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Official reports, hearing transcripts, case files and releases: the paper behind the cases. 2,872 documents, 2,610 mirrored with their text, 53,529 pages indexed, so a search reads inside them and lands on the page.
New in the library The PURSUE files The Department of War's UAP release, mirrored in full: the videos, recordings and images, each beside its case file.Documents1,049 records · page 10
This Central Intelligence Agency information report, dated 18 August 1967, records conversations with Soviet astronomers and scientists about unidentified flying objects in the USSR. Opinions ranged from dismissal to open interest. One scientist suggested UFOs may originate on Venus, and some astronomers described seeing a curious reddish object. Many had read Menzel's book. The report concludes that the USSR has given the UFO problem no official treatment, and that Soviet astronomers might take up the subject more readily than US astronomers, who face official ridicule.
This Central Intelligence Agency information report, dated 18 August 1967, records a Western visitor's conversations with Soviet astronomers and scientists about unidentified flying objects in the USSR. Views ranged from dismissal to open interest. One scientist suggested UFOs might come from Venus, and others recalled a reddish object and headlight reflections mistaken for ball lightning in Kazakhstan. The report concludes that the USSR has no official treatment of the problem and that Soviet astronomers might respond to proof of the phenomenon more readily than their US counterparts.
This Central Intelligence Agency translation, dated November 1967, renders a Sovetskaya Latviya article of 10 December 1967 in which R. Vitolniyek, director of a Soviet station for radio observation of the ionosphere and satellites, discusses UFO reports. He notes sightings over the USSR, including recently at Lepaya, and radar returns that match no known object. He calls luminous plasma formations resembling ball lightning the most probable explanation and says extraterrestrial origin is doubtful but cannot be ruled out. The Latvian Academy of Sciences laboratory asks witnesses to report their sightings.
This Central Intelligence Agency translation, dated 2 November 1967, abstracts a Polish article from Zolnierz Wolnosci of December 1967. It reports that in November 1967 the Soviet Union set up a committee within DOSAF to investigate unidentified flying objects, led by Air Force Major General Porfir Stolyarov. The general recommended a photographic investigation method. The Pulkovo and Crimea astronomical observatories would correlate the data, and a network of observatories across the USSR, along with civil aviation, would make the observations.
This Central Intelligence Agency item dated 6 November 1967 translates a Soviet press report from Leninskaya stena of 2 December 1967. It relays claims by F. Zigel', a docent at the Moscow Aviation Institute, that intelligent life probably exists on other planets of the solar system. According to Zigel', UFOs had appeared in increasing numbers over the previous two years and been observed in 20 countries. He also said the USSR now has a UFO observation service that measures speeds and accelerations beyond modern aircraft.
This Central Intelligence Agency abstract, dated 2 December 1967, summarizes a Soviet item titled Study of UFO's. It reports that F. Zigel', a docent at the Moscow Aviation Institute, says he has found evidence that artificial light probably exists on other planets of the solar system. According to the astronomer, UFOs have been seen in growing numbers over the past two years in 20 countries and are not an optical illusion. The abstract also says a new UFO observation service in the USSR measures speeds and accelerations that modern aircraft cannot reach.
This Central Intelligence Agency abstract, dated 10 December 1967, summarizes an article from Sovetskaya Latviya by R. Vitolniyek, director of a Latvian station for radio observation of the ionosphere and artificial satellites. The article covers reports of luminous objects, including a recent sighting over Lepaya, and radar tracks that match no known object. It calls luminescent plasma formations similar to ball lightning the most probable explanation and says the extraterrestrial hypothesis is doubtful. The Latvian Academy of Sciences asks witnesses to report their sightings.
This Central Intelligence Agency release, dated 26 December 1967, contains an English text of a Soviet article on UFOs. It reports that the USSR formed a UFO investigation committee under DOSAF in November 1967, led by Air Force Major General Porfir Stolyarov. The writer argues that the Tunguska explosion looked like a nuclear blast and that the object maneuvered before it, and concludes that the body may have been an artificial craft from another planet. The article calls for calm international scientific study.
