Elizondo on rogue programs (2021)
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 7
| Date | 2 September 2021 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Beings & bodies (topic), Government programs (topic) |
| People | Luis Elizondo, David Grusch |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 201 |
| Year | 2021 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 2021 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 5 |
In an episode of That UFO Podcast released in September 2021, Luis Elizondo said that any UFO programs other than AATIP, "if they existed", had probably been run rogue, without oversight.[1]
Special access programs
Asked about his work in the Pentagon's special access program world, Elizondo said the SAP Central Office sat under the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, that he had managed SAPs himself, and that because of his need to know he had access to master lists. He said that when he brought AATIP information to several meetings and asked whether anyone knew what was going on, the answer was a "big goose egg".[1]
"Rogue"
Elizondo said that if other UFO programs existed, they were being run out of sight, keeping the people responsible for oversight deliberately out of the loop, which he called a legal issue for which people could go to jail. He contrasted this with his own work, which he said was known to and approved by people in his chain of command up to the Secretary of Defense level.[1]
Clapper
In the same answer Elizondo said that James Clapper, then Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and later Director of National Intelligence, had told him in front of Elizondo's wife that he was glad AATIP existed and that it was something they should have done.[1]
Later claims
David Grusch made a related argument to Congress in 2023, saying UFO crash-retrieval programs had been concealed from proper oversight. The Pentagon's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office said in 2024 that it found no evidence of such programs.[1][2]
People and topics
- Luis Elizondo — Former Army counterintelligence officer who says he ran AATIP.
- Unidentified anomalous phenomena — The U.S. government's current term for unidentified objects in the air, in space and underwater.
- David Grusch — Former intelligence officer who testified in 2023 that the U.S. has recovered non-human craft.
- Crash retrieval — The alleged recovery of crashed non-human craft by governments.
- AARO — The Pentagon office set up in 2022 to investigate UAP.
On the Timeline
- Long Beach undercover approach claim (1 August 2021) — Coulthart writes a source was asked to go undercover inside an aerospace company.
- Nat Kobitz's read-in remark (3 September 2021) — Coulthart says a Navy science director told him he was read into a crash program.
See every 2021 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- Keith Basterfield, "Luis Elizondo speaks out on SAPs; other possible 'hidden' UAP programs and much more", UFOs – scientific research (Sept 2021) · ufos-scientificresearch.blogspot.com · archived copy
- David Grusch UFO whistleblower claims — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Luis Elizondo — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- youtu.be · youtu.be · 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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