
CIA declassifies hundreds of UFO documents - XzetaU8
https://www.cia.gov/news-information/blog/2016/take-a-peek-into-our-x-files.html
======
jimrandomh
I'm surprised they're continuing the misdirection so many years later.
"Unidentified flying object" means an aircraft, usually a military one
(because civilian aircraft are easier to identify). A UFO over US soil would
usually be a USAF plane, but the CIA ran (runs?) a reporting hotline because
they might occasionally be foreign spy planes instead.

But of course, the Soviets were very interested (or the US believed they were
very interested) in knowing about US military planes and their capabilities.
There's an anecdote I recall reading - I apologize for not having the link
handy - about how, at Area 51 (their airfield for testing experimental
aircraft), they would leave big airplane-shaped objects on the tarmac to
create cold spots for Soviets' spy satellites to photograph in infrared,
corresponding to planes that didn't exist.

The reason I'm unable to find that anecdote is because the search term "Area
51", combined with any other search terms, brings up an enormous a flood of
incoherent crackpot ramblings. I'm pretty sure this is the result of a
deliberate strategy: create a bunch of fake information, so that real
information about US military capabilities will be harder to find. A few hints
and a few taunts, and voila, every discussion about unidentified aircraft is
guaranteed to have a schizophrenic walk in and start rambling about aliens!

~~~
sanoli
There's probably a lot of this going. Comes to mind right now the way the Navy
had about two seal teams in the beginning, and then decided to name the next
one 'Team 6', to make it look like they had more. I've read about other
examples, but can't remember right now.

~~~
sanoli
Not the same thing but similar, a programmer wrote once how he made his
software delay the answer to some user action to make it look like the program
was hard at work. The process was actually very fast, almost instantaneous, so
he added some message like " working - x seconds left ". Maybe it was on HN
some years ago...

~~~
talmand
I did this myself just a few weeks ago. The complaints was that search results
would often come back fast enough that the user may not understand anything
was done if the results happen to be the same.

~~~
hodwik
Saw a form recently with search-as-you-type that included a fake button that
when pressed would write "Search Complete" to the screen, but had no other
function, for users who didn't comprehend search as you type.

~~~
talmand
I would have to link that up to analytics just to see how many people clicked
on it.

~~~
hodwik
Yeah, I'm not sure.

It was pretty hilarious.

I got a bug-fix from the form developer that his button wasn't working, and I
kept trying to explain to him that it couldn't possibly work, it didn't do
anything.

Finally he explained that if the user had clicked the fake button already, and
then changed their search to a search that reported the same results, it
wasn't pretending to search again, and this was causing a lot of bug reports
from his client.

I helped him rewrite the fake button to make a bigger deal about (fake)
searching again, and apparently the bug reports went away.

------
ChuckMcM
I really enjoyed those. I particularly like some of the descriptions.

In the early 80's I worked in the Image Processing Institute at USC where one
of hte UFO shows had us analyze some of the "best" photographs (at that time)
of UFO sitings. We pulled all sorts of fun stuff out of the pictures, like the
letters "9 oz" on the bottom of a pie plate type UFO, "old skool" photo
doctoring where someone had taken the picture of a "ufo" and literally placed
it on top of a picture of the sky, and then re-photographed the composite. As
I recall there was only one picture we could not definitively rule out as a
fake. But my best memory of that project was when the producer asked the
camera man to get some footage of the "computer" and when he pointed it at the
11/55t front panel the producer said, "No, the computer!" and pointed at the
tape drives. I knew we had top shelf folks on the team at that point :-)

------
jedberg
You have to hand it to the CIA for taking advantage of the XFiles reboot to
boost their social media a bit. Especially on 37 year old documents!

~~~
mcv
It's fun and maybe slightly disconcerting to see the CIA handle its job with
humour.

~~~
robwilliams
This was likely the work of the web master or a PR person; I doubt a CIA agent
wrote it.

