Hello and welcome to the program UFO Warning.
In this episode, we're asking who is Christopher Mellon?
That's correct. Who is Christopher Mellon?
Now, if you follow the UFO subject to all, you've probably
seen Christopher Mellon on any number of news shows or on The
History Channel. He's oftentimes presented as an
authority figure from the government.
Seems like an interesting guy, so I thought why not take a look
and see how he fits in with the whistleblowers and all the stuff
that's been emerging lately. I started off my search really
with a query to ChatGPT. They don't always have the best
information, but sometimes they come up with some insights, so
let's take a look at what they have to say since.
Christopher Mellon is a former U.S. government official who has
played a prominent role in advocating for increased
transparency and investigation into unidentified aerial
phenomena, commonly referred to as UFOs.
He served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense
for Intelligence under both the Clinton and George W Bush
administrations, and he also held positions on the Senate
Intelligence Committee. Mellon has been vocal in his
support for serious studies of Uaps, often emphasizing the need
for government agencies to take reports from military personnel
and others seriously. He was involved in the release
of the US Navy videos showing encounters with unexplained
flying objects, which gained widespread attention.
Mellon has expressed concerns that Uaps could pose a potential
national security threat, and advocates for more open,
scientific and government LED efforts to investigate them.
Mellon has also appeared in media outlets, documentaries and
public discussions on the topic, including as part of The History
Channel Show Identified Inside America's UFO investigation,
where he collaborates with former Pentagon official Louis
Elizondo. He remains a key figure in the
broader movement to destigmatize the study of UFOs and Uaps and
to push for greater government disclosure on the issue.
Now that's a nice little summary, but they kind of gloss
over the Tic Tac issue and they kind of gloss over his
relationship with Julie Elizondo.
So let's see if we can dive a little bit deeper into that.
So if you've listened to this podcast, you've probably heard
me talk about the story of Christopher Mellon passing off
the Tic Tac videos to Louis Alexando and New York Times.
And how Tom Delong ended up posting these things on his 2D
Academy of Stars website with a big old watermark plastered all
over him. And how I just really questioned
the chain of custody here and the idea that people were
allowed to profit off these things.
And why weren't these things just released publicly in the
1st place? So I asked chat GTP about
Christopher Mellon's involvement with the Navy UFO videos.
We're talking Tic Tac and the other ones.
ChatGPT says Christopher Mellon played a pivotal role in the
release of the now famous U.S. Navy videos showing encounters
with unidentified aerial Phenomena, Uaps, which helped
bring mainstream attention to the topic.
His involvement occurred during his post government career,
particularly through his association with the two the
Stars Academy of Arts and Science TTSA, an organization
focused on UFO research founded by Tom Delong, former lead
vocalist of the of the Bay and Blink 182.
Here's a detailed account of Mellon's actions regarding the
release. So here we have this guy who's
been what kind of a career government employee seems like
he's using that revolving doorman.
He's going from the DoD or whatever right into Tom Delong's
new company. And soon as he's out of his
government job, he's knocking on the door asking those people to
release videos, which Tom can then profit off of.
Says #1 obtaining the videos. In 2017, Mellon became aware of
several videos captured by U.S. Navy pilots that showed
unexplained objects exhibiting flight characteristics far
beyond the capabilities of known human technology.
These videos, commonly referred to as FLIR 1, Gimbal, and Go
Fast, were recorded during separate encounters between Navy
fighter pilots and Uaps between 2004 and 2015.
Mellon worked with individuals inside the government who were
concerned about the secrecy and lack of serious investigation
into these accounts. These individuals were able to
secure the declassification of these videos, which was a
critical step toward making them public.
Real, real issue right there. So ChatGPT is telling us that
he's going kind of behind the scenes and working with people,
well, people maybe he used to work with.
Why aren't these individuals named #2 leaking the videos?
Once the videos were declassified, Mellon anonymously
provided them to The New York Times and to TTSA.
Hey, I'll give them to the New York Times and the guy I worked
for. How convenient.
