UFO Consensus

Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.

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# A startling memo from Robert Low said

before he reported it. He bristled. He knew that Condon had not yet investigated any field cases personally, nor had any members of the staff completed any meaningful research. The project was only three months old. "I have to admit," Keyhoe told David Saunders, a key staff member, "that I'm shocked by these statements. Is this a scientific investigation or isn't it?"

Condon wrote Keyhoe that some of his remarks had been taken out of context. NICAP then issued this statement: "Although we retain some reservations about the impressions of Dr. Condon's attitudes conveyed through some press accounts, we find no reason to go along with the skeptics who interpret the project merely as the latest gambit in an Air Force propaganda campaign. Having met most of the scientists involved, we are generally satisfied with their fair-mindedness and their thorough plans. . ."

The NICAP cooperation made it possible to establish an Early Warning System, and staff investigators were now being dispatched for field reports. Saunders gave particular attention to field surveys, as well as to the development of a master casebook and staff discussions of major cases. Low was giving the staff members considerable leeway in the approach they were taking. Condon, with his office some distance away, did not appear frequently, and some of the staff felt that it was often frustrating to try to reach him. During this time, it seemed to some of the staff that several potentially interesting cases were turned down for investigation by Low for what were apparently specious reasons.

Another scientific investigator, Dr. Norman Levine, joined the project and immediately became aware of the strained atmosphere developing between Low and several members of the staff. Condon himself was heard to say that he wished the project could give the money back.

A senior member of the staff who was asked to make a speech before a teachers association began looking for specific details on the origin of the project. He was told that he might find some information in the openfiles folder under the heading AIR FORCE CONTRACT AND BACKGROUND. The relaxed open-file system was part of a general overall policy to keep the project out of the cloak-and-dagger category. (In a later memo, Low said: "The key point to keep in mind, it seems to me, is that our own files are not secure, they are not confidential, they can't be kept confidential, nor should they be. . . . It is inconsistent with the purposes of a university to keep confidential any records of research activity-or any other records for that matter.")

The staff member found most of the material about the contract rather dull going, but one memo, written by Low to university officials on August 9, 1966, contained a few fresh details. The memo, labeled "Some Thoughts on the ufo Project," had been written before the contract was signed. In it, Low said: "... Our study would be conducted almost exclusively by nonbelievers who, although they couldn't possibly prove a negative result, could and probably would add an impressive body of evidence that there is no reality to the observations. The trick would be, I think, to describe the project so that, to the public, it would appear a totally objective study but, to the scientific community, would present the image of a group of nonbelievers trying their best to be objective, but having an almost zero expectation of finding a saucer. One way to do this would be to stress investigation, not of the physical phenomena, but rather of the people who do the observing—the psychology and sociology of persons and groups who report seeing ufo's. If the emphasis were put here, rather than on examination of the old question of the physical reality of the saucer, I think the scientific community would quickly get the message. . . . I'm inclined to feel at this early stage that, if we set up the thing right and take pains to get the proper people involved and have success in presenting the image we want to present to the scientific community, we could carry the job off to our benefit. . . ."

When Levine read the memo, he was disturbed by the word "trick" and the phrase about making the investigation "appear a totally objective study" to the public. Others on the staff had a similar reaction.

Many staff members were also disturbed by the news that Condon had decided to attend the June Congress of "Ufologists" in New York. This was a convention of far-out supporters of undocumented and highly colorful ufo sightings.