White House ET Petition Letdown Part 2
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.
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
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
[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.”
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.”
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