AATIP FOIA requests to the Defense Intelligence Agency- the 2017/2018 log is now online

Freedom of Information Log

The US Defense Intelligence Agency's (DIA) Freedom of Information Act Log for the fiscal year 1 October 2017 to 30 September 2018, is now available online. It is 57 pages in length, and details 434 requests for that fiscal year.

Why is that of interest to readers of this blog? Well, the New York Times article revealing the existence of the previously secret, Pentagon, program they named as AATIP, came out on 16 December 2017. Shortly after this date, various individuals submitted requests under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to the DIA. This new log reveals details of who asked for what, about the AATIP, and associated topics.

Requests

The individual requests range from very simple, to the complex. All however, aim to have the DIA provide documentation about, or generated by, the AATIP.

The first relevant request [FOIA-2018-00065 which I will shorten to the last digits] came from one Laurent Corbell, who requested:

"...all documents generated as part of the Defense Department's Advance Aviation Threat Identification Program, including the 490 page report that was described in the December 16 article in the Washington Post..."

Numerous other individuals picked up on the paper's mention of a 490 page report and asked for copies; while others such as John Greenewald [00067] specified "...documents pertaining to the outline, mission statement, objectives etc...;" and yet others, e.g. Emma Parry [00069] also included "...video files..."

Soon, knowing that it had been reported that Bigelow Aerospace had a contract with the DIA concerning the topic of our mutual interest, people sought "...all contracts with Bigelow Aerospace..." [00070 Greenewald]; "...contracts with Bigelow Aerospace..." [00073 Tom Jones]; "...Reports generated by Bigelow Aerospace..." [00074 Randall Counsman]; and "...the prepared report under contract...by Bigelow Advanced Aerospace System..." [00075 John Alexander.]

Requests then went quiet for a while, until Jack Brewer [00087 & 00088] sought "...all contracts pertaining to the...AATIP..." and "...all contracts undertaking with and funded provided to the National Institute for Discovery Science from dates 1995-2004."

Researcher Timothy S Cooper [00100] was even more specific in his request for "...all Project Able Gray documents...forwarded to...AATIP..."

To ascertain how the FLIR video had been released John Greenewald [00101] asked for documentation on the declassification process. Then, still on the topic of videos Robert Powell [00119] went after copies of the first two videos; details of the events where the videos were taken; records from the 2004 E2-Hawkeye aircraft; and notes from Fravor and Kurth.

In a February 2018 article on Wired.com, journalist Sarah Scoles wrote about the Pentagon UFO videos. The DIA FOIA Log reveals that Scoles submitted a request [00116] asking for Bigelow related materials; and all data associated with individual incidents researched by AATIP.

Researcher Grant Cameron [00191] sought "...a copy of all FOIA requests that have been files from 2-4-2017 to 2-4-2018 asking for records for the AATIP..."

Overseas researchers

It wasn't only US researchers who submitted requests. Clas Svahn from Sweden; Michael Greshko; Australian Paul Dean, and myself; plus UK researcher Isaac Koi, also all put in requests.

Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP)

In a blog post dated 30 April 2018, Melbourne, Australia researcher Paul Dean, announced that the original name for what people were calling the AATIP, was in fact the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program. When UAP researchers learned that, they started submitting FOIA requests to the DIA, mentioning the AAWSAP, e.g. Jack Brewer [00259] and John Greenewald [00260.]

On 8 May 2018, I located an online copy of the DIA's solicitation for companies to undertake work on the AAWSAP. The solicitation number was HHM402-08-R-0211. So, soon after this discovery I filed a request myself [00290.] Around the same time so did Jack Brewer [00271] and UK researcher, Isaac Koi [00272.]

The final 2017/2018 request came from John Greenewald [00428] asking for a clean copy of the FLIR video and the release process undertaken.

Commentary

Below, I'd like to highlight, and discuss a number of the requests made.

1. Because the topic of "Skinwalker ranch" and the visit there by a government official, had been mentioned in media reports associated with the AATIP, a number of people thought to seek ranch related material from the DIA, e.g. Anna Merlan [00241]; Burke Williamson [00414]; and Patrick martin [00420.]

2. An unusual request [00129] came from one Craig Strahler:

"Requesting any documents of the Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program (AATIP) and mentioning the name Craig Strahler."

Was Strahler a BAASS staffer; an AATIP staffer; a witness? Can any blog reader enlighten me?

3. Kelsey McKinney [00163] went after "...emails coming from Luiz Elizondo that reference 'Tom Delonge' and any emails sent to Luiz Elizondo that reference 'Tom Delonge.'" Delonge created the To The Stars Academy (TTSA); and Elizondo is currently a TTSA employee.

4. John Greenewald [00255] sought copies of various Defense Intelligence Reference Documents (DIRDs) and supplied a range of numbers. Where this list of numbers came from is unknown to me.

