People vs. Pentagon: The Battle for UFO Transparency
Written by Christopher Sharp - 23 August 2023
It was an Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) office designed for failure.
And it was located within another office, one accused of persecuting UAP whistleblowers.
At one time, it was led by a now-tarnished Executive Secretary known for his vendetta against the Director of a former UAP program.
And now under a new name, the UAP office is missing in action, albeit for the private outbursts on LinkedIn by its current Director.
If the Pentagon intended this to be their approach to a UAP investigation, then it appears designed to obscure the truth, create obstacles for Congress and the public, and downplay or dismiss the concerns of whistleblowers.
And that’s exactly how it has played out so far. Although we can only hope for better once its expected and delayed unclassified report is released in the upcoming weeks.
But it could have been different.
Step back into August 2020. The UAP Task Force (UAPTF) was formally established by then Deputy Secretary of Defense David L. Norquist.
Its mission?
To detect, analyze and catalogue UAPs that could potentially pose a threat to U.S. national security.
Upon the enactment of the U.S. National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) in January 2021, the UAPTF was entrusted with the challenging assignment of delivering a report to Congress within a mere six-month timeframe.
Faced with a colossal endeavour and limited resources at its disposal, the Task Force encountered a further setback when its Director, Jay Stratton, was reassigned to different responsibilities - a move that could be interpreted as a potential act of deliberate hindrance.
Consequently, the responsibility of crafting the report fell upon two additional members of the UAPTF, notwithstanding their existing full-time obligations and lack of budget.
It was largely owing to their unwavering dedication to transparency and duty that a timely report was successfully delivered to Congress. This achievement created the spark, which propelled us to the present moment, where we stand on the cusp of direct Presidential engagement with this potentially paradigm-altering topic.
Through the dedicated efforts of David Grusch, a former senior intelligence officer who courageously stepped forward as a whistleblower, the UAPTF emerged as the catalyst for an extraordinary revelation.
Leveraging Grusch's extensive clearances and adeptness in navigating the intricacies of the intelligence community and Special Access Programs, an uncomfortable discovery came to light. This discovery exposed alleged covert activities related to the acquisition and reverse engineering of non-human craft, marking a moment of profound significance.
However, despite unearthing substantial gaps in domain awareness and the seismic implications stemming from Grusch's findings, the UAPTF faced dissolution. It was thrown to the dumps - its excellent personnel were dispersed and its efforts squandered.
Rather than persisting in its vital efforts to unearth the full scope of the severe security threats posed by UAPs, along with the purported cover-ups and resulting persecutions, the Pentagon opted to relegate the UAP topic to obscurity. This was achieved by instituting the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group (AOIMSG).
America’s UAP investigation was removed from the hands of those who sought to seek the truth and was instead placed with the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security (OUSDI&S).
When the OUSDI&S was proposed as the home of AOIMSG, former Director of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), Lue Elizondo pleaded:
“Please, please, please contact your representatives and let them know this is unacceptable and not in the best interest of the American people. The [O]USDI [&S) is the one single office that has continuously lied about this topic and persecuted whistleblowers.”
It was a move comparable to allowing President Nixon to lead the Watergate investigation.
At the time of AOIMSG’s creation, the concerns were all laid out by Liberation Times.
Disregarding the concerns voiced by Elizondo and a multitude of others, Congress, by permitting the Pentagon to situate AOIMSG within the OUSDI&S, wasted a precious opportunity to unveil possible serious misconduct and vulnerabilities in national security.
At the time, Congress had been creating its own legislation, covering its own successor to the UAPTF. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand had put forward an amendment (known as the Gillibrand-Rubio Amendment) within the National Defense Authorization Act, which would have established an alternative replacement for the UAPTF, named the ‘Anomaly Surveillance, Tracking and Resolution Office’ (ASTRO).
Other than being situated within the OUSDI&S, of great concern was the fact that AOIMSG exhibited significant deficiencies in its scope when compared to the ASTRO, including:
No reference to UAP being transmedium - the Group would concentrate on airborne phenomena, ignoring any ocean and space activity that had been observed
No requirement for the development and implementation of a plan for collection and analysis
No application to incidents that occurred outside of Special Use Airspace
No reference to unclassified public briefings
No study into the physiological impact of UAP, which could indeed be impacting military personnel
No provision for the recruitment of contractors or civilian experts
No requirement to consult foreign nations
No requirement to examine technical issues, such as observed non-combustion propulsion
No accountability or explanation was required for agencies that withheld UAP data
There was no mention of the threat posed to nuclear assets, which may represent an urgent national security risk
No requirement was included to provide unclassified findings to Congress and the public.
The flawed remit of the AOIMSG was proof that, at best, the Pentagon and intelligence community were ignorant; at worst, they were hostile regarding the investigation of UAP.
Unfortunately, Congress was unable to push back against the Pentagon's AOIMSG enough - despite provisions of ASTRO being included within AOIMSG, the OUSDI&S retained control over the office.
AOIMSG represented a giant leap backwards. And regrettably, it was a creation directed by Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks in close collaboration with Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines.
