YouTube Channel: "To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science"
Video Title: "Luis Elizondo Presents the History of AATIP"

Luis Elizondo Presents the History of AATIP
106,610 views  Aug 30, 2018

TTS Academy Special Programs Director, Luis Elizondo, gives an official presentation on the history of the Department of Defense's Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program that he ran up until 2017. You'll learn what AATIP is, what it isn't, as well as receive a status update on the current state of affairs for the future of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena research.

From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3r6SmrCUM0

Transcript:

Lue Elizondo would you come to the
sale but I think the same time next year
we're gonna have a fundamentally
different conversation I think I think
disclosure already occurred I don't
think necessarily disclosure as an event
I think it's a process and I think that
process began with that said I'd like to
go ahead and start with the presentation
I think when this first came out
everybody was kind of asking some
questions about what this program is
what I'd like to do tonight
is just briefly go over a little bit
about the program a little bit of the
history what it is what it isn't and
then maybe where do we go next so as you
see here advanced aerospace threat
identification program it is indeed
aerospace I know some folks that said
aviation some folks at the Pentagon said
aviation I can assure you here tonight
it is indeed advanced aerospace threat
identification program a tip and some of
the documentation that has come out not
for me that was authored by members of
Congress you will see quite clearly back
in 2009 it is indeed called a chip
advanced aerospace now this is the
contract focus for a tip pretty heavy
stuff no we weren't looking at balloons
no we weren't looking at drones we
weren't looking at aircraft this is real
this is what your twenty two million
dollars worth of tax money was spent on
and there's a lot of it so I'll give you
a minute to take a look at it some of
the highlights they're human effects
what does that mean signature reduction
I mean a lot of this stuff you would
look and say yeah this is definitely DoD
centric this is something that the
Department of Defense national security
apparatus would definitely be interested
in some of these other stuff you got to
kind of scratch your head and say well
there's that a DoD mission I would
submit to you yes absolutely this
especially when you're trying to protect
Airmen and when you try to protect
sailors and soldiers my focus before I
go to the next slide was to focus on
title 10 which means DoD's
cific when they asked you did you talk
to civilians did you talk to these
people no we didn't we focused on
military there was a significant amount
of volume just focusing on that I'd like
to go back to that slide for just a
second let's look at the very bottom
where we say investigate legitimacy of
currently observed phenomena this is
briefed to the senior levels of the
Department of Defense we choose our
words very carefully so when you're
saying investigate the legitimacy of
currently not in the past currently
observed phenomena that's what we were
doing of course at the bottom are they
achievable by current understanding of
physics and engineering and if not what
research studies is required in order to
achieve that okay so what does all those
studies really distilled down to and a
lot of you have heard about the five
observables well if you look at the top
left you're talking about instantaneous
acceleration you've heard that a lot but
why from a DoD perspective would that be
something important well as you see here
thrust vectoring g-force protection
right for our pilots maneuverability
enhanced maneuverability the ability to
to to take an aircraft from point A to
point B and then Pat back to point a
again very quickly without having any
ill effects on on the human inside the
next one is hypersonic velocity again
from a DoD perspective you can imagine
why that would be important so that
means I can get my people and equipment
very quickly anywhere in the world enemy
invasion they can't go as fast as me and
then first strike capability in a
strategic type environment better to
know that if you're gonna go to war with
an enemy that you can strike first okay
so the other one is low observability is
kind of falling off the slide there but
you'll have to trust me it says low
observability a bit of an oxymoron when
we say it's an observable
but it was reduce cross section okay so
if you if you lower your your
observability you're lowering your cross
section survivability if they can't see
you they can't hit you and then
anonymity maybe you don't necessarily
want to advertise that you're coming in
somewhere or that you're gonna do
something right these new stealth
aircraft and a new stealth helicopter
that everybody talked about on the bin
Laden raid
you know whoa who's is that multi medium
travel why would that be important again
here you see here there's some strategic
surprise meaning you now have an object
that can operate in air water space hmm
probably gives you some target
flexibility and a lattice but last but
not least battle space dominance meaning
you can operate in virtually all
environments anytime anywhere and then
the last one is positive lift and of
course why would that be important as we
