November 24, 2021 — Christopher Mellon, former Deputy Asst Sec of Defense for Intelligence under Clinton and Bush, who stepped away from his government position to force the subject of Unexplained Aerial Phenomena (UAPs) into the public sphere, and Luis Elizondo, former Director of AATIP (Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program), have both responded to this week’s announcement that the Department of Defense is creating a new working group to study UAPs.
Mellon’s open letter to Rep. Ruben Gallego (AZ) politely counsels the representative that placing the group within USDI (the office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence) is ill-advised.
Elizondo warns that the USDI is “the same organization that has underplayed and tried to kill the UAP effort for years” and has “persecuted whistleblowers”.
There is speculation in The Washington Examiner that this office was announced now to undermine a bipartisan effort to create a new office to investigate these extraordinary events. The bipartisan plan detailed in Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s (NY) amendment to the 2022 Defense Act would mandate “regular reporting, engagement with foreign allies, and a coordinated effort to research and possibly replicate UFO technologies”, whereas the plan announced by the Secretary of Defense does not.
Christopher Mellon’s open letter
Open Letter to Representative Gallego
Dear Representative Gallego:
I am writing as an admirer and supporter who deeply shares your concerns about the UAP issue.
In 2017, I was shocked to learn that U.S. Navy pilots had been encountering UAP in restricted U.S. airspace on a regular basis and nobody was reporting it much less doing anything about it. Senior DoD and intelligence officials, Congress, and the American public were all totally unaware.
I therefore worked with Lue Elizondo of the USDI staff to try to get this extraordinary information to Secretary Mattis. We knew that almost anyone below that level would likely shunt the issue aside and quash if we revealed it to them.
After a number of months, we realized we were not going to be able to inform Secretary Mattis. After some deliberation, we decided this was simply too important to ignore. Lue resigned from OSD in protest and shortly thereafter I delivered two authentic but unclassified DoD UAP videos to the New York Times …
Luis Elizondo statement
Important update: Before anyone gets too excited about the recent Pentagon announcement of a new UAP group, please consider the following:
- A. USDI is precisely the same organization that has underplayed and tried to kill the UAP effort for years.
- B. USDI is an oversight organization and non-operational.
- C. Nowhere is there a requirement to provide unclassified findings to Congress, or work with our international partners.
Given that elements still exist in the Pentagon who are actively underplaying the significance of this topic, this is akin to giving an alcoholic the key and control to the liquor cabinet.
If you want to maintain UAP/UFO secrecy, this is exactly how to do it.
This is a direct and blatant attempt to circumvent and undermine the Senate, @SenGillibrand, @SenRubioPress, @RepRubenGallego, @MartinHeinrich, @RepTimBurchett, and others.
Please, please, please contact your representatives and let them know this is unacceptable and not in the best interest of the American people. The USDI is the one single office that has continuously lied about this topic and persecuted whistleblowers.
The Pentagon’s announcement to which they are responding may be read at the following link:
Establishment of the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group (pdf) (Nov 23, 2021)
