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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 18
This is a UPI news article dated October 8 from Tucson, Arizona, kept in a CIA file and approved for release in 2004. It reports that University of Arizona physicist James McDonald believes some UFOs come from outside the atmosphere and are controlled by thinking beings. He rejected Air Force explanations such as swamp gas and ball lightning and called the Air Force investigation method a scientific scandal. The article also notes that the Air Force commissioned Colorado University to run a UFO study.
This CIA file holds a UPI news article datelined Tucson, Arizona, October 8, and carries a 2004 date. It reports that James McDonald, a senior physicist at the University of Arizona's Institute of Atmospheric Physics, believes some UFOs come from outside the atmosphere and are controlled by thinking beings. McDonald rejects Air Force explanations such as swamp gas and ball lightning and calls its investigation method a scientific scandal. The article also notes the Air Force commissioned a Colorado University flying saucer study.
This CIA-held clipping is a Reuters article from the Philadelphia Inquirer of July 9, 1967, datelined Sydney. Physicist James McDonald said flying saucers were visiting Earth and that governments, backed by the CIA, ran a program to debunk them. He added that he did not see a CIA cover-up, only an effort to sweep the problem under the carpet. McDonald had recorded 70 Australian witnesses and cited cases he considered authentic, including a New Guinea sighting by a clergyman and 30 others.
This Washington Star article by Robert Walters is held in CIA files and dated 2004-01-06. It reports that physicist James E. McDonald told the American Society of Newspaper Editors that a 1953 CIA proposal to debunk flying saucers was adopted by the Robertson committee and still sits in a classified report. McDonald called the Air Force's handling of UFOs superficial and asked for a congressional inquiry. Project Blue Book head Maj. Hector Quintanilla disputed him, citing Blue Book's conclusions.
This newspaper article, held in the files of the Central Intelligence Agency and dated 2004-01-06 in the archive, reports claims by Dr. James E. McDonald, a University of Arizona physicist. McDonald says the CIA ordered the Air Force to debunk UFO reports, and that the order was attached to the 1953 Robertson Report and signed by Philip G. Strong. He argues that no real scientific investigation has been done. He cites a police pursuit from Ravenna, Ohio, to Conway, Pennsylvania, and says Air Force regulation 200-2 blocks the release of reports.
This item, released by the Central Intelligence Agency in 2004, is a 24 April 1967 John Herald piece titled "UFO's and the CIA." It reports Dr. James E. McDonald's charge that in 1953 the CIA asked the Air Force to debunk flying saucers, based on CIA testimony before the Robertson Panel. McDonald linked this to Air Force Regulation 200-2 and to limits on releasing radar data. The piece argues that the CIA disregarded legal limits on domestic activity and that Congress must regulate the agency.
This is a Central Intelligence Agency Information Review and Release (IRR) weekly newsletter covering 19 to 23 January 2004. It summarizes a meeting of the External Referral Working Group on declassification plans and a planned expansion of the NARA Referral Center. It also lists new FOIA requests and archival items, including Richard Nixon's 1953 speech to a CIA orientation course. A short item notes that in 1978 the Agency regularly sent requesters a UFO information package for $11.80 in copying charges.
This Central Intelligence Agency release contains the report of a Scientific Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects. The panel met at the request of the Assistant Director for Scientific Intelligence and reviewed evidence, mainly from the Air Technical Intelligence Center. It concluded that UFOs posed no direct physical threat to national security, but that continued emphasis on reporting them could clog communications and invite hysteria. It recommended stripping UFOs of their special status and educating the public. Three further pages are exempt.
This is a secret Intelligence Advisory Committee memorandum, IAC-D-67, dated 18 February 1953 and signed by Secretary James Q. Reber. The CIA approved it for release in 2004. It sends the committee the report of a scientific panel on unidentified flying objects, along with a summary of the evidence and a list of the participants. It proposes giving copies to the Secretary of Defense and civil defense officials, and states that CIA concluded no National Security Council Intelligence Directive on the subject is warranted.
This Central Intelligence Agency Information Review and Release newsletter covers the week of 19 to 23 April 2004. It reports on an External Referral Working Group meeting at NARA, a new Joint Referral Center, and declassification work at the Presidential Libraries. It also notes that the CIA FOIA website passed one million hits, with "UFO" the top search keyword. It summarizes several FOIA requests and archival items, including 1947 to 1949 letters with the Nuremberg war crimes counsel and a 1978 NSC memo.
