Something extraordinary is about to be revealed. Former high-level officials and scientists with deep black experience who have always remained in the shadows are now stepping into the light. These insiders have long-standing connections to government agencies which may have programs investigating unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP). They intend to move into the private sector and to make all declassified information, and any future knowledge, available for all to see.

The team includes a 25-year veteran of the CIA’s Directorate of Operations; a Lockheed Martin Program Director for Advanced Systems at “Skunk Works”; a former deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence; a DoD Senior Intelligence officer who, among other sensitive responsibilities, ran a Pentagon aerospace “threat identification” program focusing on unidentified aerial technologies. And well placed and experienced professionals, from Intelligence and high academic positions, are also on board ― please see information on the Team for reference as you read.

What is going on here? Is this the beginning of some sort of trend towards a new openness on the part of the U.S. government? These people know more than any of us do, so the question of their motivation is fundamental.

It all started with award-winning platinum recording artist and producer Tom DeLonge, whose bands Blink182 and Angels & Airwaves sold over 25 million records in the 1990s. Tom spent many years studying UFOs, and essentially left his previous lucrative career to devote himself to this pursuit, using his own personal income and resources to set up an entertainment company called To The Stars (TTS). It had the goal of disseminating information about UFOs, consciousness, the paranormal and other unexplained mysteries through artistic pursuits such as fiction and non-fiction books, feature films, and television productions.

Most importantly, while doing so, Tom was gradually able to establish relationships with flag officers and other highly placed insiders in the aerospace industry, intelligence, the Department of Defense and NASA. These independent sources provided him with information about the UFO phenomenon and worked with him to develop a plan for the incremental release of this information through TTS, which would be particularly geared towards reaching younger audiences.

Like many others, I was astonished at Tom’s ability to win the trust of these impressive advisors, who at first wished to remain anonymous yet obviously believed that this information belongs to all of us. I talked to Tom and found him to be serious, passionate, very sharp, articulate and highly motivated to find the truth. I understood how he was able to engage this group - he did his homework, worked very hard, was sincere, and knew how to conduct himself when meeting such people. Early on, Tom allowed me to speak with one of his advisors, which helped me understand more about his effort.

Then, in late 2016, WikiLeaks published a number of Tom’s emails to John Podesta, which revealed the names of some of these sources. Among his advisors were two generals: one was a commander of the U.S. Air Force’s research laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and responsible for managing the Air Force’s $2.2 billion science and technology program; the other was the Special Assistant to the Commander of Air Force Space Command at Peterson Air Force Base. As devastating as this was to some, it established for those who doubted him that Tom was indeed telling the truth about his high level contacts.

Tom’s plans for TTS were delayed at this point, but he persevered. Subsequent delays have been out of his control, but everyone involved agrees with the necessity for a gradual release of information. “I think they really do want us to know. I really do think they do. I do, at this point, feel like it’s going to be a tough thing to swallow for people and I think there are elements about it that people are not ready for,” Delonge told George Knapp, the chief investigative reporter for KLAS TV in Las Vegas and weekend host of Coast to Coast AM.

Tom DeLonge Tom DeLonge after a long meeting in Sept., 2017.

Fast forward to the present. Now, these early advisors have mostly receded to the background and Tom has moved on to something even bigger. He has assembled a new team of collaborators and created The To The Stars Academy of Arts and Science (TTS/AAS), for which he is President and interim CEO. The Academy includes three synergistic divisions: Science, Aerospace, and Entertainment. The Public Benefit Corporation is seeking to serve the public good through exploring “the outer edges of science and the understanding of phenomena,” and making all of it public.

On Wednesday October 11, at 9:00 AM PT and 12:00 PM EST, the team will launch the new initiative at an event to be live-streamed from Seattle. Tom will introduce his colleagues and explain the intentions and purpose of the new company, and its need for public support. To tune in, or to watch it afterwards, click here.

According to a TTS /AAS statement, it’s team members who have been “operating under the shadows of top-secrecy for decades” believe that “there is sufficient credible evidence of UAP that proves exotic technologies exist that could revolutionize the human experience.” The Science division will conduct the research, which will also include consciousness, engineering space-time, brain-computer interface, genomics, and creating a database of supranormal experiences. Aerospace will apply the science to create “next-generation energy and propulsion concepts for transportation and spaceflight that could forever change movement across land, water, air”, and Entertainment will offer “informative storytelling that provides insight into the journey and provokes curiosity in the profound yet unresolved mysteries of the world.”

On Oct. 4, I had the privilege of sitting down with Jim Semivan (TTS/AAS Vice President Operations), Harold Puthoff (Vice President Science and Technology), Christopher Mellon (National Security Affairs Advisor) and Luis Elizondo (Chief of Security and Special Programs) for a four hour meeting in Washington DC. (I have known Hal Puthoff for many years, and worked with Chris Mellon previously for another HuffPost story.)

Hal Puthoff, who has spent over five decades publishing papers and advising government agencies on leading-edge technologies, explained that “these days, science fact is outstripping science fiction. We scientists are beginning to take seriously such ideas as warp-drive spaceflight right out of Star Trek, the high probability of extraterrestrial intelligence, and the realization that most of what will constitute the science of the future is well beyond our present comprehension. Given that the observation of anomalous aerospace phenomena in our skies might, in principle, incorporate elements from all three, it’s an irresistible challenge beckoning to be addressed.”

