This FOIA release stems from a request seeking emails to or from the Vice Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force, General Stephen W. “Seve” Wilson, using Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP)-related keywords. While the resulting records do not contain substantive internal discussions of UAPs, they provide an unfiltered snapshot of the type of daily intelligence and media monitoring products circulated among senior military leadership. The primary document released is titled “Morning News of Note – 11 March 2018”, an unclassified briefing product forwarded to the Office of the Secretary of Defense and distributed within senior Department of Defense channels.…
Author: John Greenewald
In June 2009, then–Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid sent a letter to the Department of Defense requesting heightened protection for what he described as the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP). The four-page letter, addressed to then–Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn III, argued that portions of the program warranted Restricted Special Access Program (SAP) status due to sensitivity involving “unconventional aerospace-related findings,” advanced technologies, and national security implications. The letter itself is no longer in dispute. After years of denials, confusion, and contradictory statements, the Department of Defense ultimately acknowledged its authenticity, and the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) released…
A newly released FOIA appellate decision has remanded a case back to the Department of War (DoW) for additional searches related to an alleged 2023 memorandum described by the Wall Street Journal. According to the newspaper, the Secretary of Defense’s office issued a directive ordering the immediate halt of an Air Force hazing ritual known as “Yankee Blue,” which involved fabricated claims of reverse-engineering non-human technology. The DoW originally stated that no such memorandum was found, but the appeal has now been granted, and the case remanded for a new search. An Unverified Claim and a Growing Controversy In June…
A newly released set of Defense Department documents reveals how the Pentagon handled former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Christopher Mellon’s request to publish a message he said referenced an alleged effort to exploit “recovered off-world technology.” The records also reveal that Mellon’s first attempt to submit the material was returned to him after a DOPSR employee deemed his three-page mailed package a “security threat,” a detail he did not disclose in his public article. The documents, sent to The Black Vault under FOIA case 24-F-1134, include Mellon’s original submission to the Defense Office of Prepublication and Security…
A newly released Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) response from the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) has revealed that no records exist for an August 28, 2017, meeting listed on the official calendar of Neill Tipton, then Director for Defense Intelligence, Collection and Special Programs. The finding stands in contrast to an earlier FOIA-released calendar showing the meeting was scheduled as an UNCLASSIFIED “SAP Coordination Meeting,” with a point-of-contact phone number matching one found on Luis Elizondo’s DD Form 1910 request to release three Navy UFO videos back in 2017. OSD’s “no records” determination, issued today to The…