KONA BLUE

KONA BLUE was the two-word designator that the Science and Technology Directorate of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) gave in 2011 to a prospective special access program (PSAP) intended to receive and continue the research of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) contract known as the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP) or Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), which the DIA had placed with Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS). The program was never approved as a special access program. The DHS Chief Security Officer stamped the file declassified on July 18, 2023, and a 56-page set of the records was released in 2024 by the Department of Defense's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO).¹

The DIA contract that preceded it

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senator Daniel Inouye sponsored a 10 million dollar add to the fiscal 2008 defense supplemental appropriation, and the fiscal 2010 defense appropriation carried a 12 million dollar add. A DIA request for proposals listed twelve technical areas (lift, propulsion, control, armament, signatures reduction, materials, configuration, power generation, temporal translation, human effects, human interface and technology integration). DIA awarded the contract to BAASS, described by Lieutenant General Ronald Burgess, the DIA Director, as "the only bid," headquartered in North Las Vegas, Nevada. A DIA briefing paper of November 2009 gives the award date as September 2008 and the delivery date for the first reports as July 31, 2009. Burgess wrote that BAASS produced 26 technical reports by June 2009, all delivered by September 2009, and 12 more after the fiscal 2010 add.²³

The same briefing paper records, under August 2008: "DIA learned of counterintelligence concerns with Bigelow Aerospace, the parent company of Bigelow Aerospace Advance Space Studies. These concerns do not appear to be directly related to Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Application Program (AAWSAP)." A DIA info memorandum of October 30, 2009 states that eight reviews were performed by other authors listed in a table and five by outside reviewers, "including three research staff members at Sandia National Laboratories," and that "all of the reviews were positive, some exceptionally so." The 26 titles include "Antigravity for Aerospace Applications," "Wormholes in Space Time," "Theory and Experiments of Invisibility Cloaking," "Metallic Glasses" and "Quantum Entanglement Communications."³

Federal Election Commission records list Robert Bigelow, president of Bigelow Companies of Las Vegas, as the source of a 5,000 dollar contribution of June 13, 2003 to the Searchlight Leadership Fund, a leadership political action committee whose listed treasurer, Claude Zobell, is also treasurer of Reid's Senate campaign committee, Friends for Harry Reid; Bigelow Development Aerospace LLC of Las Vegas as the source of a 5,000 dollar contribution to the Searchlight Leadership Fund on June 30, 2004; and Bigelow as the source of two entries of 2,400 dollars each (marked for the primary and the general election) to Friends for Harry Reid on June 8, 2010.⁴

Reid's request of June 2009 and the Defense Department's answers

On June 24, 2009 Reid wrote to Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn that the Senate had mandated the DIA to assess foreign advanced aerospace threats, that "several highly sensitive, unconventional aerospace-related findings" had been identified, and that he required Lynn's assistance "in establishing a Restricted Special-Access-Program (SAP) with a Bigoted Access List" for portions of the program. Attachment 1 to the letter gave the sponsoring agency as undetermined (the Deputy Secretary of Defense), the program length as fiscal years 2009 to 2013, and a preliminary access list for fiscal 2010 naming Lynn, Reid, Inouye, "Robert T. Herbert (U.S. Senate)," officials of the Office of Naval Intelligence and of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, and, as contractor personnel, BAASS. A DIA chronology prepared for the Deputy Secretary lists "Bob Herbert, Senator Reid's personal staffer" as having made multiple telephone calls between July and October 2009 to Marcel Lettre (listed as "PDASDILA") about the status of the Defense Department's reply, and, on November 4, 2009, as relaying to a DIA official the Senator's impatience with the lack of a response to the June 24 letter.³⁵

A DIA info memorandum (U-09-2660) concluded: "Based on classification levels of current and projected program deliverables, there are insufficient grounds to classify this open program, invoke alternative or compensatory control measures (ACCM), or establish a restricted SAP." It stated that DIA was unaware of any report "containing information sufficiently sensitive and vulnerable to require extra protection," and that DIA assumed Reid's reference to findings requiring extraordinary protection referred to future phases of the program. The Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, James Clapper, sent Lynn a memorandum recommending "against establishing a Special Access Program at this time." Talking points for a meeting of the Deputy Secretary with Reid on November 17, 2009 recorded: "The FY09 deliverables for AAWSAP are for academic research and basic scientific research."³

Burgess's later info memorandum to the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics states that in November 2009 he and Lynn met Reid, and that DIA "determined the reports were of limited value to DIA" and suggested the project "could be transitioned to another agency or component better suited to oversee the project." A history prepared at DHS in November 2011 dates a meeting of Burgess, Lynn and Reid to December 2009 and states that they communicated to Reid that the DIA program "could not be conducted by the Intelligence Community due to its potential growth."²⁶

