Is There a UFO Cover-up?

A key part of John Alexander’s argument against a government cover-up is the fact that Alexander used his high level government access to ask “need to know” officials such as the director or deputies in all the alphabet agencies the question about whether or not there is a department within the government dealing with the UFO phenomena. Alexander stated that he was told that although officials might have had personal experiences or interest none of the officials indicated any knowledge of government involvement.

This Alexander position came up again in the just concluded Dolan – Alexander debate on whether or not there is a government cover-up or a black program to deal with UFO technologies.

Because of these inquiries by Alexander, many researchers and media people, recognizing Alexander’s clearances, have conceded that maybe there is no government role in the UFO mystery.

Although Alexander is probably telling the story as he experienced it, I have a problem with the no UFO cover-up based on my own limited experience. I am a Canadian with no security clearances or access to high level officials like Alexander. My limited encounters with high level officials, and the study of these officials, has produced answers exactly the opposite answers to what Alexander said he was given.

Personally, I have had only one personal encounter with a high level official. In April 2001 I asked then Vice-President Dick Cheney about the UFO cover-up when he was a guest on the Diana Rehm show in Washington D.C.

Assuming that Cheney would have the necessary “need to know” I asked “In all your jobs in government, have you ever been briefed on the subject of UFOs, and if so when was it and what were you told.”

Cheney answered, “If I had been briefed on that subject it would probably be classified, and I couldn’t talk about it.”

That is a long way from Alexander contention that there is no cover-up and that high level officials openly conceded to him that they knew nothing. “UFOs would probably be classified.” It sounds like there is some UFO material that is being withheld to me.

If a nobody like me can get the only official encountered to conceding that the UFO subject is classified (as opposed to the “I know nothing” response that Alexander got 100% of the time) it leaves open the possibility that Alexander talked to the wrong people or asked the wrong question.
A few years after I had this encounter with Cheney my friend Dr. David Rudiak asked the same briefing question to General Wesley Clark after he made a statement while running for President stating that he believed we could go faster than the speed of light, and after I got an inside tip that Clark had been briefed on UFO crash recoveries. The conversation went like this;

Q: Gen. Clark, when you were running for President, you said you thought mankind would one day fly faster than light and visit the stars. My question is, when you were in the military were you ever briefed on the subject of U.F.O.s?

A: I heard a bit. In fact, I’m going to be in Roswell, New Mexico tonight.

Q: So you were briefed?

A: There are things going on. But we will have to work out our own mathematics.

Again, as opposed to Alexander getting the answer “I know nothing,” Clark indicated he heard a bit and there are things going on. How is it that Alexander did not get such an answer from all the people he asked?

The final example from my limited experience with high level people came when I reviewed the personal papers of Senator Barry Goldwater. In the papers Goldwater wrote a number of letters on UFOs which he was very interested in. In many he described his attempt to get into the Blue Room at WPAFB (where all the Top Secret UFO material was rumored to have been stored) but was denied access by General Curtis LeMay. In reference to the Lemay incident, Goldwater added in a 1975 letter, “It is still classified above Top Secret.”

Prior to 1981 Goldwater stated in his letters that beyond this Wright-Patterson incident he didn’t know anything more than the man on the street. In 1981, after Goldwater became Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, the tone of the letters changed. He no longer stated that he knew no more than the man on the street.

After 1981 Goldwater began to speak of a cover-up of UFO information by the government.

Speaking to a fellow ham radio operator Goldwater made this statement indicating that he had obtained some secret inside knowledge on Roswell, “Relative to your question about the accuracy of the details in the “Roswell Incident,” they are partially true, but not completely. I can’t give you any other answer than that so please don’t push it.”

In addition, unlike Alexander’s contacts who claimed total ignorance, Goldwater indicated in another post 1981 letter that despite the USAF position that all the files were released in 1969 there was information covered up and it would not be coming out any time soon, “I have been interested in this subject for a long time and I do know that whatever the Air Force has on the subject is going to remain highly classified.” (please note Goldwater says “I do know” as opposed to I think or I would guess)
Finally, in an interview with Larry King Goldwater stated, “I think some highly secret government UFO investigations are going on that we don’t know about-and probably never will unless the Air Force discloses them.”

Is there a cover-up of UFO information by the government? My brief interaction with high level officials show the answer is a resounding yes.

SEAL Team Six and the Death of Disclosure?

I was sitting the other morning at the coffee bar in McDonald’s drinking my coffee and checking out my stocks on the internet. Sitting beside me was a woman who was at least 90 years old if she was a day. She was busy doing a crossword puzzle and talking to another younger woman who was on the other side of the bar.

As they were talking she suddenly changed the subject saying, “Obama got a coup. The SEAL Team Six got them.” Then the conversation went back to buying stuff at an upcoming sale from a fabric store.

What struck me as significant is that this elderly woman living in Canada was fully aware of the SEAL Team Six raid that rescued two hostages from pirates holding two hostages in Somalia. It was not as big a news item as the SEAL Team Six raid that killed Osama Bin Laden but most people here were aware of it.

Perhaps more important than the fact the elderly lady mentioned it was the fact that she framed the whole event as a victory for Obama and the U.S. military. Here in Canada where war and the U.S. military aren’t held high, this woman had bought positive message and was spreading the news of victory.

The elderly lady was right. The SEAL Team hostage rescue was indeed a coup for Obama who was viewed as weak on defense prior to becoming President. It had been his second military victory after killing Bin Laden a few months back. For the UFO community, hoping for openness on the UFO story, however, the SEAL Team’s two recent successes present an ominous sign.

Reading the articles on the Somali raid it became apparent that military experts seemed to conclude that this type of special forces warfare as the way of the future, rather than prolonged occupations in places like Iraq and Afghanistan were victory never seems to come and occupying U.S. troops become practice targets for angry locals, or targets for young and angry youth willing to carry a suicide bomb for the cause.

The new hit and run military strategy also is cheaper and appears to provide more bang for the buck in a time of reduced government budgets.

Where this new styled war against terrorism seems most threatening to hopes for UFO disclosure or discussion is that the key to the successful SEAL Team Six raids is that the events occurred in complete secrecy. This makes continuing the secrecy an easy sell to the the President and the American public.

UFO Disclosure relies on the principles of openness in government, either through a Christian perspective that “you shall know the truth and it shall set you free” or a liberation principle that “sunshine is the best disinfectant.”

The new SEAL Team Six approach to the problem, however, is based on the principle is that the “ends justify the means.” In the war on terrorism and enemies of the United States there are no longer any rules. This is exemplified by the recent U.S. military killing of two Americans in the Middle East by planned Predator drone attacks.[1] In the 1970s, there were investigations by the Church committee about the attempted assassinations of Castro and other foreign leaders. The practice was made illegal as it went against basis American principles. Now Obama calls in the legal counsel and they advise that in the war on terrorism where terrorists will not follow basic rules of battle, everything is now fair game.

The success of the new approach and the political success it has brought to its main supporter-the President- indicate that it will not be changed anytime soon.

Now enemies who chose to attack America will suffer from UFO abductee syndrome – you know SEAL Team Six is coming – you just don’t know when or where. Those that await the next SEAL raid know that like an abductee there is not much they can do to stop it.  It is this fear that every abductee knows that has led the Somali pirates, who are still holding one American, to reportedly move their remaining hostage three times in the day following the SEAL Team attack.

The UFO Disclosure Dilemma

As mentioned above the main problem for the UFO crowd is that secrecy was a key component of the SEAL Team success. The secrecy in turn leads to overwhelming support for such operations by the American public.

The basic Disclosure argument is that openness is best for society no matter what the reality of the UFO phenomena might be. Unless I am missing something that argument of openness brings success seems to be dead for the foreseeable future.

