CIA · CIA-UAP-004
Case 17708 Closed, the Dr. Leon Davidson Correspondence (1958)
This is a single internal CIA Contact Division memorandum dated 9 January 1958 about Case 17708, recording the Agency's handling of the civilian UFO researcher Dr. Leon Davidson. It documents that CIA told Davidson it could not resolve his inquiry about a "space message" because records on the transmitter had been destroyed, and it candidly discusses the Agency's awkward, evasive posture toward him and its concern that the answer given was "hardly fair" and unlikely to be accepted.
Key excerpts
“We cannot resolve his problem concerning the space message and its transmitter because records on the transmitter have been destroyed by the originating agency. (p. 1)”
“The noncommittal and evasive answer we were instructed to give Davidson was probably the only one possible if we were to avoid crossing up previous statements [by] our own and other involved agencies. (p. 1)”
Alternative hypotheses
Routine bureaucratic deflection of a persistent inquirer
most probable).
Protection of a classified source or program behind the "space message."
Suppression of genuine evidence about an anomalous signal
least supported by the text).