FOIA archive
Hume Index

Case · 2008

2008 wave: Needles, Harare, Stephenville

CIA on high alert; two crashes probably man-made, says Hume

Needles, CAHarare, ZimbabweStephenville, TXVietnamKumburgaz

Hume's 2008 cluster: Needles crash retrieval (DOE / Army helicopters, same doctrine as Peru), CIA tranche-3 paper on a Zimbabwe incident, plus Stephenville, Vietnam and Kumburgaz. He thinks CIA would be on high alert that year and that the two crashes are probably experimental drones — his opinion, labelled as such.

Findings

Each line is tagged as a FOIA outcome, something someone told Hume, open literature, a leak, or Hume's own reading. Do not treat the last as a document.

  1. 01Open literature

    CIA Zimbabwe 2008 document is in PURSUE tranche 3 — most recent CIA item Hume had seen.

  2. 02Hume's reading

    Needles grouped with Peru on DOE/Army recovery mechanics.

  3. 03Hume's reading

    Hume's crash-origin opinion (man-made UAS) is separate from the document trail.

Files

CIA · 2008 / released 2026
Released

CIA Tranche 3 — Zimbabwe UFO incident, 2008

CIA document on a 2008 Zimbabwe (Harare) UFO incident. Hume groups 2008 with Needles, Stephenville, Vietnam, Kumburgaz.

Open record

Names

RG Hume

Independent FOIA researcher

UK researcher who files FOI/FOIA against MOD, DSTL, AARO, NNSA, DOE, FBI, CIA-adjacent holdings, EPA, CBP and police. Publishes as @rgh_ufos. Has said his name is on requests, has appeared in BBC and Mail Online, and was cited by Jesse Michels for the NNSA Starfish Prime response.

Agencies

Source posts

Public posts by @rgh_ufos. Open may be blocked inside this preview — copy the URL and paste it in a new tab.

  • 2026-06-14

    2008 was a wild year for UFOs. Needles, Harare, Stephenville, Vietnam, Kumburgaz. Not surprising the CIA would be on high alert.