AARO’s UFO Research Portal Shrouded in Secrecy—FOIA Release Offers Little Insight

In a recent Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) release to The Black Vault, through FOIA Case 23-F-0740, the Department of Defense (DoD) provided documents regarding their classified web portal for their UFO research office known as the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO). This request was based on the testimony given by Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, the current Director of AARO, during the April 19, 2023, hearing on UAP.

Dr. Kirkpatrick stated during his testimony, “Once we have an approved web portal to hang the unclassified stuff, we will do, you know, we would downgrade and declassified things and put it out there. In the meantime, we’re putting a lot of these on our classified web portal, where we can then collaborate with the rest of the community so they can see what’s going on.”

Following this, The Black Vault filed a FOIA on April 25, 2023, requesting “a copy of the main page for this classified portal,” and, “a copy of all pages ‘one click’ down from the main page, which would be a copy of every page directly linked to that home page by one click.”

The response received from the DoD were two images and are of very low quality, with much of the text unreadable. Additionally, substantial portions of the documents are redacted, marked with the familiar “(b)(1)” exemption, often used to protect classified information.

The pages released are:

Redaction Explanation

The Department of Defense explained these extensive redactions with the following: “The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence & Security (OUSD(I&S)), a component of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, conducted a search of their records systems and located [#] (sic) pages determined to be responsive to your request. The IDA, in their capacity as an Initial Denial Authority, has determined that portions of the two responsive pages are exempt from release.”

The exemptions are made pursuant to 5 U.S.C. § 552 (b)(1), which allows information to be withheld if it is classified “in the interest of national security.” Specifically, the classified information falls under the protection of Executive Order 13526, Sections 1.4(a), (c), and (g), covering military plans, intelligence activities, and vulnerabilities related to national security.

Additionally, the unclassified portions of the document are also being withheld due to concerns that, when compiled together, they could reveal classified information under Section 1.7(e) of E.O. 13526. This exemption covers compilations of unclassified material that reveal a classified association or relationship. The concern is that even the unclassified information, when reviewed together, could inadvertently disclose details that remain sensitive and critical to national security. 

The poor quality of the images and the extent of the redactions leave much to be desired. The FOIA request aimed to shed light on the classified web portal Dr. Kirkpatrick referenced in his testimony, but the response offers little insight into its contents.

An appeal will be filed to fight the low quality imagery, in addition to the redactions.

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Document Archive

   FOIA Case 23-F-0740 Release [4 Pages, 1MB]

 

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