Documents / FOIA release
This Central Intelligence Agency office memorandum, dated 8 August 1955 and released in 2001, went from the Chief of the Physics and Electronics Division to the Acting Assistant Director for Scientific Intelligence. It notes that the division had kept track of UFO sighting reports since 1953, spending 10 to 25 analyst hours a month on the work. Because no intelligence of concern to national security had come out of the project, the memo recommends ending it and putting its files in dead storage. A routing slip signed by Herbert Scoville approves the proposal.
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
# Approved For Release 2001/04/02 CIA RDP81R005 R000100080050-9 Office Memorandum • UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT TO : Acting Assistant Director for Scientific Intelligence DATE: AUG 8 1955 FROM : Chief, Physics and Electronics Division, SI SUBJECT: Responsibility for "Unidentified Flying Objects" (UFOBs) REFERENCES: A. Memo to Ch/P&E from AD/SI, 27 May 53,"Unidentified Flying Objects" B. Memo to AD/SI from Ch/P&E, 3 July 53, "Unidentified Flying Objects" C. Memo for the Record signed by Ch/ASD, Ch/Ops, and Ch/P&E, 14 June 54, "Intelligence Responsibilities for Non-Conventional Types of Air Vehicles" 1. By reference A, this Division was assigned "responsibility for maintaining current knowledge of sightings of unidentified flying objects." 2. By reference B, which received the concurrence of your office, this Division proposed to handle its responsibilities as follows: "a. the project will be considered as inactive a. the project will be considered as inactive b. the incoming material will be reviewed periodically to segregate references to recognizable and explainable phenomena from those which come under the definition of 'unidentified flying objects' c. all material on unidentified objects will be deposited in the files for future reference unless it raises an immediately recognizable problem of concern to national security." 3. Reference C clarified but did not reduce the responsibility of this Division on the subject project. 4. Since the issuance of Reference A, the responsibility delineated in par. 2b, above, has required between 10 and 25 analyst hours per month and the responsibilities under par. 2c, above, about half that much clerical time.
Not linked to a story yet.
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. 3 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.