John Greenewald: In this day and age, why in the world with the
US government destroy documents and emails? storage is cheap.
And history is valuable. But the US government feels they should.
And they do. But is it always by the book? Well, what I
discovered years ago is no, it absolutely is not. And now, a
new controversy has just been revealed with the discovery that
even more emails were destroyed of a key player in a hot topic,
Dr. James Lacatski, he's the guy that not only lead a program
called us up that he says, explore the paranormal, that
Skinwalker Ranch, but he also said the US government has gone
inside an actual UFO. So why did his emails disappear? And wasn't
all by the book? What proof, if any, could we have received from
his classified communications? If they weren't all destroyed?
Stay tuned, you're about to journey inside the black vault.
That's right, everybody. As always, thank you so much for
tuning in and taking this journey inside the black vault
with me. I'm your host, John Greenewald, Jr, founder and
creator of The Black Vault. And we are exploring today, what
could or could not be a malicious cover up and
destruction of records. Now there's a couple of ways to look
at this. So what we're going to do is explore exactly what went
down, at least to the best of my knowledge, and explore the
questions that are still unanswered. Sadly, I can't give
you whether or not this was a malicious cover up or not, it
may actually be by the book. But I want to go ahead and explore
that a little bit also, because if it is, it's still
problematic, and it's something that I feel needs to be
addressed, needs to be explored more and needs to be fixed
because we are losing valuable, valuable history, not just on
the UAP topic, which we're going to be talking about today.
Again, in the context of the emails that were deleted.
However, this expands well beyond just the UAP topic, in
fact, pick any topic that involves the US government, and
that history is likely destroyed, or at least a piece
of it is likely destroyed after a certain amount of time. But
we'll get into all of that. So thank you all for joining me. If
this is your first time, I hope you do enjoy the channel, please
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definitely make sure you're subscribed and turn the
notifications on. So that said, let's just go ahead and get into
it and explore exactly what happened here. Because I did
post this out I feel that it was newsworthy, so don't like to sit
on things that James Lacatski and his emails were destroyed.
That was a new revelation. We had not known that before he was
a DIA employee. And for those who don't know, let's explore a
little bit about who James Lacatski is for anybody who does
explore the UAP topic, you'll know that he has written now two
books as of the recording of this video. The first out was
skinwalkers at the Pentagon. Now he wrote that with Dr. Colum
Keller, her and George Knapp, the journalist from Las Vegas
that everybody knows of the Bob Lazar fame and obviously,
someone who has been deeply involved with covering these
issues. Well, those three gentlemen came out with skin
markers at the Pentagon and explored what was the AW SAP
program within the Defense Intelligence Agency. Now,
depending upon who you listen to all SAP was allegedly, the
paranormal program that spawned a tip that was led by Luis
Elizondo in the Pentagon, specifically, OSD and that's at
least one version. There are other versions, even away from
the US government. Whether or not a tip was a nickname for us,
and that's a whole video in itself and kind of a mess. But
skinwalkers at the Pentagon, according to that book, set the
record straight, so to speak, because what we were told in the
New York Times article, according to this book, was
wrong and inaccurate. And so what they did was they explored
what OSAP was where the $22 million went and James Lacatski
was the guy who headed that program. Within the DIA. The
contractor was Bigelow Aerospace, his subsidiary called
bass, and the rest was history. So that was the first book they
came out with another one inside the US government. Covert UFO
press program, initial revelations also authored by the
same three gentlemen. So again, Lacatski was the guy who was at
the helm. And it's it's not disputed either. There's a lot
of government controversy here about Luis Elizondo and a tip.