see here we're looking at flight
precision I do not have to be moving
like an aircraft to generate lift under
my wings that would be tremendous
benefit loiter capability I can stay on
time on target for longer and then last
but not least decreased signature so you
can see these these focus areas are
really DoD centric they are part of the
core DoD mission both from a defensive
and offensive perspective so this is how
those five observables that we we saw
the commonalities if you will how they
fit within the DoD mission because some
people will ask you you know why why was
DoD looking at this should NASA be
looking at it shouldn't so we was sure
NASA could look at it but so should we
the next few slides are a little bit of
a tip history here I'm not going to read
word for word but what I'm going to do
is just kind of paraphrase there were
three senators senator Reed senator
anyway sitter Stevens bipartisan
Republican and Democrat okay they all
agreed that there was sufficient
information to warrant increased study
into the
phenomena they along with Senator John
Glenn former astronaut got together and
they began to scratch their heads and
figure out what is the best way to do it
well in Congress you give money to an
organization that's capable of doing
something with it in this case the money
was provided to an organization called
the Defense Intelligence Agency it's
kind of like the CIA equivalent for DoD
it went to this small little office and
the initial contract vehicle was called
all SAP advanced aerospace weapons
special application programs in system
application program a lot of folks will
say well Lou when you first came out why
didn't you just tell us that well the
reason is because I wasn't really part
of that and that's really not my place
to discuss a mission and an organization
that I was really walking into the tail
end I was brought into to conduct
Counter Intelligence and Security for an
organization that was in the process of
evolving into something else
there was another director running that
program so it would be disingenuous for
me to simply say well a tip is really
all SAP well it evolved from all SAP but
it is not a SAP and I think the
documentation that's beginning to come
out into the public forum people are
beginning to realize that it wasn't a
purpose attempt to try to subdue or to
to hide or conceal the relationship I
just wasn't really qualified to talk
about it and what I don't want to do is
hopefully you're beginning to learn here
is provide information that I'm not
qualified to discuss with you there's
two ground rules as far as I'm concerned
involving this program I'll answer any
question you have but there's only that
something I well I can't discuss which
is classified information don't ask me
I'm not going to tell you and if it
requires a classified answer I am NOT
going to violate my oath nor my mind out
my non-disclosure agreement with the US
government but short of that I'll answer
it and if I don't have an answer I'm
gonna tell you I don't have an answer
and I don't know I'll be completely as
forthcoming as I can because there are
things I don't know in fact there's a
lot more I don't know then I do know but
that's okay that's why we have to
continue
seek to find the answers and collect the
data because ultimately the data will
speak for itself the truth she you know
she's funny she always speaks sometimes
she whispers so you have to listen real
carefully but but if you listen hard
enough you you can you can hear her
speak so that's a little bit of the the
history on this slide here so as you see
here towards the end in 2008 the program
was already beginning to evolve the
original off sap portfolio was much
broader than the a tip 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 identifiable what can we look at
what can we collect on what can we
report on back to senior DoD leadership
because that's what they're concerned
with and try to remove as much
speculation supposition and innuendos as
possible out of the calculus so more
history so as you see here the 2008
through 2009 there's a there's there's a
lot of collection going on a lot to the
point where we're we're we're almost
becoming overloaded with the results in
the data it's becoming quite clear to us
that there is much more to this
portfolio than we envisioned and I
suspect when you look at this 2009
congressional letter sent to DoD
leadership Congress was aware of that
too to the point where we were worried
there may be a potential
counterintelligence threat maybe there
were foreign adversaries that were
interested in what we were collecting
that's how much we were collecting you
see down here 2009 specific elements and
DoD resists the effort this is a detail
I really haven't talked about much you
know everybody handles this information
differently and in the department is no
different than in out here in the public
forum people have their ideas that have
their preconceived notions there have
their bias and they have their belief
systems and by no means do I have the
right or the qualifications to tell
anybody what they should or shouldn't
believe in but there are some people who
have a great deal of conviction just as
you have conviction right now in the UAP
UFO phenomena they have equal conviction
from a theological perspective in their
own and by the way that contradicts with
what we were trying to do for better for
worse and I'm not saying that's good I'm
