How Lue Elizondo Saved AATIP

Ever since Lue Elizondo emerged as a whistleblower in the New York Times in 2017, the Pentagon has constantly changed their story about him. First they acknowledged he ran the UFO program, then they said it wasn’t a UFO program and Lue wasn’t involved. Lue claims it’s retaliation for going public, and filed an Inspector General complaint. Let’s get to the bottom of what Lue did in AAWSAP/AATIP, how he became the director of a reduced version of AATIP, and how he came to leave the Pentagon in protest.

Pentagon Denials:

Dec 2017: Elizondo ran AATIP
- “A Pentagon spokesperson confirmed to POLITICO that the program existed and was run by Elizondo.”
May 2019: AATIP was a UFO program
- “[AATIP] did pursue research and investigation into UAP.”
Jun 2019: Elizondo had no role in AATIP
- “Mr. Elizondo had no responsibilities with regard to the AATIP program while he worked in OUSDI, up until the time he resigned effective 10/4/2017.”
Dec 2019: AATIP was not a UFO program
- “Neither AATIP nor AAWSAP were UAP related. The purpose of AATIP was to investigate foreign advanced aerospace weapons system applications…”
May 2021: AATIP utilized UFO reports, but was not a UFO program
- “The contract allowed for research drawn from a wide variety of sources, including reports of UAPs. However, the examination of UAP observations was not the purpose of AATIP.”
Aug 2024: AATIP was not a UFO program, and Elizondo had no role
- “There was no formal DOD-wide program established for the specific purpose of examining reports of UAP. AATIP was another name for AAWSAP, it was not a successor program to AAWSAP. Luis Elizondo had no assigned responsibilities for AAWSAP/AATIP while assigned to OUSDI… After AAWSAP ended in 2012, any effort called AATIP was not a recognized, official program and had no dedicated personnel or budget.”

AAWSAP Denials

Jim Lacatski: “I was the sole program manager for the complete duration of DIA’s AAWSAP, September 2008 — December 2010, and worked alongside DHS in the follow-on Kona Blue program through 2011. Lue Elizondo was not involved in either AAWSAP or Kona Blue.”
Eric Davis, of the legendary Wilson/Davis memo: "Lue never worked for the AATIP/AAWSAP. He was also not in a support role to the DIA program manager (Jim Lacatski). Jay Stratton did provide support to Lacatski while Lue provided some support to the UAP Task Force when Jay was its director.”

Jun 2007: AAWSAP begins

Hal Puthoff: “The Defense Intelligence Agency was concerned about the fact that obvious observation had shown that advanced aerospace vehicles – crafts, or drones of unknown origin, were flying all over the United States, over waters, in fact globally as was the case. So a Congressional budget was approved to address the issue behind the scenes. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid from Nevada was the one who was the initiator of the program, joined by Senator Inouye and Senator Stevens.”
Pentagon: “Deliverables for the two year contract, with a total funding of $22M, were 38 research papers, an active, searchable database (now with greater than 100,000+ entries), and numerous investigative cases of the observed anomalies… The contract goal was to study 12 technical areas: lift, propulsion, control, armament, signatures reduction, materials configuration, power generation, temporal translation, human effects, human interface, and technology integration.”
George Knapp: “For the DIA contract, Robert Bigelow created Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS), a separate entity housed within his aerospace plant. He hired a team of 46 scientists and investigators, along with dozens of other support personnel.”

Jun 2008: Elizondo joins AAWSAP

Elizondo: “In 2008, I was approached by representatives from the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP) to provide Counterintelligence and security expertise to their office. They described it as a small but highly sensitive program focused on ‘unconventional technologies,’ and said they reported directly to the director of the DIA and to Congress. They needed a senior counterintelligence agent to lock down all intel about the program from the usual antagonists, foreign adversaries.”
- “I agreed to take on a role in their program, which was called the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), a niche program under the umbrella of AAWSAP.”
- “When I was recruited to [AAWSAP], initially, it was only to focus on the counterintelligence and security aspects of the program. Meaning: What enemies are out there that are trying to know what we know, and how do I protect the program? So I wasn't originally really responsible for much other than protecting the program.”
- “I worked in this capacity for some time… But as time went on, that evolved… eventually becoming one of its key members… Although I had my own staff, it's important to note that I didn't run the program entirely on my own. I worked with a broader network of experts and colleagues, including individuals like Dr. James Lacatski, who originally led AWSAPP, and Jay Stratton, who took over after I resigned from AATIP in 2017. Although I had direct subordinates, I also worked alongside my colleagues like Jay, who were my equals.”

