In September 2024, a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request was filed with NASA seeking records of congressional briefings on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The request asked for both classified and unclassified materials created between 2021 and 2024, including any briefings on discoveries made by the telescope. The request filed by The Black Vault was prompted by a wave of speculation online that suggested NASA had secretly briefed lawmakers on groundbreaking discoveries made by JWST. In mid-September 2024, a YouTube video and subsequent social media posts claimed the telescope had detected a mysterious object moving toward Earth, sparking…
Author: John Greenewald
A new release of Department of Defense (DoD) emails obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) sheds light on internal debates about the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), its scope, and how its work is presented to the public. The documents, released under case number 24-F-0894, were obtained by The Black Vault following a request for correspondence involving Pentagon spokesperson Susan Gough containing the terms “AARO” or “Phillips” between February 1 and March 7, 2024. The request yielded 14 pages of emails, many redacted, that offer a rare glimpse into how the Pentagon handled the rollout of AARO’s congressionally…
Newly released Department of Defense records reveal the prolonged and often frustrating prepublication review process for the 2021 book Skinwalkers at the Pentagon: An Insider’s Account of the Secret Government UFO Program by James Lacatski, Colm Kelleher, and George Knapp. The documents, obtained by The Black Vault under FOIA case 22-F-0035, detail how the Defense Office of Prepublication and Security Review (DOPSR) took more than a year to complete its review, despite what appears to be no substantive objections from the reviewing agencies. The records show the manuscript, originally submitted in March 2020, was routed to multiple agencies including the…
Newly released Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) documents obtained by The Black Vault under FOIA case 2025-04622 add significant new information to the still-developing story about a series of unauthorized drone incursions at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB) in December 2024. These records, drawn primarily from the FAA’s SKYWATCH system, supplement the earlier Air Force FOIA release (2025-01757-F) previously covered by The Black Vault, and they introduce a striking new element: the report of a “black cube”-shaped “UAS” observed at around 16,000 feet. SKYWATCH is an FAA operations security platform used to collect and disseminate reports of suspicious or unauthorized aerial…
Background The Central Intelligence Agency was created in 1947 with the signing of the National Security Act by President Harry S. Truman. The act also created a Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) to serve as head of the United States intelligence community; act as the principal adviser to the President for intelligence matters related to the national security; and serve as head of the Central Intelligence Agency. The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 amended the National Security Act to provide for a Director of National Intelligence who would assume some of the roles formerly fulfilled by the…