The other. We'll call it a counterpart to this story that
all SAP went through the years that it was about 2008 to 2000,
technically 12, but really 2008 to 2010 was when they created
the majority of their reports. And then Luis Elizondo was doing
things inside the Pentagon, under what he called a tip. Now,
his role is disputed by the Pentagon, they say he had no
assigned responsibilities on the program. And essentially, he
didn't do anything that he claimed. However, lookout ski is
a different story. It's never been disputed by the US
government. In fact, if you know where to look, the original
documentation back from 2008 That was looking for bitters for
the off SAP within dia still has like cat skis name, so anybody
can verify that he was going to be the contracting officer,
contracting officers representative, or CLR. And he
was the government project leader of all SAP, so none of
that is in dispute. And it's easily proven. There is evidence
that supports that. Now, as the years went on, and documents
came came out. I don't know why. But the DIA ended up redacting
the cat skis name, but the documents were still
downloadable from the US government when they were
looking for bids. Go figure, who knows? Sometimes there's no
rhyme or reason why they do things. But there you go. So
anyway, that's exactly who look at Ski was now per this bid
solicitation. They call it a bid solicitation, they were looking
for government contractors to come aboard, get a certain
amount of money. And create essentially reports that were
forward looking 40 years into the future. Now this is on
paper, so don't kill the messenger here. But that's
that's what the solicitation was on paper forward looking 40
years into the future. How could technology advanced when it came
to materials lift? propulsion, there were about 12 different
areas of study primarily in aerospace research that they
were going to be looking into per this contract. Now, what
came out over the years was not necessarily that instead, it was
supposedly this Paranormal Research Program, headed within
the DIA with the contractor bass through Bigelow Aerospace. And
they studied different aspects of the paranormal at Skinwalker
Ranch in Utah. Now this was owned by Robert Bigelow. And
again, allegedly, the DIA was interested in what was going on
there. They were studying UFOs they were studying paranormal
creatures, all of which were outlined in the Catskills books.
So it was on paper one thing, but allegedly something much,
much more mysterious. And more paranormal, by the way, this
graphic was not prompted by AI other than what is your
interpretation of the offset program? That's what it came up
with? I'm fascinated by AI and how it interprets things. So
anyway, that's why the image is a little wonky. But that's,
that's the root of it, I always get a kick out of, again, how AI
thinks about things. So that was the prompt, give me an image
representation of the offset program. So now the question
mark is, you know, was was it really this paranormal program?
And I've always anybody who watches this channel, I've
always had a problem with that for a couple of different
reasons. It's out of the CIA's purview. It just is. I mean,
look, there may be some government agencies that would
be interested in Skinwalker Ranch if there was provable
paranormal research going on. I couldn't believe that that's not
a problem. But it wouldn't be the DIA. It's just not in their
purview to operate with boots on the ground on US soil. That's
just not their job. So for me, I kind of lean towards this was if
it was funded by government money, then the actual
government and the DIA didn't really know or authorize it. But
rather, maybe this was something that was just off the rails that
Lacatski was doing through the defense warning office where he
was a part of, they got the $22 million over the course of a
couple of years. And on paper, there was those aerospace
research studies. And they did create 38 reports, all of which,
but I believe one, because it's still classified has been
released. The rest are now in the public domain. And again,
that controversy is palpable when It comes to OS app and
whether or not it was related to paranormal. Now, why am I going
into that diatribe here when we're talking about emails?
Well, because in my opinion, emails are going to be the
absolute best way to either prove or disprove whether or not
OS have truly was exploring this, because let's face it,
there may not be government reports that were quote,
unquote, deliverables as connected to us app when it came
to some of these paranormal aspects. But, you know, they're
talking about it. Dr. Colm Kelleher, who was part of bass
was obviously talking about it. It's not 100% telephone
conversations for yours. No, I'm you're going to have emails, and
you're going to have emails that touch on the topics that may be
disputed by the US government. But within the email box of
James Lacatski, maybe we can get a little bit of an idea of what
really went on, what was the Kaski researching, what was he
looking at? What was he trying to figure out, so on and so
forth. So I love that for anybody who delves into the FOIA
and wants to explore with it, don't forget, it's not all about
reports and, and snoozy memos and stuff like that for your
email boxes, you will be amazed at the stuff that you will find
when it comes to this type of material. So don't forget that
in your for your travels. Definitely go after email. So
that's why what I did here. Now, let me kind of detour from the
Kaski here because obviously the DIA stance now is the Catskills
email box was destroyed. Now when I announced that on social
media, a lot of speculation began from different corners of
this conversation. And that's primarily because it tied into a
story that I did back in May of 2021. And I worked on this story
for months. And what the what the gist of this was, was that
Luis Elizondo again that disputed director of a tip
disputed by the US government that is I was going after his
emails for the exact same reason because look, the government can
have their stance and can be completely lying. Luis Elizondo
can have his stance and he could be completely lying. But if
there was this program, called a tip, and there was this research
and UFOs look, the chances that he was sending an email
classified or not, that had keywords like UFO or a tip or
UAP, or tic tac or Nimitz or go down the list. The odds of that
would be pretty high. So the government can play this. He
said, he said game with Luis Elizondo, that's fine. I don't
care. Because you go after the real records, you know, again,
the away from the reports those emails, and over the course of
months, in fact, it was actually years while I was filing these,
these FOIA is, but some of them were coming back negative, that
just didn't make sense. Negative meaning they were saying we got
nothing responsive to your request, no records whatsoever.
