By Tim Binnall
For the first time in over 50 years, Congress is planning to hold an open public hearing concerning the UFO phenomenon next week. The inquiry will reportedly take place on Tuesday, May 17th under the auspices of the House Intelligence Subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence and Counterproliferation. The hearing will center around the Pentagon's Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group which was created by the Department of Defense this past November with the purpose of detecting, identifying, and attributing "objects of interest in Special Use Airspace" as well as assessing and mitigating "any associated threats to safety of flight and national security" brought about by these anomalies.
Set to testify at the hearing, which is the first open Congressional inquiry since 1968, are Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security Ronald S. Moultrie, who heads the newly formed DoD UAP group, and Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence Scott W. Bray. The duo will be providing an update on the work of the Pentagon's proverbial UFO desk and the issues that it has been assigned to investigate. Additionally, they will be answering questions from members of Congress. To that end, Representative Adam B. Schiff, who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, told the New York Times that the hearing aims to explore "one of the great mysteries of our time and to break the cycle of excessive secrecy and speculation with truth and transparency."
While UFO enthusiasts will, understandably, be following next Tuesday's hearing with considerable interest, they would be wise to temper their expectations as it is unlikely that the Pentagon officials will reveal that we are being visited by beings from another world. That said, one hopes that they can shed some light on what the DoD has uncovered regarding the aerial anomalies which have mystified the planet for decades and, in particular, captivated the country over the last few years as the government's veil of secrecy surrounding the subject has seemingly been slowly lifted. As always with the UFO phenomenon, we are left to wait and see what happens, although at least in this case the hearing is only a week away.