8/6/2019 What Gov Knows About Ufos

1/2

- .-: .:,;;;..: :., ; ~ " _ : ' ~ ~ ~ . ~ " ' ..: ' ; . ' ~ , ..' . ~ : ; , -:;;:-'=: J { I ~ ~ ~ ' I 9 J < 4 y ~ I ? ~ t / ~ ; ; ' ; ; / & : " ) \\that the U.S. Govemment KnowsAbout Unidentified Flying Objectsby PETER GERSTEN

New York attorneyPETER A. GERSTEN has beenpressing the legal effort on behalfofUFO groups-such asCAUS(CitizensAgainst UFO Secrecy) - fornearly three years. Gersten currently awaitsa U.S.Appeals Court decision on release ofovernvo hun-dred additional CIA documents relating to

, ... r:~ ! ~ 9 ~ ! ~ ~ f

... " "

The evidence:

The Government's position:"No UFO reported, investigatedandevaluatedby the A irForcehasever given any indication ofathreat to our national security."

-Air Force. 1980

USAFSecurity intercepted a Cuban pilot's report of the encounterbetween his MIG21 and a UFO.has possible implications for our na- reveal that during October,t ionalsecuritywhich transcendthe in- November, and December of 1975,terests of a single service. reliable military personnel repeatedly"I therefore recommend that this sighted unconventional aerial objectsAgency and the agencies of the in the vicinity of nuclear-weaponsDepartment of Defense be directed to storage areas, aircraft alert areas andformulate and carry out a program of nuclear-missile control facilities atintelligence and research activities re- Loring Air Force Base, Maine; Wurtquired to solve the problem of instant smith AFBMichigan; Malstrom AFB,positive identification of unidentified Montana; Minot AFB, North Dakota;flying objects: . and Canadian Air Forces Station, On-A draft of a proposed National tario.' Manyof the sightingswereconSecurity Council directive was at- firmed by radar. AtLoringAFB,theintached to the memorandum. terloper "demonstrated a clear intentUnfortunately, it appears that the on the weapons storage areas."NSC directive fell by the wayside. The incidents drew the attention ofNow, twenty-nine years later, the the CIA, th e Joint Chiefs of Staff, and"current situation," contrary to official the Secretary of Defense. Though thedenials, still poses serious implica- Air Force informed the publicand thetions for our national security. press that individual sightings wereUFOs as a Threat isolated incidents, an Air Force document says that "Security Option III"was implemented and that securitymeasures were coordinated with 15

A t last! New evidence for theexistence of unconventionalaerial objects relies no longer on thecredibility of civilian reports but onthe records of scientists, military personnel, intelligence analysts, lawenforcement officers and other reliableand responsible people. Theirtestimony can be found in threethousand pages 'of previouslyclassified documents on UFOs released (mostly through Freedomof Information Act suits) over the past fewyears by the Depar tments of State/Army/Navy/Air Force/Defense, theFederal Bureau of Investigation, theNational Security Agency, the'Detense Intelligence Agency and theCentral Intelligence Agency.This overwhelming evidence indicates that Unidentified Flying Objects do exist, and that some of themare unconventional craft that (IJpose athreat to national security and (2) perform beyond the"range of present-daytechnological development.Furthermore, there is evidence thatour government has continuallymisinformed the public concerningthe true significance of the "UFOproblem."National Security and UFOs"It is my view that this situationhas possible'implications for ournational security."

-Central Intelligence Agency, 1952In late 1952, a memorandum wasdrafted for CIA Director Walter B.Smith's signature, to be sent to the Executive: Secretary of the NationalSecurity Council.Thememo's subject:"Unidentified Flying Objects." Thedocument shows that the CIA had"reviewed the current situation concerning unidentified flying objectswhich have caused extensive speculation in the press and hasbeen the subject of concern to. government

organizations:It was the Director's opinion. based

8/6/2019 What Gov Knows About Ufos

2/2

Where are the startling 1952cases the led the CIA to the brinkofa major scientific study?

FOOTNOTES Memorandum for Record; foJoint Staff; from L.j. LeBlancBrigadier General, USMC &:Dty Director for Operations. NMsubject: Reports of UnidenFlying Objects (UFOs); July1976. .4. Rees Letter": AFOSI lAir Forcfice of Special Investigations)District. Kirtland AFB, Newico: letter todirector ofAFOSI/25,1950.v5. "Cuban Incident": Air Force Sty Service 6947th Squadron tecian's statement to StantonT.man; October 27,1977.6. Memorandum for Director otral . Intell igence; subject: Saucers; by E. Marshall ChaAssistant Director, Scientiftelligence; September 24, 195i.:Memo; to E. james Arche'" Thurston E. Hanning; from RJ. Low; subject: "Some Thougthe UFO Project": August 9.

