Whistleblower reveals UAP retrieval program: Jake Barber's first public account (NewsNation special, 2025)

0:00 Tonight you've heard the testimony about a secret government program to retrieve and reverse engineer UFOs. Has the government conducted secret UAP crash retrieval programs? Yes or no? Yes. NewsNation was the first to bring you this story. We have spacecraft from another species. We do, yeah. And now, for the first time anywhere, a military veteran comes forward to say he was part of that program with video to prove it. My work has included the recovery of downed UAP of non-human origin. Revealing how he retrieved alien craft. What did you see? I saw an egg. How it changed his life forever. What we call a psionic component to the research and development of the UAP program. And how he plans to do it again for the world to see. The skies are not classified. Your conscience can't be redacted.

1:02 His account, corroborated by his colleagues and his injuries sustained during these operations, confirmed by a Stanford professor. My personal experience is that there's something here. Will the truth set him free or will it get him killed? People have been murdered. That seems to be the case. News Nation presents Hunting UFOs: The Crash Retrieval Whistleblower In October 2024, an unknown man stepped out of the shadows, arriving in our nation's capital to deliver an important message about what the public calls UFOs and the government calls Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena or UAPs. I'm here in DC this week to meet with members of Congress. His name is Jacob Barber and he says that for the past 30 years he's worked in both an

2:04 official and unofficial capacity for the United States government and its partners in the intelligence community. What he knows and what he's here to tell Congress could change the world as we know it. We're in this rare opportunity in human history where it's very clear that we know that there are things flying in the sky that are unexplained and un-understood. And that's another one of the things that I'm uniquely providing information on. So what makes this guy special? Well, to date, everyone who's come forward has either described their own UAP encounter, like this famed 2015 incident recorded by F-16 aviators on the USS Roosevelt. I have experienced advanced UAP first-hand and I'm here to voice the concerns of more than 30 commercial aircrew and military veterans who have confided their similar encounters with me. Others have alleged that there's a secret government UAP program that's been going on for decades.

3:05 People like David Grush and Lou Elizondo. They say they've been told about it. They believe it exists, but they weren't a part of it themselves. We've been recovering spacecraft, alien spacecraft. The United States has been involved in the recovery of objects, vehicles of unknown origin that are neither from our country or any other foreign country that we're aware of. But Mr. Barber is different. He says that for years he was part of that covert program, working with alien spacecraft. These days we call them NHI, non-human intelligence. And this guy is prepared to testify that he was involved directly, first-hand, in the retrieval of these craft. How long have you known this secret about unidentified anomalous phenomena being of non-human origin?

4:06 For more than 10 years. Of course we checked Barber's records and we've confirmed that he was an airman in the U.S. Air Force, working as an aerospace mechanic in the late 90s. But as these documents show, he was also recruited into Air Force Special Operations, known as combat control. He says he ended up working in a non-official capacity for the Department of Defense and the intelligence community. What were you? What was I? Ross, I was a highly talented airplane mechanic who got to deploy on a number of presidential support missions. But Jake was no ordinary mechanic. Being recruited into the Air Force's elite combat control unit meant he had a resume that reads like something out of an action thriller. Helicopter pilot, free-fall parachutist, expert marksman, and the recipient of a NATO

5:06 top-secret security clearance. A legacy of his service in Bosnia, where he won an award for an act of heroism. In addition to reviewing his official documentation, News Nation spoke with three former Special Operations soldiers who corroborate Barber's credentials and claims. I know in Special Operations, you're often in some tough situations. You have to rely on each other. Is Jake Barber a person who you would trust? Oh, yes. He's a person I would and have trusted with my life. Do you think Jake Barber is a patriot? Oh, yeah. Absolutely. There's a thing I know a lot of Special Operators talk about that, you know, there are certain types of men who you would want watching your back in a tight spot. Is he one of those guys? Absolutely. Trustworthiness is one of the top things that we're looking for. And one of his most fervent supporters is Colonel John Blitch, a Renaissance warrior who holds a doctorate in psychology, was a

