The former head of the Pentagon’s Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) — also known as the Department of Defense’s UFO program — told Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Wednesday that he believes the United States government is in possession of mysterious, “exotic” technology as a result of encounters with unidentified aircraft.
Luis Elizondo, who headed up the Pentagon’s AATIP unit for years until it shuttered in the mid-2010s, spoke to the Fox News host ahead of what is expected to be a blockbuster Defense Department report detailing the United States military’s encounters with unidentified aerial phenomena (AUP).
When asked whether the government is in possession of physical evidence of advanced technology, Elizondo told Carlson that he “believed it was true” that military investigators collected “exotic materials.”
“Is there debris or materials from any of these vehicles?” Carlson asked.
“The United States government is in possession of exotic material and I’ll leave it at that,” Elizondo responded.
Elizondo has routinely stopped short of suggesting that any encounters with unidentified aerial phenomena — even those that might have produced “evidence” of superior technology — means that the U.S. government has had contact with extraterrestrial life. Officials who have spoken about the Pentagon’s forthcoming report have instead noted that it’s possible these “alien encounters” were encounters with spy technology from foreign governments.
“More analysis needs to be done,” Elizondo said of the “exotic materials.” “There is enough uniqueness about it where it requires additional analysis and additional expertise and thankfully there are pockets in the US government that are willing to have the conversation and conduct the analysis.”
Elizondo did suggest that government officials investigating these “exotic materials” face pushback from other forces inside the Department of Defense and other agencies.
“I’m not going to say what those elements are because I’m worried about the same type of reprisal that I’m facing,” Elizondo told Carlson. “But there are pockets of people that are willing to do the right thing.”
Elizondo has been a vocal advocate for investigating these AUPs, and interest in his Pentagon assignment has piqued since December, when then-President Donald Trump signed into law an order demanding that the Defense Department release information about the Advanced Aerospace Thread Identification Program by June 1.
The report is supposed to contain details of AATIP investigations into certain military encounters with UAP, videos of which have leaked online. “The secret $22 million initiative was shut down in 2012, and its existence was acknowledged for the first time in December 2017, following a report about the program published by The New York Times. The Times reported that the program’s initial funding came largely at the request of former Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid,” NBC News reported late last year.
Elizondo believes that regardless of what the UAPs turn out to be, the military needs to confront the issue.
“They have the responsibility to always act in a manner that is in the best interest of the United States and the American people,” he told NBC News. “This topic is no different than any other national security issue, and we must remain diligent, deliberate, and discerning.”