[ExI] UFOs again or AAVs for the first time

Stuart LaForge avant at sollegro.com
Sun Dec 17 03:44:35 UTC 2017


Wow. It's getting kind of hard to remain skeptical here. This is either a
completely baffling new natural phenomenon, some country/org has drones
that make F/A-18 super-hornets, one of the U.S.'s most advanced fighter
jets, look primitive, or it's ET.

Opinions?


https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/head-of-pentagons-secret-ufo-office-sought-to-make-evidence-public/2017/12/16/90bcb7cc-e2b2-11e7-8679-a9728984779c_story.html?utm_term=.51047c4bdcf8

Declassified videos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rWOtrke0HY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tf1uLwUTDA0

Wash. Post Article:
Just before leaving his Defense Department job two months ago,
intelligence officer Luis Elizondo quietly arranged to secure the release
of three of the most unusual videos in the Pentagon’s secret vaults: raw
footage from encounters between fighter jets and “anomalous aerial
vehicles” — military jargon for UFOs.

The videos, all taken from cockpit cameras, show pilots struggling to lock
their radars on oval-shaped vessels that, on screen, look vaguely like
giant flying Tic Tacs. The strange aircraft — no claims are made about
their possible origins or makeup — appear to hover briefly before
sprinting away at speeds that elicit gasps and shouts from the pilots.

Elizondo, in an internal Pentagon memo requesting that the videos be
cleared for public viewing, argued that the images could help educate
pilots and improve aviation safety. But in interviews, he said his
ultimate intention was to shed light on a little-known program Elizondo
himself ran for seven years: a low-key Defense Department operation to
collect and analyze reported UFO sightings.


The existence of the program, known as the Advanced Aviation Threat
Identification Program, was confirmed officially for the first time
Saturday by a Pentagon spokesman. The acknowledgment came in response to
media inquiries, which were generated in part by a start-up company
Elizondo has joined since retirement. The private company specializes in
promoting UFO research for scientific and entertainment purposes.


Current and former Pentagon officials confirm that the Pentagon program
has been in existence since 2007 and was formed for the purpose of
collecting and analyzing a wide range of “anomalous aerospace threats”
ranging from advanced aircraft fielded by traditional U.S. adversaries to
commercial drones to possible alien encounters. It is a rare instance of
ongoing government investigations into a UFO phenomenon that was the
subject of multiple official inquiries in the 1950s and 1960s.

Spending for the program totaled at least $22 million, according to former
Pentagon officials and documents seen by The Washington Post, but the
funding officially ended in 2012. “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,” Pentagon spokesman Tom Crosson
explained in a statement.

But officials familiar with the initiative say the collection effort
continued as recently as last month. The program operated jointly out of
the Pentagon and, at least for a time, an underground complex in Las Vegas
managed by Bigelow Aerospace, a defense contractor that builds modules for
space stations. It generated at least one report, a 490-page volume that
describes alleged UFO sightings in the United States and numerous foreign
countries over multiple decades.


Neither the Pentagon nor any of the program’s managers have claimed
conclusive proof of extraterrestrial visitors, but Elizondo, citing
accounts and data collected by his office over a decade, argues that the
videos and other evidence failed to generate the kind of high-level
attention he believes is warranted. As part of his decision to leave the
Pentagon, he not only sought the release of videos but also penned a
letter to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis complaining that a potential
security threat was being ignored.

“Despite overwhelming evidence at both the classified and unclassified
levels, certain individuals in the [Defense] Department remain staunchly
opposed to further research on what could be a tactical threat to our
pilots, sailors and soldiers, and perhaps even an existential threat to
our national security,” Elizondo said in the letter, a copy of which was
provided to The Post.

The first public revelations of the program came in a video conference
aired in October by To the Stars Academy of Arts and Sciences, the firm
Elizondo joined as a consultant after retiring from his Pentagon job. The
New York Times and Politico reported the existence of the program on their
websites Saturday. The Washington Post conducted several confidential
interviews over two months with Elizondo and Christopher Mellon, a former
deputy assistant secretary of defense for intelligence who also is an
officer of the private firm.


Documents provided by the former officials included letters of support by
former Senate majority leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), a key backer of the
initiative who helped secure funding for the program and sought to ensure
a high degree of secrecy. Elizondo said knowledge of the program was
limited, even within the Pentagon itself. He said the program had multiple
enemies at senior levels of the department, from officials who were either
skeptical or ideologically opposed to AATIP’s mission.

“I was honored to serve at the DOD and took my mission of exploring
unexplained aerial phenomena quite seriously,” Elizondo said. “In the end,
however, I couldn’t carry out that mission, because the department — which
was understandably overstretched — couldn’t give it the resources that the
mounting evidence deserved.”

It is difficult to draw conclusions about the nature of the unidentified
vessels from the videos alone. Experts generally urged caution, explaining
that reported UFO sightings often turn out of have innocuous explanations.

A retired Navy pilot contacted by The Post who was involved in a 2004
encounter depicted in one of the videos confirmed that the images
accurately reflected his recollection of the events. The pilot would only
speak on the condition of anonymity.

Elizondo, a 22-year veteran of the department who has held top security
clearance and worked on secret counterintelligence missions, said he chose
to join the private venture because he believed it was the best way to
continue the work he was unable to complete as a government employee.

“I left to find an environment where investigating these phenomena is
priority number one,” he said.

Stuart LaForge





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