The following is the complete text of the GAO Report sent to Congressman Steve Schiff after his request for an investigation nearly two years prior.
It also includes related documents.
U.S. Congressman Steve Schiff, First Congressional District New Mexico
Washington Office: 2404 Rayburn Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
(202) 225-6316
FAX: (202) 225-4975
District Office: 625 Silver Ave., SW
Suite 140 Albuquerque, NM 87102
(505) 766-2538
FAX (505) 766-1674
Immediate Release J. Barry Bitzer
July 28th, 1995
Schiff Receives, Releases Roswell Report
(missing documents leave unanswered questions)
Washington: Congressman Steve Schiff today released the General Accounting Office (GAO) report detailing results of a records audit related to events surrounding a crash in 1947, near Roswell, New Mexico, and the military response.
The 20 page report is the result of constituent information requests to Congressman Schiff and the difficulty he had getting answers from the Department of Defense in the now 48-year-old controversy.
Schiff said important documents, which may have shed more light on what happened at Roswell, are missing. "The GAO report states that the outgoing messages from Roswell Army Air Field (RAAF) for this period of time were destroyed without proper authority. Schiff pointed out that these messages would have shown how military officials in Roswell were explaining to their superiors exactly what happened.
"It is my understanding that these outgoing messages were permanent records, which should never have been destroyed. The GAO could not identify who destroyed the messages, or why." But Schiff pointed out that the GAO estimates that the messages were destroyed over 40 years ago, making further inquiry about their destruction impractical.
All of the GAO Report (with very minor exceptions mentioned below) are included in this document.
The only things missing are:
Main switchboard phone numbers were preserved. Numbers can of course be obtained by directory assistance. Those phone numbers are also in the publicly available report.
The actual hard copy of this report can be ordered by calling the GAO publications ordering desk at (202) 512-6000.
START GAO REPORT
United States
General Accounting Office
Washington, D.C. 20545
National Security and International Affairs Division
B-262046
July 28,1995
The Honorable Steven H. Schiff
House of Representatives
Dear Mr. Schiff:
On July 8, 1947, the Roswell Army Air Held (RAAF) public information office in Roswell, New Mexico, reported the crash and recovery of a "flying disc." Army Air Forces personnel from the RAAF's 509th Bomb Group were credited with the recovery. The following day, the press reported that the Commanding General of the U.S. Eighth Air Force, Fort Worth, Texas, announced that RAAF personnel had recovered a crashed radar-traciting (weather) balloon, not a flying disc."
After nearly 50 years, speculation continues on what crashed at Roswell. Some observers believe that the object was of extraterrestrial origin. In the July 1994 "Report of Air Force Research Regarding the Roswell" Incident, the Air Force did not dispute that something happened near Roswell, but reported that the most likely source of the wreckage was from a balloon-launched classified government project designed to determine the state of Soviet nuclear weapons research. The debate on what crashed at Roswell continues.
Concerned that the Department of Defense (DoD) may not have provided you with all available information on the crash, you asked us to determine the requirements for reporting air accidents similar to the crash near Roswell and identify any government records concerning the Roswell crash.
We conducted an extensive search for government records related to the crash near Roswell. We examined a wide range of classified and unclassified documents dating from July 1947 through the 1950s. These records came from numerous organizations in New Mexico and elsewhere throughout DoD as well as The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and the National Security Council. The full scope and methodology of our work are detalled at the end of This report.
RESULTS IN BRIEF
iN 1947, regulations required that air accident reports be maintained air accidents reported by the Army Air Forces in New Mexico during July 1947. All of The accidents involved military aircraft and occurred after July 8,1947 -- the date the RAAF public information office first reported the crash and recovery of a "flying disc" near Roswell. The Navy reported no air accidents in New Mexico during July 1947.
Air Force officials told us that according to record-keeping requirements in effect during July 1947, there was no requirement to prepare a report on the crash of a weather balloon.
