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- For years UFO
researchers claimed the US

government was running
a secret program

to research and
investigate the phenomenon.

Time and time again
the authorities denied

everything telling the
media and the public

there was no official
interest in the subject.

Then in December 2017 came
a bombshell revelation.

On this occasion the
conspiracy theories were true.

There really was a secret
government UFO project

and when the story
broke, it wasn't on a UFO

website or a conspiracy
blog, it was on

the front page of
the New York Times.

My name's Nick Pope.

I worked at the UK Ministry
of Defense for 21 years,

and I used to run the British
government's UFO project.

Using my inside knowledge
of government and my direct

experience of having run a
similar program I'm going

to tell the story of the
Pentagon's secret UFO project.

It's a big story.

It involves the government,
the intelligence community,

and the military
industrial complex.

And it's a bizarre story with
a colorful cast of characters

that includes not just
politicians and shadowy

intelligence community
figures but a billionaire

businessman and even a rockstar.

This is the inside story of
a UFO program so cleverly

hidden that its title
didn't mention UFOs at all.

This is the story of
AATIP, the Advanced

Aerospace Threat
Identification Program.

To tell the full story of AATIP
we need to go back in time.

We need to go back over 70
years to when it all began.

On June 24th 1947 a
pilot, Kenneth Arnold,

saw nine strange craft
flying in formation

over the Cascade mountains
in Washington state

traveling at a speed of well
over 1000 miles an hour.

The media got wind of the
story and labeled these

mystery objects flying
saucers or flying disks.

Further reports came in
from other locations in

the United States and from
countries all around the world.

What were these strange craft?

What were they doing?

And who was flying them?

Then as flying saucer fever
swept across the nation,

in early July 1947,
something crashed in

the New Mexico desert
close to an Army air field.

The name of this
base was Roswell.

Wreckage from the crash was
gathered up from a local ranch

by military intelligence
officers stationed at Roswell.

Then in an extraordinary turn
of events, the US military

reached out to the media
and let it be known

that they'd recovered one
of these strange craft.

A news release read as follows:

♪♪

At the time, the 509th
Bomb Group was the only

atomic bomb capable squadron
anywhere in the world.

Roswell was arguably the
most strategically important

military base on the
face of the planet.

Unbelievably within 24
hours the military issued

a follow up report
claiming that the object

had simply been a
weather balloon.

Could the military
intelligence personnel

at this elite military
unit really have

misidentified debris
from a weather balloon?

It's stretching credulity
to breaking point

especially as the area
concerned saw numerous

weather balloon
launches and personnel

at Roswell were
familiar with what these

balloons looked like
when they came down.

Some believe the weather
balloon explanation

was a cover story
hastily ordered by senior

military officers
horrified that personnel

at Roswell had revealed they'd
recovered a flying disk.

Some believe this was
the beginning of a UFO

cover up that has lasted
over 70 years but which

might now as we'll see
finally be coming to an end.

After Kenneth Arnold's
flying saucer sighting,

after Roswell, and with
similar sightings coming

in from all over the
US, it was clear that

the government needed
to take action.

Military intelligence
specialists studied the problem,

theories were formulated,
reports were written

but nobody could agree
what these objects were.

There were four main theories.

The first was that all
sightings could be written

off as mirages,
misidentifications,
hoaxes, or delusions.

A second theory was that
flying disks were secret

prototype aircraft or
missiles operated by another

part of the US government.

With information
compartmentalized and restricted

to those with a need to
know, was it possible

that one part of the
government didn't know

what another part was up to?

The third theory was a
variation on the second

but suggested these
missiles or aircraft

weren't American but
belonged to the Soviet Union.

Might the Russians
have developed long

range missiles or aircraft?

And could they be
probing US air defenses,

gathering intelligence,
looking for weaknesses?

It was a terrifying thought.

The final theory began
as a minority report

but gained ground steadily.

The theory was
that these objects

were extraterrestrial
spacecraft.

Whatever the truth,
the US government

and military needed
to know and fast.

While much of the
research and investigation

was done in secret, behind
closed doors, military

commanders recognized that
if they wanted to amass

evidence they needed to
ensure that people who saw

these mystery objects could
report them to the authorities.

The United States was about
to get the UFO project.

The US government's UFO
research and investigation

program operated from 1947
through to the end of 1969.

It ran under three names,
Project Sign, Project Grudge,

and most famously of
all Project Blue Book.

Project Blue Book investigated
over 12,000 sightings

of which precisely 701
remained unexplained.

These included cases where
the witnesses were police

officers, military
personnel, and pilots.

And cases where
visual sightings were

corroborated by radar evidence.

In many cases
objects demonstrated
speeds and maneuvers

that were significantly
in excess of even

the fastest and most
capable military aircraft.

Project Blue Book even
invented the term UFO

correctly judging that
unidentified flying

object sounded more
serious and scientific

than flying saucer
or flying disk.

Project Blue Book's
headquarters was at Wright

Patterson Air Force
Base, the very location

where it was alleged
that wreckage from

the Roswell crash had
been taken and stored.

In 1969, the plug
was abruptly pulled.

For some years it
had been clear that

the United States Air
Force had been looking

for a way out of the program.

They commissioned the
University of Colorado

to undertake a study.

From 1966 to 1968, the
university ran a project

known as the Condon
Committee so called because

it was chaired by
physicist Edward Condon

to review the Blue Book data.

