1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:10,200 In 1969, the United States government officially announces it will stop investigating UFOs. 2 00:00:10,200 --> 00:00:14,080 But trust in the government is about to hit rock bottom. 3 00:00:14,080 --> 00:00:20,320 The 1972 Watergate scandal opens the door for a 1974 amendment to the Freedom of Information 4 00:00:20,320 --> 00:00:27,080 Act, granting the public unprecedented access to secret government files. 5 00:00:27,080 --> 00:00:32,080 They reveal that while the U.S. Department of Defense may have closed its public investigation 6 00:00:32,080 --> 00:00:38,720 into UFOs, hundreds of well-documented sightings still defy explanation. 7 00:00:38,720 --> 00:00:44,040 The declassified documents also reveal that multiple government agencies have been hiding 8 00:00:44,040 --> 00:00:47,480 important UFO sightings for decades. 9 00:00:47,480 --> 00:00:54,920 Join us as we investigate why top secret government agencies still study UFOs, but keep their findings 10 00:00:54,920 --> 00:00:55,840 classified. 11 00:00:57,080 --> 00:01:03,160 A global effort has begun. 12 00:01:03,160 --> 00:01:09,240 Secret files hidden from the public for decades, detailing every UFO account, are now available 13 00:01:09,240 --> 00:01:10,240 to the public. 14 00:01:10,240 --> 00:01:15,720 We are about to uncover the truth behind these classified documents. 15 00:01:15,720 --> 00:01:19,280 Find out what the government doesn't want you to know. 16 00:01:19,280 --> 00:01:20,280 Unsealed. 17 00:01:20,280 --> 00:01:22,280 Alien files. 18 00:01:22,280 --> 00:01:27,440 Exposing the biggest secret on planet Earth. 19 00:01:27,440 --> 00:01:35,720 In 1975, UFO sightings spike in all corners of North America, many near military installations. 20 00:01:35,720 --> 00:01:40,440 It's documented that unidentified craft were getting into restricted air zones, even above 21 00:01:40,440 --> 00:01:42,680 nuclear installations. 22 00:01:42,680 --> 00:01:46,280 Who or what is entering restricted airspace? 23 00:01:46,280 --> 00:01:51,360 And what is the U.S. military doing to stop it? 24 00:01:52,360 --> 00:01:55,400 The Wortsmith Incident. 25 00:01:55,400 --> 00:02:00,000 Oscota, Michigan, October 30th, 1975. 26 00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:05,720 On the shores of Lake Huron, civilian and military personnel witness strange lights 27 00:02:05,720 --> 00:02:06,720 in the sky. 28 00:02:06,720 --> 00:02:13,200 In 1975, in Wortsmith Air Force Base, there was an incident that was described as unidentified 29 00:02:13,200 --> 00:02:18,920 craft being seen outside of this military installation that shouldn't have been there. 30 00:02:18,920 --> 00:02:24,160 And so they had a tanker in the air that went to go check it out to try and see and determine 31 00:02:24,160 --> 00:02:25,960 what this craft was. 32 00:02:25,960 --> 00:02:32,840 But as the tanker approaches the unidentified craft, something extraordinary happens. 33 00:02:32,840 --> 00:02:38,280 There were very bright lights, but when the military tried to fly towards them, they switched 34 00:02:38,280 --> 00:02:41,360 off in sync. 35 00:02:41,360 --> 00:02:46,560 As the tanker apparently approached these objects, they did confirm it, not only visually, 36 00:02:46,560 --> 00:02:48,360 but they confirmed it by radar. 37 00:02:48,360 --> 00:02:51,080 So whatever was there was actually there. 38 00:02:51,080 --> 00:02:56,800 Despite visual and radar confirmation, the Wortsmith Incidents, like many of its kind, 39 00:02:56,800 --> 00:03:02,360 would have remained hidden from the public without the Freedom of Information Act. 40 00:03:02,360 --> 00:03:07,200 Officials dismissed the incident as lights from an Apache helicopter, but the report 41 00:03:07,200 --> 00:03:10,680 leaves more questions than answers. 