UFO Disclosure? Part 1 - Tom DeLonge and AATIP

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A number of viewers have asked my opinion on the US government’s recent moves towards UFO disclosure, so I’d like to devote this two-part series to reviewing these developments, and offering my take on them. In this first video, we’ll look at the statements of Tom DeLonge, former guitarist of blink-182, and the secret government organization that DeLonge claimed to have helped reveal: the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, or AATIP. In the next video, we’ll look at the statements of AATIP’s director, Luis Elizondo; the UFO evidence disclosed since 2017; and the US military’s UFO report from June 2021.
Ultimately, I will argue that these developments do not constitute true disclosure, and do not seem to indicate that such a thing is on its way. Rather, they are part of a clever propaganda campaign devised by people deep within the US national security state. I believe that US military and intelligence officials are baiting the media into casting UFOs as a potential threat to national security in order to justify the country’s engagement in the new space race with the Russians and the Chinese, and to help direct more funding into advancing aerospace technologies. But let’s start with Tom DeLonge.
The Revelations
Tom DeLonge was the singer and guitarist of blink-182, a pop-punk band that enjoyed massive commercial success in the late 90s and early 2000s. DeLonge’s output exhibited his long-standing interest in UFOs and government secrecy, most notably in the song “Aliens Exist.”(1) DeLonge further explored these interests in his current band, Angels and Airwaves, and got more vocal about UFOs around 2014.
In 2015, DeLonge gave an eyebrow-raising interview with Paper magazine in which he boasted that someone in the US intelligence community was trying to “get to” him.(2) We have since learned that sometime before the Paper interview, Tom reached out to Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works - or advanced development sector - proposing that they collaborate on a documentary about secret military aircraft. Though Skunk Works declined, they invited DeLonge to attend an employee social event where he again pitched his projects to the attendees.(3) Over the next year or two, DeLonge was introduced to a wide range of government, military, and intelligence personnel, who convinced him that they were interested in helping to get the government’s knowledge on UFOs released to the public.
After this, DeLonge began publicly teasing the fact that he was in communication with officials in the US government, who, incidentally, were showering him with gifts. In October 2016, Wikileaks released a trove of DeLonge’s emails to Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta, proving that DeLonge had been in talks with Podesta and Major General William McCasland of the US Air Force.(4) This seemed to bolster his credibility.
After another year of enigmatic social media posts promising “big things,” DeLonge announced the creation of a public company called To the Stars... Academy of Arts and Sciences in October 2017. To the Stars Academy, or TTSA, has both an entertainment and a research division; the former to produce science-fiction films and books on UFOs and secret government projects, and the latter to fund research into advanced aerospace technologies. The academy boasted an impressive roster, including Hal Puthoff, an engineer famous for conducting research into psi phenomena in the late 70s and 80s. Also on the team were Christopher Mellon, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence; Steve Justice, former head of Advanced Systems at Skunk Works; and Luis Elizondo, a “former” US counterintelligence agent who had allegedly just walked out of a Pentagon job to join the team. He claimed that he had resigned from the Pentagon in protest of their excessive secrecy around UFOs.(5)
Shortly after Tom’s announcement, the New York Times revealed that Elizondo once headed a program called the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, or AATIP.(6) Journalists Leslie Kean and Ralph Blumenthal revealed that the group has operated within the Defense Intelligence Agency since 2007, though funding mostly dried up in 2012. Its goal was to assess the threat posed by UFOs - rebranded as UAPs, or Unidentified Aerial Phenomena - and to ascertain their origin. Elizondo said that he and his colleagues at AATIP had determined that UAPs were not all the creations of countries, but still needed further study. Along with these revelations, the Times published three thermal-imaging videos from the government files that Elizondo had managed to get declassified. The Department of Defense released these videos themselves in 2020, and confirmed that they were genuine recordings of unidentified flying objects.(7)
DeLonge used his company’s entertainment division to communicate the reasons for previous government secrecy around UFOs, and the reasons for disclosing these secrets in the 21st century. Through his books, speeches, and a widely-ridiculed appearance on the Joe Rogan Podcast in October 2017, DeLonge explained that the US government only hid the truth on UFOs to protect the public from panicking, and to buy the military time to develop technologies that could defend us from whatever threat that the UFOs might pose.
The mainstream media immediately changed their tune on the previously-neglected subject of UFOs, and hailed the revelations as the beginnings of UFO “disclosure.” Tom was judged to be a hero by some, and Open Minds even gave him researcher of the Year award for 2017. Others were skeptical...
