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What the Government Knows About UFOs

National Security Agency · 2 pages · text from the file's own layer

This article by New York attorney Peter A. Gersten appeared in a copy of an NSA release. Its date is not given. It argues that about three thousand pages of formerly classified UFO documents, most released through FOIA suits by agencies including the CIA, FBI, NSA and DIA, show that some UFOs are unconventional craft that threaten national security. It cites a 1952 CIA memo, the 1975 sightings over nuclear facilities at Loring, Malmstrom and Minot, a Cuban MiG-21 encounter and the 1976 Iranian jet case, and it accuses the CIA of stonewalling.

  • p. 2 …Air Force Security Police (AFSP) message to 15 Air Force Bases, November 10, 1975. 3. This…
;
connection· with the United ··ates
UFO program will be mainta. J in
ASpn (plus, he added, a file of •finished
intelligence reports•).
Coinciding with the Nove~ber 1957
mand bases and other militar ,_ · meetings with Dr. Edward Conde
stallations. One censored messag.._ of and members of the Colorado Projer
April 3, 1976, refers to ·subject: New staff.
DCD Case (censored]- UFO Re- Glaringly absent from the release
search. Reference: Form 610 dated 9 documents are the photo analyses, ir
Where are the startling 1952
cases the led the CIA to the brink
of a major scientific study?
eluding one case provided to a scier
tific firm by the present writer the:
found its way to the CIA, and the hur
dreds and hundreds of intelligenc
reports on individual UFO cases the
must have. been collected - and i
some cases are known to have bee
collected. Also absent are the dozen
UFO wave, "On 6 November 1957 a
directed collection request for UFO
information was levied on Contact
Division by the Office of Scientific In-
telligence ... Responses to the require·
ment were forwarded to Collection
Staff, OSI on 14 November 1957:
(April i, 1958 memo for Assistant
Director, Scientific Intelligence, from
Acting Assistant Director for Opera-
tions) .
Also, coinciding with a flurry of
sightings around the Washington,
D.C. area in late 1964 and early 1965,
another •collection request9 was
ordered by the Director of CIA. The
present writer was among those inter-
viewed by the Domestic Contact Divi·
sion. The agent borrowed a number of
specific UFO case investigation·
reports. .
A series of memos from April
. through late summer of 1976 shows
renewed interest in UFO data, prob-
ably as a result of-the 1975 and 1976
UFO siglltings at Strategic Air Com·
....
In a Just CAUSe
Over the past third of a century. the
govemment"s conduct with regard to
UFOs has been characterized as
nonfeasance, misfeasance, and
malfeasance. Citizens Against UFO
Secreey, ·a public-interest group, was
formed to foster a review of the reality
and significance of UFOs and the govern·
menrs policies and practices regarding
them. ,
CAUS calls upon the Federal govern·
ment to {l) admit that the public has been
misled about the nature of UFOs. 121
a.cknowledge that U.FOs exist, and 13)
reverse its position that further scientific
study of UFO reports is unwarranted.
CAUS seeks the immediate declassifica·
lion and public dissemination of all of·
ficial UFO documentation.
CAUS believes that the pubiic has a
right to an objective reappraisal of the im·
plications"of the UFO phenomenon.
For more information, write to CAUS,
P.O. Box 4743F. Arlington, Virginia
22204.
April 1976. transmitting UFO Study: of radar-visual cases which must hav
Date discrepancy notwithstanding, been studied by the Physics and Elec
the memos go on to discuss •the UFO tronics Division, as well as othe
study." One, while stating that there materials that made up the cal?e file
was at the time no formal UFO pro- repeatedly alluded to in thes(
gram, read: •At the present time, there documents. Where are the startlin~
are offices and personr~l within the 1952 cases that led the CIA to the brinl
Agency who are monitoring the UFO of a major scientific study of UFOs?
phenomena ... not currently on an of· The 892 pages contain largt
ficial basis. Dr. [censored] feels that amounts of trivialcorrespondence, ad
the best approach would be to keep in ministrative papers, duplication anc
touch with and in fact develop report· irrelevant !non-UFO) documents. Ob
ing channels in this area to keep the viously, they do not contain the Cif
Agency/community informed of any UFO case files, other than a randorr
new developments.• sprinkling of mostly known cases. On
Memos ranging from 1958 to 1967 ly the FOIA lawsuits have been able tc
mention analyses of UFO photos by pry loose a f cw highly significan:
the CIA National Photographic Inter- cases, such as the 1976 lranian jet case.
pretation Center under.Arthur C. Lun- -There can be no doubt that the CIA is
dahl, partially confirming informatiqn _stonewalling. If this ii all the case file~
from private sources. Indeed, Lundahl.. developed in more than thirty years, I
was involved in arranging a •window" would have to conclude that the CIA is
on the Colorado Project and in secret totally inept. And, of course, it isn't. 0
FOOTNOTES
1. NORAD Classified Message; to
Secretary of Air Force, et al; from
NORAD Director of O.perations;
subject: Suspicious Unknown Air
Activity; November 11, 1975. (Still
classified CONFIDENTIAL; leaked.
to UFO research group in late
1976.) .
2. Air Force Security Police (AFSP)
message to 15 Air Force Bases,
November 10, 1975.
3. This and the previous statements
are found in the following
documents:
•Memorandum for Record; for the
joint Staff; signed by.J.B. Morin,
Rear Admiral, USN & Deputy
Director for Operations, NMCC:
January 21, 1976.
• Memorandum for Record; for the
Joint Staff; from Fred A. Treyz,
Brigadier General, USAF & Deputy
Director for Operations, N.MCC:
subject: J.Jnidentified Flying Object
Sighting:January 31, 1976.
• Memorandum for Record; for the
joint Staff; from L.J. LeBlanc, Jr.,
Brigadier General, USMC & Depu·
ty Director for Operations, NMCC:
subject: Reports of Unidentified
Flying Objects {UFOs); July 30,
1976. .
4. •Rees Letter": AFOSI (Air Force Of·
fice of Special Investigations). 17th
District, Kirtland AFB, New Mex-
ico: letter to director of AFOSI; May
/ 25, 1950.
v5. ·cuban Incident•: Air Force Securi·
ty Service 6947th Squadron techni-
cian's statement to Stanton T. Fried-
man; October 27, 1977.
6. Memorandum for Director of Cen·
tral . Intelligence; subject: Flying
· Saucers; by E. Marshall Chadwell,
Assistant Director, Scientific In-
telligence; September 24, 1952.
i .: Memo; to E. James Archer and
"' Thurston E. Hanning; from Robert
J. Low; subject: "Some Thoughts on
the UFO Project": August 9, 1966.

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