This CIA record is dated 3 January 1968. It abstracts an article by N. Hardzhanishvili that appeared in Leninskaya Smena on 31 January 1968 and was first published in the Hungarian newspaper Magyar Ifjusag. The article reviews British, Russian, Yugoslav and U.S. eyewitness accounts of UFOs, quotes the West German ufologist H. Obert, and notes a planned worldwide UFO conference in Vienna. It quotes Soviet astronomer F. Zigel, who lists possible explanations, including objects from other planets, which is not yet proved.
This CIA-held translation reproduces a Soviet press article, "Are Flying Saucers a Myth?", by APN science commentator V. Lyustiberg. It first ran in Pravda Ukraine on 17 February 1968. The article describes eyewitness UFO accounts and concludes that UFOs are a myth. It argues that photographs are unreliable, that credible images probably show ball lightning, and that flares on clouds come from welding, aircraft signals or distant lightning. It says a 1957 "saucer" over Sofia was a NATO balloon and calls saucer stories Western distractions.
This Central Intelligence Agency abstract, dated January 1968, summarizes an article titled "Fantasy or reality?" from Komsomol'skaya pravda (Vilnius), issue no. 13 of 20 January 1968. The article interviewed several Soviet scientists and others about UFOs, among them Docent F. Zigel of the Moscow Aviation Institute, Docent V. Zaytsev of Minsk and I. Bestuzhev-Lada. Their opinions varied, but the article cited eyewitness accounts and stressed that the UFO phenomenon needed to be studied.
This Central Intelligence Agency release, approved in 2010, is an abstract of an article titled "Fantasy or Reality?" from Komsomol'skaya pravda (Vilnius), no. 13, dated 20 January 1968. Several Soviet scientists and specialists were interviewed about unidentified flying objects, among them Docent F. Zigel of the Moscow Aviation Institute, V. Strayzhis and I. Bestuzhev-Lada. Their opinions varied. The article cited eyewitness accounts and argued that the UFO phenomenon needs to be studied.
This Central Intelligence Agency release is a translated abstract of an article by V. Lyustiberg, a science commentator for APN. The article appeared in Pravda Ukrainy on 17 February 1968. It reviews eyewitness UFO accounts and concludes that UFOs are a myth. It argues that photographs are unreliable and that the few convincing images probably show ball lightning. It explains glows on clouds as welding reflections, aircraft signals or distant lightning, and says a November 1957 'saucer' over Sofia was a NATO balloon.
This 1968 Central Intelligence Agency memo passes along two Soviet articles distributed by the Novosti press agency (APN) that take opposite positions on UFOs. In the February 1968 issue of Soviet Life, Felix Zigel sets out Soviet sightings, argues that the Tunguska body may have been an artificial craft, and calls for scientific study. The other article, by Villen Lyustiberg, says UFOs are a myth that the US uses as propaganda. The memo finds it ironic that Soviet media published both views.
This Central Intelligence Agency memo, dated 9 April 1968, forwards two articles from the Soviet news agency Novosti (APN) that take opposite views on UFOs. Felix Zigel's February 1968 Soviet Life article treats UFOs seriously and cites Soviet sightings and the Tunguska explosion. Villen Lyustiberg's article dismisses them as a myth and claims the U.S. publicizes them to divert attention. The memo notes the irony of such disagreement appearing in Soviet media.
This is a compilation of Department of State Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) briefing notes to the Director of INR, mostly dated June 12, 1968, with some from June 6, 1968. The notes cover world events, including student riots in Paris, East German passport and visa rules for West Germans, a UN resolution on South West Africa, a change of Komsomol leadership, Sino-Nepalese relations, and the Colombian presidential resignation crisis. Unrest in Senegal and Somalia is also covered. None of the notes discuss UFOs.
This CIA-held copy of a 13 July 1968 magazine article, "A Reporter at Large," was written by the author of the book "Inquest." It examines New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison's investigation into the Kennedy assassination and his arrest of Clay Shaw. The author concludes that Garrison mishandled evidence and decoded address book numbers without sound basis. It also says the only evidence the author saw connecting Shaw to the assassination was fraudulent. Flying saucers come up only in passing.
