The CIA UFO Papers

by Dan Wright

  An April 11 Information Report noted various sightings in Asia. On March 4, 1968, at 1:00 p.m. a bright white light flew over south Ladakh (a region of northern India) accompanied by two “blasting” sounds. Also, one reddish light was observed trailing white smoke. Two weeks earlier on February 19 at 11:00 p.m. over northeast Nepal and north Sikkim, a fast-moving, long, thin object emitted red and green light bright enough to rival daylight over a wide area. Two nights later on the 21st in western Bhutan, at 9:30 p.m. a bluish light brightened the terrain as it passed overhead at high speed without a sound. On March 4 back in south Ladakh, an unknown traveled a circular path, trailing smoke. Three weeks later on March 25 at 9:50 p.m., also in Ladakh, a rocket-like object passed overhead, leaving a prominent yellowish-white trail.8

  A May 8, 1968, airgram from the American Embassy in Paris to the State Department clarified the official French response to the UFO problem. Though France had many interested amateur investigators, a foreign affairs official in France's aeronautics research group, ONERA, plus a general engaged in military research agreed that no government- sponsored program existed to formally study the subject.9

  The University of Colorado UFO Project, on February 9, 1968, experienced “a near-mutiny by several staff scientists, the dismissal of two PhDs on the staff” (Dr. David Saunders and Dr. Norman Levine) for alleged incompetence “and the resignation of the project's administrative assistant.” The tumult was recounted by John G. Fuller in an article titled “The Flying Saucer Fiasco” in the May 14, 1968, issue of Look magazine.10 Apart from the Condon charge of incompetence, it might have been more than coincidence that Saunders and Levine intended to make public Robert Low's earlier comments to university officials that the UFO study would be a “trick” on the public regarding the committee's objectivity.

  Dr. Edward Condon's record of leadership had seemed to promise scientific integrity. However, chief assistant Dr. Robert Low, outlining the upcoming project, told university principals:

  Our study would be conducted almost exclusively by non-believers who ... would add an impressive body of evidence that there is no reality to the observations. The trick would be, I think, to describe it so that, to the public, it would appear a totally objective study but, to the scientific community, would present the image of a group of nonbelievers trying their best to be objective, but having an almost zero expectation of finding a saucer.

  Soon after the committee was underway, Condon had told the press: “It is my inclination right now to recommend that the Government get out of this business. My attitude right now (1967) is that there is nothing to it, but I'm not supposed to reach a conclusion for another year.”11

  On August 1, 1968, Air Force Major A.P. Heard, an assistant air attaché stationed in Argentina, sent along a Defense Department Information Report, attaching a news article from the Buenos Aires newspaper La Razon with the provocative headline, “Alleged Activities of USAF and CIA Regarding UFOs.” The article was in Spanish and not translated.12

  As of August 9, 1968, the Taiwan Ministry of National Defense (MND) planned to dispatch a team of electronics experts to the islands of Kinmen and Matsu to investigate recent daily high-altitude appearances of UFOs over those offshore islands. The unknowns appeared in pairs or threes at the same approximate hour each afternoon, remaining in sight for about two minutes. “... MND suspects the UFOs may be some form of electronic spying device used by the Chinese Communists.”13

  A Chinese Nationalist team of technical officers concluded on October 14, 1968, that unknowns observed since July 17 were “man-made satellites, ‘flying saucers,’ electronic jamming devices, or psychological warfare balloons.”14

  Felix Ziegel was the cosmology expert at the Moscow Aviation Institute. He authored dozens of popular books on astronomy and space exploration and was generally regarded as a founder of Russian ufology. In an article for the November 2, 1968, issue of Soviet Life, he contended that the prevailing Soviet view of UFOs as fantasies and misidentified optics was wrong, due to a dearth of observational data collected. In October 1967 scientists, writers, public figures, and the military had begun a preliminary investigation. Named the UFO Section of the All-Union Cosmonautics Committee, it was headed by an Air Force major general. Ziegel said, “The hypothesis that UFOs originate in other worlds, that they are flying craft from planets other than earth, merits the most serious examination,” said Ziegel.15

