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From: Stig_Agermose@online.pol.dk (Stig Agermose) Date: Fri, 29 Aug 1997 22:48:34 -0800 |
In an interview with Parascope's Dossier Gerald Haines revealed new details concerning his report on the CIA's role in the UFO cover-up. The entire article can be found at: www.parascope.com/articles/0897/ufolies.htm but these are the quotes that I consider most relevant: The article, "CIA's Role in the Study of UFOs, 1947-1990," was prepared by Gerald Haines, a historian now working for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) who "did the report when he worked for the CIA," according to an NRO public affairs officer contacted by Dossier. The NRO said that Haines is "declining interview opportunities" about his Studies in Intelligence article, but Dossier reached him on the telephone nevertheless. Haines told Dossier that his report was commissioned by President Clinton's first CIA director, James Woolsey, who "wanted to be sure he had all the facts" on the CIA and UFOs after a question on the topic was put to him during a radio interview. According to Haines, a classified version of his report was issued by the CIA about two years ago. He says that the CIA "removed very little" information from the study before releasing it to the public, and that the still-classified portions of the report "had nothing to do with UFOs" directly. *** Haines goes on to allege that "over half of all UFO reports from the late 1950s through the 1960s were accounted for by manned reconnaissance flights (namely the U-2) over the United States." The Air Force, he says, was forced "to make misleading and deceptive statements to the public in order to allay public fears and to protect an extraordinarily sensitive national security project." What, exactly, did Haines mean when he referred to "over half of all UFO reports"? Were these the reports logged by the Air Force's Project Blue Book? When asked these questions by Dossier, Haines said he could not comment. When asked if this was because he would have to discuss sensitive information to answer correctly, or if it was just too long of a story to go into, Haines replied: "Both." When asked about the allegations in the Haines report, an Air Force spokesman, Brig. Gen. Ronald Sconyers, told the press that "I cannot confirm or deny that we lied" about UFO sightings. Though we do not know the specific basis for Haines' claim, if his account is correct, then this attempt to hide the spy flights from U.S. sky-watchers is perhaps the greatest program of official lies about UFO sightings ever documented. *** Haines concludes from his investigation that "while Agency concern over UFOs was substantial until the early 1950s, CIA has since paid only limited and peripheral attention to the problem." However, there are hints in his report that the some serious CIA work on the UFO front continued for decades. In the 1970s and '80s, for example, the OSI's Life Science Division had "counterintelligence concerns that the Soviets and the KGB were using U.S. citizens and UFO groups to obtain information on sensitive U.S. weapons development programs (such as the Stealth aircraft), the vulnerability of the U.S. air-defense network to penetration by foreign missiles mimicking UFOs, and evidence of Soviet advanced technology associated with UFO sightings." Haines elaborated a bit on this for Dossier, explaining that some CIA officials were worried that "the Soviets could infiltrate these organizations and establish an information corridor" that would provide insight on classified aircraft. Given this potentially serious "counterintelligence concern," did the CIA then monitor or investigate civilian UFO groups in the United States? When asked this question, Haines adamantly assured Dossier that "the CIA does not conduct domestic operations," and that he saw "nothing in the record that would indicate" such an effort. However, he said that "on a couple of occasions," the CIA "recommended that the FBI look into" the activities of private UFO groups.
Index: CIA and UFOs
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Created: Aug 30, 1997