On May 17, 2022, Congress will hold its first public hearing in 50 years on unidentified aerial phenomena, more commonly known as UAPs or UFOs.

Lawmakers must demand The Pentagon come clean with the American people about the reality of UAPs and their impact on our National Security.

The birth of the atomic age seemingly ushered in the UAP era as reports of the unexplained craft across America skyrocketed. But unfortunately, it also ushered in an era of obfuscation as the military fought to keep a lid on the topic. The defense establishment seemingly had no interest in UAPs until December 16, 2017, when the bombshell article on the front page of The New York Times revealed that The Pentagon was taking the phenomenon seriously with a top-secret program to study military encounters with UAPs.

The Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, or AATIP, was a secret program established in 2007 with money allocated by Senator Harry Reid and others. The program was headed by counterintelligence agent Luis Elizondo and investigated military encounters with UAPs. Elizondo left the program and the Department of Defense in 2017 when it became apparent elements in The Pentagon were interfering with attempts to report the UAP problem up the chain to Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis.

Following his exit from The Pentagon, Elizondo and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, Christopher Mellon, worked behind the scenes to bring Congressional awareness to the reality. UAPs were a national security problem. They were operating with impunity in our restricted airspace, displayed off-world technology, jammed our aircraft weapons systems, and, most alarmingly, tampered with our strategic nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Lawmakers demanded answers on the UAP phenomenon. On June 25, 2021, The Office of The Director of National Intelligence delivered to Congress a report titled: "Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena." The DNI failed to confirm their origin, but the unclassified version was the first official admission that "UAP clearly pose a safety of flight issue and may pose a challenge to US national security."

Further briefings were delivered to lawmakers. Congressional officials told us off the record that these briefings included high-definition footage of UAPs collected by classified satellites that were paradigm-changing. The public statement from Director of National intelligence Avril Haines that "There's always the question of 'is there something else that we simply do not understand, that might come extraterrestrially?'" along with comments by NASA Administrator Sen. Bill Nelson, former Presidents Obama, Bush Jr., former CIA Director John Brennan, and other former officials confirming the existence of UAPs and they were not ours.

In December 2021, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand sponsored a bi-partisan amendment to the 2022 National Defense Authorization act establishing a fully funded, fully staffed program in The Pentagon to address the UAP issue. Perhaps the most critical element of the legislation required unclassified annual reports to Congress and classified semiannual briefings.

The Pentagon established the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group (AOIMSG) and delivered its first classified report to Congress weeks ago. But unfortunately, lawmakers were not impressed as The Pentagon did not appear to take Gillibrand's legislation seriously. So, this upcoming hearing is an opportunity to call the Pentagon on the carpet and demand they come clean with the American people and remind them that lawmakers are elected to represent the public interest.

"The American people expect and deserve their leaders in government and intelligence to seriously evaluate and respond to any potential national security risks – especially those we do not fully understand," said Representative André Carson, who will chair the hearing. Representative Adam Schiff agreed, tweeting, "There's much to learn about unidentified aerial phenomena. But one thing is sure – the American people deserve full transparency."

Luis Elizondo stated, "We have achieved an important milestone today, with news of open congressional hearings on UAP. This subject has always required a bipartisan effort, and I am encouraged by this support of openness and transparency from both Democrats and Republicans. This is not an easy topic to address because of our nation's complex history with this subject, but we must face these challenges head-on. This first hearing should be followed by many more. I applaud the extraordinary action taken today by the House Intelligence Committee."

Luis, we couldn't agree more.