{"id":11942,"date":"2020-08-05T18:13:07","date_gmt":"2020-08-05T18:13:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/?p=11942"},"modified":"2020-08-05T18:14:46","modified_gmt":"2020-08-05T18:14:46","slug":"on-the-trail-of-the-aatip-ufo-powerpoint-slide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/on-the-trail-of-the-aatip-ufo-powerpoint-slide\/","title":{"rendered":"On The Trail of the AATIP UFO PowerPoint Slide"},"content":{"rendered":"

By John Greenewald, Jr. \u2013 The Black Vault \u2013 Originally Published August 5, 2020<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
According to the NY Times: “The Pentagon\u2019s U.F.O. Program has been using unclassified slides like this to brief government officials on threats from Advanced Aerospace Vehicles \u2014 \u201cincluding off-world\u201d \u2014 and materials retrieved from crashes of unidentified phenomena.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The year 2020 has brought a global pandemic<\/a>, major earthquakes<\/a>, a massive explosion<\/a> in Beirut, and even the acknowledgement of the UFO reality<\/a> by the U.S. Navy. The year got a bit more bizarre, when in late July, the NY Times published <\/a>bombshell revelations about \u201coff world vehicles\u201d and even showed a slide from the \u201cPentagon\u2019s Secret UFO Program<\/a>\u201d which appeared to have solidified the claim.\u00a0 But today, in a statement given directly to The Black Vault, the Pentagon denies the use of that slide in any official capacity and says \u201coff world vehicles\u201d do not fit in to the official position of the U.S. government.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat slide was not used by DoD in any briefing on this subject and does not represent the department\u2019s position,\u201d Pentagon spokesperson Susan Gough said to The Black Vault in an e-mailed statement. \u201cThe slide appears to be one used by a subcontractor who had worked under the AAWSAP <\/a>contract, in briefings by the subcontractor after AATIP ended.\u201d<\/p>\n

The single slide Gough is referring to was printed in the NY Times on July 28, 2020, as part of their \u201cTimes Insider<\/a>\u201d section. The slide broke down information relating to the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program or AATIP, and it talked about \u201cAdvanced Aerial Vehicles\u201d (AAVs) that included those from \u201coff-world.\u201d This slide seemed to reinforce previously published statements from Dr. Eric Davis, who also told the NY Times that he was giving classified briefings about \u201coff-world vehicles not made on this earth\u201d even as recently as March of this year to staff members of multiple U.S. Senate committees.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
These were some of the corrections posted by the NY Times.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Worldwide coverage of these claims quickly ensued after the NY Times published their piece, which later became marred with multiple corrections. The most critical piece of information retracted by the NY Times was a claim that Senator Harry Reid believed that \u201coff world vehicles\u201d may have crashed on Earth. Other information was also corrected within the article, as noted, but additionally there was at least one additional correction made that remains unacknowledged by the NY Times.<\/p>\n

Although Dr. Davis\u2019 claims remain untouched, for now, it does invoke tones of strong skepticism from those that may seek evidence confirming such a bombshell revelation.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
At least one additional correction was made, which altered the context of the briefings that Dr. Eric Davis claimed. This correction was done, but remains unacknowledged, by the NY Times.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Plain and simple, the claim has come with none, as acknowledged by the NY Times itself. “The constraints on discussing classified programs \u2014 and the ambiguity of information cited in unclassified slides from the briefings \u2014 have put officials who have studied U.F.O.s in the position of stating their views without presenting any hard evidence,” their July 23rd<\/sup> article stated.<\/p>\n