6:09 Delta Force sniper, and is one of the few men to hold doomsday in his hands, commanding a nuclear weapons battalion. So you believe Jake Barber is telling the truth. Absolutely. There has been a cover-up lasting 80 years. Absolutely. We've recovered craft. So let's roll back. You say you were an enlisted man, and then you ended up working for the intelligence community as a contractor. Tell me that story. How did that happen? Everything changed for me right around 9/11. And I left the Air Force and was sent out to California at that time to begin establishing my cover basis as an independent contractor so that I could serve what was coming down the line next for me. And that is the path which led to the UAP subject. Barber says he was contracted as a helicopter pilot and was part of a team assigned to retrieve crashed aircraft at an

7:09 undisclosed testing facility in the desert. And we're not only talking about conventional airplanes or drones. A lot of the work we did on was on what I call the range where the U.S. government and its private partners used to test all kinds of things. Weapon systems and resilience to weapon systems of certain craft. And so you see a lot of exciting things. So you start seeing at the range. Yes. Interesting objects. Well, yeah, it's always interesting out there. Things come in and out of sight. Things disappear for a moment and reappear. Things seem to move very quickly. Things change color. They change shape. We did recover things that were exotic in nature in the sky. And we know they were classified craft. And we recovered them and took them back to where they go. The majority of what we see and do is explainable and is ordinary and is known by many people and is not classified.

8:13 But there is a certain percentage which is extremely sensitive. And that extremely sensitive bit does include what we know is our own man-made advanced technology. So you know what Lou Elizondo has described as the five observables. So you were seeing objects that complied with those weird observables. Yes. So one of those that would raise your eyebrow is more of the transmedium characteristics. Because things would come from the ground, like from the earth, from a ridge, from a mountain. Or it could pass through. So they'd come out of the ridge. Out of a ridge. Out of a ridge, yeah. Aircraft that can disappear, change color, change shape? How might the U.S. military have developed or required such technology? Jake says he saw for himself close up. In the rare occasion, or let's say the hypothetical occasion, something of a non-human origin or source,

9:16 were to interface with the ground, you would deploy that same team. And that is the segue in how we got involved with this particular subject. Next, Jake Barber's first encounter with non-human intelligence. How close did you get? I got within 150 feet of this object. And later, News Nation has acquired video evidence of Jake's claims. It has to be seen to be believed. We are not alone. There's no doubt Jake Barber is an accomplished helicopter pilot. This is the kind of work Barber says he did after he left the Air Force as a private

10:16 contractor. Working for the defense industry and the U.S. government at a secret location he calls the range. That's where Barber and his team were asked to retrieve downed craft. The likes of which, he says, were not just advanced tech the public has never seen. They were built by non-human intelligence. So tell me about the moment when you realized that you were involved in a retrieval of non-human technology, alien tech. So it became very clear the first time our communication process and procedure was modified. And then just visually looking at the object on the ground, you could tell that it was extraordinary and anomalous. It was not human. How close did you get? Well, I was a helicopter pilot and I operate with a 150 foot to 200 foot long line. So I got within 150 feet of this object.

11:17 What did you see? I saw an egg, a white egg. Was there any visible propulsion system on it? No, not what we would know. There's no engine. There was no thermal signature. I was operating at night when I finally came in to pick it up. So I'm working under night vision goggles at the time. And it was quite clear. I flipped them up, flipped them down and looked at it a couple of different ways. How large was the object? I would say approximately 20 feet, plus or minus a little bit. About the size of a large SUV. Did it have any seams? No. And it was pure white? It was like pearly white, like a metallic pearly white, the best I could assess. How did you know that that egg-shaped object was non-human in origin? Well, visually, after seeing all kinds of things in my past, it was clearly something that was ridiculously looking.

12:17 It's inconsistent with anything I'd ever seen before. I can also tell you that the reaction by my team, we all knew we were dealing with something extraordinary. And at no stage were you ever subsequently told that the craft was of non-human origin? I will tell you that during this process over the last couple of years, it's been confirmed to me by ranking members of the UAP task force that what we were working with that night was in fact an HI and it was not a unique experience. What do you think that object was? I don't know. Again, I'm security and transportation. I moved it, loaded it on a truck and it went to... Where would it go? Where would it be taken? It would be taken to a secure facility. But again, my role stops once I deliver it. Yes, it sounds like the stuff of madness. Tall tales, delusions and anyway, where was the proof for any of this? News Nation has independently obtained previously unseen video

13:18 obtained from a secret UAP craft retrieval program. This extraordinary footage clearly shows an egg-shaped object dangling in a sling below the belly of a helicopter. We're told that the craft is about 20 feet long, the egg suspended in a cradle. And look how close it is! We're told the craft is about 20 feet long, the egg suspended in a cradle. We're told that the craft is about 20 feet long. We're told the craft is about 20 feet long, the egg suspended in a cradle. And look how careful the pilot is as they bring their precious cargo into land. Let's freeze frame here to look at one of the clearest images of a UAP ever taken. This is no blurry light in a distant sky.

