Documents / FOIA release
This Central Intelligence Agency office memorandum, dated 9 February 1953 and sent from the Chief of the Contact Division, reports remarks by Dr. Walter Riedel on the California Committee for Saucer Investigation. Riedel was a former German rocket designer now working at North American Aviation. The memo says the private group had received about 1,570 sighting letters and judged roughly 25 of them reliable and unexplained. It adds that the group planned a test hoax over Los Angeles to measure how the public reports aerial phenomena.
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
6. Apparently, an eye and interest are also directed toward the US, for reactions to sightings an reported in the PHAVUA are observed. This interest is also evident in the paper entitled "Rockets Behind the Iron Curtain", presented before the annual convention of the American Rocket Society in New York City on 4 December'1952, by George F. Sutton, also of Aerophysics Department (North American Aviation, Inc.) and associated with CSL. 6. Of incidental interest may be the fact that NAI (National aeronautical association) suggested politely and perhaps indirectly to Dr. Riedel that he disassociate himself from official membership on CJJ.
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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.