Report of the Scientific Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects, 17 January 1953, with TAB A, TAB B, covering letter of 12 March 1953 and two handwritten notes

“Assistant Deputy Director/Intelligence, has asked me to forward to you for your information the enclosed report ‘Report of the Scientific Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects’, dated January 17, 1953. This report was prepared by a panel convened in January 1953 at the direction of the former Director of Central Intelligence, General Walter B. Smith, with the concurrence of the Intelligence Advisory Committee. Copies are being transmitted to the Secretary of Defense; the Director, Federal Civil Defense Administration; and the Chairman, National Security Resources Board.”

GIVES THE REPORT'S DATE, WHICH IS NOT THE SAME FACT AS THE MEETING DATES. This letter records the enclosed report as "dated January 17, 1953". An earlier version of this note called that evidence in an open conflict with the Durant Report's "January 14-18, 1953". It is not: the Durant Report is titled "REPORT OF MEETINGS" and describes the sitting, while this letter describes a document. The panel met 14 to 18 January and its report was dated the 17th, four days in. Nothing on the robertsonpanel node was changed then and nothing is changed now - the dates there have always been 1953-01-14 to 1953-01-18.

“Pursuant to the request of the Assistant Director for Scientific Intelligence, the undersigned Panel of Scientific Consultants has met to evaluate any possible threat to national security posed by Unidentified Flying Objects (‘Flying Saucers’), and to make recommendations thereon. The Panel has received the evidence as presented by cognizant intelligence agencies, primarily the Air Technical Intelligence Center, and has reviewed a selection of the best documented incidents. As a result of its considerations, the Panel concludes: a. That the evidence presented on Unidentified Flying Objects shows no indication that these phenomena constitute a direct physical threat to national security. We firmly believe that there is no residuum of cases which indicates phenomena which are attributable to foreign artifacts capable of hostile acts, and that there is no evidence that the phenomena indicate a need for the revision of current scientific concepts.”

THE PAGE CARRIES THE DATE STAMP "JAN 17 1953" beside the title. That stamp is on the report itself, not on a cover sheet, and is one of the four statements of 17 January added by this apply.

“The Panel further concludes: a. That the continued emphasis on the reporting of these phenomena does, in these parlous times, result in a threat to the orderly functioning of the protective organs of the body politic. We cite as examples the clogging of channels of communication by irrelevant reports, the danger of being led by continued false alarms to ignore real”

THE QUOTE BREAKS MID-SENTENCE AT THE FOOT OF PDF 2 and continues on PDF 3, where it completes as "indications of hostile action, and the cultivation of a morbid national psychology in which skillful hostile propaganda could induce hysterical behavior and harmful distrust of duly constituted authority." That continuation is recorded as its own passage rather than silently joined across the page break.

“indications of hostile action, and the cultivation of a morbid national psychology in which skillful hostile propaganda could induce hysterical behavior and harmful distrust of duly constituted authority. In order most effectively to strengthen the national facilities for the timely recognition and the appropriate handling of true indications of hostile action, and to minimize the concomitant dangers alluded to above, the Panel recommends: a. That the national security agencies take immediate steps to strip the Unidentified Flying Objects of the special status they have been given and the aura of mystery they have unfortunately acquired; b. That the national security agencies institute policies on intelligence, training, and public education designed to prepare the material defenses and the morale of the country to recognize most promptly and to react most effectively to true indications of hostile intent or action.”

THIS IS THE SIGNED RECOMMENDATION, AND IT DOES NOT SAY "DEBUNKING". The word does not appear anywhere in this two-page report. "Training and debunking" and "the reduction in public interest in flying saucers" are in the DURANT REPORT, the record of the meetings, held here as cia-rdp81r00560r000100030027-0. Anything this project says about a debunking programme must cite Durant and not this page.

“/s/ H. P. Robertson, Chairman, California Institute of Technology; /s/ Luis W. Alvarez, University of California; /s/ Lloyd V. Berkner, Associated Universities, Inc.; /s/ S. A. Goudsmit, Brookhaven National Laboratories; /s/ Thornton Page, Johns Hopkins University”

CONFORMED SIGNATURES, NOT INK. Each name is typed under a "/s/" mark on a typed rule, which is how a file copy records a signature that was applied to another copy. This page is evidence that the report was signed by these five and is not itself the sheet they signed.

“MEMBERS: Dr. H. P. Robertson (Chairman), California Institute of Technology, physics, weapons systems; Dr. Luis W. Alvarez, University of California, physics, radar; Dr. Lloyd V. Berkner, Associated Universities, Inc., geophysics; Dr. Samuel Goudsmit, Brookhaven National Laboratories, atomic structure, statistical problems; Dr. Thornton Page, Office of Research Operations, Johns Hopkins University, astronomy, astrophysics. ASSOCIATE MEMBERS: Dr. J. Allen Hynek, Ohio State University, astronomy; Mr. Frederick C. Durant, Arthur D. Little, Inc., rockets, guided missiles. INTERVIEWEES: Brig. Gen. William M. Garland, Commanding General, ATIC; Dr. H. Marshall Chadwell, Assistant Director, O/SI, CIA; Mr. Ralph L. Clark, Deputy Assistant Director, O/SI, CIA”

THE HEADING READS "14 - 17 January 1953", and that is what a tab attached to a report dated 17 January must say. This is the panel's own roster page, bound inside a report bearing that date; it could not have listed a session held on the 18th, because when it was typed the 18th had not happened. An earlier version of this note offered it as one of "four statements of 14-17" weighing against the Durant Report. It weighs nothing against it. Durant is titled "REPORT OF MEETINGS" and gives the sitting as 14 to 18 January; this page gives the report's date. See the caution on this document.