14:18 The source of the footage putting themselves at incredible risk to record this UAP retrieval. Look at how perfectly smooth the craft is. No markings at all. And no visible means of propulsion or way to see inside. Watch how it rolls, almost graceful as it hits the ground, despite being wrapped in the ropes and canvas from the cradle as it's dropped for pickup. The UAP's final destination, still unknown. So there was another object. There's two objects that I'm here to talk about. One was the egg. The other is what we called an eight-gon. The eight-gon was essentially a flying disc with what looked like eight delineated sections when looking down. And I can tell you what it looked like from looking down, because that's primarily how I saw it, because I'm a helicopter pilot. We did recoveries with the eight-gons.

15:19 There was more than one that made its way to the ground on this particular operation. Simply seeing a non-human craft up close would be an intense experience in itself. But Barber says as he prepared to transport that so-called eight-gon from the pickup site to the drop site, something even more intense happened to him that would change his life forever. This is one of the most profound experiences I've ever had in my life I'm about to share with you. So bear with me. So as I get closer to this pick site, I start feeling odd. I start feeling extremely emotional. And the closer I get, the more the more the emotion starts to overwhelm me. I feel this intense hybrid of sadness and happiness and beauty and song.

16:20 And it was very disruptive to me because I had a very practical responsibility at the time to operate a helicopter in the mountains at night. And I began wondering what was wrong with me. It was late. And like, am I just stressed? Am I tired? And I don't know. But as I came over this object for the pick, there was this overwhelming sense of emotion. Is it your feeling? Are you suddenly having a mental breakdown on the job? No, I felt like something connected with me. I felt like something had tuned in to me and my soul and was providing me some sense of guidance on what to do and how profound what I was doing was. And it was so overwhelming that I began to cry. And then I'm confused as to why I'm crying at the same time.

17:21 And then I'm, do I abort the mission? Do I? And so I just did my best to focus on my particular cues when doing this type of work. And I got the load hooked up and I began flying away. And once it was just me and that object in between the pick and the drop side, there's about 20 miles in between. I felt like something was inside of me. I felt like I was possessed by the most beautiful spirit I've ever been possessed by. And was it loving? It was loving. But there was a sense of sadness at the same time. I felt like the spirit of God, but not in any masculine sense. And it wasn't like a soul. It was like a frequency that I was connected

18:23 with. And whatever that force was since that night, it has stayed with me. And as crazy as this sounds, it's what's guiding me now. And it's what's providing protection for me. It's changed your life. It's changed my life. Wait a second. Humans bonding psychically and emotionally with non-human intelligence? Yes. Jake Barber says that's exactly what happened to him. And he's not the only one. And he says the government knows all about it. There is a psychic component to the research and development of the UAP program. Do psychics walk among us? Stay with us. Jake Barber says that when he retrieved a so-called 8-gon-shaped UAP, he had an intense

19:24 emotional reaction, which convinced him he'd connected telepathically with a non-human intelligence. You're talking UFOs, flying saucers. And that's that's probably one of the hardest conversations. That object or whatever was controlling that object was also connecting to me through the mind, through my mind. And so how did the object come to land? I think it was invited to land by the psionics team. Jake says his mission that night came from no accidental crash. The UAP was summoned by a separate team, a special team with special abilities. They're called psionics. What is a psionic? A psionic person is someone with a predisposition for extra temporal, you could say, abilities and sensitivities. Extra temporal abilities, also known as psychic powers.

