Luis "Lue" Elizondo

Former director of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP). His resignation in 2017 triggered the modern UAP disclosure movement. Author of the NYT bestseller 'Imminent' (2024). Important source, but to be read with critical distance.

Luis Elizondo is an American author, media personality, and former U.S. intelligence officer specializing in counterintelligence and UAP research. He earned degrees from the University of Miami, majoring in Microbiology and Immunology while minoring in Chemistry and Mathematics, and gained advanced research experience in parasitology and tropical diseases.

Elizondo enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1995 and built an extensive career in military and civilian intelligence. He served in Military Intelligence with deployments to South Korea, Afghanistan in the post-9/11 period under General James Mattis, and the Middle East, holding roles as Operations Officer and Battle Captain. In 1998, he was recruited as a civilian Special Agent, protecting advanced aerospace technologies and investigating espionage and terrorism.

From 2009 to 2012, Elizondo led the Pentagon's Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), a secretive unit studying unidentified aerial phenomena for national security threats. His responsibilities included managing security and counterintelligence operations, analyzing UAP encounters defying conventional physics, and assessing the national security implications of military UAP encounters.

Elizondo resigned in October 2017 amid frustrations over transparency and became a prominent UAP disclosure activist. He spurred public awareness through the New York Times' 2017 exposé, testified before Congress on UAP matters, and appeared on major media platforms including 60 Minutes, CNN, and History Channel's Unidentified. He published the 2024 New York Times bestseller Imminent: Inside the Pentagon's Hunt for UFOs, detailing crash retrievals, non-human biologics from Roswell, and personal orb encounters.