To make sure you never miss out on your favourite NEW stories, we're happy to send you some reminders

Click 'OK' then 'Allow' to enable notifications

CIA's Declassified Documents On UFOs Published Online

CIA's Declassified Documents On UFOs Published Online

They're now available to download

Amelia Ward

Amelia Ward

You can now download all the information the CIA has on unidentified flying objects after a man hand-scanned thousands of pages of information and uploaded them to his website.

John Greenewald Jr, who runs UFO website The Black Vault, has published a massive downloadable archive of every instance of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena - what the US government call UFOs.

He spent years scanning multiple pages from Freedom of Information Act documents. The documents came from various agencies - including the CIA - with Greenewald's website now holding 2.2 million pages of UFO information.

That is true dedication to the cause.

Speaking to Motherboard in an email, Greenewald explained his project.

He said: "Around 20 years ago, I had fought for years to get additional UFO records released from the CIA.

"It was like pulling teeth! I went around and around with them to try and do so, finally achieving it.

"I received a large box, of a couple thousand pages, and I had to scan them in one page at a time."

And although this information has been publicly available, it's not exactly been easy to find.

He said: "Researchers and curious minds alike prefer simplicity and accessibility when they look at data dumps such as these.

"The CIA has made it INCREDIBLY difficult to use their records in a reasonable manner.

"They offer a format that is very outdated (multi page .tif) and offer text file outputs, largely unusable, that I think they intend to have people use as a 'search' tool.

"In my opinion, this outdated format makes it very difficult for people to see the documents, and use them, for any research purpose."

The first lot of information on UFOs to be declassified was released in the 1970s and early 1980s, but Greenewald said it got more and more difficult to get information from the government.

Greenewald says there's no way of verifying if the CIA has released all the documents it has.
PA

He added: "Plain and simple, the public has a right to know! When I began researching nearly 25 years ago at the age of 15, I knew there was something to this topic.

"Not because of viral internet hoaxes. Not because of back door meetings wherein I can't tell you who, but I promise it was mind-blowing information.

"No, none of that. It was simply because of the evidence that I got straight from the CIA. And the NSA. And the Air Force. And the DIA.

"I feel I am achieving what I set out to do. Easy access, to important material, for people to make up their own minds on what is going on."

Featured Image Credit: CIA

Topics: US News