Pentagon Reinforces Elizondo Had No AATIP Responsibilities; Reid 2009 Memo Changes Nothing

“Pentagon Reinforces Elizondo Had No AATIP Responsibilities; Reid 2009 Memo Changes Nothing” is an article published on 2019-06-14 by John Greenewald Jr. via The Black Vault.¹ The piece forms part of the 2019 Elizondo AATIP Role Dispute, a controversy that began on 2019-06-01 when The Intercept published a Pentagon denial of Luis Elizondo’s claims to have headed a secret Pentagon UFO programme known as the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP).² The article presents new statements issued by the Pentagon directly to The Black Vault, specifically addressing a 2009 memorandum by Senator Harry Reid that some of Elizondo’s supporters had been advancing as evidence of his leadership of AATIP.³

The new statements were provided by Susan Gough, a Pentagon spokesperson. Gough confirmed that the Reid Harry 2009 AATIP Special Access Program Memo is authentic⁴ but maintained that it changes nothing with respect to previous Pentagon statements about Elizondo.⁵ She stated that Elizondo had no assigned responsibilities for AATIP while he served in the Office of Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence (OUSD(I)).⁶ Gough further stated that AATIP was administered by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and that Elizondo was never assigned to the DIA,¹⁶ though he did interact with the DIA office managing the programme while it was still ongoing without leading it.¹⁷ She confirmed the Pentagon received the Reid memo and responded to the senator, but said the Pentagon Public Affairs office was unable to provide The Black Vault with a copy of that response as Congressional correspondence is not released.¹⁸

The article recaps the initial denial in the dispute, which had been issued on 2019-06-01 in reporting by Keith Kloor and attributed to Pentagon spokesperson Christopher Sherwood, who was quoted in The Intercept’s article.^{7, 8} Greenewald reports that in the period following The Intercept piece, George Knapp of KLAS-TV re-issued a new version of the Reid memo.⁹ The memo, dated 2009-07-24,¹⁰ was originally first published in a KLAS-TV story on 2018-07-25 by Knapp and Matt Adams,¹⁴ and in that initial release the names of Elizondo and Harold E. Puthoff had been redacted.¹¹ The document outlines Reid’s request and reasoning for granting AATIP Special Access Programs status¹² and was addressed to Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn III.¹³ The KLAS-TV Elizondo Reid Memo Publication 2018-07-25 marks the document’s first public appearance. Greenewald notes that the memo’s 2009-07-24 date precedes Elizondo’s claimed assumption of leadership of AATIP by at least five months, meaning it does not directly contradict the Pentagon’s position.¹⁵

The article also addresses an episode involving Bryan Bender, identified as the defence editor for Politico and one of the journalists who broke the AATIP story in December 2017. Bender had tweeted on 2019-06-02 that a “much more definitive statement” from the Pentagon was forthcoming that week²⁰ and that The Intercept’s assertions and innuendo were wrong.²¹ The Intercept Elizondo AATIP Article 2019-06-01 had prompted this reaction. The Pentagon statement received by Greenewald on 2019-06-13 went against the expectation that such a statement would confirm Elizondo’s directorship,²² and the Bender Tweet Deletion 2019 followed: Bender deleted his tweet after it was noted the promised statement had not arrived within the week he claimed,²³ and he declined to comment on the deletion.²⁴ Elizondo himself did not respond to a request for comment from The Black Vault.¹⁹

Puthoff, identified by Greenewald as co-founder of To the Stars Academy of Arts and Science — the organisation where Elizondo is employed³¹ — offered to counter the Pentagon’s assertions but provided only a written statement without supplying documented proof when asked for it.²⁶ In that statement, Puthoff asserted that as an Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP)/AATIP contractor and senior advisor, he had attended meetings, provided briefings, gained access to videos, and met with staff under Elizondo’s leadership and responsibility for maintaining continuity of the programme until Elizondo resigned.²⁷ Puthoff acknowledged misunderstandings about Elizondo’s role and suggested that 2019-06-14 Pentagon Elizondo AATIP Denial public affairs staff are often themselves unknowledgeable about details of highly classified sensitive programmes for security reasons.²⁸ Greenewald raises a chronological question in response: AAWSAP and AATIP contracted work began in 2008 at the DIA — through Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies, the company that initially won the AAWSAP contract²⁹ — while Elizondo’s alleged leadership is said to have begun in 2010 at the OUSD(I) when the programme transferred, making it unclear how Puthoff could have worked under Elizondo’s leadership from the outset.²⁸ Funding for AATIP was cut entirely in 2012.³⁰ Greenewald also notes he asked Puthoff about discrepancies regarding whether contracted work by Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies continued after two years or after the 2012 funding cut, but Puthoff did not return the message.²⁸