A stunning admission by the US government that it possesses UFO debris was recently made in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed over three years ago by this author. In a reply letter, the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) has ended decades of speculation by verifying that UFO material has indeed been recovered. Now officially referred to as UAP (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena) rather than UFOs, some of this material was placed with a defense contractor for analysis and storage in "specialized facilities." Incredibly, part of the information released discusses material with shape recovery properties, much like the "memory metal" debris found fallen at the Roswell UFO crash in 1947.
Finally, the whereabouts of the UFO debris held by the contractor is unknown. Some months ago they laid off their employees and ceased operations. Former company officials, when reached, refuse comment.
THE FOIA REQUEST
The original 2017 FOIA request made to the DIA asks for the physical descriptions, properties and composition of UFO/UAP material held by the government and its contractor. The request is unambiguous in its meaning. It refers to UFO/UAP material and "physical debris recovered by personnel of the Department of Defense as residue, flotsam, shot-off material or crashed UAPs or unidentified flying objects." The FOIA request can be seen in full here:
In their reply, the DIA amazingly agrees that it has documents responsive to my request on recovered UFO debris and its analysis, the program under which it was administered, AATIP (the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program), and that their defense contractor (Bigelow Aerospace in Las Vegas, Nevada) has stored the material. They also provide some reports related to the possible applications of the studied material.
The delays and excuses offered up during the years awaiting the FOIA response were many. They include that the records search involved another agency that needed to be consulted; that I had been emailing my former FOIA Officer though she'd left months ago and never received my follow-up communication; to a re-assignment of my case to the DIA's FOIA Chief, Steve Tumiski. After a lawsuit was threatened with the retention of counsel, the DIA somehow, after so very long, acted to respond.
The information received includes several pages of what are called "advanced technology reports" on Nitinol - a shape recovery alloy. Nitinol has similar properties to the "memory metal" found fallen as debris at the Roswell, New Mexico UFO crash of 1947. The pages found within the FOIA reply on Nitinol explore its potential for integrating it into the human body for the improvement of health. Well over 40 witnesses to Roswell have mentioned a metal-like material that could "remember itself" when deformed or folded, returning to its original state seamlessly and instantly. In a series of investigative articles appearing in the UFO Explorations website article archive section, the case is credibly made that Nitinol represents our first attempts to replicate a material of the craft's construction. The Roswell debris was flown to Wright Field in Ohio after the crash. Some months later, Wright granted a contract to Battelle Memorial Institute to begin phase diagrams (recipes) for mixing Nickel and ultra-high-purity Titanium, required to make memory metal. General Arthur Exon, Base Commander at Wright Patterson in the 1960s, who flew over the crash site in 1947, spoke to researcher Kevin Randle on tape. He stated that it was his understanding that some of the wreckage being tested was comprised in part of "specially processed" Titanium.
And in September of 1947, two months after the Roswell crash, General George Shulgen of Air Intelligence described "the materials of construction" of the flying saucers as potentially being made of "composite or sandwich construction utilizing various combinations of metal and plastics." Some of the Roswell crash debris was said to display metal-plastic like appearance and characteristics. The DIA-sponsored reports I received mention a highly-engineered material called "metamaterial" (see below) as comprised of "composite media." Metamaterial can be layered with metal and plastics.
THE RELATION TO ROSWELL
The information received includes several pages of what are called "advanced technology reports" on Nitinol - a shape recovery alloy. Nitinol has similar properties to the "memory metal" found fallen as debris at the Roswell, New Mexico UFO crash of 1947. The pages found within the FOIA reply on Nitinol explore its potential for integrating it into the human body for the improvement of health. Well over 40 witnesses to Roswell have mentioned a metal-like material that could "remember itself" when deformed or folded, returning to its original state seamlessly and instantly. In a series of investigative articles appearing in the UFO Explorations website article archive section, the case is credibly made that Nitinol represents our first attempts to replicate a material of the craft's construction. The Roswell debris was flown to Wright Field in Ohio after the crash. Some months later, Wright granted a contract to Battelle Memorial Institute to begin phase diagrams (recipes) for mixing Nickel and ultra-high-purity Titanium, required to make memory metal. General Arthur Exon, Base Commander at Wright Patterson in the 1960s, who flew over the crash site in 1947, spoke to researcher Kevin Randle on tape. He stated that it was his understanding that some of the wreckage being tested was comprised in part of "specially processed" Titanium.
