Documents / FOIA release
This Central Intelligence Agency memorandum, dated 22 January 1959 and written by the Chief of the Contact Division, Office of Operations, responds to continuing inquiries from Major Donald E. Keyhoe, Director of NICAP. Keyhoe had asked whether CIA agents told UFO witnesses to keep their sightings secret. The memo describes a November 1957 interview in which a Contact Division employee reviewed photos of alleged UFOs. It recommends asking Keyhoe why he wants the information and attaches a draft reply.
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
alleged UFO's which were off-limited, 7 November 1957, by a CD/00 employee in response to an CBI requirement while was returning the photos asked if he might mention on a TV program that an intelligence organization had viewed the pictures and thought they were of interest. reply was negative. then asked if he could write a letter to the DCI asking his evaluation of the photos and ask his persuasion to present the resulting material on TV. replied that he would have to make his own decision about writing such a letter. This completed the interview. 3. We understand that Mr. Keyhoe who has a reputation as powerfully being overenthusiastic about UFO's, is well and favorably known to Major Keyhoe, and therefore, we believe that Mr. Keyhoe has disclosed his contact to Keyhoe. If so, it appears that either may have misinterpreted remarks or that Keyhoe may have misunderstood the story, or combination of the two. 4. Normally, since our field representatives are overt and carry credentials identifying their association with the Agency, we respond affirmatively to any outside inquiries. In this case it seems that Keyhoe. to prove a CIA agent told a UFO witness not to make his information public. 5. Two possibilities for reply suggest themselves: (1) (2) explain to Kayhoe that we do not normally provide the kind of information he wants in the absence of a reason for the inquiry and ask his why he wants to know. This might make out a reply leading back to his contention that a CIA agent told a UFO witness not to make public his information, and further that he has reason to believe was the agent. Should this occur Kayhoe could then be referred to Mr. Darnan's memorandum to him on 17 April 1958 which explained that Agency records had been checked and revealed that no CIA employee at any time had ordered any UFO witness to remain silent about his observation.
Not linked to a story yet.
FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 4 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.