The Pentagon issued a legal waiver Monday clearing current and former government personnel to break secrecy oaths and report Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena activity through an official Trump administration channel.
The Department of War announced that the new mechanism overrides existing non-disclosure agreements and Special Access Program Indoctrination Agreements for anyone providing UAP-related National Defense Information to representatives of PURSUE, the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters. The task force operates as the administration’s dedicated UAP body.
The waiver explicitly protects participants from punishment, security clearance revocation, or legal and administrative penalties that would normally follow NDA breaches. “This waiver removes those barriers by explicitly authorizing covered disclosures to PURSUE representatives without triggering breach-of-agreement penalties or standard NDA violations,” the Department of War said in its statement.
For decades, fear of exactly those consequences kept service members, civilians, and contractors silent about what they knew regarding UAP encounters. The Monday announcement marks the first time these individuals have a protected, authorized pathway to share classified UAP information without personal risk.
The move builds on a July directive from the Trump administration ordering the Department of War and intelligence agencies to allow former employees with UAP knowledge to come forward to either PURSUE or the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office. Monday’s waiver formalizes and expands that earlier instruction into a legally binding protection.
The policy aligns directly with President Trump’s mandate for comprehensive UAP transparency, though Trump himself has repeatedly expressed skepticism about the existence of alien life. His push for disclosure followed a February interview in which former President Barack Obama commented on aliens: “They’re real, but I haven’t seen them.”
The administration’s most recent UFO files release included documentation of government employees witnessing a triangle-shaped UFO near Colorado Springs in 2023. That disclosure came through the same broader transparency effort now being expanded with the new waiver mechanism.
Despite the opening for government personnel, no comparable pathway exists for the general public. The AARO, the Pentagon division tasked with examining UFO sightings, has promised repeatedly to begin accepting public reports but has not yet implemented such a system. On its website, AARO states that “reporting is limited at this time to current or former US Government employees, military personnel, or contractor personnel with direct knowledge of US Government programs or activities related to UAP dating back to 1945.”
Earlier this month, television host Dr. Phil McGraw accused the Pentagon of disregarding more than 1,800 legitimate UAP reports submitted by ordinary citizens. Through the National UFO Reporting Center’s catalog, those 1,800 reports were classified as “Tier 1,” representing the most credible sightings on record, McGraw noted.
The only reporting options currently available to civilians remain two private, non-government databases: NUFORC and the Mutual UFO Network. Both allow anyone to submit reports about UFOs and unexplained encounters, but neither carries official government standing or triggers any formal review process.
The PURSUE task force is expected to begin receiving covered disclosures immediately under the new waiver protections.