With the belief that public attention would compel the US
government to take the UAP issue more seriously, in 2017 The New
York Times published an article titled Glowing Auroras and Black
Money Depending on its Mysterious UFO Program, which
featured the videos and discussed depending on its
advantage to Aerospace Threat Identification Program AATIPA
secretive program investigating Uaps.
Now, we're not even sure if AATIP was an actual program or a
nickname for a program, but a lot of talk about that.
Mellon has since acknowledged in interviews that he was a person
responsible for getting the videos to the New York Times
without disclosing specific details of the process.
Man, I don't know how you get by with that.
Number three, public advocacy and disclosure.
It says, remember, this is ChatGPT telling us that, not my
words, there's. Following the publication of the
videos, Mellon began speaking publicly about the encounters
and the need for the US government to investigate Uaps
more thoroughly. His goal was to break the stigma
surrounding the topic and advocate for transparency and
scientific inquiry into the phenomena.
Mellon emphasized that these Uaps pose potential national
concert national security concerns due to their unknown
origins and advanced technological capabilities.
He argued that the videos demonstrated an issue that
warranted serious attention from both the public and the US
government. Goes on down and says working
with the media. Mellon furthered the discussion
by appearing in various media outlets and documentaries, most
notably in The History Channel series Unidentified Inside
America's UFO Investigation. On the show, he and his
colleague Louis Elizondo, a former Pentagon official who
also worked with ATIP, discussed the Navy pilots encounters and
advocated for greater transparency from the Department
of Defense. Vince is pushing for policy
changes as a result of Mellon's actions and the public interest
generated by the videos. the US government has taken steps to
acknowledge the existence of Uaps.
The Department of Defense confirmed the authenticity of
the videos in 2023, years later, and formally established the UAP
task force to investigate such phenomena.
Mellon has continued to push for significant changes, including
the release of further information and more rigorous
scientific investigations. In summary, Mellon's involvement
in the release of the Navy videos was a carefully
orchestrated effort to bring the UAP issue to public attention by
working within the government to declassify footage and then
facilitating its release through media outlets.
His advocacy has been instrumental in pushing the
government toward greater transparency regarding UFOs.
Still kind of glossing over the whole financial case connection
there with to the Stars. Let's go ahead and push ChatGPT
just a little bit further. So I asked ChatGPT, I said
there's a story that Mellon actually handed off the videos
and questioned to Luby Elizondo Independent on parking lot.
Tell me more about that. Well, they did have something to
say, ChatGPT replies. Yes, there is an intriguing
story about Christopher Mellon personally handing over the
declassified Navy UFO videos to Louis Elizondo in a Pentagon
parking lot. This incident has become a
notable part of the narrative surrounding the release of the
famous Navy UFO encounters. Here's a more detailed account
of that moment and its content. Number one, it says the context,
Mellon's frustration with secrecy.
Wow. Too bad they couldn't have
described Snowden as frustration with secrecy.
Maybe he wouldn't have been banished to Russia.
Christopher Mellon, having served in high level
intelligence roles, became increasingly frustrated with the
lack of government attention and transparency regarding UFO
encounters. He believed that these
incidents, many of which are captured by U.S.
Navy personnel and showed advanced unidentified aerial
phenomena UAP, what we call UFOs, warranted serious
investigation for national security reasons.
Mellon was also deeply concerned about the bureaucratic inertia
and stigma surrounding UFOs within the defense and
intelligence communities. He felt that the public had the
right to know that these encounters were happening and
that their disclosure could spur further investigation and study
#2 Meeting with Louis Elizondo in the Pentagon parking lot.
The famous parking lot handoff involved Christopher Mellon and
Louis Elizondo, a former Pentagon official who led the
Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program AATIP, a
secretive Pentagon program dedicated to investigating UFO
sightings, particularly those by military personnel.
Mellon had been working to gather declassified materials,
including the now infamous videos Fleer, Gimble and Go
Fast, captured by Navy pilots during their encounters with
Uaps. As the story goes, sometime in
2017, Mellon met with Elizondo in a Pentagon parking lot, where
he handed over the videos. This clandestine meeting was
part of Mellon's effort to transfer the footage for
eventual public release. I don't know, why not just
release it? The exact details of their
conversation and the logistics of how the videos were secured
remain largely undisclosed, but it has been suggested that the
videos were declassified by legitimate government channels,
allowing them to be shared with the public.
