← Back to Files & Wiki
Wiki page · asset · graph_investigation_draft

FBI Photo B13

Official PDF container: Open Sky Release 01 file copy

Release 01#war-gov#pursue#release-01#official-source#evidence#pdf#still-image

FBI Photo B13

Evidence media

Derived page render from the official FBI Photo B13 PDF

Derived page render from the official one-page PDF. The image shows a grainy monochrome sensor-style frame with a central reticle, black redaction blocks, the visible overlay timestamp 12/31/99 18:19:54, and a small unresolved dark mark slightly right of center and below the horizontal reticle line. The release description says the displayed date/time is incorrect because the system date/time was not set.

Extracted embedded raster from the FBI Photo B13 PDF

Extracted raster from the PDF image object. It is included to show the real embedded still apart from the rendered PDF page; it is not a separate source or an identification of the visible mark.

Investigation reading

This release item is a one-page PDF container for a still image, not a mission report. The WAR.GOV/PURSUE record identifies the agency as FBI and describes the item as a still image derived from a U.S. military system in 2025, submitted to AARO with redactions already applied. The release text says no accompanying mission report was provided and that the operator reported being unable to positively identify the UAP.

The Open Sky release-file copy was checked against Release 01 metadata: 434,067 bytes, SHA-256 92555935e35bf99584a41d4433d9b53fd5e9eeff02656e86f7f3456c6f798984. PDF inspection shows a single encrypted/copy-disabled page, page size 640 x 480 points, metadata title/subject B13 FBI Photo, and one embedded RGB image at 1280 x 960 pixels. The available OCR text is limited to the visible overlay timestamp: 12/31/99 18:19:54.

That timestamp should not be treated as the incident time. The release record states that the date in the image is incorrect because the system date/time was not set. The current release record context places the incident window as Late 2025 and the incident location as Western United States, but the image itself does not provide enough unredacted context to verify either field independently.

What the file appears to contain

The rendered page and embedded raster show a grainy monochrome sensor-style frame with a central white reticle. A vertical white line and horizontal white line cross near the center, with small ticks and the number 3 visible near both sides of the horizontal reticle. The lower-left overlay reads 12/31/99 18:19:54.

Several solid black rectangular bars cover portions of the frame: one broad bar spans much of the upper image, and smaller bars appear along the left and right sides. These look like release/source redactions or masking artifacts rather than scene content. Some adjacent gray rectangular patches are also visible around the redacted areas.

The unredacted scene is mostly a noisy gray field with no clearly resolved terrain, vehicles, people, buildings, horizon line, or landmarks. Near the reticle, slightly right of the vertical centerline and slightly below the horizontal reticle line, two small dark elongated marks or a small dark cluster are visible. The official narrative description calls out two small, dark, elongated objects near the center of the frame in the bottom-right quadrant. On the released still alone, those marks remain unresolved visual features; the file does not provide enough information to identify them, establish motion, estimate range, measure altitude, or determine scale.

Source custody and provenance

One semantic description chunk associated with this asset appears to cite CSV row 119, while the current selected asset record and release-record node place this B13 PDF at row 116. Treat that as a custody/indexing cleanup lead, not as evidence that this file is a different photo record.

Graph context

The graph has two exact source records for this item: the PDF asset node for FBI Photo B13 and the Release 01 record node for row 116. The semantic integration currently surfaces 22 extracted claims, 14 entity mentions, 4 sensor-event records, and no table rows for this asset.

The sensor-event entries are narrow source-language cues derived from phrases such as still image and military system. They should not be read as independent radar, telemetry, range, altitude, or multi-sensor corroboration. Related graph navigation points include nearby FBI photo records such as B10 and B16, but those links are comparison leads only until each source row, file hash, and image content is checked item by item.

Deep investigation — graph + web reconnaissance

Source reread and media check

The official-primary file was reread as a still-image PDF container. Its cached release-file bytes match the public metadata: one-page PDF, 434,067 bytes, SHA-256 92555935e35bf99584a41d4433d9b53fd5e9eeff02656e86f7f3456c6f798984, and PDF magic %PDF-1.7. PDF metadata gives title/subject B13 FBI Photo; the page is encrypted/copy-disabled for text extraction, and pdftotext returns no useful body text. The OCR layer contains only 12/31/99 18:19:54, matching the visible overlay timestamp that the release description says is not a valid event time.

The page render and extracted embedded raster show the same source frame: a grainy monochrome image with a central white reticle, horizontal and vertical axes, 3 labels near the horizontal reticle ends, a large top redaction bar, side redaction bars, and gray blocky masking near some redactions. Slightly right of the vertical reticle and slightly below the horizontal line, two compact dark marks are visible against the noisy gray field. They remain unresolved visual features in a single redacted still; the released file does not provide motion, range, altitude, platform, field of view, or scale.

Graph connections and provenance issues

Read-only graph checks found the exact asset node for FBI Photo B13 by URL and hash, plus the current Release 01 record node at row 116. The graph also exposes a custody/indexing drift that should not be mistaken for corroboration: the current B13 row-record text points to fbi-photo-b13.pdf, while a stale final_url property on that row still points at fbi-photo-b10.pdf; a nearby FBI Photo B16 row-record at row 119 carries the B13 PDF URL/hash in stale relationship/provenance fields while its row text points to fbi-photo-b16.pdf. An older local source-pack table likewise lists B13 at row 119, while the current asset inventory and current graph record place this page at row 116. The stable identifiers for this page are therefore the exact title, URL, SHA-256, file size, and current row 116, not stale neighboring row fields.

