Presidential UFO
Trash Talk
by Grant
Cameron
The
President of the United States of America is considered by many to be the most
powerful man in the world. If that very powerful President is in change of the
UFO cover-up, then that relationship is the key relationship to study in
determining what is going on. If the President is not the head of the UFO
cover-up, cut out of the loop by some Machiavellian group bypassing the
constitution, then that is the key story to investigate. In short, the
President’s relationship to the UFO situation is the key to understanding what
happened, and how to end the cover-up.
A
quick look back at history shows that rarely have U.S. Presidents or
vice-presidents ever commented on the UFO situation. Part of the reason for
this executive silence is that no one ever asked. Presidential records show
there may have been only four occasions when the President or vice-president
has ever faced the UFO question while in office, and in front of a
public form.[1]
That amounts to four occasions in 55 years, or once every fourteen years.
The
first occurred on July 10, 1947, only days following the Roswell New Mexico
crash, when President Truman first faced a question about UFOs. He was asked if
he had ever seen a flying saucer. He replied, “only in the newspapers.”
A
reporter then asked Truman if there was “any explanation of them.” The
President replied, “Only the explanations I have seen in the newspapers. Did
you ever hear of the moon hoax?”[2]
In
December 1954, President Eisenhower was asked a question about a flap of UFO
sighting in Europe, and if U.S. authorities suspected something
extraterrestrial was involved. Eisenhower replied:
Well, with regard to those recent
reports, nothing has come to me at all, either verbally or in written form. And
I must say, when I go back far enough, the last time I heard this talked to me,
a man whom I trust from the Air Forces said that it was, as far as he knew,
completely inaccurate to believe that they came from any outside a planet or
otherwise.ii
In
July 1996 just following the release of the movie Independence Day where
aliens attack and destroy the White House, President Clinton was asked if he
thought America could fight and win over invading aliens as had occurred in the
fictionalized movie. Clinton responded, “Yes, I think we'd fight them off. We
find a way to win. That's what America does ‑‑ we'd find a way to win if it
happened.”
In
April 2001 vice-president Cheney was asked if in any of his government jobs
(White House Chief of Staff, Secretary of Defense, vice-president) he had ever
been briefed on UFOs, and if so when, and what was he told. Cheney replied:
“ Well if I had been briefed on it, I’m sure
it was probably classified, and I couldn’t talk about it. I have not come
across the subject since I have been back in government, oh like since January
20th. I’ve been in a lot of meetings and I don’t recall one on
UFOs.”iii
In
most past administrations there has been no mention of UFOs by the President,
whether in executive branch documents, press conferences, or in White House
news releases. There have, for example, been only three letters on the UFO
subject signed by Presidents after entering the White House.
1) Letter from Lyndon Johnson (while vice-president)
to a researcher in Canada, directing him to NASA for analysis of a UFO photo.
2) Letter from President Richard Nixon to a
young girl, commenting on her theory as to where UFOs come from.
3) Letter from ex-President Ford to
researcher George Filer, telling him that he was unable to get any answers to
the UFO question as Congressman, Vice President, or President.
At
first glance it would appear that the plan is that most important problem
mankind has ever faced, should never cross paths with the most powerful man in
the world. At least that is the way it has been made to appear. Recently,
however, there seems to be a change in how some administrations have chosen to
play the game.
In
the 1997 movie Contact, President Clinton appears in the White House
Press room to declare to the world, “This is the product of years of
exploration by some of the world’s most distinguished scientists . . . if this
discovery is confirmed, it will surely be one of the most stunning insights
into our universe that science has uncovered. Its implications are as far
reaching and awe-inspiring as can be imagined . . . ”
The
message was made to appear as Clinton’s reaction to an alien signal picked up
during a SETI search of radio signals from the Vega star system.
In
reality, it was nothing of the sort. It was a taped segment of a statement read
one the White House lawn by President Clinton following the discovery of a
possible biological fingerprint in a Martian. The segment had been taped,
reworked, and made to look like an official confirmation of first contact with
an extraterrestrial race.
The
White House protested the surreptitious and unauthorized use of the Clinton
speech. Mike McCurry stated that the issue was “of real concern to the Legal
Counsel.” vv Presidential counsel Charles F.C. Ruff wrote to the film's
director and producer, Robert Zemeckis, said, ``You have manipulated images of
the president's public statements, taken them out of the context in which they
were uttered and adapted them to fit the plot of your film.''
