UFOs - Excerpts from AARO's reports Published online (January 2025). In green: my comments.
My
title says "reports", but this is actually just from AARO's Report on
the Historical Record of U.S. Government Involvement with Unidentified
Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), Volume I, February 2024. I plan to put here
the next reports too, that's the reason for the title. The whole report can be
found here.
In most cases, AARO omits the names of people and organizations. In sections I-IV, after introduction, summary, scope and assumptions, the report describes the various programs that studied UFOs since 1945. Here I skip that and go straight to the end of section IV, where the report talks about AAWSAP/AATIP (2009-2012). Before that, a little summary of that story, courtesy of Wikipedia: Skinwalker Ranch, previously known as Sherman Ranch, is a property located in Utah that is reputed to be the site of paranormal and UFO-related activities. Claims about the ranch first appeared in 1996 in the Deseret News, and later in the Las Vegas Mercury as a series of articles by George Knapp. The claims included mutilated cattle, orbs, bigfoot-like creatures, crop circles and invisible objects emitting destructive magnetic fields. In 1996 Robert Bigelow, founder of Bigelow Aerospace and National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS, where Eric Davis is director for aerospace and astrophysics research), purchases the ranch for 200.000 USD. In 2005 Colm Kelleher and George Knapp publish the book Hunt for the Skinwalker. Kelleher and Knapp's book gets read by DIA official James Lacatski, who contacts Bigelow and obtains permission to visit the ranch. Lacatski has a supernatural experience there, which Bigelow relays to his friend Senator Harry Reid. Reid agrees that the ranch deserves attention and inserts a line into the DoD budget appropriating 22 million USD to study UFOs through the new AAWSAP/AATIP, research program led by Lacatski. In the same period, to study UFOs, Bigelow creates the Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS), with Hal Puthoff as chief scientist (and chief science advisor to AAWSAP/AATIP). AAWSAP and BAASS publish non-peer-reviewed articles by Puthoff and Davis among the others. Puthoff is the scientist who back in the 1970s and 1980s studied remote viewing for the Stargate Project (DIA, 20 million USD), studying among the others Uri Geller and concluding he was legit. In 2009 Lou Elizondo gets recruited by AATIP, in 2010 he becomes director. In 2012 the program gets terminated but in 2017 Elizondo and Christopher Mellon join To The Stars (TTS), founded by Puthoff and Tom DeLonge. In 2016 Bigelow sells Skinwalker Ranch to Adamantium Real Estate for around 500.000 USD. Puthoff and Davis still run EarthTech International (ex IASA, Institute for Advanced Studies at Austin, founded by Puthoff in 1985) to pursue energy generation and propulsion research. Not from Wikipedia: David Grusch explains that, with those 22 million USD used for AAWSAP/AATIP, Harry Reid was actually trying to fund a suitable holding structure to obtain, manage and study the alien material held by Lockheed Martin, but the CIA did not allow it, so the funds were diverted to Skinwalker Ranch and other UFO research. This summary is important because while AARO can only use the expression "private sector organization", it usually refers to these same people who are moving back and forth from one acronym to another, each person reporting and supporting the claims of other people from that same group, with a telephone game/echo result, as AARO itself concludes towards the end of the report. At the direction of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), the Defense Appropriations Acts of Fiscal Years 2008 and 2010 appropriated 22 million USD for the DIA to assess long-term and over-the-horizon foreign advanced aerospace threats to the United States. In coordination with the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, DIA established AAWSAP in 2009, which was also known AATIP. The contract for this DIA-managed program was awarded to a private sector organization. Note on program names: The names AAWSAP and AATIP have been used interchangeably for the name of this program, including on official documentation. Unlike AAWSAP, AATIP was never an official DoD program. However, after AAWSAP was cancelled, the AATIP moniker was used by some individuals associated with an informal, unofficial UAP community of interest within DoD that researched UAP sightings from military observers as part of their ancillary job duties. This effort was not a recognized, official program, and had no dedicated personnel or budget. - The primary purpose of AAWSAP/AATIP was to investigate potential next generation aerospace technologies in 12 specific areas - such as advanced lift, propulsion, the use of unconventional