Man, that is sketchy. In my opinion.
The act of handing over the videos symbolized the
frustration both men felt about the slow moving governmental
process surrounding UAP research and the need to bypass the
traditional routes of disclosure.
This informal exchange in a Pentagon parking lot illustrates
how far Mellon was willing to go to push the UAP issue into the
public domain. I have questions, it says,
released to the New York Times and Public Impact.
After receiving the videos, Mellon worked behind the scenes
to ensure they reached The New York Times.
That newspaper published an article on December 16th, 2017
which not only included the footage but also reveal the
existence of AATIP. The videos showing Navy pilots
and countering fast moving inexplicable objects but no
visible propulsion systems became a central part of the US
government's emerging UFO story. The leak was a calculated move
by Mellon and Elizondo to force the government to address these
incidents openly. They believe that by bringing
the issue into the spotlight, they could would encourage
further investigation and prompt the government to acknowledge
the reality of these encounters. Mellon has spoken publicly about
his release of the videos, but has been careful not to divulge
too many operational details. He views the hand off as a
necessary action to breakthrough the government's reluctance to
discuss Uaps and provide the public with clear evidence that
these unexplained encounters were real and had been witnessed
by highly trained members military personnel.
In later interviews, Mellon expressed satisfaction with the
outcome of this event, as it led to a broader conversation about
Uaps and eventually forced the Pentagon to confirm the
authenticity of the videos. He continues to advocate for a
more transparent and scientific approach to studying Uaps,
believing that these objects could pose potential security
risk. Wow, the significance of the
handoff, It says. This is ChatGPT talking again.
The handoff of the videos in a Pentagon parking lot has since
become an emblematic moment in the broader UFO disclosure
movement. It demonstrated that individuals
within the government, including people like Mellon and Elizondo,
or willing to take unconventional steps to ensure
the public's right to know about UAP encounters.
This act helped shape the future disclosure of UFOs, breaking
down some of the barriers of secrecy that had surrounded the
subject for decades. In summary, the story of
Christopher Mellon handing the videos to Louis Elizondo and
depending on the parking lot is emblematic of the frustration
with the lack of transparency within the US government
regarding UFOs. Mellon's actions and the
subsequent release of the videos marked a turning point in the
public discourse on Uaps, leading to increased government
acknowledgement and an open dialogue about these phenomena.
Which actually, BT really seems to have a little bit of a
bromance with these guys. I'm interested if this was even
legal what they did. Let's ask a couple more
questions here as we continue this on.
Now, I've had a lot of questions since the very beginning about
whether this was even legal, what Mellon and Elizondo
reportedly did, the Pentagon packing parking lot passing off
this stuff. So I asked ChatGPT, is this even
legal? And they say, well, the legality
of what Christopher Mellon and Louis Elizondo did in the
Pentagon parking lot, specifically regarding the
handoff of U.S. Navy UFO videos, has been a
point of speculation and discussion.
From available information, it appears that Mellon and Elizondo
carefully operated within legal boundaries when transferring the
videos for public release, but the specifics of how they
navigated the complex rules of classified information remains
somewhat unclear. Let's break it down.
Well, This is why I think it could be a limited hangout.
Declassification of the video is a critical factor in assessing
the legality of the handoff is the declassification status of
the videos. According to Mellon and
Elizondo, the videos they handed over, the FLIR 1, Gimble and Go
Fast, had been declassified through official government
channels prior to their release. These videos were part of AUS
Navy training exercise and had been reviewed through the
standard declassification process, meaning they were no
longer classified as sensitive national security material.
