vault backup: 2026-10-03 00:29:49
This commit is contained in:
parent
7eda248f15
commit
3d178b0887
63 changed files with 3348 additions and 351 deletions
|
|
@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ The Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee, chaired by [[Manfred Gale]] of
|
|||
|
||||
### Membership and Visits
|
||||
|
||||
The roster printed as annex 1: [[Douglas Tang]], chief of biostatistics and mathematics at the [[Walter Reed Army Institute of Research]]; Colonel [[Harry Holloway]], professor and chairman of psychiatry at the [[Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences]]; [[Frank Cartwright|W. Frank Cartwright]] of the [[Naval Weapons Center]], China Lake; Richard Montgomery, consultant; [[Jesse Orlansky]] of the science and technology division of the [[Institute for Defense Analyses]]; [[Harry Snyder]], professor of industrial engineering and operations research at [[Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University|Virginia Tech]]; Major General (retired) Laddie Stahl, consultant; Major [[William Stoner]] of the Army staff (DAMI-ISH), coordinator; and Gale (DAMA-ZD), chairman. The vote recorded in the report is of eight; Gale's distribution memorandum of January 1980 speaks of "the seven Committee members" apart from himself. The committee visited the Combat Developments Experimentation Command at [[Fort Ord]] on July 23, 1979, SRI on July 24 and 25 ([[Russell Targ]], [[Hal Puthoff]], [[Charles Tart]]), Redstone Arsenal on July 26, the [[National Security Council]] at the Executive Office Building on August 1, [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] headquarters on September 4, [[Princeton University]] and [[Bell Labs]] at Holmdel on September 8 ([[Robert Jahn]] and [[Robert Lucky]]), [[Defense Intelligence Agency|DIA]] on September 26 ([[Jack Vorona]]), INSCOM at Fort Meade on September 28 ([[Murray Watt]]), AMSAA on November 6, [[Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory|Lawrence Livermore]] ([[R. S. Hawke]]) and the Foreign Technology Division at [[Wright-Patterson Air Force Base]], with a final executive session at the Pentagon on December 10.[^1][^2]
|
||||
The roster printed as annex 1: [[Douglas Tang]], chief of biostatistics and mathematics at the [[Walter Reed Army Institute of Research]]; Colonel [[Harry Holloway]], professor and chairman of psychiatry at the [[Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences]]; [[Frank Cartwright|W. Frank Cartwright]] of the [[Naval Weapons Center]], China Lake; Richard Montgomery, consultant; [[Jesse Orlansky]] of the science and technology division of the [[Institute for Defense Analyses]]; [[Harry Snyder]], professor of industrial engineering and operations research at [[Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University|Virginia Tech]]; Major General (retired) Laddie Stahl, consultant; Major [[William Stoner]] of the Army staff (DAMI-ISH), coordinator; and Gale (DAMA-ZD), chairman. The vote recorded in the report is of eight; Gale's distribution memorandum of January 1980 speaks of "the seven Committee members" apart from himself. The committee visited the Combat Developments Experimentation Command at [[Fort Ord]] on July 23, 1979, SRI on July 24 and 25 ([[Russell Targ]], [[Hal Puthoff]], [[Charles Tart]]), Redstone Arsenal on July 26, the [[National Security Council]] at the Executive Office Building on August 1, [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] headquarters on September 4, [[Princeton University]] and [[Bell Labs]] at Holmdel on September 8 ([[Robert Jahn]] and [[Robert Lucky]]), [[Defense Intelligence Agency|DIA]] on September 26 ([[Jack Vorona]]), INSCOM at Fort Meade on September 28 ([[Murray Watt]]), AMSAA on November 6, [[Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory|Lawrence Livermore]] ([[R. S. Hawke]]) and the [[Foreign Technology Division]] at [[Wright-Patterson Air Force Base]], with a final executive session at the Pentagon on December 10.[^1][^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Chronology
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -98,7 +98,7 @@ relations:
|
|||
end: 1953-01-17
|
||||
fn: 10
|
||||
created: 2026-10-01
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-01
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-02
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The Robertson Panel was a group of five scientists convened by the [[Office of Scientific Intelligence]] of the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] to review [[Air Technical Intelligence Center]] files on unidentified flying objects. It met in January 1953, reported that the sightings showed no direct physical threat to national security, and recommended that the national security agencies "strip the Unidentified Flying Objects of the special status they have been given and the aura of mystery they have unfortunately acquired."[^1]
