What Gov Knows About Ufos

'l~tfv~\\thatthe U.S.GovemmentKnows f1i:-{)i-'}}AboutUnidentifiedFlyingObjects byPETERGERSTEN NewYorkattorneyPETERA.GERSTENhasbeen pressingthe legal effortonbehalfofUFOgroups- suchas CA US(CitizensAgainstUFO Secrecy)-for nearly three years.GerstencurrentlyawaitsaU.S. AppealsCourt decision on release ofovernvohun- dredadditionalCIAdocumentsrelatingto Theevidence: TheGovernment'sposition: "No UFO reported,investigated andevaluatedby the A ir Force has ever given anyindicationofa threatto ournationalsecurity. " -AirForce. 1980 USAFSecurityintercepteda Cuban pilot'sreport of theencounter between his MIG21and a UFO. haspossibleimplicationsfor our na-revealthatduringOctober, tionalsecuritywhichtranscendthe in-November,andDecemberof 1975, terestsof a singleservice.reliablemilitarypersonnelrepeatedly "Ithereforerecommendthat thissightedunconventionalaerialobjects Agency and theagencies of thein thevicinityofnuclear-weapons DepartmentofDefensebedirectedtostorageareas,aircraftalertareasand formulateandcarryout aprogramofnuclear-missilecontrolfacilities at intelligenceandresearchactivitiesre-Loring Air Force Base, Maine; Wurt- quiredto solve theproblemofinstantsmithAFB Michigan;MalstromAFB, positiveidentificationofunidentifiedMontana;MinotAFB,NorthDakota; objects:.andCanadianAirForcesStation, On- Adraftof aproposedNationaltario.'Manyof thesightingswerecon- SecurityCouncildirectivewas at-firmed byradar.AtLoringAFB,thein- tachedto thememorandum.terloper"demonstrateda clearintent Unfortunately,itappearsthat theon theweaponsstorageareas." NSCdirectivefell bythewayside.Theincidentsdrew theattentionof Now,twenty-nineyearslater, thethe CIA, theJointChiefsof Staff,and "currentsituation,"contraryto officialtheSecretaryofDefense.Thoughthe denials, stillposesseriousimplica-Air Forceinformedthepublicand the ournationalsecurity.pressthatindividualsightingswere UFOsasaThreatisolatedincidents,an Air Force docu- mentsaysthat"SecurityOptionIII" wasimplemented andthatsecurity werecoordinatedwith15 t last!Newevidenceforthe existenceofunconventional aerialobjectsreliesnolongeron the credibilityofcivilianreports therecordsofscientists,militaryper- sonnel,intelligenceanalysts, forcementofficersandotherreliable andresponsiblepeople.Their testimonycanbe found inthree thousandpages'ofpreviously classifieddocumentson UFOs re- leased(mostlythroughFreedomof In- formationAct suits)overthepastfew yearsbytheDepartmentsof State/ Army/Navy/AirForce/Defense,the FederalBureauofInvestigation,the NationalSecurityAgency, DetenseIntelligenceAgencyandthe CentralIntelligenceAgency. Thisoverwhelmingevidencein- dicatesthatUnidentifiedFlying Ob- doexist,andthatsome ofthem areunconventionalcraftthat(IJpose a threattonationalsecurityand(2)per- formbeyondthe"rangeofpresent-day technologicaldevelopment. Furthermore, thereis evidencethat ourgovernmenthascontinually misinformed thepublicconcerning truesignificanceofthe"UFO prob- NationalSecurityandUFOs "Itismyviewthatthissituation haspossible'implicationsfor our nationalsecurity." -CentralIntelligenceAgency, 1952 In late 1952, amemorandumwas draftedfor CIADirectorWalterB. Smith'ssignature,to besenttotheEx- ecutive:Secretaryof theNational SecurityCouncil. Thememo'ssubject: "UnidentifiedFlyingObjects." documentshowsthattheCIAhad "reviewedthe currentsituationcon- cerningunidentifiedflyingobjects whichhavecausedextensivespecula- tion inthepress andhasbeenthe sub- jectofconcernto.government organizations: ItwastheDirector'sopinion.based Wherearethestartling1952 casestheledtheCIAtothebrink ofa majorscientificstudy? MemorandumforRecord;forthe JointStaff;fromL.j. LeBlanc, Jr . BrigadierGeneral,USMC tyDirectorforOperations.NMCC: subject:ReportsofUnidentified FlyingObjects(UFOs); July 30, 4.ReesLetter": AFOSI lAirForceor. fice of SpecialInvestigations),17th District.KirtlandAFB, New Mex- ico:letterto directorof AFOSI: May v5."CubanIncident":Air Force Securi- tyService6947thSquadrontechni- cian'sstatementtoStantonT.Fried- man;October 6.MemorandumforDirectorof Cen- .Intelligence;subject:Flying Saucers;by E.MarshallChadwell, AssistantDirector,ScientificIn- telligence; September24, 1952. i.:Memo; to E.jamesArcherand '"ThurstonE.Hanning;fromRobert J. Low;subject:"SomeThoughtson the UFO Project":August9. 