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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.Documents1,073 records · page 16
This is a clipping from the Passaic, New Jersey Herald-News, dated January 22, 1954 on the page, found in Central Intelligence Agency files. It is a letter to the editor from John Laval of Matawan, a NICAP member. Laval argues that UFOs are extraterrestrial machines that have been observing Earth since 1944. He accuses the Air Force, the CIA and the National Security Council of running a propaganda campaign to dismiss them, and he praises Maj. Donald E. Keyhoe's push for a congressional investigation.
This CIA-held FOIA release, dated 1999-03-08, reproduces a letter to the editor published in the Dayton, Ohio News on April 30, 1964. In the letter, John Laval of Matawan, New Jersey, argues that UFOs are extraterrestrial machines that have been observing Earth since 1944. He claims the Air Force, the CIA and the National Security Council have run a propaganda campaign to hide this. He also backs Maj. Donald E. Keyhoe's push for open congressional hearings.
This Central Intelligence Agency study by Gerald K. Haines traces the Agency's involvement with UFOs from 1947 to 1990. It draws on records from a file review that DCI R. James Woolsey ordered in 1993. According to the study, CIA concern was substantial until the early 1950s, and after that the Agency paid only limited attention. The study covers the 1953 Robertson panel and its finding that UFOs posed no threat. It also reports that U-2 and OXCART flights accounted for many sightings, and it describes CIA efforts to conceal its role.
This Central Intelligence Agency release, approved for release in 2000, is a roster from the Scientific Advisory Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects, which met 14 to 17 January 1953. It lists the members and associates with their organizations and fields of competence. These include physicists, astronomers and geophysicists from Caltech, the University of California, Brookhaven, Johns Hopkins and Ohio State, along with CIA Office of Scientific Intelligence officials, ATIC and USAF intelligence staff, and Navy photo interpreters.
This Central Intelligence Agency memorandum, dated 13 October 1952, was written by James Q. Reber, Assistant Director for Intelligence Coordination, to the Deputy Director (Intelligence). It notes that Air Force research through ATIC had explained all but 20 percent of about 1,500 reported sightings. OSI found no evidence that the saucers were Soviet created or controlled. The memo concludes that fundamental scientific research belongs to the Defense Department and that psychological warfare planning would be premature.
This Central Intelligence Agency release, dated 2000-01-06, holds a draft memorandum from the Director of Central Intelligence to the Secretary of Defense and an Intelligence Advisory Committee cover sheet. The memo says the Air Force has received about 1500 official sighting reports, of which about 20% remain unexplained, and that the situation may affect national security. It recommends an expanded Defense Department scientific research program working closely with intelligence. It also asks the Watch Committee to watch for Russian actions related to flying saucers.
This Foreign Broadcast Information Service cable from FBIS Okinawa, dated 19 February 1993, relays a Kyodo news report. It was released by the Central Intelligence Agency in 2000. According to the report, Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry planned a research institute, likely set up in 1995, for the scientific study of art, culture and parapsychology, including telepathy and UFOs, for use in next-generation industry. A MITI panel was collecting brain wave data and would draft an interim report by May.
This CIA-released page from Parapsychology Abstracts International, approved for release in 2000, collects German-language abstracts from the Zeitschrift für Parapsychologie und Grenzgebiete der Psychologie. Entry 01914 summarizes Illo Brand's 1975 article "The spectrum of UFO sightings." The article argues that scientists resist UFO research for sociopsychological reasons and criticizes the Condon examination for trying to explain every sighting as a natural phenomenon, a fraud or an illusion. It concludes that a spectrum based on 50,000 computerized reports is needed to tell whether UFOs are physical or parapsychological.
This National Photographic Interpretation Center photographic interpretation report, dated January 1965 and released by the Central Intelligence Agency, was prepared for a CIA study of Chinese surface-to-air missile capability. It covers 14 SA-2 SAM sites, 6 former sites, the Tai-yuan Probable Solid Propellants Test Facility and the Peiping Rocket Engine Test Facility. It also estimates hypothetical dimensions of an unidentified Chinese missile from a single Time magazine photograph, cautioning that more photography is needed.
This Central Intelligence Agency document, released in 2000, lists the evidence presented to the Scientific Advisory Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects, which met 14 to 17 January 1953. The evidence included seventy-five case histories from 1951 and 1952, Project Grudge, Blue Book, Stork and Twinkle reports, and motion picture films taken at Tremonton, Utah, and Great Falls, Montana. It also included balloon charts and samples, radar manuals, and intelligence reports on Soviet interest in US sightings.
