Books to catch up on UAP program history and Congress testimony implications

[JasonPratt]

Could have been a new post/thread in the Books section, but due to the associated topic(s) I decided to go here instead. Not much wryly amusing about these topics, alas...

So, roughly five months ago the Congress here in America brought David Grusch in to testify about the money being spent in past years on UAP (unidentified aerial phenomena) programs; and among other things he said was that defense department researchers had recovered at least 5 craft with exotic properties and "non-human" biologics.

A lot of people pinged on that to mean "alien", although strictly speaking he could have meant that they found bacteria or even plants -- which in forensic science might help detect where the UAPs had been assembled or sourced, etc.

In any case, despite his somewhat vague language (here and in other regards), the implications for what he was saying could have been fairly mundane. To protect national security, he wouldn't testify to some details in open session, requesting properly certified congress members be drafted to meet with him at a SCIFF later: a specially secured facility room where he could talk more openly.

Well, that happened last week, and naturally reporters were around to interview some of the members after they left his followup briefing. Also naturally the clips tended to emphasize the more colorful aspects of what little some members were willing to report (since after all they did have security classifications to keep up, too.)

One of those more colorful aspects was that Grusch used the term "interdimensional" to describe something involving those non-human biologicals.

This didn't especially surprise me, because last year I made a point to look into the history of the UAP programs since the late 90s, and there turned out to be a LOT of weird connections in studying these things -- as well as a lot of technical nuts and bolts.

Anyway, around the time Grusch was doing his first open hearings at Congress, two of the key players in the research programs up to that time, James Lacatski and Colm Kelleher, released a book updating their prior histories of being involved in the programs to the current time. It has the somewhat suggestive name of Inside the US Government Covert UFO Program: Initial Revelations, and can be found (only) in a Kindle edition at various shops including Amazon, linked here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CKLZ2NLR

The title is a little misleading because there's no new information yet released in that book about what the programs had been studying through 2021; but it was written to provide more of the tech details about the capabilities of platforms recording information about UAPs, among many other topics and examples. Perhaps not surprisingly, a small cottage industry bloomed up writing short books summarizing this initial report! There have been no followups yet that I know of, but I wouldn't be surprised if the next volume was released soon now that Grusch has had his SCIFF meeting at Congress.

Lacatski is a Defense Intelligence Agency astrophysics analyst -- basically he studied and reported on missile and other aerial platform capabilities, being the team leader for writing the annual Missile Defense Threat Environment series entries for the Missile Defense Agency. Prior to that he worked for the MDA as a contractor specializing in adversary electronic warfare and directed energy weapon capabilities. He's taking the lead in this book, being very much involved in the modern US government UAP programs since their inception in the early 2000s.

Kelleher is a biologist and disease doctor heavily connected with Department of Defense work on studying and defending against biological warfare.


Their prior publication collaboration, on which Kelleher took the lead (although Lacatski was given top billing as co-author), was Skinwalkers at the Pentagon, the Kindle edition for which can be found here: https://www.amazon.com/Skinwalkers-Pentagon-Insiders-Account-Government-ebook/dp/B09J484KYD

As you might guess from the even-more-colorful title, this book has a strong relation to studies conducted (including by government programs) at the infamous area nicknamed "Skinwalker Ranch". (It also has some relation, mainly in passing, to the "Skinwalker" TV series that has run for a few seasons now, following up on official government and civilian research at the site.) Las Vegas investigative reporter George Knapp also helped co-author the book.

Kelleher got into this... let's say "exotic" topic back in the mid-90s when he was hired by Robert Bigelow and Bigelow Aerospace to be the lead researcher on a scholarly think-tank team studying weird stories and effects at the ranch area, after which he co-authored the most famous book in this sequence, the initial (and very colorfully titled) Hunt for the Skinwalker, which can be found in Kindle edition here: https://www.amazon.com/Hunt-Skinwalker-Science-Confronts-Unexplained-ebook/dp/B000FCKKXU . This was also co-authored by Knapp.


While I don't necessarily endorse everything reported, inferred, or speculated in the first two books (I haven't read the third yet; only found out this week that it existed) -- and it must be acknowledged that the first book is written in a mostly-popular fashion, with the second book introducing more technical details but still keeping much of the popular flavor on occasion -- I do recommend them for anyone, especially Grogs, wanting to study the background programs for current UAP studies being reported in the media in recent years up until now.