1966. 1. NORADClassifiedMessage; to Secretaryof Air Force, NORADDirectorofOperations; subject:Suspicious UnknownAir November11,1975.IStill classifiedCONFIDENTIAL;leaked. to UFOresearchgroupinlate 2.Air ForceSecurityPoliceIAFSP) message to 15 AirForceBases, November10, 1975. 3.Thisandthepreviousstatements arefoundinthefollowing documents: Memorandumfor Record; forthe jointStaff;signedby-j.B.Morin, RearAdmiral,USN DirectorforOperations,NMCC: january21, 1976. Memorandumfor Record; forthe JointStaff;fromFredA. Treyz, BrigadierGeneral. USAF6.:Deputy DirectorforOperations,NMCC: subject:UnidentifiedFlyingObject Sighting:)anuary31, 1976. andothermilitar-\_.meetingswith Dr.EdwardConde stallations. Onecensoredrnessag...ofandmembersoftheColoradoPrcjer April 3, 1976,refersto "Subject;Newstaff. DCDCase(censored] - UFORe-Glaringlyabsentfromtherelease search.Reference:Form610dated9documentsare thephotoanalyses.ir eludingone caseprovidedto ascier tificfirmby thepresent found its way totheCIA. and thehur dredsandhundredsofintelligenc reportsonindividualUFOcases musthave.beencollected-andi some cases are knowntohavebee collected.Alsoabsentarethedozen April1976transmittingUFO Study:ofradar-visualcaseswhichmusthay Datediscrepancynotwithstanding.beenstudiedby thePhysicsand Elec thememosgo on todiscuss"the UFOtroniesDivision.as well asothe study."One. whilestatingthattherematerialsthatmadeup the case file wasat thetimenoformalUFOpro-repeatedlyalludedtointhese gram.read: -At thepresenttime.theredocuments.Wherearethestartlin, are offices andpersonnelwithinthe1952 casesthatled the CIA to thebrinl Agencywhoaremonitoringthe UFOof amajorscientificstudyof UFOs? ...notcurrentlyon an of-The892pagescontainlarg. fieial basis. Dr.[censored]feels thatamountsoftrivialcorrespondence.ad thebestapproachwouldbe to keep inministrativepapers,duplicationanc touchwithandin factdevelopreport-irrelevantlnon-UFO)documents.Ob ingchannelsinthisareato keep theviously,theydonotcontaintheCIf Agency/communityinformedofanyUFO case files,otherthana randorr newdevelopments.sprinklingof mostlyknowncases. On Memosrangingfrom 1958 to 1967 1)'the FOlAlawsuitshavebeenabletc mentionanalysesof UFOphotosbypry loose afewhighlysignificant theCIANationalPhotographicInter-cases,suchas the 1976Iranianjetcase. Centerunder-ArthurC. Lun--Therecan be nodoubtthatthe CIAis dahl,partiallyconfirminginformation_stonewalling.Ifthisiiall the casefiles fromprivatesources.Indeed,Lundahl"developedinmorethanthirtyyears,I wasinvolvedinarranginga "window"would have toconcludethatthe CIAis ontheColoradoProjectand insecrettotallyinept.And, ofcourse,it isn't.0 In a JustCAUSe Overthe pastthirdof acentury.the government'sconductwithregard to UFOshasbeencharacterizedas nonfeasance.misfeasance.and malfeasance.CitizensAgainstUFO SecreCy,. apublic-interestgroup,was formedto foster areviewoftbereality andsignificanceof UFOsandthegovern- menrspolicies andpracticesregarding callsupontheFederalgovern mentto (I)admitthattbepublicbasbeen aboutthenatureof UFOs. (2) a.cknowledgethat U.FOsexist,and(3) reverseitspositionthat furtherscientific studyof UFOreportsisunwarranted. CAUSseekstheimmediatedeclassifica- tionandpublicdisseminationof all of ficial UFOdocumentation. believesthatthepubiic has a right to anobjectivereappraisalofthelm- plications'of theUFOphenomenon. For moreinformation.writeto CAUS. P.O. Box 4743F. Arlington. Virginia ccnnectionwiththeUnited"ates UFOprogramwillbemainta.jin ASPb(plus, headded,a file of-finished intelligence reports'[. CoincidingwiththeNovember1957 UFOwave."On 6November1957 a directedcollectionrequestfor UFO information wasleviedonContact Divisionby theOfficeofScientificIn- telligence ...Responsesto therequire- mentwereforwardedtoCollection Staff, OSI on 14 November1957.- i.1958memoforAssistant Director,ScientificIntelligence, ActingAssistantDirectorforOpera- Also,coinciding withaflurryof aroundtheWashington, areainlate1964andearly1965, another"ccllectionrequest"was orderedbytheDirectorof CIA.The presentwriterwasamongthoseinter- viewedb}"theDomesticContactDivi- Theagentborrowedanumberof UFOcaseinvestigation' memosfromApril .throughlatesummerof 1976shows renewedinterestin UFOdata,prob- ablyas aresultof-the1975and1976 sig"htingsatStrategicAirCom-