Documents / FOIA release
This Central Intelligence Agency filing is a declaration by Delores M. Nelson, the CIA's Information and Privacy Coordinator, in Bryant v. CIA, Civil Action No. 09-0940 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. It supports the CIA's motion for summary judgment. It traces Larry W. Bryant's 2008 FOIA request for records of a 1987 FAA meeting on the November 17, 1986 Japanese 747 encounter over Alaska and records of similar airborne UFO encounters. It also describes the fee dispute and the searches the CIA ran. No records of the meeting were found, and three documents from other agencies were referred to them.
“Cooper”1 page
Approved for Release: 2025/06/11 C07083374
confirmed that the recording con- -
rained only identifiable Morse code
which came from a known US-
licenscd radio station."
Davidson wrote Dulles again. This
time he wanted to know the identity
ofthe Morse operator and of the
agency that had conducted the analy-
sis. CIA and the Air Force were now
in a quandary. The Agency had pre-
yiously denied that it had actually
analyzed the rape. The Air Force had
also denied analyzing the tape and
claimed that Walker was an Air Force
ollicer. CM oilicers, under cover,
contacted Davidson in Chicago and
promised to get the code translation
and the identification of the transmit-
ter, if possible." .
In another attempt to pacify David-
son, a CIA ofiicer, again under cover
and wearing his Air Force uniiorm, ’
contacted Davidson in New Yorlt
City. The CIA ollicer explained that
there was no super agency involved
and that Air Force policy was not to
disclose who was doing what._ While
seeming to accept this argument,
Davidson nevertheless pressed for dis-
closure of the recording message and
the source. The officer agreed to see
what he could do. l’ AFter checking
with Headquarters, the CIA officer-
phoncd Davidson to report that a
thorough check had been made and.
because the signal was of known US
origin, the rape and the notes made
at the time had been destroyed to
conserve file space.“
lncensed over what he perceived was
a runaround, Davidson told the CiA
officer that "he and his agency,
Whichever it was, were acting like
limmy Hoffa and the Teamsrer
'66
Agency ofiicials felt the
need to keep informed on
UFOs if only to alert the
DCI to the more
sensational UFO reports
and flaps.
Union in destroying records which
might indict them."" Believing that
any more contact with Davidson
would only encourage more specula-
tion, the Contact Division washed its
hands ofthe issue by reporting to the‘
DCI and to ATIC that it would not
respond no or try to contact Davidson
again.“ Thus, a minor, rather
bizarre incident, handled poorly by
both CIA and the Air Force, turned
into a major flap that added firel to
the growing mystery surrounding
UFO: and Cl.A's role in their
investigation. ~
Another minor flap a Few months
later added to the growing questions
surrounding the Agency's true role
with regard to flying saucers. CIA’:
concern over secrecy again made mat-
ters worse. in 1958, Major Kcyhoe
charged that the Agency was deliber-
ately asking eyewitnesses of UFOs
not to make their sightings public.“
The incident stemmed from a
November 1957 request from OSI to
the CD to obtain From Ralph C.
Mayher, a photographer For KY\X/-
TV in Cleveland. Ohio. certain pho-
togtaphs he took in I952 oF an
unidentified flying object. Harry
Real, a CD officer, contacted May-
her and obtained copies of the
photographs For analysis. On 12
December I957, John Hazen,
another CD ofiicer. returned the five
photographs of the alleged UFO to
Mayher without comment. Mayhcr
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Approved for Release: 2025/06/11 C07083374 FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 58 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.