Explore the CIA’s ‘Entire Collection’ of UFO Documents Online
Article by Isis Davis-Marks January 15, 2021 (smithsonianmag.com)
Tag: Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program
NASA, Harvard, and the Pentagon Are All Taking UFOs Seriously Now
by Alex Hollings December 12, 2018 (thenewsrep.com)
• The idea of alien life is continuing to gain acceptance among the world’s preeminent scientists and experts.
• NASA – Silvano Colombano, a researcher at NASA’s Ames Research Center, made international headlines with his assertion that our planet may have been visited by extraterrestrial life, just not in a form we readily comprehend. Colombano later explained that the intent of his analysis was to get people to take the concept of aliens visiting earth a bit more seriously than our culture permits. “My perspective was simply that reports of unidentified aerial phenomena should be the object of serious study,” he said.
• The Pentagon – A year ago, the New York Times broke the story that the Pentagon earmarking some $22 million for the Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program, which was devoted specifically to investigating UFO sightings made by U.S. military personnel. Among the sightings the Pentagon had investigated was the now infamous “Nimitz incident,” which saw U.S. Navy F/A-18 Super Hornets scrambled on multiple occasions to intercept UFOs in the airspace around the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier strike group.
• Harvard – This has also been a time of impressive scientific discoveries pertaining to exoplanets, some that Harvard scientists believe could potentially harbor life with technology so advanced, we humans struggle to comprehend what it could even be. A series of repeating Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) that have been recorded from a specific distant galaxy has led to a debate between scientists who simply can’t come up with a plausible explanation for the immense amount of energy being released with each burst.
• A more recent Harvard paper contends that a cigar-shaped object called ‘Oumuamua that entered into our solar system from deep space last year may have actually been artificial. “‘Oumuamua may be a fully operational probe sent intentionally to Earth vicinity by an alien civilization,” a Harvard paper asserted, citing the celestial body’s apparent acceleration as it departed our solar system as evidence. It propelled itself forward more so than gravitational assistance and the release of gasses or water vapor would allow.
This past Monday, a paper written by Silvano Colombano, a researcher at NASA’s Ames Research Center, made international headlines thanks to the paper’s assertion that our planet may have been visited by extraterrestrial life. The ensuing media frenzy, Colombano admits, lost sight of his actual points in favor of exaggerated headlines and click-bait assertions… but the deeper premise remains: the idea of alien life is continuing to gain acceptance among the world’s preeminent scientists and experts.
The paper asserts that alien life may not come in forms we readily comprehend — in fact — it almost certainly would need to be vastly different from life we’ve seen thus far in order to survive the rigors of extended space travel. In keeping with that assertion about the nature of alien life, Colombano extended his line of thinking to the technology they may need to employ in order to traverse deep space.
“Considering further that technological development in our civilization started only about 10K years ago and has seen the rise of scientific methodologies only in the past 500 years, we can surmise that we might have a real problem in predicting technological evolution even for the next thousand years, let alone 6 Million times that amount,” Colombano wrote about the type of technology an alien civilization may utilize.
Since his paper made the global rounds, he has attempted to set the record straight about his analysis; explaining that his real intent was to get people to take the concept of aliens visiting earth a bit more seriously than culture permits at present.
“My perspective was simply that reports of unidentified aerial phenomena should be the object of serious study, even if the chance of identification of some alien technology is very small,” he explained.
Within the pockets of the internet devoted to UFO’s, alien life, and the government conspiracies that always seem to accompany them, none of Colombano’s assertions were all that new or original. The ideas that alien life may not be carbon based, would need to possess technology too great for us to imagine, and could be visiting us here on planet earth, are all old tropes for their community. To be honest, even having that signal boosted by a prominent NASA researcher and professor may not have been enough to really ruffle many feathers, but it’s the timing of Colombano’s work that’s helped garner attention.
His paper, titled, “New Assumptions to Guide SETI Research,” came after a series of notable stories once again catapulted UFOs, or UAPs, as they’re now frequently called (short for Unexplained Aerial Phenomena), back into the cultural lexicon. The first was the New York Times breaking a story about the Pentagon earmarking some $22 million for the Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program, which was devoted specifically to investigating UFO sightings made by U.S. military personnel. Among the sightings the Pentagon had investigated was the now infamous “Nimitz incident,” which saw U.S. Navy F/A-18 Super Hornets scrambled on multiple occasions to intercept UFOs in the airspace around the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier strike group.
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From the X-Files – Is the Pentagon Hiding UFOs in a Las Vegas Hangar?
