”

“Most of these people,” Rubio continued, “have held very high clearances and high positions within our government. So, you ask yourself: What incentive would so many people with that kind of qualification — these are serious people — have to come forward and make something up?”

Pressed for details, Rubio stated that individuals with “firsthand knowledge or firsthand claims” are “saying to us what you’ve seen out there in the public record, whether it’s about legacy [UFO] programs or about current events.”

According to Rubio, the whistleblowers’ statements are beyond “the realm of what any of us [on the Senate Intelligence Committee] has ever dealt with.”

Rubio also addressed claims that individuals involved with such alleged retrieval and exploitation programs are withholding information from the Pentagon’s new UFO analysis office. If the allegations are true, Rubio stated, “there’s a group of people who believe that they possess something that they don't need to share with anybody, including elected officials, whom they view as temporary employees of the government.”

Rubio likened such a dynamic to “an internal military complex that’s their own government and is accountable to no one” which, ultimately, “would be a huge problem, if it’s even partially true.”

Echoing Rubio, Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), who serves on the House Intelligence Committee, stated June 27 that “all sorts of [UFO whistleblowers] are coming out of the woodwork” and telling Congress that “they’ve been part of this or that [UFO] program.”

According to Gallagher, last year’s enactment of UFO whistleblower protections resulted in “a variety of pretty intense conversations.”

Intriguingly, Rubio believes that “there are still a lot of people [who] are starting to edge towards coming forward” but are waiting to see “how it plays out for the people that came forward first.”

Rubio and Gallagher’s remarkable statements come after two reports which cite multiple military, intelligence and contractor officials to support the claim that the U.S. government or private companies possess multiple craft of “non-human” origin.

Critically, as Rubio confirmed, the powerful internal investigative body that oversees the nation’s spy agencies deemed allegations that Congress was not properly informed of spending on UFO programs to be “credible and urgent.”

Moreover, the intelligence community’s first inspector general represented David Grusch, the former intelligence official who made explosive allegations of illegal UFO retrieval and exploitation efforts, as he proceeded through the formal whistleblower process. To be sure, such a high-caliber attorney would be unlikely to associate himself with Grusch’s remarkable claims, absent robust independent corroboration.

Unsurprisingly, Grusch’s allegations, extraordinary as they may be, are reflected in bipartisan legislation adopted unanimously by the Senate Intelligence Committee last month.

The Intelligence authorization bill, in short, immediately halts funding for any surreptitious UFO retrieval and reverse-engineering government programs. Perhaps more importantly, as Rubio stated, if the explosive claims of such activities are “even partially true, then somebody’s broken the law,” because the types of activities detailed by whistleblowers “have to be disclosed to Congress.”

To that end, the new legislation instructs individuals with knowledge of such activities to disclose all relevant information while granting legal immunity if it is reported appropriately and within a defined timeframe.

If such illegal UFO programs exist, any knowledgeable government or contractor officials will likely be forced to conduct some serious soul-searching in the coming months. As Rubio stated, such individuals will “have to make a decision: 'Do I just basically ignore the law and the consequences that come with it?'”

Of note, there are indications that at least one law enforcement agency is conducting a sweeping investigation of the U.S. government’s handling of UFOs.

Beyond encouraging whistleblowers to come forward, the overarching goal of the Senate legislation is to integrate any “non-earth origin or exotic [UFO] material” secretly held by the U.S. government or private contractors into the broader scientific and “industrial base” for analysis. This mirrors concerns expressed by multiple officials that excessive secrecy prevents the robust scientific analysis required to fully understand the advanced, “non-human” craft allegedly retrieved in recent decades.

With the introduction of a companion amendment in the House, the intelligence bill is likely to be signed into law later this calendar year. Indeed, as Rubio makes clear, Congress is “taking [the UFO claims] seriously. It's bipartisan. Everyone's working on it.”

To that end, the public may soon hear directly from some of the whistleblowers. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), who sponsored multiple rounds of sweeping, historic UFO-related legislation, is planning a hearing featuring Grusch and other individuals who have spoken to Congress.

At the same time, Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) and Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) are co-leading a House Oversight Committee investigation into the government’s handling of UFOs. Like their Senate colleagues, the duo plans to hold an open hearing with whistleblowers in the coming weeks.

Ultimately, as Rubio stated, “people whom we entrusted to do some really important things for our country are saying some pretty incredible things” about UFOs.

Even if so many high-level officials have gone “crazy” and are telling tall tales, Rubio is correct to say that “we’ve got to figure this out — we can't ignore it.”

Marik von Rennenkampff served as an analyst with the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation, as well as an Obama administration appointee at the U.S. Department of Defense.