Compounding the issue, both Haines and Hicks made matters worse upon its establishment.
In an attempt to exercise oversight over AOIMSG, the Deputy Secretary directed OUSDI&S to establish the Airborne Object Identification and Management Executive Council (AOIMEXEC), a body consisting of members from the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Intelligence Community.
This Council aimed to facilitate interagency representation within the U.S. government.
Why was it regrettable?
Remarkably, the role of Executive Secretary was assigned to none other than the former disgraced Director of Defense Intelligence, Garry Reid. This appointment came on the heels of his disastrous stint as Director of the Pentagon's Crisis Action Group for Afghanistan.
Reid was also the very person described by Lue Elizondo as “one of the biggest obstacles to the DoD’s investigations and public transparency of unidentified aerial phenomena.”
Appointing someone with Reid's background to oversee such a crucial matter was a decision that should have been avoided at all costs.
With the OUSDI&S and Reid’s track record, the AOIMSG’s progress was expectedly slow. It wasn’t until July 2022 that its Director was appointed. His name? Dr. Sean M. Kirkpatrick, who previously served as chief scientist at the Defense Intelligence Agency's Missile and Space Intelligence Center.
Upon the announcement of Dr. Kirkpatrick's appointment, there was an awkward acknowledgement of the shortcomings of AOIMSG. As a result, the somewhat challenging-to-pronounce AOIMSG was revamped and rebranded into the more approachable acronym, AARO, standing for All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office. This corrected a mistake committed months before when ‘AOIMSG’ was chosen instead of the much more pronounceable ‘ASTRO’.
To many onlookers today, Dr. Kirkpatrick has been a disappointment in the role. Liberation Times understands that whistleblowers who have spoken to him are left disappointed and frustrated. Some find that he simply does not take their accounts seriously.
Many whistleblowers were left deflated when he stated at a public hearing that the AARO had “found no credible evidence thus far of extraterrestrial activity, off-world technology, or objects that defy the known laws of physics.”
Highly cleared intelligence and defense insiders with a firm understanding of the UAP problem and privy to classified information found that statement to be 100% disingenuous.
Now the AARO has found itself in a position where no whistleblower trusts its Director. Firstly, his public statements have undermined their own discoveries. Secondly, why would they speak to an office located within OUSDI&S - a place alleged to have previously persecuted UAP whistleblowers?
Furthermore, Dr. Kirkpatrick’s recent misrepresentation of David Grusch’s association with the AARO in an apparent attempt to undermine him, made matters even worse.
Even though Dr. Kirkpatrick acknowledged the presence of inexplicable spherical objects consistently captured by military and intelligence systems, there has been no recognition of UAPs exhibiting hypersonic capabilities and frequently entering Earth's atmosphere from space, something sources have repeatedly told Liberation Times.
Numerous videos, not presented by Dr. Kirkpatrick, depict UAPs descending into the ocean without causing a splash and showcase objects hovering motionlessly before abruptly darting away.
The AARO is failing in many ways currently.
Even if whistleblowers desired to step forward to the AARO, there is no readily available contact number or email address made public. This fundamental task, which the office has failed to fulfil, remains unaddressed.
Furthermore, its most recent report is delayed, a task that the UAPTF managed to achieve with fewer resources.
Given OUSDI&S's control over the AARO, this result might have been foreseeable.
One could raise inquiries regarding whether OUSDI&S ever harboured genuine intentions for the success of its UAP office. And what more effective manner to undermine its own endeavours than by selecting an inappropriate individual for the role of Director?
AARO only secured the necessary funding weeks ago, largely due to the determined efforts of senators, including Kirsten Gillibrand.
Nonetheless, this crucial office has been operating under insufficient funding since its establishment. This deficiency became even more glaring after the February 2023 shootdown incidents over North America, as they exposed a blatant national security risk.
Earlier this year at a public hearing, Senator Gillibrand, who chairs the Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities, asked why the AARO was underfunded for the second year in a row:
“I was disappointed that for the second year in a row, the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office or AARO was not fully funded in the department's budget request, understanding that we cannot get into specific budget figures in this forum. Can you discuss why AARO was not fully funded?”
In response, Michael J. McCord, Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller), seemed to suggest that Ronald Moultrie, Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence & Security, had not relayed any concerns or requests for further funding, stating:
“Senator, I don't have any information from my colleague Undersecretary Moultrie that he needed additional funding in this area. It's a relatively new office.
“We're standing up so I was under the impression I'm under the impression that we have adequate funding for the relatively new state of this but I will I'll double back with him if there's a concern.”
Moultrie was supposed to lead the AARO’s Executive Council - and instead of cheerleading its efforts and advocating for further funding, McCord suggests no funding concerns were ever expressed.
At this juncture, the failure isn't solely attributed to OUSDI&S; it is also a lapse on the part of those entrusted with leading America's UAP initiatives.
