USS Omaha UAP Incident

“Yes, sir.”

“It wasn't until the Russians could develop the SA–2 surface-to-air missile and successfully shoot them down”

“Yes. Yes, sir.”

“And then, in 2009 timeframe, when I came back to the Pentagon after a tour with the Director of National Intelligence, I quickly became part of a program that was originally called AAWSAP. That evolved into the program now called AATIP, which is where those videos that we now see, the GOFAST, the GIMBAL, the FLIR, that was part of our effort, sir.”

“What we required was a memo from the Secretary of the Air Force in order to make that complete, and that never occurred. And so, when Secretary Mattis became Secretary of Defense, I decided it would be appropriate for me to try to receive a memo from him, as SecDef, as Secretary of Defense, if we could not get a memo from the Secretary of the Air Force to transfer that material.”

“Sir, I was the Director of National Programs Special Management Staff, managing a White House special access program on behalf of the National Security Council.”

“My background is I went to school to study microbiology and immunology. I entered into the U.S. Army, and after a very short stint in military intelligence, I became a counterintelligence special agent as a civilian. Later on, I became a special agent in charge, running investigations and counter terrorism and counter espionage primarily with some experience in counter insurgency and counter narcotics.”

“I am in a SCIF with a security officer, sir.”

“It wasn't until the Russians could develop the SA–2 surface-to-air missile and successfully shoot them down——”

“There is documentation, that I believe was submitted for the record, that was approved for release by the U.S. Pentagon, by the Department of Defense Office of Prepublication and Security Review. And it states that one of the reasons why my predecessor program, AAWSAP, was trying to collect material of unknown origin”

“In fact, there is a very real example when we built the U–2 spy plane and flew it over then-Russia and were taking reconnaissance. And when we first started flying the aircraft, it flew so high and so fast we thought they were not tracking us. In reality, they were tracking every flight.”

“Absolutely, sir. I had the privilege and honor of working with him myself several years ago at U.S. Space Force.”

“Indeed, sir. In fact, there is a very real example when we built the U–2 spy plane and flew it over then-Russia and were taking reconnaissance. And when we first started flying the aircraft, it flew so high and so fast we thought they were not tracking us. In reality, they were tracking every flight”

“Certainly, there seems to be some indication that they are being provocative, meaning that they are in some cases literally splitting aircraft formations right down the middle. So, that is an air safety issue.”

“I am sorry, sir, I am not the author of——”

“There may have been an assistant as well. It was in a SCIF within a Department of Defense facility.”

“And so, we must figure out—there is a calculus, capabilities versus intent, in order to identify if something is a national security threat. We have seen some of the capabilities, yet we have no idea on the intent. And so, this is why this discussion is somewhat, I think, problematic from a governmental perspective, because we have no idea.”

“I think the same goes with this. We have these things that are being observed over controlled U.S. airspace, and they are not really doing a good job of hiding themselves. They are making it pretty obvious they have the ability to even interfere with our nuclear equities and our nuclear readiness.”

“It was not. What happened is that there was an aerospace contract company that requested to divest itself of the material that was collected in the 1950s. Unfortunately, that did not actually occur.”

“For many years, I was entrusted with protecting some of our Nation's most sensitive programs. In my last position, I managed a special access program on behalf of the White House and the National Security Council.”