Following a surge of more than 5,000 drone sighting reports in New Jersey in late 2024, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has released internal briefing materials through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) that outline select incidents under investigation. The documents, obtained by The Black Vault, reflect a federal response involving the FBI, DHS, Coast Guard, and other agencies — but they also point to possible misidentifications of conventional aircraft in some cases initially believed to involve drones. The FOIA case, designated 2025-HQFO-01452, was filed by The Black Vault on December 11, 2024. According to a December 18, 2024,…
Author: John Greenewald
(Click here to jump directly to the search engine) In January 2025, President Donald J. Trump signed Executive Order 14176, titled “Declassification of Records Concerning the Assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.” As part of this initiative, a large collection of records related to the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy has now been released to the public. To make these documents easier to search and access, The Black Vault has created a fully searchable database that allows researchers, journalists, historians, and the general public to explore this…
Nearly five years ago, The Black Vault filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the Department of the Navy seeking answers about a then-newly formed Pentagon effort to study unidentified aerial phenomena. Filed on August 14, 2020, the request (FOIA case DON-NAVY-2021-003140) sought records “pertaining to the creation of this UAP task force,” and specifically requested mission statements, internal emails, memos, and letters tied to its formation. Now, after a lengthy delay, the Navy has released a heavily redacted set of documents that offer a rare look inside the classified origins of the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force…
A newly released set of U.S. Army intelligence records offers a rare glimpse into behind-the-scenes military involvement in the government’s official UAP investigation effort. In response to a December 11, 2024 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request (case number 0034F-25), the Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM) has released documents tied to its contributions to the Department of Defense’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) and its Fiscal Year 2024 Consolidated Annual Report on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP). While heavily redacted, the records hint at drone incursions over restricted military airspace, surveillance activity potentially linked to UAP near sensitive installations, and…
In 1999, the Department of Defense Polygraph Institute (DoDPI) released a bibliography of audiovisual training materials used in their polygraph education and research programs. The document, issued in response to a FOIA request, catalogs hundreds of videotapes covering a wide range of topics related to lie detection, psychology, interrogation techniques, and legal considerations. The archive includes both instructional content and topical case studies, many of which were used as part of DoDPI’s formal curriculum. Among the entries are: “The DeLorean Polygraph” “Satanic Rituals” “Child Sexual Abuse Course: Inmate Panel” “The Massey Triad” “Countermeasures in Polygraph” “Trial of Serial Killer Jeffrey…