The Condon Committee
delivered its final

report in November 1968.

It was a damning
skeptical assessment of

the UFO phenomenon and
it recommended that

no further government
resources be used

on investigating the mystery.

The media, the public, and
even some of the people

involved with Project
Blue Book were suspicious.

It looked like a fix.

The best cases in the Blue
Book archives had been ignored

and undue prominence had
been given to sightings where

conventional explanations
had been found.

These objections were ignored.

And on December 17th
1969, Project Blue

Book was officially terminated.

In terminating the
project, the United States

Air Force gave these
carefully scripted reasons.

♪♪

The then secretary of the
Air Force Robert Seamans Jr.

summarized the position
by stating that Blue Book

could no longer be justified
either on the ground

of national security or in
the interest of science.

Are we really to believe
that from 1970 onwards

the US government
ignored all reports

of unidentified objects
in their air space?

This would be ridiculous.

No government and no
air force on Earth could

fail to react if their
own pilots saw UFOs

and if their own radar
operators tracked them,

all of which was happening.

Project Blue Book may
have been terminated

but UFOs didn't go away.

Sure enough the clues
were there suggesting that

in parallel with
Project Blue Book,

a secret reporting
system existed where even

if the public were
cut out the military

could continue to report UFOs.

In a memo dated
October 20th 1969,

Brigadier General
Carroll Bolender stated,

♪♪

The US government's UFO
project had gone dark.

The trail had gone cold.

It would be decades before
it emerged from the shadows

but when it finally did,
everything would change.

For years, after the
termination of Project

Blue Book, anyone who
asked about UFOs was

told there was no
official involvement.

Whether you were a senator,
a journalist, or a member

of the public, the answer
was always the same.

It didn't matter if
you asked your question

to the Department of
Defense, the CIA, NASA,

or anyone else, the
response was identical.

We're not interested,
we don't investigate.

But they did.

In 2007, Senate Majority
Leader Harry Reid quietly

got together with two
like minded colleagues,

both now deceased,
Senator Ted Stevens

and Senator Daniel Inouye.

They instigated a program
known as the Advanced

Aerospace Threat Identification
Program or AATIP.

To add to the confusion
about this project it's

also been described
as the Advanced

Aviation Threat
Identification Program

and the Advanced Aerial
Threat Identification Program.

Irrespective of the title,
the brief was clear,

investigate and evaluate
all aerial objects

and phenomena that
might pose a threat to

the air defense of
the United States.

In some cases, such
objects might be secret

prototype aircraft,
missiles, or drones.

In other cases, they were UFOs.

Harry Reid's interest in UFOs
stems from his friendship

with Nevada based
billionaire Robert Bigelow

who made his fortune
in the hotel business

but who now runs an
aerospace company that,

among other things, constructs
space station modules

and who's clients include NASA.

Bigelow also owned a
sprawling 500 acre property

in Utah known as
the Skinwalker Ranch

where numerous UFO sightings
and other paranormal

events were witnessed
and investigated by

the National Institute
of Discovery Science,

a privately funded organization
that Bigelow created

to investigate UFOs, the
unexplained, and fringe science.

Bigelow also channeled funds
to the Mutual UFO Network,

the world's largest civilian
research organization.

One of Bigelow's
initiatives with MUFON was

to fund the creation of
a rapid response team

that was deployed
immediately in the aftermath

of a significant UFO
incident to interview

witnesses and to
recover evidence.

Aside from Robert
Bigelow, Harry Reid had

discussed the subject
with astronaut John

Glenn who was concerned
that UFO sightings

weren't being properly
investigated especially

in cases where the witnesses
were military pilots

and where the objects
were tracked on radar.

He felt that after Project
Blue Book was terminated,

pilots were reluctant
to report sightings up

the chain of command
for fear that they'd be

disbelieved, ridiculed,
or even grounded due

to concerns about
their state of mind.

AATIP was run from the
Pentagon but the program

was owned not by the
Department of Defense

but by the super secret
Defense Intelligence Agency

officially designated as a
DoD combat support agency.

From their website, the DIA
mission is described thus,

♪♪

Now here comes an interesting
twist in the story.

While the DIA owned
AATIP, much of the work

was contracted out into
the private sector.

This often happens with
specialist projects

where there may be
insufficient in house expertise

and leveraging the
knowledge and resources

of defense contractors can
have considerable advantages.

Whether intended or not
it can, for example,

make Congressional
scrutiny more difficult

and critically, can
take much of the work

outside the scope of the
Freedom of Information Act.

The UK Ministry of
Defense did the same thing

with some highly
classified UK defense work.

Especially projects
that could be considered

somewhat out there and thus
politically embarrassing.

So guess who got
the AATIP contract?

Bigelow Aerospace.

Officially at least, AATIP
ran from 2007 to 2012.

During that time
around $22 million

was spent on the project.

It doesn't sound much when
you consider the annual

US defense budget runs
to around $600 billion

and that's just the
way they wanted it.

It was small enough
to fly under the radar

and not attract attention.

And in the murky area of
government accounting,

it all depends how
you do the math.

$22 million may be the
additional cash costs

but if you include the
costs of the resources used,

things like military
radar systems

and imagery analysis
capabilities,

the costs are much higher.

So what exactly did AATIP do?

To answer that question
we need to know

something about the man
who ran the program.

Step forward Luis Elizondo.