In our search for records concerning the Roswell crash, we learned that some government records covering RAAF activities had been destroyed and others had not. For example, RAAF administrative records (from Mar. 1945 through Dec. 1949) and RAAF outgoing messages (from Oct. 1946 through Dec. 1949) were destroyed. The document disposition form does not indicate what organization or person destroyed the records and when or under what authority the records were destroyed.
Our search for government records concerning the Roswell crash yielded two records originating in 1947 -- a July 1947 history report by the combined 509th Bomb Group and RAAF and an FBI teletype message dated July 8, 1947. The 5O9th-RAAF report noted the recovery of a "flying disc" that was later determined by military officials to be a radar-tracking balloon. The FBI message stated that the military had reported that an object resembling a high-altitude weather balloon with a radar reflector had been recovered near Roswell.
The other government records we reviewed, including those previously withheld from the public because of security classification, and the Air Force's analysis of unidentifled flying object(1) sightings from 1946 to 1953 (Project Blue Book Special Report No. 14), did not mention the crash or the recovery of an airborne object near Roswell in July 1947. Similarly, executive branch agencies' responses to our letters of inquiry produced no other government records on the Roswell crash.
Note
(1) According to Air Force regulations, an unidentified object is an
airborne object that by performance, aereodynamic characteristics, or unusual
features, does not conform to known aircraft or missiles, or does not
correspond to Air Force definitions of familiar or known objects or
unidentified aircraft.
REPORTING AIR ACCIDENTS
According to press accounts from July 1947, Army Air Forces personnel from RAAF were involved in the recovery of an airborne object near Roswell. Therefore, if an air accident report was prepared, it should have been prepared in accordance with Army regulations. According to an Army records management official, in 1947 Army regulations required that air accident reports be maintained permanentiy. An Air Force official said there was no similar requirement to report a weather balloon crash.
According to an Air Force official who has worked in the records management field since the inid-1940s, air accident reports prepared in July 1947 under Army regulations should have been transferred to Air Force custody in September 1947, when the Air Force was established as a separate service.
The Air Force Safety Agency is responsible for maintalning reports of air accidents. We examined its microflim records to determine whether any air accidents had been reported in New Mexico during July 1947. We identified four air accidents during this time period.(2) All of the accidents involved military fighter or cargo aircraft and occurred after July 8, 1947 -- the date the RAAF public information office first reported the crash and recovery of a "flying disc" near Roswell. According to the Army Air Forces' Report of Major Accident, these four accidents occurred at or near the towns of Hobbs, Albuquerque, Carrizozo, and Alamogordo, New Mexico. Ouly one of the four accidents resulted in a fatality. The pilot died when the aircraft crashed during an attempted take-off.
Note:
(2) These records do not include information regarding mishaps of air
vehicles belonging to civilian or other government agencies. These records
also do not include mishaps involving unmanned air vehicles such as remotely
piloted aircraft, low-speed cruise missiles, and most balloons.
SEARCH FOR RECORDS
In searching for government records on the Roswell crash, we were particularly interested in identifying and reviewing records of military units assigned to RAAF in 1947 -- to include the 509th Bomb Group, the 1st Air Transport Unit, the 427th Army Air Force Base Unit, and the 1395th Military Police Company (Aviation).
Document disposition forms obtained from the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Missouri, indicate that in 1953, the Walker Air Force Base (formeriy RAAF) records officer transferred to the Army's Kansas City records depository the histories of units stationed at Walker Air Force Base. These histories included the 509th Bomb Group and RAAF for February 1947 through October 1947; the 1st Air Transport Unit for July 1946 through June 1947; and the 427th Army Air Force Base Unit for January 1946 to February 1947. We could not locate any documentation indicating that records of the 1395th Military Police Company (Aviation) were ever retiredto The National Personnel Records Center or its predecessor depositories.
The July 1947 history for the 509th Bomb Group and RAAF stated that the RAAF public information office "was kept quite busy ... answering inquiries on the `flying disc,' which was reported to be in [the] possession of the 509th Bomb Group. The object turned out to be a radar tracking balloon." By his signature, The RAAF's commanding officer certified that the report represented a complete and accurate account of RAAF activities in July 1947. (Excerpts from the report are contained in app. I.)
