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Official reports, hearing transcripts, case files and releases: the paper behind the cases. 2,872 documents, 2,610 mirrored with their text, 53,529 pages indexed, so a search reads inside them and lands on the page.
New in the library The PURSUE files The Department of War's UAP release, mirrored in full: the videos, recordings and images, each beside its case file.Documents2,872 records · page 3
This CIA memorandum for record, dated 3 December 1952 and filed by OSI, describes meetings at MIT on flying saucers. The writer briefed Julius Stratton, Max Millikan, Lloyd Berkner and Jerrold Zacharias on recent cases, including the Limestone Base case, the Florida scoutmaster case and the Utah motion pictures. Stratton urged an investigation, possibly through Project LINCOLN or Cal Tech. The memo concludes that full DCI backing would probably be needed to secure Air Force cooperation for a scientific review.
These are the minutes of the Central Intelligence Agency's Intelligence Advisory Committee meeting held on 4 December 1952, chaired by Acting Deputy Director (Intelligence) Robert Amory, Jr. The committee approved NIE-70 on Latin America and took up Unidentified Flying Objects after Dr. Chadwell reviewed the evidence, most of it processed by ATIC. The Director of Central Intelligence was to enlist selected scientists immediately to review the evidence and to draft a proposed NSCID authorizing coordination with other agencies.
This FBI memorandum from V. P. Keay reports on an Intelligence Advisory Committee meeting on December 4, 1952, which the Bureau's Liaison Section attended. At the meeting, members heard that a German atomic scientist's theory had spurred British intelligence interest, and that a recent sighting in Africa suggested the saucers were a scientific development and not meteorological phenomena. Military members proposed a scientific study. The release includes a 1984 CIA letter returning sanitized copies under FOIA exemption (b)(3).
This is a Central Intelligence Agency memorandum dated 9 December 1952, sent by H. U. Graham to DAD/SI. It records an interview with Irving Weston of the FCC's Field Engineering and Monitoring Division. Weston said the Commission knew of no unexplained radio signals that might be connected with flying saucers. The memo describes the FCC's 12 full-time and 6 part-time monitoring stations and their limited coverage of VHF. It also describes the FCC's file of reported intercepts, and it notes that the discussion was classified Secret.
These are CIA minutes of a Deputies' Meeting held on Wednesday, 10 December 1952, with General Smith, Mr. Dulles, Mr. Wisner and other senior officials present. General Smith asked Mr. Amory to write a short memorandum on flying saucers, about three paragraphs, so that he could discuss the subject with the President on 12 December. The rest of the minutes cover other business, including a Joint Chiefs clandestine operating committee, propaganda about the Rosenbergs' sentence, a possible defection at the UN and CAT aircraft transport.
This 1952 memorandum to the Director of Central Intelligence comes from H. Marshall Chadwell, the CIA's Assistant Director for Scientific Intelligence. It answers the Director's request of 10 December 1952 and summarizes recent unidentified flying object incidents. These include the Tremonton, Utah sighting of 2 July 1952, a brilliant light over the Maine coast, and an alleged ground contact in Florida. It also reports plans with Dr. H. P. Robertson to form a panel of top scientists to review the subject within weeks.
This declassified Central Intelligence Agency record gives the minutes of a Deputies' Meeting held on Friday, 12 December 1952 with General Smith presiding. General Smith said a memorandum from AD/SI on flying saucers lacked the information he wanted. Chadwell and another official were attending an Air Technical Intelligence Committee meeting at Wright-Patterson Field that day, so the Director agreed to delay reporting to the President on flying saucers until 19 December. The FBI also asked to be kept informed, and the meeting took up personnel matters, the Rosenberg matter and Mussadiq's negotiations with the USSR.
This is a CIA Office of Scientific Intelligence file from December 1952 on unidentified flying objects. It includes memoranda to the Director of Central Intelligence from Assistant Director H. Marshall Chadwell, a letter from Thornton Page to H. P. Robertson, and F. C. Durant's note of a call with Captain Edward Ruppelt. The file says there is still no reasonable evidence that the objects are of foreign origin. It plans a small consultant panel and reviews the Tremonton film, the Presque Isle and Limestone lights, and the Florida scoutmaster case.
This declassified Central Intelligence Agency document is the official diary of the Acting Deputy Director for Intelligence for Tuesday, 16 December 1952. It records the day's meetings, including preparations for briefings in New York and at the White House, a draft of remarks for the JCS, and an NSC senior staff meeting on proceedings against international oil companies. One entry asks for a report on a flying saucer investigation for a White House talk. It notes the investigator was less alarmed because one of the hardest sightings to disprove had turned out to be Jupiter.
