YouTube Channel: "Podcast UFO Live Shows"
Video Title: "6-7-19 Edited Audio, Luis Elizondo, AATIP & HISTORY'S Unidentified"

6-7-19 Edited Audio, Luis Elizondo, AATIP & HISTORY'S Unidentified
3,685 views  Jun 7, 2019

The livestream audio had issues, this is the edited version. An interview with Intelligence officer Luis Elizondo, who served as the former director of the Pentagon’s Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), an initiative launched in 2007 to study reports of UFO encounters. Luis will discuss the new HISTORY Channel series, Unidentified: Inside America’s UFO Investigation.

From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9Xle20SY_I

Transcript:

and it hits me oh my gosh this is that
triangle you know there's explanation
for everything that occurred in the
Rendlesham forest incident it was
completely silent it comes right over
our heads it's also really standing in
the clearing he turned over to my father
and held his hand and he looked in his
eyes and said we're not alone welcome to
podcast UFO for our live show during the
show feel free to participate live in
our chat room and don't forget to Like
us on our very active Facebook page
hello and welcome to the show we have a
Lois Elizondo with us today probably
don't need to say too much about him I'm
sure if you've been watching this topic
you know exactly who he is here and a
tip and we're gonna be talking about
that and so much more
welcome to the show Liu thank you for
having me okay so let's tackle this hard
question right off the bat last year and
MUFON I remember you saying to everyone
in the audience to be skeptical and so
what do you think about the people who
are skeptical about you and that you had
any involvement in a tip in particular
let's see there was an article that
recently came out
Keith Klaus article and it's saying that
I believe the Secretary of Defense for
intelligence the name was Sherwood said
that he didn't think that you were
involved with the a tip program any time
at all sure well first and foremost look
in today's day of media it look
everyone's entitled to the minute and
and not everyone is necessarily going to
agree with or even lying quiet what what
we're doing and especially I think when
we're talking about speaking about
topics as rich and potentially as as
obscure and contentious at times as UFOs
and because of that people are always
going to have to try to poke holes in a
story I get it that's that
just what the media does but I'm very
confident along with others that are in
senior positions of the US government of
my of my credentials the Department of
Defense is a large bureaucracy and
sometimes it takes time for information
to trickle down so this may very well be
one of those cases and you know frankly
I'm pretty optimistic that at some point
here there their position may change
again so it's not an unfortunate I wish
I wish I'd say it's unusual but but
sometimes it takes a while for
information to keeping in mind for the
last year and a half they had already
said for the record that I think she was
part of the program so you know I think
they probably got their wires crossed
somewhere when you read articles like
this does it discourage you and make you
want to just you know turn away from
this whole thing no I mean people are
entitled to their opinions and this and
it's going to continue to happen I think
that look we live in a society where
everybody has a right to an opinion it
doesn't matter how goofy or or or
serious it is and I think that's what
makes our society so so great so now
people are gonna have have opinions I
just had a penis for the last 70 years
on this topic quite frankly so do I
think that that opinions are going to
change us because I happen to be the the
person who sure on this topic no
absolutely not I think it's you know
this is I hate to say but it says
American as apple pie and you know
that's what happens when you live in a
free society we allow everybody to have
a voice I watched this screener for
unidentified and I was thrilled by how
well it was produced and I thought the
content was great and what it revealed
and everything and I think the nimitz
may prove to be one of the most
important encounters a lot of it had to
do the notoriety had to do with the
videos and you know a couple of videos
came out we have a very visual society
anyway and are there gonna be more
videos coming out that we can eventually
get to see well certainly but let me
define you know coming out on this
particular series or the next episode
you know and I think I think
videos will be coming out yes but not
necessarily through our show immediately
because at the end of the day videos are
just one aspect of many many many when
you're trying to - who will build a case
on something you know eyewitness
testimony is very important video is
very important radar data is very
important electro-optical dated gun
camera footage is very important and
it's it's a much bigger story than just
a video or two or three videos i think
the viewer will appreciate as you begin
to watch more and more of these you will
you will begin to realize that this is a
much much bigger much more comprehensive
and nigma that we are facing and
although videos are neat because people
look at how that look at that thing
