Luis Elizondo, the self-proclaimed former director of the “Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program” (AATIP), claims he resigned in protest from the DOD because UFOs/UAP weren’t being taken seriously. Just before he resigned, he allegedly transferred the leadership of AATIP to Neill Tipton, who was the Director for Defense Intelligence, Collection and Special Programs for the DOD. Please continue reading to see why this was a fabrication on Elizondo’s part. In an email to Tipton on September 25, 2017, Elizondo wrote that he had drafted a memo at the unclassified level that “helps you better assume the new responsibilities for AATIP.” The wording is odd for someone who is allegedly transferring the leadership of AATIP to Tipton. First of all, “new responsibilities” is VAGUE and could be referring to any new responsibilities. Secondly, if Elizondo was really transferring the leadership of AATIP to Neill Tipton, you’d think he would have written something like “helps you better assume the leadership of AATIP” or “helps you better assume the directorship of AATIP.” Something along those lines. On October 3, 2017, the very same day Elizondo resigned from the DOD, Tipton replied with the following “Getting spun back up. Will read and get thoughts back today or tomorrow (at Ft Meade half the day today).” In his complaint to the DOD Inspector General in May 2021, Elizondo wrote that Tipton had “voiced his approval” for the memo; and provided the email exchange as evidence for it. But in his aforementioned reply to Elizondo, Tipton did NOT voice his approval. Elizondo wrote in his much hyped-up book “Imminent” that Neill Tipton had already read the memo but delayed signing it until he returned from “an official trip.” Tipton went away the week beginning Monday September 25, as he stated to Elizondo in a previous email (interesting how Elizondo sent the “new responsibilities” email to Tipton on that very same day). Tipton obviously didn’t read the memo before he went away, because as mentioned above, he wrote to Elizondo: “Getting spun back up. Will read and get thoughts back today or tomorrow (at Ft Meade half the day today).” Then there’s also this to keep in mind. In his complaint to the DOD Inspector General, Elizondo wrote that in October 2013: "...I informed my supervisor, Mr. Neill Tipton, of my work in a 'parallel portfolio' and my need to gain expertise from the ISR Task Force given the nuanced nature of analysis we were conducting. Mr. Tipton indicated he had no issue with me working other efforts as long as my duties were not neglected at ISPE." But in an email to Tipton on August 25, 2017, Elizondo wrote "I think by now you probably already know I have been managing another ‘nuanced’ effort within the Department for some time. In fact, even when I worked for you years ago your [sic] probably guessed I was also working another effort for the Department given some of our discussion and raw video. I can't overstate how important I believe this portfolio is with respect to our collective National Security." Anyone who understands basic English can see that Elizondo wasn’t being truthful in his complaint to the DOD IG. Furthermore, in his book, Elizondo wrote that when he visited Tipton at his office in Arlington, he told Tipton “By now you probably already know that I am involved with another… nuanced project.” According to Elizondo, Tipton allegedly said, amongst other things; “I know. I see a lot of strange people you bring here once in a while. I don’t like to ask questions.” However, Elizondo made no mention of Tipton saying that he (Tipton) “had no issue with me working other efforts as long as my duties were not neglected at ISPE” (or anything along those lines) like he wrote in his complaint to the DOD IG. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that Elizondo wasn’t being truthful. In early 2025, researcher John Greenewald Jr. provided an email involving John (Jay) Stratton; the former director of the Pentagon’s UAP Task Force, which he obtained through FOIA. The email is dated October 22, 2020, and states that Elizondo had no “assigned responsibilities for AATIP” and that Elizondo “had done some coordination/introductions but did not run AATIP/was not part of AATIP.” When former Elizondo associate, Jeremy McGowan, was interviewed on the Lu Reviews YouTube channel in December 2023, he stated that Jay Stratton had told him in person at a conference that AATIP was his (Stratton’s) “program,” and that Elizondo didn’t run it. Mr. McGowan also stated that Elizondo was a “facilitator of introductions” (it is important that you watch the interview for yourself, beginning at around the one-hour mark of the interview). Researcher and journalist, Steven Greenstreet from the New York Post, posted an audio clip on “X” of Jay Stratton saying that he created AATIP in 2015! When Dr. James Lacatski, the former director of the Pentagon’s AAWSAP program, was interviewed on the “Weaponized Podcast,” he said that AATIP was “mainly spun up as I was getting ready to retire” (I found this clip on “X”). Although Dr. Lacatski also implied that Elizondo was involved with AATIP in the clip, in the book “Skinwalkers at the Pentagon” (which he co-authored with Dr. Colm Kelleher and George Knapp) it is stated that Dr. Lacatski retired from “government service” on May 13, 2016! There are also clues in the book that support the notion that “AATIP” was created in 2015. For example, in Appendix IV, the first paragraph reads: “A picturesque, 480-acre ranch property in northeastern Utah’s Uintah Basin played a pivotal role in the creation of AAWSAP, BAASS, and -eventually- AATIP and the UAP Task Force.” This sentence implies that “AATIP” was created closer in date to the UAP Task Force than to AAWSAP; which was created in 2008. Another interesting sentence from the book is the following “…continuing through the creation of AAWSAP in 2008, then of AATIP years later, and eventually to the UAPTF in 2018” (note how no date was given for the creation of “AATIP”). In March 2025, Steven Greenstreet posted the following to me on X: “Navy is on-record saying Stratton was in charge of the UAP ‘task force’ starting in 2018, then officially in 2020. Prior to that, Stratton spearheaded a UAP ‘effort’, which he called ‘AATIP 2.0’. Stratton would occasionally bring in Elizondo to help with this.” All of this information contradicts Elizondo’s claim in October 2017, after his retirement, that “For nearly the last decade, I ran a sensitive aerospace threat identification program, focusing on unidentified aerial technologies” (credit goes to Manny; Area 503, for providing this clip of Elizondo in his “Who’s Lue?” documentary on YouTube). It is also crucial to keep in mind that Elizondo’s name was mentioned about 15 times in total in the books “Skinwalker’s at the Pentagon” and “Inside the US Government Covert UFO Program: Initial revelations” (also written by Dr. James Lacatski, Dr. Colm Kelleher, and George Knapp) but not once, not once, was Elizondo referred to as the director/head of AATIP despite being referred to as “Director of Global Security and Special Programs” for To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science; and despite claiming in his aforementioned DOD IG complaint that in 2010, he became the “Director for AATIP and AAWSAP” after Dr. James Lacatski allegedly approached him and asked him if he would consider assuming that role. To be continued in Part 2…