This CIA memorandum for the record, dated 16 May 1958 and written by the Assistant to the Legislative Counsel, describes a meeting between CIA's Office of Scientific Intelligence and Air Force representatives about unidentified flying objects. The Air Force planned a press release to dispel the mystery around the 1953 flying saucer report and a reply to Dr. Leon Davidson, with references to CIA convening the panel deleted. The Air Force also raised concern about Admiral Hillenkoetter's association with Major Kehoe's group.
This Central Intelligence Agency excerpt, dated 28 June 2004, comes from the agency history The CIA and Overhead Reconnaissance: The U-2 and OXCART Programs. It says that U-2 flights above 60,000 feet caused a sharp rise in UFO reports, mostly from airline pilots who saw sunlight glinting off the planes' silver wings. According to the text, Air Force Operation BLUE BOOK investigators compared these reports with CIA U-2 flight logs. The history concludes that U-2 and OXCART flights accounted for more than half of all UFO reports in the late 1950s and most of the 1960s.
This is an internal Central Intelligence Agency newsletter, Information Review and Release (IRR) News, covering the week of 26 to 30 July 2004. It lists upcoming classification appeals panel meetings and recaps FOIA requests: one about the Lumumba murder, one questioning CIA electronic information gathering, and one on how the CIA defines operational files. It also reports a CREST-like system installed at the Ford Presidential Library and includes archive excerpts on Pope John Paul II's 1979 visit to Poland and on Soviet interrogation methods. It does not discuss UFOs.
This CIA file, dated 2004-09-17, holds a clipping from the St. Paul Pioneer Press of 18 January 1979. The article reports a claim by William Spaulding, director of Ground Saucer Watch in Phoenix, Arizona, that the CIA and the Air Force conspired to cover up UFO surveillance of military bases. Spaulding says 1,000 pages of CIA documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act suit support the charge. He also says five former intelligence officers will testify.
This item, released by the Central Intelligence Agency with a 2004 release stamp, is a tabloid article from MIDNIGHT/GLOBE titled "Revealed: the CIA's Secret UFO File." It reports claims by Bill Spaulding of Ground Saucer Watch that the CIA, rather than the Air Force, is suppressing UFO evidence, and describes the group's Freedom of Information Act suit. It recounts an Iranian jet intercept of a UFO near Teheran and a NORAD directive on 1975 UFO overflights of Strategic Air Command bases.
This Central Intelligence Agency file, dated 2004-09-17, contains a short news brief headed "National and International News in Brief." It reports an accusation by William H. Spaulding, a Phoenix aerospace engineer and director of the UFO study group Ground Saucer Watch. Spaulding says the CIA and the Air Force conspired to cover up UFO surveillance of military bases. He says 1,000 pages of documents, obtained from the CIA the previous month through a Freedom of Information Act suit, prove the government suppressed significant findings.
This is a newspaper article held in Central Intelligence Agency files and approved for release in 2004. It reports from Acapulco on the First International Congress on the UFO Phenomenon, where researchers said scientific respect for UFO study was growing. The article quotes J. Allen Hynek on a survey of astronomers and on Project Blue Book as a public-relations effort. It also quotes Ground Saucer Watch's William Spaulding, who alleged CIA suppression of UFO data, and Jacques Vallee on a destroyed satellite-tracking tape.
This is a September 18, 2004 appeal letter from researcher Larry W. Bryant to the Central Intelligence Agency's Agency Release Panel, released by the CIA in 2025. It challenges FOIA manager Scott Koch's September 9, 2004 denial of a records-search fee waiver under reference F-2004-01956, which placed Bryant in the commercial requester category. Bryant cites his writing credits, including a book on UFO politics at the White House. He says he will seek judicial relief in federal court if the denial stands.
This CIA release, approved on 22 July 2010, contains a 18 September 2004 email from researcher Larry W. Bryant to the CIA Agency Release Panel. In it he appeals CIA FOIA manager Scott Koch's 9 September 2004 denial of his request for a waiver of records-search fees. Bryant argues that he is an independent writer-researcher and news-media requester, not a commercial one, and cites his work for FATE magazine and a forthcoming book on UFO politics. He says his attorney, Mark S. Zaid, would file suit if the denial stands.
This CIA FOIA release, received in December 2004, holds two emails from researcher Larry W. Bryant to the CIA Director about FOIA request F-2004-01956. On September 18, 2004, Bryant appealed the denial of his request for a records-search fee waiver, which he had sought as an independent writer researching the "McCarthy Saga". His December 5, 2004 follow-up said his attorney, Mark S. Zaid, would file a complaint in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia around December 27, 2004.
