Documents / FOIA release
This 1957 Central Intelligence Agency cable from the Chicago office reports a face-to-face contact with Leon Davidson, who was in Chicago for a scientific meeting. Davidson was writing an article for a space magazine and wanted either a translation of a message and its emitting station, proving a space message to be a hoax, or permission to show CIA and ATIC letterheads as proof that the government was avoiding his inquiries. The Chicago office asked to withdraw and urged headquarters and ATIC to satisfy him.
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
WA CITE CHCO-9236 SUPPORT RE WA-26258 X 26258 AND CASE (CLOSED). WE NEGLECTED TO NENTION IN CHGO-9226 X 9228 THAT OUR CONTACT WITH LEON DAVIDSON X LEON DAVIDSON WAS PERSON-TO-PERSON. HE WAS IN CHICAGO FOR A SCIENTIFIC MEETING. DAVIDSON EXPLAINED THAT HE IS DOING AN ARTICLE FOR A SPACE MAGAZINE. HE WANTS THE TRANSLATION OF THE MESSAGE AND THE EMITTING STATION PROVING THE SPACE MESSAGE TO BE A HOAX, OR HE WANTS PERMISSION TO PICTURE GOVERNMENT LETTERHEADS, OURS AND ATIC'S X ATIC'S, IN HIS ARTICLE SHOWING GOVERNMENT AVOIDANCE OF HIS INQUIRIES. HE EXPLAINED THAT HE HAD RECEIVED NO X NO SATISFACTORY ANSWER TO HIS REQUEST OF US AND ATIC X ATIC IN NEARLY A YEAR. TOLD DAVIDSON HE WOULD COMMUNICATE WITH HIM SHORTLY SUPPLYING THE INFORMATION HE REQUESTED IF POSSIBLE, OR EXPLAINING THAT NOTHING FURTHER COULD BE DONE. RE DAVIDSON'S WISH TO USE GOVERNMENT LETTERHEAD IN EVENT HE CANNOT GET MESSAGE TRANSLATION, ADVISED THIS WOULD BE IMPRUDENT AND SUGGESTED HE NOT X NOT DO IT WITHOUT THE EXPRESS PERMISSION OF THE AGENCIES CONCERNED. DAVIDSON AGREED THIS WAS BEST. DAVIDSON WAS CALM AND PLEASANT BUT VERY DETERMINED. IN VIEW OF YOUR WA-26238 X 26238 WE WISH TO BOV OUT OF THIS THING, DUT URGE THAT HEADQUARTERS, AND ATIC X ATIC. CONCERN THEMSELVES WITH THIS MAN AND TRY TO SATISEY HIM. PLEASE DO NOT LET US DOWN ON OUR AGREEMENT TO
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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 2 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.