CIA Released Reports on UFOs - Part 3

[BACK]
CIA Released Reports on UFOs - Part 3
Posted On: August 27, 2022

In this episode, we talk about CIA released documents on some Canadian Related UFO events. Many of the declassified CIA UFO documents relate to sighting reports throughout the world, obtained mostly from foreign newspapers, periodicals, and broadcasts. Since many of these reports have now been published in Clear Intent, they will not be included here, except in a few instances.


It may come as a surprise to those unfamiliar with the workings of intelligence agencies that approximately fifty percent of intelligence gathering originates with open sources, such as newspapers, films, and speeches. Another forty percent comes from reconnaissance satellites and spy planes, eavesdropping devices and other gadgets, while only ten percent is dependent on human intelligence (HUMINT).


A puzzling omission in the released CIA (and other intelligence agency) reports from foreign countries is Great Britain and Australia. Since these countries have had many significant sightings it can only concluded that there has been an official arrangement to preclude such information. Could Britain’s Ministry of Defense intelligence chiefs have vetoed any reference in the FOIA declassified documents? Fanciful though the suggestion seems, liaison between the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS or M16) and the CIA, for example, is almost as close as that of Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) and the National Security Agency.


Ex-intelligence officer Gordon Creighton has confirmed that there was liaison on UFO matters between the CIA and Ministry of Defense in the 1950s, and it would seem logical that such liaison continues in Britain, perhaps with the CIA’s Joint Reports and Research Unit at the US Embassy in London, which exchanges intelligence assessments with the Joint Intelligence Staff in the Cabinet Office.


CANADA, 1950 AND 1955


Although the majority of UFO reports were obtained by the CIA from open sources, a few were collected directly, such as the following case involving a sighting on board a ship in the North Atlantic, en route from Nova Scotia to an eastern US port, on 4 August 1950. The source for the report is deleted, as are the names of the witnesses, all of whom were interviewed by intelligence officers. This is the third mate’s account:


"At 10:00 am on 4 Aug 1950, as I was checking the compass at mid-bridge through a bridge port hole, I observed a flying object off the starboard bow. I immediately shouted to the Captain, who was in the chart room, and the Chief Mate, who was below on the port deck, of my observation and went out on the flying bridge myself. The object was approximately 70 feet above the horizon at a distance of 12 miles. It came toward us, then ran on a course reciprocal to ours and turned off into the horizon in the northeast. I clearly saw its shadow on the water. My impression of the object was that it was elliptical, not unlike a Japanese diamond box kite in shape. I have no idea of its size but the length was about six times the breadth and it had a depth of from two to five feet.


It made no noise and was traveling at a tremendous rate of speed. As it traveled through the air, it made a spinning or wobbly motion. After it disappeared in the horizon, I saw it reappear several seconds later, ascending at an even faster speed than when I first observed it. I have no idea what this object was, I never saw anything comparable to it before, and it was one of the most frightening experiences I have ever had. I roughly estimate that the object traveled 28 miles during the 15 seconds I had it under observation."


The collector’s note commented that there was a "tremendous discrepancy between the Captain’s estimate of the speed and the estimate of the two officers which could not be explained as they were very careful in making their statements and asserted that their observations had been correct", but concluded: "All three men were quite evidently upset by the sighting. Aside from the discrepancies, it was quite evident to the intelligence officers who interviewed these men that they had certainly seen some very unusual object which they could not identify but was just as certainly not any conventional type of aircraft".


A memorandum dated 12 July 1955 from the CIA Office of Scientific Intelligence Chief, Physics and Electronics Division, T. M. Odarenko, to the Acting Assistant Director for Scientific Intelligence, cites an important radar/visual UFO report sent to the Agency by Pepperell Air Force Base, Newfoundland:


Essentially, the "object" was apparently simultaneously observed by a tanker aircraft (KC 97) pilot (visually) and by a ground radar (type unknown) site (electronically). While such dual (visual and electronic) sightings of UFOBs are reported from time to time, this particular report is somewhat unique in that:


a. The pilot of Archie 29 maintained visual contacts with object calling direction changes of object to (radar) site by radio. Direction changes correlated exactly with those painted on scope by controller.


b. In previous cases the dual (visual and electronic) sightings are mostly of a few minutes duration at most. This one was observed by radar, at least, for 49 minutes.


Resources: Above Top Secret, Timothy Good, 1988.


My Take:  In the event witnessed by the ship, this could only be a real UFO or a complete fabrication. It had all the hallmarks of a proper UFO, silent, crazy fast, wobbly and disk shaped.



