Documents / FOIA release

UFO Briefing for Dr. Edward Condon, 5 May 1967

Central Intelligence Agency · 2013-06-26 · 2 pages · text by GLM-OCR

This Central Intelligence Agency memorandum for the record, written by the Chief of NPIC's Technical Intelligence Division, describes a 5 May 1967 briefing for Dr. Edward Condon and colleagues on NPIC's analysis of the Zanesville, Ohio, UFO photographs. Condon called it the first scientific UFO analysis that would stand up to investigation. The group discussed moving future analysis to University of Colorado control, reviewing NICAP's photo files, and giving Polaroid cameras to police officers and pilots.

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MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD

SUBJECT: UFO Briefing for Dr. Edward Condon, 5 May 1967

1. At 0900 on 5 May 1967, presented a briefing covering his analysis of the Zanesville, Ohio, UFO photography. The briefing was given in the TID conference room, and in attendance were Dr. Edward Condon, University of Colorado; Dr. Robert Lowe, University of Colorado; Dr. William Hartman, University of Arizona; Dr. Charles Reed, National Research Council; Dr. Thomas Ratchford, U.S. Air Force, and NPIC. briefing was very well received by Dr. Condon and his colleagues, and they were most enthusiastic. They were impressed with the scope of the analysis had conducted, which included ground survey techniques, established and new mathematical analysis, and photogrammetric techniques and densitometric traces. Dr. Condon stated he had for the first time a scientific analysis of a UFO that would stand up to investigation. Dr. Condon and members of his group questioned in detail during and after the analysis and were very impressed with the quality of his work.

2. Preliminary arrangements were made to get

to initiate the appropriate discussions. I understand this was followed through later in the day. This would transfer most of the future analysis to the University of Colorado control, but Dr. Condon indicated he wished to keep a channel open into our organization. He was most appreciative of the unofficial role NPIC had played in assisting the development of this special photogrammetric technique to analyze unscheduled photography.

3. There was discussion held concerning methods of interesting the American public in participating in UFO photography. No specific conclusions were drawn, but it was suggested that it might be advisable to review all the photography NICAP holds, and conduct photogrammetric analyses on any that have the appropriate and necessary information available. This would put Dr. Condon in a position to say that he had reviewed and analyzed

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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.