Award-winning investigative journalist Ross Coulthart has joined Newhsub Nation to share more of the background to his interview with the UFO whistleblower.
This week, former intelligence official turned whistleblower David Grusch is alleging the US government has "intact and partially intact craft of non-human origin…"
Grusch led the analysis of unexplained anomalous phenomena (UAP) within a US Department of Defense agency during his 14-year career in US intelligence.
He's sparked headlines worldwide with his assertion the US has been collecting non-human craft for "decades".
Grusch told the Debrief secretive US government agencies and defence contractors had been recovering fragments of non-human craft, and in some cases entire craft, for decades.
His claims have prompted the US House of Representatives to announce an investigation into the allegations, with a hearing on the issue expected to be announced in the next few weeks.
The hearing is the latest official US response in recent years to the issue of UAPs, which has raised heated speculation among UFO believers.
Some experts in UFO lore have suggested his assertions should be taken with a grain of salt as he has not presented any firsthand knowledge, instead recounting what he has been told by other high-ranking officials.
They are explosive claims, so far unverified, so Newshub Nation's Rebecca Wright asked Ross Coulthart who Grusch is and why people should listen to him.
"Mr Grusch is, until very recently, one of the most senior military intelligence officers in the US military," Coulthart said.
"When President Joe Biden wanted his presidential daily briefing, which is the intelligence briefing that's prepared for the President. It was David Grush who was involved in putting it together for the National Reconnaissance Office."
Coulthart said Grusch "often hand couriered that super secret top secret intelligence to the West Wing of the White House. He was trusted with the biggest secrets in the US".
Grusch has been on the record and under oath testifying his claims.
Coulthart said, initially, "I couldn't believe that there would be such a thing that could be capable of being kept secret inside the US, which notoriously leaks like a sieve".
"Very soon I started stumbling across people who work in the program, people who eventually led me to Mr Grusch. And I'm more than satisfied because of the corroboration that I've got from other sources, people still inside the so-called program."
"Incredible as it may sound, it's true," Coulthart said.
After revelations made, particularly by The New York Times, US Congress mandated the Pentagon start being more transparent on UAPs.
Grusch was the person "appointed inside the Defense Department to do those investigations. What he found was that he was being hindered and stopped from doing his investigations", said Coulthart.
"He actually spoke to people in the program who confirmed the existence of these retrieved crafts.
"They talked to him about the locations of these crafts and that's all information that he's provided under oath to the inspector general of the intelligence community."
Coulthart said he has "spoken to both Congressmen and Senators who've told me that they're convinced that there's something to this and they want it fully and properly investigated".
He made clear "the Pentagon's formally stating that it has no credible evidence to date of extraterrestrials".
But he also said the Pentagon is "confining its answer in a very careful way to the body inside the Pentagon called AARO, which is the all-domain anomaly resolution office".
AARO is the body that's trusted to investigate the phenomenon of UAP for the US.
Coulthart said "AARO doesn't have the security classification, what's called Title 50 access, to the really super secrets in the American government.
"Because of that, it's been frustrated in making a lot of its inquiries to validate Mr Grusch his claims."
Questioned on whether Grusch's claims can be accepted without physical evidence or firsthand accounts, Coulthart said, "Here we have an on-record official who until a few weeks ago was a very senior officer in the US military at a very, very high level, handling the most sensitive intelligence.
"He's sworn an oath, to tell the truth. He's happily prepared to go to jail if it can be shown he's told a lie.
"All he wants is for them to call his bluff and take him up on properly investigating what he says is true."
Coulthart added Grusch is not legally allowed to reveal the evidence that could validate what he's saying because it has top-secret security classifications.
Five Eyes, an intelligence alliance that New Zealand is a part of, was briefed recently on UAPs.
Newshub Nation asked Minister in charge of NZ's intelligence services Andrew Little about New Zealand's involvement and was told Aotearoa "has ongoing dialogue with its Five Eyes partners about the full range of national security challenges we face.
"There is a longstanding precedent of not disclosing the specifics of those discussions, because to do so could be helpful to those who would seek to do harm."
But Little added: "In this case, I'll make an exception - I've never believed in aliens and have seen nothing in this job that's changed my mind."
Watch the full video for more.
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