42 00:03:10,680 --> 00:03:16,120 Was it truly a helicopter or was that just simply the label and the best definition that 43 00:03:16,120 --> 00:03:17,840 they could put on the craft? 44 00:03:18,280 --> 00:03:23,400 Cases like the Wortsmith Incidents mark an important change in the way UFOs are studied 45 00:03:23,400 --> 00:03:26,200 and reported inside the government. 46 00:03:26,200 --> 00:03:33,040 But to understand why, we must go back nearly a decade. 47 00:03:33,040 --> 00:03:36,680 Unsealed Case File, The Condon Report. 48 00:03:36,680 --> 00:03:41,880 In 1966, Edward Condon led what has now become known as the Condon Committee. 49 00:03:41,880 --> 00:03:47,200 And what they were doing was analyzing what the cases were that were still unidentified 50 00:03:47,200 --> 00:03:48,680 in the Blue Book System. 51 00:03:48,680 --> 00:03:53,760 And in 22 years, they investigated 12,768 sightings. 52 00:03:53,760 --> 00:03:57,400 Only 701 of those remained unidentified. 53 00:03:57,400 --> 00:04:03,120 But many critics argue the Condon Committee's findings are a foregone conclusion. 54 00:04:03,120 --> 00:04:07,480 His final conclusions in that report were that UFOs were nothing to be bothered with, 55 00:04:07,480 --> 00:04:15,360 nothing to be...and his other conclusion was that from 1947 till 1968, when it was released, 56 00:04:15,360 --> 00:04:21,080 no scientific information, nothing of importance, could be gleaned from the subject of UFOs. 57 00:04:21,080 --> 00:04:29,320 In 1969, the US government terminated Project Blue Book and said, we are no longer interested 58 00:04:29,320 --> 00:04:31,880 in investigating UFO sightings. 59 00:04:31,880 --> 00:04:37,840 There's something to this phenomenon that the intelligence community knows is important, 60 00:04:37,840 --> 00:04:42,480 but doesn't want us to know about. 61 00:04:42,480 --> 00:04:48,760 In 1969, the US government shut down their official Air Force investigation called Project 62 00:04:48,760 --> 00:04:55,920 Blue Book, claiming that studying UFOs has added nothing to scientific advancement. 63 00:04:55,920 --> 00:05:02,280 But by the mid-1970s, public interest in UFOs is only getting stronger. 64 00:05:02,280 --> 00:05:10,720 And one incident in 1976 shocked civilians and the military to their core. 65 00:05:10,720 --> 00:05:14,920 The old case file, the Tehran Incident. 66 00:05:14,920 --> 00:05:20,000 Tehran Iran, September 19, 1976. 67 00:05:20,000 --> 00:05:25,720 In September of 1976, in the middle of Tehran, Iran, an air base there was receiving quite 68 00:05:25,720 --> 00:05:30,280 a few phone calls about a mysterious object that was seen hovering over the city. 69 00:05:30,280 --> 00:05:36,560 Iranian Air Force Generals scrambled two American-made F-4 Phantom fighter jets to intercept. 70 00:05:36,920 --> 00:05:41,040 But just as the first pilot realizes that the object is unlike anything he has ever 71 00:05:41,040 --> 00:05:45,160 seen before, his controls mysteriously shut down. 72 00:05:45,160 --> 00:05:51,960 He is called back to base, and the second F-4 takes a closer look. 73 00:05:51,960 --> 00:05:58,040 As it got the same amount of distance as the first plane, something different happened. 