FOIA Release Explores UAP and Interstellar Object Discussions Between Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick and Dr. Avi Loeb

Document Title: FOIA Release Explores UAP and Interstellar Object Discussions Between Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick and Dr. Avi Loeb Agency: Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence & Security (USDI&S) Date: January 23, 2024 Notable: This document is a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) release obtained by The Black Vault, detailing the communication between Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, former head of the AARO office, and Dr. Avi Loeb, a renowned Harvard Scientist and head of the Galileo Project. The document in question is part of The Black Vault OSD/JS FOIA Case 23-F-0010, which was released on January 25, 2024. The document is a response to a FOIA request made by Mr. John R. Greenwald Jr. of The Black Vault, Inc. This is a final response to your October 5, 2022 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, a copy of which is enclosed for your convenience. We received your request October 5, 2022, and assigned it FOIA case number 23-F-0010. We ask that you use this number when referring to your request. The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence & Security (USDI&S), a component of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, conducted a search of their record systems and located documents, totaling 28 pages, determined to be responsive to your request. Colonel Brian C. Kreitlow, Deputy Director, for (USDI&S), in his capacity as an Initial Denial Authority, has determined that some of the information in the enclosed 28 pages is exempt from release pursuant to the FOIA, 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(6), which pertains to information, which if disclosed, would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of the personal privacy of individuals. Please note that we have considered the foreseeable harm standard when reviewing records and applying exemptions under the FOIA in the processing of this request. In this instance, fees for processing your request were below the threshold for requiring payment. Please note that fees may be assessed on future requests. From: Avi Loeb <aloeb@cfa.harvard.edu> Sent: Tuesday, October 4, 2022 1:32 PM To: Abraham Loeb Subject: "Down To Earth" Limits on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena in Ukraine An image of “phantom” objects above Ukraine (Credit: Zhilyaev, Petukhov & Reshetnyk 2022) Over the past two weeks I was bombarded by a dozen requests to read a new report by astronomers on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) in Ukraine. My response to all of these messages was the same: “I am not sure what to make of the report. Ukraine is in a military conflict with a lot of human-made activity in the sky. This must introduce a lot of noise for any search for objects that are not human-made. In science we aim to maximize the signal-to-noise ratio, and so Ukraine would be the last place on Earth where I would initiate UAP studies.” But last evening I received a special request from a high-level official in the US government to summarize my thoughts on observable signatures of UAP and so this morning I checked the UAP report from Ukraine and wrote a paper about it a few hours later. The Ukranian paper reports about two types of objects: luminous and dark. The dark objects with no visible emission were labeled as "Phantoms”. 2 They were characterized by a size of 3-12 meters and speeds up to 15 kilometers per second at a distance of up to 10-12 kilometers. If real, such objects exceed the capabilities of human-made aircrafts or rockets. This document is made available through the declassification efforts and research of John Greenwald, Jr., creator of The Black Vault, the largest online Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) document clearing house in the world. The Black Vault is the largest online Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) document clearing house in the world. The research efforts here are responsible for the declassification of hundreds of thousands of pages released by the U.S. Government & Military. Discover the Truth at: http://www.theblackvault.com This is what the public record looks like at its most ordinary. For more information, visit storyflo.com. The canonical PDF of this document can be found at https://documents2.theblackvault.com/documents/osd/23-F-0010.pdf.