not saying it's bad I'm just saying it's
a fact that there were elements within
the department that rigorously oppose
what we were trying to do not because
the results were not real but because it
contradicted their view that's all I got
to say about that 2003 13th through 2014
you see where they say some folks have
said in the past by the way the
Department of Defense is a fantastic
organization true patriots these are
folks that give they're there they're
there they sacrifice our family's
livelihood and their life to to defend
us so so this is not necessarily a hit
on the department but sometimes the
department it's a big organization
sometimes they don't necessarily have
all the data in front of them all the
time and so when they said the program
ended in 2012 well the funding was
actually to 2013 and after 2013 there
was some other funding vehicles that
were done to get it through 2013 and
2014 okay
now I won't go into detail what happened
with those fundings the funding actually
came through it actually wound up
getting rerouted to another organization
because the language is vague and so
therefore we were reversed to continue
the program on minimal funds now people
say well the funding dries up so does
your organization and the program that's
not true when you are given a mission
you're given in order to guard your post
you guard your posts until you are
relieved of that responsibility
well that order never came for us and in
the Department of Defense there's always
a paper trail when you establish an
organization there's a paper trail when
you disestablish an organization there's
a paper trail you won't find one for
this program so I think that's I think
that's very important that people
understand that the program never really
'we sure funding for the 2013 went away
but the program never went away we were
never told you no longer have to guard
your post so 2017 some guy makes a dumb
decision to - I guess leave the
Department of Defense you know and have
some conversations and in 2000 Alto BER
for 2017 the rest is history
so let's go into a little bit about what
a tip is a tip evolved from all SAP that
is absolutely true all SAP existed for a
short period of time under another
director to focus on the UAP specific
capabilities and concentrated on the
what and how interrogatives not the who
not the when but what is it and how does
it work that's it and if we could
accomplish that hopefully smarter people
in the department could figure out who's
behind the wheel what are their
intentions were they from etc a tip was
comprised of US government contractor
and military personnel that's a fact
everybody hears about Bigelow Aerospace
that is a true statement
we worked with academics we worked with
the services we worked with certain
elements in the intelligence community
we worked with anybody in everybody with
a military Nexus that we could talk to
that could provide some information cast
a wide net eight commissioned large
volumes of related research data
academic studies and collected data even
from the field true statement volumes
and volumes of information I cannot go
into detail specifically and what some
of that is because it remains classified
I believe two days ago a laundry list of
some of our studies had come out I'll be
at one of them was classified I can tell
you that that is a correct list that is
a that is a true list of academic
studies if you get a chance to review
them I think you'll
that once again we're not really talking
about balloons much of a tip information
remains FOIA exempt for you exempt what
do you mean everything's FOIA bull no
it's not exceptions one in five why
would you mark information for you
exempt well for one so the adversary
never gets a chance to see it people say
well if a tip existed I should be able
to FOIA it not necessarily and some of
the documents that were recently
realists released as a result if you
take a look at a recent letter that I
supposedly came from Senator Reid on the
very last page at the very bottom you're
gonna see a really interesting little
word words actually says for you exempt
that's right we use that sometimes now
we don't use it to keep a secret from
the American people in fact that's
illegal what we do is we use it to keep
it out of the hands of foreign
adversaries and it is an effective tool
so keep in mind a lot of the
counter-argument as well you're keeping
this secret from the American people
that is not the case if we had a
mechanism where we could inform every
American citizen and ensure it didn't
get out into enemy hands we would do it
the government doesn't try to keep
secrets from you it tries to keep
secrets from the enemy and there's no
way to tell 500 million people in one
geographic region and not let that get
out somewhere else so so that is why a
lot of this information you see is FOIA
exempt
now is that the right thing to do is
that the wrong thing to do I don't know
and and I I don't know
is it an effective mechanism absolutely
it is what a tip isn't this is just a
small sample of things that we have
heard over time that people have
speculated upon so let me see if I can
just address it head-on a tip ended in
2012 well I think it's pretty clear that
didn't
a tip found nothing of significance not
true in fact I think the mayor of fact
that we even have the five observables
and and we can have an honest
conversation about the physics shows
that we did achieve something and when I
