Originally posted by free_spirit
First it was France, then England. Now the FBI takes the initiative and
declassifies 16 large UFO files, around 1500 pages of reports, documents,
correspondence, drawings etc. including J.Edgar Hoover's letters regarding
the phenomena since 1947. Very interesting stuff to read.
Hi Free_Spirit,
I agree that the documents are very interesting to read, but I think it's important to correct your introductory comment.
It isn't correct to say "First it was France, then England. Now the FBI takes the initiative ...".
Surprising as it may be to many Americans, the US was actually in the lead in releasing UFO documents. A considerable quantity of documents were
released by various U.S. government agencies in the 1970s/1980s.
The FBI documents have been on its website for several years, and were in fact released to the public in the 1970s.
Those FBI documents were briefly discussed in Stanton Friedman's 1979 documentary "UFOs ARE Real!". Several of the documents were published by
George Fawcett and Barry Greenwood in their book “Clear Intent” in 1984.
The FBI documents have been discussed in numerous UFO books since the 1970s. Particularly noteworthy are the following two books which focus on these
documents, the latter of which can be bought easily and quite cheaply second hand - both are very interesting:
(1) Bruce Maccabee's book “UFO FBI Connection” (2000).
(2) Nick Redfern's book “The FBI Files” (1998) published as a Simon & Schuster softcover edition and also in a Pocket Books paperback edition.
My favourite sequence of documents within the FBI files relates to the memo dated 24 September 1947 from FBI Assistant Director D M Ladd to FBI
Director J Edgar Hoover summarises, and attaches, a memo dated 23 September 1947 from Colonel R H Smith (Assistant Chief of Staff Intelligence)
revealing that the FBI had been asked to assist the Air Force in UFO investigations “to relieve the numbered Air Forces of the task of tracking down
all the many instances which turned out to be ash can covers, toilet seats and whatnot”.
Mr Ladd recommended that the FBI “protest vigorously” and that the FBI discontinue all activity in this field.
Complete images of the relevant memo are available online at pages 20-21 (of 77) in Part 4 (of 16 parts) of the UFO material on the FBI’s FOIA
website at the link below:
foia.fbi.gov...
On 27 September 1947, FBI Director J Edgar Hoover wrote to Major General McDonald informing him that the FBI would be discontinuing all investigative
activity regarding the reported sightings of flying discs, mentioning the “ash can covers, toilet seats and whatnot” comment in the memo from
Colonel R H Smith (Assistant Chief of Staff Intelligence) dated 1947.0903.
Complete image of relevant memo available online at page 19 (of 77 pages) in Part 4 (of 16 parts) of the UFO material on the FBI’s FOIA website at
the link below:
foia.fbi.gov...
Kind Regards,
Isaac Koi