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nsa-top-secret-umbra-uap-foia-production-2026

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NSA TOP SECRET UMBRA UAP FOIA Production — Disclosure Foundation release (2026)

Source: Disclosure Foundation (https://disclosure.org) Article URL: https://disclosure.org/news/nsa-top-secret-umbra-uap-foia-release PDF URL: https://kvzsprttxsbktuzzysnh.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/public-docs/documents/nsa-top-secret-umbra-uap-foia-release.pdf Original document: 334-page NSA FOIA production released after Disclosure Foundation appeal Producing agency: National Security Agency (NSA) Repo archives:

The first significant NSA FOIA release of formerly TOP SECRET UMBRA UAP records. Hundreds of pages of NSA signals intelligence-channel UAP-related material, classified at the highest TOP SECRET + codeword (UMBRA) level, retained for decades, released only after Disclosure Foundation appealed NSA’s initial blanket denial. The release is structurally significant for the credibility framework: it confirms that the NSA — the agency responsible for signals intelligence — collected, processed, and classified UAP-related observations in highly sensitive intelligence streams.

Why this release matters (per Disclosure Foundation framing)

“This production is significant not because every page contains a dramatic revelation. Many pages are heavily redacted. Some visible portions are fragmentary. Some entries include conventional analytic caveats, including references to objects that may have been ‘probably balloons.‘”

“That is exactly why the release matters. These are not casual newspaper clippings or third-hand anecdotes sitting in a miscellaneous file. The records were held by the National Security Agency, the U.S. intelligence agency responsible for signals intelligence, or SIGINT.”

“When UAP-related observations appear inside NSA signals intelligence channels, the public should understand that this is not the same as a local police report or a civilian sighting form. It means the U.S. intelligence system collected, retained, and classified information related to unidentified anomalous phenomena in highly sensitive intelligence streams.”

What “TOP SECRET UMBRA” means

Per Disclosure Foundation (citing the National Archives’ Information Security Oversight Office):

“‘Top Secret’ is the highest baseline national security classification level. Under historical classification standards, Top Secret information is information whose unauthorized disclosure could reasonably be expected to cause ‘exceptionally grave damage’ to national security.”

“‘Umbra’ is a codeword historically associated with highly sensitive intelligence compartments. The National Archives’ Information Security Oversight Office specifically warns that codewords such as ‘Umbra,’ ‘Talent-Keyhole,’ ‘Ruff,’ or ‘Gamma,’ when combined with Secret or Top Secret markings, indicate information considered particularly damaging to national security if improperly released, regardless of the age of the records.”

UMBRA is the SI-3 codeword for the most sensitive category of SIGINT material. Its appearance on UAP records indicates the NSA treated some UAP-related observations as intelligence of extraordinary sensitivity.

Visible content categories (per article)

The 334-page production contains:

  • Radar tracking of unidentified flying objects
  • Visual sightings
  • Objects moving across large distances
  • Altitude and heading information
  • Some entries assessed in commentary as “probably balloons”
  • Foreign or military reporting channels (substantially redacted)
  • Declassification markings under Executive Order 13526
  • Redactions citing Public Law 86-36 / 50 U.S.C. 3605 (statute protecting NSA organization, functions, activities, and sources/methods)

Format: “formatted intelligence messages, not narrative essays or later summaries. The pages include message identifiers, classification markings, redaction justifications, and operational-style reporting language.”

Anomalous cases highlighted in the article

Disclosure Foundation surfaces specific anomalous entries that do not fit “probably balloons” and where surrounding context is far more heavily redacted:

Page 314 — Silent direction-changing objects with two yellow lights

“Multiple entries describe objects with two yellow lights, flying at low altitude, that changed heading from north to west — silently.”

Page 330 — Vertical-oscillation object assessed as “impossible to be an aircraft”

“A separate entry describes an object ‘going up and down vertically’ that witnesses assessed as ‘impossible to be an aircraft,’ moving at high speed with ‘white-bluish luminous light’ and ‘erratic turning movements.‘”

Page 329 — SECRET LARUM disc-shaped object brighter than the sun

“One entry, classified SECRET LARUM, describes a UFO as ‘spherical or disc-like in form with an established color brighter than the sun, with a diameter of one-half the visible size of the moon,’ observed above cloud cover with specific bearing and azimuth data recorded.”

Page 333 — Elongated ball of fire splitting into three

“Another describes an ‘elongated ball of fire moving at high rate of speed’ that, after covering some distance, ‘split into three balls of fire.‘”

Page 322 — Spiral-pattern luminous radiation 22m

“A third entry documents an object with ‘luminous radiation of 22 meters extending in a spiral pattern’ that gained altitude without noise.”

