{"id":134710,"date":"2019-06-03T12:00:01","date_gmt":"2019-06-03T11:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=134710"},"modified":"2019-06-10T11:43:08","modified_gmt":"2019-06-10T10:43:08","slug":"the-media-loves-this-ufo-expert-who-says-he-worked-for-an-obscure-pentagon-program-did-he","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2019\/06\/the-media-loves-this-ufo-expert-who-says-he-worked-for-an-obscure-pentagon-program-did-he\/","title":{"rendered":"The Media Loves This UFO Expert Who Says He Worked for an Obscure Pentagon Program. Did He?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Luis Elizondo in Annapolis, Md., on Dec. 7, 2017.
Photo: Justin T. Gellerson\/The New York Times via Redux<\/p><\/div>\n

1 Jun 2019 – <\/em>One of the first\u00a0images\u00a0in the opening episode of the new History Channel show \u201cUnidentified: Inside America\u2019s UFO Investigation<\/a>\u201d is a 2017 headline from the New York Times<\/em> projected on a flickering screen: \u201cGlowing Auras and \u2018Black Money\u2019: The Pentagon\u2019s Mysterious UFO Program.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the\u00a0story<\/a>\u00a0that launched Luis Elizondo into the public eye, the article that \u201cshocked the world,\u201d the narrator of\u00a0\u201cUnidentified\u201d\u00a0declares, before continuing, \u201cA clandestine U.S. government program had been investigating UFOs. For eight years, the secret program was run by this man, Lue Elizondo.\u201d The camera then pans to a visual of the former military intelligence case officer in a darkened house peering out warily through half-drawn window shades.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an odd scene. Is Elizondo on the lookout for aliens or a bad guy from his old spook life? Either way, the History Channel show, which premiered on Friday and is being promoted as \u201cgroundbreaking nonfiction,\u201d goes on to follow Elizondo as he re-investigates strange UFO incidents he says he learned of when he was at the Pentagon running the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, known as AATIP. It\u2019s as if Agent Mulder had handed off his X-Files to another paranoid government agent, this one with a pug face and billy-goat beard. In the screener I saw for\u00a0\u201cUnidentified,\u201d the narrator says that Elizondo quit the Pentagon because he was \u201cfrustrated by what he says was a cover-up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whatever the truth about otherworldly UFOs (cue a collective eye-roll from scientists), there is one crucial detail missing from\u00a0\u201cUnidentified,\u201d as well as from all the many stories that have quoted Elizondo since he outed himself nearly two years ago to a wide-eyed news media: There is no discernible evidence that he ever worked for a government UFO program, much less led one.<\/p>\n

Yes, AATIP existed, and it \u201cdid pursue research and investigation into unidentified aerial phenomena,\u201d Pentagon spokesperson Christopher Sherwood told me. However, he added: \u201cMr. Elizondo had no responsibilities with regard to the AATIP program while he worked in OUSDI [the Office of Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence], up until the time he resigned effective 10\/4\/2017.\u201d<\/p>\n

That directly contradicts an email sent by a spokesperson for To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science, a UFO research and entertainment company that Elizondo joined after he left the Defense Department.<\/p>\n

There is no discernible evidence that\u00a0Luis Elizondo ever worked for a government UFO program, much less led one.<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The email<\/a> was sent over a year ago by Kari DeLonge, a public relations representative for To the Stars, to John Greenewald, a UFO researcher who runs an online archive of Freedom of Information Act-obtained government documents on a website called the Black Vault. At the time, Greenewald had become frustrated at the lack of tangible information about AATIP and Elizondo\u2019s role; additionally, Elizondo had spurned Greenewald\u2019s interview requests.<\/p>\n

Greenewald told me that he had asked DeLonge specifically where Elizondo worked within the Department of Defense when he ran AATIP.<\/p>\n

\u201cHi John \u2013 Thanks for reaching out,\u201d DeLonge wrote. \u201cThe program was initially run out of\u00a0[the Defense Intelligence Agency] but when Lue took it over in 2010 as Director, he ran it out of the Office for the Secretary of Defense (OSD) under the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence (USDI). Hope that clarifies.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u00a0tried contacting\u00a0Elizondo multiple times via email and his cellphone. He has not responded. It\u2019s not as if he is on retreat somewhere; I noticed that in the run-up to his star turn on the new History Channel show, he has been speaking to everyone from the New York Times<\/a> to UFO media personalities<\/a> and military bloggers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Indeed, judging by all the UFO stories lighting up the internet this week, the self-described \u201ccareer spy<\/a>\u201d is having another big moment in the media spotlight. The timing is either an auspicious coincidence or the \u201cflying saucers are here\u201d brigade\u2019s well-oiled PR machine is working overtime.<\/p>\n

