JFK pins medal on outgoing CIA Director Allen Dulles - Photo: JFK LibraryPresident
John F. Kennedy’s desire to cooperate with the Soviet Union in joint space and lunar missions led to him asking the CIA to release classified UFO information to the Soviets. On November 12, 1963, Kennedy issued two Presidential Memoranda and participated in a Hotline discussion with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev to finalize details for future joint space missions. Most importantly, agreement was reached on the need for sharing both countries most sensitive UFO files. Both Kennedy and Khrushchev were concerned that a mistaken identification of UFOs could lead to nuclear war and jeopardize space cooperation. Kennedy’s Memorandum to the Director of the CIA to share UFO files was relayed on to the James Jesus Angleton, the CIA’s chief of counterintelligence, who controlled access to the nation’s most sensitive UFO files. In responding to Kennedy’s request, Angleton followed a secret directive from former CIA Director Allen W. Dulles to ensure that under no circumstances would any U.S. President or his staff gain access to classified UFO files.
Earlier in this series I referred to a Top Secret NSA intercept of a “Hot Line” conversation between President Kennedy and Soviet Premiere Nikita Khrushchev dated November 12, 1963. Kennedy and Khrushchev discussed the importance of their respective UFO working groups dealing with the UFO problem to avoid the risk of future nuclear conflict. Other (leaked) government documents refer to an “MJ-12 Special Studies Project” as the name of the project housing the U.S. UFO working group. For example, on July 14, 1954 a memorandum was sent by President’ Eisenhower’s National Security Advisor Robert Cutler to U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff, General Nathan Twining to schedule a meeting for the MJ-12 Special Studies Project briefing. The Cutler-Twining memo was found at the National Archives in 1985 and is the most authoritative documentary evidence so far that the name of the U.S. UFO working group during the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations was associated with the MJ-12 Special Studies Project. Another leaked document that has been investigated and found to be authentic, more specifically names the U.S. UFO working group as the MJ-12 Special Studies Group or more simply, MJ-12.
A top secret document was allegedly rescued from a fire burning the remainder of James Angleton’s files after his death on May 12, 1987. A former counterintelligence colleague of Angleton, who claimed to be present at the burning, sent it on June 23, 1999 to Timothy Cooper, a UFO researcher best known for his role in making public leaked MJ-12 documents (see cover letter). According to Dr Robert Wood and Ryan Wood, the burned document
is an original carbon with an Eagle watermark characteristic of government work, but so far forensic laboratories have been unable to trace it…. Although no dated is given, its content directly suggests the month of September. The year is estimated to be in the early 1960s and is still under investigation.
The burned document dates from the Kennedy era and has the characteristics of a government document. If its contents are accurate, it provides smoking gun evidence of a direct link between Kennedy’s efforts to gain access to UFO information and his assassination.
The classified Top Secret document with MJ-12 codeword access is a set of directives from the Director of the CIA who simultaneously headed the MJ-12 Special Studies Project, to six other members of the Project. It says:
As you must know Lancer [Kennedy’s Secret Service codename] has made some inquiries regarding our activities which we cannot allow. Please submit your views no later than October. Your action to this matter is critical to the continuance of the group.
The document clearly acknowledges that Kennedy’s efforts to gain access to UFO information soon after coming into office on January 20, 1961, actually imperiled the existence of the MJ-12 Special Studies Project/Group.
While the burned document has no date of issue, the authority of the writer and the political context indicates it was written shortly after Kennedy had issued his June 26, 1961 National Security Action Memorandum to the Director of the CIA who at the time was Allen Dulles. The Memorandum requested a “Review of MJ-12 Intelligence Operations as they related to Cold War Psychological Warfare Plans.” The burned document acknowledged that it had “become necessary to review and evaluate duplication of field activities in light of the current situation.” This appears to be a reference to the June 26 NSAM review Dulles was ordered to undertake.
The burned document appeared to be a draft for a series of MJ-12 directives from Allen Dulles, who knew his time as DCI was limited due to the April 1961 Bay of Pigs fiasco. He needed an answer from the other MJ-12 members by October, a month before he was to retire as DCI on November 29, 1961. The burned document contained a number of directives concerning how to control UFO information and ensure that it would not be shared with the “Chief Executive [President Kennedy), National Security Council Staff, department heads, the Joint Chiefs, and foreign representatives.” Basically, Dulles secret directives proscribed Kennedy’s National Security team from gaining access to the most sensitive UFO files possessed by the CIA and MJ-12. Most important was what appeared to be a cryptic assassination directive in case senior Washington officials did not cooperate with MJ-12. While the response of other MJ-12 members is not known, subsequent events indicate that Dulles secret set of directives was approved.
