New Pentagon waiver expands UFO disclosure efforts - Newsweek

The Department of Defense announced Monday that it is issuing a legal waiver allowing current and former military personnel, civilian employees and contractors to disclose information related to Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), commonly known as UFOs, to designated representatives of a government transparency initiative, the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (PURSUE).

The announcement comes amid renewed interest in UAP investigations following congressional hearings, whistleblower allegations and the release of previously classified government records in recent years. For decades, military personnel and contractors with knowledge of classified UAP-related programs have cited concerns that speaking about the subject could expose them to legal penalties, loss of security clearances or other administrative consequences.

The waiver removes legal barriers that have long deterred UAP witnesses from coming forward, allowing current and former defense personnel to share UFO-related information with the government's PURSUE disclosure program without violating certain secrecy agreements.

While the announcement represents one of the most significant policy changes in years regarding the government's handling of UAP information, it's the latest in a series of disclosure-related moves President Donald Trump has made since the beginning of his second term.

Officials said the new process will create a formal pipeline for reviewing, evaluating and potentially declassifying historical and ongoing UAP information.

Supporters of disclosure efforts have long argued that legal protections are necessary to encourage witnesses and insiders to come forward with information that could help lawmakers and the public better understand unexplained aerial incidents.

"Anytime there can be more transparency, it's great," Dr. Julia Mossbridge, founder of the Mossbridge Institute and a researcher affiliated with multiple universities and technology companies, told Newsweek in a phone interview Monday following the announcement.

"I think it's great that Pursue exists and has now been steadily releasing information that had previously been declassified to the general public, and I applaud the efforts of the Public Interest Declassification Board, the disclosure fund, the visible college, and the scientific coalition for UAP studies. These are organizations that have really pushed for congressional hearings and for full transparency, and it looks like we're headed in that direction," she said. "I think this will make a big difference in our understanding of our place in the universe."

Before Monday's announcement, personnel with access to classified UAP-related information remained bound by non-disclosure agreements and Special Access Program Indoctrination Agreements, or SAPIAs.

The DOW said those agreements often discouraged people with knowledge of UAP-related programs from sharing information because of concerns about potential legal liability or administrative punishment. Under the new directive, civil and administrative enforcement provisions tied to those agreements are waived for authorized disclosures made directly to PURSUE representatives.

The department emphasized that the waiver does not create unrestricted public disclosure authority. Instead, it establishes a controlled process through which information can be reviewed for security concerns and possible declassification before wider release.

Most recently, the DOD published its fifth release as part of PURSUE, a tranche of different information on multiple different UAP sightings, including civilian encounters.

The tranche included accounts from two U.S. government special agents, including an afternoon incident documented with thermal video footage showing two slow-moving "black-hot" infrared anomalies

Another witness reported three separate sightings within a five-hour window somewhere in the western United States.

Among the most prominent figures to disclose UAP is former intelligence officer David Grusch, who alleged that secret government programs have recovered and studied unidentified craft.

Grusch has repeatedly called for stronger protections for whistleblowers and greater transparency regarding UAP-related activities.

In his opening statement to his testimony before the House Oversight Committee in July 2023, he explained that he became a whistleblower following "concerning reports from multiple esteemed and credentialed current and former military and intelligence community individuals" regarding the alleged secret UFO program.

Grusch noted in his closing remarks that supposed alien technology reverse-engineering programs were potentially "earth-shattering" and should serve as "a catalyst for a global reassessment of our priorities."

"It is my hope that the revelations we unearth through investigations of the Non-Human Reverse Engineering Programs I have reported will act as an ontological (earth-shattering) shock, a catalyst for a global reassessment of our priorities," Grusch said, adding, "As we move forward on this path, we might be poised to enable extraordinary technological progress in a future where our civilization surpasses the current state-of-the-art in propulsion, material science, energy production and storage."

"The knowledge we stand to gain should spur us toward a more enlightened and sustainable future, one where collective curiosity is ignited, and global cooperation becomes the norm, rather than the exception," he concluded.

David Fravor, a former U.S. Navy commanding officer, and Ryan Graves, the executive director of the advocacy organization Americans for Safe Aerospace also gave testimony at the hearing along with Grusch.

Fravor said in 2017 that he had seen a flying object about the size of his F/A-18 fighter plane that resembled a white Tic Tac after a break in a routine training mission off the California coast on November 14, 2004.

Monday's waiver appears aimed at addressing one of the central issues raised throughout those disclosure debates: whether individuals with knowledge of UAP-related programs can safely share information without risking legal consequences.

As the new disclosure mechanism takes effect, attention is likely to focus on whether additional witnesses step forward and whether previously undisclosed records ultimately become available through the review and declassification process outlined by the department.

Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Jason Lemon and Gray R. Thomas