UFO whistleblower says he's being threatened as congressman warns protections are a 'joke'
UFO whistleblowers are being threatened, and protections currently in place "are a joke," a congressman told Fox News Digital.
Lue Elizondo, who was the head of a secretive Pentagon unit that studied UFOs, said there have been threats against him and "several other whistleblowers formerly associated with the UAP [unidentified anomalous phenomena] effort for the U.S. Government."
"I would like to make this perfectly clear to the American people. I am not prone to accidents. I am not suicidal. I am not abusing drugs. I am not engaged in any illicit activities," Elizondo said in a statement to "The Good Trouble Show" on May 15.
"If something happens to me or my family members in the future, you will know what happened."
Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., who has been one of the lawmakers leading the push for full UFO disclosure, is a personal friend of Elizondo.
"There is whistleblower protection, but it's a joke, and we know it's a joke," Burchett told Fox News Digital.
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The congressman and Elizondo had dinner around the time Elizondo made it known he was being threatened.
He didn't detail what the threats were, or who made them, but Burchett expressed his anger and said he's "alarmed."
"Lou is a dear friend of mine, and I take any threat against anybody seriously, especially against friends and somebody that has given so much to this country and to this issue [UFOs]," Burchett said.
"So, I'm very much aware of it, and I'm very much alarmed. I'm pursuing every avenue I can to get to the bottom of it."
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The threats aimed at Elizondo and UFO whistleblowers aren't new, but are the latest in a disturbing trend.
Last July, David Grusch testified in front of Congress that his life was threatened and he was instructed to keep quiet about a secret government-run crashed UFO retrieval program.
"I can't get into the specifics in an open forum but… what I personally witnessed myself and my wife was very disturbing," said Grusch, a former U.S. intelligence officer and Air Force veteran.
"I've faced brutal, unfortunate tactics" of retribution that he called "administrative terrorism."
Elizondo was the former senior leader of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), a shadow government program created "from the ashes of the AAWSAP (Advanced Aerospace Weapons System Application Program)," veteran journalist George Knapp wrote in his testimony to Congress.
Then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., started the program in 2009 to "investigate potential next generation aerospace technologies," according to a March report by the Pentagon's UFO-focused office called AARO (All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office).
Specifically, the AATIP was focused on advanced lift, propulsion, the use of unconventional materials and controls, and signature reduction.
"Although investigating UFO/UAP was not specifically outlined in the contract’s statement of work, the selected private sector organization conducted UFO research," AARO's report says.
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"This research included: reviewing new cases and much older Project BLUE BOOK cases, operating debriefing and investigatory teams, and proposals to set up laboratories to examine any recovered UFO materials."
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The same report concluded that there was no evidence of aliens, alien technology or secret government-run reverse engineering programs.
It was met with sharp backlash from experts, scientists and lawmakers, who said the 63-page report was incomplete and filled with holes.
"The historical review is an attempt to rewrite history and obscure the basic fundamental facts about the UFO phenomenon," Jeremy Corbell, an investigative journalist and pivotal figure in the fight for UFO transparency, told Fox News Digital in March after the report was released.