But if nobody in the public knew they were there, how are you
supposed to access them? If the videos had remained
classified, releasing or even discussing them outside of
approved channels would have been illegal under US laws
governing the handling of classified information, such as
the Espionage Act. However, since the videos were
declassified, Mellon and Elizondo would not have been in
violation of these laws by transferring or discussing them
outside classified settings. Then, it says handling of
sensitive information. While the videos themselves were
reportedly declassified, it's worth noting that other
information related to UAPS and the Advanced Aerospace Threat
Identification Program, ATIP, might still have been
classified. Both Mellon and Elizondo, as
former government officials with security clearances, would have
been well aware of the laws governing classified information
and the penalties for improper disclosure.
By carefully ensuring that only classified materials were
transferred and shared, they likely avoided breaching legal
boundaries. Both Mellon and Elizondo have
stressed that they adhere to the appropriate legal framework to
avoid compromising national security, which suggests they
were cautious to ensure they didn't cross any little lines.
Then it has a government reaction.
The US governments reaction to the videos release further
suggests that what Mellon and Elizondo did was legal, rather
than facing immediate legal action or accusations and from
properly handling classified information.
Both men continued to speak publicly about Uaps, and the
Pentagon eventually confirmed the authenticity of the videos
in 2020. The Department of Defense did
not indicate any wrongdoing regarding how the videos were
handled prior to their release. Furthermore, the Pentagon's own
UAP Task Force and the All Domain Anomaly Research Office
was formed after public interest surged in part due to these
videos, and the government since has since acknowledged the
reality of UAP sightings. Yeah, well, not according to
Arrow. I mean, Fitzpatrick says they're
all fake. They're all the, none of none of
them are extraterrestrial or intermensional.
Nothing identified. Got to be either foreign
adversaries or high tech stuff or I suppose swamp gas or
drones. It's Mellon, Reynolds Ando had
violated the law. It is likely they would have
been subjected to internal investigations or legal actions
which did not happen. Interesting ethical and
strategic considerations While it seems that what Mellon and
Elizondo did was legal, there is an argument to be made about
whether it was ethical or advisable from an internal
governmental perspective. Some might argue that even
declassified information, when released in a certain way, such
as via media outlets, especially when you work for like to the
Stars, could cause issues for the government in terms of
public relations, security, or ongoing investigations.
Mellon and Elizondo likely await these concerns.
Against what they saw as a pressing need for public
awareness and governmental action on Uaps, why didn't they
just release the stuff on New Fork?
They believe the release of the videos could break the
bureaucratic secrecy surrounding UFO encounters and prompt more
rigorous study of the phenomena. In their view, the potential
benefits of disclosure outweighed any internal
governmental friction or hesitation.
And it says #5 congressional support, congregational and
public support. In the aftermath of the video
releases, the US Congress, as well as the general public,
increase your calls for more transparencies on UA PS Congress
even passed legislation requiring regular reporting on
UAP encounters by military personnel.
This indicates that Mellon and Elizondo's actions, while
unorthodox, were ultimately seen by many as valuable for pushing
forward the conversation on UA PS.
And then, in conclusion, it says from all available evidence, it
appears that what Mellon and Elizondo did in the Pentagon
parking lot was legal. The key factor is that the
videos had been declassified, making their transfer and
eventual released to the public lawful.
While unconventional and perhaps risky from an internal
government standpoint, the actions did not break US laws
regarding the handling of classified information.
Both Mellon and Elizondo acted carefully to avoid crossing
legal boundaries, and their efforts have.
Since played a significant role in prompting further
investigation and public warrants and Uaps.
OK, I've got a couple more questions that I want to ask as
far as following the money goes from chat GDP and then we'll
wrap this up. So something that's really been
kind of a Burr under my saddle since this whole thing started
where you have the alleged hand off of the videos between Mellon
and Elizondo. The New York Times gets a copy
and To the Stars Academy gets a copy Tom Delong's company.
And those videos are posted on YouTube with a giant watermark
of To the Stars Academy can't even estimate the value of that
free advertising for their company.
But my question was, how much are they making just in YouTube
ads? So I asked Chad GBT, what's your
estimate on this? And I think, I think they
lowballed it, but it's still something as they say.