This Central Intelligence Agency memorandum, dated 18 December 1952 and issued by the Assistant Director for Scientific Intelligence, reports on unidentified flying objects. It summarizes lab analysis of a 2 July 1952 film from Utah that shows about ten bright objects, which the analysts judged very unlikely to be birds or balloons. It also covers a sighting that was matched to the planet Jupiter and a scoutmaster's disputed report from West Palm Beach. It concludes that the sightings pose no direct threat but carry potential dangers, including mass hysteria and overloaded communications systems.
This Central Intelligence Agency file, dated 29 December 1952, holds a thank-you letter from H. Marshall Chadwell to Professor J. Allen Hynek of Ohio State University. With it is Hynek's earlier letter to Chadwell, which puts in writing the astronomical calculations he had first given by telephone. Hynek concludes that a theodolite sighting made from Limestone and Presque Isle was the planet Jupiter. He bases this on how closely its position and its rates of motion matched the computed ones. Chadwell writes that he agrees with the findings.
This memorandum, dated 17 December 1953, went from the CIA's Chief of the Physics and Electronics Division, Office of Scientific Intelligence, to the Assistant Director for Scientific Intelligence. It reports the status of the unidentified flying objects project, which had been limited to following other agencies' work and keeping files. It says Air Force interest was declining and that ATIC's Project Bluebook had only a small staff and no longer did field investigations. About ten percent of sightings were unsolved, and Bluebook was being transferred to Air Defense Command.
This declassified CIA document, released through The Black Vault, reports on the meetings of the Scientific Advisory Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects, which the Office of Scientific Intelligence convened on January 14 to 18, 1953. It includes a history of the sessions and the panel's informal comments, and it appends the formal report signed by H. P. Robertson and others. The panel found no evidence of a direct threat to national security. It recommended stripping UFOs of their special status and starting a public education program.
This declassified file from the U.S. Department of War, dated March 1953, contains a Secretary of Defense routing slip and a 13 March 1953 CIA cover letter from Richard D. Drain of the Intelligence Advisory Committee. The letter sends the Secretary of Defense a report by a panel of scientists on "Unidentified Flying Objects." General Smith convened the panel. The letter says its conclusions point to potential dangers to national security, including the cultivation of a morbid national psychology that hostile propaganda could exploit.
This Central Intelligence Agency office memorandum, dated 9 February 1953 from the Chief of the Contact Division to the Assistant for Operations, OSI, reports remarks by Dr. Walter Riedel, a former Peenemuende rocket designer, on the California Committee for Saucer Investigation. The group had received about 1570 sighting letters and judged perhaps 25 reliable, forwarding most to Wright Field. It also planned a test hoax over Los Angeles, and the memo suggests the Malibu sightings reported on 30 January 1953 could have been that hoax.
This undated Central Intelligence Agency paper, released under the title "National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP)", describes how the private group was run. It names Stuart Nixon as Executive Director and describes an Editorial Review Board and an advisory group that includes former CIA and Defense Intelligence people. It also covers a regional network of about 35 investigators, a $40,000 budget with 3,500 members, and a planned computer project called Project Access to analyse more than 15,000 reports.
This Central Intelligence Agency memorandum by F. C. Durant reports on the January 1953 meetings of the Office of Scientific Intelligence Scientific Advisory Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects, chaired by Dr. H. P. Robertson. It covers the history of the sessions and the panel members' comments on individual cases, radar interference, instrumentation and an educational program. The panel concluded unanimously that the sightings showed no direct threat to national security. It recommended training and public education to strip UFOs of their special status.
This Central Intelligence Agency information report (No. 00-W-25291), distributed 9 February 1953, compiles unevaluated French-language newspaper items published from July to November 1952. It covers sightings over Dakar, Oran, Algiers, Corsica and the Algerian coast. It also describes a formation of 16 disks seen by about 100 residents of Gaillac, Tarn, who reported falling glass-wool-like particles. The Algerian weather bureau chief attributed the Algiers sightings to weather balloons. The report ends with Rudolf Schriever's West German patent application for a flying saucer.
This undated Central Intelligence Agency letter from Philip G. Strong, Deputy Assistant Director, to Dr. Lloyd V. Berkner is about the Scientific Advisory Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects that met in January 1953. It says the Air Force asked for the panel's conclusions to be declassified for press use. Strong, Robertson and Goudsmit agree to release only certain paragraphs and want the Agency's link to the panel kept secret. Strong asks for Berkner's view and whether his name may be used.
