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20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/INTERNATIONAL/British Intelligence.md
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@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
---
created: 2025-07-23
updated: 2025-07-23
updated: 2026-10-15
title: British Intelligence
tags:
- Organization
@ -14,7 +14,8 @@ summary: "British Intelligence refers to the various intelligence agencies of th
[[British Intelligence]] refers to the various intelligence agencies of the United Kingdom, including the [[Secret Intelligence Service]] (MI6). During World War II, British Intelligence engaged in a variety of unconventional warfare tactics, including the use of black propaganda and psychological operations.[^1]
One notable example was the use of astrologers like [[Sybil Leek]] and [[Louis de Wohl]] to spread disinformation and influence the behavior of high-ranking Nazi officials. These operations highlight the willingness of intelligence agencies to exploit beliefs in the paranormal for strategic advantage.[^1]
One documented example is the work of the astrologer [[Louis de Wohl]], whom the National Archives catalogue describes as a professional astrologer who worked for the [[Special Operations Executive]].[^2] Jacobsen wrote that [[Sybil Leek]] was another astrologer used in British operations against the Nazi leadership.[^1]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.
[^2]: The National Archives, Kew, Security Service personal file on Louis de Wohl, reference C11439609, covering August 31, 1940 to August 19, 1952. https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C11439609

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20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office.md
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@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ relations:
start: 2025
role: "same collaboration; Gretchen Stahlman of the FSU School of Information signed the invitation letter on behalf of the organizing committee"
fn: 9
updated: 2026-10-08
updated: 2026-10-14
---
The [[All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office]] (AARO) is the official office within the [[United States]] [[Department of Defense]] tasked with investigating [[Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena]] (UAP). Section 1683 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022 required the Secretary of Defense to establish an office to carry out the duties of the [[UAP Task Force]], "as in effect on the day before the date of enactment of this Act."[^1][^2] The Deputy Secretary of Defense established the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office by memorandum on July 15, 2022, "to meet the DoD requirements in section 1683 of the NDAA for FY 2022," and Section 1683 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023, enacted December 23, 2022, provided that the office be "known as the 'All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office.'"[^3][^4]
@ -56,6 +56,10 @@ The [[Society for UAP Studies]] published a report by [[Greg Bishop]] dated Sept
On April 29, 2026 AUI's podcast "[[Beyond the Breakthrough]]" (episode "Making Sense of the Unknown," with Spuck and Stahlman) stated in its notes: "The 2025 workshop, 'Narrative Data, Infrastructures, and Analysis' was supported by the U.S. All-domain Anomaly Office."[^11]
### ELDAEON's claims about the Gremlin program
In May 2026 [[ELDAEON]], a private company that sells UAP detection hardware, published an article on the first batch of UAP files that describes its DIONYSUS sensor platform as "Modeled on the architecture used by AARO's Gremlin program," and as "built on the same multimodal fusion principles as AARO's Gremlin sensor suite."[^12]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Elizondo, Luis. *Imminent*. William Morrow, 2024.
@ -69,3 +73,4 @@ On April 29, 2026 AUI's podcast "[[Beyond the Breakthrough]]" (episode "Making S
[^9]: All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, "2025 UAP Workshop: Narrative Data, Infrastructures, and Analysis. Workshop Synthesis and Recommendations," 26-P-0344, August 5-6, 2025, https://www.aaro.mil/Portals/136/PDFs/Information%20Papers/2025_UAP_Workshop_Paper.pdf (archived PDF: https://web.archive.org/web/20260927135859/https://www.aaro.mil/Portals/136/PDFs/Information%20Papers/2025_UAP_Workshop_Paper.pdf).
[^10]: Greg Bishop, "AARO and AUI Engage Academia in UAP Symposium," Society for UAP Studies, September 2, 2025, https://www.societyforuapstudies.org/post/aaro-and-aui-engage-academia-in-uap-symposium.
[^11]: "Making Sense of the Unknown," Beyond the Breakthrough (Associated Universities, Inc. podcast), April 29, 2026, https://beyondthebreakthrough.podbean.com/e/uap-data/.
[^12]: ELDAEON INC., "The U.S. Just Opened the Files on UAP. We Built the Sensors to Detect Them.," May 8, 2026. The first quoted sentence appears in the article's product list and the second in its section on the architecture. https://eldaeon.com/articles/disclosure/

115
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Central Intelligence Agency.md
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@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ aliases:
- Central Intelligence Agency
- CIA
created: 2025-07-22
updated: 2026-10-14
updated: 2026-10-15
tags:
- Organization
- Intelligence
@ -34,19 +34,25 @@ relations:
with: "[[Psychological Strategy Board]]"
role: "Member agency; the Director of Central Intelligence chaired meeting M-8"
start: 1952-01-10
fn: 56
fn: 59
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Max Millikan]]"
reverse: true
role: "Assistant Director, Research and Reports (1951); Special Consultant (1952)"
start: 1951-01
end: 1952-03
fn: 57
fn: 60
- type: funded
with: "[[Center for International Studies]]"
role: "agency money reported to have set up the center in 1951; $300,000 reported in 1967"
start: 1951
fn: 64
fn: 67
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Ronald Pandolfi]]"
reverse: true
start: 1995
role: "analyst; described as a CIA scientist (Farley, 1995) and CIA analyst (Cox Committee, 1999)"
fn: 44
---
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is a primary intelligence-gathering organization of the United States government. In the context of psychic research, the CIA played a significant, albeit often covert, role in funding and overseeing programs aimed at exploring and utilizing psychic phenomena for intelligence purposes.[^1]
@ -156,43 +162,49 @@ When [[DEA]] agent [[Celerino Castillo]] began investigating Contra drug traffic
CIA Inspector General [[Fred Hitz]] testified before the [[House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence|House Intelligence Committee]] in March 1998 that the CIA "did not, in an expeditious or consistent fashion, cut off relationships with individuals supporting the Contra program who were alleged to have engaged in drug trafficking activity," including trafficking within the United States. His 400-page report documented CIA relationships with more than 50 suspected drug traffickers during the Contra war.[^40]
### Hughes Electronics and the Pandolfi Estimate, 1995 to 1998
On July 19, 1995 an analyst from the agency's Directorate of Intelligence visited the Hughes facility in El Segundo, California, while researching a draft National Intelligence Estimate on the effect of technology transfers on China's military capabilities. The analyst was [[Ronald Pandolfi]].[^43] The analyst alleged that during a visit to the plant he came across information indicating that technical data had been improperly passed by Hughes to the PRC in connection with the 1995 failure investigation of a Long March 2E, and that the agency ignored his request for a formal report to headquarters.[^44] The Congressional Research Service reports that in April 1996 Pandolfi had reportedly prepared an estimate on how Hughes may have helped improve China's missile capabilities, and that the agency did not approve it.[^45] The New York Times reported that agency officials said the estimate was "not 'rigorous' enough" and that it was not distributed to other government officials.[^43]
In September 1998 the agency told Hughes about Pandolfi's briefing to the Senate Intelligence Committee, according to an internal cable of September 23, 1998. The Cox Committee judged that the agency's notification was "ill-advised and an impediment" to the committee's investigation, and the agency said it had notified Hughes "as a courtesy."[^44] Bill Harlow, an agency spokesman, declined in December 1998 to discuss Pandolfi's experiences or the 1996 estimate "because of the investigations."[^43] The Congressional Research Service reports that Senator Richard Shelby said in September 2000 that the Justice Department had decided not to charge an unnamed CIA official with obstructing a Senate investigation.[^45]
### Iran-Contra Indictments
Multiple CIA officials were indicted during the Iran-Contra investigation. Clarridge was indicted on seven counts of perjury. Fernández was indicted on four counts. [[Alan Fiers]] pleaded guilty to withholding information from Congress. All were pardoned by former CIA director [[George H.W. Bush]].[^37]
### Interrogation videotapes and the 2004 to 2006 directorship
[[Porter Goss]], a former House intelligence chairman, was confirmed by the Senate 77 to 17 on September 22, 2004, was sworn in at the White House on September 24, 2004, and announced his resignation on May 5, 2006.[^43] His executive director, [[Kyle Foggo]], the agency's No. 3 official, resigned in May 2006 while the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] was examining whether he had improperly helped the defense contractor [[Brent Wilkes]] obtain large CIA contracts.[^44] Foggo pleaded guilty in 2008 to one count of defrauding the government and was sentenced on February 26, 2009 to 37 months.[^45]
[[Porter Goss]], a former House intelligence chairman, was confirmed by the Senate 77 to 17 on September 22, 2004, was sworn in at the White House on September 24, 2004, and announced his resignation on May 5, 2006.[^46] His executive director, [[Kyle Foggo]], the agency's No. 3 official, resigned in May 2006 while the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] was examining whether he had improperly helped the defense contractor [[Brent Wilkes]] obtain large CIA contracts.[^47] Foggo pleaded guilty in 2008 to one count of defrauding the government and was sentenced on February 26, 2009 to 37 months.[^48]
The [[Senate Select Committee on Intelligence]]'s 2014 study of the detention and interrogation program records that the CIA destroyed videotapes of the interrogations of [[Abu Zubaydah]] and [[Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri]] on November 9, 2005, the day after the Senate's November 8 vote against an amendment to establish an independent commission on detainee treatment.[^46] In an October 31, 2005 email, the CIA attorney [[John Rizzo]] wrote that he needed "to be the skunk at the party again."[^46]
The [[Senate Select Committee on Intelligence]]'s 2014 study of the detention and interrogation program records that the CIA destroyed videotapes of the interrogations of [[Abu Zubaydah]] and [[Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri]] on November 9, 2005, the day after the Senate's November 8 vote against an amendment to establish an independent commission on detainee treatment.[^49] In an October 31, 2005 email, the CIA attorney [[John Rizzo]] wrote that he needed "to be the skunk at the party again."[^49]
Emails released by the [[United States Department of Justice|Justice Department]] in April 2010, under a Freedom of Information Act request by the [[American Civil Liberties Union]], state that in November 2005 [[Jose A. Rodriguez Jr.|Jose Rodriguez]] told Goss and others he "felt it was extremely important to destroy the tapes and that if there was any heat, he would take it," and that Goss "laughed and said he'd be the one to take the heat." The same email states: "PG, however, agreed with the decision." NBC News reported that the email is an after-the-fact summary that does not prove Goss approved the destruction, that current and former intelligence officials have said he did not and was angry to find out, and that Rodriguez's lawyer disputed that.[^47] On November 9, 2010, the Justice Department said special prosecutor [[John Durham]] would not bring criminal charges over the destruction.[^48]
Emails released by the [[United States Department of Justice|Justice Department]] in April 2010, under a Freedom of Information Act request by the [[American Civil Liberties Union]], state that in November 2005 [[Jose A. Rodriguez Jr.|Jose Rodriguez]] told Goss and others he "felt it was extremely important to destroy the tapes and that if there was any heat, he would take it," and that Goss "laughed and said he'd be the one to take the heat." The same email states: "PG, however, agreed with the decision." NBC News reported that the email is an after-the-fact summary that does not prove Goss approved the destruction, that current and former intelligence officials have said he did not and was angry to find out, and that Rodriguez's lawyer disputed that.[^50] On November 9, 2010, the Justice Department said special prosecutor [[John Durham]] would not bring criminal charges over the destruction.[^51]
### Foreign Broadcast Information Service
The [[Foreign Broadcast Intelligence Service]] became a unit of the agency in 1947. The [[War Department]] had sponsored the service from January 2, 1946, and the [[Director of Central Intelligence]] assumed control of it on July 31, 1946, before the [[National Security Act of 1947]] replaced the [[Central Intelligence Group]] with the agency.[^49] The administrative history of the service's record group lists the successor as "Foreign Broadcast Information Service, Central Intelligence Agency, 1947-."[^50] The service's 1969 history says it came to the agency "almost mature, trained and disciplined, and ready to plunge immediately into the tasks outlined for it."[^51]
The [[Foreign Broadcast Intelligence Service]] became a unit of the agency in 1947. The [[War Department]] had sponsored the service from January 2, 1946, and the [[Director of Central Intelligence]] assumed control of it on July 31, 1946, before the [[National Security Act of 1947]] replaced the [[Central Intelligence Group]] with the agency.[^52] The administrative history of the service's record group lists the successor as "Foreign Broadcast Information Service, Central Intelligence Agency, 1947-."[^53] The service's 1969 history says it came to the agency "almost mature, trained and disciplined, and ready to plunge immediately into the tasks outlined for it."[^54]
Within the agency the service sat under the [[Assistant Director for Operations]]. In January 1947 the Assistant Director presented a propaganda analysis program to the PRC, approving the proposed program but excluding "interpretative analysis" from its scope, and the requested staff was twelve at $61,000 a year. [[Lawrence K. White]] was announced as deputy chief of the service on January 9, 1947.[^52]
Within the agency the service sat under the [[Assistant Director for Operations]]. In January 1947 the Assistant Director presented a propaganda analysis program to the PRC, approving the proposed program but excluding "interpretative analysis" from its scope, and the requested staff was twelve at $61,000 a year. [[Lawrence K. White]] was announced as deputy chief of the service on January 9, 1947.[^55]
The service's functions were folded into the [[Open Source Center]] in November 2005. The release announcing the center said the Director of the CIA would administer it on behalf of the DNI.[^53]
The service's functions were folded into the [[Open Source Center]] in November 2005. The release announcing the center said the Director of the CIA would administer it on behalf of the DNI.[^56]
### Psychological warfare liaison, 1946 to 1952
In July 1946 the Central Intelligence Group's Central Planning Staff closed out its liaison with the Security Advisory Board of the [[Office of War Information]]. The memorandum designated a liaison officer to the Director, charged him with recommending when appropriate whether the board should be placed under the [[National Intelligence Authority]], and recorded that no further action by the Security Branch was required. The board was being replaced by a new Security Advisory Board under the [[State-War-Navy Coordinating Committee]].[^54]
In July 1946 the Central Intelligence Group's Central Planning Staff closed out its liaison with the Security Advisory Board of the [[Office of War Information]]. The memorandum designated a liaison officer to the Director, charged him with recommending when appropriate whether the board should be placed under the [[National Intelligence Authority]], and recorded that no further action by the Security Branch was required. The board was being replaced by a new Security Advisory Board under the [[State-War-Navy Coordinating Committee]].[^57]
In July 1947 the Assistant Director of the Office of Research and Evaluation complained to the chief of the Group's Interdepartmental Coordinating and Planning Staff that the arrangement for the Group's seat on the coordinating committee's subcommittee for psychological warfare was "not operable." The principal member came from the [[Office of Special Operations]] and the alternate from the Office of Research and Evaluation, and the memorandum was addressed to the Executive Director.[^55]
In July 1947 the Assistant Director of the Office of Research and Evaluation complained to the chief of the Group's Interdepartmental Coordinating and Planning Staff that the arrangement for the Group's seat on the coordinating committee's subcommittee for psychological warfare was "not operable." The principal member came from the [[Office of Special Operations]] and the alternate from the Office of Research and Evaluation, and the memorandum was addressed to the Executive Director.[^58]
On January 10, 1952 the eighth meeting of the [[Psychological Strategy Board]] was chaired by [[Walter Bedell Smith]], the Director of Central Intelligence. Its members were the Deputy Secretary of Defense, William C. Foster, and the Under Secretary of State, James E. Webb. [[Edward W. Barrett]], Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs, attended as a participant from the Department of State.[^56]
On January 10, 1952 the eighth meeting of the [[Psychological Strategy Board]] was chaired by [[Walter Bedell Smith]], the Director of Central Intelligence. Its members were the Deputy Secretary of Defense, William C. Foster, and the Under Secretary of State, James E. Webb. [[Edward W. Barrett]], Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs, attended as a participant from the Department of State.[^59]
In a letter stamped January 30, 1951, [[Max Millikan]] wrote that he had "gone on leave from MIT to head up the Office of Research and Reports in this Agency."[^57] On October 29, 1951 he wrote to a prospective recruit that for "the last nine or ten months" he had been "trying to put together for General Smith an organization to do economic research."[^58] A memorandum of conversation dated January 22, 1951 lists "Dr. Max Millikan, Central Intelligence Agency" among the participants in a discussion with State Department officers of psychological intelligence, and records his concern that splitting that work among several organizations would produce the shortcomings of decentralization.[^59] A memorandum of March 6, 1951, addressed to the intelligence chiefs of the State Department, the Army, the Navy and the Air Force, was issued "For the Director of Central Intelligence" over Millikan's typed name as Assistant Director, Research and Reports.[^60] A letter he signed as Assistant Director on November 26, 1951 says that "Walt Rostow at the Center for International Studies has sought my assistance in finding him someone to help out with some research."[^61] A letter of March 3, 1952 addresses him as Special Consultant, Central Intelligence Agency.[^62] In an interview note of March 5, 1952 titled "Origin of PSB," a CIA historian recorded that Millikan "participated in a 'contract study,' State and MIT," which the note identifies as the "Troy Project," and that its study "had considerable to do with the creation of the PSB."[^63]
In a letter stamped January 30, 1951, [[Max Millikan]] wrote that he had "gone on leave from MIT to head up the Office of Research and Reports in this Agency."[^60] On October 29, 1951 he wrote to a prospective recruit that for "the last nine or ten months" he had been "trying to put together for General Smith an organization to do economic research."[^61] A memorandum of conversation dated January 22, 1951 lists "Dr. Max Millikan, Central Intelligence Agency" among the participants in a discussion with State Department officers of psychological intelligence, and records his concern that splitting that work among several organizations would produce the shortcomings of decentralization.[^62] A memorandum of March 6, 1951, addressed to the intelligence chiefs of the State Department, the Army, the Navy and the Air Force, was issued "For the Director of Central Intelligence" over Millikan's typed name as Assistant Director, Research and Reports.[^63] A letter he signed as Assistant Director on November 26, 1951 says that "Walt Rostow at the Center for International Studies has sought my assistance in finding him someone to help out with some research."[^64] A letter of March 3, 1952 addresses him as Special Consultant, Central Intelligence Agency.[^65] In an interview note of March 5, 1952 titled "Origin of PSB," a CIA historian recorded that Millikan "participated in a 'contract study,' State and MIT," which the note identifies as the "Troy Project," and that its study "had considerable to do with the creation of the PSB."[^66]
The agency's financing of the [[Center for International Studies]] at MIT is recorded in several places. [[Patrick Oster]] reported in the Washington Post of September 11, 1977 that the agency "secretly financed a research project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in order to gain data on how to turn Russian scientists into CIA agents," as part of "Project MK-ULTRA," with a foundation as a "front," and that the researcher was affiliated with MIT's Center for International Studies, "which was set up in 1951 with CIA money and had as its first director Max F. Millikan, a former assistant director of the agency."[^64] Time reported on February 24, 1967 "directly and without masquerade" "$300,000 to finance M.I.T.'s topflight Center for International Studies," and that MIT then "terminated the contract 'for practical, not moral reasons.'"[^65] [[Andreas Lowenfeld]], of the State Department's Office of Legal Adviser, testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee's Internal Security Subcommittee, said of the center in 1951 and 1952: "they had some kind of contract with the CIA," and, asked whether he knew it was a CIA operation, "I was never formally told, but it became apparent."[^66]