5. An interesting sidebar was the request from Katy Sandalis [00110] who asked for any AATIP documents held in the 490 page report, which mentioned the 1980 United Kingdom Rendlesham Forest incident. I do recall that Luis Elizondo has made references to speaking to Rendlesham witnesses.

6. Another interesting sidebar came from James Lawrence [00318]:

"Requesting all and any records pertaining to bismuth-magnesium alloys and metamaterials between the dates of 1947 and the present, and any documents using the keywords 'waveguide' and 'metamaterials.'"

This reference to bismuth-magnesium, refers to material allegedly retrieved from the Roswell "crash" which is commonly referred to as "Arts parts." My recent catalogue contains more information about these "parts."

7. Las Vegas journalist George Knapp [00158] submitted a request:

"Requesting all document, reports and contracts relating to and provided in conjunction with contract # HHM402-08-C-0072 Defense Intelligence Agency 2008-2010."

Why is this of interest? It doesn't even mention AATIP? Well, on 8 May 2018, after Paul Dean announced that the original program name was AAWSAP, I located an online copy of the 32 page DIA solicitation inviting firms to submit bids to undertake the AAWSAP for the DIA. The number of this solicitation was HHM402-08-R-0211.

So, what was George Knapp looking for with HHM402-08-C-0072? I have searched the net for an answer. Even the Loren Data Federal Business Opportunities website, which records every solicitation and subsequent contract is silent on the nature of 0072. At the moment, only George Knapp knows the answer to why 0072?

Please see the update at the end of this post for the solution to 0072!

8. Request [00239] is from one Steven Aftergood and sought "...a copy of the list that was recently transmitted to Congress of all DIA products produced..." under AATIP.

Some background is in order here. In a blog post date 15 August 2018, it was announced that a reference to the AATIP had been found in the "Congressional Record" dated 9 April 2018. A letter had gone from the DIA to Congress advising a list of "products" produced by AATIP.

In a 17 January 2019 article titled "More Light on Black Program to Track UFOs" Steven Aftergood revealed that he had acquired a list of the AATIP "products" from his FOIA request dated 15 August 2018 (responded to by the DIA on 16 January 2019.)

In summary

Almost no-one who has submitted an FOIA request to the DIA regarding the AATIP/AAWSAP has received a final response. If you did submit a 2017/2018 request, and have received a final response, I'd like to hear from you, at keithbasterfield@yahoo.com.au

The full DIA FOIA Log may be read here. 

Update: 24 May 2019

As can be seen in the comments section below, I received an anonymous comment, with some excellent information about the detail mentioned in George Knapp's DIA FOIA request.

My informant located a DIA document where HHM402-08-C-0072 was mentioned in a listing, and writes:

"HHM402-08-C-0072 is referred to as the contract PIIN (Procurement Instrument Identification Number)...is an identifier that consists of 13 alpha-numeric characters grouped to convey certain information. The first six numbers are the DodAAC; seven and eight are the fiscal year the PIIN was assigned; 9 is a letter representing the instrument type, and 10-13 are the four digit serial number.

"Now I would say that the "C" is the important digit here. And it would seem to represent the description of the "instrument type." Contracts of all types except indefinite delivery contracts, facility contracts, sales contracts, and contracts placed with or through other Government departments or agencies or against contracts placed by such departments or agencies outside the DoD."

In the list provided, which is a 240 page document; on page 14 there is a line which reads:

HHM402-08-R-0211
HHM402-08-C-0072
19-Sep-08
20080910.

Here, HHM402-08-R-0211 is the number of the solicitation; HHM402-08-C-0072 is the contract PIIN; 19-Sep-08 is the issue date of the contract; and 20080910 is the offer due date.

So, the mystery of HHM402-08-C-0072 is solved!

Further update 24 May 2019

Today, Jack Brewer [FOIA number 00088] advised me, that in his blog post dated 26 May 2018 he reported the result of his request. He originally submitted the request on 23 December 2017; and the DIA response, dated 17 May 2018, was "Despite a thorough search, no documents responsive to your request were found."

Federal Sources Inc. may already have a copy of the DIA AAWSA contract

I have been browsing the Internet for any additional information about the 2008 Defense Intelligence Agency's Advanced Aerospace Weapon System (AAWSA) program's solicitation number HHM402-08-R-0211, and a subsequent contract issued, I understand, to Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies.

Quincy Wilkins and Federal Sources Incorporated

Imagine my interest when I located a PDF file for the DIA's FOIA log for FY 2010.  This 23 page document lists the DIA FOIA reference number; the name of the requestor and a summary of the request. Buried in the document is a one liner that says:

FOIA-00065-2010, Wilkins, Quincy, FOIA request documents for contract #HHM40208R0211.

Further Internet research led me to find out that Quincy Wilkins worked for a US company named Federal Sources Incorporated. One source stated that:

"Federal Sources Inc.provides research,market intelligence, budget analysis, survey method,management, and technology consulting services to the Federal government...The company serves federal and state government officials, contracting officer technical representatives and program manager...The company was founded in 1984 and is headquartered in McLean, Virginia. As of 10/23/2003, Federal Sources Inc. is a subsidiary of Washington Management Group."

Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20100717161311/http://www.fedsources.com

From the Federal Sources website, I learnt that:

"FedSources' team of librarians proactively submit FOIA requests for information on awarded contracts greater than $5 million...As a client, these documents are available to you in our extensive online library of over 5,000 downloadable documents..."

So, Quincy Wilkins as an employee of Federal Sources Inc., was asking the DIA for a copy of the contract to enter it into the Federal Source Inc. library.

Can we find a copy of the contract this way?

The question is, did the DIA supply a copy of the contract, and it possible to locate a copy of this contract today, rather than wait for the DIA to respond to our mutual FOIA requests? I am pursuing my investigations into these questions, as the WayBack machine under www.fedsources.com captured multiple images of the website, both in 2008 and 2010, and it will take a little time to go through these. If any blog readers would also like to take a look at these multiple website snapshots they would be welcome.

One possible short cut available to us, if any blog readers is, or knows anyone who is, a current client of Federal Sources Inc., would be to ask you or them to log into the Federal Sources Inc. website and submit a request to their contract library database for contract#HHM402-08_R-0211. In the meantime I will send off an email asking Federal Sources Inc if they would conduct a pro bono, once off search for me.

Update: 5 August 2019

In a blog post dated 1 August 2019, Jack Brewer, who writes The UFO Trail blog, reported on an FOIA request which he had submitted. Brewer asked the DIA for copies of the DIA response to Quincy Wilkins' original FOIA request.

In response to Brewer, the DIA provided him with some relevant documentation.This included a letter dated 19 July 20111, from the DIA to BAASS, advising BAASS that the DIA had received an FOIA request concerning a contract awarded to BAASS, namely contract number HHM402-08-C-0072.

What was DIA contract HHM402-08-C-0072 about? I have a copy of a DIA document which shows that contract HHM402-08-C-0072 came from DIA solicitation HHM402-08-R-0211. This solicitation related to the AAWSAP.

Thus we are now certain that it was BAASS who was awared the AAWSAP contract.

AATIP/AAWSAP - the publicly available documentation on these programs

Introduction

I was asked a question the other day. It was "How much official documentation about the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP)  and the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP), is available publicly?" To answer this question I needed to prepare a list, which you can read below. For a comprehensive listing, and links to mass media material, about AATIP/AAWSAP, I would direct you to the excellent work of journalist Giuliano Marinkovic here.

August 2008

On 18 August 2008, the Virginia Contracting Activity, based at Bolling Air Force Base, Washington, issued a 32 page solicitation/contract/order for commercial items, number HHM402-08-R-0211. The Virginia Contracting Activity is the contracting arm of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). The solicitation was slightly amended, by versions dated 20 August 2008 and 22 August 2008. 

Source: http://www.fbodaily.com/archive/2008/08-August/20-Aug-2008/FBO-01643684.htm

Attachment 1 to the solicitation, dated 18 July 2008, sets out the program objectives.

Source: http://www.fbodaily.com/archive/2008/08-August/20-Aug-2008/FBO-01643684.htm

"The objective of this program is to understand the physics and engineering of these applications as they apply to the foreign threat out to the far term, ie from now through the year 2050. Primary focus is on breakthrough technologies and applications that create discontinuities in currently evolving technology trends." Technical studies in 12 areas were required, including in the areas of propulsion; signature reduction and human effects.

The closing date for bids was 5 September 2008. However, despite a comprehensive search of US government solicitations and contracts awarded, including those listed on Federal Business Opportunities;   US Department of Defense Contracts;  and USA government spending, no one has been able to find a public announcement of the company who was successful in winning the contract.

I was, however, able to locate a website snapshot using the Wayback machine which, dated 12 September 2008,  provided a listing of careers within the Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies company (BAASS)  which matched those areas of expertise listed in the DIA solicitation. The language used in the preamble to the advertised jobs contained identical words to some found in the solicitation. One can therefore deduce from this, that it was BAASS which was the successful company, even though there was no public announcement.

Las Vegas based journalist George Knapp interviewed Robert Bigelow on the coasttocoastam radio show in September 2008, about the work of BAASS. Bigelow, however,  did not state that his funding was from the DIA. Knapp, in a 2018 radio interview, also stated that there was only one other bidder for the contract, and this was the aerospace company Lockheed Martin.

In a digital piece, dated 4 May 2018, written by George Knapp and Matt Adams, it stated, inter alia, "In Aug 2008, DIA posted a solicitation for bids. Weeks later, the contract was awarded to Bigelow Aerospace, the initial amount was $10 million." The written piece was accompanied by the following images:

Source: https://www.lasvegasnow.com/news/i-team-documents-prove-secret-ufo-study-based-in-nevada/1160375205

In the copy of the solicitation I located, areas 17a "Contractor" and 26 "Total award amount" are blank. In the Knapp/Adams version they have been filled in, indicating that Knapp/Adams have, at least. a part of the solicitation/contract which indicates that BAASS were the successful contractor. However, this "contract" has not been fully, publicly released to date.

