What's inside CIA's declasified UFO files?

A total of 50,000 individuals deemed credible have reported sightings of unidentified flying objects. This raises the unsettling possibility of extraterrestrial visitors to our planet, or at the very least, UFOs under alien control. While this may resemble the opening of a science fiction narrative, it is, in fact, a genuine excerpt from the Air Force Space Science manual. This publication was included in the official curriculum of the Air Force Academy until the late 1960s, when it was removed from textbooks following its dissemination among UFO proponents. Nevertheless, the manual contains significant information, including an entire chapter dedicated to UFOs, which is corroborated by Major Stewart Kilpatrick, who served as the deputy Director of Public Information at the Air Force Academy during that period. The text advocates for increased funding for UFO research, while also recognizing the challenges posed by the prevailing culture of ridicule surrounding the subject.The Air Force later clarified that the chapter was designed to encourage students to maintain an open mind in the face of contradictory evidence, essentially serving as a thought experiment. However, if this was indeed the intention, one must question the rationale behind emphasizing the credibility of the 50,000 witnesses identified by the Air Force. Given that the Air Force Academy is a training ground for future generals and high-ranking officials in national defense, the inclusion of such a specific statistic raises numerous inquiries regarding the entire UFO phenomenon. Moreover, the handbook elaborates on phenomena often linked to alien activities, such as crop circles and unusual burn marks on soil where UFOs are said to have landed.Of particular significance, the manual references a notable UFO incident that occurred in Kentucky in 1955. On the evening of Sunday, August 21st, children at the Sutton Farm near Kelly, Kentucky, along with other local observers, witnessed a luminous UFO descending to the ground. The craft reportedly landed behind the family’s farm, although the adults dismissed it as merely a peculiar falling object.Thirty minutes later, the family dogs began barking and wouldn't let up, prompting two of the men to go to the back door of the farmhouse and look out towards the barn. They were shocked to discover a humanoid creature just 50 feet away from the rear door, dressed in a glowing silvery suit and standing about three and a half feet tall with a large round head and extremely long arms. Its hands were webbed with claws.The men were alarmed and grabbed a twelve gauge shotgun and .22 caliber pistol, firing at the strange creature. The shotgun pellets and .22 rounds seemed to bounce off the creature's suit, and the men could hear the metallic pings of ricochets. However, the weapons still managed to knock the creature onto its back, after which it quickly stood back up and began to run away the way it had come.The Suttons were terrified and barricaded themselves in their home, turning off all the interior lights and leaving the porch light on. One of the women moved to a dining room window and pressed her face against the glass to peer outside, only to be shocked to discover another creature wearing some type of helmet and wide slit eyes looking back in at her. Alarmed by her scream, the men rushed and began shooting, once more knocking the creature onto its backside and causing it to run away. In total, the men would fire around 50 times at the creatures until they finally seemed to retreat for good, though the family remained locked inside for two hours after the last sighting just to be sure. They immediately departed the farmhouse and rushed to the local police station, telling their storyThe police were alarmed, believing that there had been a major shootout between two groups of citizens. Four police officers, five state troopers, three deputy sheriffs, and four military police officers from nearby Fort Campbell all drove to the farmhouse and searched the premises, discovering evidence of gunfire and holes in windows and door screens made by discharging firearms. There was no sign of the alleged aliens, though when the family returned back home, the beings apparently returned at around 3:30 pm, with neighbors telling police that the Suttons packed up and left home the next day. The house would later be sold, with the family never returning. Police officials noted that there had been no evidence of alcohol use involved in the encounter, but that didn't stop critics like Rodney Schmaltz and Scott Lilienfeld from suggesting that the family was drunk- based on zero evidence. Committee for Skeptical Inquiry member Joe Nickell posited that the family was likely misidentifying eagle owls or great horned owls, given their large eyes and nocturnal behavior. In a classic case of city folk telling farm folk what they do or don't know about their own land, this proposition was largely derided given the family had been long-term inhabitants and unlikely to confuse local owls badly enough to have a two hour shootout and then subsequently sell their home and land. The chapter would end with the following statement: This leaves us with the unpleasant possibility of alien visitors to our planet, or at least of alien controlled UFO's. However, the data is not well correlated, and what questionable data there is suggests the existence of at least three or maybe four different groups of aliens (possibly at different stages of development). This, too, is difficult to accept. It implies the existence of intelligent life on a majority of the planets in our solar system, or a surprisingly strong interest