USA and UFOs
To understand the actions of DeLonge and Elizondo, we need to view them within the context of the history of the US government’s relationship with UFO research. Since US government officials first publicly acknowledged the UFO phenomenon in the summer of 1947, they have repeatedly lied about reports, “fudged” their own data, and attempted to sabotage public UFO research by disseminating disinformation. Data that’s been collected - including videos of UFOs - are frequently subjected to excessive classification, and are often lost to the public forever. For example, someone apparently removed some of the best frames of the Mariana UFO film while it was in the possession of military analysts at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in 1950.(8) Before becoming a Mercury astronaut, American Air Force pilot Gordon Cooper handled quality film of a UFO landing at Edwards Air Force Base in 1957, and sent it off to the Pentagon. No one has seen the footage since.(9)
Project Blue Book, the government’s longest-running UFO investigation group, was largely a PR front for most of its existence, and was eventually closed when a government-funded - and massively controversial - study known as the Condon Report concluded that UFOs reports were of no value to scientists, and that none of the sightings “constituted any hazard or threat to national security.”(10) Since then, US government officials have insisted that the government no longer investigates UFO reports. At the same time, however, agents from the US government have continued to cover-up sightings. For example, John Callahan, former Division Chief for the Federal Aviation Administration, claimed that following a UFO encounter by the crew of a Japan Air Lines flight in 1986, several men from various agencies came into his office to confiscate the tapes and radar data.(11)
Not only has the US government consistently refused to engage in open, honest research on UFOs, they have been actively trying to sabotage public ufology since as early as the mid 1950s. In 1953, the CIA recommended the convening of the Robertson Panel, a scientific committee tasked with reviewing the UFO data and making national security recommendations. The panel concluded that while UFOs themselves were not a national security threat, reports of them were, in that they could overwhelm official channels of communication. The panel thus recommended that the government initiate a public education campaign to reduce interest in the UFO phenomenon, and to “monitor” civilian research groups.(12)
At some point, this monitoring turned to active disruption, as revealed by Mark Pilkington in his book and 2013 documentary, Mirage Men. For example, in the early 1980s, a counterintelligence agent named Richard Doty convinced a former pilot and amateur stargazer, Paul Bennewitz, that the secret military craft he was seeing around Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico were actually alien spaceships. Doty fed him a mix of fact and disinformation designed to lead him down a path of paranoid conspiracy theories, and eventually drove him to the point where family checked him into a psychiatric facility.(13) In 1989, ufologist Bill Moore admitted to having unwittingly taken part in this campaign against Bennewitz.(14)
DeLonge and Elizondo would have us believe that the AATIP program marked the start of a whole new chapter in the government’s approach to UFOs. But if not the government’s long history of deception, then DeLonge’s own words should convince us that this is not the case.
Signs of Disinformation
DeLonge and Elizondo have assured us that they had both personally become frustrated with the government’s excessive classification of UFOs, and had finally convinced certain people to begin the process of disclosure - but only in a limited, and highly controlled kind of way. In his famous appearance on the Joe Rogan podcast, DeLonge described what he was doing as a “middle road” between disclosure and classification.(15) When Rogan asked him why he chose to mix the truth with fiction in his books and films, rather than share the truth exclusively, DeLonge responded by stating that the information “has to be managed in a certain way for people to understand…”(16)
Elsewhere, DeLonge explicitly distanced his efforts from the disclosure movement, and made a number of statements to suggest that he was knowingly taking part in a public relations campaign to rebrand the US government, military, and intelligence community, and to communicate “official” narratives on UFOs and national defence.
Ufologist and publisher Robbie Graham pointed to several dubious admissions in his incisive two-part exposé, “The DeLonge DeLusion,” published on Mysterious Universe. As Graham pointed out, DeLonge described the Sekret Machines series in a way that makes it clear that he was wittingly acting as a conduit for the communication of the “official narrative” on UFOs. DeLonge claimed,
A number of viewers have asked my opinion on the US government’s recent moves towards UFO disclosure, so I’d like to devote this two-part series to reviewing these developments, and offering my take on them. In this first video, we’ll look at the statements of Tom DeLonge, former guitarist of blink-182, and the secret government organization that DeLonge claimed to have helped reveal: the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, or AATIP. In the next video, we’ll look at the statements of AATIP’s director, Luis Elizondo; the UFO evidence disclosed since 2017; and the US military’s UFO report from June 2021.
Ultimately, I will argue that these developments do not constitute true disclosure, and do not seem to indicate that such a thing is on its way. Rather, they are part of a clever propaganda campaign devised by people deep within the US national security state. I believe that US military and intelligence officials are baiting the media into casting UFOs as a potential threat to national security in order to justify the country’s engagement in the new space race with the Russians and the Chinese, and to help direct more funding into advancing aerospace technologies. But let’s start with Tom DeLonge.
The Revelations
Tom DeLonge was the singer and guitarist of blink-182, a pop-punk band that enjoyed massive commercial success in the late 90s and early 2000s. DeLonge’s output exhibited his long-standing interest in UFOs and government secrecy, most notably in the song “Aliens Exist.”(1) DeLonge further explored these interests in his current band, Angels and Airwaves, and got more vocal about UFOs around 2014.
In 2015, DeLonge gave an eyebrow-raising interview with Paper magazine in which he boasted that someone in the US intelligence community was trying to “get to” him.(2) We have since learned that sometime before the Paper interview, Tom reached out to Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works - or advanced development sector - proposing that they collaborate on a documentary about secret military aircraft. Though Skunk Works declined, they invited DeLonge to attend an employee social event where he again pitched his projects to the attendees.(3) Over the next year or two, DeLonge was introduced to a wide range of government, military, and intelligence personnel, who convinced him that they were interested in helping to get the government’s knowledge on UFOs released to the public.
After this, DeLonge began publicly teasing the fact that he was in communication with officials in the US government, who, incidentally, were showering him with gifts. In October 2016, Wikileaks released a trove of DeLonge’s emails to Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta, proving that DeLonge had been in talks with Podesta and Major General William McCasland of the US Air Force.(4) This seemed to bolster his credibility.
