Michael Shellenberger Written Testimony: Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Exposing the Truth

Shellenberger argues that elements of the military and Intelligence Community have withheld UAP information and failed to meet congressional-notification duties.

there is, however, a growing body of evidence that the government is not being transparent about what it knows about unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP), formerly called UFOs

The testimony records AARO’s assessment that claims of concealed government reverse engineering of extraterrestrial technology were inaccurate and based on circular reporting.

In its report, AARO said it assessed as inaccurate the “claim that the USG is reverse-engineering extraterrestrial technology and is hiding it from Congress.”

Shellenberger acknowledges possible explanations including natural phenomena, secret domestic or foreign weapons programs, drones, aircraft, balloons, hoaxes, and birds.

There are other explanations for UAPs. Current dominant alternative theories, including those put forward by AARO, are that UAPs are some kind of natural phenomenon we don’t yet understand

The testimony quotes Marco Rubio describing UAP whistleblowers as people who held high clearances and senior government positions.

Most of [the UAP whistleblowers] have held very high clearances and high positions within our government.

Shellenberger cites the 2023 government UAP report as stating that military reports can present flight-safety concerns and sometimes describe concerning performance characteristics.

many reports from military witnesses do present potential safety of flight concerns, and there are some cases where reported UAP have potentially exhibited one or more concerning performance characteristics

An anonymous report quoted by Shellenberger alleges that the executive branch managed UAP and non-human-intelligence issues without congressional knowledge or authorization.

the Executive Branch has been managing UAP/NHI issues without Congressional knowledge, oversight, or authorization for some time, quite possibly decades.

The attributed whistleblower report alleges that Immaculate Constellation is a central unacknowledged special-access program consolidating UAP observations from tasked and untasked collection platforms.

IMMACULATE CONSTELLATION serves as a central or 'parent' USAP that consolidates observations

The testimony records Defense Department spokesperson Sue Gough’s denial that the department had any present or historical record of a special-access program called Immaculate Constellation.

The DOD has no record, present or historical, of any type of SAP called ‘IMMACULATE CONSTELLATION.’

The attributed whistleblower report says it contains seven evidence categories and describes UAP sightings collected by technical assets and military personnel.

The whistleblower’s report includes seven categories of evidence. It describes in detail various UAP sightings collected by technical assets and US military personnel.

The attributed report claims Immaculate Constellation can detect, quarantine, and transfer UAP and reproduction-vehicle collection incidents before wider military-intelligence circulation.

the existence of IMMACULATE CONSTELLATION demonstrates the extant capability to detect, quarantine, and transfer UAP and RV [Reproduction Vehicle] collection incidents

The attributed report claims Immaculate Constellation includes high-quality imagery intelligence and measurement-and-signature intelligence concerning UAP.

includes high-quality Imagery Intelligence (IMINT) and Measurement and Signature Intelligence (MASINT) of UAPs

The attributed report says its 1991-2022 government dataset categorized reported UAP shapes as spheres, discs, ovals, triangles, boomerangs, and irregular forms.

From 1991 to 2022, the most common UAP shapes reported in this USG dataset were spheres/orbs, discs/saucers, ovals/tic-tacs, triangles, boomerang/arrowhead, and irregular/organic.

One unverified incident in the attributed report describes an F-22 being intercepted, boxed in, and forced from its patrol area by three to six UAP.

The F-22 broke trajectory and attempted to evade but was intercepted and boxed in by approximately 3-6 UAPs

Another unverified incident in the attributed report describes a small orange-red sphere descending to 100-200 yards above a Navy aircraft carrier’s flight deck.

the crew of a Navy aircraft carrier watched a “small orange-red sphere” rapidly descend from a high altitude to 100-200 yards directly above the flight deck

Shellenberger reports that FOIA researcher John Greenewald described increasing government secrecy and denials concerning UAP information.

he is concerned by increasing government secrecy. He notes that the government has been hiding information for decades.

The testimony records the Defense Department’s position that it had found no unreported classified UAP program and would promptly share evidence that revised that finding with Congress.

To date, the Department has found no evidence of the existence of any classified UAP program, including any SAP or controlled access program related to UAP, that had not been properly reported to Congress.

The testimony says the Navy acknowledged additional UAP-related videos and photographs in September 2022 while withholding them as classified.

the Navy admitted that UAP-related videos and photographs existed but denied the request in full for their release

Shellenberger describes the proposed UAP Disclosure Act as requiring government and private holders to turn over claimed technologies of unknown origin, biological material, and UAP records for review.

The UAP Disclosure Act would force the US military, IC, and any private entity to turn over recovered “technologies of unknown origin” and associated “biological materials”

Shellenberger recommends stronger whistleblower protections, pro-transparency defense and intelligence leadership, and passage of the UAP Disclosure Act.

I encourage Congress to help the President-elect make that commitment a reality, including by extending stronger protections to at-risk whistleblowers

An appended Navy FOIA response identifies a classified UAP slide deck created by Jay Stratton and shown to NASA and likely other agencies in October 2020.

record pertaining to the classified slide deck on Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon (UAP), created by Jay Stratton, that was shown to NASA and likely other agencies in October of 2020.