in Earth by members of other solar systems.The next year, for fall semester 1970, the chapter would be completely replaced with a new one emphasizing the findings of the Air Force's Project Blue Book, echoing the conclusion that there had been no evidence of extraterrestrial origin to reported UFOs. Despite this public position, neither the CIA nor the Air Force had actually ceased their investigation into UFOs, with both agencies showing an interest in the phenomenon that lasts to this day- and having numerous secret research programs, as revealed in multiple leaks and whistleblower reports.But back in the 60s there was a genuine desire to shut down public interest in the UFO phenomenon, and the explanation was more down to earth than most UFO advocates want to accept. The Kenneth Arnold sighting of a fleet of UFOs in 1947 opened the floodgates on UFO reporting. Kenneth Arnold had been a credible and respected witness, encouraging other witnesses to come forward and brave public ridicule. Soon, government investigations into the UFO phenomenon were being overwhelmed by citizen reports, including the Air Force's own investigation. Most of these reports had a very prosaic origin, with all manner of atmospheric or aerial phenomena responsible for sightings of strange objects reported as UFOs by a largely uneducated public. Some of these sightings were of real and observed very unidentified craft- but of completely human origin. The U-2 and SR-71, for example, were responsible for numerous UFO reports given their extreme performance parameters, flying over double the height of commercial aircraft at the time. This would have seemed truly otherworldly for witnesses who had no clue the US had such high-performance jets in development. Yet other sightings, a minority, were of truly inexplicable phenomena that refused all attempts at a rational explanation. These sightings were often made by very credible witnesses, had multiple witnesses, or left physical evidence on the ground, such as impressions from landed craft, radiation burns, or mutilated animals.But even the 'real' reports were causing a big problem for the US military, because when put all together, the entire UFO phenomenon was completely overwhelming the government's ability to respond to it. The Air Force was swamped by UFO reports, and three-letter government agencies like the CIA could not keep up with the number pouring in. This was a problem for two big reasons: credible cases needed to be investigated, given the possibility of them being caused by secret Soviet craft. The United States was regularly penetrating Soviet air space with its own secret aircraft, so it wasn't a stretch to believe they were doing it right back. Thus, authorities couldn't take a chance that a UFO report was a chance to gain intelligence on a real, human weapon system.The second problem was the sheer congestion caused by the reporting. Daily reports flooded reporting systems, and President Eisenhower became extremely concerned about a nuclear Pearl Harbor attack by the Soviets on the US. The CIA formed a special study group, and, in 1952, had already concluded that the Soviets could seek to exploit UFO reporting in order to confuse its own activities or launch an attack. The group concluded that hysteria over UFO sightings could completely overwhelm the US air warning system, resulting in a failure to identify real, Soviet aircraft from UFOs. Enemies might then exploit the UFO phenomenon in order to completely disrupt the American air defense system- ironic given that the Soviets were having the exact same thoughts at the same time, also prompted by an uptick in UFO sightings.In typical CIA fashion, though, they thought they should do something about UFO reporting by nipping it in the bud. The CIA panel wrote a recommendation that the National Security Council immediately move to debunk UFO reports and quote- institute a policy of public education to reassure the public of the lack of evidence behind UFOs. The panel recommended that mass media, advertising, business clubs, and even Disney be used to 're-educate' the public on UFOs. It's no surprise then that a culture of ridicule quickly arose around the UFO phenomenon, where before it had been met by the media with a degree of healthy, scientific curiosity. Skepticism turned to denialism, with witnesses intimidated to remain silent due to the threat of overwhelming ridicule. But the UFO issue refused to die, and the government was now keeping secrets even from itself. Rumors of craft retrieval from crash sites began to circulate as early as the Roswell incident, where the Army itself was the first to announce, completely unbidden, that it had, in fact, recovered a crashed flying saucer. This was immediately walked back to be just the debris from a weather balloon, and yet rumors within the government of retrieved craft- even biological beings- circulated for decades. Before his death, US Senator Barry Goldwater commented on his numerous attempts to gain access to a specific site at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. He was refused entry, with the Air Force claiming the site was classified above top secret. In a Larry King Interview in 1994, Goldwater recalled a conversation he had with General Curtis LeMay, Chief of Staff of the Air Force from 1961 to 1965. Despite the two having been known to be friends, when he asked the General for entry into the facility at Wright-Patterson, Goldwater remarked, “I've never heard him get mad, but he got madder than hell at me, cussed me out, and said, 'don't' ever ask me that question again!' Despite its recommendations that the National Security Council move to discredit UFO