After another year of enigmatic social media posts promising “big things,” DeLonge announced the creation of a public company called To the Stars... Academy of Arts and Sciences in October 2017. To the Stars Academy, or TTSA, has both an entertainment and a research division; the former to produce science-fiction films and books on UFOs and secret government projects, and the latter to fund research into advanced aerospace technologies. The academy boasted an impressive roster, including Hal Puthoff, an engineer famous for conducting research into psi phenomena in the late 70s and 80s. Also on the team were Christopher Mellon, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence; Steve Justice, former head of Advanced Systems at Skunk Works; and Luis Elizondo, a “former” US counterintelligence agent who had allegedly just walked out of a Pentagon job to join the team. He claimed that he had resigned from the Pentagon in protest of their excessive secrecy around UFOs.(5)
Shortly after Tom’s announcement, the New York Times revealed that Elizondo once headed a program called the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, or AATIP.(6) Journalists Leslie Kean and Ralph Blumenthal revealed that the group has operated within the Defense Intelligence Agency since 2007, though funding mostly dried up in 2012. Its goal was to assess the threat posed by UFOs - rebranded as UAPs, or Unidentified Aerial Phenomena - and to ascertain their origin. Elizondo said that he and his colleagues at AATIP had determined that UAPs were not all the creations of countries, but still needed further study. Along with these revelations, the Times published three thermal-imaging videos from the government files that Elizondo had managed to get declassified. The Department of Defense released these videos themselves in 2020, and confirmed that they were genuine recordings of unidentified flying objects.(7)
DeLonge used his company’s entertainment division to communicate the reasons for previous government secrecy around UFOs, and the reasons for disclosing these secrets in the 21st century. Through his books, speeches, and a widely-ridiculed appearance on the Joe Rogan Podcast in October 2017, DeLonge explained that the US government only hid the truth on UFOs to protect the public from panicking, and to buy the military time to develop technologies that could defend us from whatever threat that the UFOs might pose.
The mainstream media immediately changed their tune on the previously-neglected subject of UFOs, and hailed the revelations as the beginnings of UFO “disclosure.” Tom was judged to be a hero by some, and Open Minds even gave him researcher of the Year award for 2017. Others were skeptical...
USA and UFOs
To understand the actions of DeLonge and Elizondo, we need to view them within the context of the history of the US government’s relationship with UFO research. Since US government officials first publicly acknowledged the UFO phenomenon in the summer of 1947, they have repeatedly lied about reports, “fudged” their own data, and attempted to sabotage public UFO research by disseminating disinformation. Data that’s been collected - including videos of UFOs - are frequently subjected to excessive classification, and are often lost to the public forever. For example, someone apparently removed some of the best frames of the Mariana UFO film while it was in the possession of military analysts at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in 1950.(8) Before becoming a Mercury astronaut, American Air Force pilot Gordon Cooper handled quality film of a UFO landing at Edwards Air Force Base in 1957, and sent it off to the Pentagon. No one has seen the footage since.(9)
Project Blue Book, the government’s longest-running UFO investigation group, was largely a PR front for most of its existence, and was eventually closed when a government-funded - and massively controversial - study known as the Condon Report concluded that UFOs reports were of no value to scientists, and that none of the sightings “constituted any hazard or threat to national security.”(10) Since then, US government officials have insisted that the government no longer investigates UFO reports. At the same time, however, agents from the US government have continued to cover-up sightings. For example, John Callahan, former Division Chief for the Federal Aviation Administration, claimed that following a UFO encounter by the crew of a Japan Air Lines flight in 1986, several men from various agencies came into his office to confiscate the tapes and radar data.(11)
Not only has the US government consistently refused to engage in open, honest research on UFOs, they have been actively trying to sabotage public ufology since as early as the mid 1950s. In 1953, the CIA recommended the convening of the Robertson Panel, a scientific committee tasked with reviewing the UFO data and making national security recommendations. The panel concluded that while UFOs themselves were not a national security threat, reports of them were, in that they could overwhelm official channels of communication. The panel thus recommended that the government initiate a public education campaign to reduce interest in the UFO phenomenon, and to “monitor” civilian research groups.(12)
At some point, this monitoring turned to active disruption, as revealed by Mark Pilkington in his book and 2013 documentary, Mirage Men. For example, in the early 1980s, a counterintelligence agent named Richard Doty convinced a former pilot and amateur stargazer, Paul Bennewitz, that the secret military craft he was seeing around Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico were actually alien spaceships. Doty fed him a mix of fact and disinformation designed to lead him down a path of paranoid conspiracy theories, and eventually drove him to the point where family checked him into a psychiatric facility.(13) In 1989, ufologist Bill Moore admitted to having unwittingly taken part in this campaign against Bennewitz.(14)
DeLonge and Elizondo would have us believe that the AATIP program marked the start of a whole new chapter in the government’s approach to UFOs. But if not the government’s long history of deception, then DeLonge’s own words should convince us that this is not the case.
Signs of Disinformation
DeLonge and Elizondo have assured us that they had both personally become frustrated with the government’s excessive classification of UFOs, and had finally convinced certain people to begin the process of disclosure - but only in a limited, and highly controlled kind of way. In his famous appearance on the Joe Rogan podcast, DeLonge described what he was doing as a “middle road” between disclosure and classification.(15) When Rogan asked him why he chose to mix the truth with fiction in his books and films, rather than share the truth exclusively, DeLonge responded by stating that the information “has to be managed in a certain way for people to understand…”(16)
Elsewhere, DeLonge explicitly distanced his efforts from the disclosure movement, and made a number of statements to suggest that he was knowingly taking part in a public relations campaign to rebrand the US government, military, and intelligence community, and to communicate “official” narratives on UFOs and national defence.