It's difficult to estimate exactly how much Tom Delonge's
company to the Star Wars Academy of Arts and Science might have
earned from the YouTube ad revenue for the videos involving
UFO UAP encounters that were released with the help of
Christopher Mellon and Louis Elizondo.
However, we can make a rough estimate based on a few key
factors related to YouTube ad revenue.
Factors to consider YouTube views the videos, particularly
the flirt 1 gimbal and go fast clips, gained widespread
attention after their release in 2017.
They were featured in many major media outlets, including The New
York Times, which drove significant traffic to platforms
like YouTube where they were hosted.
For the purpose of this estimate, let's assume that
across all sources and repostings on TTSA's YouTube
channel and other affiliate outlets, the videos collectively
amassed several million views. We can assume that we can
estimate that the UFO videos each garnered between one to 10
million views on YouTube, with some conservative assumptions
putting the total around 10 million views to account for
various repost features and clips across different channels.
YouTube ad revenue YouTube ad revenue is typically calculated
based on CPM costs per thousands.
Then it goes on here and says the range might range between
2:00 to 5:00 bucks and they're doing all their estimates and it
says YouTube's cut 45% blah blah blah.
Anyway, they come up with a total ad revenue of around
$30,000 with Delong's company taking home 16,500.
Now, I think that's really low myself because I think the views
were a lot higher. My opinion, but still $16,500
because they got the videos before anybody else did.
There's a money angle to this. Yes, we all love the idea of a
pure study and investigation into UFO stuff, but there's also
money involved. And some of these big
entertainment places are making lots of money.
I don't begrudge them that. It takes work to build a podcast
or a YouTube channel or documentary.
But the fact is, if you're given a video that nobody else has
access to, and you can run with that and rack up 10 million
views before anybody else has a chance to jump on board, that's
great. I mean, I can only imagine if
some former government employee handed me a video that had been
laundered through a major paper like New York Times and said,
hey, UFO warning, go ahead and post this.
And then I've got sixteen, $17,000 in my pocket before
anybody else even knows the thing has hit the floor.
See what I'm saying? So that's an ethical thing to
me. Now, I'm also interested in
saying just how much money Christopher Mellon makes off his
appearances and stuff. And then we'll go ahead and
we'll wrap this up. So I asked ChatGPT to give me an
estimate how much money they think that Christopher Mellon
has made from his various appearances on television and
that UFO conventions and such talking about this stuff.
I'm just curious. ChatGPT says estimating how much
money Christopher Mellon has made from his various
appearances on television programs and conventions related
to UFOs is challenging because his earnings are not publicly
disclosed. Additionally, many of his
appearances may not be solely for financial gain, but rather
part of his broader mission to raise awareness about UFOs and
Uaps. That said, we can provide a
rough estimate based on typical compensation models for public
figures and similar roles, says number one key revenue streams
to consider #1 television programs and documentaries.
Mellon has appeared on several high profile TV shows and
documentaries discussing UFOs, most notably the History
Channel's series Unidentified America's UFO Investigations
2019, which Mellon Co produced and in which he frequently
appeared alongside former Pentagon official Louis
Elizondo. For a Co producer or frequent
guest on a series like like Unidentified, Mellon might have
earned a moderate appearance fee or production credit.
While it's hard to know exactly how much he was paid, someone in
his position might earn between $10,000 and $50,000 per episode,
depending on contract terms, the show's success, and his level of
involvement with multiple episodes aired across multiple
seasons, he could have made 100,000 to $300,000 or more from
this series alone. Wow.
Conventions and speaking engagements Mellon has been a
featured speaker at UFO conferences such as the Contact
and the Desert Convention, as well as other industry events
focused on UFOs and national security.
He also speaks at general security, defense, and
intelligence related conferences.
The typical speaker fee for someone of Mellon stature, a
former high-ranking government official and a notable voice in
the UFO community, could range from $10,000 to $30,000 per
speaking engagement. For larger conventions or
events, especially where he's a headline speaker, this fee could
be even higher. If Mellon participates in
several conferences annually, say around 5 or 10 appearances,
he might make around 50,000 to $300,000 per year from speaking
engagements alone, depending on the events size and prominence.