  UFOs acted “sensibly,” flying in formations and maneuvering to avoid contact with earthly aircraft, Ziegel noted. They were most often seen over airfields, atomic stations, and newly engineered installations. Strikingly similar sightings had occurred throughout human history. Well-documented cases included a large saucer seen widely in 1882 and a “procession of bolides” in 1913. Soviet scientists concluded that the 1908 Tunguska event met the criteria of an atmospheric nuclear blast, supported by a study published in 1967 declaring that it “left considerable residual radioactivity.”16

  “If we are indeed being studied by creatures from other planets, what is their purpose?” Ziegel pondered. “Why are they so studiously avoiding direct contact? ... The important thing now is for us to discard any preconceived notions about UFOs and to organize on a global scale a calm, sensation-free, and strictly scientific study of this strange phenomenon.”17

  While you were away from your desk . . .

  February 9, 1968

  At 3:20 a.m. near Groveton, Missouri, a farmer checked on his bawling cattle. From 300 feet away, he saw a 100-foot disc hovering near the animals. Yellow-green light from portholes along its edge lit up the entire area. He heard a rhythmic sound like a whirling wire. Soon one cow bolted for the barn and the remainder followed. The whirling sound grew louder and the disc left rapidly at a 45-degree angle into the night. The farmer connected the UFO with cows earlier missing from his herd. USAF Project Blue Book left the case unidentified.18

  Sometime in early 1968

  At the Chinese Navy garrison at Luda, in the northern province of Liaoning, four artillerymen observed a luminous gold, oval-shaped object flying at a low altitude and leaving a thin trail. Soon it proceeded to climb steeply, but before it was out of sight, all of the fleet's radar systems and communications failed. The fleet commander put every ship on high alert and ordered the sailors to prepare for combat. Half an hour went by before everything returned to normal. Later it was learned that a two-man coastguard patrol saw the UFO land along the south coast. They fired on it with an automatic rifle and a machine gun but to no avail.19

  Mid-April 1968

  At a Gobi Desert construction site, a battalion of Chinese soldiers witnessed the landing of a luminous red-orange disc, just 10 feet in diameter. The commander dispatched a team of motorcycle soldiers from headquarters to investigate the vehicle. Upon the team's approach, the disc rose vertically out of sight. Most of those present wrote the incident off as a Soviet reconnaissance device, since the USSR's northern frontier passed through that region.20

  May 13, 1968

  The new issue of the journal Scientific Research contained an article titled, “Libel Suit May Develop from UFO Hassle,” a report on the aftermath of Dr. Condon's February 9 firings of Drs. Saunders and Levine. The same theme carried over to a July 26 release of Science, which included an article titled, “UFO Project: Trouble on the Ground.”21

  July 29, 1968

  The House Committee on Science and Astronautics held a hearing in symposium form. Presentations were made by Carl Sagan, James McDonald, J. Allen Hynek, James Harder, Robert Hall, and Robert Baker. This was the first congressional hearing that included testimony by scientists favoring UFO investigation.22

  October 31, 1968

  The Colorado UFO Project released its final report (a.k.a. the Condon Report) to the Secretary of the Air Force for review by the National Academy of Sciences.23

  Note: In 1969 a frustrated Dr. James McDonald offered a controversial lecture he called “Science in Default” to the American Association
for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). It was a summary of the then-current UFO evidence and a critique of the infamous, UFO-debunking Condon Report. Thereafter, McDonald was hounded by critics, in particular the author of the study, Edward Condon, and aviation journalist Philip Klass, who had declared that nearly all UFO sightings were really ball lightning. Professionally isolated, McDonald gradually slipped into a deep depression and finally took his own life in June 1971.24 Rest in peace, Dr. McDonald; you did some good.

  Chapter 22

  1969: Where'd All the UFOs Go?

