Former Pentagon Official Calls For Investigations On UFO Sightings

The former head of a secret program by the Department of Defense called on the need to formally investigate reported UFO sightings. According to the former Pentagon official, these investigations will help determine if UFOs should be considered as a threat to national security.

Luis Elizondo was the former head of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), a top-secret project managed by the Department of Defense. The goal of the program, which operated from 2007 to 2012, was to identify the exact nature of the various reported UFO sightings.

AATIP operated similarly to Project Blue Book, a program established by the U.S. Air Force to study UFO sightings. The program ran from 1952 to 1969.

Although many of the sightings were attributed to misidentification of certain devices and aircraft and equipment malfunctions, some of the incidents reported to the AATIP remain unidentified.

During his time with the program, Elizondo realized that higher-ups were downplaying the risks posed by UFOs. According to Elizondo, this was the main reason why he resigned from his position, Live Science reported.

Due to his experience with AATIP, Elizondo believes that a new series of investigations should be carried out to uncover the true nature of the UFOs. The former Pentagon official believes that this can be achieved using today’s technology.

“I think we're at the point now where we're beyond reasonable doubt that these things exist,” he told Live Science. “We know they're there — we have some of the greatest technology in the world that has confirmed their existence.”

According to Elizondo, launching an official investigation on UFO sightings is crucial to national security. Since many of these mysterious objects remain unidentified, it cannot be properly determined if they pose a threat to the country and the public.

“There's something in our sky and we don't know what it is, we don't know where it's from. Is that a problem? From a national security perspective, yes, it's a problem,” Elizondo stated. “We need to understand what these are, in order to make a determination if they're a threat.”

His statement comes a few months after the Pentagon has officially released three short videos showing "unidentified aerial phenomena" back in April. In the videos that were previously released by a private company, mysterious flying objects can be seen rapidly moving.

At the time, the Department of Defense released a statement explaining the decision to officially release the clips, saying that this move was made "in order to clear up any misconceptions by the public on whether or not the footage that has been circulating was real, or whether or not there is more to the videos."