The agency's financing of the [[Center for International Studies]] at MIT is recorded in several places. [[Patrick Oster]] reported in the Washington Post of September 11, 1977 that the agency "secretly financed a research project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in order to gain data on how to turn Russian scientists into CIA agents," as part of "Project MK-ULTRA," with a foundation as a "front," and that the researcher was affiliated with MIT's Center for International Studies, "which was set up in 1951 with CIA money and had as its first director Max F. Millikan, a former assistant director of the agency."[^67] Time reported on February 24, 1967 "directly and without masquerade" "$300,000 to finance M.I.T.'s topflight Center for International Studies," and that MIT then "terminated the contract 'for practical, not moral reasons.'"[^68] [[Andreas Lowenfeld]], of the State Department's Office of Legal Adviser, testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee's Internal Security Subcommittee, said of the center in 1951 and 1952: "they had some kind of contract with the CIA," and, asked whether he knew it was a CIA operation, "I was never formally told, but it became apparent."[^69]
The third progress report on NSC 59/1 records that the CIA had been assigned a continuing study of balloons as propaganda carriers and "instructed to stockpile one thousand large-sized propaganda balloons of the best type presently available."[^67] The [[Project Troy]] report had placed balloon work inside political warfare, stating that "The balloon problem is a part of political warfare. It cannot be handled by a separate balloon shop."[^68]
The third progress report on NSC 59/1 records that the CIA had been assigned a continuing study of balloons as propaganda carriers and "instructed to stockpile one thousand large-sized propaganda balloons of the best type presently available."[^70] The [[Project Troy]] report had placed balloon work inside political warfare, stating that "The balloon problem is a part of political warfare. It cannot be handled by a separate balloon shop."[^71]
In February 1961 [[Allen Dulles|Allen W. Dulles]] wrote to Millikan, then director of the center, that he was "very deeply interested in the proposal in your letter of January 23," and expected to attend at least part of the meetings of May 18 to 21, 1961, at which the center would review its first ten years.[^69]
In February 1961 [[Allen Dulles|Allen W. Dulles]] wrote to Millikan, then director of the center, that he was "very deeply interested in the proposal in your letter of January 23," and expected to attend at least part of the meetings of May 18 to 21, 1961, at which the center would review its first ten years.[^72]
A CIA document titled "Principles Governing Budgetary Relationships Between CENIS and CIA" describes an annual contract under which research projects were "mutually agreed upon case by case" between the agency and the Center for International Studies, within an annual authorization of $500,000. The document is undated.[^70] A CIA list of recipients of Office of Research and Reports unclassified studies names Max Millikan, [[Walt Rostow]], [[Wilfred Malenbaum]], [[Everett Hagen]], [[Evsey Domar]] and [[Thomas Schelling]], each listed under the Center for International Studies.[^71] A CIA memorandum dated February 16, 1959, forwarding a [[National Review]] Bulletin item, carries the item's text stating that [[Richard Bissell]] and [[Robert Amory]] "lean ideologically on CIA's outriding auxiliary at MIT, the Center for International Studies," and that they have been influenced by the theories of "W. W. Rostow, director of the Center."[^72] The MIT President's report for 1962 to 1963 refers to "Max F. Millikan, Director of the Center for International Studies."[^73] A CIA Office of Legislative Counsel journal entry of March 3, 1967 records that "the Agency has Senator Fulbright's letter concerning a Center for International Studies, MIT, and is preparing a response."[^74]
A CIA document titled "Principles Governing Budgetary Relationships Between CENIS and CIA" describes an annual contract under which research projects were "mutually agreed upon case by case" between the agency and the Center for International Studies, within an annual authorization of $500,000. The document is undated.[^73] A CIA list of recipients of Office of Research and Reports unclassified studies names Max Millikan, [[Walt Rostow]], [[Wilfred Malenbaum]], [[Everett Hagen]], [[Evsey Domar]] and [[Thomas Schelling]], each listed under the Center for International Studies.[^74] A CIA memorandum dated February 16, 1959, forwarding a [[National Review]] Bulletin item, carries the item's text stating that [[Richard Bissell]] and [[Robert Amory]] "lean ideologically on CIA's outriding auxiliary at MIT, the Center for International Studies," and that they have been influenced by the theories of "W. W. Rostow, director of the Center."[^75] The MIT President's report for 1962 to 1963 refers to "Max F. Millikan, Director of the Center for International Studies."[^76] A CIA Office of Legislative Counsel journal entry of March 3, 1967 records that "the Agency has Senator Fulbright's letter concerning a Center for International Studies, MIT, and is preparing a response."[^77]
### Footnotes
@ -238,35 +250,38 @@ A CIA document titled "Principles Governing Budgetary Relationships Between CENI
[^40]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Epilogue: "The damage that has been done"
[^41]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 13: "The wrong kind of friends"
[^42]: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, Chapter X, part 2, section C.2 (Carlos Amador: CIA cables of April 23 and April 25, 1986). https://oig.justice.gov/special/9712/ch10p2.htm
[^43]: Congressional Record, Senate, September 22, 2004, Rollcall Vote No. 187 (yeas 77, nays 17). https://irp.fas.org/congress/2004_cr/goss092204.html ; "Porter Goss Sworn in As New CIA Director," PBS NewsHour, September 24, 2004 (sworn in by Andrew Card in the Oval Office). https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/government_programs-july-dec04-cia_09-24 ; Norris, "Goss Is Latest to Leave Bush Administration," NPR transcript, May 5, 2006. https://www.npr.org/transcripts/5387220
[^44]: JURIST, "FBI probes CIA defense contracts after top official resigns," May 2006 (FBI probe of Foggo's possible help to ADCS). https://www.jurist.org/news/2006/05/fbi-probes-cia-defense-contracts-after ; Paul Blumenthal, "MSNBC: Foggo Gone," Sunlight Foundation, May 8, 2006 (resignation reported Monday). https://sunlightfoundation.com/2006/05/08/msnbc-foggo-gone/
[^45]: NBC News, "Ex-CIA executive gets 37 months in prison," February 26, 2009 (one count of fraud, 27 counts dropped, Judge James Cacheris, 37 months as requested). https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna29413971 ; Associated Press, "CIA officer gets jail time for fraud," Philadelphia Inquirer, February 27, 2009. https://www.inquirer.com/philly/news/nation_world/20090227_CIA_officer_gets_jail_time_for_fraud.html
[^46]: Select Committee on Intelligence, United States Senate, Committee Study of the Central Intelligence Agency's Detention and Interrogation Program, S. Rept. 113-288 (December 2014), executive summary and findings, sections on the 2005 videotapes ("The CIA destroyed the CIA interrogation videotapes the following day"; Rizzo's October 31, 2005 email). https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/CRPT-113srpt288.pdf
[^47]: NBC News, "Ex-CIA chief agreed with tape destruction," April 2010 (e-mails released by the Justice Department under an ACLU FOIA request; "PG, however, agreed with the decision"; the disputed account). https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna36589750
[^48]: JURIST, "No charges to be filed in CIA videotape destruction case: DOJ," November 2010 (spokesman Matthew Miller on Durham's decision; Durham appointed 2008 by Attorney General Michael Mukasey). https://www.jurist.org/news/2010/11/no-charges-to-be-filed-in-cia-videotape-destruction-case/
[^49]: Joseph E. Roop, "Foreign Broadcast Information Service. History. Part I: 1941-1947" (Central Intelligence Agency, approved for release April 1969), pp. 279, 299-300 and 303. https://archive.org/details/ForeignBroadcastInformationServiceHistoryPart11941-1947.
[^50]: National Archives and Records Administration, Guide to Federal Records, Record Group 262, administrative history. https://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/262.html.
[^51]: Roop, Part I, p. 2. https://archive.org/details/ForeignBroadcastInformationServiceHistoryPart11941-1947.
[^52]: Roop, Part II (CIA Directorate of Intelligence, August 1970), pp. 2 and 151-152. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-06741690.
[^53]: Office of the Director of National Intelligence, "ODNI Announces Establishment of Open Source Center," News Release No. 6-05, November 8, 2005. https://irp.fas.org/news/2005/11/odni110805.html.
[^54]: Central Intelligence Group, Central Planning Staff, memorandum "Liquidation of Security Advisory Board, OWI (C.I.G. Liaison with New Security Advisory Board under SWNCC)," July 22, 1946. CIA reading room copy, CIA-RDP78-04007A000300040024-9. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp78-04007a000300040024-9
[^55]: Central Intelligence Group, Chief, ICAPS, to the Executive Director, memorandum "CIG Membership on SWNCC Subcommittee for Psychological Warfare," July 21, 1947. CIA reading room copy, CIA-RDP84-00022R000400100046-0. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp84-00022r000400100046-0
[^56]: Central Intelligence Agency, Minutes of the Eighth Meeting of the Psychological Strategy Board (PSB M-8), January 10, 1952, membership and other participants. CIA reading room copy, CIA-RDP80-01065A000500100033-6. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp80-01065a000500100033-6
[^57]: Max F. Millikan, letter stamped January 30, 1951, CIA reading room document CIA-RDP80R01731R003100150032-1. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80r01731r003100150032-1
[^58]: Max F. Millikan, letter of October 29, 1951, CIA reading room document CIA-RDP79-01157A000200020002-2. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp79-01157a000200020002-2
[^59]: CIA, memorandum of conversation, "Psychological Intelligence," January 22, 1951, CIA reading room document CIA-RDP80R01731R003500180026-1. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80r01731r003500180026-1
[^60]: CIA, "Report of Intelligence Project Initiations, February 1951," memorandum of March 6, 1951, CIA reading room document CIA-RDP60-00213A000200030008-3. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp60-00213a000200030008-3
[^61]: Max F. Millikan, letter of November 26, 1951, CIA reading room document CIA-RDP80R01731R003000200096-6. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80r01731r003000200096-6
[^62]: Stuart A. Rice, Assistant Director for Statistical Standards, Bureau of the Budget, letter to Max F. Millikan, March 3, 1952, CIA reading room document CIA-RDP75-00662R000300120004-5. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp75-00662r000300120004-5
[^63]: A. B. Darling, note of interview with Max Millikan, "Origin of PSB," March 5, 1952, CIA reading room document CIA-RDP83-00036R000400050039-0. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp83-00036r000400050039-0
[^64]: Patrick Oster, "CIA Envisioned Soviet Scientists as U.S. Agents," Chicago Sun-Times, reprinted in the Washington Post, September 11, 1977, p. A-9, CIA reading room document CIA-RDP88-01315R000400460003-8. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp88-01315r000400460003-8
[^65]: Time, February 24, 1967, CIA reading room document CIA-RDP84-00161R000400210135-8. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp84-00161r000400210135-8
[^66]: U.S. Senate, Committee on the Judiciary, Internal Security Subcommittee, extracts from hearings (Part 3) on State Department security and passport regulations, testimony of Andreas F. Lowenfeld, CIA reading room document CIA-RDP75-00149R000400560007-3. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp75-00149r000400560007-3
[^67]: FRUS, The Intelligence Community, 1950-1955, Document 57 (third progress report on NSC 59/1), paragraph 12. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1950-55Intel/d57
[^68]: CIA reading room document CIA-RDP79S01011A000900030019-8, excerpt of the Project Troy report to the Secretary of State, February 1, 1951 (balloon chapter). https://archive.org/details/CIA-RDP79S01011A000900030019-8
[^69]: Allen W. Dulles, letter to Max F. Millikan, February 27, 1961, CIA reading room document CIA-RDP80B01676R003500160028-9. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80b01676r003500160028-9
[^70]: CIA, "Principles Governing Budgetary Relationships Between CENIS and CIA" (undated; released 2000), CIA reading room document CIA-RDP67-00059A000200090016-2. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp67-00059a000200090016-2
[^71]: CIA, "Recipients for ORR Unclassified Studies" (undated list), CIA reading room document CIA-RDP63-00314R000100180007-7. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp63-00314r000100180007-7
[^72]: CIA memorandum from the Assistant to the Director, February 16, 1959, forwarding a National Review Bulletin item, CIA reading room document CIA-RDP75-00001R000100260064-9. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp75-00001r000100260064-9
[^73]: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, President's Report Issue for the year ending July 1, 1963, p. 165, MIT Libraries, DSpace. https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/160055
[^74]: CIA Office of Legislative Counsel, journal entry, "Friday, 3 March 1967," CIA reading room document CIA-RDP69B00369R000200020044-4. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp69b00369r000200020044-4
[^43]: Gerth, Jeff, "Old Concerns Over Data Transfer to China Get New Attention," *The New York Times,* December 7, 1998, section A, p. 20, archived copy at https://web.archive.org/web/20201101033224/https://www.nytimes.com/1998/12/07/us/old-concerns-over-data-transfer-to-china-get-new-attention.html
[^44]: U.S. House of Representatives, Select Committee on U.S. National Security and Military/Commercial Concerns with the People's Republic of China, Report (Cox Report), H. Rept. 105-851, vol. II, ch. 5, pp. 55-57, and Appendix A, pp. 208-209, https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CRPT-105hrpt851/pdf/CRPT-105hrpt851.pdf
[^45]: Congressional Research Service, "China: Possible Missile Technology Transfers under U.S. Satellite Export Policy: Actions and Chronology," report 98-485 F, entries for April 1996 and September 1998, with notes 76 and 77, https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/98-485F.html
[^46]: Congressional Record, Senate, September 22, 2004, Rollcall Vote No. 187 (yeas 77, nays 17). https://irp.fas.org/congress/2004_cr/goss092204.html ; "Porter Goss Sworn in As New CIA Director," PBS NewsHour, September 24, 2004 (sworn in by Andrew Card in the Oval Office). https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/government_programs-july-dec04-cia_09-24 ; Norris, "Goss Is Latest to Leave Bush Administration," NPR transcript, May 5, 2006. https://www.npr.org/transcripts/5387220
[^47]: JURIST, "FBI probes CIA defense contracts after top official resigns," May 2006 (FBI probe of Foggo's possible help to ADCS). https://www.jurist.org/news/2006/05/fbi-probes-cia-defense-contracts-after ; Paul Blumenthal, "MSNBC: Foggo Gone," Sunlight Foundation, May 8, 2006 (resignation reported Monday). https://sunlightfoundation.com/2006/05/08/msnbc-foggo-gone/
[^48]: NBC News, "Ex-CIA executive gets 37 months in prison," February 26, 2009 (one count of fraud, 27 counts dropped, Judge James Cacheris, 37 months as requested). https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna29413971 ; Associated Press, "CIA officer gets jail time for fraud," Philadelphia Inquirer, February 27, 2009. https://www.inquirer.com/philly/news/nation_world/20090227_CIA_officer_gets_jail_time_for_fraud.html
[^49]: Select Committee on Intelligence, United States Senate, Committee Study of the Central Intelligence Agency's Detention and Interrogation Program, S. Rept. 113-288 (December 2014), executive summary and findings, sections on the 2005 videotapes ("The CIA destroyed the CIA interrogation videotapes the following day"; Rizzo's October 31, 2005 email). https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/CRPT-113srpt288.pdf
[^50]: NBC News, "Ex-CIA chief agreed with tape destruction," April 2010 (e-mails released by the Justice Department under an ACLU FOIA request; "PG, however, agreed with the decision"; the disputed account). https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna36589750
[^51]: JURIST, "No charges to be filed in CIA videotape destruction case: DOJ," November 2010 (spokesman Matthew Miller on Durham's decision; Durham appointed 2008 by Attorney General Michael Mukasey). https://www.jurist.org/news/2010/11/no-charges-to-be-filed-in-cia-videotape-destruction-case/
[^52]: Joseph E. Roop, "Foreign Broadcast Information Service. History. Part I: 1941-1947" (Central Intelligence Agency, approved for release April 1969), pp. 279, 299-300 and 303. https://archive.org/details/ForeignBroadcastInformationServiceHistoryPart11941-1947.
[^53]: National Archives and Records Administration, Guide to Federal Records, Record Group 262, administrative history. https://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/262.html.
[^54]: Roop, Part I, p. 2. https://archive.org/details/ForeignBroadcastInformationServiceHistoryPart11941-1947.
[^55]: Roop, Part II (CIA Directorate of Intelligence, August 1970), pp. 2 and 151-152. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-06741690.
[^56]: Office of the Director of National Intelligence, "ODNI Announces Establishment of Open Source Center," News Release No. 6-05, November 8, 2005. https://irp.fas.org/news/2005/11/odni110805.html.
[^57]: Central Intelligence Group, Central Planning Staff, memorandum "Liquidation of Security Advisory Board, OWI (C.I.G. Liaison with New Security Advisory Board under SWNCC)," July 22, 1946. CIA reading room copy, CIA-RDP78-04007A000300040024-9. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp78-04007a000300040024-9
[^58]: Central Intelligence Group, Chief, ICAPS, to the Executive Director, memorandum "CIG Membership on SWNCC Subcommittee for Psychological Warfare," July 21, 1947. CIA reading room copy, CIA-RDP84-00022R000400100046-0. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp84-00022r000400100046-0
[^59]: Central Intelligence Agency, Minutes of the Eighth Meeting of the Psychological Strategy Board (PSB M-8), January 10, 1952, membership and other participants. CIA reading room copy, CIA-RDP80-01065A000500100033-6. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp80-01065a000500100033-6
[^60]: Max F. Millikan, letter stamped January 30, 1951, CIA reading room document CIA-RDP80R01731R003100150032-1. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80r01731r003100150032-1
[^61]: Max F. Millikan, letter of October 29, 1951, CIA reading room document CIA-RDP79-01157A000200020002-2. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp79-01157a000200020002-2
[^62]: CIA, memorandum of conversation, "Psychological Intelligence," January 22, 1951, CIA reading room document CIA-RDP80R01731R003500180026-1. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80r01731r003500180026-1
[^63]: CIA, "Report of Intelligence Project Initiations, February 1951," memorandum of March 6, 1951, CIA reading room document CIA-RDP60-00213A000200030008-3. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp60-00213a000200030008-3
[^64]: Max F. Millikan, letter of November 26, 1951, CIA reading room document CIA-RDP80R01731R003000200096-6. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80r01731r003000200096-6
[^65]: Stuart A. Rice, Assistant Director for Statistical Standards, Bureau of the Budget, letter to Max F. Millikan, March 3, 1952, CIA reading room document CIA-RDP75-00662R000300120004-5. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp75-00662r000300120004-5
[^66]: A. B. Darling, note of interview with Max Millikan, "Origin of PSB," March 5, 1952, CIA reading room document CIA-RDP83-00036R000400050039-0. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp83-00036r000400050039-0
[^67]: Patrick Oster, "CIA Envisioned Soviet Scientists as U.S. Agents," Chicago Sun-Times, reprinted in the Washington Post, September 11, 1977, p. A-9, CIA reading room document CIA-RDP88-01315R000400460003-8. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp88-01315r000400460003-8
[^68]: Time, February 24, 1967, CIA reading room document CIA-RDP84-00161R000400210135-8. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp84-00161r000400210135-8
[^69]: U.S. Senate, Committee on the Judiciary, Internal Security Subcommittee, extracts from hearings (Part 3) on State Department security and passport regulations, testimony of Andreas F. Lowenfeld, CIA reading room document CIA-RDP75-00149R000400560007-3. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp75-00149r000400560007-3
[^70]: FRUS, The Intelligence Community, 1950-1955, Document 57 (third progress report on NSC 59/1), paragraph 12. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1950-55Intel/d57
[^71]: CIA reading room document CIA-RDP79S01011A000900030019-8, excerpt of the Project Troy report to the Secretary of State, February 1, 1951 (balloon chapter). https://archive.org/details/CIA-RDP79S01011A000900030019-8
[^72]: Allen W. Dulles, letter to Max F. Millikan, February 27, 1961, CIA reading room document CIA-RDP80B01676R003500160028-9. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80b01676r003500160028-9
[^73]: CIA, "Principles Governing Budgetary Relationships Between CENIS and CIA" (undated; released 2000), CIA reading room document CIA-RDP67-00059A000200090016-2. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp67-00059a000200090016-2
[^74]: CIA, "Recipients for ORR Unclassified Studies" (undated list), CIA reading room document CIA-RDP63-00314R000100180007-7. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp63-00314r000100180007-7
[^75]: CIA memorandum from the Assistant to the Director, February 16, 1959, forwarding a National Review Bulletin item, CIA reading room document CIA-RDP75-00001R000100260064-9. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp75-00001r000100260064-9
[^76]: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, President's Report Issue for the year ending July 1, 1963, p. 165, MIT Libraries, DSpace. https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/160055
[^77]: CIA Office of Legislative Counsel, journal entry, "Friday, 3 March 1967," CIA reading room document CIA-RDP69B00369R000200020044-4. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp69b00369r000200020044-4

