Pentagon's Response to Reid's AATIP Memo Remains Elusive Years After FOIA Request

For over six and a half years, the Department of Defense has failed to produce its official response to a 2009 memo from then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid concerning the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP). Reid's four-page letter, addressed to Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn III, advocated for Restricted Special Access Program (SAP) status for parts of AATIP due to sensitive "unconventional aerospace-related findings" and national security implications. While the authenticity of Reid's original letter is no longer disputed, and the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) has publicly released it, the DoD's reply continues to be withheld or deemed unlocatable despite multiple Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.

A recent FOIA response from the Office of the Secretary of Defense/Joint Staff, dated December 15, 2025, under case number 19-F-0948, only provided Reid's initial letter, asserting a "full grant" of the request and claiming no other responsive records were found. This directly contradicts a 2021 statement from Pentagon spokesperson Susan Gough, who confirmed that the DoD did indeed receive and respond to Senator Reid's 2009 memo. Gough stated at the time that her office could not release the response due to policies regarding Congressional correspondence, implying a tangible written record existed.

Despite an amended FOIA request in April 2020 explicitly asking for all responses to Senator Reid, which the Department acknowledged and incorporated, the final 2025 determination maintains that no such response letter exists within the scope of records searched. This ongoing discrepancy raises questions about the transparency and record-keeping practices within the DoD regarding sensitive programs and high-level congressional inquiries. The public and researchers remain without a complete picture of the official communication surrounding the early stages of the AATIP program.