this is this is much more compelling and
when you begin to actually listen to the
eyewitnesses these are men and women who
are still active duty in uniform and and
you see what the the struggle that and
and potentially in some cases even even
putting them in harm's way and then had
this discussion in front of the American
people I think people will begin to
realize this is a very this is a very
interesting question that we knew that
we need to answers to this and yeah
there's a national security aspect
edition it's not just hey I saw
something flying when I was flying my
f-18 and I think as we continue with a
few more of these episodes it's going to
become very very apparent that that this
is truly a global phenomena was there a
certain event that made you decide to
quit the Department of Defense or was
this something that just came about
gradually well first of all if I may be
frank with you personally speaking I've
seen and know too much at this point to
simply ignore the fact and turn my back
and not address that that these crafts
are real that they exist
there's frankly just overwhelming
evidence and my background being a no
kidding investigator throughout my
career and intelligence officer we have
a responsibility to report and it's also
a duty to warn and so when you go to the
airport right or you go to a train
station you hear that a famous
announcement you see something say
something
reported when in doubt see something
suspicious I mean when it comes to these
things it's the opposite approach until
recently it was don't report these
things because you might with your
clearance you might you might wind up
being taking a flight status and may put
you some sort of psychological
evaluation and it's detrimental to your
career and so I found that very
dangerous because the only thing more
dangerous or something flying in our
skies we don't know what it is there's
nothing we can do about it it's not even
being able to have a conversation that
is to me unacceptable and so my decision
to leave the department was in part
because of my loyalty to the part about
disloyalty understand that at the time
secretary Madison this is a man that I
served in a combat theater with and I
have the utmost greatest respect to this
man I've seen him literally make
decisions that save people's lives right
there on the spot so so this is a man
through my experience who should have
more information about less and when
he's in a position of Secretary of
Defense not even being able to let him
know look these things are in our
controlled airspace and they're coming
close to our to our pilots and to the
point where you almost have a mid-air
collision that's a problem and simply
because of stigma and taboo frankly I
don't give it a food what the stigma and
taboo is you've got to tell the boss and
when the bureaucracy doesn't allow that
to happen then I think there's a failure
of the system and we have to we have to
fix that failure and so in fact going
back to your question leaving what made
me leave the department it wasn't
necessarily a single event it was a
constant frustration of reporting and
briefing senior DoD leadership on these
things and this resistance sale okay we
know who these things are real you're
right is compelling we've got the pilots
testimony we got it we're not quite sure
we want to tell the boss yet that to me
and by the way I'm not blaming it
because you know how did you tell a guy
by the way who's made bad dog managed
that there's something I Scott I don't
know what it is we don't know how to
stop it
keeping in mind that Department of
Defense is an organization that is
designed to have answers and you do not
want to go to the boss without any type
of recommended course of action
again it but at the same time I don't
think this is like a conversation about
fine wine and the longer we keep a cork
on it the better it gets I I think we
need to have the conversation now in
fact I think we didn't have the
conversation five years ago if you ask
me and so I left the department
sometimes if you love an organization
enough if you want to fix it you have to
leave it and and by the way you know
reminding that secretary mattis almost a
year to the day day that I resigned he
did the same thing he resigned out of
principle so sometimes you have to leave
an organization and fix it from the
outside if you really really love it
help one of the things I hear quite a
bit that people are speculating and I'm
gonna ask you are you currently any type
of contractor for the government and any
type of capacity at this time no I don't
know where they came from I am sure not
getting paid that's pretty funny
you know I watched the livestream when t
TSA launched back in October I guess it
was docked Oberer 11th 2017 and was
surprised that there was so little press
about it then
December 16th the same year everything
changed when the New York Times article
co-authored by Helen Cooper Ralf
Blumenthal and Leslie Kane was published
what was that like for you when that
happened oh gosh
you know be honest with you I'm a
creature of the shadows I've spent my
entire life living in the shadows out of
frankly that's a matter of art our job
so it is not my nature to be in the
middle of the spotlight personally it's
