The controversy surrounding Luis Elizondo’s claims of directing the “Pentagon’s Secret UFO Program” known as the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) has sparked widespread debate. While Elizondo’s exact role in AATIP remains disputed by the Pentagon, it is confirmed that he was the director of the National Programs Special Management Staff (NPSMS) within the Department of Defense (DoD) at the time of his resignation.

In July 2021, The Black Vault made a discovery that Colonel Evelyn Laptook had replaced Luis Elizondo as the director of NPSMS. This document below revealed her name, as connected to being the director of the office that Elizondo resigned from less than a year prior:

The revelation prompted speculation by The Black Vault that if AATIP-related activities continued, they might still be managed within the NPSMS office where Elizondo was previously employed. Consequently, a FOIA request (21-F-1235) was filed by The Black Vault in July 2021 to uncover more information about this, as it possibly connected to Laptook or the office she ran at that time.

The FOIA request sought records containing keywords such as “AATIP,” “AAWSAP,” and “Advanced Aerospace” within Laptook’s email box. The search revealed one single exchange that connected to another FOIA request from 2018, referred to as CMO003127-18. This designator likely stems from the Correspondence and Task Management System (CATMS), a system designed for efficient management of tasks and correspondence within the DoD.

The likely FOIA request itself that this refers to is identified as 18-F-1477, which was filed by researcher Keith Basterfield, on August 8, 2018. Basterfield’s request sought, “… a copy of documents relating to the purpose; mission statement; vision; assessments; contracts; technical reports and outcomes of the Advanced Aerospace Threat (and) Identification Program. This program operated out of the National Programs area of the Sensitive Activities Directorate, under the Deputy Undersecretary of Defense, for HUMINT, Counterintelligence and Security.” This wording matched that of the tasking email, indicating this was the request it referred to.

While processing the request for Basterfield, the FOIA office tasked it to a redacted individual, likely Col. Laptook, who was the NPSMS director at the time. Col. Laptook’s response indicated that the NPSMS’ mission “relates strictly to” a short redacted term, which is protected under FOIA exemption (b)(2). This exemption pertains to information solely related to the internal rules and practices of an agency. The secrecy surrounding the NPSMS’ mission continues to raise questions about the sensitivity and confidentiality of their operations. There remains not much known about the office, and when searched, the internet produces primarily results about Elizondo himself, but not much beyond it with the exception of court transcripts profiled by The Black Vault in 2019.

Additionally, a reference to a “sister office” was also redacted, suggesting that an extension of NPSMS is equally classified and shrouded in secrecy.

Despite the National Programs office within OUSDI stating they had no records related to AATIP, a subsequent email hinted at “background information” that could be relevant to the request. This suggests that although no direct records were found, there were still underlying details worth noting. One email stated, “I’ll try to touch base with you later today about background information that could be related to this request being tasked to your office.”

This exchange is significant as it highlights the complexity and secrecy surrounding AATIP and related programs. The correspondence shows that within the DoD, information about AATIP is closely held and continues to be a challenge to access. The fact that there was still “background information” to discuss, despite the official stance of no records given to Basterfield’s request in this instance, adds another layer to the mystery. More FOIA requests have been filed to seek out that information.

While these latest FOIA findings may not be earth-shattering, they contribute another piece to the complex puzzle of unraveling AATIP and its operations, whatever they may be, following its exposure by the New York Times and Politico.

Note: The original request filed by The Black Vault for information about what became ultimately known as AATIP to the public was filed on October 13, 2017. This was more than two months prior to the acronym AATIP (and full program name) being published by the mainstream media. This was FOIA case number 18-F-0077 and sought information about the program Elizondo described at the To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science press conference, which first introduced Elizondo to the public. That request yielded a “no records” response, after it went through several appeals.

The Black Vault remains committed to transparency and continues to seek answers through FOIA requests on this issue. Each new document and detail brings the general public closer to understanding the truth, whatever that may be.

For more in-depth and factually accurate articles grounded in verifiable evidence, stay tuned to The Black Vault.