materials and controls, and signature reduction. - Although investigating UFO/UAP was not specifically outlined in the contract's statement of work, the selected private sector organization conducted UFO research with the support of the DIA program manager. This research included: reviewing new cases and much older Project BLUE BOOK cases, operating debriefing and investigatory teams, and proposals to set up laboratories to examine any recovered UFO materials. - AAWSAP/AATIP also investigated an alleged hotspot of UAP and paranormal activity at a property in Utah - which at that time was owned by the head of the private sector organization - including examining reports of "shadow figures" and "creatures", and exploring "remote viewing" and "human consciousness anomalies". The organization also planned to hire psychics to study "inter-dimensional phenomena" believed to frequently appear at that location. - DIA did not seek, nor specifically authorize, this work though a DIA employee set up and managed the contract with the private sector organization. - On 24 June 2009, Senator Reid sent a letter to then Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn III requesting that AAWSAP/AATIP be made a DoD Special Access Program. Deputy Secretary Lynn declined to do so based on the recommendation of then-Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, James R. Clapper, Jr., that such a designation was not justified. - Just prior to DoD's cancellation of the program, the private sector organization proposed as a new line of effort to host a series of "intellectual debates" at academic institutes to influence the public debate, which included hiring supportive reporters and celebrity moderators. The goal of this proposed public relations campaign was to assume that "E.T. visitations are true" and that the moderators would steer debate away from "dead-end discussions" and the "morass" about discussing "evidence". A stated goal of this proposal was to increase public interest in government "disclosure" around the "E.T. topic" and explore the consequences of disclosure on the public. Results: The AAWSAP/AATIP contract with the private sector organization produced exploratory papers addressing the 12 scientific areas tasked in the contract's statement of work. These scientific papers were never thoroughly peer reviewed. - AARO has yet to uncover any other substantive UAP case work conducted by AAWSAP/AATIP. Instead, AAWSAP/AATIP reviewed a large number of Project BLUE BOOK and private cases and conducted interviews of UAP observers and conducted unrelated work on alleged paranormal activities at the private sector organization's property in Utah. - AAWSAP/AATIP was terminated in 2012 upon the completion of its deliverables due to DIA and DoD concerns about the project. - After AAWSAP/AATIP was terminated, its supporters unsuccessfully attempted to convince the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to support a new version of this effort dubbed KONA BLUE. Section IV goes on explaining how the UAP Task Force (UAPTF) and then AARO came to be (see my Nimitz page and Grusch page for that), their first findings and reports, and it ends with "Foreign and Academic Investigatory Efforts" of the same kind. Section V gets to the heart of the matter and it refers to the most recent claims. You will see that we still struggle in the same marsh: both parties (AARO and witnesses) keep the secret on the names of people and organizations, and we are left wondering about who said what to whom. Especially when you think that, according to Grusch, none of his witnesses spoke with AARO, and yet what AARO calls "first narrative" is the same as the one reported by Grusch's witnesses. That could be due to the fact that some of Grusch's witnesses (and Grusch himself) inevitably spoke with some of the people who then spoke with AARO. Some stories are recognizable, some are not, hence my comments. One last thing, before we proceed with AARO's interviews. It is apparent that there's a whole group of people in the "UFO community" who can't be trusted, even if I think in most cases their intentions are good. However, it's not like if you ask the DoD about its involvement with any illegal operation, the DoD will reply: "Ah, yeah, on that day we did this and that...". Any governmental and non-governmental organization has every reason to lie and deny its involvement with alien material even if it's involved with alien material. AARO assesses that two main narratives have emerged, with various and potentially unrelated offshoots: Primary Narrative
