Artistic representation of September 2025 UAP Hearing witnesses testifying
Artistic representation of September 2025 UAP Hearing witnesses testifyingTUO via Open AI

September 2025 Congressional Hearing

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Tori Jane, TUO Reporter

With stunning drone footage and calls for whistleblower protection, did the September 9th hearing succeed in rebuilding public trust after decades of denial?

On September 9th, 2025, the U.S. Government not-so-quietly had another hearing about Unidentified Aerial Phenomena and its implications for national security. Naturally, the meeting was jam-packed with extraordinary testimony, intriguing videos, and more. Let's take a look at the most important (or most bizarre, depending on how you see it) bullet points of the Sept. 9th meeting and examine just what they might mean for the rest of us.

During this meeting, one essential question needed an answer: Is it possible to restore the public's trust in the government regarding UAPs, or is this a pipe dream unlikely to ever occur? With Rep. Anna Paulina Luna at the helm, the committee sought answers — and some of the ones they've uncovered are fascinating.

"For too long, UAPs have been shrouded in secrecy, stigma, and in some cases, outright dismissal," Paulina said during her opening statement. "Today, I want to state clearly: this is not science fiction or creating speculation. This is about national security, government accountability, and the American people's right to the truth... future generations will look back on this moment and ask what we did when presented with the unknown. Did we look away, embarrassed or afraid? Or did we pursue the truth with courage? I intend to be on the side of truth, transparency, and accountability."

Robert Powell, board member of the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies, stated that "Anyone who has studied the history of the subject (UAPs) knows that there have been hundreds of reports by military servicemembers that have been just as good... unless Congress is willing to push for the nitty-gritty details [such as videos and testimony] we will not progress." He also expressed the belief that the Government will never release information leading to the conclusion that these crafts are of non-human origin.

The outlook of Alejandro Rojas held a similar air of frustration. Rojas, a journalist who specializes in reporting on UAP, expressed frustration at the fact that AARO — the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office created by the Pentagon — was not only not invited to have representation at the meeting, but was also not exactly spoken of very highly. "Instead of focusing on real issues and truly championing scientific investigation, the hearing comes across as a very political back-and-forth between the Oversight Committee and the Pentagon," Rojas said. "What gets lost is what we actually need, and that is data gathering and scientific evaluation of that data."

What we need, he said, is scientific investigation alongside the reports and videos. What we don't need is more conjecture and second-hand stories without evidence.

Other key witnesses that testified on the 9th included U.S. Air Force veteran Jeffrey Nuccetelli, UAP witness Alejandro Wiggins, UAP journalist George Knapp, U.S. Air Force veteran and UAP witness Dylan Borland, and minority witness Joe Spielberger.

The incidents Nuccetelli described during his testimony have become known as the "Vandenberg Red Square" case, one of the most well-documented UAP encounters at a sensitive military installation. During the hearing, Nuccetelli detailed five separate incidents between 2003-2005, including the now-famous October 14, 2003 sighting of a massive red, square-shaped object hovering over launch facilities.

Prior to the September 9th hearing, this incident gained wider attention when former Navy pilot Ryan Graves testified about it to Congress in July 2023, based on information and documentation that Nuccetelli had preserved from his time as an Air Force security officer. The incident occurred during what were described as some of the most important missile launches in decades at the base. Nuccetelli provided a detailed account of his experiences in a November 2023 interview on the Merged Podcast.

Twitter Post: Jeffrey Nuccetelli testifies about UAP encounters at Vandenberg Air Force Base during the September 9th hearing

George Knapp, the veteran investigative journalist, provided equally compelling testimony. He stated, "The public has been told, over and over since the late 40s, that there's nothing to worry about here. 'These mysterious craft seen by millions of people in the skies, in the oceans, over the land, are not real. They're not a threat. The witnesses are wrong. They're crackpots. Don't believe it.' That changed for me. What got me hooked is the paper trail. Documents that were squeezed out of the US government after the FOIA — Freedom of Information Act — became the law of the land. And those documents paint a much different picture than what the public, the press, and Congress have been told over many years. The documents from military and intelligence personnel behind closed doors admit that these things are real. They're not fictitious. They can fly in formation, they're evasive, and they outperform any aircraft known to exist, including ours. The public, of course, as I said, has been told something much different."

Among the most spectacular moments in the hearing came when Knapp directly named Glenn Gaffney of the CIA as a key gatekeeper in UAP secrecy. Gaffney is no minor figure — he spent 31 years in the US Intelligence Community, including six years as Director of Science and Technology for the CIA, overseeing the agency's most advanced technical programs.

According to multiple investigative reports by Christopher Sharp of Liberation Times, Gaffney's role may be particularly crucial in UAP secrecy. Sharp has reported that multiple sources claimed that material transfer efforts were blocked by former CIA Director of Science and Technology, Glenn Gaffney during attempts to transfer alleged UAP materials from Lockheed Martin to Robert Bigelow's aerospace company as part of the AAWSAP program. Sharp's sources also alleged that Gaffney's alleged interference in the material transfer left those involved — including the now-deceased James Ryder, former Vice President of Lockheed Martin Space Systems — feeling threatened due to the harshness of exchanges with CIA officials.