That's because ALL those programs, and there have been several including the one(s) reported by the now-famous 2017 New York Times article revealing the programs studying Navy pilot encounters with UAPs (and various evidence provided thereby, some of which information Book 2 corrects), goes back directly to the civilian scientific program set up by Bigelow in the mid-90s; which within the space of a couple of years quickly became a favorite book in American security and intelligence sectors; which led to direct Congressional funding and the support of the late Senator Harry Reid (who as one of his last actions before passing away in 2021 wrote the foreword commissioning book 2) among bi-partisan support of some very big names in Congress.

The press, understandably, usually only reports on the relatively mundane factors of the studies, which does include relatively mundane drone operation studies, as well as "alien" flavor. But the topical net was cast VERY MUCH wider than that -- yes, even wider than "alien" -- from very early on, predating government involvement but still included once the government got involved.

How much of which parts of those studies involve psy-ops and mis/dis-information, including by the authors of those studies, down to today, who knows? It must be said that even in their books, the authors acknowledge they're changing some names and attachments of military operators who are still in service (especially spec-ops) or who just don't want to be personally involved or connected with further studies. Not least because, apparently, the studies have a highly disturbing habit of following people home and messing with them!    That includes people like Bigelow himself, who has talked about such things in some recent interviews as one main reason he eventually noped out of further personal support of the programs. Also the study results just couldn't be put to profitable use. So far as he says. Of course. 

Anyway. Some highly technical and groggy military stuff (in some cases, especially in the most recent book) which connects with Enigmas of the Mystical topics. I'd never gotten around to making any posts about this in prior threads, so I figured I better before I got distracted doing other things again!

[Gusington]

My brain...

[JasonPratt]

I haven't produced a wall of text in a while.

[Gusington]

You must be exhausted. Stay hydrated.

[JasonPratt]

I've been told that eating plenty of meat and sugar after expelling that much material is important for loading up again.

[JasonPratt]

As a followup, I started the book tonight; and while a chunk of its introductory material helps catch up the plot (so to speak) since 2021, most of the book is an extended appendix providing technical details for the research carried out by the special Bigelow Aerospace team, contracted to work for the DIA's AAWSAP program, over twenty-four months (with a three month non-paid extension) before the AAWSAP was shut down by a defense oversight committee, and rebranded a few times with not much going on until last year's acceleration kicked in again.

Specifically, it's a book-length report on the "Physics" program of the AAWSAP contract (there were several "Programs" in the contract, fulfilled by Bigelow Aerospace).

The chapters (once the book gets going to the actual report) give overviews about "Lift", "Propulsion", "Translation" (between mediums like air/water), and "Power Generation" of the researched UAPs (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, which is a somewhat more neutral abbreviation than UFO which despite meaning much the same neutral thing the authors connect with its popular meaning of piloted exotic aircraft). There are also Defense Intelligence Reference Documents provided in appendices on those four topics.

The book also goes into more technical details (within the "Physics" topic) about the group's research on a UAP encounter with F-15Cs near RAF Lakenheath; the original Navy "Tic Tac" investigation; collaboration with the civilian MUFON group (mutual UFO network); UAP incursions into the "Northern Tier" Air Force  nuclear missile bases; the UFO assault on Brazil; and the 'physics' aspects of other related topics like events at the so-called 'Skinwalker Ranch'.

For grogs used to nomenclature, it's a pretty fast read so far, though I've just reached the chapter that starts the main thrust of the book. Admittedly it helps that I read the preceding book not long ago, so I can recognize topics from that book and skim along over them as they come up.

[JasonPratt]

Note: the authors have also made available access to 38 more DIRDs (Defense Intelligence Reference Documents) at the DIA, as a link in the book. I'm not sure if the reader needs a registration with the DIA or security clearances to access them -- I haven't tried yet.

Fellow grogs wishing to make the attempt (or already registered with the Defense Intelligence Agency) can go to dia.mil, and then follow the FOIA tab (Freedom of Information Act, presumably, which sounds to me like public access) to the FOIA Electronic Reading Room.

The authors caution that these are technical reports meant for people with advanced physics or engineering degrees.

[ArizonaTank]

Note: the authors have also made available access to 38 more DIRDs (Defense Intelligence Reference Documents) at the DIA, as a link in the book. I'm not sure if the reader needs a registration with the DIA or security clearances to access them -- I haven't tried yet.

