David Grusch's DOPSR Cleared Statement and IG Complaint

[meta_gr8ful]

So from the cited "Debrief" article, Grusch was the COO of the Sol Foundation from May 23 to NLT Sept 23 (date of "Debrief" article), during which at some point his title was changed to "Senior Founding Advisor." If you look at their website now, Grusch is not listed among the Foundation's "people," either as part of leadership or as an advisor.
https://thesolfoundation.org/people/

We don't know exactly when his Foundation title/role was changed, but corresponds roughly to around the time of Ken Klippenstein's 9 Aug 23 "Intercept" article (see below) detailing Grusch's history of substance abuse and mental illness/commitment. Did the Foundation decide Grusch was damaged goods and to incrementally divest themselves of him after that story broke? If that's the case, sounds like they didn't know about his troubled personal life/mental health issues before naming him COO. Poor/no vetting of him by Sol?
https://theintercept.com/2023/08/09/ufo-david-grusch-clearance/

Which brings us back to Grusch’s private NYC Jan 24 meeting with "Wall Street bigwigs." (see post #577 above.) Was he looking for investors? If so, in what? Probably not Sol, since by then he was either no longer part of the Foundation, or at least on his way out.

If you look at who was involved with this private NYC meeting (Coinbase) and also look at this SALT Conference (which caters to "alternative" investments) and know a little bit about the investing community, it's pretty clear that these SALT-adjacent people are targeting "new money" rich folks, namely the Crypto Bro's. New money like this is ripe to be fleeced by "alternative" investment strategies for obvious reasons.

 

[meta_gr8ful]

Actually John, I think it can be read both ways. He was part of the NRO (National Reconnaissance Organization) which I think is where most of the US satellite intelligence happens and he claimed to be the NRO representative to the UAPTF where he would have run into the likes of Stratton and Taylor.

IF the US had a super-secret UAP tracking program, one would think the NRO would be a natural place for it. But if that's the case and that's what Grusch is talking about, it seems problematic. At the very least he's telling these people the US government does in fact have a successful super-secret UAP tracking program. And it's not that secret anymore. He can tell these folks about it, but not AARO?

Or, he's saying he is currently part of a super-secret private program that can track UAPs. That might apply to the notion of various "entrepreneurs" being at this closed door meeting. Maybe it was the opening pitch for investors in a UAP tracking program?

A possible third option, is that he Stratton, Taylor and others at the UAPTF fooled around with some satellite data he had access to and convinced themselves they were tracking UAPs. A super-secret program of their own making that piggy backed off some real ones AATIP style.

His continuing concern that AARO did not have the proper clearance to hear what he had to say can be read as a big insult, to my mind. I'm reading it as a polite version or "Hey Kirkpatrick, I have much higher clearance than you and you're not cleared to know what I know, you're beneath me. I only speak to higher ups, not your AARO dog and pony show."



Not unlikely. Grusch came along as a decorated vet and highly credible intel officer saying all the things Nolan has believed for years. I'm speculating a bit here, but there is a likely connection between Grusch, the UAPTF folks, the SWR crowd and Nolan. And Nolan is no stranger to press and hype. So when he was likely introduced to Grusch via the various connections, he just ran with it.



I thought it was based in California. Nolan is at Stanford in the Bay Area, so I figured that's where SOL was based, though companies and organizations are often incorporated in certain states, like Nevada, for tax reasons even if they operate somewhere else.

Take a look at my post above in response to Harabeck.

The CEO of the private contract staffing company that Grusch worked as a "Corproate Security Officer" for the 5 years immediately preceding his involvement with the UAP Task Force and joining the NGA at a greatly inflated pay-grade is directly involved in the development of exactly the kind of sensors that would be used to track UAP.

Possibly a coincidence. Also possible Grusch saw something while at Blue Sky he misinterpreted as being UAP-related SAP that didn't have Congressional oversight. Also possible though less likely that perhaps Grusch is helping to get attention to a project that would financially benefit his former employer.

All of this should be investigated because how Grusch came to be involved with Stratton, the NGA, the UAP Task Force, etc all looks very fishy.

 

[Ben Harris]

He does not want to find truth or anything. For reasons I am not going to write up, but obviously he does not want this train to stop.

There will be the inevitable book deal.

