CIA tried – A fresh batch of declassified UAP records released by the Pentagon includes a 1958 exchange in which CIA officials told a UFO researcher they could not answer him—citing destroyed records—while also trying to conceal their CIA role. The latest disclosure arriv
When the newest Pentagon UAP files went live, fans of government UFO records rushed to refresh their screens. But buried inside the materials was a different kind of spotlight: a 1950s attempt to keep the CIA at a distance from a scientist asking pointed questions.
On Tuesday, September 9, during a House Oversight Committee hearing on transparency for unidentified anomalous phenomena, military veteran Jeffrey Nuccetelli, U.S. Air Force, described their encounters with what are commonly called UFOs.
The timing of the hearing sits alongside a broader wave of disclosures. On June 12—alongside the release of Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi thriller “Disclosure Day. ” a story about how humans might react if we weren’t alone—the Trump administration released a third tranche of previously top-secret UFO files from military and civilian intelligence agencies. The new batch includes documents. photos. drawings and videos. adding to a growing official archive of unexplained sightings known as UAPs. or Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena.
So far, the latest uploads have not produced a dramatic, verifiable “alien visitors” breakthrough. A review of the documents found no bombshells. and early social media postings suggested the same level of restraint among observers and UFO analysts. Still, the files document sightings and observations investigators were unable to explain, leaving the underlying reality of the phenomena unresolved.
The administration released the declassified materials to the public via the Department of Defense’s website on Friday morning, and one exchange inside the records stands out for how carefully the CIA handled its own involvement.
In one case, CIA officials hid their spy-agency affiliation from scientist Dr. Leon Davidson, who was seeking answers about an alleged “space message and its transmitter.” On Jan. 9, 1958, R.P.B. Lohmann wrote a “confidential” letter to the CIA’s “Chief, Contact Division” and others. Lohmann told Davidson: “We have contacted Dr. Davidson by telephone advising him that we cannot resolve his problem concerning the space message and its transmitter because records on the matter have been destroyed by the evaluating agency.”.
Davidson was a chemical engineer who worked on the Manhattan Project and at Los Alamos. Archival materials at Columbia University describe him as someone who “studied and collected material on UFOs” from 1949 into the 1960s. Columbia University Libraries says it holds the “Leon Davidson Flying Saucer Collection” as part of its Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
In the record, Davidson accepted the CIA’s statement while commenting that he had been told it before. He was also working to get a pending article—about “Air Force handling of space sightings”—approved through a Pentagon security review team.
Lohmann’s letter describes the calculation behind the answer the CIA gave him. He wrote that there were “many cooks in the kitchen. ” and that the “extraordinarily noncommittal and evasive answer” they were instructed to give Davidson was perhaps the only option available to avoid contradicting earlier statements by “previous statements of our own. and other involved agencies.”.
Even then, Lohmann said the response was not fair to Davidson and “one not likely to be fully accepted by him.”
The letter also adds another layer: Lohmann wrote that two agency officials dealing with Davidson tried to “conceal their CIA identity from him. ” but they were “reasonably sure that … he knew very well with whom he was dealing.” Lohmann signed off saying. “We are sure more will be heard from Davidson.”.
As these records draw attention, Pentagon officials are also framing the uploads as part of a wider effort. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell posted on X that the files were released under President Donald Trump’s Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (PURSUE).
Parnell said there had been “unprecedented levels of interest in both this topic” and that the files—now housed at WAR.GOV/UFO—are meant so the public and “the legions of UFO researchers” can study them. The site has recorded more than 1.7 billion hits worldwide since its launch on May 8, 2026.
Parnell also said the Pentagon and its partner agencies are already working on the next release of UAP files. Those agencies, he said, include the White House, various U.S. intelligence agencies, the FBI, the Department of Energy and NASA.
Questions linger the way they always do with UAP releases: the documents are now available for perusal. but they don’t provide immediate. concrete proof of alien visitors to Earth. What they do show—at least in the Davidson exchange—is that even decades ago. when a researcher asked for clarity on a “space message and its transmitter. ” CIA officials were willing to offer evasive answers while trying to keep their identity out of view.
UAP files Pentagon CIA Leon Davidson WAR.GOV/UFO PURSUE House Oversight Committee Jeffrey Nuccetelli declassified documents UFOs