Document · D-004
CIA's Role in the Study of UFOs, 1947–90 (Gerald Haines, 1997), with the 1953 Robertson Panel
CIA's Role in the Study of UFOs, 1947–90
CIA – Center for the Study of Intelligence (journal Studies in Intelligence) · 1997 · USA · Report
Original available
PDF read on the CIA's official website; the quotations were also checked against the copy on the Federation of American Scientists site. The original Durant report was not opened: the link to the CIA reading room given by AARO leads to the site's home page.
- What it contains
- It reconstructs the CIA's interest in UFOs from 1947 to 1990, including the Robertson Panel convened in January 1953 and known from the Durant report of the following February: the panel recommended downplaying the subject (debunking) with a public education campaign through the media, advertising and even Disney, and monitoring civilian UFO research groups. It also reports that, according to CIA officials, flights of the U-2 and OXCART reconnaissance aircraft accounted for more than half of the reports between the late 1950s and the 1960s, and that the Air Force made “misleading and deceptive” statements to the public in order not to reveal them.
- What it shows and what it does not
- It is an official source that documents two often-cited facts: the 1953 recommendation to reduce public interest in UFOs and the misleading statements used to cover up the spy flights. It therefore shows that the authorities misled the public to protect secret human programs; it contains no indication of non-human craft or bodies and does not show that the same logic applies to the retrieval programs hypothesized today.
- How it came to light
- Published in 1997 by CIA historian Gerald Haines in the in-house journal Studies in Intelligence, in an unclassified version; it is now on the CIA website.
- The document
- Open the document (cia.gov)
Sources
- CIA – page of Haines's article in Studies in Intelligence (1997) (primary source)
- Federation of American Scientists – copy of Haines's text (other)
- Wikipedia – Robertson Panel (other)
On this site
People 2
Claims 2
- David Grusch: Argues that for decades U.S. authorities deliberately discredited the phenomenon: he cites a 1971 Australian… Partly verified
- David Grusch: Maintains that for decades a disinformation campaign has been underway to reduce public interest in the… Unverifiable
Timeline 2
- Jan 1953: The Robertson Panel, convened by the CIA, recommends “debunking” UFOs
- 1997: A CIA study documents misleading statements made to cover for the U-2
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