Ground saucer watch: CIA paper detail ufo surveillance

 Article #: 4
     From: UFO INFO SERVICE
Date Sent: 06-17-1986
  Subject: 1979 CIA UFO SURVEILLANCE

SOURCE:  NYT (PHOENIX, AZ)
  DATE:  01 JANUARY 1979


CIA PAPERS DETAIL UFO SURVEILLANCE

Ground Saucer Watch (GSW), an Arizona-based nation-wide UFO research
organization of about 500 scientists, engineers and others, said on Friday it
has obtained 1,000 pages of CIA documents under a freedom of information suit
which show that the agency has been secretly involved in UFO surveillance since
1949 - even though the CIA has repeatedly said its investigation ended in 1952.
William Spauldintg, an aerospace engineer with AiResearch and head of GSW, said
"the Government has been lying to us all these years.  After reviewing the
docments, GSW believes that UFOs do exist, they are real, the U.S. Government
has been totally untruthful, and the cover-up is massive."

Mr. Spaulding said the documents show that U.S. embassies are used to gather
information on UFO sightings which "seems to be directed to the CIA, the White
House and the National Security Agency."  A CIA memo dated August 1, 1952,
recommended continued agency surveillance of "flying saucers", saying, "It is
strongly urged, however, that no indication of CIA interest or concern reach
the press or public, in view of their probably alarmist tendencies to accept
such interest as confirmatory of the soundness of 'unpublished facts' in the
hands of the U.S. Government."

Among the documents are several detailed reports of USAF attempts to either
intercept or destroy UFOs.  In a 1976 incident in Iran, two F-4 Phantom jet
fighter-bombers pursued a large UFO that was sending out smaller craft.  One of
the smaller craft "headed straight for the F-4 at a very fast rate of speed.
The pilot attempted to fire an AIM-9 missile at the object but at that instant
his weapons control panel went off and he lost all communications."  the pilot
eluded the craft, then watched as it "returned to the primary object for a
perfect rejoin."

A CIA document dated October 2, 1952, shows that a major point of concern is
that UFO sightings could mask Russian air attacks or "psychological warfare".
This report to the CIA director from the assistant director for the Office of
Scientific Intelligence recommends that the National Security Council be
advised of the "implications of the flying saucer problem"; that the matter be
discussed with the Psychological Strategy Board; and that the CIA help
"develop...a policy of public information which will minimize concern and
possible panic resulting from the numerous sightings of unidentified objects."

A November, 1975 document directs against acknowledging any pattern in
sightings.  "Unless there is evidence which links sightings, or unless media
queries link sightings, queries can best be handled individually at the source
and as questions arise.  Response should be direct, forthright and emphasize
that the action taken was in response to an isolated or specific incident."

According to Mr. Spaulding, "We find a concentration of sightings around our
military installations, research & development areas.  The UFO phenomenon is
following what our own astronauts are doing on other plants - we send a
scoutship, we take soil samples and then we land." Mr. Spaulding said he has
sworn statements from retired USAF colonels that at least 2 UFOs have crash-
landed and been recovered by USAF.  One crash was in New Mexico in 1948, and
the other near Kingman, AZ in 1953.  The retired officers claimed they got a
glimpse of dead aliens who were in both cases about 4 f3eet tall with silverish
complexions and silver outfits that "seemed fused to the body from the heat."

GSW is waiting for a Federal judge to rule on the last phase of its CIA suit,
which seeks access to 57 items that could provide "hard evidence" of UFOs with
"retreivals of the third kind" such as motion pictures, gun camera film and
residue from landings.  Among the films they want is 40-48 frames taken in 1952
by Ralph Mayher, then a cameraman for KYW-TV, Cleveland, OH, and now a GSW
member.  USAF borrowed the film in 1957 and has never returned it; officially
stating the filmed object was a meteor.  Said Mr. Spaulding, "We're past the
story-telling stage.  We have to have it in black and white to satisfy the
scientific community".
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