Project Zodiac
Project Zodiac (also referred to simply as Zodiac) is a codename associated by multiple independent witnesses and researchers with a classified US program managing UFO crash retrieval, extraterrestrial biological entity (EBE) custody, and related non-human intelligence (NHI) activities — reportedly evolving out of the Majestic 12 structure and, according to some accounts, fully transferred to CIA control from the 1970s onward.
Origins and the Zodiac fiction series
The primary public documentation of "Zodiac" as a program name derives from a three-part series published in UFO Magazine in the late 1990s, authored under the pseudonym Greg Halifax (real name: Jeffrey Griffith). The series — written as a fictionalized account but described by Richard Dolan and others as presenting a realistic picture of the internal workings of a crash retrieval and NHI management program — depicts the program by the name Zodiac and describes its operational logic, recruitment criteria, and relationship to the intelligence community. Notably, recruitment to Zodiac is depicted as driven primarily by psychological profile rather than technical skill set alone.
CIA control and timeline
According to discussion in the Dolan episode, the codename Zodiac came into use in the 1970s as the program was transferred to full CIA control under the CIA's Science and Technology Directorate, through a unit later identified as the Global Access Office. The Global Access Office's described function was to cultivate relationships with all nations, including hostile ones, to enable US special operations personnel to access crash sites internationally and acquire recovered materials.
Witness references to Zodiac
Several independent witnesses have referenced Zodiac as an active program designation:
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Ross Coulthart reported being told by a source that the most recent name of the controlling management group — which he believes is real but does not think is still called Majestic 12 — was Zodiac, though he noted the name had become public and may have been retired.
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Whistleblower Jason Sands, a claimed former signals intelligence analyst, stated he heard the term "Zodiac" as well as constellation-themed names used as program or site designators, interpreting them as codename conventions within the larger management structure.
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Michael Salla documented testimony suggesting that by 1992 the controlling group used the codename "Jehovah," having previously used Zodiac; and that the original Majestic 12 government structure dissolved around 1969 into a private international consortium financed by major corporations and wealthy private interests.
Specific Zodiac references also appear in alleged leaked documents and insider testimony where they are used as designators for individual case files or sub-programmes within the larger MJ-12 compartment structure.
Context within MJ-12 programme naming
The Majestic 12 programme infrastructure as described by researchers including William Cooper, Stanton Friedman, and others employed a layered naming convention in which overarching programmes (Aquarius, Sigma, Snowbird) contained sub-programmes designated by additional codenames. Zodiac appears in this secondary tier, associated with the analysis and storage of retrieved biological and materials evidence and with the management of information about specific extraterrestrial species contacts. Some researchers associate Zodiac with the astrological-themed codename convention used within the Aquarius compartment, in which individual species files or contact cases received zodiacal designations.
Relation to Project Aquarius
Project Aquarius served as the master programme for collecting and analysing all data related to non-human intelligences visiting Earth, operating under Majestic 12 authority from its alleged inception in 1953. Subsidiary programmes within or parallel to Aquarius included Project Sigma (communications), Project Snowbird (reverse engineering using human-built craft for cover), and Project Pounce (crash retrieval). Zodiac is placed by some sources within this family as a programme concerned with biological specimen analysis or with managing the long-term custody and study of EBEs held at secure facilities.
The Global Access Office and Daily Mail reporting
Dolan reported in 2024 that at least a dozen independent anonymous sources had described the existence of the CIA's Global Access Office and its role in crash retrieval management — and that this information had been published by the Daily Mail independently through its own sourcing, constituting corroboration from a mainstream outlet. The Global Access Office's function of cultivating "delicate relationships with all nations, including hostile nations," to enable US special operations access to crash sites internationally, aligns precisely with the operational requirements of a program that would need to operate across jurisdictions without formal treaty authority.
Assessment
The evidence base for Project Zodiac as a discrete programme is thin and largely derivative of the broader alleged MJ-12 document corpus, which itself remains contested. No declassified government document has described the name. The codename appears most credibly as a sub-compartment reference or case designator within programmes for which more direct evidence exists, rather than as an independent programme with its own organisational structure. Coulthart's note that the name "became public" and may have been retired is consistent with the standard intelligence practice of rotating codenames once they are exposed.