Third batch of declassified UFO files reveals sightings around the world were investigated

The Pentagon on Friday released a third batch of vintage classified files related to “flying saucers” and other unidentified anomalous phenomena — better known to most Americans as unidentified flying objects , or UFOs — that the government has been hanging onto for decades.

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The 72 newly released files date from the 1940s to this year and showed that government investigators had looked into UFO sightings not just in the United States, but also around the world. And the files contain more reports of sightings from the public and more reports from both the CIA and the FBI.

But just as the two previous times when the government, at the urging of President Donald Trump, released two tranches of “never-before-seen” files on a subject that has intrigued Americans for generations, the new document drop will likely be a disappointment to those seeking definitive proof that we are not alone in the universe.

“The official responses consistently state that, circa 1998, the U.S. Government is not aware of evidence supporting the existence of extraterrestrial technology,” one of the documents states.

Like the previously released files, the new batch released Friday is housed on a dedicated government site, the Pentagon public affairs office said in a press release.

“The materials archived here are unresolved cases, meaning the government is unable to make a definitive determination on the nature of the observed phenomena,” it says.

The unearthed files include 29 from FBI, 18 from CIA, 12 from the Department of Defense, 11 from NASA, one from the intelligence community and the last document is from an unspecified U.S. government agency.

In addition to reports of supposed UFO sightings, this collection also contains references to historical, scientific literature addressing specific “UFO” sighting claims.

One is a July 2008 sighting of a suspected UFO at the Harare International Airport in the African nation of Zimbabwe.

“Individuals debated if the sighting was an advanced reconnaissance device of a foreign government or of extraterrestrial origins,” it reads.

“At one point during observation, “beams” were observed emanating from object,” it reads.

Then there is a file likely to raise eyebrows among those who believe the government has been covering-up what it knows about UFOs. It contains a memo dated Jan. 9, 1958, that was written by a R.P.B. Lohman, who appears to be a CIA officer.

In it, Lohman writes that he has informed a Dr. Leon Davidson that “we cannot resolve his problems concerning the space messages and its transmitter because records on this matter have been destroyed by the evaluating agency.”

Lohman also appears to regret having to give this answer to Davidson, a scientist who was part of the team that developed the atomic bomb and later investigated reported UFO sightings.

“We appreciate that there have been many cooks in the kitchen on this dish and that, as a result, the extraordinarily noncommittal and evasive answer we were instructed to give Davidson was perhaps the only one possible if we were to avoid crossing up previous statements of our own, and other involved agencies, to this man,” he wrote.

One of the files shows that the CIA convened a “Scientific Advisory Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects” and contains correspondence and reports dated 1952 and 1953.

“The panel’s primary conclusion was that “flying saucers” did not pose a direct physical threat to the national security of the United States,” it says.

The real threat, however, was posed by a “sensationalist press” covering the sightings and recommended an official “policy of “debunking’ to “strip the UFO subject of its mystery.”

The oldest files in this batch date back to the 1940s.

One from the Defense Department is an “Evaluation Study of the Phenomenon (Flying Saucers)” going back to June 1946.

“Of some 210 incidents, 20 percent have been explained,” it says. “No tangible evidence which would support a theory that any incidents are attributable to activity of a foreign nation.”

But it does not appear to rule out that any of these incidents are attributable to somebody from a foreign planet.

The second file from 1949 includes correspondence with then-FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and a Rev. Charles Barnes who reported seeing “four beams of light ‘converging in the Cascade Mountains,’ at an altitude of approximately 10,000 feet.”

Barnes told Hoover he saw “a ‘great explosion’ visible at the convergence point of those beams for at least ten minutes.”

In his reply, Hoover thanked Barnes for writing and informed him that he was forwarding the letter to the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC).

Hoover suggested to Barnes that what he reportedly saw might be related “to a military or scientific experiment within the commission’s purview.”

There are also excerpts from a November 1962 interview that legendary CBS anchorman Walter Cronkite did with astronaut Gordon Cooper, who piloted the last Mercury spaceflight.

Cooper, in the interview, noted that “a large number of exceptionally well-qualified people have seen objects” without a “logical explanation.” He also speculated on the existence of other planets with “a livable atmosphere” and that maybe there are “some type of human life” out there.

Cronkite, who died in 2009, covered most of NASA’s first forays into outer space and was later presented with a moon rock in recognition of his decades of covering the space program.