AAWSAP denied access to legacy programs
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 7
| Date | 26 April 2009 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Secrecy & cover-up (topic), Government programs (topic) |
| People | Colm Kelleher, Jacques Vallée |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 170 |
| Year | 2009 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 2009 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 16 |
According to Jacques Vallée's journals, in April 2009 Colm Kelleher, deputy administrator of Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS), told him that the Defense Intelligence Agency sponsor of the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP) still had not provided the promised introductions or access to older "legacy" UFO programs, frustrating the team.[1][2]
The program's own work
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AAWSAP was doing its own work: collecting and investigating new reports, studying Skinwalker Ranch in Utah and commissioning 38 technical reports on advanced physics, known as Defense Intelligence Reference Documents (DIRDs). By July 2009 BAASS had produced a 494-page "Ten Month Report". But its leaders had hoped to reach older data they believed was held elsewhere in government or industry.[2][3]
Reid's intervention
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DIA papers from 2009 record briefings for Senator Harry Reid, the program's sponsor in Congress, including a visit to the DIA director in May. On 24 June 2009 Reid wrote to Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn reporting "much progress" and asking that parts of the program be made a restricted special access program; one timeline of the program says he was partly motivated by his inability to get classified access to alleged crash materials. The request was refused in November 2009.[2][4][5]
Competing views
The lack of access is a central part of the story told by former AAWSAP officials in Skinwalkers at the Pentagon (2021), who argue that other parts of the government blocked their efforts. Skeptics see it as evidence that there was nothing to access. In 2024 the Pentagon's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office reported that it had found no evidence of any hidden program to recover or reverse-engineer extraterrestrial technology.[2][6]
People and topics
- Colm Kelleher — Biochemist who helped run NIDS and BAASS and co-wrote Skinwalkers at the Pentagon.
- Defense Intelligence Agency — The Pentagon's military intelligence agency, which ran AAWSAP.
- Unidentified anomalous phenomena — The U.S. government's current term for unidentified objects in the air, in space and underwater.
- 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.
- AAWSAP — The Defense Intelligence Agency's UAP research program of 2008–2010, carried out by Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies.
- Skinwalker Ranch — A Utah ranch known for reports of strange events, studied by NIDS and AAWSAP.
- AAWSAP DIRD release — AAWSAP DIRD release
On the Timeline
- CSETI energy briefing (2009) (13 February 2009) — CSETI allegedly briefs Obama officials and senators on breakthrough energy.
- Georgia witness visited by agents (2009) (8 May 2009) — A Georgia UAP witness says government agents visited him twice.
See every 2009 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- "Forbidden Science — the journals of Jacques Vallée", Anomaly Archives · anomalyarchives.org · archived copy
- Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- "The AAWSAP–BAASS–MUFON connection", Blue Blurry Lines (Mar 2020) · blueblurrylines.com · archived copy
- "The Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP) documentation", The Black Vault · theblackvault.com · archived copy
- Justin Snead, "Timeline of modern UFO investigations: AAWSAP to AARO" · justinsnead.substack.com · archived copy
- "Pentagon UFO office finds 'no empirical evidence' for alien technology in new report", Space.com (Mar 2024) · space.com · archived copy
- Forbidden Science series — Anomalist Books · anomalistbooks.com · archived copy
- Glowing auras and 'black money': the Pentagon's mysterious UFO program — New York Times (2017) · nytimes.com · archived copy
- The origins of AAWSAP — Metabunk · metabunk.org · archived copy
- DIA FOIA reading room (AAWSAP technical reports) · dia.mil · archived copy
- Documents on the vetting of 'Skinwalkers at the Pentagon' — The Black Vault · theblackvault.com · archived copy
- Skinwalkers at the Pentagon: book review — Bad UFOs (Robert Sheaffer) · badufos.blogspot.com · archived copy
- AARO Report on the Historical Record, Volume I — The Black Vault · theblackvault.com · 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
Further reading
- Robert Bigelow — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Jacques Vallée — 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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