This CIA internal newsletter, Information Review and Release (IRR) News, covers 18 December 2000 to 5 January 2001 and is dated for release in 2019. It lists upcoming dates for declassification panels and deadlines under Executive Order 12958. It reports NARA's request for CIA help scanning and declassifying records at presidential libraries, and a volunteer escort for the Clinton materials moving to Arkansas. It also summarizes FOIA requests, including one from a Canadian requester interested in UFOs who asked about former NPIC Director Arthur Lundahl.
This is an unclassified CIA weekly newsletter from Information Review and Release, covering 8 to 12 January 2001. It lists upcoming meetings and the automatic declassification deadlines under Executive Order 12958. It also covers the review of 67,000 pages of National Security Council records and a 1953 memo on the value of open Soviet literature. In addition, it summarizes FOIA requests, including one from a requester with past interest in UFO information who asked about Glenn Miller's 1944 disappearance.
This is the Central Intelligence Agency's Information Review and Release (IRR) weekly news executive summary for 5 to 9 March 2001, released in 2019. It lists upcoming declassification panel meetings and deadlines. It also describes a Princeton University conference on CIA analysis of the Soviet Union, for which over 19,000 pages were released. Other items cover FOIA requests, including a British requester who wanted the 1951 D.S.I./J.T.I.C. Report No. 7 on Unidentified Flying Objects, plus a 1949 study on CIA and IAC cooperation.
This sanitized Central Intelligence Agency information report, approved for release on 2 April 2001, sets out UFO sightings reported in February and March 1968 over Ladakh, Nepal, Sikkim and Bhutan. For each sighting it gives the date, local time, area, direction of flight and a description of the object. The objects included bright lights, rocket-like trails and objects heard with thunder sounds. A metallic disc-shaped object was reportedly found in a crater near Pokhara, Nepal. Pages also quote Donald Keyhoe and Edward Condon.
This CIA-released copy, approved for release in 2001, reproduces a LOOK magazine condensation of John G. Fuller's book The Interrupted Journey. It recounts Betty and Barney Hill's September 19, 1961 sighting near Indian Head, New Hampshire, their two missing hours, Dr. Benjamin Simon's hypnosis sessions and Walter Webb's NICAP investigation. Simon found neither patient psychotic but said nothing was proved. The file also includes an Air Force UFO report form and a letter from J. Allen Hynek urging scientific study of UFOs.
This declassified CIA memorandum, approved for release on 2 April 2001, was written by H. Marshall Chadwell, Assistant Director for Scientific Intelligence, to the Deputy Director (Intelligence). It asks for approval in principle to set up an external research project in which an Ad Hoc Panel of top-level scientists would analyze the available evidence on Unidentified Flying Objects and recommend further action. The memo estimates the cost at about $5,000, classifies the project SECRET and says U.S. Air Force personnel would take part.
This CIA release, approved in 2001, is a set of reprinted science press articles about UFOs from 1969 to 1971. A Science News piece reports that UFO sightings fell after the 1968 Condon report and gives NICAP and academic views on why. An AIAA UFO Subcommittee review calls the Condon report the most scientific study so far but argues that its hard core of unexplained cases justifies further study. A Science editorial by Hudson Hoagland argues that more UFO investigation would be wasteful.
This Central Intelligence Agency memorandum, dated 26 January 1965 and released in 2001, was sent by Donald F. Chamberlain, Assistant Director for Scientific Intelligence, to the Director of Central Intelligence. It reviews recent UFO reports, including incidents at Sunnyvale, California, the Gemini launch and Patuxent, Maryland, and finds no evidence that UFOs are of foreign origin or a threat to United States security. The Office of Scientific Intelligence concurs with the Air Force conclusions. Air Force statistics for 1954 to 1964 are attached.
This Central Intelligence Agency memorandum for record on flying saucers is dated 3 December 1952 and marked secret. It was approved for release in 2001. Most of the text is redacted. Its surviving conclusion is that a scientific review of the problem would probably need the full backing of the DCI. Without that backing, the writer judged it would likely be impossible to get the Air Force cooperation needed, particularly access to reports. A routing and record sheet addressed to AD/SI is attached.
This CIA memorandum was released in 2001. It is dated 13 October 1952 and was written by James Q. Reber, Assistant Director for Intelligence Coordination, to the Deputy Director (Intelligence). It says Air Force analysis through ATIC had explained all but 20 per cent of about 1500 reported sightings, and that OSI found no evidence the saucers were Soviet-made or Soviet-controlled. It concludes that fundamental scientific research is the Defense Department's responsibility and proposes a letter from the DCI to Secretary Lovett.
