By Robert Laurie ——Bio and Archives--December 19, 2017
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It was called the "Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program" and while it officially ended in 2012, it may or may not continue to this day. It was run out of the Pentagon, is still at least partially classified, and - like a modern-day Project Blue Book - centered around the investigation of UFOs.
It's existence was confirmed over the weekend, via a report in the New York Times.
In the $600 billion annual Defense Department budgets, the $22 million spent on the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program was almost impossible to find.
Which was how the Pentagon wanted it. For years, the program investigated reports of unidentified flying objects, according to Defense Department officials, interviews with program participants and records obtained by The New York Times. It was run by a military intelligence official, Luis Elizondo, on the fifth floor of the Pentagon’s C Ring, deep within the building’s maze. The Defense Department has never before acknowledged the existence of the program, which it says it shut down in 2012. but its backers say that, while the Pentagon ended funding for the effort at that time, the program remains in existence.If it all sounds very cloak and dagger, that's because it is. It's exactly the kind of top secret operation you'd find in the X-Files. It even comes with its own Cigarette Smoking Man - Harry Reid. Reid urged the creation of the program, and says he is "not embarrassed or ashamed" of its existence. If Reid's involvement makes you suspicious, well, that's probably a good instinct. As the Times Reports, you have plenty of reason to wonder just how the project's budget was being spent.
Most of the money went to an aerospace research company run by a billionaire entrepreneur and longtime friend of Mr. Reid’s, Robert Bigelow, who is currently working with NASA to produce expandable craft for humans to use in space. On CBS’s “60 Minutes” in May, Mr. Bigelow said he was “absolutely convinced” that aliens exist and that U.F.O.s have visited Earth.Hmmmm... So, there's a secret government project with a $22 Million budget - "most" of which went to one of Harry Reid's longtime pals? If that doesn't set off alarm bells, I don't know what would. Considering that Reid managed to get ridiculously wealthy while in office - and no one seems to be entirely sure how he did it - I'd be curious to see how all that "UFO research money" was spent. According to the Times (which dutifully reminds us that the term UFO doesn't necessarily mean alien) it went to management of the program, as well as research and assessment of objects like the one that appears in the following video:
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Under Mr. Bigelow’s direction, the company modified buildings in Las Vegas for the storage of metal alloys and other materials that Mr. Elizondo and program contractors said had been recovered from unidentified aerial phenomena. Researchers also studied people who said they had experienced physical effects from encounters with the objects and examined them for any physiological changes. In addition, researchers spoke to military service members who had reported sightings of strange aircraft.OK, so Harry Reid has a long history of ethical transactions. By their very nature, secret programs immediately raise suspicion about where the money is going. Still, I'd like to think there's some truth to all of this. I'd love to live in a world where this, coupled with the scientific community's increasing certainty that we're about to discover alien life, means we're due for a very special announcement that "we are not alone." Given Reid's involvement, I'm not sure I do ...but I want to believe.
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