CIA posts its own 'X-Files' of UFO reports online
Agents Scully and Mulder might have been on the right track believing in extraterrestrial life. The real-life Central Intelligence Agency publishes declassified UFO documents on its website.
Just as the new "X-Files" revival finds another generation of fans who want to believe in the existence of UFOs, the CIA has decided to give people a look into its own alien investigations from the 1940s and 1950s.
Granted, these UFO files were already released to the public via a Freedom of Information Act request way back in 1978, but this marks the first time the CIA has made many of them conveniently located online on its website.
"Take a peek into our 'X-Files,'" the CIA website states. "We've decided to highlight a few documents both skeptics and believers will find interesting. Find 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 documents we think his skeptical partner, Agent Dana Scully, could use to prove there is a scientific explanation for UFO sightings."
The CIA posted files of flying saucers reported in 1952 over East Germany, Spain, North Africa, and Belgian Congo uranium mines.
Links to a survey of flying saucer reports from 1952 and the minutes of the CIA Branch Chief's meeting on UFOs from August 1952 are also available.
In addition to the CIA's highlighted UFO reports, the organization also offers a complete and searchable library of declassified investigations from the 1940s and 1950s. Sadly, nothing more recent is available online for our perusal.
If you think you've seen a UFO or evidence of alien life here on Earth, the CIA also has a handy article on how to investigate a flying saucer.
Some of the advice includes establishing a group to investigate and evaluate sightings; consult with experts; create a reporting system to organize incoming cases; eliminate false positives; develop a methodology to identify common aircraft and other aerial phenomena often mistaken for UFOs; gather and test physical and forensic evidence; discourage false reporting and more.
The CIA also suggests determining the objectives of your investigation like whether the UFO sightings present a threat to the security of the US or if the UFOs exhibit any technological advances which could be channeled into US research and development.
However, keep in mind, since the publication of Project Blue Book, the US Air Force's own famous investigation program that debunked UFO reports from the famous 1947 Roswell, New Mexico incident and on, the chances of being taken seriously by the US government and its agencies regarding your own UFO sightings may be met with the same kind of skepticism Agent Mulder constantly faces on "The X-Files."
