A treasure trove of UFO-related documents has been published online by the CIA so that anyone can download a copy of it.
The database contains hundreds of formerly top secret files on what the CIA calls ‘Unidentified Aerial Phenomena’ (UAPs).
The campaign to make the documents public dates back to the 1980s and was spearheaded by John Greenwald Jr. He now operates the website – known as ‘Black Vault’ – where the contents of the dossiers can be downloaded.
Many of the UAPs in the files may be tricks of the light or a misjudgment by a pilot. But some of them became targets investigated by the Pentagon.
‘Around 20 years ago, I had fought for years to get additional UFO records released from the CIA,’ Greenewald told Motherboard on Monday.
‘It was like pulling teeth! I went around and around with them to try and do so, finally achieving it. I received a large box, of a couple thousand pages, and I had to scan them in one page at a time.’
According to Greenwald, the documents are the result of 10,000 Freedom of Information reports. And the government agency made it as difficult as possible for anyone else to get eyes on their findings.
‘The CIA has made it INCREDIBLY difficult to use their records in a reasonable manner,’ Greenwald told the site. ‘They offer a format that is very outdated (multi page .tif) and offer text file outputs, largely unusable, that I think they intend to have people use as a “search” tool. In my opinion, this outdated format makes it very difficult for people to see the documents, and use them, for any research purpose.’
Greenwald said there have been thousands of downloads of the files within the first 24 hours of them being made available.
And some of the scenarios described within the documents could have come straight out of The X-Files.
In one case, a small Russian town suffered an explosion ripping the roofs from buildings, blowing apart windows and leaving a 90-foot wide crater. Residents reported seeing a ‘moving fiery sphere’ but the local military concluded it was just an ammonium nitrate blast.
Another story deals with a Bosnian fugitive who claimed to have come into contact with aliens.
Yet another file deals with a CIA Assistant Deputy Director for Science and Technology who ‘exhibited interest’ in a redacted object ‘which was handcarried to his office’.
Interestingly, this information comes just as the Pentagon is expected to release yet more classified UFO documents into the public domain.
In December, President Trump signed a $2.3 trillion Covid-19 relief bill that included an act stating government agencies must publish a report in the next six months.
Attached to the bill was a provision requested by Sen. Marco Rubio who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee to include ‘detailed analysis of unidentified phenomena data’ in restricted US airspace.
This provision, attached as a ‘committee comment’, also requests data and intelligence collected or held by the Office of Naval Intelligence.
It means the Pentagon could reveal even more information relating to a highly sensitive investigation government project called the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP).
It has previously been confirmed that the US has studied a range of futuristic technologies which would allow it to exercise global military dominance for decades to come. The programme is dedicated to exploring ‘ unexplained aerial phenomena’ and is believed to have written a 490-page report which collects together UFO sightings from around the world.
In March last year, the Pentagon piqued global interest in UFOs by releasing three declassified videos showing what it tagged as a UAP.
Astonished navy fighter pilots filmed objects apparently moving at angles and speeds far outstripping any man-made craft.
Curiously, the Pentagon released the videos without having any obligation to do so. The trickle of clues has also included pictures of the secretive Area 51 military base, reported on by Metro.co.uk on Thursday, showing a strange triangular shape inside a hanger.
Nick Pope, a British UFO expert who worked for the Ministry of Defence, told Metro: ‘The clock is now ticking on the Senate Intelligence Committee’s demand for a report on the UFO phenomenon from the Director of National Intelligence.
‘A response is due within 180 days of the enactment of the Covid-19 relief bill, because this bill contained the Intelligence Authorization Act, where the UFO requirement was articulated.
‘But the US Department of Defense has known since June of the committee’s request, and the US Navy’s Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) Task Force is probably already working on drafting the response, so we may get it sooner than the late June deadline. This report, important though it may be, is only one part of a wider process.
‘There’s a lot going on and we’re going to see some big UFO stories in 2021.’