So I started prodding the Pentagon on this, specifically
the DoD that that was in control of Luis Elizondo his emails even
after he resigned, because they archive those things. And after
pushing and pushing and pushing, had finally discovered that Luis
Elizondo 's emails were destroyed. Now, is that legal?
Yes. However, you have to adhere to what are called records
retention schedules, in order to make it legal. So when somebody
resigns, you don't just poof, automatically delete their
entire existence. But rather, there are these schedules that
outline from top to bottom left to right, depending upon your
position, how high up you were, what did you do, what office
were you at? What agency did you work for? It stipulates how long
those agencies have to archive your emails and your files and
your reports. Now, in some cases, it's a very short
timeframe. In other cases, it's seven years. In other cases,
it's in perpetuity, it's in its forever. So they they archive
them and they never get destroyed. So it depends on
where you fall on the spectrum when it comes to where you are
in the government infrastructure. And that's
defined by these records retention schedules. So I dug
and dug and dug and pushed and prodded and poked and asked
anybody I could for statements and essentially the bottom line
was Luis Elizondo, I could prove his emails were supposed to be
maintained for seven years. Now, according to Mr. Elizondo, he
felt it was in perpetuity, I could not prove that. So he and
I had many discussions about that. And, and I told him, I
said, Look, I can't on paper. I can't prove that because you
don't fit into the category from where I'm sitting. I can't prove
it. But I can prove seven years and I can prove that the DoD
just destroyed your emails well ahead of schedule. Now, I don't
want to call that illegal, but it's definitely not by the book.
It is definitely frowned upon. And so what I had determined was
based on his resignation date, October 4 2024, was when his
emails were supposed to be maintained until so that means
you file a FOIA in early 2024. Those emails should still be
there ready for you to search. Yet in his case, they were
deleted years ago. And so that was wrong. Now, that obviously
created a lot of controversy and a lot of, shall we say,
conversation about what were they doing? Were they covering
up Luis Elizondo and his history within the a tip, and the proof
that people like me needed to support his claim? What were
they doing? And of course, we don't know the true answer to
that. But I can say and fill in one more blank, that in the
future, I don't know how far I'm not hiding it from you. I just
don't have the proof yet. However, I am under
How can I word this I have under very good authority, that that
Luis Elizondo is not alone with these email destructions, that
it was not just Luis Elizondo that was destroyed. But rather,
this was a much bigger problem within the DOD. Now, I have not
come across that information too well, after 2021 When I wrote
this story, so I plan on writing it more. However, I have open
cases that need to complete for me to get the reports get all
the proof, and all of that, but let's just say that this is a
bigger story. And it's one that's incredibly important to
me. And it goes to the root and heart of why I do what I do with
the black vault. And quite simply that is the preservation
of history. Whether or not it's Luis Elizondo is ATypI. Males,
whether or not it's James, James, the Catskills OS happy
males, or whether or not it's completely unrelated to any of
this. That's why I do what I do that this material is incredibly
valuable and should be saved. And the fact that my story had
really resonated within the Pentagon, but not in a good way.
