John Greenewald
Recently, U.S. researcher John Greenewald located a US House of Representatives document dated 7 April 2020 which mentions Unidentified Aerial Phenomena.
The House of Representatives Committee on Armed Services submitted a monthly report for March 2020 to the Honorable Zoe Lofgren, Committee on House Administration. The 12 page report is the HR Committee on Armed Services' "Summary of Progress of Specific Studies and Investigations." Page 2 lists details of "Full Committee Progress" and "Subcommittee progress." One of the lines listed states
"March 11th, the task force met to receive a classified briefing on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena."
Note, that even though the item is under the heeding "Full Committee Progress" unlike all the other items which state that "the full committee met," this one states that "the task force met."
Now, the full committee consists of 31 Democrats and 26 Republican members. There are six permanent sub-committees on the Armed Services Committee, namely:
Tactical Air an Land Forces
Military Personnel
Readiness
Seapower and Projection Forces
Strategic Forces
Intelligence and Emerging Threats and Capabilities.
Each of these sub-committees consists of a number of members from the full committee.
So, what does the reference to a Full Committee Task Force mean?
It means that the Full Committee created a non-permanent Task Force, of a small number of the members of the Full Committee, to look after a specific task. Are there any current or recent Task Forces? Yes, as a recent example, The Future of Defense Task Force released its final report, on 29 September 2020, following the commencement their months-long review, since October 2019. The Task Force consisted of eight member of the Full Committee and was bi-partisan.
This might imply that there is/was a Full Committee Task Force with a task concerning Unidentified Aerial Phenomena. However, a search of the relevant House of Representatives Armed Services Committee website failed to locate such a Task Force. The only Task Force running on 11 March 2020 was the aforementioned Future of Defense Task Force. Is there anything in its final report about Unidentified Aerial Phenomena? A search of that document reveals that there is no such reference. The most reasonable conclusion, however, is that the 11 March 2020 classified briefing on unidentified aerial phenomena was indeed given to the Future Of Defense Task Force. Can any blog reader confirm this?
The document posted by John Greenewald is a routine activities report, such as all committees of the U.S. House of Representatives submit to the House Administration Committee every month. They don't get read much, I think, and it was a good catch by Mr. Greenewald to note the reference to the March 11, 2020 classified briefing. After seeing his tweet about the document, I quickly reached the same tentative conclusion that you have stated -- it appears that the recipients of the briefing would have been some or all of the eight members of the "Future of Defense Task Force." I yesterday requested confirmation of this from the appropriate offices. It may take awhile to obtain such information, as Congress is currently in pre-election recess, congressional staff is scattered, and some may be reluctant to discuss a sensitive subject just before an election. If I obtain further validated information, I will post it here and on Twitter.
ReplyDeleteThe final report of the "Future of Defense Task Force" was issued on Sept. 23, 2020; it can be downloaded from a link below, on the website of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Armed Services. Skimming, I found nothing in the Task Force's report relating to UAP.
Douglas D. Johnson
@ddeanjohnson on Twitter
https://armedservices.house.gov/2020/9/future-of-defense-task-force-releases-final-report
Following up on my earlier post, I have now received the following clarifications from House Armed Services Committee spokesperson Monica Matoush: "Yes, we can confirm the March 11 briefing was for the Future of Defense Task Force. As you know, the Future of Defense Task Force was chartered to review U.S. defense assets and capabilities and assess the state of the national security innovation base to meet emerging threats. The briefing was convened as a part of the Task Force’s broad mandate."
ReplyDeleteAs previously noted, the report prepared by the eight-member task force was released on Sept. 23, 2020. The task force itself -- an ad hoc, temporary entity within the 58-member House Armed Services Committee -- has now lapsed.
If I obtain any further details on the briefing or indications of broader interest in the subject within the HASC, I will write them up in due course.
Douglas D. Johnson
@ddeanjohnson on Twitter
Hi Doug, Thank you very much for following this matter up and obtaining confirmation. It is just a small detail, but worthwhile documenting. I looked back through the relevant monthly reports to the Committee on House Administration, between November 2017 and the latest available report, but found no other references to UAP.
ReplyDelete