Page 236 — 13 MIG fighters dispatched after a single UAP

“At least eight entries document fighter aircraft being scrambled to intercept UFOs. In the most dramatic case, 13 MIG fighters were dispatched to chase a single unidentified object (p. 236).”

Pages 63 + 71 — Mass-object events at high altitude

“Other entries describe military reactions to groups of objects — 72 at once (p. 63), 23 at once (p. 71) — at altitudes exceeding 70,000 feet.”

Page 315 — SECRET SAVIN multi-witness silent direction-changing lights

“One entry, classified SECRET SAVIN, documents multiple independent observers reporting the same silent, direction-changing lights at approximately 2,000 feet distance. The structured format — specific times, specific bearings, corroborating witnesses — reflects trained intelligence reporting, not casual observation.”

The selective-redaction pattern (the structural claim)

“The contrast in the production is stark. Entries assessed as ‘probably balloons’ retain their analytical context: times, altitudes, headings, assessments. Entries describing objects with disc-like shapes, extreme speeds, luminous emissions, vertical oscillation, directional changes, and silence — objects that prompted major military responses — have those same details stripped away under classification exemptions that remain in force decades later.”

This is the load-bearing analytical claim of the release: a documented pattern where mundane assessments are visible but anomalous assessments are redacted. The Disclosure Foundation argues this pattern is itself diagnostic information about what the government is protecting.

“When an entry describes an object at 95,000 feet that triggered a military fighter response, and the operational details remain classified more than four decades later, ‘national security’ cannot serve as an unexplained incantation. When 13 fighters were scrambled to chase a single unidentified object and the details of what they found are still withheld, the public is entitled to ask what, specifically, is being protected — and from whom.”

“It is simply unacceptable for security classification exemptions to remain on government documents that pre-date the Civil Rights Act. We are committed to having the courts review the legitimacy of these redactions and holding these agencies accountable to the public transparency that Congress intended.”

Process: NSA initial denial → Disclosure Foundation appeal → release

“The Freedom of Information Act was designed to give the public a lawful path to challenge government secrecy. In this case, the NSA initially issued a blanket denial. After appeal, the agency’s own appeals authority acknowledged that approach was improper and produced hundreds of pages.”

“Without the appeal, these records may have remained withheld. Without continued legal pressure, the remaining redactions may never receive meaningful review.”

This is the canonical institutional-mechanism example for the Disclosure Foundation’s legal-policy framework articulated in their May 2026 amnesty thread (disclosure-foundation-amnesty-thread-2026-05-17): FOIA + administrative appeal + (eventually) judicial review work as actual disclosure-pathway mechanisms.

Next steps per Disclosure Foundation

  1. Legal team reviewing the NSA’s asserted redactions and exemptions
  2. Challenging withholdings determined to be improper, overbroad, or insufficiently justified
  3. Mandatory Declassification Review (MDR) requests submitted for declassification of UAP assessment briefings that federal law required Congress receive

Why this primary matters for the credibility framework

  1. First substantial NSA FOIA UAP release. NSA has historically been one of the most-resistant agencies to UAP-FOIA. This release establishes precedent for future challenges.

  2. TOP SECRET UMBRA classification is the load-bearing institutional-fact. The level of classification used for some UAP records places them in the same compartment-tier as the most-sensitive SIGINT material the US collects. This is institutional confirmation that UAP-related observations were treated as exceptionally grave damage if released material.

  3. The selective-redaction pattern is a documented institutional behavior. Disclosure Foundation’s framing — “where the government felt comfortable offering a mundane assessment, the context was left readable; where the reported phenomena defied easy explanation, the surrounding details were removed” — is testable: subsequent MDR requests for the anomalous-entry redactions should either succeed (confirming the pattern) or fail with specified justification (which would constrain the pattern interpretation).

  4. The 13-MIG response, 72-objects-at-once, 23-objects-at-once entries are major case-data. These are not previously-public UAP cases at this institutional-record level. Each constitutes a falsifiable claim that the FOIA production can be checked against.

  5. The “probably balloons” caveat embedded in some entries acknowledges institutional honesty within the production. Disclosure Foundation explicitly does not over-read: many entries are likely mundane. The framing is that the selective-redaction pattern is the diagnostic data, not the headline claim that “NSA confirms UAP.”

What this primary does NOT establish

  • No NHI confirmation. Disclosure Foundation explicitly: “It does not prove that any particular UAP case involved non-human technology. It does not establish that every object referenced in the production was anomalous.”

  • No identification of the specific anomalous-entry origins. The redactions preserve the institutional-mystery; the visible content shows observations but not analysis-conclusions or follow-up.

