Two separate Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to the Department of the Navy, both filed nearly a year apart and scoped differently, have yielded the same single responsive record: a chain of emails detailing a March 2022 briefing on the Advance Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) and the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group (AOIMSG). The outcome raises questions not only about the scope of the Navy’s search, but also about the content and context of the briefing itself. The names of the individuals who participated in the briefings are fully redacted from the released records. The first…
Author: John Greenewald
Just days after former President Donald Trump publicly stated that he wanted to order the release of UFO and UAP-related files, the U.S. Navy formally denied an appeal seeking the release of 78 photographs designated as “unidentified aerial phenomena” (UAP). The decision, dated February 24, 2026, upholds a prior full denial of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by The Black Vault in September 2022 under case number DON-NAVY-2022-012661. The appeal was assigned tracking number 2026-NavyAppeal-000123. The original request sought “all photographs with the designation of ‘unidentified aerial phenomena or ‘UAP’ as archived by the U.S. Navy.” In…
The Central Intelligence Agency has completed a Freedom of Information Act request filed by The Black Vault in August 2013, releasing records in April 2025 under case F-2013-02345, nearly twelve years after the request was submitted. (The Black Vault has a large backlog of documents that have yet to be put online, hence the delay in getting this document published). The records consist of the CIA’s June 27, 2013, response to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) regarding the Committee’s Study of the Agency’s former Rendition, Detention, and Interrogation (RDI) Program. A previous version of this same document was…
A recent Freedom of Information Act response issued by the Department of War raises significant questions about the government’s obligations under FOIA, after officials declined to conduct even a basic email search tied to allegations surrounding the so-called “Immaculate Constellation” program. The request, filed by The Black Vault and assigned case number 25-F-3827, sought a search of emails sent to or from Maj. Gen. Derek J. O’Malley, Director of Special Programs and Director of the Department of Defense Special Access Program Central Office, for communications containing the phrase “Immaculate Constellation.” The request explicitly asked for both classified and unclassified records.…
Newly released records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act show which journalists were privately invited to an embargoed, invite-only Pentagon media roundtable on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) held on March 6, 2024. This event tied to the Department of Defense’s first volume of the congressionally mandated Historical Record Report on U.S. government UAP programs. The responsive document, released under FOIA case number 24-F-0895, consists of the email invitation sent by Pentagon spokesperson Susan Gough to a limited list of media recipients, outlining the terms, restrictions, and conditions for participation in the briefing with Acting All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO)…