it's rather uncomfortable for me but at
the same time I think the message is
very important and so I'm doing what
what I feel is necessary now if you want
a very poor analogy I've often told
people you know I think of myself as
this albino caves new living somewhere
in the recess of some back cave dark and
happy and you know and all of a sudden
someone taking this little this little
lizard that's been happy its whole life
living the dark and ripping it out and
putting it in the middle
Hot Desert Sun on noon on a noon around
12 o'clock in the afternoon and people
start poking at it it's it's not my my
my natural environment but at the same
time I think I think the message is
important enough that we have a
collective conversation with the
American people well right after that
came out I interviewed longtime UFO
researchers Stanton Friedman who we
sadly recently lost and he said that his
biggest question is why now is the
government letting this out can you
address that well I can't answer on
behalf of the government because I'm no
longer employed by the government but my
question B would be in return well how
come not five years ago how come not 10
years ago with and I can't answer that I
don't know why it may very well be that
we now are the point where enough people
are seeing these things and maybe maybe
it's a cultural thing I really don't
know maybe it's maybe looking at a point
where were as a culture we are more
willing to accept the fact that there
were things still in nature that we
don't understand I mean let's look at it
this way you know up until recently
there was a statement by some folks
saying I know we've discovered every
species that there is to discover and of
course every year we find new more
species up until recently we had defined
a living organism as something that kind
of looks like you know an animal if you
will in breach and reproduces and yet we
find that life is diverse it's plentiful
that's if you can go to the deepest
darkest part of the Marianas Trench
seven miles down and find life a mile
under the Antarctic ice and you can find
life and go to a two location on earth
where these extremophiles exist and we
look at this and say how can a creature
live in total darkness and and you know
many many many degrees Fahrenheit above
what we can tolerate and live happiness
in fact thrive so the definition of life
is something that we continue to look at
and ask ourselves a question medically
speaking you could look at a virus and
say wow is that living thing
with some cases it says things like the
living thing every produces and it will
do other things to survive but in other
cases you know doesn't have DNA so what
makes something alive I suspect if you
were to come to earth and look at a
plant and look at a human being you
probably would say wow those are
completely different life forms and yet
they are living we have a lot of things
in common with plants we were produced
with compete for resources we grow we
die so I don't know that's that's a
really good question I don't know why
now
you know I don't know what do you think
about the Navy's new reporting of
unidentified aircraft do you think this
forward motion has in part happened
because of t TSA and your efforts well
it is undeniably as a result of what T
TSA engaged in but it's not just a
retail he's haunted by I don't I don't
want people to have the misconception
that they may lose fear driving the
train and making this happen because
because it's not as a team effort we
have folks like Chris melon this is a
man who who knows more about government
inner workings and bureaucracy than just
about anybody else on the planet you
have folks like like Jim semi Pam senior
CIA representative who knows about the
Intelligence Committee probably better
than anybody and dr. Howard off is a
scientist world renowned scientist and
and Steve justice and Tom belongs this
is a team effort and it's not just you
know talking to one person and out the
native changes their mind starts
allowing their pilots to report this
stuff this is a coordinated it's a bit
like a symphony symphony if your role as
a coordinated effort every instrument as
their own sheet of music to play has its
own purpose and has to be in melody if
you will with the rest of the
instruments so we are constantly
coordinating with each other and and
engaging the certain points within the
US government that we think need to
engage in order for them to be educated
on what's really going on and then with
that information you allow them to make
the decision okay yeah you know what
there are something there maybe we
should change our policy and by the way
it's not just with us as a company it's
also working with our government
partners we don't want to alienate them
they're not necessarily the enemy here
we have to work with them
and so that's the way to do that is to
work in a collaborative collaborative
way where we're recording with them
making coordinate with us we can
exchange information back and forth and
that's how you make change so this
question in particular comes from a long
time UFO researcher and he wanted to
know did you use the resources of anyone
at NASA that's National Air and Space
Intelligence Center had wright-patterson
Air Force Base
I can't specifically talk about who we
