“2027”: Is there reasoning for the “2027” date being relevant to disclosure based strictly upon U.S. classification laws? (tl;dr: yes, potentially)

Many in the r/UFOs community are familiar with "2027" as a year that may be relevant to disclosure. I thus far have not seen any particularly compelling set of reasons why this would be the case, so I figured I'd share one potential reason: United States classification laws.

Disclosure: I am not an expert at classification laws. I am not a lawyer, and I do not work in the intelligence community, so some of this may be incorrect. If you spot something incorrect please mention it in comments and I'll do my best to adjust the post. All of this is just from my own personal research into this subject that I thought was nonetheless worth sharing.

The U.S. National Archives maintains a page from their "Information Security Oversight Office" (ISOO) with a list of ISOO notices. Some of these notices (archive.org backup link for posterity since their February release of the same document was revised in June and is no longer available on their site… so much for "National Archive") describe automatic declassification timelines, as well as exemptions to those timelines.

The document we'll be looking at today is the "ISOO Notice 2024-02: Agencies Eligible to Receive Referrals from Automatic Declassification at 25, 50, and 75 Years" which describes agencies that "have received approval from the Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel (ISCAP) to exempt specific information from automatic declassification and may receive referrals resulting from automatic declassification reviews."

The US agencies covered by this document are:

• Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
• Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)
• Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA)
• Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA)
• Department of the Air Force (Air Force)
• Department of the Army (Army)
• Department of Energy (DOE)
• Department of Homeland Security, only for the following two component organizations: Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
• United States Secret Service (USSS)
• Department of Justice (DOJ)
• Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)
• Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
• Department of the Navy (Navy)
• Department of State (State)
• Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP)
• United States Mint
• Joint Staff, and the following Combatant Commands:
• United States Central Command (CENTCOM)
• United States European Command (EUCOM)
• United States Northern Command (NORTHCOM)/North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD)
• United States Pacific Command (PACOM)
• United States Southern Command (SOUTHCOM)
• United States Strategic Command (STRATCOM)
• United States Transportation Command (TRANSCOM)
• Missile Defense Agency (MDA)
• National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
• National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA)
• National Reconnaissance Office (NRO)
• Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)
• National Security Agency (NSA)
• National Security Council (NSC)
• Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD)

The current prevailing executive order pertaining to the handling of classified information is Executive Order 13526- Classified National Security Information – signed December 29, 2009 under Obama. That order establishes the following:

Sec. 1.5.  Duration of Classification.  (a)  At the time of original classification, the original classification authority shall establish a specific date or event for declassification based on the duration of the national security sensitivity of the information.  Upon reaching the date or event, the information shall be automatically declassified.  Except for information that should clearly and demonstrably be expected to reveal the identity of a confidential human source or a human intelligence source or key design concepts of weapons of mass destruction, the date or event shall not exceed the time frame established in paragraph (b) of this section.

(b)  If the original classification authority cannot determine an earlier specific date or event for declassification, information shall be marked for declassification 10 years from the date of the original decision, unless the original classification authority otherwise determines that the sensitivity of the information requires that it be marked for declassification for up to 25 years from the date of the original decision.

So the "default" classification duration for information would be 10 years, and "sensitive" information is marked 25 years. Information is supposed to be automatically declassified after these durations. In reality, almost all information that is notable is considered "sensitive" and appears to fall under this 25 year declassification timeframe. Also, notably, that same order states:

(d)  No information may remain classified indefinitely.  Information marked for an indefinite duration of classification under predecessor orders, for example, marked as "Originating Agency's Determination Required," or classified information that contains incomplete declassification instructions or lacks declassification instructions shall be declassified in accordance with part 3 of this order.

So keeping information classified forever should generally be unlawful. However, note that this also refers to "part 3" of this order. Part 3 is "PART 3 — DECLASSIFICATION AND DOWNGRADING" and contains several sections relating to the authorities for declassification, the transferring of records, and notably, section 3.3, automatic declassification. That section reads:

Automatic Declassification.  (a)  Subject to paragraphs (b)–(d) and (g)–(j) of this section, all classified records that (1) are more than 25 years old and (2) have been determined to have permanent historical value under title 44, United States Code, shall be automatically declassified whether or not the records have been reviewed.  All classified records shall be automatically declassified on December 31 of the year that is 25 years from the date of origin, except as provided in paragraphs (b)–(d) and (g)–(i) of this section.  If the date of origin of an individual record cannot be readily determined, the date of original classification shall be used instead.