Jun 2009: Sen. Reid requests a SAP

Reid: “Given the current rate of success, the continued study of these subjects will likely lead to technology advancements that in the immediate near-term will require extraordinary protection. Due to the sensitivities of the information surrounding aspects of this program, I require your assistance in establishing a Restricted Special Access Program with a Bigoted Access List for specific portions of the AATIP.”
Underscored: “Reid attempted to secure Restricted SAP status… to help increase the chances of being able to receive both information and materials from the legacy UAP programs, hidden within private aerospace companies.”
DIA: “The Agency determined that, based on classification levels of current and projected deliverables, insufficient grounds existed to classify the program… or establish a restricted SAP.”
The AAWSAP team tried again in 2011, requesting a SAP from the Department of Homeland Security Science & Technology (DHS S&T) group. That effort was called Kona Blue.
NewsNation: “Kona Blue was a plan for the government to reverse engineer alien technology from a recovered UFO. It was a special access, or top secret, program created with the goal of acquiring, identifying and reverse engineering what it calls AAVs, or advanced aerospace vehicles… The purpose was national security, with a goal of ‘(accessing) recovered advanced technology and (determining) its threat capability.’ The program also had goals of determining if our adversaries, namely China and Russia, could have access to recovered advanced aerospace vehicles (AAVs) as well.”
Proposal: “A SAP is proposed as we have been informed that there is a body of previous work held by other entities that requires a SAP level classification to access it.”
George Knapp: “The opposition mounted as soon as DHS principals began to knock on doors and ask questions about how to access the unusual materials recovered from crash sites that had been stashed in the bowels of various defense contractors. They were repeatedly told ‘no, and hell no.’ Doors were slammed in their faces. Questions were asked. Calls were made. And suddenly, the enthusiasm shown by DHS honchos evaporated. As the new kid on the block, DHS didn't want to rattle too many cages, and some worried that the subject matter was just too weird and might be an embarrassment if the word leaked out.”
David Grusch: “Lockheed Martin wanted to divest itself from this material… The CIA said ‘fuck you’ to DIA and Lockheed and it was totally killed. So Harry Reid’s request to get the material transferred to the AAWSAP program was totally killed because of bureaucracy.”

Late 2009: DIA find “limited value” in AAWSAP reports

Elizondo: “Initially, the AAWSAP/ AATIP crew enjoyed a good degree of support from DIA leadership… As Jim Lacatski and his contractors circulated executive summaries, the email responses they received via secure internal servers were unfailingly positive… As time passed, it became increasingly evident to me that the tides were shifting. An increasing number of AAWSAP detractors now worked at the senior level within DIA. More and more scrutiny was being placed on AAWSAP every day and new executive leadership at DIA was getting settled into their roles. Within a matter of weeks of the transition, Lacatski began spending most of his time defending his efforts instead of conducting research.”
- “I remember a meeting in the fall of 2009 that Jay and I attended with Jim, in which we openly talked about the wisdom of Jim dropping the investigations AAWSAP had gotten involved with that many considered to be dealing with the paranormal and instead focusing solely on UAP threats. I was convinced that if we produced some solid work under the AATIP banner, there wasn’t a person in the Pentagon or Congress who could look away, and it would help Jim’s efforts. We had found plenty of evidence of extremely advanced craft performing in ways we couldn’t replicate and entering controlled US airspace at home and abroad without any repercussions. These facts alone warranted additional DoD resources.”
Pentagon: “After an OSD/DIA review in late 2009, it was determined the reports were of limited value to DIA and there was a recommendation that upon completion of the contract, the project could be transitioned to an agency or component better suited to oversee it”
Elizondo: “In the spring of 2010, Jim confided in me that he was being pressured to stop all efforts.”
- “‘Lue, you know we already know what these things are, right?’ I wasn’t sure if [DIA Deputy Director] Woods was asking a question or making a statement. “I’m sorry, sir,” I said. “What are you specifically referring to?” I sensed his annoyance. Deep in my mind, I secretly hoped Woods knew something I didn’t. I hoped Woods would reveal to me that these UAP we hunted were actually some sort of secret US technology, hidden deep within the black budgets of the DARPA or the Air Force Research Laboratory. That would have been a welcome relief. “Have you read your Bible lately, Lue? …It’s demonic,” he said to me. “There is no reason we should be looking into this. We already know what they are and where they come from. They are deceivers. Demons.” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. This was a senior intelligence official putting his religious beliefs ahead of national security.”
Pentagon spokesperson: “Funding for the program ended in the 2012 time frame. It was determined that there were other, higher priority issues that merited funding and it was in the best interest of the DoD to make a change.”