20:26 What did you discover the psionics were being used for in the program? In the program, there was certainly a desire to explore the idea that perhaps UAP could be summoned, could be communicated with, could be controlled and could be persuaded to land all by deploying people with psionic abilities. And did you see that happen? Yes, I did. When a psionic operator engages with technology, how do they do it? Using their mind, something like meditation. There genuinely are people who can actually make a mental, spiritual connection to a technology. It all seems so far-fetched, psychically gifted humans linking with possibly alien ships, summoning them and even piloting them. But it isn't just Jake saying this. Don Paul, another decorated special forces

21:28 operator and colleague of Jake's, says he's also seen what psionics can do. I've had the pleasure of meeting multiple psionic assets. I've seen them function. I know that they're capable of doing what they're doing. You can definitively say that you believe there is a capacity in the human mind to somehow psychically, telepathically connect. Yes, and I don't know if it's a byproduct, if it's something that they were born with. But there is certain people who are quantifiably, verifiably capable of this. It's an established fact that the Pentagon has had an interest in psychic abilities, what it calls remote viewing. For military purposes. The famed project Stargate spent years studying the subject. And despite the CIA's official position that such studies yielded nothing, former Pentagon UAP investigator Lou Elizondo told me last year that psychic abilities are very real and perhaps not very rare.

22:32 So this is an ontological shock, I think, for many people watching this because we're all being told, firstly, there's no such thing as aliens visiting this planet. And secondly, there's no such thing as telepathy or psychic abilities. Yeah, you know, I don't think there is going to be an ontological shock. I think it's going to be an ontological relief because I think everyone deep down knows that there is more to life than what we are being told and experiencing. Like, not only is it not shocking, but it should be welcome. It all seems so innocent, so benign, even sacred. But hold on, Jake says that through his work, he and his team have suffered serious injuries. After this particular mission, me and everyone on my team got extremely sick. How sick. Like, physically ill in the hospital. And one of the world's leading medical experts agrees. My personal experience, both with people and

23:34 the things that I've seen, is that there's something here. Are UAPs bad for your health? Coming up next. What do you think the NHI want? The NHI? I feel the NHI are guiding us. Jake Barber describes his encounters with UAP as transcendent quasi-religious moments. And from what you're saying, that's a beautiful experience. Yeah, it was the most beautiful experience I've had in my life. But he also says these encounters could come with a staggering cost. UAPs may have changed his life for the better. They may also have shortened it. So what happened to you? Oh, we're not quite sure. We were transporting a large sealed container. Jake says nobody on his team was told what

24:34 was in that container. And we transported what we called mystery boxes all the time. I have no idea. It could have been empty. It probably wasn't empty. But we don't know what was inside the boxes. And what were you told if somebody tried to seize that box? What were your orders? We maintained the authority to use lethal force if anyone tried to seize those boxes. So whatever that box was, it was extremely valuable to the U.S. government? That's correct. And after this particular mission, me and everyone on my team got extremely sick, like physically ill in the hospital. Within, you know, weeks after this, I'd lost every hair on my body. And I also lost the skin on my arms. So the skin's actually falling off your body? Yeah, like not just falling off. It was lopping off within a couple of days, like a severe sunburn. I ended up developing a severe heart murmur that I'd never had before. Last year, I introduced Jake to Stanford immunology professor Gary Nolan.

25:35 He's been studying anomalous injuries among U.S. military personnel for years, at the behest of the CIA. Nolan agreed to review decades of Jake's medical records. The report reads like a bit of a horror show, to be quite honest. To me, what the first thing that came to mind was you were exposed to some kind of radiation. And especially as I understand it, a number of his coworkers in the deployments that he was in had similar problems. So you're not dealing with a one-off who went home and somehow came in contact with something in the house. But you have four or five individuals all at once coming down with the same thing within a week or so after deployment. That's more than a coincidence. My fear is that there's something permanently broken that might show up in the form of cancer or God knows what later in life. And we're going to be way behind in trying to figure out how to deal with it.

