Insider on oversight without access (2021)
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 8
| Source | An unnamed "government insider" quoted by the researcher Joe Murgia |
|---|---|
| Published | First in Murgia's 2019 "MegaBlog"; re-quoted in his 2021 article on Harry Reid and Lockheed |
| Claim | Officials with oversight "did not find the UAP crash retrieval program when they looked because they never knew of its existence" |
| Mechanism alleged | Waived-unacknowledged SAPs outside Section 119 of Title 10, funded through shell-company subcontracts |
| Status | Unnamed and unverifiable |
| Date | 1 May 2021 |
| Topics | Crashes & retrievals (topic), Secrecy & cover-up (topic), Government programs (topic) |
| People | Harry Reid |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 198 |
| Year | 2021 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 2021 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 1 |
An anonymous insider told the UFO researcher Joe Murgia that officials with formal oversight responsibilities, such as members of Congress and senior defence officials, lacked access to UAP information. They had looked for a crash-retrieval program and failed to find it "because they never knew of its existence".[1] Murgia first published the remark in part 3 of his 2019 series on the Wilson–Davis notes, and re-quoted it in a 2021 article on former Senator Harry Reid's attempt to see material at Lockheed.[1] The claim echoes long-standing allegations, from the Wilson–Davis notes to Reid's comments, that UAP programs are compartmented so that even senior overseers cannot see them.[1]
The insider's statement
Murgia said he "reached out to a government insider" for light on whether the "Gang of Eight" congressional leaders could see every special access program (SAP). He quoted the source's answer:[1]
- Overseers in the dark. "Various people within the United States government, in positions of oversight and who you would think had access to all UAP programs, did not find the UAP crash retrieval program when they looked because they never knew of its existence."
- Outside the law's reach. The source and "others in my circle" had discussed with them "how one cannot find waived-unacknowledged SAPs that operate outside of Section 119 of Title 10".
- The money trail. A Defense Department office could create a shell company, pay it under "an unremarkable commercial defense services contract", and have it subcontract to an aerospace firm hosting the program. The audit trail would then end at the shell company.
Murgia called this the clearest explanation he had heard of "how the UAP crash retrieval program is hidden".[1] The insider was not named, and the claim cannot be checked.[1]
The Gang of Eight
The question arose from remarks by Christopher Mellon, a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, on Fox News in June 2019.[1] Mellon said eight members of Congress, under Section 119 of Title 10, were entitled to "a straight answer" about even the most tightly held programs. He used to help prepare their briefing book, but added that they often skipped the briefings, and that they could get the answer "in theory".[1] Murgia then asked Reid, a former Gang of Eight member, on Nevada radio whether he had ever been denied access. Reid replied: "you don't know if you were denied access unless you know what you're looking for."[1]
The wider allegations
Murgia set the insider's remark among several similar claims:[1]
- Wilson–Davis notes. In notes found in 2019 among Edgar Mitchell's papers, Eric Davis recorded a 2002 conversation with Adm. Thomas Wilson. Wilson said he was refused access in 1997 to a SAP at a defence contractor that claimed to hold a recovered craft, because he was not on the "BIGOT list". Wilson has repeatedly denied the notes' validity.
- Haisch. The astrophysicist Bernard Haisch wrote that such a program would likely be "a deep, black industrial-based SAP". Even top intelligence "tickets" would not confer a need to know, and FOIA "cannot penetrate Unacknowledged Special Access Programs".
- Reid and Lockheed. Reid told The New Yorker in 2021 that he "was told for decades that Lockheed had some of these retrieved materials". He said the Pentagon refused him a classified approval to see them, which was one reason he sought SAP status for AATIP.
- Davis. Davis told George Knapp in 2018 that "the crash retrieval program, it's still there", and that SAP status would have opened the door.
- Mellon. Mellon told Joe Rogan in 2021 that recovered material was "plausible" and that "multiple people, who have credentials and access" had told him there was some truth to the stories.
Skeptical voices
Murgia's article also records doubts:[1]
- McMillan. The journalist Tim McMillan relayed a former BAASS employee's story that crash material had passed from the Atomic Energy Commission to Lockheed in 1977. He stressed he considered it "a cool story or myth" without supporting evidence. Davis replied that the source was "quite ill-informed".
- Proving nothing. McMillan argued that even a perfectly accurate Wilson memo would prove nothing. A program could tell an outsider anything about its work.
- Reid himself. When Murgia called his 2019 radio show, Reid said: "I don't believe the United States has material from an Unidentified Flying Object."
- Mellon in 2016. Mellon had once said he had "never seen anything remotely supportive of such incredible claims". He added that if he wanted to bury such a thing, he would "take it outside government oversight entirely" and place it inside an existing defence company.
Aftermath
In 2023 Congress passed measures requiring agencies to report UAP-related programs to it, partly in response to concerns of this kind. The Pentagon's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office later reported finding no evidence of hidden programs holding extraterrestrial technology. The insider's account remains a description of how such a program could be hidden, not evidence that one exists.[1]
People and topics
- Unidentified anomalous phenomena — The U.S. government's current term for unidentified objects in the air, in space and underwater.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- Wilson–Davis notes — Wilson–Davis notes
- Harry Reid — Senate Majority Leader who arranged funding for AAWSAP.
On the Timeline
- Harry Reid on Lockheed's UFO fragments (1 May 2021) — Former Sen. Harry Reid says he was told Lockheed held UAP fragments and was refused access.
- Mellon's first steps as president (5 May 2021) — Christopher Mellon says what he would do first about UAP if he were president.
See every 2021 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- ufojoe.net · ufojoe.net · archived copy
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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