------
notthegov
If you want to understand the UFO story better, you should watch Mirage Men
about Air Force Office of Special Investigations Agent Richard Doty, a self-
admitted UFO disinformation agent-

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6naKTTuBq14](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6naKTTuBq14)

The intelligence agencies aren't hiding anything about UFOs from my
experience. And I don't really think the USAF is either. But the USAF did tell
various people that UFOs were real and they did run a psychological operation
against Paul Bennewitz, destroying his life and forever obsfucating whatever
truth there is about UFOs. (None in my opinion.)

Here's a good summary:

[http://www.openminds.tv/open-letter-u-s-air-force-
allegation...](http://www.openminds.tv/open-letter-u-s-air-force-allegations-
ufo-disinformation/27071)

*Fixed link

~~~
Jerry2
When I was a kid, I asked my grandfather, who was at that time an AF Colonel
(he's now passed away), whether UFOs were real and whether he has seen aliens.
He just looked at me, took me aside, and told me that UFO stories were
propagated by the "boys from Langley" as a way to hide experimental aircraft
testing. That way, every report of some black plane that was seen by the
public, would be chalked up to UFOs and Russians wouldn't know what to think
of it. We had a good laugh and I never told this to anyone. I don't think it's
even a big secret anymore.

Since then, I always laughed at all these UFO reports and reports of
abductions etc. It's become a national meme that's ingrained into the minds of
so many... yet it's a complete fabrication.

~~~
hyperpallium
Like carrots.

The British promulgated the belief that carrots improve eyesight to explain
the effective of their aircraft spotters, instead of radar.

~~~
meagain20000
You mean to tell me they are not?!! I remember reading that carrots have some
nutrient necessary for good eye sight, beta-catorene I believe. I don't think
it improves your current eye sight so much as it keeps it from going bad from
a lack of it.

~~~
Geee
Yup, actually carrots are good source of beta-carotene / Vitamin A which is
necessary for good eye health and vision. Obviously carrots aren't the only
source though.

"Vitamin A has multiple functions: it is important for growth and development,
for the maintenance of the immune system and good vision.[2] Vitamin A is
needed by the retina of the eye in the form of retinal, which combines with
protein opsin to form rhodopsin, the light-absorbing molecule[3] necessary for
both low-light (scotopic vision) and color vision."

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_A](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_A)

------
Aqueous
They declassified them in 1978. So these documents have been publicly
available for a mere 37 years. Figures - what else are they hiding that they
aren't hiding?

~~~
vidyesh
Correct me if I am wrong.

I don't think all declassified documents are publicly available. They sure
will be produced if requested upon but I doubt all of them are just available
to download as soon as they get declassified.

------
jonnyweirdteeth
Good to see that the CIA has a little bit of a sense of humor about this kind
of thing.

What a PR coup by the X-files reboot, as well.

~~~
legohead
The CIA twitter feed [1] is pretty cool. This isn't them just taking advantage
of X-files, their social media was already pretty good.

[1] [https://twitter.com/CIA](https://twitter.com/CIA)

~~~
derefr
From this perennial-on-HN article
([http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/modern-art-was-
cia-w...](http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/modern-art-was-cia-
weapon-1578808.html)):

> At this time [the CIA], staffed mainly by Yale and Harvard graduates, many
> of whom collected art and wrote novels in their spare time, was a haven of
> liberalism when compared with a political world dominated by McCarthy or
> with J Edgar Hoover's FBI. If any official institution was in a position to
> celebrate the collection of Leninists, Trotskyites and heavy drinkers that
> made up the New York School, it was the CIA.

If that culture has persisted to any degree, then the CIA is probably the most
"geeky" government department we've got, second only to perhaps NASA.

------
myth_buster
I found the documentary "I know what I saw"[0][1] rather interesting.

In this Mercury 7 astronaut, former pilots, retired air force officers, Major
Generals etc give account of UFO sightings.

Although produced by History Channel, it features only accounts of these
distinguished people and recollect no spin (if my memory serves me right).

[0] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTEZeY-
fNCU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTEZeY-fNCU) [1]
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1579236/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1579236/)

~~~
fsloth
Human brains are really poor at interpreting new brief visual stimulus
"correctly". Furthermore, our first impression can affect the perception of
the stimulus even if it lasts several seconds.

