Mellon on conflicting insider claims
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Contents 8
| Speaker | Christopher K. Mellon, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence |
|---|---|
| Date | September 2022 (as dated in the earlier version of this article) |
| Statement | Credible people had told him of a covered-up UAP programme; equally credible people denied it; none had given him proof |
| His advice | People with knowledge should go to Congress, where they can testify under legal protection |
| Related law | National Defense Authorization Act for 2023: UAP reporting, whistleblower protections, exemptions from non-disclosure agreements |
| What followed | David Grusch's public claims, June 2023 |
| Topics | Secrecy & cover-up (topic), Government programs (topic) |
| People | Christopher Mellon, David Grusch |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 209 |
| Year | 2022 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 2022 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 5 |
In September 2022, Christopher Mellon, a former senior Pentagon intelligence official and one of the best-known advocates of UAP transparency, said that credible people had told him about a covered-up UAP programme. Equally credible people had denied it, he said, and none of those making the claim had given him proof. He urged anyone with such knowledge to take it to Congress, where they could testify under legal protection.[4] The statement captures the central problem of the UAP debate. Insiders make claims that cannot be checked in public, and officials issue denials that cannot be fully tested. Within a year, the intelligence officer David Grusch publicly made claims of the kind Mellon had described.[1][5]
Mellon
Mellon's career from 1985 to 2017 was in defence and intelligence oversight.[1]
- Senate. He spent a decade as a professional staffer of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. As an aide to Senator William Cohen he largely wrote the 1986 bill that created U.S. Special Operations Command.
- Pentagon. He served at the Pentagon from 1997, becoming Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence in November 1999 under Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush.
- Back to the Senate. He returned to the Senate committee as minority staff director under Senator Jay Rockefeller in 2003.
- Black programmes. He served on a Defense Department committee overseeing special access programmes. One journalist wrote that he "oversaw the Pentagon's most sensitive and closely held 'black' programs".[1]
He describes having been asked, at the request of Senate Appropriations chairman Robert Byrd, to determine whether the United States had a secret craft of the kind being reported. The answer from the Air Force and others was "Absolutely not."[2]
Mellon's UFO advocacy came after he left government.[1]
- To the Stars. In 2017 he joined To the Stars Academy as national security adviser and helped bring the Navy UAP videos to the New York Times; he later confirmed that he was their source.
- Legislation. He wrote a 2018 Washington Post column on Pentagon indifference to UAP. His proposals fed into Senator Marco Rubio's 2020 language requiring a UAP report, and he lobbied for the 2022 law that created the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office.[1]
- The Nimitz case. In a History.com interview he said the 2004 USS Nimitz encounter had "accelerated and solidified" his interest. He also said that inside the Pentagon the subject draws "blank stares", because the information "has not been disseminated through normal channels".[2]
He has also discussed UAP in other interviews, including with CNN's Michael Smerconish.[3]
The statement
The statement is attributed to an interview with Linda Moulton Howe of Earthfiles, titled "Linda interviews Christopher Mellon", linked below at the relevant point in the video; the earlier version of this article dates it to September 2022.[4] According to the earlier version of this article, Mellon made three points:
- credible people had told him about a covered-up UAP programme;
- other equally credible people had denied it;
- none of those making the claim had given him proof.
He urged people with knowledge of such programmes to go to Congress, where they could testify under legal protection.[4] The video itself could not be checked for this article.
The statement is notably restrained. Mellon has said publicly that he does not claim to know what the reported craft are, nor assume that they carry "aliens". He has argued that, from his own oversight experience and from the Byrd inquiry, they are not a hidden American programme.[2]
Legal protections
The route Mellon recommended was being built into law at about the same time. David Grusch, an intelligence officer who had represented the National Reconnaissance Office on the UAP Task Force from 2019 to 2021, helped draft the National Defense Authorization Act for 2023. It included UFO reporting provisions, "whistleblower protections and exemptions to non-disclosure orders and agreements".[5] The earlier version of this article described this as Congress strengthening protections for UAP whistleblowers in 2023.
What followed
On 5 June 2023 the journalists Leslie Kean and Ralph Blumenthal published Grusch's claims.[5]
- The claims. He said the U.S. government and private aerospace companies ran highly secret programmes to recover and reverse-engineer "non-human" craft and their dead pilots.
- The denials. NASA and the Defense Department denied that any such programmes existed.
- The evidence. No evidence supporting the claims has been presented, and independent experts have dismissed them.[5]
Grusch's case played out much as Mellon's 2022 remark had described: serious insider allegations met by official denials, with no public proof either way.[4][5]
Assessment
Mellon's remark is significant less for any new information than for its source. He is a former official who oversaw black programmes and who has done more than most to bring UAP before Congress, yet he acknowledged that he had heard the cover-up story without being shown evidence.[1][4] His record also has a cautionary side. At To the Stars Academy's first press conference he presented "photographic evidence of a UFO" that turned out to be a party balloon.[1]
People and topics
- Christopher Mellon — Former deputy assistant secretary of defense for intelligence who helped release the Navy UAP videos.
- Unidentified anomalous phenomena — The U.S. government's current term for unidentified objects in the air, in space and underwater.
- David Grusch — Former intelligence officer who testified in 2023 that the U.S. has recovered non-human craft.
On the Timeline
- Mellon on the Majestic documents (September 2022) — Mellon says the 'Majestic' documents are very controversial.
- Puerto Rico underwater object (September 2022) — Elizondo describes a helicopter crew seeing a dark object underwater near Puerto Rico.
See every 2022 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- Christopher Mellon — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Chris Mellon on UFO investigations — History.com · history.com · archived copy
- Mellon interview with CNN's Michael Smerconish — christophermellon.net · christophermellon.net · archived copy
- youtu.be · youtu.be · archived copy
- David Grusch UFO whistleblower claims — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
Facts in this article are drawn in part from the Wikipedia articles “Christopher Mellon”, “David Grusch UFO whistleblower claims”, “David Grusch UFO whistleblower claims”, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.
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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