|
||||
|
|
@ -175,15 +175,17 @@ On 22 September 1958 Keyhoe wrote to the Agency as the committee's director that
|
|||
|
||||
Haines wrote that the Air Force again asked in July 1966 for declassification of the Panel report and the Durant report, after the [[House Armed Services Committee]] hearings and "Dr. Robertson's disclosure on a CBS Reports program that CIA indeed had been involved in UFO analysis"; the Condon Report, printed in 1968, refers to Robertson as "the late Prof. H. P. Robertson."[^2][^7] On 15 August 1966 the Office of Scientific Intelligence's deputy director, [[Karl H. Weber]], wrote to the Air Force that "We are most anxious that further publicity not be given to the information that the panel was sponsored by the CIA." [[James E. McDonald]] of the [[University of Arizona]] had read the Durant report at Wright-Patterson on 6 June 1966 and was refused a second look on 30 June as it was an Agency document. The science editor of the [[Saturday Review]], [[John Lear]], criticized the sanitized version on 3 September 1966.[^2][^17]
|
||||
|
||||
[[Paul E. McCarthy]] wrote that when [[James E. McDonald]] first visited [[Wright-Patterson Air Force Base]] on June 6, 1966, the 1953 Robertson Panel report "received routine declassification after 12 years" by Major [[Hector Quintanilla]], who approved his note taking; that when he returned on June 30 and asked for a Xerox copy, Colonel [[Louis DeGoes]] told him it would need an authorization; and that on his third visit, July 20 to 22, DeGoes told him the CIA had decided to reclassify the document. McDonald's note on the episode, written in October 1966, states that neither DeGoes nor Dr. [[Cacciopo]], chief scientist at the [[Foreign Technology Division]], showed interest in the CIA involvement, and McDonald began to discuss the report in his lectures that month. Replying to a letter from McDonald of October 1, [[Richard Hall]] of [[NICAP]] wrote that the sanitized report would be forwarded within a week once the [[John E. Moss|Moss]] subcommittee obtained its release.[^19]
|
||||
|
||||
### Publication in the Condon Report
|
||||
|
||||
The report was declassified in the summer of 1966 and printed as Appendix U of the [[Condon Committee]]'s Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects, with some names deleted; the Condon Report states that the record is "still partially classified to the extent that the names of some of the members are deleted."[^7] The editors of the online edition restored deletions, which they marked in braces, from a copy they obtained from the [[Parascope]] site and checked against a [[National Archives and Records Administration|National Archives]] copy. The deleted items included the names of Alvarez, Chadwell, Strong, Oder, Stevenson, Neasham, Woo, Hynek, Fournet, Smith, Possony and Garland, the words "Office of Scientific Intelligence," the "Assistant Director for Scientific Intelligence," "Battelle Memorial Institute" and the Intelligence Advisory Committee, and one tab.[^1][^19] Haines wrote that in 1967 Agency officials agreed that the Condon Committee could release the full Durant report "with only minor deletions."[^2]
|
||||
The report was declassified in the summer of 1966 and printed as Appendix U of the [[Condon Committee]]'s Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects, with some names deleted; the Condon Report states that the record is "still partially classified to the extent that the names of some of the members are deleted."[^7] The editors of the online edition restored deletions, which they marked in braces, from a copy they obtained from the [[Parascope]] site and checked against a [[National Archives and Records Administration|National Archives]] copy. The deleted items included the names of Alvarez, Chadwell, Strong, Oder, Stevenson, Neasham, Woo, Hynek, Fournet, Smith, Possony and Garland, the words "Office of Scientific Intelligence," the "Assistant Director for Scientific Intelligence," "Battelle Memorial Institute" and the Intelligence Advisory Committee, and one tab.[^1][^20] Haines wrote that in 1967 Agency officials agreed that the Condon Committee could release the full Durant report "with only minor deletions."[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
The Condon Report described the Panel as five scientists "who had distinguished themselves in physics research and in their contributions to military research during and after World War II," said that a group of this competence could review the subject in a week, stated that "no official steps were ever taken to put into effect the training and 'debunking' recommendations," and held that "the word debunking means to take the bunk out of a subject."[^7][^20]
|
||||