Things kind of started to fall. And people started realizing,
hey, there's an issue here. There's there's information
being lost. And that's where I'm going to be able to pick up the
story hopefully sooner than later. But we know the
government's paces, you know, nothing short of a slug and
sloth so I don't know when that's going to come but just
know that that blank I want to fill in. And it's one that is a
bigger issue here because of of things like this, not only with
Luis Elizondo, but with James Lacatski. And the fact that
these answers can be given this is evidence in what may be look
in the grander scale a small one to the UFO community. It's a big
one. But to the grander scale here, look, not everybody's
going to care about the Catskills email and proving all
SAP was paranormal related. But look at the bigger picture and
what this is and how things are being destroyed. And how things
are being harmed how people's credibility is being potentially
harmed here. Look at the proof the evidence that's being
destroyed. That is an issue. Now with Lacatski, I had filed
multiple requests going back to you know 2018 2019 When the cat
skis name really was started being bantered about that he was
connected to all of this. We knew it from the original bid
solicitation that had already been out in early 2018. But
again, not not necessarily his connection to the paranormal
side of this more so at that time, it was Luis Elizondo, but
as time went on, and people started talking and doing
interviews, obviously that led to these FOIA requests being
filed, one of which I had looked for anything that said Elizondo
within the Catskills box. The reason for that is pretty
obvious it would have showed the connection between Luis Elizondo
and potentially all SAP Luis Elizondo has now since come out
and said that he talked to the CAT scan, they had conversation
and again depending upon what version of these stories you
listen to Luis Elizondo said he played no role in OS app yet in
his IG complaint said that he did for a couple of days, again,
depending upon which version of his that you want to believe,
regardless, sounded like there'd be evidence there yet. A search
that ended in 2021 for the keyword Elizondo came up
absolutely negative. They said that there was no records. Right
here no documents responsive to my request, which I always felt
was weird. I don't think I ever even posted this, because
especially in 2021, everybody just thought I was out to get
Elizondo and Lacatski. So I wasn't hiding this, but it was
like look, this doesn't make any sense whatsoever. So I archived
it for myself and I moved on. Another one was straightforward.
It was key word UFO on James Lacatski's email box. Now, that
one's pretty obvious. And yes, I do these requests with all sorts
of lists of UAP, UFO, different variations of view of UAP, so on
and so forth. So I'm not going to, you know, bore you to death
with every single word that I've used. But even this one also
came back with no documents responsive to your request. That
was in March of 2022. So that was really kind of bizarre to
me. Now, my mantra with the FOIA and I always preach this is
always appeal. And that is true. I fully support that. And
sometimes I don't follow my own advice. Some of these I didn't
appeal. And it was just quite simply because there was no
grant. I couldn't figure out what the grounds at this time
that I could stand on to say, hey, here's my legal argument.
Here is how I can appeal this. Well, when it came to this
request. That ended in September of 2023. I was looking for all
James Lacatski communications with Luis Elizondo. I included
multiple private emails now I've chosen to redact those to
protect Mr. Elizondo has privacy. I've always done that.
So when you see red redactions on documents, those are mine.
They're very few and far between. But that's what I do.
And in fact, I also asked the US government to please be six
redact my FOIA requests on Luis Elizondo, and other individuals
as well when I use private emails as as a keyword or a
target of a search to please do that to protect privacy, whether
or not they do that. I hope they do. But again, I'm not
interested in blowing anybody's privacy. So when you see those
red redactions, they're mine. So I was looking for the cascade
communications with Elizondo and J. Stratton. He was the one that
was part of the UAP Task Force. We don't hear a lot from him.
We've heard a few interviews. I think just just one main one, I
should say, with George Knapp. But Jay Stratton is somebody
that has intrigued me the first time his name came out, was an
article that I wrote a few years ago. His name was not connected
to any of this. At that time, what I had discovered was
Stratton had wrote, the original statements that I got from the
US Navy that went viral. I mean, it was covered worldwide, about
UAP, and the three videos, the FLIR, the gimbal, and the go
fast, and how the US Navy considered them unidentified.
Now, they had leaked, obviously, but they had never been
acknowledged before by the US Navy or the military. And on top
of that never said to be unidentified. So that was a huge
deal. So I had filed for years to figure out, Hey, how did that
statement get written? And by doing that had discovered this
gentleman by the name of John J. Stratton. And I didn't know at
the time exactly what his title was. But I knew that he was
highly connected because he's the one that wrote those
statements for the Public Affairs Office. And then the
Public Affairs Office took them, reworded them a little bit
shrunk them down just to make them more condensed. And that's
what I got, while I had discovered the original emails
that Stratton wrote. So just to give you that little background
on how Stratton came to be, I thought, okay, look, maybe there
was some communication with Lacatski as well. So let's put
it all in the same request. And yet that came up with no
documents responsive to your request. Now, this I had grounds
to appeal. Why, because Elizondo had already put in writing and a
document that he had submitted to the inspector general that he
had talked to Lacatski, there was other material that I could
draw firm from to build an appeal off of saying, hey, this
doesn't make sense because of this. And so I essentially what
what they call appeal, the adequacy of the search. And so
when you appeal, you have to do so under certain grounds of
proving what you're appealing. You also have to name what
you're appealing. You can't just say, I have a gut feeling things
are are there, you have to appeal the adequacy of the
search. Explain why so many FOIA people out there, I stress
appeal. So I filed the appeal on this. And this was the letter
that I got back just days ago. Dear Mr. Greenwald, this
response, your freedom of information act appeal dated
November 2520 23, I'm going to jump down, I reviewed your
request for appeal and remanded your request to the review team
for an additional search. I'm gonna stop quoting right there.
