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.

  • p. 5 …DCI, the ATIC November 21 briefing, 4 December IAC consideration, visit to ATIC (m1adwell 1 , and…
  • p. 6 …Ruppelt spoke for about 40 minutes on ATIC methods of handling and evaluating reports of sighting…
  • p. 7 …Ruppelt con- tinued his briefing on ATIC collection and analysis procedures. The Project STORK support at…
  • p. 8 …That some increase in the ATIC section devoted to U.F.o. analysis was indicated. This…
  • p. 10 …modest size and limited facilities of the ATIC section concerned. Among the case histories of significant…
  • p. 13 …sightings lends a "will- of-the-wisp) nature to the ATIC problem. The results of their…
  • p. 14 …The Panel studied these films, the case history, ATIC's interpretation, and received a briefing by…
  • p. 18 …GEOGRAPHIC LOCATIONS OF UNEXPLAINED SIGRTINGS 25X1A The map prepared by ATIC showing geogr~phic locations of…
  • p. 19 …INSTRUHENTATION'TO OBTAIN DATA The Panel was of the opinion that the present ATIC program to…
  • p. 24 …The current investip;atory r.roup 2.t ATIC uoulC:, of neceE-sity, have to be…
  • p. 25 …The Panel believed that some expansion of the ATIC effort wortld certainly be required to support…
  • p. 26 …The Panel considered that ATIC 1 s efforts, temporarily e:;;:p~nded as necessary, could be…
Approved For Reise 2001/08/07: CIA-RDP81R00560R.00030027-0
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would be the photograph:ing of "pillm·r ballooms 11 .;:tt different dist<mces
under simila.r -vreather conditions 2.t the site.
The help of one or t-vro psycholor;ists and 1vriters and a subcontractor
to produce traming films vrould be necessary in addition. The Panel
considered that ATIC 1 s efforts, temporarily e:;;:p~nded as necessary,
could be most useful in implementing any action taken as a result of
its recommendations. Experience and records in ATIC -vmuld be of value
in both the pu_blic educational Md service training program envisaged.
Dr. Robertson at least lJ<:~s of the opinion that after public gullibility
lessentSC! and the service organizations, such as ADC, had been trained
to sift out the more readily explained spurious sightinp;s, thE.re ~o·rould
still be a role for a very modest-sized ATIC section to cope ui th the
residuum of items of possible scientific intelligence value. This
section should concentrate on energetically follot-rlng up (perhaps on
the advice of qualified Air Force Scientific Advisory BoBrd members)
those cases -vrhich seemed to indicate the evicience of unconventional
enemy artifo.cts. H.eports of such artifacts woulci be expected to
arise mainly from vJestem outposts in f['.r closer proximity to the
Iron Curta~n than Luhhock, Texas 1
UNOI·Ji ICL'tL Hf\JtS'l'IGli'fiNG Gl~OUPS
The Panel took coroniz2nce of ~he e'Xistence of such p;roups as the
"Civilian Flyinc Saucer Investigators" (Los Angeles) and the 11Lcrial
Phenomena Research Orp,anization (Hisconsin). It 1-J.?s believed that
such organizations should be Hatched because of their potentially
-23-
Approved For Release 2001/08/07: CIA-RDP81R00560R000100030027-0

Cases discussed

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.