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---
created: 2026-10-14
updated: 2026-10-14
aliases:
- Directorate of Defense Trade Controls
- Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC)
- DDTC
- Office of Defense Trade Controls
- Office of Defense Trade Controls (ODTC)
- ODTC
- Office of Munitions Control
- Center for Defense Trade
- Office of Defense Trade Controls Policy
- PM/DDTC
tags:
- Organization
- Government
- USA
- ExportControl
- ITAR
- ArmsExport
- StateDepartment
category: "U.S. Government"
summary: "The State Department directorate that administers the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, registers arms manufacturers and exporters, issues commodity jurisdiction determinations and imposes civil penalties by consent agreement."
relations:
- type: member_of
with: "[[Bureau of Political-Military Affairs]]"
role: "directorate within the bureau under 22 CFR 120.12"
fn: 7
- type: head_of
with: "[[William J. Lowell]]"
reverse: true
start: 1995-04-27
end: 2003-01-20
role: "Director, Office of Defense Trade Controls, signatory of notices dated April 27, 1995 and February 12, 1997; named again in 1996 and 2002 records; the position of Director was abolished in the realignment effective January 20, 2003"
fn: 36
- type: prosecuted
with: "[[Space Systems/Loral]]"
start: 2002-01-09
role: "consent agreement signed by Assistant Secretary Lincoln P. Bloomfield, Jr., civil penalty of $20,000,000, of which $6,000,000 was suspended"
fn: 29
- type: prosecuted
with: "[[Hughes Electronics Corporation]]"
start: 2003-03-04
role: "consent agreement with Boeing Satellite Systems, Inc., civil penalty of $32,000,000"
fn: 27
- type: prosecuted
with: "[[BAE Systems]]"
start: 2011-05-16
role: "four-year consent agreement, civil penalty of $79,000,000"
fn: 31
- type: prosecuted
with: "[[Raytheon]]"
start: 2013-04-30
role: "four-year consent agreement announced April 30, 2013, civil penalty of $8,000,000, of which $4,000,000 was suspended"
fn: 5
- type: prosecuted
with: "[[Honeywell International]]"
start: 2021
role: "order setting a civil penalty of $13,000,000, of which $5,000,000 was suspended"
fn: 32
- type: prosecuted
with: "[[L3Harris Technologies]]"
start: 2019
role: "order covering activities of Harris Corporation before the merger, civil penalty of $13,000,000"
fn: 33
- type: prosecuted
with: "[[Boeing]]"
start: 2024-02-29
role: "36-month consent agreement resolving 199 violations, civil penalty of $51,000,000"
fn: 34
- type: prosecuted
with: "[[RTX Corporation]]"
start: 2024-08-30
role: "36-month consent agreement resolving 750 violations, civil penalty of $200,000,000, of which $100,000,000 was suspended"
fn: 6
- type: prosecuted
with: "[[BAE Systems]]"
start: 2026-08-13
role: "36-month consent agreement resolving 104 violations, civil penalty of $36,000,000, of which $18,000,000 was suspended"
fn: 35
- type: investigated
with: "[[Teledyne Wah Chang Albany]]"
start: 1993-07-26
end: 1995-01-27
role: "licenses suspended by the Office of Defense Trade Controls on July 26, 1993 and again in 1994, rescinded in January 1995 after guilty pleas and a consent agreement"
fn: 36
- type: prosecuted
with: "[[General Electric]]"
start: 2026
role: "2026 entry on the directorate's penalties page: unauthorized exports of technical data to the People's Republic of China, violations of the provisos of authorizations, unauthorized exports of defense articles and failure to report material changes to its ITAR registration"
fn: 26
---
The Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) is the office in the [[State Department]]'s [[Bureau of Political-Military Affairs]] that administers the [[International Traffic in Arms Regulations]] (ITAR, 22 CFR Parts 120 to 130), which implement section 38 of the [[Arms Export Control Act]]. The directorate registers manufacturers and exporters of defense articles, licenses their exports, issues commodity jurisdiction determinations that decide whether an item is on the [[United States Munitions List]], and imposes civil penalties by consent agreement and statutory debarment.
### Lineage
The office descends from the [[National Munitions Control Board]], which a joint resolution of August 31, 1935 established "to carry out the provisions of" an act barring arms exports to belligerent countries. The board was chaired by the [[Secretary of State]] and included the secretaries of the [[Department of the Treasury|Treasury]], [[Department of Defense|War]], [[U.S. Navy|Navy]] and [[Department of Commerce|Commerce]]. The act vested administration in the State Department, required persons engaged in manufacturing, exporting or importing arms to register, and required the board's annual report to Congress to contain "a list of all persons required to register under the provisions of this Act, and full information concerning the licenses issued hereunder."[^1]
The licensing work was done by the Office of Munitions Control within the State Department. A public notice of March 29, 1990 announced that the Office of Munitions Control had changed its name to the Office of Defense Trade Controls, a change recorded in a September 17, 1996 ITAR amendment that also replaced the Bureau of Politico-Military Affairs with the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs.[^2] Effective January 20, 2003 the department realigned its defense trade controls. A rule published February 14, 2003 amended the ITAR to describe the new Directorate of Defense Trade Controls under a Deputy Assistant Secretary and Managing Director of Defense Trade Controls (the contact named in the rule was [[Robert W. Maggi]]), with subordinate offices for management, licensing, compliance and policy, and provided: "The position of Director of the Office of Defense Trade Controls is abolished."[^3] The Commerce Department's [[Bureau of Industry and Security]] followed in a rule effective October 12, 2004, which stated that the State Department had decided "through an internal organizational order" to change the name of the Office of Defense Trade Controls to the Directorate and replaced the office's name and "DTC" with "Directorate of Defense Trade Controls" and "DDTC" throughout the [[Export Administration Regulations]].[^4] The offices below the directorate kept the older name, as in the Office of Defense Trade Controls Compliance, which conducted the reviews behind later settlements.[^5][^6] An April 21, 2006 ITAR rule made the same change throughout the regulations, replaced references to the Center for Defense Trade with the directorate or with the Office of Defense Trade Controls Policy depending on the section, and set out the directorate's place in the bureau at 22 CFR 120.12.[^7]
The Arms Export Control Act was enacted as title II of the International Security Assistance and Arms Export Control Act of 1976 (Public Law 94-329, June 30, 1976). Its section 38 carried forward the registration and licensing requirements, and the statutory note provides that references to 22 U.S.C. 1934 are deemed references to section 38.[^8]
### Registration
Section 38 requires that every person who "engages in the business of manufacturing, exporting, or importing" designated defense articles or defense services "shall register with the United States Government agency charged with the administration of this section, and shall pay a registration fee."[^8] A 1996 amendment (Public Law 104-164, title I, section 151(a), July 21, 1996) added a second clause covering persons engaged in "brokering activities" with respect to the manufacture, export, import or transfer of foreign defense articles and services.[^8]
A rule effective January 9, 2025 revised the registration fees, setting them by tier with a multiplier of $1,100 for Tier 3 at 22 CFR 122.3(a)(3).[^9]
The company [[ELDAEON]] states its registration on its website. The footer of its home page reads "DDTC M53536" followed by a CAGE code.[^10] In a June 8, 2026 comment to the [[Federal Aviation Administration]] on a proposed rule about drone flights near fixed-site facilities, the company wrote that it "is registered with the U.S. Department of State's Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) and is pursuing a Commodity Jurisdiction determination for our flagship system, Nemesis, under ITAR."[^11]
### Commodity Jurisdiction
Under 22 CFR 120.12, a person who submits a Commodity Jurisdiction Determination Form (DS-4076) receives a determination from the directorate on whether an article or service is covered by the U.S. Munitions List in Part 121. The regulation states that the determination "entails consultation among the Departments of State, Defense, Commerce, and other U.S. Government agencies and industry in appropriate cases," and that the three departments resolve commodity jurisdiction disputes under established procedures. The determination is made case by case "taking into account" the form and fit of the article, its function and performance capability, and the applicant's history of the product's design, development and use.[^12]
The satellite cases show how that jurisdiction moved between agencies. The House [[Cox Committee]] (the Select Committee on U.S. National Security and Military/Commercial Concerns with the People's Republic of China) recorded in its summary on Hughes that commercial satellites "had been transferred to the Commerce Department, but licensing for improvements to any part of the rocket, such as the fairing, remained with the State Department."[^13]
A directorate rule revising Category XV of the Munitions List, which covers spacecraft and related articles, took effect on November 10, 2014, with one paragraph effective June 27, 2014.[^14] A Commerce interim final rule published the same day added controls under the Export Administration Regulations for spacecraft that the President had determined "no longer warrant control" under Category XV.[^15] A December 30, 1996 Commerce rule had earlier moved encryption items from the Munitions List to the [[Commerce Control List]].[^16]
### Licensing and Brokering
The licensing record includes foreign-origin arms moved by American brokers. The [[Hartford Courant]] reported that [[E. Lawrence Barcella, Jr.]], then an assistant United States attorney in Washington, gave a legal opinion clearing the way for a private $5 million shipment of Soviet-bloc rifles, machine guns and grenade launchers to the Nicaraguan [[Contras]] in the summer of 1985. Barcella told the paper in 1992 that "somebody in the government came to me." He said that in developing the opinion he contacted the Office of Munitions Control at the State Department and the Justice Department's office of internal security. [[Joseph diGenova]], the United States attorney, said "And I never authorized any such thing."[^17] The 1996 brokering clause of section 38 postdates the shipment by eleven years.
In the prosecution of [[Ari Ben-Menashe]], [[Richard St. Francis]] and [[Joseph O'Toole]] in the [[United States District Court for the Southern District of New York]], the defendants were charged with conspiring to sell American-made C-130 cargo planes located in Israel to [[Iran]] in violation of the Arms Export Control Act. In an opinion of August 1, 1990 Judge [[Louis L. Stanton]] quoted St. Francis's memorandum as contending that he had been encouraged to think that obtaining a false end user certificate was the only "legitimate" way to complete the transaction, with the certificate "being submitted to the Israeli Government (who would know it was false) and not to the State Department (who would also know it was false)."[^18]
The Hashemi cases of the 1980s turned on the same end-user paperwork. The report of the congressional Iran-Contra committees records that in May 1984 federal criminal charges were filed against [[Cyrus Hashemi]] and his [[Hashemi brothers|brothers]] [[Reza Hashemi|Reza]] and [[Jamshid Hashemi|Jamshid]], among others, for alleged arms export control violations; that Hashemi then arranged with the [[U.S. Customs]] Service to run a [[Hashemi Sting|sting operation]]; and that it produced the April 22, 1986 indictment of 17 individuals in the Southern District of New York on charges of an illegal scheme to smuggle $2.5 billion in American-made weapons to Iran. Hashemi was to be the primary prosecution witness until his death in July 1986.[^19] The committees also recorded that the businessman [[Roy Furmark]] knew Hashemi and introduced [[Manucher Ghorbanifar]] to him and to [[Adnan Khashoggi]],[^20] and that around April 22, 1986 CIA officers learned that Ghorbanifar had allegedly funded a transaction coordinated by Hashemi that violated federal law, which was the first they knew of a Customs sting.[^20] The Second Circuit later wrote that the original indictment in the case was returned in May 1986; that its lead defendant [[Samuel Evans]] was general counsel to Khashoggi; and that the defendants were charged with conspiring to violate the Arms Export Control Act and to make false statements, under 22 U.S.C. 2778(c) and 18 U.S.C. 1001, by supplying false end user certificates to deceive the United States about the destination of arms valued at over $2 billion, which were to go to Hashemi, "a government agent pretending to be an Iranian buyer."[^21] Judge [[Leonard B. Sand]] wrote in 1987 that none of the arms deals in the fourth superseding indictment was consummated; that Hashemi was the putative Iranian buyer in each of five alleged conspiracies, including the "Dergo Establishment Arms Deal"; and that under the regulations "the written approval of the Department of State" had to be obtained before a defense article was resold, diverted or transferred to a country other than the one stated on the export license. The opinion also names Customs Agent [[Joe King|King]], who assisted a search of the defendants' luggage in Bermuda.[^22]
[[Kenneth Peoples]], a State Department licensing official who was [[Hughes Electronics Corporation|Hughes]]'s primary contact on satellite issues, had issued license number 483414 for the export of the Aussat B (later Optus B) satellite. A Hughes document on the Apstar 1 and 2 licenses stated that release of detailed design, production or manufacturing data required specific Office of Defense Trade Controls approval of a separate application.[^23]
After the failure of [[Intelsat 708]] on a [[Long March 3B]] launch in February 1996, Peoples believed there was a serious possibility the ITAR had been violated and recommended that [[Space Systems/Loral|Loral]] provide a letter to [[William J. Lowell]], Director of the State Department's Office of Defense Trade Controls. Loral delivered a box of documents to the department.[^24] On May 29, 1996 Lowell wrote to [[Eric J. Zahler]], general counsel of Loral Space and Communications, that there was reason to believe Loral may have participated in serious violations of the ITAR by providing unauthorized defense services to the People's Republic of China during the launch failure investigation, and recommended that Loral cease related activity requiring approval, make a full disclosure and enumerate all releases controlled under the regulations.[^25]
### Consent Agreements and Penalties
The directorate's public "Penalties & Oversight Agreements" page cites ITAR section 127.10, under which the Assistant Secretary for Political-Military Affairs is authorized to impose civil penalties, and describes consent agreements that may include a Special Compliance Officer (SCO), an Internal Special Compliance Officer (ISCO), a policy of denial, debarment, audits and "cradle-to-grave" export tracking. It lists 80 entries.[^26] Its 2026 entries include the [[BAE Systems]], Inc. agreement, which the page describes as including retransfer "in one case to the People's Republic of China," and an entry for [[General Electric]] Company describing unauthorized exports of technical data to the People's Republic of China, violations of the provisos of directorate authorizations, unauthorized exports of defense articles and "failure to report material changes to its ITAR registration."[^26]
On March 4, 2003 the Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs signed a consent agreement imposing a $32 million fine on Hughes Electronics Corporation and [[Boeing Satellite Systems]], Inc., settling 123 charges under the Arms Export Control Act and the ITAR. Of the $20 million cash penalty, $12 million went to the Treasury and $8 million to the U.S. Customs Service to settle a separate claim. Another $12 million was suspended on condition that the companies apply the funds to remedial compliance measures.[^27]
A draft charging letter to Space Systems/Loral alleged 64 violations connected with the company's conduct after the failure of the Long March 3B launch carrying the Intelsat 708 spacecraft.[^28] The consent agreement of January 9, 2002 was signed for the department by Assistant Secretary [[Lincoln P. Bloomfield, Jr.]] and for the parent company by Eric J. Zahler, its president and chief operating officer, on January 8. It recites that the principal vehicle for the alleged violations was an Independent Review Committee of scientists and engineers from the United States and Europe, organized and chaired by Space Systems/Loral officers "under the aegis" of the China Aerospace Corporation. The civil penalty was $20,000,000: $14,000,000 payable ($2,200,000 within ten days of the order and $11,800,000 in seven annual installments of $1,685,714) and $6,000,000 suspended on condition that Loral and Space Systems/Loral apply that amount over seven years to remedial compliance measures, with $2,000,000 already invested credited toward it. The companies neither admitted nor denied the allegations.[^29]
On March 27, 2007 the [[U.S. Department of Justice|Justice Department]] announced that [[ITT Corporation]] would pay a $100 million penalty and plead guilty to illegally exporting secret military data overseas. The release calls ITT "the first major defense contractor convicted of a criminal violation of the Arms Export Control Act."[^30]
On May 16, 2011 the directorate reached a four-year consent agreement with BAE Systems for a civil penalty of $79 million, which the department called "the largest civil penalty in Department history." The department said it identified the violations in a review of BAE's conduct after the company's criminal conviction in March 2010 for conspiracy to violate the AECA and the ITAR. The proposed charging letter alleged an estimated 2,591 violations in connection with unauthorized brokering.[^31]
On April 30, 2013 the department announced a four-year consent agreement with [[Raytheon]] for $8 million in civil penalties and remedial expenditures, of which $4 million was suspended on condition that the funds be used for remedial compliance measures. The department's Office of Defense Trade Controls Compliance had found that hundreds of violations disclosed over many years showed "a recurring, corporate-wide weakness in maintaining effective ITAR controls."[^5]
A 2021 order against [[Honeywell International]], concerning unauthorized exports and retransfers of defense articles and technical data to various countries including a proscribed destination, set a civil penalty of $13,000,000, of which $5,000,000 was suspended on condition that the company apply that amount to remedial compliance measures under the consent agreement.[^32] A 2019 order against [[L3Harris Technologies]], concerning activities of Harris Corporation before the merger, set a civil penalty of $13,000,000; the charges were unauthorized exports of defense articles including technical data, inaccurate and incomplete Part 130 reporting, and violations of license terms.[^33]
On February 29, 2024 the State Department announced a 36-month consent agreement with [[Boeing]] for 199 violations of the Arms Export Control Act and the ITAR, including unauthorized exports and retransfers of technical data to foreign-person employees and contractors and unauthorized exports of technical data to China. The civil penalty was $51 million, of which $24 million was suspended. The department stated that all of the violations were voluntarily disclosed.[^34]
On August 30, 2024 the department announced a 36-month consent agreement with [[RTX Corporation]] (the successor name of Raytheon's parent) resolving 750 violations of the Arms Export Control Act and the ITAR, concluded under ITAR section 128.11. The violations were unauthorized exports of defense articles resulting from the failure to establish proper jurisdiction and classification, unauthorized exports including classified defense articles, hand-carry exports by employees to destinations listed in 22 CFR 126.1, and violations of the terms and provisos of directorate authorizations. The civil penalty was $200 million, of which $100 million was suspended on condition that the funds be used for remedial compliance measures, with an external special compliance officer for at least 24 months. The department stated that RTX disclosed all of the alleged violations voluntarily.[^6]
On August 13, 2026 the department announced a 36-month consent agreement with BAE Systems, Inc. resolving 104 violations, for a civil penalty of $36 million, of which $18 million was suspended. The settlement was concluded under ITAR section 128.11 and covered unauthorized exports of technical data, violations of the terms of directorate authorizations, and unauthorized exports of defense articles. The company voluntarily disclosed all but one of the alleged violations.[^35]
Suspension of licenses and statutory debarment form a second enforcement tool. On July 26, 1993 the Office of Defense Trade Controls suspended all licenses and approvals for [[Teledyne Wah Chang Albany]] after a May 26, 1993 indictment in the Southern District of Florida charging conspiracy to illegally export ordnance-grade zirconium to [[Chile]] "for use in cluster bombs and other munitions for Iraq." A second indictment returned July 13, 1994 in the District of Columbia charged the company and others with a scheme to export zirconium compacts to Greece for reexport to [[Jordan]]; the department suspended licenses for the company, Extraco Ltd., Weco Industrial Products Export GmbH, [[Edward A. Johnson]] and others effective that day. Teledyne pleaded guilty in Florida on January 26, 1995 and in Washington on January 27, 1995, and under a consent agreement the department rescinded the suspensions effective January 26 and 27, 1995, in a notice signed by Lowell on April 27, 1995.[^36] A June 12, 1996 notice debarred Teledyne Wah Chang Albany for three years after its convictions and listed [[Swissco Management Group]] and Johnson as convicted on August 7, 1995 of conspiracy to violate 22 U.S.C. 2778 under 18 U.S.C. 371.[^37] A March 24, 1997 notice by the office replaced a policy of denial for [[Fuchs Electronics]] with statutory debarment. The policy of denial had taken effect on June 8, 1994 in response to an indictment in the [[United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania|Eastern District of Pennsylvania]]. The notice records a consent agreement between Fuchs and the department dated January 24, 1997, and a guilty plea by Fuchs on February 27, 1997.[^38]
The same page lists entries for earlier years: in 2024, Precision Castparts (technical data to foreign-person employees from Bhutan, Burundi, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico and Peru); in 2023, Island Pyrochemical Industries (unauthorized brokering with a People's Republic of China corporation, and false statements), VTA Telecom (Vietnam) and 3D Systems; in 2022, Torrey Pines Logic and Leonid B. Volfson; in 2021, Keysight Technologies (technical data, including software, to various countries including a proscribed destination); in 2020, Airbus SE (false statements on authorization requests, failure to report political contributions, commissions or fees, record-keeping, and unauthorized re-export); in 2019, AeroVironment, L3Harris and Darling Industries; in 2018, FLIR Systems, including the retransfer of technical data and defense services to dual-national employees of Iran, Iraq, Lebanon and Cuba; and in 2017, Bright Lights USA.[^26]
In 2022 the directorate entered orders in three cases arising from work for the [[United Arab Emirates]]. Ryan Adams, Marc Baier and Daniel Gericke each "settled allegations that he violated the [ITAR] in connection with the unauthorized exports of defense services to the United Arab Emirates." Each order imposes "administrative debarment ... for a period of three years in accordance with ITAR § 127.7(a)."[^39] The proposed charging letter to Baier alleges one charge covering January 2016 to November 2019. It states that before [[DarkMatter]], "a foreign corporation registered in the UAE," Baier was employed by [[CyberPoint International]] LLC, "a U.S.-based company that provided cyber services to the UAE government pursuant to ITAR licenses or other approvals, including technical assistance agreements"; that the U.S.-person managers who joined DarkMatter "became the founding members of a Raven Team successor at DarkMatter, which was referred to as the Cyber Intelligence-Operations (CIO) group" and "operated in the same building, with the same terminals, setup, and computer infrastructure from which they operated under CyberPoint"; and that "Respondent created certain zero-click computer hacking and intelligence gathering systems that were specially designed, developed, maintained and operated by Respondent to access tens of millions of devices for the UAE government's intelligence purposes."[^40] The proposed charging letter to Gericke covers the period October 2016 to February 2017 and states that he "was a U.S. person within the meaning of § 120.15 of the ITAR until February 2017."[^41]
### Directors
William J. Lowell signed an April 27, 1995 notice as Director, Office of Defense Trade Controls, and a February 12, 1997 notice in the same capacity.[^36][^38] He is named as the office's director in the Loral failure review of 1996[^24][^25] and in a May 3, 2002 notice.[^42] The ITAR amendment effective January 20, 2003 abolished the position of Director of the Office of Defense Trade Controls and placed the directorate under a Deputy Assistant Secretary who was also Managing Director of Defense Trade Controls; the rule's contact was Robert W. Maggi.[^3]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Joint Resolution of August 31, 1935, Pub. Res. No. 67, 74th Cong., 49 Stat. 1081, establishing the National Munitions Control Board. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-49/pdf/STATUTE-49-Pg1081.pdf
[^2]: Department of State, "Bureau of Political-Military Affairs; Amendments to the International Traffic in Arms Regulations," 61 Fed. Reg. (Sept. 17, 1996), FR Doc. 96-23659, describing Public Notice 1179, 55 Fed. Reg. 11714 (Mar. 29, 1990). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-1996-09-17/html/96-23659.htm
[^3]: Department of State, "Bureau of Political-Military Affairs; Amendment to the International Traffic in Arms Regulations," 68 Fed. Reg. 7417 (Feb. 14, 2003), FR Doc. 03-2926, Public Notice 4274, effective January 29, 2003, reflecting a realignment effective January 20, 2003. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2003-02-14/html/03-2926.htm
[^4]: Department of Commerce, Bureau of Industry and Security, "Nomenclature Change: References to Another Agency," 69 Fed. Reg. 60545 (Oct. 12, 2004), FR Doc. 04-22861, effective October 12, 2004. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2004-10-12/html/04-22861.htm
[^5]: Department of State, "State Department Announces Resolution of Raytheon Company Arms Export Control Enforcement Case," media note, April 30, 2013. https://2009-2017.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2013/04/208655.htm
[^6]: Department of State, "U.S. Department of State Concludes $200 Million Settlement Resolving Export Violations by RTX Corporation," media note, August 30, 2024. https://2021-2025.state.gov/u-s-department-of-state-concludes-200-million-settlement-resolving-export-violations-by-rtx-corporation/
[^7]: Department of State, "Amendments to the International Traffic in Arms Regulations: Office Names, Corrected Cross-Referencing, Reference to Wassenaar Arrangement, and Other Corrections/Administrative Changes," 71 Fed. Reg. 20534 (Apr. 21, 2006), FR Doc. 06-3500. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2006-04-21/html/06-3500.htm
[^8]: Arms Export Control Act, 22 U.S.C. 2778 (section 38), as added by Pub. L. 94-329, title II, sec. 212(a)(1), 90 Stat. 744 (June 30, 1976), and as amended by Pub. L. 104-164, title I, sec. 151(a), 110 Stat. 1437 (July 21, 1996), with the statutory note on references to 22 U.S.C. 1934. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/22/2778
[^9]: Department of State, "International Traffic in Arms Regulations: Registration Fees," 89 Fed. Reg. 99081 (Dec. 10, 2024), FR Doc. 2024-29032, effective January 9, 2025 (Tier 3 multiplier at 22 CFR 122.3(a)(3)). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2024-12-10/html/2024-29032.htm
[^10]: ELDÆON, home page footer, viewed October 14, 2026. https://eldaeon.com/
[^11]: ELDAEON INC. (signed Jonathan Wagner), comment FAA-2026-4558-0285 on the proposed rule restricting the operation of unmanned aircraft in close proximity to a fixed-site facility, posted June 8, 2026. https://www.regulations.gov/comment/FAA-2026-4558-0285
[^12]: 22 CFR 120.12, "Commodity jurisdiction determination requests," paragraphs (a) and (b). https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/22/120.12
[^13]: U.S. House of Representatives, Select Committee on U.S. National Security and Military/Commercial Concerns with the People's Republic of China, H. Rept. 105-851 (1999), vol. II, ch. 5 (Hughes), summary, PDF p. 4. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRPT-105hrpt851/pdf/GPO-CRPT-105hrpt851-2-5.pdf
[^14]: Department of State, "Amendment to the International Traffic in Arms Regulations: Revision of U.S. Munitions List Category XV," 79 Fed. Reg. (May 13, 2014), FR Doc. 2014-10806, effective November 10, 2014, except Category XV(d), effective June 27, 2014. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2014-05-13/html/2014-10806.htm
[^15]: Department of Commerce, Bureau of Industry and Security, interim final rule, "Revisions to the Export Administration Regulations (EAR): Control of Spacecraft Systems and Related Items," 79 Fed. Reg. (May 13, 2014), FR Doc. 2014-10807, effective June 27, 2014 with later provisions effective November 10, 2014. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2014-05-13/html/2014-10807.htm
[^16]: Department of Commerce, Bureau of Export Administration, "Encryption Items Transferred From the U.S. Munitions List to the Commerce Control List," interim rule, 61 Fed. Reg. (Dec. 30, 1996), FR Doc. 96-33030. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-1996-12-30/html/96-33030.htm
[^17]: Lyn Bixby, "Head of Iran Hostage Probe Linked to Arms Deal," Hartford Courant, May 29, 1992. https://www.courant.com/1992/05/29/head-of-iran-hostage-probe-linked-to-arms-deal/
[^18]: United States v. Menashe, 741 F. Supp. 1135 (S.D.N.Y. 1990), No. 90 Cr. 010 (LLS), memorandum and order of Judge Louis L. Stanton, August 1, 1990, citing St. Francis's memorandum in support, pp. 7-8. https://static.case.law/f-supp/741/cases/1135-01.json
[^19]: Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair, H. Rept. 100-433, S. Rept. 100-216 (Nov. 1987), ch. 9, note 13, p. 171. https://archive.org/details/reportofcongress87unit
[^20]: Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair (1987), ch. 9, p. 164; and the discussion of "Complications" around April 22, 1986, p. 226 and note 120. https://archive.org/details/reportofcongress87unit
[^21]: United States v. Evans, 844 F.2d 36 (2d Cir. 1988), opinion of Chief Judge Feinberg, April 7, 1988, part I. https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/504381/united-states-v-evans/
[^22]: United States v. Evans, 667 F. Supp. 974 (S.D.N.Y. 1987), opinion of Judge Sand, July 10, 1987. https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/2158497/united-states-v-evans/
[^23]: U.S. House of Representatives, H. Rept. 105-851 (1999), vol. II, ch. 5 (Hughes), PDF pp. 19 and 45. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRPT-105hrpt851/pdf/GPO-CRPT-105hrpt851-2-5.pdf
[^24]: U.S. House of Representatives, H. Rept. 105-851 (1999), vol. II, Loral chapter, PDF pp. 54-55. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRPT-105hrpt851/pdf/GPO-CRPT-105hrpt851-2-7.pdf
[^25]: U.S. House of Representatives, H. Rept. 105-851 (1999), vol. II, Loral chapter, "Loral Submits Its 'Voluntary' Disclosure to the State Department," p. 151 (the letter of May 29, 1996). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRPT-105hrpt851/pdf/GPO-CRPT-105hrpt851-2-7.pdf
[^26]: Directorate of Defense Trade Controls, "Penalties & Oversight Agreements," DDTC Public Portal, viewed October 14, 2026. https://www.pmddtc.state.gov/ddtc_public/ddtc_public?id=ddtc_kb_article_page&sys_id=384b968adb3cd30044f9ff621f961941
[^27]: Department of State, "Department of State Reaches Settlement with Boeing and Hughes," March 2003 (settlement of March 4, 2003). https://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2003/18275.htm
[^28]: Department of State, Office of Defense Trade Controls, Draft Charging Letter to Space Systems/Loral, Inc., undated, charges 1 to 64 ("Sixty-four (64) violations are alleged at this time"). https://www.pmddtc.state.gov/sys_attachment.do?sys_id=032ef245db15df00d0a370131f96192b
[^29]: Loral Space & Communications Ltd., Form 8-K, Exhibit 10.1, consent agreement between the Department of State, Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, and Space Systems/Loral, Inc. and Loral Space & Communications Ltd., paragraphs 5 and 10 and signature page, signed January 8 and 9, 2002. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001006269/000095012302000193/y56456ex10-1.txt
[^30]: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, "ITT Corporation to Pay $100 Million Penalty and Plead Guilty to Illegally Exporting Secret Military Data Overseas," March 27, 2007, release no. 07-192. https://www.justice.gov/archive/opa/pr/2007/March/07_nsd_192.html
[^31]: Department of State, "BAE Systems plc Enters Civil Settlement of Alleged Violations of the AECA and ITAR and Agrees to Civil Penalty of $79 Million," release of May 17, 2011 describing a May 16, 2011 settlement. https://2009-2017.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2011/05/163530.htm
[^32]: Department of State, Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, Order, In the Matter of Honeywell International, Inc., entered 2021 (civil penalty of $13,000,000; $5,000,000 suspended). https://www.pmddtc.state.gov/sys_attachment.do?sys_id=9d3eab0b1bb764902dc36311f54bcb3f
[^33]: Department of State, Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, Order, In the Matter of L3Harris Technologies, Inc., entered 2019, under section 38(e) of the Arms Export Control Act (civil penalty of $13,000,000). https://www.pmddtc.state.gov/sys_attachment.do?sys_id=43579882db44c0107ede365e7c9619cc
[^34]: Department of State, "Department of State Concludes $51 Million Settlement Resolving Export Violations by The Boeing Company," media note, February 29, 2024. https://2021-2025.state.gov/u-s-department-of-state-concludes-51-million-settlement-resolving-export-violations-by-the-boeing-company/
[^35]: Department of State, "Department of State Concludes $36 Million Settlement Resolving Export Violations by BAE Systems, Inc.," August 13, 2026. https://www.state.gov/releases/bureau-of-political-military-affairs/2026/08/u-s-department-of-state-concludes-36-million-settlement-resolving-export-violations-by-bae-systems-inc-bae/
[^36]: Department of State, Office of Defense Trade Controls, Public Notice 2206, "Rescission of Suspended Exports Regarding Teledyne Wah Chang Albany," 60 Fed. Reg. 30151 (June 7, 1995), dated April 27, 1995 and signed by William J. Lowell, Director; and Public Notice 2207, 60 Fed. Reg. 30150 (June 7, 1995). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-1995-06-07/pdf/95-13834.pdf
[^37]: Department of State, Office of Defense Trade Controls, Public Notice 2395, "Statutory Debarment Under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations," 61 Fed. Reg. 29784 (June 12, 1996), FR Doc. 96-14826. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-1996-06-12/pdf/96-14826.pdf
[^38]: Department of State, Office of Defense Trade Controls, Public Notice 2522, "Statutory Debarment Under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations," 62 Fed. Reg. 13933 (Mar. 24, 1997), FR Doc. 97-7273, dated February 12, 1997 and signed by William J. Lowell, Director, Office of Defense Trade Controls (Fuchs Electronics (Pty) Ltd., effective February 27, 1997). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-1997-03-24/html/97-7273.htm
[^39]: Directorate of Defense Trade Controls, Orders in the matters of Ryan Adams, Marc Baier and Daniel Gericke, 2022, DDTC Public Portal, "Penalties & Oversight Agreements." https://www.pmddtc.state.gov/ddtc_public/ddtc_public?id=ddtc_kb_article_page&sys_id=384b968adb3cd30044f9ff621f961941
[^40]: Directorate of Defense Trade Controls, Proposed Charging Letter, In the Matter of Marc Baier, 2022, DDTC Public Portal, "Penalties & Oversight Agreements." https://www.pmddtc.state.gov/ddtc_public/ddtc_public?id=ddtc_kb_article_page&sys_id=384b968adb3cd30044f9ff621f961941
[^41]: Directorate of Defense Trade Controls, Proposed Charging Letter, In the Matter of Daniel Gericke, 2022, DDTC Public Portal, "Penalties & Oversight Agreements." https://www.pmddtc.state.gov/ddtc_public/ddtc_public?id=ddtc_kb_article_page&sys_id=384b968adb3cd30044f9ff621f961941
[^42]: Department of State, "Office of Defense Trade Controls; Notifications to the Congress of Proposed Commercial Export Licenses," 67 Fed. Reg. (May 3, 2002), FR Doc. 02-11021, naming William J. Lowell, Director. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2002-05-03/html/02-11021.htm

