Documents / FOIA release

NASA FOIA 21-HQ-F-00500

NASA (obtained by The Black Vault) · 2021 · 223 pages · text from the file's own layer

This is a July 27, 2021 FOIA response from NASA's Office of Communications to John Greenewald, Jr. It covers records from Leslie Kean's lawsuit against NASA seeking Kecksburg documents. NASA released 207 pages in full, 7 in part and withheld 31, noting that most of the lawsuit case files had been destroyed under records retention rules. The enclosures include court declarations, a 2003 appeal decision ordering a broader search, a 2019 FOIA response, and Stan Gordon's account of the missing NASA fragology files.

  • p. 116 Ae ply to Attn 01 NallOnal Aeronautics a, ~ d Space Administration Headquarters Washing!Dn. DC 20546…
  • p. 169 …Wash; ngton cannot be bor-ne by Aramco. As was mentioned in Reference C, the company…
LIMITEO OFFICIAL USE
On October 27, Aramco sUQQe~ied that appropri~te efforts be made ~o obtain
SAG approval for s8ndlng the smel er of the met~orlteS to the Smithson,an for study,
in the thought that the smaller would serve the Smith$onlan ls purpo$e, that SAG
would more readily agree to export of the smaller if the larger were retained for
exhib.ft In the Kfngdom, and that shipping costs would be lower for the stI\B11l'!r.
The compa ny instructed its representatives in Jidda Bnd Washington to make appro_
priate contacts to pass its suggestion to the agencies concerned. The company
also stated that it is ~t l1in g to £rate and arrange Shipment of either meteorite,
al though cos ts of shi pment from Dartmam to Wash; ngton cannot be bor-ne by Aramco.
As was mentioned in Reference C, the company suggested that Embassy Jidda brief
Minister of Petroleum Zaki Varnani on the matter, since SAC will undoubtedly rely
on his advice and judgment regarding export of the meteorite to the United State s .
Comaent: Aramco geologists and other researchers had loog wanted an e~cuse
to do socnethi.ng about the al-Ha.didah neteorites, and COII'Ipany officia ls jUll'Ip6d ~t an
excu~e to effect recovery of · the ~ rel~tively easily retrievable ones. Aramco
presumed that ft would be c~11ed upon to supply th@ equ i pment and geographic ex-
pel"t.i-se- ·' n -8.fl")'- eventr ·end.-i.t- -fI'IOV6d - r..ap.t.c:I.1.y- to. br.i nq in. the.. • .t.or; tes _once.. tber.e.
was stil1'Ulus -to do so. The company did not vfew with enthusiasm Mr. Abercrorltlte ls
rece;ving acclaim for the 'ldhcoveryll of an object that had 100g been of interest
to Aramco and that it would undoubtedly do the work of roc~ring anyway. The
company desires that its action not be made known in general untll SAG has been
infonned of the whole project.
lJiJ£04 LHHTE·O OF"(lCIAl USE
tf)iL i'U:1f/'-'
Arthu! B. Allen
~ricanfConsul General
•

About this file

FOIA release, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 223 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.