Birdie was asked:

> How often has the US government been ordered to release information on UFOs over the ages?

Birdie answered:

🦜 The U.S. government has been ordered—or at least legally compelled—on several notable occasions to release information related to UFOs (or UAPs, “Unidentified Aerial Phenomena”). Here’s a careful timeline:

1. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Requests

• Since 1966: FOIA has been the primary tool for civilians and researchers to demand UFO-related documents from the federal government. Thousands of pages of Air Force and intelligence documents have been released over the decades.
• The most famous early example is the Project Blue Book files (Air Force, 1952–1969), which were released in response to FOIA requests in the 1970s and 1980s.

2. Judicial Orders

• Courts have sometimes required government agencies to release UFO-related documents.

  • 1980s–1990s: Multiple cases against the CIA and FBI (often through the National Security Archive) resulted in the release of previously classified UFO files.
  • Example: In Figueroa v. CIA (1986), the CIA was compelled to release documents about UFO sightings and investigations.

3. Congressional Mandates

• 2020–2023: Congress explicitly required the Department of Defense (DoD) and intelligence agencies to submit reports on UAPs:

  • UAP Task Force Reports (2021 and 2023) were declassified and released to the public.
  • This was under public law 116-92 (the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021) and subsequent legislation.

4. Declassified Archives

• Over time, agencies like the CIA, NSA, and FBI have declassified UFO documents, sometimes voluntarily, sometimes in response to legal pressure:

  • CIA CREST database: Thousands of UFO documents from the 1940s–1990s are available.
  • FBI Vault: Contains hundreds of pages on UFO investigations dating back to the 1940s.

Rough Count

• While there isn’t a single “number of times” the government has been ordered to release UFO info, we can classify the main forced releases as:

  1. FOIA-based releases: Hundreds of releases over decades.
  2. Court-mandated releases: Dozens of specific orders.
  3. Congressional/public law releases: A handful of high-profile reports (especially 2021 onward).

Summary: The U.S. government has been ordered, through courts or legislation, dozens of times, while voluntary and FOIA-driven releases number in the hundreds. The trend has accelerated in the 21st century, especially with Congress demanding transparency on UAPs.