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CIV USN DCNO N2N6 (USA)
Tuesday, August 18, 2020 6:28 AM
CIV OSD PA (USA)
RE: Mainstream News Coverage on UAPTF
DOC 19
(b)(6) CTR (USA)
Categories: UAP AATIP Elizondo UFO
MJ's article:
Pentagon Announces Task Force to Study UFOs
The mission of the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force is to "detect, analyze, and catalog UAPs that could potentially pose a
threat to U.S. national security."
Vice Motherboard, 17 August 2020... by MJ Banias and Tim McMillan
The Pentagon announced on Friday that it had elevated the status of its UAP task force following pressure from Congress and the
fact that multiple instances have been reported of unknown objects reportedly making incursions into military airspace.
According to an emailed statement from Pentagon spokesperson Susan Gough and a press release from the Department of Defense,
on August 4th, the military approved the establishment of an Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAPTF).
"The Department of Defense established the UAPTF to improve its understanding of, and gain insight into, the nature and origins of
UAPs," read a statement made by Gough. "The mission of the task force is to detect, analyze, and catalog UAPs that could potentially
pose a threat to U.S. national security."
The Pentagon's recent announcement comes on the heels of a provision added to the annual Intelligence Authorization Act titled
"Advanced Aerial Threats." In the provision, the Senate Select Intelligence Committee offered their support for the "efforts of the
Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon Task Force," and requested a "detailed analysis of unidentified aerial phenomena data and
intelligence reporting collected or held by the Office of Naval Intelligence, including data and intelligence reporting held by the
Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force."
Some have interpreted this to mean The Pentagon is now suddenly creating a new UFO task force, equivalent to a Project Blue Book
2.0. However, what the government really just did was give some significant muscle to its relatively reclusive but long-standing
involvement with UFOs.
Beginning in 2008, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) was actively studying UFOs. The Advanced Aerospace Weapons System
Application Program or AAWSAP was a UFO research project contracted out to hotel magnate Robert Bigelow's Bigelow Advanced
Space Studies.
In 2012, the DIA ended funding for AAWSAP. However, former Department of Defense Supervisory Intelligence Specialist, Luis
Elizondo, says he continued pursuing UFO investigations from his position as the Director of National Programs Special Management
Staff. Under the moniker Advanced Aerial Threat Identification Program or AATIP, Elizondo directed the program until the Fall of
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