Posted On: August 3, 2022

It has been said that the devil is in the details. In this episode, we talk about the CIA special study group, you can see a better picture of how the CIA viewed UFOs and the importance of lying to the public about them.

The CIA special study group was established in August 1952, and the documents relating to the briefing make interesting reading, and were classified secret at the time. The first is dated August 14:

"During the past weeks, with the phenomenal increase in the number of Flying Saucer reports there has been a tremendous stimulation of both public and official interest in the subject. Requests for information have poured in on the Air Force, including an official query from the White House."

At this point, OSI felt that it would be timely to make an evaluation of the Air Force study, its methodology and coverage, the relation of its conclusions to various theories which have been propounded, and to try to reach some conclusion as to the intelligence implications of the problem, if any. In view of the wide interest within the Agency, this briefing has been arranged so that we could report on the survey. It must be mentioned that outside knowledge of Agency interest in Flying Saucers carries the risk of making the problem even more serious in the public mind than it already is, which we and the Air Force agree must be avoided.

The report adds that "we have reviewed our own intelligence, going back to the Swedish sightings of 1946," and lists the various types of UFO reported to the Air Force:

"Grouped broadly as visual, radar, and combined visual and radar, ATIC has two major visual classes, first, spherical or elliptical objects, usually of bright metallic luster, some small (2 or 3 feet across), most estimated at 100 foot diameter and a few 1000 feet wide. There are variants in this group, such as torpedos, triangulars, pencils, even mattress-shapes. These are all daylight reportings."

The second visual group, all night reporting, consists of lights and various luminosities, such as green, flaming-red or blue-white fire balls, moving points of light, and luminous streamers. Both categories are reported as single objects, in non-symmetrical groups and in formations of various numbers.

Reported characteristics include three general levels of speed: hovering; moderate, as with a conventional aircraft; and stupendous, up to 18000 miles per hour in the White Sands Incident.

Violent maneuvering was reported in somewhat less than 10%. Accelerations have been given as high as 20 g's. With few exceptions, there has been a complete absence of sound or vapor trail. Evasion upon approach is common.

Radars have shown many unidentified "blips" but there is no reported instance of complete tracking in and out of the maximum drum, and no report of a track from station to station. The blip, in almost every case passed through the center of the scope.

Various instances of radar/visual sightings are cited, including one that "occurred a few days ago at Wright Field and has not yet been fully analyzed. Two F-94’s with cameras were vectored in on a blip. Both pilots sighted an object and one locked on with his AI equipment. Reaching his maximum allowable altitude, he triggered his camera and the negative shows ‘an object.’"

The CIA reviewed the likelihood that the UFOs were US weapons, and concluded that this hypothesis was untenable:

"This has been denied officially at the highest level of government and to make certain we queried Dr. Whitman, Chairman of the Research and Development Board. On a Top Secret basis, he, too, denies it. However, in view of the Manhattan District early super security, [relating to the first US atom bomb] two factors might be mentioned which tend to confirm his denials, first, the official action of alerting all Air Force commands to intercept, and second, the unbelievable risk aspect of such flights in established air lanes."

The CIA also ruled out the possibility that UFOs were Soviet secret weapons. "Though we know that the Russians have done work on elliptical and delta wing principles," the report states, "we have absolutely no intelligence of such a technological advance as would be indicated here in either design or energy source. Further, there seems to be no logical reason for the security risk which would be involved and there has been no indication of a reconnaissance pattern."

The extraterrestrial hypothesis was then reviewed by the CIA/OSI special study group:

Even though we might admit that intelligent life may exist elsewhere and that space travel is possible, there is no shred of evidence to support this theory at present. There have been no astronomical observations in confirmation, no slightest indication of the orbiting which would probably be necessary, and no tracking. However, it might be noted that Comdr. McLaughlin (of the White Sands report), a number of General Mills balloon people and many others are reported to be convinced of this theory.

Although the CIA special study group stated that there was not a shred of evidence to support the extraterrestrial hypothesis, a crashed disk was in fact recovered at Roswell, New Mexico, in July 1947, which was believed by those involved in the investigations to be of non-terrestrial origin.

However absurd this may seem, there is now massive documentation on the case, which I have reviewed in Chapter 11. But if a disk was recovered, why was the CIA not informed about it? Since there is evidence that the FBI was familiar with the stories of recovered flying disks at the time, this seems rather puzzling. In my view, the explanation is that the true facts about the Roswell disk (and possibly others) were restricted to the small and highly secret group. Majestic 12, formed to investigate and report its findings to the President. One of the members was Vice Admiral Roscoe Hillenkoetter, the CIA’s first Director (1947 - 1950), whose statements attesting to the reality and nonterrestrial origin of UFOs appear later in this chapter. Owing to strict compartmentation of intelligence, I very much doubt if the 1952 CIA special study group was aware of all the evidence in favor of the extraterrestrial hypothesis. I am sure that documentation for the reports of recovered disks exists within the CIA, but it is highly unlikely that it will be released for a long time to come.

