CIA Releases Classified UFO-Related Documents To Black Vault
A 3/5 scale model of a proposed VTOL 'flying saucer' aircraft, the Couzinet Aerodyne RC-360, on display at a workshop on the Ile de la Jatte in Levallois-Perret, Paris, 1955. Designed by French aeronautical engineer Rene Couzinet (1904 - 1956), the Aerodyne was to feature two contra-rotating crowns of 96 small wings rotating around a motionless cockpit. These were to be powered by six 180 HP Lycoming engines in three pairs. Horizontal propulsion was to be provided by the jet engine, which can be seen mounted under the cockpit. The aircraft was refused government backing, however, and never reached the prototype stage. Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

The Black Vault has released a massive trove of classified information on unidentified flying objects (UFOs) collected by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) over the years.

According to a CNET report, The Black Vault is an online archive of declassified government documents that the public can access.

The Black Vault is operated by author John Greenwald Jr. who posted more than 2,700 pages of UFO-related documents declassified by the CIA since the 80s last week. It was the result of Greenewald's many Freedom of Information Act requests.

Greenewald said The Black Vault spent years fighting for these pieces of information, and "many were released in the late 90s."

"However, over time, the CIA made a CD-ROM collection of UFO documents, which encompassed the original records, along with the ones that took years to fight for," Greenewald said in a Masslive report.

After Greenewald's request was granted, the CIA made thousands of documents on UFOs available to Greenwald via a CD-ROM. The CIA said that this collection of documents is its entire collection of information on UFOs.

However, Greenewald noted that there is no way to verify whether the CIA's statement is true or not. He said that The Black Vault would continue to research to see if additional CIA documents can still be uncovered.

Greenewald told Vice's Motherboard that the CIA has made it incredibly difficult to use the records in a reasonable manner. He added that the CIA offered a very outdated format and offered text file outputs that are mostly unusable.

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According to Greenewald, there have already been thousands of downloads made within the first 24 hours.

UFO Sightings

The U.S. Department of Defense released three declassified videos of "unexplained aerial phenomena" in April last year. According to a BBC report, the Pentagon released the videos to clear up any public misconceptions on whether the circulating footage was real or not.

The Guardian reported that the department determined that after a thorough review, the authorized release of the videos does not reveal any sensitive capabilities or systems. The Pentagon added the aerial phenomena observed in the videos remain characterized as "unidentified."

The videos started circulating in the public domain after unauthorized release in 2007 and 2017. The three footage showed what the pilots saw during training flights in 2004 and 2015.

UFO Videos

According to a New York Times report, the 2004 video showed an incident that occurred 100 miles out into the Pacific Ocean. Two Navy fighter pilots then saw a round object hovering above the water and quickly flew away.

Cmdr. David Fravor, one of the pilots, said that it accelerated like nothing he has ever seen. On the other hand, the 2015 two videos showed objects moving quickly through the sky, with one of them seem to spin in the air.

According to a The Conversation report, this was the first time the Pentagon has publicly tackled UFO footage's authenticity. Controversy surrounding footages of UFOs have persisted throughout the years.

In 2016, during the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton, she said that if she were to be elected president, she would release files on potential UFO sightings. Her campaign chairman, John Podesta, had displayed an interest in the subject.

Last December, President Donald Trump signed the coronavirus bill that included a requirement for the national intelligence director to submit a report on "unidentified aerial phenomena." This report must be submitted to the congressional intelligence and armed services committees within 180 days.

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