The primary narrative alleges that the US government and industry partners are in possession of and are testing off-world technology that has been concealed from congressional oversight and the world since approximately 1964, and possibly since 1947, if the Roswell events are included. The narrative asserts that this UAP program possesses as many as 12 extraterrestrial spacecraft. - An AARO interviewee claimed in a thirdhand account that an organization was in possession of 12 spacecraft recovered from different crash events prior to 1970. Some of the craft allegedly were "intact". The interviewee also stated that the CIA had a partnership with the company that ended in 1989 and wanted all material returned to the CIA. AARO discovered no empirical evidence supporting these claims. - An interviewee claimed that an organization was in possession of off-world material in 2009 and 2010. A separate interviewee stated they participated in negotiations to return the material to the US government. The same interviewee stated that a former named senior CIA official quashed the proposal to remove the material from the corporation. This is the Lockheed Martin UFO. - A separate interviewee claimed that circa 1999, a former, senior U.S. military officer told the interviewee that he touched the surface of an extraterrestrial spacecraft. The interviewee stated that the senior officer gave a detailed description of a craft floating in a building. The officer told the interviewee that approximately 150 individuals were working on the program and that the program was kept "outside of government" so the technology could remain proprietary. - Two interviewees said they participated in an alleged White House-tasked UAP study in Northern Virginia sometime between 2004 and 2007. The study evaluated the impacts to society should the United States, Russia, or China disclose they had evidence of extraterrestrial beings or craft. One interviewee assumed these governments possessed such evidence. The study was conducted by approximately 12 participants who evaluated 64 different aspects of society, such as religion and financial markets, which could be impacted by such a disclosure. The study lasted one day, and the interviewee was not aware of any final report or to whom any report may have been delivered. - Another interviewee claimed that in the 1990s he overhead electronic communication of a conversation between two military bases where scientists claimed "aliens" were present during specialized materials testing. The interviewee also reported that on another occasion in the 1990s he observed an "unidentified flying object" at a U.S. military facility. The interviewee described the object as exhibiting a peculiar flight pattern. This should be the Nellis UFO. - An interviewee who is a former U.S. service member said that in 2009, while participating in a humanitarian and security mission in a foreign country, he encountered "U.S. Special Forces" loading containers onto a large extraterrestrial spacecraft. This is Michael Herrera's story. - A separate interviewee said that a family member was part of an effort to reverse- engineer an object assumed to be off-world technology in the 1980s. The engineers failed to reverse-engineer the object and it was sent to a different facility for further evaluation. - An interviewee pointed out to AARO the existence of an alleged leaked Special National Intelligence Estimate from 1961 as proof of the existence of UAP crashes. AARO obtained a copy of the document through open-source research and evaluated its authenticity. - Some interviewees and public accounts underpin this storyline by claiming through second and thirdhand accounts that some NDAs may have been used to protect a "reverse-engineering program of off-world technology". These accounts describe the NDAs as including "punishment by death" provisions should the signatory disclose information about the program. Some interviewees claimed "verbal" and written NDAs were administered in several instances. Secondary Narrative
The
other
narrative is that a cluster of UAP sightings that occurred in close
proximity to U.S. nuclear facilities have resulted in the
malfunctioning and destruction of nuclear missiles and a test reentry
vehicle. AARO interviewed five former USAF members who served in and
around U.S. intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) silos at
Malmstrom (Robert
Salas's story), Ellsworth, Vandenberg, and Minot
USAF bases between 1966 and 1977. Some of these individuals claim UAP
sightings near the silos, while others claim UAP disruptions to ICBM
operations. Specifically, they said the ICBM launch control facilities
went offline or experienced total power failure. Additionally, one
interviewee and a USAF videographer claimed to have observed and
recorded a UAP destroying an ICBM loaded with a "dummy" warhead,
mid-flight (the
famous Big Sur UFO incident, a misunderstanding well
explained in a forgotten article
by someone who was working right there
and right then).
AARO is researching U.S. and adversarial activity related to these
events, including any U.S. programs that tested defensive ballistic
missile capabilities.