Ufologist and publisher Robbie Graham pointed to several dubious admissions in his incisive two-part exposé, “The DeLonge DeLusion,” published on Mysterious Universe. As Graham pointed out, DeLonge described the Sekret Machines series in a way that makes it clear that he was wittingly acting as a conduit for the communication of the “official narrative” on UFOs. DeLonge claimed,
[I am] representing 10 people that are of the highest rank and office within the Department of Defense establishment and they are asking me to communicate something that they see as the utmost national security issue that has ever existed… I’m creating a vehicle that’s going to allow some very important men and women at the highest levels of office and rank within the Department of Defense to put in information so people can understand all the things they want people to understand about this topic.(17)
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By going to high-level sources in the military and intelligence community, DeLonge felt that he was ensuring that only the most accurate information was being conveyed to the public. “There won't be any disinformation in my project,” he claimed, apparently unaware that members of the government have the ability to lie.(18) As Graham remarked, this claim is “so naïve and illogical as to make one wonder if DeLonge even understands the meaning of ‘disinformation.’”(19)
DeLonge stated clearly, both privately and publicly, that his ultimate goal was to have the youth, specifically, develop a more benevolent understanding of the country’s national security apparatus. In an interview with LA Weekly, he claimed that
DeLonge stated clearly, both privately and publicly, that his ultimate goal was to have the youth, specifically, develop a more benevolent understanding of the country’s national security apparatus. In an interview with LA Weekly, he claimed that
I wanted to reverse people’s cynical view of government… When people hear this they’re going to be so relieved that [it’s] not some big, bad secret government. It will change the way people feel about our military and intelligence leadership.(20)
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In an email to John Podesta, DeLonge stated that he would “rebrand” the much-maligned Clinton advisor “as a man that the youth can trust and rely on,” adding, to remove all doubt, that “this project is about changing the cynical views of youth towards government.”(21)
The perception that DeLonge seemed most committed to changing was the common belief that the US government doesn’t want people to know the truth about UFOs. Paradoxically, DeLonge believed that the reason that the CIA derailed UFO research was to bring us the truth about the phenomenon, and the reason that they had us believe it wasn’t real was to protect us from it. DeLonge explained that in the 1950s, the US government was afraid that a foreign power might exploit the UFO mania to disrupt the country’s defenses,
The perception that DeLonge seemed most committed to changing was the common belief that the US government doesn’t want people to know the truth about UFOs. Paradoxically, DeLonge believed that the reason that the CIA derailed UFO research was to bring us the truth about the phenomenon, and the reason that they had us believe it wasn’t real was to protect us from it. DeLonge explained that in the 1950s, the US government was afraid that a foreign power might exploit the UFO mania to disrupt the country’s defenses,
so the CIA said, "We better get in there and make everyone go crazy, but at least it's controlled, and when we're in charge we can slowly let people know the phenomenon is real, but, 'Don't worry -- we've been building something secret to help protect us.'" It's a crazy thing, but it's real.(22)
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This is exactly the scenario laid out in DeLonge’s Sekret Machines books, which, of course, makes the US military and intelligence community out to be the heroes of the story. As Graham put it, “historical UFO secrecy has always been for the greater good. The ‘bad guys’ were the good guys all along.” As DeLonge wrote to Podesta, the goal was to get the youth to see it this way. After sharing a link to the rough edit of his first film trailer, DeLonge explained his general bait-and-switch strategy: “Please understand the teaser is made to 'pander' to a youth audience, and then we will change their views in the actual film from a conspiratorial one, to a new non-cynical and supportive one.”(23)
Putting aside the commercial exploitation of his newfound celebrity, DeLonge was little more than a communicator - or propagandist, as it were - for the US government, and seems to have been aware of this fact.
Analysis
We’ve just reviewed the facts. Now, I’d like to offer my take on what these developments mean for ufology, and what’s really driving this so-called “disclosure” campaign. DeLonge, I feel, was effectively recruited by the US intelligence community to help “break” the story of UFO disclosure in a youth-friendly way. Of course, the military did not need a rockstar to release a few videos and let the public know about AATIP - they could have easily done this themselves - but they knew that having an outsider appear to wrestle this information from their hands would be more convincing than a simple release from their own public relations department. Ultimately, DeLonge’s mission was to sell the public on the promise of imminent disclosure, thus priming people to accept future propaganda from the US national security state. He was rewarded with a cadre of top officials and government scientists to staff his company, and boost his credibility and profile.
This is not to say that DeLonge is a “shill,” per se, or believes that he’s acting dishonestly. DeLonge comes across as very patriotic, and may very well believe that spreading government propaganda is in the public’s best interest. However, it seems to have never occurred to him that his team of insiders might be lying to him about things like captured alien bodies and time-warp technologies. When Rogan asked him directly if he’d ever considered that one of his main informants was “bullshitting” him, DeLonge answered emphatically in the negative.(24) Indeed, he admitted to never having seen any of the technologies that his sources claimed they had outside of a few sketchy videos on the internet.
In addition to selling a new narrative on the history of UFO secrecy, DeLonge, Elizondo, and others on the TTSA team were tasked with convincing the public of the threat posed by UAPs, and the relative inferiority of the top American war machines.(25) But while UFOs often violate sensitive airspace, and startle pilots and other personnel, they almost never harm people, and rarely disrupt military operations. What’s more, ever since the publication of the Condon Report in 1969 - the largest-ever “scientific” study of UFOs - both military spokespeople and mainstream scientists have repeatedly insisted that UFOs were of no interest to either science or national security. Why is it that more than 75 years after the US government first became aware of UFOs, and more than 50 years after “proving” that they were of no value to science or security, US officials are suddenly claiming that the opposite is true? The failure to address this glaring contradiction with such an authoritative study - flawed though it was - is suspect.