say we folks I'm not saying me not Lewis
Elizondo
I'm talking about the fantastic human
beings I left behind at the Department
of Defense those are the true heroes
those are the folks that still remain
back there anonymous working day in day
out making this happen so a tip did find
a lot of things of significance a tip
was a political favor let's get this
straight
by the way for the record I'm a
political I don't care if you're
Republican Democrat independent don't
know don't care my job is to serve
whoever is in charge at the time my job
is also to serve you the American people
the taxpayer you employ me so therefore
my loyalty is to you as a result people
will say well this was something that
Senator Reid did as a favor to his one
of his constituents Bob Bigelow I saw
this process work by the way
Bigelow Aerospace was chosen by none
other than dia and by the way a formal
contract selection committee the senator
had nothing to do with it in fact he
could not get involved with it so I
think that's important distinction
because people in the absence of
information in that void we as human
beings have a tendency to fill that void
with either what we know what we think
and even sometimes what we don't know so
I want to make sure it's very clear that
it was not a political fair was a
bipartisan effort by both Democrats and
Republicans all of them served their
country honorably all of them had served
in the military
Senator in a way literally gave his
right arm for his country senator
Stevens what is now coming to light
actually witnessed one of these things
when he was a pie
so I think I think we're going to have a
conversation about political favors we
at least need to speak truth to power
when we have that conversation a tip was
only academic yeah we produce a lot of
academic studies and we commissioned a
hell of a lot of reports but that's not
all
a tip was involved with actually
speaking with individuals collecting
electro-optical data collecting radar
data talking to the eyewitnesses and
these eyewitnesses are people keep in
mind to have security clearances they
are trained observers in some cases we
have spent millions of dollars into
their training whether special
operations whether their pilots were
their intelligence officers they have
been paid to be critical thinkers and
they have been trained to look at a
silhouette and determine if that's a
mig-25 a mig-29 it's in a ninety degree
roll and it's at 200 kilometers in front
of me traveling at 200 knots these are
some of the data points that we used
when collecting the data and and
analyzing this information a tip leaked
the videos okay first of all let's go
into a quick legal definition of
quote-unquote leaking leaking means you
take classified information and you
provide it in an unauthorized manner it
goes out to the public
that's a leak that is not the case first
of all these videos went through a
proper classification review process the
documentation at some point will
probably come out I'm not going to
provide it that's not my job you want to
get it from the government they released
it they released they authorized I mean
let me get this written it may authorize
the release of those videos and they did
it in writing now why they did it you
have to bring it up to them I know the
purposes that we wanted for them to come
out and that was to establish an
unclassified community of interests that
everybody could be part of and look at
and say hey I saw something like that
too but no one leet these videos
if that was a case I would be in a
orange jumpsuit right now and I do not
look good in orange so believe me okay
a tip is a ploy for the administration's
new space force I don't know where to
begin with that No
now could it be used to bolster that
argument sure okay in the end if it
helps us go ahead use it I don't care I
think that's great you want to say that
that the UAP studies is now helping us
create a space force so we can go ahead
and look at this problem seriously sign
me up
sure again here we go into the to the to
the habit of filling in information
voids with things that we don't know I
don't know why the administration is
creating a space force maybe it's a good
idea
maybe it's not such a good idea I don't
know I think ultimately it's up to
voters to decide you make the decision
if it is or not but I will tell you if
our humble little program a tip helped
inform that decision and they are going
to come back and fund this program in a
robust manner what we're gonna look at
it logically we're going to look at it
with the best scientists and
intelligence officers and critically
really look at this I mean alternative
analysis healthy skepticism but but of
course alternative analysis if it's
going to help that let's do it sure so
so what's happening now why are we here
well why are we all here the
conversation has finally moved folks
from the fringe so congratulations you
succeeded if you were to ask me eight
months ago that I'd be standing up here
and having this conversation and
briefing you this no way I'd say were
five years away from even getting close
to this
so my how things have moved so quickly
now I understand people are impatient
my daughter will tell you if she's right
here in the audience I'm impatient I
don't like to wait I want my information
now but as I've told people before there
is a difference beginning between giving
you information right versus giving you
information right now they're not always
