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INSIDE THE
BLACK VAULT
INSIDE THE
BLACK VAULT
The Government’s
UFO Secrets Revealed
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any
electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems,
without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote
passages in a review.
FIGURES vii
P REFAC E xi
1 DE BUNK I NG T H E “ R O S WEL L ”
EX PLA NA T I O N 1
2 THE “ CO M PA NY LI NE” 9
3 THE PR O JECT BLUE BO O K D IL E M M A 15
4 INV ES T I G A T I O N O R EXPLA N A T IO N ? 21
5 INSI DE T H E DES K S O F PR O J E C T
BLU E BO O K 27
6 THE NA T I O NA L S ECUR I T Y
THR EA T BEG I NS 35
7 THE NA T I O NA L S ECUR I T Y
THR EA T DEEPENS 45
8 UFO S I NVA DE T H E U.S . M I L IT A R Y 63
9 THE NUCLEA R CO NNECT I ON 81
10 THE R EA S O N F O R S ECR ECY 97
11 UFO S A ND T H E CI A 113
v
CONTENTS
12 UFO R EG ULA T I O NS T H A T S H O U L D A N D
S HOU LD NO T EXI S T 127
13 C ANA DA CO M ES T H R O UG H 141
14 THE G R EA T ES T T R I CK O F A M A GIC IA N 151
15 DEBUNK I NG T H E DEBUNK ER S 155
I NDEX 167
ABOUT THE A UT H O R 173
vi
FIGURES
vii
FIGURES
Figure 7.2. The first page out of four of the “1976 Iran Incident”
document. 49
Figure 7.3. The “distribution list” showing that the “1976 Iran
Incident” document was sent to the White House. 51
Figure 7.4. A declassified page from the Project Moon Dust files,
as released by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). 53
Figure 7.5. This Intelligence Information Report, dated
August 22, 1974, listed nearly thirty UFO reports. 54
Figure 7.6. This Joint Chiefs of Staff record highlighted the
sarcastic tone that soon invaded some UFO records. 58
Figure 7.7. This document highlights the heavily classified
nature of some UFO documents that remain hidden
from the public. 60
Figure 8.1. National Military Command Center (NMCC)
memorandum describing the penetration of airspace by
UFOs, referred to as “unidentified helos,” over Loring
Air Force Base, Maine, in 1975. 65
Figure 8.2. National Military Command Center (NMCC)
memorandum regarding the UFOs, referred to as
“low flying aircraft/helicopter sightings,” in 1975. 68
Figure 8.3. Declassified cutaway diagram of the “Site R” location,
as released by the Department of Defense (DOD). 74
Figure 8.4. Declassified cutaway diagram of the “Site R” facility
layout, as released by the Department of Defense (DOD). 75
Figure 8.5. Memorandum, written by Lt. Col. Charles Halt,
recounting the Rendlesham Forest UFO encounter. 76
Figure 9.1. Example of the radar photographs taken when the
screens were showing the UFO. 86
Figure 9.2. A highly unlikely explanation for the Minot sighting. 87
Figure 9.3. The official “Allegation Receipt Form,” dated June 13, 2010,
which documented the UFO encounter over Cooper Nuclear
Station. 91
Figure 10.1. One page from the most recent release of the Yeates
affidavit, clearly showing much is still withheld for
“national security” reasons. 100
viii
FIGURES
Figure 10.2. One of the pages showing the clear classification that the
document “UFO’s and the Intelligence Community
Blind Spot to Surprise or Deceptive Data” still holds. 103
Figure 10.3. Some of the “alien codes” used in the “Key to the
Extraterrestrial Messages” document. 106
Figure 10.4. Single-page COMINT report clearly showing that the
“Top Secret” information is still withheld from the public. 109
Figure 10.5. Letter sent to me on July 21, 2014, informing me they
“cannot locate” all of the UFO-related documents,
with the exception of the Yeates affidavit. 112
Figure 11.1. This page confirms the track was at 50,000 feet
traveling 2,000 knots, or 2,301 mph. 118
Figure 11.2. Example of a heavily classified Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA) UFO document. 121
Figure 11.3. E-mails regarding the CIA’s UFO tweet indicate that
it was very much rushed and not researched. 125
Figure 12.1. Cover page for Joint Army Navy Air Force Publication
(JANAP) 146(E). 130
Figure 12.2. Cover page for Department of Defense Manual
5040.6-M-1, Decision Logic Table Instructions for
Recording and Handling Visual Information Material. 136
Figure 12.3. Department of Defense Manual 5040.6-M-1, Decision
Logic Table Instructions for Recording and Handling