2010: Elizondo takes over AATIP

Elizondo: “The former director (Lacatski) left, and I was asked, as a senior guy, to help manage and run the program out of the Pentagon… I had recently accepted a new position… within the Office of the Secretary of Defense. The program managed national-level special-access programs directly for the National Security Council and the White House… Now that I had broader authorities than before, Jay… and I decided to move the remnants of the effort away from DIA and house it within my portfolio of national programs, ensuring the prying eyes of our detractors would no longer have any visibility. At the same time, Jay, myself, and a handful of… contractors would continue to run AATIP under the proverbial radar. If I did it this way, I knew no one in DoD would have access to the program, unless I specifically allowed it.”
- “The only contractors who would remain involved with Jay [Stratton] and me were Hal [Puthoff], Will Livingston and Eric Davis.”
- “The original AAWSAP portfolio was much broader than the AATIP. The decision was made early on, that we would go ahead and focus the effort more to the phenomena specific, looking at the observables and the identifiables. What could we look at; what could we collect on; what could we report on back to Senior DOD leadership. Because that’s what they're concerned with.”
- “I am sure our decision was unpopular with many who were part of the original AAWSAP, but it was the only way Jay and I could figure out a way for AATIP to survive the constant barrage of internal attacks.”

2013-14: New funding for AATIP

Daily Mail: “After funding ran out in 2012, Elizondo and his colleagues continued their work using resources cobbled together from their other jobs at DIA and varied military and defense agencies, under the new name AATIP.”
Elizondo: “We knew that the original money Senator Reid and his cohorts had secured for the program had run out… Reid thought he could come up with another fresh infusion of funding to tide our investigations over until 2013–14. At the time, the hot buzzword in Congress, the Pentagon, and the IC was ISR, which stood for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance… At the height of the Global War on Terror, politicians fell over themselves writing checks for anything under the rubric of ISR. It wasn’t a stretch to consider AATIP as part of the ISR mission. After all, AATIP tracked and studied UAP with advanced capabilities that had shown an unusual interest in our military and our most sensitive sites. Whoever or whatever was controlling the UAP was clearly doing some form of ISR.”
- “Jay ran point on pulling off miracle after miracle and succeeded in getting Senator Reid to give us new funding—$10 million! We rejoiced for all of ten minutes, until we learned that another DoD program had absconded the funds. Jay and I felt kicked in the teeth. This happened because the language on the funding bill was ambiguous enough for someone in a powerful position to justify kicking the money to another line item.”

Operation Interloper

Elizondo: “Based on the twenty-two UAP incidents involving the Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group, with eyewitnesses and video evidence, we knew we needed a robust plan of action. Jay spent weeks creating an operation plan… code-named ‘Interloper.’ It was a classic ‘honey pot.’ We would orchestrate a situation that was so irresistible and almost impossible for the enemy to ignore.”
- “To move Interloper along, Jay and I circumvented the usual channels… The operation plan would be submitted [directly] to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. We were hoping to get around the OUSDI because the entire organization had become infested with compromised individuals. I no longer trusted my chain of command with anything sensitive, let alone with UAP information.”
- “Before 2016 ended, I received the news from Jay that the Joint Staff had rejected assigning OPLAN Interloper an ACCM designation, our plan to lure UAP out of hiding on the open seas. Where I saw a bold initiative to make sense of what our servicemen and-women witnessed in the skies, leadership saw a great bucket of weirdness that was not within their usual daily lists of tasks. They did not want to be associated with the historical stigma around UFOs.”

Legacy Program Access

Elizondo: “We were told specifically that a defense contractor, associated with the Legacy Program, was in possession of UAP materials of nonhuman origin… When Jay went to inquire for us, the contractor acknowledged that, yes, they were in possession of this material. They said they would give us access to it but first we needed to get permission from the secretary of the US Air Force.”
- “In the words of the contractor, after decades, they were no longer able to glean any meaningful understanding of the recovered material and they considered it now an expensive liability.”
- “This was an important development. We already knew or suspected that a handful of aerospace firms had been cleared to accept and keep forever any off-world tech that came into the hands of the US government. But they weren’t talking—and would actively work to get you fired or your clearance canceled if you start asking questions.”
- “This contractor was acknowledging a long-standing memorandum generated by the Air Force which made the contractor beholden to the USAF’s strict handling requirements. This proved that the Air Force had indeed not only known about crash retrievals but had a historic control over them and leverage with this defense contractor and probably others.”
- “From the moment I came on board the team, I learned that the Air Force was stubbornly and mysteriously uncooperative on the topic of UAP. Their resistance was irritatingly real. I cannot enumerate the times we sent carefully crafted emails to Air Force liaisons requesting information or follow-up details on UAP incidents, only to have the requests denied or ignored entirely.”
- “We now knew the Air Force had long been a key player in the Legacy efforts and this contractor probably had a good laugh sending us on this fools’ errand. In reality, they had no intention of giving this to us. It was an in-your-face reminder of the power of the military-industrial complex and specifically their power when it comes to the Legacy UAP program.”