That section goes on to state the following:

(b)  An agency head may exempt from automatic declassification under paragraph (a) of this section specific information, the release of which should clearly and demonstrably be expected to:

And here we get into a list of reasons that allow for automatic exemption from declassification. Documents are exempt from the 25-year timeline as defined in section 1.5b, for the following reasons (pay attention to the specific section numbers here too, we will refer to them later):

1. reveal the identity of a confidential human source*, a human intelligence source, a relationship with an intelligence or security service of a foreign government or international organization,* or a nonhuman intelligence source*; or impair the effectiveness of an intelligence method currently in use, available for use, or under development;*
2. reveal information that would assist in the development, production, or use of weapons of mass destruction*;*
3. reveal information that would impair U.S. cryptologic systems or activities;
4. reveal information that would impair the application of state-of-the-art technology within a U.S. weapon system;
5. reveal formally named or numbered U.S. military war plans that remain in effect, or reveal operational or tactical elements of prior plans that are contained in such active plans;
6. reveal information, including foreign government information, that would cause serious harm to relations between the United States and a foreign government*, or to ongoing diplomatic activities of the United States;*
7. reveal information that would impair the current ability of United States Government officials to protect the President, Vice President, and other protectees for whom protection services, in the interest of the national security, are authorized;
8. reveal information that would seriously impair current national security emergency preparedness plans or reveal current vulnerabilities of systems, installations, or infrastructures relating to the national security*; or*
9. violate a statute, treaty, or international agreement that does not permit the automatic or unilateral declassification of information at 25 years.

Those are the 9 categories of reasoning allowed for exemption under the automatic 25-year declassification process. Now, if we refer back to the "ISOO Notice 2024-02: Agencies Eligible to Receive Referrals from Automatic Declassification at 25, 50, and 75 Years" document referenced previously, you'll see a lot of tables that look like this:

Automatic declassification exemptions table for the CIA

The way to read this table is the rows are "25-year," "50-year," "HUM/WMD," (which of these reasons does the 50X refer to) and "75-year" exemption durations, and the columns are exemption categories listed from the previously 1-9 numbered list in my post. If a cell is blacked out that agency is not allowed to use that exemption reason for that duration. So for example, "75X1" in this table not being blacked out means the CIA is allowed to use a keep information classified for 75 years if declassifying that information would "reveal the identity of a confidential human source" (as previously listed in the numbered list above).

So, continuing with the example, reading this table, the CIA can keep information classified for:

• 25, 50, or 75 years if it would "reveal the identity of a confidential human source" (25X1, 50X1, 50X1-HUM, 75X1)
• 25, 50, or 75 years if it would "reveal information that would assist in the development, production, or use of weapons of mass destruction" (25X2, 50X2, 50X2-WMD, 75X2)
• 25 or 50 years if it would "reveal information that would impair U.S. cryptologic systems or activities" (25X3, 50X3)
• 25, 50 or 75 years if it would "reveal information, including foreign government information, that would cause serious harm to relations between the United States and a foreign government, or to ongoing diplomatic activities of the United States" (25X6, 50X6, 75X6)
• 25 or 50 years if it would "reveal information that would impair the current ability of United States Government officials to protect the President, Vice President, and other protectees for whom protection services, in the interest of the national security, are authorized" (25X7, 50X7)
• 25 or 50 years if it would "reveal information that would seriously impair current national security emergency preparedness plans or reveal current vulnerabilities of systems, installations, or infrastructures relating to the national security" (25X8, 50X8)
• 25 or 50 years if it would "violate a statute, treaty, or international agreement that does not permit the automatic or unilateral declassification of information at 25 years" (25X9, 50X9)

The CIA is heavily rumored to be involved in the monitoring, retrieval and reverse engineering of UAP. Therefore, this declassification table is likely highly relevant to any information they've accumulated pertaining to UAP. You can look at similar tables for other agencies alleged to be involved in UAP matters: DIA, Air Force, DOE, NASA, NGA, NRO, NSA, etc. Let's pay the most attention to those 75X exemption lines though because it's likely the UAP matter is so sensitive it'd easily fall into one of those. That leaves us with "confidential human sources," "information that would assist in the development, production, or use of weapons of mass destruction" or "harm to relations between the United States and a foreign government" as reasons the CIA can keep information classified for 75 years. I would assume the UAP matter falls under 75X2, as the energy levels required to operate a UAP may be so high they could easily be reverse engineered and used to design extremely powerful weaponry, but 75X6 is also plausible if the CIA made contact with a "foreign" (NHI) entity.

So, how is all this classification stuff relevant to UAP? Well, as previously mentioned, "Executive Order 13526" states that "No information may remain classified indefinitely," and it has catch-all language which forces automatic declassification at certain duration intervals. These intervals, worst case, are subject to 25, 50, or 75 year exemptions from release. Nonetheless, the absolute latest any information can be declassified is 75 years following the event. So, if there was some major UAP event 75 years earlier and the U.S. government had information about it in their records, in theory, those records should be automatically declassified no later than 75 years following the event.

Back to 2027, let's do some quick math:

• 2027 – 25 years (automatic exemption reasons in the 25X buckets) = 2002
• 2027 – 50 years (automatic exemption reasons in the 50X buckets) = 1977
• 2027 – 75 years (automatic exemption reasons in the 75X buckets) = 1952

So based on this math, as of December 31 (as specified in Executive Order 13526), 2027, anything exempted under a 25X bucket that was older than 2002 should be declassified, anything exempted under a 50X bucket that is older than 1977 should be declassified, and anything exempted under a 75X bucket that is older than 1952 should be declassified. Assuming the information is in a 75X bucket, as of December 31, 2027, anything from 1952 or earlier should be automatically declassified.

