Former official who exposed UFO programs says Pentagon threatened to destroy his reputation and job

Speaking to Politico this week, career counterintelligence specialist Lue Elizondo said that the Pentagon has crafted a coordinated campaign to discredit him because he revealed the facts about UFO investigations.

Documents given to Politico show that they threatened to tell people that he was "crazy," despite an extensive career for the Pentagon.

Elizondo was assigned to the program that examined "unmanned aerial phenomenon" in 2008. He filed a 64-page complaint to watchdog groups on May 3, less than a month ahead of a government report is slated to be released to Congress about the government's research and encounters with UFOs.

"What he is saying is there are certain individuals in the Defense Department who in fact were attacking him and lying about him publicly, using the color of authority of their offices to disparage him and discredit him and were interfering in his ability to seek and obtain gainful employment out in the world," said Elizondo's attorney Daniel Sheehan. "And also threatening his security clearance."

"Nobody seemed to be taking this thing seriously," Sheehan said of Elizondo's concerns. "The different units and different groups that are responsible for responding to this particular phenomenon … they're not briefing each other on this."

Elizondo's inspector general complaint is larger than his name, his lawyer also said. He wants the Pentagon to tell the American people the truth.

"The old dodge," Sheehan explained, "is 'oh well, the real problem was that one shop wasn't communicating with the other shop.' That's the classic bureaucratic dodge. I'm trying to get the Defense Department to clarify for the public and media what exactly is the cartography inside the Defense Department for dealing with this particular phenomenon."

Elizondo's appeared on "60 Minutes" earlier in May where he told his story about the report. CBS News reporters also spoke to two Navy pilots who also witnessed UAPs they're concerned could also be international spycraft that the military is ignoring because of what the crafts look like.

Read the full report.