DoD FOIA Release Surfaces 2017 AATIP Memo and Elizondo Email

DoD FOIA Release Surfaces 2017 AATIP Memo and Elizondo Email on Unexplained Aerial Systems Reporting

A March 29, 2024 DoD FOIA response to The Black Vault (case 21-FR-0964) encloses a 2017 email exchange involving Luis D. Elizondo and Neill T. Tipton and a memorandum for record stating that Congress funded AATIP in 2008 to study lift, propulsion, cloaking, and human effects, and requiring DoD elements to provide courtesy copies of data on unexplained or unknown aerial systems to OUSD(I&S).

Published

October 4, 2026

Declassified

Date not listed

Source agency

The Black Vault (FOIA archive)

dodfoiaaatipsurfaces2017memoelizondoemail

DoD FOIA Release Surfaces 2017 AATIP Memo

The Department Division issued a final response dated March 29, 2024, closing out FOIA case 21-FR-0964 — a request originally submitted on May 5, 2021 by John Greenwald of The Black Vault. According to the letter, the request reached the Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Privacy, Civil Liberties, and Transparency on February 3, 2022, where it was assigned its case number. What followed was not a routine administrative closeout.

The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence & Security conducted an additional search of its records systems and located 2 documents totaling 2 pages determined to be responsive. Those two pages matter because of what they contain. The enclosed material includes an October 3, 2017 email exchange involving Luis D.

Elizondo and Neill T. " Together, the released pages offer a narrow but official window into how AATIP was described internally during 2017 — the same…

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Based on the official release at https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/pentagon-calendar-lists-an-aatip-era-meeting-but-all-supporting-records-are-missing/

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