Luis Elizondo is a former American intelligence officer and a public advocate for the disclosure of information about UFOs and unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP).
Luis 'Lou' Elizondo is a U.S. military veteran, a former intelligence and counterintelligence officer, an author, and a media personality. He has been described in public reports as the former director of AATIP, a classified Department of Defense program designed to investigate military reports of UFOs, now also known as unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP). Elizondo stated that he led the program from approximately 2010.
According to Elizondo, he resigned from his position at the Department of Defense in October 2017 due to bureaucratic obstacles and a lack of sufficient attention to the issue. Later that year, he revealed the existence of AATIP to journalist Leslie Kean, a program reportedly budgeted at $22 million. After leaving the government, he joined the private organization To The Stars Academy.
Elizondo has claimed that some of these phenomena may be extraterrestrial, cryptic, or 'interdimensional' in origin, and that the U.S. government is concealing information about them; these are his claims, not officially confirmed conclusions. In the mid-2020s, he continues to promote transparency on the subject. His book, *Imminent: Inside the Pentagon’s Hunt for UFOs*, was published in August 2024.
He is a U.S. military veteran and former American intelligence officer, an author, and a public advocate for unidentified anomalous phenomena.
He has been described in public reports as the program's former director, and he himself stated that he led it from approximately 2010.
He has claimed that some of the phenomena may be extraterrestrial, cryptic, or interdimensional in origin. These are his claims, not official conclusions.
His book, published in 2024, details his account of the Pentagon's investigations into UFOs.