The Weird Files, Part 10: The Kinross Affair

The Kinross UFO incident of 1953 is one of the more unusual and intriguing cases on record. For details, see this summary.

The available official records on the incident are newly-posted online, thanks to the work of researcher John Tenney. The files tell a fascinating story of an old case that still provokes controversy to this day and that refuses to roll over and die.

British Ministry of Defense to Declassify its UFO Files

News just in: the British Ministry of Defense is due to declassify all of its UFO files over the next couple of years. This action is due to the work of British UFO researchers Gary Anthony, Dave Clarke and Joe McGonagle of UK-UFO.org.

Here's the details from their website

Following sustained pressure by a small number of UFO researchers during the last 8 years, the British Ministry of Defence have decided to release all of their UFO files.
Gary Anthony, Dave Clarke, and Joe McGonagle have been making full use of the Freedom of Information Act and it's precursor, the Code of Practice on access to Government information. At considerable personal expense, effort, and investment of time the three of us have submitted a steady stream of requests. As well as making requests ourselves, we actively encouraged and assisted other ufologists to make their own requests.
Dave Clarke obtained a listing of files held by the MoD on the topic of Unidentified Flying Objects during 2003. In the course of requesting the contents of some of those files, we discovered that 24 files created by DI55 (the Defence Intelligence Branch charged with the investigation of UFO reports) were contaminated by asbestos, and their destruction was being considered. Not only were the UFO records contaminated, but a total of 63,000 files estimated at between 6 to 12 million pages, most of them classified above Secret were facing the same fate. The files covered a wide range of topics from a key period of military and political history.

For the rest of the story, click here.

The Weird Files, Part 9: UFOs and the National Security Agency

The NSA is without doubt one of the most secretive agencies on the planet. The NSA has, however, declassified some of its UFO files into the public domain, and which can be found here.

The Weird Files, Part 8: The FBI's Archives of the Unusual

Over the years, the FBI has collated considerable files on various cases and people connected to the world of Forteana and the unexplained. Some of them can be found here.

The Weird Files, Part 7: Parapsychology

If you're interested in what elements of the Defense Intelligence Agency thought about psychic phenomena in the 1970s, as well as its potential as a tool for espionage (both on the part of the United States and the former Soviet Union), click here.

The Weird Files, Part 6: Broomsticks in the Pentagon

If you're interested in finding out what the U.S. military deduced back in the 1960s about sorcery, witchcraft and a host of other related topics, click here.

The Weird Files, Part 5: The Ararat Anomaly

The Ararat Anomaly is the name given to a controversial structure (or object, or rock formation, depending on your perspective and opinion) that can be found on Mt. Ararat, Turkey. For some, it's the remains of the legendary Ark of Noah. For others, it's nothing at all.
But for the Intelligence community of the United States, it's been a mystery that has attracted their keen attention over the course of the last few decades.
The CIA declassified to me a couple of years ago several batches of documentation on the Ararat Anomaly, and I'm continuing to dig for more.
Meanwhile, you may wish to take a look at these photographs, which are posted at the official website of the Defense Intelligence Agency. Taken by a photographer aboard a US Air Force plane in 1949, they show Mt. Ararat and what some believe may be the remains of the Ark.
Whatever the Anomaly is, it has certainly provoked both interest and debate at an official level. And may still do so...

The Weird Files, Part 4: The British Ministry of Defense and Remote Viewing

For those who want to learn the facts pertaining to at least some of the British Ministry of Defense's files on Remote-Viewing and psychic spying, click here. There are reportedly more files on the way, and perhaps in excess of 1,000 pages. Stay tuned...

The Mystery of the Missing Files...

As I noted in my post here yesterday, the FBI has quietly removed from its website a PDF collection of documentation on alleged cases of spontaneous human combustion. Instead, all you get now is a summary of the files in question.
Interestingly, the FBI has also begun to remove other Fortean files, and UFO-related data, from its site too.
For example, up until very recently - but no longer, sadly - you could also download in PDF format the FBI's 135-page file on Silas Newton, who was a key player in the legend of the alleged UFO crash at Aztec, New Mexico in March 1948.
Also: the FBI's 42-page file on Philip Corso, of The Day After Roswell, has been completely deleted from the FBI's site. All you get now is a name check listed in the "C" section of the Bureau's online research page.
The 179-page FBI file on maverick scientist and Aleister Crowley disciple Jack Parsons is no longer available; the 287-page file on scientific genius Nikola Tesla is completely gone; as has the 789-page collection on Wilhelm "cloud-buster" Reich.
Some of the FBI's files on weird phenomena - such as its UFO papers, its animal mutilation files, its MJ12 reports, and its Project Blue Book records - are still available.
But this recent deletion of what amounts to thousands of pages of "strange secrets" that the FBI had previously posted online in a handy, downloadable format is very curious indeed.
Of course, you can still get the files by filing a written request with the FBI; but that can take time, and for some of the larger files, it can cost significant amounts of money too.
Luckily, I downloaded all the now-missing files onto a CD some time ago...

The Weird Files, Part 3: The FBI and Spontaneous Human Combustion

Click on this link to learn all about the FBI's files on an unusual death that was linked with theories pertaining to spontaneous human combustion.
The link provides background on the case file in question.
Until recently, you could download the entire FBI case-file in PDF format. However, for reasons that are not clear, the FBI has removed the extensive file on the affair that it had previously posted to its website.
I'm glad I downloaded it before the FBI decided to remove it...

The Weird Files, Part 2: The US Army and ESP

Nope: we're not talking about the Army trying to train its troops in the field of ESP. Rather, this is a fascinating look (with the accompanying official files available too) at a 1950s project to determine if animals possessed extra-sensory-perception. And if so, if that same skill could be employed to (among other things) locate landmines.

The Weird Files, Part 1: Cattle Mutilations...

Every day (until I run out of the damned things!) I'll be posting links to where you can find some of the strangest secret files that government, military and intelligence agencies have opened over the course of the last century or so.
To kick things off, here's a link to where you can download the FBI's 128-page file on so-called "Cattle Mutilations."
Read the file carefully: they contain some seriously weird reports...