Findings
AARO investigated and reached conclusions on the majority of the claims made in these narratives. In most cases, AARO was able to locate the companies, people, and programs that were conveyed to AARO through interviews. AARO will report the results of the unresolved allegations in Volume II. AARO's findings to date are as follows: No Official UAP Nondisclosure Agreements Discovered. In the conduct of this review, and to meet the direction of Section 1673 of the NDAA for FY 2023, AARO sent guidance and requests to DoD, IC elements, DOE, and DHS to review and provide any NDAs pertaining to UAP (or its previous names). To date, AARO personnel have not discovered or been notified of any NDAs that contain information related to UAP. Also, apart from the standard NDA language contained in Title 18, Section 794 describing the death penalty or jail time for illegally disclosing information relating to the national defense, AARO has not discovered any NDAs containing threats to interviewees for disclosing UAP-specific information. Historically, most if not all NDAs contained standard language stating that the death penalty can be applied for the crime of disclosing classified information. Title 18, Section 794, is referenced in typical NDAs in several places in relation to the transmission of classified information: "Whoever, with intent or reason to believe that it is to be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of a foreign nation, communicates, delivers, or transmits (...) information relating to the national defense, shall be punished by death or by imprisonment for any term of years or for life (...)". Former CIA Official Involvement in Movement of Alleged Material Recovered from a UAP Crash Denied on the Record. AARO interviewed and obtained a signed statement from the former CIA official who was specifically named by AARO interviewees. The former official stated he had no knowledge of any aspect of this allegation. The allegation included the claimed crash of the objects, the possession of the resultant material by the US government and the private sector, and the attempt to transfer material that was purported to be of off-world origin. This reverse-engineering program allegedly occurred at the named facility in the 2009-2010 time frame. Interviewees allege that a separate interviewee from the facility attempted to set up a meeting to return material to the US government in 2010, but that the former CIA official stopped the transfer from industry to the US government. The interviewee alleged to have stopped the transfer denied these allegations. The former CIA official stated that he had no knowledge of any extraterrestrial material in the possession of the US government or any other organization. The official signed a Memorandum for the Record (MFR) attesting to the truthfulness of his statements. This is the Lockheed Martin UFO. The 1961 Special National Intelligence Estimate on "UFOs" Assessed to be Not Authentic. An interviewee brought to AARO's attention the existence of an alleged Special National Intelligence Estimate (SNIE), dated November 5, 1961, titled: "Critical Aspects of Unidentified Flying Objects and the Nuclear Threat to the Defense of the United States and its Allies". Through open-source research, AARO obtained a copy of the document. After discussions with the CIA's Center for the Study of Intelligence (CSI), the NSA Scientific Studies Board (one of the alleged authors), and research comparing this document to a number of known SNIEs and National Intelligence Estimates, AARO concluded the document is not authentic. NSA archives were searched because "the NSA Scientific Advisory Board" purportedly was one of the document's authors. CIA/CSI and NSA did not possess nor have knowledge of the document. AARO found the document lacked IC tradecraft standards and possessed significant inconsistencies with SNIE's and National Intelligence Estimates of the general time period. These inconsistencies included: the document's short length, incorrect formatting, inconsistent branding, lack of a dissemination block and coordination language, loose narrative style, convoluted logic, imprecise and casual language, and its superficial treatment of globally significant issues. Aliens Observing Material Test a Likely Misunderstanding of an Authentic, Non-UAP Program Activity. AARO determined this account most likely amounted to a misunderstanding. The conversation likely referenced a test and evaluation unit that had a nickname with "alien" connotations at the specific installation mentioned. The nature of the test described by the interviewee closely matched the description of a specific materials test conveyed to AARO investigators. Allegation that a Former U.S. military Service Member Touched an Extraterrestrial Spacecraft. An interviewee stated that a former military member, who was also an interviewee, had stated that he had touched an off-world aircraft. AARO contacted and interviewed the former military member who denied any knowledge of off-world technology in possession of the US government, a private contractor, or any other foreign or domestic entity. The former military member attested that he could not remember if this encounter with the original interviewee had ever occurred, but opined that if it had happened, the only situation that he might have conveyed was the time when he touched an F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighter at a facility. The former military member signed an MFR attesting to the truthfulness of his account. The UAP with Peculiar Characteristics Refers to an Authentic, Non-UAP-Related SAP. AARO was able to correlate this account with an authentic US government program because the interviewee was able to provide a relatively precise time and location of the sighting which they observed exhibiting strange characteristics. At the time the interviewee said he observed the event, DoD was conducting tests of a platform protected by a SAP. The seemingly strange characteristics reported by the interviewee match closely with the platform's characteristics, which was being tested at a military facility in the time frame the interviewee was there. This program is not related in any way to the exploitation of off-world technology. This should be the Nellis UFO. Extraterrestrial Disclosure Study Confirmed; Not White House-Sponsored. An organization in Northern Virginia did conduct a study between 2004 and 2007 on the societal effects should the United States or other world governments disclose they have evidence of extraterrestrial life. Interviewees believed the White House sponsored it. AARO confirmed through two former White House senior officials that the White House did not request it, nor were they aware of any such study. Aerospace Companies Denied Involvement in Recovering Extraterrestrial Craft. AARO met with high-ranking officials, including executives and chief technology officers, of the named companies. All denied the existence of these programs, and attested to the truthfulness of their statements on the record. Sample
of Alleged Alien Spacecraft is an Ordinary, Terrestrial, Metal
Alloy. AARO learned through an interviewee that a private
sector
organization claimed to have in its possession material from an
extraterrestrial craft recovered from a crash at an unknown location
from the 1940s or 1950s. The organization claimed that the material had
the potential to
act as a THz frequency waveguide, and therefore, could exhibit
"anti-gravity" and "mass reduction" properties under the appropriate
conditions. The organization that owned the material negotiated an
agreement in 2019 with the U.S. Army to analyze the samples. With
permission from the stakeholders, AARO acquired this sample to conduct
more in-depth analyses. This
is an old
story brought back to life by
To The Stars.