have or partnering with right now
keeping in mind some of these
relationship ships are still in some
cases they're nascent in another cases
there's still a little bit sentiment so
we have to be mindful a lot of times
when we mentioned specifically who we're
working with because still it's a
sensitive topic and some folks still you
know get a little bit uncomfortable if
you will I met you down at Cherry Hill
at the MUFON event and during the
conference there I believe you said that
do you think that we're actually going
through disclosure where do you think
things are going in the future what's
your take on that well let me put it
this way a year and a half ago if we
were to have this conversation we would
probably be laughed out of the building
that we were in if this was a government
building and if you were to talk to a TV
TV production studio they would probably
very quickly dismiss you and be polite
but they said you know we're not really
interested in look how far we've come in
just the last year and a half you have
now the government admitting that it did
indeed have a UFO program that it was
indeed funded the actual academic
studies were conducted that videos were
actually collected and obtained and
analyzed you now have the the admission
by several elements in the government
that these things are indeed real and
now you have changing of policy at a
national level that allows the reporting
and the collection of data of these
things and by the way there's a lot more
things that occur that it probably can't
talk about right now but it'll come to
light so I think we've come light year
ahead of where we were just a year and a
half ago and if you look at even the
show that we're doing now with our with
the History Channel Ami's History
Channel
this isn't a UFO hunting show this isn't
a an entertainment show
this isn't even a reality show this is a
show about reality what they plan is if
a saw me think a year and a half ago
they would have assigned some
entertainment producers to do a show
like this this is not what they did
History Channel decided to assign some
of them was hardened investigative
journalists that who spent their careers
looking at the underbelly of the human
race and things like like sex
trafficking and and corruption and
organized crime even a camera crew that
they assigned to this thing a lot of
these folks have been in combat theaters
filming the US troops under fire so this
is an investigative journalist at peace
in fact they won't even let me see the
episodes before the public because they
want to keep that investigative
journalist ik integrity and I admire
them for that so what you're seeing is
raw footage we you know there are no
retakes there are no scripts look I'm
not a Hollywood gun I'm you know I'm
gonna i'm an old Intel guy you know
don't you investigators so you could
even if you wanted me to act I'm not
gonna be a very good actor so we
realized very early on that in order for
this to work it had to be real and what
the audience see what you see is what
you get and it's it's that's it and
we'll let the audience decide for
themselves I know you said something
along the lines where you don't know
what's happening in each episode as
before it comes out but can you give us
an idea what we might be expecting down
the line on unidentified yeah I mean
because I was I was there obviously for
the filming I I can't I haven't I have a
general understanding but I don't really
know what what they decide to put in and
what leaves of there was a tremendous
amount of information contained and I
think what you'll realize and the
audience will realize hopefully is that
this is truly a global phenomena this is
something that does have a national
security Nexus and it is a conversation
that we should have as young people and
by the way I think they'll also have a
great appreciation that there are some
people working behind the scenes very
very hard and they're doing some
incredible work and I think our
servicemen and women in uniform deserve
the most credit these folks are
are the best of the best this country
has and their braids and their Patriots
and they're doing their duty and they're
doing it for the first time stepping out
of the shadows we're a year and a half
ago frankly they could have lost their
jobs doing and now you have a navy and a
PA Oh actually allowing folks to step
forward and have a conversation on the
public stage I mean that's that's
remarkable I mean just a year and a half
ago imagine how far we've come in just a
year and a half on this topic
you now have major media outlets really
taking this seriously once and for all
and of course you know going about your
original question to me that that's
folks out there that are you know we're
still trying to push a narrative but
look how far we've come and I think that
that's very encouraging and I think I
think the American people are ready to
have the conversation why not I thought
one of the best parts of episode one was
the female pilot that remained anonymous
she did look rather shaken do you think
someone like her will feel more
comfortable in the future as more of
this type of thing is validated I hope
so I know it's I can't answer on her
behalf I certainly hope so I know for me
I still sometimes find myself looking