UPDATE: On May 7, 2025, the Department of Defense responded to the remanded appeal (meaning, my appeal was granted) when fighting the original redactions on the records. In short, there was only one word, the name “Michael”, which was unredacted. The remaining exemptions stayed in place. That release is located below.

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21-F-1322 Release [4 Pages, 1.5MB]

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21-FR-1322 Release (Appellate Release) [4 Pages, 1.5MB]

The post From AATIP to NPSMS: The Mystery Continues To Deepen first appeared on The Black Vault.

After years of bureaucratic obstacles and inconsistent responses, The Black Vault has obtained a highly sought after document through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) that directly references the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), reported since 2017 as “The Pentagon’s Secret Search for UFOs“. The draft memo, never-before-seen by the public and authored by former DoD counterintelligence agent Luis Elizondo, details AATIP’s mission as “focusing on beyond next generation technologies in the areas of lift, propulsion, cloaking, and human effects,” and describes how AATIP was gathering information on “unexplained or unknown aerial systems” from various DoD components and elements. But more importantly to some, it may even confirm Elizondo’s official work within the program, a claim denied by the Pentagon since 2019.

The journey to obtain these records began on May 5, 2021, when The Black Vault filed FOIA case 21-F-0964. The request specifically sought communications between Elizondo and Neill Tipton, a senior DoD official that was also one of three named individuals in Elizondo’s DoD Inspector General (IG) complaint filed on May 3, 2021. This complaint alleged that all three (Tipton, Pentagon Spokesperson Susan Gough and former Director for Defense Intelligence [Intelligence and Security] Garry Reid) “conducted retribution and provided false information to the public,” and were also accused by Elizondo of “abusing government authority” and “illegal destruction of information.” This complaint stemmed from Elizondo’s belief that he was being mistreated after his resignation from the Pentagon due to his decision to speak about his time investigating UFOs, now being referred to as Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP).

After amending the FOIA request to focus only on emails between Elizondo and Tipton containing keywords such as “unidentified,” “AATIP,” and “UAP,” (and others) in response to the DoD’s request to narrow the search scope, the DoD initially replied in December 2021, stating that “no records” were found.

Believing differently, The Black Vault filed an appeal within one day, asserting that responsive documents existed. This assertion was based on knowledge gained from various sources and research means during the timeframe leading up to the case filing. The information learned through this process, combined with the specific keywords provided for the FOIA request along with the date range requested for the search (2008 – 2017), left little to no doubt that responsive records existed.

“September 25, 2017, at 11:23a, Mr. Luis Elizondo sent an e-mail to Mr. Neill Tipton which included the ‘AATIP’ acronym in the body,” the appeal stated. This fact alone should have yielded at least one responsive document to the request, which was used as the basis of the appeal.

The appeal letter filed by The Black Vault went on to further express deep frustration with the FOIA process, the DoD, and their handling of cases related to AATIP and Elizondo, stating:

“Let me add within the body of this appeal, on how frustrating some of these requests are getting. I believe, and hope, your office has seen the lengths I’ve gone to try and make your efforts easier by closing / withdrawing requests, to reduce paperwork etc. I am also always there, when possible, to amend requests to also lessen the burden of a workload. However, as you can see with this case alone (and now many others), cases are having me reduce the scope to help, but after months (and sometimes years) of waiting, they are inappropriately closed, and I have to then go through the lengthy appeal process. There are NUMEROUS agencies that I can cite, where requests are processed for communications between two people, without stipulating a keyword search. I am sure a keyword reduction in scope helps, but as we can see here, that is likely creating more problems; generating more paperwork; and wasting more time than it is actually helping.”

The appeal was also cc’d electronically to the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS), which acts as a mediator between FOIA requesters and federal agencies, helping to resolve disputes and ensure proper handling of FOIA requests.

The appeal was ultimately granted in February 2022, and the case was remanded back to the DoD for further processing. Despite this, The Black Vault never received an acknowledgment that the case had been reopened, as required by law. When The Black Vault inquired about the status in August 2023, a year and a half after the case should have been reopened and acknowledged, the DoD responded that an acknowledgment letter had not been sent as it was “overlooked.” Although it was then sent that day, and the case was renumbered as 21-FR-0964 due to the remand, there was no estimated date of completion given.