 

[Duke]

Interestingly, if you look at the private military/intelligence staffing company Grusch worked at for the 5 years just before joining the NGA and UAP Task Force (allegedly), the CEO of the company, Blue Sky Innovators, describes his own work on his LinkedIn profile as follows:

"Tim Tkacz is a Science and Engineering Technical Advisor (SETA) with Blue Sky Innovators supporting several programs at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) including Rapid Attack Detection, Isolation and Characterization Systems (RADICS), Cyber Fault-tolerant Attack Recovery (CFAR), Communications in Contested Environments (C2E), and several classified cyber efforts. Previous programs supported include ADAPTable Sensor System (ADAPT), Integrated Sensor is Structure (ISIS), Flow based Information Theory Tracking (FITT), and Large Area Coverage Search-while-Track and Engage (LACOSTE). His interests are focused on warfare technologies critical to the DoD including cyber physical systems, tactical airborne communications, and unmanned systems.

Prior to working at DARPA, Tim was a Program Manager supporting several Navy programs including the Littoral Surveillance Radar System (LSRS), the Advanced Sensor Technology (AST) Program and several others. His early work focused on the development and demonstration of advanced capabilities for ship, aircraft and sensor systems."

Somewhat odd that the CEO is clearly involved in developing exactly the kind of sensors that would be used to detect UAPs.

Given Grusch's role as "Corporate Security Officer" at Blue Sky at the time he was a part-time Reservist who somehow managed to get on Jay Stratton's radar and asked to join the UAP Task Force in 2019, one might question how Stratton even knew who Grusch was.

One possible hypothesis to investigate...

Perhaps Grusch processed paperwork for Blue Sky contractors (including their CEO) that he believed were UAP-related and/or were not programs subject to Congressional oversight. He gets tipsy at a UFO conference and spins up stories about having insider knowledge about UAP SAP programs. Stratton and others in the AAWSAP crew get him a high-paying gig with the NGA to "investigate" these and other programs.

It's a hypothesis, of course, but Grusch was a 0-4 at the time he joined NGA as a GS-15. An 0-4 should be at a GS-12 or GS-13 pay grade. Grusch would have required someone sponsoring him to receive this massive (65% by my research) bump in pay. And this would most definitely create a papertrail that could be FOIA'd.

You're not going to find a smoking gun with a FOIA request here since hiring, promotion, and personnel issues are protected by privacy regulations/laws. Most you'd probably get is a copy of the job solicitation that announced the opening and the position description (PD.) You'd not get anything on anyone who interviewed for, but did not get, the job, for example.

Nothing unusual about Grusch getting the GS-15 job despite having been an 0-4 in the Reserve, especially in DC where there is blatant grade/rank inflation to cover the high cost of living. Guys like that often have sponsors, usually someone they worked for/with in the past. I've seen PDs written around a sponsoree's work history to make sure they get the job. Those who don't get the job can file a grievance, but it's seldom done. Even if the grievance is upheld, it only results in the interview process being redone, not giving the griever the job.

High grade slots like that often subject to what was called a "position (or 'desk') audit" both before and after the job is filled to ensure the process was completed per regs, the position was filled at a proper grade level, and the person filling the slot is indeed qualified. I never knew of such an audit overturning a hiring/promotion.

Not sure where you're going with this, but if your point is Grusch got his position because he had a number of pro-UFO types within DoD in his corner, I never doubted it. Whether laws/regs were broken by Grusch and/or his sponsors in the process is rather doubtful. A very different question than whether he was properly vetted, however.

 

[meta_gr8ful]

You're not going to find a smoking gun with a FOIA request here since hiring, promotion, and personnel issues are protected by privacy regulations/laws. Most you'd probably get is a copy of the job solicitation that announced the opening and the position description (PD.) You'd not get anything on anyone who interviewed for, but did not get, the job, for example.

Nothing unusual about Grusch getting the GS-15 job despite having been an 0-4 in the Reserve, especially in DC where there is blatant grade/rank inflation to cover the high cost of living. Guys like that often have sponsors, usually someone they worked for/with in the past. I've seen PDs written around a sponsoree's work history to make sure they get the job. Those who don't get the job can file a grievance, but it's seldom done. Even if the grievance is upheld, it only results in the interview process being redone, not giving the griever the job.