Luis Elizondo is a
man who's lived most

of his life in the shadows.

That's until October 2017
when, having resigned

from the US government under
dramatic circumstances,

he blew the whistle on
AATIP and revealed what much

of the world already
suspected, namely that

the the US government
was investigating

UFOs after all
despite the denials.

So who is Luis Elizondo?

After studying
microbiology, immunology,

and parasitology at the
University of Miami,

Elizondo joined the US Army
wanting to serve his country.

He quickly found that
he had an aptitude

for intelligence work
and served in a number

of different roles and
theaters many details

of which are still classified.

In view of his particular
skills and his love

of intelligence work,
he soon left the Army

and went to work for the
Department of Defense

as a civilian
serving in a variety

of posts all around the world.

Then in 2008, his life
changed forever when he

was asked to join AATIP
which as we've seen had

been set up in 2007
at the instigation

of Senate Majority
Leader Harry Reid.

When the director of the
program moved on in 2010,

Elizondo took over and
filled the post until 2017

when he resigned from
government service.

Elizondo decided that his
priority in investigating

UFO sightings should be
to answer two questions,

what were these things
and how did they work?

In other words, what was
the technology behind them?

He deliberately set aside
the more provocative

questions, who's behind
the wheel as he puts it

and what's their intent?

AATIP was beset by
problems and controversies.

There was the inevitable
struggle for funding,

in a situation where there
was intense competition

for limited Defense resources.

And while they tried to
avoid terms like UFO,

the phrase had so much
pop culture baggage that

AATIP was always going to
struggle to be taken seriously.

They even came up against
problems from more

senior staff who's personal
paradigms and religious

world views were challenged
by some of the AATIP data.

That's one of the reasons
why in October 2017,

Luis Elizondo decided to
resign not just from AATIP

but from the Department
of Defense leaving after

a distinguished 22
year government career.

It was a resignation
of principle.

Elizondo felt that what
he'd learned was too

important to be hidden away.

As he puts it, to
do his job properly,

he had to leave.

He had to leave so he
could be part of a process

whereby the American
people could have a serious

conversation about this subject.

Not about flying saucers
and little green men

but about the important
defense, national security,

and air safety issues
raised by the phenomenon.

On his departure Elizondo
wrote a letter of resignation

to Secretary of Defense Jim
Mattis, a man he admires

greatly and under whom
he served in combat.

Expressing his
dissatisfaction with the lack

of attention more senior
Pentagon officials

were giving to the UFO problem.

It's a problem, he says,
because these objects

are in our air space,
outperform our jets

in terms of speed
and maneuverability,

and remain unknown.

To better articulate
this point, Elizondo uses

what he calls the muddy
boot prints analogy.

Imagine, he says, that each
night before you go to bed,

you set your home alarm system.

But each morning when
you come downstairs

there are muddy boot
prints on your floor.

Sure, you haven't been
attacked and nothing

is ever taken but there's
still the major question

of who's breaking into
your house, how they're

doing it, and what
the heck they want.

In the government
and the military,

if you're not sure what
you're dealing with

it's prudent to assume
that there's a threat

and then be relieved if
one doesn't materialize.

That's a far better
strategy than to assume

a scenario is benign
and then be unpleasantly

surprised by something that
turns out to be hostile.

That was Luis Elizondo's
mindset when he ran AATIP

and that's a big part
of why he resigned.

He makes another
powerful analogy.

If an unidentified
aircraft penetrates US

air space and it turns
out to have Russian

markings or North
Korean tail markings,

there'd be an outcry
and rightly so.

People would be demanding
answers from the DoD,

the CIA, and the Department
of Homeland Security.

But with some of the cases
investigated by AATIP,

not only were there no tail
markings, there was no tail.

And as Luis Elizondo puts
it, in that situation,

it's just crickets, there's
an embarrassing silence.

It's all too difficult.

No one wants to deal with it.

So now we know
something about this

principled man who ran AATIP.

What of the project itself?

What did they actually do?

And what was it that
Luis Elizondo discovered

that led him to go
public in an attempt

to raise awareness
about an issue he felt

was more important
than his career?

The answer to these questions
takes us on a journey

into the heart of the US
government's real life X Files.

In one sense, the core
mission of AATIP wasn't

that different to the
mission of Project Blue Book.

Calling the unit a threat
identification program

sets things out pretty clearly.

It goes back to the
fundamental point that

if there's something
in your air space,

you want to know what it is.

And there are few better
ways of getting answers

to those questions
than analyzing videos,

particularly when
those videos come not

from enthusiastic
members of the public

sending in grainy
cell phone footage

but from Navy pilots
who are chasing UFOs

and recording the
encounters on film

while further corroboration
was provided by virtue

of the fact that some
of these encounters were

being tracked on sophisticated
military radar systems.

That's precisely the sort
of material that AATIP

received and analyzed and
when the New York Times

broke the story of AATIP's
existence they took

the extraordinary decision
to run a second article

in parallel detailing
the story behind

one of two videos dubbed
Tick Tack and Gimble

that AATIP looked at
and which had found

their way into
the public domain.

The story that exploded
into public domain

in the pages of the
New York Times occurred

in 2004 off the coast of
San Diego and involved

two Navy air crew,
commander David Frevor

and Lieutenant
Commander Jim Slate.