In a puzzling sequence of events that followed, the documents related to FOIA case 21-FR-0964 were later  allegedly released on March 29, 2024. But yet again, The Black Vault never received that correspondence, either, and no explanation was given as to why that was by the writing of this article. The results of that case, once the documents were finally received just this week, in a moment.

But first, it turned out that the same documents requested in 21-FR-0964 happened to turn up and were released in May 2024 under FOIA case 21-F-1154, but they had extensive redactions. This case was originally filed by The Black Vault in June 2021.

These redactions included the complete blacking out of a crucial memo on AATIP which was attached to one of the emails written by Elizondo that was released in that case. In addition, another reference to AATIP in one of the emails was also mysteriously redacted, even though it had already been published unofficially and was available in the public domain through Elizondo’s IG complaint about 2 years prior and a portion of the same referenced in Popular Mechanics another 2 years prior to that.

These actions further complicated the DoD’s already questionable handling of these types of requests. The DoD had claimed FOIA’s “deliberative process” exemption known as (b)(5) to justify the redactions of AATIP related material, despite some of it already being available in the public domain for years. From a legal standpoint, The Black Vault felt none of these actions were justified, and an appeal was filed. As of the writing of this article, that appeal remains open. This was all reported by The Black Vault on May 13, 2024.

Now back to FOIA case 21-FR-0964.

This week, sparked by the release of Elizondo’s new book Imminent which contains numerous references to Tipton, a follow up was sent by The Black Vault regarding FOIA case 21-FR-0964 to check on the status. Although no explanation was given, the same day the follow up was sent, the FOIA case officer emailed the final FOIA response letter that was dated March 29, 2024, nearly 5 months ago; an email thread between Elizondo and Tipton about “responsibilities for AATIP” being transferred between the two gentlemen which mysteriously had redactions lifted contrary to FOIA case 21-F-1154; and the AATIP memo that The Black Vault was fighting for through appeal on FOIA case 21-F-1154, which now appeared nearly entirely unredacted.

The documents, which were first denied by the DoD to even exist three years ago, were now found. As of the writing of this article, no explanation as to either why the DoD never found them, or why they were not truthful in their 2021 response to The Black Vault, has been given.

This AATIP memo, never-before-seen by the public until now, was originally drafted in 2017 by Elizondo in hopes that it would be later issued by then Deputy Secretary of Defense (DepSecDef) Patrick M. Shanahan. It confirms the existence of AATIP and the scope of the program. The memo states that AATIP was a program with a strategic focus on “beyond next generation technologies in the areas of lift, propulsion, cloaking, and human effects,” and sought “unexplained or unknown aerial systems” information from all DoD elements “for the purposes of intelligence analysis and exploitation.”

The memo states that the “DoD continues to consider AATIP a priority, especially given recent advancements with Unmanned Aerial Surveillance (UAS) platforms that are becoming widely available.”

Further to that, it states that OUSDI “has a demonstrated interest for any and all reporting involving anomalous UAS threats” and it goes on to order that “all DoD elements are hereby required to provide a courtesy copy of any data and information obtained from the field that related to unexplained or unknown aerial systems to the Director of Defense Intelligence for Technical Collection and Special Programs.” That position was held by Neill Tipton, and this memorandum, if officially issued by the DepSecDef department-wide, would ultimately make Tipton’s desk the central point of information related to AATIP once information was received from DoD elements.

Although it does not reference “UAP” or “UFOs” specifically, the mention of “unexplained or unknown aerial systems” and “anomalous UAS threats” makes it the first official DoD document of its kind to connect “AATIP” to such a mission investigating “unexplained” objects.