I'm 36, and visually quite acute. I've seen my visual system doing the
craziest interpretations in various situation, and observed my interpretation
of a visual field completely changed by a sudden re-interpretation of some
small detail.

Given proper conditions I could have interpreted these as apparitions, ghosts,
materializations or whatnot. The difference is, all of these situations
happened in calm mundane situations where I had the luxury to pause and look
at the thing for a long while and figure it out.

The craziest was a low-lit room where I saw the patterns of a carpet as my
son, walking. I had woken at night and presumed it was because my kid was
awake. When I came closer I realized it was the carpet.

If I can mistake a rug for a human being I do not find it unlikely that a
pilot trained to be aware of bogeys to interpret unexpected stimulus first as
a vehicle (this interpretation is very hard to shake off).

------
DanielBMarkham
I love UFOs because UFOs tell us a lot about how we deal with non-reproducible
observations. Walk outside and see a green, glowing light that hovers then
disappears? You can walk outside again for the rest of your life and never see
it again. Does that mean you didn't see anything? Of course not.

This really messes with people's heads. The rationalists will say that since
we can't independently observe it, it might as well not exist. Folks who have
a deep mythology as part of their worldview will simply incorporate their
observation into their mythology.

Even cooler is the fact that _something_ is obviously going on that we can't
categorize or figure out. (See thunderstorm sprites and jets as a recent
example). Is it one phenomenon? Highly unlikely. But beats me how many
different and really cool things there are out there to discover. I'm sure
some of these may take hundreds of years to nail down, if ever.

And then the government gets involved and -- get this -- starts deliberately
fucking with people about it. Hey, that wasn't a new stealth bomber, that was
probably aliens. While it may have confused the Soviets, it was also a
deliberate attempt to mislead the voters. I'm not a constitutional expert but
seems to me the one thing that ought to carry the severest penalty is
government officials in a democracy deliberately trying to mislead the public
about critical issues.

And then we have them pawning their B.S. off on mentally ill people. Nice.
Very classy.

UFOs tell us a lot more about ourselves than they do anything from another
planet. Unfortunately, much of what they tell us is rather unpleasant.

~~~
rhino369
Our American government was never based on the idea that the people would have
direct input on all issues.

We elect leaders (not followers) to run the country. They probably shouldn't
keep fundamental facts about government from us. But lying about our first
strike nuclear capabilities to get an edge is understandable.

That's why it's important to vote not just for a platform but for the
candidate. Because they'll be dealing with issues that aren't known, be them
hidden or just yet to surface. Especially for president. Our president is
modeled after a limited monarch, just with an limited term.

~~~
DanielBMarkham
Hope I didn't sound like I was arguing for a totally open government. That
would obviously never work. I'm arguing for a "well-enough" informed
electorate. Informed enough to strategically make choices about choosing
representatives.

Abusing mentally ill citizens, performing experiments on the poor and
destitute, gathering records on citizenry forever -- these are things that an
informed electorate would shut down if given the chance. These are things that
the constitution would forbid if it were foreseen.

Nobody's arguing that secrets can't be had. The argument is that those
employed by the voters are actively acting _long-term_ in ways neither the
voters nor the constitution would approve of. Short term bend any kind of
rules you think the system will allow. Long-term? This has got to stop.
(Perhaps you do that by a constitutional amendment sunsetting any secrecy
classification after 20 years or some such)

------
samstave
My first UFO story:

I was ~13 years old in The Civil Ait Patrol, this occurred in Truckee, Ca at
the Truckee Airport.

We were doing standard marching exercises and our troop leader was a former
SR-71 mechanic/maint person...

It was a full moon - and as our gatherings typically started after 5PM - it
got dark fairly quickly.