Each man was flying a
Navy F-18 Superhornet and

in the middle of a routine
training flight the pilots

were vectored towards an
uncorrelated target that

radar operators onboard the
USS Princeton were tracking.

It was the latest in a series
of strange radar returns

that the Navy cruiser had
detected over a two week period.

And this time commanders
were determined

to get to the bottom
of the mystery.

Frevor headed toward
the mystery object

and spotted it just
above the ocean.

The sea was white as
if it was boiling.

Suddenly the object
accelerated towards

him before veering away.

Unable to see it, the
aircraft were vectored

to a rendezvous point
some 60 miles away only

to be told by an astonished
radar operator that

the mystery object had
appeared at the precise

location they were
heading for while

the two Navy jets were
still 40 miles away.

"I have no idea what
I saw", Frevor said.

"But I want to fly one."

"My gosh, there's a
whole fleet of them,

look at that thing,"
another unidentified

pilot loudly exclaims,
in a second video.

The footage was taken
by an advanced targeting

forward looking infrared
pod and in a humorous twist

the makers, Raytheon,
rushed out a press release

boasting about how their
technology was used

in US government UFO hunting.

Shortly before his
resignation from government

service, Luis Elizondo
played a part in getting

three videos, Tick Tack,
Gimble, and a third video

that wasn't made
available with the first

two declassified by
the US government.

This was partly to
educate the wider aviation

community about something
that could be an air

safety hazard and partly
an attempt to further

the investigation by
seeing whether circulating

these videos more widely
might provide some answers.

Might the scientific
community, for example,

be able to shed light
on encounters that

the US government had
been unable to explain?

Luis Elizondo has implied
there are dozens more

videos out there and has
expressed the hope that

these, too, can be made
public in the near future.

One of the most bizarre
aspects of the AATIP

story is the allegation
that the program was

in possession of mystery metals.

The normally cautious New
York Times breathlessly

reported that part of
AATIP's budget was spent

on modifying buildings
at Bigelow Aerospace

for the purpose of storing
metal alloys and other

materials that it was claimed
had been recovered from UFOs.

Could this be a
reference to the long

forgotten Roswell debris?

This question has
yet to be answered

but irrespective of this
let's be very clear.

The science is simple.

There are no mystery metals.

In chemistry, everything
sits somewhere on

the periodic table so
the constituent elements

of any material
can be determined.

It gets better than this.

There are tests that
can tell whether or not

material has been in space
such as those that involve

examining isotopic ratios
or looking at ionization.

This will show whether
the materials have

been exposed to cosmic rays.

The differences arise
because Earth's atmosphere

protects us from
these cosmic rays.

These sorts of tests
are done on meteorites

to differentiate them
from terrestrial rocks.

If any materials were
exposed to cosmic rays

it doesn't prove they can
from an extraterrestrial

spacecraft, as they might
have come off a satellite

or a rocket, but it's
certainly narrows things down.

These tests are so
obvious to chemists

and material specialists
that there's no way

they won't already
have been done.

Bigelow Aerospace must know
the results of these tests.

These findings will
have been briefed back

to AATIP project
managers at the DIA.

If there are any anomalies here,

the US government will
already know about them.

Luis Elizondo chooses his
words very carefully when

discussing the super
sensitive aspect of AATIP's

work yet in one sense
he's been outspoken

about this aspect
of the project.

An aspect that might
just be the biggest

smoking gun of all time.

In one interview Elizondo
addressed the speculation

about these mystery metals.

He was insistent.

He described them
as meta materials.

He said that not only had
the isotopic ratio analyses

been conducted but that
the results were in.

Incredibly the results
showed unique isotopic ratios

that could only have
resulted from these materials

having originated from
beyond this Earth.

One of the most extraordinary
parts of AATIP's

activities relates to
the study not of videos

or even metals but of people.

Over the years, hundreds
of thousands of UFO

sightings have been
logged and investigated.

Some by government
programs, others by civilian

research groups such as MUFON.

While many of these
sightings involved UFOs

seen at a distance,
others have been decidedly

up close and personal.

There are some cases where
it's claimed witnesses

got so close to a UFO that
there were physical effects.

And sometimes even injury
and illness, burn marks,

suspected radiation sickness.

If UFOs are powered as
many suspect by some form

of exotic energy source,
it's certainly possible

to speculate that getting
too close might be dangerous.

And in case anyone thinks
this is paranoid nonsense

spouted by conspiracy
theorists, it isn't.

It's the official view of
the British government.

Case in point,
Rendlesham Forest.

This is the UK's best
known UFO incident

and it's been called
Britain's Roswell.

In December 1980, a
UFO landed in a forest

that lies between US
military air bases.

There were three nights
of sightings and on

the third night the
witnesses included

the deputy base commander
Lieutenant Colonel Charles Halt.

On the second and third
night, the UFO was seen

in the skies directly over
the forest and the bases.

But on the first night,
a small triangular shaped

craft actually landed
in Rendlesham Forest.

Two airmen were
sent to investigate,

John Burroughs
and Jim Penniston.

They got very close,
perhaps too close.

Penniston says he touched it.

For years, afterwards the
men suffered health problems,

now we think we know why.

A few years ago, the
British government started

declassifying and
releasing its UFO files.

There were hundreds
of documents on

the Rendlesham Forest incident.

They included a Defense
Intelligence staff assessment

of anomalous radiation
readings that had been found

at the landing site during
the official investigation.

