CAUS lawsuit and the CIA UFO papers
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 8
_-_Flickr_-_The_Central_Intelligence_Agency_(2).jpg)
| Case | Ground Saucer Watch, Inc. v. CIA (Civil Action No. 78-859) |
|---|---|
| Filed | 1977–78, under the Freedom of Information Act |
| Plaintiffs' team | Ground Saucer Watch (William Spaulding); lawyer Peter Gersten; researchers W. Todd Zechel and Brad Sparks |
| Released | About 900–1,000 pages, late 1978 (reported 1 January 1979) |
| Withheld | About 50 pages / 57 items, later contested |
| Follow-up | Citizens Against UFO Secrecy (CAUS) suit against the NSA, denied 18 November 1980 |
| Date | 15 December 1978 |
| Topics | Secrecy & cover-up (topic) |
| People | Todd Zechel, Brad Sparks, Peter Gersten |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 85 |
| Year | 1978 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1978 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 9 |
In late 1978, after a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit by UFO researchers working with the group Ground Saucer Watch, the CIA released roughly 900 to 1,000 pages of documents on its interest in UFOs.[1][2][3] The papers showed that the agency had followed the subject since the late 1940s, longer than it had admitted. The New York Times reported them on 1 January 1979 under the headline "C.I.A. Papers Detail U.F.O. Surveillance".[1][2] The researchers also claimed that the agency had run secret "emergency" UFO studies during sighting waves, a claim the documents did not prove.[2][3] The case launched the FOIA-based activism of Citizens Against UFO Secrecy (CAUS).[3][6]
The lawsuit
Ground Saucer Watch (GSW) was a Phoenix-based UFO group led by William Spaulding, an aerospace engineer with AiResearch. The Times described it as a nationwide organization of about 500 scientists, engineers and others.[2] Its interest in CIA records was inspired by a new member, W. Todd Zechel, who said he had worked in covert government roles and knew of the suppression of UFO evidence.[6] The attorney Peter Gersten, a former Brooklyn prosecutor, had offered his services pro bono to several UFO groups, and only GSW accepted.[6] With the analyst Brad Sparks, they filed a FOIA request in 1977 and then sued: Ground Saucer Watch, Inc. v. CIA, Civil Action No. 78-859.[3][4][6] The agency had long said its UFO investigation ended in 1952.[2] Gersten later said he was surprised when the CIA promptly offered to "search their complete files, when they didn't have to".[6]
The release
The documents released in late 1978 included reports from CIA officers and analyses of UFO photographs, among them a CIA "Photo Analysis of UFO Photography" released in October 1978.[1][5] According to the Times report, they included:[2]
- A memo of 1 August 1952 recommending continued surveillance of "flying saucers". It urged that "no indication of CIA interest or concern reach the press or public, in view of their probably alarmist tendencies".
- A report of 2 October 1952 from the assistant director for scientific intelligence to the CIA director. It worried that sightings could mask a Soviet air attack or be used for "psychological warfare", and recommended advising the National Security Council and developing a public information policy to "minimize concern and possible panic". These discussions led to the Robertson Panel.
- Reports of interceptions, including the 1976 incident over Iran in which two F-4 Phantoms chased a large UFO. One pilot's weapons control panel failed as a smaller object approached.
- A November 1975 guidance advising officials not to acknowledge any pattern in sightings and to handle queries "individually at the source".
