Former Director of National Intelligence
Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Christopher Mellon published an op-ed in The Debrief on April 5, 2025, arguing that the Department of Defense is improperly withholding a large volume of unclassified UAP imagery from Congress and the public. Mellon contends that a restrictive classification guide created by the DoD's UAP Task Force — developed in the aftermath of the 2017–2018 Navy UAP video releases — has been applied to material that does not legitimately qualify for classification under Executive Order 13526, and that no official at DoD or in the Intelligence Community has been designated to advocate for or execute the release of unclassified UAP information. Mellon's piece is directed at Representative Anna Paulina Luna's Congressional Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets, as well as the broader Trump administration, urging both to compel a review and release of unclassified UAP videos held by military and intelligence agencies. He references specific prior commitments — including a 2022 pledge by Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence Scott Bray before the House Intelligence Committee — that have not resulted in any meaningful public disclosures beyond a handful of videos on the AARO website. Mellon also notes an encouraging development: AARO, under the direction of Dr. Jon Kosloski, has agreed to locate and submit for declassification review a specific F-18 UAP video he recalled from years prior.