Bruce Maccabee's CIA talk (1987)
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 8
| Date | 7 July 1987 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Secrecy & cover-up (topic) |
| People | Bruce Maccabee, Ron Pandolfi, Jaime Shandera, Budd Hopkins |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 100 |
| Year | 1987 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1987 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 6 |
On 7 July 1987 Bruce Maccabee, a U.S. Navy optical physicist and one of the best-known analysts of UFO photographs, lectured on UFOs to about two dozen people at CIA headquarters. It was one of a series of informal contacts with CIA staff that he described in his 2014 book The FBI–CIA–UFO Connection.[1][2]
Maccabee
Maccabee worked at the Naval Surface Weapons Center in Maryland, including on laser-generated underwater sound. He studied cases such as the 1950 McMinnville photographs, the 1978 New Zealand radar-visual sightings and the 1987 Gulf Breeze photographs, and was a long-time member of NICAP and MUFON. He died in 2024.[1][3]
The CIA contacts
In March 1979, after a referral, Maccabee presented his New Zealand analysis to seven CIA employees, including physician Kit Green. In August 1984 Ron Pandolfi, a scientist and analyst in the CIA's scientific intelligence branch who knew of Maccabee through Green, called him about his work, beginning an association of more than fifteen years. In February 1987 Pandolfi arranged a meeting with the Federal Aviation Administration about the November 1986 Japan Air Lines Flight 1628 sighting over Alaska and gave Maccabee radar printouts and interview transcripts.[1]
The 1987 talk
After the July 1987 lecture, Maccabee wrote, his talk had "created a lot of 'spies'" within the agency — curious employees who wanted to learn more. He later showed Gulf Breeze photographs to CIA employees, and gave his last CIA lecture on 11 September 1992. In 1987 he also took part in a briefing at the Foreign Press Center in Washington with researchers including Jaime Shandera and Budd Hopkins.[1][4]
What he learned
Pandolfi told him the official reason for CIA interest was the possibility of Soviet espionage using American citizens, including ufologists, and that a CIA archivist had found no trace of "MJ-12" in agency files. In 1994 Pandolfi said the Director of Central Intelligence consulted him on UFO matters but that he knew of no CIA UFO group. Maccabee concluded he knew more about UFOs than any CIA employee he met. His account fits other evidence that individual CIA employees kept an informal interest in the subject.[1]
People and topics
- U.S. Navy — The U.S. naval service, whose pilots reported the UAP encounters revealed in 2017.
- Bruce Maccabee — Navy optical physicist and leading analyst of UFO photographs.
- Unidentified anomalous phenomena — The U.S. government's current term for unidentified objects in the air, in space and underwater.
- Central Intelligence Agency — The U.S. foreign intelligence agency, which has followed UFO reports since the 1940s.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- Gulf Breeze UFO incident — The 1987–88 Florida UFO photographs by Ed Walters, later linked to a model.
- NICAP — The leading U.S. civilian UFO group of the 1950s and 1960s.
- MUFON — The largest civilian UFO organization in the United States.
- Ron Pandolfi — CIA scientist who appears in several UFO stories.
- Jaime Shandera — TV producer who received the MJ-12 film in 1984.
- Budd Hopkins — Artist and abduction researcher.
On the Timeline
- Cheyenne Mountain and Lake Kickapoo sighting (1986) (December 1986) — A Navy officer says sensors at Cheyenne Mountain detected a UAP.
- John Lear's ParaNet statement (1987) (29 December 1987) — Pilot John Lear claims the government has worked with gray aliens since the 1960s.
See every 1987 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- "Dr. Bruce Maccabee and the CIA", UFOs Scientific Research (Nov 2014) · ufos-scientificresearch.blogspot.com · archived copy
- CIA reading room: UFO documents · cia.gov · archived copy
- Kit Green — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- "1987 Foreign Press Center briefing — Dr. Bruce Maccabee, Lawrence Koss, Jaime Shandera, Budd Hopkins", The Black Vault · theblackvault.com · archived copy
- Garry Nolan on UFO materials and Kit Green's patient studies (Vice interview) · exo.substack.com · archived copy
- Kit Green in Vallée's journals — Forbidden Science Dispatches · tannerfboyle.substack.com · archived copy
Further reading
- Majestic 12 — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Majestic 12 file — FBI Vault · vault.fbi.gov · archived copy
- UFO documents — CIA Reading Room · 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.
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