Documents / Report
Robertson Panel Report
The Black Vault · 1953 · 29 pages · text from the file's own layer
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.
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CONVENED BY OFFICE OF SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE, CIA
January 14 - 18, 1953
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Purpose
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16 February 1953
MEMORANDUM FOR: Assistant…
- p. 5 …WEDNESDAY MORNING
The AD/SI opened the meeting, reviewing CIA interest in the
subject and action…
- p. 6 …Besides Panel members and
CIA personnel, Capt. E. J. Ruppelt, Dr. J. Allen Nynak,
Capt. Harry…
- p. 7 …Besides Panel members.and CIA personnel, Mr. Ruppelt and Dr. Hynek
were present for both sessions…
- p. 8 …Besides Panel members and CIA
personnel, Dre Hynek was present. as Panel
Member, was present at…
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conclusions reached. A…
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k. Hand "jitter 11 frequencies…
- p. 18 …Although not the concern of CIA, the first two of' these problems
may seriously affect the…
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W•ms mentioned as possibly…
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historical cases but thEC current ones. Recent…
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REFORT…
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awareness of security measures near such locations. On the other
hand, there had been no sightings in the vicinity of sensitive
related AE establishments while there were occasionally multiple
cases of unexplained sightings in non-strategic areas. FV.rthermore,
there appeared to be no logical relationship to population centers.
The Panel could find no ready explanation for these clusters. It
wo.s noted, however, that if terrestrial n.rtifacts were to be observed
it would be likely that they would be seen first near foreign areas
rather than central U. S.
INSTRUHENTATION'TO OBTAIN DATA
The Panel was of the opinion that the present ATIC program to
place 100 inexpensive 35 mm. stereo cameras in the hands of various
airport control tower operators 1vould probably produce little valu-
able data related to U.F.o. 's. HoweverJ it was recognized that
such action 1-rould tend to allay public concern in the !!Ubject until
an educational program had taken effect. It was believed that pro-
curement of these cameras was partly the result of public pressure
in July 1952. With the poor results of the year-long Project
TWINKLE program of 24-hour instrumentation watch (two frames of
film showing nothing distinguishable) J a widespread program of sky-
watching 1-rould not be expected to yeild much direct data of value.
There ~>ras considerable discussion of a possible "sky patrol 11 by
amateur astronomers (Hynek) and by ivide-angle cameras
and pointed out that at present a considerable fraction
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Cases discussed
- Foo Fighters of World War II 1944
Instances of Foo Fighters cited, WWII balls of light - The Green Fireballs over New Mexico 1948
reports of Green Fireball phenomena routed to a panel member - The Mariana UFO Film 1950
Great Falls, Montana (15 August 1950) film shown; likely aircraft reflections - The 1952 Washington, D.C. UFO Flap 1952
Washington, D.C. area (19 July 1952) discussed - Haneda AFB radar-visual sighting and F-94 intercept 1952
Haneda A.F.B., Japan (5 August 1952) discussed - Bellefontaine Radar-Visual and Gun-Camera Intercept 1952
Bellefontaine, Ohio (1 August 1952) discussed in detail - The Robertson Panel: The CIA's Secret UFO Review 1953
Scientific Advisory Panel on UFOs convened by OSI, CIA, January 14-18, 1953 - Project Blue Book Special Report No. 14: the Battelle statistical study, 1955 1955
Project STORK support at Battelle Memorial Institute described by Hynek
About this file
Report, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 29 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.