Documents / Report
This National Security Agency file contains two news wire stories. A Reuters report says the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal released a study by Phillip J. Klass calling the Majestic 12 documents, which claimed a 1947 saucer and alien bodies were recovered, clumsy counterfeits. A UPI story describes Citizens Against UFO Secrecy asking the Supreme Court to order the NSA to release 135 UFO-related documents, after lower courts upheld the agency's refusal.
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
--- UFO GROUP WANTS SECRET DOCUMENTS BY ROBERT SANGEORGE WASHINGTON (UPI) -- A GROUP OF UFO BUFFS WANTS THE SUPREME COURT TO ORDER THE RELEASE OF MYSTERIOUS MATERIAL COLLECTED ABOUT PURPORTED VOYAGERS FROM OUTER SPACE AND HELD BY THE SUPLA-SECRET NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY. A NEW YORK CITY-BASED GROUP CALLED CITIZENS AGAINST UFO (UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECT) SECRECY WANTS THE JUSTICES TO ORDER THE AGENCY TO RELEASE THE 135 DOCUMENTS UNDER THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT. THE CASE BEGAN IN LATE 1978 WHEN THE UFO GROUP FILED A FORMAL REQUEST FOR 18 AGENCY DOCUMENTS UNDER THE INFORMATION LAW. THE NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY FLATLY REFUSED TO RELEASE THE INFORMATION, CLAIMING IT IS EXEMPT FROM DISCLOSURE UNDER THE LAW. A Few MONTHS LATER, THE GROUP EXPANDED ITS REQUEST TO INCLUDE DOCUMENTS IN THE POSSESSION OR UNDER THE CONTROL OF THE NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY RELATING TO OR PERTAINING TO UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS AND THE UFO PHENOMENA." IN RESPONSE, THE AGENCY ADMITTED IT HAS 135 SUCH "UFO-RELATED" DOCUMENTS, BUT AGAIN DECLINED TO RELEASE THEM. IT CLAIMED SUCH DISCLOSURE WOULD REVEAL SOME OF ITS TOP SECRET ELECTRONIC MONITORING AND INTERCEPTION TECHNIQUES. THE AGENCY IS A DEFENSE DEPARTMENT UNIT HEADQUARTERED AT FORT MEADE, MD. ONE OF ITS MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES IS TO GATHER FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE INFORMATION BY INTERCEPTING RADIO COMMUNICATIONS SENT TO OR FROM FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS. THE AGENCY TOLD THE UFO BUFFS, "NSA MUST FOCUS ITS INTERCEPTION ACTIVITIES ON THOSE PARTICULAR COMMUNICATIONS LINES, CHANNELS, LINKS OR SYSTEMS WHICH YIELD THE HIGHEST PROPORTION OF USEFUL FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE INFORMATION. WHAT FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS DO NOT KNOW IS WHICH OF THE VAST NUMBER OF RADIO COMMUNICATIONS NSA ATTEMPTS TO INTERCEPT, WHICH ARE INTERCEPTED, AND, OF THOSE THAT ARE INTERCEPTED, WHICH YIELD TO NSA PROCESSING METHODS AND TECHNIQUES," NSA POLICY CHIEF EUGENE YEATES SAID IN A LETTER TO THE UFO GROUP. "It IS THE PROTECTION OF THIS CRITICAL INFORMATION THAT IS AT THE HEART OF THE INSTANT CASE," HE ADDED. THAT REFUSAL PROMPTED THE ORGANIZATION TO FILE SUIT IN FEDERAL DISTRICT COURT IN WASHINGTON. THE AGENCY, URGING THE COURT TO THROW OUT THE CASE, FILED ONE PUBLIC AFFIDAVIT AND ONE CONFIDENTIAL AFFIDAVIT THAT WAS REVIEWED IN PRIVATE BY JUDGE GERHARD GESELL. THE JUDGE DISMISSED THE CASE IN 1988, DECLARING, "RELEASE OF THIS MATERIAL COULD SERIOUSLY JEOPARDIZE THE WORK OF THE AGENCY AND THE SECURITY OF THE UNITED STATES." THE UFO GROUP THEN TOOK THE DISPUTE TO THE U.S. COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, BUT THAT PANEL AFFIRMED GESELL'S DECISION. APPEALING TO THE SUPREME COURT, THE UFO BUFFS ARGUED, "THE DISTRICT COURT ACCEPTED WITHOUT QUESTION NSA'S OVERBROAD CLAIM OF EXEMPTION" FROM THE INFORMATION ACT. THEY WENT ON TO ARGUE THAT UFOS HAVE "BEEN OBSERVED FOR THE PAST 35 YEARS BY RELIABLE AND RESPONSIBLE INDIVIDUALS INCLUDING SCIENTISTS AND MILITARY PERSONNEL." UPI 22-15-82 27:38 PES
Report, from the nsa 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. 2 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.