The documents stated
that the levels

of radioactivity appeared
to be significantly

higher than the
average background.

There was a further and much
more sinister confirmation.

A more general
intelligence assessment of

the UFO phenomenon
known as Project Condyle

contained speculation
about what had happened

to Penniston and
Burroughs as a result

of getting too close to the UFO.

The study's final report
had originally been

classified secret UK
eyes only,

and under the heading:

The report states:

♪♪

This report had almost
certainly come to

the attention of AATIP
given that one strand

of the unit's work
seems to have involved

identifying people who'd
got sufficiently close

to UFOs to suffer
physical effects

and examining them for
physiological changes.

I'm personally aware of
various close encounter

witnesses who have been
approached in recent years

by scientists who were
vague about exactly who

they worked for but who
wanted to subject close

encounter witnesses to a
sophisticated array of medical

procedures including blood
tests and DNA analysis.

Directly or indirectly it
seems likely that these

mystery scientists
were working for AATIP

and that the results
of these analyses

found their way back
to the Pentagon.

What of the science behind
these mystery objects?

What is AATIP's research
and investigation tell us

about one of the most
intriguing questions about UFOs?

How do they fly?

Again, Luis Elizondo,
the man who ran AATIP,

has a possible answer and
it's a tantalizing one.

Elizondo and his colleagues
identified several

characteristics that
consistently arise with

the best evidenced UFO cases.

Time and time again
one or more of

the following factors arose.

Hypersonic velocities,
low observability,

sudden and extreme acceleration,

trans medium travel,
bizarrely some of these

objects seem to move
seamlessly into and out

of the sea, positive lift.
This seems to be a less

provocative way of saying
a phrase that sounds

more like science fiction than
science fact, anti-gravity.

Despite all of this,
Luis Elizondo believes

we're getting tantalizingly
close to explaining things.

He thinks a single
technology can explain these

various different
characteristics
displayed by UFOs.

This technology, he
believes, involves what he

refers to as the metric
engineering of space time.

It involves an exotic
propulsion system

that uses very high
energy to warp space time

in a very local fashion
creating a sort of bubble.

It sounds like something
you'd see on Star Trek

but these are the conclusions
not just of the man

who ran AATIP but
scientists that Elizondo

is currently working
with on trying to unravel

the secrets of
these mystery craft.

That's what AATIP did.

But how did the story get out?

How did a government UFO
program, the existence

of which had been carefully
hidden from the public

end up on the front page
of the New York Times?

At this point, in this
expose of the Pentagon's

secret UFO program,
we meet another one

of the colorful
characters involved

in this extraordinary story.

Someone who played a
major part in blowing

the lid off the secrecy
surrounding the program.

The person concerned is
none other than Tom DeLonge,

the former singer and guitarist
of the rock band Blink 182.

Tom DeLonge isn't the
first celebrity to have

developed an interest in UFOs.

Musicians in particular seem
obsessed with the subject.

Some, such as John Lennon,
had their own sightings.

Others such as Katy Perry and
Kanye West incorporate UFO

and alien references into
their song lyrics and videos.

But Tom DeLonge did
something very different,

he became an activist.

DeLonge formed an organization
called the To the Stars

Academy of Arts and
Science Incorporated

usually just known as
the To the Stars Academy.

It was to be both a lobby
group for the ending

of UFO secrecy and an
organization that aspired

to reverse engineer
some of the hidden UFO

technologies DeLonge
believes are locked away

in Air Force hangars
somewhere perhaps in locations

such as Area 51 where
UFO researchers believe

recovered alien
technology is kept.

Tom DeLonge wants to
bring such technologies

out of the shadows.

The organization's mission
statement articulated

on their website is as
follows:

♪♪

It's certainly aiming high.

But for those who might have
been skeptical, there was

an early clue that DeLonge was
emerging as a serious player.

When Wikileaks published
emails from President Obama's

former Chief of
Staff John Podesta,

included among them
was correspondence

from Tom DeLonge briefing
Podesta on his initiative.

DeLonge was pushing at
an already open door.

Podesta is a UFO believer and
a fan of the X Files and his

occasional UFO themed tweets
have been major news stories.

At the time the emails
leaked, Podesta was playing

a major role in Hillary
Clinton's presidential campaign.

A campaign marked by the
extraordinary spectacle

of Clinton going onto
the Jimmy Kimmel Show

and correcting the
bemused chat show host

when he asked about UFOs,
telling him:

♪♪

In an early media interview,
Hillary Clinton had said

that if she was elected
president she'd do her best

to find out what was
going on at Area 51,

the secret site that
many associate with

covert government
research on crashed UFOs.

Bill Clinton, too, had
expressed interest in

the subject when
he was president.

DeLonge told Podesta that
he was putting together

a team with assistance
from General William

McCasland, formerly
commander of the Air Force

Research Laboratory at
Wright Patterson Air

Force Base, another site
that's been linked with UFOs,

and indeed the location
where many believe

that whatever crashed
at Roswell was taken.

Another of DeLonge's
advisers was Major General

Michael Carey, special
assistant to the commander

Air Force Space Command.

A rockstar rubbing
shoulders with presidential

chiefs of staff and generals?

Again, it sounds bizarre
but today it seems

that strange is normal
and whatever the truth

of DeLonge's exact
relationship with people

like Podesta,
McCasland, and Carey,

the fact of the matter
is he did indeed put

together a team of heavy hitters
with close government ties.

