Documents / Official release
This Clinton Presidential Library folder of NSC cables, filed under "Flying Saucer or UFO" and covering January to September 1997, holds several cables plus a withdrawal sheet listing three redacted items. A Tel Aviv embassy media report notes an Israeli cartoon about a January 5 UFO alert. An FBIS translation reports that a Colombian helicopter landed in Rubio, Venezuela, prompting UFO speculation. A DoD briefing transcript quotes Kenneth Bacon saying a CIA study found no evidence of UFOs, and an FBIS summary covers Cuban radio claims about the 1947 New Mexico crash.
“The Pentagon”18 pages
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
Q: I JUST WANTED TO BE CLEAR ON YOUR ANSWER TO MY QUESTION, AND MAKE SURE I DIDN'T QUOTE YOU OUT OF CONTEXT. BASICALLY WHAT YOU'RE SAYING ABOUT WHY YOU DON'T WANT MORE OF THEM IS THAT WHILE IT'S A WONDERFUL PLANE, IN YOUR WORDS, IT'S VERY EXPENSIVE. SO IS THE COST FACTOR WHY YOU DON'T WANT TO BUY ANY MORE OF THESE PLANES? A: THE AIR FORCE HAS MADE THE DECISION THAT 21 PLANES WILL BE ENOUGH FOR THEM TO MEET THEIR NEEDS IN CONJUNCTION WITH OTHER HEAVY BOMBERS WE ALREADY HAVE. WE'VE GOT NEARLY 100 B-1 BOMBERS AND WE HAVE SEVERAL HUNDRED B-52 BOMBERS STILL IN OPERATION. SO WE HAVE A DIVERSE, HEAVY BOMBER FORCE BUILT OVER A NUMBER OF DECADES, BUT AS YOU KNOW, THE B-52S, SOME OF WHICH ARE 40 OR MORE PAGE 05 RUEKJCS8439 UNCLAS YEARS OLD, ARE STILL FLYING AND PERFORMING VERY, VERY WELL. IN FACT B-52S WERE USED TO LAUNCH CRUISE MISSILES AGAINST TARGETS IN IRAQ SEVERAL MONTHS AGO. SO THEY'RE STILL VERY MUCH IN USE. Q: CAN B-2S LAUNCH CRUISE MISSILES? A: B-2S CAN LAUNCH A VARIETY OF ORDNANCE. I DON'T KNOW WHETHER THESE HAVE BEEN OUTFITTED TO LAUNCH CRUISE MISSILES. Q: WE HAVE IT FROM A HIGHLY RELIABLE SOURCE THAT THESE 13 B-2S ARE NOW IN MODIFICATION TO HAVE THEIR WINGS FOLDED AND OPERATE FROM CARRIERS. COULD YOU COMMENT ON THAT? A: SINCE THEY ARE A WING, I THINK IT WOULD BE HARD TO FOLD THE WING. IT WOULD BE LIKE FOLDING A BUTTERFLY. Q: THE MASS SUICIDE IN CALIFORNIA HAS AROUSED THE AMERICAN PUBLIC'S GROWING INTEREST ONCE AGAIN IN UFOS TO THE POINT WHERE SOME OF THE PUBLIC BELIEVES THAT THE GOVERNMENT CAN SUBSTANTIATE THEIR EXISTENCE--THAT THE GOVERNMENT HOUSES REMAINS OF THESE SPACECRAFT AND ALIENS. WOULD YOU ADDRESS THOSE TWO ISSUES, PLEASE? A: YES. WE CANNOT SUBSTANTIATE THE EXISTENCE OF UFOS, AND WE ARE NOT HARBORING REMAINS OF UFOS. I CAN'T BE MORE CLEAR ABOUT IT THAN THAT. WE CANNOT SUBSTANTIATE THAT THEY EXIST AND PAGE 06 RUEKJCS8439 UNCLAS WE ARE NOT HARBORING REMAINS. Q: WHEN CITIZENS CALL WITH SIGHTINGS OF UFOS, WHERE ARE THOSE CALLS ROUTED TO NOW? A: THAT'S AN INTERESTING QUESTION. LET ME TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT UFOS. FOR 22 YEARS, FROM 1947 TO 1969, THE U.S. AIR FORCE INVESTIGATED REPORTS OF UFOS. IT WAS CALLED PROJECT BLUE BOOK, AND THAT PROJECT WAS HEADQUARTERED AT WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE IN DAYTON, OHIO. THEY INVESTIGATED 12,618 SIGHTINGS DURING THAT 22-YEAR PERIOD, AND THEY REACHED THREE CONCLUSIONS BASED ON THOSE INVESTIGATIONS. THE FIRST WAS THAT NO UFO REPORTED, INVESTIGATED OR EVALUATED BY THE U.S. AIR FORCE POSED ANY THREAT TO UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NATIONAL SECURITY. THAT WAS THE FIRST CONCLUSION THEY REACHED. THE SECOND CONCLUSION THEY REACHED WAS THAT THERE WAS NO EVIDENCE SUBMITTED TO THE AIR FORCE OR UNCOVERED BY THE AIR FORCE THAT SIGHTINGS CALLED "UNIDENTIFIED" REPRESENTED TECHNOLOGICAL
Official release, from the nara 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. 48 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.