September 9, 2018 (dailygalaxy.com)
• “Disclosure is not an event, it’s a process,” said Luis Elizondo, former head of the Pentagon’s Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program (AATIP). “My personal belief is that there is very compelling evidence that we may not be alone.”
• Elizondo left the Pentagon program in October of last year, saying that the government was not taking UFO sightings by the military seriously enough. The Pentagon admitted the existence of AATIP, but claimed it was discontinued in 2012. But in an interview with The (UK’s) Sunday Times, Elizondo reports that the program was never wound up and continued to monitor UFO sightings until as recently as last October when he quit.
• On the northern edge of the Las Vegas sprawl where city meets desert is the headquarters of Bigelow Aerospace, a company that plans to launch and sell its own space stations and build a space hotel and a lunar base. Armed sentries guard the building which may hold exotic “metamaterials” – synthetic materials with composite structures that exhibit properties not found naturally materials – of a crashed UFO spacecraft, according to Elizondo. (see image below) From 2007 to 2011, Bigelow Aerospace, a company founded by Robert Bigelow, 73, an entrepreneur and self-avowed ufologist, was paid $22 million by the Department of Defense.
• Former Nevada Senator, Harry Reid, was the point man in funding the Pentagon program and Bigelow Aerospace. Reid said, “I had talked to (astronaut) John Glenn a number of years before. [Glenn] thought that the federal government should be looking seriously into UFOs, and should be talking to military service members, particularly pilots, who had reported seeing aircraft they could not identify or explain.”
• When the existence of the Pentagon UFO program was released late last year, the secret was out. Most questions, such as where the money went, and what Bigelow is closely guarding in Las Vegas, have remained unanswered. The conspiracy website, Abovetopsecret.com, reported that Bigelow approached Mufon in 2008 with a business proposal to buy its database of UFO sightings and archive of evidence, including quite possibly alien artifacts, for $672,000. By November 2009, $334,000 of it had been paid.
• “Captured alloys and material from UFOs — that has to be alien, right?” says John Greenewald of the Black Vault website. “This rivals the Roswell debris going to Hangar 18.”
• “Internationally, we are the most backward country in the world on this issue,” says Bigelow. “Our scientists are scared of being ostracized, and our media is scared of the stigma. China and Russia are much more open and work on this with huge organizations within their countries. Smaller countries like Belgium, France, England and South American countries like Chile are more open, too. They are proactive and willing to discuss this topic, rather than being held back by a juvenile taboo.”
“Disclosure has already occurred. Disclosure is not an event, it’s a process,” said Luis Elizondo, former head of a hitherto unknown government operation called the Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program (AATIP). “My personal belief is that there is very compelling evidence that we may not be alone.”
On the northern edge of the Las Vegas sprawl where city meets desert, a vast building resembling a giant hangar, the headquarters of Bigelow Aerospace, a company that plans to launch and sell its own space stations and, more ambitiously, build a space hotel and a lunar base, occupies a 50-acre city block . This is the headquarters of Bigelow Aerospace, a company that plans to launch and sell its own space stations and, more ambitiously, build a space hotel and a lunar base. Today, the hangar doors are closed and tumbleweed now blows across the car parks.
The perimeter is secured with razor wire and concrete barriers, and the only staff visible from outside are armed guards, hiding inside what’s speculated to be salvage of a crashed extraterrestrial object –commonly known as a UFO.
Residents of the neat residential streets say security was tightened at Bigelow Aerospace late last year when it was revealed by the New York Times and Washington post that the company was paid by the Pentagon to store parts recovered from crashed “unidentified aerial phenomena” — military-speak for UFOs — exotic materials believed to be alloys that defied scientific analysis and physically affected those who came into contact with them.
Not since 1947, when the US army said it had found a crashed UFO near Roswell, New Mexico, but in fact proved to be a weather balloon had the government come so close to admitting we are not alone in the vast reaches of the Milky Way.
But to date, there has been no retraction of the latest story of Pentagon UFO intrigue. Questioned about the events, the Pentagon has maintained an information blackout, as has Bigelow Aerospace. With no new leads, websites normally regarded as outlets for conspiracy theorists have turned up intriguing new evidence and stolen a march on America’s mainstream media.
The strange story of the salvaged UFOs began with the abrupt resignation last autumn of a senior Pentagon official, reports Nick Rufford for The Times of London. Luis Elizondo was the head of a hitherto unknown government operation called the Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program (AATIP), run by a team of 12, based on the fifth floor of the Pentagon called C-ring.
In a parting letter to Jim Mattis, the US defence secretary, Elizondo said the government was not taking sightings of unidentified craft by American warplanes seriously enough.