Another important detail<\/u> being glossed over or entirely left out of the breathless coverage surrounding the release of \u201cUnidentified\u201d is the relationship between its executive producer, Tom DeLonge, Elizondo, and other former Pentagon officials and members of the intelligence community who appear in the show.<\/p>\n

DeLonge, a\u00a0musician of Blink-182 fame and longtime UFO enthusiast<\/a>, is the co-founder and interim CEO of\u00a0To the Stars, the company Elizondo joined in October 2017, several days after he resigned from the Department of Defense. Since the company\u2019s inception, certain members of its \u201celite team,\u201d including Elizondo, have appeared frequently in the news media.<\/p>\n

This week is a prime example. Another former Pentagon official with a prominent role in \u201cUnidentified\u201d appeared<\/a> several days ago on \u201cFox & Friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that UFOs exist,\u201d Chris Mellon, a deputy assistant secretary of defense for intelligence in the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations, pronounced on the show. \u201cThis is no longer an issue. The issue is why are they here? Where are they coming from? And what is the technology behind these devices that we are observing?\u201d<\/p>\n

Mellon, like Elizondo, works for To the Stars (his title, according to the company\u2019s website, is national security affairs adviser). \u201cFox & Friends\u201d neglected to mention this connection, along with the fact that the History Channel show was made by the company Elizondo and Mellon work for.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not surprised. By now, Elizondo and Mellon have come to rely on a largely passive and credulous press<\/a> to generate sensational UFO headlines.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The Pentagon on April 23, 2015.
Photo: Saul Loeb\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n

Amid the mountain<\/u> of media coverage of Elizondo in the last two years, I have found only one story that provides official confirmation that he headed the government UFO program known as AATIP.<\/p>\n

\u201cPentagon spokeswoman Dana White confirmed to Politico that the program existed and was run by Elizondo,\u201d Bryan Bender wrote<\/a> in December 2017. (Earlier this year, White, a Trump administration political appointee, resigned<\/a> amid an internal probe into charges<\/a> of misconduct.)<\/p>\n

But Pentagon spokesperson Christopher Sherwood told me that he \u201ccannot confirm\u201d White\u2019s statement.<\/p>\n

As it happens, Bender, who is Politico\u2019s defense editor, had a recurring role in the first episode of \u201cUnidentified.\u201d He appeared on camera numerous times as a kind of authoritative character witness for Elizondo, Mellon, and their UFO investigations.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you were trying to come up with the A-team of former, high-level government officials who would come forward on this issue, you can\u2019t really think of a better team,\u201d Bender says in the screener. \u201cLue Elizondo, Chris Mellon \u2014 these guys still have security clearances, still have networks in Washington, still are in the business, if you will.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that UFOs exist.\u00a0This is no longer an issue. The issue is why are they here? Where are they coming from? And what is the technology behind these devices that we are observing?\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That last part sounds like a cryptic reference to contract work they might be doing for a U.S. intelligence agency or some other government entity. Elizondo confirmed to me earlier this year that he is, in fact, working as a government contractor, \u201cbut it\u2019s not what you think it is,\u201d he said. Mellon did not respond to my request for comment.<\/p>\n

In the feverish UFO community,\u00a0in which conspiracy theories have long thrived<\/a> like a mutating virus (sometimes with good reason<\/a>), some<\/a> suspect that DeLonge is being played like a useful idiot \u2014 and that his To the Stars Academy is a front for some kind of black ops project.<\/p>\n

If he is not a stooge, he is certainly an odd figure for Mellon and Elizondo to hitch their wagons to.<\/p>\n

In fact, the whole origin story of To the Stars, which DeLonge recapped in a bizarre public rollout<\/a>\u00a0in October 2017 and in an even more bizarre interview<\/a> with podcast host Joe Rogan, is pretty bananas. In sum, DeLonge claims that he is the military\u2019s chosen vessel for UFO disclosure.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy you?\u201d Rogan asked on his podcast. \u201cWhat could you do?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCommunication,\u201d DeLong responded. \u201cThey don\u2019t have a way to make a movie, a book. They don\u2019t have a way to go on a show like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth noting that, several years before DeLonge took on this momentous communications assignment, he created a website called Strange Times that was essentially a clearinghouse for UFO news and conspiracies. \u201cThink of it as a Huffington Post for the tin-foil-helmet wearing crowd<\/a>,\u201d wrote one music blogger.<\/p>\n

Somehow, we are to believe that this is the mindset with which staid former members of the military and intelligence community sought to join forces. But perhaps there\u2019s a more innocent answer. To the Stars, which raised more than $2 million<\/a> from investors, was originally hyped<\/a> as a UFO research company that would explore the \u201couter\u00a0edges of science,\u201d but its Security and Exchange Commission filing<\/a> identifies it as a \u201cMotion Picture & Video Tape Production\u201d concern.<\/p>\n