President
Clinton, on the other hand, did not “express any real concern.” The White House
legal department wrote the Contact people a letter, but that’s as far as
it went. They did not push the issue. The producers of Contact were not forced
to make changes to the movie, provide compensation, or even apologize for their
actions.v
Further,
there were indications that Clinton may have known his image was going to be
used. A spokesman for Warner Brothers stated Clinton was aware of what was
happening. As further support for this opinion the spokesman stated that Dee
Dee Myers, Clinton’s former press secretary, was a media consultant for the
movie.[3]
Perhaps
a reason the Clinton White House did not more forcefully protest the use of the
President’s voice and image in such an out of context way, is that the Clinton
White House was sympathetic to the extraterrestrial image. Secondly, the image
of Clinton making the statement placed the President in a good light compared
to the scandal images that were so common in the media.
More
important, the Clinton White House kept a low profile on their protests of this
extraterrestrial misrepresentation of the President, because they too were
surreptitiously placing UFO and alien references in official speeches and
statements originating from the White House. They appeared as a form of trash
talk, never a discussion of UFOs themselves, and always indirectly inserted so
they would appear as a common part of the language of the speech. The alien
references were usually inserted as part of a humorous comment or joke. Many on
the other hand, as I will show, had well calculated enigmatic meanings.
These
UFO trash talk incursions were first used in the Reagan administration. The
pattern was continued in the Clinton administration were the number of
insertions increased dramatically. Most of the other administrations had used
very few, and usually none.
The UFO trash talk in the Reagan
administration received a great deal of publicity. This was especially true of
Reagan’s alien invasion remarks.
In
the Clinton administration, there were so many UFO references used it is almost
staggering. Yet, the UFO trash talk went completely unnoticed. Except for a
couple brief mentions of some of these items in the press and in UFO Internet
discussion groups, the incursions went totally unnoticed - till now.
The Reagan Era
Of
all the U.S. Presidents, Reagan more than any other President, has received
notoriety for his obsession with the UFO phenomena. The obsession tag came from
a series of UFO related utterances made by Reagan in various speeches and
comments.
Billy
Cox, a feature writer with the newspaper Florida Today, wrote a major
story that was republished in USA Today about Reagan and the series of
UFO comments. Cox described the situation as
“Ronald Reagan’s abiding fascination with extraterrestrials.”[4]
A
careful review of Reagan’s background did show a UFO leaning. Ronald Reagan’s
daughter Patti Davis described her father as “fascinated with stories about unidentified
flying objects and the possibility of life on other worlds.” She compared the
“madness” of her father’s inauguration day to “a fifty’s movie in which flying
saucers descend on the metropolis.”[5]
Reagan may have gained this intense
interest from sightings he had while he was Governor of California. Kitty Kelly
in her Unauthorized Biography of Nancy Reagan stated Reagan admitted to
believing in flying saucers, and “even swore that he had seen a few
unidentified flying objects.”[6]
Two
of these Reagan encounters with UFOs have become public. Steve Allen made the
first sighting story public on his WNEW-AM radio show in New York. Allen stated
that a well-known personality in the entertainment industry had confided the
story to him many years before. As the story had already made the rounds in the
rumor mill, there was no question the comedian and host was referring to Ronald
Reagan and his wife Nancy.
Ron
and Nancy were expected at a casual dinner party with friends in Hollywood.
Except for the Reagans, all the guests had arrived. Ron and Nancy showed thirty
minutes later quite upset. They stated that they had seen a UFO coming down the
coast.
The
second sighting occurred in 1974 while Reagan was still Governor. Reagan
related the story to Norman C. Millar, then Washington Bureau chief for the
Wall Street Journal, later the editor of the Los Angeles Times Reagan
told Millar:
“I was in a plane last week when
I looked out the window and saw this white light. It was zigzagging around. I
went up to the pilot and said, ‘Have you seen anything like that before?’ He
was shocked and said, ‘Nope.’ And I said to him: ‘Let’s follow it!’
We followed it for several minutes.
It was a bright white light. We followed it to Bakersfield, and all of a sudden
to our utter amazement, it went straight up into the heavens. When we got off
the plane, I told Nancy all about it.”[7]
Reagan,
in his discussion of the sighting with Norman C. Millar added that he had told
Nancy about the UFO he had seen, and they had done personal research on UFOs.
This research had uncovered the facts that there were references to UFOs in
Egyptian hieroglyphics. The animated way that Reagan was telling his story led
Millar to conclude that Reagan seriously believed in UFOs. He asked him,
“Governor, are you telling me that you saw a UFO?”