- AARO and a leading science laboratory concluded that the material is a metallic alloy, terrestrial in nature, and possibly of USAF origin, based on its materials characterization. It was also assessed that the material is mostly composed of magnesium, and the bismuth present was not a pure layer per initial claims. - The U.S. Army had also conducted in-house analysis on the sample, and while AARO generally agrees with its conclusions, AARO found that the structure was not purely layered magnesium alloy and bismuth. AARO assesses that a separate private sector organization's recreation of this metallic sample was almost certainly conflated with claims that the aerospace industry was attempting to reverse-engineer off-world technology. Prior to AARO's acquisition of the sample, the organization fabricated a replica of the sample to determine if it could be done. - The same organization made an attempt to replicate the sample at the same specific location cited by the interviewee as the location where the interviewee alleged to have participated in discussions about transferring UAP crash materials. The claim that extraterrestrial technology was being reverse-engineered almost certainly was conflated with this material fabrication. AARO Investigating Unresolved Historical Nuclear-Related UAP Cases. Like all historical UAP cases, very little actionable data exists beyond limited firsthand narrative accounts. Nevertheless, AARO continues to investigate these cases due to the sensitive nature of these events potentially impacting the readiness of the U.S. nuclear program. Although AARO has not been able to recover the alleged film of the ballistic missile reentry vehicle being shot down by a UAP in 1964, AARO was able to correlate the general time and location with an antiballistic missile test, which could have been the genesis for this observation. There you go, I just helped AARO with an old PDF, you're welcome. In Section VI, AARO reports about its investigation on numerous programs alleged to involve UAP. Not much to see here, except what I mentioned at the end of my initial summary. Everything seems to go back to AAWSAP/AATIP and KONA BLUE. KONA BLUE: A Proposed UAP
Recovery and Reverse-Engineering Program
KONA BLUE was brought to AARO's attention by interviewees who claimed that it was a sensitive DHS compartment to cover up the retrieval and exploitation of "non-human biologics". KONA BLUE traces its origins to the DIA-managed AAWSAP/AATIP program, which was funded through a special appropriation and executed by its primary contractor, a private sector organization. DIA cancelled the program in 2012 due to lack of merit and the utility of the deliverables. As discussed in Section IV of this report, while the official purpose of AAWSAP/AATIP was to conduct research into 12 areas of cutting edge science, the contractor team, and at least one supportive government program manager, also conducted UAP and paranormal research at a property owned by the private sector organization. When DIA cancelled this program, its supporters proposed to DHS that they create and fund a new version of AAWSAP/AATIP under a SAP. This proposal, codenamed KONA BLUE, would restart UAP investigations, paranormal research (including alleged "human consciousness anomalies") and reverse-engineer any recovered off-world spacecraft that they hoped to acquire. This proposal gained some initial traction at DHS to the point where a Prospective Special Access Program (PSAP) was officially requested to stand up this program, but it was eventually rejected by DHS leadership for lacking merit. As demonstrated by the proposal package and by statements from the originator, Senators Lieberman and Reid asked that the PSAP be established with the promise of additional funding. The proposed KONA BLUE lines of effort closely mirrored those conducted by the private sector organization for AAWSAP/AATIP. KONA BLUE's advocates were convinced that the US government was hiding UAP technologies. They believed that creating this program under DHS would allow all of the technology and knowledge of these alleged programs to be moved under the KONA BLUE program. The program would provide a security and governing structure where it could be monitored properly by congressional oversight committees. This belief was foundational for the KONA BLUE proposal, based on the proposal documents and several interviewees who have provided the same information to AARO and Congress. The Oral History Initiative section of the KONA BLUE proposal was to collect data: "(...) from an already identified and calibrated