But of course, the threat narrative is central to the entire campaign. By assuming a purely “nuts and bolts” explanation for UFOs, and presenting them as threats to national defense, as opposed to subjects of scientific investigation, the national security state is attempting to claim them as their domain, exclusively. Thus, if we want answers on UFOs - or even to feel protected from them - we must throw our money and resources at the sprawling complex of defense contractors, intelligence agencies, and secret government programs that study these things, and not at any academic institutions, or civilian research groups. It is very telling that amidst all this buzz around UFOs, there are no calls for public, scientific research.
Fans of this channel will know that I have repeatedly drawn attention to the many anomalous dimensions of UFO encounters suggesting that the phenomenon is not purely, or even primarily, physical in nature. DeLonge and Elizondo completely ignore all the psychic, fantastical, and even spiritual elements of the UFO phenomenon in order to force it into a purely technological framework. This is an affront to honest UFO research, and will no doubt lead to many millions of people becoming misinformed on the true nature of the phenomenon, and the many complexities in the data. I strongly believe that we must resist the government’s framing of the UFO question, and reject the idea that it is one to be answered by the US national security establishment.
In the next video, we’ll see how Elizondo continued the campaign after DeLonge’s withdrawal from the spotlight, and review the findings of the government’s long-awaited UFO report of June 2021. We’ll also delve deeper into the question of why the government began its faux disclosure campaign in the first place, and what they might be trying to get from it.
Notes:
1) See the lyrics to “Aliens Exist,” accessed May 30, 2021: https://genius.com/Blink-182-aliens-exist-lyrics.
2) Michael Tedder, “Blink-182’s Tom DeLonge on UFOs, Government Coverups and Why Aliens are Bigger than Jesus,” Paper, February 17, 2015. Accessed June 13, 2021: https://www.papermag.com/tom-delonge-ufos-interview-1427513207.html?rebelltitem=16#rebelltitem16.
3) Tyler Rogoway, “Tom DeLonge’s Origin Story For To The Stars Academy Describes A Government UFO Info Operation,” Thedrive.com, uploaded June 5, 2019. Accessed May 30, 2021: https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/28377/tom-delonges-origin-story-for-to-the-stars-academy-describes-a-government-info-operation.
4) The Guardian’s coverage of the leaks serves as an illustrative example of the kind of press they received. “Blink-182 singer contacted Hillary Clinton's campaign chief to talk UFOs,” The Guardian, October 11, 2016. Accessed June 27, 2021: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/oct/11/blink-182-hillary-clintons-campaign-chief-ufos-tom-delonge-john-podesta.
5) Ralph Blumenthal, “On the Trail of a Secret Pentagon U.F.O. Program,” New York Times, December 18 2017. Accessed June 27, 2021: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/18/insider/secret-pentagon-ufo-program.html.
6) Kean, Leslie, Ralph Blumenthal, Helene Cooper, “Glowing Auros and ‘Black Money’: The Pentagon’s Mysterious U.F.O. Program,” New York Times, December 16, 2017. Accessed June 27, 2021: https://nyti.ms/2kB62aH.
7) See the video released by The Guardian sharing the news of the Department of Defense’s confirmation, and sharing the videos themselves. “Pentagon officially releases 'UFO' videos,”YouTube, uploaded by Guardian News, April 27, 2020. Accessed July 30, 2021: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auITEKd4sjA.
8) Richard Dolan, UFOs and the National Security State: Chronology of a Cover-up, 1941 - 1973, revised edition (Charlottesville, VA: Hampton Roads, 2002), 85-6.
9) Cooper explains the incident in an interview with James Fox for his documentary, Out of the Blue, 2003. See the embedded video in a write-up by Marcus Lowth, “The UFO Conspiracy Revelations of NASA Astronaut Gordon Cooper,” UFOinsight.com, March 27, 2017. Accessed July 30, 2021: https://www.ufoinsight.com/ufos/cover-ups/ufo-nasa-gordon-cooper.
10) Edward U. Condon, Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1969), 4; See page 6 of Section 1 in the online version of the report: https://files.ncas.org/condon/text/sec-i.htm.
11) Callahan details his experiences in interview format: “UFO Buzzes Japan Airlines - (FAA's Callahan Reveals),” YouTube, uploaded by dr. Steven Greer, June 6, 2013. Accessed July 30, 2021: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4WTid3O0VE.
12) See the online version of the so-called Durant Report, detailing the Robertson Panels activities and recommendations, published by CUFON. Accessed July 30, 2021: https://cufon.org/cufon/robert.htm.
13) Mark Pilkington, Mirage Men: An Adventure into Paranoia, Espionage, Psychological Warfare, and UFOs (New York: Skyhorse, 2010).
14) Don Schmitt, “William Moore: UFO opportunist or agent of disinformation,” Openminds.tv, July 23, 2014. Accessed July 30, 2021: https://www.openminds.tv/william-moore-ufo-opportunist-agent-disinformation/29056.
15) Joe Rogan, host. Joe Rogan Experience, # 1029 - Tom DeLonge, October 2017. The relevant discussion begins around 12:24.
16) Joe Rogan, host. Joe Rogan Experience, # 1029 - Tom DeLonge, October 2017. The relevant discussion begins around 83:40.
17) Jessica Goodman, “Tom DeLonge on New Sekret Machines Book: ‘This is not just Tom Talking about UFOs Again,’” ew.com, April 5, 2016. Accessed June 13, 2021: https://ew.com/article/2016/04/05/tom-delonge-sekret-machines-book.