Suddenly,
according to Millar, Reagan realized that he was talking to a reporter. “This
look crossed his face,” recalled Millar, “and he said let’s just say that I’m
an agnostic.”[8]
Once in the White House it didn’t take Reagan
a long time to bring up the UFO subject and get into alien hot water. This was
despite efforts to limit the President’s ramblings. In their book Landslide,
Jane Mayer and Doyle McManus described that the Reagan handlers went to great
lengths to “conceal” the President’s assertion that he had seen a flying saucer
or his belief that there was a ghost in the Lincoln bedroom.[9]
There were also attempts made to control Reagan’s open discussions of
Armageddon, another of the President’s favorite subjects.
The
efforts to maintain total silence on the forbidden subjects were not
successful. Sometimes, the efforts were so unsuccessful that Reagan was able to
get two of the forbidden topics in the same speech such as during the Remarks
at the Annual Conservative Political Action Conference Dinner on February
11, 1988. In the speech, written for Reagan by Pulitzer Prize winning
speechwriter Tony Dolan, Reagan said:
...By the way, something odd
happened just before I got here tonight that I think you should know about. I
got a message from Dave Keane reminding me that this was the eve of Lincoln's
birthday-and suggesting I go upstairs and check on the ghost in Lincoln's
bedroom. I did. And what do you know, there was Stan Evans dressed as Abe
Lincoln. And he kept saying, "Listen to Jesse Helms.". . . Well, we conservatives have been in
Washington now for a while and we occasionally need to remind ourselves what
brought us here in the first place: our unshakable, root-deep, all-encompassing
skepticism about the capital city's answer to the UFO, that bizarre,
ever-tottering but ever-flickering saucer in the sky called "The
Prevailing Washington Wisdom."[10]
Most
of President Reagan’s UFO comments related to what he referred to as “my
fantasy.” The concept of the fantasy was that the world would become united if
faced with an invasion of aliens from another world. As Reagan saw it, the
world would during such an invasion, view all people as one race. This would
unite the one Earth race in their dealing with extraterrestrials.
The
first such “alien invasion” comment came from President Reagan when he was
attending the Geneva summit with Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev in
November 1985. During a series of impromptu toasts on November 19, President
Reagan began his toast by discussing an invasion of aliens approaching on
Halley’s Comet[11]that
a flying saucer was traveling behind the
Hale‑Bopp comet. Where President Reagan hypothesized that aliens coming on a
comet might be coming to invade the earth, the Heaven’s gate groups believed
the aliens were coming to take them to an extraterrestrial "Kingdom of
Heaven." A Memorandum of
Conversation from the United States State Department recorded Reagan’s comment.
Reagan
said that while the General Secretary was speaking, he had been thinking of
various problems being discussed at the talks. He said that previous to the
General Secretary’s remarks, he had been telling Foreign Minister Shevardnadze
(who was sitting to the President’s right) that if the people of the world were
to find out that there was some alien life form that was going to attack the
Earth approaching on Halley’s Comet, then that knowledge would unite all the
peoples of the world.
Further,
the President observed that General Secretary Gorbachev had cited a Biblical
quotation, [12]and
the President is also alluding to the Bible, pointed out that Acts 16 refers to
the fact that “we are all of one blood regardless of where we live on the
Earth,” and we should never forget that.[13]
A
review of the files at the Reagan library shows no records in the
speechwriter’s files for this toast. It is safe then to assume that this “alien
invasion” toast remark was an ad-lib comment by the President. The same would
hold true for the “alien invasion” remark made to Shevardnadze. They were not,
as some have espoused, a carefully drafted attempt by the White House or some
MJ-12 type group to lead or mislead the public.
There
was a third mention of the alien invasion hypothesis made at the Geneva Summit.
Reagan made it to Gorbachev during the five hours of personal conversations
that were held between the two leaders. The Memorandums of Conversation from
the Summit do not document the third remark, but it is evident from the number
of pages in the NSC file that not everything in the five hours of conversations
was recorded. The mention of the third “alien invasion” remark was made public
by Reagan himself in a speech that President Reagan made shortly after arriving
back in the U.S. from the summit.
