Article #: 4
     From: UFO INFO SERVICE         
Date Sent: 06-17-1986
  Subject: 1979 CIA UFO SURVEILLANCE

SOURCE:  NYT (PHOENIX, AZ)    
  DATE:  01 JANUARY 1979 

 
CIA PAPERS DETAIL UFO SURVEILLANCE 
 
Ground Saucer Watch (GSW), an Arizona-based nation-wide UFO research  
organization of about 500 scientists, engineers and others, said on Friday 
it has obtained 1,000 pages of CIA documents under a freedom of information
suit which show that the agency has been secretly involved in UFO
surveillance since 1949 - even though the CIA has repeatedly said its 
investigation ended in 1952.  William Spauldintg, an aerospace engineer    
with AiResearch and head of GSW, said "the Government has been lying to us 
all these years.  After reviewing the docments, GSW believes that UFOs do  
exist, they are real, the U.S. Government has been totally untruthful, and 
the cover-up is massive."
 
Mr. Spaulding said the documents show that U.S. embassies are used to 
gather information on UFO sightings which "seems to be directed to the
CIA, the White House and the National Security Agency."  A CIA memo dated  
August 1, 1952, recommended continued agency surveillance of "flying  
saucers", saying, "It is strongly urged, however, that no indication of    
CIA interest or concern reach the press or public, in view of their   
probably alarmist tendencies to accept such interest as confirmatory of    
the soundness of 'unpublished facts' in the hands of the U.S. Government." 
 
Among the documents are several detailed reports of USAF attempts to  
either intercept or destroy UFOs.  In a 1976 incident in Iran, two F-4
Phantom jet fighter-bombers pursued a large UFO that was sending out  
smaller craft.  One of the smaller craft "headed straight for the F-4 at a 
very fast rate of speed.  The pilot attempted to fire an AIM-9 missile at  
the object but at that instant his weapons control panel went off and he   
lost all communications."  The pilot eluded the craft, then watched as it  
"returned to the primary object for a perfect rejoin." 
 
A CIA document dated October 2, 1952, shows that a major point of concern  
is that UFO sightings could mask Russian air attacks or "psychological
warfare".  This report to the CIA director from the assistant director for 
the Office of Scientific Intelligence recommends that the National    
Security Council be advised of the "implications of the flying saucer 
problem"; that the matter be discussed with the Psychological Strategy
Board; and that the CIA help "develop...a policy of public information
which will minimize concern and possible panic resulting from the numerous 
sightings of unidentified objects."
 
A November, 1975 document directs against acknowledging any pattern in
sightings.  "Unless there is evidence which links sightings, or unless
media queries link sightings, queries can best be handled individually at  
the source and as questions arise.  Response should be direct, forthright  
and emphasize that the action taken was in response to an isolated or 
specific incident." 
 
According to Mr. Spaulding, "We find a concentration of sightings around   
our military installations, research & development areas.  The UFO    
phenomenon is following what our own astronauts are doing on other    
plants - we send a scoutship, we take soil samples and then we land." 
Mr. Spaulding said he has sworn statements from retired USAF colonels 
that at least 2 UFOs have crash-landed and been recovered by USAF.  One    
crash was in New Mexico in 1948, and the other near Kingman, AZ in 1953.   
The retired officers claimed they got a glimpse of dead aliens who were    
in both cases about 4 to 3 feet tall with silverish complexions and silver
outfits that "seemed fused to the body from the heat." 
 
GSW is waiting for a Federal judge to rule on the last phase of its CIA    
suit, which seeks access to 57 items that could provide "hard    
evidence" of UFOs with "retreivals of the third kind" such as motion  
pictures, gun camera film and residue from landings.  Among the films 
they want is 40-48 frames taken in 1952 by Ralph Mayher, then a  
cameraman for KYW-TV, Cleveland, OH, and now a GSW member.  USAF 
borrowed the film in 1957 and has never returned it; officially stating    
the filmed object was a meteor.  Said Mr. Spaulding, "We're past the  
story-telling stage.  We have to have it in black and white to satisfy
the scientific community".