A Pentagon whistleblower has claimed the Vatican is aware of the existence of non-human intelligences and helped the US retrieve a downed UFO from Italian dictator Benito Mussolini at the end of the Second World War.

David Grusch, 36, served 14 years in the Air Force and is a decorated Afghanistan combat officer who worked for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO).

His role was to act as the NRO's representative when dealing with the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force. The task force was specifically set up to investigate UFOs.