George Knapp Statement to Congress on UAP Transparency
George Knapp’s statement recounts his UAP reporting, long-running discussions with Senator Harry Reid, connections with Robert Bigelow and NIDS, claims about a Soviet-era investigation, and his account of how AAWSAP, AATIP, the UAP Task Force, and AARO relate. Its historical assertions are presented as Knapp’s testimony and remain distinct from independently verified findings.
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Document Intel
Source status, provenance, and extraction context.
- Source / agency
- U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability
- Type
- Testimony
- Classification
- Unclassified
- Reference #
- HHRG-118-GO06-20230726-SD004
- Published
- 2023-07-26
- Content Type
- application/pdf
- Pages
- 4
Structured Analysis
Claims and source material extracted from the document text. Timeline context is surfaced in document intel.
Knapp identifies himself as KLAS-TV’s chief investigative reporter in Las Vegas and dates his journalistic interest in UFO secrecy to 1987.
My name is George Knapp. I am the chief investigative reporter for KLAS TV in Las Vegas.
Knapp says he began discussing UFO developments privately with Senator Harry Reid in 1989 and that the exchange continued for roughly three decades.
Reid said he was interested in hearing more, and that began a private, two-way conversation that continued for the next three decades.
Knapp says Robert Bigelow created the National Institute for Discovery Science in 1996 with an advisory board of academics, former astronauts, and scientists with government experience.
In 1996, Bigelow created his own research organization, the National Institute for Discovery Science, with a science advisory board made up of PhD-level academics, two of the former astronauts who had walked on the moon
Knapp reports being told that a decade-long Russian military UFO investigation accumulated thousands of cases and included 45 aerial engagements.
The study lasted a full ten years and was likely the largest UFO investigation ever undertaken. Thousands of case files were accumulated.
Knapp says the 2017 New York Times report about AATIP helped trigger media attention and later congressional creation of the UAP Task Force and AARO.
That news piece led to a new wave of media interest in UFOs, prompted private inquiries to Sen. Reid from his former colleagues in Congress, and was largely responsible for the creation by Congress of the UAP Task Force
Knapp distinguishes AATIP from AAWSAP and says the $22 million secured by Reid funded the DIA-managed AAWSAP effort rather than AATIP.
The $22 milion secured by Reid did not fund AATIP. Rather, it went into an entirely different effort managed by the Defense Intelligence Agency.
Knapp claims AAWSAP at one point employed 50 investigators, catalogued more than 200,000 cases, and produced more than 100 detailed papers.
At one point, it employed 50 full time investigators, far more than Project Blue Book or the UAP Task Force, or AARO.
Knapp says AAWSAP ended after 27 months rather than the planned five years after attempts to access alleged exotic materials met resistance.
It lasted a mere 27 months before the plug was pulled, instead of a five year operation as planned by DIA.
Chronology extracted from the document text.
Statement entered in House record
Knapp submitted the statement for the House UAP hearing.
New York Times reports AATIP
Knapp describes the newspaper report as a catalyst for renewed public and congressional attention.
AAWSAP begins
Knapp says the DIA-managed AAWSAP effort began in September 2008.
NIDS established
Knapp says Robert Bigelow created the National Institute for Discovery Science.
Knapp begins discussions with Reid
Knapp says he and Senator Harry Reid began a private exchange about UFO developments.
Knapp begins UFO-secrecy reporting
Knapp says his journalistic interest in UFO secrecy began in 1987.
Referenced In Coverage
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