The US Navy has said on Friday that the Pentagon has a secret-classified video of an infamous UFO incident, in response to an information request.
Susan Gough, a Pentagon spokesperson, later told Motherboard directly that:
“The Department of Defense, specifically the US Navy, has the video. As Navy and my office have stated previously, as the investigation of UAP sightings is ongoing, we will not publicly discuss individual sighting reports/observations."
“However, I can tell you that the date of the 2004 USS Nimitz video is Nov. 14, 2004. I can also tell you that the length of the video that’s been circulating since 2007 is the same as the length of the source video. We do not expect to release this video", Gough said
The admission is in regards to a 2004 encounter between the USS Nimitz and strange unidentified objects. Three videos of unknown aerial encounters taken by Navy pilots emerged between 2017 and 2018.
In December 2017, the New York Times reported the video in question of Navy pilots intercepting a flying object off the San Diego coast on November 14th, 2004.
Leaked classified 'UFO footage' is real, US Navy confirms pic.twitter.com/l0tE95GOuU
— kyle rostron (@RostronKyle) September 19, 2019
In September 2019, UFO research outlet Motherboard reported that the footage, which was made public by former Blink-182 frontman and guitarist Tom DeLonge’s UFO research organization, was a legitimate “unknown aerial phenomena", according to the US Navy.
Researcher Christian Lambright launched a Freedom of Information Act request, asking for information on the incident, in response to which the Navy acknowledged that it had “discovered certain briefing slides that are classified TOP SECRET. A review of these materials indicates that are currently and appropriate Marked and Classified TOP SECRET under Executive Order 13526, and the Original Classification Authority has determined that the release of these materials would cause exceptionally grave damage to the National Security of the United States”.
“We have also determined that ONI possesses a video classified SECRET that ONI is not the Original Classification Authority for”, the letter explained.
However, former Pentagon staffer Luis Elizondo, who was also the man who helped make the Navy video public, told Motherboard that the Pentagon does not always release accurate and direct information to the public.
“The Pentagon has a long history of sometimes providing inaccurate information to the American people”, Elizondo said.
Elizondo referenced recent information releases regarding a draft memo about Iran and recent information which contradicted 18-months of prior messages from the US government.
