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Real-Life ‘X-Files’: CIA Releases UFO Documents, ‘The Truth Is Out There’

By Manasi Gandhi
Published on: 02:37 PST, Jan 30, 2016

X-Files is returning after 10 years and the CIA is catering to the fans of Scully and Mulder by posting a list of declassified documents.

The CIA declassified hundreds of documents in 1978 detailing its investigations into Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs). The documents are dated mostly from the late 1940s and 1950s.

The post says the following.

“To help navigate the vast amount of data contained in our FOIA UFO collection, we’ve decided to highlight a few documents both skeptics and believers will find interesting. Below you will find five documents we think X-Files character Agent Fox Mulder would love to use to try and persuade others of the existence of extraterrestrial activity. We also pulled five documents we think his skeptical partner, Agent Dana Scully, could use to prove there is a scientific explanation for UFO sightings.”

Agent Scully, the skeptical one, is given detailed records of the investigations, including memoranda from Project Bluebook given to then CIA Director Walter Bedell Smith that eventually led to the establishment of the Robertson Panel.

The NBC reported that the rest of the documents that were released mostly ranged from translations of foreign UFO-related articles to CIA memos actually admitting there were quite a few cases that the agency simply couldn’t explain.

Another post on the CIA’s website stated the following.

“Most of the documents concern CIA cables reporting unsubstantiated UFO sightings in the foreign press and intra-Agency memos about how the Agency handled public inquiries about UFO sightings.”

The Roberston Panel concluded that 90 percent of sighting could be attributed to meteorological conditions and recommended creating, “an integrated program designed to reassure the public of the total lack of evidence of Inimical forces behind the phenomenon, to train personnel to recognize and reject false indications quickly and effectively, and to strengthen regular channels for the evaluation of and prompt reaction to true indications of hostile measures.”

One document from 1952 has an account from a man who claimed a sighting just before he fled East Germany. Oscar Linke, then 48, claimed that he saw two men “dressed in some shiny metallic clothing” stooped and examining something on the ground. The object “looked like a huge frying pan” with a conical tower. Upon hearing Linke and his daughter, the men jumped into the saucer and flew off.

[Image via cia.gov]
[Image via cia.gov]
The other four documents include similar sightings in Africa and Spain — it’s the stuff X-Files episodes are made of.

There are also included three pictures of the alleged extraterrestrials. One of the photos – taken by British student Alex Birch in 1962 – claimed to show a group of flying saucers flying over the city of Sheffield in the UK. However, the photo was proven to be a hoax.

The files also detail a case of flying saucers that were spotted over what was formerly Belgian Congo. The document reveals that two “fiery discs” were seen over a uranium mine and that the discs had “glided curves and changed position many times.”

“Suddenly, both discs hovered in one spot and then took off in a unique zigzag flight to the north east. A penetrating hissing and buzzing sound was audible to onlooker below. The whole performance lasted 10 to 12 minutes.”

An aircraft was then set to investigate the object and got with meters of the saucer and according to the pilot, the inner core of it remained totally still while the a knob opening could be seen from the outside. The pilot then gave up his pursuit when the ‘disc’ appeared to disappear.

Also contained in the files is the case in Socorro, New Mexico, in 1964, when police officer Lonnie Zamoraspotted a large flame rise from the ground and pierce the sky above a remote patch of desert. He went to investigate and found a shiny object the size of a sedan perched on the hilltop, which was oval in shape and aluminum in color. The object then began to rise into the air and then sped away from him over the mountains and disappeared.

The CIA has always denied having any proper intelligence about aliens. But it has often organized scientific panels to discuss the nature of these allegedly alien objects.

The release of the documents coincide with the long-awaited return of The X-Files on Sunday. The beloved show was rebooted by the Fox Network after 10 years, with its two original stars reprising their roles.

Stephen Bassett, executive director of the Paradigm Research Group, who is campaigning for the US government to admit aliens are visiting Earth, told The Mirror that the CIA appears to have used the return of The X-Files to their benefit.

“It appears the CIA used the revival of the X-Files franchise as a convenient time to remind the public the agency has, in fact, engaged the extraterrestrial presence issue in the past. Post-disclosure the CIA will have substantial public relations issues as it has played a significant role in maintaining the truth embargo over six decades. These recent postings could have an inoculative effect in service to the agency’s future PR strategy.”

In other X-Files-related fun, there’s now an interactive map plotting out UFO sightings and X-Files settings. Made on CartoDB, the map allows users to scroll through time and compare the locations of real-life sightings and TV episodes for each season of the show.

Many fans of The X-Files took to Twitter to proclaim their astonishment, concerns, and enthusiasm about the CIA’s public acknowledgment of its extra-terrestrial investigations.

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