Tuesday, November 2, 2021

Harvard's "Galileo Project" Meets Tom DeLonge's "To The Stars"

From 2017 until the end of last year, the attention of the UFO world was focused almost solely on the "To The Stars Academy of Arts and Sciences" of rocker Tom DeLonge. It was going to mix advanced science with entertainment, and sold shares to credulous "investors." It produced two seasons of a successful cable TV series, Unidentified. (The show was filled with absurdity and misinformation, but apparently got good ratings.) "To The Stars" first introduced the public to the three leaked Navy UFO videos: the Tic Tac, the Go Fast, and the Gimble. The media attention was practically nonstop.

To The Stars' now-shuttered "Flagship Retail Store" in Encinitas, California - Feb. 29, 2020.

But ultimately, it could not last. Tom DeLonge is demonstrably a credulous fool (if an ambitious one), an embarrassment to any serious person associated with him. (Those who looked carefully would see that DeLonge's top people were not much better than him in terms of credibility, but the media almost never really looks at UFO claims with a skeptical eye.) For reasons never fully explained, To The Stars has effectively folded, and there was much speculation about what the TTSA alumni would do next.

We now know what at least two of them will be doing: the Galileo Project of Dr. Avi Loeb at Harvard announced that Luis Elizondo and Christopher Mellon, formerly of TTSA, would be joining them.

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts — October 30, 2021 — Today the Galileo Project lead Professor Avi Loeb announced the additions of Mr. Luis Elizondo and Mr. Christopher Mellon to the project team as research affiliates. Noting their depth of experience investigating the subject of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP), and their shared interest in open and transparent study of the phenomena, Loeb welcomed them as the latest members of a diverse and growing Galileo Project team.

“The Galileo Project will greatly benefit from the broad knowledge base and wisdom of Elizondo and Mellon,” said Professor Loeb. “We all share the goal of identifying the nature of UAP and of anomalous interstellar objects like `Oumuamua.”
For some reason, while Dr. Loeb's announcement summarizes the background and experience of each, it carefully makes no mention of "To The Stars" or of Tom DeLonge. Obviously, they find this previous association quite embarrassing.

Tom DeLonge (left) and Luis Elizondo (right) speaking to an Italian UFO group in 2018.

About Elizondo, the Galileo Project says:

Luis Elizondo is a former counterintelligence special agent and the former director of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP). He served in the U.S. Army in intelligence for twenty years, followed by 9 years of defense intelligence work in the Pentagon. In 2017, Elizondo resigned from his position in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, citing the need for more public exposure and governmental cooperation in the study of UAP. In the private sector, Elizondo was responsible for the distribution of the declassified Pentagon videos. He has served as advisor and public speaker across numerous programs.

Elizondo has long claimed to have been the former director of the Pentagon's AATIP program, but there is no documentary proof of this. In fact, there's no documentary proof of that program at all, in terms of a budget or mission statement or anything else definite. Some people have said that the AATIP and AAWSAP (Advanced Aerospace Weapon Systems Application, which funneled $22 million to Robert Bigelow's BAASS) program were the same. But James Lacatski, the only person we know to have worked on AAWSAP, recently compared the two programs while he was on Coast to Coast radio:

But there was a difference between the two programs. Ours (AAWSAP) had $22 million dollars in funding, his (AATIP) had zero. Ours looked at military and civilian investigations, his looked at military exclusively. And we had, of course, contractor and subcontractor support. He had no contractor support. But he did his thing, we did ours. But I can say that in direct answer to your question, we were the only game in town, I would say from 2008 through 2012.
Elizondo's AATIP had zero funding. Zero! Big important government project!! So AATIP seems to have been more of a sideline, or hobby project. Something Elizondo, and probably his pals, did in their spare time. Not an actual, sponsored government investigation. And John Greenewald of the Black Vault recently revealed FOIA documents showing that neither AATIP nor AAWSAP had "any mission statement, objective, or outline that they could find," which is extremely unusual for a Pentagon program.