Visual Information Material, held instructions on what
to do with UFO and Other Aerial Phenomena Imagery. 137
Figure 13.1. Air Force Instruction 10-206 proved to be one of the
biggest discoveries I ever made. 142
Figure 13.2. Chapter 5 of Air Force Instruction 10-206 clearly
displayed the USAF was actively interested in and
collecting UFO reports as late as 2008. 143
Figure 14.1. Proof that after the Air Force received the phone call
from the press, profiling my discovery, they changed
chapter 5 entirely and deleted all UFO references. 153
ix
PREFACE
I t is not very often that a fifteen-year-old kid decides to take on the U.S.
government, but that is exactly how my story begins. I was in high school
when curiosity about the unknown first struck me. The UFO phenomenon
was intriguing, it was unknown, and it sparked a fire within me that I could not
explain.
Now, more than two decades later, the fascination I had as a kid has only
deepened and strengthened as the years have gone on. This book is a culmina-
tion of my more than two-decade journey researching the UFO phenomenon,
and my only source of evidence is the documentation that the U.S. government
and military has given me directly.
Most books and websites on the topic of UFOs are largely speculative. The
evidence presented in most places is controversial at best and, in many cases,
unverifiable. At the age of fifteen, when I first began looking at the topic, this
lack of tangible evidence drove me crazy. I wanted to change it and be different
than the norm.
There are countless books and web pages about the UFO topic that you can
read, and I am not trying to insinuate that they all lack a serious approach or
viable pieces of evidence. But when I decided to write this book, I wanted to
write it for those who wanted a serious and in-depth look into the UFO cover-
up, using only official U.S. government documents as the narrative.
Although I sprinkle in my ideas and interpretations along the way, the facts
in the form of declassified records are irrefutable. There are no “leaked” docu-
ments, no third-hand information, and nothing that I did not receive myself
xi
PREFACE
through the use of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). This official narra-
tive tells an amazing tale of lies and deceit of the general public.
I have always felt since I began my research that declassified U.S. govern-
ment documents are crucial pieces of evidence that pave the way to the UFO
“truth”—whatever that may be.
In the past two decades, I have filed more than eight thousand FOIA re-
quests to nearly every corner of the U.S. government and military. As a result,
I have amassed more than two million pages on nearly every government secret
you can think of.
This book is a commonsense approach to one of the most intriguing, fasci-
nating, elusive, and exciting secrets that I have ever tackled: UFOs. I use only
evidence that anyone can get their hands on as proof, and that is what surprises
and intrigues most people who become aware of my work. Anyone in the world
can obtain these same documents—you just need to ask the U.S. government
for them.
There are some who would rather shrug it off. Common reactions are “It’s all
blacked out, and you can’t learn anything” or “They lie, so why even bother?”
and so on. You name it, I have heard it as people try to dismiss what you are
about to read. But that is simply because they have never looked at the actual
evidence nor are they comfortable accepting it as real. Once they do, their reac-
tion changes dramatically.
Since day one, my intention has been to rise above the misinformation out
there and offer something different to people just like you. My target audience
has been a combination of those who have a keen interest in the phenomenon
but do not know where to start, along with those that have dedicated their lives
to the field and want to see the real evidence to what the U.S. government is hid-
ing. In other words, this book is for everyone across that gamut that has ever had
an interest in UFOs from the newbie novice to the obsessed professional. I will
even admit I wrote this book for the hard-core skeptics and the career debunk-
ers. I feel this information is strong enough to stand up to the best criticism that
can be thrown my way.