“Why aren’t we spending more time and effort on this issue? There remains a vital need to ascertain capability and intent of these phenomena for the benefit of the armed forces and the nation.” Elizondo’s leaked letter blew the lid off what was, in effect, a clandestine government UFO-watching unit, infuriating the Pentagon’s top brass. In a terse statement, the Pentagon admitted the existence of AATIP without mentioning the UFO connection: the program, it said, was set up “to assess far-term, foreign advanced aerospace threats to the United States”, it said, and was discontinued in 2012 to make way for “other higher priority issues”.
Since then, Elizondo, whose impeccable credentials were confirmed by The Washington Post, has remained largely silent on the subject. But in an interview with The Sunday Times, he reports that the program was never wound up and continued to monitor UFO sightings until as recently as last October, when he quit. In the fascinating video below emphatically states that “disclosure has already occurred. Disclosure is not an event, it’s a process.
5:18 minute video excerpt of Robert Bigelow interview on “60 Minutes”
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These Are Real Pentagon Reports On Warp Drive, Extra Dimensions, Anti-Gravity, And More
by Tyler Rogoway and Joseph Trevithick May 11, 2018 (thedrive.com)
• A pair of official Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) documents have come to light showing the military’s keen interest in subjects such as warp drive propulsion, extra-dimensional manipulation, dark energy, and other highly exotic forms of space travel. The documents were first posted by Corey Goode late in 2017, and are now again revealed by George Knapp’s I-Team, part of Las Vegas CBS affiliate Channel 8 News, which has been investigating the government’s supposed connection with ‘UFOs’ for decades.
• Knapp has been digging deeper into Las Vegas-based Bigelow Aerospace, founded by UFO enthusiast Robert Bigelow, which was awarded the contract for the Pentagon’s Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program (AAITP), a $22 million classified program supporting a team of nearly 50 scientists, analysts, and investigators that investigated UFO sightings between 2008 and 2012.
• A March 29, 2010 study dealt with “advanced space propulsion” for faster-than-light travel, “space-time altered regions”, and “gravity/antigravity” forces. “This paper has considered the possibility—even likelihood—that future developments with regard to advanced aerospace technologies will trend in the direction of manipulating the underlying space-time structure of the vacuum of space itself by processes that can be called vacuum engineering or metric engineering.” This study was authored at the time by Austin-based EarthTech International, Inc. CEO Harold Puthoff, Ph.D for the Pentagon program.
• An April 2, 2010 study covered similar ground, but also included discussions about “dark energy” and “extra dimensions.” This document states, “The idea that a sufficiently advanced technology may interact with, and acquire direct control over, the higher dimensions is a tantalizing possibility, and one that is most certainly worthy of deeper investigation.” Eric Davis, Ph.D., working with a prior Bigelow company National Institute for Discovery Science, authored this study along with independent consultant Richard Obousy.
• “These studies are so loaded with information,” said Senator Reid who sponsored the Pentagon program. “One thing we learned is over the decades a lot of things happen there’s no explanation for. Well there are now.” However, neither report suggests that the technology they described was anywhere near practical or that any foreign government was close to achieving a relevant breakthrough.
• Harold Puthoff is now VP of Science and Technology at To The Stars Academy of Arts and Science, a non-profit organization in Encinitas, California that reportedly is, at least in part, continuing the AAITP’s work independently. Luis Elizondo, who was the head of the AAITP Pentagon program, is now the To The Stars Academy’s Director of Global Security and Special Programs.
• A pair of DoD military videos showing ‘tic-tac’ shaped UFOs recorded by Navy F/A-18 fighter jets had been floating around in in the Pentagon’s AAITP (previously known as Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications) and in defense circles for over a decade. To The Stars Academy was instrumental in publically releasing these UFO videos in December 2017. (See original NY Times article) Open disclosure about the origin of the video on an official level, as well as subsequent interviews with the pilot that took it, elevated it to mainstream news.
• Bigelow’s special unit’s investigation concludes that the Pentagon’s AAITProgram went far beyond documenting and evaluating reports of UFOs. It took a holistic approach, evaluating the impact on human biology in association with UFO sightings, and delved into other paranormal domains. It also claims to be storing mysterious material from downed UFOs. The depth of the government’s investigation of UFO technology leaves us wondering what hasn’t been revealed, whether out of fear of embarrassment or risk to national security.
The modern understanding of the Pentagon’s relationship with unexplained flying phenomena has become remarkably more pointed in the last six months since the Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program was uncovered. Its disclosure came in between our own exclusive reporting on two very strange and well-documented encounters with strange aircraft operating in U.S. airspace. Now, new documents are coming to light that show the Department of Defense’s own spy agency was also interested in subjects that border on science fiction and the even the paranormal, including warp drive, extra-dimensional manipulation, dark energy, and other highly exotic forms of space travel.