74 00:05:58,040 --> 00:06:02,440 A second UFO appeared from the first one. 75 00:06:02,440 --> 00:06:08,240 All of a sudden, the second UFO jetted forward towards the incoming F-4 Phantom jet. 76 00:06:08,240 --> 00:06:13,520 So the next thing that he does is he arms his A4 missile, flips the switch, and he's 77 00:06:13,520 --> 00:06:15,480 going to fire back. 78 00:06:15,480 --> 00:06:19,240 He goes to fire in three, two, one. 79 00:06:19,240 --> 00:06:20,240 Everything shuts off. 80 00:06:20,240 --> 00:06:22,360 He has no control over the fire. 81 00:06:22,360 --> 00:06:25,560 He sees an incoming object, and he can't do a thing. 82 00:06:25,560 --> 00:06:31,440 The pilot fears for his life and takes evasive action, throwing his plane into a dive. 83 00:06:31,440 --> 00:06:36,240 As he's seeing this object come towards him, again assuming it was a missile, before it 84 00:06:36,240 --> 00:06:42,720 impacts his craft it makes a dip, it loops around his aircraft, and rejoins the original 85 00:06:42,720 --> 00:06:44,160 UFO. 86 00:06:44,160 --> 00:06:47,760 As pretty much to say, I don't think so, don't even try it. 87 00:06:47,760 --> 00:06:53,160 The UFOs maneuver in a way that defy any known aircraft capabilities of the time. 88 00:06:53,160 --> 00:06:58,320 There was actually a third UFO that appeared as the pilot saw it come out of the side of 89 00:06:58,320 --> 00:06:59,520 the original craft. 90 00:06:59,520 --> 00:07:03,120 Then goes towards Earth and actually lands on the ground. 91 00:07:03,120 --> 00:07:10,320 It says to have cast a large light about a third of a kilometer in diameter on the ground. 92 00:07:10,320 --> 00:07:14,720 American officers are secretly dispatched to Tehran, where they conduct a lengthy interview 93 00:07:14,720 --> 00:07:19,640 with the Iranian pilots, officers, and air control personnel. 94 00:07:19,640 --> 00:07:24,280 The report is sent to top level agencies within the U.S. government. 95 00:07:24,280 --> 00:07:28,840 I've never seen a UFO document be forwarded that widely. 96 00:07:28,840 --> 00:07:36,560 The CIA, the NSA, the FBI, and again even the White House received a copy of this report. 97 00:07:36,560 --> 00:07:41,000 Why does the U.S. government take such an intense interest in the Tehran incident? 98 00:07:41,000 --> 00:07:47,640 Seven years after the Air Force said that studying UFOs does not further scientific knowledge. 99 00:07:47,640 --> 00:07:54,160 Obviously if a UFO can disable a fighter jet, and Tehran can do it in the United States, 100 00:07:54,200 --> 00:07:56,200 does the government take it seriously? 101 00:07:56,200 --> 00:07:57,200 Absolutely. 102 00:07:57,200 --> 00:08:01,680 This proves beyond a doubt that the UFO phenomena was real. 103 00:08:01,680 --> 00:08:05,320 This proves beyond a doubt that they were still interested in it. 104 00:08:05,320 --> 00:08:10,280 And this proves beyond any doubt that this was technology that we don't even have today 105 00:08:10,280 --> 00:08:13,360 decades later. 106 00:08:13,360 --> 00:08:17,640 Experts today still cannot explain the Tehran incident. 107 00:08:17,640 --> 00:08:22,200 But the most fascinating part to me is not necessarily the case itself, but it's the 108 00:08:22,200 --> 00:08:24,040 fact that we can read it. 109 00:08:24,040 --> 00:08:29,760 If you couple this case and you put it next to the hundreds and hundreds of blacked out 110 00:08:29,760 --> 00:08:36,560 cases on UFOs that are blacked out from top to bottom, if you can read this one, what 111 00:08:36,560 --> 00:08:41,280 in the heck is under the black in this one? 112 00:08:41,280 --> 00:08:45,680 Encounters such as the Tehran incident raise questions about how much the government may 113 00:08:45,680 --> 00:08:48,040 be hiding from the public. 