'DEBUNKING' CHARGED ON UFO STORIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000500070006-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 6, 2004
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: October 8, 1966
• Content Type: NSPR

11
.I31"I,. lMOJU SUN,
Approved For ReI&QTa 20b
`DEBUNKING'
CHARGED ON
UFO STORIES
Researcher Says CIA
Is Putting Pressure
On Air Force
Tucson, Ariz., Oct. 7 (A-The
United States Central Intelligence;
Agency has ordered the Air Force;
to "debunk" stories on unidenti-'
Pied flying objects, a University of
Arizona physicist charged yester-
day.
Dr. James E. McDonald, senior,
physicist at the university's Insti-
tute of Atmospheric Physics, said,
p
f the. hush-hush policy has throttled, , suddenl r eclassified.
y
any scientific investigation of thcl
objects.
And he said there is reason to,
believe some of the objects may
carry persons from outer space
on reconnaisanee missions over'
the earth. ` ' '. Maj. Hector Quintanilla said the
He made his comments in a.'
:.talk major pcirtion' of the IJ53 report
to scientists in the depart--,I had loo since been declassified.'
ment of meteorology yesterday. ' ' He said its purpose was not toj
However, just today the Air discourage scientific int~estlgation
Force announced that the Univer-1 but to remove the aura. of danger
Laity of Coloradohap.beeq: award- ,from UFO sightings
Approved for Release 2004/02/10 CIA-RDP75-00149R000500070006-7
10 : CIA-RDP75-00149R000
ed a research grant of aboutl
$300,000 to undertake independent
investigations of reports on,
unidentified flying objects.
McDonald, also an adviser of
the Navy's Storm Fury panel;t
said he reached the extraterres-'
tial theory reluctant after years!
of research on the UFO problem.
Discovered CIA Order
While doing research at Wright
Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio,
where the Air Force filed its fly!
ing saucer reports, McDonald'
said he discovered the CIA order!
-with the notation that its role;
not be disclosed.'
McDonald said the' order was,
attached to a' book of UFO inves-'
tigations compiled by scientists:
and calted the "Robertson Re-
port." Completed in 19.;3, mane of
the report was declassified ~'
short time later.
But Mc?,Donald noted that only
three of its four sections were de-'
classified and when, he tried to`
follow up his original research by
seeking photostatic co
ies, it was
At Wright-Patterson, however,
the head of the Air Force Blue
Book Project, which investigates
UFO reports; discounted McDon-
aid's remarks and accused him of
STAT