In summary, we have this piece of documentation about the AAWSAP. However, it should be clearly stated, that no where in the solicitation does it state that the AAWSAP was to study "UFOs."

24 June 2009

On 3 April 2018, US researcher John Greenwald received an email from Andricia Harris, MAJ USARMY OSD PA (US). In part it read "AATIP was funded in the July 2008 Supplemental Appropriations Bill (a Sen Harris add.) Its mandate, as outlined in a 2009 letter from Reid to DSD..."

Source:http://www.theblackvault.com/casefiles/to-the-stars-academy-of-arts-science-tom-delonge-and-the-secret-dod-ufo-research-program/# 

Harris advised Greenwald, that she did not have a copy of that letter in her possession.

Swedish researcher Roger Glassel also communicated with Major Harris. Her email response, also mentioned the 2009 Reid letter. (See update at the end of this blog)

In a 28 June 2018 KLAS TV story, reporters George Knapp and Matt Adams revealed that they held a copy of the letter, and the story included the following images:

I decided to look for a copy of the letter in the former Senator Reid's Congressional papers, which I found out were archived at the University of Nevada-Reno.  I corresponded with the Harry Reid Papers Archivist, Ian M McGlory, who in an email dated 31 July 2018 advised me that due to the size of the collection "we currently wouldn't be able to find something as specific as what you are looking for."

Fortunately, on 25 July 2018 reporters George Knapp and Matt Adams released the full, four page letter, imaged below:

I presented the text of the entire letter in a blog post dated 29 July 2018. 

In short, the letter stated that in September 2008 Congress had mandated the DIA to assess :...far-term foreign advanced aerospace threats..." This is clearly a reference to the 2008 DIA solicitation re AASWAP, though Reid refers to the program as AATIP. Reid went on to suggest to the DOD that the program become a "Restricted Special-Access-Program." It should be noted, that as with the DIA solicitation itself, there is no mention of the subject of "UFOs."

2009

On 7 August 2018, a number of items were revealed to have been sitting on a US website, which were of relevance to our study. Amongst these items were a series of jpeg images of what appeared to be an AATIP slide briefing presentation. These had never been publicly available before. I wrote up a full description of the contents of the slides in a blog post dated 9 August 2018.

Among the slides was the following text:

* A request for the establishment of a special-access-program for specific parts of AATIP

* That the AATIP mission included "To further identify, understand and take advantage of a generation of highly advanced technology and principles..."

* "Preliminary evidence indicates that the United States is incapable of defending itself towards some of these technologies..."

There is reference to items which we read about in the 2008 DIA AAWSAP solicitation, though here in these slides the program is called the AATIP.

2010

On a Coast to Coast radio show interview dated 28 January 2018, between George Knapp and Dr Eric W Davis, Davis outlined his subcontractor role with BAASS. One of the things which he and EarthTech International colleague Hal Puthoff commissioned, was a series of 38 expert studies. The DIA prepared a set of Defense Intelligence Reference Documents (DIRDs) from these studies. The DIA documents stated that these were relating to the AAWSAP.

The EarthTech website contains a list of six such documents, imaged below:

Source: http://earthtech.org/pubs/davis/

A search of the Internet revealed that two of the above Davis DIA AAWSAP documents, were online as early as 18 December 2017 on a website run by US researcher Coorey Goode. 

A third DIA AAWSAP DIRD surfaced in a report by George Knapp and Matt Adams dated 5 May 2018. The DIRD was authored by EarthTech's Hal Puthoff.

How do we know that these documents were in fact prepared under the AAWSAP? Inside each of the three DIRDs so far available, there is the following text, which I image below:

How do we know that Davis and Puthoff authored these documents? Davis confirmed this to UK researcher Isaac Koi by email, and Puthoff confirmed this to me by email.

In a KLAS TV report dated 25 July 2018, reporters Knapp and Adams published a copy of a list of the 38 DIRDs. The source of the list was not stated, though former AATIP program manager Luis Elizondo confirmed that the list was genuine. I analysed the list in a blog post dated 1 August 2018. 

Source: https://media.lasvegasnow.com/nxsglobal/lasvegasnow/document_dev/2018/07/25/list_of_studies_1532565541010_49621331_ver1.0.pdf

You will note that none of these DIRD's mentions the word "UFOs."

27 November 2017

On 13 October 2017, US researcher John Greenwald submitted an FOIA request to the Department of Defense, for information on the program which he only knew to be called something like the "Department of Defense Aerospace Threat Program."  In a letter dated 27 November 2017, the Department of Defense stated that: "no records of the kind you described could be identified."

Source: http://www.theblackvault.com/casefiles/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/2017-12-16_10-58-12.jpg

9 April 2018

Swedish researcher Roger Glassel located an item regarding the AATIP in the "Congressional Record" which is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the US Congress.

