A former Defense Department official who worked in a “secretive Pentagon unit” that studied unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP), formerly unidentified flying objects (UFO), told Congress on Wednesday that he had signed documents restricting what he could say about UAP crash retrievals.
During a Wednesday congressional hearing called “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Exposing the Truth,” Luis Elizondo, a former Pentagon official, was questioned by Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) and other members of the House of Representatives regarding the federal government’s secret UAP crash retrieval efforts.
Elizondo told Mace on Wednesday that in order to answer certain questions regarding the government’s UAP crash retrieval programs, he would have to share information in a “closed” congressional session. He added, “I signed documentation three years ago that restricts my ability to discuss specifically crash retrievals.”
Despite facing restrictions, the Pentagon whistleblower answered “yes” when asked whether the U.S. government conducts UAP crash retrievals and when asked if the retrieval programs were “designed to identify and reverse engineer alien craft.”
Discussing Elizondo’s recent book regarding the Pentagon’s search for UAPs, Mace asked the former Pentagon official to confirm whether government employees had been injured by UAPs and received compensation. After Elizondo confirmed the claim from his book, Mace asked, “How can the government deny that we have recovered craft if they are paying people because they’ve been injured by recovered craft?”
Elizondo replied, “That’s why I think we’re here — again — because I’ve seen the documentation by the U.S. government for several of these individuals who have sustained injuries as the result of a UAP incident.”
In a written testimony presented to Congress, Elizondo wrote, “Let me be clear: UAP are real. Advanced technologies not made by our Government — or any other government — are monitoring sensitive military installations around the globe. Furthermore, the U.S. is in possession of UAP technologies, as are some of our adversaries.”
According to his official biography, Elizondo previously led a “highly sensitive Special Access Program on behalf of the White House and the National Security Council.”
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During Wednesday’s hearing, Elizondo told Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) that the documentation preventing him from sharing specific details in UAP crash retrieval programs was directly from the “U.S. government.” The former Pentagon official explained that he did not have a copy of the document and that it is kept in a sensitive compartmented information facility.
Addressing Elizondo’s inability to answer certain questions, Moskowitz said, “You specifically said that the document said that you can’t talk about crash retrievals. Well, you can’t talk about fight club if there’s no fight club.”
