CIA · CIA-UAP-007
Current Status of the Unidentified Flying Objects Project (1953)
This is an internal CIA memorandum dated 17 December 1953, from the Chief of the Physics and Electronics Division of the Office of Scientific Intelligence to the Assistant Director, reporting the current status of the Agency's UFO project. It records that CIA had reduced its role to monitoring other agencies (chiefly the USAF) and maintaining files, describes the small ATIC Blue Book staff and its methods, notes that about ten percent of reported sightings remained unsolved, and reports that Blue Book was being transferred to Air Defense Command.
Key excerpts
“For about the past year, approximately ten percent of the reported sightings have been tagged as unsolved. (p. 2)”
“The project has been confined to maintaining awareness of the activities of other agencies (notably the USAF) in the unidentified flying objects business and to maintenance of files. (p. 1)”
Alternative hypotheses
Genuine de-prioritization after the Robertson Panel
most probable).
Reorganization rather than true reduction
Cosmetic wind-down masking continued classified interest
least supported here).