1. NORAD Classified Message; toSecretary of Air Force, et 01; fromNORAD Director of Operations;subject: Suspicious Unknown AirActivity; November 11, 1975.IStillclassifiedCONFIDENTIAL; leaked.to UFO research group in late1976.) .2. Air Force Security Police IAFSP)message to 15 Air Force Bases,November 10, 1975.3. This and the previous statements

are found in the followingdocuments: Memorandum for Record; for thejoint Staff; signed by-j.B. Morin,Rear Admiral, USN &: DeputyDirector for Operations, NMCC:january 21, 1976. Memorandum for Record; for theJoint Staff; from Fred A. Treyz,Brigadier General. USAF 6.: DeputyDirector for Operations, NMCC:subject: Unidentified Flying ObjectSighting:)anuary 31, 1976.

mand bases and other militar- \_. meetings with Dr. Edward Constallations. One censored rnessag... of and members of the Colorado PrcApril 3, 1976, refers to "Subject; New staff.DCD Case (censored] - UFO Re- Glaringly absent from the releasearch. Reference: Form 610 dated 9 documents are the photo analyseseluding one case provided to a sctific firm by the present writerfound its way to the CIA. and the hdreds and hundreds of intelligereports on individual UFO casesmust have. been collected- andsome cases are known to have bcollected. Also absent are the dozApril 1976transmitting UFO Study: of radar-visual cases which must hDate discrepancy notwithstanding. been studied by the Physics and Ethe memos go on to discuss "the UFO tronies Division. as well as ostudy." One. whi le stating that there materials that made up the casewas at the time no formal UFO pro- repeatedly alluded to in thgram. read: -At the present time. there documents. Where are the starare offices and personnel within the 1952cases that led the CIAto the bAgency who are monitoring the UFO of a major scientific study of UFOphenomena . . . not currently on an of- The 892 pages contain lfieial basis. Dr. [censored] feels that amounts oftrivialcorrespondencethe best approachwould be to keep in ministrat ive papers, duplicationtouch with and in fact develop report- irrelevant lnon-UFO) documents.

ing channels in this area to keep the viously, they do not contain theAgency/community informed of any UFO case files, other than a rannew developments. sprinkling ofmostly known cases.Memos ranging from 1958 to 1967 1)' the FOlA lawsuits have been abmention analyses of UFO photos by pry loose a few highly signifthe CIA National Photographic Inter- cases, such as the 1976 Iranianje tpretationCenter under-ArthurC.Lun- - Th e r e can be no doubt that the Cdahl, partiallyconfirming information _stonewalling. If this i i all the casefromprivate sources. Indeed, Lundahl" developed in more than thirty yewas involved in arranging a "window" would have to conclude that the Con the Colorado Project and in secret totally inept.And, of course, it isn'

In a Just CAUSeOver the past thi rd of a centu ry. thegovernment 's conduct with regard toUFOs has been characterized asnonfeasance. misfeasance. andmalfeasance. Citizens Against UFOSecreCy,. a public-interest group, wasformed to foster a review of tbe real ityand significanceofUFOs and the governmenrs policies and practices regardingthem. ,CAUS calls upon the Federal government to(I) admit that tbepublic bas beenmisled about the nature of UFOs. (2)a.cknowledge that U.FOs exist, and (3)reverse its position that further scientificstudy of UFO repor ts is unwarranted.CAUS seeks the immediate declassification and public dissemination of all official UFO documentation.CAUS believes that the pubiic has aright to an objective reappraisal ofthe lmplications'of the UFO phenomenon.For more information. write to CAUS.P.O. Box 4743F. Arlington. Virginia22204.

ccnnection with the United "atesUFO program will be mainta . j inASPb(plus, he added, a file of-finishedintelligence reports'[.Coinciding with the November 1957

UFO wave. "On 6 November 1957 adirected collec tion request for UFOinformation was levied on ContactDivision by the Office of Scientific Intelligence . . . Responses to the requirement were forwarded to CollectionStaff, OSI on 14 November 1957.[April i. 1958 memo for AssistantDirector, Scientific Intelligence, fromActing Assistant Director for Opera-tions) ,Also, coinciding with a flurry ofsightings around the Washington,D.C. area in late 1964 and early 1965,another "ccllection request" wasordered by the Director of CIA. Thepresent writerwas among those interviewed b}" the DomesticContact Division. The agent borrowed a number ofspecific UFO case invest igat ion 'reports. .A series of memos from April. through late summer of 1976 showsrenewed interest in UFO data, probably as a result of-the 1975 and 1976UFO sig"htings at Strategic Air Com-

. ...

;