Members of DeLonge's To
the Stars Academy team

include a very credible
list of participants.

Jim Semivan, a former
senior member of the CIA.

Doctor Hal Puthoff a
scientist who's advised NASA,

the DoD, and the
intelligence community.

He specializes in
exotic propulsion

systems and energy sources.

Steve Justice a retired
program director with

the Lockheed Martin Skunk
Works where numerous

exotic aircraft have been
designed and developed.

Chris Mellon, a former
Deputy Assistant Secretary

of Defense for Intelligence
in the Clinton and Bush

administrations who also
served as the minority

staff director of Senate Select
Committee on Intelligence.

This is the team that Luis
Elizondo is now a part of.

The fact that so many of
these people have such

close links with
government, the military,

and the intelligence
community has led

to speculation that
the whole venture is

a government initiative
in all but name.

It's certainly true
that many of these

people were involved with AATIP.

Luis Elizondo ran the program
while Puthoff helped write

the bid that landed Bigelow
Aerospace the AATIP contract.

Working out the complicated
interrelationships

between all these people
can certainly be tricky

and sometimes it's
difficult to see quite where

the lines are drawn between
AATIP, Bigelow Aerospace,

and the To the Stars Academy.

Especially when so many of
the players are the same.

On October 11th 2017,
Tom DeLonge held a press

conference where he and
most of the To the Stars

Academy team unveiled
their initiative.

It was an eloquent and
passionate exposition

of their mission
statement with the clear

implication that many
of the world changing

technologies they hoped
to develop are going

to be based on things
currently being kept

under wraps by
the US government.

If those technologies are
derived as some believe

from crashed UFOs
then we may be talking

about the exotic energy
sources and propulsion

systems that we'd need for
viable interstellar travel.

That certainly seems
to be the aspiration

implied by the
organization's name.

Is this the technology
that would take humanity

not just to the moon
but to the stars?

Do we already have that
technology somewhere in

the deep state and is
the secrecy finally
coming to an end?

For years there have been
rumors that there's a UFO

cover up but that some of
those involved want to end it.

There are stories about
factions within the intelligence

community at war with each
other over the UFO issue.

Some want disclosure,
others don't.

Are the AATIP revelations
the final move

in a struggle that's gone
on for over 70 yearS?

Are we finally
entering the end game?

The October 2017 press
conference generated

significant media
coverage but to create

an even bigger impact
another heavy hitter

with close ties to
government was needed.

The person concerned
was investigative

journalist Leslie Kean.

Kean isn't a member of the
To the Stars Academy team

but knows or has met
most of the key players

and has supported their
efforts through her journalism.

She has written extensively
about the UFO issue

for the mainstream media
and published a best selling

book on the subject
which featured statements

from various generals,
pilots, and government

officials who'd either
seen a UFO themselves

or been involved in
official investigations.

John Podesta wrote the
forward and as a further

illustration of her
insider status, her uncle

is Thomas Kean,
the former governor

of New Jersey who chaired
the 9/11 commission.

Leslie Kean wrote two articles
for the Huffington Post

about the To the Stars
Academy but then she reached

out to a long term
contact, Ralph Blumenthal

an investigative journalist
at the New York Times.

The Times has hardly ever
covered the topic of UFOs

but Kean briefed Blumenthal
on the To the Stars Academy

and on AATIP and set up a
meeting with Luis Elizondo.

Before the Times would
publish the story,

they went through a meticulous
fact checking process.

This included getting
confirmation from
Senator Harry Reid

who'd instigated the program,
interviewing Luis Elizondo

who'd headed it up, and
acquiring documentation

that confirmed the
existence of the program

including some of
the contracts dealing

with the Congressional
appropriation.

There was also a letter
from Senator Reid

requesting that AATIP
be given restricted

special access program status.

The final piece of the
puzzle was provided

when another Times journalist
met with the Pentagon

spokesperson who confirmed
the existence of the program.

The presses rolled and
on December 16th 2017

the New York Times
published the twin stories,

one about AATIP and the
other about David Frevor

and Jim Slate's spectacular
midair encounter

with a UFO captured on film.

When the New York
Times first revealed

the existence of AATIP,
the Washington Post

and Politico soon followed
with stories of their own.

This was followed by news
reports and interviews

with some of the
key players running

on most of the
major TV networks.

Here was the mainstream
media, which traditionally

either ignores or
ridicules the topic,

giving it extensive,
positive coverage.

As often as not it was
the science correspondent

writing the story up in
the newspaper reports.

But what did the government say?

In writing up their stories,
the Times and the Post

approached the DoD and
the DIA for comments.

Indeed it was part of the
meticulous fact checking process

and the stories wouldn't
have been published at all

if the government hadn't
confirmed, reluctantly,

that, yes, they had a program.

Once the initial stories
had been published,

the flood gates opened.

The world's media besieged
these agencies with questions.

So what did they say?

What they always say
when asked about UFOs,

as little as they
can get away with.

The policy is always the
same, downplay everything.

For the record, here are
the official statements

that the Pentagon has made.

♪♪

When asked if UFO sightings
were still being investigated

despite the claim that
funding had been canceled

the same spokesperson
had this to say:

♪♪

When the AATIP story
broke, UFO skeptics,

particularly the
aggressive debunking kind,

were at a loss as
how to respond.