This Central Intelligence Agency memorandum for record, dated 2 January 1953 and written by the Office of Scientific Intelligence, covers a phone call with Dr. John A. Wheeler at Princeton. The CIA had wanted him as a consultant on the "flying saucer" problem, but his AEC work prevented it. Wheeler suggested two foreign scientists, the aurora expert Dr. Chapman and Dr. Hannes Alfven. He thought they might be used through a cut-out if a scientific attack on the problem was warranted.
This Central Intelligence Agency release, dated 2 January 1953, is a letter from Assistant Director H. Marshall Chadwell to MIT Provost Julius Stratton. It says the Intelligence Advisory Committee recommended that CIA convene a panel of scientists on unidentified flying objects, and that CIA concurs with the panel's report, which is enclosed. The file also includes a 27 January 1953 memo on the advisory group's 14 to 17 January meetings. That memo reports the finding that the objects pose no threat to national security and that education programs were recommended.
This Central Intelligence Agency document, dated 3 January 1953, records the comments and suggestions of the Scientific Advisory Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects, which met 14 to 17 January 1953. The panel reviewed case histories including Tremonton, Great Falls, Washington and Haneda and concluded that it found no evidence of a direct threat to national security or of extraterrestrial origin. It rejected the Navy's analysis of the Tremonton film and recommended an educational program of training and debunking, supported by ATIC.
This Central Intelligence Agency file sends the Intelligence Advisory Committee the report of the Scientific Advisory Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects, which met 14 to 17 January 1953 under H. P. Robertson. The panel found no evidence of a direct threat to national security or of hostile foreign artifacts. It said that continued emphasis on UFO reporting could clog communication channels, and it recommended stripping the subject of its special status. The file also lists the evidence reviewed and the participants, and records CIA's conclusion that no NSCID was warranted.
This Central Intelligence Agency memo records the January 14 to 17, 1953 meeting of an ad hoc panel of scientific consultants, chaired by Dr. Robertson and including Alvarez, Goudsmit, Page and Hynek, convened to review the UFO problem. It lists the OSI staff and Air Force and Navy personnel present. The stated conclusions are that there was no evidence of a physical threat or of unknown scientific principles, and that UFOs were not of direct intelligence interest. They were of operational interest because of risks to air defense and of enemy psychological warfare.
This undated Central Intelligence Agency document, filed with a date of 4 January 1953, assesses the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP). It describes the group as a loose but efficient structure led by Executive Director Stuart Nixon. The group has an Editorial Review Board, an advisory group that includes some ex-CIA and Defense Intelligence members, and about 35 regional investigators. It also notes NICAP's $40,000 budget, its 3,500 members and a planned computer pattern-analysis effort called Project Access, meant to cover its 15,000 or more reports.
This undated CIA letter from Deputy Assistant Director Philip G. Strong to Dr. Lloyd V. Berkner concerns the Scientific Advisory Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects, which the Agency set up in January 1953 with H. P. Robertson as chairman. The Air Force had asked for the panel's conclusions to be declassified for press use. Strong says the CIA and panel members agree to release only some paragraphs, and that the Agency's link to the panel should not be disclosed. He asks Berkner whether his name may be used.
This Central Intelligence Agency memorandum for record, signed by F. C. Durant of the Office of Scientific Intelligence, records a briefing on unidentified flying objects given to the Board of National Estimates (ONE) on 29 January. P. G. Strong presented a history of O/SI interest and action on the subject and showed motion picture films of sightings at Tremonton, Utah, and Great Falls, Montana. The Board had already received the Scientific Advisory Panel report, and the briefing served as background for an ATIC briefing on 30 January.
This Central Intelligence Agency memorandum from the Assistant Director, Scientific Intelligence, to the Director of Central Intelligence, dated January 1953, asks permission to hire Dr. Luis W. Alvarez and Dr. Thornton Page as ad hoc consultants to the O/SI Advisory Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects, which was to convene on 14 January 1953. It describes Alvarez as a radar expert and Page as an astronomer who had studied the subject. It proposes paying each $50 per day. The request was approved subject to security clearance.
This Central Intelligence Agency memorandum, dated 5 January 1953 and sent from the Chief, FEIS to Bureau Chiefs, passes along to the field a summary of conclusions from a panel of Scientific Consultants. The panel found no evidence that Unidentified Flying Objects pose a direct physical threat to national security or call for revising scientific concepts. It warned that continued reporting could clog communications and breed public hysteria. It recommended stripping the objects of their special status and educating the public.