In addition to giving a rundown of AATIP’s scope and mission, the existence of this memo may also directly contradict the DoD’s ongoing assertions that Elizondo had no official role in the program. This has been a claim by the Pentagon that has fueled much controversy that has lasted for years. Could the revelations within the memo have played a role in why the DoD wanted to deny the memo’s existence three years ago? Or, was this truly an administrative oversight, and the documents were simply “overlooked” similar to how the DoD failed to send an acknowledgement letter once the case was remanded back to them that sought it in the first place?

Regardless of why this memo was not discovered and denied to exist in 2021, it likely won’t settle the debate about Elizondo’s claimed leadership of AATIP or the stated objectives of AATIP once and for all.

For some, this memo will absolutely be viewed as a pivotal piece of evidence in the ongoing debate over AATIP’s scope and Elizondo’s involvement. To them, this will serve as undeniable proof, if they even felt undeniable proof wasn’t already out there to begin with.

To others, the release of this may simply be seen as a draft memorandum that was authored by Elizondo, without definitively proving his leadership or directorship of a “funded” “UFO program” known as “AATIP,” and in the end, to them, it will prove nothing.

This juxtaposition is a true testament to the divide between skeptics and believers in today’s conversation about the UFO topic.

But even as early as just days ago, the DoD still continues to deny Elizondo’s official involvement in AATIP — a claim Elizondo still strongly disputes. However, that was prior to the DoD releasing and the public seeing this memorandum. So, The Black Vault reached out to the Pentagon for comment.

“How does this not contradict the DoD’s stance on Luis Elizondo, and the denial of his official responsibilities on AATIP? Why would he be drafting such a memorandum if AATIP had long been cancelled (per DoD), and that he had no official responsibilities on it (per DoD)?”, the first question asked.

After publication of this article, Pentagon spokesperson Susan Gough submitted comment by stating, “Luis Elizondo had no assigned responsibilities for AATIP.  As noted in the Historical Record Report Volume 1, available on www.aaro.mil, AATIP was never an official, recognized DoD program. The draft, unsigned ‘memo for the record’ that you reference was crafted by Mr. Elizondo and appears to have been unsolicited.”

Given the opportunity to respond to the above, Elizondo added, “The memo they claim was ‘unsolicited’ was in fact a request by none other than the Secretary’s front office staff. Not only is the DoD spokesperson wrong, but any due diligence on their part would have illustrated this. This is yet another sad attempt to once again deceive the American people by a select few in the Pentagon’s PAO. Unfortunately, this type of behavior conducted by a few bad faith individuals, only further damages the credibility of an organization who has very little credibility left to offer. The sad truth is that this type of behavior reflects poorly on the entire Pentagon, including the majority who are patriotic, loyal, and selfless. Fortunately, the truth always comes out as it always has.”

This was followed up by, “Why would the DoD tell me [this memo]  didn’t exist, but I later would be successful getting it after an appeal from the same office that denied it existed in the first place?”

After publication of this article, Pentagon spokesperson Susan Gough submitted comment by stating, “As indicated in the response letter to you dated December 14, 2021, regarding 21-F-0964, the initial FOIA search did not yield responsive records.”

Given the opportunity to respond to the above, Elizondo added, “This response isn’t even worthy or a response. It’s clear that obfuscation and deceit is the new norm for the same few at the PAO office. I would once again remind them that propaganda and disinformation against the American public is illegal.”

Elizondo also provided the following written statement to the Black Vault about this release, which underscores his thoughts about the importance of it all:

“Thanks to The Black Vault’s continued pursuit of the facts, the DoD had no choice but to relent and admit the obvious. 1) AATIP was a real program and funded. 2) My former employer, the OUSD(I) has had, and currently has a keen interest in AATIP and the UAP topic. 3) There remains a clear national security nexus as it relates to UAP. My fear is that unless more people demand the truth, this information which many of us already knew, would never see the light of day and remain hidden from the public. An excellent example of The Black Vault not taking ‘no’ for an answer.” 

As the controversy surrounding AATIP will undoubtedly continue, The Black Vault remains committed to bringing the truth to light, whatever that may be, despite the challenges posed by the DoD’s problematic FOIA process.

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21-FR-0964 FOIA Case File Release [4 Pages, 1.43MB]

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The post AATIP Memo Unveiled After FOIA Battle: DoD Inconsistencies Exposed first appeared on The Black Vault.

