CIA: MDR filed for Hungary UFO report 00-B-93674
In January 2020, The Black Vault initiated a Mandatory Declassification Review to uncover additional details from the 1955 case. Rather than lifting existing redactions, the process unexpectedly revealed two previously unknown pages withheld in their entirety. The agency cited national security exemptions under Executive Order 13526 to maintain complete classification of these supplementary materials.
Background
In January 2020, the investigative platform known as The Black Vault submitted a formal Mandatory Declassification Review request to the Central Intelligence Agency. This petition sought to remove remaining redactions from the 1978 release of Report 00-B-93674, hoping to reveal obscured details about the Hungarian high-speed aerial phenomena case. The initiative represented a continued effort to utilize transparency mechanisms for historical intelligence documents.
The review process yielded an unexpected and significant discovery rather than the anticipated clearance of existing excisions. Agency officials determined that the original release had comprised only a portion of the complete file, identifying two additional pages that had never been disclosed to the public. These supplementary documents were withheld in their entirety, with every line obscured rather than selectively redacted.
The justification for continued secrecy relied upon specific provisions within Executive Order 13526, particularly sections protecting information potentially damaging to national security or foreign relations. This classification status suggests the withheld material may contain sensitive operational methodologies, identities of intelligence assets, or details regarding foreign liaison relationships that remain protected nearly seven decades after the original sighting. The complete suppression of these pages raises significant questions about what information the agency considers too sensitive for release even after such an extended timeframe.