18) Nicholas Pell, “Tom DeLonge’s New Sekret Machines Project takes a Serious Look at UFOs," April 19, 2016, LA Weekly, accessed June 13, 2021: https://www.laweekly.com/tom-delonges-new-sekret-machines-project-takes-a-serious-look-at-ufos.
19) Robbie Graham, “DeLonge DeLusion Part 1,” Mysterious Universe, November 3, 2016. Accessed June 13, 2021:
https://mysteriousuniverse.org/2016/11/the-delonge-delusion-part-one.
20) Nicholas Pell, “Serious Look at UFOs,” accessed June 13, 2021: https://www.laweekly.com/tom-delonges-new-sekret-machines-project-takes-a-serious-look-at-ufos.
21) Forwarded message from Tom DeLonge, Jennifer Palmieri to John Podesta, February 9, 2016, Podesta Email: 50448, Wikileaks.org. Accessed June 13, 2021: https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/50448.
22) Michael Tedder, “Blink-182’s Tom DeLonge on UFOs, Government Coverups and Why Aliens are Bigger than Jesus,” Paper Magazine, February 17, 2015. Accessed June 13, 2021: https://www.papermag.com/tom-delonge-ufos-interview-1427513207.html?rebelltitem=16#rebelltitem16.
23) Tom DeLonge to John Podesta, January 25, 2016, Podesta Email: 54984, Wikileaks.org. Accessed July 30, 2021: https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/54984.
24) Joe Rogan, host. Joe Rogan Experience, # 1029 - Tom DeLonge, October 2017. The relevant discussion begins around 22:22.
25) Ben Guarino, “Tom DeLonge defined Pop-Punk with Blink 182. He left stardom behind to study aliens,” The Washington Post, March 31, 2017. Accessed June 13, 2021: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/03/31/tom-delonge-defined-pop-punk-with-blink-182-he-left-stardom-behind-to-study-aliens.
Main Sources:
Blumenthal, Ralph. “On the Trail of a Secret Pentagon U.F.O. Program.” New York Times, December 18 2017. Accessed June 27, 2021: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/18/insider/secret-pentagon-ufo-program.html.
Goodman, Jessica. “Tom DeLonge on New Sekret Machines Book: ‘This is not just Tom Talking about UFOs Again.’”ew.com, April 5, 2016. Accessed June 13, 2021: https://ew.com/article/2016/04/05/tom-delonge-sekret-machines-book.
Graham, Robbie. “DeLonge DeLusion Part 1.” Mysterious Universe, November 3, 2016. Accessed June 13, 2021:
https://mysteriousuniverse.org/2016/11/the-delonge-delusion-part-one.
Guarino, Ben. “Tom DeLonge defined Pop-Punk with Blink 182. He left stardom behind to study aliens.” The Washington Post, March 31, 2017. Accessed June 13, 2021: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/03/31/tom-delonge-defined-pop-punk-with-blink-182-he-left-stardom-behind-to-study-aliens.
Kean, Leslie, Helene Cooper, Ralph Blumenthal. “Glowing Auros and ‘Black Money’: The Pentagon’s Mysterious U.F.O. Program.” New York Times, December 16, 2017: https://nyti.ms/2kB62aH.
Pell, Nicholas. “Tom DeLonge’s Ne Sekret Machines Project takes a Serious Look at UFOs.” LA Weekly, April 19, 2016. Accessed June 13, 2021: https://www.laweekly.com/tom-delonges-new-sekret-machines-project-takes-a-serious-look-at-ufos,
Rogoway, Tyler. “Tom DeLonge’s Origin Story For To The Stars Academy Describes A Government UFO Info Operation.” Thedrive.com, uploaded June 5, 2019. Accessed May 30, 2021:
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/28377/tom-delonges-origin-story-for-to-the-stars-academy-describes-a-government-info-operation.
Tedder, Michael. “Blink-182’s Tom DeLonge on UFOs, Government Coverups and Why Aliens are Bigger than Jesus.” Paper, February 17, 2015. Accessed June 13, 2021: https://www.papermag.com/tom-delonge-ufos-interview-1427513207.html?rebelltitem=16#rebelltitem16.
This video uses sound effects downloaded from stockmusic.com.
Support new videos on Patreon: https://patreon.com/user?u=3375417
Think Anomalous is created by Jason Charbonneau. Research by Jason Charbonneau. Music by Josh Chamberland. Animation by Brendan Barr. Sound design by Will Mountain and Josh Chamberland.
Putting aside the commercial exploitation of his newfound celebrity, DeLonge was little more than a communicator - or propagandist, as it were - for the US government, and seems to have been aware of this fact.
Analysis
We’ve just reviewed the facts. Now, I’d like to offer my take on what these developments mean for ufology, and what’s really driving this so-called “disclosure” campaign. DeLonge, I feel, was effectively recruited by the US intelligence community to help “break” the story of UFO disclosure in a youth-friendly way. Of course, the military did not need a rockstar to release a few videos and let the public know about AATIP - they could have easily done this themselves - but they knew that having an outsider appear to wrestle this information from their hands would be more convincing than a simple release from their own public relations department. Ultimately, DeLonge’s mission was to sell the public on the promise of imminent disclosure, thus priming people to accept future propaganda from the US national security state. He was rewarded with a cadre of top officials and government scientists to staff his company, and boost his credibility and profile.