The documents were first discovered by George Knapp’s I-Team, part of Las Vegas CBS affiliate Channel 8 News, which has been investigating the government’s supposed connection with ‘UFOs’ for decades.
Author’s note 5/14/18: It has come to our attention that the documents were in fact first posted by Corey Goode late last year shortly after the Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program was first disclosed.
Recently Knapp has been digging deeper into Bigelow Aerospace—which is located in Las Vegas—and its starring role in the previously classified program. It is no secret that Robert Bigelow, a former real estate developer turned inflatable space station entrepreneur, has been highly interested in UFOs, but the depth of the company’s official relationship with the Defense Department regarding the topic was something entirely unheard of before the disclosure of the Defense Intelligence Agency’s (DIA) Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program occurred in December 2017.
Abbreviated AATIP, that effort, and its funding, sprang from Nevada Senator Harry Reid’s interest in the topic, along with that of a Defense Intelligence Agency official. The program, which eventually cost $22 million and ran roughly between 2008 and 2012, began after Bigelow won the contract, apparently to investigate UFO sightings, along with pretty much everything else that goes along with the topic for better or worse, on behalf of the military.
A team of nearly 50 scientists, analysts, and investigators were assembled to work on the program, which was originally and very cryptically dubbed the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications (AAWSA) Program before gaining its more recent moniker. The contract between the DIA and Bigelow made sure not to spell out its focus, instead referring to exotic technologies without mentioning UFOs.
The I-Team writes: “The agreement with DIA did not mention UFOs at all. It used more generic terms such as future threats and breakthrough technologies, and specified 12 focal points including, lift, propulsion, materials, versions of stealth as well as human interface and human effects.”
It was under the AAWSA name that the organization funded at least two studies into advanced propulsion and space technology research that border on the fantastical. The first of these studies, dated March 29, 2010, deals with “advanced space propulsion” for faster-than-light travel, discussing theoretical physical constructs such as “spacetime-altered regions” and “gravity/antigravity” forces. The second study, which the AAWSA program published on April 2, 2010, covers similar ground, but also includes discussions about “dark energy” and “extra dimensions.”
The AAWSA experts did this work under the auspices of DIA’s Defense Warning Office, which makes good sense, at least conceptually. This organization first came into being in 2002 and is “charged with identifying sources of increasing threats to U.S. interests in critical regions,” according to an official briefing.
“This office will also identify opportunities to affect adversary behavior prior to and in the early stages of a crisis.” that presentation notes. In 2003, these tasks expanded to also include work “to provide the earliest possible warning of technological developments that could undermine U.S. military preeminence.”
UFO sightings are often indications of advanced and secret military aircraft research and development projects. Having a team of experts try and determine if any of the reports translated to real programs, especially those that potential opponents such as Russia or China might have been working on, would be well with DIA’s mandate for the office.
That AAWSA team would have delved into known developments in associated fields would also make sense in this context. If America’s adversaries were rapidly advancing toward practical warp drives and other advanced propulsion and space research, DIA would definitely want to know in order to help inform U.S. policy responses.
“These studies are so loaded with information,” Senator Reid reportedly said at one point, according to Las Vegas’ Channel 8. “One thing we learned is over the decades a lot of things happen there’s no explanation for. Well there are now.”
Here is a 2:15-minute video clip from a May 28, 2017 60 Minutes segment with
Robert Bigelow that was filmed before revelations of his involvement
with the Pentagon’s Aviation Threat Identification program
44-second video of the “tic tac” UFO off of San Diego in 2004
36-second video of UFO skimming the ocean off of the East Coast USA
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Existence of UFOs ‘Proven Beyond Reasonable Doubt’, Says Former Chief of Real-Life ‘X-Files’ Department at the Pentagon
December 24, 2017 (dailymail.co.uk)
• The former head of a Pentagon UFO Program unveiled on December 16th, Luis Elizondo, said that UFOs visiting Earth has been ‘proved beyond reasonable doubt’. Elizondo told The Independent: “I think it’s pretty clear this is not us, and it’s not anyone else. So one has to ask the question where they’re from.”
• In addition to interviewing pilots and military personnel who reported experiences with UFOs ‘acting in a way that seemed to be beyond human beings’ current capabilities’, the program also investigated the science of ‘wormholes’ and ‘warp drives’. Elizondo further stated that UFOs have often been found near nuclear and power plants.
• Elizondo said he resigned from the Pentagon program in October because he believes the government needs to provide more funding and support to UFO research. He immediately joined up with Tom DeLonge to form ‘To The Stars Academy’.