And more interesting "disclosures" from Elizondo continue to turn up. His recent appearance on Curt Jaimungal's Theory of Everything podcast was particularly revealing: "Luis Elizondo on Biological UFO Samples, Remote Viewing, and explaining "Somber"." The host asked him about Remote Viewing - the alleged power to "see" things psychically at a great distance, or even back in time - "I believe you dabbled in that." Elizondo did not deny this in any way, but instead did the usual verbal dance he does around extraordinary claims. He hints that it could be true, but also hints that it is secret, and he can't talk about it. Some describe this approach as Elizondo 'dropping breadcrumbs' for people to follow. He does it a lot. Here is another example from that same podcast:

Have there potentially been biological samples recovered? Yes. I’m not going to expound on that … and be careful when I say that. I’m being purposely very open and vague at the same time, right? What does that mean? Well, it means what it means.

A perfectly ridiculous statement. Also on that podcast, Elizondo was asked if there are any photos showing "occupants" inside their craft. He replied, “There are some very compelling photos out there that seem to show something inside, some sort of occupancy, and I’ll leave it at that ….”

Elizondo was interviewed by the Roswell Daily Record on June 26. Asked what were his thoughts about the supposed Roswell crash, he replied,

Before I was part of AATIP, I had no idea about Roswell, other than that there was sort of some alleged crash at some point and some farmer found debris — but during my time with AATIP, there was some very interesting anecdotal information that suggests there wasn’t just one crash, there may have been actually two crashes, and that somehow it may have been related to some sort of testing that was being done at the time at White Sands, and that material was recovered.

And that material that was recovered, samples of that material actually found their way into the hands of private citizens, some of them, but that the … allegedly the larger sections of debris were all recovered by the U.S. Government....  But again, I will share with you that it was, from my understanding, it wasn’t actually one, it was two crashes, and it may have been related to some sort of nuclear-type testing of technology that we were doing, atomic and/or nuclear technology at Los Alamos at the time.
OK. Not just one saucer crashed near Roswell, but two. Too bad Elizondo doesn't have any proof of any of this.

Tom DeLonge's press conference in 2017 with TTSA Academy team members Chris Mellon and Luis Elizondo. Next: Steve Justice, Hal Puthoff, and Jim Semivan.

About Chris Mellon, the Galileo Project says:

Christopher Mellon brings over twenty years of experience in defense intelligence and national security affairs, including serving as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence under the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations. In the private sector, Mellon has outspokenly pushed for public awareness and governmental accountability regarding the subject of UAP. Like Elizondo, he has served as advisor and on-screen expert for numerous documentaries and television programming.

Mellon had been the Chairman of TTSA's Advisory Board, and participated in many press conferences and media events. He has admitted to being the source who leaked TTSA's famous 'three videos' to the New York Times.  When the Navy formulated new procedures in 2019 for reporting "UAPs", Tom DeLonge credited this development to Chris Mellon:

This is a DIRECT RESULT of @tothestarsacademy’s quiet efforts coordinating briefings to the Legislative and Executive Branch, working with the Navy and others at the highest levels to help create an architecture for dealing with the reality of UFOs. Chris Mellon, Chairman of the TTSA ADVISORY BOARD, worked for the greater part of the year on this breakthrough National Security Policy—- And yes, this is an admission that these Unidentified Aerial Vehicles are real, and @tothestarsacademy organized this entire effort. Thank you to everyone for believing in us... But, there is much more to come.

When Mellon was interviewed on Fox & Friends on May 26, he had no doubt about what was happening:

We know that UFOs exist. This is no longer an issue. The issue is why are they here? Where are they coming from and what is the technology behind these devices that we are observing? .....Pilots observing these craft are absolutely mystified and that comes through clearly in their public statements...These are reactions between intelligently controlled vehicles operating in and around U.S. military facilities, hence the concern.

So the Galileo Project seems to have picked up some valuable 'UAP talent' here. The project's motto is "Daring to Look Through New Telescopes." With Elizondo on board, they won't even need telescopes - he can just Remote View the alien probes from the comfort of home.