This includes both the Deputy Secretary of Defense, Kathleen Hicks and the Director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines. Both Haines and Hicks were responsible for creating a UAP office within the OUSDI&S - which also undermined Congress’s own efforts at the time.
Their offices will now assume responsibility from the OUSDI&S for the AARO moving forward - although it should be noted that as per legislation, Dr. Kirkpatrick will report to the Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence, Stacey Dixon - not directly to Haines. Note that Liberation Times is seeking confirmation that Dixon’s portfolio does now cover the AARO.
Given the historical performance of Hicks and Haines (the person who Dixon reports to), there's little reason to anticipate anything but further disappointment - but with greater White House awareness and Congressional scrutiny, that may change.
If the UAPTF had been permitted to continue and grow under the stewardship of advocates within the Pentagon and the Intelligence Community, there's a chance that the programs exposed by David Grusch could have been verified.
This could have potentially propelled us toward substantial advancements in understanding the profound national security implications brought about by UAPs, as well as the existence of alleged illegal programs operating without proper democratic oversight.
Hope is not lost though.
Change Under Hicks And Dixon
As the AARO becomes firmly established under the purview of Kathleen Hicks and Stacey Dixon (as expected), an opening emerges to re-evaluate leadership by appointing a reliable champion to oversee the AARO’s operations.
This individual should possess the adeptness to navigate bureaucratic complexities and effectively verify allegations pertaining to crash retrieval and reverse engineering initiatives.
But maybe a change in leadership is not needed and Dr. Kirkpatrick has been treated unfairly.
Perhaps Dr. Kirkpatrick remains in position and is given a fair chance outside of the OUSDI&S. Afterall, it is not his fault that his proposed public-facing interface website for whistleblowers still has not been approved by OUSDI&S, despite being submitted last year.
Nonetheless, the AARO can still be crucial in providing progress that the Congress and public seek.
New Legislation And White House Involvement
Presently, a legislative proposal has emerged with the aim of unveiling non-human materials held by defense contractors. It's worth noting that certain segments within defense contractors may be inclined to collaborate with Congress in the event this legislation is passed.
Beyond this, the legislation is designed to establish a UAP Review Board, consisting of nine U.S. citizens nominated by the President of the United States. This board would wield the authority to evaluate and offer guidance on the disclosure of UAP-related information and records. The Review Board stands as a promising conduit between the government and the public, offering the potential to mend trust.
Previously relegated under the jurisdiction of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security, the issue of potential non-human intelligence would rest with the U.S. President.
Intelligence Community Inspector General Investigation
A pertinent factor to consider is the ongoing investigation by the Intelligence Community Inspector General, Thomas Monheim, into David Grusch's allegations of illegal UAP retrieval and reverse engineering programs.
The Intelligence Community’s Inspector General deemed the allegations to be "credible and urgent" in July 2022.
Just this week, Representative Burchett, who led the recent UAP Oversight Committee (and signed by members of a new UAP caucus in Congress) wrote to the Inspector General, requesting further details relating to the names and locations connected with alleged retrieval and reverse engineering programs.
A response has been requested before 15 September 2023, or if classified, 26 September.
There is no certainty that answers will be provided to the representatives due to classification reasons - however a growing number of politicians will not stop pressing for answers from bureaucrats.
For the politicians involved, this topic goes beyond UAP - instead it represents an existential threat to U.S. democracy.
Representative Luna told Liberation Times last month:
‘When you have a government that's hiding information from its citizens, you no longer have a representative government.’
Representatives will hope that their Senate colleagues can match their own determination in the months to come.
UAP Select Committee
An additional avenue emerges through the proposed UAP Select Committee within the House of Representatives. On 27 July 2023, Representatives Matt Gaetz, Tim Burchett, Anna Paulina Luna, and Jared Moskowitz penned a letter addressed to Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, urging the establishment of this committee.
Should the committee come to fruition, it could bestow Congress with formidable authority to hold the government accountable concerning UAP matters.
In the possible event that any abuses come to light, a scenario akin to the Church Committee could ensue, reminiscent of the investigation that began with the U.S. Army's surveillance of civilians and led to the revelation of the CIA's Operation MKULTRA, entailing the drugging and torment of unwitting U.S. citizens in the name of mind control experimentation.
Notably, despite some political tensions growing, Congress is still actively addressing the UAP issue in a bipartisan manner.
Liberation Times understands that plans are in motion to conduct hearings in the Senate - the Pentagon's influence has brought uncertainty regarding new House hearings for now.
But following the House Oversight Committee’s hearing, the appetite for UAP transparency has never been greater within Congress. That hearing has provided a huge spark that can light the way forward.
Among those expected to speak at any future hearings are whistleblowers possessing direct involvement with alleged illicit UAP programs - individuals who have come into contact with the crafts and encountered the non-human beings associated with them.
These developments are historic and paradigm-changing. As you read this, influential figures within Congress are strategically aligning themselves with the unfolding events knowing that history will remember them.
There is a reason why the proposed nine-member UAP Review Board will include a historian, economist and sociologist - major disclosures may be ahead of us and the implications could be far-reaching.