Department of Homeland Security (DHS)

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is a US federal department whose personnel and assets have repeatedly intersected with reported unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) sightings and with internal government efforts to investigate them. In 2004, a UAP was spotted near the airport in Puerto Rico Aguadilla and was quickly tracked by a DHS helicopter.¹ The object appeared to detect that it was being monitored by the pursuing DHS helicopter, and then rapidly moved away.²

Footage of the Aguadilla encounter was later handled within the Department of Defense (DoD)’s Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP). Luis Elizondo deemed the DHS-origin video too sensitive to select for release because of its origin with what he described as a sister agency.³ Even after the footage had already leaked online, he was not willing to confirm it was a US government video without DHS’s agreement.⁴ Elizondo’s own career included further DHS-related liaison work: at the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence (OUSDI), he focused on an information-sharing operation between the DoD, DHS, and state, local, and tribal law enforcement authorities.⁵ He has also said he led classified investigations worldwide with partners including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and DHS.⁶

DHS was also the target of an unsuccessful bid to revive a cancelled Pentagon UAP research effort. KONA BLUE has been described as a DHS Prospective Special Access Program (PSAP) material-transfer effort.⁷ After the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) cancelled the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP)/AATIP, its supporters proposed to DHS that it create and fund a new version of the programme under a special access programme, codenamed KONA BLUE.⁸ It was supported by individuals who believed the US government was hiding off-world technology.⁹ A PSAP request was formally submitted to stand it up,¹⁰ but it was rejected by DHS leadership for lacking merit.¹¹ KONA BLUE was never approved by DHS, and its supporters never provided empirical evidence to support their claims.¹² According to the same historical-record report, no data or material was ever transferred to the department.¹³ Many of the individuals behind later claims of a hidden US government reverse-engineering programme were involved in, or supportive of, both the cancelled DIA programme and this failed attempt to reestablish it under DHS.¹⁴

The physicist Harold E. Puthoff, who was involved in the effort, said there was tremendous enthusiasm for KONA BLUE from the Directorate of Science and Technology (DS&T) and from security personnel at DHS.¹⁵ After the effort at DHS ended, Puthoff and colleagues spent at least two years developing comprehensive programme plans for it.¹⁶ The effort ultimately failed after Puthoff encountered pressure against funding it from a couple of individuals he declined to name.¹⁷ DHS security officers went searching for gatekeepers of the Legacy Program and found them, but could not gain access because KONA BLUE had not yet been turned into an approved Special Access Program.¹⁸ Puthoff has said that returning to DHS to speak to the security personnel involved remains an unexplored avenue of investigation.¹⁹

More recently, the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) has engaged with DHS as part of a statutory review of UAP-related programmes. To meet the direction of Section 1673 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023 (FY2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)), AARO sent guidance and requests to the DoD, Intelligence Community (IC) elements, the Department of Energy, and DHS to review and provide any non-disclosure agreements pertaining to UAP.²⁰ AARO also established a partnership with the Special Access Program Control Offices for the DoD, IC, and DHS to review programmes identified in interviews by name or description, to determine whether they correlated in time and location to historic special access programmes or Controlled Access Programs.²¹ According to the same report, KONA BLUE was brought to AARO’s attention by interviewees who claimed it was a sensitive DHS compartment created to cover up the retrieval and exploitation of “non-human biologics."²²

DHS has also been named in first-hand testimony unrelated to any formal programme. David Stinnett said DHS personnel were present when he visited Allison Kruse’s house, alongside numerous other visitors who reported seeing orbs and other phenomena in the skies above the surrounding woods.²³