When you see the actual evidence outlined in the next couple hundred
pages—I believe strongly you will realize that there is much more to the UFO
phenomenon than the U.S. government will ever want you to believe. I chose
not to include some of the recent revelations about the Advanced Aviation
Threat Identification Program or AATIP in this manuscript. As of the writing
of this book, the AATIP story is still unfolding, and there are many questions
about this “secret Pentagon UFO study” touted by the media and a somewhat
newly formed “public benefit corporation” known as “To the Stars Academy of
xii
PREFACE
Arts & Science.” I feel without solid proof of this new project, and the true ob-
jectives of it, it would be disingenuous to speculate in this book which is based
on solid documented fact; so I will save that for a future publication when more
documents are released.
I hope the evidence in the next fifteen chapters will give you the starting
point you need in your journey to uncover the truth. This book is my journey. I
have invested more than twenty years and thousands upon thousands of hours
into building an online database of my research, known as The Black Vault
(www.theblackvault.com). I have taken the responses to every FOIA request I
have filed and organized them into a massive online repository for government
documents. The result is the largest privately run collection of declassified re-
cords on the Internet—anywhere in the world.
The evidence here may not ultimately give you the “smoking gun” you are
looking for on your journey, but I guarantee it will give you a box of bullets
when you find it.
Let me show you . . .
xiii
1
DEBUNKING
THE “ROSWELL”
EXPLANATION
W hen I was fifteen years old, my Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) re-
quests were going out by the truckload. As fast as I could, I would send
these requests seeking information on various topics to nearly every govern-
ment agency I could find. My special focus and personal interest was the UFO
phenomenon.
When I first began this journey toward the “UFO Truth”—whatever that
ultimately may be—the X-Files TV show was in its third year on television. My
late grandmother was the one who told me about it, and we began watching it
on her kitchen table when I was just a young teenager.
On this show, along with quite a few other pop culture references, “the Ro-
swell incident” was referenced quite often. “Roswell” was a household name,
and although many did not research the topic firsthand, if you walked up to
anyone on the streets, they know the gist of what happened.
Although versions of the event vary depending on the witness and re-
searcher, the most popular goes like this: On or around June 14, 1947, farmer
William “Mack” Brazel and his son discovered a UFO had crashed on their farm
just outside of Roswell, New Mexico. On July 4, Brazel packed up his car with
some of the debris that he found and, on July 7, drove it into town and delivered
it to Sheriff George Wilcox.
The sheriff was just as confused as Brazel, so he contacted the military.
Beginning with Colonel “Butch” Blanchard, who then passed word to General
Roger Ramey, the military was perplexed as to what the debris was from and
how it got on Brazel’s farm.
1
CHAPTER 1
Major Jesse Marcel was tasked to go to the farm and investigate. He collected
all of the debris from the “crash site” on Brazel’s ranch. On July 8, the military
made a statement to the press, and the “flying saucer” story was born.
Initial reports, including the official press release by Roswell Army Air Field
(RAAF) public information officer Walter Haut, stated that the military had
recovered a “flying saucer.” As a result, headlines flew across the nation, begin-
ning with the Roswell Daily Record, who published the headline first.
Keep in mind, this was not too long after World War II had ended, a bloody
ordeal that saw the fall of the Third Reich and the defeat of Imperial Japan. So
for the phenomenon to begin so soon after the war, it perpetuated a hysteria
and paranoia within the general public. Was the war really over? Did surviving
factions, armed with the leftover arsenals of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan,
gear up to plan an attack when the time was right?
Alien or not, the public was becoming on edge. America had already been
blindsided at Pearl Harbor by the Japanese just six years prior, so they feared
another attack. They did not want to be living in the wake of the next bombing
on U.S. soil. The UFO phenomenon strengthened that fear and paranoia, as
sightings were being seen across the nation. From Mt. Rainier, Washington,
to the heart of Washington, D.C., this phenomenon was proving it could fly
wherever and whenever it wanted.
