Daniel Inouye

Daniel Inouye (1924-2012) was a Hawaiian-American politician and World War II veteran who served as a U.S. Senator from Hawaii from 1963 until his death in 2012. Inouye played a pivotal role in UAP/UFO research through his position of power as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, which has jurisdiction over all Senate discretionary spending. In 2007, he secretly funneled $22 million to the Pentagon's clandestine budget for UFO research, collaborating with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) to establish the program while bypassing floor debate by placing the funding in the Black Budget. Inouye's support was instrumental in creating the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), which he helped establish within the Defense Intelligence Agency to investigate unexplained aerial phenomena. The program operated with extremely limited official knowledge and was officially defunded in 2012, the same year as Inouye's death. His involvement was motivated by national security concerns regarding potential advanced foreign aerospace capabilities.