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This Black Vault copy of "U.F.O. Files: The Untold Story," an article by freelance writer Patrick Huyghe that was held by the NSA, reviews U.S. government UFO records released under the Freedom of Information Act. It quotes a 1975 Defense Department message about unknown objects over Loring, Wurtsmith and Malmstrom bases. It also traces Projects Sign and Grudge, the 1952 Washington radar sightings, the Robertson Panel's debunking program, CIA interest in NICAP and the Condon study. It argues that federal agencies still monitor the phenomenon.
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U.F.O. went beyond debunking and touched the fiber of constitutionally protected free speech. According to author David Michael Jacobs, in 1953 the Air Force pressured Look magazine into publishing disclaimers throughout an article by retired Maj. Donald E. Keyhoe entitled "Flying Saucers From Outer Space." Then again, in 1965, the Army — in a prepublication review denied clearance for a U.F.O.-related article by one of its employees, Larry W. Bryant, a technical editor, until he took the issue to court. Meanwhile, the C.I.A. and the F.B.I. proceeded routinely in the surveillance of U.F.O. organizations and U.F.O. enthusiasts. People with U.F.O. interests were checked out by the F.B.I. at the request of the C.I.A., the Air Force, or private citizens inquiring about possible subversive activities. None caused as much consternation as the case of Major Keyhoe and the organization he directed, the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP). The C.I.A. appears to have had a protracted interest in NICAP, which was founded in 1956 and utilized by Keyhoe as an organizational tool for challenging the alleged Air Force cover-up on U.F.O.'s. Both the C.I.A. and the Air Force were upset by NICAP's wide-ranging influence. Its prestigious board of directors included, among others, Vice Adm. Roscoe Hillenkoetter, the first C.I.A. Director (1947-1950). "The Air Force representatives believe that much of the trouble . . . with Major Keyhoe . . . could be "alleviated," states a C.I.A. memo dated May 16, 1958, "if the Major did not have such important personages as Vice Admiral R. H. Hillenkoetter, U.S.N. (Ret.) . . . on the board. . .." The Air Force suggested that if the Admiral were shown the SECRET panel report he might understand and take "appropriate actions." Whether or not the Air Force got through to the admiral, Hillenkoetter resigned from NICAP in 1961. The 60's saw further C.I.A. interest in NICAP. After a flurry of Washington-area sightings in 1965, the agency contacted NICAP about seeing some of its case files on the matter. Richard H. Hall, then NICAP assistant director, chatted with a C.I.A. agent in the NICAP office about the sightings, NICAP's methodology, and Hall's background. The agent's memo on the visit suggests that the C.I.A. had some role in mind for Hall, predicated upon his being granted a security clearance. Nothing apparently came of the suggestion. A later set of
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