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Declassified Files: UFO Records and Strange Government Documents

Strange records governments have released: FBI Vault files, CIA reading room documents, Air Force and Navy reports. Every page links to the original document.

Every page here starts from a document a government has released, links to the original, and sets the official explanation beside the claims people make about it.

Records 11

US Department of Defense (AARO)AARO Historical Record Report, Volume IThe Pentagon's UAP office was told about a secret program called KONA BLUE, said to hide non-human biologics. When it looked, the office reports, it found only a rejected proposal to fund paranormal research and reverse-engineer craft its backers merely hoped to get. What else did its 2024 review of government UFO history find?CIA / US SenateMKUltra: The 1977 Senate HearingThe CIA believed its secret mind-control files were destroyed in 1973. Then seven forgotten boxes turned up in a records center, and in 1977 its director told senators about 149 subprojects. The list included electro-shock, harassment techniques and one project on extrasensory perception. What did the hearing reveal, and what remains lost?Office of the Director of National IntelligenceODNI Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (2021)A 2021 US intelligence report reviewed 144 military reports of unidentified aerial phenomena and could explain only one, a large deflating balloon. Some objects reportedly moved against the wind or at speed without a visible means of propulsion. The word alien never appears. So what does the report actually conclude?US Air ForceProject Blue BookBetween 1947 and 1969 the US Air Force logged 12,618 UFO reports. When it closed the files, 701 still carried the label unidentified. Even its own scientific consultant later mocked it as a society for explaining the uninvestigated. What did the Air Force conclude, and what do the unexplained cases actually mean?CIA / US Army / Defense Intelligence AgencyStargate: The Government's Remote Viewing ProgramFor over two decades, US intelligence agencies reportedly spent around $20 million on people who tried to see distant places with their minds. When outside reviewers looked in 1995, the CIA said results seemed to defy randomness, yet were too unreliable to use. Two experts disagreed about what that meant. Which side was right?US Air Force / University of ColoradoThe Condon ReportThe Air Force paid the University of Colorado to study UFOs, and its 1968 conclusion was blunt: nothing in 21 years had added to scientific knowledge. It even advised teachers not to grade work based on UFO books. But a leaked memo from the study's own coordinator made critics doubt it. What did that memo say?FBI VaultThe FBI's Extra-Sensory Perception FileIn 1957 the FBI read about a man who said he taught blind people to see without their eyes, and one memo imagined the payoff: undetectable access to mail, the diplomatic pouch and the inside of buildings. The CIA found nothing to back it up. How did the Bureau treat the claim, and how did it end?FBI VaultThe Guy Hottel Memo (FBI Vault UFO File)A one-page FBI memo from 1950 says an informant claimed three crashed saucers, each with three small bodies in metallic cloth, were recovered in New Mexico. It became the most viewed page in the FBI's online vault. The Bureau itself calls it a second- or third-hand claim it never investigated. Where did the story really come from?FBI Vault / US National ArchivesThe Majestic 12 DocumentsAn undeveloped film roll arrived in a package with a New Mexico postmark in 1984, holding a supposed briefing to President-elect Eisenhower about a recovered alien craft. An Air Force investigation called it fake, and the FBI scrawled BOGUS across its copy. Yet one related paper sits in the National Archives. Why do archivists doubt it?CIAThe Robertson PanelAfter a wave of sightings in 1952, a CIA-backed panel of scientists reviewed the evidence in 1953. They explained one famous film as sunlight on seagulls, then recommended a public campaign to debunk UFO reports, possibly using even Disney. Why did the CIA fear UFO reports more than UFOs?CIA / Stanford Research InstituteThe SRI Psychic Experiments (Puthoff, Targ and Uri Geller)Two laser physicists persuaded the CIA to fund psychic tests in 1972, and in 1973 they sealed Uri Geller in a shielded room to copy drawings he could not see. The researchers called the result convincing. Critics said the judges had sensory cues. The CIA's own reviewer called himself a skeptical agnostic. What went on inside?

Events 5

UK Ministry of Defence / US Air ForceRendlesham Forest and the Halt MemoA US Air Force deputy base commander in Suffolk wrote an official memo to Britain's Ministry of Defence in 1981. It reports a metallic triangular object, three depressions in the ground, and radiation readings peaking in them. The UK National Archives calls it Britain's best-known UFO incident. Skeptics point to a lighthouse. What do you make of it?US Air Force / CIAThe 1952 Washington, D.C. UFO SightingsIn July 1952, radar at Washington's airports tracked unknown targets two weekends running, and fighter jets were sent up over the capital. The story reached the White House, and the Pentagon held a huge press conference. The official answer was weather. A newspaper headline said saucers swarmed over the capital. Was it?Imperial Iranian Air Force / US Air Force / NSAThe 1976 Tehran UFO IncidentA US military account says that in 1976, as an Iranian F-4 closed on a bright light over Tehran, its instruments and radio went dead. A second jet's pilot reportedly tried to fire a missile at an object heading toward him, and his weapons panel lost power. The Defense Intelligence Agency called it outstanding. Others say Jupiter.US House of Representatives, Committee on OversightThe 2023 House UAP HearingIn July 2023 a former intelligence officer told Congress he had been informed of a multi-decade crash retrieval and reverse engineering program, but his claims were secondhand. Two pilots also testified, one describing a dark cube inside a clear sphere. The Pentagon replied that it found nothing to back it. Who said what?US Navy / Department of DefenseThe USS Nimitz "Tic Tac" and the Navy UAP VideosNavy pilots off California in 2004 reported a white, oval object about 40 feet long that rose to meet one jet as it spiraled down, then vanished. Infrared video of it became the Pentagon's officially released Tic Tac clip. Skeptics say the sensors distort ordinary things. What did the pilots say they saw?

Questions people ask about Declassified Files

What is the FBI Vault?

The FBI Vault, at vault.fbi.gov, is the FBI's online reading room. It posts records the Bureau has released under the Freedom of Information Act, from files on famous people and cases to its UFO-related papers, so anyone can read the scanned originals.

What is the CIA reading room?

The CIA's FOIA Electronic Reading Room, at cia.gov/readingroom, is the agency's online archive of released records. It holds millions of pages of declassified documents, including papers on UFOs and on the government's psychic research, and it can be searched for free.

Does declassified mean the claims in a file are true?

No. Declassified means a government has removed a document's secret status and released it, often with parts blacked out. That proves the document is real, not that every report or opinion inside it is correct. That is why each page gives what the file says and the official explanation.