UFO HUSH BLAMED ON CIA MEN

Document Type: 
Collection: 
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 
CIA-RDP75-00001R000200450001-6
Release Decision: 
RIPPUB
Original Classification: 
K
Document Page Count: 
1
Document Creation Date: 
November 11, 2016
Document Release Date: 
February 2, 1999
Sequence Number: 
1
Case Number: 
Publication Date: 
October 7, 1966
Content Type: 
NSPR
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PDF icon CIA-RDP75-00001R000200450001-6.pdf98.99 KB
Body: 
ARIZOIIA RIB C P, CT 7 196b uy vO THOMAS C PYRG+ITu''"L , rizona Bureau p tte ase commander, 'and he assed it on to the CIA. which lassified the reporl again," fcDonald said. he CIA's stated reason for I bunking flying saucer reports, cording to McDonald, was thatlc UL-5'U- Unidentified ;dying objects seen over the United States for the past 7.8 years may be visitors from outer space here on reconnaissance missions, an eminent University of Aria rona physicist said yester- day. Dr. James E. McDonald, ;.senior physicist in the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the u.tiversity, said he reluctantly; ith less official recognition of f FOs there would be a corre- nding drop in public interest d there would be fewer report- sightings. The CIA also said in the de- nking order that civilian UFO PYRGHT et, are here on peaceful re- aissance missions. at would explain the "buz- incidents, the hovering of flybys of aircraft," McDon- theorized. e said the outer space idea `the least unacceptable ex- ii-based Aerial Phenomena Re- arch Organization (APRO) ould be kept under surveil- ace because they might be Ibversive. . has accepted the extraterres- Speaking before a group of trial theory aI.. r intensive re- search into UFOs. In addition, Dr. McDonald charged that the Central In- telligence Agency has ordered all reports of UFOs to be offi- cially "debm.:ced" by the Air Force. In the 'process of his re- search at Project Blue Book headquarters at Wright - Pat- terson AFB, Ohio, where the Air Force compiles reports of saucer sightings, McDonald. . , wa.s inadvertently permitted to i they are from some. other see the classified CIA order. It was attached to the Robert son Report, a government-spon~ aored investigation of the UFO problem by a group of respected scientists. The Robertson Report, named after its chairman, Cal Tech 'physicist H. P. Robertson, is also classified and has been so' at CIA request since the report was completed in 1957. CIA agent P. G. Strong, who' signed the secrecy order, said the UFOs must be debunked be cause widespread reports of, their sightings "were clogging, up intelligence channels,", ac- -cording to McDonald. ctually closer to 50 per cent. ) r Force investigators try er balloons,. birds, inversion] FOIAb3b layers, clouds, reflected Iights1 or aircraft. "But too many of the reports are from credible, trained ob- servors who do not seek publi-I city or gain, and these repor are not being throughly investits - gated," he said. He scored the Air Force for enforcing a regulation that makes it a crime for airmen, to report UFO sightings to ficial silence about radar ob- servations, visual sightings by pilots and detection by space apparatus One of the world's leading i atmospheric physicists," Mc-'. . Donald said he casually asked. Project Blue nook personnel., at Wright-Patterson if he could see the Robertson Report. elease 1999/09/07 CIA-RDP75-00001 R000200450001-6 proved_For_F~eWleYafgi99/09/07: CIA-RDP7 ~'' ied on the spot and I 'was per - Q.ti s titled t d 't 1 re k o f , t alt(. ma e otes. When I returned three ionths later I asked k) make ' f crox copies of the report. A he e request bounced a to t' ysic students and members the faculty yesterday, McDon- d-said there is quite strong ter space. "I haven't the slightest idea said. "They don't fit any f rm that we know here on rth. The only thing that can f the known evidence is that theses that he has rejected) traveling, extra-sensoiy~this has resulted in a vast of. hysteria, misinterpreted al phenomena, secret ad- aircraft, secret societies, messengers of salvation. cDonald said the Air Force failed in the job of col-; ing and correctly investigat-I is say that 95 per cent of S can be explained, while r -cent of the sightings defy t UFOs are extraterrestrial."?Jis e said the patterns of sight- i s suggest that the saucers,Ih