That is because secrecy appears to be an unchallenged part of the future war against terrorism. Secrecy protects the weapons, techniques, and the elite warriors. As one Pentagon official put it secrecy gives the“ SEALs and other special operations forces an edge against the terrorists, criminals and others they are ordered to kill or capture around the world under hazardous and often hostile conditions.”

I wrote an article years back detailing the main reasons that the government might be covering up the UFO story for reasons that they thought were legitimate and necessary.[2] One of the key reasons is that right from 1947 on UFOs were identified as advanced weapons technology and this necessitated that it be classified. Weapons secrets have always been the highest classified secrets held by the government, such as nuclear weapons secrets that are “born secret” and will never see the light of day.

Secrecy and advanced weapons win wars so openness loses. This point was exemplified by Dr. Eric Walker, the former Chairman of the Institute for Defense Analysis, who was believed to have known the inner workings of why UFOs were covered up. Challenged by one researcher to explain what had happened for history Walker shot back, “Why should we change the rules to satisfy your curiosity?”

In recent years there have been claims inside the UFO community that the group that holds the UFO secrets is divided between those who want the secret kept and those who want the UFO secrets released to the public. As the rumored story goes the proponents of openness were gaining support. The recent raids by the Navy SEALs have provided ammunition for the proponents for continued UFO secrecy.

Like it or not, the advocates for secrecy have had a couple good days in the last couple of months.

---

[1] http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/09/30/us-born-terror-boss-anwar-al-awlaki-killed/

[2]  Why is the Government Covering Up the truth? http://www.presidentialufo.com/articles-a-papers/190-why-is-the-government-covering-up-the-truth

Area 51 Insider TD Barnes Talks UFOs

From Andre Skondras' list:

On Jan 14, 2012, at 5:31 AM, André Skondras wrote:

Hi T.D. & Ed: What is your expert take on this guy and his theories re UFOs as deep black projects? Do they contain a kernel of truth of are they utter BS? Kind regards. André http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h9bhjRQSOs&feature=g-vrec&context=G292fd05RVAAAAAAAABQ This is a clip from a presentation by Michael Schratt, aerospace historian, at MUFON's 2010 Symposium. Titled, Bombshell UFO case files revealed, Schratt examines advanced black budget aircraft, possible Nazi technology, and UFO case files from MUFON and CUFOS. He asks the audience to determine what is ours and what might be extraterrestrial.

TD Barnes

Andre, in my opinion Michael's presentations are interesting and popular, but I rate them as entertainment. For while he was promoting this altered photo, but appears to have stopped when both Pete Merlin and I produced the actual photos before alteration and called him on it.

On Jan 14, 2012, at 11:14 AM, André Skondras wrote:

Hi T.D.: I also had serious suspicions about the photo's veracity. The reliable researcher I told you about in my previous message states that Michael Schratt is an aerospace draftsman posturing as a "historian" without a shred of any rigorous scholarship. In fact I found additional info re Michael: http://www.boomslanger.com/images/american_space_program.pdf : "Michael Schratt, 38-year-old, has always had a passion for studying airplanes and even took some Parks College courses in aerospace engineering in St. Louis. He did not earn a degree, but he went on to become an autocad draftsman working on aerospace components. Today, he is an Aerospace draftsman for Armstrong Aerospace based in Elmhurst Illinois."  This researcher adds that Michael's claims of knowing personnel holding "TOP SECRET Q "MAGIC" clearance" - which to him is totally bogus and fraudulent - cast grave doubt over his credibility and judgment. May I also share this info with other interested parties? Kind regards. André Op 14 Jan 2012, om 19:23 heeft tdbarnes@me.com het volgende geschreven:

TD Barnes

Yes, you may share. I agree with your comments. Michael's clearance claim gives him away. I will soon be publishing my book, "Soaring with the Eagles". I will share a bit about clearances that is in the book. "Before getting further into terms such as caveats, code names, cryptonyms, pseudo names, security clearances, need-to-know, compartmentalized, read in, and so forth, the author will attempt to clear up misperceptions by those who do not know better when they identify something being cleared above top secret. Many United States government agencies can issue security clearances, including the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Energy, the Department of Justice, and the CIA. There are only three levels of DOD security clearances: confidential, secret, and top secret. Information "above top secret" is Sensitive Compartmentalized Information (SCI). It is not truly "above" top secret, although the media and movies often use the phrase. SCI information may be either secret or top secret, but in either case, it has additional controls on dissemination beyond those associated with the classification level alone. An example is the security compartmentalized name Talent_Keyhole, which identifies data gathered from imaging satellites. Another is Oxcart, the codename for the CIA A-12 spy plane to replace the U-2. Code names or words identify compartments of information, which formally and automatically enforces the “need-to-know” principal. Within the classified world, merely saying one possessed an Oxcart Clearance gave them priority and protection over any other activity, regardless of level of security clearance. No one, regardless of their authority or station in life, could demand access to Oxcart information if they lacked Oxcart clearance. A good, but humorous example of such a priority occurred on an occasion when Col Slip Slater, commander of the 1129th SAS at Groom Lake was flying an F-101 VooDoo from Groom Lake to CIA Langley to attend Col Jack Ledford’s promotion party when he made brigadier general. Colonel Slater landed at Wright Patterson AFB in Ohio to refuel. Three planes lined up ahead of his, with one of them piloted by a general. Slater says he felt like hell, hung over from a party at House Six at Groom Lake the night before and a hurting in his big toe (turned out to be gout). He found the individual in charge and showed him a document stating that he had CIA Oxcart priority. The attendant literally removed the fuel connection from the general’s plane, had it shoved out of the way to make room for Slater’s plane and started fueling it.  Regardless of the person's security clearance level, to see information within a compartment, a person must have access to a given compartment of information. Renewal of security clearance is necessary after a number of years. Unlike a security clearance, which lasts for a given period after a background investigation, access to a compartment of information lasts only as long as the person's need to have access to the particular category of information. Some categories of information may not require special access control; however, by their nature they usually require extra security education, special handling procedures, et cetera. Known as caveats, the following are examples:    * FOUO - For Official Use Only *    * COMSEC - Communications Security *    * CNWDI - Critical Nuclear Weapon Design Information *    * NOFORN - Not Releasable to Foreign Nationals (access restricted to US citizens) *      WNINTEL - Warning Notice - Intelligence Sources and Methods Involved.    * CRYPTO - Cryptographic *

Hi TD & Ed: I suppose you both knew Kelly Johnson and Ben Rich through your classified work at Area 51. What are your expert opinions re the statements made in the following videoclip? In short, what is correct and what is false or distorted information? If you are not knowledgeable about some statements, please say so too! I would appreciate that kind of honesty! Extraterrestrial UFOs are real : Ben Rich Lockheed Skunk Works CEO admits on his deathbed http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7ahst8TMww&feature=feedrec_grec_index Kind regards. André