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@ -0,0 +1,178 @@
---
aliases:
- "FAA"
- "Federal Aviation Agency"
category: "U.S. Government"
tags:
- Organization
- FAA
- USGovernment
- AviationRegistry
- UAP
- DroneRegulation
- JeffreyEpstein
- Aviation
summary: "The Federal Aviation Administration keeps the public aircraft registry and issues the flight restrictions and UAP reporting rules recurring in the Epstein, Seal and Sierra Blanca records."
location: "Washington, D.C."
created: 2026-10-14
updated: 2026-10-14
relations:
- type: member_of
with: "[[Department of Transportation]]"
role: "modal administration within the Department of Transportation, created by the Department of Transportation Act"
start: 1967-04-01
fn: 2
- type: head_of
with: "[[Elwood R. Quesada]]"
reverse: true
role: "first Federal Aviation Agency Administrator"
start: 1958-11-01
end: 1961-01-20
fn: 3
- type: head_of
with: "[[Stephen M. Dickson]]"
reverse: true
role: "Eighteenth FAA Administrator"
start: 2019-08-12
fn: 4
- type: participant_in
with: "[[UAP Task Force]]"
role: "member agency of the planned interagency task force, according to Luis Elizondo"
start: 2020
fn: 35
---
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the [[United States]] agency that regulates civil aviation, operates the national airspace system and keeps the public record of U.S.-registered aircraft.[^1] It was created as the Federal Aviation Agency in 1958 and took its present name on April 1, 1967, when it became one of the modal administrations of the [[Department of Transportation]].[^2][^3]
### Creation and leadership
The Federal Aviation Act of 1958 established the agency in its first section: "There is hereby established the Federal Aviation Agency."[^1] The act was signed on August 23, 1958. [[Elwood R. Quesada]], a retired [[U.S. Air Force]] general, became the first administrator on November 1, 1958, and the agency began operations on December 31 of that year.[^3] The Department of Transportation Act of October 15, 1966 created the department and placed a Federal Aviation Administration within it.[^2] The department began full operations on April 1, 1967, and the agency took the new name.[^3] The FAA's biography series lists eighteen administrators, from Quesada through [[Stephen M. Dickson]], who took office on August 12, 2019.[^4]
### Aircraft registry
The N-Number Inquiry on the FAA's registry site reports, for a registration mark, whether the mark is assigned, deregistered or reserved, the registered owner name and mailing address, the certificate issue date, the make, model and serial number, and the Mode S code. The page states that its data is "Updated Each Federal Working Day At Midnight."[^5] Reserved marks carry a reservation date and renewal and purge dates. The mark N3FD, which appears in the [[Epstein Files]] and on the [[St. Thomas Jet Center]] page, was listed on October 14, 2026 as reserved, with a reservation date of July 21, 2022, a renewal date of May 25, 2026 and a purge date of August 21, 2027.[^6]
Two marks connected to [[Barry Seal]] and his [[Southern Air Transport]] operations, N4410F and N5575A, are listed as deregistered.[^7] The registry also lists N1437J, a Cessna 210A that the record associates with the family of [[R.C. Horsch]], as deregistered.[^8]
Active marks appear in the same inquiry. N114BD is assigned, with [[Black Diamond Aviation Group LLC]] as registered owner.[^9] N615BD is registered to [[Stephen Deckoff]] as an individual.[^10] N908JE, the mark of the Boeing 727 known as the [[Lolita Express]], is assigned to [[Jet Assets Inc.]][^11]
Section 803 of the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024 added 49 U.S.C. 44114, which requires the FAA, on request of a private aircraft owner, to withhold the registration number and personally identifiable information from broad public display, with exceptions for data furnished to government agencies, including for traffic management.[^12] The FAA opened the request process on March 28, 2025 through its Civil Aviation Registry Electronic Services system, and said it was evaluating whether to withhold the personally identifiable information of private owners from the public registry by default.[^13] A request for comment followed in the [[Federal Register]] on April 3, 2025.[^14] The N615BD record displayed the registered owner's name in the public inquiry on October 14, 2026.[^10]
### Epstein aircraft files
In August and September 2021 a special agent of the FAA's Law Enforcement Assistance Program in [[Atlanta]] corresponded with federal investigators about the registration files of aircraft tied to [[Jeffrey Epstein]].[^15] On August 18, 2021 the investigators sent the agent a list of search terms: Jeffrey Epstein, [[Ghislaine Maxwell]], Air Ghislaine, [[Thomas World Air LLC]], [[Hyperion Air]] LLC, [[Freedom Air Petroleum LLC]], [[NES LLC]], [[Maple, Inc.]] and [[Nautilus Inc.]][^15] The agent wrote the same day that a special agent of the [[Drug Enforcement Administration]] at the Saint Thomas Resident Office had been interested in Epstein and his aircraft in 2015 and 2016, and that in August 2019 the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] in Atlanta had been interested in aircraft linked to Epstein.[^15] His notes, re-sent by the investigators on September 29, state that he had ordered certified copies of the registration records of ten aircraft, to be sent by regular mail from the FAA in [[Oklahoma]].[^15] The same chain appears in a second production in the [[Department of Justice]]'s Epstein Library.[^16]
The companies in the notes include [[Air Ghislaine, Inc.]], [[JEGE, Inc.]] and Hyperion Air Inc. Air Ghislaine Inc. of Wilmington, Delaware bought a Sikorsky S-76C-2 helicopter, N750A, on December 30, 2008; [[Larry Visoski]] signed as Director of Aviation. The company changed its name to Shmitka Air Inc. on February 11, 2010, and the helicopter took the number N722JE in March 2010. JEGE Inc. bought a 1969 Boeing 727 on January 19, 2001, renumbered it N908JE in April 2001, and was its registered owner until the registration was cancelled on October 5, 2019; the agent wrote that the aircraft was on the Part 125 certificate of JEGE Inc., whose chief executive was Epstein. Hyperion Air Inc. bought a 1974 Gulfstream in 1994 on a document signed by Epstein as president, renumbered it N909JE, and sold it in November 2013. Of a Bell 430 helicopter that Hyperion Air Inc. registered in 2012 and transferred in August 2013 to Hyperion Air LLC of [[St. Thomas]], the agent wrote that "the same players in the Inc and LLC are on the FAA registration paperwork," naming [[Darren Indyke]] and Visoski.[^15]
Of a Gulfstream G550 registered in 2017 to Plan D LLC, a Virgin Islands company of which Visoski was manager, the agent wrote: "I don't see EPSTEIN's name on any of the FAA paperwork." Two paragraphs later he wrote that the statement in support of registration that Plan D LLC submitted to the FAA listed Epstein as a member and Visoski as manager.[^15] Of Indyke, he wrote: "No FAA certificates issued to Darren INDYKE."[^15] The notes state that no other aircraft were registered or indexed to Hyperion Air Inc. or LLC, Plan D LLC, Ossa Properties Inc., Epstein, Maxwell and the other searched entities.[^15]
On N908JE the agent wrote that it "might be in [[Brunswick, Georgia]]." On September 29, 2021 he wrote that he was retiring on September 30.[^15]
### Carter Cornick and the Townley expulsion
[[Carter Cornick]], a former FBI special agent, was named in the press in 1978 as accompanying [[Michael Townley]] on the flight to the United States after [[Chile]] expelled Townley.[^17] In a 2016 article in the newsletter of the Society of Former Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Cornick wrote that the stir in the United States caused the FAA to order the plane to make an unscheduled landing in [[Baltimore]] before it reached its planned destination in New York.[^18]
### Japan Air Lines flight 1628
On November 17, 1986 a [[Japan Air Lines]] Boeing 747 cargo flight, flight 1628, flew from Reykjavik to [[Anchorage]] under Captain Kenju Terauchi. FAA special agents interviewed the crew at Anchorage that evening. The crew described lights in two sets, yellow, amber and green and none red, first ahead of the aircraft and then on its left; an object on the aircraft's weather radar at about seven to eight nautical miles; a 360 degree turn near [[Fairbanks]] during which the lights stayed with the aircraft; and loss of the lights about 40 miles north of Talkeetna. A record by the FAA Alaskan Region Flight Standards manager states that the duty officer of the [[North American Aerospace Defense Command]] told him that military radar also showed two targets, one of them the JAL aircraft.[^19]
The FAA's Alaskan Region recorded the sequence of its public response: a correspondent of Kyodo News visited on December 24, 1986 and the Alaska bureau chief of United Press International on December 29; the agency re-interviewed the crew on January 4, 1987; and on January 5 the regional director approved a plan to withhold further release until all material had been collected and to release it at a press conference on March 5, 1987 at 10:00 a.m.[^20] United Press International reported on January 1, 1987 that Terauchi said the largest object was "two times bigger than an aircraft carrier" and that the sighting appeared on FAA and Air Force radar and on the cockpit radar.[^21] At the March 5 press conference the Alaskan Region public affairs officer, [[Paul Steucke]], handed out a statement that read in part: "We have not tried to determine what the crew of Japan Airlines flight 1628 saw based on scientific analysis of the stars, planets, magnetic fields, angle of view, etc." and "The FAA has completed its investigation of JAL flight 1628, and does not intend to pursue it any further."[^22] In a letter of April 1, 1987 to [[Philip J. Klass]] he wrote that the FAA was "not concerned with UFO's per se" and that its primary concern was the safety of the airspace.[^22] Steucke said the radar blip on FAA screens had been analyzed as a split image of the JAL aircraft; Sam Rich, an FAA controller on duty, said in a news report that none of the controllers thought so at the time.[^20] In a letter of May 14, 1987 the FAA's Alaska Region told a correspondent that the report, titled "JAL Flight 1628 Unidentified Traffic Sighting, 11/17/86," was available from the [[National Technical Information Service]] as accession PB87-184206 at $30.95 for a paper copy.[^23]
[[John Callahan]] was an FAA official in Washington, D.C. (office symbol AAT-63). In memoranda of March 10 and 11, 1987 Steucke recorded that Bruce Maccabee of the Naval Surface Weapons Center told him on February 20 that he and several other people had been invited by Callahan, in late January or early February, to see the Alaskan material, which Maccabee described as including the transcript, color photographs of the radar screen, the crew interview and controller statements, and that Callahan told him about a C-130 and Alaska Airlines sighting of January 29, 1987. Steucke attributed to Callahan the release of material that had reached Klass, and wrote that Callahan "probably" received it from one of two FAA employees to whom the Alaskan Region Air Traffic Division had sent it.[^24] Callahan later described the Washington briefing as including personnel of the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] and science advisers of the Reagan administration, and said that at its end a CIA representative told the attendees that the event never happened and that they were sworn to secrecy. Skeptoid reported that Ron Pandolfi and Maccabee, both of whom attended, said that no one was sworn to secrecy.[^25] Callahan is credited in the acknowledgments of the 2007 [[National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena]] (NARCAP) report on the 2006 O'Hare sighting as "John Callahan, FAA, ret."[^26]
### The 2006 O'Hare sighting
On November 7, 2006 witnesses at [[Chicago O'Hare International Airport]] reported an object hovering above Gate C17. The [[Chicago Tribune]] reported on January 1, 2007 that the FAA had at first told the newspaper it had no information, and reversed after the Tribune filed a Freedom of Information Act request; an internal FAA review of air traffic communications tapes found a call from a United Airlines supervisor to an FAA manager in the tower.[^27] The FAA spokeswoman [[Elizabeth Isham Cory]] was quoted as saying that none of the tower controllers saw the object, that "a preliminary check of radar found nothing out of the ordinary," and: "Our theory on this is that it was a weather phenomenon. That night was a perfect atmospheric condition in terms of low (cloud) ceiling and a lot of airport lights. When the lights shine up into the clouds, sometimes you can see funny things." She said the FAA was not investigating.[^26][^27] NARCAP, which examined the case as its Case 18, reported that its examination of the primary radar data supplied by the FAA found that nothing was detected by radar at that location and time.[^26]
### UAP reporting rules
The FAA's controller order, JO 7110.65, tells controllers to "Inform the operations supervisor/CIC of any reported or observed unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP)/unexplained phenomena activity."[^28] The companion order, JO 7210.3, states that pilot reports and air traffic observations of UAP "must be reported to the National Tactical Security Operations (NTSO) Air Traffic Security Coordinator (ATSC) team on the Domestic Events Network (DEN)." It refers other people who want to report UAP to the website of the [[All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office]].[^29]
The Aeronautical Information Manual's section 7-6-4 on UFO reports, in the web edition containing changes through August 27, 2009, told the public to contact "an UFO/Unexplained Phenomena Reporting Data Collection Center, such as the [[National Institute for Discovery Science|National Institute for Discovery Sciences (NIDS)]], the National UFO Reporting Center, etc." and, if concern was expressed that life or property might be endangered, to report the activity to the local law enforcement department.[^30] Section 7-6 of the current manual on the FAA site does not carry that paragraph.[^31]
Section 1673 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023 directed the Secretary of Defense to establish a "secure mechanism for authorized reporting" of events relating to unidentified anomalous phenomena.[^32] The 2025 workshop paper of AARO states that "the FAA continues to collect pilot reports."[^33] A 2024 workshop on UAP data organized with [[Associated Universities, Inc.]] proposed designing its reporting schema so that "reports can be linked to FAA/NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) data," along with ADS-B flight tracks.[^34]
Luis Elizondo wrote that [[U.S. Navy]] intelligence leadership tasked [[Jay Stratton]] with building a whole-of-government task force with members from the FBI, the [[National Reconnaissance Office]], [[NASA]] and the FAA, and that Stratton became the first director of the [[UAP Task Force]].[^35]
### Drone rules and the fixed-site restriction process
The FAA's small unmanned aircraft rules, 14 CFR part 107, were adopted in a final rule published June 28, 2016 at 81 FR 42064.[^36] Remote identification of unmanned aircraft, 14 CFR part 89, was adopted in a rule published January 15, 2021 at 86 FR 4390.[^37]
Section 2209 of the FAA Extension, Safety, and Security Act of 2016 (Public Law 114-190, enacted July 15, 2016) directed the Secretary of Transportation to establish a process for petitioning the FAA Administrator to restrict unmanned aircraft operations in close proximity to a fixed site facility.[^38] Executive Order 14305, "Restoring American Airspace Sovereignty," dated June 6, 2025, was published at 90 FR 24719 on June 11, 2025.[^39]
On May 6, 2026 the FAA published a notice of proposed rulemaking at 91 FR 24650 under docket FAA-2026-4558. It proposes a new part 74 under which operators or proprietors of fixed site facilities could request an unmanned aircraft flight restriction. Eligible facilities are limited to those that meet the critical infrastructure definition in 42 U.S.C. 5195c(e), a limit the notice describes as consistent with Executive Order 14305.[^40] The comment period, originally set to close on July 6, 2026, was extended to August 5, 2026 by a notice published June 30, 2026.[^41]
On June 8, 2026 [[ELDAEON]] filed comment FAA-2026-4558-0285 in the docket, asking the FAA to recognize passive radar as an approved method of meeting the protective security measures requirement of proposed 14 CFR 74.54.[^42]
### New Jersey and the December 2024 statement
On December 17, 2024 the [[Department of Homeland Security]], the FBI, the FAA and the [[Department of Defense]] issued a joint statement on reported drone sightings in New Jersey and the northeast. The statement said the FBI "has received tips of more than 5,000 reported drone sightings in the last few weeks with approximately 100 leads generated." It attributed the sightings to a combination of lawful commercial, hobbyist and law enforcement drones, as well as "manned fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and stars mistakenly reported as drones," and said: "We have not identified anything anomalous and do not assess the activity to date to present a national security or public safety risk over the civilian airspace in New Jersey or other states in the northeast."[^43] The statement also referred to "a limited number of visual sightings of drones over military facilities in New Jersey."[^43]
### Temporary flight restrictions in West Texas
FDC NOTAM 5/3497, issued by the [[Albuquerque Air Route Traffic Control Center]] (ZAB) under the heading "FORT HANCOCK, TX," runs from November 6, 2025 to November 6, 2026 local. It states that the FAA classifies the airspace it defines as "NTL DEFENSE AIRSPACE" under 49 USC 40103(B)(3), that pilots who do not adhere to its procedures may be intercepted, detained and interviewed, and that the government "MAY USE DEADLY FORCE AGAINST THE AIRBORNE ACFT" if the aircraft is determined to pose an imminent security threat.[^44] The NOTAM cites 14 CFR 99.7 for its special security instructions.[^44] The registry lists N3051Q, a helicopter, as assigned to [[Charlie Helicopter Company]] LLC.[^45]
[[Ross Coulthart]] wrote on August 10, 2026 that the notice was "posted by the FAA on Nov. 8, 2025," and that he had learned the restriction "was initiated by the Defense Department's Joint Special Operations Command liaison to the FAA and imposed 'to shoot down drones'"; he wrote that the closure "effectively shut down Skywatcher's operations on their Sierra Blanca range."[^46] The Mile High Resources Range of [[Mile High Resources]] near [[Sierra Blanca, Texas]], where [[Sky Watcher]] operated, lies inside the airspace polygon when parcel data are plotted against the NOTAM coordinates.[^47]
### Commercial space licensing
Lobbying disclosure filings by the [[Brimley Group]] for [[Bigelow Aerospace]] LLC, the company of [[Robert Bigelow]], list the FAA among the issues in 2015. The first quarter filing refers to "the FAA's Office of Commercial Space" in appropriations bills, and the second quarter filing refers to "the FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation."[^48] The [[Office of Commercial Space Transportation]] is the FAA office named in those filings.
### Department of Homeland Security records
The Special Access Program proposal in the [[KONA BLUE]] records of the Department of Homeland Security listed, among the feeds of its Data Analysis Center, radar tracks from the Federal Aviation Administration.[^49] A 2011 and 2012 goals document of [[Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies]] released by the department lists, under Area 2, liaison with the intelligence community, the FBI, state, local and tribal police, the FAA, the Department of Defense (including AFOSI), national laboratories and U.S. aerospace companies.[^50]
### The September 11 attacks
The 9/11 Commission Report describes the FAA's Boston Center as the center that had tracked the first two hijackings. At 8:28 a.m. on September 11, 2001, Boston Center called the FAA's Command Center in [[Herndon, Virginia|Herndon]] to advise that it believed [[American Airlines]] Flight 11 had been hijacked. At 8:32 the Command Center passed word of a possible hijacking to the Operations Center at FAA headquarters. The report states that "FAA headquarters began to follow the hijack protocol but did not contact the NMCC to request a fighter escort."[^51] The report places the [[Northeast Air Defense Sector]] of the North American Aerospace Defense Command in [[Rome, New York]].[^51]
### Scientific advisers and training
[[Garrison Rapmund]], a U.S. Army major general, was described in a 2018 alumni memorial of [[Columbia University]] as a scientific adviser to the [[National Institutes of Health]], the FAA and the [[Department of Energy]].[^52] [[Edwin May]] wrote to Jessica Utts on August 1, 1995 that Rapmund served on the Air Force Science Advisory Board and "is involved in policy matters with the FAA."[^53] The State Department's monthly magazine reported that [[Mayer Nudell]] and a colleague attended a civil aviation security course at the FAA Academy in [[Oklahoma City]] from November 28 to December 2, 1984.[^54] A New Jersey law of January 2026 on air traffic controller loan redemption and UAP research establishes aviation grants for public institutions that participate in the federal Unmanned Aircraft Systems Collegiate Training Initiative; the legislature's fiscal estimate states, on information from the FAA, that as of May 2025 three New Jersey public institutions participate: [[Atlantic Cape Community College]], [[Warren County Community College]] and [[Kean University]].[^55]
### Other records
In a memoir, [[Ben Rich]] wrote of the Blackbird flights: "We had to clear FAA controllers along the flight paths, otherwise they'd think they were seeing flying saucers at Mach 3 plus on their radar screens."[^56]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Federal Aviation Act of 1958, Pub. L. 85-726, 72 Stat. 731 (August 23, 1958), section 301(a). U.S. Government Publishing Office, https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-72/pdf/STATUTE-72-Pg731.pdf
[^2]: Department of Transportation Act, Pub. L. 89-670, 80 Stat. 931 (October 15, 1966), section 3(e)(1). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-80/pdf/STATUTE-80-Pg931.pdf
[^3]: Federal Aviation Administration, "A Brief History of the FAA." https://www.faa.gov/about/history/brief_history
[^4]: Federal Aviation Administration, "FAA Administrators," biographies in the Historical Chronology appendix. https://www.faa.gov/sites/faa.gov/files/about/history/chronolog_history/AOA_bios.pdf
[^5]: FAA Aircraft Registry, N-Number Inquiry page, header "Data Updated Each Federal Working Day At Midnight," accessed October 14, 2026. https://registry.faa.gov/AircraftInquiry/Search/NNumberResult?nNumberTxt=3FD
[^6]: FAA Aircraft Registry, N-Number Inquiry Results for N3FD ("N3FD has Reserved/Multiple Records"; reserved date 07/21/2022; renewal date 05/25/2026; purge date 08/21/2027), accessed October 14, 2026. https://registry.faa.gov/AircraftInquiry/Search/NNumberResult?nNumberTxt=3FD
[^7]: FAA Aircraft Registry, N-Number Inquiry Results for N4410F ("is Deregistered") and N5575A ("is Deregistered"), accessed October 14, 2026. https://registry.faa.gov/AircraftInquiry/Search/NNumberResult?nNumberTxt=4410F ; https://registry.faa.gov/AircraftInquiry/Search/NNumberResult?nNumberTxt=5575A
[^8]: FAA Aircraft Registry, N-Number Inquiry Results for N1437J ("is Deregistered"), accessed October 14, 2026. https://registry.faa.gov/AircraftInquiry/Search/NNumberResult?nNumberTxt=1437J
[^9]: FAA Aircraft Registry, N-Number Inquiry Results for N114BD ("is Assigned N-Number"; registered owner BLACK DIAMOND AVIATION GROUP LLC), accessed October 14, 2026. https://registry.faa.gov/AircraftInquiry/Search/NNumberResult?nNumberTxt=114BD
[^10]: FAA Aircraft Registry, N-Number Inquiry Results for N615BD (type registration Individual; registered owner DECKOFF STEPHEN H), accessed October 14, 2026. https://registry.faa.gov/AircraftInquiry/Search/NNumberResult?nNumberTxt=615BD
[^11]: FAA Aircraft Registry, N-Number Inquiry Results for N908JE (registered owner JET ASSETS INC), accessed October 14, 2026. https://registry.faa.gov/AircraftInquiry/Search/NNumberResult?nNumberTxt=908JE
[^12]: FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024, Pub. L. 118-63, section 803 (adding 49 U.S.C. 44114), 138 Stat. 1322 (May 16, 2024). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-118publ63/pdf/PLAW-118publ63.pdf
[^13]: Federal Aviation Administration, "FAA Moves to Protect Aircraft Owners' Private Information," March 28, 2025. https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/faa-moves-protect-aircraft-owners-private-information
[^14]: Federal Aviation Administration, "Request for Comment To Withhold Certain Aircraft Registration Information From Public Dissemination," 90 FR 14590 (April 3, 2025), Docket No. FAA-2025-0638. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/04/03/2025-05738/request-for-comment-to-withhold-certain-aircraft-registration-information-from-public-dissemination
[^15]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, DataSet 8, EFTA00021675 to EFTA00021684, email chain "RE: FAA Question," between a Special Agent of the Federal Aviation Administration, Law Enforcement Assistance Program, Atlanta, and federal investigators, August 17 to September 29, 2021. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%208/EFTA00021675.pdf
[^16]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, DataSet 9, EFTA00087596, email chain "RE: FAA Question," August to September 2021, second production. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00087596.pdf
[^17]: American Embassy Santiago (George Landau) to Secretary of State, "Letelier/Moffitt Assassination Investigation," telegram 1978SANTIA03456, May 9, 1978, released 2014. https://archive.org/details/StateDeptcable1978-117178
[^18]: L. Carter Cornick Jr., "Chilbom," The Grapevine (Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI), August 2016. https://fbistudies.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/FBI-Grapevine-Chilbom.pdf .
[^19]: Federal Aviation Administration, Air Transportation Security records of the interviews of the crew of JAL Flight 1628 at Anchorage, November 17, 1986, with a record by the Alaskan Region Flight Standards manager of the same evening. https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/ufos/jal1628/733667-001-005.pdf
[^20]: Federal Aviation Administration, Alaskan Region, 1987 Alaska PRSA Aurora Award entry, Category 8, "JAL 1628" (chronology, plan of January 5, 1987 and results as of August 14, 1987), with a news report on the radar track. https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/ufos/jal1628/733667-002-002.pdf
[^21]: United Press International, "Plane Maneuvered to Avoid Object: Pilot Recounts Sighting Enormous UFO," Los Angeles Times, January 1, 1987. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-01-01-mn-1922-story.html
[^22]: Paul Steucke, FAA Alaskan Region Public Affairs Officer, statement "Lack of 'Scientific' Investigation," March 5, 1987, and letter to Philip J. Klass, April 1, 1987, in the FAA's JAL 1628 file. https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/ufos/jal1628/733667-001-003.pdf
[^23]: Federal Aviation Administration, Alaska Region, letter to a correspondent, May 14, 1987, enclosing the National Technical Information Service listing for "JAL Flight 1628 Unidentified Traffic Sighting, 11/17/86" (PB87-184206). https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/ufos/jal1628/733667-001-001.pdf
[^24]: Paul Steucke, memoranda "Release of Incident Information re: JAL 1628 (UFO)" of March 10 and March 11, 1987, with records of his telephone conversations with Philip J. Klass (February 18, 1987) and Bruce Maccabee (February 20, 1987), in the FAA's JAL 1628 file. https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/ufos/jal1628/733667-001-003.pdf
[^25]: The Black Vault, "The Vault Files: 1986 Alaska JAL Flight 1628," reporting Callahan's account of the January 1987 meeting. https://www.theblackvault.com/casefiles/the-vault-files-1986-alaska-jal-flight-1628/ ; Brian Dunning, "The Alaska UFO Incident," Skeptoid episode 4753, describing the account as Callahan's chapter in Leslie Kean, UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record (2010) and reporting statements of Ron Pandolfi and Bruce Maccabee. https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4753
[^26]: Richard F. Haines et al., "Report of an Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon and its Safety Implications at O'Hare International Airport on November 7, 2006," NARCAP Technical Report TR-10, Case 18 (revision of July 24, 2007), acknowledgments, sections 2.1.1, 3.4 and 7.0. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5cf80ff422b5a90001351e31/t/5db33f31d35a623422d8010c/1572028245437/TR10_1edition.pdf
[^27]: Chicago Tribune, January 1, 2007, p. 1, by Jon Hilkevitch, as summarized in "O'Hare UFO Controversy: Witnesses Say Yes, Feds No," The National Ledger (Apache Junction, Arizona), January 4, 2007. https://ufologie.patrickgross.org/press/nationalledger4jan2007.htm
[^28]: Federal Aviation Administration, Air Traffic Control order JO 7110.65, para. 9-8-1, "Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) Reports." https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/publications/atpubs/atc_html/chap9_section_8.html
[^29]: Federal Aviation Administration, Air Traffic Control order JO 7210.3, para. 4-7-4, "Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) Reports." https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/publications/atpubs/foa_html/chap4_section_7.html
[^30]: Federal Aviation Administration, Aeronautical Information Manual, section 7-6-4, "Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) Reports," web edition containing Change 3 of August 27, 2009, as archived October 6, 2009. https://web.archive.org/web/20091006140356/http://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/publications/ATpubs/AIM/Chap7/aim0706.html
[^31]: Federal Aviation Administration, Aeronautical Information Manual, chapter 7, section 6, current online edition. https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/publications/atpubs/aim_html/chap7_section_6.html
[^32]: National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023, Pub. L. 117-263, section 1673, 136 Stat. 2960 (December 23, 2022). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-117publ263/pdf/PLAW-117publ263.pdf
[^33]: All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, "2025 UAP Workshop: Narrative Data, Infrastructures, and Analysis. Workshop Synthesis and Recommendations," 26-P-0344, archived copy. https://web.archive.org/web/20260927135859/https://www.aaro.mil/Portals/136/PDFs/Information%20Papers/2025_UAP_Workshop_Paper.pdf
[^34]: Associated Universities, Inc. and Florida State University, "Executive Summary on the 2024 UAP Workshop," version 1.1 (June 2024), Zenodo record 12210158, archived PDF. https://web.archive.org/web/20260214015245/https://zenodo.org/records/12210158/files/UAP%20Workshop%20Executive%20Summary_ver1.1.pdf
[^35]: Luis Elizondo, Imminent: Inside the Pentagon's Hunt for UFOs (New York: William Morrow, 2024), pp. 211 and 223.
[^36]: Federal Aviation Administration, "Operation and Certification of Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems," final rule, 81 FR 42064 (June 28, 2016), document 2016-15079. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2016/06/28/2016-15079/operation-and-certification-of-small-unmanned-aircraft-systems
[^37]: Federal Aviation Administration, "Remote Identification of Unmanned Aircraft," final rule, 86 FR 4390 (January 15, 2021), document 2020-28948. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/01/15/2020-28948/remote-identification-of-unmanned-aircraft
[^38]: FAA Extension, Safety, and Security Act of 2016, Pub. L. 114-190, section 2209 ("Applications for designation"), July 15, 2016. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-114publ190/pdf/PLAW-114publ190.pdf
[^39]: Executive Order 14305, "Restoring American Airspace Sovereignty," June 6, 2025, 90 FR 24719 (June 11, 2025). https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/06/11/2025-10803/restoring-american-airspace-sovereignty
[^40]: Federal Aviation Administration, "Designation, Restrict the Operation of Unmanned Aircraft in Close Proximity to a Fixed Site Facility," notice of proposed rulemaking, 91 FR 24650 (May 6, 2026), Docket No. FAA-2026-4558, Notice No. 26-03. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/05/06/2026-08943/designation-restrict-the-operation-of-unmanned-aircraft-in-close-proximity-to-a-fixed-site-facility
[^41]: Federal Aviation Administration, extension of the comment period for the notice at 91 FR 24650, 91 FR 39568 (June 30, 2026), FR Doc. 2026-13126. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/06/30/2026-13126/designation-restrict-the-operation-of-unmanned-aircraft-in-close-proximity-to-a-fixed-site-facility
[^42]: Eldaeon Inc., comment FAA-2026-4558-0285 on the notice at 91 FR 24650, posted June 8, 2026. https://www.regulations.gov/comment/FAA-2026-4558-0285
[^43]: Department of Homeland Security, FBI, FAA and Department of Defense, "Joint Statement on Ongoing Response to Reported Drone Sightings," December 17, 2024. https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/dhs-fbi-faa-dod-joint-statement-ongoing-response-reported-drone-sightings
[^44]: Federal Aviation Administration, FDC NOTAM 5/3497 (ZAB), text from the FAA Temporary Flight Restrictions API, read October 14, 2026. https://tfr.faa.gov/tfrapi/getNotamText?notamId=5/3497
[^45]: FAA Aircraft Registry, N-Number Inquiry Results for N3051Q (registered owner CHARLIE HELICOPTER COMPANY LLC), accessed October 14, 2026. https://registry.faa.gov/AircraftInquiry/Search/NNumberResult?nNumberTxt=3051Q
[^46]: Ross Coulthart, "Is the Trump administration running a covert UFO program?," NewsNation Reality Check, August 10, 2026. https://www.newsnationnow.com/podcasts-newsnation/reality-check/trump-administration-covert-ufo-program/amp/
[^47]: Texas Geographic Information Office, StratMap land parcels, Hudspeth County, 2026-03 roll, plotted against the polygon of FDC NOTAM 5/3497. https://tfr.faa.gov/tfrapi/getNotamText?notamId=5/3497
[^48]: Lobbying Disclosure Act filings, Brimley Group Inc. for Bigelow Aerospace, LLC, first quarter 2015 (filed April 17, 2015), https://lda.gov/filings/public/filing/84f7d539-3700-4bce-8ccd-8d9393efc52a/print/ ; second quarter 2015 (filed July 17, 2015), https://lda.gov/filings/public/filing/f8cd4948-266c-4401-8c8a-972c24851ce1/print/
[^49]: U.S. Department of Homeland Security, KONA BLUE records released with AARO, Special Access Program proposal under DHS Instruction 140-04-001, Data Analysis Center section, pp. 17 to 31. https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/06/AARO_DHS_Kona_Blue.pdf
[^50]: U.S. Department of Homeland Security, final response letter of June 20, 2023, case 2022-HQFO-00386, with enclosure "BAASS Goals 2011/2012," Area 2, item 1.
[^51]: National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, The 9/11 Commission Report (2004), chapter 1, sections "FAA Awareness" and "The FAA and NORAD." https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-911REPORT/pdf/GPO-911REPORT.pdf
[^52]: Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia Medicine, Fall/Winter 2018, "In Memoriam," Class of 1953. https://www.vagelos.columbia.edu/about-us/columbia-medicine-magazine/archives/fall-winter-2018/memoriam/alumni
[^53]: Edwin C. May, "Project Contacts," memorandum to Jessica M. Utts, August 1, 1995, CIA-RDP96-00791R000200190048-5. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp96-00791r000200190048-5
[^54]: U.S. Department of State, State, nos. 263 to 273 (1984), "Office for Combatting Terrorism" columns. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=osu.32435066730094
[^55]: Office of Legislative Services, Legislative Fiscal Estimate, S4432 1R, December 16, 2025. https://pub.njleg.gov/Bills/2024/S4500/4432_E1.HTM
[^56]: Ben R. Rich and Leo Janos, Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed (Boston: Little, Brown, 1994).