Media appearances, news podcasts and interviews.
It says Mellon regularly appears in interviews both on mainstream
news outlets like CNN and Fox News, and in more specialized
UFO related podcasts or YouTube channels.
Most media appearances do not generate significant income
unless they are tied to a specific production or involve
sponsorship agreements. Many of these appearances may
not involve large fees, but they contribute to its overall public
profile, indirectly driving revenue through book deals, paid
speaking opportunities or consulting work.
And, it says, consulting or advisory work.
Given his expertise in intelligence and national
security, Mellon may also have been engaged as a consultant or
advisor for various media projects, documentaries or
research initiatives related to UFOs.
Uaps fees for consulting vary widely, but someone of Mellon's
background could command 1000 to $5000 per day for advisory roles
on specific projects. Wow.
Total estimate, it says. Considering all these factors,
it's plausible that Christopher Mellon has made several $100,000
from his work related to UFOs over the past few years.
Here's a rough breakdown. Television series Unidentified,
estimated 100 to $300,000. Conventions and speaking
engagements 50 to 300,000 per year.
Media and consulting likely additional revenue with smaller
amounts compared to TV and speaking possibly 20 to 50,000
per year. So it says for a conservative
overall estimate, over the past several years, Mellon may have
earned between 200,000 and $600,000 or more from his
various UFO related appearances and projects, depending on how
frequently he's participated in these activities and the
specific terms of his engagements.
However, it's important to note that Mellon's primary motivation
for involvement in the UFO field seems to be advocacy and raising
awareness, not solely financial gain.
That's nice to tag that on there.
But I mean, if he only cared about releasing this stuff to
the public, wouldn't he just go ahead and give that money away
then? I don't know.
So this is what I'm getting at. The guy's got a background, you
know, working in the government, high security level, high level
background. It looks pretty certain, at
least on the face of it allegedly, that him and Louis
conspired to release these in Navy videos, which ended up in
the hands of the New York Times and Tom Delong.
Tom Delong splatters him. All of his YouTube site Jack GPT
says it looks like he conservatively made $16,500.
That's not even considered in the free marketing he got.
They're telling us that Mellon could have made between 200,000
and 600,000, maybe more the last few years.
I think Mellon is independently wealthy anyway, as I as I
recall, he does descend from the banking line of the famous
melons. I don't think money is really an
issue to him. To me, I think he's mainly just
having fun and any extra money that comes in, well, that's just
a little extra free frosting on the cake as far as I can tell.
I'm not saying he's a bad person, he seems like a decent
enough guy, but I just wish that him and Louis would have done
things differently when they released those videos.
I think the thing to do there would have been to have released
them and posted them on a site like New Fork and then announced
what they had done. And then anybody could go there,
download the videos, talk about the videos.
You wouldn't have had to use Tom Delong as a gatekeeper.
And so that's my biggest problem with Christopher Melon as this
revolving door thing going from the government into Tom Delong
now into his own stuff, kind of using his government job as a
springboard, which I guess that's fine.
But if a person's primary goal is to monetize this stuff as
opposed to just releasing it like they could have done, I
mean, literally, they could have taken these videos, they could
have made copies of them, and they could have posted them on
New Fork with an explanation. And then people could have went
there and viewed this stuff for themselves.
They didn't have to monetize it, but everything they did seemed
to be like to keep it as secret as possible until they were able
to get as much money out of it as possible.
Really use it as fuel for their careers, Use it as fuel for
people. Describing them as
whistleblowers went to my mind. A true whistleblower would have
just posted the stuff online on New Fork, possibly anonymously,
and then just left it there. They wouldn't have had to try to
parlay this whole thing into some sort of production company
or multiple appearances at different UFO conferences.
And if they want to do that, that's fine.
But I think that the ethical thing, the most ethical thing at
least, would have been to have posted the stuff over at a site
like Newport where everybody had access to it, instead of trying
to build a wall around it. A paywall in effect.
But that's just my opinion. Until next time, this is UFO
warning over now.