139: The Robertson Panel & James E McDonald with Sequoyah Kennedy

We're taking a bit of a break from our abduction series, and this week, Sequoyah Kennedy from The Nonsense Bazaar joins me to talk a little shit about the C.I.A.

In 1952, the new Project Blue Book was riding high. With Captain Edward Ruppelt at the helm, the project was now taking UFOs seriously... but for a limited time. Before long, the project was hampered by press leaks and understaffing, but its open mindedness to the UFO subject never waned.

That would all change over the course of two successive weekends in July of 1952 when UFOs would appear over Washington D.C. and cause a massive uproar in the press. An uproar that Blue Book was not prepared to handle. President Truman wanted answers quickly and asked the C.I.A. to step in. Leading to the infamous Robertson Panel, the C.I.A. would set the course of Blue Book's investigations in the following years.

All of this was a secret until the report was discovered by the unsung hero of the ufological world, Dr. James E. McDonald.

Sources:

Flying Saucers (1952) - YouTube

UFOs and Government: A Historical Inquiry by Michael Swords and Robert Powell

Firestorm: Dr. James E. McDonald's Fight for UFO Science by Ann Druffel

The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects: The Original 1956 Edition by Edward Ruppelt

UFOs and the National Security State: Chronology of a Coverup, 1941-1973 by Richard Dolan

The Washington D.C. UFO Sightings, 1952 - Think Anomalous (YouTube)

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