Can anyone think of any major UAP incident that happened in 1952 and may have resulted in numerous, undeniable government records that might be subject to the 75X declassification process in 2027? Alternative incidents if they were classified under the 50X buckets would be the 1977 Colares UAP incidents, or if the 25X bucket the 2002 Wilson Davis Memo. I personally think the 1952 Washington UFO Flap is the most likely of these bunch, as I firmly expect they'd push the classification on this out as far as possible so it'd fall into the 75X exemptions.

As a quick refresher on the 1952 Washington UFO Flap (eventually I'll write a whole long-form post on this, as I find it very interesting):

• There was a rash of media attention in the summer of 1952 regarding many sightings of UFOs, which culminated in numerous (717) reports, including around Washington, DC.
• "During a six-month period in 1952… 148 of the nation's leading newspapers carried a total of over 16,000 items about flying saucers"
• At 11:40 p.m. on Saturday, July 19, 1952, Edward Nugent, an air traffic controller at Washington National Airport, spotted seven objects on his radar. The objects were located 15 miles (24 km) south-southwest of the city; no known aircraft were in the area, and the objects were not following any established flight paths. Nugent's superior, Harry Barnes, a senior air-traffic controller at the airport, watched the objects on Nugent's radarscope. He later wrote: "We knew immediately that a very strange situation existed … their movements were completely radical compared to those of ordinary aircraft."
• Barnes had two controllers check Nugent's radar; they found that it was working normally. Barnes then called National Airport's radar-equipped control tower; the controllers there, Howard Cocklin and Joe Zacko, said that they also had unidentified blips on their radar screen, and saw a hovering "bright light" in the sky, which departed with incredible speed.
• At this point, other objects appeared in all sectors of the radarscope; when they moved over the White House and the United States Capitol, Barnes called Andrews Air Force Base, located 10 miles from National Airport. Although Andrews reported that they had no unusual objects on their radar, an airman soon called the base's control tower to report the sighting of a strange object. Airman William Brady, who was in the tower, then saw an "object which appeared to be like an orange ball of fire, trailing a tail … [it was] unlike anything I had ever seen before." As Brady tried to alert the other personnel in the tower, the strange object "took off at an unbelievable speed.
• On one of National Airport's runways, S.C. Pierman, a Capital Airlines pilot, was waiting in the cockpit of his DC-4 for permission to take off. After spotting what he believed to be a meteor, he was told that the control tower's radar had detected unknown objects closing in on his position. Pierman observed six objects—"white, tailless, fast-moving lights"—over a 14-minute period. Pierman was in radio contact with Barnes during his sighting, and Barnes later related that "each sighting coincided with a pip we could see near his plane. When he reported that the light streaked off at a high speed, it disappeared on our scope."
• Meanwhile, at Andrews Air Force Base, the control tower personnel were tracking on radar what some thought to be unknown objects, but others suspected, and in one instance were able to prove, were simply stars and meteors. However, Staff Sgt. Charles Davenport observed an orange-red light to the south; the light "would appear to stand still, then make an abrupt change in direction and altitude … this happened several times." At one point both radar centers at National Airport and the radar at Andrews Air Force Base were tracking an object hovering over a radio beacon. The object vanished in all three radar centers at the same time.
• At 3 a.m., shortly before two United States Air Force F-94 Starfire jet fighters from New Castle Air Force Base in Delaware arrived over Washington, all of the objects vanished from the radar at National Airport. However, when the jets ran low on fuel and left, the objects returned, which convinced Barnes that "the UFOs were monitoring radio traffic and behaving accordingly". The objects were last detected by radar at 5:30 a.m.

So, multiple sightings by multiple parties, with radar tracks, visual observations, etc., all from credible sources. And lastly….

• Beatriz Villarroel has found "three optically bright, ~15th mag, point-sources within 10 arcsec of each other that vanished within 1 hour, based on two consecutive exposures at Palomar Observatory" on July 19th, 1952. This paper is basically saying (paraphrasing) "there were light sources that showed up in the sky in these historical telescope plates, but vanished an hour later." This is the type of thing we see nowadays, regularly, with satellites, but as of 1952, there were no known human satellites in orbit. Sputnik 1 was the first artificial satellite, and was launched October 4th, 1957. Which raises the question… what was in orbit around earth on July 19, 1952? Whatever it was, it's captured on these plates for anyone interested to see, and Beatriz has done a lot of research into it. If you're interested in this, there's a fantastic interview with Beatriz Villarroel and John Michael Godier available here.

NOTE: The July 19th, 1952 date of the "transients" observed in the telescope plate is the same exact date as the Washington National Airport incident documented by the air traffic controller. What was in the sky that night?