Originally posted by converge
If I'm not mistaken I believe the FBI, along with other agencies, released these documents after a lawsuit in the late 80s or 90s.
Hi Converge,
The gist of your point (i.e. that these documents have not been released in recent days/weeks/months) is perfectly correct, but the FBI in fact
released its UFO documents in the 1970s - prior to the FOIA lawsuits involving other agencies.
(Like you, I pointed this out in another relatively recent thread in which some people pointed to the FBI website as indicating that America was
following France and Britain by releasing documents. For ease of reference, I'll repeat some points below).
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).
The documents remain very interesting to read.
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