The Black Vault

The largest public online archive of FOIA-declassified government documents.

The Black Vault is an American online archive of declassified government documents founded in 1996 by ufologist and researcher John Greenewald Jr. Created when Greenewald was a teenager, the site began as a personal project to collect and digitize records released through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The site is a civilian repository of federal records and contains millions of files spanning subjects from CIA programs such as MKUltra to Project Blue Book and other investigations of UFOs. The archive has been cited by major media outlets including The Washington Post, USA Today, and has been described by the Post as a "massive civilian repository of government documents." Beyond its document collections, the Black Vault operates a podcast and has served as a source of information for journalists, researchers, and the public seeking insight into the workings of the U.S. government.