AATIP, MIB, AND TTSAAS: FOLLOW THE MONEY

From wikipedia: The Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP)^[1] was a secret investigatory effort funded by the United States Government to study unidentified flying objects (UFOs) or unexplained aerial phenomena (UAP). The program was first made public on December 16, 2017. The program began in 2007, with funding of $22 million over the five years until the available appropriations were ended in 2012.^[2][3][4] The program began in the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency.^[5] Although the official AATIP program has ended, a related group of interested professionals have extended the effort, founding a public-benefit corporation named To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science.^[6][7]

 In 2007, an unnamed agent from the DIA contacts Robert Bigelow and requests to see the Skinwalker Ranch in person. Bigelow obliges and the agent has a personalized close encounter on the ranch. He then reports this experience to his superiors which was the initial catalyst for Senator Harry Reid appropriating 22 million dollars for the study of the ranch.Initiated by then Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada)^[8] to study unexplained aerial phenomena (UAP) at the urging of Reid's friend, Nevada billionaire and governmental contractor Robert Bigelow,^[9] and with support from the late senators Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), the program began in the DIA in 2007 and ended after five years, with a budget of $22 million spread out over five years.^[2][3]Senator Reid is from the state of Nevada where the highly classified United States Air Force facility known as “Area 51” is hosted. After the Roswell UFO incident in New Mexico 1947 “Area 51” was long rumored to be the store location for the crashed alien craft for study.^[10]Interviewed in the aftermath of the AATIP's disclosure, Reid expressed pride in his accomplishment, and was quoted as saying "I think it's one of the good things I did in my congressional service. I've done something that no one has done before."^[2][4]The AATIP has generated a currently 490 page report that documents alleged worldwide UFO sightings over several decades.^[11] This report has not been released to the public.AATIP was headed by Luis Elizondo, who resigned from the Pentagon in October 2017 to protest government secrecy and opposition to the investigation, stating in a resignation letter to US Defense Secretary James Mattis that the program was not being taken seriously.^[12] Elizondo, said on December 19, 2017, that he believed there was "very compelling evidence we may not be alone."^[13]While the United States Department of Defense has stated that the program was terminated in 2012, the exact status of AATIP and its termination remains unclear (2017).^[14]Benjamin Radford wrote in Skeptical Inquirer that among what little information has been released by the program are "several short videos of military jets encountering something they couldn't identify...." ^[15]A complete list of all 38 published studies that were funded by the program became available in January 2019.^[16]

 Although the program was not named specifically, program leader Elizondo was quoted in The Huffington Post in late October 2017.^[17] Several days earlier, Elizondo announced his involvement in founding an aerospace, science, paranormal and entertainment company called, To the Stars Academy for Arts and Science.^[18] 

AATIP came to a broader public attention on 16 December 2017 - in three news stories - in The Washington Post, Politico and The New York Times:

The story in the Times included doubts about alien visitation expressed by James Oberg, a space writer and UFO debunker, and Sara Seager, a scientific specialist on the atmospheres of extrasolar planets. Oberg said "There are plenty of prosaic events and human perceptual traits that can account for these stories", although he welcomed further research.^[2][3] It also reported that "Robert Bigelow, a billionaire entrepreneur and longtime friend of Mr. Reid, received most of the money allocated for the Pentagon program."^[2] 

The Washington Post story reported that Elizondo was responsible for the public release of footage taken by US fighter jets that appears to show aerial objects maneuvering in inexplicable ways in the USS Princeton aerial object incident. The newspaper also stated that it had conducted several interviews with Elizondo and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Christopher Mellon,^[7] who is associated with Elizondo in the private venture named "To the Stars Academy for Arts and Sciences".^[11][19] 

In the Politico story Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White confirmed that Elizondo had been the director of AATIP^[3] Politico published a statement by an anonymous former congressional staff member that, "After a while[,] the consensus was [that] we really couldn't find anything of substance," ... "They produced reams of paperwork. After all of that there was really nothing there that we could find. It all pretty much dissolved from that reason alone—and the interest level was losing steam. We only did it for a couple of years."^[3] 

On January 16, 2019, the DIA released a list of 38 research titles pursued by the program in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists’ Project on Government Secrecy.^[20] One such research topic, “Traversable Wormholes, Stargates, and Negative Energy,” was led by Eric W. Davis of EarthTech International Inc, which was founded by Harold Puthoff, who was formerly involved in Project Stargate.^[21] Another project called “Invisibility Cloaking” was headed by German scientist Ulf Leonhardt, a professor at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. Leonhardt's research pertains to theoretical quantum optics, and in 2006 his work on theoretically creating “an invisible ‘hole’ in space, inside which objects can be hidden” was cited by Nature.^[22] Yet another title, “Warp Drive, Dark Energy, and the Manipulation of Extra Dimensions,” was attributed to theoretical physicist Richard Obousy, director of the nonprofit Icarus Interstellar.^[23] 

On 22 May 2019, Pentagon spokesman Christopher Sherwood finally confirmed to the New York Post that the program "did pursue research and investigation into unidentified aerial phenomena," dispelling rumors that the program only focused on theoretical physics.^[24] 

On 26 May 2019, The New York Times reported that US Navy pilots fully briefed AATIP about encounters they had with unexplained objects during the summer of 2014 to March 2015 while flying at high altitudes off the East Coast of the United States.^[25] Nonetheless, president Donald Trump, who said he had a short briefing on AATIP, said he is skeptical of Navy sightings of UFOs.^[26] 

On 1 June 2019, The Intercept published an article with an excerpt from an email obtained via FOIA request. The excerpt called into question Elizondo's position at AATIP. Yes, AATIP existed, and it “did pursue research and investigation into unidentified aerial phenomena,” Pentagon spokesperson Christopher Sherwood confirmed. However, he added: “Elizondo had no responsibilities with regard to the AATIP program while he worked in OUSDI [the Office of Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence], up until the time he resigned effective 10/4/2017.” To the Stars has attempted to clarify this with an email: “The program was initially run out of [the Defense Intelligence Agency] but when Lue took it over in 2010 as Director, he ran it out of the Office for the Secretary of Defense (OSD) under the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence (USDI).”^[27]