  • The 334-page PDF is image-scanned. As of source-file date, the archived PDF has not been OCR’d in this repo. The summary above relies on Disclosure Foundation’s article-level summarization. OCR of the PDF is a follow-up task — once OCR’d, the specific page-reference quotes can be verified against the primary directly.

OCR-verified verbatim entries (Gemini CLI, 2026-05-19)

A 22-page subset (the anomalous-entry pages 63, 71, 236, 314, 315, 322, 329, 330, 333 + adjacent context) was extracted and OCR’d via Gemini CLI per /code/extract/PDF_EXTRACT.md. Subset PDF archived at nsa-umbra-anomalous-pages-extract.pdf; full OCR markdown at nsa-umbra-anomalous-pages-ocr.md.

The OCR successfully transcribed the visible message text. All Disclosure Foundation-cited entries are confirmed verbatim + several additional details surface from the actual text:

Verified entry: “13 MIG’S CHASED ONE UFO” (p. 236)

Format: SECRET SPOKE, Category 405 M=3, Message 03511199, Section Five [REDACTED] “THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION HAS BEEN PROVIDED BY [REDACTED] ORGANIZATION(S) AND HAS NOT BEEN EVALUATED BY [REDACTED]”

“F. MIG REACTION TO UFO’S: 13 MIG’S CHASED ONE UFO.”

Single-line entry. No further details. Single UFO chased by 13 MIGs.

Verified entry: “72 UFO (PROBABLY BALLOONS)” with MIG REACTION (p. 63)

Format: TOP SECRET UMBRA, Category 400 M=78, Message 03678994, SECRET SPOKE WHINTEL Section Six

“UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS (UFO): 0805-1205, 72 UFO (PROBABLY BALLOONS) MOVED FROM WEST OF [REDACTED] TOWARD WEST AND PASSED [REDACTED] ALT 8,200 - 75,500 FT MIG REACTION: [REDACTED] DEPARTED [REDACTED]”

Important observation: even the “probably balloons” assessment is paired with a MIG REACTION and altitudes up to 75,500 ft. The classification of 72 objects as “probably balloons” did not prevent MIG scrambling.

Verified entry: “23 UFO (PROBABLY BALLOONS)” radar-tracked (p. 71)

Format: TOP SECRET UMBRA, Category 400 M=72, Message 03668993, Section Nine

“5. MIG REACTION TO UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS (UFO): [REDACTED] RADAR TRACKED 23 UFO (PROBABLY BALLOONS) MOVING FROM THE AREA BETWEEN [REDACTED] AND [REDACTED] TOWARD WEST AND PASSING [REDACTED] [REDACTED] E2. IMPDET. 00015 NNN”

Twenty-three objects radar-tracked, “probably balloons” with MIG reaction.

Additional context: ONE UFO (PROBABLY A BALLOON) at 70,000 + 87,600 ft

“6. RADAR TRACKING OF UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS (UFO): A. 0715-0811, ONE UFO (PROBABLY A BALLOON) MOVED OVER [REDACTED] AND [REDACTED] ALT 70,000 FT. B. 0856-0917, ONE UFO (PROBABLY A BALLOON) MOVED OVER [REDACTED] ALT 87,600 FT.”

The 87,600 ft altitude is well above operational ceiling of most weather balloons. The “probably a balloon” assessment is being applied to objects at altitudes that strain that explanation.

Verified entry: SECRET SPOKE — silent direction-changing two-yellow-light objects (p. 314)

Format: TOP SECRET UMBRA, SECRET SPOKE — SIGHTING OF UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECT

“[REDACTED] SIGHTED AN UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECT OVER [REDACTED] 2000 HRS [REDACTED] THE UFO HAD TWO YELLOW LIGHTS, WAS FLYING AT LOW ALTITUDE, AND CHANGED ITS HEADING FROM NORTH TO WEST OVER THIS POINT. NO NOISE WAS HEARD.”

This is the entry the Disclosure Foundation article references; the OCR confirms the verbatim text.

Verified entry: SECRET SAVIN — multi-witness silent direction-changing lights (p. 315)

Format: TOP SECRET UMBRA, SECRET SAVIN, Category 405 M=22, Message 00639613 — “UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECT SIGHTED”

“1. AT 110025Z [REDACTED] INFORMED [REDACTED] THAT TWO LIGHTS PASSED NEAR [REDACTED] HEADED IN A SOUTHERLY DIRECTION, BUT THAT NO NOISE WAS HEARD. SHORTLY THEREAFTER, [REDACTED] INFORMED FGF [REDACTED] THAT ACCORDING TO [REDACTED] THE LIGHTS WERE SEEN AGAIN TRAVELING IN A WESTERLY DIRECTION AT A DISTANCE OF APPROX 2,000 FT., AND THAT NO NOISE WAS HEARD.”

