UFO investigator says the Pentagon is now trying to ‘smear’ his reputation
On TMZ Investigates: UFOs: The Pentagon Proof, a Fox TV special that aired Tuesday, host Harvey Levin dug deeper into the new US government report on UFOs, which says they can't explain 144 sightings. One of the people tasked with investigating those sightings was Pentagon counterintelligence official Lue Elizondo, who resigned in 2017 after 22 years because he said those above him refused to present his findings to then-defense Secretary James Mattis.
“I was facing significant resistance informing some of the most senior levels of DOD leadership about our findings,” Elizondo said.
In the time since his resignation, Elizondo said the Pentagon threatened his security clearance which would ultimately make it harder for him to get a job in his fields of expertise. And as he’s continued to speak out, the Pentagon took things a step further by denying that he was ever even a part of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, also known as AATIP, which investigates UFOs. A move that Elizondo says is “absolutely an attempt to smear my reputation.”
Video Transcript
LUE ELIZONDO: If you're asking me if the US government is in possession of exotic material, it is my belief that is true. But we to-- we need more analysis on this material. This material does have some very interesting, let's say, fingerprints or signatures associated with it.
KYLIE MAR: On the Fox special "TMZ Investigates UFO's-- the Pentagon Proof, " host Harvey Levin dug deeper into the new US government report on refers which says they can't explain 144 sightings. And one of the people tasked with investigating such things was Pentagon counterintelligence official Lue Elizondo, who resigned in 2017 after 22 years, because he said those above him refused to present his findings to then Defense Secretary James Mattis.
LUE ELIZONDO: I was facing significant resistance informing some of the most senior levels of DOD leadership about our findings. And I wrote in my resignation letter what I thought I think the boss needed to hear, and that was that these things are real.
KYLIE MAR: And after he left, Elizondo says efforts were made by the government to keep him quiet.
LUE ELIZONDO: What they do is they threaten your security clearance. So they know by cutting that string, in essence, that keeps me from being able to-- to stay employed. And so that's a very clear way of saying, hey, you better mind your manners. You better shut up. Otherwise, we're going to shut you up.
KYLIE MAR: But Elizondo hasn't shut up, and the Pentagon now denies that he was ever a part of the UFO investigative team, in what he calls an attempt to smear his reputation.
LUE ELIZONDO: The personal-professional toll has been-- been severe. I live in the middle of nowhere because of what this has done to me. I mean, I don't know if I'm going to have a job tomorrow, to be quite honest with you, just for having this conversation with you.
KYLIE MAR: And the hits keep coming for the Pentagon, because the special also revealed some never-before-seen video from the USS Omaha in July 2019 of what had previously only been seen in radar images.
- These unidentifieds that our military could not identify. And these that are swarming around the ship here are two of them. And you see that they are self-luminous. That they are bright.