The Origins of AAWSAP

[Mendel]

My thought is that this could explain why there is such a mess around AATIP, and such resistance to releasing documents and so on. That it was some real form of program that did things beside UFO stuff, things that has to be kept secret by USG. Things inspired by the UFO theories maybe.

Thanks for explaining that a bit more in depth.

It's an interesting speculation, but I'd like to see more evidence before I'd consider it likely.

 

[MonkeeSage]

I just don't understand why Elizondo would show up suddenly in 2017 and make a scene and call himself director of AATIP. Did he plan it already in 2009, or maybe he didn't know the real name?

As for why he came out in 2017, it's explicitly spelled out in his book Imminent that it was part of an influence campaign to force Congress to act to create a new program (which ended up working and UAP Task Force was created with Jay Stratton leading).

We also discussed a plan I developed to get the issue before Congress and the American people in the event Lue resigned. [...] Once Lue made his fateful decision to resign in protest, we immediately launched a concerted effort to get him and this critical information about UAP to Congress, the press, and the American people.

Source: Chris Mellon, Foreword to Imminent, p. 20.

At work, Jay Stratton and I made a plan that would go against all odds. A plan to bring about disclosure. I would resign and go public with the mission of bringing as much attention and credibility to the issue as possible. Jay would stay with the government and use the momentum gained by the public attention to move the ball forward within the government and brief any and all officials who would no doubt suddenly be interested. They had to learn the truth, and Jay would be positioned to inform them on a classified level. And he'd be positioned to run whatever version of AATIP came next. I'd also help educate Congress and facilitate introducing them to credible military and IC members who'd had UAP encounters. We would continue to work together, from different sides of the fence, to bring about disclosure and look out for the best interest of the American people and, frankly, humanity at large.

Source: Luis Elizondo, Imminent, p. 221.

Mellon has also discussed how that plan played out in a Gizmodo article.

Mellon says that after learning of the extent of UFO sightings by U.S. pilots, he wanted to spread the word about the issue. "I came up with a simple plan to do that, which involved going to the press and going to Congress," said Mellon. [...]

The way Mellon explains it, the pivotal New York Times story that is largely credited with helping legitimize UFOs within the broader culture never would have happened without his direct involvement. "This was not investigative journalism," Mellon tells me. "I handed them the evidence, introduced them to Lue Elizondo, gave them a stack of documents, arranged for them to meet and interview Harry Reid, and made a deal with them. They ran the story, which appeared on December 16 of 2017 on the front page."

Mellon says this was part of a broader plan on his part to spread the word about UFOs and to get Congress to take some sort of action on the matter.

Source: https://gizmodo.com/another-ufo-report-is-a-bust-so-why-do-so-many-people-1851331674

Rereading the Kona Blue document, I notice that they are talking about AATIP, or something similar, in classified documents, never AAWSAP. But in the older documents it is only AAWSAP, and not AATIP. So they weren't using it as a cover. I think it was a real program, or an attempt to a real program, or possibly that AAWSAP was a cover too.

After reviewing Reid's SAP request, DIA wrote in a memo to OUSDI dated November 13, 2009, that Reid was actually referring to AAWSAP as AATIP, and they could not justify a SAP for the program based on the unclassified nature of their deliverables and projected future products.

(U//FOUO) This info memo responds to your request for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) [redacted] to evaluate a request from Senator Harry Reid (enclosure 1) to establish a restricted special access program (SAP) for the Advanced Aerospace Weapon Systems Application Program Contract, referred to in Senator Reid's letter as the Advanced Aerospace Threat and Identification Program (AATIP). In reviewing the deliverables to date and looking ahead to planned production in fiscal year (FY) 2010, DIA cannot find adequate justification to establish a restricted SAP.

(U//FOUO) All program documents delivered to during FY 2009 (the first year of the program) were unclassified because the contractor had not established a secure facility, and program employees were being vetted for clearances. In FY 2010, most research products will remain at the unclassified level. However, four to six of the original technical reports will be expanded to included classified data. These reports will focus on foreign research in a particular technology area and will likely be derivatively classified at the secret level. Based on classification levels of current and projected program deliverables, there are insufficient grounds to classify this open program, invoke alternative or compensatory control measures (ACCM), or establish a restricted SAP.

Source: https://documents2.theblackvault.co...-Review_of_Special_Access_Program_Request.pdf

In an information packet provided to DepSecDef sometime after November 17, 2009, James Clapper wrote the following summary.

Senator Harry Reid sent a letter to you on June 24, 2009 requesting the Department of Defense put the AAITP [sic] under 'Restricted Special Access Protection'(Tab A). The AAITP [sic] that SEN Reid refers to is officially the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Application Program (AAWSAP) contract managed by DIA. Its primary purpose is to investigate revolutionary advances in future aerospace technologies with emphasis on research of unconventional and revolutionary technologies. The sole bid for the contract was from Bigelow Aerospace Advance Space Studies located in Las Vegas, NV. The resulting contract was for multiple sub-contractors to perform unclassified research in 11 technical areas and deliver technical reports on those areas by July 31, 2009. [redacted] directed a quality review of the technical reports that DIA completed in October 2009.

In late October 2009, DIA completed the technical review of the program deliverables (Tab B) and provided USD(I) SAPCO the current status of the AAWSAP. The program manager and his leadership advised that they saw no justification for Special Access protections based on the content of the FY09 deliverables or the anticipated FY10 work. This recommendation is formally stated and outlined in the attached memorandum from [redacted] (Tab C).

Senators Reid and Inouye co-sponsored a $10M earmark in the July 2008 supplemental to fund this DIA effort to look at potential future aerospace weapons threats. A $12M earmark has been allocated to support the program in FY2010.

Based on the recommendation from DIA and my staffs review of the technical reports, I recommend against establishing a Special Access Program at this time.

Source: https://documents2.theblackvault.co...09117-Final_Packet_Presented_to_DepSecDef.pdf

 

[boringrealit]

Unredacted bigot-list:

Source: https://documents2.theblackvault.com/documents/osd/20-F-0163.pdf

 

[boringrealit]

Btw, same source, this is from public affair operations (Gough?):

• Mr. Elizondo had no responsibilities with regard to the AATIP program while he worked in OUSDI, up until the time he resigned effective 10/4/2017

.• He started with OUSD(I) on 28-Sep-08 as an Intelligence Operations Specialist.The Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program:
• The Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program ended in 2012. It was determined that there were other, higher priority issues that merited funding and it was in the best interest of the DoD to make a change.

My boldings. The person calls it "Aviation" instead of "Aerospace" and talks about it as a real program with funding. I suspect that it was a real program, if not a SAP, or possibly still used as a cover-name for a real SAP-program.

But everyone, even Elizondo now, try to make us think it was just some silly side project.