over my shoulder and and but let me put
this into context just very recently I
had a conversation with a colleague of
mine at the Pentagon he said you know a
little conversation you and I had to
have in the shadows behind a vault
behind a you know a skiff and we'd have
to whisper I can now have this
conversation openly and something in the
halls of the Pentagon and that that
represents a seismic shift in where this
conversation is going that people
actively wanting to help whereas before
they would run away in the opposite
direction to say don't ever mention that
to me again
now they're saying hey look how can I
help but what can we do as an
organization as an agency is a
institution to help and I think that's
tremendous are you kidding me I mean in
a year and a half that conversation has
come that far Yeah right that's true
were you initially hesitant when you
were getting involved with what Tom
DeLonge was putting together nope nobody
was I
look tell you everybody on this team has
a very special everybody we were a bit
about our little company's a bit like a
Swiss Army knife everybody can do a
particular function very very well in
Toms case this is a man everybody knows
him as I guess we'd senior to a couple
bands but what they don't know is that
he's brilliant he is truly a extremely
creative and and quite frankly he's we
managed to get to the highest levels of
the government on this topic when nobody
wanted to have a conversation he's
tenacious I think as I've said before
you know sometimes in a crowded room you
need a megaphone bomb is definitely that
megaphone is not afraid to about his
reputation he does what he feels is
right and I gotta give him credit for
that
sometimes I've told you before you want
to you want to sometimes you need a bull
in a china shop in Toms case so it's
more like a fragmentation grenade but
you know sometimes you need to you need
to break a little China in order to fix
a system and he's been very very
effective at doing that and frankly it's
just a really decent human being I mean
I've had a chance in my career to work
with a lot of people in some good and
some not so good
tom is right up there at the top of the
list he is just a decent human being he
wants to do the right thing he's willing
to do whatever he has to do include
putting his own money his own reputation
on the line he left he left one of the
world's largest punk rock bands to
pursue this because he felt that this is
the right thing to do I don't know how
many people out there willing to do that
a lot of people wouldn't get off of
their opinions about this but when push
comes to shove you think they believe
their job to do it
no I think they think their careers
behind to pursue this I don't know you
know so I think I think I think we need
to give him credit where credit is due
he has definitely moved the needle on
this conversation that's right and you
know I think there's a lot of jealousy
because you know Tom came out of nowhere
basically and people have been on this
topic some of them for a good part of
their lives and so there's some jealousy
out there but you know we really do have
to give him credit because you know you
and I wouldn't be even talking today and
he really has changed a lot look we've
got to get over this jealousy thing
there's nothing to be jealous about
we're trying to have the conversation
that we've been that some folks have
been trying to have for a very long time
this should be cause for celebration
it's just not time to be Petty and you
know it's this is a time for all of us
to work together and say hey you know
this is an important topic this is
something that involves humanity that
was my opinion anyways I don't think
there's any reason for anybody jealous
look this is a team effort this is a
group effort you know how did I had it
not been for folks having an interest in
this for the last I guess you know 70
years maybe we wouldn't have gotten to
where we are today
you know everybody everybody should
accept credit for this this is not a TTS
a thing or even a History Channel thing
this isn't you know this is this is a
this is something that everybody should
look at and say hey you know I had a
little part of that you're doing this
show right now you are doing this
podcast you have a part of this you are
very much integral to the conversation I
mean don't look now but that's exactly
what you're doing
you are very as much part as we are you
are too and so are your listeners
because they're taking the time to
listen to this rather than you know
change the channel to something else you
know they could be I was and what
specifically what but there's lots of
things that people can listen to and
watch these days and I then tuning in to
to to your program that should be an
indicator at that that you are part of
this this this see change and so we're
your listeners everybody every one of us
have a part Lou thanks so much it's been
an absolute pleasure yes sir thank you
very much pleasure than bye thank you
all right everyone that was Lou Elizondo
and check out the series unidentified
inside America's UFO investigation and
that's on Fridays at 10 p.m. on History
Channel and this is Martin Willis with
podcast UFO and keep your eyes to the
sky
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