That designation seems appropriate now with the making of \u201cUnidentified,\u201d which lists DeLonge as executive producer. (He is also prominently featured in the show.) He appears to be having the last laugh at everyone who called him looney tunes<\/a> for having chased<\/a> after Bigfoot and flying saucers in the Nevada desert.<\/p>\n

The Advanced Aerospace<\/u> Threat Identification Program received widespread press coverage after Elizondo disclosed its existence almost two years ago. \u201cYou can laugh if you want, but a lot of people are taking this revelation seriously,\u201d Brett Baer\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0on Fox News days after the New York Times\u00a0broke the story<\/a>\u00a0with its lavish front-page Sunday spread on December 17, 2017.<\/p>\n

Virtually overnight, Elizondo went from living \u201cin the shadows<\/a>,\u201d in his words, to hopscotching between cable news studios, where he talked gravely about \u00a0hypersonic, gravity-defying \u201cunidentified aerial vehicles\u201d that, in recent years, had encroached on military training areas in restricted airspace. Many of these reports were conveniently illustrated with videos taken from cockpit cameras of F-18 fighter jets that Elizondo had arranged for the Pentagon to release<\/a> just before he quit. The grainy footage of tiny, darting objects, combined with Elizondo\u2019s earnest\u00a0claims<\/a>\u00a0of \u201ccompelling evidence\u201d for \u201cphenomena\u201d he couldn\u2019t identify, made for great television. (Sherwood, the Pentagon spokesperson, said the videos were released \u201cfor research purposes \u2026 and not for general public release,\u201d which seems a meaningless distinction given their widespread use by news organizations.)<\/p>\n

Months later, after the attention from the mainstream media died down, Elizondo hit the UFO banquet circuit, where he stroked the egos of believers. \u201cPeople may have associated you with being fringe or out there,\u201d he told<\/a> one rapt audience of hundreds at a UFO conference last July. \u201cAll along, you were right.\u201d It was the first public forum in which Elizondo laid out the history and objectives of the AATIP; soundbites from his talk were sprinkled throughout\u00a0the first episode of \u201cUnidentified.\u201d<\/p>\n

By then, though, longtime UFO researchers were having trouble finding out what the program exactly did, as well as the scope of Elizondo\u2019s role.\u00a0FOIA requests were turning up dry.<\/p>\n

The grainy footage of tiny, darting objects, combined with Elizondo\u2019s earnest\u00a0claims\u00a0of \u201ccompelling evidence\u201d for \u201cphenomena\u201d he couldn\u2019t identify, made for great television.<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Elizondo was ready for them. \u201cIn the Department of Defense, there\u2019s always a paper trail,\u201d he told the audience at the UFO conference. \u201cWhen you establish an organization, there\u2019s a paper trail. When you dis-establish an organization, there\u2019s a paper trail. You won\u2019t find one for this program.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some dubious, unofficial documents leaked out<\/a> to George Knapp, a Las Vegas TV journalist who, for decades, has been a fixture in the UFO media orbit. Knapp has been a vocal defender of Elizondo and DeLonge for the past two years, pushing back on critics who have raised thorny questions about To the Stars. Knapp also purchased stock in the company, something he has not always revealed to readers and viewers in his reporting.<\/p>\n

In an email to The Intercept, Knapp acknowledged buying 400 shares of\u00a0the academy\u2019s stock in 2018, \u201cnot as an investment, but as a way to support their fledgling company and their work.\u201d He wrote that he had \u201cmade that information public\u201d and \u201cinformed\u201d his employer\u201d at KLAS-TV in Las Vegas. Knapp also said that he put the shares in a trust that \u201cwould be donated to a charity.\u201d He believes that transaction has been completed and that he now owns \u201czero stock\u201d in the company, he wrote.<\/p>\n

As it happens, Knapp also appeared in the first episode of \u201cUnidentified,\u201d lauding DeLonge for his \u201cunprecedented\u201d efforts in advancing the UFO issue.<\/p>\n

Another fixture in the UFO orbit is John Greenewald, the FOIA researcher and a sort of antithesis to Knapp. Initially enthusiastic about To the Stars, Greenewald became increasingly skeptical when he was unable to verify many of Elizondo\u2019s claims about the government\u2019s UFO program through FOIA requests and conversations with Pentagon representatives. So last year, Greenewald reached out to To the Stars spokesperson Kari DeLonge (Tom\u2019s sister) for more information about Elizondo\u2019s involvement in AATIP.<\/p>\n

I mentioned Kari DeLonge\u2019s response \u2014 about Elizondo having taken over AATIP and run it \u201cout of the Office for the Secretary of Defense (OSD) under the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence (USDI)\u201d \u2014 to Sherwood, the Pentagon spokesperson who had told me unequivocally that Elizondo \u201chad no responsibilities with regard to the AATIP program while he worked in OUSDI.\u201d<\/p>\n