TTS Academy (left to right) Luis Elizondo, Jim Semivan, Stephen Justice, Hal Puthoff, and Christopher Mellon at a recent meeting in Seattle

At the meeting, I was given information on background and shown some revelatory documents and data off the record, some of which will eventually be made public. I was especially curious to meet Luis Eiizondo because he ran a program at the DOD involving the study of anomalous aerial threats. Luis had resigned this position literally the day before we met. I was able to verify who he was and what his tasks were at the Pentagon. He received the highest commendatons from his superiors. I learned that important unclassified data and documentation is expected to be released through the Academy’s on-line Community of Interest (COI) in collaboration with the US government, which will be set up soon.

Luis told me that among several portfolios he managed, he found the issue of unexplained aerial threats and related phenomena to be particularly interesting and perplexing. “Unlike the other efforts that many people in the Pentagon knew I was associated with, the topic of aerial threats was a much more limited audience that few had any idea I was part of, with the exception of a select few individuals,” he said.

I asked him if these unidentified objects were considered to be threats. “They did not exhibit overt hostility,” he said. “But something unexplained is always assumed to be a potential threat until we are certain it isn’t.” I find it highly significant that Luis Elizondo is moving from this Program buried within the DOD into the private sector. "From our observations, my opinion and that of others is that the phenomenon is very real. On the bright side, I believe we are closer than ever before in our understanding of how it operates,” he told me.

Following the meeting, I spoke to Stephen Justice (Aerospace Division Director), who recently retired as a Program Director for Advanced Systems at Lockheed Martin after a thirty-one year career in the Skunk Works. “How dare we think that the physics we have today is all that there is,” he said, referencing this as an important message he learned from his father. “Let’s pick at those boundaries and figure out what we don’t know. Let’s remove the artificial constraints, the assumptions we’ve applied to things, and look for opportunity.” The opportunity here, as he sees it, is to “stand in the future and look back.”

Regarding UAP, he told me that since so many smart, credible people have seen them, he has concluded they must be real. “That means it can be done - these unusual flight characteristics can be done. So how do you do it? I want to dig into how you do it. It can be done!”

For example, one objective is to harvest the technology to build a vehicle that will allow for almost instantaneous travel through land, air, oceans and space, by engineering the fabric of space-time. Such a vehicle could also float, like something from science fiction. Steve says we have had glimpses of the science that could make this possible. It is not outside the realm of possibiity, if the necessary resources are in place.

© 2017 Stephen Justice A TTS Academy concept for a vehicle drawn by Stephen Justice, embodying the technology they seek to understand and develop - a visionary concept for a revolutionary electromagnetic vehicle based on technology observed in unidentified aerial phenomena

Everyone I spoke to has some kind of unique relationship to or profound interest in “the Phenomenon” (UAP), and their own sense of a path forward. Jim Semivan joined the CIA in 1983 and retired after twenty-five-years. “I have come to realize that the Phenomenon is curiously multifaceted, exasperatingly complex and appears to exist both in our consensus reality and in another unknown space,” he wrote in an email to me after we met. “Perhaps, if we are very lucky, someday we may understand its ultimate purpose.”

Jim states that the planet seems to lack an organization that has the necessary funds to explore the Phenomenon in any detail and for a sustained period of time. “TTS/AAS hopes to raise enough money through its public offering and through expected profits from its entertainment and aerospace divisions to fund research into the Phenomenon and related exotic technologies for global consumption. Imagine a global, transparent, research organization tackling ideas that most scientists today will not entertain for fear of ridicule, involving young scientists from around the globe.”

I now understand the strong argument for taking this work out of government, where the priorities are different, funding is not available, and where this topic is such a hot potato that no one wants to touch it. Personal ideology and even religious fundamentalism lead to ridicule and efforts to suppress these investigations. We all know the limitations of the current system, even though some on the inside have worked hard to change that.

Chris Mellon served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence for two administrations and early in his career drafted the legislation that established the US Special Operations Command at a time when terrorism was not yet on the radar. He sees similarities between that and the present situation in terms of a lack of awareness of a major problem and a need for change.

“This is another case in which the system will not repair itself and people outside of government need to take action for breakthroughs to occur. This team has the skill set to process information others avert their eyes to and turn it to the advantage of the nation and the world."

For many Americans, the US government is the only entity that can speak authoritatively on these issues. That will need to happen eventually if the current stalemate is to be broken. But does the movement of this knowledgeable, well-connected group out of the official world into a public company mean that government is beginning to relent? Who else might be waiting in the wings to participate? Could this endeavor be a catalyst for greater government openness?

The inspiration, the vision, and the excitement about the possible breakthroughs that this new venture offers are infectious; the intentions are of the highest order. Accomplishing the task is a mammoth - but it can be done. The TTS Academy intends to release game-changing information of the type interested people have been seeking for a long time. “The fact is, we might not necessarily be alone,” Luis Elizondo says. “Now is the time to move forward and try to answer some of life’s deepest mysteries.” This is not going to happen if we stick with the status quo.

Stay tuned for more.