Lies, Damn Lies, And UFOs: Deciphering The Truth Hidden Amid Decades Of Propaganda

In mid-May, Stanford Medical Professor Garry Nolan caused a stir during an innovation and investment conference hosted by the SALT i-Connections leadership forum when he stated unequivocally that a small group of scientists have been reverse engineering alien technology for quite some time.

One of the compelling things about the 15-minute interview in which he discussed this revelation is how careful the host, Alex Klokus, is to frame Dr. Nolan's testimony with sober and logical questioning, as if to guard against potential accusations of quackery. Almost as a lawyer would conduct a witness examination in a court of law, Klokus first lays out Nolan's innovative breakthroughs in immunology, virology, and cancer research. Then he walks through the professor's personal "experience with people who... are working on the reverse engineering programs" of alien technology. Finally, Klokus offers Nolan the chance to describe to the audience his belief that government disclosure of extraterrestrial life is likely forthcoming.

Nolan's interview came about a week before NASA's May 31 public meeting to discuss unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) — the current subject categorization used to reference incidents once understood less formally as those involving UFOs and "close encounters" of various kinds with extraterrestrial beings. Although the government conference ended up frustrating some viewers because it dangled many questions without providing any definitive answers, astrophysicist Dr. David Spergel made clear that the commission's intention is to "provide the scientific community with a roadmap" that could be used to gather and analyze further data. In many ways, the event appeared as a step toward making secretive research more public.

At the beginning of June, two separate online publications posted articles that identified witnesses with personal UAP knowledge now calling for greater government disclosure. In an age of journalism when dependence upon anonymous sources has unfortunately become the norm, the use of on-the-record interviews and corroborated statements distinguish this reporting.

In an essay for Politico entitled, "If the Government Has UFO Crash Materials, It's Time to Reveal Them," former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Christopher Mellon detailed his direct involvement in delivering UAP evidence to Congress — work that ultimately led to the establishment of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), organized to investigate and document encounters with unidentified craft that might be extraterrestrial in origin. Mellon described his efforts to bring public attention to the existence of recorded UAP incidents involving U.S. military personnel. "But despite breakthroughs in government transparency about these sightings," he argued, "there's one thing the Pentagon and the intelligence community have so far not addressed, and that is whether they have had any direct contact with these objects" and whether there is truth to "persistent rumors" alleging "that the government has been working secretly to reverse engineer the technology."

Mellon personally referred four witnesses to AARO "who claim to have knowledge of a secret U.S. government program involving the analysis and exploitation of materials recovered from off-world craft." He knows of other sources with additional evidence. Although AARO has no legal obligation to report its findings to the public, Mellon has "concluded the public needs to know the truth."

Within two days of the Politico essay, another online publication, The Debrief, ran a story under the headline, "Intelligence Officials Say U.S. Has Retrieved Craft of Non-Human Origin." In their well-sourced piece, journalists Leslie Kean and Ralph Blumenthal detail the allegations of David Charles Grusch — a "former intelligence official turned whistleblower" — who has provided both Congress and the Intelligence Community Inspector General with "extensive classified information about deeply covert programs" in possession of "intact and partially intact craft of non-human origin."

Again, one of the most striking things about this exposé is its forthright attention to naming names and providing substantial background evidence in support of Grusch's reputation for honesty. Not only do the reporters reject the use of anonymous sources but also they are careful to highlight the credibility of those sources they use. Retired Army Colonel Karl E. Nell — who worked with Grusch as part of the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force originally constituted under the authority of the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security before that investigatory organ was reorganized into AARO — is quoted as describing Grusch as "beyond reproach." Then reporters Kean and Blumenthal make sure to dig up a performance evaluation from Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence Laura A. Potter describing Nell as "an officer with the strongest possible moral compass." If you trust the Army's evaluation of Nell and Nell's evaluation of Grusch, then logic suggests that Grusch's whistleblower disclosures should be trusted, too.

For his part, Nell wholly concurs with Grusch that for the "past eighty years" secret programs have "focused on reverse engineering technologies of unknown origin" and "that at least some of these technologies of unknown origin derive from non-human intelligence." He considers this conclusion "indisputable."

While seeking corroboration for Grusch's allegations, journalists Kean and Blumenthal conducted an interview with an intelligence officer from the National Air and Space Intelligence Center who specializes in UAP analysis and operates under the identity "Jonathan Grey" inside the agency. For almost a decade, he has been the recipient of highly classified briefing materials involving UAP. He says bluntly: "The non-human intelligence phenomenon is real. We are not alone."

Finally, it is worth pointing out that Grusch is represented by attorney Charles McCullough III, who previously served as the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community. Given McCullough's familiarity with the shadowy world of espionage, the byzantine legal safeguards governing State secrets, and the jumble of criminal tripwires that make lawful disclosure akin to crossing a minefield in the dark, his decision to aid Grusch as a legitimate whistleblower provides further credence to his case. It is also true that in filing his whistleblower complaint, Grusch has placed himself in legal jeopardy by formally attesting that his statements are made "under the penalties of perjury."

This is a lot to take in. After decades of government denials and allegations of mass cover-ups, suddenly an avalanche of UAP disclosures is hitting the public all at once. We have whistleblowers, Intelligence Community operatives, highly respected scientists, and Members of Congress all speaking up. In another era, Nolan's interview during a popular "thought leader" investment forum would have been sufficient to capture the nation's attention indefinitely. Taken together with two provocative essays detailing first-person accounts confirming the existence of extraterrestrial technology, the revelations of the last few weeks should have been enough to eclipse every other news story in the world.

Instead, the response from across the news media has been almost complete radio silence. Tucker Carlson, in his first episode of "Tucker on Twitter," called Grusch's whistleblower allegations the "bombshell of the millennium" — a bombshell being entirely ignored. How can a news story with the potential to completely transform the way humans understand their universe cause such a small ripple in the pond of current events? Carlson argues that Americans have been lied to for so long about so many different issues that nobody has any idea at this point what to believe. "Nobody knows what's happening," he says. "A small group of people control access to all relevant information and the rest of us... don't know."

Given the obvious coordination of the UAP disclosures these last few weeks, only two scenarios seem plausible:

1. either a group of scientists, intelligence operatives, military personnel, legal sharks, and politicians are working together behind the scenes to deliver enough corroborated information to the public to pierce through a near-century of State-imposed secrecy, or
2. this diverse collection of professionals is part of an elaborate disinformation campaign being used to manipulate public perception and opinion.

In other words, there is either a highly organized attempt to reveal a spectacular yet hidden truth to the rest of humanity, or there is a highly organized attempt to use information warfare as a means to shape the collective consciousness. Either the U.S. government has engaged in a massive conspiracy for nearly a century to hide important truths from its own citizens. Or it is involved in a massive conspiracy today to manipulate Americans' minds en masse. At a time when political leaders love to speak about the virtues of "democracy," either possibility confirms a staggering disrespect for popular sovereignty.

That is a fairly stinging indictment against Western government and society. People are bombarded with so much government-sanctioned propaganda and outright lies that they never know whether official statements are true. Outside institutions — including academia and the news media — have embraced so much "fake news" over the years that their reputations are in no better shape. The end result is that nobody in a position of authority is trusted or believed.

The "bombshell of the millennium" explodes right outside Americans' doors, and the public largely shrugs because it accepted an ugly truth long ago: it is constantly being deceived. With all due respect to our extraterrestrial friends, perhaps that is the most important news story of our time.

JB Shurk writes about politics and society, and is a Gatestone Institute Distinguished Senior Fellow.