With all the current talk about the possible holdings of Congressional Hearings on the topic of UAP, I thought it might be useful to revisit some history.
1966 - First Hearing
The House Armed Services Committee convened a Hearing. At this Hearing, the Hon. L. Mendel Rivers, Chair of the Committee introduced the session. This was followed by a statement from the Hon. Harold Brown, Secretary of the Air Force. Professor J. Allen Hynek, then a scientific consultant to the Air Force then spoke. Various statistics re sightings were discussed; there was mention of the USAF Project Bluebook; and discussion of selected sightings, with a focus on recent U.S. cases.
1968 - Second Hearing
The House Science and Astronautics Committee held another Hearing, this time chaired by George P. Miller. The Hearing Chairman was J. Edward Roush. Speakers were Dr. J. Allen Hynek; Dr. James E. McDonalds; Dr. carl Sagan; Dr. Robert L. Hall; Dr. James A. Harder; and Dr. Robert M. L. Baker. Other scientists submitted statements for the record.
1990 - Thinking of Hearings?
C. Richard D'Amato was the counsel for International and National Security of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee. He was also active in UAP research in the 1990's.
UAP researcher Jacques Vallee, in one of the "Forbidden Science" volumes, in a diary entry dated 21 June 1990, wrote the following about a meeting with D'Amato:
"Are you thinking of new congressional hearings? I asked him."
"Not in the sense ufologists talk about Hearings as if they were a panacea. You can't set up such a process to find out the truth. In this town you must find out the truth first, and THEN you hold the Hearings."
1999 and 2005 - Planning for Hearings
In his 2011 book titled "UFOs: Myths, Conspiracies and Realities" John B. Alexander wrote:
"The ultimate god for many UFO disclosure enthusiasts is to have Congress hold hearings. There it is assumed the truth will suddenly pour forth and...unfortunately, this is a very naïve position, as most investigative Congress hearings go nowhere..."
Alexander then went on to describe attempts to hold Congressional hearings, which he was involved in, in 1999 and again in 2005. Neither managed to succeed. If you haven't read this portion of his book, I would highly recommend you find a copy and do so.
2017 - time for Hearings?
In their 21 December 2017, I-Team report titled "Pentagon UFO Study catching attention of Congress" journalists George Knapp and Matt Adam, reported that:
"Former Nevada Senator Harry Reid thinks it might be time to hold Congressional Hearings into the mystery surrounding UFOs."
2018 - We ought to have Hearings
On 12 April 2018 Bryan Bender and Jacqueline Klimas of Politico hosted a panel discussion, which included Congressional Representatives Ami Bera and Randy Huleren, both members of the House Space subcommittee of the Science, Space and Technology Committee. The topics covered UAP.
Ami Bera stated that he talked with Chairman of the sub-committee Brian Babin as well as Lamar Smith. "I said we ought to have a hearing on this."
2021 - call for a series of Hearings
In a 4 July 2021 article in "The Hill" titled "Dem Lawmaker calls for hearings on UFOs" journalist Celine Castronuovo writes about a call for Congressional Hearings.
"Rep. Andre Carson (D-Ind), Chairman of the House Intelligence sub-committee on Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence and Counter proliferation, is calling on Congress to hold a "series of Hearings" on reported UFOs following last month's highly anticipated intelligence report on the subject. "My hope ...is that we will have a series of Hearings and possibly a public Hearing in the very near future..."
The article continued:
"If it is off-worldly, we have to take into account our advancements in terms of cellphone technology and why aren't these images being captured? Carson said. "We have to think about the nearly 4,000 satellites that are orbiting the Earth right now. Most of these satellites have cameras attached to them. Why hasn't any of that information been released?"
Update: 10 October 2021
Were there any hearings prior to the above dates? One piece of documentation appears on page 21 of Gross, Loren. 2005. "The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs: A History." July-December 1963.
Gross reproduces a "Staff Summary Sheet" memo, dated 18 July 1963 from Colonel de Joneckheere to Brigadier General, USAF, Arthur J. Pierce. Subject is "Congressional correspondence on the U.S. Air Force UFO Program - Congressman Carl Vinson."
The relevant portions are:
"There have been two Congressional briefings on the Program, one in the summer of 1958 and the other in the Summer of 1960."
"I believe that the letter to AFNIN from Congressman Carl Vinson requires your personal attention since it suggests the possibility of a Congressional hearing."
I have found nothing further on the possible hearing.
Update: 11 May 2022
In an article in the New York Times, yesterday, it was stated that the Counterterrorism, counterintelligence, and counterproliferation sub-committee of the House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence would hold open hearings on Tuesday 17 May 2022.