High grade slots like that often subject to what was called a "position (or 'desk') audit" both before and after the job is filled to ensure the process was completed per regs, the position was filled at a proper grade level, and the person filling the slot is indeed qualified. I never knew of such an audit overturning a hiring/promotion.

Not sure where you're going with this, but if your point is Grusch got his position because he had a number of pro-UFO types within DoD in his corner, I never doubted it. Whether laws/regs were broken by Grusch and/or his sponsors in the process is rather doubtful. A very different question than whether he was properly vetted, however.

FYI, his resume says his NGA position was in Colorado Springs rather than DC if that matters.

Where I was going with it is just that the pay upgrade would require paperwork which I was hoping would be something that could be FOIA'd. I'd like to see who sponsored him for this position and what justification was given. Even an actual job description would be more than we have currently. I'm not implying that laws were broken.

But it sounds like you are saying none of this will be available via FOIA. Bummer. I'd still like to see the job description he was actually hired for though.

It's fairly clear his role did not come with the Title 10 and Title 50 investigative authorities he has frequently implied he had which also explains why he was allegedly denied access to the SAP/CAP programs he was asking around about. Grusch seems to believe his role with the UAP Task Force gave him need-to-know authorities, so it would be interesting to understand exactly why he believed this.

I suspect the Grusch access denial was similar to AAWSAP trying to get designated a SAP in that by asking they called attention to themselves, got investigated, and then shut down. Same with Grusch. He's asking about programs he has no legitimate reason to be asking about, gets investigated, they find out he has not properly disclosed past mental health issues or they were missed, and his security clearances get temporarily suspended while they figure out what's going on.

It's bad enough that the intelligence community seems to have high ranking members who believe in unverified nonsense, but they are clearly also placing more of their believers on the inside. And many of these people are very likely leaking classified material, not to mention sending Congress on wild goose chases. This really needs to be exposed and reported on by AARO given that they have already concluded this conspiracy exists.

 

[meta_gr8ful]

You're not going to find a smoking gun with a FOIA request here since hiring, promotion, and personnel issues are protected by privacy regulations/laws. Most you'd probably get is a copy of the job solicitation that announced the opening and the position description (PD.) You'd not get anything on anyone who interviewed for, but did not get, the job, for example.

Nothing unusual about Grusch getting the GS-15 job despite having been an 0-4 in the Reserve, especially in DC where there is blatant grade/rank inflation to cover the high cost of living. Guys like that often have sponsors, usually someone they worked for/with in the past. I've seen PDs written around a sponsoree's work history to make sure they get the job. Those who don't get the job can file a grievance, but it's seldom done. Even if the grievance is upheld, it only results in the interview process being redone, not giving the griever the job.

High grade slots like that often subject to what was called a "position (or 'desk') audit" both before and after the job is filled to ensure the process was completed per regs, the position was filled at a proper grade level, and the person filling the slot is indeed qualified. I never knew of such an audit overturning a hiring/promotion.

Not sure where you're going with this, but if your point is Grusch got his position because he had a number of pro-UFO types within DoD in his corner, I never doubted it. Whether laws/regs were broken by Grusch and/or his sponsors in the process is rather doubtful. A very different question than whether he was properly vetted, however.

One more question... is there a way to find out if a Reservist was full-time on an assignment or in what capacity he was serving?

I ask because Grusch and others have presented his work at NRO as key, yet he was a Reservist while there. Those dates also fully overlap with his other job at Blue Sky Innovators where he was "Chief Security Officer".

In other Reserve duties, Grusch states in his resume that he was an "Augmentee". This is noticeably missing from his NRO assignment. Yet I find it difficult to believe that he would have been active during these years given the wind-downs in Afghanistan and Iraq.

People embellish resumes, and I have no doubt Grusch has done so as well. So, I'm curious if this is verifiable or if this runs into the same personnel issues you already mentioned. I suspect so, but curious.

Incidentally, my main issue here is that we are a year on from when Grusch first went public. There is a long history of these kinds of people embellishing their work. It took years to find out Elizondo had greatly embellished his work. Yet, as far as I can tell, no journalists have bothered to actually look into his background, and he has made his background central to his credibility.

 

[Duke]

FYI, his resume says his NGA position was in Colorado Springs rather than DC if that matters.