As to the CIA special study group’s statement that there had been no astronomical observations or evidence of orbiting that would tend to support the extraterrestrial hypothesis, there is an interesting story related by Warren Smith in this connection. Smith was allegedly told by a CIA informant that in 1953 the US Air Force developed a sophisticated radar tracking system which detected huge unidentified objects orbiting at 100 to 500 miles above the earth on thirteen different occasions that year. This alarming information was relayed to the Department of Defense and the CIA, and a tracking station was set up at the White Sands Proving Grounds, New Mexico, under the direction of the distinguished astronomer Dr. Clyde Tombaugh (who discovered Pluto in 1930 and who had himself had several unexplainable sightings of UFOs in the late 1940s).

Tombaugh confirmed that such a tracking system existed in an article published in February 1954 for the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, but stated that the project was sponsored by the Army Ordnance Research Department to keep an accurate check on "natural phenomena" in space.

Finally, there is the 1952 CIA group comment on the fourth major theory, then held by the Air Force, that the sightings, given adequate data, could be explained on the basis of either misinterpretation of known objects, or of as yet poorly understood natural phenomena. This theory was endorsed in a lengthy briefing by a Mr. Eng, who nevertheless concluded: "sightings of UFOs reported at Los Alamos and Oak Ridge, at a time when the background radiation count had risen inexplicably. Here we run out of even ‘blue yonder’ explanations that might be tenable, and we still are left with numbers of incredible reports from credible observers."

Another review of the CIA/OSI study group’s findings is to be found in a sanitized copy of a six-page document dated 19 August 1952, originally classified secret. The CIA was puzzled not to have found "one report or comment, even satirical, in the Russian press. This could result only from an official policy decision and of course raises the question of why and of whether or not these sightings could be used from a psychological warfare point of view either offensively or defensively," and continues:

Air Force is aware of this and had investigated a number of the civilian groups that have sprung up to follow the subject. One, the Civilian Saucer Committee in California has substantial funds, strongly influences the editorial policy of a number of newspapers and has leaders whose connections may be questionable. Air Force is watching this organization because of its power to touch off mass hysteria and panic. Perhaps we, from an intelligence point of view, should watch for any indication of Russian efforts to capitalize upon this present American credulity.

Of even greater moment is the second danger. Our air warning system will undoubtedly always depend upon a combination of radar scanning and visual observation. We give Russia the capability of delivering an air attack against us, yet at any given moment now, there may be current a dozen official unidentified sightings plus many unofficial. At the moment of attack, how will we, on an instant basis, distinguish hardware from phantom? The answer of course [deleted in original] is that until far greater knowledge is achieved of the causes back of the sightings, the little understood phenomena [deleted] has described, we will run the increasing risk of false alerts and the even greater danger of tabbing the real as false.

All this is perfectly understandable, and the CIA continued to be haunted by the specter of World War III being triggered by UFOs mistaken as Soviet missiles or aircraft. The Office of Scientific Intelligence would continue to monitor Russian research and development in the scientific fields involved, the report concluded.

A few days later evidence of Russia’s first mention of the subject was cited in a secret memorandum from George G. Carey, Assistant Director for Operations to the Deputy Director of Intelligence, dated 22 August 1952. The second paragraph states:

FBID [Foreign Broadcasts Information Division] has one broadcast on this subject, dated 10 June 1951, which is quoted below: Summary, In what appears to be Moscow’s first mention of Flying Saucers "Listener’s Mailbag" answers questions on the subject to the effect that "The Chief of Nuclear Physics in the US Naval Research Bureau" explained them recently as used for stratospheric studies. US government circles knew all along of the harmless nature of these objects, but if they refrained from denying "false reports, the purpose behind such tactics was to fan war hysteria in the country."

On 2 December 1952 H. Marshall Chadwell, Assistant Director of Scientific Intelligence, sent a secret memorandum to the CIA Director, discussing the preparation of the National Security Council Directive referred to earlier. Paragraph 4 makes particularly interesting reading:

"Recent reports reaching CIA indicated that further action was desirable and another briefing by the cognizant A-2 [Air Force Intelligence] and ATIC [Air Technical Intelligence Center] personnel was held on 25 November. At this time, the reports of incidents convince us that there is something going on that must have immediate attention. Sightings of unexplained objects at great altitudes and traveling at high speeds in the vicinity of major U.S. defense installations are of such nature that they are not attributable to natural phenomena or known types of aerial vehicles."

Resources: Above Top Secret, Timothy Good, 1988.

My Take:  More small pieces to the puzzle that basically says, UFOs are real. The government knows about them. The government is actively lying to the public and covering it up.