This Central Intelligence Agency briefing text on flying saucers, released in 2001, gives the Office of Scientific Intelligence's survey of the Air Force study after General Samford's July 29 press conference. It traces reports from Kenneth Arnold's 1947 sighting through Mantell, Gorman and White Sands, and describes ATIC's classes of sightings and figures on unexplained cases. It weighs four theories and finds no evidence for Russian or interplanetary origins. A draft National Security Council directive tasking the DCI with UFO research is attached.
This CIA release contains two 1952 internal memos on flying saucers. The 1 August 1952 memo from the Weapons and Equipment Division reports that most of the 1000 to 2000 reports ATIC received were phoney, explained as U.S. equipment, or natural phenomena. Fewer than 100 credible reports stayed unexplained. It recommends that CIA surveillance continue quietly, with no sign of CIA interest reaching the public. A 29 July memo says a special study group had been formed after recent radar and visual sightings.
This CIA document, approved for release on 2 April 2001, contains a memorandum from Director Walter B. Smith to the Director of the Psychological Strategy Board, along with a staff study by the Office of Scientific Intelligence on flying saucers. The study treats unidentified flying objects as a national security problem that matters for operations, intelligence and psychological warfare. It criticizes the small Air Force project at ATIC under Captain E. J. Ruppelt and recommends a centrally administered research program.
This CIA file, approved for release on April 2, 2001, holds newspaper material on flying saucers. The main piece is an article by Charles Cooke, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who says he helped name Project Blue Book. In it he reviews books by Fuller, Edwards, NICAP and the Air Force, and he collects UFO reports from before 1947 that go back to 1838. A second article, by John Davy of the London Observer, reviews Sagan and Shklovskii's Intelligent Life in the Universe.
This Central Intelligence Agency memorandum, dated 11 October 1952 and approved for release in 2001, records an informal agreement among the DD/I, AD/IC and Acting AD/SI on how to handle the flying saucer problem. They agreed that responsible individuals in the intelligence community should work out a research and intelligence program, which would then go to the DCI and possibly the National Security Council. It also arranges a meeting for 20 or 21 October with Dr. Walter G. Whitman and the USAF Director of Intelligence.
This CIA release, approved in 2001, contains Flying Saucers UFO Reports No. 1, a magazine that Dell Publishing issued in 1967. It argues that UFOs deserve serious study. It gathers reported landings, radar trackings, sightings by astronomers and pilots, and cases involving creatures, drawing on Ruppelt, Keyhoe, Fuller, NICAP and APRO. It also describes Project Blue Book, NICAP, APRO and the new University of Colorado study under Dr. Edward Condon.
This CIA release, approved in 2001, collects 1952 memoranda on unidentified flying objects from the Office of Scientific Intelligence. A July memo says a special study group was formed after recent radar and visual sightings. A later memo from H. Marshall Chadwell says sightings of high-altitude, high-speed objects near major U.S. defense installations could not be attributed to natural phenomena. It proposes a consulting group and attaches a draft memo to the NSC, signed by Walter B. Smith, and a draft NSC directive for a DCI research program.
This is a copy of "The UFO Evidence," a report published in May 1964 by the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) in Washington, D.C. and edited by Richard H. Hall. The CIA released its copy in 2001. The report draws 746 sightings from more than 5,000 signed reports and argues that unexplained UFOs are real, artificial objects under intelligent control. It criticizes Air Force secrecy and calls for a Congressional inquiry into Project Blue Book and a larger scientific investigation.
This CIA release, approved for release on 2 April 2001, reproduces William Markowitz's 1967 Science article "The Physics and Metaphysics of Unidentified Flying Objects." Markowitz was a Marquette University physics professor. He argues that reported UFO landings and lift-offs cannot involve extraterrestrial spacecraft if the laws of physics hold. He criticizes the hard-data claims of Hynek, Powers and Vallee and recommends that the Air Force stop investigating UFOs.
This CIA release, approved for release on 2 April 2001, reproduces a magazine article by astronomer J. Allen Hynek called "The UFO Gap." Hynek warns that the Soviet Union may be quietly studying UFOs while the United States lags behind. He recounts his work as a consultant to Project Blue Book, criticizes the Air Force's handling of cases, and proposes rating reports for strangeness and witness credibility. He also calls for rapid-response camera teams and a 24-hour UFO-1000 reporting center.