In addition to unit history reports, we also searched for other government records on the Roswell crash. In this regard, The Chief Archivist for the National Personnel Records Center provided us with documentation indicating that (1) RAAF records such as finance and accounting, supplies, buildings and grounds, and other general administrative matters from March 1945 through December 1949 and (2) RAAF outgoing messages from October 1946 through December 1949 were destroyed. According to this official, the document disposition form did not properly indicate the authority under which the disposal action was taken. The Center's Chief Archivist stated that from hispersonal experience, many of the Air Force organizational records covering this time period were destroyed without entering a citation for the governing disposition authority. Our review of records control forms showing the destruction of other records-including outgoing RAAF messages for 1950 -- supports the Chief Archivist's viewpoint.
During our review of records at FBI headquarters, we found a July 8, 1947, teletype message from the FBI office in Dallas, Texas, to FBI headquarters and the FBI office in Cincinnati, Ohio. An FBI spokesperson confirmed the authenticity of the message.
According to the message, an Eighth Air Force headquarters official had
telephonically informed the FBI's Dallas office of the recovery near Roswell of
a hexagonal-shaped disc suspended from a large balloon by cable. The message
further stated that the disc and balloon were being sent to Wright Field (now
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio) for examination. According to The Eighth
Air Force official, the recovered object resembled a high-altitude weather
balloon with a radar reflector. The message stated that no further
investigation by the FBI was being conducted. (A copy of the teletype message
appears in app. II.)
To follow up on the July 8th message, we reviewed microfilm abstracts of the FBI Dallas and Cincinnati office activities for July 1947. An abstract prepared by the FBI Dallas office on July 12, 1947, summarized the particulars of the July 8th message. There was no mention in the Cincinnati office abstracts of the crash or recovery of an airborne object near Rosweil.
Because the FBI message reported that debris from the Roswell crash was being transported to Wright Held for examination, we attempted to deterinine whether military regulations existed for handling such debris. We were unable to locate any applicable regulation. As a final step, we reviewed Air Materiel Command (Wright Held) records from 1947 to 1950 for evidence of command personnel involvement in this matter. We found no records mentioning the Roswell crash or the examination by Air Materiel Command personnel of any debris recovered from the crash.
QUERIES TO FEDERAL AGENCIES REGARDING RECORDS ON THE CRASH
We sent letters to several federal agencies asking for any government records they might have concerning the Roswell crash. In this regard, we contacted DoD, the National Security Council, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the CIA, the FBI, and the Department of Energy.
The National Security Council, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and the Department of Energy responded that they had no government records relating to the Roswell crash. (Copies of their responses appear in app. III, IV, and V.) The FBI, DoD, and the CIA provided the following information.
FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION
The FBI informed us that all FBI data regarding the crash near Roswell had been processed under Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests previously received by the Bureau. We reviewed the FBI's FOIA material and identified the July 8, 1947, FBI teletype message discussing the recovery near Roswell of a high-altitude weather balloon with a radar reflector. (A copy of the FBI's response appears in app. VI.)
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
DoD informed us that the U.S. Air Force report of July 1994, entitied "Report
of Air Force Research Regarding the Roswell Incident", represents the
extent of DoD records or information concerning theRoswell crash. The Air Force
report concluded that there was no dispute that something happened near Roswell
in July 1947 and that all available official materials indicated the most
likely source of the wreckage recovered was one of the project MOGUL balloon
trains. At the time of the Roswell crash, project MOGUL was a highly classified
U.S. effort to determine the state of Soviet nuclear weapons research using
balloons that carried radar reflectors and acoustic sensors.
(A copy of DoD's response appears in app. VII.)
