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CIA-RDP81R00560R000100030027-0

Internet Archive (uploaded by Emma Best) · 2017 · 28 pages · text by GLM-OCR

This declassified CIA memorandum, dated 16 February 1953, reports on the Office of Scientific Intelligence Scientific Advisory Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects, which met January 14 to 18, 1953. It gives a session-by-session history of the meetings, along with panel comments left out of the formal report, including a critique of the Navy's analysis of the Tremonton film. The appended panel report, signed by chairman H. P. Robertson and others, found no direct threat to national security. It recommended stripping UFOs of their special status and starting a public education and debunking program.

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# Approved For Release 2001/08/07 : CIA-RDP81R00560R0

## POTENTIAL RELATED DANGERS

The Panel Members were in agreement with O/SI opinion that, although evidence of any direct threat from these sightings was wholly lacking, related dangers might well exist resulting from:

a. Misidentification of actual enemy artifacts by defense personnel.

b. Overloading of emergency reporting channels with "false" information ("noise to signal ratio" analogy-

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c. Subjectivity of public to mass hysteria and greater vulnerability to possible enemy psychological warfare.

Although not the concern of CIA, the first two of these problems may seriously affect the Air Defense intelligence system, and should be studied by experts, possibly under ADC. If. U.F.O.'s become discredited in a reaction to the "flying saucer" scare, or if reporting channels are saturated with false and poorly documented reports, our capability of detecting hostile activity will be reduced. Dr. Page noted that more competent screening or filtering of reported sightings at or near the source is required, and that this can best be accomplished by an educational program.

## GEOGRAPHIC LOCATIONS OF UNEXPLAINED SIGHTINGS

The map prepared by ATIC showing geographic locations of officially reported unexplained sightings (1952 only) was examined by the Panel. This map showed clusters in certain strategic areas such as Los Alamos. This might be explained on the basis of 24-hour watchful guard and

Cases discussed

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Document, cited by the archive. 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. 28 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.