Documents / FOIA release
This Central Intelligence Agency cover letter from Deputy Assistant Director Philip G. Strong to Dr. Lloyd V. Berkner, dated 20 December 1957, encloses two items: a copy of a letter to the Air Force and a declassified version of the Scientific Panel report on Unidentified Flying Objects, dated 17 January 1953. The memo says no connection with CIA may be disclosed. The declassified report concludes the phenomena pose no direct physical threat to national security, and it recommends stripping them of their special status and aura of mystery.
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
MEMORANDUM FOR: Assistant Chief of Staff, Intelligence Department of the Air Force ATTENTION Major James P. Byrne AFCIIL-XLA SUBJECT : Declassification of the "Report of the Scientific Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects" 1. We have just received the final letter from the members of the above Panel concerning your request for declassification of the above report. Both CIA and all members of the Panel have agreed that the conclusions of paragraph 2. can be declassified and that Recommendation 4.a. can be declassified. However, it is the decision of all concerned that no connection with CIA may be disclosed, that the conclusion of paragraph 3. may not be declassified and that the recommendation of 4.b. may not be declassified. On the basis of the above declassification, no member of the Panel objects to the use of his name in connection with the declassified conclusion and recommendation. 2. In order to simplify your utilization of the declassified material, I am attaching hereto a revised version of the report of the Panel which consists of a paraphrase of paragraph 1, the exact wording of paragraph 2, a new paragraph 3 which includes the declassified Recommendation 4.a. and an appropriate paraphrasing of the balance of paragraph 4 less Recommendation 4.b. 3. I trust that this will serve the purposes of this request.
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.