Volume 164, number 56, page H3062, dated 9 April 2018, carried the following text:

"4381. A letter from the Chief, Congressional Relations Division, Defense Intelligence Agency, Department of Defense, transmitting a list of all products produced under the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program contract for the Defense Intelligence Agency to publish, to the Committee on Armed Services."

Source: https://www.congress.gov/crec/2018/04/09/CREC-2018-04-09-pt1-PgH3062.pdf

June 2018

At the June 2018 MUFON Conference, one of the speakers was former AATIP manager Luis Elizondo who gave a speech about the AATIP. He illustrated his talk with a number of slides which included the following:

September 2018

US researcher John Greenwald noticed that the Intellipedia page on the subject of Unidentified Flying Objects now contained a reference to the AATIP.  However, the entry contained only public source information, and added nothing new to our knowledge base. 

In summary

 It can be seen from all of the above material, that our knowledge of this program has come from a variety of sources; namely; journalists; the former manager of the AATIP; and civilian researchers. It is this collaborative effort, in my opinion; together with the work of such private companies such as To The Stars Academy, which will continue to unearth further documentation. I am aware that there are a large number of outstanding AATIP related US Freedom of Information Act requests, with the Department of Defense; the US Navy; the Central Intelligence Agency; the Defense Intelligence Agency, and other US agencies; which may, in time, add to what we know. I may well have missed some relevant documentation in my compilation above, so happy to hear from any observant blog reader.

Update: 28 December 2018

Roger Glassel advise me that  Major Harris' email reply to him was dated 3 May 2018. The response read:

"AATIP was funded in the July 2008 Supplemental Appropriations Bill (a Sen Harry Reid add). Its mandate, as outlined in a 2009 letter from Reid to DSD, was to assess "far-term foreign advanced aerospace threats the United States, "including anomalous events (such as sightings of aerodynamic vehicles engaged in extreme maneuvers, with unique phenomenology, reported by U.S.Navy pilots or other credible sources). AATIP was terminated in 2012 due to lack of real progress and concerns about the viability of the program."

Dr James T Lacatski, AAWSAP Program Manager's career "ruined"

Who is Dr James Thomas Lacatski?

In a blog post dated 1 May 2018, and titled  "AATIP or AAWSA" I wrote, in part, about those Defense Intelligence Reference Documents" (DIRDs) which had been circulating on the Internet since December 2017. Each of the three available DIRD's made mention of the fact that the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP) Program Manager, at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) was one James T Lacatski, D. Eng.

Research

I undertook some research into who James T Lacatski was, and wrote up my then findings in the 1 May 2018 blog. Since then I have been able to find out a little more about him. To recap, I found that his full name was James Thomas Lacatski with a date of birth of 9 January 1951.

Between 1984-1986 he was a joint author of a number of technical  papers about plasma engineering studies in Torsatron reactors. In 1986 he was an Engineer Assistant in the Nuclear Design Section of Duke Power Company, responsible for reactor core design, startup and operating predictions and plant support.

I failed to locate any publicly available information on him during the 1987-2003 period. In June 2004 a James Lacatski, Intelligence Officer, Missile Defense, Defense Intelligence Agency, attended a UK conference titled "Ballistic Missile Defence." In January 2005, James T Lacatski was promoted to GG-14 within the DIA.

In August 2008, Dr James T Lacatski was designated as the COR and government project leader in the DIA's AAWSAP solicitation number HHM402-08-R-0211.

In April 2009, the DIA's own internal magazine "Communique" showed him as celebrating 10 years Federal service. 

In August 2016 Lacatski attended an energy conference, and listed a DIA email address as his contact details.

I located details showing that his wife Wisal Abouo Lacatski had worked for NASA (at least around 1997.)

That then is a summary of publicly available information about James Thomas Lacatski. Using public data, I spent some time trying to contact Lacatski to ask him a number of questions about his involvement with the AAWSAP/AATIP. I was unsuccessful. Indeed, I know of no one who has successfully located and interviewed Lacatski about his knowledge in this area. He certainly has not publicly surfaced and given a widely reported interview. On a number of occasions, the former (second) AATIP manager, Luis Elizondo has referred to the former (first) manager of the program, without using his name.

A rare 1986 photograph of Lacatski

New information

On 1 November 2018, the To The Stars Academy (TTSA) website blog featured a blog post  by Luis Elizondo, titled "What We Know And What We Believe Are Not Always The Same Thing. How our perception of Fact Influences Our Worldview." Part of this blog post provides some new information about James T Lacatski (although Elizondo, again, does not name him.)

"UAP has even been associated with demons and anti-Judea Christian beliefs.

I experienced this first hand during my time working at the US Government's Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), where certain senior government officials thought our collection of facts on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) was dangerous to their philosophical beliefs.

In fact, my AATIP predecessor's career was ruined because of misplaced fear by an elite few. Rather than accept the data as provided by a top-rank rocket scientist, they decided the data was a threat to their belief system and instead, destroyed his career because of it."

