Documents / FOIA release
This CIA memorandum from the Chief of the Physics and Electronics Division to the Assistant Director for Scientific Intelligence reviews the status of the agency's UFO project in late 1953. It says Air Force interest in the subject is declining, and that ATIC is transferring Project Bluebook to Air Defense Command. It also covers a flawed camera program for recording sightings, the minimal attention given by the Navy and Army, and the drop in 1953 sightings, which it attributes to the January 1953 panel recommendations.
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
d. Other. Aside from a few scattered reports, mostly old, which indicate interest in UFCB's by private individuals or groups, there is no information of concern or inquiries of consequence in other foreign countries.
5. Results of CGI Panel Recommendations. The consultants who considered this problem in January 1953 recommended that UFO3's be stripped of special status and aura of mystery and that policies on intelligence, training, and public education pertinent to true indications of hostile intent or action be prepared. The definite drop in the number of "sightings" reported during 1953 over 1952 could be attributed to actions following these recommendations. Two recent books ("Flying Saucers From Outer Space" by Keyhoe and "Flying Saucers Have Landed" by Leslie and Adamicki) take full advantage of "official" UFO3 reports released by the Air Force to develop a central theme that UFO3's are extraterrestrial in origin. Fortunately, the latter book is so nonsensical and obviously fraudulent that it may actually help curb public reaction. These books do, however, illustrate the risk taken by the present policy. There are no other yet apparent results of these recommendations.
TODOS M. ODAREKO 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. 4 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.