Is Excessive UFO Secrecy Hurting America Now?

A former CIA officer has revealed that on his very first day at the agency, he asked where all the UFO material was kept. According to John Kiriakou, speaking with journalist Ross Coulthart, his colleagues laughed and told him that everyone asks that same question. This admission comes alongside one of the most detailed breakdowns of alleged UFO legacy programs ever recorded, from researcher UAPGerb on with Jesse Michels on American Alchemy .

According to Kiriakou, the CIA excels at compartmentalization, a method of restricting information to such a small group that it essentially disappears from institutional knowledge. He explained that while a top secret classification still allows roughly one hundred thousand people access, adding a compartment code word can reduce that number to as few as ten people who report directly to the president.

UAPGerb describes these alleged programs as operating within a pyramid structure. At the top, according to journalist Walter Kern, David Grusch identified the late Vice President Dick Cheney as heading the UFO pyramid for an extended period. Below that level sit administrators from major intelligence agencies including the CIA, NSA, DIA, NRO, NGA, and a sixth agency called NURO, the National Underwater Reconnaissance Office, which was established in 1969 but has never been officially acknowledged.

Below these administrators are Federally Funded Research and Development Centers. The largest example is the MITRE Corporation, a not-for-profit organization founded in 1958 that was originally spun out of MIT as a military think tank. UAPGerb calls MITRE the most overlooked entity in this entire subject, pointing to a revolving door of personnel moving between MITRE, the NRO, and the CIA Directorate of Science and Technology.

According to UAPGerb and David Grusch, these programs are funded through misappropriation methods including Independent Research and Development billing and unreported carryover funds. He referenced a 1994 audit that caught the NRO with approximately 3.2 billion dollars in unreported carryover funds, just two years after the agency was declassified.

The interview also covered firsthand crash retrieval testimony. According to the account of Jonathan Weigant, a former Marine, he encountered an egg-shaped craft embedded in a cliff face during a 1997 operation in Peru. Three separate witnesses, Weigant, Michael Herrera, and Roderick Castle III, all reported being given anthrax vaccine boosters immediately after their encounters, despite the incidents being unrelated.

According to reporting by UK journalist Christopher Sharp, the CIA established the Office of Global Access in 2003 to coordinate foreign crash retrievals. UAPGerb noted that the first director, Doug Wolf, spent sixteen years at the NRO before founding the office.

Kiriakou offered two reasons for the secrecy: fear of public panic and fear of revealing capabilities to adversaries. However, insiders now argue that excessive compartmentalization is actually hindering American progress and allowing other nations to advance.

Sources

Gomez, C. (2025a, August 15). NASA Admin. Breaks Protocol: “I’ve Asked for the Alien Briefing” UFO News. https://www.ufonews.co/post/nasa-admin-breaks-protocol-i-ve-asked-for-the-alien-briefing

Gomez, C. (2025b, August 19). Military UFO witness goes public — the Phoenix Lights. UFO News. https://www.ufonews.co/post/phoenix-lights-witness

Jesse Michels. (2026, January 11). The Pentagon’s UFO Program Is Real [Here’s How It Works!] ft. UAPGerb [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7g5Sn1DJF4

Ross Coulthart. (2026, January 13). CIA whistleblower reveals UFO sighting [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=su_HktCLYpQ