This is not to say that DeLonge is a “shill,” per se, or believes that he’s acting dishonestly. DeLonge comes across as very patriotic, and may very well believe that spreading government propaganda is in the public’s best interest. However, it seems to have never occurred to him that his team of insiders might be lying to him about things like captured alien bodies and time-warp technologies. When Rogan asked him directly if he’d ever considered that one of his main informants was “bullshitting” him, DeLonge answered emphatically in the negative.(24) Indeed, he admitted to never having seen any of the technologies that his sources claimed they had outside of a few sketchy videos on the internet.
In addition to selling a new narrative on the history of UFO secrecy, DeLonge, Elizondo, and others on the TTSA team were tasked with convincing the public of the threat posed by UAPs, and the relative inferiority of the top American war machines.(25) But while UFOs often violate sensitive airspace, and startle pilots and other personnel, they almost never harm people, and rarely disrupt military operations. What’s more, ever since the publication of the Condon Report in 1969 - the largest-ever “scientific” study of UFOs - both military spokespeople and mainstream scientists have repeatedly insisted that UFOs were of no interest to either science or national security. Why is it that more than 75 years after the US government first became aware of UFOs, and more than 50 years after “proving” that they were of no value to science or security, US officials are suddenly claiming that the opposite is true? The failure to address this glaring contradiction with such an authoritative study - flawed though it was - is suspect.
But of course, the threat narrative is central to the entire campaign. By assuming a purely “nuts and bolts” explanation for UFOs, and presenting them as threats to national defense, as opposed to subjects of scientific investigation, the national security state is attempting to claim them as their domain, exclusively. Thus, if we want answers on UFOs - or even to feel protected from them - we must throw our money and resources at the sprawling complex of defense contractors, intelligence agencies, and secret government programs that study these things, and not at any academic institutions, or civilian research groups. It is very telling that amidst all this buzz around UFOs, there are no calls for public, scientific research.
Fans of this channel will know that I have repeatedly drawn attention to the many anomalous dimensions of UFO encounters suggesting that the phenomenon is not purely, or even primarily, physical in nature. DeLonge and Elizondo completely ignore all the psychic, fantastical, and even spiritual elements of the UFO phenomenon in order to force it into a purely technological framework. This is an affront to honest UFO research, and will no doubt lead to many millions of people becoming misinformed on the true nature of the phenomenon, and the many complexities in the data. I strongly believe that we must resist the government’s framing of the UFO question, and reject the idea that it is one to be answered by the US national security establishment.
In the next video, we’ll see how Elizondo continued the campaign after DeLonge’s withdrawal from the spotlight, and review the findings of the government’s long-awaited UFO report of June 2021. We’ll also delve deeper into the question of why the government began its faux disclosure campaign in the first place, and what they might be trying to get from it.
Notes:
1) See the lyrics to “Aliens Exist,” accessed May 30, 2021: https://genius.com/Blink-182-aliens-exist-lyrics.
2) Michael Tedder, “Blink-182’s Tom DeLonge on UFOs, Government Coverups and Why Aliens are Bigger than Jesus,” Paper, February 17, 2015. Accessed June 13, 2021: https://www.papermag.com/tom-delonge-ufos-interview-1427513207.html?rebelltitem=16#rebelltitem16.
3) Tyler Rogoway, “Tom DeLonge’s Origin Story For To The Stars Academy Describes A Government UFO Info Operation,” Thedrive.com, uploaded June 5, 2019. Accessed May 30, 2021: https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/28377/tom-delonges-origin-story-for-to-the-stars-academy-describes-a-government-info-operation.
4) The Guardian’s coverage of the leaks serves as an illustrative example of the kind of press they received. “Blink-182 singer contacted Hillary Clinton's campaign chief to talk UFOs,” The Guardian, October 11, 2016. Accessed June 27, 2021: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/oct/11/blink-182-hillary-clintons-campaign-chief-ufos-tom-delonge-john-podesta.
5) Ralph Blumenthal, “On the Trail of a Secret Pentagon U.F.O. Program,” New York Times, December 18 2017. Accessed June 27, 2021: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/18/insider/secret-pentagon-ufo-program.html.
6) Kean, Leslie, Ralph Blumenthal, Helene Cooper, “Glowing Auros and ‘Black Money’: The Pentagon’s Mysterious U.F.O. Program,” New York Times, December 16, 2017. Accessed June 27, 2021: https://nyti.ms/2kB62aH.
7) See the video released by The Guardian sharing the news of the Department of Defense’s confirmation, and sharing the videos themselves. “Pentagon officially releases 'UFO' videos,”YouTube, uploaded by Guardian News, April 27, 2020. Accessed July 30, 2021: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auITEKd4sjA.
8) Richard Dolan, UFOs and the National Security State: Chronology of a Cover-up, 1941 - 1973, revised edition (Charlottesville, VA: Hampton Roads, 2002), 85-6.
9) Cooper explains the incident in an interview with James Fox for his documentary, Out of the Blue, 2003. See the embedded video in a write-up by Marcus Lowth, “The UFO Conspiracy Revelations of NASA Astronaut Gordon Cooper,” UFOinsight.com, March 27, 2017. Accessed July 30, 2021: https://www.ufoinsight.com/ufos/cover-ups/ufo-nasa-gordon-cooper.
10) Edward U. Condon, Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1969), 4; See page 6 of Section 1 in the online version of the report: https://files.ncas.org/condon/text/sec-i.htm.
11) Callahan details his experiences in interview format: “UFO Buzzes Japan Airlines - (FAA's Callahan Reveals),” YouTube, uploaded by dr. Steven Greer, June 6, 2013. Accessed July 30, 2021: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4WTid3O0VE.
