Photo from a Pentagon report related to UFOs. Source: Pentagon

Luis Elizondo made headlines in 2017 when he resigned from his position as head of a secret Pentagon program investigating UFOs, denouncing excessive secrecy, lack of resources, and internal dissension that Elizondo said had hampered the program.

“It is imperative that the capabilities and purposes of these phenomena be determined for the benefit of the armed forces and the nation,” he wrote to James Mattis, then the US secretary of defense, in his resignation letter dated October 4, 2017.

Elizondo’s revelations were shocking at the time, and his case was bolstered by numerous videos of explosions and testimonies from pilots who had encountered unexplained aerial phenomena.

This evidence led to investigations by the US Congress and the judiciary. In a 2023 House hearing, a former US intelligence official confirmed that the government had recovered many crashed objects and that they were not man-made.

The Secret UFO Scandal

Elizondo’s new memoir reveals more. The Pentagon’s UFO program has been running for decades, recovering unidentified objects. The program was conducted in secret with the participation of many government officials and defense and aerospace contractors. Over the years, technology and many non-human remains were recovered after the crashes of strange objects.

Imminent : Inside the Pentagon’s Hunt for UFOs was published by HarperCollins on August 20. Photo: Amazon.

“In fact, humans are not the only intelligent life in the universe, and not the top species,” Elizondo writes.

The book underwent a year-long security review by the Pentagon before its release, but the agency’s approval of the book does not mean it has endorsed the information contained within.

For many years, Elizondo was a senior military intelligence officer and ran classified programs for both the White House and the National Security Council. In 2009, he was recruited to the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, which investigated UFO reports.

In addition to sharing his own encounters with UFOs, he also expressed concern about the potential dangers that UFOs pose to humanity, especially when they possess many types of technology that far exceed the current understanding capabilities of the United States and many other countries. “The emergence of spacecraft controlled by non-human intelligence is, at best, a very serious national security issue, and at worst, a potential existential threat to humanity,” Elizondo wrote.

In the book’s foreword, Christopher Mellon, former US deputy assistant secretary of defense for intelligence, wrote that, without Elizondo, “the US government would still be denying the existence of UFOs.”

Over the years, the program led by Elizondo has investigated sightings, near misses, and even encounters between UFOs and Navy jets. It also collects data from incidents involving military and intelligence operations with suspected UFO involvement.

In his book, Elizondo says that technological means beyond human capabilities have been observed since the 1940s. In the early 1950s, when UFOs became a national security concern during the Cold War, strict secrecy was enforced. “Whoever controls such technology can control the world,” Elizondo writes.

UFOs are a fascinating subject for everyone. Graphic: Independent.

Confirm the information obtained

Much of the information collected is classified, however, two Navy videos of UFOs have been made public at Elizondo’s request.

In an interview, Elizondo said he had firsthand experience with the things he was talking about. However, because of confidentiality requirements, he could not elaborate. He also said he was only allowed to talk about the project he led, and could not discuss his involvement in any other classified projects.

In Imminent , Elizondo also discusses his efforts to promote transparency around the operation, which he has done since stepping down in 2017. After Elizondo left, the program he led was transformed into the Unidentified Anomaly Task Force (UAP). By 2022, the program had been rebranded as the Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), which was tasked by Congress to investigate UAP reports and make the information available to the public.

Elizondo said he met with AARO directors and staff for three hours at a secure facility on February 2, 2023, and provided them with classified information about the history of the crash recovery program.

Elizondo still holds the highest security clearance and continues to consult for the government. His work also cites information from a veteran scientist with the highest security clearance.

That was Harold E. Puthoff, who was also involved in the UFO program under Elizondo. A physicist and engineer with a PhD from Stanford University, Puthoff worked as chief scientist on highly classified government projects for 50 years. He also often reported directly to the head of the CIA and White House advisers.

Elizondo “summarized for us the information that he had and I have no reason to dispute that,” Puthoff said in an interview.