114 00:08:48,040 --> 00:08:54,800 In 1977, a leading independent UFO researcher named William Spaulling files a lawsuit against 115 00:08:54,800 --> 00:08:58,760 the CIA for violating the Freedom of Information Act. 116 00:08:58,760 --> 00:09:04,680 Spaulding, like a lot of people in the UFO community, was fairly suspicious of the government 117 00:09:04,680 --> 00:09:06,000 and he didn't believe it. 118 00:09:06,000 --> 00:09:11,560 So he pushed and pushed until finally it went to a lawsuit and the CIA was forced by order 119 00:09:11,560 --> 00:09:13,960 of a judge to look for records. 120 00:09:13,960 --> 00:09:19,400 The court forces the CIA to release thousands of pages of UFO files. 121 00:09:19,400 --> 00:09:23,120 Files they officially claimed did not exist. 122 00:09:23,120 --> 00:09:29,760 William Spaulding's 1977 lawsuit marked a fundamental change in how the UFO community 123 00:09:29,760 --> 00:09:35,120 used the Freedom of Information Act to go after this issue aggressively. 124 00:09:35,120 --> 00:09:43,800 This was such a huge embarrassment that the then director of the CIA asked his own officials 125 00:09:44,160 --> 00:09:47,960 in a panicked memo, are we in UFOs? 126 00:09:47,960 --> 00:09:56,560 CIA, Department of Defense and United States Air Force documents reveal that in 1975, reliable 127 00:09:56,560 --> 00:10:02,760 military personnel repeatedly witnessed UFOs over weapons storage areas and nuclear missile 128 00:10:02,760 --> 00:10:04,720 facilities. 129 00:10:04,720 --> 00:10:10,680 Among the UFO incidents listed in the declassified files is the Wortsmith citing. 130 00:10:10,680 --> 00:10:16,040 Why is it that military personnel are always told don't talk about what you saw to anybody? 131 00:10:16,040 --> 00:10:18,960 And the answer is obvious. 132 00:10:18,960 --> 00:10:22,400 If you're trying to deliver a message to the public that these things are nothing to worry 133 00:10:22,400 --> 00:10:29,800 about, you don't want your employees going around talking about it like they're real. 134 00:10:29,800 --> 00:10:35,680 Declassified documents made available by the U.S. Freedom of Information Act of 1974 reveal 135 00:10:35,680 --> 00:10:41,320 that despite claims to the contrary, the U.S. government is still actively investigating 136 00:10:41,320 --> 00:10:43,600 UFOs. 137 00:10:43,600 --> 00:10:49,160 But one case involving high-ranking United States Air Force personnel stationed in England 138 00:10:49,160 --> 00:10:54,800 becomes a watershed sighting in the history of ufology. 139 00:10:54,800 --> 00:10:59,720 Unsealed case file, the Rendlesham Forest Incident. 140 00:10:59,720 --> 00:11:01,720 December 1980. 141 00:11:01,800 --> 00:11:08,520 Rendlesham Forest UFO incident took place in December 1980 in the United Kingdom but 142 00:11:08,520 --> 00:11:12,880 involved two United States Air Force bases. 143 00:11:12,880 --> 00:11:20,320 These were actually two of the most important and sensitive bases in the entire NATO military 144 00:11:20,320 --> 00:11:21,320 alliance. 145 00:11:21,320 --> 00:11:25,040 And this was a time of great tension in the Cold War. 146 00:11:25,040 --> 00:11:30,720 For three nights at the Twin Air Force bases, RAF Bentwaters and RAF Woodbridge witnesses 147 00:11:30,720 --> 00:11:34,560 investigate a remarkable close encounter. 148 00:11:34,560 --> 00:11:44,040 On the first night of what was actually three nights of consecutive activity, this UFO landed, 149 00:11:44,040 --> 00:11:51,240 security police and law enforcement personnel in the military went out and encountered a 150 00:11:51,240 --> 00:11:56,680 small triangular craft which had landed in a clearing. 151 00:11:56,680 --> 00:12:01,240 One of the airmen gets close enough to report seeing strange symbols on the side of the 152 00:12:01,240 --> 00:12:05,520 UFO and even claims to touch the craft. 