TD Barnes

Andre, I have to wonder just what Ben said and what has been embellished over time. I also wonder about the circumstances under which he might have said it. My point is, did Ben play games with someone when he spoke of UFOs and such. Could it have been a circumstance like Al O'Donnell telling Annie Jacobsen a wild story about it being a Russian craft that landed at Roswell, and that it had genetically altered children aboard. Furthermore, he allegedly claimed that he and four others did the same thing at Area 51as Stalin did with the children on his Roswell saucer. Al is a highly respected nuclear engineer well advanced in age. He admitted that Annie pestered him for 2 years to give her something juicy for her book and that he finally did so to shut her up. She published it and when he recanted, she continued her claim. She says that because he said what he did, that as a reporter she has to stick by it even it it is untrue. Could this have been the circumstance with Ben? Andre, if those who believe we gained our technology from an extraterrestrial source would just spend some time with the Pratt & Whitney engineers who designed the J-58 engine in Florida, they would be amazed at what a struggle it was. Even today, NASA is experiencing the unstart with its unmanned platforms that we experienced. As DDST, Dr. Wheelon carried a load for Oxcart that few at Groom Lake knew about. He rated his most important task as riding herd on Kelly concerning aircraft performance and configuration. One of his most long-running problems concerned compressor stalls. In meetings between Wheelon and Kelly, Kelly acknowledged that the problem was in the hydraulic servo system that drove the spike in and out. It was clear to Wheelon that the hydraulic system could not respond fast enough to the changing aerodynamics. He urged Kelly to change it for an electronic version. Kelly did not like or trust electronics. He kept dragging his feet, pointing out that CIA had 30 million dollars invested in the hydraulic solution. Wheelon pointed out to him that it cost more than 30 million every time a plane went down. Wheelon finally told Kelly that he would cancel the program if Kelly did not switch. Kelly was stunned but informed his team in Burbank on his return that he had decided to make the switch. Personally, while I was on the NASA High Range, I worked with the North American engineers designing the Mach 3 XB-70 as well as Lockheed folks building the Mach 3 Blackbirds. I was on the flight testing end and witnessed the problems they all had dealing with the heat generated and the challenges of developing engines that could fly high and at Mach 3. Once we exceeded Mach 2.5, we entered an entirely new aviation arena. Heat was our biggest enemy. Speed was not the limitation of the engines - it was the heat melting the engine when it approached Mach 3.5 or so speed. The same challenges exist today. We invented things to solve the problems we encountered. There was never a suggestion of our having technological assistance from anything extraterrestrial.  Ben would have been correct in saying something along the line of us having things far beyond anyone's dreams. In the last ten years or so, we've seen some this technology emerge rather rapidly in the form of UAV platforms. We've gained experience and experience over the past fifty years where now they don't have to do all the trial and error that we did to develop a new concept. Also, they have computers where we did not. We can go from design to operational in a much shorter time these days, and this is what they do. The cameras we used in the U-2 and Blackbirds in Ben's day weighed near 800 pounds. Compare that to what the UAVs and satellites carry today and you can see where Ben was correct with that statement. A statement like that may have been interpreted as meaning we were getting this technology for an outside source or from reverse engineering. As to reverse engineering at Area 51, we did do that with the Soviet MiGs to learn their technology and capabilities. We found that in most things we were far more advanced than they were and it was the Soviets who were reverse engineering our technology to copy it for their use. We had no scientific facilities at the Area to reverse technology as has been claimed. We did the MiGs in their hangar. Any reverse engineering say on the engines would have been done in Florida. We were strictly in the flying and RCS business. I helped put the first Have Blue on the pylon for us to do a RCS on it. The changes weren't done at the Area. The engineers took the prototype back to Burbank to engineer the changes and then they would bring it back to us for another RCS scan. What I'm trying to say is that we were not in the manufacturing business at Groom Lake. We were the beginning of what it is today - a technological laboratory where designers can test and evaluate their product as we did with the Have Blue prototype.  It is where the customer evaluates the proof of concept prototypes to ensure they meet the needed specifications before choosing the one they want to purchase. It is a test laboratory. I probably didn't answer your question, but you have my take on what Ben might have said and the circumstances. I know some will disagree, but like the Roswell incident, I doubt if anyone really knows the true answer. We all have our own opinions. While I'm at it, I will give you my take on Roswell. At the time of the Roswell crash, Northrop was experimenting with its first flying wing concept at Roach Lake, a dry lake where Primm, Nevada is today. It was something revolutionary and secret. If one of those crashed and if Northrop was the only one who knew what it was, it would have caused quite a stir with the Air Force at Roswell. Whatever it was, it was badly handled by the Air Force just as some of the sightings of our A-12 was. We flew 2850 flight out of Groom Lake with the A-12. Even our own Air Force didn't know it existed for a long time. We had FAA and ADC personnel on site to ensure that their people didn't say anything when their radar picked up our flights. There were obviously some sighting of the plane flying at 90,000 feet and at Mach 3.2. Since no one knew the plane existed, these sightings were UFOs. When Project Bluebook personnel investigated the sightings, if the investigating officers got too close, they were told it was a classified flight and to make up a cover story and go home. Some of the cover stories were piss-poor and didn't hold up. They merely enhanced the belief of a coverup of a UFO sighting, which is true - it was a coverup of a UFO sighting. In those cases, however, the flights were one of our planes.   Now, aren't you sorry you asked.  ha Best regards,TD <td_email.jpg>

Thornton D. (TD) Barnes

Director Nevada Aerospace Hall of Fame

http://nvahof.org/

President/Webmaster

Roadrunners Internationale

http://area51specialprojects.com/

http://roadrunnersinternationale.com/

Member: CIRA Member: AFIO

468 Palegold St., Henderson, NV 89012 (702) 566-4168 iPhone: 702 481-0568

"You can delegate authority but not responsibility "What did you do today for freedom?

On Jan 14, 2012, at 10:47 AM, André Skondras wrote:

Hi T.D.: Thanks for your detailed viewpoint re this matter. No, I am not sorry I asked. I know from a very reliable source - a highly skeptical researcher - that the nature of UFOs will revolutionize and rock our world but he cannot prove that just yet; however, he adds that the excellent evidence, e.g. in the form of sensory data, proves overwhelmingly that there is a truly unexplained phenomenon acting with impunity and that it deserves intensive scientific study. As you will probably know, Kelly Johnson had a UFO sighting in the early 50s: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwgqFd5ApZM . I do concur with your viewpoint re the absurd Al O'Donnell claim about Roswell as described in Annie Jacobsen's book! May I share your comments re Kelly's and Ben's statements with other interested parties? Kind regards. André

TD Barnes

I don't mind if you share my comments. I agree on the scientific studies being needed. It is a shame that people like Jacobsen choose to sensationalize to make a buck. It discredits and tarnishes the truth whether it is pro or con. Science should be objective and respected regardless the subject or field. Mistakes learned are almost as valuable as the successes. We learn by testing the edge of the envelope. I am always reminded by the late Hank Meierdierck's remarks after a flight of the U-2 in 1955 when he and Lou Setter were each breaking the world altitude record almost daily as they tested the U-2 and wrote the books on high flight. "Hank or Lou would come into the Quonset after a flight and say, "make a note for the book to not try xx, it will get you killed". The A-12 pilots did the same as they pioneered Mach 3 flight at high altitudes.  TD

OSTP : ET and UFO FOIA Appeal Launched

As mentioned in a previous blog the OSTP was deceptive in their answer to my FOIA request asking for "all records ... on the subjects of UFOs, Unidentified Flying Objects, extraterrestrial, or extraterrestrial life."

The reply issued by the OSTP was that there were no records. This is not true. Both I and John Greenewald, who runs the Black Vault, have filed previous FOIAs with the OSTP and have received UFO documents.

The rule OSTP seems to have established is that every calendar year they can start over with the reply "there are no files" and only the documents created in that calendar year count when requested in an FOIA.

That may be the rule, but it will only be the rule after a fight, and after I make it clear to all watching exactly what is taking place.

This is the draft of the FOIA appeal that will be filed in a few minutes. 

January 1, 2012

General Counsel Rachael Leonard
Office of Science and Technology Policy
Washington DC

Re: Freedom of Information Act Appeal

Dear General Counsel

This is an appeal under the Freedom of Information Act.

On November 9, I requested documents under the Freedom of Information Act. My request was assigned the following identification number: FOIA 12-10. On December 12, I received a response to my request in a letter signed by Diana Zucker. I appeal the denial of any applicable documents. A copy of my FOIA request and the agency determination which is the subject of this appeal is attached for your convenience.