This is a very interesting statement by Elizondo, and goes a long way to explaining why Lacatski has not appeared in the public realm discussing his knowledge of the program and topic.

Update:

27 November 2021

A March 1991 Naval Research Laboratory document, titled "Density channel Tracking Study on Pulserad'" shows one James T. Lacatski, System Planning Corporation, Arlington, on the document's distribution list. Thanks to Octavian Marnescu for finding this document. 

AATIP and Project Prato

Dr Hal Puthoff's recent speech

One aspect of Dr Hal Puthoff's recent speech at the Las Vegas, Society for Scientific Exploration conference, was his reference to the AATIP work concerning the 1977 Brazilian Air Force's major study - Project Prato. In part, Dr Puthoff, stated:

"We as part of this program looked at some cases that were really good from Brazil. In 1977, 78, it was like Close Encounters of the Third Kind. A thousand pages of documents all done by the Brazilian Air Force investigation team, 500 photographs, 15 hours of motion film, a lot of medical injuries. This is a list of the different kinds of medical injuries that occurred when people encountered these craft at close range, and it has some overlap with cases that we've investigated during the program, of injuries occurring."

How does the topic of "medical injuries" relate to the AATIP? The DIA's solicitation for firms to submit a tender for the AAWSA program, in August 2008, HHM402-08-R-0211, has, at attachment one, paragraph 3a) the words "the contractor shall complete Advanced Aerospace Weapon System technical studies in the following areas ...9. human interface, 10 human effects."

January 2018

Earlier, on 28 January 2018, during an interview with George Knapp, Puthoff referred to a Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS) archive of data - such as the 1977 Brazilian Air Force study with 1000 pages of documents; 15 hours of movie film; 500 photographs amd then states that the data base was BAASS proprietary.

 I wanted to find out more about what happened to the Project Prato data. The Internet contains much information about the project itself, but almost nothing about the disposition of material beyond Brazil itself.  However, I did find a mention in one of Jacque Vallee's works.

Vallee's Brazilian research trip

In July 1988 Jacques and Janine Vallee visited Brazil on a research trip. (Forbidden Science Vol. 3.)There I found much about what the Vallees knew, about Project Prato.

The Vallee's met with a Colonel Hollanda of the First Air Force region, which covered most of the Amazon. Jacques Vallee writes: "He led the team sent to the islands at the mouth of the Amazon during project Prato to observe and photograph the objects that flew over the area for three months from July to September 1977. " (p.336.)

The Vallee's were shown a file by Hollanda which "...held the military photographs, detailed aerial maps, trajectory analysis by the staff of Project Prato. Every page was stamped "confidential" on top and bottom." Vallee was told that the originals of some of the photographs had been sent to the Brazilian capital city of Brasilia.

Yet another Brazilian Air Force colonel met with the Vallees and told them " When Colonel Hollanda and his team installed their cameras on the beach at Bahia do Sul, I was head of security for Primeiro Comar,  he went on "And when our superiors and the damm politicians from Brasilia confiscated out best data, my team got very frustrated...so we made our own copies" He pulled out the real thing, including pictures of objects emerging from the water." (p.337.)

Vallee reports that following the official Brazilian Air Force investigation, news media visited the same area and took their own photographs. "And all the negatives taken by the newspaper teams have left Brazil, purchased from the publishers by an unnamed American firm. "

In summary

In summary, the vast amount of material gathered by Hollanda and his team, went in a number of directions, with copies being kept by Hollanda and the other, unnamed Colonel; and some went off to Brasilia and Brazilian Air Force headquarters. It was also reported that newspaper photographs of the phenomenon was bought by an unnamed American firm. However, we do not have a date for the latter action.

It is unclear from Puthoff's reference to "A thousand pages of documents all done by the Brazilian Air Force investigation team, 500 photographs, 15 hours of motion film.." as to whether this was the data that BAASS acquired, or was a reference to the amount of data that the Brazilian Air Force itself gathered.

Further information on Proejct Prato

To read a very detailed summary of the contents of some of the documents click here.

Images of briefing slides for the Advanced Aerospace Threat and Identification Program revisited

A "lapse in security"

On 7 August 2018, a story broke*, that there had been a "lapse in security" on a certain US website maintained by a team member of the To The Stars Academy (TTSA). This "lapse" meant that a number of  images of documents relating to the Advanced Aerospace Threat and Identification Program (AATIP) were publicly available for a period of time. These documents included an interview with one of the pilots (not Dave Fravor) involved in the 14 November 2004 USS Nimitz encounter; and a series of "briefing slides," concerning the AATIP.

Are they genuine?

How do we know these were genuine documents? Firstly, the website they were on, was verified as belonging to a TTSA team member. Secondly, the pilot's interview had already appeared on the TTSA's own website; minus the identifying names, phone numbers, emails etc of the crew members of the three aircraft involved, which were shown in  the "lapse" documents. Thirdly, the "security lapse" was rapidly fixed and the documents were removed from that website.