AARO's Historical Record Report, Volume I (February 2024) states that "Deputy Secretary Lynn declined to do so based on the recommendation of then-Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, James R. Clapper, Jr.," and that AAWSAP/AATIP "was terminated in 2012 upon the completion of its deliverables due to DIA and DoD concerns about the project."⁷

The DHS proposal

The history prepared at DHS by Joel Wall of the Science and Technology Special Projects Office states that in May 2008 Reid, Inouye and Senator Ted Stevens invited a DIA program manager to meet them about "exotic sciences"; that in July 2008 Reid briefed the DIA Director, Lieutenant General Michael Maples; that a contract was awarded to "Bigelow Aerospace"; that the two-year contract carried 22 million dollars and produced 38 research papers, a searchable database of more than 100,000 entries and investigative cases; that Reid had also requested that the contract effort "provide confirmation of observed physical and psychological phenomenon by government personnel"; and that in December 2010 the research data went into contractor-secured storage.⁶

The history states that in April 2011 a presenter whose name is redacted briefed Wall, director of the Special Projects Office, and Steven J. Cover, chief of the DHS Special Access Program Control Office (SAPCO), inviting DHS to expand the analysis of the compiled data and the recording of anomalies, and reiterating "Senator Reid's desire to transition the program into a special access program to enable access to data and material held by other government and industry entities." A memorandum of November 28, 2011 from Under Secretary for Science and Technology Tara O'Toole to Deputy Secretary Jane Holl Lute states that O'Toole was given the program information in May 2011 and, "based on available information and review of security requirements," authorized the Special Projects Office to establish "an unacknowledged, waived prospective special access program, which was designated KONA BLUE." O'Toole wrote that a SAP was proposed "as we have been informed that there is a body of previous work held by other entities that requires a SAP level classification to access it."⁶⁸

A memorandum of July 11, 2011 to O'Toole, from a Special Projects Office director whose name is redacted and who would serve as program manager, asked her as original classification authority to approve KONA BLUE as a Science and Technology prospective special access program, to investigate, identify and analyze "sensitive advanced materials and technologies," and promised final approval documents for the Special Access Program Oversight Committee (SAPOC) within 90 days. A DHS memorandum of December 12, 2011 states that O'Toole established the PSAP on July 11, 2011. A table of meetings dated between June 10 and October 31, 2011 and an inventory of documents (a DIA contract book, a DIA congressional language book and "DIA Deliverables 1-38") are included in the file.¹⁹¹⁰

The seven centers

A presentation under the heading "Advanced Technology Threat" gave the funding as 12 million dollars for fiscal 2012, 25 million for fiscal 2013 and 35 to 50 million for fiscal 2014, with later years undetermined, and called the research "a Congressional interest item." It described four research centers (Data Collection and Analysis, Advanced Technology, Consciousness, and Integration); a heading in the description of the first center reads "Institute for Discovery Center."¹¹

The proposal prepared under DHS Instruction 140-04-001 described seven centers: Data Collection, Data Analysis, Advanced Technology, Experimental, Consciousness, Medical and Education. Its justification stated that "Recovered AAV technology exists in and is accessible only within a SAP construct." The Advanced Technology Center was to "gain access to and inventory all existing caches of Advanced Aerospace Vehicle (AAV) materials and documentation within CONUS, whether residing in archive storage or under active program investigation in National Laboratories, government organizations and/or contractors," and to analyze recovered technology "in collaboration with major aerospace and electronics Companies." An Oral History Initiative was to collect information from "retired, previously highly placed government, armed services, contractor and intelligence community individuals" on the location of advanced aerospace technology and biological samples; the text states that "agency directors, members of the JCS and very senior individuals in the Executive Branch" and "certain foreign heads of state" had been exposed to the subject. The Consciousness Center was to "expand on remote viewing and remote communication" and to study communication, retrieval and "physical transport across dimensional/space-time barrier." The Data Collection Center would build on a data warehouse of 11 databases holding more than 200,000 reports. The Experimental Centers would begin with "a well-studied experimental location" researched for about 15 years, with human observers used as "biosensors" and biological samples collected for genetic, biochemical and toxicology analysis.⁹

The Data Analysis Center section listed the feeds it would seek: a data exchange with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations; "historical and recent cockpit recordings and ECM recordings" from the four services; tracking records of any agency within the continental United States; "Lunar and Mars associated data" from NASA; "satellite data on unknown targets" from the National Reconnaissance Office; uncorrelated imagery from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency; trajectory tracks from NORAD, Northern Command and MIT Lincoln Laboratory; radar tracks from the Federal Aviation Administration; and "all data (historical and contemporary) pertaining to interactions/sightings of advanced aerospace vehicles at missile sites, nuclear weapons storage facilities, and at Air Force bases in CONUS." It also listed activity in Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean and an assessment of attempts by "foreign countries (particularly China/Russia)" to develop breakthroughs "from recovered technology items." The Data Collection Center was to build a liaison center with state, local and tribal police, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Coast Guard and border surveillance under DHS, the Fish and Wildlife Service, park game wardens and the Federal Aviation Administration, and to field in-house investigators for cases with more than one eyewitness, a distance under 600 feet, physical traces, electromagnetic effects or physiological effects.⁹

