“Glowing Auras and ‘Black Money’: The Pentagon’s Mysterious U.F.O. Program”, by Helene Cooper, Ralph Blumenthal and Leslie Kean, published on 16 December 2017 with a companion piece on the Tic Tac Incident aircrew, and running the same day as Bryan Bender’s account in Politico.
What it did
It disclosed AATIP and the $22 million appropriation behind AAWSAP, named Luis Elizondo as having run the effort, quoted Senator Harry Reid, and carried the first of the Navy gunsight clips into general circulation. Everything the modern era argues about, the hearings, the legislation, the whistleblower channel, the AARO reports, follows from the week this ran, which is why it is cited in four separate Culture pages on this site.
What it is not
It is journalism, not a document release: the videos reached it through the Form 1910 process rather than as a leak, and the programme description in it came from participants. The subsequent dispute over Luis Elizondo’s exact role, and the Pentagon’s shifting statements about it, both start here.
Connections
Leslie Kean · AATIP · AAWSAP · Luis Elizondo · Senator Harry Reid · Tic Tac Incident · Form 1910 · In Plain Sight · Imminent · Senate Report 116-233