George Knapp: You’d also want to collect videos where you can. And we have talked about this before. Three videos have now been made public. There are more, right?
Luis Elizondo: There are more. But I think it’s important to … our job at TSA is not to satisfy the idle curiosity of people out there that say, “I want to see more videos.” That’s not what this company is about. This company’s about changing the paradigm in which our US government can finally take this issue seriously without worrying about their political survival, right? allowing Congress to have a conversation, either an open or closed session saying, “Alright guys, gals, what do we do about this? This is obviously something that looks pretty legitimate, what are we as a country can do about it? You executive branch, what are you prepared to do right now to help collect more information and analyze this information? And who’s it going to go to? Who’s going to be the single belly button to do this?” Right? That is what TSA is trying to accomplish, among many other things. But we are not here to satisfy the idle curiosity of ufologists or weekend enthusiasts because they happen to want to see another video. And I’m sorry, I know people want to see more videos. But in the end, it’s not about the videos. The videos (are) just a tool to to help paint the compelling picture that there are things out there as a nation, we don’t know what they are. And that is why we do those videos — try to get those released. It’s not so people can sit there and eat popcorn on a weekend and say, “Ooh, Ahh. What is that?” Or, “Oh, you know what, that’s actually an IR flare from a MiG 25 pulling a, you know, a two degree turn to the west.” It’s not and I can’t go into reasons why I know it’s not and why we know it’s not because we get into classified information. And the reason why you’re seeing just a short snippet of the video is because the rest of it’s probably pretty classified. So it’s not an attempt to try to misinform people. It’s unfortunately … that’s all that could come out.
THE INTERVIEW
- Luis Elizondo keeps his distance from ufologists for a reason
- Sorting out the AATIP, AAWSAP and BAASS UFO studies with Luis Elizondo
- AATIP’s UFO findings more than Pentagon admits, Luis Elizondo says
- Seeing the big picture crucial to UFO discussions, Luis Elizondo says
- AAWSAP got UFO studies – and a lot more – started in 2007
- Forces at Skinwalker Ranch may confound science … but not forever
- Luis Elizondo on what should be secret, and studying ‘metamaterial’
- To The Stars Academy knows more UFO videos are out there
- Public role has tortured him, but Luis Elizondo saw it as the only way
Knapp: Classified because of sources and methods.
Elizondo: Correct.
Knapp: But also classified because of what’s on the video?
Elizondo: Potentially, I can’t talk about that.
Knapp: Okay.
Elizondo: The reason why information is classified is because there is an original classification authority, an organization that has the right to classify something. And these organizations do a pretty good job of classifying things to protect missions and operations, ongoing operations. And people. Right? So you classify things because of sources and methods. And in the end to protect the integrity of the operation and protect, maybe it’s American lives or other people that we’re working with at the time. And so there are a whole bunch of reasons. For example, maybe you hear the video beforehand, the callsign of one pilot to another right? Or you hear the AOR (area of responsibility) that they’re flying in, right, or the type of mission that they’re on, or things like that, you know, certain capabilities, certain locations, certain operations that we’re not prepared to have that conversation yet
Knapp: A special access program, let’s say theoretically, one is created to go after this again. Would a program like that be given access to whatever’s around — videos, materials.
Elizondo: If it’s done correctly, yes. If it has the authority to do so. And it’s written down that you are now going to be the organization doing this and here are your authorities, then absolutely. But it has to be something that would be coming down from senior levels of either the executive branch or the legislative branch, to require that, and I will go a step further by recommending that however this is done, that there’s an annual requirement to brief up to leadership on the results and the findings of this program. Right? Not just let it work somewhere in the back shadows. That information that is even classified needs to be delivered to senior leadership in this country, so they can make an informed decision.
Knapp: And so they can also make a decision whether to let the rest of us know.
Elizondo: Whatever that decision is.
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