I then asked Sherwood how he knew that Elizondo hadn\u2019t worked for AATIP during his time with the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, where he\u00a0was based from\u00a02008 until his retirement in 2017. Sherwood said he\u2019d spoken with OUSDI leadership, including individuals who are \u201cstill there\u201d from the time when Elizondo started working in the office.<\/p>\n

Maybe Elizondo was running AATIP under the purview of another office or agency within the Department of Defense? Sherwood acknowledged that Elizondo \u201cworked for other organizations in DoD.\u201d But that, too, would have contradicted Kari DeLonge\u2019s statement to Greenewald.<\/p>\n

Kari DeLonge\u00a0did not respond\u00a0to multiple requests for comment.<\/p>\n

It bears noting that, although Elizondo has made a point of providing various documents to reporters (including me) to establish his bona fides,\u00a0he does not appear to have supplied any materials that validate his connection to the government UFO program he insists he led. No memorandums, no emails discussing deliverables or findings, and no paperwork addressed to or from him that connects him to AATIP.<\/p>\n

The documents he has provided include recent annual Defense Department performance evaluations and his October 4, 2017 resignation letter to then-Defense Secretary James Mattis, which bears the apparent seal of the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense. In the letter, Elizondo alludes to internal opposition at the Pentagon to investigate UFOs that he wrote had menaced Navy Pilots and posed an \u201cexistential threat to our national security.\u201d He was leaving, he strongly implied in his letter, because the Pentagon wasn\u2019t taking that threat seriously.<\/p>\n

The letter does not mention AATIP or Elizondo\u2019s role as its director.<\/p>\n

In \u201cUnidentified,\u201d Politico\u2019s<\/u> Bender describes Elizondo as \u201cin many ways, an enigma. Here is a guy who spent decades in the intelligence community.\u201d<\/p>\n

That much appears to be true. Elizondo retired as an official at the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence. A public records search also reveals a series of home addresses for Elizondo over the last two decades that are close to intelligence facilities\u00a0in Toa Baja, Puerto Rico (the site of an unacknowledged government surveillance program called \u201cEchelon\u201d) and in Grovetown, Georgia.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing from Georgia, I can assure you, there is no reason anyone in their right mind would live in Grovetown unless they were working at Fort Gordon, home of the Army\u2019s principle signals intelligence units and school,\u201d Tim McMillan<\/a>, who, like Greenewald, has a longtime interest in UFOs but has\u00a0 come to doubt Elizondo\u2019s involvement with any government UFO program.<\/p>\n

In 2017, when Elizondo outed himself to the Times, he was portrayed as a reluctant whistleblower and a little paranoid<\/a>.\u00a0The three reporters who shared bylines on the story, including freelancer Leslie Kean (who wrote in 2016 that she was \u201cprivileged to welcome<\/a>\u201d Chris Mellon into the UFO organization to which she belonged)\u00a0met\u00a0Elizondo\u00a0in a \u201cnondescript Washington hotel where he sat with his back to the wall, keeping an eye on the door.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the\u00a0Times\u2019s podcast, \u201cThe Daily<\/a>,\u201d Helene Cooper, the newspaper\u2019s Pentagon correspondent, described Elizondo as a \u201cspooky, secretive guy\u201d but added that he was \u201ccompletely credible.\u201d He showed her documents, pictures, and military videos of potential UFOs, which appeared fantastic to her, but also persuasive. \u201cI did believe him,\u201d Cooper said on the podcast. \u201cIt seemed completely credible to me in the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later on, after she left the hotel room, Cooper acknowledged that doubts crept in. In the end, though, she decided that what mattered most was whether the Pentagon\u2019s UFO program was real. That, she said, was the focus of the story.<\/p>\n

_______________________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Keith Kloor is a New York City-based journalist who works at the intersection of science, culture, and politics.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 theintercept.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1 Jun 2019 – There is no discernible evidence that Luis Elizondo ever worked for a government UFO program, much less led one\u2026 \u201cWe know that UFOs exist. This is no longer an issue. The issue is why are they here? Where are they coming from? And what is the technology behind these devices that we are observing?\u201d\u2026 The grainy footage of tiny, darting objects, combined with Elizondo\u2019s earnest claims of \u201ccompelling evidence\u201d for \u201cphenomena\u201d he couldn\u2019t identify, made for great television.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":134713,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,62,49,145],"tags":[1156,378,234,112,1157,70],"class_list":["post-134710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-militarism","category-media","category-current-affairs","category-science","tag-extraterrestrial-life","tag-journalism","tag-media","tag-pentagon","tag-space-science","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}