• The DoD UFO program was created by then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada), with the support of the late Senators Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) and Republican Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), based upon their fears that the unexplained phenomena could be advanced weaponry or technology from foreign states such as Russia or China which could threaten the US, and therefore posed a national security issue.
• After seven years, and ‘very little to show for it’, Reid decided it wasn’t worth continuing. The program ostensibly ceased in 2012, but according to its backers the program remains in existence and officials continue to investigate UFO episodes brought to their attention by service members.
• Speaking to CNN, Elizondo said: ‘My personal belief is that there is very compelling evidence that we may not be alone. (see video below)
The former head of a Pentagon program to understand the mysteries of UFOs has said that such objects visiting Earth had been ‘proved beyond reasonable doubt’.
Speaking to The Telegraph, former Intelligence Officer Luis Elizondo said that unidentified flying objects of advanced capabilities have been seen ‘lots’ over the years.
Elizondo, who presided over the Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program until two months ago, told The Independent: ‘I think it’s pretty clear this is not us, and it’s not anyone else, so one has to ask the question where they’re from.’
The program, inaugurated in 2007 and funded with $22million of government funds, was revealed to the public earlier this month.
Elizondo further said that UFOs have often been found near nuclear and power plants.
He said he resigned from his government job because he believes the government needs to provide more funding and support.
The Defense Department finally acknowledged the existence of its long-secret UFO investigation program earlier this month, when officials shifted attention and funding to other priorities.
Its initial funding came largely at the request of former Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat long known for his enthusiasm for space phenomena, the newspaper said.
The program was created by then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada), with the support of the late Senators Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) and Republican Ted Stevens (R-Alaska).
Their fears were that the unexplained phenomena could be advanced weaponry or technology from foreign states such as Russia or China which could threaten the US.
‘Was this China or Russia trying to do something or has some propulsion system we are not familiar with?’ a former staffer told Politico.
While Elizondo, who ran the initiative, stressed he wanted to take the ‘voodoo’ out of a ‘voodoo science,’ the program investigated some issues that sound like they’re straight out of a science fiction movie.
They included ‘wormholes’ and ‘warp drives’ as well as interviewing pilots and military personnel who reported experiences with UFOs.
Elizondo said that many of the Navy pilots described aircraft moving and acting in a way that seemed to be beyond human beings’ current capabilities.
‘We had never seen anything like it,’ he said.
The former staffer said that Reid believed there could be a valid national security issue and so agreed to fund the program.
But after a few years, and very little to show for it, Reid decided it wasn’t worth continuing.
‘After a while the consensus was we really couldn’t find anything of substance,’ he recalled. ‘They produced reams of paperwork. After all of that there was really nothing there that we could find. It all pretty much dissolved from that reason alone—and the interest level was losing steam. We only did it a couple years.’
‘There was really nothing there that we could justify using taxpayer money,’ he added. ‘We let it die a slow death. It was well spent money in the beginning.’
According to the Pentagon, the program ‘ended in the 2012 timeframe.’
Yet according to its backers, the program remains in existence and officials continue to investigate UFO episodes brought to their attention by service members, the newspaper said.
The Pentagon openly acknowledged the fate of the program in response to a Reuters query.
‘The Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program ended in the 2012 timeframe,’ Pentagon spokeswoman Laura Ochoa said in an email.
‘It was determined that there were other, higher priority issues that merited funding and it was in the best interest of the DoD to make a change,’ she said.
But the Pentagon was less clear about whether the UFO program continues to hover somewhere in the vast universe of the U.S. defense establishment.
‘The DoD takes seriously all threats and potential threats to our people, our assets, and our mission and takes action whenever credible information is developed,’ Ochoa said.
What is less in doubt is former senator Reid’s enthusiasm for UFOs and his likely role in launching the Pentagon initiative to identify advanced aviation threats.
‘If you’ve talked to Harry Reid for 60 seconds then it’s the least surprising thing ever that he loves UFOs and got an earmark to study them,’ former Reid spokeswoman Kristen Orthman said in a message on Twitter.
Or as Reid himself said in a tweet that linked to the Times’ story: ‘The truth is out there. Seriously.’
Elizondo has since joined former Blink 182 vocalist Tom DeLonge’s company To The Stars Academy of Arts and Sciences – described as a ‘public benefit corporation’ that has ‘mobilized a team of the most experienced, connected and passionately curious minds from the U.S. intelligence community, including the CIA, Department of Defense, who have been operating under the shadows of top-secrecy for decades.’
Speaking to CNN, he said: ‘My personal belief is that there is very compelling evidence that we may not be alone.
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