Spaulding said the papers showed that U.S. embassies gathered sighting reports apparently directed to the CIA, the White House and the National Security Agency.[2]
Sources give different figures for what the CIA released and withheld. The Times reported 1,000 pages. Other accounts give "over nine hundred" or "nearly 900" pages, provided in 1979, with about 50 potentially responsive pages withheld. GSW was still seeking 57 further items, including films and landing residue, when the Times story ran.[2][3][6] The earlier version of this article said Sparks found references to hundreds more pages being withheld.[1] One film GSW sought was 40 to 48 frames shot in 1952 by Ralph Mayher, then a KYW-TV cameraman in Cleveland. The Air Force borrowed it in 1957, never returned it, and said the object was a meteor.[2]
Claims
Spaulding told the Times that "the Government has been lying to us all these years" and that the cover-up was "massive".[2] He said sightings clustered around military installations and research areas, and claimed to have sworn statements from retired Air Force colonels about two crash recoveries: one in New Mexico in 1948 and one near Kingman, Arizona, in 1953, with dead aliens about four feet tall.[2] The researchers also claimed that the CIA had run secret emergency studies during major sighting waves. The documents show periods of heightened interest, for example in 1952, but do not prove such studies.[2][3]
Skeptics were unimpressed. Philip Klass called the released files unremarkable. According to Skeptical Inquirer, the withheld pages were kept mainly because they might reveal surveillance capabilities, not UFO secrets.[6] In one case, it said, the CIA had listened in on a Cuban Air Force pilot discussing a UFO, and the concern was not the sighting but revealing that the pilots' conversations could be intercepted.[6] Gersten successfully sued to declassify the withheld pages.[6]
Aftermath: CAUS
Gersten and Zechel co-founded Citizens Against UFO Secrecy, an Arizona-based group dedicated to winning UFO information through FOIA and the courts.[3][6] Other accounts date its founding to 1977, while the earlier version of this article said the three men founded it after the CIA release.[3][6] In the early 1980s CAUS was known mainly as the plaintiff in two actions against the CIA over 57 withheld documents.[7] In 1980 it sued the National Security Agency, and on 18 November 1980, after an NSA affidavit, the judge denied release of the documents.[3]
Later CAUS efforts included the following:[3][6][7]
- In 1983 Larry Bryant filed a writ of habeas corpus seeking alien "bodies". Bryant kept the group going from 1987 to 1998.
- Gersten represented Betty Cash and Vickie Landrum in an unsuccessful $20 million suit over their 1980 encounter.
- A 1999 suit over Philip Corso's The Day After Roswell was dismissed.
Critics later called Gersten "UFOlogy's foremost ambulance chaser". In 2012 he announced he would enter a "cosmic portal" at Bell Rock in Sedona, and went home when none appeared.[3][6] As of 2023 CAUS was listed as inactive, with its non-profit status revoked.[3] Researchers have continued to examine the CAUS and CIA material.[8][9]
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.
- Todd Zechel — Researcher who co-founded Citizens Against UFO Secrecy and sued the CIA in the 1970s.
- Brad Sparks — UFO analyst known for his catalogue of Blue Book unknowns and work on the CIA lawsuit.
- Peter Gersten — Lawyer who directed Citizens Against UFO Secrecy and sued federal agencies for UFO records.
- Ground Saucer Watch — A civilian UFO group that sued the CIA for UFO records in the 1970s.
- Freedom of Information Act — The 1966 U.S. law that lets the public request government records.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- Robertson Panel — Robertson Panel
- The New York Times — The newspaper that revealed AATIP in December 2017.
- Citizens Against UFO Secrecy — A civilian group that sued U.S. agencies for UFO records.
On the Timeline
- United Nations decision 33/426 (8 December 1978) — A UN draft resolution to create a UAP study body fails; Hynek and Vallée speak at the UN.
- Claims of CIA funding of UFO researchers (15 December 1978) — The same researchers claim the CIA secretly funded selected UAP researchers.
See every 1978 event on the UAP Timeline →
Further reading
- UFO documents — CIA Reading Room · cia.gov · archived copy
References
- "C.I.A. Papers Detail U.F.O. Surveillance", The New York Times (1979), via CIA Reading Room · cia.gov · archived copy
- Patrick Gross, "New York Times, 1979: CIA UFO papers" · ufologie.patrickgross.org · archived copy
- Citizens Against UFO Secrecy — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- CIA memorandum on Ground Saucer Watch v. CIA (1978), CIA Reading Room · cia.gov · archived copy
- "Photo Analysis of UFO Photography", CIA Reading Room (released 5 Oct 1978) · cia.gov · archived copy
- Peter Gersten — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Citizens Against UFO Secrecy — Obscurantist · obscurantist.com · archived copy
- theparacast.com · theparacast.com · archived copy
- abovetopsecret.com · abovetopsecret.com · archived copy
Facts in this article are drawn in part from the Wikipedia articles “Citizens Against UFO Secrecy”, “Peter Gersten”, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.
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.