11 comments:

  1. When the news came out that the new Galileo Project, under Dr. Avi Loeb, would investigate the UFO mystery, I gave it some credibility, simply because the usual Ufoologists, I mean, ufologists, were not listed as part of the project. Surprise, it now seems that Dr. Loeb is not the credible person that I though he was! Luis (or is it Lue?) Elizondo & Mr. Mellon being on the project, will make it like, 'To the Stars', phony, and full of B.S. When anybody says a lot, but never gives out any evidence, or refuses to answers proper questions on the subject, but hides behind an 'oath' the guy is a scammer for sure...red flag people. Also, Luis Elizondo is acting a lot like Frank Kaufman of Roswell fame - he says a lot, but never offers no evidence, or hides behind his oath. What gets me is that people are listening to him! In any other professional field, this guy and others like him, would have been booted out long ago. And one wonders why the outside professional world looks down on the so-called UFO field...it's full of scammers and charlatans.

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  2. This is all such utter and appalling crap. El Lizardo's hokey teasers are straight out of the Nick "Call me Lt Col" Pope's playbook. Okay, so ufology has always had its shysters, its sincerely deluded and its freaky theorisers; what's worse, in my jaded view, is that so few in the audience for ufology has learned anything from the history of the subject, nor do they seem to want to. I wonder if they actually know the history. Gawping idiots persisting in insisting that the USN videos "prove" an ET presence, is just the most recent & obvious example. Robert Hastings' crazed witterings, which are really getting old now, about UFOs fiddlings with nukes (against all informed evidence) is another. Ah well. So it goes. I think I shall now pour myself a drink. There's a bar open somewhere...

    Peter B

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  3. And today I read that Lt Col Pope has joined the gang, as if it could get any worse. O dear. At least the recruitment of Mike Shermer may bring a little sanity to the table, though I don't envy his uphill struggle (best bring his bike to meetings)—and actually I'm surprised he agreed to be in such company. At any rate it's clear Avi Loeb is more interested in gaining a place among the ufological luminarati than doing the science he claims to want to do. And that was redundant anyway. Jeez, what a shambles.

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    1. One thing I do know for sure is that Mr. Loeb has lost all credibility. And like the other UFO phonies, I mean UFO investigators, he just wants to get into the limelight, like Luis Elizondo has done, offering us, the public, nothing at all, except their wagging tongues!

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  4. What odds on it all ending in an acrimonious dissolution?

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    1. I say Very Good, and good riddance! Love you, Scherben.

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  5. Is Loeb going to be the next Allen Hynek, namely, a well-meaning but naive academic who finds himself exploited by charlatans? Or does he perhaps have some deep-seated need to believe in alien life?

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    1. LOLOL A master at work here! Love that turn of phrase, Sir! LOLOL

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  6. I'm bored of this already. Looking at Nick Pope been involved yet again is cringe worthy. It's not so long ago his co- author John Burroughs accused him of lying over their book they wrote together. I won't get started on Philip Mantle's relentless campaign re Nick and his credentials either. Yet there he is saint Pope mixed up in the next alien seeking mission. On a positive note let's hope some good comes of all this. Re Elizondo goes and Mellon, time will tell how it all pans out with them. Too many questions just now.

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  7. We've covered TTSA's worthless comedy routine for years; and now Avi Loeb has to jump on the flying-saucer wagon! Geez... I've explained on FB how his schoolboy nonsense is just that; we rehashed the implausibility of the ETH online back in the 1990s, didn't we? Shermer might be our ace in the hole! LOLOL Otherwise, Love all my Skeptic friends on both coasts and sides of the pond... But this is what it's all about, always was and is!
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0kcet4aPpQ

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  8. I tried to be open minded, but Elizondo's desperate need to be on camera at all times is one giant red flag. There are some people who you can actually see soaking up attention, like a parched plant soaks up water. For Elizondo, there's no such thing as too much attention.

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