[BACK]
CIA Released Reports on UFOs - Part 3
Posted On: August 27, 2022

In this episode, we talk about CIA released documents on some Canadian Related UFO events. Many of the declassified CIA UFO documents relate to sighting reports throughout the world, obtained mostly from foreign newspapers, periodicals, and broadcasts. Since many of these reports have now been published in Clear Intent, they will not be included here, except in a few instances.


It may come as a surprise to those unfamiliar with the workings of intelligence agencies that approximately fifty percent of intelligence gathering originates with open sources, such as newspapers, films, and speeches. Another forty percent comes from reconnaissance satellites and spy planes, eavesdropping devices and other gadgets, while only ten percent is dependent on human intelligence (HUMINT).


A puzzling omission in the released CIA (and other intelligence agency) reports from foreign countries is Great Britain and Australia. Since these countries have had many significant sightings it can only concluded that there has been an official arrangement to preclude such information. Could Britain’s Ministry of Defense intelligence chiefs have vetoed any reference in the FOIA declassified documents? Fanciful though the suggestion seems, liaison between the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS or M16) and the CIA, for example, is almost as close as that of Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) and the National Security Agency.


Ex-intelligence officer Gordon Creighton has confirmed that there was liaison on UFO matters between the CIA and Ministry of Defense in the 1950s, and it would seem logical that such liaison continues in Britain, perhaps with the CIA’s Joint Reports and Research Unit at the US Embassy in London, which exchanges intelligence assessments with the Joint Intelligence Staff in the Cabinet Office.


CANADA, 1950 AND 1955


Although the majority of UFO reports were obtained by the CIA from open sources, a few were collected directly, such as the following case involving a sighting on board a ship in the North Atlantic, en route from Nova Scotia to an eastern US port, on 4 August 1950. The source for the report is deleted, as are the names of the witnesses, all of whom were interviewed by intelligence officers. This is the third mate’s account:


"At 10:00 am on 4 Aug 1950, as I was checking the compass at mid-bridge through a bridge port hole, I observed a flying object off the starboard bow. I immediately shouted to the Captain, who was in the chart room, and the Chief Mate, who was below on the port deck, of my observation and went out on the flying bridge myself. The object was approximately 70 feet above the horizon at a distance of 12 miles. It came toward us, then ran on a course reciprocal to ours and turned off into the horizon in the northeast. I clearly saw its shadow on the water. My impression of the object was that it was elliptical, not unlike a Japanese diamond box kite in shape. I have no idea of its size but the length was about six times the breadth and it had a depth of from two to five feet.


It made no noise and was traveling at a tremendous rate of speed. As it traveled through the air, it made a spinning or wobbly motion. After it disappeared in the horizon, I saw it reappear several seconds later, ascending at an even faster speed than when I first observed it. I have no idea what this object was, I never saw anything comparable to it before, and it was one of the most frightening experiences I have ever had. I roughly estimate that the object traveled 28 miles during the 15 seconds I had it under observation."


The collector’s note commented that there was a "tremendous discrepancy between the Captain’s estimate of the speed and the estimate of the two officers which could not be explained as they were very careful in making their statements and asserted that their observations had been correct", but concluded: "All three men were quite evidently upset by the sighting. Aside from the discrepancies, it was quite evident to the intelligence officers who interviewed these men that they had certainly seen some very unusual object which they could not identify but was just as certainly not any conventional type of aircraft".


A memorandum dated 12 July 1955 from the CIA Office of Scientific Intelligence Chief, Physics and Electronics Division, T. M. Odarenko, to the Acting Assistant Director for Scientific Intelligence, cites an important radar/visual UFO report sent to the Agency by Pepperell Air Force Base, Newfoundland:


Essentially, the "object" was apparently simultaneously observed by a tanker aircraft (KC 97) pilot (visually) and by a ground radar (type unknown) site (electronically). While such dual (visual and electronic) sightings of UFOBs are reported from time to time, this particular report is somewhat unique in that:


a. The pilot of Archie 29 maintained visual contacts with object calling direction changes of object to (radar) site by radio. Direction changes correlated exactly with those painted on scope by controller.


b. In previous cases the dual (visual and electronic) sightings are mostly of a few minutes duration at most. This one was observed by radar, at least, for 49 minutes.


Resources: Above Top Secret, Timothy Good, 1988.


My Take:  In the event witnessed by the ship, this could only be a real UFO or a complete fabrication. It had all the hallmarks of a proper UFO, silent, crazy fast, wobbly and disk shaped.



CIA Released Reports on UFOs - Part 3

[BACK]
TOP