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34 Building A Secret Air Force 34 Building A Secret Air Force BUILDING A SECRET effort to do research in connection with UFO MOGUL, designed to monitor the atmosphere BUILDING A SECRET AIR FORCE : The phenomena nor has there been an organized for evidence of Soviet nuclear tests. (92) Circa AIR FORCE : The effort to collect intelligence on UFOs since the 1984, a series of documents surfaced which CIA's Role in the Study 1950s." Wortman assured Turner that the some UFOlogists said proved that President CIA's Role in the Study Agency records held only "sporadic instances of of UFOs correspondence dealing with the subject," Truman created a top secret committee in of UFOs 1947, Majestic-12, to secure the recovery of Continued from Page 31 including various kinds of reports of UFO UFO wreckage from Roswell and any other Continued from Page 31 sightings. There was no Agency program to UFO crash sight for scientific study and to collect actively information on UFOs, and the examine any alien bodies recovered from such On 14 July 1975, Spaulding again wrote material released to GSW had few deletions. sites. Most if not all of these documents have the Agency questioning the authenticity of the (88) Thus assured, Turner had the General proved to be fabrications. Yet the controversy reports he had received and alleging a CIA Counsel press for a summary judgment against persists. (93) coverup of its UFO activities. Gene Wilson, the new lawsuit by GSW. In May 1980, the Like the JFK assassination conspiracy CIA's Information and Privacy Coordinator, courts dismissed the lawsuit, finding that the theories, the UFO issue probably will not go replied in an attempt to satisfy Spaulding, "At Agency had conducted a thorough and adequate away soon, no matter what the Agency does or no time prior to the formation of the Robertson search in good faith. (89) says. The belief that we are not alone in the Panel and subsequent to the issuance of the During the late 1970s and 1980s, the universe is too emotionally appealing and the panel's report has CIA engaged in the study of Agency continued its low-key interest in UFOs distrust of our government is too pervasive to the UFO phenomena." The Robertson panel and UFO sightings. While most scientists now make the issue amenable to traditional report, according to Wilson, was "the dismissed flying saucers reports as a quaint part scientific studies of rational explanation and summation of Agency interest and involvement of the 1950s and 1960s, some in the Agency and evidence. [] in UFOs." Wilson also inferred that there were in the Intelligence Community shifted their no additional documents in CIA's possession interest to studying parapsychology and psychic Notes that related to UFOs. Wilson was ill informed. phenomena associated with UFO sightings. CIA Notes (83) officials also looked at the UFO problem to (1) See the 1973 Gallup Poll results In September 1977, Spaulding and determine what UFO sightings might tell them printed in The New York Times, 29 November GSW, unconvinced by Wilson's response, filed about Soviet progress in rockets and missiles 1973, p. 45 and Philip J. Klass, UFOs: The a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit and reviewed its counterintelligence aspects. Public Deceived (New York: Prometheus against the Agency that specifically requested Agency analysts from the Life Science Division Books, 1983), p. 3. all UFO documents in CIA's possession. of OSI and OSWR officially devoted a small (2) See Klass, UFOs, p. 3; James S. Deluged by similar FOIA requests for Agency amount of their time to issues relating to UFOs. Gordon, "The UFO Experience," Atlantic information on UFOs, CIA officials agreed, These included counterintelligence concerns Monthly (August 1991), pp. 82-92; David after much legal maneuvering, to conduct a that the Soviets and the KGB were using US Michael Jacobs, The UFO Controversy in "reasonable search" of CIA files for UFO citizens and UFO groups to obtain information America (Bloomington: Indiana University materials. (84) Despite an Agency-wide on sensitive US weapons development Press, 1975); Howard Blum, Out There: The unsympathetic attitude toward the suit, Agency programs (such as the Stealth aircraft), the Government's Secret Quest for officials, led by Launie Ziebell from the Office vulnerability of the US air-defense network to Extraterrestrials (New York: Simon and of General Counsel, conducted a thorough