The US Congress Committees/Committee repository meetings website now shows: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (open and closed) Tue May 17, 2022, 10am 2360 RHOB.
Indeed, government "investigations" (sic: "DoDs"), all of them, are a heavy knapsack on the shoulders of society.
ReplyDeleteThe immediate effect is exhaustion, successive, repetitive, redundant, decade after decade using the same codes and colloquial expressions adapted to contemporary, the same discourse.
The formal conclusion is nothing, zero, Mr. Keith added a 55-year chronology here.
Half a century cooking the brain in half steam to society, while they have used trillions of dollars in defense expenses and government administration, money my friends that was paid from the pockets of great-grandparents, grandparents, parents, children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Taxes from citizens like you or me, in exchange for which we have received nothing but lies and silence, mischievously mixed with half-truths, and twisted speeches like the one foolishly rehearsed in response to a 10-year-old when he asked a president if he had aliens in area-51 and he replied "if I tell you I will have to kill you."
Indeed, democratic constitutions around the world oblige officials, be they a president, a defense minister or a correspondence cadet, to render due accounts to society, that is to say, to citizens.
This did not happen in half a century (in fact the first request that was registered in the United States was made by Daniel Tompkins when he was vice-president of the United States, during the presidency of James Monroe -1817 / 25-, 203 years ago, and there were many others after), and all of us are far from knowing the truth ... from part of them.
But! that is no the only perspective, each of us lets need keep going make questions, demanding respect, accessing to truth sources, listening and sharing.
We must be careful with those people who repeat everything like parrots, those liars and those who like rumors to take advantage of it in any way.
It is amazing that someone from LATAM has information on this.
DeleteAn outstanding fact that I would like to add is that during the session in which the Daniel Tompkins sighting was discussed, the statements made by Thomas Jefferson himself were put into evidence.
(Who had his own sighting of him in 1800, when he saw a light in Baton Rouge while he was Vice-President).
And direct from the Library of Congress of the United States, a link to the record of history through NUFORC:
http://www.nuforc.org/webreports/079/S79941.html
203 YEARS!!!!!!! WOWWWWW!!!!!!!!! FINGER UP!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteA question to Mr Sofía, it has nothing to do with the subject but I cannot find his e-mail, I would like to know a little more about the experimental initiative that they carry out in the Tanami desert, about the transport, storage and conversion of pure water and that the locals call "solid water", at first I thought it was ice, but they told me it was not, thank you.
ReplyDeleteHi! Margaret, we work there in the "CRYSTAL Initiative", that means some practicals experiments on a new state of water, you know that water moves the world and all the living forms in it, in the same way that water can appear as a catalyst, no the only one, of the existence of life in the rest of the universe, that is why we give water a new structure, the structure in the form of crystals, this process is very complex but has a great future in relation to many matters related to the life, as a system to eliminate planetary pollution, to heal plant and animal growth, for planetary colonization and to have a new and revolutionary form of energy based on natural structures of an element that has a presence throughout the universe among others, not I am in charge of the Initiative but if you are interested, I can talk to the right scientists and put them in touch with you, please write to my public mail (yahoo.com) "jwsofia".
DeleteIn 2001 my eldest daughter, recently graduated from university at the time, received the first invitation to participate in the CRYSTAL Initiative, with a high average and 23 years old, she did not hesitate for a moment and accepted the proposal, then 7 equal invitations arrived.
ReplyDeleteIn the presentation conference of the initiative, held in Río Gallegos for Argentine and Chilean Patagonia in 2006, and after announcing that it would be carried out in Australia, an angry administrator of a university rose from his seat, demanding why the initiative was not carried out in Argentina.
Mr. Sofia responded " Because, first only 3 of the 12 invited universities responded to our 8 invitations, and without exception the 3 wanted to politically negotiate the position of directors of the initiative, in addition to participating in the issue with political parties and local businessmen without our authorization, and second and the most important because one of those who had the idea is an Australian-British scientist ".
My daughter now works there, after 15 years she got married and I am a proud grandfather of 2 beautiful Australian grandchildren aged 4 and 7, she made a future away from home and I am happy for her.
People who appear small to everyone's eye are the ones who usually create the future of humanity.
These are the people who overcome hatreds, envies and egos, I must say with shame that here in Argentina those are constant, as well as worse things.
But fortunately a new generation of scientists and professionals has been walking hand in hand with those who are capable of seeing beyond their own noses and generate initiatives like these, here, there and throughout the world.