We've Been Duped - UFOs

Whether we recognize it or not, we have been duped.

In 1952 members of the Intelligence Community under the Truman administration called together a working study group to examine the UFO problem. The panel included 10 or so members (it varied by day and included photo specialists and Air Fore Analysts) led by the theoretical physicist Dr. Howard P. Roberton.

 After several days of discussion and analysis the panel made its conclusions and turned those over to the Office of Scientific Intelligence at the CIA. The gathering was secret and its findings marked as secret. It was first mentioned in Ruppelt’s book The Report On Unidentified Flying Objects (Ruppelt lead Blue Book for some time), though the CIA denied it. Later in 58 the Air Force released a sanitized version of the report. A more robust version was released in ’66. And through a FIOA a more complete version was released in ‘93

All that aside what the Robertson Report recommended, in short, was that the UFO were not a national security threat and in order to keep communication channels open all intelligence agencies should “have two major aims: training and debunking.” This latter could be achieved by deluging mass media with articles, shows, motion pictures etc, revealing that these are explainable and like “conjuring tricks, there is much less stimulation if the "secret" is known.” This was coupled with a training program to teach people what these sightings probably were.

Those were recommendations. Educate and debunk.

What followed were several Air Force regulations, Janap 146 in 1953 and AFR 200-2 in 1954, that both penalized military and civilian personnel for releasing information on UFOs outside official channels. Pilots began to question whether they should report sightings as it could impact their careers. And an atmosphere of ridicule began to pervade the whole phenomena.

In short the tone on UFOs changed after the Robertson Panel. Now it wasn’t one of curiosity, even doubtful curiosity, but one of penalizing and making those who reported these seem to be uneducated rubes. People who just didn’t understand what they were looking at.

So every time someone says UFO and you chuckle to yourself about “what a rube”, just remember, that is exactly how the CIA wanted you to respond.