Documents / FOIA release
This Office of the Secretary of Defense FOIA release (24-F-0893) collects Pentagon public affairs and legislative affairs emails from March 4 to 6, 2024. They include a Scientific American editor's request to join the press list for an AARO media event and a daily press operations summary. The file also holds readouts of Hill briefings. Acting AARO Director Tim Phillips and Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick briefed congressional staff on the Historical Record Report, including KONA BLUE. A separate SASC briefing covered drone incursions at JBLE in December.
(b)(6) (b)(6) • Meagher, Christopher M SES Waibel, Carlie S SES (USA) To: King, Heather SES SD (USA) (b)(6) Cc: Mancinelli, Thomas J SES OSD OASD LA (USA) (b)(6) ; Magsamen, Kelly E SES (USA) l (b)(6) ; Zier, Caroline G SES OSD OUSD POLICY (USA) (b)(6) rayboke, Erol K SES (USA) Thanks, Heather. Copying below the quick read-out of the AARO briefings from our team in case helpful: Mr. Tim Phillips, Acting Director AARO, and (b)(6) were joined by Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick in a compartmented brief and a TS//SCI brief to staff on the findings of the Historical Record Report BLUF: Both briefs were well attended and went well. Dr. Kirkpatrick attended the first brief and the majority of the second brief. Questions were robust in both sessions and the staff seemed appreciative of the information and AARO's work. There are a few due outs. Session 1: Compartmented Annex Brief to Senior Staff; 1300 - 1400 The session was well attended. Staff Directors and Clerks from all six intelligence and defense committees attended, along with Senate Leadership National Security Advisors (House Leadership NSA's were invited but did not attend). Mr. Phillips delivered prepared opening remarks to convey the key takeaways from the report, before inviting questions from the attendees. Although it seemed most in the room had not had the chance to read the annex in advance of the session, the discussion was robust. Staff asked numerous questions about the individuals AARO interviewed as part of the review, and some of the noteworthy programs to include KONA BLUE. Staff also asked questions to better understand AARO perspectives on risk and Cl implications of the findings in the report. DoD SAPCO provided copies of the annex for reference during the brief and Mr. Phillips, Dr. Kirkpatrick, and highlighted different sections during the Q&A session to provide con ex and additional detail. At the end of the session, staff asked for perspectives and recommendations for countering inaccurate or misleading narratives related to UAP based on the review. The staff were appreciative of the information and thanked the panel for the time. Session 2: TS//SCI Brief to Intelligence and Defense Committee PSMs; 1400 - 1530 This session was also well attended. 24 PSMs representing all six of the invited committees joined the session. SSCI Minority Staff Director Brian Walsh stayed for the second session. Mr. Phillips again delivered his opening remarks and presented from prepared slides to convey the key findings from the report and provide amplifying detail. Staff began asking questions early on and Mr. Phillips, Dr. Kirkpatrick, and fielded questions as they came up, referring to the slides as nee •e• SM questions varied, but recurring themes centered on the number of total (b)(6) Subject: RE: Following up from Unders (b)(6)
FOIA release, from the osd collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 20 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.