CIA releases nearly 3000 pages on covert UFO investigations

They say the truth is there, but nobody said it would be easy to find. Now, after a decades-long search, a massive trove of long-classified records held by the CIA regarding reported UFO activity has finally come to light.

This massive public disclosure of what the CIA claims to be its  “entire” archive  of documentation on Unidentified Flying Objects – now termed  “Unidentified Aerial Phenomena”  (UAPs) – comprises hundreds of formerly top-secret records dating back more than half a century.

The fascinating and unprecedented data dump is thanks to a long sustained effort by intelligence website  The Black Vault  , which has been searching and sharing declassified government documentation about UFOs (among many other things) since the mid-1990s.

According to the site’s founder, John Greenewald Jr., The Black Vault has been fighting since 1996 for the release of these UFO records, which began to emerge gradually in the 1980s following legal proceedings regarding the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). .

While some of the documentation has seen the light of day before, this is the first time the supposedly complete file of the CIA’s UFO records has been publicly released, and it was possible after The Black Vault acquired a CIA CD-ROM containing what the intelligence agency claims to be its entire collection of UFO records, including a lot of information that has never been seen before.

Undercover UFO Investigations

As Greenewald points out, however, there’s no easy way to factually verify whether this is the entire CIA file, as the agency claims — or whether the US government still keeps confidential records of UFOs/UAPs we don’t yet know about.

In any case, the  2,780-page collection now available  on The Black Vault website represents a significant victory for freedom of information on this mysterious and tempting subject, and a personal milestone for Greenewald.

Amid the archive, hundreds of records dating back to the mid-20th century can now be read, either through individual PDFs or a giant ZIP file.

It is worth mentioning that not all information is easily readable. A lot of detail in documents is redacted and the overall quality of scans and photocopies is unpredictable, with some of the records being quite difficult to read while others are clearer.

Those who hope that the survey will finally provide evidence that the US government has been withholding knowledge of alien lifeforms visiting Earth will be disappointed.

As we explained before  , UFOs or UAPs are a real and serious topic, reflecting documented reports of incidents involving objects or phenomena that cannot be easily identified or otherwise explained, even by experts.

The terms – including related descriptors such as  Anomalous Aerial Vehicles  (AAVs) – are not synonymous with (or evidence of) extraterrestrial life forms, although they often get lumped together given the wilder possibilities of what these strange sightings can represent.

In other words, UFO stands for Unidentified Flying Object – nothing more, nothing less, as astronomer Chris Impey of the University of Arizona  recently explained  .

That said, these hundreds of newly revealed reports offer countless fascinating readings of strange and unexplained episodes, and make a huge contribution to the historical record on UFO sightings and how they are treated by those in the intelligence community.

Whether the timing is coincidental or not is unclear, but US intelligence services were already being forced to publicly disclose more of their UFO knowledge in the coming months, thanks to a  buried clause in the massive COVID-19 relief bill.  signed into law in late 2020. Strange but true.

Which is another way of saying that it’s possible we could find out even more about UFOs this year – if the full CIA file isn’t as complete as it could be.

For Greenewald, it’s all part of the job – an important duty to get to the truth, no matter how strange it may be.

“Pure and simple, the public has a right to know!” Greenewald  told Motherboard  . “I feel that I am achieving what I set out to do. Easy access to important materials for people to decide what is going on.”