Documents / FOIA release
This is the report of a Panel of Scientific Consultants, dated 17 January 1953 and released by the Central Intelligence Agency. The Government convened the panel to judge whether Unidentified Flying Objects threaten national security. It reviewed evidence from government agencies, mainly the United States Air Force. The panel concluded that the phenomena posed no direct physical threat and that no evidence pointed to hostile foreign artifacts. It recommended stripping UFOs of their special status and running a program to reassure the public.
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# REPORT OF THE SCIENTIFIC PANEL
ON
UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS
17 January 1953
1. The undersigned Panel of Scientific Consultants has met at the request of the Government to evaluate any possible threat to national security posed by Unidentified Flying Objects ("Flying Saucers"), and to make recommendation. The Panel has received the evidence as presented by cognizant Governmental agencies, primarily the United States Air Force, and has reviewed a selection of the best documented incidents.
2. As a result of its considerations, the Panel concludes:
That the evidence presented on Unidentified Flying Objects shows no indication that these phenomena constitute a direct physical threat to national security.
3. In the light of this conclusion, the Panel recommends:
We firmly believe that there is no residuum of cases which indicates phenomena which are attributable to foreign artifacts capable of hostile acts, and that there is no evidence that the phenomena indicate a need for the revision of current scientific concepts.
That the national security agencies take immediate steps to strip the Unidentified Flying Objects of the special status they have been given and the aura of mystery they have unfortunately acquired.
We suggest that this aim may be achieved by an integrated program designed to reassure the public of the total lack of evidence of inimical forces behind the phonoclass.
Lloyd V. Barkman
Associated Universities, Inc.
N.P. Robertson, Cheirann
California Institute of Technology
/3/ S. A. Goudsalt Brookhaven National Laboratories
/8/ Luis H. Alvense
University of California 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.