This CIA FOIA release, dated December 5, 2004, holds correspondence from Larry W. Bryant, an independent writer who asked for a records-search fee waiver while researching the "McCarthy Saga" involving John J. McCarthy. It includes Bryant's September 18, 2004 appeal of CIA FOIA manager Scott Koch's denial, which had placed him in the commercial requester category. It also includes his notice that attorney Mark S. Zaid would file suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. One page was denied.
This CIA file holds a transcript of the Joe Pyne Show broadcast of December 23, 1966. The CIA approved it for release in January 2005. On the show, Dr. Frank Strangers talks about lie detector tests and describes writing to the Central Intelligence Agency for UFO information for his book. He quotes the agency's reply that it does not make public any information about unidentified flying objects. He says a later letter was referred to the U.S. Air Force, and he mentions Air Force figures given to the LA Times.
This item, released by the Central Intelligence Agency with a date of 2005-01-04, is a short newspaper notice. It announces that Dr. Frank E. Stranges, president of International Evangelism Crusades, Inc., would lecture on the "Flying Saucer Mystery" at Drexel Hall in Kansas City, sponsored by the U.F.O. Study Club. The notice lists his books and says he illustrates his talks with colored slides. It also claims he obtained evidence from the Air Force and the CIA about the validity of flying saucers.
This CIA release, approved in 2005, is a 1968 compilation of translated Soviet press items on scientific affairs. It centers on a 29 February 1968 PRAVDA article by Ye. Mustel, D. Martynov and V. Leshkovtsev, together with a TASS report on it. The article dismisses flying saucers as misidentified aircraft, balloons, satellites and optical effects. It says a luminous object over Sofia was a NATO sounding balloon and calls Adamski a charlatan. It also reports that the USSR Academy of Sciences found the UFO reports had no scientific foundation.
This CIA-released copy of Project Blue Book Special Report No. 14 is dated 5 May 1955 and comes from the Air Technical Intelligence Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. It is a statistical analysis of about 4,000 unidentified aerial object reports from 1947 through 1952, coded onto IBM punched cards with the help of a panel of scientists. The report concludes that such objects were highly unlikely to be technological developments beyond present-day scientific knowledge. It also found no valid evidence of physical matter.
This Central Intelligence Agency record, approved for release in July 2005, is an interview with a person whose name is withheld, on the subject of unidentified flying objects. The subject said he had extrasensory perception and could travel in a fourth dimension, and he described meeting saucer occupants on a screen. He also said that on the night of May 11 and 12 a red orb landed in the desert near a convention site and that he walked about twenty miles following a magnetic force.
This Central Intelligence Agency release, dated 2005-07-13, is a short observer's report of an unidentified flying object seen on 6 December 1956. The writer describes a red flare with short tails, flying 10 to 12 miles out to sea at an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 feet and 750 to 1000 miles per hour. It matched a missile's altitude near T plus 95 seconds, then turned east and kept going until T plus 330 seconds. The report mentions a similar sighting on the night of a failed Jupiter launch.
This CIA FOIA release, approved in 2022, holds a June 5, 2006 appeal from Larry W. Bryant to the CIA Records-Release Panel, along with the agency's replies. Bryant challenges the CIA's refusal to treat him as a news media requester in two requests: one on John Joseph McCarthy Jr. and PROJECT CHERRY, the other on Philip J. Corso. The CIA's letters report no McCarthy records and no Corso records in its holdings. An enclosed UFO magazine column discusses the FBI's file on Philip J. Klass.
This CIA FOIA release, approved for release in 2025, holds Larry W. Bryant's June 5, 2006 appeal to the CIA Records Release Panel. He challenges the agency's handling of two requests: one on former Army captain John Joseph McCarthy Jr., for which no records were found, and one on Philip J. Corso, where his news media fee status was questioned. Included are the CIA's May 2006 letters from Scott Koch and Bryant's April 2006 UFO magazine column on the FBI dossier on Philip J. Klass.
This CIA FOIA release contains a June 5, 2006 appeal from independent writer Larry W. Bryant to the CIA Records-Release Panel. He challenges the agency's no-records finding on former Army captain John Joseph McCarthy, Jr., whom he says was assigned to the clandestine Vietnam-era Project CHERRY. He also disputes fee denials on his request for records on Philip J. Corso. Attached are Scott Koch's May 2006 replies and Bryant's UFO magazine column on the FBI dossier on Philip J. Klass.