The reply to my FOIA was that there were no documents responsive to my request. This is not true, and a proper search for "all records ... on the subjects of UFOs, Unidentified Flying Objects, extraterrestrial, or extraterrestrial life" inside the OSTP should take place. My evidence to support this claim is as follows;

·       In FOIA 11-14 the OSTP responded to an FOIA asking for documents pertaining to the UFO phenomena with results and not the “no documents” reply I received. This FOIA is published on line at http://www.scribd.com/doc/70845097/All-UFO-documents-from-the-Executive-Office-of-the-President-Office-of-Science-and-Technology-Policy

·       In this same regard in an OSTP letter of January 5, 2010 responding to FOIA Request 09-34 Dave Hodge told me that there were three documents inside the OSTP that fell under the category of “files in the office on the subject of UFOs.” These documents are published on line at http://www.mediafire.com/?iolrv5ujuoccdxv

If there were documents in March 2011 when John Greenewald filed and there were other documents in January 2010 those documents should have been included as part of my FOIA 12-10. Documents as part of past FOIAs are documents, and there could be many more filed under FOIA that I am not aware of.  The idea that documents inside OSTP only include documents in the present FOIA calendar year is contrary to the underlying concepts that underpin the Freedom of Information Act.

I am requesting a new search and all UFO, and ET related FOIAs made to the OSTP should fall within the scope of my request. I want all documents, not all documents in the present FOIA calendar year.

Thank you for your consideration of this appeal.

Sincerely,

Here’s the Latest on Aliens

Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. James Bovard

Well the results are back on the Freedom of Information Act requests filed with the Obama White House. The seven FOIAs were filed to try and determine what happened behind the scenes when the Office of Science and Technology Office (often referred to a the office for the President's Science Advisor) replied to a ET related petition addressed to President Obama. That petition asked Obama to ”formally acknowledge an extraterrestrial presence engaging the human race.” As expected, the results are not encouraging.

The FOIA documents released by the OSTP, totaling about 50 pages, can be summed up by one line written by the OSTP public relations officer Phil Larson whose signature is attached to the White House ET petition reply. In an e-mail to David Weaver and Bob Jacobs at NASA, Larson stated, “We got tagged with drumming up a ‘please acknowledge the aliens” petition from ‘We The People’ feature on WhiteHouse.org.”

The FOIA Results

The first FOIA filed with the OSTP asked what the OSTP office had used for research to produce their official government statement that there is “no credible evidence” that ETs have visited Earth. The answer according to the FOIA was nothing – they had no documents in the office on the subject of UFOs, or extraterrestrials – not a single piece of paper. (This OSTP claim is at odds with an FOIA that they answered in March 2011 where they did find “UFO” documents – see http://www.scribd.comdoc/70845097/All-UFO-documents-from-the-Executive-Office-of-the-President-Office-of-Science-and-Technology-Policy

The official conclusion of “no credible evidence” by the White House is therefore not supported by any evidence itself – whether credible or not. The Obama White House has become like a student who produces a book report without reading the book. Even more unpardonable is the fact that the FOIA exposed the fact that the OSTP did not even look for any evidence. The conclusion – the scientific arm of White House has been caught rigging the experiment to come to a preordained conclusion.

Another of the FOIAs requested all the drafts of the ET petition response in order to determine who wrote it, which outside agencies had input on the wording, and what words were changed to arrive at a final draft. This FOIA for the investigation of the drafts was intended to get to the thinking that went into producing the official response. It has worked well in the past such as in the case of the famous “alien invasion” remark in the 1987 United Nations speech by Ronald Reagan. The drafts of that speech showed that the alien invasion remark had been pulled by speech writers, and was only put back in the speech when Reagan penned a note to put it back in. It was hoped that this FOIA would provide some similar insights.

The plan was thwarted by the constant use of the B5 FOIA exemption by the OSTP FOIA archivists who reviewed and sanitized the documents. The use of this exemption to hide the facts was expected. This exemption in short says that any internal advise given is exempt because if it were not people would be reluctant to give advice. The FOIA release showed that page after page was exempted from release and none of the group of 4 that appeared to work on the ET reply had their advice or opinions made public. The OSTP simply used the B5 exemption to cover everything that happened behind the scene.

One filed FOIA attempted to find out the highest level name responsible for Larson being given the job to draft the official ET petition reply. That FOIA failed to produce a name, although another more detailed FOIA will be filed to try to determine the answer. The FOIA failed because the ET petition reply was assigned to OSTP by Katelyn Sabochik who runs the “We the People” site on the White House Website. As she does not work for OSTP, she and whoever she gets her orders from are outside the scope of the FOIA.

The FOIA documents showed that the only outside agency contacted by the OSTP for comment and correction was NASA. The OSTP offices in previous administrations contacted the CIA for information but this did not happen this time.

At NASA Bob Jacobs, the Deputy Assistant Administrator of Public Affairs, (seen below schmoozing with Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong) and David Weaver, Associate Administrator for the Office of Communications, were sent a draft of the ET petition response. Both had nothing to add or change. This is no surprise considering that neither man is a working scientist with any expertise in the available UFO evidence, but rather senior administrators specializing in government, politics, media relations and public policy. When the OSTP went public with their ET petition reply Jacobs retweeted the news to the world on his twitter page but made no mention of NASA’s involvement.

The most important document in the FOIA release was the reply to the FOIA that asked for all documents that would show that President Obama or someone representing him in the Oval Office actually saw the petition that 12,000+ people thought they were sending to him. The reply was “no records” which means that Obama, according to available OSTP records, never saw the petition.

Summing it Up

So what’s the latest on aliens – which incidentally is the e-mail heading that was used by OSTP people when e-mailing each other on the ET petition reply? Simply put “We the People” got screwed – again.

The documents released by the OSTP showed that the OSTP appeared to spend less time putting out an official statement than those 12,000+ people who signed the ET petition took to add their signatures. A big part of this regressive attitude may go back to the OSTP decision to consider “UFOs and birth certificates as ‘off-topic’” issues when it comes to their open government plan.[i]

The documents released also confirmed that the evidence for a possible ET presence on Earth is still unchallenged. It’s not like the White House did a study and found that we are wrong, or that our evidence is bad. The White House simply took a lazy political approach to the petition request. Their main goal was to stay clear of any controversy that properly dealing with the petition might have presented.

The whole exercise “We the People” petition site was meant to make the American public think that the White House actually cared about their opinion by putting up a link on the White House website where they could sign their names on issues they cared about.

The answer to the ET petition showed that in reality that the “We the People” site is a shallow political marketing effort sort of like the appeal that American will be hearing many times in the next year – your vote counts. The reality is the status quo. The White House is staffed by politicians, political advisors, and politically appointed staffs who are interested in power and in maintaining their jobs. They will continue to take the easy road as they have on other issues such as the federal debt. They will continue to promote the idea that it is government of the people by the people, when in fact it is a game of what to said, what not to say, how to say it, and staying in power by making it sound like you really give a damn when you really don’t.

The White House, its website, and the ‘We the People” petition site will always take second place to political consultants who know the names of the 13,000 Washington lobbyists, and the names of the people who pay up to $35,800 to attend political fundraising dinners. It is about votes and how to get elected and then reelected. It is projected that the 2012 election will cost 6-7 billion. That money will come from interest groups who will want their interests protected. They are ones being listened to – not those signing petition on ‘We the People.”

The FOIAs to the OSTP on the ET petition have sadly confirmed these truths about how things are really in Washington. Hopefully no one will be terribly surprised.