This undated Central Intelligence Agency letter from Deputy Assistant Director Philip G. Strong to Dr. Thornton Page of Johns Hopkins University concerns an Air Force request to declassify the conclusions of the January 1953 Scientific Advisory Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects, chaired by H. P. Robertson. Strong writes that Robertson and Goudsmit agree to release only the conclusion in paragraph 2 and the recommendation in paragraph 4a. He adds that the Panel's link to the Agency should not be disclosed, and he asks for Page's views, including on whether panel members' names may be used.
This Central Intelligence Agency memorandum for record, dated 6 January 1953, records a telephone call to Dr. John A. Wheeler at Princeton about a possible consultant role in the CIA's study of the "flying saucer" problem. The CIA told Wheeler that his urgent AEC work on MATTERHORN ruled out the role for now. Wheeler said he would still discuss the matter. He suggested two foreign scientists, Dr. Chapman, an aurora authority, and Dr. Hannes Alfven, who might be used through a "cut out".
This Central Intelligence Agency memorandum to the Director of Central Intelligence, dated 9 January 1953, asks permission to engage Dr. Luis W. Alvarez and Dr. Thornton Page as ad hoc consultants. They would serve on the Office of Scientific Intelligence Advisory Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects, which was scheduled to convene on 14 January 1953. The memo cites a December 1952 IAC decision to enlist scientists to review UFO evidence. It proposes paying each consultant $50 per day, and approval is subject to security clearance.
This undated CIA letter from Philip G. Strong, Deputy Assistant Director, to Dr. Thornton Page of Johns Hopkins University concerns an Air Force request to declassify the conclusions of the January 1953 Scientific Advisory Panel on UFOs, chaired by H. P. Robertson, so the Air Force could use them in the press. Strong writes that Robertson, Goudsmit and the Agency support releasing only some paragraphs and want the Panel's link to the CIA withheld. He asks Page for his view and whether the members' names may be used.
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.
This Central Intelligence Agency document, dated 21 January 1953, records the comments and suggestions of the Scientific Advisory Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects, which met from 14 to 17 January 1953. The panel found no evidence of a direct threat to national security and no evidence linking sightings to space travelers. It rejected the Navy's analysis of the Tremonton film and recommended an educational program of training and debunking. It also listed the evidence the panel reviewed.
This Central Intelligence Agency memorandum, typed 12 February 1953, records the meeting of an ad hoc panel of scientific consultants convened on January 14, 1953 to review the UFO problem. It lists the panel, including Dr. Robertson, Dr. Luis Alvarez, Dr. S. Goudsmit, Dr. Thornton Page and Dr. J.A. Hynek, along with the OSI staff and Air Force and Navy advisers who attended. The panel concluded that UFOs posed no physical threat to US security and showed no evidence of unknown scientific principles. They were of operational interest only because of risks to air defense and possible enemy psychological warfare.
This Central Intelligence Agency letter, dated 27 January 1953, is from Assistant Director H. Marshall Chadwell to Dr. Julius A. Stratton, Provost of MIT. It explains that CIA gathered a panel of scientists to study unidentified flying objects and says the agency agrees with the panel's conclusions. It adds that CIA's interest in the subject was kept restricted. Attached material includes a memo on the Advisory Group chaired by Dr. H. P. Robertson, which found the objects pose no threat to United States security. The panel's charge and a list of possible explanations are also attached.
This Central Intelligence Agency file pairs a letter dated 28 January 1953 from H. Marshall Chadwell to H. P. Robertson of the California Institute of Technology with Robertson's own letter of 20 January 1953. Chadwell says a copy of the Panel report, lists of personnel and the evidence received are being forwarded to Robertson, and that the report is going up the chain with his office's concurrence. Robertson's letter says he hopes the report will take care of the Forteans for a while and proposes dates for a possible rump Panel meeting.
This CIA memorandum for record, dated 30 January 1953, documents a briefing on unidentified flying objects given to the ONE Board on 29 January by P. G. Strong, assisted by F. C. Durant. The briefing covered the history of O/SI interest and action on the subject and showed motion picture films of sightings at Tremonton, Utah, and Great Falls, Montana. The Board had already received copies of the Scientific Advisory Panel's report. The briefing was background ahead of an ATIC briefing that ONE had requested for 30 January.
This CIA Office of Scientific Intelligence memo by F. C. Durant, dated 31 March 1953, reports that the Office of Current Intelligence is no longer following UFO reports. It proposes that O/SI keep watch on the subject by naming David E. Stevenson of the Applied Science Division as action man, routing future UFO messages to him, and transferring the O/CI files, most of which Durant recommends destroying. Panel Reports are noted as held in the Operations Staff office.
