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Central Intelligence Agency

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is the United States' civilian foreign intelligence agency, established in 1947. It is a recurring figure in UFO research because of the 1953 Robertson Panel and the controversies surrounding classified UFO documents.

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is the United States' civilian foreign intelligence agency, created by the National Security Act of 1947. It is headquartered in Langley, Virginia. It comes up in the UFO/UAP topic because the agency has dealt with the phenomenon several times since the 1950s, and according to many researchers, the image it conveyed to the public differed from its internal practice.

The CIA and the history of UFOs

In January 1953, the CIA's Office of Scientific Intelligence convened a panel of scientists led by physicist H. P. Robertson to evaluate the UFO reports received up to that point. The Robertson Panel concluded that the sightings did not pose a direct threat to national security. However, the large number of reports could overload military communication channels, and a hostile power could exploit the unrest they caused. The panel therefore recommended reducing interest in the subject through education and by "debunking" the reports, and keeping civilian UFO groups under watch. Many UFO researchers regard this as a deliberate downplaying of the subject and see in it one of the sources of the later official dismissive attitude.

Later points of controversy

Over the decades, the CIA released many UFO-related documents in response to requests filed under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). In the late 1970s, for example, a lawsuit by a group called Ground Saucer Watch led to the release of about 900 pages of material. Such documents can also be found in the CREST database, available in the agency's online reading room.

In 1997, CIA historian Gerald K. Haines published a study on the CIA's role in UFO matters in the agency's professional journal, Studies in Intelligence. According to it, in the late 1950s and the 1960s, more than half of UFO reports stemmed from flights of secret spy planes, such as the U-2 and the A-12. Some researchers consider this proportion exaggerated.

According to some researchers, additional non-public material exists; the CIA has not confirmed this. According to critics, the documents that have been made public show bureaucratic interest rather than evidence of extraterrestrial contact.

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