We were marching and then looking to the mountain line in the horizon, we saw
a light come up over the mountain line and fly vertically up at a steady clip
as it was near the moon which had also just risen over the ridge.

We all watched, speculating what type of plane this was (Civil Air Patrol was
like the cub scouts for the air force)

As we watched and guessed, this craft flew straight up from the mountain -
then directly toward us.

I came to a complete hover just above us by about 300 feet. The craft was the
classic triangular shape with large round whit lights at each corner.

As it hovered - the troop leader said "OK KIDS - EVERYONE INSIDE NOW!!!" and
he ushered us into the end of the hangar building that had our CAP office.

Ever since then.... I've had an interesting relationship with believing
UFOs...

~~~
lsadam0
Kinda sounds like the long rumored TR-3B (
[http://www.darkgovernment.com/news/tr-3b/](http://www.darkgovernment.com/news/tr-3b/)
). I love UFO mythology, and that around the TR-3B is wild, to say the least.

~~~
jack9
During a summer break jaunt to see the American Flag Art Exhibit in 1996
(found it! [http://www.nytimes.com/1996/06/08/us/art-or-trash-arizona-
ex...](http://www.nytimes.com/1996/06/08/us/art-or-trash-arizona-exhibit-on-
american-flag-unleashes-a-controversy.html)), I was coming back down the 10
just past Wiley's Rest Stop, in California and pulled off the road into the
desert about 500 yards from the highway. It was me with my best friend (from
kindergarten) and 2 sisters we were mutually involved with. No drugs, no
alcohol, no cell phones, and some remaining film in a disposable did nothing
in a pitch black night. Playing truth or dare around a makeshift fire, one
sister saw 3 lights moving toward us. It took awhile to wrap our heads around
what it was, till it was blocking out stars. I have been on aircraft carriers
and cruise ships prior. This thing blocked out a lot of the sky, as it passed
silently overhead. It was either equivalent (but larger in surface area) to an
aircraft carrier or larger than a couple city blocks if it was higher
(impossible to tell how high it was in the pitch black desert). We killed the
fire pretty quick, but it just passed silently overhead without further
incident. It flew on toward the southeast over a the mountains in the
distance. Unlike a lot of other videos and reports, there was no center light
(red or otherwise).

~~~
arjn
Could it have been a thick stray cloud combined with some light
reflection/refraction effects from the ground or maybe stars/planets in the
background ?

~~~
lsadam0
I respect the skepticism. I do not subscribe to the 'UFOs are aliens' idea
myself. Though in this case I believe the OP did see what he claims. There's a
longstanding rumor that some branch of the armed forces is in possession of a
'stealth blimp'. Exactly what a 'stealth blimp' is, I don't know. But there
have been numerous sightings over the previous 20 years that match very
closely with that OP saw.

I think most "credible" UFO sightings (especially those in the western US) are
Government owned aircraft. For the most part, Humans are just bad at
interpreting what they have seen. One of my favorite examples is the rumored
"flying artichoke" that was likely just a sighting of an F-117A Stealth
Fighter ( [http://i.imgur.com/D22OrQ1.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/D22OrQ1.jpg) )

------
sandworm101
How much money does it take to get a US agency to issue a blog post in support
of a TV series?

