Monday, December 10, 2007

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...

6 comments:

Unknown said...

that you thought ahead to save those files is an example we would all be wise to heed while the information is still out there to be had. Any plans to drop those files into an accessible archive?

John Sawyer said...

What were the URLs to these FBI reports, and what happens when you use the Wayback Machine (http://www.archive.org/web/web.php) to view these URLs?

Mr. Kimberly said...

I just downloaded the Jack Parsons FBI pdfs from the Internet Archive...

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://foia.fbi.gov/jparsons.htm

The FBI's Parson page (link found on http://jackparsons.tribe.net/thread/613c00f2-d06c-4746-8b44-530d7646f900)...

http://foia.fbi.gov/jparsons.htm

...has a "page no longer found" disclaimer.

Mr. Kimberly said...

The Internet Archive's copy of the entire FBI Freedom of Information Act webpage can be found here...

http://web.archive.org/web/20040605194532/foia.fbi.gov/alpha.htm

Formerly Fooled said...

Mr Kimberly, thanks for posting the link to the internet archives. From there I was able to locate the exact archived pdf page:
http://web.archive.org/web/20011213022734/foia.fbi.gov/jparsons/jparsons1a.pdf
Here's a tiny url of that link:
http://tinyurl.com/you92r

One can download the complete pdf file after it finishes opening.

To the blog owner:
This is an interesting blog! I came across it looking for something unrelated but I am interested in anything related to the affiliation of Scientology cultleader L Ron Hubbard and Jack Parsons, as well as Aleister Crowley, as they were all friends at one point.

Nick Redfern said...

Guys
Many thanks for the comments and alerting people to where these files can now be found. It's good to see that others have made them available now that the FBI have reeled them in...

Formerly Fooled: yes, the whole Crowley-Parsons thing is very intriguing.