This CIA release, approved in 2001, reprints two 1967 and 1968 publications. The first is a set of Science letters from December 1967 answering Markowitz's article on UFO physics. The writers argue that his case against extraterrestrial control of UFOs is weak, and one criticizes his use of the Chiles-Whitted and Tombaugh sightings. The second is John G. Fuller's LOOK article "Flying Saucer Fiasco" on the University of Colorado UFO study. It covers Robert Low's "trick" memo, the firing of Saunders and Levine, and NICAP's break with the project.
This CIA release, approved for release on 2001/04/02, is a copy of an AIAA article by G. D. Thayer of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a former member of the Condon Committee. The AIAA UFO Subcommittee chose it as a sample case. It reviews the Lakenheath-Bentwaters radar-visual incident of August 13 and 14, 1956, drawing on Project Bluebook files and the Condon Report. It rejects meteors, mirage, anomalous propagation and radar malfunction as explanations and calls the case one of the most significant and disturbing on record.
This CIA memorandum from H. Marshall Chadwell, Assistant Director for Scientific Intelligence, to the Director of Central Intelligence, dated December 1952 and released in 2001, reviews the USAF investigation of unidentified flying objects after a visit to the Air Technical Intelligence Center. It finds no reasonable evidence that the objects are of foreign origin but notes potential dangers to early warning, communications and public calm. It proposes a small consultant panel and appends case notes on the Tremonton film, a Maine sighting attributed to Jupiter, and a Florida scoutmaster report.
This Central Intelligence Agency memorandum, dated 18 December 1952 and released in 2001, was sent by H. Marshall Chadwell, Assistant Director for Scientific Intelligence, to the Director of Central Intelligence. It reports a visit to the Air Technical Intelligence Center and finds no reasonable evidence that the objects are of foreign origin, though it notes potential dangers. The CIA's Office of Scientific Intelligence planned to convene top-level scientific consultants. An attached tab reviews the Tremonton film, a Maine sighting attributed to Jupiter, and a possible hoax by a Florida scoutmaster.
This Central Intelligence Agency release, approved in 2001, contains a December 1952 memorandum from H. Marshall Chadwell, Assistant Director for Scientific Intelligence, to the Director of Central Intelligence. It also includes a draft memo from Walter B. Smith to the National Security Council and a draft NSC directive. Chadwell reports that sightings near major U.S. defense installations are not attributable to natural phenomena or known aircraft. He proposes a consulting group. The draft directive would have the DCI run a research program on identifying unidentified flying objects.
This declassified CIA memorandum, dated 18 December 1952 and released in 2001, was sent to the Director of Central Intelligence by H. Marshall Chadwell, Assistant Director for Scientific Intelligence. It reports a briefing at the Air Technical Intelligence Center and finds no reasonable evidence that the objects are of foreign origin. It also plans a small panel of scientific consultants. An attached tab reviews the Tremonton film, a Maine light identified as Jupiter, and a Florida scoutmaster report.
This Central Intelligence Agency release, approved for release in April 2001, holds only an official routing slip dated November 25, 1957. It was sent from the Assistant to the Director to the DD/I and OSI and marked for concurrence. The remarks mention a chronological file and a flying objects reference. The extracted text does not include the article on Russia and flying saucers that the title names, so no findings or conclusions appear.
This Central Intelligence Agency office memorandum, approved for release on 2001-04-02, sends photographs of an unidentified flying object filmed on 16 mm movie film in 1952. It explains how the enclosed prints and enlargements were made and gives background from the source. The object was a bright orange, saucer-shaped rotating oblate spheroid, estimated at 2,000 feet and in view for about three minutes. The memo notes that the original negatives are held by the Air Force.
This is a CIA memorandum to the Director of Central Intelligence from the Assistant Director for Scientific Intelligence, with a routing slip dated 11/1/55. It was approved for release on 2001/04/02. The memo comments on a sanitized report of an unconventional aircraft sighting. It says the few details given do not allow the object to be identified but suggest it was not a flying saucer, and that it may have been a vertical take-off aircraft or a rail-launched missile. It also describes a 1954 Air Force advisory committee that recommended against supporting a flying saucer project.
This Central Intelligence Agency memorandum from the Deputy Assistant Director for Collection, Scientific Intelligence, to the Deputy Director for Coordination follows up a July 8 telephone call about Dr. M. K. Jessup. Agency scientists talked with Jessup about a meteor study in Mexico and about flying saucers, and then met with a contact he referred them to. The memo concludes that the Agency has nothing to gain from any further follow-up. The document was approved for release in 2001.