The purpose of this blog post is to take another look at the "briefing slides" and their contents; and provide images of them for others to debate and discuss.

Briefing slides

There were seven jpeg files, each labelled as "aatip-brief-pdf-original," numbered 1-4 then 6-8. Missing is a jpeg file number page 5. When opened the slides are numbered 1-4, then 7-9. Slides numbered 5 and 6 are missing. The contents of the slides are as follows:

Slide 1 above - Title page - "Advanced Aerospace Threat and Identification Program (AATIP)."

Slide 2 above - Purpose of the briefing. Notice that the second dot point is:

"Request establishment of a restricted Special-Access-Program with a Bigoted Access List for specific portions of AATIP."

This is the exact same request as set out in a letter dated 24 June 200-9, authored by then Senator Harry Reid and sent to the Honourable William Lynn III, Deputy Secretary of Defense. The subject of the letter is the AATIP.  This puts the briefing slides as dated post 24 June 2009. You can read the full text of this Reid letter, here. 

Slide 3 above - "AATIP Mission."  Note that the mission refers to "other countries, actors,or entities..." not just to "other countries."

Slide 4 above - "AATIP Preliminary Assessments." Note the reference to "Several unconventional findings."

Slide 7 above - "Contract focus." Note that the 12 dot points, i.e. "lift" etc are the same items listed in "Statement of objectives for the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP). This statement is "Attachment A" to the August 2008 Defense Intelligence Agency solicitation for work on the AAWSAP, solicitation number HHM402-08-R-0211, issued by the DIA in August 2008.

Note also the use of the words "currently observed phenomena" not "advanced aircraft."

Slide 8 above - "FY09 Technical Reports." The technical reports shown in this slide, are some of the 38 Defense Intelligence Reference Documents (DIRDS) which have been discussed last year, and recently, in a number of Internet articles, and also on this blog.

 Slide 9 above - "DoD Threat Scenarios - AATIP Sub-Focus Areas." If, as some commentators have suggested, that the AATIP/AAWSAP was simply focusing on the possibility of advanced aircraft from Russia and China, then what do we make of words:

"Psychotronic weapons"; "Penetration of solid surfaces"; and "Anomalies in the Space/time construct."

These are clearly not related to advanced aircraft from other countries.

In summary

These genuine "briefing slides" for the AATIP/AAWSAP, indicate to me, that the "phenomena" being studied, was not simply Russian or Chinese advanced aircraft, but something else.

* The images were first revealed on Twitter.  

The Defense Intelligence Agency's Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications program - I find the original call for tenders document

Introduction

I have just located an online copy of the Defense Intelligence Agency's, August 2008, call for proposals, for its Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications (AAWSA) program. This is the call for outside bodies to submit a bid to undertake the work that the DIA wished to achieve in this area. This blog post will provide our first look at the contents of this document, which has, until now, remained hidden from researchers. 

Solicitation

"Solicitation" HHM402-08-R-0211, dated 18 August 2008, issued as "Request for a Proposal," was prepared by the "Virginia Contracting Activity", at Bolling Air Force Base, Washington DC. "The Virginia Contracting Activity" was the name used by the DIA's purchasing/contracts area.The document stated that ".. one firm fixed price contact is anticipated to be awarded as a result of this solicitation..." with a "size standard of 25 million." "The term of the contract is from the Date of Award through September 30, 2009. The contract will have four one-year options, for the period of September 29, 2008 through September 30, 2013."

Background

The document then went on to provide the background to the program. 

"The Acquisition Support Division (DWO-3) of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) has the responsibility to provide guidance and oversight to the Department of Defense (DoD) acquisition process along with leveraging the DoD Intelligence Community to coordinate, produce and maintain projections of the future threat environment in which the U.S. air, naval, ground, space, missile defense and information systems operate. In order to accurately assess the foreign threat to U.S. weapons systems, a complete as possible understanding of potential breakthrough technology applications employed in future aerospace weapons systems must be obtained."

Objective

"The objective of this program is to understand the physics and engineering of these applications as they apply to the foreign threat out to the far term , i.e., from now through the year 2050. Primary focus is on breakthrough technologies and applications that create discontinuities in currently evolving technology trends."

Requirements

"...The contractor shall complete advanced aerospace weapon system technical studies in the following areas: 1. lift; 2. propulsion; 3.control; 4. power generation; 5. spatial/temporal translation; 6. materials; 7. configuration; 8. signature reduction (optical, infrared, radiofrequency, acoustic); 9. human interface; 10. human effects; 11.armament (RF and DEW); 12. other peripheral areas in support of (1-11)..."

Security requirement

"Contractor company and personnel proposed shall be clearable and able to obtain a security and facility clearance upon award of the contract...All requirements specified in this SOO may be based on materials classified at or below Top Secret with access to Sensitive Compartmented Information...The contractor shall ensure that each individual assigned to this contract shall be identified, cleared, and approved through DIA/DAC-3 prior to granting that individual access to....Contractor will provide a work facility (including unclassified information systems) with a Top Secret Facility Clearance granted by the Defense Security Service (DSS)...At least two personnel cleared at the Secret level are required at contract inception..."