After the “Roswell” incident hit the headlines, the public went into a frenzy.
Finally, their visual observances were confirmed, and whatever this phenom-
enon was, it was real and physical and it could crash. This seems to be the point
where the true cover-up began.
After Haut’s initial press release and headlines that a “flying saucer” had
been recovered circulated the globe, the story was walked back by the military
within days. The official line changed from capturing a downed “flying saucer”
to that it was nothing more than just a weather balloon.
On July 8, 1947, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was apprised of
the “Roswell” situation. In this memorandum, it was said that the debris resem-
bled that of a balloon. However, Wright Field (present-day Wright Patterson
Air Force Base), during the course of a phone call, did not buy that explanation.
The teletype in all capitals read as follows:
2
Figure 1.1. FBI teletype dated July 8, 1947, outlining the debris found at the
Roswell crash site.
CHAPTER 1
Although the cover-up story was under way, it is evident that Wright Field
was not buying the weather balloon explanation and wanted to see the mate-
rial. As a result, the debris was flown to Wright Field for investigation. It would
seem plausible, if the Roswell debris was nothing more than a balloon, that the
military could have identified it immediately based on the composition of what
was recovered. It should not have required such an extensive analysis at Wright
Field. To the contrary, they were as confused as anyone in those initial days, and
they felt the need for a more in-depth investigation aimed to identify the debris.
Yet despite their confusion over where the debris came from, the cover-up
commenced. The military continued to denounce the “alien” and “flying sau-
cer” headlines and rather published their own weather balloon story.
Since the events surrounding the Roswell incident have unfolded, the U.S.
government and military have offered multiple explanations over the past seven
decades, in an attempt to explain the legend of what really happened at Roswell.
The first real investigation into the Roswell incident was published by the Gen-
eral Accounting Office (GAO) in 1994. One of the biggest claims in this report,
which is often overlooked by the general public, is the following statement:
In our search for records concerning the Roswell crash, we learned that some
government records covering RAAF activities had been destroyed and others had
not. For example, RAAF administrative records (from Mar. 1945 through Dec.
1949) and RAAF outgoing messages (from Oct. 1946 through Dec. 1949) were
destroyed. The document disposition form does not indicate what organization
or person destroyed the records and when or under what authority the records
were destroyed.
4
DEBUNKING THE “ROSWELL” EXPLANATION
Despite the GAO concluding the “alien” explanation held no validity, they
did discover that a large number of documents relating to the time frame of
the Roswell incident were destroyed. Since these records were destroyed, is
it possible to truly give a determination on what really happened? How do we
know what really was destroyed and what those records could have proven or
disproven? It appeared that this investigation was crippled from the start, but
that did not stop the GAO from trying to say that it was not aliens.
The explanations continued long after this GAO report. The U.S. Air Force
published The Roswell Report: Fact Versus Fiction in the New Mexico Desert in
1995, along with The Roswell Report: Case Closed in 1997. The latter has been
the last, and supposedly final, explanation for the Roswell incident.
I often believe, and this is evident with these reports, if you drown the
public in information, they will simply give up trying to get answers. There
is just too much to sift through. These reports are not three-page summaries
but rather consist collectively of more than one thousand pages of documents,
testimonials, and conclusions. If we know the end result and the U.S. govern-
ment seemingly destroyed evidence but is still willing to put out a “weather
balloon/not alien” explanation, why read through the more than one thousand
pages of reports? I think that is what they want. Take their word for it—and
don’t ask questions. Because when you do, you realize their explanation does
not make sense.
In 1997, when the Air Force published The Roswell Report: Case Closed, it
consisted of 232 pages. It was published within about a year of when I started
doing my research, so I was intrigued by what it might contain. I took a look at
the report’s summary and conclusions to see what the military was going to say
this time, and I was astonished at how easy it was to debunk the official explana-
tion, even this newest rendition of it.
