Christopher Mellon is without a doubt one of the most important figures in the modern history of this subject. As Deputy Assistant Director of National Security for Security and Information Operations, he had access to America's most sensitive secrets and intelligence, and from that vantage point he determined that the UAP subject wasn't being given the serious attention that it deserved as a national security issue. After long efforts to raise the issue within the government, he brought unclassified military footage of UAP to the New York Times, which published it on the front page in 2017, reigniting serious public interest in a subject that had received little attention for decades. We take the opportunity to ask Chris to help us understand the government's complicated and often fraught relation to the UAP subject.

Topics:

• Is there a disclosure scenario that doesn't inevitably lead to a global disinformation war between enemy nations?
• Do government have perverse incentives to portray UAP as enemy threats (say, in order to encourage social unity)?
• How can we know when to trust governments's statements about a subject that's so historically and politically fraught?
• What is the future of the UAP subject in the US and globally?
• In what ways is the UAP subject more than a national security issue?

Links:

• ⁠Follow Chris on X⁠
• ⁠Chris's SOL Foundation Talk "The Potential Consequences of UAP Disclosure"⁠
• ⁠Chris's Politico article, "If the Government Has UFO Crash Materials, It's Time to Reveal Them"⁠