With this lack of evidence, and the corrections that haunt the original NY Times story, should the slide be considered genuine? Luis Elizondo, who has stated since late 2017 that he led the AATIP program for many years, says you should, and he says he even utilized visuals that were “very, very similar, if not exact” to the slide in question.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeniors were briefed on these slides by me, but much later on,\u201d Elizondo told The Black Vault.\u00a0 \u201cIn the early days, if seniors were briefed on these slides, it was done by the old guard.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Elizondo was asked about the Pentagon\u2019s denial, he was not surprised to see what he felt was not the full truth. \u201cDoD is only putting out half-truths here. \u00a0Susan has no clue who we briefed and on what topics,\u201d Elizondo asserted. \u201cI know for certain my predecessor had very pointed briefings with very senior personnel and it likely included information similar to what’s on this slide.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Luis Elizondo has maintained since October 2017 that he led the effort to investigate unidentified aerial threats through a DOD program we later learned was called AATIP.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Despite the stark differences in claims, Elizondo and the Pentagon do seem to agree on at least one thing.\u00a0 There is no official definition for \u201cOff World Vehicles.\u201d\u00a0 Both parties were asked about official definitions, since in the world of the DOD, most everything has an \u201cofficial\u201d interpretation, as indicated by the 376-page \u201cDOD Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms<\/a>.\u201d (Which, for the record, does not include \u201coff world\u201d.)\u00a0 When asked about the official stance of what \u201coff world vehicle technology really meant, Elizondo said, \u201cThere is no official definition in the DoD lexicon that I am aware of defining the term \u2018off world\u2019.\u201d The Pentagon stated the same, with Gough telling The Black Vault, \u201c\u2019Off-world\u2019 is not an official term or designation in DoD.\u201d\u00a0 At least, it appears all parties agree on that point.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
This is a screen capture of Dr. Hal Puthoff’s presentation in 2018, which shows a nearly identical graphic with minor changes.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the course of researching the AATIP slide, The Black Vault discovered that a very similar graphic was used in a lecture by Dr. Hal Puthoff, a former member of the now-defunct Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS) subsidiary of Bigelow Aerospace<\/a>. BAASS was the organization reported to have received the $22 million contract which was known as the Advanced Aerospace Weapon Systems Applications Program (AAWSAP), a subprogram of the AATIP. The similar slide was utilized in 2018 by Dr. Puthoff in a joint conference of the Society for Scientific Exploration<\/a> (SSE) and the International Remote Viewing Association<\/a> (IRVA), and was nearly identical with two differences. The header was left justified vs. center justified, and the word \u201cpossibly\u201d was added by Dr. Puthoff to say \u201cpossibly off-world\u201d when referencing Anomalous Aerial Vehicles. Other than that, the PowerPoint template was a match. The font size was a match. The font coloring was a match. And the overall styling was a match.<\/p>\n

Dr. Puthoff did not address the insertion of the word, but he does admit to making the slide as published by the NY Times, and also says that it is “official.” In a statement given to The Black Vault, Dr. Puthoff said, \u201cSince BAASS was an official contractor involved in providing briefings as part of its duties, it was official.\u201d Leslie Kean, investigative journalist who co-write the NY Times piece and is credited for having supplied the slide to the NY Times after receiving it from an anonymous source, told The Black Vault, “As for the slide, yes it was originally created by a contractor and used for years in AATIP briefings. The content of the slide did not change, but various versions of the slide have markings appropriate to the briefing venue.”<\/p>\n

It was thought that the Pentagon may have been referring to Dr. Puthoff\u2019s 2018 lecture post AATIP\u2019s 2012 de-funding and program termination, when they stated \u201c\u2026 used by a subcontractor who had worked under the AAWSAP contract, in briefings by the subcontractor after AATIP ended.\u201d But, to ensure accuracy, The Black Vault asked specifically about the Pentagon’s reference to “briefings” in their statement.\u00a0 Gough responded, and added, “For that, I refer you to NYT \u2013 they were the ones claiming that that slide had been used in briefings. It\u2019s not a DoD slide and it was not used in any briefings prepared by DoD.”<\/p>\n

The debate on whether this slide is \u201cofficial\u201d and represents factual information rages on. In fact, so does the entire nature of the \u201cUFO Program\u201d itself. Many questions have arisen over the past approaching three years since it was revealed to the world, and this most recent revelation only offers up more questions than produces viable answers.<\/p>\n

In the end, one thing is for certain. The Black Vault will continue to hunt for the truth\u2026 no matter where it might lead.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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