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Public Affairs emails with The Debrief

DoD Washington Headquarters Services · 88 pages · text from the file's own layer

This FOIA release from DoD Washington Headquarters Services collects 2020 Pentagon public affairs and Navy emails about press queries on unidentified aerial phenomena. It includes the August 14, 2020 announcement that Deputy Secretary David Norquist had approved the UAP Task Force, and follow-ups on a CBS query about a claimed F/A-18 cellphone photo of a triangular object. It also reproduces The Debrief and Vice/Motherboard articles, and internal emails on DOPSR's handling of the Navy videos and Luis Elizondo's AATIP role.

  • p. 4 …A little over a month after this UAP briefing, Spencer was fired by then-Secretary of…
  • p. 53 …A little over a month after this UAP briefing, Spencer was fired by then-Secretary of…
  • p. 69 …A little over a month after this UAP briefing, Spencer was fired by then-Secretary of…
The Debrief was told the accompanying photo was captured from within the cockpit of an F/A-18 fighter jet with a pilot's
personal cell phone. According to three U.S. officials who had seen it, the photo showed an unidentified silver "cube-shaped"
object. The report is said to have indicated the object was "hovering" or completely motionless when military pilots
encountered it. All three officials agreed that based on the photo, the object appeared to be at an altitude of roughly 30,000 to
35,000 feet and approximately 1,000 feet from the fighter jet.
Defense and intelligence officials willing to discuss the report and those who only wished to confirm its dissemination all
expressed shock that it had been so widely distributed amongst the Intelligence community.
"In decades with the [Intelligence Community] I've never seen anything like this," said one intelligence official.
One defense official described the report's distribution as having gone through "normal, non-public, information sharing
channels." Other officials who'd seen and read the report either declined to elaborate or indicated the report was distributed on
various secure systems. One defense official indicated it was distributed on the DoD's Secret Internet Protocol Router Network
(SIPRNet). Two other intelligence officials said they received the information via "NSANet" (the NSA's official intranet). An
additional source said the report was distributed via the CIA's Intelink system.
According to those willing to discuss the document, the report's most disconcerting aspect was one of the potential explanations
for what UAP could represent. Sources say a "list" of possible prosaic explanations for these mysterious airborne encounters
was provided. However, the report expressly stated that the potential for UAP to be "alien" or "non-human" technology was of
legitimate consideration.
All sources interviewed by The Debrief confirmed that the Task Force issued an updated second UAP position report later in the
summer of this year. Like the first, officials say this recent intelligence report was very widely distributed and shared amongst
the Intelligence Community.
"It went viral," said one intelligence official who had read the report.
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