153 00:12:05,520 --> 00:12:11,560 After a while it rose slowly up above the ground, it cleared the tops of the trees and 154 00:12:11,560 --> 00:12:16,800 it accelerated away at immense speed. 155 00:12:16,800 --> 00:12:22,680 On the third night, Deputy Base Commander Colonel Charles Halt joins the investigation. 156 00:12:22,680 --> 00:12:30,480 He threw together a small team of military and he went out into the forest in his own 157 00:12:30,480 --> 00:12:37,080 words to debunk this UFO nonsense and to put this whole ridiculous story to bed for once 158 00:12:37,080 --> 00:12:38,960 and for all. 159 00:12:38,960 --> 00:12:43,320 But nothing could prepare Colonel Halt for what he was about to see. 160 00:12:43,320 --> 00:12:51,280 Over a period of some hours saw extraordinary activity in the sky including an object which 161 00:12:51,400 --> 00:12:56,040 fired a pencil-thin beam of light down at his feet. 162 00:12:56,040 --> 00:13:03,800 During his own sighting it was his habit to carry with him a small handheld cassette recorder 163 00:13:03,800 --> 00:13:07,880 on which he documented his observations. 164 00:13:07,880 --> 00:13:12,440 This we have on audio tape and that tape has survived. 165 00:13:12,440 --> 00:13:17,160 The tape, recorded by Colonel Halt during the encounter, is considered one of the most 166 00:13:17,240 --> 00:13:20,640 compelling pieces of UFO evidence in history. 167 00:13:20,640 --> 00:13:24,640 Here he comes from the south, he's coming towards us now. 168 00:13:24,640 --> 00:13:29,640 It appears to be a beam coming down to the ground. 169 00:13:29,640 --> 00:13:39,040 Taken collectively, the Rendlesham Forest incident is the most compelling, best evidenced 170 00:13:39,040 --> 00:13:45,560 and I think significant UFO incident in the world. 171 00:13:45,560 --> 00:13:49,480 But the significance goes far beyond eyewitness accounts. 172 00:13:49,480 --> 00:13:58,040 There was indeed both a Royal Air Force and a NATO report that the radar establishments 173 00:13:58,040 --> 00:14:02,240 did indeed have an uncorrelated target. 174 00:14:02,240 --> 00:14:07,280 And they measured the radiation at this site and the radiation in spite. 175 00:14:07,280 --> 00:14:09,080 There's radiation where it shouldn't be. 176 00:14:09,080 --> 00:14:10,960 At the edge of a forest. 177 00:14:10,960 --> 00:14:12,400 Why? 178 00:14:12,400 --> 00:14:17,840 After the incident Halt makes an official report to the UK Ministry of Defence, a seminal 179 00:14:17,840 --> 00:14:21,840 document now known as the Halt Memo. 180 00:14:21,840 --> 00:14:28,520 It's an extraordinary document, it's got this very low key title, unexplained lights. 181 00:14:28,520 --> 00:14:36,160 When you actually read the thing it talks quite clearly about a landed metallic craft 182 00:14:36,160 --> 00:14:42,960 and about the physical evidence in terms particularly of the radioactivity levels. 183 00:14:42,960 --> 00:14:50,000 There is absolutely no doubt that these documents are the government's own investigation of 184 00:14:50,000 --> 00:14:51,000 this. 185 00:14:51,000 --> 00:14:53,240 So did the Rendlesham incident actually occur? 186 00:14:53,240 --> 00:14:56,200 Yes, it absolutely did occur. 187 00:14:56,200 --> 00:15:01,480 Multiple witnesses, we had an object on the ground, we had radiation, we had the deputy 188 00:15:01,480 --> 00:15:05,240 commander of the base involved who actually saw it. 189 00:15:05,320 --> 00:15:10,720 With the compelling evidence, the UK military concludes that the Rendlesham Forest sightings 190 00:15:10,720 --> 00:15:13,280 are an optical illusion. 