Public Affairs emails with The Debrief

Months earlier, in late August of 2017, the former head of AATIP, Luis Elizondo,
worked with the Defense Office of Prepublication and Security Review to have the
three videos declassified. On October 4th, Kean met with Elizondo as well as other
individuals where she was told about the secret UFO program. Elizondo told
Motherboard that Chris Mellon was in the room as well, and showed Kean videos on a
laptop. Elizondo believes that the videos Kean was shown were the three UAP videos
in question, but could not confirm it outright because he was not looking at the
computer during that time.
Earlier that same day, Elizondo resigned from his position at the Pentagon. Only days
later, Elizondo along with Mellon would appear on stage with former Blink 182 punk
rocker Tom DeLonge and announce a new UFO research organization named "To The
Stars Academy of Arts and Science."
As a result, UFOs have become a hot topic. Publicly, the Department of Defence
established a new UAP Task Force on August 4th, 2020 to continue investigating
UFO reports made by military personnel. However, previous statements by the
Pentagon contradict this and seem to indicate that the Office of Naval Intelligence
along with the Office of the Secretary of Defense has had such a task force well
before August of 2020.
Motherboard reached out to Kean and she stated that due to policies concerning
source identity at the New York Times, she could not comment. Mellon was also
unable to comment at this time and declined an interview. A spokesperson for
the New York Times told Motherboard "the Department of Defense was the on the
record source of the videos in our coverage. We don't plan to comment beyond that."
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