This CIA FOIA release contains 2006 correspondence between researcher Larry W. Bryant and the agency's Information and Privacy Coordinator. Bryant appealed denial of his news media fee status for request F-2004-01956 on former Army captain John Joseph McCarthy, Jr., whom he says served in the Vietnam-era Project Cherry. A CIA letter dated 20 June 2006 refused the appeal over an unpaid $30.00 fee. Bryant also sought records on Philip J. Corso and Philip Julian Klass, citing Corso's Roswell claims and Majestic-Twelve.
This 2006 CIA FOIA release holds correspondence between an independent writer who directs the Washington, D.C., office of Citizens Against UFO Secrecy and the CIA's Information and Privacy Coordinator. The writer appeals the denial of news media requester status and a $30.00 fee on request F-2004-01956, which sought records on John Joseph McCarthy, Jr. and Project Cherry. The letters also request records on Philip J. Corso and Philip Julian Klass. The CIA's June 20, 2006 reply refuses the appeal until the fee is paid.
This Central Intelligence Agency FOIA release, dated September 2006, contains an email from a UFO Magazine columnist to CIA Information and Privacy Coordinator Scott Koch. The columnist gives notice that they plan to sue in federal court over the CIA's refusal to treat them as a news media requester and its denial of search fee waivers. The email quotes Koch's August 28, 2006 letter, which accepts the columnist's appeal after no records on John Joseph McCarthy, Jr. were found.
This Central Intelligence Agency article, dated 2006-10-23 in the archive, was written by a Directorate of Intelligence officer. It reviews how CIA Public Affairs handled the 1996 San Jose Mercury-News "Dark Alliance" series by Gary Webb, which alleged CIA complicity in crack cocaine sales. The article concludes that good relations with journalists and a strong Public Affairs response kept the story from becoming a disaster. UFO coverups come up only once, as an example of fantastic allegations about CIA.
This Central Intelligence Agency information report, disseminated on 3 July 2008 and classified Secret NOFORN, relays heavily redacted reporting from Zimbabwe. It describes an unidentified object hovering at high altitude over Harare International Airport on the afternoon of 2 July 2008, possibly observed by radar and optical means. Observers described a disc-like object with a hollow center and rotating lights that shifted colors before it rapidly ascended out of view. The incident contributed to a decision to place a Zimbabwean entity on high alert.
This is a Freedom of Information Act request dated November 8, 2008, sent by Larry W. Bryant, a columnist for UFO Magazine, to the Central Intelligence Agency's Information and Privacy Coordinator. It asks for CIA records on the late investigative journalist W. Todd Zechel and on a reported February 1969 agreement between CIA and Soviet intelligence personnel about attributing UFO intrusions over military bases. Bryant also asks to be treated as a news media requester and attaches Zechel's obituary.
This is a final response letter dated December 23, 2008, from Delores M. Nelson, Information and Privacy Coordinator at the Central Intelligence Agency, answering FOIA request F-2009-00135. The requester had asked for the 1,757 UFO pages released after Director Woolsey's 14 December 1993 radio interview. The letter states that the Agency has released 2,779 pages of UFO-related documents, which are not indexed. It encloses a listing and offers the full package for $267.90 or individual documents at ten cents per page.
This one-page Central Intelligence Agency assignment file brief report, dated 2 June 2009, records the opening of Freedom of Information Act litigation file LD-2009-00096, Larry Bryant v. CIA. The plaintiff, identified as Director of the Washington, DC office of Citizens Against UFO Secrecy, filed a complaint challenging the Agency's denial of his request for media status. The report lists the attorney and paralegal assigned on 2 June 2009, with their names withheld under FOIA exemptions (b)(3) and (b)(6).
This Central Intelligence Agency file summary covers the lawsuit Larry Bryant v. CIA, case 1:09-CV-00940, which the agency assigned on 2 June 2009 and closed in August 2012. The plaintiff, director of the Washington, DC office of Citizens Against UFO Secrecy, challenged the CIA's denial of his request for media status in a FOIA/Privacy Act matter. The complaint was filed on 20 May 2009. Names, contacts and staff details are redacted.
This is a Freedom of Information Act request sent to the Central Intelligence Agency's Information and Privacy Coordinator. The letter is dated June 9, 2009, and the CIA approved it for release on May 12, 2010. The requester says they are a representative of the news media and asks for a full fee waiver, citing a radio network and articles in outlets including UFO Magazine and FATE Magazine. They ask for all publications and reports that the DNI's Open Source Center produced in January 2009.