Their worst nightmare
had just come true.

For years, they'd delighted
in portraying people

who claimed the US
government was secretly

investigating UFOs
as conspiracy nuts.

But these so called
conspiracy nuts had turned

out to be irrefutably
and demonstrably correct.

The believers had the
Navy videos of military

jets chasing UFOs, they had
Senator Harry Reid who confirmed

everything and added, "I'm
not embarrassed or ashamed

or sorry I got
this thing going."

They had Luis Elizondo
speaking on the record.

They had the New York
Times fact checking

the story by having
had sight of some of

the contractual
documentation and by speaking

to others associated with AATIP.

Finally, the icing
on the cake, they had

the Pentagon confirming
the story was true.

So what did the skeptics have?

Not a lot.

There were some half
hearted attempts

to explain away
the videos in terms

of various mutually
contradictory theories

ranging from drones
and reflections

through to technical artifacts
of the infrared camera.

At times the debunkers
appeared to have forgotten

the testimony of the
pilots themselves

who confirmed they had visual
sightings of the object

as well as the object
showing up on film.

When Commander Frevor
gave an interview in which

he said the object he
chased accelerated like

nothing I've ever seen,
debunkers resorted

to the unsubstantiated
claim that pilots

don't make very
good UFO witnesses.

And they ignored other aspects
of the story altogether.

Such as the fact the UFO had
been tracked on military radar.

Even astrophysicist
and TV personality

Neil deGrasse Tyson
got in on the story

with an interview on
CNN in which he somewhat

disingenuously
described the footage

as fuzzy video before
proceeding to restate

his skeptical views about UFOs.

There were other
targets when it came to

the wrath of the debunkers.

Tom DeLonge's To the Stars
Academy was described

as a money making organization
because it invites

people to invest and
become shareholders.

In fact, the organization
is classified as

a public benefit
corporation and the 63 page

offering circular was
not only filed with

the US Securities and
Exchange Commission,

it was published on the To
the Stars Academy website.

Money making?

Perhaps, but money
raising might have

been a less loaded term.

The aim was to allow
anyone interested to get

involved in the project
so they have a chance

to play their part in
bringing technologies they

believe are locked up
within government out

of the shadows and
into the light of day.

Despite the skeptical criticism,
the To the Stars Academy

it seems has been quite
open about its operation.

Can the same be said
about the government?

When the New York Times
published their story

about AATIP, the DoD and
the DIA were bombarded

with Freedom of
Information Act requests.

After only two or
three weeks, well over

a thousand had been received.

The system ground to
a halt with FOIA staff

sinking in a sea of paperwork.

It's likely that most
of these requests will

be turned down as
being too wide in scope

and that many of the
rest will be rejected

either under the exemption
covering classified

information for national
defense or foreign policy,

or if any information is
deemed to belong in part

to Bigelow Aerospace under
the exemption it pertains

to trade secrets
and confidential
business information.

If journalists or UFO
researchers thought

the Freedom of Information
Act would help them uncover

the secrets of America's
secret UFO project,

they were in for an
unpleasant surprise.

On the question of
uncovering AATIP's secrets

and finding out what more
remains to be revealed

there's another
intriguing possibility.

AATIP was the Pentagon's
secret UFO project,

successfully hidden for
years from Congress,

the media, and the public.

They certainly had
lots of unknowns

and lots of great evidence.

Testimony, technical documents,

analyses, videos,
even materials.

But by their own
admission, they didn't

have all the answers.

Maybe they had fragments
of something that

crashed but from
what we know so far,

they didn't have
an actual craft.

And they didn't have
aliens dead or alive.

Yet, for years, researchers
have claimed that's

precisely what the
government does have.

Could it be that the
reason AATIP didn't have

all the answers is that
there was another program

so secret, so deeply
buried, so cleverly hidden

that even AATIP
couldn't find it?

Luis Elizondo certainly
admits this is a possibility.

The US intelligence
community is comprised

of 17 separate organizations.

As I know only too well
from my own government

experience, there are
rivalries and jealousies

between different
agencies as they compete

for resources
influence and power.

One of the most common ways
in which these tensions

manifest themselves is
poor information sharing,

especially in the case of
highly classified information.

Intelligence officers
are understandably

reluctant to talk
to one another.

A classic example of this
was 9/11 and the 9/11

commission's final
report stated that poor

information sharing
between the CIA and

the FBI was a
contributing factor.

Even though everyone's supposed
to be on the same side,

the reality is that
people work in silos.

What if the rumors are true?

What if a secret cabal,
perhaps Majestic 12,

have known about,
managed, and covered up

the alien presence since the
Roswell incident in 1947?

Just because the Pentagon
set up their own UFO

program in 2007 doesn't
mean Majestic 12

would reach out to
people they might regard

as the new kids on the block.

And smart though Luis Elizondo
and his colleagues were,

if Majestic 12 is real,
maybe AATIP didn't find them.

UFO secrecy is like an
onion, every time you peel

away a layer, there's
another one underneath.

Now we know about AATIP,
what else might there be?

And could the revelation
about AATIP have

been a deliberate tactic?

The best way to stop people
looking for something

is to convince them
they've found it.

Now we've found AATIP,
much of the UFO community

has stopped looking
for anything else.

They think they've
found the pot of gold

at the end of the UFO rainbow.

Maybe they have but
maybe they haven't.