The Medical Center was to study deaths, injuries and physiological and psychological effects of "interaction with vehicles and anomalous phenomena," to maintain a rapid response team able to run 3 tesla MRI scans, blood tests and genetic tests, to monitor family members of those affected, to expand a "preliminary correlation project between known AAV associated injuries / physiological effects and ICD-9 subtypes," and to handle "unusual and unique biological specimens" at the forensic, anatomic, biochemical and genetic levels under privacy and human subjects regulations. The Education Center was to recruit and train a volunteer corps, with expenses reimbursed, to supply initial data collection within their states, and to maintain "the world's largest libraries on AAV technology and associated phenomena."⁹

Accommodations and performance sites

The accommodations listed were a five-building complex in Las Vegas, one building of which held a room in the last stages of Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility accreditation, a two-story Las Vegas building with a room certified for top secret storage by the Defense Security Service, and "a four hundred eighty-acre research property in Utah with a fifteen year history of intensive anomalous activity" under armed guard around the clock. The owners' names are redacted. Wall's statement of objectives of November 2011 lists ongoing observations "at sites at the Bigelow Ranch in Utah, the San Juan Valley in Colorado, and Marley's Woods in Missouri," states that much of the material had been collated into a database "maintained by the former National Institute of Discovery Science, a data compilation and analysis function of the former government program," places data analysis centers in Las Vegas, Austin, Texas, and the National Capital Region, and provides for a research council of at least five independent scientists.¹²

Funding and the senators

A decision briefing to the oversight committee on November 21, 2011 gave the expected funding as 12 to 15 million dollars, listed a "Classified Line Item in CSO budget," and stated that the Under Secretary for Management had concurred "in the need to establish a Business/Administrative SAP to handle primarily 'unacknowledged' monies (e.g., KONA BLUE)." Wall's proposed budget was 10 million dollars, of which 2 million would support four office staff and two leased facilities and 8 million the data centers.⁸¹²

O'Toole's memorandum of November 28, 2011 states: "in Oct 2011, Dr O'Toole met with Senator Lieberman, Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and Senator Harry Reid, Senate Majority Leader, to discuss the program funding." The memorandum describes the work as a "Congressional interest item" and recommends that Lute approve KONA BLUE as a Science and Technology special access program.⁸ AARO later wrote that "Senators Lieberman and Reid asked that the PSAP be established with the promise of additional funding."⁷

The oversight committee of November 21, 2011

The SAPOC met at 7:45 a.m. on November 21, 2011 under Deputy Secretary Lute, with Under Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis Caryn Wagner, Under Secretary for Management Rafael Borras, General Counsel Ivan Fong, Chief Security Officer Gregory Marshall, Cover as executive secretary, and O'Toole. The minutes state that the Deputy Secretary opened the meeting "with some sense of urgency which was the impending transfer of funds to DHS from Senators Reid and [Lieberman] to conduct the KONA BLUE program." O'Toole said the senators were prepared to provide funding in the fiscal 2012 budget, that they believed the technologies affected the security of the United States, that there was "very serious science involved," and that if only a small portion of the research gave results for DHS application "it would be worth it." Asked why the FBI had not been approached, she answered that it had no organic capability for scientific research and development. The Under Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis raised whether S&T had authority to conduct "collection," and the discussion turned on whether KONA BLUE was an intelligence program which the DIA no longer had the authority to conduct under Executive Order 12333, or the assimilation of data supplied willingly. The Deputy Secretary tasked O'Toole and Cover with a paper of five to ten pages on how the program arrived at that point, its history at DIA and the science to be researched, and, according to the minutes, "is still not certain of what the 'It' is in the program or otherwise what exactly we are researching."¹³

Termination

At a progress review on December 8, 2011 attended by Lute, Fong, Wagner, Cover and an associate general counsel (O'Toole was invited and did not attend), the questions considered included whether the justifications for establishment as a SAP were adequate and whether the budget and personnel requirements were sufficient. Lute "directed that the PSAP be terminated immediately" and that accessed individuals be debriefed. The memorandum recording the decision, from Cover through O'Toole to Lute, is dated December 12, 2011.¹⁰ A letter of February 5, 2024 from the DHS Acting Deputy Secretary Kristie Canegallo to Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks gives the date of termination as February 10, 2012. A memorandum for the record of June 5, 2013 by Cover states that the proposal "did not require extraordinary security measures," that the program had been approved before any security classification guide, standard operating procedure, facility accreditation or information system plan existed, that no documentation existed to reclassify it, and that all briefed personnel would be administratively debriefed on that date.¹¹⁴