Where I was going with it is just that the pay upgrade would require paperwork which I was hoping would be something that could be FOIA'd. I'd like to see who sponsored him for this position and what justification was given. Even an actual job description would be more than we have currently. I'm not implying that laws were broken.

But it sounds like you are saying none of this will be available via FOIA. Bummer. I'd still like to see the job description he was actually hired for though.

It's fairly clear his role did not come with the Title 10 and Title 50 investigative authorities he has frequently implied he had which also explains why he was allegedly denied access to the SAP/CAP programs he was asking around about. Grusch seems to believe his role with the UAP Task Force gave him need-to-know authorities, so it would be interesting to understand exactly why he believed this.

I suspect the Grusch access denial was similar to AAWSAP trying to get designated a SAP in that by asking they called attention to themselves, got investigated, and then shut down. Same with Grusch. He's asking about programs he has no legitimate reason to be asking about, gets investigated, they find out he has not properly disclosed past mental health issues or they were missed, and his security clearances get temporarily suspended while they figure out what's going on.

It's bad enough that the intelligence community seems to have high ranking members who believe in unverified nonsense, but they are clearly also placing more of their believers on the inside. And many of these people are very likely leaking classified material, not to mention sending Congress on wild goose chases. This really needs to be exposed and reported on by AARO given that they have already concluded this conspiracy exists.

Assuming the resume posted in #637 above is accurate, looks like you have all the info required (agency, dates of employment, physical location, job title) to request his PD and the job solicitation for the slot through FOIA. Here's the FOIA request pages from the NGA website.

https://www.nga.mil/resources/FOIA_Information.html

 

[Duke]

One more question... is there a way to find out if a Reservist was full-time on an assignment or in what capacity he was serving?

I ask because Grusch and others have presented his work at NRO as key, yet he was a Reservist while there. Those dates also fully overlap with his other job at Blue Sky Innovators where he was "Chief Security Officer".

In other Reserve duties, Grusch states in his resume that he was an "Augmentee". This is noticeably missing from his NRO assignment. Yet I find it difficult to believe that he would have been active during these years given the wind-downs in Afghanistan and Iraq.

People embellish resumes, and I have no doubt Grusch has done so as well. So, I'm curious if this is verifiable or if this runs into the same personnel issues you already mentioned. I suspect so, but curious.

Incidentally, my main issue here is that we are a year on from when Grusch first went public. There is a long history of these kinds of people embellishing their work. It took years to find out Elizondo had greatly embellished his work. Yet, as far as I can tell, no journalists have bothered to actually look into his background, and he has made his background central to his credibility.

There are full-time Reservists, and although I both worked with and had full and part time Reservists work for me, I know very little about their personnel system. Every so often, we'd get a list of Reservists looking for assignments. (This was looked upon as free help since they were not paid out of our budget.) As I recall, a brief resume was included for each individual, but no personal information. If we saw someone who were thought could be helpful, we'd put in for them. Sometimes we got them, other times we didn't. At the end of their assignment we had to fill out paperwork explaining what they did and give what amounted to an appraisal. Where and to whom it went I don't remember.

If you are contemplating doing FOIA requests relative to Grusch’s Reservist assignments, the best place to start might be Reserve Command HQ in GA. I never worked with anyone there, so I have input on dealing with them.

https://www.afrc.af.mil/About-Us/Fa...56002/headquarters-air-force-reserve-command/

 

[meta_gr8ful]

There are full-time Reservists, and although I both worked with and had full and part time Reservists work for me, I know very little about their personnel system. Every so often, we'd get a list of Reservists looking for assignments. (This was looked upon as free help since they were not paid out of our budget.) As I recall, a brief resume was included for each individual, but no personal information. If we saw someone who were thought could be helpful, we'd put in for them. Sometimes we got them, other times we didn't. At the end of their assignment we had to fill out paperwork explaining what they did and give what amounted to an appraisal. Where and to whom it went I don't remember.

If you are contemplating doing FOIA requests relative to Grusch’s Reservist assignments, the best place to start might be Reserve Command HQ in GA. I never worked with anyone there, so I have input on dealing with them.

https://www.afrc.af.mil/About-Us/Fa...56002/headquarters-air-force-reserve-command/

Thanks!