Oechsler–Inman phone call
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 8
| Date | October 1989 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Beings & bodies (topic) |
| People | Bob Oechsler, Bobby Ray Inman, Timothy Good |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 105 |
| Year | 1989 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1989 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 6 |
In May 1988 UFO researcher Bob Oechsler of Edgewater, Maryland, telephoned retired Adm. Bobby Ray Inman, former director of the National Security Agency and deputy director of the CIA, seeking guidance on how to get information about what he called non-human-made disc technology. Oechsler recorded the call, and its interpretation became a long-running controversy.[1][2][3]
Inman
Inman directed the NSA from 1977 to 1981 and was deputy director of Central Intelligence in 1981–82. He had been named in UFO literature as a possible member of a group managing UFO secrets. In December 1993 President Bill Clinton nominated him as Secretary of Defense, prompting renewed press interest in the tape, but he withdrew in January 1994.[2][4]
The call
According to the transcript published by British writer Timothy Good in Alien Liaison (1991), Oechsler asked whether any recovered vehicles might become available for research. Inman replied that he did not know, but that ten years earlier the answer would have been no. Good and Oechsler presented the exchange as an implicit confirmation of recovered alien craft, and Oechsler said Inman gave him names of people to contact. Critics pointed out that the phrase "recovered vehicles" was Oechsler's own and that Inman never described any vehicle as alien.[1][2][3]
Dispute
In a 1992 review of Good's book in Lobster magazine, researcher Armen Victorian reported that Oechsler had given him a copy of the full recording and that it contained no reference to UFOs, which another listener confirmed. Inman called the allegations false, said he knew of no MJ-12 group, wrote that the book was without merit, and said in an August 1991 letter that Oechsler had totally misrepresented the conversation. Retired Rear Adm. Shapiro, a former head of the Office of Naval Intelligence whom Oechsler had also approached, called Oechsler "a complete sham".[1]
Legacy
The tape was later featured in documentaries and is still cited because of Inman's seniority, but its contents support no firm conclusion.[1][5]
People and topics
- NASA — The U.S. civilian space agency, created in 1958.
- Unidentified anomalous phenomena — The U.S. government's current term for unidentified objects in the air, in space and underwater.
- Bob Oechsler — UFO researcher who recorded a conversation with Adm. Bobby Ray Inman.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- Bobby Ray Inman — Former NSA director and CIA deputy director.
- National Security Agency — The U.S. signals intelligence agency, which holds UFO-related intercepts.
- Central Intelligence Agency — The U.S. foreign intelligence agency, which has followed UFO reports since the 1940s.
- Timothy Good — British author of books on UFO secrecy including Above Top Secret and Need to Know.
On the Timeline
- Moriches Bay crash claim (28 September 1989) — An anonymous colonel claims a Star Wars weapon downed a UAP in Long Island's Moriches Bay.
- Dan Sherman on programs above special access (1990) — Sgt. Dan Sherman says some secret programs are hidden above the usual special access level.
See every 1989 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- Armen Victorian, "Curious liaisons", Lobster 23 (1992) · lobster-magazine.co.uk · archived copy
- Elizabeth Nash, "Cosmic cover-up alleged", The Independent (19 Dec 1993) · ufologie.patrickgross.org · archived copy
- "The program to 'indoctrinate the public' in UFO matters", White House UFO (Oct 2022) · whitehouseufo.blogspot.com · archived copy
- Bobby Ray Inman — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- "Dreamland — a UFO documentary" (YouTube) · youtu.be · archived copy
- archive.org · archive.org · archived copy
Further reading
- UFO documents — CIA Reading Room · cia.gov · archived copy
- UFO documents — NSA · nsa.gov · archived copy
- Bobby Ray Inman — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · 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.
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