penetration by foreign missiles mimicking Schuster, 1990); Timothy Good, Above Top search for records pertaining to UFOs. UFOs, and evidence of Soviet advanced Secret: The Worldwide UFO Cover-Up (New Persistent, demanding, and even threatening at technology associated with UFO sightings. York: William Morrow, 1987); and Whitley times, Ziebell and his group scoured the CIA also maintained Intelligence Strieber, Communion: The True Story (New Agency. They even turned up an old UFO file Community coordination with other agencies York: Morrow, 1987). under a secretary's desk. The search finally regarding their work in parapsychology, (3) In September 1993 John Peterson, produced 355 documents totaling psychic phenomena, and "remote viewing" an acquaintance of Woolsey's, first approximately 900 pages. On 14 December experiments. In general, the Agency took a approached the DCI with a package of heavily 1978, the Agency released all but 57 documents conservative scientific view of these sanitized CIA material on UFOs released to of about 100 pages to GSW. It withheld these 57 unconventional scientific issues. There was no UFOlogist Stanton T. Friedman. Peterson and documents on national security grounds and to formal or official UFO project within the Friedman wanted to know the reasons for the protect sources and methods. (85) Agency in the 1980s, and Agency officials redactions. Woolsey agreed to look into the Although the released documents purposely kept files on UFOs to a minimum to matter. See Richard J. Warshaw, Executive produced no smoking gun and revealed only a avoid creating records that might mislead the Assistant, note to author, 1 November 1994; low-level Agency interest in the UFO public if released. (90) Warshaw, note to John H. Wright, Information phenomena after the Robertson panel report of The 1980s also produced renewed and Privacy Coordinator, 31 January 1994; 1953, the press treated the release in a charges that the Agency was still withholding and Wright, memorandum to Executive sensational manner. The New York Times, for documents relating to the 1947 Roswell Secretariat, 2 March 1994. (Except where example, claimed that the declassified incident, in which a flying saucer supposedly noted, all citations to CIA records in this documents confirmed intensive government crashed in New Mexico, and the surfacing of article are to the records collected for the 1994 concern over UFOs and that the Agency was documents which purportedly revealed the Agency-wide search that are held by the secretly involved in the surveillance of UFOs. existence of a top secret US research and Executive Assistant to the DCI). (86) GSW then sued for the release of the development intelligence operation responsible (4) See Hector Quintanilla, Jr., "The withheld documents, claiming that the Agency only to the President on UFOs in the late 1940s Investigation of UFOs," Vol. 10, No. 4, was still holding out key information. (87) It and early 1950s. UFOlogists had long argued Studies in Intelligence (fall 1966): pp.95-110 was much like the John F. Kennedy that, following a flying saucer crash in New and CIA, unsigned memorandum, "Flying assassination issue. No matter how much Mexico in 1947, the government not only Saucers," 14 August 1952. See also Good, material the Agency released and no matter how recovered debris from the crashed saucer but Above Top Secret, p. 253. During World War dull and prosaic the information, people also four or five alien bodies. According to II, US pilots reported "foo fighters" (bright continued to believe in a Agency coverup and some UFOlogists, the government clamped lights trailing US aircraft). Fearing they might conspiracy. tight security around the project and has refused be Japanese or German secret weapons, OSS DCI Stansfield Turner was so upset to divulge its investigation results and research investigated but could find no concrete when he read The New York Times article that ever since. (91) In September 1994, the US Air evidence of enemy weapons and often filed he asked his senior officers, "Are we in UFOs?" Force released a new report on the Roswell such reports in the "crackpot" category. The After reviewing the records, Don Wortman, incident that concluded that the debris found in OSS also investigated possible sightings of Deputy Director for Administration, reported to New Mexico in 1947 probably came from a Turner that there was "no organized Agency once top secret balloon operation, Project Continued on Page 35