Terms of art used across the analyses, with the issue where each is discussed most fully.
AARO. The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office in the Department of War, established by statute to receive UAP reports and to operate the authorized reporting mechanism under 50 U.S.C. §3373b. The site treats AARO’s public statements as contested and assumes it is part of the concealment (Issue C1, Issue F4).
Actual malice. Knowledge that a statement was false, or reckless disregard of whether it was false. A public official or public figure must prove it to recover for defamation (Issue G1).
ASRS. NASA’s Aviation Safety Reporting System. A report filed within 10 days can protect a pilot from FAA sanctions for an inadvertent violation (14 C.F.R. §91.25; AC 00-46F) (Issue D7).
AIR21. The whistleblower provision of the Wendell H. Ford Aviation Investment and Reform Act, 49 U.S.C. §42121, protecting air carrier and contractor employees who report safety violations (Issue D4).
Authorized disclosure. A disclosure of UAP information through the mechanism under 50 U.S.C. §3373b, which is not subject to a nondisclosure agreement and is not a violation of laws on disclosure of information (Issue C1).
CIPA. The Classified Information Procedures Act, 18 U.S.C. App. 3, which governs classified information in federal criminal cases (Issue C3).
Controlling authority. In H.R. 8800, any government body, company, academic institution, or private entity in physical possession of technologies of unknown origin or biological evidence of NHI (Issue A3).
CUI. Controlled Unclassified Information, governed by 32 C.F.R. part 2002 and, for defense contractors, DFARS 252.204-7012 (Issue A5).
Department of War. A secondary name for the Department of Defense adopted by executive order in September 2025. Statutes, regulations, and most directives still say “Department of Defense” or “DoD.” The analyses use “Department of War” for the department’s current actions and announcements (such as PURSUE) and keep “Department of Defense” in citations, quotations, and references to statutes.
DOHA. The Defense Office of Hearings and Appeals, which hears security clearance cases of contractor employees under DoD Directive 5220.6 (Issue C4).
DOPSR. The Defense Office of Prepublication and Security Review, which reviews publications by current and former DoD personnel (Issue B4).
Glomar response. An agency’s refusal to confirm or deny whether records exist, named for the CIA’s response about the Hughes Glomar Explorer in Phillippi v. CIA, 546 F.2d 1009 (D.C. Cir. 1976). It fails if the fact of existence has been officially acknowledged (Issue B1).
IRAD. Independent research and development: contractor-funded research whose costs are generally recoverable as indirect costs. Section 1687(b) of the FY2024 NDAA conditions recovery for UAP-related IRAD on disclosure to Congress (Issue D2).
Legacy program. In H.R. 8800, any government, commercial, academic, or private effort predating enactment to collect, exploit, or reverse engineer technologies of unknown origin or examine biological evidence of NHI (Issue A3).
MDR. Mandatory declassification review under Executive Order 13526 §3.5, an alternative to FOIA that can reach classified records and ends in an appeal to ISCAP (Issue A2, Issue B1).
Next friend. A person who brings a habeas petition on behalf of a detainee who cannot bring it, and who must show a significant relationship and dedication to the detainee’s interests (Issue F1).
NHI. Non-human intelligence. The House-passed definition is “any sentient intelligent non-human lifeform regardless of nature or ultimate origin that may be presumed responsible for unidentified anomalous phenomena or of which the Federal Government has become aware” (H.R. 8800, §1773(13)) (Issue A3).
Official acknowledgment. Public disclosure by an authorized official of the specific information at issue, which defeats a FOIA exemption or a Glomar response. Statements by former officials, and books by them, do not count (Issue B1).
PPD-19. Presidential Policy Directive 19 (2012), protecting intelligence community employees from reprisal, codified in part at 50 U.S.C. §§3234 and 3341(j) (Issue C1).
Prosaic attribution. In H.R. 8800, a human origin and operation according to accepted scientific principles (Issue A3).
PURSUE. The Department of War program announced in 2026 under which current and former personnel and contractors may communicate UAP information without breach-of-agreement penalties (Issue C1).
SAP. A special access program under 10 U.S.C. §119, with access controls beyond ordinary classification and reporting duties to the congressional defense committees. An unacknowledged SAP is one whose existence is itself protected (Issue D1).
SEAD 4. Security Executive Agent Directive 4 (2017), the national security adjudicative guidelines (A through M) that every agency applies to clearance decisions (Issue C5).
SCIF. A sensitive compartmented information facility, where classified information may be discussed and stored (Issue C4).
Statement of Reasons (SOR). The written list of allegations that starts a contractor clearance case at DOHA; the answer is due within 20 days (Issue C5).
State secrets privilege. The government’s evidentiary privilege to withhold information whose disclosure would harm national security, which can lead to dismissal when the information is central to the case (Issue A1).
Technologies of unknown origin. In H.R. 8800, materials, debris, vehicles, and other items associated with UAP or incorporating science and technology lacking prosaic attribution or known means of human manufacture (Issue A3).
Temporarily non-attributed objects. In H.R. 8800, objects that briefly resist identification but have a human origin or known physical cause. The UAP Records Collection excludes them (Issue A3).
Totten bar. The rule that courts will not hear suits whose subject is a secret espionage agreement with the government (Issue A1).
UAP. Unidentified anomalous phenomena, defined in 50 U.S.C. §3373(n) (Issue A3).
UAP Records Collection. The collection at the National Archives established by sections 1841-1843 of the FY2024 NDAA, Pub. L. 118-31 (Issue A3).