Congressman Calls Out ‘Stigma’ Behind UFOs at House Hearing: ‘They Are Real’ and ‘They Need to Be Investigated’

Congressman Andre Carson (D-IN) argued that UFO sightings should be taken more seriously as a potential national security risk to the United States.

Carson led the House Intelligence Committee’s Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence, and Counterproliferation subcommittee on Tuesday — chairing a hearing on the 140 “Unidentified Aerial Phenomena” (UAP) instances recorded by the government in recent years. He began by speaking of how the Department of Defense “quietly restarted” efforts to track unexplained aerial activity years ago under the direction of the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group (AOIMSG).

“Today, we’ll bring that organization out of the shadows,” Carson said. “This hearing and oversight work has a simple idea at its core: unidentified aerial phenomena are a potential national security threat, and they need to be treated that way.”

Carson continued his opening statement by saying that “for too long, the stigma associated with UAP’s has gotten in the way of good intelligence analysis.”

“Pilots avoided reporting, or were laughed at when they did. DOD officials relegated the issue to the back room, or swept it under the rug entirely, fearful of a skeptical national security community,” Carson went on. “Today we know better. UAP’s are unexplained, it’s true, but they are real. They need to be investigated, and many threats they pose need to be mitigated.”

Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security Ronald Moultrie and Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence Scott Bray attended the hearing as witnesses, so Carson proceeded to acknowledge their attendance. He expressed the hope that their testimony would enlighten the committee on AOIMSG’s organizational status, and would make the point “that those who report UAPs be treated as witnesses, not as kooks.”

Watch above, via CSPAN2.