On
December 4, 1985, Ronald Reagan made a speech at Fallston High School, Harford
County, Maryland. During the speech President Reagan reflected on his meeting
with Gorbachev in Geneva two weeks before. Reagan spent much of the speech
talking about an exchange of scholars, scientists, and government officials
between the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R. that he and Gorbachev had discussed. At the
very end of the speech, Reagan stated that during five hours of private
conversations with Gorbachev in Geneva, he had brought up the alien scenario:
“I couldn’t help but - when you stop to think that we’re all God’s
children, wherever we live in the world, I couldn’t help but say to him
(Gorbachev) just how easy his task and mine might be if suddenly there was a
threat to this world from some other species from another planet outside in the
universe. We’d forget all the little local differences that we have between our
countries and we would find out once and for all that we really are all human
beings here on this Earth together. Well I guess we can wait for some alien
race to come down and threaten us, but I think that between us we can bring
about that realization.”[14]
A review of the speechwriter files
from the Fallston speech show that the “alien invasion” reference was neither in
the drafts of the speech nor in the speech copy. Reagan had simply added his
recollection of his “alien invasion” comment to Gorbachev while he was
speaking. Once again the idea had come from Reagan, as opposed to a
hidden power behind the President.
The Fallston remark did not attract
big headlines in America, but it did generate a reply from Gorbachev. On
February 16, 1987, in an important speech, at a conference at Grand Kremlin
Palace in Moscow on the "Survival of Humanity," Gorbachev appeared to
respond to President Reagan:
“At our meeting in Geneva, the U.S.
President said that if the earth faced an invasion by extraterrestrials, the
United States and the Soviet Union would join forces to repel such an invasion.
I shall not dispute the hypothesis, although I think it’s early yet to worry
about such an intrusion. It is much more important to think about the problems
that have entered in our common home.” [15]
In
response to Gorbachev Reagan decided to bring up the alien invasion fantasy
again. This time he chose to use the United Nations as his stage. Toward the
end of his speech to the Forty-second general assembly of the United Nations on
September 21, 1987, Reagan said,
“ In our obsession with antagonisms
of the moment, we often forget how much unites all the members of humanity.
Perhaps we need some outside, universal threat to make us recognize this common
bond. I occasionally think how quickly our differences worldwide would vanish
if we were facing an alien threat from outside of this world. And yet I ask -
is not an alien force already among us? ”[16]
In
the Reagan Administration’s speech writing file there is a record of how this
alien invasion reference ended up in the speech.[17]
Clark Judge wrote the speech, and Judge had not included an alien invasion
reference, despite the fact that it appeared Reagan had asked for it.
A
near final draft was sent to Reagan for comment on September 17, four days
before the speech. In his scratchy, patriarchal handwriting Reagan wrote:
I
think there is too much anti-Soviet preaching in view of what we are trying to
achieve right now.
And
towards the end perhaps I still would like my “fantasy” - how quickly our
differences worldwide would vanish if creatures from another planet should
threaten this world.[18]
On
September 18, 1987 Clark Judge wrote to President Reagan and stated “ Your
Fantasy is included. Please see page 16, paragraph at the top of the page.”
When the speech returned to Judge from Reagan “if creatures from another planet
should threaten,” was changed to “if we were faced with an alien threat from
outside” as is found in the final speech.
The
request for and changes to the wording of the alien invasion remark in the
speech were Reagan’s ideas. The correspondence between Reagan and Judge does however
show, that many departments such as State and NSC did see and sign off on the
reference to the aliens being in the speech.
Later
in the same month Reagan talked once more about the alien threat. This time he
broached the subject for the second time with Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard
Shevardnadze while Shevardnadze’s was in Washington to sign the INF Treaty on
September 15, 1987. The New Republic magazine reported the story ;
Near the end of his lunch with Shevardnadze
Reagan wondered aloud what would happen if the world was faced with an ‘alien
threat’ from outer space. ‘Don’t you think the United States and the Soviet
Union would be together Reagan asked?
Shevardnadze said, “yes, absolutely. And we wouldn’t need our defense
ministers to meet.”[19]
Reagan’s final alien invasion
reference was made on May 4, 1988. It was the day after Donald Regan, the
former Reagan Chief of staff had revealed “ Virtually every move and decision
the Reagans made during my time as White House Chief of Staff was cleared in
advance with a woman in San Francisco who drew up horoscopes to make sure the
planets were in a favorable alignment for the enterprise.” [20]
Reagan made his alien reference in a
question and answer period following a speech to the National Strategy Forum in
the Chicago Palmer House Hotel. It was dubbed the “space invader” speech by the
media, but was written up in media stories only as a sidelight to the astrology
revelations of the day before.