Posted On: August 3, 2022

It has been said that the devil is in the details. In this episode, we talk about the CIA special study group, you can see a better picture of how the CIA viewed UFOs and the importance of lying to the public about them.

The CIA special study group was established in August 1952, and the documents relating to the briefing make interesting reading, and were classified secret at the time. The first is dated August 14:

"During the past weeks, with the phenomenal increase in the number of Flying Saucer reports there has been a tremendous stimulation of both public and official interest in the subject. Requests for information have poured in on the Air Force, including an official query from the White House."

At this point, OSI felt that it would be timely to make an evaluation of the Air Force study, its methodology and coverage, the relation of its conclusions to various theories which have been propounded, and to try to reach some conclusion as to the intelligence implications of the problem, if any. In view of the wide interest within the Agency, this briefing has been arranged so that we could report on the survey. It must be mentioned that outside knowledge of Agency interest in Flying Saucers carries the risk of making the problem even more serious in the public mind than it already is, which we and the Air Force agree must be avoided.

The report adds that "we have reviewed our own intelligence, going back to the Swedish sightings of 1946," and lists the various types of UFO reported to the Air Force:

"Grouped broadly as visual, radar, and combined visual and radar, ATIC has two major visual classes, first, spherical or elliptical objects, usually of bright metallic luster, some small (2 or 3 feet across), most estimated at 100 foot diameter and a few 1000 feet wide. There are variants in this group, such as torpedos, triangulars, pencils, even mattress-shapes. These are all daylight reportings."

The second visual group, all night reporting, consists of lights and various luminosities, such as green, flaming-red or blue-white fire balls, moving points of light, and luminous streamers. Both categories are reported as single objects, in non-symmetrical groups and in formations of various numbers.

Reported characteristics include three general levels of speed: hovering; moderate, as with a conventional aircraft; and stupendous, up to 18000 miles per hour in the White Sands Incident.

Violent maneuvering was reported in somewhat less than 10%. Accelerations have been given as high as 20 g's. With few exceptions, there has been a complete absence of sound or vapor trail. Evasion upon approach is common.

Radars have shown many unidentified "blips" but there is no reported instance of complete tracking in and out of the maximum drum, and no report of a track from station to station. The blip, in almost every case passed through the center of the scope.

Various instances of radar/visual sightings are cited, including one that "occurred a few days ago at Wright Field and has not yet been fully analyzed. Two F-94’s with cameras were vectored in on a blip. Both pilots sighted an object and one locked on with his AI equipment. Reaching his maximum allowable altitude, he triggered his camera and the negative shows ‘an object.’"

The CIA reviewed the likelihood that the UFOs were US weapons, and concluded that this hypothesis was untenable:

"This has been denied officially at the highest level of government and to make certain we queried Dr. Whitman, Chairman of the Research and Development Board. On a Top Secret basis, he, too, denies it. However, in view of the Manhattan District early super security, [relating to the first US atom bomb] two factors might be mentioned which tend to confirm his denials, first, the official action of alerting all Air Force commands to intercept, and second, the unbelievable risk aspect of such flights in established air lanes."

The CIA also ruled out the possibility that UFOs were Soviet secret weapons. "Though we know that the Russians have done work on elliptical and delta wing principles," the report states, "we have absolutely no intelligence of such a technological advance as would be indicated here in either design or energy source. Further, there seems to be no logical reason for the security risk which would be involved and there has been no indication of a reconnaissance pattern."

The extraterrestrial hypothesis was then reviewed by the CIA/OSI special study group:

Even though we might admit that intelligent life may exist elsewhere and that space travel is possible, there is no shred of evidence to support this theory at present. There have been no astronomical observations in confirmation, no slightest indication of the orbiting which would probably be necessary, and no tracking. However, it might be noted that Comdr. McLaughlin (of the White Sands report), a number of General Mills balloon people and many others are reported to be convinced of this theory.

Although the CIA special study group stated that there was not a shred of evidence to support the extraterrestrial hypothesis, a crashed disk was in fact recovered at Roswell, New Mexico, in July 1947, which was believed by those involved in the investigations to be of non-terrestrial origin.

However absurd this may seem, there is now massive documentation on the case, which I have reviewed in Chapter 11. But if a disk was recovered, why was the CIA not informed about it? Since there is evidence that the FBI was familiar with the stories of recovered flying disks at the time, this seems rather puzzling. In my view, the explanation is that the true facts about the Roswell disk (and possibly others) were restricted to the small and highly secret group. Majestic 12, formed to investigate and report its findings to the President. One of the members was Vice Admiral Roscoe Hillenkoetter, the CIA’s first Director (1947 - 1950), whose statements attesting to the reality and nonterrestrial origin of UFOs appear later in this chapter. Owing to strict compartmentation of intelligence, I very much doubt if the 1952 CIA special study group was aware of all the evidence in favor of the extraterrestrial hypothesis. I am sure that documentation for the reports of recovered disks exists within the CIA, but it is highly unlikely that it will be released for a long time to come.

