This journey began back on July 3, 2020, when The Black Vault filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) (Case F-2020-00092) request for all records that pertain to Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) from the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). That case would take nearly two years to process, wherein the final decision denied access to only one document that was considered responsive to that request.
Now, after a FOIA appeal was granted by the agency, that decision has been reversed. Only problem is, they still want to withhold nearly 100% of the information they have released, as the document itself shows very little.
It appears to be, based on the layout, a PowerPoint presentation printout. The first page which appears to be a generic NRO title slide, holds the only information that can be useful. (S//NF) begins the header, which denotes that the document/presentation is classified at the SECRET level, while NF, or NORFORN, stipulates the record is not for release to foreign nationals.
The header continues to include UAP, however, the remainder of that line is redacted citing FOIA exemption (b)(1), showing information properly classified, along with (b)(3), showing the information is withheld by statute.
The information that becomes valuable to a point, is the date revealed on the same slide. However, it is unknown if this is the date of the document, or the the date of an event. What also adds to that confusion is the “-” character that precedes it, which may have another date redacted printed just before it. This may indicate a date range, thus showing instead of the date of document, it may show a range of dates that an event, or series of events, occurred.
The two pages/slides that followed the title were entirely redacted, though represent the approximate dimensions of a PowerPoint slide presentation. Whether they are photos or simply text will remain a mystery, at least for now.
The Black Vault has at the writing of this article, five other UAP related requests being processed at the NRO. It is unclear what, if anything, will be released on those cases, but they will be published when available.
It should also be noted that the case referenced above was filed in July of 2020, likely indicating that the search of documents stopped at July of 2020. A new request was filed when this document was released to see what, if anything, was created after that date. The results from that case will also be published on The Black Vault, when available.
The document as released via appeal is available below.
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Document Archive
NRO Releases UAP Report; Shows Immense Secrecy Behind Issue [6 Pages, 1.1MB]
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