Former defense official says government is hiding UFO secrets from Americans

A former defense official has said the government is hiding UFO secrets from Americans, amid the spotlight on apparent drone sightings over the East Coast in recent weeks. 

Luis Elizondo, the former head of the Defense Department’s Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, told Congress last month about an alleged government group ‘hiding the fact that we are not alone in the cosmos’.

‘I believe that we as Americans can handle the truth. And I also believe the world deserves the truth,’ Elizondo said.

Elizondo was among those claiming that whistleblowers are afraid to come forward, while urging Congress to pass legislation which would protect them. 

The hearing was part of a larger investigation into UFOs, also known as unidentified aerial phenomenon (UAPs), to determine whether any government officials have been withholding evidence from Congress. 

It comes as wild footage showed what appeared to be a UFO hovering in the skies over New Jersey before suddenly accelerating away on Sunday. 

In a short 13 second clip posted to social media, a white light blinked in the sky before suddenly vanishing, leaving onlookers stunned. 

In the footage, which was shot close near Atlantic City, family members were heard discussing what they witnessed before the object suddenly disappears.

‘It just vanished!’ one said. ‘I just watched it through the telescope.’ The footage was sent to Tim Janicki by a friend.

The video is the most recent in a long line of mysterious drone sightings that have been reported flying over New Jersey and across the eastern U.S., sparking speculation and concern over where they came from and why. 

Data shows New Jersey residents have reported more than 1,000 sightings of the flying objects across the state in less than a month after the first report. 

Some 964 incidents have been logged in total since the first sighting on November 19 up until December 13, according to statistics collected by the state’s Office of Emergency Management and shared with the New York Post. 

Yet despite the startling volume of apparent sightings – which have prompted locals to shoot into the sky and even sparked the closure of an airport in neighboring New York – officials are yet to provide answers about who or what is behind the drones. 

As the flashing objects continue to circle the skies above New Jersey and beyond, theories about the source have proliferated in the homes of lawmakers and residents below – from Project Blue Beam to foreign conspiracies. 

Social media has gone wild with conspiracy theorists insisting the alleged drones are connected with a chilling government plot.

Trump-supporting actress Roseanne Barr was among those touting the Project Blue Beam theory, which claims global elites are planning to use advanced technology to stage celestial events in order to manipulate the world’s population.

‘Now you see why I mention Project Blue Beam every week on my podcast…..,’ the 72-year-old wrote on X. 

The theory dates back to the 1990s, but it recently found traction again online as commentators such as Barr claim that the US government could stage an alien invasion as a pretext for imposing authoritarian rule. 

Others have also espoused the idea that the Biden Administration could be behind the drone activity, given its refusal to provide reassuring answers amid the mounting crisis. 

Former CIA operations officer Laura Ballman revealed her chilling theory that the drones lighting up multi-state skies may be a ‘classified exercise.’ 

She told Fox News Live that the drone sightings are ‘extremely unsettling,’ and shared her theory that they may be part of a technology ‘test,’ orchestrated by the federal government. 

Ballman said: ‘Now in terms of who is behind this, seeing the statements that have been made by John Kirby, who has said that these objects are not operating illegally.

‘Coupled with the several op-eds that have been out there in the last 24 hours about the need to look at our detection systems, [it] makes me think perhaps this is actually a classified exercise to test either evasion technology or detection technology in urban areas.’

White House National Security spokesman John Kirby has said the aircraft are not foreign – and they may not even be drones.

‘We have no evidence at this time that the reported drone sightings pose a national security or a public safety threat or have a foreign nexus,’ Kirby told reporters on Thursday. 

‘The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI are investigating these sightings, and they’re working closely with the state and local law enforcement to provide resources using numerous detection methods to better understand their origin,’ Kirby said.

He said the agencies used ‘very sophisticated electronic detection technologies’ but  ‘have not been able to – and neither state or local law enforcement –  corroborate any of the reported visual sightings.’

‘To the contrary, upon review of available imagery, it appears that many of the reported sightings are actually manned aircraft being operated lawfully,’ he said, denying the aircraft were even drones.