The Roswell Report: Case Closed offered the following bullet points:
5
Figure 1.2. Official declassified U.S. Air Force photograph of the crash test dummies.
DEBUNKING THE “ROSWELL” EXPLANATION
These first two conclusions seem plausible, right? Despite amazing research-
ers like Mr. Stanton Friedman, who had uncovered multiple witnesses that
would testify about seeing alien bodies, the military wanted to assure the general
public that they had another explanation in mind: crash test dummies.
These crash test dummies were part of Operation High Dive, a secret project
carried out by the U.S. Air Force, which tested parachutes dropped from high
altitudes. According to the Air Force, it was these dummies that could partially
explain the multiple witnesses and their descriptions of “alien bodies” being
seen at Roswell Army Air Field. Just do not bother with the facts, if you feel this
explanation is worth believing.
The very first crash test dummy invented was “Sierra Sam” created by Al-
derson Research Labs (ARL) and Sierra Engineering Company. The year of
creation: 1949. It may take you a moment to realize, but there is a huge error
here in history. Roswell occurred in 1947, approximately two years before the
first crash test dummy was ever invented.
Unless we just discovered time-traveling crash test dummies, how could the
Air Force pass off such a theory to explain the alien bodies? The lie goes deeper
and gets much worse. The explanations continued in The Roswell Report: Case
Closed:
• Claims of “alien bodies” at the Roswell Army Air Field hospital were most
likely a combination of two separate incidents:
°° . . . a 1956 KC-97 aircraft accident in which 11 Air Force members
lost their lives; and
°° . . . a 1959 manned balloon mishap in which two Air Force pilots were
injured.
You can probably more easily see the blaring error with this one. Instead of
a two-year time travel between the crash test dummies being invented and the
year the Roswell incident actually happened, now the Air Force is passing off
two separate incidents to further explain the claims of “alien bodies.” Respec-
tively, these incidents occurred nine and twelve years after the Roswell incident,
and somehow, the military feels this is all OK to try and pass off to the public. I
mean, we shouldn’t let facts get in the way of a good story.
What about the witnesses claiming to have seen alien bodies and not Air
Force pilots or crash test dummies? They were wrong . . . each and every one
of them. The New York Times summarized the Air Force’s response to this
discrepancy in their June 25, 1997, front-page article titled, “Air Force Details
7
CHAPTER 1
a New Theory in U.F.O. Case—A Suggestion That Dead ‘Aliens’ Were Test
Dummies”:
Critics of the new report bridle at its main thesis: that civilians are confusing mili-
tary activities that took place over more than a decade and falsely recalling them
as a single incident. Such memory failures, critics say, are highly unlikely. But the
Air Force says the witnesses are often recalling events more than four decades old
and could have easily mixed up the dates.
8
2
I t was easy to disprove the recent explanations that the U.S. military wanted to
put forth on the Roswell incident, but I knew deep down that was not all there
was to discover. In addition to attempting to explain the Roswell incident, the
U.S. government had another tale they were trying to spin to squash any public
interest into the UFO phenomenon.
The U.S. government attempted to prove to me while I was a teenager that
they had already investigated UFOs and found absolutely nothing to support
that the phenomenon was real, alien, or a threat to any of us. On the contrary,
they tried to claim that nearly everything they did investigate during their study
known as “Project Blue Book,” which spanned more than twelve thousand
cases over the course of twenty-one years, was easily explainable.
At least, that is what their “fact sheet” tried to tell me. My original UFO-re-
lated FOIA requests would get this document as an attachment to my response
letters, and initially, that was all I would get. This “fact sheet” described “Proj-
ect Blue Book,” which was the most popular name out of a trifecta of projects
aimed to tackle the UFO topic by the U.S. military.
It began with Project Sign in 1947, followed by Project Grudge in February
of 1949, and then the effort became known as Project Blue Book in 1952. This
lasted until the end of 1969 and was ultimately closed in January of 1970, sim-
ply because they felt they solved the mystery.