A couple new FOIAs will be filed based on the information released in these FOIAs. Nothing new or revealing is expected. The just released OSTP documents can be viewed at
 http://www.theoutpostforum.com/tof/showthread.php?250-White-House-Petition-Response-FOIA&p=3354#post3354

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[i] Office of Science & Technology – Open Government Plan – http://www.whitehouse.gov/open/around/eop/ostp/plan

Written by Grant Cameron

Part 3- A UFO Solution: Chance for an American Spring?

I handed out copies of Out of the Blue to every member of the house. It took me a week. I sent a personalized letter to every member’s chief of staff, and I’ve had some conversations with them, and some of them didn’t know any more than the man on the street but others did. They said “’Look we can’t touch this subject matter unless the general public – our constituents- put enough pressure on us. Only then can we take action in helping assemble the administration.’” Film Producer James Fox

Well, why doesn’t the President do it? I’m just a Senator. I don’t know if I can do that. Have you spoken to John Warner on Armed Services? Senator Dick Bryan  - Senate Intelligence Committee answering Dr. Steven Greer’s challenge to hold congressional hearings as Congressman Gerald Ford had done in the 1960s.

There has been a lot of frustration and pain in UFO land after the White House statement that there is no evidence for ET visitation.

The newest petitions started in hopes of getting the White House to reconsider their original statement appear to be losing ground and they may not even get the required signatures to reach the magic new requirement of 25,000 signatures. (An FOIA has been filed to get the White House to produce the documents explaining why suddenly 25,000 people have to marshal together to get a low level official to reply to a voter concern. Gone are the days when a single constituent could get a reply from their elected official)

Those who have made the effort to file ET/UFO petitions are simply citizens trying to get a response from their elected officials to a legitimate concern. They have gone through a lot of work and have received a political maneuver in return.

The present government position on UFOs is that UFO sightings are not a concern to national security and they do not present credible evidence of ET visitation. Based on this conclusion an outside observer might conclude the UFO disclosure movement is bankrupt and we have no money left to try and buy the answer to the UFO mystery that we seek.

In our moment of sadness we should realize that it has not always been this seemingly hopeless in the 64 years since the modern UFO era began. There have actually been some moments when the dysfunction federal government actually seemed poised to deal with the issue.

It occurred to me looking back at the high points of UFO history that there is a common thread to the successes. Furthermore, it occurred to me that these past successes could lead to a game plan for the future.

First let me list the big and small successes.

1. 1966 Armed Services Committee hearing – the driving force behind this was former President Gerald Ford. He forced the congressional hearing when he was still a congressman in Michigan. Constituents, including J. Allen Hynek who was in his district, had sent letters and telegrams to him related to a series of UFO sightings that occurred in Michigan in 1966. This continuant pressure led Ford to pressure the House Armed Services Committee to convene the first hearing later in 1966. This in term forced the U.S.A.F create the University of Colorado “Scientific Study of UFOs.” Until the whitewash conclusion was released the UFO community left they had made some headway in getting an honest answer to the UFO mystery.
2. 1968. House Science and Astronautics Committee – During the Colorado UFO study initiated in part by Ford, Condon made some statements that concerned certain congressmen such as Congressman Louis C. Wyman who was in contact with NICAP. Wyman put forth House Resolution 946 requiring that the Committee on Science and Astronautics “report to the House as soon as practicable…the results of its investigation and study together with such recommendations as it deems advisable.” The hearing was set and witnesses came forward.[1]
3. 1974 Senator Carl Curtis – Contacted the FBI over a series of cattle mutilations in Nebraska and received word from Director Clarence Kelley the FBI would not get involved because it did not appeared that any federal laws have been violated. The FBI stated further that Nebraska State patrol was already investigating along with law officials in the affected counties.
4. 1975 Senator Floyd Haskell – Requested help and investigation by the FBI for cattle mutilations in Colorado.
5. 1976 Governor Jimmy Carter - Files a UFO sighting report while Governor of Georgia in 1973. In 1976 while campaigning for President promises UFO disclosure twice. Once President he becomes quiet on the issue.
6. 1978 Senator Harrison Schmitt – After thousands of cattle mutilations and a request from Manuel S. Gomez, a rancher from Dulce, New Mexico who had himself lost a number of cattle, Senator Schmitt became involved. He wrote Chief Martin E. Vigil of the New Mexico state police of the situation. He also wrote to Attorney General Griffin Bell to involve the FBI in investigating what was behind the mutilations Schmitt believed it to be “organized federal criminal activity.” Once involved the FBI were as far as to ask for a “congressional investigation” or “an executive order” to support their continued investigation. Schmitt also called a meeting of law enforcement representatives from the thirteen states in which cattle mutilations had occurred.
7. 1988 Senator Chris Dodd – In October 1988 a documentary called “UFO Cover-up…Live” referred to a government film that had been taken of a landing of aliens at Holloman AFB in May 1971. Following the airing of the documentary, one of Dodd constituents contacted the senator and demanded that the film be made public. Dodd made an official inquiry for the film and it was pulled again at Norton AFB’s Defense Audio Video Archives and reviewed by the security manager Paul Shartle. Shartle reported that the film was “unclassified,” and that he reviewed the film for the Senator’s request. What happened after that no one knows except that the film ended up in the Navy sync – whatever that is.
8. 1989-1991 Congressman James Bilbray – in May 1989 a civilian scientist named Bob Lazar came forward to claim that he had worked at S-4 just a few miles from the Top Secret Area 51 test site area in Nevada. The claim was investigated by George Knapp, an investigative reporter for KLAS-TV in Las Vegas. As part of his investigation Knapp contacted Congressman Bilbray to help him check the various connection of Lazar to the US Navy, to check with the IRS about a W-2 Lazar had received, and to check Lazar’s background. In 1991 Bilbray entered a letter of recommendation into the court record for Lazar during a pandering charge Lazar was facing.
9. 1991 Senator Robert Byrd through his National Security Specialist Dick D’Amato – At Byrd’s request D’Amato investigated the UFO cover-up and concluded “UFO information should be released, but that an incredibly powerful black arm of the government has been keeping it secret, and spending enormous sums of money illegally in this operation.” He was unable to flush them out even though he had a Top Secret clearance and subpoena power.
10. 1991 Senator Unknown - According to john Alexander he had at least one Senator repaired to have some sort of official hearing or investigation into UFOs. According to Alexander, once Steven Greer held his May Disclosure news conference the deal fell apart.
11. 1993 Congressman Steven Schiff – As a New Mexico congressman Schiff had received a number of questions about the famous report of a crashed flying saucer outside of Roswell, New Mexico in July 1947. Schiff made an inquiry to the Secretary of Defense who forwarded his letter to the National Archives. The archives told him they had no records and so Schiff returned to the Secretary of Defense for the records from Roswell base for the time in question. When the Secretary of Defense stonewalled, Schiff used his power to order an investigation of the Roswell crash by the Government Accounting Office.
12. 1995 Senator Claiborne Pell- Chairman of Senate Foreign Relations Committee – Although Pell never expressed public support for the UFO issue according to Dr. Steven Greer Pell told him he was not able to get a “straight answer,”  and brought him in to share what he knew about UFOs with his staff.
13. 1996 Rep. Steven Horn - A big defender of the FOIA Horn meets with Marie Galbraith who headed up the UFO briefing project for Laurance Rockefeller (and possibly Rockefeller himself) in 1996. Horn was on the Government Reform and Oversight Committee, and was Chairman of the Subcommitee on Government Management, Information, and Technology. In the summer of 1996 Horn held hearings on thye overall issue of government secrecy policy and there was a proposal that Horn would use the UFO issue as an example. 
14. 1997 Senator Dan Burton – the powerful Chairman of the House Government Oversight Committee. His scheduling assistant Rhiannon Burruss had a close encounter UFO sightings, and Burton’s committee had received a few letters on the subject, so Burton took up the UFO cause. Following Steven Greer’s April 1997 briefing for Congress, Burton asked Greer to give him “everything” he had and he was going to get to the bottom of the UFO story. His staff member Matthew Ebert went on record stating “there is a possibility congressional hearings will be held”. It helped that Bill Clinton (who Burton disliked) was in power, so Burton was anxious to go after the administration on the UFO mystery.Unfortunately, Burton took some heat from Hillary Clinton over the UFO issue,[2] and there were some strange phone calls that caused Burton to back off the subject.
15. 1997 – Senator John McCain – After the sighting of the Phoenix lights by residents of Phoenix and southern Arizona, McCain was pressured by Phoenix councilwoman Frances Barwood. In 2000, during a run for President, McCain made some supporting statements for an investigation of the Phoenix Lights, “I think it is always of interest. I think it is of great interest. That has never been fully explained.”
16. 2001 Senator Barbara Boxer – Lara Johnstone was a South African political activist who heard a Steven Greer lecture on the Disclosure Project in San Francisco. She decided that she wanted to support the effort. She chose to go on a hunger strike to encourage newly elected George Bush to follow through on his promise, made in public to researcher Charles Huffer, to disclose to the people what the federal government knew about UFOs. She held what turned out to be a 42-day hunger strike right outside the office of Senator Barbara Boxer who tried to help by writing letters and contacting Vice-President Dick Cheney’s office on the UFO issue.
17. 2004 Governor Bill Richardson – As governor of New Mexico Richardson, like Schiff before him, had received many questions about the 1947 Roswell UFO crash. In 2004 he wrote the forward to a book on the crash called “The Roswell Dig” in which he expressed support for a complete investigation of the crash. In part Richardson stated, “The mystery surrounding this crash has never been adequately explained — not by independent investigators, and not by the U.S. government. …”
18. 2004 – Dennis Kucinich – During his run for president in 2004 Kucinich was introduced by his chief policy advisor Daniel Sheehan to a USAF Colonel who had been a witness to a major UFO incident as Kucinich chaired the House Aeronautics Committee. Kucinich, according to Sheehan “exhibited openness and candor about this issue.”
19. 2005 - Congressman Tom Davis planned to have a congressional hearing on (UAP) and UFOs. A preliminary hearing was actually held May 23, 2003 with Davis, congessional staffers and witnesses Edgar Mitchell, Peter Sturrock, Jacques Vallee, and Richard Haines. The actuall hearings were held July 21, 2005 but ended up being about counterterrorism Various government agencies stated the skies were safe and the UAP/UFO topic was never raised.