191 00:15:13,280 --> 00:15:18,480 But 20 years later, under mounting public pressure, the UK government commissions an 192 00:15:18,480 --> 00:15:23,320 in-depth study of many UFO sightings across the country. 193 00:15:23,320 --> 00:15:28,200 Unsealed case file, the Kondine report. 194 00:15:28,200 --> 00:15:35,360 The Kondine was a UK government intelligence study into the UFO phenomenon. 195 00:15:35,360 --> 00:15:40,960 The final report was stamped secret UKIs only. 196 00:15:40,960 --> 00:15:46,840 The Kondine report tries to answer questions that have lingered since the Cold War. 197 00:15:46,840 --> 00:15:50,120 Could UFO sightings be Soviet technology? 198 00:15:50,120 --> 00:15:53,520 Are they our own top secret black projects? 199 00:15:53,520 --> 00:15:57,560 Or is it really just atmospheric anomalies? 200 00:15:57,560 --> 00:16:03,000 One of the other fascinating things is that it actually dropped the term UFO and replaced 201 00:16:03,000 --> 00:16:07,040 it with UAP, an identified aerial phenomenon. 202 00:16:07,040 --> 00:16:15,080 So when we use phrases like UAP, it steers people almost away from a nuts and bolts interpretation 203 00:16:15,080 --> 00:16:18,200 that we're dealing with solid, structured craft. 204 00:16:18,200 --> 00:16:25,200 And it focuses the debate on, for example, exotic atmospheric plazbas, which was one 205 00:16:25,200 --> 00:16:30,880 of the project Kondine conclusions. 206 00:16:30,880 --> 00:16:36,600 Declassified documents prove that government agencies have been investigating UFOs long 207 00:16:36,600 --> 00:16:40,880 after they claim to no longer be interested in the phenomenon. 208 00:16:40,880 --> 00:16:45,960 But when it comes to disclosure, the National Security Agency looks like it has come to 209 00:16:45,960 --> 00:16:48,200 the end of the line. 210 00:16:48,200 --> 00:16:53,680 The National Security Agency has really shifted towards kind of more of the spying role. 211 00:16:53,680 --> 00:16:57,680 They're the ones that go out and try and figure out what the other enemies of the United 212 00:16:57,680 --> 00:17:00,360 States of America are actually doing. 213 00:17:00,360 --> 00:17:06,720 According to John Greenwald, the NSA has admitted it hasn't been keeping its records in good 214 00:17:06,720 --> 00:17:07,720 order. 215 00:17:07,720 --> 00:17:11,920 Under the Freedom of Information Act, you can request what's called a mandatory declassification 216 00:17:11,920 --> 00:17:13,400 review. 217 00:17:13,400 --> 00:17:20,480 Greenwald sends a request to review 100% of all UFO records that the NSA has released. 218 00:17:20,480 --> 00:17:24,560 After waiting a considerable amount of time, the National Security Agency told me under 219 00:17:24,560 --> 00:17:30,080 the Freedom of Information Act that they lost 100% of those files. 220 00:17:30,080 --> 00:17:36,320 What kind of secret is so compelling that even the documents pertaining to its existence 221 00:17:36,320 --> 00:17:38,560 have been erased? 222 00:17:38,560 --> 00:17:44,840 Having done this job from the inside, I've met a number of people, politicians, military 223 00:17:44,840 --> 00:17:51,320 officers, intelligence, community personnel, who are absolutely convinced that some UFOs 224 00:17:51,320 --> 00:17:57,720 do indeed involve visitation of extraterrestrial spacecraft and indeed entities. 225 00:17:57,720 --> 00:18:03,160 If it takes 30, 40, 50 years for these secrets to be declassified, it's possible that our 226 00:18:03,160 --> 00:18:08,840 children, our grandchildren, will see a whole new batch of evidence come to light. 227 00:18:08,840 --> 00:18:13,240 Have governments made contact with an extraterrestrial being? 228 00:18:13,240 --> 00:18:17,440 And if they have, why are they keeping it a secret?