Experts are warning whistleblowers to seek legal representation

While Congress has delayed the UAP hearings until September and a new bill to increase whistleblower protection has been proposed, experts are calling for caution.

Following a number of missed opportunities in recent months, the elected officials at the House of Representatives has rescheduled the next UAP hearings for September. These are particularly anticipated, as Congress wishes to hear from witnesses who have first-hand experience of working in the rumoured 'legacy programme', which is said to be responsible for recovering crashed advanced platforms originating from non-human intelligence.

After apparently having some difficulty getting witnesses to come forward after they stood them up at the beginning of the summer, it seems that public pressure and reporting by Sentinel News' partner Matt Laslo have resolved the issue, with several new witnesses having been interviewed.

Recently, Michael Herrera, a former Marine and whistleblower, opened up about the struggles faced by witnesses.

He is best known for claiming that, while on patrol in Indonesia, his team came across an advanced platform that appeared to be guarded by unmarked special forces. The soldiers were loading containers into the craft. The craft itself resembled a rotating octogonal black pyramid, one hundred meters in diameter, apparently man-made. Once loading was complete, the craft rose into the air without any apparent means of propulsion and flew off into the distance. The guards then released his team.

During an interview on Newsnation, he gave his testimony and explained the subsequent struggles he endured to journalist Ross Coulthart.

I will testify to that 100% with that.

…after I came forward, basically me, you know, talking about the situation to an extent, um, I tried to get them to help me with it and to no avail. They weren't able to do that for understandable reasons, because again, being under the public view that doesn't sit well with people and having to expose myself to the public in that regard and being known as this, it's not an easy thing for people to do, which is understandable. So I don't expect anybody to want to step out of the shadows and do that.

It was hard for me to do it as it is, especially with the flak that I've gotten. But behind the scenes, I have helped out many other people who have been in similar situations that have gotten in touch with government officials to also let them know what they've experienced as well, which have been similar things that have happened as well as with myself.

These were some containers, kind of look like a type of shipping container that had an HVAC system on the top of it. When I first came forward and when I first talked to Senate Intel and testified to AARO, I thought it was them running drugs just because my hypothesis at the time was, “okay, it's either oxygenated or vacuum sealed”.

…as this thing is climbing up in elevation, when it gets past the tree line and slightly above it, then all of a sudden it just darts off to the left, which is where the ocean is and it just looked like a black blur. It was that fast. It was thousands of miles instantaneously that this thing did. It didn't break the sound barrier. It didn't produce any kind of rotor wash like a helicopter or a plain wood flying map of the earth and disturbing the trees. It didn't do anything like that. It didn't make any kind of pitch sound different either. It just disappeared.

…look how the public took this story. Look at, even some government officials I've talked to, have taken this story. You know, it sounds unbelievable. I can understand that a hundred percent.

So for them, I mean, I don't know if they would take it seriously. Probably, you know, you get yelled at or chewed out because it sounds crazy. And I understand that. So with again, us being threatened, them taking photos of our IDs, them knowing who we are and then also telling us not to talk about that, that is the other problem with this, this is a reason why people stay silent because stuff will come back to haunt you.

…when we got back the first night, I saw that camera laying on my rack and it had the battery pulled out and I had the memory card missing. So I had a spare battery, went into my locker, tried to, you know, open it up, which my locker wasn't disturbed by the way, the lock wasn't broken. Nothing was disturbed. I saw my battery in there. So I took that and put it into the camera and it wouldn't turn on. So I don't know who went on the ship at that point to sabotage the camera, but the Marines that were also with me, they had their phones missing too

…when we got back to Japan, I got a notification from the duty that knocked on my door and said that I had to report to the CP, which is a command post. And I go running up there and there's nobody there except for a guy who comes out and he's wearing Air Force dress blues with no name tag and is wearing the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. And he tells me to go inside and sit down. So he commandeers an office and he slides this paper in front of me and tells me that I can't talk about anything like this, that you could get charged for treason, you could get executed, you know, basically saying things that would try to steer us from talking about it. So I signed the paper.

…I have been calling for myself to be put on Capitol Hill to testify in front of Congress to do this. I have been asking for that. I have put my name numerous times in the hat to be considered to go on to Capitol Hill to testify this. And you know what I hear? I hear crickets.

