Secret CIA UFO 'X-Files' Released: Trove Of Suspicious-Sighting Reports Posted To Agency's Website

The CIA has made available a massive trove of documents and photos related to UFO sightings. In a playful blog post last week titled "Take a Peek Into Our 'X-Files,'" the CIA highlights 10 reports, out of the hundreds they've received, they thought would be of particular interest to readers, as well as characters of Fox's "The X-Files" TV show.

“Below you will find five documents we think 'X-Files' character Agent Fox Mulder would love to use to try and persuade others of the existence of extraterrestrial activity,” the site reads. “We also pulled five documents we think his skeptical partner, Agent Dana Scully, could use to prove there is a scientific explanation for UFO sightings.”

The documents were declassified in 1978 but made easily accessible through the website. Documents from 1952 include reports of flying saucers over East Germany, Spain and North Africa. One report includes sightings of “two fiery disks” flying over a uranium mine in the Congo, and the minutes from a CIA discussion, Fox News reported.

The East Germany report includes detail of “an object ‘resembling a huge frying pan’ and having a diameter of about 15 meters [49 feet].” It reportedly landed in a forest in Germany’s Soviet occupation zone.

UFOs have long been a fascination of conspiracy theorists. Tens of thousands of Americans have reported spotting UFOs over the decades, and last November, mysterious lights rocketed across hundreds of miles of Southern California’s sky, prompting fear and excitement among many witnesses. It turned out to be a military test missile launch.

Most UFO sightings can be explained, but not all of them. The U.S. has compiled some 136,000 pages' worth of declassified UFO records as part of a project to investigate strange phenomena 1947-69. Many of the sightings were attributed to air traffic, military weaponry or Mother Nature. Still, hundreds of the sightings remain a mystery.

According to a document published in 1952, all but 100 of the reports had explanations.