UFO'S AND THE CIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000500070002-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 6, 2004
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: April 24, 1967
• Content Type: NSPR

A c (q L,7 U O's and to
A charge by a University of Arizona physicist
_i:at the Central Intelligence Agency in 1953 re-
n:..:stcd the Air Force to adopt a policy of system-
atic "debunking of flying saucers" raises again'the
question of the role of the CIA in domestic policy-
making. The charge is made by Dr. James E. Mc-
Donald, professor of meteorology and senior
physicist at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics,
in a paper delivered to the American Meteorological
Society in Washington, D.C. Dr. McDonald, who
believes that "the least unsatisfactory hypothesis"
grout the origin of UFO's is that they are extra-
terrestriai probes, said his information on the CIA
role comes from closed-door testimony from CIA
iicals before the Robertson Panel probing UFO
reports.
he said the CIA believed that a flood of UFO
reports to U.S. Air Bases in 1952 constituted a
.:a~ional security problem because they were
"closing" military intelligence channels I and de-
,a fining too much of investigators' time. The CIA
"quest that UFO's be debunked was followed, Dr.
..IcDonaid said, by promulgation of Air Force
Regulation 200-2 which sharply reduced the num-
ber of UFO reports by forbidding release by air
bases of any information on UFO sightings. All
sightings were to be funneled through Project
Bluebook where, according to Dr. McDonald, "they
have been largely categorized as conventional ob-
siderations."
The strictures on UFO information were
further tightened by a regulation which made any
release of information on UFO sightings by any of
the,military services or, in some cases, commercial
airlines, a crime punishable with fines up to $10,000
and imprisonment up to 10 years. "These
regulations," Dr. McDonald said, "have not only
cut off almost all useful reports from military
pilots, tower operators, and ground crews, but
even more serious from a scientific viewpoint has
been their drastic effect on the availability of mili-
tary radar data on UFO's." Prior to 1953, sig-
nificant radar sightings were disclosed, but now
they are explained away as natural phenomena,
he said.
To the credit of the Air Force, it has requested
the University of Colorado to conduct an inde-
pendent investigation of reports of UFO's. But if
the CIA requested that UFO reports be squelched
-and the charge has not been denied-it is a
serious matter.
The CIA is by law an intelligence-gathering-
agency restricted from interfering with the internal
affairs of the country. In its activities with student
organizations and labor unions,,however, and with
its attempt to censor UFO reports, it has disre-
garded these restrictions. It thereby threatens the
very freedom from government control which it
is supposed to protect, a danger which Congress
must realize if it is to properly regulate the CIA's
activities.
Approved For Release 2004/02/10 : CIA-RDP75-00149R000500070002-1