This is a CIA memorandum from Herbert Scoville Jr., Assistant Director for Scientific Intelligence, to the Deputy Director for Intelligence, dated 13 April 1956 and released in 2001. It answers questions about a UFO sighting reported in the French magazine Match and says the article lacked enough detail to identify the object and seemed exaggerated. The memo notes the CIA's liaison with the Air Force Technical Intelligence Center and says Mars's close approach on 7 September 1956 may prompt many saucer reports.
This Central Intelligence Agency file, released in 2001, includes a 26 March 1956 memorandum from Deputy Director/Intelligence Robert Amory, Jr. to the Assistant Director/Scientific Intelligence. Amory points to a MATCH magazine article describing a radar photograph of an object that an airline pilot also saw, and asks whether CIA keeps in touch with the Air Force center on sightings, including foreign ones. The file also holds a clipping reporting that the Transport Department was closing its Shirley Bay saucer station because nothing had come of it.
This CIA document, approved for release on 2 April 2001, is the report of a Scientific Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects, dated 17 January 1953. The panel, chaired by H. P. Robertson, reviewed evidence presented mainly by the United States Air Force. It found no sign that UFOs pose a direct physical threat to national security or are foreign artifacts capable of hostile acts. It recommended stripping UFOs of their special status and running a program to reassure the public.
This Central Intelligence Agency memorandum for the record, dated 2001-03-20 in the archive, describes how a division within the Office of Scientific Intelligence assumed responsibility for "Non-Conventional Types of Air Vehicles" and how it would handle UFO reports. Reports bearing on foreign weapons or fundamental science were to be kept or forwarded, and all others destroyed. Citing experience and Project Blue Book Special Report 14, it says such reports cannot be usefully analyzed and recommends destroying old UFO files held by the Electronics Division.
This undated CIA memorandum for the record, approved for release in 2001, sets out how an Office of Scientific Intelligence division would handle its new responsibility for non-conventional air vehicles, or UFOs. ASD would keep raw reports that bear on foreign weapons research, and the Fundamental Sciences Area would review those touching foreign science. All other reports would be destroyed. Citing Blue Book Special Report 14, the memo recommends destroying the raw and obsolete UFO reports held by Electronics Division.
This Central Intelligence Agency office memorandum, dated 8 August 1955 and released in 2001, went from the Chief of the Physics and Electronics Division to the Acting Assistant Director for Scientific Intelligence. It notes that the division had kept track of UFO sighting reports since 1953, spending 10 to 25 analyst hours a month on the work. Because no intelligence of concern to national security had come out of the project, the memo recommends ending it and putting its files in dead storage. A routing slip signed by Herbert Scoville approves the proposal.
This Central Intelligence Agency file, approved for release in 2001, collects 1956 correspondence about who handles reports of unidentified flying objects. It includes a proposal for dividing up raw UFO reports and destroying some of them. Deputy Director Robert Amory Jr. asked about a Paris Match article, and the Assistant Director for Scientific Intelligence replied that the Office keeps close liaison with the Air Force Technical Intelligence Center. The file also holds a clipping about the closure of the Shirley Bay saucer station.
This is a short Central Intelligence Agency memorandum from the Chief of the Liaison Division, Central Reference, to the Air Force Director of Intelligence, attention Colonel Charles E. Taylor. It forwards attached correspondence about a reported sighting of an unidentified flying object for whatever action the Air Force deems appropriate. The CIA asks for a copy of the resulting report if an investigation is conducted. The sighting details are not included in the text, and the release is dated 2001.
This is the Central Intelligence Agency's Information Review and Release (IRR) weekly executive summary for 19 to 23 March 2001. It lists upcoming meetings, including an ISCAP meeting and the Historical Review Panel, along with automatic declassification deadlines under Executive Order 12958. It reports a FRUS conference with State Department counterparts, FOIA requests about the 1953 Iranian coup, U-2 pilot Rudolph Anderson and Soviet nuclear monitoring, and a joint effort with NIMA to index U-2 imagery. It does not mention UFOs.
This is the Central Intelligence Agency's Information Review and Release (IRR) weekly executive summary for 2 to 6 April 2001, released in 2019. It lists upcoming declassification panel meetings and deadlines under Executive Order 12958, and describes a quality assurance effort with Raytheon at the OIM Declassification Center. It also covers a 1949 advisory committee meeting chaired by the Director of Central Intelligence and summarizes recent FOIA requests. It notes that UFOs are among the popular topics on CIA's FOIA website.