Significantly,
Reagan’s alien statement was made in response to the question - “ What do you
consider to be the most important need in International Relations?” Reagan
replied:
“ I’ve often wondered...what if all
of us in the world discovered that we were threatened by an outer - a power
from outer space, from another planet. Wouldn’t we all of a sudden find that we
didn’t have any differences between us at all, we were all human beings,
citizens of the world, and wouldn’t we come together to fight that particular
threat . . .”[21]
Beside
the alien invasion remarks found in various Reagan speeches, there are a couple
other times when Reagan made reference to UFOs and extraterrestrials. On June
27, 1982, a year after Reagan entered the White House, Ronald Reagan made one
of his most famous alien remarks when he hosted Steven Spielberg in the White
House.
Spielberg was at the White House to present a
private screening of his soon to be released movie ET: The Extraterrestrial.
The movie dealt with a young visiting extraterrestrial that becomes stranded on
earth and struggles to return, while U.S. government agents try to capture him.
Movies
were a big part of Reagan’s life before he became President, and he spent a lot
of time while President watching movies, either in the White House Theater, or
on the weekends at Camp David. White House records list 377 movies that Ron and
Nancy Reagan had been shown. These included most of the Star Trek movies, and
most of Steven Spielberg movies. In fact, two days before Spielberg arrived in
Washington for the special screening of E.T., the Reagans were at Camp
David watching Spielberg’s fictional ghost movie Poltergeist.
Along
with the Reagans and Spielberg thirty-five people[22]
were invited to the special E.T. screening. The event started with a
reception in the Blue Room where the Reagans met with the invited guests. From
there the group moved to the Red Room where the Presidential party had dinner.
At 8:22 p.m., in the White House Theater, the movie began.
During
the screening of E.T.the President leaned over, clapped Spielberg on the
shoulder, and quietly commented, “You
know, there aren’t six people in this room who know how true this really is.”
Unfortunately, the sudden press of people following the movie prevented
Spielberg from pursuing the strange comment made by Reagan.
A
couple months later, probably still inspired by
the E.T. movie, a couple months later President Reagan showed up
in Roswell, New Mexico to give a speech for the re-election of Harrison (Jack)
Schmitt. Schmitt was a Republican Senator from New Mexico who as an Apollo 17
astronaut was the last man to walk on the moon.
Schmitt
like Reagan was interested in the UFO phenomena. Like Reagan, Schmitt had publically played both the
investigator and the agnostic. On a positive note Schmitt declared, “If the government
has any information on UFO's, it should be released to the public -- barring
anything that might affect national security. We ought to be involved in a
search to find out if there's any good evidence that UFOs really are spacecraft
that are being piloted by extraterrestrial beings." Playing the
conservative politician Schmitt stated, “The existence of intelligent life
elsewhere in our universe is highly probable, given the huge number of sun-like
stars that exist out there. That such life would visit our star and planet,
however, is unlikely, but not impossible given the large number of choices it
would have for such a visit. Further, the so-called UFOs have not done a very
good job of communicating for life (that's) intelligent enough to travel between
stars.”
Schmitt’s
actions spoke very strongly towards his interest in solving the UFO mystery. In
1979 during the peek wave of cattle mutilations Schmitt gathered together 200
policemen, cattlemen, investigators, FBI agents, and media men from 11 western
states in Albuquerque for the only official investigation into the cattle
mutilation phenomena. No solution to the problem was reached by the gathering,
but only a few days later the justice Department offered money for an
investigation.
Even
more spectacular was Senator Schmitt’s involvement a year later in the case of
Paul bennewitz, an Albuquerque businessman who had contacted Kirkland Air Force
base, USAF intelligence, and President Reagan about his claim that he was
monitoring a base of aliens operating in the center of the Jicarilla
Reservation in Northern New Mexico. On November 10 Bennewitz was invited to the
Kirkland Air Force base to present his findings to a small group of officers
and scientists. A week later, agent Richard Doty Bennewitz that the Air Force Office of
Special Investigation (AFOSI) had
decided against further consideration of the matter.
At
this point Senator Schmitt involved himself in the case asking Doty asking what
AFOSI was planning to do about Bennewitz's allegations. When informed that no
investigation was planned, Schmitt spoke with Brig. Gen. William Brooksher of
base security.