As to the CIA special study group’s statement that there had been no astronomical observations or evidence of orbiting that would tend to support the extraterrestrial hypothesis, there is an interesting story related by Warren Smith in this connection. Smith was allegedly told by a CIA informant that in 1953 the US Air Force developed a sophisticated radar tracking system which detected huge unidentified objects orbiting at 100 to 500 miles above the earth on thirteen different occasions that year. This alarming information was relayed to the Department of Defense and the CIA, and a tracking station was set up at the White Sands Proving Grounds, New Mexico, under the direction of the distinguished astronomer Dr. Clyde Tombaugh (who discovered Pluto in 1930 and who had himself had several unexplainable sightings of UFOs in the late 1940s).

Tombaugh confirmed that such a tracking system existed in an article published in February 1954 for the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, but stated that the project was sponsored by the Army Ordnance Research Department to keep an accurate check on "natural phenomena" in space.

Finally, there is the 1952 CIA group comment on the fourth major theory, then held by the Air Force, that the sightings, given adequate data, could be explained on the basis of either misinterpretation of known objects, or of as yet poorly understood natural phenomena. This theory was endorsed in a lengthy briefing by a Mr. Eng, who nevertheless concluded: "sightings of UFOs reported at Los Alamos and Oak Ridge, at a time when the background radiation count had risen inexplicably. Here we run out of even ‘blue yonder’ explanations that might be tenable, and we still are left with numbers of incredible reports from credible observers."

Another review of the CIA/OSI study group’s findings is to be found in a sanitized copy of a six-page document dated 19 August 1952, originally classified secret. The CIA was puzzled not to have found "one report or comment, even satirical, in the Russian press. This could result only from an official policy decision and of course raises the question of why and of whether or not these sightings could be used from a psychological warfare point of view either offensively or defensively," and continues:

Air Force is aware of this and had investigated a number of the civilian groups that have sprung up to follow the subject. One, the Civilian Saucer Committee in California has substantial funds, strongly influences the editorial policy of a number of newspapers and has leaders whose connections may be questionable. Air Force is watching this organization because of its power to touch off mass hysteria and panic. Perhaps we, from an intelligence point of view, should watch for any indication of Russian efforts to capitalize upon this present American credulity.

Of even greater moment is the second danger. Our air warning system will undoubtedly always depend upon a combination of radar scanning and visual observation. We give Russia the capability of delivering an air attack against us, yet at any given moment now, there may be current a dozen official unidentified sightings plus many unofficial. At the moment of attack, how will we, on an instant basis, distinguish hardware from phantom? The answer of course [deleted in original] is that until far greater knowledge is achieved of the causes back of the sightings, the little understood phenomena [deleted] has described, we will run the increasing risk of false alerts and the even greater danger of tabbing the real as false.

All this is perfectly understandable, and the CIA continued to be haunted by the specter of World War III being triggered by UFOs mistaken as Soviet missiles or aircraft. The Office of Scientific Intelligence would continue to monitor Russian research and development in the scientific fields involved, the report concluded.

A few days later evidence of Russia’s first mention of the subject was cited in a secret memorandum from George G. Carey, Assistant Director for Operations to the Deputy Director of Intelligence, dated 22 August 1952. The second paragraph states:

FBID [Foreign Broadcasts Information Division] has one broadcast on this subject, dated 10 June 1951, which is quoted below: Summary, In what appears to be Moscow’s first mention of Flying Saucers "Listener’s Mailbag" answers questions on the subject to the effect that "The Chief of Nuclear Physics in the US Naval Research Bureau" explained them recently as used for stratospheric studies. US government circles knew all along of the harmless nature of these objects, but if they refrained from denying "false reports, the purpose behind such tactics was to fan war hysteria in the country."

On 2 December 1952 H. Marshall Chadwell, Assistant Director of Scientific Intelligence, sent a secret memorandum to the CIA Director, discussing the preparation of the National Security Council Directive referred to earlier. Paragraph 4 makes particularly interesting reading:

"Recent reports reaching CIA indicated that further action was desirable and another briefing by the cognizant A-2 [Air Force Intelligence] and ATIC [Air Technical Intelligence Center] personnel was held on 25 November. At this time, the reports of incidents convince us that there is something going on that must have immediate attention. Sightings of unexplained objects at great altitudes and traveling at high speeds in the vicinity of major U.S. defense installations are of such nature that they are not attributable to natural phenomena or known types of aerial vehicles."

Resources: Above Top Secret, Timothy Good, 1988.

My Take:  More small pieces to the puzzle that basically says, UFOs are real. The government knows about them. The government is actively lying to the public and covering it up.