Many of these senatorial and congressional encounters with the UFO subject were significant attempts to do something about the mystery surrounding the UFO subject. One thing is for sure – each of the listed political involvements (no matter how large of small) produced more than the petition that has just been answered with the negative press release from the White House.

In looking back at the highlights of the listed successes one thing stands out. The positive results towards UFO disclosure efforts centered on local politicians rather than federal politicians such as the President or the heads of federal agencies.

I propose that the reason for this is that Congressmen and Senators enjoy one key advantage that someone like the President doesn’t – political cover. As pointed out in the quote from James Fox about his trip to visit Capitol Hill. Pressure on elected representatives in Washington actually helps them act on the issue and is what they want when dealing with controversial issues.

A local Senator or Congressman is able to hide behind the voter request when requesting serious investigation of the UFO subject. He is, for example, able to say, “I don’t believe in UFOs, but I am acting on behalf of my constituents who want an answer.” It is this political cover that enables them to act so boldly in the UFO minefields. Federal officials such as the President do not have the same cover, are not able to make this argument so easily, and therefore shy away from the UFO issue.

As I wrote in Part 1 of this article the UFO issue is viewed as toxic to a politician who wishes to appear respectable and “down to Earth.” Every politician knows that, as Dennis Kucinich showed clearly in the 2008 run for President,[3] being tied to the UFO issue can result in political death.

Creating a Rodney Dangerfield Moment

In any plan to force disclosure I believe it is important to keep in mind that the politician’s fear of the UFO issue centers on the ridicule factor associated with subject. It is that “I don’t get any respect” fear that has caused politicians to stay clear of any direct association.

I believe in any move to force disclosure the other thing that should be considered is how the powers that control the UFO issue have given the turned the UFO topic into one that only the brave and foolish will touch.

The creation of the ridicule factor around the subject of UFOs began in 1951 when then USAF Blue Book Commander Edward Ruppelt replaced the terms flying saucers and flying discs with the official term UFO. (Wilbert Smith, who ran the official Canadian Program from 1950-1954 almost never used the term UFO. He continued to call them flying saucers.)

 Ruppelt’s public claim was that the term UFO better described the uncertain origin and nature of the objects being reported around the world. Many researchers bought into the idea that Ruppelt had changed the term to help in researching the phenomena – That is – we’re from the Air Force and we are here to help you. Almost overnight the term UFO was universally adopted by researchers who strangely believed little else of what Ruppelt was saying.

What Ruppelt was doing was to create doubt and redirect the discussion of flying saucers and discs from it being extraterrestrial to “it could be anything.” The new term also supported the USAF position that most UFO reports were probably the result of nature phenomena and misinterpretations.

One example of how well this worked for the Air Force is the generally unsupported statement, repeated by many UFO researchers, that 90 – 95% of UFOs are “easily explained as natural phenomena and man-made objects,” leaving only 5 -10% as “genuine UFOs.” These claims are made constantly, despite the Air Force UFO Blue Book study conclusion which stated that unexplained were 20.5% up to a study of Blue Book data by Dr. James McDonald showing 40% were unexplained. Although totally unsupported by any evidence, researchers tend to repeat the 90 – 95% claim as they believe it presents them as “tough evaluators of the evidence” rather than “gullible believers.” Researchers want to be respected as well.

In 1952, the CIA added to this effort to create doubt and ridicule around flying saucer sightings through the conclusions of its Robertson Panel on UFOs. Those conclusions suggested that efforts be made to “take immediate steps to strip the Unidentified Flying Objects of the special status they have been given and the aura of mystery they have unfortunately acquired.”[4] The CIA panel further suggested that the Panel suggested the Air Force should begin a :debunking” effort to reduce “public gullibility” and demystify UFO reports.

The CIA plan to stigmatize the UFO issue worked extremely well. It made UFOs an issue scientists, the media, and politicians would avoid at all costs. The plan was so successful, in fact, that it even backed off even UFO researchers. This is evidenced by the fact that today many researchers not only fear using the term flying saucer, they have even moved to a position where they avoid at any cost the use of the term UFO.

If the fear of “I don’t get any respect” is as great as it appears to be in the UFO community, it becomes a greater problem in the world of politics were public image is everything. If researchers are afraid of being associated with UFOs, the politician becomes completely paralysed by the possibility that he will be labelled as “crazy” or “gullible.” Like scientists who might believe, politicians know that it has to be a quiet closet belief if they want to succeed in their chosen career.

An example that best shows this political paralysis is how both Kucinich and Richardson turned on the UFO community once they began to run for President. Both were believers who chose to run for President. Once on the campaign trail they found that they had lost the political cover they enjoyed as local politicians just trying to get an answer for a constituent. They were now seen as a possible President of the United States who should know better than to believe in such stuff.

A second example that illustrates this political paralysis is that Presidents Ford, Carter, Reagan, and Clinton where all know to have been interested, had sightings, or promoted the UFO issue prior to becoming president. All, without exception, did nothing to openly promote the UFO issue once they arrived at the White House.