The semantic layer for this asset is useful only as a review index: 22 machine-extracted claims, 14 entity mentions, and 4 sensor-event records. The claim types are mostly agency, observation, witness/observer testimony, time, document identity, platform, sensor, and location snippets copied from the manifest description. The four sensor-event records are triggered by the phrases still image and military system; they are marked machine_extracted_needs_human_review / not_a_finding and do not represent independent sensor tracks. No CANDIDATE_CROSSLINK records were found for this asset.

External official-source reconnaissance

Direct probes of the WAR.GOV/PURSUE PDF, thumbnail, landing page, and both observed CSV URL candidates returned 403 during this check, so the verified local release-file copy and its hash remain the evidence anchor. DVIDS search for the exact title returned an empty 202 response, and AARO/Defense search probes returned 403; the Release 01 row itself has no DVIDS video ID or video/PDF pairing fields beyond the B13 PDF. Internet Archive availability for the exact PDF URL returned 429 during this pass. These access results are provenance and follow-up notes, not evidence against the file, because the cached official-primary PDF verifies byte-for-byte against the recorded Release 01 hash.

Prosaic checks and open questions

No meaningful astronomy, weather, launch, satellite, or traffic correlation can be run from the public data as released. The visible 12/31/99 timestamp is explicitly unreliable; the current record gives only Late 2025 and Western United States; and the file withholds platform, sensor mode, look direction, exact location, collection time, and adjacent-frame context. Ordinary image checks therefore remain the first prosaic lane: redaction/masking artifact, display or compression artifact, sensor blemish, dust/debris, distant aircraft, bird, balloon, or other mundane scene/object possibilities. None can be accepted or ruled out from the single redacted frame alone.

Audit note

This deep check preserves B13 as provenance-backed evidence, not a finding or hypothesis. The file supports only cautious source facts: a redacted FBI-submitted still-image PDF, an invalid displayed timestamp, two small unresolved dark marks near the reticle, and an operator/manifest statement that the object was not positively identified. The next useful work is to obtain the original image export or video/adjacent frames, a valid collection time and location, platform/sensor/FOV metadata, the AARO submission packet or mission report if one exists, and a row/relationship cleanup for the B13/B16/B10 provenance drift.

Leads to check

  • Locate any less-redacted source frame, original image export, adjacent frames, video sequence, operator log, mission report, or AARO submission metadata.
  • Verify the actual collection date/time outside the invalid 12/31/99 display timestamp.
  • Identify the military system, sensor mode, reticle/FOV meaning, range scale, platform geometry, and whether redactions hide telemetry or classification markings.
  • Compare the official thumbnail and neighboring FBI photo records only after confirming each record’s title, URL, row number, hash, and visible frame content.
  • Run ordinary image-quality checks before escalation: sensor blemish, dust/debris, compression noise, display artifact, redaction artifact, distant aircraft, bird, balloon, or other mundane scene/object possibilities.
  • Clean up the row-number mismatch where one semantic description chunk cites row 119 while the current release record for this B13 asset is row 116.

Lead check notes

  • Blocked — less-redacted source package: The released record exposes a one-page still-image PDF and says no accompanying mission report was provided. No source video, adjacent frames, operator log, original export, or AARO submission package is present in the current public release.
  • Blocked — platform and sensor details: The source description only says the still image came from a U.S. military system. Platform identity, sensor mode, field of view, reticle scale, range, altitude, and collection geometry all require a less-redacted source.
  • Partial — displayed timestamp and event context: The visible overlay reads 12/31/99 18:19:54, but the release description says the image date/time is incorrect because the system date/time was not set. The current release record gives only Late 2025 and Western United States; exact time and place remain external-source leads.
  • Partial — neighboring still-image comparison: Nearby FBI B-series records can be compared only after each title, URL, row number, hash, and visible frame content is checked. For B13, the current release row is 116; one semantic description chunk still cites row 119, so that remains an indexing cleanup item rather than a content conclusion.
  • Needs external source — ordinary image checks: Sensor blemish, dust/debris, compression, display or redaction artifact, distant aircraft, bird, balloon, and other mundane possibilities cannot be tested from this redacted single frame alone. Those checks need unredacted imagery, adjacent frames, source video, or collection geometry.

Limits

This page does not identify the visible dark marks and does not assert a finding. The public file is a redacted single-frame PDF with no released mission report, no source video, no adjacent frame sequence, no range or altitude readout, no platform identification, no weather/astronomy context, and no independent source comparison. The visible timestamp is explicitly unreliable according to the release description. The image is useful as provenance-preserved evidence, but it is not enough by itself to resolve what the small dark features are.

Sources

  • WAR.GOV/PURSUE Release 01 PDF: FBI Photo B13
  • Open Sky Release 01 file endpoint: war-gov-fbi-photo-b13-16fcb501
  • WAR.GOV/PURSUE Release 01 current CSV/release record, row 116, title FBI Photo B13.
  • Open Sky Release 01 metadata and semantic graph records for this asset, used here only for provenance, extracted-source navigation, and review leads.