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE
AGENCY
In March 1995, the CIA's Executive Director responded to our letter of inquiry by stating that earlier searches by the CIA for records on unidentified flying objects produced no information pertaining to the Roswell crash. The Executive Director added, however, that it was unclear whether the CIA had ever conducted a search for records specifically relating to Roswell. In the absence of such assurance, the Executive Director instructed CIA personnel to conduct a comprehensive records search for information relating to Roswell. On May 30, 1995, the CIA's Executive Director informed us that a search against the term "Roswell, New Mexico," in all CIA databases produced no CIA documents related to the crash. (A copy of CIA's response appears in app. VIII.)
AGENCY COMMENTS
A draft of this report was provided to DoD for comment. DoD offered no comments or suggested changes to the report. The Chief Archivist, National Personnel Records Center offered several comments clarifying matters dealing with records management. These comments have been incorporated into the final report where appropriate.
The CIA, the Department of Energy, the FBI, the National Security Council, and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy also received excerpts from the report discussing the activities of their respective agencies. They had no substantive comments and made no suggested changes to the report.
SCOPE AND METHODOLOGY
To determine the requirements for reporting all accidents in 1947, we interviewed military service records management officials, reviewed military record-keeping regulations in effect during this time period, and examined Army Air Forces and Navy air accident reports.
We also sought to identify any government records related to the Roswell crash. In this regard, we visited and reviewed records at the locations listed in table 1.
Our search of government records was complicated by the fact that some records we wanted to review were missing and there was not always an explanation. Further, the records management regulations for the retention and disposition of records were unclear or changing during the period we reviewed.
We also queried the National Security Council, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Department of Energy, the FBI, DOD, and the CIA to determine what government records they have on the Roswell crash. We did not independently verify the information provided to us in their written responses.
In addition to physically examining government records, we contacted the
following federal activities to determine whether they had any information
about the Roswell crash:
* Air Force Historical Research Agency, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama;
* Air Force Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base,
Ohio;
* Army Center for Military History, Washington, D.C.; and
* 509th Bomb Wing, Office of the Historian, Whiteman Air Force Base,
Missouri.
We conducted our review from March 1994 to June 1995 in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards.
Unless you publicly announce its contents earlier, we plan no further distribution of this report until 30 days after its issue date. At that time, we will make copies avallable to other interested parties upon request.
If you or your staff have any questions about this report, please call me. A major contributor to this report is Gary K. Weeter, Assistant Director.
Sincerely yours,
/s/ Richard Davis
Director, National Security Analysis
Table 1: Locations Visited and Records Reviewed
LOCATIONS VISITED RECORDS REVIEWED
National Archives, * Air Force papers on unidentified flying
objects
Washington, D.C. * Army Counterintelligence Corps historical files,
1947-49
National Archives II, * Project Blue Book Special Report No. 14
College Park, Md. * National Security Council meeting minutes,1947-48
National Archives, * Army Inspector General reports, 1947-59
National Record * Army staff intelligence correspondence, 1947-56
Center, Suitland, Md * Headquarters Army Air Force message traffic,
1947-54
* Army Air Force and Air Materiel Command (Wright Field) research and
development files, 1947-50
National Personnel * Morning reports for RAAF units, July 1947
Records Center, * Eighth Air Force messages, 1947-50
St. Louis, Mc. * Eighth Ar Force correspondence, 1947-51
* Eighth Air Force weekly activity summaries, July 1947
* Service records of key personnel assigned to RAAF, 1947
* Project Sign(a) investigative reports, 1948
* Army Adjutant General correspondence, 1947-49
* Missile test tiring reports at White Sands, N. Mex., 1947-54
Department of the Air * Current and past records management
regulations
Force, Washington, * Report of Air Force Research Regarding the Roswell
Incident, July 1994
D.C.
Department of the Army, * Current and past records management
regulations
Washington,
D.C.
Department of the Navy,* Air accident reports, July 1947
Washington,
D.C.
Air Force Safety Agency, * Air accident reports, July 1947
Kirtland Air Force Base,
N. Mex.
Air Force History Support Office, * 509th Bomb Group and RAAF
monthly histories, July and August 1947
Boiling Air Force Base,
Washington,
D.C.
