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.

Open the PDF at page 28 Original source ↗

“Sightings”16 pages

  • p. 3 …Origin Tremonton, Utah, Sighting Potential Related Dangers Geographic Locations of Unexplained Sightings Instrumentation to Obtain Data…
  • p. 5 …In cooperation 1vi th the Air Technical Intelligence Center, case histories of reported sightings and related…
  • p. 6 …For example, case histories involving radar or radar and visual 25X1A sightings were selected for while…
  • p. 7 …instrumentation watches of patrol cameras searching for sightings of U.F.O.'s. At 1615 Brig…
  • p. 10 …Among the case histories of significant sightings discussed in detail "ivere the follmving: Bellefontaine, Ohio (1…
  • p. 11 …objects sighted• Instances of nFoo Fighters 11 were cited• These were unexplained phenomena sighted by aircraft…
  • p. 12 …It was interesting that in at least two cases reviewed that the object sighted was categorized…
  • p. 13 …Hhat they did not find vras any evidence that related the objects sighted to space travelers…
  • p. 14 …However, the Panel could not accept any of the cases sighted by him because they were…
  • p. 15 …representatives that the objects sighted were not birds, balloons or aircraft, were nnot reflections because there…
  • p. 16 …There was no valid reason for the attempt to relate theobjects in the Tremonton sighting to…
  • p. 17 …The Panel believed strongly that the data available on this sighting was sufficient for positive identification…
  • p. 18 …Page noted that more competent screening or filtering of reported sightings at or near the source…
  • p. 19 …On the other hand, there had been no sightings in the vicinity of sensitive related AE…
  • p. 20 …exposure in order to photograph an alleged sighting in a different part of the sky; This…
  • p. 27 …mc;~EfkSE IN NU1".il3F.R OF SIGHTINGS The consensus of the Panel Has, based upon…
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Approved For RAse 2001/08/07: CIA-RDP81R00560R.100030027-0
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REFORT OF THJ.:; SCIEl'::TII'IC PkNEL
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Released in MORI Jan 17 1953
l. Purcu£1nt to the requert of the Lssistant Director for
Scientific Intelligence, the unv.ersir;ned Panel of Scientific Consultcmtc h3s
met to evalu<>.te cmy possible thre2.t to national security poced by Uni.ke recor.uilE::nc~ntions thereon.
The Panel has received the evidence 2s presented by coenizant L~telli-
r;ence aeencies 1 primarily the Air Technical Intelli,:;ence Genter, anc has
revieHed a selection of the best ClocUJilented incidents.
2. As a result of itrconciferetions, the Panel conclude~:
a. Th2.t the evidence presenteci on Unidentified Flyinz
Objects shovrs no indic.:1tion thc::t these phenomena constitute
a direct physical threet to national security.
~:·e firmly believe th<:'.t there is no residuum of cases which indicates
phenomena 1-Jhich an: attributable to foreign artifacts cape.ble of hostile
acts, and. that there is no evi6ence that the phenomena indicate a need
for the revision of current scicnti:':'ic concepts.
3. ~he Penel further concludes:
a. Th;:-t the continued cr11phe.sis on the reportin[~ of
these phenomena doe:=-, in these parlous times, reE"ult in a
threat to the orderly functioninr-" of the protective organs
of the body politic.
~Je cite ap examples the clogr,inp; of channels of communication by irrelevant
reports, the danc;er of beinr. 1£ d by continued f<'1.lse alarms to ie;norc real
Approved For Release 2~ii'RDP81R00560R000100030027-0

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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.