That means that I essentially won the appeal, that that they
that they didn't see adequate evidence that the search was was
done correctly. So from what I understand, appellate
authorities don't just automatically remand it back.
They only do so if they feel that the search wasn't adequate
enough, which was what I was appealing, so they remanded it
back for an additional search. Going back to the letter. Upon
remand and review, dia personnel verified the search procedures
and conducted a second search. No responsive records were
located as a result of this Search, the records you
requested were properly destroyed prior to your request,
pursuant to records disposition schedules approved by the
National Archives, and Records Administration, based on the
above information and the governing law, I find that dia
personnel performed an adequate search for records responsive to
your request, please be advised that no further action will be
taken regarding this appeal. Now, I'm going back one, one. So
April 2 2022. I'm going to write that down. So I don't forget,
because we're going to talk about
we're going to talk about why that data is important. So they
said that the records were destroyed prior to me submitting
that. So April 22, or excuse me, April 2 2020, to some date prior
to that. So that's, that's the only way I'm trying to kind of
dissect this and figure out when were these records destroyed,
because as you'll see, in a few minutes, that date is key. So
they told me here in writing, boom, everything is gone. So I,
you know, I do this a lot. I don't always talk about it. But
when I write articles, and when I announce things that I think
are newsworthy, I'm always double and triple checking. And
here is that double and triple check. Can you please confirm
that, by this response, all of James Kathy's emails were
destroyed, and the DIA responded, the DIA FOIA office
can confirm that a search was conducted for emails using the
cited name, James Lacatski, and no records were located. Now,
that wasn't good enough for me because even though they said
they were destroyed, it's so vague here. So I asked again,
I'll spare you my letter. But essentially just ask them what
I'm trying to confirm is the entire email box, just the ones
that I'm looking for, you know, what, what exactly are you
saying? And their response? Greetings. Your question was
understood, and the response is the same. There are no email
records for James Lacatski as a result of records retention
schedule, so everything is gone now. Anybody who knows me, I
continued to push. And I said, Look, you guys got to you got to
do better than that. What disposition schedule Are you are
you pulling from? And they said according to NARAS, General
Records Schedule 6.1 disposition authority, da G Rs 2022 0060002
emails are deleted when seven years old. So that's what they
said. Now, I did ask about James the cat skis, exact resignation
date, because there's a couple of differing dates. They're kind
of floating around. The DoD gave me Luis Elizondo when asked. So
I was hoping dia would do the same for look like ASCII, and
they're making me sign a third party release form. And the
Kaski doesn't return my messages that I stopped a year or two
ago. But he's very, very tight with who he talks to, which is,
essentially is Jeremy Korbel. And George Knapp. I'm not
familiar with him talking to anybody else, when it comes to
answering questions. So take that as you will. So that said,
I don't know his exact resignation date. Now that
schedule I just rattled off to you this is it general record
schedule 6.1. Here's the cover page. And here's the specific
section that they were talking about, which is email and or
other types of electronic messages of all other official
staff and contractors not included in item 10. Now, keep
in mind, these schedules are very, very detailed. I'm sparing
you all those boring, nitty gritty details. But essentially,
they go into what type of position, how long, what type of
record, how long do you retain it for, so on and so forth. And
so it spells all that out. Where Lacatski fit was this and that
that was stipulated here for seven years, then that's no
longer needed. This item applies the majority of emails and other
messaging account slash users within an agency adopting a
capstone approach, which it seems like dia does not media
neutral applies to records managed in an electronic format
only. So again, it it actually separates electronic documents
from paper records and so on and so forth. So they're that
they're that detailed, but this is where he fit. So seven years
was when lookouts keys emails should have been maintained. Now
this was item 10. Because some of you may may wonder, well,
what was item 10? Why didn't he fit into their item 10 are
actually permanent records is so things are kept in perpetuity
forever, till the end of the world. As soon as they resign.
