Documents / FOIA release
This is a US government office memorandum from Dr. Stone of the CIA Office of Scientific Intelligence (OSI) to Dr. Machle, OSI, on the subject of flying saucers. It criticizes a survey of saucer reports as confusing and lists points the survey left out. These include the chance that many objects were free meteorological sounding balloons and the unlikelihood of US or foreign craft being tested over the United States. It also asks why brief sightings look circular and why the reports cluster by month.
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# Office Memorandum • UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT TO : Dr. Machle, OSI FROM : Dr. Stone, OSI ans SUDJECT: Flying Saucers 1. A rapid perusal of your documents leaves one confused and inclined to supineness. 2. The following considerations seem not to have been included in the survey: a. No suggestion is noted that there is a possibility that many of the objects may be "free" meteorological sounding balloons. b. If a tane "flying saucer" is to be involved, it is extremely unlikely that they be found over the U. S. because: (1) U.S. developments would be closely coordinated with USAF or commercial designers. (3) Guided aircraft at a range of several thousand miles are beyond any known capabilities, including ours. (2) Foreign aircraft development would hardly be tested at such a range from home areas, even if fuel could be supplied c. What is the psychological probability that any object seen briefly against "zero" background will be circular, or oval, in appearance? d. Has any one commented on the curious time distribution of the observations? Note thart below: Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Jpg Is there any midsummer madness involved? Are asteroids prominent in that season? Etc., etc.
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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. 1 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.