The Department of Defense (DoD) has issued a response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request submitted by The Black Vault on July 26, 2022. This FOIA request, identified as case number 22-F-1178, sought to obtain records, including manuscripts, videos, and photographs, submitted to the Defense Office of Prepublication and Security Review (DOPSR) for a security review by former DoD employee Luis Elizondo.

Although the request aimed to uncover information related to either Elizondo’s highly anticipated book or potentially other material he submitted for public release, it instead revealed the prepublication review of a screenplay adaptation of Leslie Kean’s book, “UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go On the Record.”

This outcome truly highlights the unpredictable nature of FOIA requests and the importance of keeping them broad enough with the hopes to uncover unexpected and potentially valuable information not previously thought of.

In a letter dated February 22, 2024, Stephanie L. Carr, Chief of the Freedom of Information Division, confirmed that the Washington Headquarters Service, Defense Office of Prepublication and Security Review (DOPSR) located ten pages responsive to The Black Vault’s request. However, portions of these pages were withheld under 5 U.S.C. § 552 (b)(6), which protects personal privacy.

The correspondence revealed the process and timeline involved in the review of the screenplay titled “Alone.” On September 30, 2020, Elizondo, who says he was the former Director of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) that investigated UFOs for the Pentagon, submitted the screenplay for review. The screenplay, based on Kean’s book, involved real individuals affiliated with the DoD. Elizondo requested the review to ensure no classified or sensitive information was disclosed, as his “name and likeness” was being used in the “partially fictionalized screenplay”.

In his submission, Elizondo wrote, “At no time, are real names, dates, or places used that could compromise ongoing operational activities by the Department, nor is any information revealed that could constitute a compromise of sources & methods, OPSEC, PERSEC, or INFOSEC.”

The DOPSR acknowledged receipt of the screenplay on October 13, 2020, and commenced the review. The review process was delayed due to the high volume of submissions and COVID-19 related disruptions. Jeff Springer, an attorney representing Elizondo, expressed concerns about the delays impacting the film project’s progress. In an email dated October 30, 2020, Springer wrote, “Unfortunately our client is in a position where forward progress on the film project is stopped until the review is completed.”

Despite these delays, the DOPSR completed the review, and on December 3, 2020, Kelly McHale, a Security Review Specialist, confirmed that the screenplay “Alone” was cleared for public release. McHale’s email stated, “The screenplay titled ‘Alone’ is cleared for public release. Attached is our final response letter and the first page of the screenplay with our clearance stamp.”

In May 2021, industry trades announced the development of Kean’s screenplay adaptation. According to Deadline, the screenplay was being developed by New Line Cinema and HBO Max, with Bryce Kass as the writer. The project aimed to bring the compelling accounts of UFO sightings and government investigations detailed in Kean’s book to the screen, generating significant interest among both UFO enthusiasts and the general public.

As of now, it remains unclear whether the screenplay “Alone” has moved beyond the development stage or was shelved. In 2023, National Geographic Channel released, “UFOs: Investigating the Unknown”, a 5-part series, in which Kean was listed as a producer. However, no screenplays or films are listed in her credits, nor under those of Kass, that may be based on her book or the draft screenplay “Alone” that was reviewed by DOPSR.

Despite the initial buzz and the involvement of prominent industry players, there have been no further updates on the production or release of the film.

The below release package does not constitute the entire records cache on the DOPSR review of Kean’s screenplay. Rather, these likely only fit the scope of the original 22-F-1178 request, which only included correspondence between Elizondo and the DoD. So on March 1, 2024, a new request was filed by The Black Vault seeking out all records pertaining to DOPSR’s review of the above screenplay under case 20-SB-0149, the unique identifying number given to the above review.

Those results will be posted, when available.

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22-F-1178 Document Release Package [12 Pages, 2MB]

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The post FOIA Request Unveils DoD’s Review of Leslie Kean’s UFO Screenplay as Submitted by Luis Elizondo first appeared on The Black Vault.