National Security Agency, * FOIA records, Citizens Against UFO
Secrecy
Fort Meade, Md
Military History Institute, * Army Counterintelligence Corps
reports, 1947
Army War College, Carlisle,
Pa.
Army Central Security Facility, * Army Counterintelligence Corps
reports, 1947
Fort Meade, Md.
Central Intelligence Agency, * "Scientific Advisory Panel
on Unidentified Flying Objects" (Robertson report Langley, Va. Panel)
* FOIA records, Ground Saucer Watch, Inc,
Federal Bureau of Investigation, * FOIA records on
unidentified flying objects
Washington, D.C.
National Atomic Museum, * 509th Bomb Group historical
information, 1947
Kirtland * RAAF base newspaper Atomic Blast,
July and August 1947
Air Force Base, N. Mex.
Note
(a) Project Sign was the predecessor to Project Blue Book.
Abbreviations:
CIA Central Intelligence Agency
DoD Department of Defense
FBI Federal Bureau of Investigation
FOIA Freedom of Information Act
RAAF Roswell Army Air Field
APPENDIX I: Combined History for July 1947
[ Picture / cover page appeared here, text: ]
Combined History
[page from retierved document follows]
RESTRICTED
The other three briefings were those which were given to the VIP and a simulated briefing to a large group of Air Scouts representing all of the troops in New Mexico which was given on 15 July 1947.
Several small projects were completed during the month including signs on all the office doors, a building directory, and a world situation map which is maintained on a day-to-day basis.
The Historical Section of S-2 has been seriously handicapped by the removal of the regular stenographer with the reduction in force.
Due to the fact that the quality of the department reports has in general been so inadequate, lectures are being prepared to be given early in August to properly train the liaison representatives of each department.
The Office of Public Information was kept quite busy during the month answering inquiries on the "flying disc", which was reported to be in the possession of the 509th Bomb Group. The object turned out to be a radar tracking ballooon.
The main project of the month was making all arrangements for a successful Air Force Day. Lt. Golonel Oliver LaFarge, Air Reserve Corps, at Santa Fe, made arrangements for Colonel Blanchard to visit the Governor of New Mexico and ask him to declare Air Force Day in New Mexico on 7 August.
RESTRICTED
39
[end excerpt from Combined History]
APPENDIX II: FBI TELETYPE MESSAGE DATED JULY 8, 1947
[Note %%%% indicates area blacked out by marker; spelling is reproduced as
is in the original.]
TELETYPE
FBI DALLAS 7-8-47 6-17 PM %%%%%%
DIRECTOR AND SAC, CINCINNATI URGENT %%%%%%%
FLYING DISC, INFORMATION CONCERNING %%%%%%% HEADQUARTERS EIGHTH
AIR FORCE, TELEPHONICALLY ADVISED THIS OFFICE THAT AN OBJECT PURPORTING TO BE A
FLYING DISC WAS RE COVERED NEAR ROSWELL, NEW MEXICO, THIS DATE. THE DISC IS
HEXAGONAL IN SHAPE AND WAS SUSPENDED FROM A BALLON BY CABLE, WHICH BALLON WAS
APPROXIMATELY TWENTY FEET IN DIAMETER. %%%%%%% FURTHER ADVISED THAT THE OBJECT
FOUND RESEMBLES A HIGH ALTITUDE WEATHER BALLON WITH A RADAR REFLECTOR, BUT THAT
TELEPHONIC CONVERSATION BETWEEN THEIR OFFICE AND WRICHT FIELD HAD NOT %%%%%%%%%
BORNE OUT THIS BELIEF. DISC AND BALLOON BEING TRANSPORTED TO WRIGHT FIELD BY
SPECIAL PLANE FOR EXAMINAT INFORMATION PROVIDED THIS OFFICE BECAUSE OF NATIONAL
INTEREST IN CASE. XXXX AND FACT THAT NATIONAL BROADCASTING COMPANY, ASSOCIATED
PRESS, AND OTHERS ATTEMPTING TO BREAK STORY OF LOCATION OF DISC TODAY. %%%%
%%%%% ADVISED WOULD REQUEST WRIGHT FIELD TO ADVISE CINCINNATI OFFICE RESULTS OF
EXAMINATION, NO FURTHER INVESTIGATION BEING CONDUCTED.