Mar 2017: Elizondo attempts contact with SECDEF

Elizondo: “I was beginning to wonder if we could go directly to the secretary of defense. Surely, I thought, the aerospace firm would accept a letter from the highest-ranking figure in the Pentagon. If we could get a letter from the SECDEF, that should trump anyone in the Air Force from trying to stymie our efforts. Given my work directing the Guantanamo Bay portfolio, I had routine access to the secretary’s senior staff, but not the secretary himself or his direct minders.”
- “I would set my sights on briefing the secretary. I wanted SECDEF’s clarity going forward on incursions and range safety issues. I wanted a letter to secure access to the Legacy Program’s UAP materials. I wanted a whole lot more, but I just needed an opening to plead my case. To achieve these goals, I began an elaborate dance with everyone in the secretary’s orbit.”
- “They asked for reams of data. They asked to speak to our pilot witnesses. We brought in Fravor, Dietrich, and a radar operator. Then they wanted the reports, photographs, and anything else. Yet, after all that, nothing got to Secretary Mattis. His three gatekeepers wanted to provide the secretary a solution, not just a problem.”

Oct 2017: Elizondo resigns

Elizondo: “we realized that the only way to change the way the Pentagon was handling this was to get Congress to make them change. And as Chris Mellon reminded us, the way to get Congress to pay attention was to take it to the streets and get the press involved.”
- “At work, Jay Stratton and I made a plan that would go against all odds. A plan to bring about disclosure. I would resign and go public with the mission of bringing as much attention and credibility to the issue as possible. Jay would stay with the government and use the momentum gained by the public attention to move the ball forward within the government and brief any and all officials who would no doubt suddenly be interested. They had to learn the truth, and Jay would be positioned to inform them on a classified level. And he’d be positioned to run whatever version of AATIP came next. I’d also help educate Congress and facilitate introducing them to credible military and IC members who’d had UAP encounters. We would continue to work together, from different sides of the fence, to bring about disclosure.”
- “I crafted two resignation letters, one for my chain of command and one to the secretary himself. The first letter was a matter of pro forma. My direct chain of command was not read-in to our program, so I only wrote the very bare minimum informing them of my intent to leave. I did not want to be responsible for an unauthorized disclosure. The second letter was addressed directly to Secretary Mattis and was far more detailed. I figured since his staff already knew about AATIP, he needed to know as well.”
Elizondo’s resignation letter: “Bureaucratic challenges and inflexible mindsets continue to plague the department at all levels. This is particularly true regarding the controversial topic of anomalous aerospace threats. Despite overwhelming evidence… certain individuals in the department remain staunchly opposed to further research on what could be a tactical threat to our pilots, sailors, and soldiers, and perhaps even an existential threat to our national security. For this reason… I humbly submit my resignation in the hopes it will encourage you to ask the hard questions: ‘who else knows?’, ‘what are their capabilities?’, and ‘why aren’t we spending more time and effort on the issue?’”
Garry Reid: “On or about October 4, after Mr. Elizondo had departed the organization, a second resignation letter was delivered to the USDI Chief of Staff office. In this letter, which is formatted as a ‘Memorandum for Record’ but uses the salutation ‘Mr. Secretary,’ Mr. Elizondo cites concerns over anomalous aerospace threats as the basis for his resignation. Given the uncertain provenance of the second letter, OUSDI retained a copy but did not provide it to the SecDef office.”
Elizondo: “I received a telephone call on my personal cellular telephone from Mr. Garry Reid's Executive Assistant in which she said Mr. Garry Reid wanted to speak with me. I reminded her that I was now a civilian and that I was under no obligation to speak with Mr. Garry Reid, but in the spirit of transparency, I would do so. She acknowledged my comment and transferred me to Mr. Garry Reid, directly. During the conversation, Mr. Garry Reid asked me what he should do with the letter, and I told him he should do whatever he thinks is prudent, but the letter was intended for the Secretary of Defense. Mr. Reid was clearly upset with me and indicated that he wanted to see me in his office. He also said that he would "tell people you are crazy, and it might impact your security clearance." I responded to Mr. Garry Reid by telling him that he can take any action he thinks is prudently necessary, but that I was not mentally impaired, nor have I ever violated my security oath. I did not meet personally with Mr. Garry Reid after our discussion as I feared he would take retribution against me.”
- “Several people… told me that Reid planned to launch a criminal inquiry with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI). Within the Pentagon, AFOSI investigates internal matters pertaining to counterintelligence. Reid had already seized my computers and files from my office and questioned every one of my employees. When that bore little fruit, Reid cast a wider net, questioning my friends and colleagues. One friend phoned to tell me she’d been cornered by a Reid underling who confided, ‘We are going to nail Lue to the floor.’ Reid had embarked on a scorched-earth policy.”
Politico: “In May 2021, [Elizondo] filed a complaint with the Pentagon’s inspector general claiming a coordinated campaign to discredit him for speaking out.”
Elizondo’s complaint: “malicious activities, coordinated disinformation, professional misconduct, whistleblower reprisal and explicit threats perpetrated by certain senior-level Pentagon officials…”
Sen Reid: “As one of the original sponsors of AATIP, I can state as a matter of record Lue Elizondo's involvement and leadership role… investigating UAPs as the head of AATIP. He performed these duties admirably.”
Hal Puthoff: “As an AAWSAP/AATIP contractor & senior advisor I continued to attend meetings, provide briefings, gain access to videos, provide proposed program plans, meet with staff, etc., all under the aegis of Elizondo’s leadership and responsibility for maintaining continuity of the Program effort and goals until he resigned.”

