Multiple sources have told Liberation Times that, during the Obama administration, senior intelligence figures James Clapper and Stephanie O’Sullivan oversaw a program relating to Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
Written by Christopher Sharp – 24 January 2026
The sources allege the effort involved the shootdown and recovery of exotic vehicles thought to be of non-human origin.
Three separate sources told Liberation Times that Clapper allegedly ran the program alongside O’Sullivan, dating back to his tenure as Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence from 2007 to 2010
During that period, O’Sullivan led the CIA’s Directorate of Science and Technology before being promoted in 2009 to become the agency’s third-most senior officer.
One source alleged to Liberation Times that Clapper and O’Sullivan oversaw a program codenamed ‘Golden Domes,’ which the source claimed was jointly run by the CIA and the United States Air Force (USAF), where Clapper previously served.
The source further alleged that the program could detect and track UAP even when ‘cloaked’ and as they physically manifested.
The same source claimed the program employed a mix of electronic and laser-based capabilities intended to bring down what the source described as ‘exotic non-human vehicles.’
Sources were unable to offer Liberation Times a clear explanation for why the U.S. government would choose to engage UAP, including whether any such actions were taken routinely, in specific circumstances, or in relation to any potential understandings or rules of engagement involving other purported non-human factions.
In the recently released documentary ‘The Age of Disclosure’, James Clapper alleged that a secretive USAF program had been actively monitoring UAP, particularly over the highly classified Area 51 facility in Nevada – an epicentre of cutting-edge military development and testing.
Clapper, a former Chief of USAF Intelligence, stated:
“When I served in the Air Force, there was an active program to track anomalous activities that we couldn’t otherwise explain – many of them connected with ranges out west, notably Area 51.”
In a recent interview with journalist Megyn Kelly, former intelligence official, USAF veteran, and UAP whistleblower David Grusch claimed that James Clapper managed a UAP program, stating:
“I’m a little bit disappointed as a fellow Air Force officer…. That’s all he said in the documentary: that there was a program he was aware of. In fact, without being inappropriate, I will say that General Clapper was well aware of the crash retrieval issue, managed the crash retrieval issue, and, when he was a DNI [Director of National Intelligence], USDI [Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security], DIA [Defense Intelligence Agency], he placed people in critical roles to manage this issue, both publicly – and I’ll just say not publicly as well – and I’ll allow the audience to distill what I’m saying at the, at the risk of being inappropriate or going too far with my discussion.
So General Clapper, Stephanie O’Sullivan, other folks in the Intelligence Community that are well aware of this issue, that were in rooms discussing this issue, I ask you to be greater leaders on this. I should not be the only former military officer and intelligence official that is being completely candid with the information that they were exposed to.”
Grusch’s lawyer, Charles McCullough III served as the Intelligence Community Inspector General, reporting directly to then–Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.
In that role, according to his biography, McCullough ‘oversaw intelligence officers responsible for audits, inspections, and investigations. Furthermore, he was responsible for inquiries involving the Office of the Director of National Intelligence as well as the entire Intelligence Community.’
Grusch, in that same interview, also alleged that former Vice President Dick Cheney, who has since died, was the “closest person” to a “mob boss,” exerting “central leadership” over UAP-related activities.
Notably, Dick Cheney’s wife, Lynne Cheney, served on Lockheed Corporation’s board of directors from 1994 to 2001.
Against that backdrop, in written testimony to Congress, Lue Elizondo, the former director of the Pentagon’s Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, claimed that Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland was among the sites prepared in connection with an alleged transfer of UAP materials to Bigelow Aerospace from Lockheed Martin – an organisation long accused of involvement in an alleged UAP reverse-engineering program.
In a 2013 Fox News interview, Dick Cheney said he first met James Clapper around 25 years earlier, when Clapper was serving as a USAF intelligence officer in Korea.
James Clapper served as the fourth Director of National Intelligence under President Obama from August 2010 to January 2017. Before that, he was Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence from 2007 to 2010 under President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.
Clapper also previously served as Director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
In his book Facts and Fears, he recounts how he was assigned as the USAF senior resident officer at the National Security Agency (NSA) to represent Air Force interests. In February 1980, then-NSA Director Vice Admiral Bobby Inman presided over Clapper’s promotion to colonel, as he assumed responsibility for all Air Force personnel stationed at the NSA.
Clapper writes in his book that he served as an intermediary for Vice Admiral Bobby Inman, whom he describes as “an icon and a legend” and who has also been alleged to be a UAP gatekeeper.
