60. The Truth About UFOs: The CIA's Alien Obsession (Ep 3)

The Rest Is Classified

Goalhanger

History

4.6 • 732 Ratings

🗓️ 29 June 2025

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 1955, a United States Senator claimed he saw a "greenish-yellow ball rising rapidly" over the Soviet Union. Was it a Soviet secret weapon, an extraterrestrial visitation, or something else entirely? And why was the CIA so intent on keeping its UFO investigations under wraps? From the early days of the Cold War, the CIA found itself drawn into the burgeoning world of UFO sightings, not because of aliens, but due to a deeper fear: what if these unidentified objects were Soviet aircraft or a psychological warfare tool designed to disrupt US air defences and undermine society? This chilling possibility led the agency down a path of secret monitoring and debunking, a path that inadvertently fuelled the very conspiracy theories it sought to suppress. Join Gordon and David as they uncover the CIA's surprising role in the UFO phenomenon, from their secret U2 spy plane tests to the farcical attempts to silence witnesses, and explore how their efforts to protect classified programs only solidified public belief in a grand cover-up. ------------------- To sign up to The Declassified Club, go to www.therestisclassified.com or click this ⁠⁠⁠link⁠⁠⁠. To sign up to the free newsletter, go to: ⁠https://mailchi.mp/goalhanger.com/tric-free-newsletter-sign-up⁠ ------------------- Get our exclusive NordVPN deal here ➼ nordvpn.com/restisclassified It's risk-free with Nord's 30 day money back guarantee ------------------- Order a signed edition of Gordon's latest book, The Spy in the Archive, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠via this link.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Order a signed edition of David's latest book, The Seventh Floor, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠via this link.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ------------------- Email: [email protected] Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@triclassified⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Assistant Producer: Becki Hills Producer: Callum Hill Senior Producer: Dom Johnson Exec Producer: Tony Pastor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	For exclusive interviews, bonus episodes, ad-free listening, early access to series,
0:09.0	first look at live show tickets, a weekly newsletter, and discounted books,
0:13.1	join the Declassified Club with the lights turned out.
0:31.7	He suddenly noticed a greenish yellow ball rising rapidly.
0:36.4	He rushed into the next compartment stating that he had seen what he thought was a flying saucer.
0:41.8	The rest of the party turned out the lights and looked out the window, but saw nothing and was
0:46.2	initially skeptical.
0:47.9	However, suddenly a second ball was noticed rising rapidly and then the other members of the
0:52.3	party were convinced.
0:53.8	The second object was initially
0:55.0	seen at a minimum altitude of 700 to 800 feet, while the first object was initially viewed
1:00.3	at an even higher altitude. The object gave the impression of whirling and appeared to follow
1:05.7	a single trajectory with no break in its flight pattern. About five to ten minutes after the sightings and after the subject had returned to his own compartment,
1:14.0	the guard came in and pulled down the shades.
1:18.3	Welcome to the rest is classified.
1:20.5	I'm David McCloskey.
1:21.6	And I'm Gordon Carrara.
1:22.5	And that, dear listeners, was the record of a 195 CIA interview of Senator Richard Russell, United States
1:31.8	Senator, talking to Herbert Scoble Jr., who then was the assistant director of scientific
1:36.7	intelligence at the CIA.
1:38.8	It was an interview that was only fully declassified in 2022, thanks to the efforts of a website called The Black Vault.
1:47.1	And we are on part three, Gordon, of 17 of our exploration of the wonderful world of UFOs and
	...

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