The Condon Report described the Panel as five scientists "who had distinguished themselves in physics research and in their contributions to military research during and after World War II," said that a group of this competence could review the subject in a week, stated that "no official steps were ever taken to put into effect the training and 'debunking' recommendations," and held that "the word debunking means to take the bunk out of a subject."[^7][^21]
|
||||
|
||||
### Later references
|
||||
|
||||
The Scientific Advisory Board committee under [[Brian O'Brien]] that reviewed Project Blue Book in 1966 gave "particular attention" to the Panel report. An Air Force action memorandum of 20 October 1969 recommending termination of Blue Book quoted the Panel's finding of no direct physical threat and added that "in spite of this finding, the Air Force continued to maintain a special reporting system."[^21][^22]
|
||||
The Scientific Advisory Board committee under [[Brian O'Brien]] that reviewed Project Blue Book in 1966 gave "particular attention" to the Panel report. An Air Force action memorandum of 20 October 1969 recommending termination of Blue Book quoted the Panel's finding of no direct physical threat and added that "in spite of this finding, the Air Force continued to maintain a special reporting system."[^22][^23]
|
||||
|
||||
In 1975 [[William Spaulding]] of [[Ground Saucer Watch]] asked the Agency for the Panel report; a privacy coordinator, [[Gene Wilson]], replied that "at no time prior to the formation of the Robertson Panel and subsequent to the issuance of the panel's report has CIA engaged in the study of the UFO phenomena." Ground Saucer Watch sued under the [[Freedom of Information Act]] in September 1977; a search produced 355 documents of about 900 pages, of which the Agency released all but 57 on 14 December 1978, and a court dismissed the suit in May 1980. Haines wrote that the Agency's Deputy Director for Administration told Director [[Stansfield Turner]] there had been "no organized Agency effort to do research in connection with UFO phenomena nor has there been an organized effort to collect intelligence on UFOs since the 1950s."[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -207,7 +209,8 @@ In 1975 [[William Spaulding]] of [[Ground Saucer Watch]] asked the Agency for th
|
|||
[^16]: "Project Henry," Project 1947, notes of 11 February 1953 (Ruppelt) and 13 July 1953 (Olsson) and the bracketed comment of Jan L. Aldrich, http://www.project1947.com/projecthenry/index.htm.
|
||||
[^17]: Haines, notes 47 to 51, 72 to 74 and 79, citing Strong's letters and memorandum of 20 December 1957, Berkner's letter of 20 November 1957, Page's letter of 4 December 1957, Weber's letter of 15 August 1966, and Lear, "The Disputed CIA Document on UFOs," Saturday Review, 3 September 1966, p. 45.
|
||||
[^18]: Donald E. Keyhoe, National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena, to the Central Intelligence Agency, 22 September 1958, with Agency routing slips of 30 September 1958 and note of 2 October 1958, CREST document CIA-RDP80B01676R004000110004-4 (5 pages), https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp80b01676r004000110004-4.
|
||||
[^19]: Editors' notes in the online Condon Report, Appendix U, https://files.ncas.org/condon/text/appndx-u.htm ("previously deleted names" shown in braces).
|
||||
[^20]: Condon, Section V, chapter 2, pp. 865 and 877-878.
|
||||
[^21]: Condon, Appendix A, "Special Report of the USAF Scientific Advisory Board Ad Hoc Committee to Review Project 'Blue Book,'" March 1966, section I, https://files.ncas.org/condon/text/appndx-a.htm.
|
||||
[^22]: Air Force action memorandum, "Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO)," 20 October 1969, with signature block of Brigadier General C. H. Bolender, paragraph 4, text at http://www.nicap.org/Bolender_Memo.htm.
|
||||
[^19]: Paul E. McCarthy, "Politicking and Paradigm Shifting: James E. McDonald and the UFO Case Study," Ph.D. dissertation, University of Hawaii, 1975, chapter 2, pp. 41 and 58, https://files.ncas.org/mccarthy/chap02.html
|
||||
[^20]: Editors' notes in the online Condon Report, Appendix U, https://files.ncas.org/condon/text/appndx-u.htm ("previously deleted names" shown in braces).
|
||||
[^21]: Condon, Section V, chapter 2, pp. 865 and 877-878.
|
||||
[^22]: Condon, Appendix A, "Special Report of the USAF Scientific Advisory Board Ad Hoc Committee to Review Project 'Blue Book,'" March 1966, section I, https://files.ncas.org/condon/text/appndx-a.htm.
|
||||
[^23]: Air Force action memorandum, "Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO)," 20 October 1969, with signature block of Brigadier General C. H. Bolender, paragraph 4, text at http://www.nicap.org/Bolender_Memo.htm.
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
Loading…
Add table
Add a link
Reference in a new issue