Aug 2020: UAPTF established

Elizondo: “As we made progress outside and inside the government, leadership in Navy intelligence, who understood the national security threats related to UAP and now felt public and congressional pressure to do something about it, tasked Jay with quietly building out a whole-of-government interagency task force, a program with more authorities than AATIP ever had. So Jay started putting that together, handpicking his members/ reps from all the intelligence agencies and civilian-led agencies, from the FBI to the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) to NASA to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Once it was put together, this would go on to became the Pentagon’s UAP Task Force. Jay being positioned to escalate and elevate the issue like this was exactly what we hoped for. The plan was working.”
- “Jay needed a rep from Space Force (USSF), but that agency was still getting set up at the time and didn’t have a UAP program, so we brainstormed a way to get past this hurdle. Our solution was that I should try to be a consultant for USSF to help them build their UAP effort and serve the UAP Task Force Jay was building. After some friends connected me with USSF leadership, they expressed an interest and concern with UAP, although they were not ready to tell the world. Soon after that, I started working as a contractor for USSF on the UAP front and getting their unofficial help behind the scenes on my public efforts while also contributing to Jay’s UAP Task Force.”

References

Luis Elizondo: Imminent: Inside the Pentagon's Hunt for UFOs
New York Times: A Memoir Offers an Insider’s Perspective Into the Pentagon’s U.F.O. Hunt
NewsNation: Confessions of a UFO Hunter
Newsweek: I Investigated UAPs at the Pentagon—Americans Can Handle the Truth
Politico: Ex-official who revealed UFO project accuses Pentagon of ‘disinformation’ campaign
Lue Elizondo: “Myself, Lacatski, and Stratton ran the program.”
Lue Elizondo: “I worked with David Grusch on UAP at Space Force.”
Black Vault: Navigating the Twisted Maze of the AATIP Timeline
Black Vault: AATIP Memo Unveiled After FOIA Battle: DoD Inconsistencies Exposed
Black Vault: AATIP and the Pentagon: The Struggle Over UFO Program Records
Steven Greenstreet: Pentagon says Elizondo is lying
AARO: Declassified Kona Blue documents
Liberation Times: Kona Blue Insiders Reveal How U.S. Agencies Allegedly Involved In Legacy UFO Programs Rattled Department of Homeland Security Officials
Jim Lacatski: Origin of the nickname AATIP
Eric Davis: “Lue never worked for AATIP/AAWSAP”
Eric Davis: “I will be talking to Lue to clear up what role he had post-AAWSAP.”
Underscored: A Parallel UAP Study Exists
David Grusch: “Lockheed wanted to divest material to AAWSAP but CIA shut it down.”
UFO Joe: Eric Davis Responds To Claim AATIP Was A One-Man Band For Years

Episode 53, posted on September 1, 2024