Throughout the received FOIA documents, mention is made of potential use of some of the materials in "advanced aerospace platforms." Reference is made to desired material characteristics such as being extremely lightweight and tough, like the characteristics of the debris found at the Roswell crash.
OTHER MATERIAL
Extensive reference is also made to the study and application of what the tests called metamaterial*, including that some of this material:
- Can be used to "slow down light" and even "bring light to a complete standstill"
(Implying the ability to manipulate the speed of light (electromagnetic energy traveling at 186,000 miles per second)
- May induce invisibility by manipulating refraction, reflectivity and increasing light absorption. The reports use terms like "optical isolation" and "transparency" and make reference to a "MetaMirror" technology
(Implying the ability to make something unable to be seen, and/or picked up by radar, scanning or imaging)
- Has the interesting ability to "compress electromagnetic energy"
(Such condensing can make information and energy storage smaller and their transfer faster by reducing volume)
- Exhibits a particular "tunable resonance" which was likely "determined during fabrication."
(The phrase "tunable resonance" refers to a vibration of large amplitude from a small stimulus. Very recent research shows potential in the field of "energy harvesting" technologies, or pulling energy from the environment for low-power electronic devices)
There seem to be many exciting, but far in the future, technical applications to these materials that will change the way our lives are lived.
*Metamaterial, a coined and relatively recent word, is believed to be any material engineered to have a property that is not found in naturally occurring materials. Some of these materials appear to be made from assemblies of multiple elements fashioned from composite materials such as metals and plastics. These composite media can be engineered to exhibit unique electromagnetic properties. Made up from subwavelength building blocks (most often based on metals), these metamaterials allow for extreme control over light energy and optical fields, enabling such effects such as negative refraction to be realized.
Portions of the reports center on next-generation Amorphous Metals (also called "liquid metal" or "metallic glass") which are novel engineering alloys with disordered atomic-scale structure. Metal is crystalline in its solid state, which means it has a highly ordered arrangement of atoms. Amorphous metals though are crazily disordered - a metal-like material so unique that it is believed it may one day replace plastic and metal in many applications. The material is stronger and lighter than any existing metal, can be injection molded like plastic (no rivets, seams or joining, smooth like many reported UFOs) and will never corrode or rust. Imagine using a single razor blade for the rest of your life because it stays super sharp forever. A golf club so springy it can drive a ball farther than any pro ever has. An artificial hip implant that performs better than a real hip. A cell phone case that is completely indestructible.
*Metamaterial, a coined and relatively recent word, is believed to be any material engineered to have a property that is not found in naturally occurring materials. Some of these materials appear to be made from assemblies of multiple elements fashioned from composite materials such as metals and plastics. These composite media can be engineered to exhibit unique electromagnetic properties. Made up from subwavelength building blocks (most often based on metals), these metamaterials allow for extreme control over light energy and optical fields, enabling such effects such as negative refraction to be realized.
Portions of the reports center on next-generation Amorphous Metals (also called "liquid metal" or "metallic glass") which are novel engineering alloys with disordered atomic-scale structure. Metal is crystalline in its solid state, which means it has a highly ordered arrangement of atoms. Amorphous metals though are crazily disordered - a metal-like material so unique that it is believed it may one day replace plastic and metal in many applications. The material is stronger and lighter than any existing metal, can be injection molded like plastic (no rivets, seams or joining, smooth like many reported UFOs) and will never corrode or rust. Imagine using a single razor blade for the rest of your life because it stays super sharp forever. A golf club so springy it can drive a ball farther than any pro ever has. An artificial hip implant that performs better than a real hip. A cell phone case that is completely indestructible.
The contract that Bigelow was granted was under the auspices of an official government UFO study (whose existence was revealed by The New York Times in 2017). The contract was for Bigelow to construct "specialized modified facilities" to hold the material for testing. The DoD/Pentagon UFO study effort was called the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP). It ran for some years (and under more than one name), and according to informed sources, remains in operation to this day. What is inside these "specially modified facilities" that requires such contracted technical services? What is the nature of this anomalous debris and what are its properties that it requires shielding?
THE DIA RESPONSE
Above, a notation placed on several of what the DIA calls "advanced technology reports" responsive to the FOIA request.
Note that Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) is referred to by an alternate or predecessor name, Advanced Aerospace Weapons Systems Applications program (AAWSA).
