One black UFO operation claim (2003)
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Contents 9
One black UFO operation claim (2003)
| Date | 23 August 2003 |
|---|---|
| Source | Jacques Vallée's journals, Forbidden Science 5: Pacific Heights (2000–2009) |
| Claim | Hal Puthoff and John Petersen "assure" Vallée there is only one "black UFO operation", probably to do with hardware |
| Vallée's doubt | Why then would biological data exist elsewhere? |
| Official view | AARO (2024): no empirical evidence of any U.S. reverse-engineering programme |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 154 |
| Topics | Beings & bodies (topic) |
| People | Harold Puthoff, John Petersen, Jacques Vallée |
| Year | 2003 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 2003 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 11 |
The one black UFO operation claim comes from an entry dated 23 August 2003 in the journals of Jacques Vallée. Vallée wrote that the physicist Hal Puthoff and the futurist John Petersen of the Arlington Institute "assure" him that there is only one "black UFO operation", and that it probably has to do with hardware. Vallée was puzzled: if that were so, why would biological data be in the hands of Kit Green and others?[8] The entry is published in Forbidden Science 5: Pacific Heights, and the anonymous UAP timeline in Michael Shellenberger's 2024 congressional testimony lists it.[7][8] No such operation has been confirmed. The Pentagon's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) reported in 2024 that it found no empirical evidence of U.S. government or private reverse-engineering of extraterrestrial technology.[9]
The journal entry
- According to the timeline's summary, Vallée wrote that Puthoff and Petersen assured him there was only one "black UFO operation" and that it "likely has to do with hardware". He questioned this, because biological data seemed to exist outside it, in Kit Green's hands and elsewhere.[8] The earlier version of this article said "hardware" meant recovered craft or materials. That reading is reasonable, but the summary does not spell it out.
- In the same entry, Vallée recorded that former CIA director William Colby had told Green he "deserve[d] to know", but would not confirm alien biology outright.[8]
- The journal for 2000–2009 was published as Forbidden Science 5: Pacific Heights on 2 January 2023, the fifth of seven volumes.[7] Anomalist Books publishes the series.[1][2]
The people
- Puthoff directed SRI's programme on claimed psychic abilities in the 1970s and 1980s and founded the Institute for Advanced Studies at Austin in 1985 (later EarthTech International). He joined Robert Bigelow's National Institute for Discovery Science in 1995 and Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies in 2008, and in 2017 co-founded a UFO-focused company.[3]
- Petersen founded The Arlington Institute, a futures think tank whose board has included former CIA director James Woolsey. The institute grew out of a bipartisan National Security Group project that Petersen co-founded in 1986–87. In the early 1990s he worked on futures research for the Defense Department and advised senior officials, including the under secretary of the Navy and the chief of naval operations.[4]
Later entries
- A few weeks later, on 10 September 2003, the journals record Bernard Haisch of Lockheed Martin saying that Puthoff had tried the "front door" approach to the secret programme he believed existed. Puthoff had written to Pete Aldridge and Under Secretary "Jacques Ganser" (as the timeline spells the name) but got no reply. Haisch believed the programme was split into four parts with about 200 people on the "bigot lists".[8]
- The same entry mentions an unnamed retired "General" thought to still have access, whom Puthoff met at Petersen's suggestion. The timeline says an entry of 18 September 2003 identifies him as Jack Sheehan, then working for Bechtel.[8]
Comparison with the Wilson/Davis notes
- The earlier version of this article noted that a single, tightly compartmented programme, probably run by a contractor, closely matches the disputed Wilson/Davis notes. Those notes, which surfaced online in 2019, describe a 2002 meeting at which Admiral Thomas Wilson, former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told the physicist Eric Davis that he had been refused access to such a programme. Davis was chief science officer at Puthoff's EarthTech.[10]
- The earlier version also called the notes "of October 2002". The sources read here date the meeting only to 2002.[10]
AARO's findings
- AARO's Report on the Historical Record of U.S. Government Involvement with Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, Volume I (March 2024) found "no empirical evidence for claims that the USG and private companies have been reverse-engineering extraterrestrial technology". It said it had located the programmes, officials, companies and documents named by interviewees, and found that the claims about them were inaccurate.[9]
- Executives and scientists of the companies interviewees had named met AARO's director and denied on the record that they had ever possessed or reverse-engineered off-world technology.[9]
- AARO did confirm one intelligence-community programme that was "unnecessarily expanded" in 2021 to include a UAP reverse-engineering mission. It said the programme never recovered or reverse-engineered any technology and has since been shut down.[11]
- The earlier version of this article said supporters argue AARO could not access the programme, while skeptics say it never existed. Neither position is set out in the sources read here, and the claim in Vallée's journal remains unverified.
People and topics
- Harold Puthoff — Physicist who co-founded the SRI remote-viewing research and later worked on AAWSAP and To The Stars Academy.
- John Petersen — Futurist who founded the Arlington Institute.
- Jacques Vallée — Computer scientist and astronomer, author of the Forbidden Science journals and a central figure in UFO research.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- Wilson–Davis notes — Wilson–Davis notes
- Defense Intelligence Agency — The Pentagon's military intelligence agency, which ran AAWSAP.
- AARO — The Pentagon office set up in 2022 to investigate UAP.
On the Timeline
- Kit Green's Wayne State encounter study (19 August 2003) — Kit Green shows Vallée a study of people who believed they had encounters.
- Puthoff's "front door" attempt (10 September 2003) — Lockheed's Bernard Haisch says Puthoff tried official channels to reach a secret UFO program.
See every 2003 event on the UAP Timeline →
Further reading
- Jacques Vallée — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
References
- Forbidden Science — the journals of Jacques Vallée (Anomaly Archives) · anomalyarchives.org · archived copy
- Forbidden Science series — Anomalist Books · anomalistbooks.com · archived copy
- Harold E. Puthoff — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- The Arlington Institute — Powerbase · powerbase.info · archived copy
- Review of Forbidden Science 6 — SFCrowsnest · sfcrowsnest.info · archived copy
- Forbidden Science Dispatches — Tanner Boyle (journal summaries) · tannerfboyle.substack.com · archived copy
- amazon.com · amazon.com · archived copy
- Michael Shellenberger, written testimony to the House Oversight Committee (13 November 2024), p. 154 · oversight.house.gov
- AARO, Report on the Historical Record of U.S. Government Involvement with UAP, Volume I (2024), executive summary · documents2.theblackvault.com
- "The Admiral Wilson Leak: An Analysis", The Black Vault · theblackvault.com
- AARO, Historical Record Report, Volume I (2024), p. 35: KONA BLUE and the expanded IC programme · documents2.theblackvault.com
Facts in this article are drawn in part from the Wikipedia article “Harold E. Puthoff”, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.
Categories: 2003 | Beings bodies | Harold puthoff | Jacques vallée | John petersen | Timeline event | Unidentified flying object | Wilsondavis notes
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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