  No news accounts, information reports, or correspondence to, from, or within the Agency were filed in 1969. Not surprisingly, the wrap-up of the Colorado UFO Project in 1968 coincided with a renewed disengagement from the UFO subject by the CIA. In that 2017 release of files to the CIA website, not a single entry was dated 1969. The Company had really never embraced the pursuit, insisted on strict anonymity over the two decades of involvement, and wiped its hands of the whole affair when the Condon Report offered the opportunity. Going forward, written correspondence on UFO-related matters would be kept to a minimum to avoid any embarrassment later.

  The journal Science decried the untenable position faced by physical scientists in “Beings from Outer Space—Corporeal and Spiritual,” by Hudson Hoagland. The author compared UFO research to the practice of psychic research in the 1920s and beyond. The problem for scientists was the impossibility of proving a negative. “The Condon report rightly points out that further investigations of UFO's will be wasteful. In time we may expect that UFO visitors from outer space will be forgotten, just as ectoplasm as evidence for communication with the dead is now forgotten.”1

  The journal Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists piled on with “UFOs I Have Loved and Lost,” by the controversial Edward Condon, in its December 1969 issue. The Air Force had long before concluded UFOs were not a defense problem, he wrote. After the first 4–5 years, Air Force attention to them was minimal. Concerning the University of Colorado study group, “All that can be said is that, of the cases we looked into carefully, we found no evidence in support of the hypothesis of their extraterrestrial origin.” Objective investigative approaches did not work. Even when the source was incontrovertible (for example, the March 3, 1968, reentry of rocket debris), witness testimony differed markedly. “[N]o great certainty attaches to the specific details of any of the reports.”2

  “I continue to be astonished at the fervor with which many people hold views that are totally unsupported by objective evidence of any kind,” Condon continued. Charlatans preyed on gullible people for book sales and speaking fees. Most people accepted even solid scientific ideas completely on faith. Astrology, to many, was just as credible as the hard science they accepted without any understanding. America had 10,000 astrologers but only 2,000 professional astronomers. Other pseudo-sciences included spiritualism, ESP, psychokinesis, and dowsing. “Perhaps we need a National Magic Agency to make a large and expensive study of all these matters, including the future scientific study of UFOs, if any,” he added sarcastically. Publishers and teachers who promoted pseudo-science should have been “publicly horsewhipped” then banned from their professions.3

  While you were away from your desk . . .

  January 6, 1969

  Around 7:15 to 7:30 p.m., waiting outside a church where he would make a campaign speech in Leary, Georgia, Governor Jimmy Carter and numerous others there observed what he concluded was a UFO. He told reporters soon thereafter, “It was big, it was very bright, it changed colors and was about the size of the moon.... One thing's for sure; I'll never make fun of people who say they've seen unidentified objects in the sky.”4

  Seven years later, during his 1976 presidential campaign, Carter vowed, “If I become President, I'll make every piece of information this country has about UFO sightings available to the public and the scientists.”5 Note: After assuming office, Carter did approach NASA about assuming a role like Project Blue Book, but he was rebuffed.

  January 25, 1969

  At Platteville, Illinois, a couple was driving past a farm when it was approached by a machine shaped like an ice cream cone, two or three stories tall with a “lattice” across the bottom which “shone like diamonds.” It halted a quarter-mile from them as the car's engine stalled and headlights went out. A yard light at the farm was also extinguished. After remaining motionless for a moment, the anomaly suddenly spun around and halted, repeated that sequence twice then emitted a light beam. As it was executing those actions, the front end of their car lifted three feet off the ground. The anomaly finally tilted up and glided away.6

  March 19, 1969

  That night near Gladstone, Queensland, Australia, a disc-shaped aerial vehicle swooped down over a pair of cars as the drivers pulled to a stop. The object hovered over one and emitted pulsating light. As it brightened, the field of light cast by both autos' headlights broadened. When the disc dimmed, the headlights returned to normal. The cars' engines operated normally and the drivers pulled away, but the saucer remained nearby, pacing them. The drivers stopped a second time and watched as the anomaly remained in place, rocking gently. A moment passed before it finally flew off.7

  June 17, 1969

  At a Turkish air base on the night of the 17th, an alert went out regarding a UFO in the area. A pilot was ordered to scramble in his F-5A Freedom Fighter jet and intercept the intruder.