I'm not discouraging people to come forward. I want people to assess whether or not it's going to be worth it because people I know who have came forward and provided actual intelligence on programs such as locations where materials are, where biologics are stored, they have that information and they've had that information for almost three years, but yet no member of Congress has actively looked into it or put together any kind of power at be to actually go investigate these things and go to these locations and do so.

So why would I want somebody who has the goods to sit there and just be ignored while exposing themselves to the world just to be one ridiculed two-year blacklisted from working this kind of stuff ever again.

So you lose your income. You have no means to provide from your family at that point. And you're also under a microscope because you're severely threatened because you're somebody who basically turned against the people that provided you the things as long as you played the game that they had. And I'm tired of seeing whistleblowers come forward and get treated this way like it's an amusement.

I was intimidated. I had surveillance. I had threats. I've had weird stuff sent to my house.

I'm working with some of these politicians that want to get the answers and want to do the right thing. But I also know the key players in some of these positions who are also placed there to prevent whistleblowers from doing anything or preventing committees from doing something.

…I have been in contact with engineers of these programs who have built some of these things. And they want to come forward to an extent, but I am kind of telling people to kind of put that off and put in the back of your mind until there are systems in place that can help out.

And these are people that are hands-on. And they were very specific with what they were doing. I saw their credentials. They've sent me documents that can prove what they're talking about to an extent, which I'm keeping a tight lid on because I want people to understand that it's not just us as incidental witnesses that are affected by this.

This is affecting everybody that want to come forward or that are in these programs that they believe that we as humans have a right to this kind of stuff, that it shouldn't be in guys of national security when it isn't. And the fact is that people are losing their lives over this subject or over participating. People are having their lives ruined and people are having their families threatened, which is the worst thing on top of it too. So there's a big problem that we have here.

I hope that Congress and Senate get their stuff together so that way they can get protections in place. And I'm talking about physical protections.

Shortly after the interview, Mike Herrera posted on X :

From this day forward I will not be doing any more interviews, podcasts, or documentaries. I need to focus my attention on building up 2 companies and that requires every ounce of attention I can give. I can only speak from my experience alone, which everyone already knows about.

Interestingly, a few days before the interview was broadcast, experts of the UAP Disclosure Fund published a white paper on the risks taken by whistleblowers. The report was authored by former Congress staffer Kirk McConnell, who played a key role in ensuring that UAP military witnesses spoke to authorised committees. It was also authored by former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, Chris Mellon, and Chief Legal Officer, Hunt Willis. In the report, they states :

UAP whistleblowers and other confidential sources still face risks. It is important to emphasize, however, that we have found no cases where an individual has ever suffered prosecution or criminal penalty for disclosing classified information to Congress. And whistleblowers and other sources have not been sued for civil damages by the executive branch for providing classified information privately to Congress.

Nonetheless, whistleblowers have suffered retaliation for doing so, even though such actions are expressly prohibited against IC whistleblowers who follow the procedures established by the ICWPA. These retaliatory actions can include termination, demotion, blacklisting, transfer, threats, and/or loss of security clearance. The harm from retaliation is not trivial and can represent serious professional and personal problems.

Thus, discreet and confidential disclosures to Congress may prove safer for whistleblowers than disclosures to executive branch inspectors general because Congress may better protect whistleblower identities and other information that could expose whistleblowers to retaliation that, while illegal, may practically be difficult to prevent.

It’s important to talk to an attorney. The UAP Disclosure Fund can arrange for pro bono (free) legal representation and financial support for credible whistleblowers and other sources of confidential information when appropriate. However, the information presented in this Policy Brief is not legal advice and should not be acted upon as though it were.

The UAPDF is a “nonpartisan nonprofit supporting UAP legislation, protecting whistleblowers, and raising public awareness for greater transparency.”

It may come as a surprise to outsiders to read that a former official recommended using unofficial channels to transmit information to the authorities, but this is the sad reality of the current state of affairs. Other whistleblowers, such as Jake Barber and David Grusch, have reported feeling threatened.

This is despite the introduction of a new UAP declassification law in the NDAA and another new law to reinforce whistleblower protection legislation. Hopefully, the UAPDF will be able to use this legal support to counteract Kassándra's curse.