Since this “fact sheet” has been given to me more than any other document since
I began researching, I feel I should let this record speak for itself. It states, in part:
From 1947 to 1969, the Air Force investigated Unidentified Flying Objects
under Project Blue Book. The project, headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air
9
CHAPTER 2
Force Base, Ohio, was terminated Dec. 17, 1969. Of a total of 12,618 sightings
reported to Project Blue Book, 701 remained “unidentified.”
The decision to discontinue UFO investigations was based on an evaluation
of a report prepared by the University of Colorado titled, “Scientific Study of
Unidentified Flying Objects”; a review of the University of Colorado’s report
by the National Academy of Sciences; and previous UFO studies and Air Force
experience investigating UFO reports during the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s.
As a result of these investigations, studies, and experience gained from inves-
tigating UFO reports since 1948, the conclusions of Project Blue Book were:
(1) no UFO reported, investigated, and evaluated by the Air Force was ever an
indication of threat to our national security; (2) there was no evidence submitted
to or discovered by the Air Force that sightings categorized as “unidentified”
10
THE “COMPANY LINE”
To this day, this “fact sheet” serves as the official explanation by the U.S.
government to address the UFO phenomenon. I call it their “company line”
as this is the standard summary of the Project Blue Book investigations, and it
serves to outline their belief that they found nothing out of the ordinary.
One of the first few FOIA requests I ever filed was to the headquarters of the
U.S. Air Force seeking documents on UFOs. The response I received to this
request back in 1996 is where I first learned about the Project Blue Book “fact
sheet” and their “official” explanation for the phenomenon. On the surface, it all
seemed believable. They investigated and they solved the mystery.
If the U.S. government got what it wanted, you would buy this hook, line,
and sinker and just go away. This is what I would bet money they wanted me
to do, and to be honest, I bet most people give up after they receive these initial
responses. They just wrongfully assume there really is not much to find in rela-
tion to documentation, except for rather dull Project Blue Book investigation
files where the military claims they solved the mystery.
As I mentioned earlier in this book, that general assumption by the public is
what the government wants. Do not ask questions; do not question the narra-
tive. Just believe it—and go away. Yet there is a huge problem with this so-called
“fact sheet” and their “company line” explanation—and that is that there are
very few “facts” on it.
I found out the hard way that this “fact sheet” would become the top of a
growing list of easily provable lies the U.S. government would try to dish out.
For example, Project Blue Book had its home at Wright-Patterson Air Force
Base (WPAFB) in Ohio. According to this “fact sheet,” all UFO-related reports
within Project Blue Book were transferred from there to the National Archives
and Records Administration (NARA). They go on to state that no other Air
11
CHAPTER 2
Force installation would have anything on Project Blue Book or UFOs. Instead,
I would need to go to the National Archives to retrieve it all.
Call it luck, paranoia, or just good old-fashioned doubt that the U.S. govern-
ment was being honest; I did not believe them. I continued the hunt for UFO-
related records using the FOIA. Now before I dive into proof of their lies about
Project Blue Book, I would like to point out that this is a prime example of one of
the challenges when using the FOIA. Even though you might file a FOIA request
to the U.S. Air Force, that agency has multiple components, branches, and offices
under that particular branch of the military. Meaning, you might decide that the
Air Force is the best place to file for your specific request—but then you have to
decide which component of the Air Force to file it to. If you do not file it to the right
place, you might get a response that says they have “no records” pertaining to your
request—but the problem is you just misdirected your letter. Seem confusing? It is.
This is why I filed a FOIA request to WPAFB, in addition to the Head-
quarters of the Air Force when seeking UFO documentation. Even though the
USAF HQ had already denied my request, I was hoping that WPAFB may have
some documentation to give me, since they served as the “home” for Project
Blue Book investigations, and maybe some records were left there untapped by
researchers.
