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99 So The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) began its own official investi- gation into UFOs on January 12, 1953, with the creation of the Rob- ertson Panel. It was composed of five major scientists, and was headed yy Dr. Howard Percy Robertson. Incredibly, the panel spent only five days on the study. They exam- ined only 50 UFO cases-—all taken from the files of Project Blue Book. Not surprisingly, the conclusions of the study were the same as Blue Book, saying that UFOs represented “ ... no direct physical threat to National Security.” The ultimate result of the Robertson Panel was that the CIA ordered the Air Force to begin a “debunking” program to “strip the Unidentified Flying Objects of the special status they have een given and the aura of mystery they have unfortunately acquired.” While the CIA officially ended their UFO study with the Robert- son Panel, documents released through the Freedom of Information Act tell a different story. Researchers Lawrence Fawcett and Barry Greenwood obtained several CIA documents dating through the 1970s proving that the CIA was still actively studying UFOs. Again, it seems, the public was being misled.*° Many other governmental institutions have conducted official UFO studies. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) at first denied any involvement. However, in 1978 more than 1,700 pages of FBI UFO files were released, again indicating that the U.S. government is deeply interested in UFOs. Even the New York Times couldn’t deny the evidence, saying, “Though officials have long denied that they take ‘flying saucers’ seri- ously, declassified documents now reveal extensive government con- The National Security Agency (NSA) has also denied having any interest in UFOs, and yet again, government documents tell a Conspiracies and Cover-ups THE ROBERTSON PANEL THE FBI AND THE NSA cern over the phenomenon.”