  It was gray, and like an upside-down lightbulb. I flew above it and reported that it was probably a meteorological balloon. As I continued describing it, it moved to my left and moved off at a fantastic speed. Obviously it wasn't a balloon! ... I also proposed firing at the object—but they forbade that. Eventually it disappeared.8

  October 20, 1969

  In a memorandum recommending that USAF Project Blue Book be closed, Brigadier General Carroll H. Bolender clarified that reports of UFOs that could affect national security were to be made in accordance with Joint Army/Navy/Air Force Publication (JANAP) 146 or Air Force Manual 55-11, not as part of the Project Blue Book system.9

  October 24–27, 1969

  For four days, Turkey's capital Ankara was inundated with sightings. The Turkish Air Force repeatedly scrambled interceptors from Murtad Air Base. The jets would close to within several miles, but the unknowns always climbed higher to escape. After days of cat-and-mouse, the base commander himself flew along. His report afterward noted that an object at 50,000 feet was oval and silvery, with three round portholes on the facing side. He added that no other country's traffic was in the area at the time and no prototype was under test. The interceptors took gun-camera film, which was never released.10

  November 14, 1969

  The Apollo 12 moon mission apparently had company. Telescopes at multiple European observatories spotted two flashing unknowns, one leading the space capsule, the second trailing. NASA announced that nothing they experienced was abnormal in a space environment.11

  November 30, 1969

  On State Highway 96, 13 miles southeast of Quincy, Illinois, at 7:30 p.m., three people in a car spotted an object shaped like a rounded triangle. It proceeded to swoop over the auto, raising it 10 feet off the roadway momentarily. Its engine and headlights continued functioning, but the steering was inoperable until the intruder left.12

  Chapter 23

  1970: AIAA Weighs In

  Throughout January and February 1970, South Korean (ROK) radar stations tracked numerous large balloon/dirigible-shaped unknowns at high altitudes over the Korean demilitarized zone (DMZ), on occasion penetrating ROK airspace. They invariably exploded. ROK military was concerned that the unknowns might possibly drop propaganda or even a chemical or germ agent.1

  In November 1970, the journal Astronautics and Aeronautics published a piece titled “UFO: An Appraisal of the Problem”—a statement of the UFO Subcommittee of the AIAA (American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics). The subcommittee concluded there was no scientific basis to study the probability of an extraterre
strial hypothesis. The Condon Report was “the most scientifically oriented investigation published on the UFO problem.” Condon's summary of the study also portrayed his personal conclusions. “Making value judgments was no doubt one reason why Condon was asked to handle the project,” the writer stated. “... The UFO Subcommittee did not find a basis in the report for his prediction that nothing of scientific value will come of further studies.”2 Instead, the authors of the articles held out for continued investigation of UFO sightings.3

  While you were away from your desk . . .

  August 13, 1970

  At 10:50 p.m. in Kastrup, Denmark, a policeman in his cruiser confronted a metallic disc, 30 feet in diameter, that stopped and hovered 60 feet overhead. When it cast a blue-white beam on the vehicle, the engine and lights failed and the body's metal heated. Momentarily the beam retracted—slowly, as if it were a solid. As the disc departed, the cruiser's lights came back on and the engine easily restarted. 4

  A security guard at a hydroelectric plant in Itatiaia, Brazil, noticed a row of lights over the dam and walked over to investigate. He stopped 15 meters short of the (undescribed) UFO, whereupon the noise it generated was deafening. He pulled out his revolver and began firing at it. Between the second and third shots he was hit by a flash of light and blinded, also experiencing intense heat and paralysis. He was hospitalized overnight and did not regain his sight for two weeks.5