“INTERVIEWEES (cont'd): Mr. Philip G. Strong, Chief, Operations Staff, O/SI, CIA; Mr. Stephen T. Possony, Acting Chief, Special Study Group, D/I USAF; Capt. Edward J. Ruppelt, USAF, Chief, Aerial Phenomena Branch, ATIC, USAF; Mr. J. Dewey Fournet, Jr., The Ethyl Corporation; Lt. R. S. Neasham, USN, USN Photo Interpretation Laboratory, Anacostia; Mr. Harry Woo, USN Photo Interpretation Laboratory, Anacostia”

FOURNET IS RECORDED HERE AS "The Ethyl Corporation", not as a serving officer. He had been the Pentagon's Blue Book liaison; by January 1953 this report places him in private industry. The surname "Woo" is read off a degraded scan and is legible but not crisp.

“SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY PANEL ON UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS, 14 - 17 January 1953. EVIDENCE PRESENTED. 1. Seventy-five case histories of sightings 1951 - 1952 (selected by ATIC as those best documented). 2. ATIC Status and Progress Reports of Project GRUDGE and Project BLUE BOOK (code names for ATIC study of subject). 3. Progress Reports of Project STORK (code name for Battelle Memorial Institute contract work supporting ATIC). 4. Summary Report of Sightings at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico. 5. Report of USAF Research Center, Cambridge, Mass., Investigation of ‘Green Fireball’ Phenomena (Project TWINKLE). 6. Outline of Investigation of U.F.O.'s Proposed by Kirtland Air Force Base (Project POUNCE). 7. Motion Picture Films of sightings at Tremonton, Utah, 2 July 1952 and Great Falls, Montana, August 1950.”

THREE THINGS ON THIS PAGE BEAR ON OPEN QUESTIONS ELSEWHERE IN THIS PROJECT. Item 3 names Project STORK as Battelle contract work supporting ATIC, which is the contractor relationship behind the undetermined rights on Special Report 14. Item 5 is a contemporaneous January 1953 reference to Project TWINKLE by name, tied to the Green Fireball phenomena. Item 6 names Project POUNCE, proposed by Kirtland. The quote stops at item 7; items 8-15 are recorded in the next passage.

“8. Summary Report of 89 selected cases of sightings of various categories (Formations, Blinking Lights, Hovering, etc.). 9. Draft of manuals: ‘How to Make a FLYOBRPT’, prepared at ATIC. 10. Chart Showing Plot of Geographic Location of Unexplained Sightings in the United States during 1952. 11. Chart Showing Balloon Launching Sites in the United States. 12. Charts Showing Selected Actual Balloon Flight Paths and Relation to Reported Sightings. 13. Charts Showing Frequency of Reports of Sightings, 1948 - 1952. 14. Charts Showing Categories of Explanations of Sightings. 15. Kodachrome Transparencies of Polyethylene Film Balloons in Bright Sunlight Showing High Reflectivity.”

THE BALLOON MATERIAL IS FIVE OF THESE EIGHT ITEMS (11, 12 and 15 directly, with 10 and 14 bearing on it). What the panel was shown is a fact about the panel and is worth having separately from what the panel concluded.

“17. Intelligence Reports Relating to U.S.S.R. Interest in U. S. Sightings. 18. Samples of Official USAF Reporting Forms and Copies of Pertinent Air Force, Army and Navy Orders Relating to Subject. 19. Sample Polyethylene ‘Pillow’ Balloon (54 inches square). 20. ‘Variations in Radar Coverage’, JANP 101 (Manual illustrating unusual operating characteristics of Service radar). 21. Miscellaneous official letters and foreign intelligence reports dealing with subject. 22. Copies of popular published works dealing with subject (articles in periodicals, newspaper clippings and books).”

ITEM 16 IS NOT RECORDED, BECAUSE IT CANNOT BE READ. The top line of this page is the tail of item 16 and carries only the words "...ils in bright sunlight showing high reflectivity" - wording that duplicates item 15 on the preceding page. The head of item 16 falls in the gap between the two scanned images. This project does not hold a legible item 16 and does not guess at one.

“[REDACTED] has read report & sees nothing of significance which should be reported. To [REDACTED]”

HANDWRITING, AND ALMOST EVERYTHING ELSE ON THE PAGE IS BLACKED OUT. The FROM line, the SUBJECT line and the addressee are redacted and the DATE field is blank on the image. Nobody can be named from this page and no date can be taken from it. It is evidence that a hand wrote these words on this form; it is not a statement by the Central Intelligence Agency, and it must never be quoted as one. The form is oriented sideways in the scan and was rotated to be read.

“Mr. [REDACTED] called. He said: Mr. [REDACTED] would like to have you get someone to look over the material on the Scientific Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects. There may be something of interest there which should be reported to the [REDACTED] deputies. If there is nothing of interest in the report, just forget it and return the report to [REDACTED].”

HANDWRITING, UNDATED, EVERY NAME REDACTED. The slip carries a time - 10:50 - and no date at all, so it cannot be placed in 1953 or in any later review. The word "interest" is written above the line with a caret in "If there is nothing of interest in the report", which is how the sentence is read here. This is a note of what one person said another person said, taken down by a third; it is three removes from an agency position and must never be quoted as one.