26:35 Assuming Jake and his team were exposed to radiation emanating from that box, could it have come from one of the many radioactive materials used regularly by the military? Certain munitions, components of nuclear vessels or nuclear weapons themselves? Jake doesn't think so. If the Air Force, let's say, knew that what we were working with that night had any type of radiological signature. There's a whole set of process that we're trained in on how to deal with that from a hazmat perspective and a containment perspective. And the fact that none of that was apparent that night tells me they didn't know what was in the box. And it got turned on or turned off, which leads me to believe in hindsight all these years that it may have been something of non-human origin. Speculation? Absolutely. Wild speculation? Perhaps not. When you consider other documented cases of military personnel who claim they were

27:37 similarly injured by UAP. Take the famous case of Airman John Burrows. The Veterans Administration granted him full medical disability for injuries to his heart and eyes he claims he suffered during the famous 1980 UAP incident in Rendlesham Forest England. But that only happened after Senator John McCain intervened to get his medical records declassified. They were classified. They just weren't withheld. They were classified. Why would you feel that the issue was so important as to not allow for that person's medical records to be released? What are you hiding? The issue came up in last year's congressional UAP hearings. How can the government deny we have recovered craft if they're paying people because they've been injured by recovered craft? Ma'am, that's a great question. That's why I think we're here again, because I've seen the documentation by the U.S. government for several of these individuals who have sustained injuries as a

28:38 result of a UAP incident. What did happen is silence either unethical or an administrative oversight that needs investigation by Congress, because we shouldn't be putting people like this under such circumstances. The good news is that now under Dr Nolan's care, Jake is getting proper evaluation and treatment. The bad news is Jake believes there's another more imminent threat to his health, his former employer. People have been murdered. That seems to be the case. Stay with us. It wasn't just the United States government interested in using Jake's expertise working with UAPs and psionics. His skills were also needed by private companies involved in the top-secret program.

29:38 And his assignments soon took a turn from recovering UAPs to something more sinister. What happened? Well, we were deployed on a particular task to recover what we call HVTs or high-value targets. Those high-value targets were Panasonic Toughbooks. The sensitive material that is on these Panasonic Toughbooks has to do with sensor data. Jake and his team suspect those Panasonic Toughbooks contained data from the top-secret UAP retrieval operations worth millions to the right buyer. Jake says the private company contracting him was determined to recover them. We recovered our first two Toughbooks. They were in the High Sierras. We got back to our base location and then went through them and took photographs, discovered that the hard drives were missing.

30:38 Jake says his team arrived too late. The hard drives containing the data had already been taken. And it became clear to Jake that not all was what it seemed as his team set out to recover the missing data. The next piece of intelligence that came through led us to a lake, a high-altitude lake. And we found the hard drives in a sealed steel container 25 feet underwater. Wow. Yeah. So someone's going through a lot of effort in order to hide these things. Hidden, but by whom? What began as a straightforward recovery mission proved to be anything but simple. And Jake says things soon took a nefarious turn. At any stage did you find yourself under threat? The very next time we went out things got strange for me and my spidey senses, my intuition was on high alert because our intel contact changed. The

31:40 rhythm and style of our intel changed. As we got closer to the day in which we were going to deploy, intelligence kept changing. And so that raised my concern. We ended up going anyway. And when we got there, the HVTs were gone and it was clear that shots had been fired. Shots fired? Whatever was on the computers was a secret so important it was worth fighting for. The situation had changed and soon, Jake says, he realized his team was caught in the middle and their lives were on the line. You're in significant danger. Yeah. And I was concerned that we were being set up, we were being prepared for the one thing that we've always offered employers and that is plausible deniability. And that we were perhaps going to be the

32:41 hidden hand that gets severed. Don Paul, a special forces veteran, was working on Jake's team at the time. Were you involved in any of the retrieval attempts? Yes. Was there a concern that you were being set up? Potentially? Set up is a mild term. The fact that people have lost their lives involved in this type of activity. And the links to which people have gone to suppress politically uncomfortable truths is such that there is risk involved. Do you think that without naming them, the private aerospace company that retained you decided to kill you? Somebody masquerading as a representative of that company surely may have had that intention. Jake was convinced his former employer or someone posing as them was determined to kill him. But who exactly was calling the shots? Jake was determined to find out.

