Harry Reid
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 👤 Person
Contents 5
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| Type | Person |
|---|---|
| Also known as | Sen. Harry Reid, Reid |
| On the Timeline | 6 events, 2000–2021 |
Harry Mason Reid (2 December 1939 – 28 December 2021) was an American politician who served as a U.S. Senator from Nevada from 1987 to 2017 and as Senate Majority Leader from 2007 to 2015. He arranged secret funding for the Pentagon's AAWSAP/AATIP program on unidentified aerial phenomena, and after it became public he was one of the most senior American politicians to call for serious study of UAP.[1][2]
Political career
Reid was born in Searchlight, Nevada. He served as Lieutenant Governor of Nevada (1971–1975), chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission (1977–1981) and U.S. Representative for Nevada's 1st district (1983–1987), before 30 years in the Senate, including eight as majority leader.[1]
The UFO program
In 2007, at the urging of his friend, the Las Vegas businessman Robert Bigelow, and with the support of Senators Ted Stevens of Alaska and Daniel Inouye of Hawaii, Reid arranged for about $22 million over five years to fund a Defense Intelligence Agency study of unidentified aerial phenomena, most of which went to Bigelow's company.[1][2] In a June 2009 letter to Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn, Reid said the program had made "much progress" on "unconventional aerospace-related findings" and asked that parts of it be made a restricted special access program; the request was not granted.[1][3]
After 2017
When the program was revealed in December 2017, Reid defended it, calling it "one of the good things I did in my congressional service", and said he wanted to discuss science, not "little green men".[1][4] In a 2021 interview with The New Yorker, he said he had been told for decades that Lockheed held fragments of crashed UFOs and that he had tried, without success, to obtain a classified briefing about it; the company did not comment.[5] He also appeared in the 2020 documentary The Phenomenon.
Reid died of pancreatic cancer in Henderson, Nevada, on 28 December 2021. Las Vegas's main airport was renamed Harry Reid International Airport in his honour.[1][6]
On the UAP Timeline
- Proposal for a new Project Blue Book (2000) (24 January 2000) — Bigelow tells Vallée of an idea to push Congress for a new Project Blue Book.
- DIA interest in Skinwalker Ranch (21 October 2007) — Bigelow says the DIA expressed interest in strange events at Skinwalker Ranch.
- Projected AAWSAP funding (29 October 2008) — Kit Green tells Vallée AAWSAP funding could reach $240 million.
- Harry Reid on Lockheed's UFO fragments (1 May 2021) — Former Sen. Harry Reid says he was told Lockheed held UAP fragments and was refused access.
- Insider on oversight without access (2021) (1 May 2021) — An anonymous insider tells a researcher that officials with oversight lack access to UAP information.
- Elizondo on unfair corporate advantage (21 October 2021) — Elizondo says alien technology could give one company an unfair advantage over another.
References
- Harry Reid — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- "Glowing Auras and 'Black Money': The Pentagon's Mysterious U.F.O. Program", The New York Times (16 Dec 2017) · nytimes.com · archived copy
- George Knapp, "I-Team obtains some key documents related to Pentagon UFO study", KLAS (25 Jul 2018) · lasvegasnow.com · archived copy
- Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Gideon Lewis-Kraus, "How the Pentagon Started Taking U.F.O.s Seriously", The New Yorker (2021) · newyorker.com · archived copy
- "Harry M. Reid, a Power in the Senate, Dies at 82", The New York Times (28 Dec 2021) · nytimes.com · 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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