reports, the CIA was nonetheless keeping a close tab on reports- especially on incidents near sensitive sites in the US and abroad. In 1952, a declassified CIA report noted the sighting of two fiery disks over uranium mines located over southern Congo. The craft maneuvered erratically and even hovered in place, pulling off aerobatic maneuvers impossible for conventional aircraft. A decorated World War II pilot set out in pursuit of the craft, coming within 120 meters of one of the flying disks and describing it as a now well-known saucer-shaped craft. The report ends with the following note: Pierre is regarded as a dependable officer and a zealous flyer. He gave a detailed report to his superiors which, strangely enough, in many respects agreed with various results of research. Then there is the modern era of the phenomenon, defined by the 2017 New York Times article exposing a secret Air Force research program into UFOs. This study was championed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who had had a strong interest in UFOs since the 1980s. Reid had also been an unofficial liaison with billionaire and UFO enthusiast Robert Bigelow, who spent tens of millions of dollars of his own money investigating the phenomenon. Reid was present at the first board meeting of Bigelow's National Institute for Discovery Science, which included PhD-level scientists, former senior special forces officers, and intelligence professionals. The Institute is best known for investigating Skinwalker Ranch, with evidence that they were sharing their results with the US military- to this day, most of the institute's work at the ranch has not been shared with the public, again hinting at Bigelow's cooperation with the military and thus it becoming classified.However, there is no doubt that Bigelow then went on to conduct a study on UFOs for the Pentagon, as revealed by the 2017 New York Times expose. This would be but one of numerous research efforts into the phenomenon, with Lou Elizondo, former head of one of these programs, resigning out of frustration at how the program was being run. Whistleblower David Grusch would soon come forward with stunning testimony, alleging that not only was there a secret crash retrieval program inside the US government, but that those who operated that program were doing so outside of congressional oversight- and had committed numerous felonies while doing so, including murder. Grusch's testimony has been hotly debated, as has his credibility- yet we know that Grusch had at one point held the highest of security clearances, generating intelligence reports to be reviewed by the president himself. This begs the question of when is a witness credible enough based on their credentials; for denialists the answer is obviously never. However, something that even the most hard-boiled denialists cannot refute about Grusch's claims, is that the inspector general of the intelligence community themselves discovered them to be credible and that they should be promptly and urgently investigated. It has been commonly reported that this only refers to Grusch's claims of harassment after blowing the whistle in a classified briefing to the 'gang of eight'- a group of senior most senators who oversee all classified intelligence matters in the entirety of the United States government and military apparatus. To date, the US intelligence services have denied Congress the use of a sensitive compartmented information facility- or SCIF - exactly what Grusch has requested, as it is the only place he can legally brief congressmen and women outside of the gang of eight. If Grusch's allegations are baseless, then one has to ask why the American intelligence community refuses to provide Congress the tools it needs to hear those allegations in the first place. Even more curious is the behavior of Republican senator Mike Turner. Turner sits on the gang of eight and has heard Grusch's full testimony, including sites where craft are being stored, individuals working within what has been termed 'the program', and alleged crimes committed by 'the program', including evidence of murders to maintain secrecy. Turner has famously attempted to prevent UAP meetings in Congress, and led the effort to neutralize legislation presented by Democrat Chuck Schumer to declassify the UFO phenomenon and bring transparency to government. Under what is known as the Schumer amendment, all government or private parties with possession or knowledge of non-human technology or biologics had a limited time to come forward. It would also create a group that would immediately begin to declassify military and government data on UAPs.The Schumer amendment would end up getting gutted in congress, no small thanks to Rep Mike Turner. Turner's home district by the way includes the infamous Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, where years earlier Barry Goldwater had been denied entry by the Air Force's most senior officer- a curious coincidence. The real question is, what is the CIA's modern role in the greatly revitalized UAP public discussion? As more and more extremely highly placed whistleblowers and witnesses come forward, and citizen science groups launch serious homegrown research efforts, UAPs have gained the degree of credibility in most of the public that the issue has always deserved, given the staggering amounts of evidence. We know that in the past, both the FBI and CIA manipulated American media, with the FBI even having numerous reporters secretly on their payroll- FBI's COINTELPRO comes to mind.Now check out US Special Forces Confession- I Recovered Crashed UFOs. Is this fiction, or a secret confessional? We are unfortunately not at liberty to say.