33:42 Who were you working for? It was obvious to us at least who the employer was. But they were now in question, in my mind, as being part of the problem. Jake was on the hunt, using his skills and vast network of contacts to determine just who was behind this shadow war fought over these missing hard drives. And he says the trail led him right to the top. This past spring, Jake and his team were in Washington, D.C., conducting surveillance and eventually confronting one of their prime suspects. So I reached out to the director of security for the particular organization and set up a meeting with them because there was only two truths in my mind. Either they were complicit or they were compromised. What was his reaction? Was he nervous? Oh, he was nervous. And so he told you to forget it? He said, you know, it's in our best interest

34:44 to move on. If he had any knowledge at all, it was clear he was trying to distance himself from it. Jake was no closer to finding out who exactly wanted him dead. But he knew that he was no longer doing the mission he signed up for when he first enlisted, protecting Americans. To make it stop, he would need more than his handpicked team. He would need Congress. He would need funding. He would need to go public. And he would need us at News Nation to reveal our own startling UAP footage. That's next. Jake Barber says it's now time. Time for the public to know. That's why he's doing this interview. But he's doing much more than talking. And what you're trying to do now is replicate in

35:46 the private sphere. What's being suppressed in the public sphere. Yeah. You know, we we're not looking back. We're looking forward. I am absolutely confident that we are capable of generating the type of high quality sensor data and photography and film evidence that everyone is wanting. So who exactly is we? Our organization is called Skywatcher. We have been recruiting guys from within the program and women and are forming a new team in coordination with government agencies. And we also have the funding through venture capital. Can you name those agencies? Not at this time, but I hope to very soon. Jake's Skywatcher team has already deployed on behalf of the US government to investigate last year's drone sightings on the east coast. But before that, they were on the hunt for something even more elusive.

36:51 In August of 2024, Jake and the Skywatcher team conducted their own operation with a psionic acid to see if they could summon a UAP themselves. Look, there's two. Look at this. Look at this. Look right here. Look at this one going down and this one going up. This footage from another Skywatcher operation showing the team's protocols. The team hoped to quietly gather evidence for Skywatcher but instead found themselves in danger once more. Jake says a UAP dogfight erupted in the sky above them. He believes the craft summoned by the team was warring with a rogue UAP piloted by an unknown entity attempting to intercept Skywatcher's operation. Tell me what happened. So we set out to do this operation right away when the psionic asset went into meditation. He is reporting that he is engaged and in fact piloting a craft and is bringing it in. So he's actually telepathically

37:53 controlling alien technology. Yes. As crazy as that sounds, that's exactly what we set out to do, what he reported we would do. And then things got a little weird. Right about, I'd say four or five minutes into the operation, he goes something's going on, something's wrong, get me out of here. And right about that time, our overwatch Fred looked up to the sky and saw a disc, a classic reticular shaped disc. That was Fred Baker, special operations veteran, now part of the Skywatcher team. So he was flying the egg. And then when we had to pull him out of this, that's when the egg dropped. Wow. So at the very moment that he's essentially detaching his mind from the object, you see it fall. Correct. Professor Gary Nolan was there that night too. What I did see was an individual who in

38:56 the midst of attempting to call such an object, it was clear that he was in distress at the moment of the supposed interaction. And at that moment, something is seen. When we reviewed what it was that the person on the roof had seen, both by drawing and by videography, something showed up. Can we see the egg? Yeah. So here's frame one. It passed across our entire 69 degree angle of view in 0.84 seconds on our sensor. It comes into frame here. So that one there does look like just an screen, an upright oval egg. Oval egg. And is that similar to what you've seen in the program? Oh yeah. Mm-hmm. This is exactly the same thing. Aside from releasing data and footage like this to the public, we're told this video was among those sent to the All Domain Anomaly Resolution

39:56 Office, or ARROW, the Pentagon organization responsible for monitoring UAPs. The egg resembles the UAP encountered by US Navy fighters off the east coast of the US in 2015, suggesting a connection between these anomalous objects. But until now, it's never been shown to the public, making Jake's mission even more critical. The Skywatcher team feels it has to push the federal government to act. Witnesses at the congressional UAP hearings have been saying the same thing. The Pentagon, the intelligence community is treating us like children. It's time for us to know the truth about this. I think that we can handle it. Jake Barber has been to Capitol Hill too. News Nation has confirmed that this fall he met with staffers for Florida Senator Marco Rubio, now President-elect Trump's pick for Secretary of State. I feel I was able to fill in gaps that have

40:57 been there for a long time that no other whistleblower has been able to do. A lot of people aren't going to believe this. What do you say to those people? I'm not here to make anyone believe anything. It's exhausting. I'll paraphrase the book of Matthew. You will know us by our fruits. Stay tuned in and watch what our new project is about to do and prepare to be dazzled. you will know us by our new project. We will see you next time. We will see you next time.