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. 6 …the results of their analyses of the films mentioned above. This analysis evolved considerable discussion as…
  • p. 7 …A number of case histories were dis- cussed in detail and a motion picture film of…
  • p. 14 …The Panel studied these films, the case history, ATIC's interpretation, and received a briefing by…
  • p. 15 …graph plots of individual frames of the film, show- ing apparent and relative motion of objects…
  • p. 16 …h• .Analysis of light intensity of objects made from duplicate rather than original film• The original…
  • p. 17 …Hand "jitter 11 frequencies (obtainable from early part of Tremonton film) were not removed from the…
  • p. 19 …24-hour instrumentation watch (two frames of film showing nothing distinguishable) J a widespread program of…
  • p. 24 …tvhich ma0e \'Jorlci :Jar II trc.:dninp: films (motion picture anci slide strips) Nas also sue…
  • p. 26 …1vriters and a subcontractor to produce traming films vrould be necessary in addition. The Panel considered…
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Approved For RAse 2001/08/07: CIA-RDP81R00560R.100030027-0
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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

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.