18
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Federal Bureau of Investigation.md
View file

@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
---
created: 2025-07-22
updated: 2026-10-09
updated: 2026-10-14
title: Federal Bureau of Investigation
aliases:
- FBI
@ -63,6 +63,11 @@ relations:
start: 1930
role: "met regularly with FBI officials to report on the New School faculty, by his own acknowledgment in private letters"
fn: 20
- type: participant_in
with: "[[Executive Order 14305]]"
start: 2025-09-24
role: "operates the National Counter-UAS Training Center that its memorandum of September 24, 2025 describes as created under the order"
fn: 28
---
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the principal federal criminal investigative agency of the [[United States]] and a component of the [[Department of Justice]]. Its files bear on several clusters of this vault: the 1947 flying disc inquiries, the army parapsychology program, the Contra drug cases, the [[Operation C-Chase]] prosecution of [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]] and the Palm Beach investigation of [[Jeffrey Epstein]].
@ -123,6 +128,14 @@ Johnson's memoir records that after the United States entered the war he was app
The Justice Department Office of Professional Responsibility reported that in early 2006 a West Palm Beach FBI special agent told Assistant U.S. Attorney Ann Marie Villafana that the Palm Beach Police had approached the FBI because the state attorney's office was considering not charging the case or allowing a misdemeanor plea. Villafana and two FBI case agents developed a federal case. The FBI planned to arrest Epstein after a May 15, 2007, indictment date and to hold a press conference, and wanted to arrest him in the [[U.S. Virgin Islands]] while he judged a beauty pageant. After the U.S. Attorney's Office managers in [[Miami]] declined to approve the indictment, the squad supervisor was "not happy," and the case agent recalled the supervisor as "extremely upset." At a meeting with Villafana and her managers the FBI insisted that Epstein register for life as a sex offender. After Epstein rejected the proposal, the squad supervisor "yelled at" First Assistant U.S. Attorney [[Jeffrey Sloman]]. The report found no misconduct by Department attorneys and concluded that U.S. Attorney [[Alexander Acosta]] exercised poor judgment in resolving the case through a non-prosecution agreement.[^25]
### National Counter-UAS Training Center
The Bureau operates the National Counter-UAS Training Center (NCUTC). The interim final rule of the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security, published July 6, 2026 (91 FR 41466) and effective July 1, 2026, defines the NCUTC as "the national schoolhouse operated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation" and as "the sole certifying authority for SLTT C-UAS mitigation operators" under 6 U.S.C. 124n. The rule reports that the center "has certified 61 officers across approximately 46 SLTT agencies to date."[^26]
Section 9(b) of [[Executive Order 14305]] of June 6, 2025 directs the Attorney General, in coordination with other cabinet officers, to implement the recommendations of the March 2022 Feasibility Report to Congress on the "National Training Center for Counter-Unmanned Aircraft Systems."[^27] A memorandum from the NCUTC dated September 24, 2025 states that the order "directed the creation of the FBI's National Counter-UAS Training Center, modeled after the FBI's Hazardous Devices School."[^28] The same memorandum announced a three-week course in late October 2025 in [[Huntsville, Alabama]], with an inaugural class of 12 officers from agencies in New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts and California. It stated that "certification does not confer authority to conduct counter-UAS operations unless and until Congress expands statutory authorities under 6 U.S.C. § 124n to include SLTT agencies."[^28]
The [[SAFER SKIES Act]], signed on December 18, 2025 as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026, authorizes state, local, tribal and territorial law enforcement and correctional agencies to conduct counter-UAS operations after NCUTC training, according to the July 2026 rule.[^26]
### Footnotes
[^1]: FBI Seattle teletype to Director, August 6, 1947, and Hoover teletype to Seattle (undated, August 1947), FBI file 62-HQ-83894 ("Unidentified Flying Objects"), Section 2, FBI Freedom of Information/Privacy Acts release, archive.org item "expediente-ovni-65-hs1-834228961-62-hq-83894-section-2-1ecd79," https://archive.org/details/expediente-ovni-65-hs1-834228961-62-hq-83894-section-2-1ecd79
@ -150,3 +163,6 @@ The Justice Department Office of Professional Responsibility reported that in ea
[^23]: Rutkoff and Scott, New School, p. 228.
[^24]: Alvin Johnson, Pioneer's Progress (Viking Press, 1952; University of Nebraska Press, 1960), p. 370.
[^25]: U.S. Department of Justice Office of Professional Responsibility, *Investigation into the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida's Resolution of Its 2006-2008 Federal Criminal Investigation of Jeffrey Epstein* (November 2020), Parts III and IV, copy at https://archive.org/details/epsteindocs ; executive summary at https://www.justice.gov/opr/page/file/1336471/dl
[^26]: Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice, "Counter-UAS Authority for State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial Law Enforcement and Correctional Agencies," interim final rule, Docket FBI-2026-0001, 91 FR 41466 (July 6, 2026), effective July 1, 2026, Federal Register Doc. 2026-13609. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/07/06/2026-13609/counter-uas-authority-for-state-local-tribal-and-territorial-law-enforcement-and-correctional
[^27]: Executive Order 14305 of June 6, 2025, "Restoring American Airspace Sovereignty," 90 FR 24719 (June 11, 2025), Federal Register Doc. 2025-10803, section 9(b). https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/06/11/2025-10803/restoring-american-airspace-sovereignty
[^28]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, National Counter-UAS Training Center, memorandum "Announcement of the NCUTC and Initial Training" to all U.S. law enforcement agencies, September 24, 2025. Hosted copy: https://iaclea.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/NCUTC-Announcement-Memo.pdf

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@ -84,7 +84,7 @@ relations:
end: 1992-12
fn: 73
created: 2026-09-23
updated: 2026-10-14
updated: 2026-10-15
---
The Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations of the [[Senate Foreign Relations Committee]], chaired by Senator [[John Kerry]] of [[Massachusetts]], produced two reports: S. Prt. 100-165, *Drugs, Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy* (December 1988), on narcotics trafficking, the [[Contras]] and [[Manuel Noriega]], and S. Prt. 102-140, *The BCCI Affair* (December 1992), on the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]] (BCCI), published as the [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]]. The Foreign Relations Committee's drug inquiry began in April 1986; responsibility passed to the subcommittee in April 1987, with Senator [[Mitch McConnell]] of [[Kentucky]] as ranking member. Senator [[Hank Brown]] of [[Colorado]] was the ranking member for the BCCI investigation.[^1]
@ -284,7 +284,7 @@ The two texts of the chapter differ. The Federation of American Scientists' elec
[^29]: S. Prt. 100-165, pp. 51-52, citing Part 3, pp. 282-286. https://archive.org/details/Kerry-Report-Drugs-Contras
[^30]: S. Prt. 100-165, pp. 52-53, citing the Iran-Contra executive session testimony of Thomas Castillo, May 29, 1987, pp. 83-85, the testimony of Morales, Part 1, July 16, 1987, p. 98. https://archive.org/details/Kerry-Report-Drugs-Contras
[^31]: S. Prt. 100-165, ch. 5, "John Hull," pp. 53-54, citing North notebook entries, the Iran-Contra deposition of Robert Owen, and the Castillo executive session. https://archive.org/details/Kerry-Report-Drugs-Contras
[^32]: S. Prt. 100-165, pp. 54-55, citing the testimony of Gary Betzner, Part 3, April 7, 1988, pp. 253-267, and the deposition of Werner Lotz, Part 4, April 8, 1988. https://archive.org/details/Kerry-Report-Drugs-Contras
[^32]: S. Prt. 100-165, pp. 55-56, citing the testimony of Gary Betzner, Part 3, April 7, 1988, pp. 262-269, and the deposition of Werner Lotz, Part 4, April 8, 1988. The report's wording for the interval between the two flights is "two weeks later"; Betzner testified a week or ten days. https://archive.org/details/Kerry-Report-Drugs-Contras
[^33]: S. Prt. 100-165, pp. 55-56, citing the Iran-Contra deposition of Jeffrey Feldman, Appendix B, vol. 10, April 30, 1987, pp. 77-88. https://archive.org/details/Kerry-Report-Drugs-Contras
[^34]: S. Prt. 100-165, p. 56, citing the Iran-Contra testimony of Leon Kellner. https://archive.org/details/Kerry-Report-Drugs-Contras
[^35]: S. Prt. 100-165, pp. 56-58, citing the Part 1 testimony of October 30, 1987. https://archive.org/details/Kerry-Report-Drugs-Contras

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@ -22,8 +22,15 @@ relations:
with: "[[BNL Scandal]]"
end: 1993-02
fn: 11
- type: participant_in
with: "[[Ronald Pandolfi]]"
reverse: true
start: 1998
end: 1998
role: "closed testimony on Hughes and China, September 1998"
fn: 14
created: 2026-09-22
updated: 2026-09-22
updated: 2026-10-15
---
The Senate created the Select Committee on Intelligence in 1976 "to oversee and make continuing studies of the intelligence activities and programs of the [[United States]] Government" and "to provide vigilant legislative oversight over the intelligence activities of the United States to assure that such activities are in conformity with the Constitution and laws of the United States." It has seventeen members, nine from the majority and eight from the minority, including members drawn from the Appropriations, Armed Services, Foreign Relations and Judiciary committees.[^1] It and its House counterpart grew out of the findings of the [[Church Committee]].[^2]
@ -42,6 +49,8 @@ The CIA told the committee in April 1984 that it "was unable to confirm reports
The staff report on the intelligence community's involvement in the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro affair, Committee Print S. Prt. 103-12 of February 1993, was prepared after the sentencing hearing of Judge [[Marvin Shoob]] in Atlanta. The staff recorded that CIA analysts concluded in January 1990 that "managers at BNL headquarters in Rome were involved in the scandal," and that CIA reports of November 1991 "confirmed press allegations that more senior BNL officials in Rome had been witting of BNL-Atlanta's activities." The staff found that "the evidence does not show that this failure was a deliberate attempt to withhold information from the Department of Justice," and that it "could find no legal support" for the CIA's guidance that unsent reports would not be discoverable.[^13]
In September 1998 the committee took closed testimony from [[Ronald Pandolfi]], a CIA analyst who had visited [[Hughes Electronics]] in 1995 and had raised concern that the company's assistance to China's rocket program went too far.[^14] The New York Times reported that the testimony "remains secret."[^14] The committee's hearings of June 10 and July 15, 1998 are printed as S. Hrg. 105-1057.[^15] The Congressional Research Service states that the committee then asked Attorney General [[Janet Reno]] for a criminal investigation into whether the CIA had obstructed the Senate inquiry, after an internal CIA cable of September 23, 1998 showed the agency had told Hughes of the briefing.[^16] The Cox Committee report states that the committee "made a formal notification of the matter to the Justice Department."[^17]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, "About the Committee." https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/about-the-committee/
@ -57,3 +66,7 @@ The staff report on the intelligence community's involvement in the Banca Nazion
[^11]: Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. *The Intelligence Community's Involvement in the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL) Affair,* staff report, S. Prt. 103-12, February 1993.
[^12]: Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. *Committee Study of the Central Intelligence Agency's Detention and Interrogation Program,* S. Rept. 113-288, December 9, 2014.
[^13]: Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, *The Intelligence Community's Involvement in the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL) Affair,* Committee Print S. Prt. 103-12, February 1993, pp. 4-5, 26, 28, 34. https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/publications/10312.pdf
[^14]: Gerth, Jeff, "Old Concerns Over Data Transfer to China Get New Attention," *The New York Times,* December 7, 1998, section A, p. 20, archived copy at https://web.archive.org/web/20201101033224/https://www.nytimes.com/1998/12/07/us/old-concerns-over-data-transfer-to-china-get-new-attention.html
[^15]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee on Intelligence, *Investigation of Impacts to U.S. National Security from Advanced Satellite Technology Exports to China and Chinese Efforts to Influence U.S. Policy,* hearings of June 10 and July 15, 1998, S. Hrg. 105-1057, https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/sites-default-files-hearings-1051057.pdf
[^16]: Congressional Research Service, "China: Possible Missile Technology Transfers under U.S. Satellite Export Policy: Actions and Chronology," report 98-485 F, entry for September 1998 and note 76, https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/98-485F.html
[^17]: U.S. House of Representatives, Select Committee on U.S. National Security and Military/Commercial Concerns with the People's Republic of China, Report (Cox Report), H. Rept. 105-851, Appendix A, "Investigative Issues," pp. 208-209, https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CRPT-105hrpt851/pdf/CRPT-105hrpt851.pdf

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@ -45,6 +45,10 @@ The State Department granted [[Danilo Blandon|Danilo Blandón]] political asylum
The State Department's Office of Public Diplomacy for [[Latin America]] was described by a 1992 House committee report as "a domestic, covert operation designed to lobby the Congress, manipulate the media and influence domestic public opinion" regarding the Contra war. The State Department issued a White Paper on Contra drug allegations that belittled every claim except those involving the [[Sandinistas]], studiously avoiding any mention of [[Norwin Meneses]].[^12]
### Directorate of Defense Trade Controls
The department administers the [[International Traffic in Arms Regulations]] through the [[Directorate of Defense Trade Controls]], a directorate within the [[Bureau of Political-Military Affairs]] that was called the Office of Munitions Control until March 29, 1990, and the Office of Defense Trade Controls until a realignment effective January 20, 2003 created the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls and abolished the position of Director of the Office.[^13][^14][^15] The 2006 ITAR amendment that recorded the directorate's name also placed its section in Part 120 under the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs.[^14]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991.
@ -59,3 +63,6 @@ The State Department's Office of Public Diplomacy for [[Latin America]] was desc
[^10]: "Alleged Homosexual Ring Found in a Raid on Apartment in Dallas," *New York Times*, August 16, 1973, p. 16. https://www.nytimes.com/1973/08/16/archives/alleged-homosexual-ring-found-in-a-raid-on-apartment-in-dallass.html
[^11]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 10: "Teach a man a craft and he's liable to practice it"
[^12]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 15 and Chapter 9
[^13]: Department of State, "Bureau of Political-Military Affairs; Amendments to the International Traffic in Arms Regulations," 61 Fed. Reg. (Sept. 17, 1996), FR Doc. 96-23659, describing Public Notice 1179, 55 Fed. Reg. 11714 (Mar. 29, 1990). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-1996-09-17/html/96-23659.htm
[^14]: Department of State, "Amendments to the International Traffic in Arms Regulations: Office Names, Corrected Cross-Referencing, Reference to Wassenaar Arrangement, and Other Corrections/Administrative Changes," 71 Fed. Reg. 20534 (Apr. 21, 2006), FR Doc. 06-3500. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2006-04-21/html/06-3500.htm. The Commerce Department's rule effective October 12, 2004, "Nomenclature Change: References to Another Agency," 69 Fed. Reg. 60545, FR Doc. 04-22861, records that the change was made through an internal organizational order. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2004-10-12/html/04-22861.htm
[^15]: Department of State, "Bureau of Political-Military Affairs; Amendment to the International Traffic in Arms Regulations," 68 Fed. Reg. 7417 (Feb. 14, 2003), FR Doc. 03-2926, Public Notice 4274, reflecting a realignment effective January 20, 2003. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2003-02-14/html/03-2926.htm

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@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
---
created: 2026-10-05
updated: 2026-10-05
updated: 2026-10-14
title: U.S. Customs
aliases:
- U.S. Customs
@ -63,7 +63,7 @@ The same report described the arms dealer [[Richard Brenneke]] as a man who bega
### The Lister Flow Chart
Among documents seized from [[Ronald Lister]]'s home in the October 1986 Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department raids was a ten-page document that included, on its last page, a flow chart suggesting a flow of money. Sheriff's investigators asked Customs Special Agent James P. McShane of the Office of Defense Trade Controls to review it. McShane reported that the chart could represent a legitimate transaction if a State Department license had been obtained; that the notation "% EUC" might indicate an end-use certificate being purchased, which would make the transaction illegal, since in a legitimate transaction one is provided free; and that routing funds through [[Hong Kong]] to "X Country" indicated an attempt to disguise the true destination and might be an illegal diversion of arms. The Justice Department Inspector General wrote that, whatever the legality, "nothing indicates that it shows the sale of arms to the Contras." A 1991 Customs report by the agent assigned to the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force case on [[Danilo Blandon]] recorded that a DEA source had described a project in [[El Salvador]] "to provide assistance to the Contras," which the Inspector General believed was Lister.[^5]
Among documents seized from [[Ronald Lister]]'s home in the October 1986 Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department raids was a ten-page document that included, on its last page, a flow chart suggesting a flow of money. Sheriff's investigators asked Customs Special Agent James P. McShane of the [[Directorate of Defense Trade Controls|Office of Defense Trade Controls]] to review it. McShane reported that the chart could represent a legitimate transaction if a State Department license had been obtained; that the notation "% EUC" might indicate an end-use certificate being purchased, which would make the transaction illegal, since in a legitimate transaction one is provided free; and that routing funds through [[Hong Kong]] to "X Country" indicated an attempt to disguise the true destination and might be an illegal diversion of arms. The Justice Department Inspector General wrote that, whatever the legality, "nothing indicates that it shows the sale of arms to the Contras." A 1991 Customs report by the agent assigned to the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force case on [[Danilo Blandon]] recorded that a DEA source had described a project in [[El Salvador]] "to provide assistance to the Contras," which the Inspector General believed was Lister.[^5]
### The Grasheim Case in El Salvador

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@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ tags:
- 1970s
- 1980s
category: "Paramilitary"
summary: "The Red Army Faction (RAF/Baader-Meinhof Group) was a West German far-left terrorist organization active 1970-1998, conducting major operations including the 1972 bombing campaign, the 1977 German Autumn Schleyer kidnapping and Lufthansa hijacking, and the 1989 assassination of Deutsche Bank chief Alfred Herrhausen."
summary: "The Red Army Faction (Baader-Meinhof Group) was a West German far-left terrorist organization active 1970-1998, responsible for the 1972 bombings, the 1977 Schleyer kidnapping and the 1989 Herrhausen assassination."
start: 1970
end: 1998
location: "West Germany"
@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ The Red Army Faction (Rote Armee Fraktion, RAF), commonly known as the Baader-Me
### Foundation and First Generation
The RAF's origins lay in the student protest movements of the late 1960s and the radicalization of a faction that concluded electoral and protest politics were insufficient. Baader, Meinhof, and Ensslin carried out their first arson attacks against Frankfurt department stores in 1968. After Baader's arrest and escape from custody in 1970 - an escape in which Meinhof, then a prominent left-wing journalist, participated - the group formally constituted itself. Meinhof authored the RAF's founding manifesto.[^1]
The RAF's origins lay in the student protest movements of the late 1960s and the radicalization of a faction that concluded electoral and protest politics were insufficient. On April 2, 1968, Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin, Thorwald Proll and Horst Söhnlein set fires in two Frankfurt department stores, the Kaufhof on the Zeil and the M. Schneider store, causing considerable property damage and no injuries.[^2] Ulrike Meinhof was not among the four defendants. She reported on the trial for konkret and criticized the arson in her column, arguing that an attack of this kind on the capitalist consumer world does "not lift that consumer world off its hinges, does not even injure it."[^2][^3] After Baader's arrest and escape from custody in 1970 - an escape in which Meinhof, then a prominent left-wing journalist, participated - the group formally constituted itself. Meinhof authored the RAF's founding manifesto.[^1]
The group trained in [[Jordan]] with Palestinian fedayeen organizations in 1970 before returning to West Germany to begin operations. Its first major campaign in May 1972 involved coordinated bombings against U.S. Army headquarters in Frankfurt and Heidelberg, the Hamburg police headquarters, and the Springer newspaper building in Hamburg, resulting in several deaths and dozens of injuries.[^1]
@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ Following the deaths of its founding leadership in 1977, the RAF reorganized wit
### Entebbe Connection
On June 27, 1976, two members of the RAF - Wilfried Böse and Brigitte Kuhlmann - participated in the hijacking of [[Air France]] Flight 139 from [[Tel Aviv]] to [[Paris]], diverting it ultimately to Entebbe Airport in [[Uganda]] under Idi Amin's government. The operation was jointly conducted with members of the [[Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command|PFLP-GC]] and organized by Wadie Haddad's PFLP-EO. On July 4, 1976, Israeli special forces conducted Operation Entebbe, killing the hijackers, including Böse and Kuhlmann, and rescuing 102 of the 106 hostages.[^2]
On June 27, 1976, two members of the RAF - Wilfried Böse and Brigitte Kuhlmann - participated in the hijacking of [[Air France]] Flight 139 from [[Tel Aviv]] to [[Paris]], diverting it ultimately to Entebbe Airport in [[Uganda]] under Idi Amin's government. The operation was jointly conducted with members of the [[Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command|PFLP-GC]] and organized by Wadie Haddad's PFLP-EO. On July 4, 1976, Israeli special forces conducted Operation Entebbe, killing the hijackers, including Böse and Kuhlmann, and rescuing 102 of the 106 hostages.[^4]
### Dissolution
@ -48,4 +48,6 @@ The RAF officially announced the end of its armed struggle in a statement releas
### Footnotes
[^1]: Aust, Stefan. *The Baader Meinhof Complex.* Translated by Anthea Bell. Bodley Head, 2008. Originally published in German as *Der Baader Meinhof Komplex* (Hoffmann und Campe, 1985). This is the authoritative account of the RAF's history by a journalist who knew several of its members.
[^2]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network.* Sheridan Square Press, 1992 (TrineDay reprint, 2015). Netanyahu, Iddo. *Entebbe: A Defining Moment in the War on Terrorism.* Balfour Books, 2003.
[^2]: Urteil des Oberlandesgerichts Stuttgart vom 28. April 1977, Az. 2 StE (OLG Stgt) 1/74, in: Das Stammheim-Protokoll. Die Gesamtedition (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 2021), https://www.stammheim-prozess.de/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/OLG-Stuttgart-Urteil-vom-28.4.1977-2-StE-174-Text.pdf, p. 137, footnote 200.
[^3]: Ulrike Meinhof, Die Würde des Menschen ist unantastbar (1980), p. 153, as quoted in the judgment, footnote 200. German: "Gegen Warenhausbrandstiftung im besonderen spricht, daß dieser Angriff auf die kapitalistische Konsumwelt [...] eben diese Konsumwelt nicht aus den Angeln hebt, sie nicht einmal verletzt [...]."
[^4]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network.* Sheridan Square Press, 1992 (TrineDay reprint, 2015). Netanyahu, Iddo. *Entebbe: A Defining Moment in the War on Terrorism.* Balfour Books, 2003.

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@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
---
created: 2026-05-15
updated: 2026-05-15
updated: 2026-10-15
title: Red Army Faction
aliases:
- RAF
@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ tags:
- 1970s
- 1980s
category: "Paramilitary"
summary: "The Red Army Faction was a West German urban guerrilla organization that conducted bombings, kidnappings, assassinations, and bank robberies from 1970 until officially dissolving in 1998, with its founding generation of Andreas Baader, Ulrike Meinhof, and Gudrun Ensslin dying in Stammheim Prison in 1976-1977 under circumstances that the group and supporters disputed."
summary: "The Red Army Faction was a West German urban guerrilla organization that conducted bombings, kidnappings and assassinations from 1970 until dissolving in 1998; its founders Baader, Meinhof and Ensslin died in Stammheim Prison in 1976-1977."
start: 1970-06-02
end: 1998-04-20
location: "West Germany / Germany"
@ -26,19 +26,19 @@ The Red Army Faction (Rote Armee Fraktion, RAF) was a [[West Germany|West German
The RAF emerged from the West German student movement of the late 1960s, radicalized by opposition to the [[Vietnam War]], the shooting of student Benno Ohnesorg by police at a 1967 demonstration, and the assassination attempt on student leader Rudi Dutschke in 1968. Andreas Baader and Gudrun Ensslin began bombing department stores in [[Frankfurt, Germany|Frankfurt]] in 1968 as political protest.
The group's formal founding date is conventionally given as June 2, 1970 - the day a group including Baader, Ensslin, and journalist [[Ulrike Meinhof]] broke Baader out of police custody in [[Berlin]] during a supervised library visit. Meinhof's participation transformed her from a respected journalist into a wanted terrorist. The group trained with the [[Palestine Liberation Organization]] in Jordan before returning to [[West Germany]] to begin operations.[^1]
Baader was freed from police custody in [[Berlin]] on May 14, 1970, during a supervised library visit, by a group around Ensslin and the journalist Ulrike Meinhof.[^2][^3] Meinhof's participation transformed her from a respected journalist into a wanted terrorist. The group trained with the [[Palestine Liberation Organization]] in Jordan before returning to West Germany to begin operations.[^1]
### Major Operations
The RAF's first phase (1970-1972) included a series of bombings in 1972 targeting American military installations, the [[West Germany|German]] police headquarters in Augsburg, and the federal judge's offices in Karlsruhe. Baader, Meinhof, Ensslin, and other core members were arrested in 1972.
The RAF's first phase (1970-1972) included a series of bombings in 1972 targeting American military installations, the German police headquarters in Augsburg, and the federal judge's offices in Karlsruhe. Baader, Meinhof, Ensslin, and other core members were arrested in 1972. The Stammheim judgment dates the attack on the 5th US Corps headquarters in Frankfurt to May 11, 1972, when one person was killed, and the attack on the US Army headquarters in Heidelberg to May 24, 1972, when three American soldiers were killed.[^2]
During the long trial (1975-1977) the imprisoned leaders continued to direct operations through lawyers who, the prosecution alleged, were part of the RAF network. The second generation of the RAF - operating to free the imprisoned founders - kidnapped industrialist Hanns Martin Schleyer in September 1977 and simultaneously coordinated with Palestinian hijackers who seized Lufthansa Flight 181 to [[Mogadishu]], [[Somalia]].
[[West Germany]]'s GSG 9 commando unit stormed Flight 181 in Mogadishu on October 18, 1977, freeing all hostages. Hours later, Baader, Ensslin, and Jan-Carl Raspe were found dead in Stammheim Prison - officially suicides by firearms smuggled into the maximum-security facility. Schleyer was murdered the following day. The RAF and its sympathizers disputed the suicide findings, arguing that the prisoners had been killed by state action. No evidence of state killing was found in subsequent investigations.[^1]
West Germany's GSG 9 commando unit stormed Flight 181 in Mogadishu on October 18, 1977, freeing all hostages. Hours later, Baader, Ensslin, and Jan-Carl Raspe were found dead in Stammheim Prison, officially suicides: Baader and Raspe by firearms smuggled into the maximum-security facility, and Ensslin by hanging.[^4] Schleyer was murdered the following day. The RAF and its sympathizers disputed the suicide findings, arguing that the prisoners had been killed by state action. The Baden-Württemberg state government's preliminary report of October 26, 1977 stated that there was no indication of third-party responsibility for the deaths.[^5] The state prosecutor closed the death investigation on April 18, 1978.[^6] The Neue Deutsche Biographie regards the allegation of non-suicide as refuted.[^2] Irmgard Möller's criminal complaint and Karl-Heinz Weidenhammer's 1988 book on the death investigation dispute the suicide account.[^1][^5][^6]
### Later Phases
The RAF continued operations into the 1980s and early 1990s, including assassination of Deutsche Bank chief Alfred Herrhausen in 1989 and the attempted assassination of [[Klaus Kinkel]] in 1991. The organization announced a ceasefire in 1992 and officially dissolved on April 20, 1998, with a statement acknowledging that the "urban guerrilla" strategy had failed.[^2]
The RAF continued operations into the 1980s and early 1990s, including assassination of Deutsche Bank chief Alfred Herrhausen in 1989 and the attempted assassination of [[Klaus Kinkel]] in 1991. The organization announced a ceasefire in 1992 and officially dissolved on April 20, 1998, with a statement acknowledging that the "urban guerrilla" strategy had failed.[^7]
### East German Connection
@ -47,4 +47,9 @@ Declassified documents from the [[East Germany|East German]] Stasi revealed afte
### Footnotes
[^1]: Aust, Stefan. *The Baader-Meinhof Complex.* Bodley Head, 2008. Varon, Jeremy. *Bringing the War Home: The Weather Underground, the Red Army Faction, and Revolutionary Violence in the Sixties and Seventies.* University of California Press, 2004.
[^2]: Peters, Butz. *Red Army Faction: A Documentary History.* PM Press, 2011. Preece, Julian, ed. *The Baader Meinhof Group: An Analytic History.* Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.
[^2]: Urteil des Oberlandesgerichts Stuttgart vom 28. April 1977, Az. 2 StE (OLG Stgt) 1/74, in: Das Stammheim-Protokoll. Die Gesamtedition (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 2021), https://www.stammheim-prozess.de/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/OLG-Stuttgart-Urteil-vom-28.4.1977-2-StE-174-Text.pdf, pp. 4-5 (Frankfurt, May 11, 1972), n. 32 (Heidelberg, May 24, 1972), p. 308 (completed murders), and the Neue Deutsche Biographie entry "Ensslin, Gudrun," https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz136461.html.
[^3]: Urteil des Oberlandesgerichts Stuttgart vom 28. April 1977, Az. 2 StE (OLG Stgt) 1/74, in: Das Stammheim-Protokoll. Die Gesamtedition (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 2021), https://www.stammheim-prozess.de/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/OLG-Stuttgart-Urteil-vom-28.4.1977-2-StE-174-Text.pdf, p. 3 (tenor) and the Neue Deutsche Biographie entry for Ensslin, Lebenslauf: "14.5.1970 Beteiligung an der Befreiung von Andreas Baader."
[^4]: Weidenhammer (1988), pp. 118-122 (autopsy protocols: hanging for Ensslin; a single head gunshot wound each for Baader and Raspe).
[^5]: Landesregierung Baden-Württemberg, "Vorläufiger Bericht über die Ereignisse vom 18. Oktober 1977 in der Vollzugsanstalt Stuttgart-Stammheim," October 26, 1977, Ziffer 5, as quoted in the anonymous 1978 leaflet "Kontaktsperre und die Ereignisse in Stammheim am 18.10.77," https://socialhistoryportal.org/sites/default/files/raf/0019780200_0.pdf. The leaflet reproduces Möller's criminal complaint of December 19, 1977.
[^6]: Karl-Heinz Weidenhammer, Selbstmord oder Mord? Das Todesermittlungsverfahren: Baader, Ensslin, Raspe (Kiel: Neuer Malik Verlag, 1988), https://www.socialhistoryportal.org/sites/default/files/raf/0019771018_16_0.pdf, on the closing decision signed by Staatsanwalt Christ on April 18, 1978.
[^7]: Peters, Butz. *Red Army Faction: A Documentary History.* PM Press, 2011. Preece, Julian, ed. *The Baader Meinhof Group: An Analytic History.* Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.