Sharp has noted that while Gaffney has denied blocking the transfer, multiple sources maintain he was "the driving force" behind stopping the material transfer, with the formal decision ultimately made by Robert Cardillo, then Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Intelligence Integration.

Twitter Post: Christopher Sharp provides additional context on Glenn Gaffney's alleged role in blocking UAP material transfers

Since leaving government service, Gaffney has worked in the private technology sector, including at In-Q-Tel (the CIA's venture capital arm) until 2023, and currently serves as Managing Director at BuildMo, a defense technology training company that works extensively with government and military clients.

Beyond Knapp's revelations about gatekeepers and Russian documents, the hearing delivered perhaps its most jaw-dropping moment when Representative Eric Burlison of Missouri revealed stunning drone footage. Burlison presented a video he "was given" that was said to have been captured by an MQ-9 Reaper drone. In it, an anomalous, shiny object zooms at incredible speeds off the coast of Yemen in October 2024. Later in the day, Burlison Tweeted:

Twitter Post: Rep. Eric Burlison releases the MQ-9 Reaper drone video from the September 9th UAP hearing

The video is, indeed, quite astonishing: it shows a metallic orb in the center of the screen, locked onto by the drone recording it. As Burlison stated, servicemembers were given the "green light to engage," which resulted in them shooting at the object with a Hellfire missile. Incredibly, the missile visibly ricochets off the object as the object continues to move at incredible speeds unimpeded.

There are a few different iterations of the Hellfire missile; the one fired at the UAP was one designed to destroy armored tanks. It had seemingly no effect on the anomalous object. The War Zone noted this appears to be the first known instance of an MQ-9 Reaper engaging an aerial target in an operational setting. Is it possible the missile was a dud that simply failed to detonate? Possibly, but the seasoned, experienced experts testifying at this hearing had likely long already considered this. These are not wet-behind-the-ears newbies; they are credible witnesses with incredible stories to tell, and finally, they're finding their voices without fear of retaliation or retribution.

Of course, the witnesses are clear about one thing: it's not for them to say what they believe these things to be, or who's piloting them. Wiggins stated: "To be clear, I am not here to make claims beyond my lane. I am here to provide a firsthand account of what I saw, what our systems recorded, and why it matters for safety, for intelligence and public confidence." Wiggins and other witnesses reiterated the deep need for whistleblower protection, as most of them had personally been retaliated against after reporting their sightings as well as many, many others not present at the hearing. Sailors, he said, needed to be confident that their careers would not be harmed if they report sighting bizarre things.

Representative Tim Burchett of Tennessee asked George Knapp how they could further increase whistleblower protections, to which Knapp said, "I think you got to unleash the dogs and go track down the money and where it goes, because a lot of this stuff has been moved out of government. As you know, Rep. Burchett, it's been given to private contractors who stashed it away. They've had it for so long that there's nobody left inside government or very few who know where it is."

Burchett replied, "And they do that to keep us from FOIA, correct?"

Knapp: "Yeah, it's to keep it from FOIA. And I think that the contractors fed the stuff for a very, very long time, set their own standards about who is allowed to know what. And it's a very small group that ever cracks that. I think Representative Luna has been looking at the use of classifications to hide things. I'm not sure that even this committee getting security clearances that should allow you to see this stuff would allow you to follow where it really goes."

Finally, Representative Nancy Mace of South Carolina asked Knapp if any of these things could possibly be a psychological operation (psy-op) by the U.S. Government.

Knapp did not mince words when he replied, "Entirely possible. I mean, our government and other governments have admitted that they've tried to use UFOs to cover secret projects, but I think they also do some reverse engineering of those claims. So, years after, people start seeing UFOs over Area 51, for example, they come up with a story. That was a week we planted that story. So, I read in a major newspaper just a couple of weeks ago, they planted this story in air force. Colonel. Went out into the desert, went to a bar and [they were given] some fake UFO photos. And that's how the whole story about Area 51 started, which is preposterous."

The September 9th hearing delivered extraordinary testimony and stunning evidence, but whether it truly restored public trust remains unclear. While witnesses provided compelling accounts and shocking drone footage, the same patterns of government secrecy and alleged retaliation that have persisted for decades were evident throughout. The hearing raised more questions than answers, but perhaps that's what's needed to keep pushing for transparency. In their official wrap-up, the House Oversight Committee emphasized that "the federal government has failed to provide adequate information to Americans on the existence and effectiveness of programs related to UAPs" and called for stronger whistleblower protections. You can watch the entire hearing for yourself here.

YouTube Video: Full recording of the September 9th UAP hearing "Restoring Public Trust Through UAP Transparency and Whistleblower Protection"