Culture

Congress got a guy to claim under oath that aliens exist and Twitter's losing its mind

A science fiction concept of a man with a torch looking at an alien UFO. Floating above a field on a spooky foggy night in the countryside.
Former US air force intelligence officer, David Grusch told a congressional hearing that the US has been running a multi-decade "crash retrieval and reverse-engineering program" for unidentified anomalous phenomena. David Wall via Getty Images
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People on Twitter are going wild after a former US Air Force intelligence officer told Congress that the government has been running a multi-decade program to study UFOs.

David Grusch served as an intelligence officer with the US Air Force and the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency for 14 years. Then on Wednesday, Grusch said under oath that he was denied access to information on a "crash retrieval and reverse engineering program" for "unidentified anomalous phenomena," or UFOs. 

"As I have stated publicly already on my NewsNation interview, biologics came with some of these recoveries," Grusch said in the hearing. 

"Were they, I guess, human or non-human biologics?" asked Rep. Nancy Mace. 

"Non-human, and that was the assessment of people with direct knowledge on the program I talked to, that are currently still on the program," Grusch replied, effectively saying that aliens exist.

Defense Department spokesperson Sue Gough told Insider that investigators have "not discovered any verifiable information to substantiate claims that any programs regarding the possession or reverse-engineering of extraterrestrial materials have existed in the past or exist currently."

But that hasn't stopped people on Twitter from speculating about the existence of extraterrestrial life.

"Are we just going to gloss over the fact an intelligence officer told Congress today that the government has alien body parts from crashed UFOs?" said one person on Twitter.

Some people went one step further and started thinking about how best to connect with said extraterrestrials.

"Now that Congress has confirmed that aliens are real, I have a list of people they need to abduct. If anyone finds out how to can get in touch with them, please DM me. Thanks," tweeted another person.

US lawmakers are currently united in their desire to find out more about UFOs. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has backed legislation that would declassify government documents on UFOs and extraterrestrial life.

Editor's note: July 28, 2023 — This story has been updated with responses from the Department of Defense.

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Kwan Wei Kevin Tan
Kwan Wei Kevin Tan
Kevin was a reporter at Business Insider's Singapore bureau. He reported primarily on the ins and outs of the business world, whether it be breaking news, covering CEO moves, tracking quarterly earnings, or writing explainers.He also covered careers and workplace issues, and has written about career transitions, the FIRE lifestyle, the college internship arms race, and the job hunt struggles faced by computer science majors.BackgroundKevin joined Business Insider's Singapore bureau in 2023. Before that, he was a civil servant at Singapore's Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment. He was appointed to the Singapore government's Public Service Leadership Programme, a talent development programme that develops capable and talented individuals for key leadership positions in the public service.Kevin’s journalism career began in college, where he first worked as a researcher for Channel NewsAsia and The Economist, and later as an intern reporter at Bloomberg News. In 2017, the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust awarded him the Leading Change Journalism Bursary. His stories have appeared in numerous publications, including Fortune, The Japan Times, and The Edge Singapore.Kevin holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the National University of Singapore, where he was an NUS Merit Scholar. He was also the recipient of the PwC Whole Leadership Award, the NTUC Income Prize, the CFA Singapore Prize, and the Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Prize.