Luis Elizondo on The Black Vault

 

The most anticipated UFO interview in years has taken place. Luis Elizondo has finally appeared on The Black Vault with John Greenewald Jr. The reason so many people, including me, have looked forward so much to this programme is that Elizondo and the TTSA have made some of the most extraordinary claims in the history of UFOlogy; while John Greenewald has a reputation as one of the most cautious researchers in the field. Although not a skeptic, he is steadfastly rational and considers carefully every element of a case scientifically before accepting it. His speciality is obtaining secret or semi-secret government documents through the Freedom of Information Act. The first twenty-five minutes of the interview covers Elizondo's background career, how he was selected for AATIP and his decision to resign from his government position and pursue UAP research in civilian life with the TTSA. Most people following this story will be familiar with that history. the interview really starts getting interesting at 27:40 when the subject of the B2 bomber comes up. Because I watch Richplanet TV I've taken an interest in statement analysis, see here for details: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2019/12/richplanet-on-rendlesham.html. Richard D Hall seems to regard statement analysis as some kind of magic wand that you can wave over a mystery and... Hey presto!... Every conundrum vanishes; no more research needed! If he does then he is wrong about that; however to ignore completely the validity of statement analysis is as foolish as relying on it alone at the expense of all other methodologies. Elizondo is using very open body language up until then and afterwards, looking at the camera and gesticulating; but at this moment he bows his head and touches his nose. Is this an indication of dishonesty and discomfort? He begins: "Super secret sp... space stealth... you know?... Technology... Let me repeat that again; sorry about that." After that he stops stumbling over his words. It's the only time Elizondo does that in the entire interview. What did he almost let slip about the B2 aircraft and does it have something to do with space?
 
The role of Bigelow Aerospace comes up at about the half-hour mark. John Greenewald makes an interesting observation about how that contractor appeared to glide into the alleged classified programme to do experiments on possibly ET physical evidence very easily. Luis Elizondo replies that he knows Robert Bigelow and admires him a lot. It's true; Bigelow is, in a way, our George Soros. He has used his enormous wealth to fund vital investigations that otherwise would not have taken place purely through lack of money; most famously the 1990's field research into Skinwalker Ranch. Elizondo thinks it's likely Bob Bigelow was recruited informally beforehand because he alone would have been able to fulfil the operation. At forty-three minutes Greenewald asks about the codewords Elizondo used in his declassified emails, ones John gathered via a FOIA request; Lue uses very prosaic names for the UAP footage, even though he was communicating at a Top Secret level. Elizondo said he did that because he was concerned about espionage. One of the most interesting new developments was that the leak of the AATIP material caused a huge amount of bad feeling in the Department of Defence. Elizondo puts a lot of this down to people's ego. It could be somebody very senior in the DoD was not briefed in to the UAP study. This is because they didn't have a need-to-know. Even Admiral Thomas Wilson had this experience and felt very put down over it, see: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2019/06/the-wilson-notes.html. For the first time ever, Elizondo explains why he left the TTSA. He did not walk out under a cloud. He is still on good terms with Tom DeLonge and the remaining TTSA members. He simply feels he can do his best work involving the optimum use of his skills independently. He says that the Academy is more a media organization than one focusing on scientific research. Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3LBTGVIAZs. This was a far gentler conversation than I expected it to be. I think Greenewald's attitude towards Elizondo has mellowed a bit. This could be because a lot of the questions Greenewald asked since 2017, perfectly valid ones, have been answered: "Is AATIP real?", "Is the footage really from the Navy?", "Did Lue really work on AATIP?", etc. I can tell that the two men have been communicating personally and have developed a good rapport. Also, Elizondo has a reputation for being very warm and genial. He was very patient with Greenewald and answered his questions calmly and respectfully. As John says at the end, the interview was not nearly long enough. I wasn't surprised to hear that he had far more questions to ask. Hopefully there will be a part 2 at some point.
See here for background: http://hpanwo.blogspot.com/2020/02/ufo-disclosure-portal.html.
And: https://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.com/2020/07/the-secret-of-skinwalker-ranch-review.html.
And: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2020/07/ben-emlyn-jones-on-kev-baker-show-60.html.
And: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2020/12/ttsa-splits.html.