ENGINEER CLAIMS "SAUCER" PLANS ARE IN SOVIET HANDS; SIGHTINGS IN AFRICA, IRAN, SYRIA

This intelligence report, issued by the Central Intelligence Agency on August 18, 1953, synthesizes various international press reports concerning 'flying saucers.' The document begins by detailing claims made by a German engineer named Georg Klein. Klein asserts that the development of flying saucers was a reality in Germany toward the end of World War II, with experimental models reaching altitudes of 12,400 meters and speeds of 2,200 kilometers per hour. Klein claims that these designs, involving engineers named Habermol and Schreiver, were seized by Soviet forces at the end of the war. The report further notes that these engineers were sent to the Soviet Union, and Klein suggests that the current 'saucers' being observed may be the result of this captured technology. Additionally, the document provides accounts of sightings in other regions. One detailed report from the Meteorological Service of French Equatorial Africa describes an incident on November 22, 1952, near Bocaranga, where Father Carlos Maria and his companion observed four silvery, disc-shaped objects that moved in a circular formation for approximately 20 minutes before disappearing. Further brief reports mention sightings in Syria, specifically near the city of Homs, and in Iran, where a luminous object was observed in the sky over Abadan on May 18, 1953.