UFOs and the CIA

About the show

Links between the CIA and the UFO mystery stretch back to 1947. Two veteran CIA officers, both of whom have expressed personal interest in UFO/UAP issues and cases, joined George Knapp to discuss the CIA's role in the study of UFOs, and their own experiences. Jim Semivan appeared in the first half. He spent 25 years with the CIA and then joined up with other former government insiders as part of Tom Delonge's To the Stars Academy. He detailed how he was inducted into the CIA and learned spycraft, which takes years to master. The CIA works on a "need-to-know" principle, so when it came to UFOs, Semivan was not made specifically aware of research on this topic, though CIA analyst Kit Green was known for pursuing the paranormal.

Semivan described his own alien-type encounters that occurred to him and his wife starting in 1990, in which beings showed up in their bedroom. The incident was authentic, and not a hypnagogic or dream state, he stipulated. The couple subsequently observed on-and-off poltergeist activity in their home, and more recently, he said he saw a hooded figure that resembled the Death Eater character from Harry Potter, who perhaps materialized to herald the death of a close friend. Semivan said he concurs with a remark made by Skinwalker Ranch researcher Colm Kelleher that the UFO phenomenon is a lot more than nuts & bolts and machines, as there are also psychic and biological elements that ratchet up the high strangeness. To the Stars' investigation of "metamaterials" with odd isotopic ratios (possibly associated with UFOs), was ongoing, he added.

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John Ramirez, a 25-year CIA veteran who specialized in ballistic missile defense systems, was featured in the latter half. He recalled his long-standing interest in spycraft, and how he shifted from being a Navy officer to the CIA in 1984. He compared intel gathering to being a journalist for a news service, though his sources for reports were typically clandestine. Like Semivan, he, too, experienced what might be considered alien abduction-type experiences, including being placed on an examination table in a circular craft. Interestingly, a number of his counterparts in the CIA and NSA also had UFO experiences, he revealed. In his job related to missile defense, he became aware of times when Russian radar would detect unusual craft, and in one instance, he said they tried to lure a UAP into landing.

Ramirez noted that CIA historian Gerald Haines wrote about the agency's study of UFOs from 1947 through the 1990s, for a division that was initially called the Office of Scientific Intelligence. What was particularly intriguing to Ramirez was that the division had life sciences and medical people on staff, indicating possible interest in alien bodies. He also described how an Air Force pilot on a plane that flew near Kamchatka to monitor Russian tests observed a massive "milky white wall" of light flying toward him at 6,200 mph, though the Air Force assumed it was some kind of countermeasure by the Russians. Regarding the military sightings of 'trans-medium' UAP like the Tic Tacs, Ramirez said he does not believe that Russia or any foreign countries have the capabilities to produce this kind of antigravity technology.