Category: CIA

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2009: The CIA’s UFO History

After the Cold War ended, the culture of secrecy and the operational style of the CIA began to change. Its director appeared on a radio talk show, and it became possible for citizens to pressure the CIA in ways unheard of during that earlier era. Ufology has been a beneficiary of these changes. In late 1993, inquiries from several UFO researchers led CIA Director R. James Woolsey to order a review of all CIA files on UFOs. This agency-wide search occurred in 1994 and centralized the CIA’s UFO files. Taking advantage of this opportunity, government historian Gerald K. Haines reviewed the documents, conducted interviews, and wrote a study examining the CIA’s interest and involvement in UFO investigation and government UFO policy from 1947 until […] Read More

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1952: The Robertson Panel

The Robertson Panel The Robertson Panel was a committee commissioned by the Central Intelligence Agency in 1952 in response to widespread Unidentified Flying Object reports, especially in the Washington DC area. The panel was briefed on U.S. military activities and intelligence, hence the report was originally classified Secret. Later declassified, the Robertson Panel’s report concluded that most UFO reports could be explained as misidentification of mundane aerial objects, and the remaining minority could, in all likelihood, be similarly explained with further study. The Robertson Panel concluded that a public relations campaign should be undertaken in order to “debunk” UFOs, and reduce public interest in the subject and that civil UFO groups should be monitored. There is evidence this was carried out more than two […] Read More

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1957 CIA Memo Concerning UFO Report

INTRODUCTION 27-September-1998 – The CIA memorandum, the text of which is reproduced below, was located in the 1979 microfiche set of The Declassified Documents Catalog, published by Research Publications, Inc., Woodbridge CT, available at Federal Deposit Libraries. It is an interesting document for several reasons: * It mentions an interest in UFO at a very high level of the intelligence community, the Intelligence Advisory Committee (IAC) * It mentions what is possibly electromagnetic interference with multiple radars coincident with detection of a UFO * It mentions action by elements of the military and intelligence communities very quickly after a UFO report COMMENT The memo, dated the 21st of September 1957, concerns the radar detection of a UFO over the state of New York the […] Read More

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1994: A Die-Hard Issue: CIA’s Role in the Study of UFOs, 1947-90

Gerald K. Haines An extraordinary 95 percent of all Americans have at least heard or read something about Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs), and 57 percent believe they are real. (1) Former US Presidents Carter and Reagan claim to have seen a UFO. UFOlogists–a neologism for UFO buffs–and private UFO organizations are found throughout the United States. Many are convinced that the US Government, and particularly CIA, are engaged in a massive conspiracy and coverup of the issue. The idea that CIA has secretly concealed its research into UFOs has been a major theme of UFO buffs since the modern UFO phenomena emerged in the late 1940s. (2) In late 1993, after being pressured by UFOlogists for the release of additional CIA information on UFOs, […] Read More

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2001: The Birth of The CIA – And Flying Saucers

By Frank Warren frank-warren@pacbell.net 6-13-1 There’s been a lot of speculation on the irony of the “birth of the CIA” in September, of 1947, ( formerly, The Central Intelligence Group) coinciding with all the “flying saucer activity” beginning in June of that year, starting with Kenneth Arnold’s sighting over Mt Rainier to the “crashed discs” in the area of Roswell New Mexico. Some have claimed, that the sole purpose in creating the CIA was to investigate the “flying saucer” phenomenon. That, of course is not the case. [CIG and then CIA were born primarily out of the realization of the importance of a “post war” intelligence gathering agency, similar to it’s “war time” predecessor, the OSS, and President Truman’s frustration with being out of […] Read More