Fellow grogs wishing to make the attempt (or already registered with the Defense Intelligence Agency) can go to dia.mil, and then follow the FOIA tab (Freedom of Information Act, presumably, which sounds to me like public access) to the FOIA Electronic Reading Room.

The authors caution that these are technical reports meant for people with advanced physics or engineering degrees.

That link won't work. I think it is a problem with the url, not security. No registration is necessary. Here is a better one:

https://www.dia.mil/FOIA/FOIA-Electronic-Reading-Room/

These documents are cleared for public release (thus based on approved FOIA requests). Many of them probably have redacted sections when public release of the redacted info is not appropriate.

BTW, you won't ever find classified documents on any internet website (unless they were stolen and released by unauthorized 3rd parties.)

As a side-note, some very interesting intel reports from the Vietnam War are also available on the page.

[JasonPratt]

I wouldn't think they'd let secure docs out to the public (aside from redactions of course); but not having looked into it personally yet I wasn't sure if someone would have to register with a security clearance to look into those (even though they were in the FOIA section). The 3rd book, although released to the public (obviously), is really intended to get policy wonks and intel types up to speed, some of whom would be expected to have their own clearances to check on stuff if pointed in the right direction.

Also, I was writing that post during break at work, so I just typed the access as the chapter described it (with a few guesses as to what they meant for navigating) instead of working out the link code. Thanks! 

[JasonPratt]

Well, since a swarm of drone reports have been happening on (mostly) the central East Coast the past month-ish, and since some people online and elsewhere have been trying to connect this to UAP studies conducted by the scientists in the books I linked earlier, and since I haven't gotten around yet to introducing what amounts to the 'next' book in the 'series' (which I suppose counts as a remake-quel  ).... {inhale}!

The short answer is that there is only a superficial connection between the droning going on in the US right now (and at US airbases in Britain apparently?), and the Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena being studied and reported in the books I mentioned earlier.

As a reminder, Grogs interested in studying the development of the current government program (ARRO I think it's currently called) from a civilian science group, can go through the books in this order:

Hunt for the Skinwalker: co-authored by Colm Kelleher (military adjacent bio-warfare) and Jim Lacatski (military rocket scientist) with George Knapp (Las Vegas investigative reporter who probably wrote half the book directly). As the title suggests, this is a very colorful and popular-level book detailing the creation of the National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS) by aerospace (and property) developer Robert Bigelow, a civilian group of science specialists gathered to study phenomena reported and (sometimes) detected by them at the so-called Skinwalker Ranch in Utah (which is probably well-known for its true location by now but I'm too lazy to check) after the property was bought by Bigelow for this purpose, thanks to earlier human-interest investigative reporting by Knapp. Some of the early history of the area is discussed, along with the experiences of the "Gorman" (pseudonym) family who bought it (and implied experiences of the family they bought it from), who eventually sold it to Bigelow with a contract to help keep up the area. Bigelow stopped the program after several years, which the book's narrative gets through, with a plan by the military-connected scientists to interest the government in the results. This book reportedly became a favorite of spec-ops and mil-intell types over the next few years during the Iraq/Afghanistan ops, which led to the next development.


Skinwalkers at the Pentagon written by the same authors. Thanks to the credentials of Lacatski and Kelleher (among others) the Department of Defense authorized the Advanced Aerospace Weapons System Application Program (AAWSAP), to be run by Lacatski, as a funding and oversight group for contracting another civilian scientist group (also with military adjacency), provided by Bigelow again (the only bidder on the contract), the Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS). This time the studies at the Ranch had direct military help and oversight, and the program was widened very considerably to start collecting reports and interviews from both qualified civilians (law enforcement, pilots, etc) and military/intel-community operators, around the nation and outside it to some degree. Along the way Lacatski hired Luis Elizondo, a special-ops soldier with a background in microbiology and a strong career experience (in and out of Army uniform) in counter-intelligence, to oversee operational security efforts. AAWSAP/BAASS ran for several years before funding was pulled and the program killed off upon new arrivals in the DoD top echelon. The book presents this as just one of those things that happen in the Pentagon regularly; Elizondo in his own autobiography has more detail. During AAWSAP's operations, an important side project known informally as AATIP (Advanced Aeronautic Threat Indication Program) was focused on getting information from military groups about unidentified anomalous phenomena happening in their op areas, detected by multiple sensor platforms. After AAWSAP was canceled, the program was more quietly migrated formally to AATIP with this much-reduced focus. (Years later, the civilian study of the Ranch started up again with a reality-tv show The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch which has been in production through this year and will have a sixth season produced next year, plus a followup series Beyond Skinwalker Ranch for the past two years, also planned for filming in 2025.)

