The Vault

FBI Files on the Existence of UFOs finally disclosed?

by Vincent Lemma

About a month or so ago the FBI set up a section on its website ‘The Vault’ that contained recently confidential documents on alleged UFO cases, the most famous of which is the “Roswell 1947”. The files also included information, reserved up until now, on ESP, animal mutilations and the famous Project Bluebook. Needless to say that the files created quite a buzz as the origin of these documents seems authentic.

One file named “Roswell UFO” reports on the Roswell case, but isn’t what is expected. The information reports that the Air Force informed the FBI’s Dallas branch that a UFO was recovered in Roswell, New Mexico on July 8th, 1947. The UFO was reported as a recovered disc of “hexagonal in shape and was suspended from a balloon by cable“. Written by FBI agent Guy Hottel and sent to the bureau's director, J. Edgar Hoover, it relates how "flying saucers had been recovered in New Mexico. They were described as being circular in shape with raised centers, approximately 50 feet in diameter”.

The report stated that the object resembled a high-altitude weather radar balloon that was being transported to Wright Field Base. The report states “No further investigation being conducted.”
However, the files also say that "each one was occupied by three bodies of human shape but only 3 feet tall, dressed in metallic cloth of a very fine texture," etc. etc.

The 1947 incident in Roswell, New Mexico has been the calling card for UFO enthusiasts since the late 70s, so the memo's official publication caused quite the stir.

In most of the stories published this week about the alien encounter, only a handful have made a big deal of the fact that this is not a "newly released" document or that the story is a hoax.

"It was one of the documents I got in the first bunch of documents out of a total of 1,600 that were released by the FBI way back in the late 70s," said retired U.S. Navy optical physicist Bruce Maccabee.
Maccabee actually obtained the document from the FBI via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in 1977 and even wrote about it in his 2000 book, "UFO-FBI Connection" (Llewellyn Publications).
Maccabee is a renowned investigator of UFO photographs and visual evidence.
"First of all, the document was in this official FOIA release, so I have no doubt that the document is true," Maccabee told the press.
As to the contents of the document, "it appears this was the result of a story told by (oil scam artist) Silas Newton, during a lecture at the University of Denver on March 8, 1950 (two weeks before the document was written)," Maccabee explained.
"Newton tried to convince some potential oil company investors that he had secret alien technology that could be used to locate underground oil.

"So this was a con job. Newton was laying the groundwork for it by saying there had been three crashed saucers with creatures."
Maccabee says the story kept getting passed from person to person and believes "an Air Force Office of Special Investigations man picked up on it and told the FBI guy, who then sent a memo to Hoover."
This wasn't unusual, Maccabee continued, because around the same time, in 1947, "the Air Force initially asked the FBI to investigate witnesses to find out if there were any possible Communist subversive activities going on, generating spurious stories to make the American public fearful that our own military couldn't handle Soviet aircraft in our skies."
Even though nothing came of this investigation, Maccabee says it at least established a connection between the FBI and the Air Force, especially about UFOs.
"Back in the late 40s and 50s, no one expected the Freedom of Information Act 20 years later," Maccabee added. "Basically, the FBI was told by Hoover, 'If you come up with UFO information, do not investigate, send it to the Air Force.' But, nevertheless, they would sometimes send memos back to headquarters."
And that's apparently how this whole 1950 crashed flying saucer with dead aliens memo evolved, with a little bit of con artistry kicked in.

If there's a moral to the story it's this: You can't trust every document you read, even if it's a genuine document. To get at the truth, you need to really dig into it. How did it germinate? Are the people involved reliable, and is there a high or low credibility factor associated with it?
The truth is always out there, but it often requires investigators to use the correct filters to weed out the good from the bad.

However, there's not much cause to think that the government has suddenly changed its position on UFOs by releasing these documents. The documents have been leaked several times before, they're just in the news cycle now because the FBI reminded the public of them.

One might argue that there's nothing close to admittance of UFOs in the documents: Agent Hottel's letter is merely a retelling of an informant's story about alien autopsies — Hottel isn't even based in New Mexico, lowering the value of the tale even further — and recommends no follow-up investigation. Similarly, the Roswell memo reinforces that the object was a weather balloon, not a "flying disc," and also recommends no follow-up.

Skeptics certainly proclaim that all whom have always claimed conspiracy or government cover-up in relation to Roswell will continue doing so, and outlets will publish wide-eyed reports on the memos that have been in front of us all along, but are now collected in one place and acknowledged by the FBI.

Yet, it must be remembered that the United Nations has a Committee to manage encounters with extraterrestrial intelligence, which was put under supposed bolt and lock last year after a world-wide conference on the matter. What happened? Why all the sudden secrecy? What about Obama, and his resolution to come clean on confidential information on unidentified flying objects during Thanksgiving of 2010? Is it all a tease, a ruse or is there something that "they" are trying to prepare us for?

In the meantime, the Hottel memo and the Roswell memo are embedded below, courtesy of the FBI, and The Vault's other memos about "unexplained phenomenon" can be found online for some fun reading.

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