Daniel Inouye
Secured $22 million dollars for the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program, which studied anomalous phenomena, including alleged UFO sightings.
Daniel Inouye was a prominent American politician who served as a United States Senator from Hawaii from 1963 until his death in 2012. He was also the President pro tempore of the Senate from 2010 until his death, which made him the highest-ranking Asian American politician in United States history. Inouye was a member of the Democratic Party and was known for his strong support of civil rights, environmental protection, and government transparency.
Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1924, Inouye was the son of Japanese immigrants. He enlisted in the United States Army during World War II and lost his right arm in combat. After the war, he earned a law degree and began his political career as a member of the Hawaii Territorial House of Representatives. In 1959, when Hawaii became a state, Inouye was elected to the United States House of Representatives. He later won a special election to the Senate, in 1963, after Hawaii's previous senator died in office. Throughout his Senate career, Inouye was known as a skilled legislator and a respected statesman. He played a key role in passing important legislation, such as the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which provided reparations and a formal apology to Japanese Americans who had been interned during World War II. Inouye died in December 2012 at the age of 88.
Government UFO Study Involvement
Declassified documents that show Inouye played a key role in securing funding for the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP), which was later renamed the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP). In 2007, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was able to persuade both Republican Senator Ted Stevens, from Alaska, a former fighter pilot who claimed to have been pursued by anomalous aircraft, and Democratic Senator Inouye from Hawaii to allocate funds for the program from the Pentagon's budget without the need for a Senate floor discussion, likely due to concerns that it could be met with skepticism and ridicule.
Inouye was the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee at the time the program was created in 2007, and he directed $22 million in funding to the program over five years. Inouye's involvement in the program had not previously been widely known or reported.
