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CIA's Role in the Study of UFOs, 1947-90

CIA (Gerald Haines) · 1997 · 18 pages · text from the file's own layer

This 1997 study by Gerald K. Haines, National Reconnaissance Office historian, traces CIA interest in UFOs from the late 1940s to 1990 using Agency records compiled after DCI R. James Woolsey ordered a 1993 file review. It covers Air Force projects SIGN, GRUDGE and BLUE BOOK, the 1953 Robertson panel, U-2 and OXCART flights mistaken for UFOs, and disputes with Keyhoe and Davidson. It concludes that Agency concern was substantial until the early 1950s and limited and peripheral since.

UFOs
75. Condon isquoted inWalterSullivan,
3AidesSelected inSaucerInquiry,
TheNew York Times, 8October
1966. See also AnOutspokenScien
tist,EdwardUhlerCondon, The
New YorkTimes, 8October 1966.
Condon, anoutgoing, gruffscientist,
hadearlierbecomeembroiled in a con
troversywith theHouseUnamerican
ActivitiesCommittee thatclaimed
Condon was one of theweakest links
in ouratomicsecurity. See also Pee
bles,WatchtheSkies,pp.169-195.
76. SeeLundahl,memorandum forDDI,
7February 1967.
77. Seememorandum for therecord,
Visit of Dr.Condon toNPIC, 20
February1967, 23February 1967.
See also theanalysis of thephoto
graphs inmemorandum forLundahi,
PhotoAnalysis ofUFOPhotogra
phy, 17February 1967.
78. Seememorandum for therecord,
UFOBriefing for Dr.EdwardCon-
don, 5 May1967, 8 May 1967 and
attached Guidelines to UFOPhotog
raphers andUFOPhotographic
InformationSheet. See alsoCondon
Committee, PressRelease, 1 May
1967 andKlass, UFOs, p. 41. The
Zanevillephotographsturned out to
be ahoax.
79. SeeEdward U.Condon,Scientific
Study ofUnidentifiedFlyingObjects
(NewYork:BantamBooks, 1969)
andKlass, UFOs, p. 41. Thereport
contained theDurantreport with
onlyminordeletions.
80. SeeOffice ofAssistantSecretary of
Defense,NewsRelease, AirForce to
TerminateProjectBLUEBOOK, 17
December 1969. The AirForce
retiredBLUEBOOKrecords to the
USAFArchives atMaxwell AirForce
Base inAlabama. in 1976 the Air
Forceturned over allBLUEBOOK
files to theNationalArchives and
RecordsAdministration,whichmade
themavailable to thepublicwithout
majorrestrictions. Somenames have
beenwithheld from thedocuments.
SeeKiass, UFOs, p. 6.
81. GSW was asmallgroup ofUFO buffs
based inPhoenix,Arizona, and
headed byWilliam H.Spaulding.
82. SeeKlass, UFOs, p. 8.
83. SeeWilson, letter toSpaulding, 26
March 1976 andGSWv. CIACivil
Action Case78-859.
84. GSW v. CIA CivilAction Case 78-
859, p. 2.
85. AuthorinterviewwithLaunieZiebell,
23June 1994 andauthorinterview
with OSIanalyst, 21 July 1994. See
alsoaffidavits ofGeorgeOwens, CIA
Information andPrivacyActCoordi
nator; Karl H.Weber, OSI;Sidney D.
Stembridge,Office ofSecurity; and
Rutledge P.Hazzard,DS&T; GSW
CIACivilAction Case78-859 and
SayreStevens,DeputyDirector for
NationalForeignAssessment,memo
randum forThomas H.White,
Assistant forInformation,Informa
tionReviewCommittee, FOIA
LitigationGroundSaucerWatch, no
date.
86. See CIAPapersDetailUFOSurveil
lance, TheNew York Times, 13
January 1979;PatrickHuyghe, UFO
Files: TheUntoldStory, TheNew
York TimesMagazine, 14October
1979, p. 106; andJeromeClark,
UFOUpdate, UFOReport,August
1979.
87. JeromeClark, LatestUFONews
Briefs FromAround theWorld,
UFOUpdate,August 1979 andGSW
v. CIACivilAction No.78-859.
88. SeeWortman,memorandum for DCI
Turner, YourQuestion, Are we in
UFOs? Annotated to TheNew York
TimesNewsReleaseArticle, 18Janu
ary 1979.
89. SeeGSW v. CIACivilAction 78-
859. See alsoKlass, UFOs, pp. 10-12.
90. (5) SeeJohnBrennan,memorandum
forRichardWarshaw,ExecutiveAssis
tant, DCI, RequestedInformation
onUFOs, 30September 1993;
Authorinterviews withOSWR ana
lyst, 14June 1994 and OSIanalyst,
21 July 1994. Thisauthorfound
almost nodocumentation onAgency
involvement withUFOs in the 1980s.
There is a DIAPsychicCenter and the
NSAstudiesparapsychology, that
branch ofpsychology thatdeals with
theinvestigation ofsuchpsychic phe
nomena asclairvoyance,extrasensory
perception, andtelepathy. The CIA
reportedly is also amember of an Inci
dentResponseTeam toinvestigate
UFOlandings, ifoneshouldoccur.
This team has never met. The lack of
solid CIAdocumentation onAgency
UFO-relatedactivities in the 1980s
leaves theentire issuesomewhat
murky for thisperiod.
Much of theUFOliteraturepresently
focuses oncontactees andabductees.
SeeJohn E.Mack,Abduction,Human
Encounters withAliens(NewYork:
CharlesScribner sSons, 1994) and
HowardBlum, Out There(NewYork:
Simon andSchuster, 1990).
91. SeeCharlesBerlitz andWilliam L.
Moore, TheRoswellIncident(New
York: BerkeleyBooks, 1988);Moore,
TheRoswellIncident: NewEvidence
in theSearch for aCrashedUFO,
(Burbank,California: FairWitness
Project, 1982),PublicationNumber
1201; andKiass, UFOs, pp.280-28 1.
In 1994CongressmanSteven H.
Schiff(R-NM) called for anofficial
study of theRoswellincident. The
GAO isconducting aseparateinvesti
gation of theincident. The CIA is
notinvolved in theinvestigation. See
Kiass, UFOs, pp.279-28 1; John H.
Wright,Information andPrivacy
Coordinator, letter to DerekSkreen,
20September 1993; andOSWR ana
lystInterview. See also themade-for-
TV film,Roswell,whichappeared on
cable TV ott 31 July 1994 and Pee
bles, Watch theSkies, pp.245-251.
83

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