AATIP is the most important grog-connection to the study as it's specifically focused on mil-intel ops, and everything discussed in Congress since 2017's New York Times story on AATIP, including the three or four famous Navy videos, has come from this program (although those videos go back much farther than 2017), down to the present day. The program has been revised for more direct congressional oversight to gather data from the various Three Letter groups as well, under the current name ARRO (pronounced "arrow").


Inside the {snip} Initial Revelations

This was released early this year (2024), by the same authors (Lacatski taking the lead this time apparently), and was intended to be the first volume of a much more technical report of AAWSAP and (especially) AATIP study results. No new volume as of this date, but it brings the group activities more-or-less up to current time of its publication. Kind of skippable.


This brings us at last to Immanent by Luis Elizondo, the counter-ops guy who used to run Gitmo's terrorist prison (among other things), published August 20, 2024. I called this a "remake-quel" above, because it retells the story of AAWSAP from the point when Luis was hired down to the present day when he quit the program (and his other government jobs) to focus on working as a public and government liaison on what the studies since AATIP (going back to its more informal sub-program under AAWSAP) have been finding.

The book is more colorful than the preceding technical thing, and about half of it is Elizondo's personal autobiography -- which really starts in chapter 3, then continues chronologically in chapters 1 and 2, then forward from chapter 4 onward. (There's also an extensive foreword from someone else connected with the programs.) On one hand I think it does a better job than previous books getting the technical details of what's happening and what's being detected, though like the prior books Elizondo tends to hop around topically instead of chronologically (aside from his autobiography parts) which can get confusing. On the other hand, Mom and I detected some very problematic omissions and inconsistencies in how his business life affected his personal life, which suggests something is either invented or had a secret bearing afterward on his choices that he didn't want to reveal to the readers. And after all, he's VERY OVERTLY a counter-ops specialist, so the question has to be asked how much of his report is itself a counter-op program.

Specifically, prior books reported how group members (up to and including Bigelow who started all this) would be 'followed home' by some of the things being studied, including some very creepy, unsettling, and actually harmful 'effects' (for want of a better word). L.E. makes a point of being warned about this ahead of time by Lacatski (though somewhat vaguely), and then reports how green spheres invaded his own home for some time, being seen by his wife and kids not only himself. Considering the reports of up-to-fatal-damage being caused by such things (including among some of his group members) and what he himself comes to conclusions about late in the story, not even counting what Lacatski came to more wide-reaching conclusions about (which L.E. reports is what got the original government AAWSAP program canceled), you would expect L.E.'s choices after his climactic conclusions to factor those green sphere things into his concerns and plans. But nope!

Had I been editing this as an urban sci-fi/fantasy novel, I would have pointed out to the author, "You've introduced these plot factors earlier which would NECESSARILY have some bearing on what the character would think and do later, especially considering his professional life up to this time, and his family concerns; yet suddenly poof it's like those plot factors never existed! This is either bad plot writing, inventing a factor for sheer drama without regard to plot-consequences, or bad characterization, maybe both: fix it one way or another."

Except this is (supposedly) an autobiography by someone giving testimony to Congress (in September this year, as can be found on Youtube somewhere). So this drastic lapse in plot and/or characterization has some problematic real-world implications, though I can't tell what exactly yet.

Anyway. This book at least is required reading for understanding what's really being talked about in Congress the past few years; maybe the preceding technical book, too. The first two books are helpful for the history of the program, and for showing how the kind-of-basic 'exotics' being discussed in Congress (which are weird enough on their own) have direct connections to MUCH weirder (and worse) things, somehow, someway.

[JasonPratt]

So meanwhile, arise interdimensional demon thread! 

You may have heard of a new documentary film being hosted by Amazon Prime titled "Age of Disclosure" which just so happens to mimic the upcoming Steven Spielberg alien/demon/whatever techno-socio-thriller to be released later this year ("Disclosure") which might mean nothing. But probably doesn't. So to speak. 

