The Pentagon announced Monday that current and former military personnel, civilians and contractors who signed secrecy agreements about Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) can now legally disclose that information to the government without fear of punishment.
The Department of War said it has created a legal waiver overriding existing non-disclosure agreements and Special Access Program Indoctrination Agreements (SAPIAs) for anyone who reports UAP-related National Defense Information through PURSUE, the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters — the Trump administration’s UAP task force.
“This waiver removes those barriers by explicitly authorizing covered disclosures to PURSUE representatives without triggering breach-of-agreement penalties or standard NDA violations,” the Department of War said.
Before the announcement, anyone with knowledge of classified UAP programs remained bound by the same NDAs and SAPIAs that have kept much of that information out of public view for decades. Officials say fear of losing security clearance or facing legal consequences discouraged people from coming forward. Under the new waiver, those who report to PURSUE cannot be stripped of their clearance or face legal or administrative penalties for breaking those agreements.
The change builds on a July directive from the Trump administration ordering the Department of War and the intelligence community to let former employees with UAP knowledge come forward to either PURSUE or the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO). The goal, according to the department, is to create a pathway for reviewing and potentially declassifying UAP-related documents in line with President Trump’s push for what he has called comprehensive transparency on the subject.
A Colorado Connection
The administration’s most recent release of UFO-related files included an account from government employees who reported witnessing a triangle-shaped UFO near Colorado Springs in 2023. The disclosure was among the records swept up in the broader transparency push that led to Monday’s waiver.
Trump has said repeatedly that he is personally skeptical about the existence of alien life, but he ordered the transparency mandate after former President Barack Obama remarked in a February interview that UFOs “are real, but I haven’t seen them.”
Public Reports Still in Limbo
While the waiver clears a path for government insiders to disclose what they know, it does not address the far larger volume of UFO sightings reported by ordinary citizens. AARO, the Pentagon office tasked with examining such reports, states on its website that reporting remains “limited at this time to current or former US Government employees, military personnel, or contractor personnel with direct knowledge of US Government programs or activities related to UAP dating back to 1945.”
Earlier this month, television host Dr. Phil McGraw accused the Pentagon of ignoring more than 1,800 UAP reports submitted by members of the public. Those reports were logged as “Tier 1” — the most credible category — by the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC), one of two privately run databases, along with the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), that currently accept sighting reports from the general public. AARO has repeatedly said it intends to begin accepting public submissions but has not yet done so.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login