Daniel Sheehan on post-war control of UAP information
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 10
| Speaker | Daniel P. Sheehan, constitutional and public-interest lawyer |
|---|---|
| Year | 2021 (interviews summarized by Gaia, August 2021; quoted by Politico, May 2021) |
| Claim | A narrow group has controlled UFO information since 1947 and monopolized Roswell technology for Cold War advantage |
| Context | Sheehan was then lawyer for Luis Elizondo in his complaint against the Pentagon |
| Evidence offered | None documented |
| Official position | AARO (2024) found no verifiable evidence of hidden reverse-engineering programs |
| Date | October 2021 |
| Topics | Crashes & retrievals (topic), Beings & bodies (topic), Secrecy & cover-up (topic) |
| People | Luis Elizondo, Daniel Sheehan |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 203 |
| Timeline | 2021 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 10 |
Daniel Sheehan, a constitutional and public-interest lawyer, said in 2021 interviews that information about UFOs had been controlled by a narrow group since the end of the Second World War. He said alien technology recovered at Roswell in 1947 had been monopolized for Cold War advantage.[1][2] He made the claims while acting as lawyer for Luis Elizondo, the former Pentagon official who had gone public about the government's UFO work.[3][4] Sheehan offered no documents for these claims.[2]
Background
Sheehan was born in 1945 in Glens Falls, New York, and graduated from Harvard College (1967) and Harvard Law School (1970). He worked on cases including the Pentagon Papers, the Watergate break-in, Karen Silkwood and the La Penca bombing, and founded the Christic Institute and the Romero Institute.[1] In 1986 the Christic Institute brought a conspiracy suit on behalf of the journalists Tony Avirgan and Martha Honey. It was dismissed in 1988, and the institute was ordered to pay substantial costs.[1] Politico described him in 2021 as a lawyer with "a long history" of taking on the federal government, and as "widely viewed as a provocateur" with an abiding interest in UFOs.[4]
UFO work
Sheehan has acted as counsel to the Harvard psychiatrist John Mack and to Steven Greer's Disclosure Project.[1] In 2021 he represented Luis Elizondo in a dispute with the Department of Defense. Elizondo has said he was formerly the head of the Pentagon's Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP).[1][3] In May 2021 Politico reported on Elizondo's 64-page complaint to the Pentagon inspector general, filed on 3 May, which accused officials of a coordinated campaign to discredit him.[3][4] Sheehan told the paper:[4]
- Certain Defense Department officials had been "lying about him publicly" and threatening his security clearance.
- The wider aim was to make the Pentagon clarify "what exactly is the cartography inside the Defense Department" for handling the phenomenon.
- Blaming poor coordination between offices was "the classic bureaucratic dodge".
Sheehan has also discussed Elizondo in later video interviews.[5]
The 2021 account
In an August 2021 interview summarized by Gaia, Sheehan set out a broad history of UFO secrecy:[2]
- Origins. After the Civil War, "a group of roughly 30 families" consolidated power into corporate structures that came to influence global affairs, and later propped up fascist regimes after both world wars.
- 1947. By the time of Roswell, this group was "well in control of the military-industrial complex". When technology from the crash was studied, it found a way to monopolize it "so they could use it to the advantage of the United States and the western allies in the Cold War".
- After 1991. The strategy lasted until the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. The next step was "to prepare for an ongoing confrontation with China". Rivalry served as a reason to develop advanced weapons and aircraft, much of it, in the Gaia summary, likely "back-engineered" from alien technology.
- Tracking. Rising sightings had pushed the government to build better tracking. He cited what he called the CIA's newly formed "Electromagnetic Intelligence Center" and a "Geospatial Intelligence Center" in the Defense Department that, he said, held Roswell information.
- "UAP". Officials chose to drop "UFO" for "UAP" to shed "all the baggage" of ufology and to focus only on technology under the Defense Department's weapons program.
Gaia's summary said this shift was the catalyst for Elizondo to become AATIP's director in 2007.[2] Other accounts differ. Politico said Elizondo was assigned to the program in 2008, and Elizondo's own organization has said he took it over in 2010. The Defense Department stated in 2019 that he had no AATIP responsibilities.[3][4][6]
Context
The documented government program of that era was far smaller than Sheehan's picture suggests. AATIP began in the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2007 and was funded with $22 million over five years, ending in 2012.[6] A closely related program, the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP), was funded for fiscal years 2009 and 2010. Robert Bigelow's company was the only bidder for the contract.[8] The 2021 book Skinwalkers at the Pentagon, by AAWSAP's James Lacatski with Colm Kelleher and George Knapp, described it. The book's prepublication review took about fourteen months.[7][8]
Official findings
In March 2024 the Pentagon's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office released the first volume of its historical report. It said it had "found no verifiable evidence for claims that the U.S. government and private companies have access to or have been reverse-engineering extraterrestrial technology".[9][10] It judged that alleged hidden programs described by interviewees either did not exist, were misidentified real national security programs, or led back to a disestablished program. It attributed much of the belief to "circular reporting from a group of individuals".[9][10]
Assessment
Sheehan offered no documents for these claims, which draw on his own experience and on what he says sources told him.[2] Parts of his account, such as the "30 families" and the Roswell monopoly, are historical assertions without cited evidence.[2] His comments on Elizondo's complaint concern a documented dispute, but the complaint's outcome and the wider claims remain unresolved.[3][4]
People and topics
- Luis Elizondo — Former Army counterintelligence officer who says he ran AATIP.
- Daniel Sheehan — Constitutional lawyer who said he saw classified Blue Book photos and later represented Luis Elizondo.
- Unidentified anomalous phenomena — The U.S. government's current term for unidentified objects in the air, in space and underwater.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- Project Blue Book — The Air Force's public UFO investigation from 1952 until its closure in December 1969.
On the Timeline
- Elizondo on unfair corporate advantage (21 October 2021) — Elizondo says alien technology could give one company an unfair advantage over another.
- Eric Haseltine on UAP-like weapons (29 November 2021) — A former NSA officer says the U.S. lacks weapons that could create UAP-like effects.
See every 2021 event on the UAP Timeline →
Further reading
- Wright-Patterson Air Force Base — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Hangar 18 (the legend and 1980 film) — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Skunk Works — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Harry S. Truman — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
References
- Daniel Sheehan (attorney) — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- "Constitutional attorney explains history of government UFO secrecy", Gaia (Aug 2021) · gaia.com · archived copy
- Luis Elizondo — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Daniel Sheehan talks to Politico about Elizondo (2021) · cryptoscatology.blogspot.com · archived copy
- The fight for UFO truth: Danny Sheehan — California Insider · californiainsider.com · archived copy
- Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · 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 historical report finds no evidence of alien technology (2024) — Space.com · space.com · archived copy
- AARO Report on the Historical Record, Volume I — The Black Vault · theblackvault.com · archived copy
Facts in this article are drawn in part from the Wikipedia articles “Daniel Sheehan (attorney)”, “Luis Elizondo”, “Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program”, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.
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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