![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/1-29-2020-5-18-41-AM.jpg\")
<\/a>The first request was motivated by news that \u201cUFO Guidelines\u201d were being drafted by the Navy for pilots and other personnel to report their encounters with UFOs. The news, first reported by Politico<\/a> on April 23, 2019, stated that the guidelines were only in \u201cdraft\u201d form. Classified or not, in the eyes of the law, that fact would likely exempt them from public release (FOIA Exemption [b][5]) simply because the record was not finalized and existed only in \u201cdraft\u201d form.<\/p>\n However, just three days after Politico broke the story, the Navy issued revised statements<\/a> to The Black Vault, wherein they indicated that the \u201cmessage to the fleet\u201d regarding UAPs was no longer a \u201cdraft.\u201d The Navy\u2019s public affairs office turned down The Black Vault\u2019s request for the message itself, which is believed to outline the precise steps for pilots reporting UAP sightings. However, a FOIA request was filed the same day to access the document, in hopes that process would yield a positive result.<\/p>\n That attempt was unsuccessful. The denial came in a letter dated January 28, 2020, which said, \u201c[U.S. Navy Chief of Information] CHINFO has determined that records responsive to your request are exempt from disclosure pursuant to 5 U. S. C. \u00a7 552(b) (1) as the information is currently and [properly]classified in accordance with Executive Order 13526, Section 1.4(a) as the information pertains to information involving military plans, weapons systems, or operations.\u201d<\/p>\n A second request, filed April 29, 2019, also stemmed from the revised official statement by the Navy to The Black Vault. \u201cNavy officials have provided a series of briefings by senior Naval Intelligence officials as well as aviators who reported hazards to aviation safety,\u201d said Joseph Gradisher, official spokesperson for the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Information Warfare. This paved the way for a request to be filed for \u201call briefing material, which would include but not be limited to, all written material, reports, documents, handouts, minutes, briefing documents, list(s) of attendees of the briefing(s), etc.\u201d<\/p>\n That request was also denied, as the Navy cited that all responsive material, was classified. The language outlining the reason for classification was verbatim of the above.<\/p>\n Though the \u201cUFO Guidelines\u201d and the Senate UAP briefings were widely reported by the mainstream media; The Black Vault\u2019s third request was for a record not as well known. In a June 2019 FOIA release<\/a> of internal e-mails pertaining to UAPs, The Black Vault discovered that there was a \u201cbackground paper\u201d on the phenomena currently being utilized by the Navy and was stored on a Top Secret server known as JWICS<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cBelow is our response to the follow\u2010up questions from the Washington Post,\u201d acting Assistant Deputy Chief of Naval Operations (DCNO) for Information Warfare B. Lynn Wright<\/a> said in an internal e-mail. \u201cWe will send to Jason on JWICS the background paper for your information.\u201d Per the e-mail chain, one of the recipients was Vice Admiral DeWolfe Miller<\/a>, who responded to the message stating that he would meet with Wright in order to read and discuss the paper. The \u201cJason\u201d referenced, is likely the former Director, Special Programs, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Jason A. Reynolds<\/a>, who also appeared multiple times in the e-mail chain.<\/p>\n It was this \u201cbackground paper\u201d that The Black Vault requested on July 9, 2019, that also received a denial for the same reasons as outlined above.<\/p>\n The \u201cbackground paper\u201d is referenced after a long statement circulated internally by John \u201cJay\u201d Stratton<\/a>, an Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) Senior Analyst from the Nimitz Operational Intelligence Center.\u00a0 That statement, one that stayed internal and never released to the public for months until The Black Vault’s FOIA request brought it into the open, was trimmed down and those truncated statements were the ones issued to the public.<\/p>\n The classified \u201cbackground paper\u201d referenced in the e-mail is likely the lone source of all information utilized by Stratton and other Navy spokespeople to craft official responses sent to The Black Vault, Politico and numerous other media outlets asking about UAPs.<\/p>\n This \u201cbackground paper,\u201d which remains classified, could be the key to unraveling the mystery behind UAPs and how it all connects with the Navy.<\/p>\n The Black Vault\u2019s FOIA denials come just six weeks after researcher Christian Lambright discovered that the ONI also had classified information specifically on a famous 2004 UFO case known as the “Nimitz Encounter.<\/a>”<\/p>\n \u201cWhile working on the paper last fall, I’d come across the Linda Howe video in which she cited Eric Davis saying that the report he and Hal Puthoff were provided to study, as BAASS subcontractors, was derived from an original classified report written by a GS-15<\/a> working for ONI,\u201d Lambright told The Black Vault. \u201cThen I came across the Paco Chierici interview<\/a> in which he stated he had been given an exhaustive classified ONI report for two weeks prior to writing his 2015 article. That made two independent sources claiming to have seen evidence that ONI had some very significant documentation worth trying to get. So, I wrote to ONI.