12) See the online version of the so-called Durant Report, detailing the Robertson Panels activities and recommendations, published by CUFON. Accessed July 30, 2021: https://cufon.org/cufon/robert.htm.
13) Mark Pilkington, Mirage Men: An Adventure into Paranoia, Espionage, Psychological Warfare, and UFOs (New York: Skyhorse, 2010).
14) Don Schmitt, “William Moore: UFO opportunist or agent of disinformation,” Openminds.tv, July 23, 2014. Accessed July 30, 2021: https://www.openminds.tv/william-moore-ufo-opportunist-agent-disinformation/29056.
15) Joe Rogan, host. Joe Rogan Experience, # 1029 - Tom DeLonge, October 2017. The relevant discussion begins around 12:24.
16) Joe Rogan, host. Joe Rogan Experience, # 1029 - Tom DeLonge, October 2017. The relevant discussion begins around 83:40.
17) Jessica Goodman, “Tom DeLonge on New Sekret Machines Book: ‘This is not just Tom Talking about UFOs Again,’” ew.com, April 5, 2016. Accessed June 13, 2021: https://ew.com/article/2016/04/05/tom-delonge-sekret-machines-book.
18) Nicholas Pell, “Tom DeLonge’s New Sekret Machines Project takes a Serious Look at UFOs," April 19, 2016, LA Weekly, accessed June 13, 2021: https://www.laweekly.com/tom-delonges-new-sekret-machines-project-takes-a-serious-look-at-ufos.
19) Robbie Graham, “DeLonge DeLusion Part 1,” Mysterious Universe, November 3, 2016. Accessed June 13, 2021:
https://mysteriousuniverse.org/2016/11/the-delonge-delusion-part-one.
20) Nicholas Pell, “Serious Look at UFOs,” accessed June 13, 2021: https://www.laweekly.com/tom-delonges-new-sekret-machines-project-takes-a-serious-look-at-ufos.
21) Forwarded message from Tom DeLonge, Jennifer Palmieri to John Podesta, February 9, 2016, Podesta Email: 50448, Wikileaks.org. Accessed June 13, 2021: https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/50448.
22) Michael Tedder, “Blink-182’s Tom DeLonge on UFOs, Government Coverups and Why Aliens are Bigger than Jesus,” Paper Magazine, February 17, 2015. Accessed June 13, 2021: https://www.papermag.com/tom-delonge-ufos-interview-1427513207.html?rebelltitem=16#rebelltitem16.
23) Tom DeLonge to John Podesta, January 25, 2016, Podesta Email: 54984, Wikileaks.org. Accessed July 30, 2021: https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/54984.
24) Joe Rogan, host. Joe Rogan Experience, # 1029 - Tom DeLonge, October 2017. The relevant discussion begins around 22:22.
25) Ben Guarino, “Tom DeLonge defined Pop-Punk with Blink 182. He left stardom behind to study aliens,” The Washington Post, March 31, 2017. Accessed June 13, 2021: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/03/31/tom-delonge-defined-pop-punk-with-blink-182-he-left-stardom-behind-to-study-aliens.
Main Sources:
Blumenthal, Ralph. “On the Trail of a Secret Pentagon U.F.O. Program.” New York Times, December 18 2017. Accessed June 27, 2021: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/18/insider/secret-pentagon-ufo-program.html.
Goodman, Jessica. “Tom DeLonge on New Sekret Machines Book: ‘This is not just Tom Talking about UFOs Again.’”ew.com, April 5, 2016. Accessed June 13, 2021: https://ew.com/article/2016/04/05/tom-delonge-sekret-machines-book.
Graham, Robbie. “DeLonge DeLusion Part 1.” Mysterious Universe, November 3, 2016. Accessed June 13, 2021:
https://mysteriousuniverse.org/2016/11/the-delonge-delusion-part-one.
Guarino, Ben. “Tom DeLonge defined Pop-Punk with Blink 182. He left stardom behind to study aliens.” The Washington Post, March 31, 2017. Accessed June 13, 2021: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/03/31/tom-delonge-defined-pop-punk-with-blink-182-he-left-stardom-behind-to-study-aliens.
Kean, Leslie, Helene Cooper, Ralph Blumenthal. “Glowing Auros and ‘Black Money’: The Pentagon’s Mysterious U.F.O. Program.” New York Times, December 16, 2017: https://nyti.ms/2kB62aH.
Pell, Nicholas. “Tom DeLonge’s Ne Sekret Machines Project takes a Serious Look at UFOs.” LA Weekly, April 19, 2016. Accessed June 13, 2021: https://www.laweekly.com/tom-delonges-new-sekret-machines-project-takes-a-serious-look-at-ufos,
Rogoway, Tyler. “Tom DeLonge’s Origin Story For To The Stars Academy Describes A Government UFO Info Operation.” Thedrive.com, uploaded June 5, 2019. Accessed May 30, 2021:
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/28377/tom-delonges-origin-story-for-to-the-stars-academy-describes-a-government-info-operation.
Tedder, Michael. “Blink-182’s Tom DeLonge on UFOs, Government Coverups and Why Aliens are Bigger than Jesus.” Paper, February 17, 2015. Accessed June 13, 2021: https://www.papermag.com/tom-delonge-ufos-interview-1427513207.html?rebelltitem=16#rebelltitem16.
This video uses sound effects downloaded from stockmusic.com.
Support new videos on Patreon: https://patreon.com/user?u=3375417
Think Anomalous is created by Jason Charbonneau. Research by Jason Charbonneau. Music by Josh Chamberland. Animation by Brendan Barr. Sound design by Will Mountain and Josh Chamberland.