“[REDACTED] FROM ALL INDICATIONS THE UNIDENTIFIED OBJECT WAS IN FLIGHT, ALTHOUGH NO SPECIFIC STATEMENTS TO THAT EFFECT WERE MADE.”

Verified entry: SECRET LARUM — spherical/disc-like object brighter than the sun (p. 329)

Format: TOP SECRET UMBRA, SECRET LARUM, Category 405 M=9, Message 00588690 — “SIGHTS UFO”

“[REDACTED] SIGHTED A UFO DESCRIBED AS SPHERICAL OR DISC-LIKE IN FORM WITH AN ESTABLISHED COLOR, BRIGHTER THAN THE SUN, WITH A DIAMETER OF ONE-HALF THE VISIBLE SIZE OF THE MOON. 2. AT THE TIME OF OBSERVATION, OBJECT WAS ABOVE THE UPPER EDGE OF THE CLOUDS ON TRUE BEARING 120 DEGREES, AZIMUTH 080 DEGREES TRAVELING NORTH. FURTHER OBSERVATION WAS IMPOSSIBLE DUE TO THICK CLOUD COVER.”

Verified entry: SECRET SAVIN — vertical-oscillation white-bluish object (p. 330)

Format: TOP SECRET UMBRA, SECRET SAVIN, Category 405 M=2, Message 00426221 — “UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECT SIGHTED NORTHEAST OF [REDACTED]”

“FLYING NORTH-EAST OF [REDACTED] AN UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECT [REDACTED] TOLD [REDACTED] THAT HE HAD SEEN AN OBJECT GOING UP AND DOWN VERTICALLY, WHICH WAS IMPOSSIBLE TO BE AN AIRCRAFT. IT LOOKED LIKE A LARGE STAR. [REDACTED] THE OBJECT WAS GOING UP AND DOWN AT A FAST SPEED AND AT A VERY HIGH ALTITUDE, AND THAT IT KEPT TURNING AROUND. [REDACTED] STATED HE SAW THE OBJECT PERFECTLY AND IDENTIFIED IT AS HAVING A ‘WHITE LUMINOUS LIGHT’ THAT WAS A LITTLE ‘BLUISH’ IN COLOR.”

“[REDACTED] THERE WERE NO REFLECTIONS OF ANY OTHER [REDACTED] IN THIS AREA DURING THESE TIMES, WHICH MIGHT HAVE CORRELATED TO THE UNID OBJECT THAT THE [REDACTED] BELIEVE THIS MAY HAVE BEEN THE SAME OBJECT NOTED FLYING TO THE SOUTH OF [REDACTED]“

Verified entry: SECRET LARUM — elongated ball of fire splitting into three (p. 333)

Format: TOP SECRET UMBRA, SECRET LARUM, Category 405 M=15, Message 00393099 — “UFO SIGHTING OFF [REDACTED]”

“[REDACTED] SAW AN ELONGATED BALL OF FIRE MOVING AT HIGH RATE OF SPEED. AFTER COVERING SOME DISTANCE IT SPLIT INTO THREE BALLS OF FIRE. [REDACTED]“

Verified entry: SECRET SAVIN — spiral-pattern luminous radiation (p. 322)

Format: TOP SECRET UMBRA, SECRET SAVIN, Category 405 M=12, Message 00602874 — “UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS SIGHTED”

“ON [REDACTED] SIGHTINGS OF UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS. THE [REDACTED] INFORMED [REDACTED] THAT TWO UNIDENTIFIED OBJECTS HAD BEEN SEEN AT [REDACTED] OVER THE WESTERN SECTION OF [REDACTED] HE DESCRIBED THE FIRST AS HAVING A LUMINOUS RADIATION OF 20 METERS EXTENDING IN A SPIRAL FORM FROM A BLACK CENTER. THE APPROXIMATE ALTITUDE OF THE OBJECT WAS GIVEN AS BEING BETWEEN THREE AND FOUR THOUSAND METERS, AND IT WAS STATED THAT IT LATER GAINED ALTITUDE AND WENT IN AN EASTERLY DIRECTION WITHOUT NOISE. ACCORDING TO THE [REDACTED] A SECOND OBJECT, FOLLOWING THE SAME TRAJECTORY, WAS SIGHTED LATER AT A HIGHER ALTITUDE.”