The use of the local politician to lobby for disclosure is an alternative that should be carefully considered by the disclosure movement. A review of the high points in UFO history shows that pressure on Congressmen and Senators has achieved results. Moreover, history has shown that in some cases it only took one constituent to light a fire under their local representative on the issue, and that that representative achieved substantial results.

Local politicians like United States Presidents have a strong desire to get elected. More importantly, local politicians are aware of the fact that they require local votes to win, and that if they are not responsive to local constituent requests their efforts to be elected or reelected will be greatly diminished. It is the basis of the democratic system and may provide a solution to the disclosure of the sixty-four year UFO mystery.

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[1] http://www.ufodocarchive.org/nicap/UFO_Investigator/038%20OCT%201967.pdf

[2] While a guest on the PBS Diane Rehm show in Washington, Hillary referred to Burton with the following comment – “That’s part of the continuing saga of Whitewater,” said Hillary, “the never-ending fictional conspiracy that honest to goodness reminds me of some people’s obsessions with UFOs and the Hale-Bopp comet.” Burton’s interest in UFOs had just become known in Washington, the Heaven’s Gate suicides related to the Hale-Bopp comet had just taken place and Burton was putting investigative heat on the Clinton’s over the Whitewater Real Estate scandal.

[3] In October 2007 during a Democratic debate Dennis Kucinich was asked about the sighting of a UFO that he had while a visitor at the home of Shirley MacLaine. When Kucinich confirmed that he had seen a UFO he was written up in every article after that night in a very negative light as the UFO guy who really was not qualified to be President.

[4] Report of the Scientific Advisory Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects convened by the Office of Scientific Intelligence, CIA January 14-18, 1953.

White House ET Petition Letdown Part 2

Posted on December 13, 2011

Don’t fall in love with politicians, they’re all a disappointment. They can’t help it, they just are. Peggy Noonan – key speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan

An Official Statement?

In the days following the White House reply to the ET petition there was some discussion in the UFO community which suggested that the response by Larson was not “some kind of formal government statement on the UFO issue.” A quick look at the facts reveals that nothing could be further from the truth.

Firstly, the White House’s We the People site states clearly that the reply that will be given to each petition that qualifies with 5,000 signatures will be an official response. “If a petition gets enough support,” wrote White House officials running the site, “White House staff will review it, ensure it’s sent to the appropriate policy experts, and issue an official response.” Policy experts in the government will review the concern and an “official response” will be issued. That is pretty straight forward. The Phil Larson reply to the petition is an “official” position on UFOs issued by the White House.

Further evidence that the Larson reply is an official White House position comes from the understanding absolutely nothing that happens around the President, and that includes the White House website, is unplanned.

Everything around the President is orchestrated by scores of people who do planning or statement releases connected with the White House. One only has to look to the President’s daily schedule to see that it is organized and controlled down to the minute. Hundreds of people are responsible for moving the president around and determining how he will appear when in public, down to who gets to stand behind the President when he makes a speech, or as in the case of one George W. Bush speech whether or not those people will wear ties or not. Nothing goes unplanned.[1]

Presidential speeches can be rewritten dozens of times after being reviewed by just as many agencies who might be involved in the speech topic. Every single word in a speech is checked for accuracy, tone, and context.

Even presidential mistakes create new histories rather than correct the mistake. The best example of this is when President Johnson first mentioned the USAF SR-71 spy plane. The planes name was actually the RS-71 (Reconnaisance/Strike), but instead of pointing out the error the Air Force changed the name of the plane.

The idea that Phil Larson used the White House website as a personal blog site to put up his own person take on ET issues is a non-starter. The President is responsible and owns every idea and statement that goes on the website, in the same way as he owns every word in every speech that he gives.[2]

The Petition Itself

One point that has been absent in any of the discussions of the White House reply is just how regressive the White House UFO statement is for ufology.

In short, the statement put out by Larson is the worst putdown reply ever put out by any government official on the ET/UFO subject. Previous statements such as the final U.S.A.F. Blue Book study admitted that their study showed 22% of reports categorized as “unknowns” and that the higher the quality of the case, the more likely it was to be classified unknown. The Blue Book conclusions at least left a glimmer of hope for researchers.

The Larson reply leaves no glimmer. It simply concludes that there is no “credible evidence.” In other words there is nothing to study. Forget about the 600+ Roswell witnesses or the thousands of witnesses to the Phoenix lights incident. Forget about the thousands of pilot sightings, high ranking military witnesses, Presidents, or the nuclear plants or missile silos witnesses who have had sightings. Larson puts all of them in the loony file – there is no credible evidence.

So why would the White House chose to put out a statement that effectively negates any possibility that they will ever consider evidence or counter arguments? Why would they choose to box themselves in?

The White House attitude can closely be compared to the recent delusional but self-assured statements made by Syrian President Bashar Assad who told Barbara Walters in a broadcast interview that “I protect my people… there was no command to kill or be brutal,” and that the people who have died in the streets over the last number of months were “supporters of the government, not the vice versa.” Anyone familiar with the UFO evidence would say that the White House, like Assad, is totally divorced from reality.

The reason I think the reason for this bizarre estimation of the situation outlined by Larson’s statement suggests two possibilities;

1) The White House is totally out of the loop on the issue and they actually believe there is no evidence. This is actually quite possible. One only has to talk to people on the streets that are not part of any cover-up. Many of them also believe there is no “credible evidence.”

2) The White House is aware of the Above Top Secret nature of the subject and do not want to get dragged into a no-win discussion that will only encourage the “believers.” They know that the back-engineering development and the documents on the subject[3] are safely hidden away in private industry and that security procedures will keep everything there and out of the eyes of the public. The plan would be deny everything. As the UFO community is divided, and without money or public support, if you ignore them and ride out the storm, the “believers” will eventually go away.

Like a middle-east dictator they believe they will rule unchallenged forever.

Regardless of what the White House knows or doesn’t know there is one thing that is almost certain. Any attempt by the White House to address the UFO subject is viewed internally as tantamount to committing political suicide.

This negative is especially true in sending an ET/UFO petition to Obama a year before he stands for reelection. The White House has done lots of polls and knows that UFOs and ETs are not on them. They also know from the experience of Dennis Kucinich, dealing with the issue in 2008, that the issue is likely to be highly toxic to an already tough reelection situation.[4]

Like every other politician Obama’s main job is to get elected and then reelected. A prime example of this principle in action is President Obama’s latest decision to delay a decision on the new Keystone oil pipeline from the oil sands of Canada to the refineries in Texas.

Regardless of one’s view on the pipeline, the fact is that Obama turned down the chance to create 10,000 new jobs to save one job – his own. The decision to delay the pipeline till after the election came after protestors (seen to be part of Obama’s political base) were arrested in the hundreds outside of the White House gates in 2011 protesting the building of the pipeline. Consequently, instead of killing the pipeline or giving it the go ahead, Obama choice to simply delay the hard choice till after the next election so as not to offend potential voters.

Obama is so determined to get re-elected that he has even chosen to run against his own party by running against the “do nothing congress” which includes the Democrats from his own party. If he is willing to throw his own political party under the bus to get reelected, why would anyone think he would be willing to commit political suicide for the UFO community?

The White House chose to avoid the ET/UFO issue in the first round of petitions, and they will do the same in the second round now gathering signatures. Changing the wording in a new petition to ABA (anything but alien) wording will not change the situation. Do people seriously think that if Obama does not see the word ET or UFO in a petition request that he will change his mind and say, “Nobody will link this request to ETs and UFOs. Let’s take a chance?”

Any political initiative by the UFO community that does not recognize the basic rule that a politician’s main role in life is to get elected is doomed to failure. They are politicians selling themselves to the electorate, not Messiahs or Santa Clauses.

