News has recently hit the internet that the US Government has released the Project Blue Book files for the world to see, the news even made its way to the mainstream media’s headlines. Truth is that the files have been online for a while the real news was that the files had become available freely in easily searchable .pdf format via the BlackVault.

Released under the freedom of information act the files had been assembled over many years by BlackVault and Fold3. With it being widely reported that the latest set of documents were released thanks to a request from BlackVault’s John Greenewald Jr. The entire archive had actually been collected via many people making many requests over many decades. The files themselves 22 years of UFO sightings and investigations.

This week controversy returned to Project Blue Book with BlackVault being forced to remove the content, Fold3 claiming to hold the digital rights to the files. Fold3’s parent company Ancestry.com are actively enforcing their claims making Fold3’s site (with paywall) the only place to access the collection. See John Greenwalds letter addressing the situation here.

The history of the blue book (1947 – 1969) is just as controversial as recent events. Many say the USAF started the project as a tool to misinform the curious and quell any questions of UFO’s that people had in the 50’s, especially as the number of sightings spiked throughout the 50’s. Answering the obvious cases and burying the remaining under the label unexplained actually seemed to work. Then the sixties saw the Project Blue Book (aka Project UFO) television series hit the small screen. It was an instant hit and was quickly canned after 2 seasons which seemed to only cement UFO’s into popular culture.

After many years of investigation all of the files were summerized by the Condon Report in 1968. The Condon Committee under the direction of Edward Condon examined hundreds of files. The committee’s conclusion was that UFO’s seem to pose no threat to national security, indicate no technological advantage and provide no evidence of extra-terrestrial vehicles. This earned the Condon Report many doubters and generated even more controversy.

Project Grudge, Project Sign and Project Blue Book are all real government programs that were tasked with investigating UFO’s, the only real question is whether they were looking for answers or providing predetermined explanations?

Reference: BlackVault
Reference: Wikipedia – Project Blue Book
Reference: Fold3 – Project Blue Book Files