Documents / FOIA release
This Central Intelligence Agency memorandum from W. E. Lexow, Chief of the Applied Science Division, responds to letters from Leon Davidson and Donald E. Keyhoe seeking the 1953 Scientific Advisory Panel report. It says Edward J. Ruppelt's book misstated the panel's mission, and it recommends sending the declassified version without revealing the panel's CIA link. The attached 17 January 1953 report says UFOs posed no direct threat to national security. It also recommends stripping them of their special status.
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
## Q ## Q SUBJECT: Comments on Letters Dealing with Unidentified Flying Objects 4. It is apparent from reading Mr. Davidson's letter that Mike Wallace had a copy of the scientific panel report. In addition, the association of CIA with the US Air Force in the selection of the panel was revealed during the television interview. Therefore, the panel members have been associated with CIA, contrary to their wishes and contrary to CIA's desires. 5. The real intent of the referenced letters is to obtain a copy of the panel report. In view of this, and of the above, it would be most expedient to send them the declassified version. In order to not reveal an association between the panel members and CIA, either the Air Force should answer the letters or we should make it plain to the recipients that we obtained the panel report from the Air Force. 6. Attached are copies of the declassified panel report. W. E. LEXOW
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. 5 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.