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.
“Edward Condon”2 pages
Approved for Release: 2025/06/11 C07083374 UFOs nomena." The Robertson panel ' report, according to Wilson, was “the summation of Agency interest and involvement in UFOs." Wilson also inferred that there were no additional documents in CIA's possession that related to UFOs. Wilson was ill informed.” In September I977, Spaulding and QSW, unconvinced by Wilson’: raponse, filed a Freedom 0F Informa- tion Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Agency that specifically requested all UFO documents in CIA’: possession. Deluged by similar FOIA requests for Agency information on UFOs. CIA ofiicials agreed, aFtcr much legal maneuvering, to conduct a “reason- able search" ofClA files For UFO materials.“ Despite an Agency-wide unsympathetic attitude toward the suit, Agency officials, led by Lannie Ziebell from the Oliice of General Counsel. conducted a thorough search for records pertaining to UFOs. Persistent, demanding, and even threatening at tima, Zicbell and his group scoured the Agency. They even turned up an old UFO file under a secretary's desk. The search finally produced 355 documents total- ing approximately 900 pages. On.14 December 1978, the Agency released all but 57 documents ofzbout 100 pages to GSW. It withheld these 57 documents on national security grounds and to protect sources and methods.“ Although the released documents pro~ cluced no smoking gun and revealed only a low—level Agency interest in the UFO phenomena after the Rolaerrson panel report of I953. the press treated tl'lC fCl¢3JC in K $Cfl$aCl°n3l ITIQHHCI. T/1: New Mark Timer, For example, , claimed that the declassified docu- ..e-:-;,=frnei1rs confirmed intensive - ‘ 78 government concern over UFO: and dtat the Agency was secretly involved "in the surveillance of UFOs.“ GSW then sued For the release of the with- held documents, claiming that the Agency was still holding out key information." It was much lilce the john F. Kennedy assassination issue. No matter how much material the Agency released and no matter how dull and prosaic the information, peo- ple continued to believe in a Agency coverup and conspiracy. DCI Stansfield Turner was so upset when he read T/Jr New York Time: article that he asked his senior allie- ers, “Ate we in UFOs?" After reviewing the records, Don Wortman, Deputy Director for Administration, reported to Turner that there was "no organized Agency effort to do research in connection with UFO phenomena not has there been an organized efibrt to collect intelligence on UFOs since the 1950s.” Wortman assured Turner that the Agency records held only “sporadic instances ofcorrespondcnce dealing with the subject,” including various l-tinds of reports of UFO sight- ings. There was no Agency program to collect actively information on UFOs, and the material released to GSW had Few deletions. 3‘ Thus assured. Turner had the General . Counsel press For a summary judg- ment against the new lawsuit by G5\X/'. In May 1980, the courts dis- missed the lawsuit, finding that the Agency had conducted a thorough and adequate search in good Faith.” During the late 1970: and 19805. the Agency continued its low-key interest in UFOs and UFO sightings. While most scientists now dismissed Flying cancers reports as a quaint part of the _l9.S'Os and 1960s. some in the ~ "?‘g:;§;ency and in the Intelligence Com~ munity shifted their interest to studying parapsychology and psychic phenomena associated with UFO sightings. CIA oliicials also loolred at the UFO problem to determine what UFO sightings might tell them about Soviet progress in rockers and missiles and reviewed its counterintel- ligence aspects. Agency analysts from the Life Science Division of OSI and OSWR ofiicizlly devoted a small amount 0F their time to issues relat- ing to UFOs. These included countcrintelligencc concerns that the Soviets and the KGB were using U5 citizens and UFO groups to obtain information on sensitive US weapons development programs (such as the Stealth aircraft), the vulnerability of the U3 air-defense network to pcne~ tration by Foreign missiles mimicking UI-'Os, and evidence of Soviet - advanced technology associated with UFO sightings. _ CIA also maintained intelligence Community coordination with other agencies regarding their work in para- psychology, psychic phenomena, and “remote viewing" experiments. In general, the Agency took a C0nsctv:t- ‘ rive scientific view of these unconventional scientific issues. There was no Formal or ofiieial UFO project within the Agency in the 1980:, and Agency oificials purposely kept files on UFO: to a minimum to avoid creating records that might mis- lead the public if released.” The 1980s ‘also produced renewed charges that the Agency was still with- holding documenrs relating to the V 1947 Roswell incident, in which :1 flying saucer supposedly crashed in New Mexico, and the surhtcing oi doc uments which purportedly revealed the existence of a top secret US p p research and development inrelligddhcgk » - -H .- .. .. ., .. ~ ~ - i-"“"4':‘; 1 ,;~»=_ -H; _~ ;'.'l';Z.‘_:-F:.’i, .5.--».._ ~ ' ;,,_-t,-; -,>_ "1..'»f -,.~ -_:_;.,i 4. ;;.,;, _;,.-_,l.‘ .;-.v.;,.,.»_,t , 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.