Public Affairs emails with The Debrief

WHAT IS THE PENTAGON OFFICIALLY SAYING ABOUT UAP?
Although The Debrief learned of the issuance and information reportedly detailed in the two UAPTF intelligence position
reports, officials we spoke with declined to provide any specifics as to why the most recent report focused on waterborne
associations with UAP.
One active defense official familiar with the current UAP investigations said the UAPTF has a wealth of photographic evidence,
collected from military pilots' personal devices as well as sophisticated DoD surveillance and reconnaissance platforms. The
source also told us some of the best evidence the UAPTF has acquired comes from measurement and signals intelligence
(MASINT), rather than from videos or still images.
Although officials we spoke with didn't provide any specifics to this point, it is assumed that any Top-Secret or Sensitive
Compartmentalized Information used to help form the UAPTF's current opinions would not have been included in the UAP
position reports, based on their wide-spread distribution.
Before publication, The Debrief reached out to The Pentagon for comment on the information leaked from the UAPTF reports.
Pentagon Spokesperson Susan Gough did not confirm or deny the existence of the UAP intelligence reports, and declined to
make any comment on their contents. We followed up and requested the current media posture outlined by the official public
affairs guide for UAP and dictated by Department of Defense policy (DoDI 5405.03) . Ms. Gough referred back to her previous
statement, indicating that the DoD does not discuss UAP publicly. As noted elsewhere, refusal by the Pentagon to discuss UAP
is hardly anything new .
In 2017, then Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Dana White confirmed to Politico that the DoD had studied
UFOs under the Advanced Aerial Threat Identification Program (AATIP). Additionally, White said the program had been run
by the former Director of National Programs Special Management Staff for the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for
Intelligence, Luis Elizondo. However, in an effort to "correct the record," in December 2019 the Pentagon issued a
statement saying AATIP was not
UAP related, and that Elizondo had "no responsibilities" in the program.
In May of this year, The Debrief informed The Pentagon Public Affairs Office that we had conducted a number of interviews
with former senior Pentagon officials, a senior White House advisor and obtained documents, which all showed AATIP was
involved in UAP investigations, and that indeed Luis Elizondo was the custodian of the AATIP portfolio. Additionally,
information obtained showed elements of the Defense Intelligence Agency and National Reconnaissance Office had participated
in AATIP.
Though this request was less than six months after The Pentagon's "no responsibilities" statement, spokeswoman Gough
replied, "Please keep in mind he [Elizondo] left DoD over three years ago, and there are personnel and privacy matters
involved."
Given the recent Presidential election results and impending transfer of executive power, The Debrief reached out to the
transition team for President-Elect Joe Biden. While not explicitly discussing UAP, a transition team spokesperson said Biden
intends to "Immediately return to daily press briefings at the White House, U.S. Department of State, and U.S. Department of
Defense. Our foreign policy relies on the informed consent of the American people. That is not possible when our government
refuses to communicate with the public."
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