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---
aliases:
- 1517
- 1517 Fund I, L.P.
- 1517 Fund II, L.P.
- 1517 Fund IV, L.P.
- 1517fund.com
category: "Private Organization"
tags:
- Organization
- VentureCapital
- ThielFellowship
- ThielNetwork
- PeterThiel
- DanielleStrachman
- MichaelGibson
- Dropouts
- UAP
summary: "Oakland venture fund founded in 2015 by Danielle Strachman and Michael Gibson, cofounders of the Thiel Fellowship, that backs dropouts and deep tech scientists and is named as an angel backer of ELDAEON."
location: "Oakland, California; Telluride, Colorado"
created: 2026-10-14
updated: 2026-10-14
relations:
- type: founded
with: "[[Danielle Strachman]]"
reverse: true
role: "cofounder and general partner; signed the Form D notice for Fund I, L.P."
start: 2015
fn: 1
- type: founded
with: "[[Michael Gibson]]"
reverse: true
role: "cofounder and general partner; executive officer on the Form D notices for Fund I, L.P. and Fund II, L.P."
start: 2015
fn: 1
- type: funded
with: "[[Peter Thiel]]"
reverse: true
role: "named as an investor in the fund in a December 2016 Bloomberg Businessweek profile"
fn: 16
- type: funded
with: "[[Xona Space Systems]]"
start: 2022-08
role: "existing investor in the $25 million round led by First Spark Ventures"
fn: 18
- type: funded
with: "[[Luminar Technologies]]"
role: "described on the fund's blog in August 2020 as one of its companies, announced as going public"
fn: 2
- type: funded
with: "[[Upkeep]]"
role: "angel check, per the fund's August 2021 blog post on the company"
fn: 19
- type: funded
with: "[[ELDAEON]]"
start: 2026-10
role: "named as angel backer in the company's X profile (October 2026)"
fn: 21
---
1517 Fund is a venture capital firm whose [[Securities and Exchange Commission]] filings give addresses in [[Oakland, California]] (2015 to 2020) and [[Telluride, Colorado]] (2022 onward). Its site calls the fund "an anti-establishment educational institution" and its footer describes it as "a venture capital firm backing dropouts, renegade students, and deep tech scientists."[^1] The fund was started in 2015 by [[Danielle Strachman]] and [[Michael Gibson]], who state that they cofounded the [[Thiel Fellowship]] with [[Peter Thiel]] in 2010.[^1]
### Founding and the Thiel Fellowship
The home page says Strachman joined "during the founding of the Thiel Fellowship" to lead its design and operations, and that she and Gibson were both on the founding team.[^1] A post on the fund's blog, written in 2020, says Strachman "quickly brought structure" to the program after she joined.[^2]
The fund's post of April 18, 2019 states that the fellowship was conceived 24 hours before an interview with [[Sarah Lacy]] held on Gibson's first day of work.[^3] In a 2022 interview, Gibson dated his first day of work to September 27, 2010, and said that Thiel came up with the idea of the fellowship on a flight from New York the night before, planned to announce it the next day at TechCrunch Disrupt, and had hired Gibson as a research analyst at his hedge fund.[^4] The fund's post of August 24, 2020 on the [[Luminar Technologies]] listing gives a further account: Thiel and [[Jim O'Neill]] brought Gibson into a meeting on his first day and told him they were starting an "anti-Rhodes scholarship" that paid people to drop out of college to work on science and technology.[^2]
Gibson wrote an essay for the fund's blog, dated July 22, 2018, about his own career. In it he describes interviewing with the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] in the fall of 2006 after applying for a political analyst role, and says that he had dropped out of the [[University of Oxford]], where he was working toward a doctorate in philosophy, and that MIT's Technology Review had hired him as a writer.[^5] A 2023 review of his book by [[Astral Codex Ten]] places the CIA application in 2007, after he left Oxford, and reports that the agency rejected him after an IQ test, a personality test, a statement of values and a set of essay questions.[^6]
### Thiel Foundation payments to Strachman
The [[Thiel Foundation]]'s Forms 990-PF list Danielle Lynn Strachman as a paid contractor for "20under20 program management." The return for 2012 lists 275,163 dollars, the return for 2013 lists 250,845 dollars and the return for 2014 lists 174,363 dollars.[^7][^8][^9] The fund's account of its founding says that in 2015 Strachman and Gibson "took our own leap to create a venture fund" to scale work they had done at the foundation.[^10]
### Medici Project grants
The fund's grant program is called the [[1517 Medici Project]]. Its page says that "When Michael and I were at the Thiel Foundation, we put $100K grants behind young people like [[Vitalik Buterin]], [[Dylan Field]], [[Laura Deming]], [[Austin Russell]], and [[Ritesh Agarwal]]," and that in the last year there the team piloted "smaller $1K grants to young people."[^10] The page describes the first grant as a $1,000 check given to a teen in a [[Boston]] cafe in the first weeks of the fund, and says the grants are paid by [[Venmo]], carry no equity or intellectual property terms and are not issued to teams outside North America because of international rules.[^10]
### Funds and Form D filings
The Securities and Exchange Commission Form D notices filed under the name "1517 Fund" begin in August 2015. Fund I, L.P. filed on August 31, 2015, with a first sale on August 14, 2015, a [[Delaware]] limited partnership and an offering amount stated as indefinite. It reports 6,400,000 dollars sold to twelve investors, and lists Strachman, Gibson and a general partner entity, 1517 Fund I GP, LLC, as executive officers.[^11] 1517 Fund I Sidecar LP, filed on December 1, 2015 with a first sale on November 30, 2015, reports 290,000 dollars sold to six investors. Its executive officers include [[Tec-Rx Ventures]] LLC and one individual.[^12]
Fund II, L.P. filed on April 8, 2019 with a first sale on March 25, 2019 and a stated offering of 40,000,000 dollars, with 14,170,000 dollars sold. An amendment of June 16, 2020 reports 18,950,000 dollars sold to 49 investors. Gibson signed the amendment.[^13]
The fund also filed Form D notices for single-company vehicles. SPV A, SPV B, SPV C, SPV D and SPV E were filed between November 23 and December 4, 2020, with first sales dated from December 2016 to September 2019, reporting 3,050,000, 3,012,500, 3,406,000, 3,647,500 and 997,500 dollars sold. SPV F, filed August 16, 2021, reports 6,100,000 dollars sold to 26 investors. SPV I, filed February 11, 2022, reports 3,100,002 dollars sold to 21 investors. SPV S (March 31, 2026) and SPV U (July 9, 2026) report no sales.[^14]
Fund IV, L.P. reports a first sale on May 12, 2025 and a Form D filed on May 22, 2025 with 25,490,500 dollars sold. Two amendments followed, the first on May 22, 2026 reporting 41,790,500 dollars sold to 43 investors and the second on September 3, 2026 reporting 43,128,900 dollars sold to 85 investors. Fund IV-A, L.P. filed on March 25 and May 22, 2026 and reports no sales.[^15]
In a July 2022 interview, Gibson said: "Our first fund was $20m. Our second about $25m. Our third fund is $80m."[^4] The December 2016 Bloomberg Businessweek profile reported that about 30 investors had put 20 million dollars into the fund, that the founders had given young technologists "about $5.5 million," and that the firm had made about 30 investments of up to 250,000 dollars each plus 60 or so gifts of as little as 1,000 dollars.[^16] The home page lists "$175mm+" in capital committed and "15+ SPVs for Outstanding Investments."[^1]
### Investors and Thiel
A December 1, 2016 [[Bloomberg Businessweek]] profile by [[Lizette Chapman]], headlined "Thiel-Backed 1517 Fund Is Stalking the Next Zuckerberg," calls Strachman and Gibson co-heads of the Thiel Fellowship. It reports that "over breakfast" in the spring of 2016 they pitched Peter Thiel on a venture firm that would give gifts, loans and access to a network of fellowship alumni. The article states: "Thiel bit, as did about 30 other investors, including EBay founder Pierre Omidyar, Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn, the Coors family, Texas' Hunt family, and Nicolas Berggruen." It adds that the firm "quietly opened" in April, that about 60 percent of the early fundees were Thiel fellows or alumni, and that the founders named the firm for the year [[Martin Luther]] is said to have nailed the 95 Theses to a church door.[^16] The Form D for Fund I, L.P. gives August 14, 2015 as the date of first sale.[^11]
The investors named in the article are [[Pierre Omidyar]], [[Jaan Tallinn]], [[Nicolas Berggruen]] and, without individual members, the Coors and Hunt families.[^16] [[Raging Capital Ventures]] introduced its July 2022 interview with Gibson by stating that it was "an investor in 1517."[^4]
The Astral Codex Ten review of Gibson's book states that Thiel "invested $4 million" and describes the parting with Thiel as seemingly amicable.[^6]
### Portfolio
The home page's grid of select portfolio companies includes [[Atom Computing]] (neutral atom quantum computing), [[Xona Space Systems]] (next generation GPS infrastructure), [[MakeRain]] (cloud seeding by drone), [[Lambda]] (deep learning cloud and hardware), [[Loom]] (asynchronous video software), [[Fountain]] (high-volume hiring software), [[FOSSA]] (open-source dependency protection) and [[nTopology]] (engineering design software).[^1] A comparable-transactions table in the fairness-opinion section of the September 2026 prospectus of [[Calisa Acquisition Corp]] and Goodvision AI Inc. lists a Lambda financing dated February 19, 2025 with 1517 Fund and Acronym Venture Capital as its investors.[^17]
[[Via Satellite]] describes Xona's Pulsar as a low Earth orbit satellite navigation system. The company's 25 million dollar round of August 2022 was led by [[First Spark Ventures]], with [[Lockheed Martin Ventures]] among the new investors and 1517 Fund listed among the existing investors.[^18]
The fund's post of August 24, 2020 announcing the Luminar listing calls Luminar "one of our companies," says it was going public at a 3.4 billion dollar valuation through a SPAC merger, and describes it as the first company to go public for the fund and the first Thiel Fellow to do so.[^2] The post also reports that [[Larry Summers]] called the fellowship "the single most misdirected bit of philanthropy this decade," and that the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] banned the fund from recruiting on its campus.[^2]
The fund's post of August 9, 2021 on [[Upkeep]], a software platform for medical spas, says the fund originally supported its founder with one of its smaller angel checks.[^19]
The home page lists Ethereum, Figma, [[Longevity Fund]], OYO Rooms and Luminar among companies started by Thiel Fellows.[^1]
### Paper Belt on Fire
The home page describes the "paper belt" as "the paper-based industries from Washington DC to Boston" and says that "Michael is dedicated to lighting the paper belt on fire."[^1] Gibson's book, [[Paper Belt on Fire]], is listed under his name by [[Open Library]] with a first publication year of 2022.[^20] The review by Astral Codex Ten describes the book as a memoir that begins with the CIA interview and runs through the Thiel Fellowship to the founding of the fund.[^6]
### UAP and ELDAEON
The UAP sensor company [[ELDAEON]], filed in California in June 2025, names 1517 Fund as its "angel" backer in the company's X profile, with [[Boost VC]] named as "pre-seed" backer.[^21]
### Footnotes
[^1]: 1517 Fund, home page, including the "Founding Team," "Select Portfolio Companies" and FAQ sections, viewed October 14, 2026. https://www.1517fund.com/
[^2]: 1517 Fund, "Zero to $3.4 Billion: Luminar Goes Public," blog post, August 24, 2020. https://www.1517fund.com/post/luminar-goes-public
[^3]: 1517 Fund, "How to Apply to the Thiel Fellowship," blog post, April 18, 2019. https://www.1517fund.com/post/thiel-fellowship
[^4]: "An Entrepreneur's Perspective: Interview with Michael Gibson," Raging Capital Ventures, July 8, 2022. https://ragingcapitalventures.com/an-entrepreneurs-perspective-interview-with-michael-gibson/
[^5]: Michael Gibson, "Human Intelligence," 1517 Fund blog, July 22, 2018. https://www.1517fund.com/post/human-intelligence
[^6]: Astral Codex Ten, "Book Review: Paper Belt On Fire," Scott Alexander, March 23, 2023. https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/book-review-paper-belt-on-fire
[^7]: The Thiel Foundation, Form 990-PF for 2012, Part VIII, contractors statement (Danielle Lynn Strachman, "Consulting - 20under20 program management," 275,163 dollars). https://990s.foundationcenter.org/990pf_pdf_archive/203/203846597/203846597_201212_990PF.pdf
[^8]: The Thiel Foundation, Form 990-PF for 2013, ProPublica object ID 201443169349101309, Part VIII (Danielle Lynn Strachman, 250,845 dollars). https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/full_text/201443169349101309/IRS990PF
[^9]: The Thiel Foundation, Form 990-PF for 2014, ProPublica object ID 201543099349100429, Part VIII (Danielle Lynn Strachman, 174,363 dollars). https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/full_text/201543099349100429/IRS990PF
[^10]: 1517 Fund, "1517 Medici Project," undated page. https://www.1517fund.com/medici
[^11]: Form D, 1517 Fund I, L.P., CIK 0001651759, accession 0001651759-15-000001, filed August 31, 2015. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1651759/000165175915000001/primary_doc.xml
[^12]: Form D, 1517 Fund I Sidecar LP, CIK 0001658654, accession 0001658654-15-000001, filed December 1, 2015. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1658654/000165865415000001/primary_doc.xml
[^13]: Form D, 1517 Fund II, L.P., CIK 0001772980, accession 0001772980-19-000001 (filed April 8, 2019), and Form D/A, accession 0001772980-20-000001 (filed June 16, 2020). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1772980/000177298019000001/primary_doc.xml and https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1772980/000177298020000001/primary_doc.xml
[^14]: Form D notices, single-company vehicles, SEC EDGAR: 1517 Fund I - SPV A, L.P. (CIK 0001692127, 0001692127-20-000001); SPV B (CIK 0001833319, 0001833319-20-000001); SPV C (CIK 0001833336, 0001833336-20-000001); SPV D (CIK 0001833463, 0001833463-20-000001); SPV E (CIK 0001833581, 0001833581-20-000001); 1517 Fund - SPV F, L.P. (CIK 0001873265, 0001873265-21-000001); 1517 Fund - SPV I, L.P. (CIK 0001908226, 0001567619-22-003271); SPV S (CIK 0002098715, 0002098715-26-000001); SPV U (CIK 0002138316, 0002138316-26-000001). Filing dates: SPV A December 3, 2020; SPV B and SPV C November 23, 2020; SPV D and SPV E December 4, 2020; SPV F August 16, 2021; SPV I February 11, 2022; SPV S March 31, 2026; SPV U July 9, 2026. Each at https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/<CIK>/<accession without dashes>/primary_doc.xml
[^15]: Form D and Form D/A, 1517 Fund IV, L.P., CIK 0002068201, accessions 0002068201-25-000001 (May 22, 2025), 0002068201-26-000001 (May 22, 2026) and 0002068201-26-000002 (September 3, 2026); Form D, 1517 Fund IV-A, L.P., CIK 0002068202, accessions 0002068202-26-000001 and 0002068202-26-000002. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/2068201/000206820125000001/primary_doc.xml and https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/2068202/000206820226000001/primary_doc.xml
[^16]: Lizette Chapman, "Thiel-Backed 1517 Fund Is Stalking the Next Zuckerberg," Bloomberg Businessweek, December 1, 2016. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-01/thiel-s-1517-fund-is-stalking-the-next-zuckerberg (archived copy of December 5, 2016: https://web.archive.org/web/20161205183717/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-01/thiel-s-1517-fund-is-stalking-the-next-zuckerberg)
[^17]: Calisa Acquisition Corp and Goodvision AI Inc., Rule 424(b)(3) prospectus, SEC accession 0001493152-26-042390, filed September 11, 2026, fairness-opinion comparable transactions table. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/2026767/000149315226042390/form424b3.htm
[^18]: Mark Holmes, "Lockheed Martin Invests in Xona Space Systems $25M Funding Round," Via Satellite, August 8, 2022. https://www.satellitetoday.com/finance/2022/08/08/lockheed-martin-invests-in-xona-space-systems-25m-funding-round/
[^19]: 1517 Fund, "Announcing 1517 Fund Investment: Upkeep," blog post, August 9, 2021. https://www.1517fund.com/post/upkeep
[^20]: Open Library, "Paper Belt on Fire," work OL25550015W, author Gibson, Michael, first publication year 2022. https://openlibrary.org/works/OL25550015W
[^21]: ELDAEON INC. (@eldaeonuap), X profile, viewed October 14, 2026, as cited on the ELDAEON page. https://x.com/eldaeonuap