This Central Intelligence Agency item, estimated at November 1968, is an abstract of an article from Soviet Life (no. 2, 1968) by an author at the Moscow Aviation Institute. The author argues that UFOs are not simply optical phenomena and describes the October 1967 founding of a UFO Section of the All-Union Cosmonautics Committee, chaired by Major General Porfiri Stolyarov. The article also concludes that the Tungusky body seems to have been an artificial craft from another planet, and it calls for international scientific study.
This Central Intelligence Agency release, dated November 1968, is an English abstract of a Soviet article by an author at the Moscow Aviation Institute. The author argues that UFOs are not ordinary optical phenomena and reports the October 1967 founding of a UFO Section of the All-Union Cosmonautics Committee, chaired by Major General Porfiri Stolyarov. He cites 1882 and 1913 reports and concludes that the Tungusky body seems to have been an artificial craft from another planet. He calls for international scientific study.
This Central Intelligence Agency file, estimated to date from 1968, holds an abstract of a Soviet Life article written by F. Zigel of the Moscow Aviation Institute. Zigel argues that UFOs are not ordinary optical effects. He reports that a UFO Section of the All-Union Cosmonautics Committee was formed in October 1967, chaired by Major General Porfiri Stolyarov. He also contends that the Tungusky body was probably an artificial craft from another planet, and he calls for international scientific study.
This CIA-held abstract, estimated to date from 1968, summarizes an article by an author from the Moscow Aviation Institute published in Soviet Life, no. 2, 1968. The author argues that UFOs are not ordinary optical phenomena and says they may be craft from other planets. It reports that the UFO Section of the All-Union Cosmonautics Committee was set up in October 1967 under Major General Stolyarov. It also argues that the Tungusky body was an artificial craft and calls for international scientific study.
This Central Intelligence Agency bibliographic record, dated 3 January 1969, lists data from CRS and FBIS on F. Yu. Zigel, a Doctor of Technical Sciences and Associate Professor at the Moscow Aviation Institute. It catalogs his Soviet publications from 1956 to 1969, including "Nuclear Explosion over the Taiga (Study of the Tunguska Meteorite)" and "A Dialog on Mars". Each entry gives the translation reference: JPRS, NTIS, CIA or NASA.
This Central Intelligence Agency cable, dated 10 May 1969, reports on a 7 May visit to a university in connection with an agency research contract. The officer reviewed contract files and destroyed two memoranda naming the sponsor, and noted that several university officials had been briefed and would support the arrangement. It also describes SDS and Brown Beret chapters on campus and a contingency plan to announce that research would move off campus to a new foundation-owned building. It adds that the files had been purged of incriminating material.
This is an undated Central Intelligence Agency review of a research proposal on non-lethal incapacitation by flash blindness. It judges the proposed flash simulation technique reasonably feasible but says the performance tasks are not described in enough detail and doubts that the predictions hold at potentially damaging intensities. The reviewers also say retinal damage thresholds must be set before flares are used operationally, and they suggest supplementary primate studies to find functional damage thresholds and measure performance decrements.
The CIA's Directorate of Intelligence issued this Weekly Summary, No. 0369/70, on 8 May 1970. It covers events through noon on 7 May. The Far East section deals with the allied operations into Cambodia, Hanoi's cautious response and the government in exile Sihanouk formed in Peking. Other items cover Soviet military aid, the Sino-Soviet talks, Jordan, Dahomey, Guatemala and Brazil, and a special report looks at Cuban support for subversion in Latin America. Many pages are withheld, and the summary contains no UFO material.
These are the minutes of a Board of Directors meeting of a pilots association affiliated with the International Federation of Air Line Pilots Associations. The meeting was held in Bangkok on October 2 and 3, 1971, and the CIA released the minutes in 2023. The board discussed labor matters: pilot seniority and furloughs, grievances including the Bailey, Stuart and Stensloff cases, excessive flight time, message restrictions at Udorn, the wage price freeze and constitutional revisions. The document does not mention UFOs.
This Central Intelligence Agency translation, dated 2 February 1972, reproduces a Soviet bibliography on parapsychology (psychoenergetics) and related subjects compiled in Moscow in 1971, with E. K. Naumov named as the contact address. It lists Soviet works on telepathy, mental suggestion, the biophysical effect, dermo-optic sensitivity, bioelectric fields, yoga, autogenic training and heliobiology. It also includes foreign literature, a list of parapsychology journals, and foreign writings about Soviet research. The publication states that its contents do not represent U.S. Government views.
