NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY
CENTRAL SECURITY SERVICE
Fort George G. Meade, Maryland 20755 – 6000
Serial: Q4-072-87
27 January 1987
The Honorable John Glenn United States Senate ATTN: Mr. Mark Frondorf SH-503
Hart Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510
Dear Senator Glenn:
This responds to your letter of 7 January 1987 on behalf of your constituent,
Mr. Clifford E. Stone ( Enclosure 1 ).
The National Security Agency (NSA) has received numerous Freedom Of
Information Act (FOIA) requests for information pertaining to UFO incidents. Our
records show that Mr. Stone has submitted six such requests over the past 7
years. One of those requests was for the information mentioned in paragraph 2 of
his letter to you, the UFO incident at RAF Woodbridge Base.
In our 1 February 1984 response to Mr. Stone ( Enclosure 2 ), we notified him
that the estimated manpower and computer search costs involved in locating
records responsive to his requests were $250.00. We advised him that, upon
receipt of half that amount, a search would be made. Mr. Stone did not respond
to our letter.
Regarding the information in paragraph 1 of Mr. Stone’s letter, we have no
record of receiving an FOIA requests for documents dealing with a UFO
destruction of a Cuban MiG-23.
Paragraph 3 of his letter ask for NSA analysis of the document he attached.
It appears to be an Air Force document.
The project names which are referenced, Sigma and Snowbird, are not NSA
projects. We have no knowledge of the information contained in the document.
The subject of paragraph 4, project Aquarius, has been the subject of
numerous FOIA requests. Apparently there is or was an Air Force project by that
name which dealt with UFO’s.
Coincidentally, there is also an NSA project by that name. The NSA project
does not deal with UFO’s. We believe that the confusion on this issue results
from an FOIA requests submitted by another person with interest in UFOs, Mr.
Christian Lambright.
Mr. Lambright requested all information on the NSA project Aquarius,
apparently believing that the project pertain to UFOs.
We advised Mr. Lambright that our project does not deal with UFOs.
He then requested records revealing the “goal” of Aquarius, and we
withheld the document because it is classified. We have reason to believe that
our final response to Mr. Lambright, denying him access to the records, has been
disseminated within a circle of those interested in UFOs and that subsequently a
misunderstanding has developed regarding NSA, Aquarius and UFOs.
In responding to general FOIA requests for UFO information, certain documents
have been withheld from the public pursuant to the first and third exemptions of
the FOIA. The first exemption provides for the protection of information which
is currently and properly classified in accordance with the provisions of
Executive Order 12356. The third exemption protects information from disclosure
by statute. The statutes applicable in this case are 50 U.S.C. 402 note ( Public
Law 86-36, Section 6 ), 50 U.S.C. 403(d) (3) and 18 U.S.C. 798. This Agency’s
decision to protect those records has been upheld by the United States Court of
Appeals for the District of Columbia.
We hope that the information being provided to you will be of help to Mr.
Stone.
Sincerely,
Julia B. Wetzel
Director Of Policy