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---
aliases:
- Boost VC
- Boost Venture Capital
- boost.vc
category: "Private Organization"
tags:
- Organization
- BoostVC
- AdamDraper
- BraytonWilliams
- DraperFamily
- VentureCapital
- DeepTech
- PreSeed
- Bitcoin
- ELDAEON
summary: "San Mateo venture firm founded in 2012 by Adam Draper and Brayton Williams, the fourth Draper generation in venture capital, that backs pre-seed deep-tech startups and is named as a pre-seed backer of ELDAEON."
location: "San Mateo, California"
created: 2026-10-14
updated: 2026-10-14
relations:
- type: founded
with: "[[Adam Draper]]"
reverse: true
role: "co-founder with Brayton Williams, per the firm's founder post of August 27, 2026"
start: 2012
fn: 2
- type: founded
with: "[[Brayton Williams]]"
reverse: true
role: "co-founder with Adam Draper"
start: 2012
fn: 2
- type: head_of
with: "[[Adam Draper]]"
reverse: true
role: "managing director"
fn: 4
- type: funded
with: "[[Tim Draper]]"
reverse: true
role: "one of the family-office and individual backers of Boost VC Fund 4 (Fortune, September 29, 2025)"
start: 2025-09
fn: 3
- type: funded
with: "[[Radiant Nuclear]]"
role: "co-led with Draper Associates the company's 300 million dollar round reported December 17, 2025, having invested since its pre-seed round"
start: 2025-12
fn: 11
- type: funded
with: "[[Coinbase]]"
role: "Boost VC Fund 3, L.P. listed as a holder of preferred stock on Schedule A of Coinbase's Amended and Restated Investors' Rights Agreement of March 15, 2021"
fn: 17
- type: funded
with: "[[Skybound Holdings LLC]]"
role: "239 Series B preferred interests through Boost VC Fund 4, LP in Mr. Mango LLC, later Skybound Holdings LLC (Regulation A filing, October 2022)"
fn: 18
- type: funded
with: "[[ELDAEON]]"
reverse: true
role: "named as pre-seed backer in the company's X profile (October 2026)"
fn: 20
---
Boost VC is a venture capital firm in [[San Mateo, California]] that leads pre-seed rounds in deep-tech startups and describes its aim as making "sci-fi a reality."[^1] The firm was started in 2012 by [[Adam Draper]] and [[Brayton Williams]],[^2] and Adam Draper is the son of [[Tim Draper]] and the great-grandson of [[William H. Draper Jr.]][^3]
### Founders and team
The firm's founder post of August 27, 2026 says that "In 2012, Brayton Williams and I started Boost VC," and that the firm's aim was to "Help Founders."[^2] The site lists Adam Draper as "Managing Director" and "Founder of Boost VC, 4th Generation VC," and says he was an angel investor in [[Coinbase]], [[Amplitude]] and [[PlanGrid]].[^4] Fortune reports that he dropped out of [[University of California, Los Angeles|UCLA]] to found a secondary marketplace called [[Xpert Financial]], and that a crowdfunding platform he built "pivoted into his own venture firm, Boost VC."[^3]
The site lists Brayton Williams as "Co-Founder & Partner," with earlier posts at [[Morgan Stanley]] and Xpert Financial, and says he was a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree.[^4] The other people on the site's team page are [[Maddie Callander]] (partner), [[Gus Domel]] (partner), [[Danielle Sosnick]] (portfolio support), [[Derek Brown]] (head of finance) and [[Troy Kanji]] (analyst).[^4] The FAQ says portfolio founders visiting from out of town receive free housing at [[Draper University]], "located across the street from our office."[^1]
### Funds on file with the SEC
Boost VC's vehicles file notices of private offerings on Form D with the [[Securities and Exchange Commission]]. [[Boost VC Fund 3, L.P.]], a Delaware limited partnership with an office at 55 East Third Avenue, San Mateo, reports a first sale dated March 25, 2016, a $55,000,000 offering and $29,028,000 sold to 38 investors. Adam Draper signed the February 2017 filing for its general partner, [[Boost VC Fund 3 Partners LLC]].[^5]
[[Boost VC Fund 4, L.P.]] reports a first sale on November 2, 2018 and a $40,418,750 offering, all of it sold, to 33 investors, in a filing dated September 2020.[^6] [[Boost VC Accelerator 3, L.P.]] reports a first sale on August 5, 2021 under an indefinite offering, with $48,555,001 sold to 50 investors. Adam Draper is listed as an executive officer.[^7] [[Boost VC Crypto 1, L.P.]] reports a first sale on February 20, 2022 and $14,495,000 sold to 27 investors, and Adam Draper signed the filing.[^8]
[[Boost VC Deep Tech Fund 4, L.P.]] filed in July 2024 for a $75,000,000 offering with nothing sold. A September 5, 2025 amendment signed by Brayton Williams as president of the general partner reports $84,447,500 sold to 100 investors, with Adam Draper and Brayton Williams listed as directors.[^9] Fortune reported the same month that Boost VC "raised over $87 million for its fourth fund," a vehicle backed mostly by family offices and high-net-worth individuals, including Adam Draper's father, grandfather and cousin.[^3]
The filer that appears under CIK 2096029 first registered as RA-1022 Fund III, a series of [[Boost VC SPV, LP]], on December 17, 2025, and was then amended as Boost VC Nuclear, a series of [[Boost VC Lead, LP]]. Both report a first sale on December 15, 2025 and $56,223,435 sold to 63 investors. Brayton Williams signed the filings as manager of the issuer, and Boost VC Deep Tech Fund 4 Partners LLC is listed as a director.[^10] TechCrunch reported on December 17, 2025 that [[Radiant Nuclear]] had raised $300 million in a round led by [[Draper Associates]] and Boost VC, with [[Ark Venture Fund]], [[Chevron Technology Ventures]], [[Founders Fund]] and others participating, at a valuation above $1.8 billion.[^11]
Boost VC SPV, LP files a separate Form D for each deal vehicle, with series names such as UP Fund I and WY Fund I (2020), FI Fund I (December 2020), RI Fund I and ET Fund I (2021), SH Fund I (2021), VE Fund I and UN Fund II (2022), RA-0206 Fund I (2023), KS-1222 Fund I and RA-1011 Fund II (2024), NE-0324 Fund I and NE-0722 Fund II (2025), and MO-0129 Fund I and CA-0724 Fund I (2026). Excluding the 2025 Nuclear series, the single-series offerings run from $239,040 (RI Fund I, 2021) to $10,229,686 (ET Fund I, 2021).[^12] The 2020 filings list the general partner's directors as [[Belltower Fund Group]], Ltd. and a second entity with "Fund GP, LLC" in its name, both of [[Seattle, Washington]]; the SH Fund I filing of December 2021 lists AngelList Canada GP, Inc. of [[Ottawa]] in place of the second entity.[^13] One series, RI Fund I, was later reported under the same CIK as NI Fund I, a series of [[Hampton VC Funds]], LP, with the same $239,040 offering.[^12]
Two other Form D filings name Draper or Williams as a director. Brayton Williams is listed as a director of [[Octane AI]], whose June 2021 filing reports $5,000,000 sold to five investors.[^14] Adam Draper is listed as a director of [[Make School]], whose October 2017 filing reports $10,129,992 sold to 21 investors.[^15]
### Investments and stated thesis
The FAQ says Boost VC is a "$400M AUM" firm that makes "$500k" lead or co-lead pre-seed investments, with checks flexible between $100k and $1M and $50k fellowship checks for founders "building sci-fi tech."[^1] The site describes the firm as generalist and lists the sectors as robotics, AI, bio, health, materials, space tech, computing, crypto, ocean tech, AR/VR, climate and energy.[^1] Its "What We Look For" text says the firm is "generalist investors who have invested in Nuclear Reactors, 10 ton Satellites, Electric Boats, Brain replacements, Bio Super powers and more."[^4] The fellowship page lists backed founders including "Teenage drone builders," "Sperm sorting to eliminate genetic disease," "Cancer sniffing dogs," "Alchemical 3D printers" and "Brain replacements."[^16]
The FAQ names [[K2 Space]], [[Prospera]], Radiant Nuclear, [[Colossal Biosciences]] and [[New Limit]] as "BIG idea examples," and says the firm's themes include "global financial changes sparked by peer-to-peer money like Bitcoin."[^1] The FAQ says the firm "led Radiant Nuclear's $300M Series D round," a company it had backed since its pre-seed round.[^1] Fortune reported that Radiant closed a $165 million Series C in May 2025.[^3] Fortune also lists Colossal Biosciences, which it describes as claiming to have brought back the dire wolf from extinction, among the deep-tech companies Adam Draper has backed.[^3] The home page links to press items on Radiant Nuclear's raise, a $130 million [[Deepgram]] round at a $1.3 billion valuation, and a $20 million round for [[Grid Aero]]'s autonomous cargo drones, and it links to the websites of K2 Space, [[Starfish Space]] and [[Volley Games]].[^4]
Adam Draper is listed on the site as an angel investor in Coinbase.[^4] The Amended and Restated Investors' Rights Agreement of March 15, 2021, filed as Exhibit 4.2 to Coinbase Global, Inc.'s March 17, 2021 Form S-1/A, lists the holders of Coinbase preferred stock on its Schedule A, and the list includes Boost VC Fund 3, L.P., [[Ghost Angel LLC]], and three Draper entities: Draper Associates V, L.P., Draper Associates Partners V, LLC and Draper Associates Investments, LLC.[^17]
A Regulation A offering statement for [[Mr. Mango LLC]], filed in October 2022 under the CIK later used by [[Skybound Holdings LLC]], lists Boost VC Fund 4, LP as holder of 239 Series B preferred interests and Ghost Angel LLC as holder of 1,917, both at 55 East 3rd Avenue, San Mateo.[^18] A 2025 Form 1-K/A for the same CIK includes signature pages to the Eighth Amendment to the company's operating agreement on which Boost VC Fund 4, LP signs through [[Boost VC Fund 4 Partners LLC]] by Adam Draper as managing director, and Ghost Angel LLC signs by Adam Draper as managing member.[^19] The same filing's ownership table lists Ghost Angel LLC at 55 East Third Avenue, San Mateo, with 68,890 Series B preferred interests, 19.32 percent of the class.[^19]
### ELDAEON
The company's X profile names Boost VC as a pre-seed backer of [[ELDAEON]] and [[1517 Fund]] as an angel backer.[^20] A September 27, 2026 post from the company reads: "Our backers @1517fund and @BoostVC are early to the UAP tech industry. Will you be?"[^20]
### Tim Draper and the 2014 bitcoin purchase
Tim Draper bought all of the nearly 30,000 bitcoins that the [[United States Marshals Service]] auctioned on a Friday in late June 2014, coins confiscated in October 2013 when the FBI shut down the online market [[Silk Road]].[^21] The report says Draper planned to work with [[Vaurum]], a bitcoin exchange, to supply bitcoins to emerging markets, and quotes his statement: "Bitcoin frees people from trying to operate in a modern market economy with weak currencies."[^21] Fortune calls the 2014 purchase "iconic" and says the family is now best known for its enthusiasm around crypto.[^3]
### William H. Draper Jr.
William H. Draper Jr. was born in Harlem, New York City, on August 10, 1894, took a bachelor's and a master's degree in economics at [[New York University]], and was chairman of the student delegation to Henry Ford's 1915 peace expedition to Europe, according to his 1972 oral history interview at the [[Harry S. Truman Library]].[^22] After the First World War he worked at [[National City Bank]] and [[Bankers' Trust Company]], and he joined [[Dillon, Read and Company]] in 1926, where [[James Forrestal]] was already a senior member.[^22] He served in the Army, was called to the general staff in 1940, worked with Lewis B. Hershey on the Selective Service Act, and in 1945 went to Germany at the request of General [[Lucius D. Clay]] to take charge of the economic side of the occupation.[^22] The Truman Library lists his posts as Chief of the Economics Division of the Control Council for Germany (1945 to 1946), military government adviser to the Secretary of State at the 1947 Moscow Conference of Foreign Ministers, Under Secretary of War in 1947, Under Secretary of the Army from 1947 to 1949, and United States Special Representative in Europe with the rank of ambassador from January 1952 to June 1953.[^22]
In 1947 Draper went to [[Japan]] soon after taking the post of under secretary and later took a group of businessmen there for about a month, including [[Paul Hoffman]] of Studebaker and [[Percy Johnston]] of Chemical Bank, to study the Japanese economy. The group's report, which the State Department described as compiled by Draper's senior advisers during his trip, was released to the press on May 19, 1948.[^22][^23] In the 1972 interview Draper said the report led the President to change policy on Japan's economy on the recommendation of the Secretary of State, that he then recommended [[Joseph M. Dodge]], who had run the finance division in Germany, for Japan, and that Dodge balanced the Japanese budget within about six to nine months.[^22] The historian [[Howard Schonberger]] wrote that [[Harry Kern]], foreign affairs editor of [[Newsweek]], was the most notable of the conservative critics of the occupation reforms in Japan, and that Kern and Secretary of Commerce [[W. Averell Harriman]] were the catalyst for the shift in American policy.[^24]
In his interview Draper said that after leaving government in mid-1953 he ran the Mexican Light and Power Company for six years, and that in 1959 he moved to California and formed a financing firm with General Frederick L. Anderson, his deputy in NATO.[^22] The 1981 White House announcement lists his son as an associate of Draper, Gaither & Anderson from 1959 to 1962, and the Computer History Museum describes the firm as formed by Draper with Rowan Gaither and Fred Anderson in 1958.[^25][^26] Draper told the Truman Library that he later became chairman of Combustion Engineering, retired as chairman in 1965, and from then on devoted his time to the population problem: he was honorary chairman of the [[Population Crisis Committee]], sat on the governing body of the [[International Planned Parenthood Federation]], represented the United States on the [[United Nations Population Commission]] by appointment of [[Richard Nixon]], and helped Paul Hoffman raise government contributions for the [[United Nations Fund for Population Activities]], about $30 million from 46 governments in the most recent year.[^22]
In November 1958 President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] appointed a group of "eminent Americans" to "undertake a completely independent, objective, and nonpartisan analysis of the military assistance aspects of the U.S. Mutual Security Program," with Draper as chairman of the [[Draper Committee]].[^27] Its members were [[Dillon Anderson]], Joseph M. Dodge, [[Alfred M. Gruenther]], [[Marx Leva]], [[John J. McCloy]], [[George McGhee]], [[Joseph T. McNarney]], [[Arthur W. Radford]] and [[James E. Webb]], with [[Tracy Voorhees]] as counsel.[^27] The committee's interim reports are dated March 17, June 3 and July 13, 1959, and its final report is dated August 17, 1959.[^27][^28] The committee's mailings series includes material on the "population explosion," and its economic assistance folders include a paper titled "The Population Explosion."[^27]
### William H. Draper III
[[Ronald Reagan]] announced on March 18, 1981 that he would nominate William H. Draper III as president and chairman of the [[Export-Import Bank of the United States]].[^25] The White House announcement described him as founder and general partner of [[Sutter Hill Ventures]] in Palo Alto, California, a firm that had supplied equity capital to 150 young manufacturing companies, and listed earlier posts as an associate at [[Draper, Gaither & Anderson]] from 1959 to 1962 and a sales representative for [[Inland Steel]] in Chicago from 1954 to 1959. It gave his birth as White Plains, New York, on January 1, 1928, a Yale B.A. in 1950 and a Harvard M.B.A. in 1954, and listed him as a fund-raiser for the Reagan-Bush campaign in California in 1980, national cochairman of the finance committee for [[George H. W. Bush]]'s presidential campaign in 1980, and a candidate for Congress in 1967.[^25] The Computer History Museum traces the family line from William H. Draper III to his son Tim Draper, and says Tim formed Draper, Fisher Jurvetson in 1985 and now invests through Draper Associates.[^26]
On December 22, 1983 [[Richard W. Murphy]] of the State Department's Bureau of Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs sent Under Secretary [[Lawrence Eagleburger]] an action memorandum on whether to sign a letter recommending that EXIM approve financing for [[Iraq]]. Eagleburger signed the memorandum and sent the letter to Draper on December 24, 1983, addressed "Dear Bill," stating that "the terrorism issue, therefore, should no longer be an impediment to EXIM financing for U.S. sales to Iraq."[^29]
The United Nations Development Programme's list of past administrators gives Draper's service as president and chairman of the Export-Import Bank from 1981 to 1986 and as UNDP administrator from 1986 to 1993.[^30] The General Assembly confirmed him as administrator on April 28, 1986.[^31]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Boost VC, "FAQ," https://www.boost.vc/faq, viewed October 14, 2026.
[^2]: Adam Draper, "Boost VC Ranked #1 Deep Tech Fund," Substack, August 27, 2026. https://www.adamdraper.vc/p/boost-vc-ranked-1-deep-tech-fund
[^3]: Leo Schwartz, "Adam Draper, scion of the VC royal family, raises over $87 million for new Boost fund," Fortune, September 29, 2025. https://fortune.com/2025/09/29/adam-draper-boost-vc-crypto-bitcoin-venture-capital/
[^4]: Boost VC, home page, "Team" and "What We Look For," viewed October 14, 2026. https://www.boost.vc/
[^5]: Form D, Boost VC Fund 3, L.P., CIK 0001697257, accession 0001697257-17-000001, signed February 6, 2017, filed February 7, 2017. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1697257/000169725717000001/primary_doc.xml
[^6]: Form D, Boost VC Fund 4, L.P., CIK 0001824889, accession 0001824889-20-000001, filed September 16, 2020. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1824889/000182488920000001/primary_doc.xml
[^7]: Form D, Boost VC Accelerator 3, L.P., CIK 0001888614, accession 0001888614-21-000001, filed October 29, 2021. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1888614/000188861421000001/primary_doc.xml
[^8]: Form D, Boost VC Crypto 1, L.P., CIK 0001914443, accession 0001914443-22-000001, filed March 2, 2022. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1914443/000191444322000001/primary_doc.xml
[^9]: Form D, Boost VC Deep Tech Fund 4, L.P., CIK 0002030333, accession 0002030333-24-000002, filed July 19, 2024; amendment, accession 0002030333-25-000002, filed September 5, 2025. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/2030333/000203033325000002/primary_doc.xml
[^10]: Form D, RA-1022 Fund III, a series of Boost VC SPV, LP, CIK 0002096029, accession 0002096029-25-000001, filed December 17, 2025; Form D/A, Boost VC Nuclear, a series of Boost VC Lead, LP, accession 0002096029-25-000003, filed December 23, 2025. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/2096029/000209602925000003/primary_doc.xml
[^11]: Tim De Chant, "Radiant Nuclear raises $300M for its semi-sized 1 MW reactor," TechCrunch, December 17, 2025. https://techcrunch.com/2025/12/17/radiant-nuclear-raises-300m-for-its-semi-sized-1-mw-reactor/
[^12]: Forms D, Boost VC SPV, LP series, accessions 0001835230-20-000002 (UP Fund I), 0001835243-20-000002 (WY Fund I), 0001835231-20-000002 (FI Fund I), 0001875356-21-000002 (RI Fund I), 0001875356-21-000005 (NI Fund I, a series of Hampton VC Funds, LP, amendment), 0001876202-21-000002 (ET Fund I), 0001883358-21-000001 (RI Fund I), 0001901546-21-000001 (SH Fund I), 0001920344-22-000002 (VE Fund I), 0001924720-22-000002 (UN Fund II), 0001973006-23-000002 (RA-0206 Fund I), 0002008169-24-000002 (KS-1222 Fund I), 0002041510-24-000002 (RA-1011 Fund II), 0002068295-25-000001 (NE-0324 Fund I), 0002082459-25-000001 (NE-0722 Fund II), 0002111648-26-000001 (MO-0129 Fund I), 0002149467-26-000001 (CA-0724 Fund I). https://efts.sec.gov/LATEST/search-index?q=%22Boost%20VC%22&forms=D
[^13]: Forms D, FI Fund I, a series of Boost VC SPV, LP, CIK 0001835231, accession 0001835231-20-000002, filed December 7, 2020; SH Fund I, accession 0001901546-21-000001, signed December 29, 2021. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1835231/000183523120000002/primary_doc.xml
[^14]: Form D, Octane AI, Inc., CIK 0001805951, accession 0001805951-21-000001, signed June 4, 2021, filed June 7, 2021. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1805951/000180595121000001/primary_doc.xml
[^15]: Form D, Make School Inc., CIK 0001706173, accession 0001553246-17-000005, filed October 10, 2017. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1706173/000155324617000005/primary_doc.xml
[^16]: Boost VC, fellowship page, https://www.boost.vc/fellowship, viewed October 14, 2026.
[^17]: Coinbase Global, Inc., Form S-1/A, accession 0001628280-21-004939, filed March 17, 2021, Exhibit 4.2, Amended and Restated Investors' Rights Agreement dated March 15, 2021, Schedule A. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1679788/000162828021004939/0001628280-21-004939.txt
[^18]: Mr. Mango LLC (CIK 0001867925), Form 1-A/A offering statement, accession 0001493152-22-029929, filed October 31, 2022, operating agreement schedule of members. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1867925/000149315222029929/0001493152-22-029929.txt
[^19]: Skybound Holdings LLC (CIK 0001867925), Form 1-K/A, accession 0001641172-25-021777, filed July 31, 2025, signature pages to the Eighth Amendment to the Sixth Amended and Restated Operating Agreement, and Item 4 ownership table. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1867925/000164117225021777/0001641172-25-021777.txt
[^20]: ELDAEON INC. (@eldaeonuap), X profile and post of September 27, 2026. https://x.com/eldaeonuap
[^21]: Bryan Cronan, "Why Tim Draper bought an auction's entire bitcoin cache," Christian Science Monitor, July 2, 2014. https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/2014/0702/Why-Tim-Draper-bought-an-auction-s-entire-bitcoin-cache
[^22]: Truman Library, oral history interview with William H. Draper Jr. by Jerry N. Hess, Washington, D.C., January 11, 1972, catalog description and transcript. https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/oralhist/draperw.htm
[^23]: Department of State, Walton Butterworth to Dickover, May 24, 1948, "Johnston Committee Report," Foreign Relations of the United States, 1948, volume VI, document 547. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1948v06/d547
[^24]: Howard B. Schonberger, *Aftermath of War: Americans and the Remaking of Japan, 1945-1952* (Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1989), p. 7.
[^25]: Ronald Reagan, "Nomination of William H. Draper III To Be President and Chairman of the Export-Import Bank of the United States," March 18, 1981, American Presidency Project. https://presidency.ucsb.edu/node/247393
[^26]: Computer History Museum, "Venture Capital in the Blood: Three Generations of Drapers in Silicon Valley," May 19, 2017. The article names the first generation as "William Draper II," which the Truman Library and Eisenhower Library records identify as William H. Draper Jr. https://computerhistory.org/blog/venture-capital-in-the-blood-three-generations-of-drapers-in-silicon-valley/
[^27]: Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, "U.S. President's Committee to Study the United States Military Assistance Program (Draper Committee): Records, 1958-59," Accession 67-9, scope and content note, committee membership, and folder lists. https://www.eisenhowerlibrary.gov/sites/default/files/research/finding-aids/pdf/us-presidents-committee-to-study-us-military-assistance-program.pdf
[^28]: Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958-1960, volume IV, editorial note on the President's Committee to Study the United States Military Assistance Program, document 245. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1958-60v04/d245
[^29]: Richard W. Murphy to Lawrence S. Eagleburger, action memorandum, "EXIM Bank Financing for Iraq," December 22, 1983, approved December 24, 1983, with Eagleburger to William H. Draper III, President and Chairman, Export-Import Bank of the United States, letter of December 24, 1983, National Security Archive EBB No. 82, Document 33. https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/iraq33.pdf
[^30]: United Nations Development Programme, "Past Administrators," archived copy of the 2024 snapshot, https://web.archive.org/web/2024/https://www.undp.org/our-leadership/past-administrators
[^31]: United Nations, press release BIO/2173 DEV/1674, "William H. Draper III Confirmed by General Assembly as New Administrator of UN Development Programme," April 28, 1986, archived copy, https://web.archive.org/web/2024/https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/3801166

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---
aliases:
- ELDAEON
- ELDÆON
- ELDAEON INC.
- Eldaeon Inc.
- Eldaeon Technologies
- eldaeon.com
category: "Private Organization"
tags:
- Organization
- UAP
- Startup
- VentureCapital
- PassiveRadar
- CounterUAS
- ITAR
summary: "California corporation formed in 2025 by David Dominguez Hooper to design UAP detection systems, registered with the State Department's arms-export directorate and backed by 1517 Fund and Boost VC."
location: "Azusa, California"
relations:
- type: founded
with: "[[David Dominguez Hooper]]"
reverse: true
role: "agent for service of process on the initial filing of June 11, 2025; sole officer (chief executive officer, chief financial officer, secretary) and sole director on the Statement of Information of June 4, 2026"
start: 2025-06-11
fn: 1
- type: funded
with: "[[1517 Fund]]"
reverse: true
role: "named as angel backer in the company's X profile (October 2026)"
fn: 4
- type: funded
with: "[[Boost VC]]"
reverse: true
role: "named as pre-seed backer in the company's X profile (October 2026)"
fn: 4
---
ELDAEON INC. (styled ELDÆON) is a California stock corporation, entity number B20250161991, whose initial filing with the [[California Secretary of State]] is dated June 11, 2025. The articles authorize 10,000,000 shares of a single class and name [[David Dominguez Hooper]] as agent for service of process, with a principal office in [[Azusa, California]].[^1] Its Statement of Information of June 4, 2026 lists Hooper as chief executive officer, chief financial officer, secretary and sole director, with no vacancies on the board, and gives the type of business as "Design and development of UAP detection systems."[^2] A further statement of August 17, 2026 moved the principal office to another address in Azusa; the Secretary of State lists the corporation as active and in good standing.[^3]
The company's X account, @eldaeonuap, opened in May 2025 and describes the company as "UAP detection & defense. dual-use multimodal sensor tech for gov & civilian customers," backed by [[1517 Fund]] ("angel") and [[Boost VC]] ("pre-seed"), with the identifiers "DDTC M53536 CAGE 1ZMV5." The profile gives its location as Los Angeles and labels the account a defense company.[^4] The same registration number and CAGE code appear in the footer of every page of eldaeon.com.[^5]
### Founder
Hooper's X profile describes him as founder and chief executive of ELDAEON, formerly of electrical engineering and computer sciences at the [[University of California, Berkeley]], founder of UAVs at Berkeley, a real estate investor, a "Tech Hacker / Reverse Engineer," and the holder of amateur radio call sign KM6JLE.[^6] The speaker page of Deep Tech Week SF 2025 describes his background in computer science, electrical engineering, reverse engineering and LiDAR, and says his detection hardware combines multispectral sensing, time dilation measurement and quantum-scale anomaly detection.[^7]
On June 15, 2024, a year before the corporation was filed, Hooper posted that he had "presented our UAP detector to [[Eric Davis]]," and that during the demonstration he had shown its capability to detect "the potential blue-shifting effect on EM waves, a phenomenon theorized by" [[Hal Puthoff]] in his spacetime metric engineering paper.[^8] The company's May 2026 article says "We have been building toward this day since 2020."[^9]
### Backers
1517 Fund states that its founders, Danielle Strachman and Michael Gibson, "cofounded the [[Thiel Fellowship]] with [[Peter Thiel]] in 2010," that Strachman joined at the fellowship's founding to lead its design and operations, and that 1517 was started in 2015 to expand the fellowship's vision, taking "young people, the uncredentialed, and renegade scientists seriously."[^10] Boost VC lists its founder and managing director as Adam Draper, "Founder of Boost VC, 4th Generation VC," with co-founder Brayton Williams.[^11] On September 27, 2026 the company posted: "Our backers @1517fund and @BoostVC are early to the UAP tech industry. Will you be?"[^12]
### Products
The company's site names three products. DIONYSUS is described as a multi-sensor UAP detection platform "for autonomous field deployment," priced from $25,000, with more than 28 configurable sensors in six categories: audio (infrasonic and ultrasonic microphones), electro-optical (UV, pan-tilt-zoom, all-sky, two thermal and digital night vision cameras), radio frequency (software-defined radios for passive radar, ADS-B and spectrum analysis), quantum (a muon detector and atomic clocks), environmental (GPS, fluxgate magnetometer, EMF meter, Geiger counter, gas, CO2, particulate, pressure and lightning sensors, gyroscope-accelerometer) and biometric (EEG, galvanic skin response, pulse oximeter, a true random number generator and a pupillometer). Under the heading "Consciousness Interface," the site states that the EEG, GSR and TRNG sensors "monitor observer biometric states during anomalous events, capturing the relationship between consciousness and phenomena."[^13] The May 2026 article describes DIONYSUS as "Modeled on the architecture used by AARO's Gremlin program" and "built on the same multimodal fusion principles as AARO's Gremlin sensor suite."[^9]
NEMESIS is a $500 passive bistatic radar built on a Raspberry Pi 5 and an FPGA-based software-defined radio, using FM and DVB-T broadcast signals as illuminators and the open-source blah2, readsb and adsb2dd software, connected over a Tailscale mesh VPN to the DIONYSUS network. Reservations for a second batch are taken with a $50 deposit. The page states that NEMESIS "is subject to ITAR export restrictions. U.S. customers only at this time."[^14] On August 7, 2026 the company posted a live demonstration of NEMESIS by Hooper.[^15] SOTERA is a free iOS application that identifies satellites overhead from CelesTrak orbital data, with map, sky-dome and augmented reality views.[^16]
The Distributed Passive Radar Project of the [[Sol Foundation]], led by Hooper, deploys NEMESIS as a citizen-operated network "modeled on the [[FlightRadar24]] ADS-B receiver community." The project page describes it as a program to evaluate, deploy and analyze "low-cost passive radar systems."[^17]
The site's data menu lists DisclosureOS and a Joshua Tree data set, and its missions page lists "Joshua Tree, Night 1" on July 28, 2026.[^18] On September 1, 2026 Hooper posted "preliminary video frame data from Day 1 of our recent field mission in Joshua Tree."[^19] On September 11, 2026 the company pinned a post thanking the production company Soon for a documentary on "America's UFO-tracking industry," writing "UAP detection is becoming an industry. We're building it."[^20]
### Government posture
The site's home page cites "$22M spent by government programs like [[Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program|AATIP]] and [[KONA BLUE]] with zero deployable systems delivered to the field," and describes the company's advisers as "a diverse network of engineers, scientists, philosophers, whistleblowers and experiencers."[^5]
In a September 13, 2025 article on community feedback, the company wrote that many of its users, "especially those with direct UAP/NHI (Non Human Intelligence) experiences, expressed concern about privacy, data security, and potential government or military misuse of detection devices," that "Our devices do not emit signals to attract UAP," and that its privacy framework would include "no data sharing with government or military entities without your explicit consent."[^21]
On May 8, 2026, the day the [[Department of Defense|Department of War]] released the first batch of UAP files under the PURSUE directive with the [[All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office]], the [[Director of National Intelligence|Office of the Director of National Intelligence]], [[NASA]] and the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]], the company quoted the release's line "The Department of War welcomes the application of private sector analysis, information and expertise," and stated that it "is not affiliated with or endorsed by" any of those agencies.[^9] Its May 28, 2026 article, "Built for the Phenomenon. Drones and Counter-UAS Followed.," stated that "UAP detection is what brought ELDÆON into existence" and presented the same passive radar as a counter-drone coverage layer at roughly $500 per node.[^22]
On June 8, 2026 the company filed a public comment, signed by Jonathan Wagner, in FAA docket FAA-2026-4558, the proposed rule implementing Section 2209 restrictions on drone flights over fixed-site facilities. The comment states that "Eldaeon Inc. is registered with the U.S. Department of State's [[Directorate of Defense Trade Controls]] (DDTC) and is pursuing a Commodity Jurisdiction determination for our flagship system, Nemesis, under ITAR," describes NEMESIS as "a non-emitting, non-cooperative drone detection platform," and asks the [[Federal Aviation Administration]] to recognize passive radar as an approved method of meeting the "protective security measures" requirement of 14 CFR 74.54.[^23] The company's July 2026 article on the rule, citing [[Executive Order 14305]], "Restoring American Airspace Sovereignty," said the NEMESIS systems give airports, prisons, energy sites and stadiums "the means to legally enforce the rule at their sites."[^24]
The company's August 8, 2025 article, "Detecting the Invisible: The Future of Sensors Against Psionic Weaponry," cited the 1988 [[Air War College]] report *Psychic Warfare: Exploring the Mind Frontier* by Lieutenant Colonel Dolan M. McKelvy, "later archived by the CIA," discussed the [[Havana Syndrome]] incidents, and proposed sensor suites for directed energy and "psionic" attack.[^25] The report, held in the CIA's STARGATE collection, reads: "With this tremendous power comes an entirely new battlefield dimension which, if ignored, poses a threat to self and country more serious than nuclear weapons."[^26]
### Interviews
In an October 6, 2026 interview with [[CB Insights]], Hooper, identified there as chief executive officer, described the company as selling "low-cost sensing for the airspace below a few thousand feet" into two segments, counter-UAS and UAP detection. He said: "If we're wrong about the anomalous side, we built a good counter-UAS company at a price nobody can match."[^27]
### Footnotes
[^1]: California Secretary of State, ELDAEON INC., entity B20250161991, Articles of Incorporation (initial filing), June 11, 2025. https://bizfileonline.sos.ca.gov/search/business
[^2]: California Secretary of State, ELDAEON INC., Statement of Information, control ID BA20261195122, June 4, 2026.
[^3]: California Secretary of State, ELDAEON INC., Statement of Information, control ID BA20261634198, August 17, 2026; entity detail record, viewed October 14, 2026.
[^4]: ELDÆON INC. (@eldaeonuap), X profile, viewed October 14, 2026. https://x.com/eldaeonuap
[^5]: ELDÆON, "Building the world's first tactical UAP-detection network," home page, viewed October 14, 2026. https://eldaeon.com/
[^6]: David Hooper (@davidhooperr), X profile, viewed October 14, 2026. https://x.com/davidhooperr
[^7]: Deep Tech Week, "David Hooper," speaker page, Deep Tech Week SF 2025. https://www.deep-tech-week.com/speakers/david-hooper
[^8]: David Hooper (@davidhooperr), post, June 15, 2024. https://x.com/davidhooperr/status/1802138370790809628
[^9]: ELDAEON INC., "The U.S. Just Opened the Files on UAP. We Built the Sensors to Detect Them.," May 8, 2026. https://eldaeon.com/articles/disclosure/
[^10]: 1517 Fund, home page and "Founding Team," viewed October 14, 2026. https://www.1517fund.com/
[^11]: Boost VC, home page, "About Us," viewed October 14, 2026. https://www.boost.vc/
[^12]: ELDÆON INC. (@eldaeonuap), post, September 27, 2026. https://x.com/eldaeonuap
[^13]: ELDÆON, "DIONYSUS: Multi-Sensor UAP Detection Platform," viewed October 14, 2026. https://eldaeon.com/dionysus/
[^14]: ELDÆON, "NEMESIS: Consumer-Grade Passive Radar for Distributed UAP Detection," viewed October 14, 2026. https://eldaeon.com/nemesis/
[^15]: ELDÆON INC. (@eldaeonuap), posts, August 7, 2026. https://x.com/eldaeonuap
[^16]: ELDÆON, "SOTERA," viewed October 14, 2026. https://eldaeon.com/sotera/
[^17]: The Sol Foundation, "Distributed Passive Radar Project," project page (archived copy captured August 26, 2026). https://web.archive.org/web/20260826160852/https://thesolfoundation.org/distributed-passive-radar-project/
[^18]: ELDÆON, site navigation and "missions," viewed October 14, 2026. https://eldaeon.com/missions
[^19]: David Hooper (@davidhooperr), post, September 1, 2026, quoted by @eldaeonuap the same day. https://x.com/eldaeonuap
[^20]: ELDÆON INC. (@eldaeonuap), pinned post, September 11, 2026, quoting Soon (@soontechnology). https://x.com/eldaeonuap
[^21]: ELDAEON INC., "Building ELDÆON Together: Your Voice Helps Us Shape Our Mission," September 13, 2025. https://eldaeon.com/articles/building-eldaeon-together-your-voice-helps-us-shape-our-mission
[^22]: ELDAEON INC., "Built for the Phenomenon. Drones and Counter-UAS Followed.," May 28, 2026. https://eldaeon.com/articles/sensors-for-uap/
[^23]: Eldaeon Inc., comment FAA-2026-4558-0285 on "Designation, Restrict the Operation of Unmanned Aircraft in Close Proximity to a Fixed Site Facility," posted June 8, 2026, tracking number mq5-mf2y-5853. https://www.regulations.gov/comment/FAA-2026-4558-0285
[^24]: ELDAEON INC., "Earning a Protected Sky Under Section 2209," July 2026. https://eldaeon.com/articles/faa-2209/
[^25]: ELDAEON INC., "Detecting the Invisible: The Future of Sensors Against Psionic Weaponry," August 8, 2025. https://eldaeon.com/articles/psionics
[^26]: Dolan M. McKelvy, *Psychic Warfare: Exploring the Mind Frontier*, Air War College research report, Air University, 1988, CIA-RDP96-00789R001001420001-3. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00789r001001420001-3
[^27]: CB Insights, "CEO Interview: Eldaeon," October 6, 2026. https://www.cbinsights.com/research/ceo-interview-eldaeon/