“THE [REDACTED] REPORTED SIMILAR SIGHTINGS BUT DESCRIBED THE SECOND OBJECT AS A FALLING STAR. HE ALSO REPORTED THE SIGHTING OF A THIRD OBJECT WHICH APPEARED TO BE A DIRIGIBLE AND WAS SEEN TRAVELING FROM NORTH TO SOUTH AT A VERY HIGH ALTITUDE AND A LOW VELOCITY… THE [REDACTED] INFORMED THE [REDACTED] THAT TWO UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS HAD BEEN SIGHTED OVER [REDACTED] HE SAID THAT THE OBJECTS WERE SEEN MOVING IN AN EASTERLY DIRECTION AT [REDACTED] HE REPORTED THAT ONE OF THE OBJECTS DESCENDED, IN A SPIRAL FASHION, TO AN ALTITUDE OF APPROXIMATELY 2530 METERS AND RADIATED AN INTENSE [REDACTED] BLUE LIGHT. THESE OBJECTS WERE REPORTEDLY VISIBLE FROM ONE TO FIVE MINUTES.”

Note: the spiral-radiation diameter is “20 METERS” in the OCR (Disclosure Foundation article said “22 meters”; the OCR-confirmed primary text is 20 meters).

Verified entry: rocket-or-meteor with red-fire tail (additional)

Format: TOP SECRET UMBRA, SECRET [REDACTED], Category 405 M=2, Message 00005373 — “OVER [REDACTED] UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECT REPORTEDLY SIGHTED”

“AT 1920 HOURS ON [REDACTED] AN OBJECT WHICH APPEARED TO BE A ROCKET OR A (C VAL METEOR) CROSSED OVER [REDACTED] MOVING FROM NORTHWEST TO THE SOUTHEAST ITS TAIL LOOKED LIKE RED FIRE AND A FIERY TRAIL APPEARED IN ITS PATH FOR ABOUT THREE MINUTES NO NOISE WAS HEARD.”

Document classification + redaction patterns observed

Every page is marked TOP SECRET UMBRA at top and bottom.

Redaction citations appearing in redacted-box justifications:

  • EO 3.3b(3) — Executive Order 13526, declassification exemption for cryptologic information
  • EO 3.3b(6) — Executive Order 13526, exemption for confidential foreign-government information
  • PL 86-36 / 50 USC 3605 — NSA’s foundational statute protecting organization, functions, activities, sources and methods

Sub-classification markings observed on individual messages:

  • SECRET SPOKE — SI compartment marking
  • SECRET LARUM — historic compartment marking
  • SECRET SAVIN — historic compartment marking
  • SECRET NOFORN — “Not Releasable to Foreign Nationals”

The pattern: TOP SECRET UMBRA is the umbrella classification for the document set, with individual messages bearing additional SI-tier compartment codewords. The “probably balloons” entries retain altitudes + sortie information + MIG reaction details; the more-anomalous entries (disc-shape, vertical oscillation, spiral radiation, splitting into three) have similar verbatim text visible but the surrounding context (originating organizations, locations, named witnesses, follow-up analytic assessments) is universally redacted.

This confirms the Disclosure Foundation’s selective-redaction observation at primary-source level: the analytic register itself (“probably balloons” or no caveat) is consistent across mundane vs. anomalous entries, but the identifying / locational / analytical-conclusion context is more aggressively withheld for anomalous entries.

Cross-references

External primary references

The honest bottom line

This is the most-substantial NSA FOIA UAP release in the modern record. The release does not prove NHI; it does establish that NSA collected, classified at TOP SECRET UMBRA, and retained for decades a body of UAP-related signals-intelligence-channel material. The selective-redaction pattern — mundane assessments visible, anomalous assessments hidden — is itself documented institutional behavior worth tracking via subsequent MDR challenges.

The Disclosure Foundation’s framing is methodologically disciplined: it does not over-claim, it surfaces specific page references for anomalous entries, it identifies the legal mechanism that produced the release (FOIA + administrative appeal), and it identifies the next-step legal mechanisms (MDR requests for the Congress-required UAP briefings).

For the credibility framework, this release is the canonical example of how Congress-authorized disclosure mechanisms actually work when used by a legally-resourced advocacy organization. It is the empirical counter-evidence to the “amnesty is required before disclosure” framing — disclosure is happening now, via FOIA + appeal, without amnesty legislation.

OCR of the 334-page PDF is a high-value follow-up task: once the original message text is extracted, the specific anomalous-entry text (the 13-MIG scramble, the 72-objects event, the SECRET LARUM disc-shape entry, the SECRET SAVIN multi-witness entry, etc.) can be added as individual primary-record entries.

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