A former Deputy Director of National Intelligence revealed that even he wasn’t given access to UAP briefings. In fact, people with the highest security clearances allowing them to brief the President of the United States were kicked out of UFO briefings.
Cliff Sims is the former Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Strategy and Communications during part of the Trump administration. He was a senior adviser to the former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe. According to the Washington Post, Sims played a role in a decision during the Trump administration to move U.S. Space Command from Colorado Springs to Huntsville, Alabama. (In July 2023, President Joe Biden canceled the move, AP reported.) According to USCC.gov, he’s currently the commissioner of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.
But even with all these credentials and clearances, Sims was kicked out of a UAP briefing, he shared in an Ocotber 4, 2024, interview with the Shawn Ryan Show.
People With the ‘Highest Security Clearance’ Weren’t Allowed to Hear the UAP Briefing
At about 25:13 into the interview, Ryan asked Sims, “What’s going on with the UFO stuff?”
Sims warned that he didn’t have much to share, even though as soon as he got into the office, he wanted to learn about UFOs.
“I actually talk about that a little bit in my new book, but it’s not going to be very satisfying,” Sims replied. “…When we got there the first thing I said was, all right, somebody wheel out the bodies… I want to see the alien bodies… (I) sincerely want to know what’s what with this. I mean, how can you not be curious? …So when we got there, we wanted to know, they call it the UAP program…”
He went on to share that you need the highest security clearance to be in the office, but even that wasn’t enough to hear the UAP briefings.
“So the people who brief on these programs come to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence,” he told Shawn Ryan. “Now to be in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, you have to have the highest security clearance that the U.S. government offers… Well, when we got there, naturally…the senior team wants to be in the room to hear. Let’s get the briefing too, let’s get the briefing with the director. And they kicked everyone out of the room… Said, ‘We’re here to give the briefing to the director.’ And so even the people who saw all the most sensitive stuff in the U.S. government, that’s how sensitive they were about being willing to brief that, and that’s about all I can say about it.”
Ryan commented to Sims that this made him feel like there really is something to all of this.
“They are very, very sensitive about who has access to those programs, for sure,” Sims said.
The Former DNI John Ratcliffe Has Said the Government Is Hiding Information About UAPs
According to Sims, former DNI director John Ratcliffe was the only one read into the UAP briefings. Ratcliffe himself has previously spoken out a bit about what he knows.
In an interview with Fox Business in July 2023, Ratcliffe was shown clips from UFO whistleblower David Grusch’s sworn testimony to Congress during the House Oversight Committee’s UFO hearing. The clips included Grusch revealing that he knows of people harmed by government efforts to conceal a secret UAP retrieval program, possible alleged murders he can’t speak about in a non-classified setting, and non-human biologics found in some of the UAP recoveries.
Ratcliffe began by referencing a statement he made when he left his position as DNI about two years ago.
“The government has more information than it’s sharing…” he said. “I thought a report that was going to come out after I left would have more transparency, which was needed. Unfortunately, the Biden administration made the decision to really not reveal much. And now you end up with House Republicans having to have these public hearings to talk about more of this information.”
Former Director of National Intelligence, @JohnRatcliffe was asked about David Grusch’s claims. He doesn’t deny them.
“I’ve gone to the edge of talking about information that’s classified. I can’t go over that line. I just think they (Gov)could have put more information out…” pic.twitter.com/o8J3ZBKR8h
— UAP News (@HighPeaks77) July 30, 2023
But despite believing that the public deserves transparency, he doesn’t think this entails full transparency, he added.
“I believe there should be more transparency on this issue,” he told Fox Business. “But not full transparency. The primary role of the federal government is to provide for the common defense, and … we don’t share all national security information with the American people. But the government should have done a better job of putting out some of the things you and I talked about…”
He also confirmed that there are sightings the government cannot explain.
“There are things that we can’t explain,” Ratcliffe said. “And there are more sightings than are being reported. Had the government managed this a little bit better, it wouldn’t be as controversial … Like I said, there’s a lot of things that are unexplained… I’ve gone to the edge of talking about information that’s classified. I can’t go over that line. This current administration would like nothing more than for me to trip over a classified information line. I just think that we could’ve put more information out to talk about all of that.”
💥 Former DNI John Ratcliffe – Fox News
“objects that demonstrate technologies that seem to defy the law of physics & capabilities that we don’t have as the world’s superpower”
“I can’t talk to you about any potential alien life, so I’ll just leave it at that”#ufotwitter #ufo pic.twitter.com/8G27KmPcey
— UAP James (@UAPJames) January 15, 2023
Ratcliffe previously told Fox News in January 2023 that when he was head of DNI, he pushed unsuccessfully for more disclosure about UFOs.
“Shortly after I became the DNI in June of 2020, I was the first one to publicly acknowledge that there was an unidentified aerial phenomenon task force through the Senate Intelligence Committee, because I wanted there to be greater transparency to the American people about the number of sightings of things that are unexplained…” he said. “My concern as the Director of National Intelligence was, if any one foreign adversary — regardless of how you define foreign adversary — have technologies that the United States don’t have, we need to find out more about that. And what we found was Navy pilots and Air Force pilots were discouraged from reporting that. They thought it would impair their careers…”
He confirmed these objects seem to defy physics.
“It’s not clutter or debris or birds or anything else, but objects that demonstrate technologies that seem to defy the law of physics and capabilities that we don’t have,” Ratcliffe said. “…I can’t talk to you about … any potential alien life. So I’ll just leave it at that.”
Stephanie Dwilson is a licensed attorney and has a master's in science in science and technology journalism. She's known for her thorough, accurate reporting and commitment to journalistic integrity in all her work. You can reach her at writerdube@gmail.com.