Contractor acquired material and travel

"Any accountable property acquired by the contractor with government funds during the execution of this contract shall become government owned property."

"It is anticipated that travel will be required for this contract. The Government will pay up to the rates specified in the government Federal Travel Regulations for travel destination."

Deliverables

"The contractor shall prepare the following deliverables: a. Status Reports - monthly reports outlining accomplishments, milestones, and work in progress. b. Project Management Plan - For each technical area, the team lead shall submit, at the 60 day point, an overview paper identifying the scope of the final report; a Plan of Action and Milestones, and the composition of the analytical team. c. Research reports - for each technical area, a comprehensive report and briefing forecasting potential advancements and their impact is to be submitted to the GPL by the end of the tenth month...A final report and briefing that assesses the foreign threat from advanced aerospace platforms incorporating the technologies discussed in the individual research reports...at the end of the period of performance..."

Government program leader

"The COR [Contracting Officer Representative -KB] and Government Project Leader will be Dr. James T. Lacatski." 

"Proposals are due at the Contracting Office on September 5 2008..."

My comment

This document clearly identifies the background; objective; requirements and deliverables for the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications program, and as such, provides researchers with a confirmation on aspects of the program,  previously unknown. 

When did Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies start and where is the AAWSA contract?

Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications program

In a previous post, I established that former Marine Corps aviator, Douglas Kurth, one of the witnesses to the 2004 USS Nimitz, "tic tac" UFO, commenced working for Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS) in December 2007, some nine months before that company is said to have been awarded a Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) contract under the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications (AAWSA) program.

Part of Kurth's LinkedIn profile page stated that he was "Program lead - novel and emerging space technologies targeting operational deployment in 2040" and that he "Directed and managed a team of 40 scientists, engineers, analysts and researchers" and that he was a "Technical expert in advanced aerospace concepts and aerodynamics."

When did BAASS start?

I went looking through official records of the US state of Nevada, for clues as to when BAASS came into being.

I found a website which allowed me to conduct a search using the business name Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies. This led me to business entity E0056412008-7, namely Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies. This in turn led me to another area of the site providing numerous details of the business. 

It can be seen from this, that BAASS commenced on 29 January 2008, some eight months before being awarded the AAWSA contract, and up to two months after Douglas Kurth commenced work. 

What is also of interest is the section labelled "Officers." here, where you would expect to find the name of an individual, instead it reads " Managing member - International Space Hardware Services LLC."

I looked up International Space Hardware Services LLC. I found that the file date for this business was 31 October 2007. 

Who were the officers of this entity? "Managing member - Bigelow Aerospace SPC, In."

You guessed it, I looked up "Bigelow Aerospace SPC, Inc." The file date for this entity was 18 January 2005.

When I looked at who the officers were for this third entity, I found the names were:

President - Robert T Bigelow; Treasurer - Robert T Bigelow; Director - Robert T Bigelow; Secrtary - Rickie Lee Golightly.

The AAWSA contract

Having failed to locate any documentation that the AAWSA DIA contract was awarded to  Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies as suggested by numerous Internet sources; in such places as usaspending or the Department of Defense's contract awarded site; of on the Federal Business Opportunities 2008 archive website, I wondered if the contract had been awarded to International Space Hardware Services LLC or Bigelow Aerospace SPC, Inc?

However, a search of all the above websites for any contract awarded to any of these entities, failed to find any such documentation.

FOIA request

I thought that the next step was a request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to the US Department of Defense. I realize that this is likely to be a lengthy process, and that dozens of other researchers have already bombarded the DID through the DoD. I even know that some have asked for a copy of the DIA Bigelow contract, which is the same thing I am searching for. However, it is worth the effort, so today I submitted the following request:

A copy of the contract resulting from solicitation number HHM402-08-R-0211, dated 18 August 2008, issued by the Virginia Contracting Activity, on  behalf of the Defense Intelligence Agency, for the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications program.

Now for the wait. Or do we need to wait?

George Knapp

On 4 May 2018, KLAS TV in Las Vegas carried a news item, and written report by George Knapp. 

Among various documents flashed across the screen was the image below:

This partial document would appear to show that Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies LLC was the "Contractor/Offeror." However, it is possible that this is a copy of part of the submission for Bigelow for the AAWSA contract, and not part of the contract they were awarded. However, seconds later another part image appears as below:

As you can see, section 26 of this form "Total Award Amount (For Govt. Use only) shows a figure of $10,000,000.00 which seems to indicate that this is indeed an image of part of the awarded contract.

So, does KLAS TV have a copy of the actual contract? Perhaps a concerted campaign of emails to the station might release a copy? Over to blog readers to see if they consider whether this approach is worthwhile.