It's kept and archived and there's no destruction. But he
didn't fit into any of their that made the absolute closest,
but it was not. fitting for Lacatski was number six
directors of significant program offices and or their
equivalents, as far as I'm aware of the Cascade was not the
director of a program office. He was within the offense warning
office. And he did lead obviously OS app. And I'm sure
he worked on a plethora of other programs as well. But he was not
a director number 10. Again, Close, but no cigar additional
roles and positions that predominantly create permanent
records related to mission critical functions, or policy
decisions and are of a historical significance. Well, I
mean, I guess ASA wasn't of his historical significance for them
to say, Hey, we should maintain all of those records. On top of
that, they didn't maintain any of his emails. So whatever he
was doing, they felt it was not something that they needed to
keep in perpetuity. So that being said, seven years, so what
exactly do we not have answered here? And it comes down to these
two questions, what exact date the James or Kathy retire? Now,
he has said in interviews around 2015 2016. And another one, I
believe it was set in May of 2016, or just 2016. So for my
purpose here, because I can't prove it yet. We're gonna say
circa may 2016, which means that the destruction would have been
authorized circa May of 2023. That would be seven years from
that. Now remember, I told you to put a pin in that one FOIA
request that was filed April 2 2022. From my calculation here,
it should have been May of 2023. That they were destroyed yet dia
said they were destroyed prior to my request of April 2 2022.
Now, if what is being said about lookout skis resignation date of
May 2016 is true, or just essentially, any date in 2016.
Then the destruction was not authorized until pick a month in
2023. That means all of the FOIA requests that I filed, including
this April 2 2022 requests, and the other ones that I went over,
which were filed in 2018 2019. So even years prior to that,
should have not met a destructed email box, nothing should have
been deleted that yet the DIA is saying oh, sorry, you know, you
filed after, so it does not make sense. Now, in one off the cuff
remark that Lacatski had made, he was talking about his
resignation, and he said, approximately 2015 2016. Now,
I'd love to hear if anybody has aligned to him wasn't really
2015 Or was, again, this kind of off the cuff remark said just
kind of like a 2015 2016 timeframe. Maybe he was planning
it and 2015 didn't execute until May, you know, whatever that may
be, then you're starting to cut it close. Maybe. But regardless,
we still don't know. So, in my opinion,
I believe his emails were destroyed early. But that is
just a guess at this point. It all depends on when the Kathy's
actual resignation confirmed resignation date, or retiring
date. When that actually was that'll determine if this was
kosher or not. If I were to guess, I think it was early. I
really do. So hopefully we can get that question answered.
Number two, the second question that we still don't know what
exact date was his email box destroyed that we don't know at
all. According to them, the only closest the DIA came to
answering that was prior to April 2 2022. That doesn't help
me at all. So I have asked now a couple of times with follow ups
by the time I recorded this, but I'm kind of being met with deaf
ears at this point. What was the exact destruction date? Because
even though that they won't tell me when Lacatski retired, I said
we can forget that just tell me when the emails were destroyed.
And then we can kind of backdate from there and we can figure it
out. But until that happens, we're kind of in the dark. But
bottom line though, I would guess that it was actually a
little bit early. So was this routine procedure or an
intentional cover up? And I think a lot of people kind of
jumped to intentional cover up. And that could very well be
true. But the reason why I pulled into Luis Elizondo story
that I wrote in 2021, is what I've discovered since then, and
that is a massive problem with record retention schedules not
being followed. And although that is getting into a very dry
story, I mean, I fully admit that that not everybody really
cares about the nitty gritty details when it comes to that.
The bottom line is what matters and that is the fact that these
records are be being destroyed way ahead of schedule. And
that's a problem, that these records are being met with
absolute disregard for their historical significance, but on
top of that absolute disregard for what they need to be doing,
and that is preserving these records. And this is an issue.