Phil Larson's Role

After reading the Larson reply to the ET/UFO petition the first thing that occurred to me is that Larson is just a pawn in the game, and he probably had to balance many things in writing the petition reply.

• Do your Job – Larson is only one of a number of spokesman for a White House that decides what the message will be. His actions are directed by many factors he does not control, and positions he must take in order to save his job and professional standing. He knows the first rule of big organizations – do not bite the hands that are feeding you. Larson exemplifies the caption on a cartoon that hung on the wall of Richard Nixon’s special counsel Charles Colson. It said, “When you’ve got ‘em by the balls, their hearts and minds will.” (An FOIA was filed to find out where Larson’s instructions came from and who all was involved in writing the petition response. Like most government FOIAs the OSTP has decided to play stupid and has not even acknowledged receiving the FOIA even though they are over the 20 working days spelled out in law for providing a reply.)
• Technological funding considerations – People who check Larson’s background will find that in 2006, he participated in the Mars Society’s Mars Desert Research Station. Assuming Larson had any input in the White House position (which he wouldn’t) what are the chances that he would ever admit that there is any viable evidence to study for the presence of ETs on earth? More importantly, if he did admit there might be local evidence to investigate, what would be the chances that the federal budget Gods would then fund another $ 2.5 billion spacecraft to fly to Mars to drill more holes in rocks looking for ET evidence? Answer: Larson will never concede to the possibility of ET evidence on Earth as long as his Mars and outer space associates have billions of dollars of funding to look elsewhere. Put another way – as Bob Woodward’s Deep Throat described the search for truth – Just follow the money. For Larson this means that in a world where NASA budgets and jobs are being cut, getting himself fired for agreeing to an earthly might put him in a position of having to drive a taxi cab to pay the bills.
• Belief systems – Any UFO researcher who has been in the field for a considerable period of time will have run up against mainstream engineers and scientists who have been eager to give their professional position on the UFO evidence. Whether we are talking about Phil Klass, James Oberg, Donald Menzel, Bill Nye the Science Guy, Carl Sagan, or Bernard Haisch, their conclusions have been characterized by a total lack of investigation, twisting of the evidence, and totally irrational conclusions. I would propose that the scientists and engineers mentioned above are not just an unlucky draw by the UFO community of getting stuck with the worst scientists and engineers of all times. Figures show that most scientists and engineers as a whole would probably support the anti-UFO views expressed by the past loser scientists and engineers that have inflicted themselves on the UFO community                  

Researcher John Alexander, in fact, points out in every lecture he give that the higher up the scientific organizations the less likely the scientists in the group believe in UFOs or any other phenomenology research. According to Alexander, at the highest scientific level, the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) those who believe in phenomenology are down to 4%.                                                       

The White House petition reply mirrors the conservative belief structure in the NAS. Any sort of admission that there is any validity to any of the UFO evidence that has been collected over the last 64 years would be equivalent to a high level church official openly expressing the possibility that there was no resurrection of Jesus Christ. Like large religious organizations those who make it to the top echelons of the NAS or the White House, do not advance themselves to the top without knowing what topics are likely to be career-limiting.                            

If Larson were to cross the this line drawn by the world of science Vatican heirachy he would be immediately excommunicated and would be jobless, as those who create the doctrines of accepted beliefs also usually control who gets scientific funding.                                 

In science as in major religions there are creeds of beliefs that are set up by authorities which create the perimeters of acceptable discussion. They represent a set of shared beliefs held by most scientists. In his reply to the UFO petition Larson spells out one of these key sacred UFO related beliefs stating, “the odds of us making contact with any of them (planets that are home to life)—especially any intelligent ones—are extremely small, given the distances involved.” [5] The universe is material, we can’t exceed the speed of light, and therefore interstellar travel is impossible.” It is scientific dogma every UFO researcher has heard dozens of times.

As well as throwing cold water on the idea that ET might be here, Larson reminds any scientist reading his official reply of a line in the sand on research that cannot be crossed – UFOs do not fall in the materialistic world view and must not be studied. The UFO/material universe dilemma is a belief acting as a rule that has worked well in dissuading scientific investigation into UFO reports.

Scientists know that to cross the line would put them in the dark, and most scientists are afraid of the dark. They would rather remain in the light where they can see and where the belief fences keep them safe and accepted by their peers.

Scientists also know that crossing over the line would put them in the position of questioning the dogma and beliefs of science. Scientists are instinctively aware that questioning the status quo believe structure can get you excommunicated from the church of scientism. In a world where government grants to science are being cutback, crossing the line makes you an easy target for those scientific authorities who have made the rules and are now delegating limited research funds.

The penalty for crossing the belief line is firm and not even a Nobel Prize will save you. Those who doubt this only have to talk to Brian Josephson, youngest man to win the Nobel Prize in physics for the “Josephson effect” in 1973. Despite his Nobel Prize Josephson has been ostracized and marginalized at Cambridge University for 30 years for his Mind Matter Unification Project which involves studies in parapsychology . The Cambridge university officials have made it clear that “no student will get university funding if they study with him on consciousness and the paranormal.”

Some might argue that science does not involve belief systems and it only uses the scientific method of “systematic observation, measurement, and experiment, and the formulation, testing, and modification of hypotheses.” This however is not true when it comes to UFOs and other phenomenology.

Frustrated ufologists complain constantly that scientists refuse to look at the evidence. When confronted with the subject scientists will simply throw out a memorized line from the scientific catechism such as “there is no credible evidence” or “I don’t believe in that stuff” or “the subject is a waste of time.” Then like church officials who control the teachings of the church, the scientific journals do not publish research on UFOs which self-reinforces the fact that there is no evidence.

These are the beliefs and attitudes that Phil Larson parrots in his authorship of the official White House statement on the ET/UFO issue. It is an unscientific and uninformed message.

Next in Part 3: A Possible Solution
Followed by: OSTP replies to new FOIAs

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[1] An excellent article on this control of the President’s image was “The contemporary presidency: the presidency and image management: discipline in pursuit of illusion” written by Jeremy Mayer, in The Presidential Quarterly http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+contemporary+presidency%3A+the+presidency+and+image+management%3A…-a0121877458

[2] A good example of this presidential ownership can be seen in the story of David Frum who helped write the famous Bush State of the Union speech that contained the “axis of evil” concept. Following the speech, Frum’s wife Danielle expressed her “wifely pride” to friends in an e-mail that her husband had come up with the phrase. According to CNN commentator Robert Novak Bush was so infuriated that he fired Frum. This led to Frum quickly issuing a statement that he had already tendered his resignation before the speech was written, and he quickly left the Bush White House. The rule is the President owns every word – no exceptions.
3) Researcher Dan Smith, in conversations with Dr. Pandolfi, stated that he had been told that there was an effort to make the UFO paper trail disappear. This idea is supported by a 1997 CIA study on UFOs CIA’s Role in the Study of UFOs, 1947-90:A Die-Hard Issue which supported what Smith had been told “Agency officials purposely kept files on UFOs to a minimum to avoid creating records that might mislead the public if released.”

[4] For further discussion on Kucinich see (http://www.presidentialufo.com/old_site/dennis_kucinich.htm)

[5] A similar reminder of the rules was put out in a study by the Jasons at the Mitre Corp. requested by Ron Pandolfi looking at the controversial study of High Frequency Gravitation Waves which some have hypothesized as a propulsion sytem for UFOs. In a number of place in the final report scientists were reminded of the line that must not be questioned or crossed, “For the relatively weak fields in the lab, on the Earth, or indeed in the solar system (far from the cutting-edge science of black holes of the Big Bang), the general theory of relativity and its existing experimental basis are complete, accurate and reliable.”