The CIA Just Published Its Own 'X-Files' Reminding Us That They Did It First

Nineties hit show The X-Files is back, and the CIA wants in on the hype.

In a release issued last week, the bureau published 10 files that, according to their own description, would make compelling grist for the Fox television show. According to the release, the files were chosen specifically to appeal to the character traits of show protagonists agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully.

"To help navigate the vast amount of data contained in our FOIA UFO collection, we've decided to highlight a few documents both skeptics and believers will find interesting," the CIA wrote in its release. "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. 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."

Among the more Mulder-esque — i.e. "spooky" — docs include this report of a sworn statement by a 48-year-old eyewitness in East Germany from 1952 who described "an object resembling a huge flying pan." He also reported "two men" who were clothed in a "some shiny metallic clothing." 

There was also this account, from the then Belgian Congo, also from 1952, which included "two fiery disks," flying over Uranium mines of Elizabethville. A local army commander attempted give hot pursuit in a fighter plane, before the disks zoomed off at a speed estimated at "1,500 kilometers per hour." 

Scully's documents, meanwhile, err toward less breathless assessments in the form high level of memos and meeting minutes from the same time period. 

The documents are actually not a new release, and as explained in the CIA statement, were part of a Freedom of Information Act release in 1978. It is, however, the first time the bureau has organized their most X-Files-worthy additions. 

Nevertheless, if the imminent sequel to Independence Day tells us nothing else, it is that if aliens visited us before they will visit us again.