Historical Incidents & Events
Robertson Panel
1953
CIA-convened scientific panel (chaired by Caltech physicist H.P. Robertson; members Luis Alvarez, Thornton Page, Samuel Goudsmit, Lloyd Berkner) that reviewed UFO evidence over four days in January 1953 and concluded there was no evidence of extraterrestrial craft. Its recommendations - a mass-media education program to reduce public gullibility and sighting reports, and the watching of civilian UFO groups (it named APRO and the Los Angeles Civilian Flying Saucer Investigators) because of their potentially great influence on mass thinking - are the documented origin of official UFO debunking policy. Recorded by F.C. Durant (the Durant Report); convened at the urging of CIA science chief Marshall Chadwell.
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Connections (16)
panel member
Source: F.C. Durant, Report of Meetings of the OSI Scientific Advisory Panel on UFOs (Durant Report), CIA, Jan 14-18 1953
panel member
Source: F.C. Durant, Report of Meetings of the OSI Scientific Advisory Panel on UFOs (Durant Report), CIA, Jan 14-18 1953
cited its prior conclusion that UFO sightings posed no security threat
Source: CIA Robertson Panel report (1953)
panel member (absent for part of the sessions)
Source: F.C. Durant, Report of Meetings of the OSI Scientific Advisory Panel on UFOs (Durant Report), CIA, Jan 14-18 1953
secretary/rapporteur; authored the panel report (the Durant Report)
Source: F.C. Durant, Report of Meetings of the OSI Scientific Advisory Panel on UFOs (Durant Report), CIA, Jan 14-18 1953
continues the official UFO-debunking/disinformation posture the 1953 Robertson Panel first recommended (analyst note)
Source: analyst note; Greenwood & Bishop, Project Beta; R. Doty AFOSI disclosures (HuffPost 2014; The Debrief)
chaired the panel
Source: F.C. Durant, Report of Meetings of the OSI Scientific Advisory Panel on UFOs (Durant Report), CIA, Jan 14-18 1953
panel member; analyzed the Tremonton, Utah film
Source: F.C. Durant, Report of Meetings of the OSI Scientific Advisory Panel on UFOs (Durant Report), CIA, Jan 14-18 1953
the CIA science chief who convened the panel
Source: F.C. Durant, Report of Meetings of the OSI Scientific Advisory Panel on UFOs (Durant Report), CIA, Jan 14-18 1953
took part as ATIC's astronomical consultant (associate member)
Source: F.C. Durant, Report of Meetings of the OSI Scientific Advisory Panel on UFOs (Durant Report), CIA, Jan 14-18 1953
reviewed its case files and found no evidence of craft
Source: F.C. Durant, Report of Meetings of the OSI Scientific Advisory Panel on UFOs (Durant Report), CIA, Jan 14-18 1953
commissioned it weeks into his CIA tenure
Source: F.C. Durant, Report of Meetings of the OSI Scientific Advisory Panel on UFOs (Durant Report), CIA, Jan 14-18 1953
convened by the CIA's Office of Scientific Intelligence (1953)
Source: Wikipedia: Robertson Panel
his 1971 memo alleged Blue Book was a front masking deeper programs
Source: USAF Project Blue Book records; Ruppelt, Report on Unidentified Flying Objects (1956)
believed to reference the Washington meeting held days before the CIA Robertson Panel convened Jan 14, 1953
Source: Vallee, Forbidden Science; Gralien Report
presented his "motion study" concluding extraterrestrial origin, which the panel rejected
Source: F.C. Durant, Report of Meetings of the OSI Scientific Advisory Panel on UFOs (Durant Report), CIA, Jan 14-18 1953