list of retired, previously highly placed government, armed services, contractor and intelligence community individuals. The oral history project will include gathering all information pertaining to the location of advanced aerospace technology and biological samples, including records, files, reports, photographs, as well as physical samples". It is critical to note that no extraterrestrial craft or bodies were ever collected - this material was only assumed to exist by KONA BLUE advocates and its anticipated contract performers. This was the same assumption made by those same individuals involved with the AAWSAP/AATIP program. The SAP was never approved or stood up, and no data or material was transferred to DHS. - KONA BLUE was not reported to Congress at that time because it was never established as a SAP and, therefore, did not meet the threshold for congressional reporting. However, the Deputy Secretary of Defense provided a Congressional Notification concerning the program when it was identified in the spirit of transparency. (...)
Nexus of Proponents of the US
government UAP
Reverse-Engineering Allegation AARO found no empirical evidence that any UAP investigatory effort since 1945 - foreign, domestic, government, private, or academic - has ever uncovered verifiable information regarding the recovery or existence of extraterrestrial beings or crafts. Although AARO continues to conduct interviews, research programs, and pursue investigatory leads, AARO's work has resulted in disproving the majority of these claims using the verifiable information made within those claims. AARO researched and interviewed numerous people, programs, and leads. It has determined that modern allegations that the US government is hiding off-world technology and beings largely originate from the same group of individuals who have ties to the cancelled AAWSAP/AATIP program and a private sector organization's paranormal research efforts. These individuals have worked with each other consistently in various UAP-related efforts. - Persons 1-5 and Interviewees 1, 3, 9, 12, 13, and 14 have repeatedly voiced these claims in various public and private venues, and they have petitioned Congress in various capacities on UAP issues. They have not provided any empirical evidence of their claims to AARO. - Persons 1 and 3 and Interviewees 1, 3, and 12 were involved with the paranormal research conducted under AAWSAP/AATIP. - Person 5 and Interviewees 3, 9 and 14 were involved with the alleged crashed UAP materials that were provided to the U.S. Army and subsequently to AARO for examination. - Persons 4, 7, and 8 and Interviewees 1, 3, and 13 investigated UAP on their own and were responsible for successfully expanding the remit of an existing IC program to include UAP exploitation language. - AARO notes that Persons 1 and 4 never formally sat down with AARO to provide official, signed statements; these individuals have been mentioned by other interviewees frequently as sources of their claims. Person 8 held an informal interview and Interviewee 14 sat for an official interview but has not signed the memo for the record documenting this interview. Section VII is about the historical context of UAP investigatory efforts since 1945. Section VIII is about some U.S. national security and space programs that most likely accounted for some portion of UAP sightings. Section IX: conclusion. Overall, if you are a truth seeker, I suggest that you always keep in mind three dots in the shape of a triangle, three groups of people, and see how they interact with each other: the DoD, with paranoid liars who must defend and deny, defend and deny, doesn't matter if there's nothing to defend in the room they are defending; the pseudoscience community, always desperately trying to achieve legitimacy and funds; the people with first-hand experience, who saw alien material or UFOs, or who think they did but in fact they didn't, or who purposely lie about it. It seems to me that often the people from one group don't know about - and don't have the antibodies to react to - the other groups, which leads to decades-long misunderstandings. ![]() Related pages The
Nimitz incident - Timeline, resources, hypotheses,
questions.
Published online (December 2020). David Grusch and his witnesses - Trying to make sense of this mess. Published online (October 2023). The retrieval program - As reported by Grusch's witnesses. Published online (September 2024). Excerpts from AARO's reports - Was it all a misunderstanding? Published online (January 2025). |
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