A letter was sent by the DIA to this author acknowledging the possession of recovered UFO material and the involvement of a defense contractor, granting access to some technical information (while denying most). Scrolling past the letter begins some of the technology reports, continued in the second PDF below. The first batch can be seen here:
A letter was sent by the DIA to this author acknowledging the possession of recovered UFO material and the involvement of a defense contractor, granting access to some technical information (while denying most). Scrolling past the letter begins some of the technology reports, continued in the second PDF below. The first batch can be seen here:
The FOIA official responding, Steve Tumiski, explains that the DIA has identified 5 documents totaling 154 pages that are responsive to my request. Well over half of the documents have not been released. And such extraterrestrial material study should generate thousands of pages relevant to the request, not just 154. The DIA cites Exemptions 3 and 6 of federal FOIA regulations as reasons that they are compelled to suppress certain of the documents. Exemption 3 allows the withholding of information prohibited from disclosure by federal statute and leaves no discretion on the issue due to potential harm to national security. Exemption 6 generally applies to records that involve personal privacy. It incorporates a balancing test that weighs any privacy interest against the public interest in disclosure.
In the second PDF are several more of the 154 pages said to exist on the matter. It is in these documents that we gain the insights on the material as outlined earlier in this article. It is here that we learn of metamaterials, invisibility, slowing the speed of light, compressing electromagnetic energy, implanting memory metal in people and other remarkable things.
Sample key phrases alluding to technologies these materials could one day give us can be found within the named pages in the two PDF FOIA replies: "slow down light" (pages 18, 27, and 6); "bring light to a complete standstill" (page 17); "compress energy" (page 6); "Nitinol as a Biomaterial" (page 19); "new materials-based perfect absorbers" of light (page 24); "novel optical isolators" (page 6).
WHAT DOCUMENTS WERE WITHHELD?
The information provided in the FOIA response seems to represent reports that are directly relevant to what was learned from the study of the UFO debris, and how insight gained from those studies might be applied in the future, but does not include a detailing of the found debris itself.
Disappointingly, the reports do not include much of what was requested, such as a physical description and the composition of the material, the origin of the material, and the names of the involved scientists. That remains classified. But technical pursuit areas derived from the study of those materials (i.e. invisibility, energy concentration, light speed control, intelligent metal) were, in part, released. The released documents help to inform us of the potential applications of the materials, but do not offer deep insight into precisely what the debris is made of. They speak of "recent experiments" that "provide new concepts" and of "theoretical developments that might result in new materials." The DIA believes it is being responsive to the FOIA request by acknowledging UFO debris, its storage by Bigelow, and by identifying areas of future applications of these materials without having to actually name responsible parties, of what elements the material is comprised, how it is processed, etc.
SOME REPORTS PREVIOUSLY AVAILABLE
Interestingly, these papers include the names of the scientist authors of the papers! The DIA had denied me this in my request due to "privacy issues" and did not include their names in the documents sent to me.
It remains that the context in which I received the documents was in direct response to requests for information derived from recovered UFO debris and the testing of potentially extraterrestrial material. My request for documents were for the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP). But there is deliberate obfuscation and purposeful confusion coming from the DIA. The program operated earlier under another name, Advanced Aerospace Weapons Systems Applications program (AAWSA), and the documents are stamped with this program name rather than AATIP. This allows the DIA to claim the studies relate to an advanced military weapons program for defense rather than to an aero-program identifying possible threats from outer space and the associated retrieval of flying saucer material.
BIGELOW AEROSPACE: WHERE IS THE DAMN DEBRIS?
Bigelow Aerospace, LLC was the brainchild of Robert Bigelow, a hospitality industry billionaire with a strong interest in things cosmic, the other-dimensional and the extraterrestrial. Bigelow associated with prominent people such as Senator Harry Reid and former rock star Tom DeLonge. Bigelow has had previous "mystery ventures" such as the non-profit, now-defunct National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS). He was also at one time associated with the famous "Skinwalker Ranch" in Utah where purported paranormal activity has been occurring for years. Bigelow brought a unique blend of money and resources, entrepreneurship and an interest in paranormal investigation to the fore. In 1999, Bigelow founded Bigelow Aerospace, developing crewed space complexes and inflatable habitats. Bigelow's facilities operated under great secrecy. According to their still-up website, a warning to all is posted on their home page: "If you have been invited to visit Bigelow Aerospace's facilities, please be aware that you will need a valid driver's license or another form of government issued ID. Unless authorized by management, please note that cell phones, cameras, flash drives and laptops are not allowed on property." In this link, we can see an aerial overview of the Bigelow facilities near Las Vegas. Nearly every window is blocked and everything is sealed in the extreme. Are these structures what the Pentagon refers to in their contract with Bigelow as "specially modified facilities" to house physical pieces of UFOs?