When I filed this request to WPAFB for UFO records back in 1996, I was
again given the same “fact sheet” on Project Blue Book. I was told again that
the entire collection of records pertaining to the project was in the possession
of NARA, and they had “no records” to give me. In other words, they were just
repeating themselves, over and over. The only difference was the letterhead the
denial was printed on.
This response coincided with nearly every other request I had sent out to
various U.S. Air Force components up until this point, so I was forced to as-
sume they were telling me the truth. That was a huge mistake on my part. This,
as I would soon learn, was an outright lie.
A couple years after I received WPAFB’s denial along with another copy of
the “fact sheet,” I happened to pick up a copy of UFO Magazine. In this particu-
lar issue, there was a small reference to “new UFO documents” being released
by the Air Force. I was surprised to read that it was actually WPAFB itself that
had released the nearly one thousand pages on Projects Sign and Grudge—the
exact topic of my previous request. Yet despite me already seeking the records
years prior—and I was told there was nothing there—now I read that nearly
one thousand pages were just released. What floored me over all else was that
it was the same technical sergeant who signed my denial letter a few years prior
that was responsible for releasing these newly found records. The same person!
12
THE “COMPANY LINE”
How can in one letter, this person tells me they have no UFO records, then
within a couple years, he is the sole person responsible for declassifying and
releasing the exact UFO records I was told did not exist? That did not make
sense to me, so where did these records come from?
It should be known, that under the FOIA, agencies are required to conduct
these searches for records relating to a particular request. This is not a courtesy
or a favor, but rather, it is a requirement mandated by law. One could argue that
maybe the FOIA officer did not want to look for it or wrongfully assumed there
were no records so chose not to conduct a search at all or he simply just did not
look hard enough. Regardless of what really happened, all of these explanations
go against the true spirit of the FOIA and how the law is written. Although
mistakes can absolutely occur, the U.S. government and military was not off to
a good start by proving they were taking UFO FOIA requests seriously, or even
being honest in the responses I received.
As a result of reading about these newly found records, I re-filed a FOIA
request. I directed it to the same officer who signed my original denial letter, the
same person who was responsible for releasing these UFO reports mentioned
by UFO Magazine. Written within my request, I also sought an answer to why
my previous case that I filed yielded a “no records” response.
This chain of events displays one of the worst shortcomings to the FOIA,
and that is, that no government agency or military department is required to
answer any question regarding anything. Rather, they are required only to
search for records you ask for and then give you the results. This also proves
they cannot be held accountable for lying. They can tell you anything they want,
and when you can prove beyond any shadow of a doubt they were lying, it does
not matter to them. They will not answer anything, nor will they give you an
explanation, as their next move proved.
WPAFB sent me a response to that request for these new records, and it
was simply a bill to purchase the documents. They gave no explanation on why
they were overlooked under my original request. Under the FOIA, agencies are
allowed to recover duplication costs beyond the first one hundred pages. Fees
vary from agency to agency, and also it depends on the “fee category” you fit in
as defined in the FOIA itself, so their bill to obtain the records was, sadly, not
out of the ordinary—and it was within their rights spelled out in the law.
Once I paid the fees, I received the nearly one thousand records into my
mailbox. These documents were said to not exist—yet here they were. I realized
at this moment that my journey exploring the connection between UFOs and the
U.S. government was not going to be easy. Under the FOIA, agencies needed to
search for records, but as evidenced with this one case, things may not always
13
CHAPTER 2
turn out the way the law intended. This FOIA case also showed that agencies
would not follow the rules when it came to conducting a search for responsive
documents to a particular request. The writing was on the wall—I had my work
cut out for me.
Once I was able to sit down and dissect this new batch of records, and I
combined them with other Project Blue Book–related documents I had already
received, a pattern quickly emerged. Project Blue Book, on the surface, was
touted as that final investigation that concluded UFOs were not real, they were
not alien, and, given enough time and evidence, each case could be adequately
explained. That is the U.S. government and military’s nutshell explanation for
all things UFO. That is, as I will prove yet again, only true if you do not look at
the actual evidence.
Once you do, their “company line” begins to crumble.
14
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