CIA Domestic Collection Division memo (1976)
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 7
| Date | April 1976 (16 April per The Black Vault; a related cable is dated 26 April) |
|---|---|
| Author | CIA Domestic Contacts (Domestic Collection) Division staff; names redacted |
| Subject | Physical evidence relating to UFO phenomena, reviewed by the Assistant Deputy Director for Science and Technology |
| Key line | No apparent government program "for the identification/solution of the UFO phenomena" |
| Released | Redacted, 1978, in the Ground Saucer Watch FOIA release |
| Later | Unredacted original reported lost by the CIA (2021–22) |
| People | John Greenewald, Gerald Haines |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 80 |
| Year | 1976 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1976 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 6 |
In April 1976 staff of the CIA's domestic contacts office wrote memos about physical evidence relating to UFOs. The office gathered information from American citizens and companies.[1][2] The material had been hand-carried to the agency's Assistant Deputy Director for Science and Technology.[1] One memo records his view that some CIA offices and staff were monitoring the UFO phenomenon, though not on an official basis. It also records that he thought the agency should keep in touch with outside researchers.[1][2] The memo was released in redacted form in 1978. When the researcher John Greenewald later sought the full text, the CIA said the unredacted original could not be found.[1]
The memo
According to The Black Vault, the two-page memorandum is dated 16 April 1976. It was written by personnel of the Domestic Contacts Division (DCD) to an unnamed recipient, and its original classification is unknown.[1] It concerns physical evidence of some kind that was "hand carried" to the office of the Assistant Deputy Director for Science and Technology (A/DDS&T).[1] The A/DDS&T examined it and said he would look into the matter personally and get back to the DCD staff. His advice, and most details of the evidence itself, are redacted.[1][2]
The released cable traffic includes a message referring to a teleconference on 22 April 1976. A summary dates the follow-up memo 26 April.[2][4] The DCD had asked the A/DDS&T whether he knew of any official UFO program, and he passed on his views:[1][2][4]
- "It does not appear that the government has any apparent program in progress for the identification/solution of the UFO phenomena."
- The work of independent researchers was vital for further progress.
- There were offices and personnel within the agency "who are monitoring the UFO phenomena", but not on an official basis.
- "The best approach would be to keep in touch with and in fact develop reporting channels in this area to keep the agency/community informed of any new developments."
- Of particular interest would be "any information which might indicate a threat potential", and "specific indications of foreign developments or applications of UFO related research".
The DCD staff stressed that there did not then appear to be any special UFO program in the intelligence community. In view of the A/DDS&T's willingness to review more information, they kept the case open.[2][4]
Release
The memo was among the CIA UFO documents released after the Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by the group Ground Saucer Watch.[1][3] According to the CIA historian Gerald Haines, the GSW leader William Spaulding first wrote to the agency in June 1975. A CIA official replied that the Robertson Panel report summed up the agency's UFO involvement, which Haines calls "ill informed".[3] GSW sued in September 1977. A search led by Launie Ziebell of the Office of General Counsel, which even turned up an old UFO file under a secretary's desk, produced 355 documents of about 900 pages. On 14 December 1978 the agency released all but 57 documents, about 100 pages.[3]
On 24 January 2019 Greenewald, of The Black Vault, filed a Mandatory Declassification Review asking the CIA to review the complete record for further release. After nearly three years, the CIA told him the original, unredacted document was gone.[1] Greenewald called it part of a trend of the agency losing UFO records.[1] A related item from the period is held in other archives as a "DCD case" file on UFO research.[4][5]
Context
Haines's history of the CIA and UFOs, published in 1997, says the 1978 release "produced no smoking gun". It showed only "a low-level Agency interest" after 1953, although The New York Times reported it as evidence of secret surveillance.[3] When Director Stansfield Turner asked his officers, "Are we in UFOs?", he was told there had been no organized effort to research or collect intelligence on UFOs since the 1950s.[3] Haines adds that through the late 1970s and 1980s the agency kept "a low-key interest" in UFO sightings. Analysts in the Office of Scientific Intelligence and the Office of Scientific and Weapons Research devoted a small amount of time to the subject, looking at counterintelligence worries, air-defense vulnerabilities and signs of Soviet technology.[3]
The testimony this article draws on notes that the memo was written a year after the Church and Pike committees began investigating domestic surveillance by the CIA, FBI and NSA. It suggests the agency still saw value for its intelligence collection in citizens' UFO research, possibly indicating that it considered monitoring civilian UFO groups.[6]
People and topics
- Central Intelligence Agency — The U.S. foreign intelligence agency, which has followed UFO reports since the 1940s.
- Unidentified anomalous phenomena — The U.S. government's current term for unidentified objects in the air, in space and underwater.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- Ground Saucer Watch — A civilian UFO group that sued the CIA for UFO records in the 1970s.
- John Greenewald — Founder of The Black Vault FOIA archive.
- The Black Vault — John Greenewald's online archive of government documents.
- Gerald Haines — Historian who wrote the CIA's 1997 history of its role in UFO study.
- Federal Bureau of Investigation — The U.S. federal police agency, which helped check flying disc reports from 1947 to 1950.
- National Security Agency — The U.S. signals intelligence agency, which holds UFO-related intercepts.
On the Timeline
- Rumsfeld's "no need to know" remark (13 April 1975) — Hynek says Donald Rumsfeld told him he had no need to know about any secret UAP study.
- Sgt. M.S. and the Wright-Patterson general (1977) — An Air Force sergeant says a general at Wright-Patterson told him about recovered material.
See every 1976 event on the UAP Timeline →
Further reading
- UFO documents — CIA Reading Room · cia.gov · archived copy
References
- "CIA loses 1976 document detailing physical evidence relating to UFO phenomena", The Black Vault (Jan 2022) · theblackvault.com · archived copy
- CIA document C05515622 (PDF), The Black Vault · documents2.theblackvault.com · archived copy
- Gerald K. Haines, "CIA's role in the study of UFOs, 1947–90", CIA · cia.gov · archived copy
- "DCD case: UFO research", UFO Scans · ufoscans.com · archived copy
- archive.org · archive.org · archived copy
- cia.gov · cia.gov · archived copy
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
No discussion yet.