Mom and I watched it a few weeks ago shortly after its release and I meant to do a report on it for this thread, for reasons which will soon be apparent; but life was distracting until now.

This doc was pretty clearly written and filmed as a companion-piece to Luis Elizondo's Immanent autobiography, as he's the main character and a lot of his material comes directly from that book. (As did his first public Congressional briefing a few years ago shortly after his book's release.) Also its information doesn't go much beyond L.E.'s initial forays into Congress.

It's a helpful introduction to the overall topic, with some catchup material through shortly after L.E. quit government work to be the public relations face of the group (still named ARRO at the time but which has now morphed into a better teamed joint military project whose name I forget offhand.)

What Mom and I most noticed aside from catching up on details, is the film's occasionally repeated emphasis on ignoring and dismissing concerns by specifically Christian (and maybe otherwise religious) government operatives and authorities, that these things are demonic and they should be treated as such with all due prudence. No no no, there's nothing supernatural and evil about them, stop listening to the crazy religionists, this is just a technical mystery being solved and soon to be revealed to the world!

......exccccepppttt, even in the documentary there are definite warning signs that whatever's causing these 'effects' (let's say) are not only non-human intelligences, and not only otherworldly, probably from another dimension, but also seriously hostile. So... y'know. As Mom joked, if it waddles like a demon and quacks like a demon etc.!

Also except, they (understandably in several ways) leave out the aspects of L.E.'s own life which would point to supernatural effects; not only including those mysterious green orbs in his house, but also how he got recommended for this project by being one of the last of the US Army's remote-viewing para-psychics -- for which he proved to have a distinct knack, and the project leader of which has been heavily involved in the AATIP program going forward through ARRO (at least; unclear if L.E.'s old psychic Army boss is part of the new joint-military-intelligence research group.)

Also except, they conveniently ignore how the original project leaders (going back to the civilian science NIDS project at Skinwalker Ranch) Lacatski and Kelleher DEFINITELY came down in favor of casting a very broad investigative net over the all the interconnected topics and DEFINITELY came to the conclusion that hostile non-human interdimensional/spatial forces were messing with humanity this way. Which Lacatski described as being in effect demonic though he didn't want to focus on the potentially religious aspect.

Anyway, it was worth watching at around US$15 -- not least because I think it might be a good idea to keep a closer eye on this group going forward. It's being spearheaded by a counter-intel guy now and CInt is as CInt does.

Speaking of Lacatski, I haven't gotten around to finishing his new Part 2 report published late last year (2025) but this reminds me to get on that job and report back pronto. As far as I got last year, he's was going to get into more of the technical details of creepy-ass things connected with the somewhat more mundane UAP activity.

And speaking of creepy-ass demonic things connected with UAP activity being warned against by Christian (and maybe other religious) groups, I also read Father Spyridon Bailey's The UFO Deception late last year. It has admittedly limited interest outside Christian (and maybe more specifically Eastern Orthodox) readers; but maybe around half the book involves looking closer at the occult backgrounds and claims made by many of the UAP researchers being gathered up for information by this government program back through AAWSAP -- claims being somewhat-to-totally suppressed by the current promotional faces of the program. Again, somewhat understandably in various ways, since it's easier to get Congressional and joint agency research cooperation to investigate a probably threatening super-science problem. But I don't think the other parts of the probably-threatening situation should be totally ignored. Not least because that's where most of the threat is happening. 

That book by Fr. Spyridon has connections to the occult backgrounds of the United Nations and their operational projects since their inception down to today, by the way. For more details about that up through around the time of Trump's first election, see the research articles in Totalitaria by investigative journalist (and Christian apologist) Ian Wishart (whom I wish, pun intended, would do a catchup book someday.) Again it has limited appeal, admittedly, but a lot of its information from public sources should be concerning for even non-religious readers about what the United Nations and its leading representatives have often (sometimes consistently) said they plan to do and are trying to do and have been trying to do.

...whew haven't done a wall of text in a while!   

[JasonPratt]

Oh, someone on Amazon has made transcripts available of all the Congressional oversight meetings up to now with some useful documentary and topical support. The full series of (currently) 28 docs can be found here.

It's a handy way to see what L.E. and his team (as found throughout that Age of Disclosure documentary) have been doing in Congress in recent years. For better and/or for worse, you can be the judge.