Homeland Security Republican accuses Navy of withholding UFO info

Rep. Mark Walker (R-N.C.), a top Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, is accusing the Navy of withholding information regarding reports of encounters with unidentified aircraft.

Walker, who serves as the ranking member of the Intelligence and Counterterrorism subcommittee, first wrote a letter in July to Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer asking him what the Navy is doing to investigate the sightings and if any foreign or business entities have developed new technologies to explain the encounters.

{mosads}Navy Under Secretary Thomas Modly responded in a letter on July 31 that “the Department of the Navy takes these reports very seriously and continues to log sightings and fully investigate the accounts,” according to a copy of the letter provided to Politico. 

However, Walker told Politico for a story published Friday that he is frustrated with what he says is unwillingness from the Navy to give his panel more data, saying the aircrafts could pose a risk to U.S. forces.

“While I am encouraged the Under Secretary of the Navy confirmed that UAP encounters are fully investigated, there is frustration with the lack of answers to specific questions about the threat that superior aircraft flying in United States airspace may pose,” he said in a statement to the newspaper, referring to unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), another term used by the military for UFOs.

Navy spokesman Joe Gradisher told Politico that while the service has not “received any new requests for updates on this issue,” it is ready to respond to any further congressional inquiries.

Interest on Capitol Hill about the reported aerial encounters has surged since 2017 after reports emerged that the Pentagon had probed the sightings of unidentified aircraft under a program established in the mid-2000s by former Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

However, Walker has pushed the Pentagon to say what it has been doing regarding the sightings since the program founded under Reid wound down in 2012.

“If the Navy believes that China or Russia possesses advanced aerospace technologies that represent a national security vulnerability, the American people have the right to know what their government is doing about it,” he said in his statement to Politico.