Physicist James McDonald Publicly Accuses CIA of Orchestrating UFO Debunking Campaign
On October 7, 1966, atmospheric physicist James McDonald told an audience at the University of Arizona that the CIA orchestrated a debunking effort via the 1953 Robertson Panel Report. He said the CIA ordered the Air Force to debunk UFO reports, favored surveilling civilian groups, and blamed regulations criminalizing contact between airmen and civilian researchers for the drastic loss of radar data.
Background
On October 7, the Arizona Republic ran an article titled 'UFO Hush Blamed on CIA Men.' Atmospheric physicist James McDonald told University of Arizona students that he reluctantly accepted the ET theory of UFOs as the 'least unacceptable explanation.'
CIA Debunking Charges
McDonald declared that the CIA orchestrated an Air Force debunking effort, its written order attached to the 1953 Robertson Panel Report he had reviewed at Wright-Patterson AFB. He said the CIA believed less official recognition would diminish public interest and reduce sighting reports. The Agency, he added, favored surveilling civilian groups (for example APRO) for possible subversion.
Impact on Data Collection
He blamed the Air Force for a regulation criminalizing contact by airmen with civilian research groups, which resulted in official silence regarding pilot sightings, radar returns, and detection from space. McDonald said these regulations 'have not only cut off almost all useful reports from military pilots, tower operators, and ground crews, but even more serious from a scientific viewpoint, has been the drastic effect on the availability of military radar data on UFO's.'