Andrew D. Basiago

Background

Andrew D. Basiago (b. 1961), commonly known as Andy Basiago, is a Seattle-based attorney and alternative researcher who has become a prominent yet controversial figure in UFO/exopolitics circles for his sustained claims of participation in classified U.S. government programs involving time travel, teleportation, and extraplanetary colonization. Beginning in 2004, when he first publicly disclosed his story to former government officials and researchers, Basiago has maintained that between the ages of 6 and 12 (1967–1972), he was formally recruited into Project Pegasus, a DARPA-sponsored time-travel experiment funded by the CIA. He later expanded his claims to include participation in a second classified program (1980–1984) involving CIA-sponsored teleportation to Mars.

Project Pegasus (1967–1972)

According to Basiago's account, his recruitment into Project Pegasus began at age 6 in 1967, when his father, Raymond Basiago (an engineer with the Ralph M. Parsons Company), was approached by government contractors. The program allegedly used plasma-confinement teleportation chambers and drew on Nikola Tesla's suppressed scientific papers to achieve both spatial and temporal displacement. Basiago claims his first teleportation occurred from New Jersey to New Mexico and that he was exposed to an unspecified number of time-jumps during the project's run.

The most publicly notable incident Basiago cites is his alleged visit to the Gettysburg Address in 1863. According to his narrative, in 1972, at age 11, he was sent via plasma chamber to witness Abraham Lincoln's delivery of the Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863. Basiago has long claimed that he appears in a photograph taken at Gettysburg that day—a claim that, if true, would provide documentary proof of time travel, though no mainstream historian or photo-authentication expert has confirmed this identification. Skeptics argue that the Gettysburg photograph in question contains no figure clearly resembling a modern-dressed child and that Basiago's identification is observationally weak and confirmation-biased.

Mars Jump Room Project (1980–1984)

Basiago expanded his claims in later years to include participation in a separate Mars-exploration program. He alleges that between 1980 and 1984, while in his twenties, he was recruited into a CIA-led initiative that used teleportation jump rooms (facilities supposedly established at multiple U.S. military bases) to transport operatives to a secret U.S. colony on Mars. Basiago claims to have made multiple trips to Mars during this period and, most controversially, asserts that he traveled to Mars alongside a young Barack Obama as part of the same program.

This claim remains unsubstantiated and has been flatly denied by all relevant authorities. Basiago has not provided documentary evidence, photographic proof, or corroborating witnesses from the Mars program. His account relies entirely on his own testimony and, in some instances, on the testimony of other individuals (such as Laura Magdalene Eisenhower, a woman claiming to be Dwight D. Eisenhower's great-granddaughter and alleged Mars visitor) whose credentials and independence from Basiago are disputed.

Exopolitics and Public Advocacy

Basiago's claims have found their primary audience within the exopolitics movement—an alternative political/metaphysical framework built on the premise that advanced extraterrestrial civilizations interact with Earth and that this reality is systematically hidden from the public. He has been championed by Alfred Webre, a lawyer and exopolitics theorist who views Basiago as a credible whistleblower. Webre has defended Basiago's Mars claims and incorporated them into a broader model of CIA-sponsored time travel and off-world presence.

Basiago has appeared on various alternative-media platforms, including Gaia TV, where he discusses Project Pegasus and Mars experiences in series such as "Beyond Belief" and "Cosmic Disclosure" spinoffs. He has also been a guest on exopolitics podcasts, notably "Exopolitics Today" with Dr. Michael Salla, where he recounts his experiences in extended narrative form.

2016 Presidential Campaign

In 2016, Basiago formally entered the U.S. presidential race as an independent candidate, filing with the Federal Election Commission and naming his campaign "Project Pegasus." He stated that his time-travel experiences had given him foreknowledge that he would either be elected or serve as vice president in an election cycle between 2016 and 2028. Despite media attention and interviews with outlets like Gizmodo, Yahoo, and Inverse, Basiago was unable to achieve ballot access in all 50 states, citing the prohibitive cost of such a campaign. He did not pursue further formal candidacies after 2016, though he has remained active in exopolitics circles.

Credibility Assessment

Basiago's claims occupy a deeply contested position in contemporary UFO discourse. Mainstream historians, physicists, and government officials dismiss his assertions as unsubstantiated. No credible evidence—historical documentation, declassified government records, corroborating witnesses, or scientific validation—has emerged to support his time-travel or Mars-colony accounts. The Gettysburg photograph claim in particular has been rejected by photo forensics experts and Gettysburg scholars.

Within alternative-research and exopolitics communities, however, Basiago retains a presence as an outlier voice. His narrative appeals to audiences predisposed to believe in hidden government space programs and classified advanced technology. His lawyer status and persistent public engagement lend him a surface credibility that resonates with some researchers, even though his actual substantive evidence remains absent.