This Central Intelligence Agency document, dated 1972 and later approved for release, is a short, partly redacted report about a Soviet member of a USSR committee set up to investigate unusual phenomena, meaning flying saucers. According to the report, the man gave a talk that was meant seriously but came across as humorous, and other Soviets present joked and laughed. A source said the committee consists mostly of politicians, theorists and historians and has little if any scientific talent.
This Central Intelligence Agency release, dated 28 March 1972, contains a translated Soviet bibliography on parapsychology (psychoenergetics) and related subjects. E. K. Naumov and L. V. Vilenskaya compiled it in Moscow in 1971. It lists Soviet and foreign works on telepathy, bioenergetics, dermo-optic sensitivity, yoga and autogenic training, followed by a list of journals and foreign writing on Soviet research. Appended is a 1952 CIA foreign-press report from Vienna's Die Presse on two fiery disks over the Belgian Congo uranium mines, which Commander Pierre chased in a fighter.
This is Volume Three of the CIA Directorate of Science and Technology Historical Series on the Office of Scientific Intelligence (OSI), 1949 to 1968, written by Karl H. Weber in June 1972 and approved for release in 2008. It holds three annexes, on OSI publications, OSI's external assistance and contracting program, and OSI's interaction with the National Security Agency. The released text covers production planning, review boards, current intelligence periodicals and future threat forecasting. It does not discuss UFOs.
This undated CIA memorandum for the Deputy Director for Administration, catalogued with an estimated date of 1973, reviews the agency's past drug research under the OFTEN and CHICKWIT projects run by its Office of Research and Development. It concludes that no drug programs remain undiscovered and that the planned agency-funded human testing of the chemical EA 3167 at Edgewood Arsenal never took place before the program ended in January 1973. It finds that only Edgewood could identify test subjects or evaluate the chemical's long-term effects.
This is a CIA-held foreign press translation record, dated 1 April 1973, of an article titled "Short Review of Radiation Energy" by Henry Moray, taken from the publication UFO-Nachrichten. The index entry was prepared by the Air Force Foreign Technology Division (report AIR/FTD-HC-23-29074), runs 8 pages, and is marked For Official Use Only. Copyright requests are referred to FTD. The record holds only catalog metadata and none of the article's content.
This is a Central Intelligence Agency catalog record for a translated article dated 30 April 1973 and titled "Wernher Von Braun Warns and Advanced Propulsion Concepts Project Outgrowth." According to the record, the article came from UFO Nachrichten and was translated under Air Force Foreign Technology Division reference FTD-HC-23-287-74. The record says the translation runs six pages, is marked For Official Use Only and carries copyright notes. The extracted text has only index fields and does not include the body of the article.
This Central Intelligence Agency catalog record describes a translated article titled "My First Contact with Friends from Space," dated 1 October 1973. The article appeared in the publication UFO-Nachrichter, and the record lists three pages. The translation was held under reference AIR/FTD-HC-23-288-74, and copyright questions were referred to FTD. It is marked For Official Use Only. The extracted text holds only index data and does not include the article itself, so its content cannot be summarized.
This is a Central Intelligence Agency letter from Lowe to Brad C. Sparks of Berkeley, California. It answers Sparks's letter of 21 October 1974. It encloses the minutes of the Intelligence Advisory Committee's 4 December 1952 meeting on unidentified flying objects, along with the 17 January 1953 "Report on Unidentified Flying Objects" written by a panel of selected scientists. The letter says the panel found no sign that the phenomena posed a direct physical threat to national security, so no National Security Council Intelligence Directive was drafted.
This is a CIA letter dated 5 November 1974 from Bruce A. Lowe, Executive Secretary, to Mr. Sparks, answering his letter of 21 October 1974. It encloses the minutes of the Intelligence Advisory Committee's 4 December 1952 meeting on unidentified flying objects. It also encloses the 17 January 1953 "Report on Unidentified Flying Objects" from a review by selected scientists. Because that panel found no sign of a direct physical threat to national security, no National Security Council Intelligence Directive was drafted.