Granted, those in charge of the CIA blog are probably the right age to be die
hard Xfiles fans, but after the StarWars promotion at the white house I'm
seeing lobbyists everywhere.

~~~
chippy
CIA is there to support the country overseas. To actively promote a major TV
Series which will lead to jobs, money coming into the company, potentially
increased goodwill to the country is exactly their mission.

One thing to remember with spying these days is that the nation spy agencies
these day spy for corporations, because if the companies do well then the
country does well.

------
Someone1234
Honestly even if you don't believe in aliens visiting earth (and I do not),
these documents are still an interesting read.

Just seeing how they investigated and the investigators
opinions/thoughts/methods was quite interesting to me. Some more than others,
some are very short and only contain a witness statement.

------
berkeleynerd
If you're interested in the CIA's involvement with the UFO phenomena check out
this article on the Robertson Panel.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robertson_Panel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robertson_Panel)

“(t)he "debunking" aim would result in reduction in public interest in "flying
saucers" which today evokes a strong psychological reaction. This education
could be accomplished by mass media such as television, motion pictures, and
popular articles. Basis of such education would be actual case histories which
had been puzzling at first but later explained. As in the case of conjuring
tricks, there is much less stimulation if the "secret" is known. Such a
program should tend to reduce the current gullibility of the public and
consequently their susceptibility to clever hostile propaganda. The Panel
noted that the general absence of Russian propaganda based on a subject with
so many obvious possibilities for exploitation might indicate a possible
Russian official policy….The Panel took cognizance of the existence of such
groups as the "Civilian Flying Saucer Investigators" (Los Angeles) and the
"Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (Wisconsin). It was believed that such
organizations should be watched because of their potentially great influence
on mass thinking if widespread sightings should occur. The apparent
irresponsibility and the possible use of such groups for subversive purposes
should be kept in mind.”

------
toupeira
Title is misleading, text starts with "The CIA declassified hundreds of
documents in 1978"

------
kylek
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limited_hangout](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limited_hangout)

------
crapolasplatter
"Below you will find five documents we think X-Files character Agent Fox
Mulder would love to use to try and persuade others of the existence of
extraterrestrial activity. We also pulled five documents we think his
skeptical partner, Agent Dana Scully, could use to prove there is a scientific
explanation for UFO sightings."

The most interesting thing about this is the lack of seriousness that the CIA
puts into UFO.

------
isaiahg
At this point we're pretty settled that alien life probably exists in some
form out there. Whether that alien life could evolve to create technology and
build spacecraft is another thing. But the even bigger thing is when you take
into account just how vast the distances involved are. It's just so unlikely
that alien life could exist, develop technology, and then be in the same
neighborhood as us.

~~~
Houshalter
Not really unlikely if you consider the vast scale of time as well. A few
million years is enough to reach the end of the galaxy even at very very low
percent of the speed of light. That's a long time in our terms, but a very
short time given the age of the universe, or even our own planet.

Self replicating Von Neumann probes could handle the issue of exploring such a
large number of solar systems by increasing their numbers exponentially. They
could leave behind machines that could continuously monitor and survey planets
for millions of years.

If aliens exist, then I would expect for them to have observed us like that.
Unless they have no interest in the outside world at all, which seems
unlikely.

~~~
enkephalin
i think the main issue with people having trouble believing in visitations
from extraterrestrial species (or at least their technology), is that they
have absolutely no sense for the age of the universe.

and the fact that so many people believe it to be utterly ridiculous that
alien life forms could be exploring the galaxy, yet here we humans are, doing
exactly that, is just completely mind-boggling to me.

~~~
sam_goody
I think the main issue that most people have with aliens is that we kinda
expect that if they exist (which scientifically and religiously they should)
and they have the technology to have found us and interact with us (possible)
they would have subjugated us or annihilated us by now.

The fact that they haven't suggests that either they don't exist or that they
haven't found us.

~~~
Houshalter
That's just anthropic bias/survivor bias. There have probably been a lot of
Earth like planets that have been annihilated. Perhaps the only reason we
exist is because we are lucky enough to have friendly neighbors, or perhaps no
neighbors.

Well I do wonder how friendly they are, given that they haven't intervened at
all in Earth's history. I find that very unlikely. Moral aliens would probably
want to help us, amoral ones kill us like you said. But the probability of
aliens existing yet being indifferent seems unlikely.

~~~
VLM
Given a pride of lions in Africa having severe domestic turmoil over
leadership selection issues, what are the odds anyone in, for example,
Wisconsin, either knows, cares, and is capable of sending an effective
peacekeeping force?

You can even abstract out distance. I'm pretty sure there's some hierarchical
struggle going on with the squirrels in my front yard, but I'm also pretty
sure I don't care. And we're fellow mammals competing for the same nut trees
and fruit bushes. If there are Star Trek Hortas tunneling under my backyard, I
really don't care as long as they stay out of my basement.

