CIA's Soviet Media Log Notes Moscow Almanac 'We and UFOs'

Service monitoring log cataloged as AFSN TB0811150590C and document C00175643, running 98 pages and marked UNCLASSIFIED. FBIS, the agency's overseas media-watching arm, produced such "TAKEALL" compilations to capture the full sweep of foreign radio and television output for analysts in Washington. , catalogs broadcasts pegged largely to the 73rd anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution in — Gorbachev's addresses, the Red Square parade, official receptions, and dispatches from Soviet republics and foreign capitals alike.

Buried within that routine traffic, however, sits a small anomaly. Item 116 of the log describes a "soviet panorama" program that included a report on a new almanac published in Moscow entitled "we and ufos," said to detail alleged contacts with UFOs. " These are passing references — minutes-long broadcast items summarized in a few lines — not investigative findings, and the log attaches no names, dates, or locations to them beyond the almanac's title…