The New York Times reveals AATIP
On 16 December 2017 Helene Cooper, Ralph Blumenthal and Leslie Kean reported that the Pentagon had secretly funded a UFO study programme.
2017 CE · 40.76, -73.99 · status: official
The account
The story described the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, launched in 2007 at the urging of Senator Harry Reid with about $22 million, much of it going to Robert Bigelow's company. It featured Luis Elizondo, who had just left the Pentagon, and published the FLIR1 and Gimbal videos, which Christopher Mellon had helped bring to the paper. The article is widely seen as the start of the modern disclosure era, leading to new congressional interest, a Navy reporting policy and eventually AARO.
The sceptical view
Later reporting and Pentagon statements disputed parts of the story, especially Elizondo's role in AATIP; the programme's output (largely BAASS work and speculative research papers) produced no proof of non-human craft.
Connections in the atlas
- ? What was the Nimitz “Tic Tac”?
- Tom DeLonge: Accepting a UFO-research award, promised a forthcoming annou
- Helene Cooper
- "Glowing Auras and Black Money" (New York Times)
- ▶ From Skinwalker Ranch to the 2017 AATIP story
- The Gimbal video
- ▶ The government UFO files
- Christopher Mellon
- To The Stars Academy publicises the Navy videos
- Ralph Blumenthal
- Harry Reid
- The FLIR1 ('Tic Tac') video