See, I started using the Freedom of Information Act thinking that
the government just saved everything, and that you can
just request and if it was there, then if it didn't fit
into the nine exemptions, then boom, you got it right. Or it
was heavily redacted or whatever. That was being young
and naive and stupid on my part, because then you realize, no,
the government actually destroys a lot. And that's part of the
game. And part of the game is the Freedom of Information Act,
I do not believe is broken. There's a lot of people who
trash it. Look, I got more than 3.23 point 3 million examples on
why the FOIA is not broken, you can get some amazing things. But
it definitely needs help. And in one of the reasons it needs
help, and one of the ways it needs help, it is the amount of
time that it takes to process requests. I've posted some in
the last couple of months, a couple of them that almost had a
decade. That's a huge, huge problem. Some that take years,
to to come our way, that is a huge, huge deal. It's not just
because US citizens shouldn't have to wait that long, because
we shouldn't, we're, we're doing stories, we're doing research,
whatever. We're just curious, it doesn't matter. The Freedom of
Information Act is at our disposal for a reason. But when
we get years of a wait, that is incredibly problematic. And I
think that this is an issue that needs to be dealt with, because
now when you when you add into the frustration of these delays,
you add in the records, retention schedules, the
records, retention schedules will destroy documents in a
quicker amount of time than it takes some agencies to process a
request. And what that means is, is it doesn't even matter if
your request goes in prior to document destruction. If they
don't process it, they may not know to go to James look at
skis, email box that's archived in whatever way that they
archive and say, Hey, we have pending FOIA here, we have to go
ahead and save that material for longer. No, none of that takes
place. So if they prolong the processing of these requests,
whether it be maliciously, intentionally, or just, it's the
nature of the beast, because they're understaffed, doesn't
really matter. The end result is that it takes longer to process,
that means all these records are destroyed. Now, we've talked
about seven years here a couple of times, but there are records
that are destroyed, literally within 30 to 45 days, all UFO
fans out there will really kind of cringe on this one. But when
it comes to the FAA records, and a lot of tower logs and, and the
control tower recordings, while pilots are encountering UFOs and
UAP. That's undeniable, I have a pile of FOIA requests that prove
that. But the only way I was able to prove that was that
people gave me a tip. And they said there was an encounter over
Dallas on this date. That happened two weeks ago. So go
after records on it. And sure enough, recordings would come
up, tower logs would note it, these incidents were being
archived. But if it's after the 30 or 45 day period, the FAA
destroys the air traffic control recordings, and they destroy
records because they don't keep them forever. Now, that's a
problem. Now I'm only talking about one specific UFO related
reason. And that's really interesting to me, may not be to
the whole world. But what else is being lost on those shorter
retention schedules? Some are only three years. Well, three
years isn't a long wait when you talk about FOIA. So yet again,
you're talking about a lot of material that's just being lost.
A lot of these programs and stuff take years to come out
into the open. But if those those records, the emails that
went in, to creating these programs, because a lot of times
those emails and the banter back and forth, that's more
interesting than what happened during the program itself. And
the final reports and the quarterly summary reports and so
on. The behind the scenes is a lot more interesting. But by the
time that stuff is public, it's all gone. It's all destroyed.
That's not true across the board. But it's true in enough
cases, that we need action. We need to do something about it
because we are losing valuable, important history. And it
doesn't matter what the topic is. Because all topics apply
records retention schedules, it doesn't matter if it's a UFO or
UAAP report or recording or something about aircraft or
something about whatever, it doesn't stipulate that the
records as a whole are either kept or destroyed. And that's
it. And that needs to change. I hope we get more about the
Lacatski emails. I continue to dig not only through getting
more information from dia, but also doing the exact same thing
I did with Elizondo. And that was finding out key players that
he was likely communicating with through other agencies, or maybe
even dia, that even though the Catskills email boxes gone, the
receiving end may have a retention schedule that says,
hey, this person is kept in perpetuity forever. And so even
though the Catskills email box is gone, you do a request on
that person for all communications they had with
James Lacatski. And hopefully, fingers crossed, you can get the
material. So it's a back engineering, if you will, the
communications from James the cat ski out. I've done it with
Luis Elizondo, and I've gotten results, not a tip related. But
it was able to show a little bit of a glimpse of what Luis
Elizondo his job was within the Pentagon. Hopefully, we'll have
the same with Rakowski. Only time will tell months, years,
decades. Who knows. But you know, I've already filed quite a
bit and I will report it to you whenever it comes in. So that's
the update. Thank you so much for hanging out with me for a
little bit here, talking about document destruction. And
whether or not it's kosher or not by the book or not. Man, it
really does irked me when that happened. So get involved. I
know some of this is dry. But get involved, make a stink out
of it, start profiling these incidents where records are
destroyed. Because look, look at what history we've lost. And
it's important, and I think more people should know. So thank you
for doing that. Again, thumbs up on the channel. If you're
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watching. This is John Greenewald Jr signing off. And
we'll see you next time.