The contract that Bigelow was granted under the auspices of an official government UFO study (whose existence was revealed by The New York Times in 2017 and ran for several years under different names) was to construct "specialized modified facilities" to hold the material for testing. The DoD/Pentagon UFO study effort was called the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP). It ran for some years (and under more than one name including AAWSA), and according to informed sources, remains in operation to this day under yet another name. What is inside these "specially modified facilities" that requires such contracted technical services? What is the nature of this anomalous debris and what are its properties that it requires shielding?
Disturbingly, Bigelow Aerospace suddenly - and with little fanfare - quietly laid off nearly every single one of its 85 employees in March of last year. No real reason was given other than it was caused by, according to a company spokesperson, "a perfect storm of problems" including the toll of the pandemic.
The concern of course, is that with mass layoffs and the ceasing of active operation, where is the UFO debris now? The current whereabouts of these extraordinarily valuable UFO materials are unknown. Is it still held by Bigelow? If yes, why so, when the company is essentially defunct? Did the UFO material transfer to another custodial company? Was it returned back to the Pentagon? In an effort to find out where the alleged extraterrestrial metal is, former security and legal personnel of Bigelow Aerospace were recently contacted.
ROBERT BIGELOW, HIS SECURITY DIRECTOR AND HIS LAWYER REFUSE COMMENT
Robert Bigelow himself does not answer my emails to him. Bigelow, now in his late 70s, seems to limit public discussion of his research. So I tried to contact Mr. Ryan Aslesen, the former Director of Security for Bigelow Aerospace. Before employment at Bigelow, Aslesen held security roles in the US Marine Corps. He also has experience in warehousing and logistics management. Today he is a private security consultant in the Las Vegas area. He also self-publishes science fiction, with at least one book involving a hostile alien race. An Inmail message inquiring where the debris might be was sent through LinkedIn, as well an email through his website contact page, and an email to his home email address directly. None were answered.
A reach-out to the former General Counsel for Bigelow Aerospace, Jon Field JD of Las Vegas, NV, now in private practice, yielded some insight. In this instance, I was actually able to speak to a former Bigelow insider. I left a message for him with his receptionist eliciting his immediate call back. The message left was that the call was relative to Field's former affiliation with Bigelow Aerospace. I told him that I was contacting him to find out if he could explain, now that the company is dissolving, where the UFO debris may now reside? Does he know if it remains in a secure location and has it been transferred to another organization? Field wanted to know who I was "affiliated" with and absolutely refused to discuss the matter in any way, repeating, "I can't comment on that." I explained that the company is in dissolution and that as a citizen and taxpayer I have the right to know if the UFO debris given by the government to a private concern for storage is still secure, given that company is going defunct. I said to Field that if Bigelow is no longer the custodian contractor for the debris, we have a right to know who is the current custodian. Field did not disagree, only repeating in lawyerly fashion that he could not say anything. In exasperation, I simply appealed to him: where can I go from here, can he help me at all? I told him I don't want to bother people about this that shouldn't be bothered. He suggested contacting Robert Bigelow directly. I did not tell him that Bigelow has refused me any communication. When I asked Field who represents the company as Acting General Counsel or as retained outside counsel as the company dissolves (that is, who is the successor taking care of last remaining business matters), he said that he had no idea. I told him that I did not believe him. I cannot accept that he just up and left Bigelow Aerospace without any knowledge of how the legal function of the corporation would continue to operate without him. He said that he did not like the direction of the conversation and we parted.
A TIME FOR (MORE) ANSWERS
What has been learned through this FOIA investigation is indeed historic. There are UFO materials that have been recovered. The materials being studied may one day bring us great advances in technology and other aspects of our daily lives. But the documents are incomplete by the DIA's admission, and the reasons that they cite are weak. Why not disclose from where the material was retrieved and by whom? Why did they redact the names of the authors of these technology papers? Because once identified, we can question them. The other claimed reason for exemption of their identities and what they learned relates to national security, which apparently is so great that "there can be no discretion on the matter." I am going to challenge these exemptions that prevent release of requested information by filing with the agency's FOIA Appeals Officer. They must be compelled to tell us more about this extraordinary extraterrestrial hardware.
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