7
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Painting Decorating Maintenance.md
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@ -9,10 +9,13 @@ tags:
category: "Private Organization"
summary: "Painting Decorating Maintenance (PDM) was a construction company owned by John Wayne Gacy in Norwood Park, Chicago."
location: "Chicago, Illinois, USA"
updated: 2026-10-15
---
Painting Decorating Maintenance (PDM) was a construction company owned by [[John Wayne Gacy]] in Norwood Park, [[Chicago|Chicago, Illinois]]. PDM served as both a legitimate contracting business and the site of one of the worst serial murder investigations in American history. After [[John David Norman]] went back to prison in June 1978, [[Phillip Paske]] lost his job as a children's supervisor at a public swimming pool and went to work at PDM. Receipts for three payslips made out to [[Phillip Paske]] from PDM, dated 12 September 1978, 19 September 1978, and 25 September 1978, were found in the archives of the company's financial records from that period.[^1]
Painting Decorating Maintenance (PDM) was a construction company owned by [[John Wayne Gacy]] in Norwood Park, [[Chicago|Chicago, Illinois]]. PDM served as both a legitimate contracting business and the site of one of the worst serial murder investigations in American history. After [[John David Norman]] went back to prison in June 1978, [[Phillip Paske]] lost his job as a children's supervisor at a public swimming pool and went to work at PDM. Receipts for three payslips made out to Phillip Paske from PDM, dated 12 September 1978, 19 September 1978, and 25 September 1978, were found in the archives of the company's financial records from that period.[^1]
[[Robert Piest]] disappeared from a pharmacy where he worked part-time. [[John Wayne Gacy|Gacy]] was an acquaintance of the pharmacy owner, and PDM had recently completed a remodelling job there. The crawlspace beneath the PDM premises at 8213 Summerdale Avenue served as a mass grave for [[John Wayne Gacy|Gacy]]'s victims. [[Michael Rossi]], an accomplice of [[John Wayne Gacy|Gacy]] linked to the [[Odyssey Network]] through [[Phillip Paske]] and [[John David Norman]], dug graves in the crawlspace. [[John Wayne Gacy|Gacy]] named Rossi alongside [[David Cram]] and [[Phillip Paske]] as individuals who assisted in his operations. The discovery of 29 bodies at the PDM premises in December 1978 became known as the [[Dean Corll Murders|Houston Mass Murders]]-scale investigation that exposed [[John Wayne Gacy|Gacy]]'s killing spree.[^1]
[[Robert Piest]] disappeared from a pharmacy where he worked part-time. Gacy was an acquaintance of the pharmacy owner, and PDM had recently completed a remodelling job there. The crawlspace beneath the PDM premises at 8213 Summerdale Avenue served as a mass grave for Gacy's victims. [[Michael Rossi]], an accomplice of Gacy linked to the [[Odyssey Network]] through Phillip Paske and John David Norman, testified at the 1980 trial that he dug trenches in the crawl space at Gacy's direction.[^2] Gacy named Rossi alongside [[David Cram]] and Phillip Paske as individuals who assisted in his operations. David Cram worked on PDM crews in 1976 and lived in Gacy's house for part of that year, according to Michael Rossi's trial testimony.[^3] The discovery of 29 bodies at the PDM premises in December 1978 became known as the [[Dean Corll Murders|Houston Mass Murders]]-scale investigation that exposed Gacy's killing spree.[^1]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Dovey, S. (2023). *Eye of the Chickenhawk*. United States: Thehotstar.
[^2]: *People v. Gacy*, 103 Ill. 2d 1 (1984), Illinois Supreme Court, No. 53212, June 6, 1984. https://static.case.law/ill-2d/103/cases/0001-01.json
[^3]: Testimony of Michael Rossi, *People v. Gacy*, Circuit Court of Cook County, Indictment Nos. 79-69 et al., trial transcript Volume 5 of 13, February 1980. https://archive.org/details/Gacy_trial

14
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Sol Foundation.md
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@ -85,8 +85,13 @@ relations:
start: 2023-09-15
role: "San Francisco law firm; a paralegal of the firm prepared the Articles of Dissolution of the Alabama corporation"
fn: 11
- type: participant_in
with: "[[David Dominguez Hooper]]"
reverse: true
role: "leads the Distributed Passive Radar Project, per the project page captured August 26, 2026"
fn: 36
created: 2026-10-03
updated: 2026-10-04
updated: 2026-10-14
---
The Sol Foundation for Advanced Scientific and Policy Research is a [[California]] nonprofit public benefit corporation that described itself on its launch date, August 15, 2023, as established "to research the philosophical, policy, and scientific implications of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena." It was led at launch by [[Garry Nolan]] of the [[Stanford University]] School of Medicine and the sociocultural anthropologist [[Peter Skafish]].[^1] Its first public sign was a set of documents that surfaced in early August 2023 under the name "Sol Foundation for Advanced Studies," among them the résumé of [[David Grusch]] filed with the [[House Committee on Oversight and Accountability]].[^2][^3]
@ -143,7 +148,7 @@ The expense lines include $117,000 for management fees, $269,797 for conferences
Schedule I lists one grant to an individual: $10,000 as a "research grant for white paper on geopolitical implications of unidentified anomalous phenomena." Its supplemental statement says the organization grants funds to experts "in exchange for white papers," that grantees are selected by the board of directors and that the papers are published on its website. Schedule O describes the November 22 to 23, 2024 symposium at the [[Fort Mason Center]] in [[San Francisco]].[^7]
The [[UAP Disclosure Fund]], a San Francisco 501(c)(4) in care of [[Yuan Fung]] (EIN 99-2834592, IRS ruling date July 2025), has Fung as its executive director on the November 12, 2024 scientists' letter to Congress that Nolan, Skafish, Pasulka, Gallaudet and others signed, and Gallaudet's House biography lists him as an advisory board member of both the Fund and the Sol Foundation.[^26][^23] The [[Sol Foundation Inc]] of [[Carmel, Indiana]] (EIN 99-3863647; 1051 Oswego Road, in care of [[Lawrence Baker]]; IRS ruling date August 2024; private non-operating foundation) is a separate entity. Its Form 990-PF for the period December 24 to December 31, 2024 (submitted November 14, 2025; prepared by [[L M Henderson & Company LLP]] of [[Indianapolis]]) reports $25,000,000 in contributions received, $17,976 in interest and dividends, $89,482 in expenses, $24,928,494 in assets, no grants paid, and three directors, Lawrence Baker, [[Patricia Baker]] and [[Charles Hertlein]], each at one hour a week and unpaid. It lists no website and a telephone number in the 513 area code. Nothing in that filing refers to unidentified anomalous phenomena, to the California corporation or to any of its officers.[^27]
The [[UAP Disclosure Fund]], a San Francisco 501(c)(4) in care of [[Yuan Fung]] (EIN 99-2834592, IRS ruling date July 2025), has Fung as its executive director on the November 12, 2024 scientists' letter to Congress that Nolan, Skafish, Pasulka, Gallaudet and others signed, and Gallaudet's House biography lists him as an advisory board member of both the Fund and the Sol Foundation.[^23][^26] The [[Sol Foundation Inc]] of [[Carmel, Indiana]] (EIN 99-3863647; 1051 Oswego Road, in care of [[Lawrence Baker]]; IRS ruling date August 2024; private non-operating foundation) is a separate entity. Its Form 990-PF for the period December 24 to December 31, 2024 (submitted November 14, 2025; prepared by [[L M Henderson & Company LLP]] of [[Indianapolis]]) reports $25,000,000 in contributions received, $17,976 in interest and dividends, $89,482 in expenses, $24,928,494 in assets, no grants paid, and three directors, Lawrence Baker, [[Patricia Baker]] and [[Charles Hertlein]], each at one hour a week and unpaid. It lists no website and a telephone number in the 513 area code. Nothing in that filing refers to unidentified anomalous phenomena, to the California corporation or to any of its officers.[^27]
No filing under the client name Sol Foundation appears in the [[United States Senate]] lobbying disclosure database, and no contribution record under the names of Skafish, Berte or Mindrila appears in the Federal Election Commission database.[^28]
@ -163,6 +168,10 @@ Volume 1, No. 2 gives "Board Director: Dr. Garry Nolan" and "Executive Director:
In June 2026 Loeb announced that he would lead a "UAP Science Advisory Council" and, in a list he supplied to the news outlet [[DefenseScoop]] (published June 17, 2026), named twelve other members with focus areas, among them Gallaudet (oceanography), Nolan (molecular biology and materials science) and Skafish (anthropology). An official of the [[Office of the Director of National Intelligence]] told DefenseScoop that the office, the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] and the [[Department of Defense]] had established an interagency UAP Governance Board, that it "met for the first time yesterday" (June 16, 2026), and that the board is supported by outside advisory groups including the council. Loeb said the council would help the [[All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office]] "resolve the UAP mystery."[^34] The Sol Foundation described the council in a June 22, 2026 release as announced by the [[Director of National Intelligence|Office of the Director of National Intelligence]] "with the support of the FBI"; Loeb wrote on June 16, 2026 that "I was tasked by the [[White House]], the Pentagon's All Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the FBI, and the Intelligence Community, to assemble" it. A search of the Federal Register on October 3, 2026 returned no document naming the council, and no ODNI, AARO or White House release establishing it was located.[^35]
### Distributed Passive Radar Project
The foundation's project page for the Distributed Passive Radar Project names [[David Dominguez Hooper]] as its leader. The page describes a program to evaluate, deploy and analyze a distributed network of "low-cost passive radar systems," with two stated objectives: detecting non-cooperative aerial threats near commercial airports, and collecting "instrumentally verified scientific data on unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP)." It describes the NEMESIS passive radar platform of [[ELDAEON]], "a $500 bistatic receiver based on commodity hardware and open-source signal processing software," as the basis of a citizen-operated network "modeled on the [[FlightRadar24]] ADS-B receiver community." The page states that the project's academic analysis would be conducted by an unnamed university, announcement forthcoming, and that the foundation provides "scientific expertise and review, project coordination, volunteer resources, and publication support."[^36]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Micah Hanks, "The Sol Foundation: How a New Think Tank of Academics is Applying 'Cutting-Edge Research' to the UAP Mystery," *The Debrief*, September 12, 2023. https://thedebrief.org/the-sol-foundation-how-a-new-think-tank-of-academics-is-applying-cutting-edge-research-the-uap-mystery/
@ -200,3 +209,4 @@ In June 2026 Loeb announced that he would lead a "UAP Science Advisory Council"
[^33]: Karl E. Nell, "The UFO Enigma: A Call for US Government Disclosure," The Policy Papers of the Sol Foundation, Spring 2025, Executive Summary and "About the Author." https://thesolfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/The-UFO-Enigma_Sol-Foundation.pdf
[^34]: "New science advisory council forms to help US government 'resolve the UAP mystery,'" *DefenseScoop*, June 17, 2026. https://defensescoop.com/2026/06/17/new-science-advisory-council-forms-to-help-us-government-resolve-the-uap-mystery/
[^35]: Sol Foundation, release "Sol Foundation Co-Founders Named to UAP Science Advisory Council," June 22, 2026 (modified July 13, 2026), https://thesolfoundation.org/sol-foundation-co-founders-named-to-uap-science-advisory-council/ ; Avi Loeb, "More Details on the UAP Science Advisory Council," Medium (avi-loeb.medium.com), June 16, 2026, read in a Wayback Machine copy; Federal Register search for "UAP Science Advisory Council," https://www.federalregister.gov/api/v1/documents.json?conditions%5Bterm%5D=%22UAP+Science+Advisory+Council%22 (count 0 on October 3, 2026).
[^36]: The Sol Foundation, "Distributed Passive Radar Project," project page (archived copy captured August 26, 2026). https://web.archive.org/web/20260826160852/https://thesolfoundation.org/distributed-passive-radar-project/

28
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Thiel Fellowship.md
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@ -11,10 +11,23 @@ tags:
- PeterThiel
- Recruitment
- Education
summary: "The Thiel Fellowship is a program of the Thiel Foundation, founded in 2010 by Peter Thiel, that awards 250,000 dollars over two years to people aged 22 or younger on the condition that they skip or stop out of college to pursue a venture, and whose alumni include Vitalik Buterin and other founders who entered the Thiel commercial network through the program."
summary: "Thiel Foundation program founded in 2010 by Peter Thiel that awards 250,000 dollars over two years to people aged 22 or younger who skip or stop out of college, with alumni including Vitalik Buterin."
location: "San Francisco, California (Thiel Foundation)"
created: 2026-06-17
updated: 2026-06-17
updated: 2026-10-14
relations:
- type: founded
with: "[[Danielle Strachman]]"
reverse: true
role: "cofounder of the fellowship; later cofounder of 1517 Fund"
start: 2010
fn: 5
- type: founded
with: "[[Michael Gibson]]"
reverse: true
role: "cofounder of the fellowship; later cofounder of 1517 Fund"
start: 2010
fn: 5
---
The Thiel Fellowship is a program of the [[Thiel Foundation]], founded by [[Peter Thiel]] in 2010 (originally as "20 Under 20"), that awards 250,000 dollars over two years to people aged 22 or younger on the condition that they skip or stop out of college to pursue a venture. The fellowship is the entry point into the Thiel commercial network for a cohort of founders who were recruited into the network as teenagers or early-twenties entrants, before they had passed through the conventional university and career pipeline. Notable alumni include [[Vitalik Buterin]] (the creator of [[Ethereum]]), [[Ritesh Agarwal]], [[Laura Deming]], [[Austin Russell]], and [[Dale Stephens]].[^1][^2][^3]
@ -23,6 +36,8 @@ The Thiel Fellowship is a program of the [[Thiel Foundation]], founded by [[Pete
Thiel announced the fellowship in 2010 as "20 Under 20," with the explicit framing that university education had become overpriced, risk-averse, and credential-oriented, and that the most talented young people would produce more value by building ventures outside the university than by completing degrees. The original cohort of twenty fellows under the age of twenty was selected in 2011. The award was initially 100,000 dollars over two years; it has since been raised to 250,000 dollars over two years, and the program has shifted from a strict "drop out" requirement to a "skip or stop out" formulation that permits fellows to pause rather than permanently leave their studies.[^1][^4]
[[Danielle Strachman]] and [[Michael Gibson]], who later founded [[1517 Fund]], describe themselves as cofounders of the fellowship. Strachman joined at its founding to lead its design and operations. A post on the fund's site says the program was conceived 24 hours before an interview with [[Sarah Lacy]] held on Gibson's first day of work, and a 2022 interview with Gibson dates that day to September 27, 2010 and gives an account in which Thiel came up with the idea on a flight the night before and planned to announce it at TechCrunch Disrupt the next day.[^5][^6] Bloomberg Businessweek called the two co-heads of the fellowship in 2016.[^7]
The anti-university thesis is continuous with the broader Thiel argument that credentialism and institutional consensus have captured the conventional education and career pipeline. The fellowship's institutional expression of that thesis is the offer of capital and network access in exchange for exit from the institution, which inverts the standard model in which the institution is the gateway to capital and network. The fellowship has run continuously since 2010 and has selected roughly 20 to 30 fellows per cohort.[^1][^3]
### Notable Alumni and the Network Effect
@ -33,9 +48,9 @@ The alumni network provides continuing access to the Thiel commercial orbit. Fel
### The Recruitment Layer
The fellowship identifies high-potential individuals in their teens and early twenties, supplies them with capital and network access, and brings them into the commercial, convening, and ideological infrastructure of the Thiel orbit at an age at which their trajectories are still forming. The approach is continuous with the [[JD Vance]] recruitment (capital and mentorship supplied at the career-formation stage) and the [[Teneo Network]] model of identifying and placing ideological allies across institutional sectors.[^5]
The fellowship identifies high-potential individuals in their teens and early twenties, supplies them with capital and network access, and brings them into the commercial, convening, and ideological infrastructure of the Thiel orbit at an age at which their trajectories are still forming. The approach is continuous with the [[JD Vance]] recruitment (capital and mentorship supplied at the career-formation stage) and the [[Teneo Network]] model of identifying and placing ideological allies across institutional sectors.[^8]
The fellowship operates alongside the other documented Thiel-network recruitment and convening vehicles: the Founders Fund portfolio companies, the [[Dialog]] conference, [[Hereticon]], the [[Per Aspera Policy]] political-action vehicle, and the Teneo Network conservative-leadership layer. The fellowship is the earliest-stage layer, recruiting at the point of educational exit rather than at the point of commercial or political entry.[^5]
The fellowship operates alongside the other documented Thiel-network recruitment and convening vehicles: the Founders Fund portfolio companies, the [[Dialog]] conference, [[Hereticon]], the [[Per Aspera Policy]] political-action vehicle, and the Teneo Network conservative-leadership layer. The fellowship is the earliest-stage layer, recruiting at the point of educational exit rather than at the point of commercial or political entry.[^8]
### Footnotes
@ -43,4 +58,7 @@ The fellowship operates alongside the other documented Thiel-network recruitment
[^2]: "Gen Z and millennial founders who dropped out for the fellowship." *Fortune,* August 16, 2025. https://fortune.com/2025/08/16/gen-z-millennial-founders-college-dropout-entrepreneurs-peter-thiel-fellowship/
[^3]: "Thiel Fellowships don't require students to drop out." *Inside Higher Ed,* November 13, 2012. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/11/13/thiel-fellowships-dont-require-students-drop-out
[^4]: For the original 2010 "20 Under 20" announcement and the founding program design, see contemporaneous press coverage and the Thiel Foundation's own historical materials.
[^5]: Cameron, Dell, and Yulia Almazova. "Leak Exposes Members of Peter Thiel's Secretive 'Dialog' Society." *WIRED,* June 16, 2026. https://www.wired.com/story/leak-exposes-members-of-peter-thiels-secretive-dialog-society/
[^5]: 1517 Fund, home page ("Founding Team") and "How to Apply to the Thiel Fellowship," blog post, April 18, 2019. https://www.1517fund.com/ and https://www.1517fund.com/post/thiel-fellowship
[^6]: "An Entrepreneur's Perspective: Interview with Michael Gibson," Raging Capital Ventures, July 8, 2022. https://ragingcapitalventures.com/an-entrepreneurs-perspective-interview-with-michael-gibson/
[^7]: Lizette Chapman, "Thiel-Backed 1517 Fund Is Stalking the Next Zuckerberg," Bloomberg Businessweek, December 1, 2016. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-01/thiel-s-1517-fund-is-stalking-the-next-zuckerberg
[^8]: Cameron, Dell, and Yulia Almazova. "Leak Exposes Members of Peter Thiel's Secretive 'Dialog' Society." *WIRED,* June 16, 2026. https://www.wired.com/story/leak-exposes-members-of-peter-thiels-secretive-dialog-society/

5
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Thiel Foundation.md
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@ -180,7 +180,7 @@ relations:
role: "3,000,000 dollars"
fn: 21
created: 2026-10-01
updated: 2026-10-01
updated: 2026-10-14
---
The Thiel Foundation (employer identification number 20-3846597) is a private foundation exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, with an [[Internal Revenue Service]] ruling date of May 2006. Its first Form 990-PF covers November 22 to December 31, 2005, and reports California as the state in which it is registered. [[Peter Thiel]] is the substantial contributor named on every Schedule B or contributor statement opened for the years 2005 through 2023, and he appears as a director or as chairman of the board in every return from the first to the most recent. The Internal Revenue Service's current record for the foundation gives an address at 215 NW 24th Street, Suite 801, [[Miami]], [[Florida]].[^1][^2] The returns record grants under four program labels (general foundation grants, Imitatio, Breakout Labs, and a fellowship program that the returns call "20under20" through 2016 and the [[Thiel Fellowship]] from 2017), followed in the 2020s by grants to [[DonorsTrust]] labelled "donor advised fund" and a single grant to the [[New Venture Fund]].
@ -257,7 +257,7 @@ The return for 2014 lists 152,983 dollars to the Association Recherches Mimétiq
### Thiel Fellowship and Breakout Labs
Fellowship grants are labelled "20under20 fellowship" in the returns for 2012 to 2016, "Thiel Fellowship Grant" in the returns for 2017 and 2018, and "fellowship" in later returns. Fellowship totals were 2,093,046 dollars in 2013, 2,025,438 dollars in 2014, 2,369,206 dollars in 2015, 2,637,858 dollars in 2016, 2,224,071 dollars in 2017, 2,054,946 dollars in 2018, 1,650,000 dollars in 2021, 2,193,650 dollars in 2022 and 2,187,500 dollars in 2023. The returns for 2013 to 2016 list [[Dylan Field]], [[Delian Asparouhov]] and [[Vitalik Buterin]] among the 20under20 grantees.[^8][^11][^16][^17][^18][^19][^20][^21][^23] The amended return for 2021 reports fellowship grants of 100,000 dollars each on expenditure responsibility statements, and its schedule of other income includes 1,360,000 dollars labelled "grant conversion".[^22] The return for 2012 lists a grant of 200,000 dollars to David Allen Dalrymple under the general program.[^15] The returns for 2012 to 2014 list [[Danielle Strachman]] as a contractor for management of the 20under20 program, paid 275,163 dollars (2012), 250,845 dollars (2013) and 174,363 dollars (2014).[^15][^16][^17]
Fellowship grants are labelled "20under20 fellowship" in the returns for 2012 to 2016, "Thiel Fellowship Grant" in the returns for 2017 and 2018, and "fellowship" in later returns. Fellowship totals were 2,093,046 dollars in 2013, 2,025,438 dollars in 2014, 2,369,206 dollars in 2015, 2,637,858 dollars in 2016, 2,224,071 dollars in 2017, 2,054,946 dollars in 2018, 1,650,000 dollars in 2021, 2,193,650 dollars in 2022 and 2,187,500 dollars in 2023. The returns for 2013 to 2016 list [[Dylan Field]], [[Delian Asparouhov]] and [[Vitalik Buterin]] among the 20under20 grantees.[^8][^11][^16][^17][^18][^19][^20][^21][^23] The amended return for 2021 reports fellowship grants of 100,000 dollars each on expenditure responsibility statements, and its schedule of other income includes 1,360,000 dollars labelled "grant conversion".[^22] The return for 2012 lists a grant of 200,000 dollars to David Allen Dalrymple under the general program.[^15] The returns for 2012 to 2014 list [[Danielle Strachman]] as a contractor for management of the 20under20 program, paid 275,163 dollars (2012), 250,845 dollars (2013) and 174,363 dollars (2014).[^15][^16][^17] In 2015 Strachman and [[Michael Gibson]] founded [[1517 Fund]], a venture fund that describes its grant program as having been scaled from the foundation's own work: its site says that when the two were at the foundation they "put $100K grants behind young people," and that in their last year there the team piloted smaller $1,000 grants.[^29]
Breakout Labs grants first appear in the return for 2011 (Arigos Biomedical, 50,000 dollars). The return for 2012 lists 3Scan (340,000 dollars), Arigos Biomedical (300,000 dollars), Avetech Energy (300,000 dollars), General Genomics (350,000 dollars), Immusoft (398,607 dollars), Siva Therapeutics (350,025 dollars) and Longevity Biotech (346,726 dollars).[^14][^15] Breakout Labs totals were 1,113,513 dollars in 2013, 1,616,000 dollars in 2014 (including 350,000 dollars to Cortexyme), 1,970,000 dollars in 2015, 1,315,000 dollars in 2016, 3,775,000 dollars in 2017 and 1,775,000 dollars in 2018, and the return for 2019 lists six grants of 500,000 dollars each.[^8][^9][^16][^17][^18][^19][^20] The amended return for 2021 lists a holding in Cortexyme valued at 193,149 dollars and investments in unconsolidated entities valued at 18,477,914 dollars.[^22]
@ -301,3 +301,4 @@ The return for 2022 lists "general foundation grants" of 100,000, 120,000 and 12
[^26]: Mithril II LP, Schedule 13D on BlackSky Technology Inc., filed September 20, 2021 (event date September 9, 2021), SEC accession 0001193125-21-277424 (cover page). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1753539/000119312521277424/d234079dsc13d.htm
[^27]: Seasteading Institute, EIN 26-2386590, Form 990 for 2013, submitted October 15, 2014, ProPublica object ID 201412889349300226 (Part VII, Section A). https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/full_text/201412889349300226/IRS990
[^28]: American Friends of Bilderberg Inc., EIN 51-0163715, Forms 990-PF for 2013 (object ID 201431369349100608), 2014 (201501349349102800) and 2015 (201622229349100732), Part I line 1, Part VIII line 1 and Part IX-A. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/full_text/201501349349102800/IRS990PF and https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/full_text/201622229349100732/IRS990PF
[^29]: 1517 Fund, "1517 Medici Project," undated page. https://www.1517fund.com/medici