Chair of first UFO hearing since 1960s: ‘Someone has to do it’

WASHINGTON — Congress last held a hearing on reports of UFOs — unidentified flying objects synonymous with space aliens — in the 1960s, and even in the realm of fiction, Scully and Mulder of “The X-Files” seem to have retired.

“Someone has to do it,” Rep.Andre Carson, an Indiana Democrat, says of the need for a public examination of unexplained aerial phenomena. The seven-term lawmaker will oversee a hearing on the issue Tuesday.

Two top defense intelligence officials are set to answer questions from the House Intelligence Committee’s subcommittee on counterterrorism, counterintelligence and counterproliferation as part of the session in Washington that’s scheduled to begin at 10 a.m.

“There are ways that we can raise questions that UFO-logists have raised for many years, and just average everyday citizens have raised — for decades now,” Carson said standing outside the Capitol. “We all watch television, we’ve heard things, we’ve read things,” he said. “We want to see the footage and have it explained to us. That’s what we want to accomplish.”

Last June, a greatly anticipated declassified report found that more than 140 so-called Unidentified Aerial Phenomena incidents investigated by the government since 2004 — many reported by naval aviators — could not be explained.

Carson, 47, said there could be national security implications in some of what the committee will learn Tuesday. That’s one reason a classified, closed briefing will follow the public hearing, he added.

The second session is necessary even if it generates fresh suspicion of some government cover-up, Carson said. “Because our enemies will be listening very closely to hear what the military has to say. And we don’t want to give them an advantage over us.”

But he hoped the public portion won’t just be a black hole of government deflection.

“Some experts say 2% to 7% of these sitings are not based on weather balloons or computer malfunctions, or aircraft that is top secret — we can’t explain it away. So, hopefully we can dig much deeper and find out what’s going on,” he said.

Carson added that he’d personally like to think there’s life beyond Earth.

“I’d like to think in the realm of possibility that there are other life forms out there. Within our solar system, who knows?” said Carson. “Might life forms exist on one of the moons of one of our planets — I mean, that’s for NASA and other folks to let us know.”