This Central Intelligence Agency memorandum, dated 6 February 1953 and titled Unidentified Flying Objects, passes a summary to the field as research information. It restates the conclusions of a panel of scientific consultants: the objects show no sign of a direct physical threat to national security. The panel adds that continued emphasis on reports could clog communications and hide real hostile action. It recommends removing the objects' special status and aura of mystery, and setting up training and public education programs.
This Central Intelligence Agency office memorandum, dated 9 February 1953 and sent from the Chief of the Contact Division, reports remarks by Dr. Walter Riedel on the California Committee for Saucer Investigation. Riedel was a former German rocket designer now working at North American Aviation. The memo says the private group had received about 1,570 sighting letters and judged roughly 25 of them reliable and unexplained. It adds that the group planned a test hoax over Los Angeles to measure how the public reports aerial phenomena.
This Central Intelligence Agency compilation, dated 9 February 1953, collects translated press reports of unconventional aircraft from French Africa, Corsica and Western Europe in 1952. It covers sightings over Dakar, Oran, Corsica and the Algerian coast, and about 100 witnesses at Gaillac, Tarn, who saw 16 disks and a cigar shedding glass-wool-like particles. The director of the Algerian weather bureau attributed the Algiers saucers to weather balloons. The compilation also notes Rudolf Schriever's West German patent application for a flying saucer.
This Central Intelligence Agency memorandum, from Frederick C. Durant to the Assistant Director for Scientific Intelligence and dated 16 February 1953, is the report on the Office of Scientific Intelligence Scientific Advisory Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects, which met January 14 to 18, 1953, under Dr. H. P. Robertson. It gives a history of the meetings and the panel members' comments on cases such as Tremonton and Great Falls. The panel found no direct threat to national security and recommended an educational program to strip UFOs of their special status.
This Central Intelligence Agency Intelligence Advisory Committee document, IAC-D-67, is dated 18 February 1953 and signed by Secretary James Q. Reber. It transmits the report of the Scientific Advisory Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects, chaired by H. P. Robertson, which met 14 to 17 January 1953. The panel found no evidence of inimical forces behind the phenomena. It recommended stripping UFOs of their special status and educating the public. CIA concluded that no National Security Council Intelligence Directive was warranted. The document includes the list of evidence and participants.
This Central Intelligence Agency item for the Director's Log, signed by Richard D. Drain, Secretary of the Intelligence Advisory Committee, reports that Federal Civil Defense Administration Administrator Peterson wrote the IAC on 18 April. His letter concerned the report of a panel of scientific consultants on unidentified flying objects, which had been sent to FCDA on 13 March under IAC-D-67. Peterson expressed interest and proposed a conference. The matter was referred to OSI to arrange CIA assistance.
This Central Intelligence Agency memorandum for record, signed by Philip G. Strong, Acting Deputy Assistant Director for Scientific Intelligence, and dated 23 April 1953, concerns a meeting with the Federal Civil Defense Administration proposed in a letter from Val Peterson. Strong says Ted Babbitt would ask whether the meeting could be held on April 30. Mr. Clark would represent OSI, accompanied by Dr. H. P. Robertson, who had chaired the Panel. The meeting's location would depend on whether Governor Peterson attended in person.
This Central Intelligence Agency memorandum for record, signed by Philip G. Strong, Acting Deputy Assistant Director for Scientific Intelligence, and dated 24 April 1953, sets up a meeting with the FCDA. Ted Babbitt reported that any time on 30 April would suit. Governor Peterson would not attend because of a White House commitment and named John deChant, Ralph E. Spear, Ted Babbitt and possibly one more person to go in his place. The memo does not describe any sightings.
This Central Intelligence Agency release pairs a cover memo dated 12 March 1953 from the Secretary of the Intelligence Advisory Committee with the report of the Scientific Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects, chaired by Dr. H. P. Robertson. The panel met in January 1953 and reviewed evidence gathered mainly by the Air Technical Intelligence Center. It found no direct physical threat to national security and no sign of foreign hostile artifacts. It recommended stripping UFOs of their special status and aura of mystery.
This 1953 letter from Richard D. Drain, Secretary of the CIA's Intelligence Advisory Committee, sends the Secretary of Defense a report by a panel of scientists on unidentified flying objects. The panel met 14 to 17 January 1953 and found no evidence that the phenomena posed a direct physical threat or were foreign artifacts. It warned that the reports themselves could clog communications and recommended stripping UFOs of their special status. It also recommended public education. Attachments list the panel members, the interviewees and the evidence reviewed.