Ground Saucer Watch
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🏢 Organization
Contents 5
| Type | Organization |
|---|---|
| On the Timeline | 4 events, 1976–1982 |
Ground Saucer Watch (GSW) was an American civilian UFO research group based in Phoenix, Arizona, led by William Spaulding. It is best known for its Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the CIA, which led to the release of about 1,000 pages of the agency's UFO documents in 1978–1979.[1][2]
The group
GSW pressed the U.S. government to release its UFO records, and its director, Spaulding, became a public spokesman on government secrecy about UFOs.[1][3]
The CIA lawsuit
Members of the group filed Freedom of Information Act requests with the CIA, and in 1978 the group sued the agency in federal court (Ground Saucer Watch, Inc. v. CIA, Civil Action No. 78-859). As a result the CIA released around 1,000 pages of documents, including reports from its officers abroad and records of photo analysis of UFO pictures. One of the documents described a 1976 incident in which two F-4 Phantom jets chased unidentified objects over Iran.[2][3][4]
Spaulding's claims
Spaulding told the press in 1979 that the documents showed sightings clustering near military installations and that "the Government has been lying to us all these years"; these were his own interpretations of the papers.[2][3]
On the UAP Timeline
- CIA Domestic Collection Division memo (1976) (26 April 1976) — A CIA teletype says agency staff monitor UAP unofficially.
- State Department "no records" reply (1978) (19 January 1978) — The State Department says it has no UAP records; a requester sends it one of its own documents.
- CAUS lawsuit and the CIA UFO papers (15 December 1978) — Researchers claim the CIA ran secret emergency UAP studies during sighting waves.
- Ground Saucer Watch and the State Department (1982) (25 February 1982) — A civilian FOIA group gets no answer from the State Department about UAP records.
References
- CIA memorandum on Ground Saucer Watch v. CIA (1978), CIA Reading Room · cia.gov · archived copy
- "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
- "Photo Analysis of UFO Photography", CIA Reading Room (released 5 Oct 1978) · 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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