SUIT SEEKS TO LIFT SECRECY VEIL FROM AGENCY'S UFO DOCUMENTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000100200075-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 9, 2010
• Sequence Number: 75
• Publication Date: November 3, 1981
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

,STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/09/09: CIA-RDP90
ARTICLE APPEARED
ON PAGE
THE WASHINGTON POST
3 November 1981
.1 A-
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By Ward Sinclair::.
Wa.hlnytonPaet9WtWrtGr
The U.S. government 'sayi 'it keeps no.
records on unidentified."flying objects, be-,
cause they don't exist. But 131 secret doe
c:rnents. about UFOs ? in.the.files_ of-the Na
tk)nal Security Agency have become the sub-:
ject of an intense legal battle
Would the - documents disclose startling
details about.the flyingsaueers,:,or, UFOs,.
that snore. than 10 million.?Americans claim
ucompromise-
to have seen? Would discloere;
NSA's. sophisticated . eavesdropping tech=,
niques? Is. it all buncombe? Or is- it all too
t:?ightening to contemplate?
Apparently : only :NSA-. can answer those
7uestions and NSA- isn't talking: NSA,: in,_
fact, refuses to talk and its: reticence is being
challenged in the federal.courts:
Eleven months ago, a U.S. -District Court
Judge here, Gerhard A: Geeelt, held that-the
'iocuments were so sensitive?that theirpublic.
release' might endanger, national "security.
Gesell slid , not review -th&Mdoeuments: His'
decision was based on: a~21=page top-secret .
affidavit given him-inchambers by NSA.
The battle last week reached the U.S.I
Court of Appeals, where a small organization.1
known as Citizens: Against UFO Secrecy!
(CAUS), arguing for release of .the NSA doc-
uments, told a three-judge, panel that. the'
government cannot have it both ways.
If . LFOs do not. exis4;..CAUS attorney
Peter-A.. Gersten of New York told the.court;.
then Uncle Sam has nothing to hide. If they,
do exist; then we may be in 'big trouble--and.
we ought.to know about,-it But NSA's lips
stays buttoned. The suit. brought:-by" CAU1%nder the:
Freedom of Information Act is another ina
series, of challenges to, the powers of spy out.:
fits such as NSA, the Central=Intelligence'
Agency and the- Defense Intelligence Agency'.
to' withhold virtually anything'-they.;want
under the "guise of ?rratinnal,4ecunty
"The'government- ri%i4 l ii is -that OF
are not a- threat:th t` - 'the government
does not; study UFOs,A` er,ten told the a .1
Pettis panel If the not- order dis-
closure, ' he said, Gesell" a-leest "should'
be
directed ; to review the "1 ;UF0 documeatsr
and decide for himself just how sensitive
they really are.
Arguing for NSA, attorney Cheryl,. vL
Long said there is no way the documents, no
matter-what they show, could. be released
without exposing and .compromising the in-
telligence-gathering techniques of the. agen
cy, which include global electronic snooping..
and code-breaking.
CAUS'E' appetite for government doeu
.mentswas;'whetted by the 1978 release of
? Air Force and CIA reports .on UFO sightings.
-.that were deemed to have no national secu
rity implications. (:Ground Saucer Watch,' a
Phoenix-based Ul'0 monitoring organiza-
tion, forced the.'release through freedom-of-
information suits. -
Those documents revealed that in Octo-
ber, November and. Deemer of 1975,"re-:
"liable military per?;onnel sine unconventional
and urtexplainet! ' erial s:t;'),e& ' hovering
around nuclear ' nos ~r , t ,p .;less air-
craft alert areas w id. 1 ,site c~mtrol "com-
. plexes at installations acrciss the northern
United tates.-
In -some instance-,. as radar sightings ot-
the. objects were made, Air Force. fighter.
.'planes were sent aloft in unsuccessful pur
. suit, although the records gave no indication
that the fighters fired on the intruders. .
CAUS and the Fund for' UFO Research;.
based in suburban Mount. Rainier,.-not"
-that last week was the sixth anniversary of a
celebrated series of sightings over Loring Air
Force ,Base in Maine, brought, a witness to"
Washington'to tell his ;story at a press con
Terence
i .i~ t 1.-'; itY
Stephen' B. Eichner, a now retired ser,
geant who as on duty when a strange object
'hovered over the Loring ammunition- damp,
described in some detail what he saw in.1973
and said thatot2icials at the "base' tended to
discount his and other witnesses' reports: -_ ,
Eichner told how he'and fellow airmen
hart seen a football shaped reddish orange!
object; three or four car,tengths long,: hov.
'%;ering'over the Loring dump. He-said the ob-
ject: suddenly vanished,.' then reappeared
'Bonne distance away at the end:of a runway'
Numerous 'other visual and' adar.siglttiugs
were made at Loring. Air Force planes' i
F scrambled-.'in'n a: "luckless attempt to tr
down the object. The Air Force generally
theorized that the object was an unidentified
helicopter, but Eichner said. last week it
made no noise and could not be n istaken for?
a helicopter.
Gersten said CAUS- intends to file anolrh r
freedom of information suit against' the'. Air
Force this month in an effort to force disclo-
sure of more data on the series of *till. *4n-
'explained.1975'sightings over Strategic'l1ir
Command bases
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/09/09: CIA-RDP90-00806R000100200075-6