Arizona Republic Clipping: McDonald Claims CIA Ordered UFO Debunking

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“The report was declarsi-
ied on the spot and J was pers:
nitted to read.it and make’
otes. When T returned three
nouths later I asked lo piake.
Kerox copies of the report!
The request bounced up to the
ase commander, “and he
passed it on to the CIA, which
flassified the reporl again,”

; {cDonald said.

he CIA’s stated reason for .
idbunking flying saucer reports, |

‘ ale
cording to McDonaid, was that

LUCSON — Unidentiiied

i ying objecis seen over the

‘ United Staces for the past

J8 years may ‘be visitors

; from outer space here on

reconnaissance missions, an

> eminent University of Ari-

; zona physicist said yester-
' day.

Dr. James E. McDonald,

_ senior physicist in the Institute

of Atmospheric Physies-at the,
university, said he reluctantly,
“has accepted the. extraterres-
trial ineory ai.er intensive re-|

‘search into UFOs. .
In addition, Dr. “McDonald

, charged that the Central In- |

' telligence Agency has ordered :
all reports of UFOs to be ofti-

> gially “debwiked? by the Air:

_ Force.

.In the process of his re-:
search at Project Blue Book

Air Force compiles reports of
Saucer sightings, McDonald .

waz inadvertently permitted to «|

see the classified CIA order.

ft was attached to the Robert-
“60n Report, a zovernment-spon-
sored investigation of the UFO
problem by a group of respected
scientists

The Robertson Report, named
vafler its chairman, Cal Tech
‘physicist H. P. Robertson, is

also classified and has been so! '

at CIA request since the report
. Was completed in 1957.

CIA agent P. G. Strong, who
signed the secrecy order, said)
the UFOs must be debunked be-:
cause widespread reports of
i their sightings “were clogging:

‘up intelligence channels,” . ace

“cording to McDonald.

‘ One of the world’s Leading |
“atmospheric piysicists,” Me.‘
: Donald said he casually asked
; Project Blue Sook personnel ,

at Wright-Patterson if he conld «
: Bee the Robertson Report, oe

‘jfgrm that we know here on

headquarters at Wright - Pat- if
. terson AFB, Ohio, where the |

ith less official recognition of

FOs there would be a corre-
nding drop in public interest
d there would be fewer repori-
sightings.

nking order that civilian UFO
ganizations such as the Tuc-
n-based Aerial Phenomena Re-
arch Organization (APRO)
ould be kept under surveil-

Ifnce because they might be
bversive.

ysie students and members
the faculty yesterday, McDon-
d said there is quite strong
idence the UFOs are from
fer space,

“I haven’t. the slightest idea
ere the UFOs come from,”
said. “They don’t fit any

rth. The only thing that can
the known evidence is that
UFOs are extraterrestriui.”’

e said the patterns of sisht-

ims suggest that the saucers,

The CIA also said in the de-|

Speaking before a group ofl,

~PYRGHT

FOIAb3b

et, are here on peaceful re-
aissance missions,

hat would explain the “buz-
incidents, the hovering of
Os over cars and trucks and
flybys of aireraft,’” McDon-
theorized.

‘the least unacceptable ex-
ation.” He listed as other

ti traveling, extra-sensory
ppaception, hoaxes, hallucina-
hysteria, misinterpreted

al phenomena, secret ad-

messengers of salvation,

ing and correctly investigat-
UFO reports. Blue Book ac-

-al_ explanation,

they are from some. other

e said the outer space idea|~

ca aircraft, secret societies,

[cDonald said the Air Force.
failed in the job of col-

nts say that 95 per cent of}:
DS can be explained; whilej'
pr cent of the sightings defy}

cDonald said the percentage .
ctually closer to 50 per cent,

r Force investigators try).
to suggest all reports are|
er balloons, birds, inversion,

layers, clouds, reflected lights|
or aircraft.

"But too many of the reports
are from credible, trained ob-
servors who do not seek publi-
city or gain, and these reports
are not being throughly investi-
gated,” he said.

He scored the Air Force for
enforcing a regulation that
makes it a crime for airmen
to report UFO sightings to
civilian or anizations. Hoe said
this has resulted in a vast of-l
ficial silence about radar ob-
servations, visual sightings by
pilots and detection bY space
apparatus.

1

——#rproved For Release 1999/09/07 : CIA- RDP75S- 00001R000200450001-6