necessarily the same I'd rather give you
information right versus right now so it
is important that we do our due
diligence it's important that when we
are looking at the data that we analyze
it we quantify it we qualify and do all
the things necessary so by the time we
presented take a court of law right you
don't want a chief prosecutor talking to
the jury with a half-baked case that's a
dereliction of duty it is incumbent as
their professional responsibility to
make sure they get it right and here is
the data as best as we know it to be as
of now so don't look now people are now
having a conversation over the dinner
table mainstream media has talked about
this several times they're getting it
takes a little while but they're having
a conversation and now all the people's
hey we thought you guys were crazy oh
maybe you're right so we've come a long
way a tip focus areas remain relevant
still to both national security and to
humanity that's why we're here right I'd
like to talk about that for a minute
national security well if you have
something that can fly in and out of
your airspace undetected you can't stop
it you don't know how it works
is that a threat I don't know is it a
threat the fact that we can't answer
that we have to presume there's a
possibility it could be a threat and I
would submit to you you want us to think
that way that is national security you
don't want us assuming that something is
not a threat without all the data points
that is not what we pay the Department
of Defense to do humanity relevant to
humanity I don't know the impact this
has to humanity and what we should do
about it that's a decision you all need
to make my job simple collect the truth
tell the truth that's it the heavy
lifting here is you all because you're
the ones that have to tell national
leadership what you want you're the ones
that vote
you're the ones that that sit there and
call congressmen and Senators and say I
want action right so I think I think the
effects on humanity is is it does have
effect but but ultimately that story is
still being written and how that story
ends is really dependent on you
TTS a and others are creating the
environment for elements within the
executive and legislative branch to have
the discussion people have asked what
are you doing well we're doing what we
can
does T TSA have contacts and connections
probably but I also understand the need
for privacy I also understand and
respect a need to give people an
operational safe space to collect
information and make an informed
decision without necessarily unnecessary
political pressure we have to give
people trade space time will be
necessary to allow leadership proper
awareness and assessment you cannot
digest a seven-course meal in ten
minutes folks
it takes time you've had some of you had
decades involved in this so what you
know to be a fact people are just now
hearing it for the very first time as
crazy as that may seem it's true for
some folks the the article that came out
in the New York Times is the very first
time they've ever actually even
considered this topic let alone our
leadership let alone our lawmakers so I
think I think you are well on the way of
getting what you're seeking I think we
have tremendous momentum like never
before now is not the time to throttle
back now is the time to push the
throttle all the way for that's what I
think if you are looking for government
to give you acknowledgement and just
give you full disclosure I'll tell you
right here and now the government's job
is not to satisfy idle curiosity
that's not the function of the
government I know we want it to be but
that's not the case the purpose of the
government is to defend this country
from all enemies foreign and domestic
now if there's information out there
that could be helpful
in doing so they're going to be involved
and if there's information out there
that doesn't really relate to this to
that mission but could be helpful to us
well that's what we get involved that's
that's that's how we can help
organizations like T TSA are developing
initiatives like the community of
interest data repositories and
information sharing information sharing
don't think of it as just being here
information sharing is international it
is global as we have seen before there's
many nations here represented that is
exactly what we need to continue to do
both as a society and as a government so
in my opinion anyways I think getting
over the finish line if there's really
such thing as a finish line there might
not be this might be an enduring effort
and if you're looking for the
satisfaction that I can say I made it
that day may never come maybe it does
but that may never come maybe the
satisfaction of knowing that people can
finally have the conversation at the
dinner table that you can turn on CNN or
Fox News or BBC or what else and people
are having conversations with reputable
experts and they're funding programs to
look into it
maybe that's success I mean we all have
our different definition of what success
is right my my purpose here was simply
to give you a broad overview
I am confident and I am cautiously
optimistic that in the next year we are
going to have a fundamentally different
conversation that we're having today I
think there's going to be additional
fidelity to to a lot of the things that
have come out recently that are going to
help us
have a better understanding of what it
is we're actually seeing here
you