\u201d<\/p>\n In a letter dated December 9, 2019, Lambright was told that there were \u201cTop Secret\u201d briefing slides on the 2004 UFO encounter off the coast of San Diego and that they were denying the release of, because if they did, “[it]would cause exceptionally grave damage to the National Security of the United States.\u201d They also stated they found a \u201cSecret\u201d video which may still be in the process of review for public release. That request is pending.<\/p>\n The secrecy behind it all does not surprise Lambright. \u201cAs we all know, there could be a number of understandable reasons for denying the records, although the exemptions they cited do raise questions of their own. But to deny everything with no attempt to reasonably segregate any of it certainly suggest that the entire subject being discussed or investigated is as sensitive in its own right as any of the details.\u201d He also added that, \u201cPerhaps even knowing who was being shown the \u2018briefing slides\u2019 might expose how serious the subject was or reveal to our enemies how totally defenseless the Navy is. Whatever the case, the narrow scope of my request specifically for information on the Nimitz UFO\/UAP incidents on those days in 2004 certainly suggests that whatever ONI is withholding relates directly to whatever [David] Fravor, [Kevin] Day, and the others encountered.\u201d<\/p>\n Although these denials to access UAP information may be understandable but frustrating for some; one person has a surprisingly positive outlook on the situation. Luis Elizondo, who told The Black Vault he was the \u201csenior ranking person\u201d on a UFO research program known as the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP)<\/a>, offers some words of encouragement.<\/p>\n \u201cIn my humble opinion, [the Navy]should be commended for their courage and proactive stance,\u201d Elizondo told The Black Vault. \u201cI believe they have done much over the last 2 years regarding this highly contentious topic. Admitting that UAPs are indeed real; allowing the pilots to speak publicly without retribution or consequence; admitting the fact that the videos are real videos of unidentified phenomena; and establishing new policy guidance, to name a few. However, let’s not forget that the Navy ultimately still works for the Pentagon, and sadly there are some there who still resist this effort.\u00a0 As such, the Navy has to remain mindful of the same counter-forces that my colleagues and I faced when we were with AATIP.\u201d<\/p>\n The “counter-forces” Elizondo refers to is the pushback and flip-flopping<\/a> by the Pentagon about the UAP topic, and about his background<\/a>. Elizondo has not wavered about his claims, and he has told The Black Vault in the past that he believes the Pentagon will \u201creassess\u201d the erroneous information they have circulated and will \u201c\u2026finally provide the truth to the public, once and for all.\u201d\u00a0 Elizondo believes that this \u201cmess,\u201d as he calls it, may play a role in how the Navy is currently handling FOIA requesters like The Black Vault and Lambright.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom a practical perspective, the Navy may be a bit gun shy and doesn\u2019t want to break ranks with the Pentagon.\u00a0 Perhaps after seeing what the Pentagon tried to do to me, they realize that leaning too far forward could get them in political hot water.\u201d<\/p>\n Regardless of what the true reason for the secrecy is, Elizondo offered one closing piece of advice to The Black Vault, along with posing one of his own unanswered questions that he would like the Pentagon to address:<\/p>\n \u201cOur National Security apparatus is designed to detect, identify, and deter threats\u2026 and yet here we have something that we can only sometimes detect, barely identify, and have yet no clue how to deter it.\u00a0 Not a good spot to be in if you are the Navy or the Pentagon,\u201d said Elizondo.\u00a0 \u201cMy recommendation is to keep asking the Pentagon the hard questions and why they continue to change their position. As for my question\u2026 where the heck is the Air Force in all this?\u201d<\/p>\n ###<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" U.S. Navy Denies Request To Release Key UFO Documents By John Greenewald, Jr. \u2013 The Black Vault \u2013 Originally Published January 29, 2020 The United States Navy has just denied access to multiple UFO related documents requested via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). After months of processing, the Navy responded to three requests submitted<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10976,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","transcript_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,32],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8990","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-the-fringe","8":"category-ufo-phenomena"},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/6-8-2020-12-15-57-PM.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Senate UFO Briefing Material<\/strong><\/h4>\n
<\/a>The Key to The Navy UAP Mystery<\/strong><\/h4>\n
USS Nimitz Document Also Remains Top Secret<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Secrecy Lingers<\/strong><\/h4>\n
<\/a>