U.S. Congress held a Tuesday hearing on unidentified flying objects and the threats they pose to national security which included newly-released footage of what might be alien spacecraft.."We are attempting to explain what may be natural phenomenon, or sensory phenomenon, or legitimate counterintelligence threats to places where we have bases or platforms,” said Ronald Moultrie, under secretary of defense for intelligence, in his testimony before the House Intelligence Committee..“Hopefully, if we get more information out there, we’ll start to lessen the impact of some of those spurious reports.”.The testimony was delivered to the U.S. House Intelligence Committee’s subcommittee on counter-terrorism, counterintelligence and counter-proliferation. It was the first hearing on the subject in nearly five decades..During the hearing, footage that apparently depicted Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs) were shown to committee members. These videos included a small object zipping by a military pilot and a glowing triangle floating in the night sky..In response to a question about the video posed by Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence Scott Bray said he does not have an "explanation for what this specific object is.".Bray said many UAP reports have a "limited amount of high quality data and reporting" which "hampers the ability to draw firm conclusions" about their nature and intent..Bray also said that there have been at least 11 "near misses" between U.S. military aircraft and UAP, and that the U.S. military hasn't tried to communicate with them. He added that the reports are “frequent and continuing,” particularly around military bases and training areas..However, Bray cautioned they have “no material" to suggest the incidents are non-terrestrial in nature. .Subcommittee Chairman Andre Carson said the stigma surrounding UAP's has interfered with intelligence analysis, as pilots were laughed at when reporting them or declined to do so altogether. He added UAP's are "a potential national security threat, and they need to be treated that way.".Rick Crawford, a Republican from Arkansas, said the investigations were not about "finding alien spacecraft, but about delivering dominant intelligence.".“The inability to understand objects in our sensitive operating areas is tantamount to intelligence failure that we certainly want to avoid,” he said..Lawmakers said during the public hearing it was important to calm "conspiracy theories" about the military hiding proof of aliens. But after the public session finished, the committee held a closed, classified briefing continuing discussion on the topic.