Inman was clearly aware of the link between O’Sullivan’s former office and UAP-related matters. In a now-public phone call with NASA engineer Bob Oechsler, Inman said that Everett Hineman, then Deputy Director of the CIA’s Directorate of Science and Technology, would be “the best person” to ask whether any recovered UAP vehicles might be made available for technological research outside military channels.
Notably, former NSA administrator Mike Rogers has recalled in an interview that, while serving as Director of National Intelligence, Clapper unexpectedly ordered him and his team to review the NSA’s files and provide everything relating to UFOs.
Upon being nominated as Director of National Intelligence by President Obama in 2010, Clapper was described as having developed close ties to the intelligence community during his long career and is particularly close to senior managers at the CIA.
In 2011, Clapper recommended that President Obama nominate Stephanie O’Sullivan as Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence (PDDNI).
Before her nomination, O’Sullivan served as the CIA’s Associate Deputy Director from December 2009 to February 2011, working alongside the Director and Deputy Director to provide overall leadership of the agency, with a particular focus on day-to-day management.
Before that, she served as the CIA’s Deputy Director of Science and Technology for 4 years. According to Liberation Times sources, the CIA’s Directorate of Science and Technology has and continues to be involved in coordinating UAP retrieval missions and safeguarding technologies derived from UAP-related research carried out by the Department of War (DoW) and its contractors.
Based on the best available open source information, previous Deputy Directors of the CIA’s Directorate of Science and Technology include:
- Albert Wheelon 1963-1966
- Carl Duckett 1966-1967
- Leslie Dirks 1967-1982
- R. Evan Hineman 1982-1989
- James Hirsch 1989-1995
- Ruth David 1995-1998
- Gary Smith 1999-1999
- Joanne Isham 1999-2001
- Donald Kerr 2001-2005
- Stephanie O’Sullivan 2005-2009
- Glenn Gaffney 2009-2015
- Dawn Meyerriecks 2015-2021
- Todd Lowery 2021-present
In his book, ‘Facts and Fears’, Clapper writes that he knew O’Sullivan by reputation as a brilliant technical engineer, and that then-CIA Director Leon Panetta put her forward to him as his deputy – someone who could help cover his blind spots when CIA-related issues arose.
Clapper describes the day of O’Sullivan’s confirmation to PDDNI – a title O’Sullivan jokingly referred to as ‘P-Diddy’ – as ‘an extremely happy one’. Their working relationship within the ODNI was extremely close, and Clapper has written that he learned to adopt the line “Stephanie speaks for me, even when we haven’t spoken.”
O’Sullivan entered the intelligence world after responding to a cryptic newspaper classified advert seeking an “ocean engineer”. That move led her to TRW, the defense contractor absorbed into Northrop Grumman, and later the Office of Naval Intelligence. Liberation Times sources allege that Northrop Grumman’s Tejon Ranch Radar Cross Section Facility in southern California is a site where UAPs are routinely retrieved.
Since her retirement from government in 2017, O’Sullivan now serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Aerospace Corporation and is on the Board of Directors of Battelle Memorial Institute.
Battelle and The Aerospace Corporation have both been referenced publicly in connection with UAP programs.
Sources also note that O’Sullivan sits on the board of HRL Laboratories, formerly Hughes Research Laboratories, part of the wider Hughes corporate legacy that is closely associated with the Hughes Glomar Explorer, the vessel later linked to the CIA’s effort to recover a sunken Soviet submarine.
Sources told Liberation Times that Stephanie O’Sullivan has been questioned by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence about her alleged role in a UAP program.
The sources further allege that she misled committee members, including then Senator Marco Rubio, now Secretary of State, by nervously claiming that she had no involvement.
Allegations of kinetic engagement have surfaced in other contexts.
In written testimony submitted to Congress, journalist George Knapp relayed what he said he was told by figures linked to a former Russian Ministry of Defense UAP program: that Russian fighter aircraft were dispatched to intercept UAP on numerous occasions and, in a small number of cases, were ordered to fire.
Knapp wrote that after several alleged incidents in which aircraft subsequently crashed, a standing order was issued instructing pilots to disengage and ‘leave the UFOs alone because, quote, “they could have incredible capacities for retaliation.”’
Works as a Systems Analyst for Intermountain Health in Colorado's Western Slope area. When he's not working or taking care of the family and home, Jesse enjoys unraveling strange mysteries and discussing the nature of the universe!