This is a Freedom of Information Act request dated June 18, 2009, sent to the Central Intelligence Agency's Information and Privacy Coordinator. The CIA approved it for release on May 12, 2010, under case number F-2009-01274. The requester, who works in radio and has written for UFO Magazine and FATE Magazine, claimed news media status for a fee waiver. The request asks for all memoranda of understanding and comity agreements between the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency.
This Central Intelligence Agency release, dated 23 June 2009, is a FOIA response letter from Information and Privacy Coordinator Delores M. Nelson to Larry W. Bryant, reference F-2008-01781. It covers his August 2008 request for records of a 1987 special meeting at FAA headquarters in Washington, D.C., and for similar airborne UFO encounters reported since 17 November 1986. The CIA says it is reopening the request and will search for records through 15 June 2009. It places Bryant, a UFO Magazine columnist, in the news media fee category. Several preceding pages are fully redacted.
This is a declaration by Delores M. Nelson, the CIA Information and Privacy Coordinator, dated October 26, 2009. She filed it in support of the CIA's motion for summary judgment in Larry W. Bryant v. CIA, a FOIA suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Bryant had sought records of a 1987 FAA meeting about the November 17, 1986 Japanese flight 1628 encounter over Alaska. The declaration describes the agency's searches, which found no records of the meeting and three documents from other agencies about later airborne UFO encounters.
This Central Intelligence Agency filing is a declaration by Delores M. Nelson, the CIA's Information and Privacy Coordinator, in Bryant v. CIA, Civil Action No. 09-0940 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. It supports the CIA's motion for summary judgment. It traces Larry W. Bryant's 2008 FOIA request for records of a 1987 FAA meeting on the November 17, 1986 Japanese 747 encounter over Alaska and records of similar airborne UFO encounters. It also describes the fee dispute and the searches the CIA ran. No records of the meeting were found, and three documents from other agencies were referred to them.
This is a declaration by Delores M. Nelson, the CIA's Information and Privacy Coordinator, signed January 22, 2010. It was filed in support of the CIA's motion for summary judgment in Larry W. Bryant v. CIA, Civil Action No. 09-0940 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. It covers Bryant's FOIA request about a 1987 FAA meeting on the November 17, 1986 Japan Air Lines Flight 1628 encounter over Alaska. It also covers later airborne UFO cases, the dispute over his fee category, and the CIA's searches. The CIA found no records of the meeting and three records from other agencies, which it referred to the State Department and NSA.
This Central Intelligence Agency information report, distributed 5 March 1957 and approved for release in sanitized form on 1 July 2010, collects twelve attachments on the Soviet port of Kherson in the Ukrainian SSR. The attachments hold sketches, photographs and observations of cranes, wharf repairs, shipyards building tankers, fuel tanks, a radar station on Nikolayev Island and a nearby airfield. They also report Kherson-built fishing boats with HIGH SIEVE type radar seen at Djibouti on their way to Vladivostok. The report has nothing to do with UFOs.
This is a newspaper book review by Charles Foster Ransom, held in the Central Intelligence Agency's files with a release date of 2010-07-23. It reviews four books on flying saucers. J. Allen Hynek's "The UFO Experience" is judged able, Donald Keyhoe's "Aliens From Space" half-baked, and works by Erich von Daniken and R. L. Dione are labeled "ZOWIE!" The review also cites a Gallup Poll on belief in UFOs and criticizes the Condon report's conclusions.
This item, filed in the Central Intelligence Agency's records with a 2010 date, is a newspaper article by Victor Wilson of The Oregonian's Washington Bureau. It reviews Maj. Donald E. Keyhoe's book "Aliens from Space" and reports Keyhoe's claim that UFOs are real and that the Air Force and the CIA have kept this secret for more than 25 years. The article also covers the JANAP-146 reporting directive and Keyhoe's proposed "Operation Lure". It notes a Gallup Poll finding that 51 per cent of Americans believed in UFOs.
This undated wire news item, held in Central Intelligence Agency files, is headed Washington Aliens. It says Larry Bryant of Alexandria, Virginia, representing Citizens Against UFO Secrecy (CAUSE), filed a habeas corpus petition in federal district court demanding that the Air Force release the remains of extraterrestrial beings it allegedly holds. The petition was served on Air Force Secretary Vernon Orr, who had 60 days to respond. An official said the Air Force stopped investigating UFOs in 1969.