WYLY
RECORDED
END
CXXXX ACK IN ORDER
UA 92 FBI CI MJW
BPI H8
8-38 PM O
6-22 PM OK FBI WASH DC
OK FBI CI
APPENDIX III: COMMENTS FROM THE NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL
letter follows on "National Security Council" letterhead]
NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL
Washington, D.C. 20506
April 28, 1995
MEMORANDUM FOR MR. JOSEPH E. KELLEY
Director-in-Charge, International
Affairs Issues
General Accounting Office
SUBJECT: Request for NSC Records
I am responding to your April 12, 1995, request for information or NSC records related to the crash of an airborne object near Roswell, New Mexico in July 1947. The NSC has no records or information related to the incident at Roswell.
For information about any government records that may document the crash at RosweIl, we suggest you contact the National Archives, Textual Reference Division, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, Maryland 20740.
/s/ Andrew D. Sens
Executive Secretary
APPENDIX IV:
COMMENTS FROM THE OFFICE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY POLICY, EXECUTIVE OFFICE
OF THE PRESIDENT
[letter follows on "Executive Office of the President,Office of
Science and Technology Policy" letterhead]
April 26, 1995
Dear Mr Hunt.
In response to your recent inquiry of April 12, 1995. The Office of Science and
Techology Policy reviewed its records regarding the Roswell Incident. OSTP has
no direct knowledge of what occurred at Roswell and no records, except for the
information I received
from the Air Foree.
I look forward to receiving the GAO report.
Sincerely,
/s/ John H. Gibbons
Director
Enclosures
As stated
Mr. William Hunt
Director, Federal Management Issues
United States Government Accounting Office
Washington, DC 20548
APPENDIX V: COMMENTS FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
[letter follows on "Department of Energy" letterhead]
June 5. 1995
Richard Davis
Director, National Security Analysis
General Accounting Office
Washington, D.C. 20538
Dear Mr. Davis.
This is in response to your request for records related to the crash of an
airborne object near Roswell, New Mexico, in July 1947. We conducted an in-
depth search for documents related to the crash and have found no such
documents.
If you have any questions regarding this matter. please do not hesitate to contact Barry Uhlig of my staff.
Sincerely,
/s/ Joseph F. Vivona
Chief Financial Officer
APPENDIX VI:COMMENTS FROM THE FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION
[letter follows on "U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation" letterhead]
U.S. Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Investigation Washington, D.C. 20535
April 24, 1995
Mr. Richard Davis
Director
Attn: Gary K. Weeter
National Security Analysis
General Accounting Office
Washington, D.C.
Dear Mr. Davis:
This is in response to a letter dated April 7, 1995, from Norman J. Rabkin, Director, Administration of Justice Issues, General Accounting Office, to John E. Collingwood, Inspector in Charge, of Office of Public and Congressional Affairs, FBI, regarding government records concerning the crash of an airborne object near Roswell, New Mexico, in July 1947 (code 701034)
A search of FBI indices for information relating to the crash of an airborne object near Roewell, New Mexico, in 1947, determined that all FBI data concerning the incident has been processed under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and is available for review in our FOIA Reading Room. A copy of the document forwarded to me by Gary Weeter is among the documents in the Reading Room. If your staff wishes to review the material, please call Margaret Tremblay, a member of my staff, at least 48 hours in advance of the desired appointment.