A biography of O'Toole prepared for the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission in 2020 lists her as Executive Vice President and Senior Fellow of In-Q-Tel and states that before joining it she was Under Secretary for Science and Technology.¹⁵

Declassification and release

The file's declassification stamps read July 18, 2023, eight days before the House Oversight subcommittee hearing of July 26, 2023 at which David Grusch testified.¹⁶ Canegallo's letter thanks Hicks for her letter of September 28, 2023, states that all DHS documents on KONA BLUE were declassified and approved for public release, that the strike-out method retained visibility of prior classification marks, and that a search found no additional records.¹ In a Scientific American column of January 19, 2024 the former AARO director Sean Kirkpatrick wrote that "Senator Reid then enlisted the help of then senator Joseph Lieberman to request that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) set up an SAP for the same purpose," that "the administrative SAP proposal package was informed by the same individuals who had been associated with AATIP," and that AARO had located the proposal, "complete with the participants," for public release. In the same column he wrote that the DIA "concluded that not only did no such material exist, but taxpayer money was being inappropriately spent on paranormal research at Skinwalker Ranch in Utah," and that this was "well documented in open sources, particularly in records available on DIA's electronic FOIA Reading Room."¹⁷ The DIA packet of 2009 and the DHS file do not name Skinwalker Ranch; the DHS statement of objectives refers to "the Bigelow Ranch in Utah."¹³

AARO's account

AARO's Historical Record Report, Volume I, states that interviewees brought KONA BLUE to its attention "who claimed that it was a sensitive DHS compartment to cover up the retrieval and exploitation of 'non-human biologics.'" It states that the proposal "would restart UAP investigations, paranormal research (including alleged 'human consciousness anomalies') and reverse-engineer any recovered off-world spacecraft that they hoped to acquire"; that a prospective special access program "was officially requested" but "eventually rejected by DHS leadership for lacking merit"; that its advocates "were convinced that the USG was hiding UAP technologies"; that "no extraterrestrial craft or bodies were ever collected" and "the SAP was never approved or stood up, and no data or material was transferred to DHS"; and that it was not reported to Congress because it was never established, although the Deputy Secretary of Defense gave a congressional notification. The report adds that modern allegations of hidden recovered craft "largely originate from the same group of individuals who have ties to the cancelled AAWSAP/AATIP program," numbering Persons 1 to 5 and several interviewees, who "have not provided any empirical evidence of their claims to AARO." The report was cleared for open publication by the Defense Department on March 6, 2024.⁷

Section 1687 of Public Law 118-31, enacted on December 22, 2023, barred defense funds for activities involving unidentified anomalous phenomena under special or restricted access limitations unless the Secretary of Defense gave the details to the congressional committees and leadership, "including for any activities described in a report released by the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office in fiscal year 2024."¹⁸

Testimony on a transfer of material

Kirkpatrick's column describes a story told by "conspiracists" in which the United States hid and tried to reverse engineer recovered craft, abandoned the effort to private sector defense contractors, and later saw those contractors "want to bring the whole program back under U.S. government (USG) auspices," with the Central Intelligence Agency apparently stopping the transfer. He wrote that this was "all without substantiating evidence."¹⁷ At a House Oversight hearing on November 13, 2024 Representative Eric Burlison asked Luis Elizondo whether any branch of the government or defense contractors possessed such technology. Elizondo answered that a document cleared by the Defense Department's Office of Prepublication and Security Review stated that his predecessor program, AAWSAP, was trying to collect material of unknown origin, that "an aerospace contract company" had "requested to divest itself of the material" that "was collected in the 1950s," and that "that did not actually occur." Asked by Burlison whether the company was Bigelow Aerospace, he said yes. Burlison then cited the journalist Christopher Sharp as reporting a transfer among Lockheed Martin, Bigelow Aerospace and the CIA that was blocked, and Elizondo replied: "it was blocked. Why it was blocked, I can only surmise." He said that former contract personnel had told him and others the account was accurate, that a memorandum from the Secretary of the Air Force would have been required to complete the transfer, and that he later sought one from Defense Secretary James Mattis. Asked who holds the material today, Elizondo said he could not discuss it in an open hearing. Representative Nancy Mace asked him whether material is given to contractors for their expertise, citing General Dynamics as an example, and what Lockheed Martin's expertise is; he answered "Aerospace, ma'am."¹⁹