D'Amato and untraceable black budgets
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 8
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| Date | 1994 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Government programs (topic), Congress & law (topic) |
| People | C. Richard D'Amato, Steven Greer |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 118 |
| Year | 1994 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1994 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 6 |
Steven Greer wrote in the Disclosure Project's 2001 briefing document that in 1994 C. Richard D'Amato, then senior counsel to the Senate Appropriations Committee under Chairman Robert Byrd, told him that between $40 billion and $80 billion was going into projects Congress could not penetrate, even with a top-secret clearance and a Senate subpoena.[1]
Greer's account
According to Greer, D'Amato said he was sure money was going into UFO-related projects but that they could not be penetrated, and told Greer he was dealing with "the Varsity Team of all black projects". Greer included the anecdote in his commentary on testimony from Denise McKenzie, a former employee of the contractor SAIC who described contract files that showed no sign of activity.[1]
Context
The U.S. classified budget is genuinely large, but most of it pays for satellites, aircraft and intelligence operations. By comparison, the only documented Pentagon UFO-related funding of the 2000s, the program run through the Defense Intelligence Agency from 2007, was budgeted about $22 million over five years.[4]
D'Amato's own statement
D'Amato's later public statement says that a senior Senate chairman asked him to make a preliminary inquiry into alleged 1940s crashes in New Mexico, and that he concluded they did not merit a Senate investigation. Vallée's journals, however, record D'Amato privately saying in 1990–91 that a secret project spreading false information was acting illegally.[2][3]
Assessment
The $40–80 billion figure rests on Greer's recollection of a private conversation.[1]
People and topics
- C. Richard D'Amato — Senate Appropriations Committee counsel who looked into black budgets for Sen. Robert Byrd.
- Steven Greer — Physician who founded CSETI and the Disclosure Project.
- Disclosure Project — Steven Greer's campaign for UFO disclosure, best known for its May 2001 press conference.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- AAWSAP — The Defense Intelligence Agency's UAP research program of 2008–2010, carried out by Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies.
On the Timeline
- Project Condign (2 December 1993) — A UK Ministry of Defence memo discusses a proposed UAP study.
- Puthoff pitches vacuum energy (1994) (1994) — Hal Puthoff says he pitched vacuum energy technology to oil companies.
See every 1994 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- Disclosure Project Briefing Document (2001), Internet Archive (PDF) · archive.org · archived copy
- Christopher Sharp, "Former chief for defense contractor that ran Area 51 claimed knowledge of recovered 'flying saucer' and 'live being'", Liberation Times (Feb 2023) · liberationtimes.com · archived copy
- Keith Basterfield, "More on C. Richard D'Amato and 'black' UAP programs", UFOs – scientific research (Apr 2019) · ufos-scientificresearch.blogspot.com · archived copy
- Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- C. Richard D'Amato — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- archive.org · archive.org · archived copy
Further reading
- U.S. congressional hearings on UFOs — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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