Even within our own species there's a pretty strong taboo against colonialism
that seems to automagically form right after (inevitable?) failed early
experiments with colonialism. The odds of white people running Africa again
are pretty low, even though we obviously did a better job than they are doing.
Despite being incredibly easy to reach and staggering power imbalance, the
colonies in Africa didn't last long and even a fairly irrational space alien
would see the futility in trying to take over Earth.

There are many reasons to invade Canada. Stealing their resources of spar and
mast grade timber for 1800s era sailing ships would be a pretty stupid idea in
the current year. Its possible there's a natural magic filter such that being
able to travel interstellar and having enough power to turn earth into a
colony naturally means there are no material resources on earth worth the
taking... What would a galaxy wide empire do with titanium, silicon based
semiconductor electronics, or rocket engines, only miserable savages a million
levels beneath them use stuff like that. It would be like handing a modern
american a flint spear tip, what good is that other than in a museum?

~~~
stephenhuey
While I agree with some of your points, I must take issue with your
implication that white people ran Africa better.

[http://diglib1.amnh.org/articles/kls/](http://diglib1.amnh.org/articles/kls/)

Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain did a good job illuminating how people tended to
think this way, all the while forgetting that the people under a heavy thumb
might not agree! Some things may have been better organized when white people
were in power, but the German concentration camps of World War II were also
"better run" by some definitions than a bickering gaggle of democratically
elected disagreeing men in nearby European countries, and I don't think we'd
really use them as an example of better run. I grew up partially in Nigeria,
the target of many jokes, and no matter what issues they have there I know
that many Nigerians who would never wish for a return to British rule.

~~~
VLM
Sounds like both of us rephrase the same priority list, or at least nothing
either of us wrote breaks the priority list:

1st) Freedom or self determination or at least less control over their lives
by people far away

2nd) Racism (people want their leaders the same color as they are)

A distant 3rd) Measurable statistical demographic numbers for quality of life,
like disease rates, death rates, crime rates, economic activity, education
levels, etc.

I would propose this priority list is human, cross cultural, doesn't matter if
its Rhodesia, Haiti, India, Korea, people naturally seem to come up with this
sort order no matter the culture.

------
davidbanham
All the documents that appear startling are actually just recounts of stories
that appeared in a daily newspaper, marked as completely unsubstantiated.

------
x3n0ph3n3
Come on guys, stop conflating UFOs with alien spacecraft. UFOs are real, alien
spacecraft are probably not.

------
pjaytipp
Reports of strange new energies & crafts also made science seem magical and
helped fire the imagination of the next generation of scientists and engineers
for the ongoing cold war. The UFO phenomenon was handy on a few fronts.

------
codenut
Odd thing. I just watched the new X-Files last night and this kind of news is
on HN frontpage the next morning.

------
partiallypro
They had to have timed this with the X-Files premier on purpose

------
miesman
At last the truth can be told.

------
andrewclunn
Just in time for the x files reboot.

------
tannranger
the silence is deafening

------
themagician
The truth is… still out there.

------
dangerboysteve
Couldn't they have coordinated with this the lunch of the new X-Files? Fox
marketing sucks!

------
jobu
Obligatory xkcd link: [https://m.xkcd.com/1235/](https://m.xkcd.com/1235/)

 _" In the past few years, with very little fanfare, we've conclusively
settled the questions of flying saucers, lake monsters, ghosts, and bigfoot._"

------
joering2
Is that really real?? [1]

Who on Earth would have such aircrafts in 1962 other than aliens??

[https://www.cia.gov/news-
information/blog/2016/images/UFO2.j...](https://www.cia.gov/news-
information/blog/2016/images/UFO2.jpg/image.jpg)

~~~
outworlder
The second picture looks very much like a reflection from a lamp.

------
ilovefood
I wonder why those numbers don't add up :>

