The claim that the U.S. government admitted to knowing aliens exist has been circulating widely on social media. Alongside incredulous responses, it has also been repeated in joke and meme posts with millions of views.
Last week, the United States House Oversight subcommittee held a hearing with the title: Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Implications on National Security, Public Safety, and Government Transparency. “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena” (UAPS) are also known colloquially as UFOs.
Clips from this hearing were shared widely on social media, with commentators and even popstars distilling the hearing into the claim that “U.S. government intelligence officers” or the U.S. government itself has confirmed aliens exist, and that it possesses “UFOs and non-human bodies”.
Firstly, the key claim that the U.S. government has admitted knowledge or possession of aliens is not accurate.
Instead, the main claims come from a retired military major who describes himself as a whistleblower, David Grusch. In the hearing, Grusch testified under oath that the U.S. has been running a secret program collecting UAPs and reverse engineering them for decades. He also claimed to have learned from “insiders” that the U.S. government is in possession of “non-human biologics,” although he has not seen them himself.
However, the testimony of a whistleblower in a government hearing does not mean that the U.S. government has “confirmed” or “admitted” anything. Further, while some of those who testified were formerly U.S. government intelligence officials, none of them currently represent or can speak for the government. The Pentagon has also made statements refuting Grusch’s claims.
Therefore, we give this claim a rating of false.
However, is there any truth to claim that “alien bodies” exist and are in the possession of the U.S. government?
While under oath, Grusch provided limited details on the specifics of “non-human biologics” and UAPs. However, in media interviews given prior to the hearing, he has made more detailed claims about the U.S. government having a “very large, like a football-field kind of size” alien craft. During the hearing, he also repeated the claim that “non-human biologics” were found with non-human spacecrafts – heavily suggesting (although not outright stating) that these were alien spacecraft pilots.
The term “alien bodies” was not raised at all during the hearing – “non-human biologics” was used instead, and potentially encompasses all non-human organisms from fungi to plants. It would therefore be inaccurate to state with any certainty that the existence of alien bodies has been confirmed, much less that the U.S. Government has admitted possession of them.
While there is no way of definitively proving Grusch’s claims false with publicly available information, it is also the case that he has provided no tangible evidence beyond citing accounts from “insiders” and claiming to have seen some photographs first-hand. However, given the swirl of uncertainty and on-going revelations, we give this second claim a rating of unproven.
The concept of alien life outside of our known world is compelling precisely because it is unknown and, as yet, unproven. However, it is also important to approach claims like this with a discerning eye and look for accurate details rather than taking headlines at face value.