Kenneth Glad
A US lawmaker says he has heard classified briefings describing an object of extraordinary size recovered outside the country. The claim has intensified demands in Washington for greater transparency around unexplained aerial investigations.
A House oversight hearing this week put unidentified aerial phenomena back at the center of a familiar clash between Congress and the Pentagon.
Lawmakers demanded broader access to government files. A veteran, writes The Daily Express described what he called years of retaliation. And in a separate media appearance, a sitting congressman referenced an alleged massive object hidden abroad. No new physical evidence was introduced.
A long afternoon on the Hill
The House Oversight task force met for more than two hours, aides lining the walls as members filtered in and out between votes. No public classified briefing followed, though several lawmakers suggested more closed-door sessions may be necessary.
The Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, created in 2022 to consolidate military UAP investigations, has processed more than 750 reports between mid-2023 and mid-2024 alone, according to recent Defense Department summaries, reports CBS News. Most were attributed to balloons, drones, airborne clutter or sensor anomalies, while a smaller portion remain unresolved.
AARO says it has found no confirmed evidence of extraterrestrial technology. The office states: “AARO uses a rigorous scientific framework and data-driven approach to better understand UAP. We will follow the science wherever it leads.” Officials have also cautioned that unusual flight behavior can sometimes reflect radar or camera limitations.
Stars and Stripes reported that Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., played footage he said showed a U.S. MQ-9 Reaper firing on a fast-moving orb off Yemen in October 2024. He argued that Congress should be allowed to review the underlying data tied to such encounters. “I’m not going to speculate what it is. But the question is, why are we being blocked from this information?” he said.
Claims of retaliation
Attention then turned to how reports are handled inside the system.
Air Force veteran Dylan Borland testified that after describing a 2012 incident at Langley Air Force Base, his career prospects shifted in ways he believes were retaliatory. “This craft interfered with my telephone, did not have any sound and the material it was made of appeared fluid or dynamic,” he said, according to Stars and Stripes.
He stressed what made the sighting unusual in his view. “It displayed zero kinetic disturbance, sound or wind displacement.”
“I have endured sustained reprisals from government agencies for more than a decade,” Borland added.
Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, said: “We need to ensure that people who come forward and make reports can do so without fear of retaliation.”
Congress has passed provisions aimed at strengthening whistleblower channels connected to UAP disclosures, though questions remain about how effectively those protections function.
An allegation abroad
No documents or images have been released publicly to substantiate recent crash-retrieval allegations.
The Daily Express reported that during a televised interview, Burlison referenced secondhand information about a large object outside the United States but declined to identify the country.
“I’m not going to mention the country because I heard of it inside of a closed setting, and I want to protect my classification level,” he said.
Researcher Dr. Steven Greer, appearing alongside him, claimed one object was “in the mountains outside Seoul, South Korea,” and was “so huge they had to build a structure around it.” Scientific bodies have not validated such claims, and U.S. defense agencies have repeatedly denied concealing confirmed alien craft.
The broader picture
Public hearings in 2022 and 2023 reopened a subject long confined to classified settings. This week’s session suggested that lawmakers remain divided between skepticism and suspicion.
Speaking on a podcast when asked directly about aliens, former President Barack Obama said: “They’re real but I haven’t seen them.”
President Donald Trump, responding to questions about UFOs during a campaign appearance, said: “Am I a believer [in UFOs]? No, I probably, I can’t say I am.”
For now, the core dispute in Washington centers on access to information and congressional oversight. The extraordinary claims remain unproven, and the back-and-forth over disclosure continues.
Sources: Stars and Stripes; Daily Express; CBS News, AARO website.
