Washington, D.C.: CIA Director Smith orders Robertson Panel to convene without delay

Edward J. Ruppelt learned that the CIA's Robertson Panel, postponed on December 12, was back on. CIA Director Gen. Walter Bedell Smith reversed the decision to delay the panel until March 1953 or later and ordered it to be carried out immediately; according to the entry, he did so apparently under Air Force pressure. Ruppelt called Air Defense Command to say he could not conduct the ADC UFO briefing tour as scheduled because the CIA meeting was now tentatively set for early January 1953, and confirmed the call by teletype on December 23. The account follows the entry in George M. Eberhart's chronology UFOs and Intelligence (CUFOS) and the sources cited there; it is not an independent determination by From Beyond Space.