There was a lot confusion concerning the alleged secret Pentagon UFO program the New York Instances exposed in 2017, and the issues stem from factual errors and omissions within the article.
In response to the contract solicitation, the Pentagon created the Superior Aerospace Weapon Methods Functions Program (AAWSAP) underneath the Protection Intelligence Company (DIA) to analysis “superior aerospace weapon system functions” to know “the overseas menace out to the far time period.”
In 2009, then-Nevada Senator Harry Reid tried to get Particular Entry Program (SAP) standing for AAWSAP. Within the request, he used the Superior Aerospace Risk Identification Program (AATIP) as a nickname. James Lacatski, the DIA program supervisor for AAWSAP, confirmed this in his book Skinwalkers on the Pentagon, co-written by Las Vegas journalist George Knapp and AAWSAP lead scientist Colm Kelleher.
Concerning Reid’s SAP request, the ebook states: “A brand new unclassified nickname, the Superior Aerospace Risk Identification Program (AATIP), was created to be used inside the unclassified letter as a result of it was determined for safety causes to not use the AAWSAP acronym.”
The Pentagon denied the SAP request.
Regardless of promoting this system to the Pentagon as a future aerospace tech evaluation program, Reid, Lacatski, and Nevada actual property tycoon Robert Bigelow supposed to conduct paranormal investigations. Lacatski outlined AAWSAP’s work in his ebook. It doesn’t align with the aims outlined within the contract, nor do his tales of the alleged paranormal adventures AAWSAP engaged in. From the Pentagon’s perspective, AAWSAP was delivering on the non-paranormal analysis they have been tasked to do.
I acquired the official AAWSAP information delivered to the Division of Protection on this FOIA request. All of them are inside the scope of the contract.
For these of us who adopted UFOs earlier than the 2017 New York Instances article, it was stunning to see that the Pentagon awarded the AAWSAP contract to Bigelow’s fledgling firm, Bigelow Aerospace. The shock was not solely because of Bigelow’s involvement with AAWSAP’s inception but in addition as a result of we knew what Bigelow had been as much as, and UFO analysis was not the entire story.
On the time, Bigelow additionally owned Skinwalker Ranch, the place a gaggle of scientists investigated alleged paranormal exercise. In 2005, Knapp (a detailed affiliate of Bigelow’s) and Kelleher wrote a book on this investigation known as Hunt for the Skinwalker. The ranch now has a brand new proprietor and is the topic of a TV present on the Historical past Channel.
We additionally knew that round 2008, Bigelow had changed the name of his Skinwaler and paranormal analysis group from the Nationwide Institute of Discovery Sciences (NIDS) to a division in his new Bigelow Aerospace firm known as Bigelow Aerospace Superior House Research (BAASS). Presently, I used to be in a management place with a non-profit known as the Mutual UFO Community (MUFON). We had created a partnership with BAASS. They offered us with assets for our UAP investigations. I dealt with public relations and was the one one in a management place who didn’t signal an NDA with BAASS. I didn’t need the legal responsibility.
I don’t know who knew what at MUFON, however Knapp later reported that Bigelow created BAASS solely to win and handle the AAWSAP contract. The MUFON partnership was short-lived and resulted in lower than a 12 months.
One other factor many people UFO fanatics knew was that regardless of their claims the quite a few paranormal phenomena they examine are actual, Bigelow’s researchers have by no means been capable of show any of it.
In December 2017, the notorious NYT article claimed {that a} program known as AATIP, run by an agent within the Workplace of the Below Secretary of Protection for Intelligence and Safety named Lue Elizondo, acquired $22M to research UFOs. This conclusion has not aged nicely.
We all know now:
- AAWSAP acquired the contract, AATIP was a nickname for AAWSAP
- Lacatksi and one of many lead scientists for BAASS deny Elizondo was concerned with AAWSAP/AATIP – this system that was budgeted the $22M
- The Pentagon didn’t create AAWSAP to research UFOs – Though AAWSAP did examine UFOs, it was one of many least fringy issues they took it upon themselves to look into, which is a vital context the authors of the New York Instances article ignored.
- Elizondo has claimed he was each part of AAWSAP and that he had nothing to do with AAWSAP
In 2018, a senior supervisor of BAASS, probably eager to set the report straight, gave an odd statement to KLAS, the information outlet Knapp works for, claiming “the [UFO] phenomenon additionally concerned an entire panoply of numerous exercise that included weird creatures, poltergeist exercise, invisible entities, orbs of sunshine, animal and human accidents and far more.”
The NYT article appeared to confuse the Pentagon, and its preliminary messaging was muddled. Nevertheless, after additional investigation, the Pentagon acknowledges the historical past I simply coated. Volume 1 of the historic report created by the present Pentagon UAP program, the All-Area Anomaly Decision Workplace (AARO), states, “The first function of AAWSAP/AATIP was to research potential subsequent technology aerospace applied sciences in 12 particular areas—reminiscent of superior raise, propulsion, using unconventional supplies and controls, and signature discount.”
“Though investigating UFO/UAP was not particularly outlined within the contract’s assertion of labor,” the report continues. “The chosen non-public sector group carried out UFO analysis with the help of the DIA program supervisor [Lacatski].”
The report additionally clarifies that the “DIA didn’t search, nor particularly authorize, this work although a DIA worker arrange and managed the contract with the non-public sector group.”
In 2019, I requested one of many authors of the NYT article most accustomed to the UFO matter, Leskie Kean, concerning the omission of AAWSAP. She said, “on the time, our focus was AATIP. This was the identify on the paperwork that we had, and that is what Lue Elizondo had talked to us about in interviews with him, as did others related to this system.”
Elizondo informed me his involvement was primarily with AATIP and the UFO aspect of issues, he didn’t really feel at liberty to share AAWSAP data with the New York Instances.
So what did Elizondo do? These particulars are much less clear. I say this regardless of having interviewed him a number of occasions right here on OpenMinds.television. It seems he began a gaggle of events contained in the intelligence neighborhood to have a look at essentially the most attention-grabbing army UFO circumstances collected by AAWSAP. An effort I admire. Elizondo and his associates adopted the AATIP identify to conduct this non-funded and obvious non-official work. Division of Protection spokesperson Susan Gough not too long ago told Information Nation, “Luis Elizondo had no assigned tasks for the Superior Aerospace Risk Identification Program (AATIP) whereas assigned to the Workplace of the Below Secretary of Protection for Intelligence and Safety.”
The successor to AAWSAP, the UAP Job Pressure (UAPTF), was set up in 2020 and included AAWSAP personnel in management roles. Like Bigelow’s earlier efforts, members of the UAPTF proceed to make extraordinary but unsupported claims. These claims come after a 2021 UAPTF report concluding that “the restricted quantity of high-quality reporting on unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) hampers our skill to attract agency conclusions concerning the nature or intent of UAP.” UAPTF was short-lived and in the end changed by AARO. Some former UAPTF members now seem on the The Secrets and techniques of Skinwalker Ranch TV present.
For a extra complete evaluation of this matter, I like to recommend you learn: “On the AAWSAP-AATIP Confusion” by V.J. Ballester-Olmos and Luis Cayetano.