Sincerely yours,
/s/ Swanson D. Carter
Supervisory Special Agent Office of Public and
Congressional Affairs
APPENDIX VII:COMMENTS FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
[letter follows on "Inspector General, Department of Defense"
letterhead]
INSPECTOR GENERAL
Department of Defense
400 Army Navy Drive Arlington, Virginia 22202-2884
May 4, 1995
Nr. Richard Davis
Director, National Security Analysis
U.S. General Accounting Office
441 G Street N.W.
Room 5025
Washington, D.C. 20548
Dear Mr. Davis:
The Department of the Air Force July 1994 report is the DoD response to
questions posed in your April 12 letter related to GAO Code 701034.
If you have any questions, please contact my action officer, Pattie Cirino. If she is not available, please contact Ms. Merlene L. Scales.
/s/ Rathryn M. Truex
Deputy Assistant Inspector General
for GAO Report Analysis
Enclosure
APPENDIX VIII:COMMENTS FROM THE CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
[letter follows on "Central Intelligence Agency" letterhead]
Washington, D.C. 20585
Mr. Richard Davis
Director, National Security Analysis
US General Accounting Office
Washington, D.C. 20548
Dear Mr. Davis,
In a letter dated 30 March 1995, this Agency advised you that it would conduct a comprehencive record search to aid in the completion of your investigation of the crash of an airborne object near Roswell, New Mexico, in July 1947. In accordance with your request, we have searched all of our data bases against the terms "Project Mogul" and 'Roswell, New Mexico."
The search did not yield any documents related to either of these terms. Therefore, this Agency has no information, beyond those records already reviewed by Mr. Gary Weeter of your staff, relevant to your investigation.
Sincerely,
/s/ Nora Slatkin
Executive Director
E N D G A O R E P O R T
START: EXTRA REPORT / LETTER FROM THE GAO TO CONGRESSMAN SCHIFF
REGARDING RECORDS HAVING TO DO WITH "MAJESTIC 12".
GAO
United States
General Accounting Office
Washington, D.C. 20548
National Security and
International Affairs Division
94-0692
July 28, 1995
The Honorable Steven H. Schiff
House of Representatives
Dear Mr. Schiff:
In response to your request, we asked several agencies for their views on
the authenticity of the publicly circulated written material referred to as
Majestic 12. The origin of this material is unknown, but it is purported to
represent highly classified government records explaining unidentified flying
object recovery procedures and the crash of a disc-shaped aircraft near
Roswell, New Mexico, in July 1947.
Since the late 1980s, several federal agencies have been contacted by nongovernmental persons and asked to comment on the authenticity of the Majestic 12 material. The agencies contacted include
These agencies responded to the inquiries by stating that their knowledge of Majestic 12 was limited to the written material submitted to them by nongovernmental persons. These agencies added that they found no records in their files relating to Majestic 12. Moreover, the agencies' overall conclusion concerning the authenticity of the Majestic 12 written material was the same--there is no evidence that the Majestic 12 written material constitutes actual documents originally created in the executive branch. According to the Information Security Oversight Office and the Air Force, the Majestic 12 material should not be treated as if it had ever been actually classified by an executive branch agency or government official. We found nothing in our work that contradicts the conclusions reached by these agencies.
We also asked the archivists at the Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower libraries for their views on the authenticity of the Majestic 12 material. The archivists said that over the years they have received several inquiries from the public concerning this material. In their search for related records, including classified intelligence and National Security Council documents, they found nothing that appeared to fit the description of the Majestic 12 material or any references to this particular designation.
Lastly, during our review of material received from the public by the Information Security Oversight Office in connection with past Freedom of Information Act requests, we came across a message dated November 17, 1980. The message, which appeared to have been originated by the Operations Division of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI), contained the words "MJ Twelve."
We contacted AFOSI to determine the authenticity of the November 1980 message. In a letter dated February 28, 1995, the Commander, AFOSI, Investigative Operations Center, advised us that a search of AFOSI files failed to disclose any official record copy of the message. The commander also advised us that in connection with an earlier Freedom of Information Act request, AFOSI had been asked to determine the authenticity of the message. At that time, AFOSI concluded that the message was a forgery.
Sincerely yours,
/s/Richard Davis
Director, National Security
Analysis
[END]
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