Former U.S. Intelligence Chief Weighs In on UFO Hearings

A former national intelligence director under Donald Trump did not deny claims made in a recent hearing on the government's alleged knowledge of alien life when asked about them, responding that "the government has more information than it's sharing."

Speaking on Fox News on Sunday, John Ratcliffe, who served as the U.S. intelligence chief between 2020 and 2021, declined to go into detail about the veracity of the allegations, citing national security restrictions, but called for greater transparency on the issues raised.

In a session of the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday—part of an investigation into claims regarding UFOs—witnesses testified that the government had been aware of non-human activity since the 1930s.

The hearing also discussed allegations that a top-secret military program already had a fully intact UFO in its possession, including biological material that was not from our planet, and that there had been attempts to reverse-engineer this technology for human use.

The alien probe was launched after David Grusch, a United States Air Force veteran who previously worked at the National Reconnaissance Office, told NewsNation that the government had retrieved several "non-human origin technical vehicles," some of which contained "dead pilots."

In the opening statement to his testimony in front of the committee on Wednesday, he said under oath that "the U.S. government is operating with secrecy—above Congressional oversight" with regards to Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP).

The Department of Defense (DOD) and NASA have publicly stressed that they have no evidence of alien life or that there is a government program to reverse-engineer alien materials.

"The government has more information than its sharing," Ratcliffe told anchor Maria Bartiromo. "Unfortunately, the Biden administration made the decision to really not reveal much, and now you have these House Republicans having to have these public hearings to talk about more of this information.

"I will say this, I believe there should be more transparency on this issue—but not full transparency," he added, noting the government's national security duties.

Questioned on whether the federal government was aware of the origins of supposed UAP sightings, he said: "There's a lot of things that are unexplained[...]I've gone to the edge of talking about information that's classified; I can't go over that line."

Newsweek approached the Pentagon via email for comment on Monday.

DOD spokesperson Sue Gough previously told Newsweek that it had "not discovered any verifiable information to substantiate claims that any programs regarding the possession or reverse-engineering of any extraterrestrial materials have existed in the past or exist currently."

"[The Department of Defense] takes public interest in UAP seriously," she added. "The department is fully committed to openness and accountability to the American people, which it must balance with its obligation to protect sensitive information, sources, and methods."

Alongside Grusch, two other witnesses gave testimony at Wednesday's hearing: David Fravor, a former U.S. Navy commanding officer who said he observed a "Tic Tac-shaped" object off the coast of San Diego in 2004, and Ryan Graves, the executive director of the advocacy organization Americans for Safe Aerospace.

But according to the congressman co-leading the investigation, there were supposed to be double the number of witnesses just a week before the hearing took place.

Rep. Tim Burchett, a Tennessee Republican who has previously spoken out about UFOs, suggested to NewsNation on Sunday that some had been influenced not to appear.

"We had one tell us that he'd received a call from, I guess, maybe the Pentagon and he or she decided that maybe it wasn't best that they were on there," he said, adding: "We just had so many roadblocks."

In January, Sean Kirkpatrick, director of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), testified to Congress that there had been a rising number of UFO reports, with his office investigating 650 incidents. The AARO is a government office under the Secretary of Defense that investigates UAPs.

He produced two examples of military sightings, one of which remained inconclusive and another which was determined to be a commercial airliner.

Reacting to the claims in the witness testimony, scientists have remained skeptical of visits by alien life, while keeping the door open to the possibility, noting a lack of concrete evidence produced during the hearing.