This is a letter dated 24 December 1974 from CIA Director W. E. Colby to the President, with annexes attached. It responds to a New York Times article about CIA domestic intelligence activity. The letter denies that the Agency ran a "massive" domestic effort. It traces a counterintelligence program on foreign links with American dissidents, which ran from 1967 until it was ended in March 1974, and admits improper actions such as mail opening, break-ins and the surveillance of reporters. The attached memoranda restrict such activities.
This Central Intelligence Agency memorandum, dated 9 February 1978, was sent by the Chief of the Minneapolis Office to the Chief of the Domestic Collection Division. It reports that a source, whose name is redacted, saw an odd object coming down in the sky on 27 January 1978. The source thought it might relate to the Soviet satellite that fell in Canada on 24 January. The memo gives no description of the object and says the information would be passed to the Air Force.
This Central Intelligence Agency document, dated 4 April 1975, is a short and heavily redacted report on UFO sightings, filed under a USSR heading. It records a conversation in which a source was asked whether a U.S. forecast center had ever dealt with UFO sightings. The source said the center had once been plagued with calls about sightings, some prompted by its scientific balloon flights. The source added, half jokingly, that the calls had stopped because someone must have made a political decision.
This Central Intelligence Agency compilation of translated Argentine press and radio items, dated 15 May 1975 on its title record, gathers news reports from May 1978. One EFE report from Salta says the object people saw falling near the Argentine-Bolivian border on 6 May was an artificial satellite. It fell on Taire Mountain in Bolivia, where authorities located it and the government declared an emergency zone. Other items cover nuclear plans, detainees, a YPF credit and telecommunications.
This Central Intelligence Agency personality (201) dossier on Sandelio Herminio Diaz Garcia holds material dated from November 1956 to August 1975 and was approved for release in 2025. It contains 1966 intelligence cables on a 29 May 1966 exile infiltration attempt near Havana, in which Diaz was reported killed while trying to assassinate Fidel Castro. It also includes a report on cancelled assassination plans, 1973 traces linking a Herminio Diaz to narcotics trafficking, and FBI file listings. The dossier contains no UFO material.
This Central Intelligence Agency file, dated 29 September 1975, collects Office of Security memoranda written while the Senate Select Committee was investigating the Agency. Staff were told to alert former employees about possible committee contact over Project MERRIMAC/RESISTANCE, and the file answers committee questions about Hayes International and Bay of Pigs pilots. It also records staff interviews about CIA name checks at NSA and a Justice Department request for records on domestic electronic surveillance. It contains no material on UFOs.
This is a Central Intelligence Agency Operations Center watch log dated 28 October 1975. Most of its timed entries are blank. The entry at 0610 records that the NMCC representative told the Operations Center that a DDO Talker carried an update on the penetration of Loring AFB, Maine by one or more unidentified helicopters flying out of Canada. The Operations Center received a copy via LDX and disseminated it. The page was approved for release on 9 December 1977 and again in February 2010.
This Central Intelligence Agency information report, dated 15 November 1975, gives a source's account of a sighting from a slow train on 4 October 1955. Four travelers saw a triangular object with a light on each point take off from an air field about two miles from the tracks. It made several fast spirals and then climbed steeply at about 45 degrees while a searchlight followed it. The source described it as more like a missile ejection than an ordinary take-off, and said a steward pulled down the blinds.
This Central Intelligence Agency memorandum, dated 1976 and approved for release in 1978, reports on a DCD case about UFO research. After consulting the acting Deputy Director for Science and Technology, the office concluded that the government has no apparent program for identifying or solving UFO phenomena, though some Agency offices and personnel were monitoring them unofficially. It recommends developing reporting channels, especially on threat potential or foreign UFO-related research, and keeps the case open.
This is a confidential Central Intelligence Agency cable from April 1976, sent by a Domestic Collection Division field office to DCD headquarters under the subject "Case UFO Research." It refers to an earlier headquarters message and to a UFO study dated 9 April 1976. It says the source asked for the referenced material to be classified confidential and wanted guidance from CIA UFO experts on which parts of his report should stay classified. The cable was approved for release on 17 May 1978.