AARO investigated numerous named, and described, but unnamed programs alleged to involve UAP exploitation conveyed to AARO through official interviews. Although at least one interviewee claimed to have seen a captured UAP, none of the interviewees had direct access to or firsthand knowledge of the programs alleged to be UAP-related. One interviewee had access into one authentic program, but his position was such that he had only limited access to its complete details. Interviewees’ indirect and incomplete knowledge of authentic efforts most likely contributed to their misinterpretation of what they heard or saw.
AARO instituted a secure process for handling information to allow interviewees to come forward to provide their statements to AARO within secure facilities. AARO established a partnership with the Special Access Program Control Offices for the DoD, IC, and DHS to review programs identified in interviews by name or description to determine if the programs correlated in time and location to historic SAP or Controlled Access Programs (CAP). This agreement details how interviewee claims concerning the names and descriptions of the alleged programs are handled, stored, and protected so that their veracity can be determined in a secure manner. A key part of this agreement is that AARO investigators have been granted full access to all pertinent sensitive USG programs.
AARO determined that the following alleged USG program name was portrayed inaccurately by the interviewee:
KONA BLUE was brought to AARO’s attention by interviewees who claimed that it was a sensitive DHS compartment to
cover up the retrieval and exploitation of non-human biologics
s2AARO case files. KONA BLUE traces its origins to the
DIA-managed AAWSAP/AATIP program, which was funded through a special appropriation and executed by its primary
contractor, a private sector organization. DIA cancelled the program in 2012 due to lack of merit and the utility
of the deliverables. As discussed in Section IV of this report, while the official purpose of AAWSAP/AATIP was to
conduct research into 12 areas of cutting edge science, the contractor team, and at least one supportive
government program manager, also conducted UAP and paranormal research at a property owned by the private sector
organization.
When DIA cancelled this program, its supporters proposed to DHS that they create and fund a new version of AAWSAP/AATIP under a SAP s3AARO case files. This proposal, codenamed KONA BLUE, would restart UAP investigations, paranormal research (including alleged “human consciousness anomalies”) and reverse-engineer any recovered off-world spacecraft that they hoped to acquire. This proposal gained some initial traction at DHS to the point where a Prospective Special Access Program (PSAP) was officially requested to stand up this program, but it was eventually rejected by DHS leadership for lacking merit. As demonstrated by the proposal package and by statements from the originator, Senators Lieberman and Reid asked that the PSAP be established with the promise of additional funding s4Senator Harry Reid Letter to Deputy Secretary of Defense, William Lynn III; Memorandum, from the Under Secretary of Defense James Clapper to the Deputy Secretary of Defense, 17 November 2009; program documentation from ARRO case files. The proposed KONA BLUE lines of effort closely mirrored those conducted by the private sector organization for AAWSAP/AATIP.
KONA BLUE’s advocates were convinced that the USG was hiding UAP technologies. They believed that creating this program under DHS would allow all of the technology and knowledge of these alleged programs to be moved under the KONA BLUE program. The program would provide a security and governing structure where it could be monitored properly by congressional oversight committees. This belief was foundational for the KONA BLUE proposal, based on the proposal documents and several interviewees who have provided the same information to AARO and Congress s5AARO case files. The Oral History Initiative section of the KONA BLUE proposal was to collect data:
…from an already identified and calibrated list of retired, previously highly placed government, armed services, contractor and intelligence community individuals. The oral history project will include gathering all information pertaining to the location of advanced aerospace technology and biological samples, including records, files, reports, photographs, as well as physical samples s6Program documentation, from AARO case files.
It is critical to note that no extraterrestrial craft or bodies were ever collected—this material was only assumed to exist by KONA BLUE advocates and its anticipated contract performers. This was the same assumption made by those same individuals involved with the AAWSAP/AATIP program. The SAP was never approved or stood up, and no data or material was transferred to DHS s7Senator Harry Reid Letter to Deputy Secretary of Defense, William Lynn III; Memorandum, from the Under Secretary of Defense James Clapper to the Deputy Secretary of Defense, 17 November 2009..
AARO confirmed the existence of one IC CAP that was unnecessarily expanded in 2021 to include a UAP reverse-engineering mission. This program was expanded despite the lack of any evidence or mission need to justify the expansion. The appropriate congressional committees were notified. This program never recovered or reverse-engineered any technology, let alone off-world spacecraft. This CAP was disestablished due to its inactivity, absence of mission need, and lack of merit.
AARO found no empirical evidence that any UAP investigatory effort since 1945— foreign, domestic, government, private, or academic—has ever uncovered verifiable information regarding the recovery or existence of extraterrestrial beings or crafts. Although AARO continues to conduct interviews, research programs, and pursue investigatory leads, AARO’s work has resulted in disproving the majority of these claims using the verifiable information made within those claims.
AARO researched and interviewed numerous people, programs, and leads. It has determined that modern allegations that the USG is hiding off-world technology and beings largely originate from the same group of individuals who have ties to the cancelled AAWSAP/AATIP program and a private sector organization’s paranormal research efforts. These individuals have worked with each other consistently in various UAP-related efforts.