It's possible that outing
AATIP was deliberate,

a clever tactic designed
to distract people's

attention from something else.

The UFO community often
talks about disclosure,

they even spell it with a big D.

It's the holy grail of ufology.

To true believers, it
unfolds something like this.

The White House reaches
out to the major TV news

networks and other
mainstream media outlets.

They let it be known that
the president will address

the nation that evening
probably during prime time.

A press conference is
dually scheduled and

the president steps forward
and begins a speech that

will be heard by almost everyone
on the face of the planet

and which will fundamentally
alter our knowledge

and perception of
who we are and what

our place is in
the wider cosmos.

It will be remembered for
all time as we remember

other speeches that
changed the world.

"A day that will
live in infamy",

"I have a dream."

We can't predict exactly
what will be said

but this will be its essence:

♪♪

That's disclosure.

It's a nice idea but it's
probably never going to happen.

The problem isn't the
existence of aliens

the problem is the
inescapable implication

that the government
has known about this

for decades but lied about it.

It would be a constitutional
and legal nightmare

and would
fundamentally undermine

the credibility of
political leaders.

How could the government
get around this?

How about disclosure not with
a big D but with a little d.

Soft disclosure as opposed to
hard disclosure if you like.

What would soft
disclosure look like?

Actually it would
probably look pretty

much like what's happening now.

A situation where a group
of distinguished government,

military, intelligence,
and aviation community

professionals step
forward, speak out,

and confirm that UFOs are real.

It's a way of getting
the message out without

the government having to
do it and having to face

the myriad legal and
constitutional consequences that

might result from the open
admission of a 70 year cover up.

It's a way of getting
everyone to accept the truth

without having to expose
a decades long conspiracy

to suppress the biggest
story of all time.

Of course UFOs are
real, people will say,

I've seen it on the
TV news and read it

in my morning newspaper.

That's soft disclosure.

There's a related
theory, it's called

the acclimatization theory.

According to the
acclimatization theory,

there's an organized
government campaign

to drip feed us the truth
slowly, piece by piece,

information will be revealed.

Sometimes it might involve
the release of documents

and on other occasions it
might relate to a whistleblower

or to phots and videos of UFOs.

Proponents of the
acclimatization theory

believe the aim is
to soften people up

to gradually over
a period of decades

embed concepts of UFOs
and aliens so deeply

into our awareness
that when the reality

of extraterrestrial visitation
is finally revealed,

there won't be
panic in the streets

but a quiet acceptance.

It won't be run for the
hills, it'll be I knew it.

The bottom line is that
you don't shock people

by telling them something
they already believe.

Are the revelations
concerning the Pentagon's

UFO program part of an
acclimatization plan?

And if so, is it one
of the final moves

before the big reveal?

Might we get hard
disclosure after all?

There was to be a final
twist in the AATIP story.

In a sense, it was
the ultimate irony.

For years, conspiracy
theorists had suspected

the US government
was lying about UFOs,

covering up the truth about
an extraterrestrial reality.

Now with the existence of
AATIP in the public domain,

it was suggested there
was a different agenda.

Some people claim that
the government had made

up the evidence of
extraterrestrial visitation.

They suggested that the
real aim of all this

was to bring about a
false flag alien invasion.

The false flag alien
invasion theory postulates

that the Illuminati or
whoever people might suggest

is responsible for the UFO
cover up are deliberately

creating belief in aliens.

In this bizarre worldview,
there are no aliens,

rather the powers that
be are manufacturing

a threat that doesn't exist.

A combination of
Hollywood special effects

and government propaganda
can fake anything you like.

The second coming of Christ or,

some believe, an alien invasion.

It's been claimed that not
only do such plans exist

but that the program even has
a code name, Project BlueBeam.

Faking an alien threat is
what the man who developed

the space rocket, Wernher
von Braun, allegedly

described on his deathbed
as being the last card,

the ultimate way in which
shadowy forces would

make their bid to
take over the world.

Because if 9/11 brought
us the PATRIOT Act

which many believe was a tool
to take away various rights

and freedoms and a fake
alien invasion could allow

the Illuminati or whoever
these unseen forces

of darkness may be to sweep
away not just freedoms

but the entire
concept of nationhood.

The world would have to unite
to fight the common alien foe.

President Reagan talked
about such a scenario

in a 1987 address to the United
Nations General Assembly.

And we've seen the
scenario play out in movies

such as Independence Day,
movies that some believe

are designed to embed these
concepts into our awareness

as part of an
indoctrination process.

It would literally bring
about a new world order.

It sounds like science
fiction but if it isn't

the revelations about
AATIP may be a sign

that the diabolical plan is
about to be put into motion.

When we assess the
truth about AATIP,

perhaps we should give the
last word not to conspiracy

theorists with their bizarre
ideas or to government

press officers with
their slick soundbites,

but to Luis Elizondo, the man
who actually ran the program.

When he resigned from
government service,

he wrote a letter to
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis

expressing his frustration.

He wrote:

♪♪

An existential threat?

Coming from a man who ran
the Pentagon's UFO project,

that bombshell phrase is
probably the most disturbing

statement ever made
about UFOs by someone

with inside knowledge
of the subject.

It speaks not just to the
reality of the phenomenon

but to some deep and
terrible secret about

the true nature of UFOs
and the true motives

of these mysterious
visitors to planet Earth.

[dramatic music]