In
this light, it came as no surprise that the re-election rally for Schmitt
should be at the location of the most popular UFO story of the century, and
that Reagan brought up the subject of extraterrestrials in his speech. Reagan
began his speech
It feels good to be here in the land
of enchantment and far away from a place of disenchantment on the banks of the
Potomac. Jack (Schmitt), are you sure you want to go back there? [Laughter] Of
course, having once been an astronaut, Jack Schmitt is probably the only one
who feels at home there; because Washington is in orbit most of the time about
one thing or another. [Laughter]
You know, when he was first elected he Senate, he
probably thought that, like E.T., [A character in the movie ``E.T.: The Extra
Terrestrial.''] he had landed on another planet. He was one of the few among
those alien big spenders, big taxers, who was working to bring economic order
to our nation.[23]
More
important than the alien comments made by President Reagan, was the place that
he made them - the Roswell Industrial Air Center - formally known as the Walker
Air Force Base. It was at this base in 1947 where the wreckage and bodies of
the Roswell flying saucer were rumored to have been taken.
Furthermore,
Reagan made his speech in front of Hanger 84, which was the rumored hanger that
was used to store UFO wreckage and/or bodies in July 1947. Like his famous
speech at the Berlin wall where Reagan asked Gorbachev to “tear down this
wall,” the speech at the Roswell Hanger where the UFO mystery began was typical
Reagan symbolism.
Some
of the alien invasion references made during the Reagan administration were
written up in a report, commissioned in part by Laurance Rockefeller, called
the Best Available Evidence. This report became part of the briefing material
used to brief President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary. Laurance Rockefeller
did this briefing of the first family in August 1995, while they were on their
summer holiday near Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
George
Herbert Walker Bush Talks Trash
George Bush’s chance to talk about
UFOs came while he was still vice-president to President Reagan. On March 7,
1988 Bush was on the campaign in Rogers, Arkansas. There waiting to question
the vice-president was UFO investor
Charles Huffer. Just as Bush was entering the building for a news conference,
Huffer turned on his tape recorder and approached Bush.
“Mr Bush, Mr. President,” asked Mr. Huffer (in
the excitement of the moment Mr. Huffer called him President). “Will you tell
the people the truth about UFOs?”
“Yeah,” replied Bush. Then
realizing what he had just said Bush added, “If we can find it, what it is. We
are really interested.”
“You’ll have it, you’ll have It.”
said Huffer. “It’s in there. (Huffer meant it would be in his briefing when he
became president) Declassify it and tell us, ok?”
“OK,” said Bush, “ alright, yes.”
Bush then entered the building and
met with the press. Huffer remained outside waiting for Bush to come back out.
When he did emerge from the building, Huffer, his tape recorder running again,
told George Bush, “Going to hold you to that promise.”
“Alright,” replied Bush.
“OK,” said Huffer, “you’re going to
get it.” (Huffer meant the UFO information)
“Why don’t you send me some
information about it? “ asked Bush.
“Naw,” said Huffer, “you’re a CIA man. You know all that stuff.”
“ I know some.” replied Bush. “I
know a fair amount.”
Bush had spent a year as Director of
Central Intelligence for President Gerald Ford, where he may have learned some
of the UFO secrets. He may also have learned some of the UFO secrets from
briefing that he and Ronald Reagan were rumored to have had at the Manzano
Weapons Storage area in Albuquerque in 1982. If Bush did “know a fair bit.” He
only took a couple occasions during his Presidency to talk about it.
The
first incident occurred on July 2, 1992 when Bush suddenly answered a question
with this bizarre reply. Bush said, “I told them to keep this thing secret. The
extraterrestrial who met with George Bush at Camp David ‑‑ I told him, I said,
if I'm going to meet with you ‑‑ [laughter] – I told him it was for me all
along. There he is. [Laughter]”[24]
(The question does not help identify what Bush is referring to, but it appears
to refer to the tabloid alien that the Weekly World News claimed was
meeting with all the candidates in the 1992 election)
Bush’s final comment occurred on
October 30, only a couple days before the 92 elections. Bush was speaking to
the Kentucky Fried Chicken Convention in Nashville, Tennessee. Bush introduced a UFO reference that Clinton
would use over as President to advance his campaign to pass his medicare reform
package. Bush stated, “But what about Governor Clinton? In June, he promised to
present his 100‑day plan even before the election. That's four days away. No
plan, no plan has been sighted yet, and the reason is simple. You're more apt
to see a UFO than you are his plan.”[25]
[Laughter]
Clinton Not to be outdone
It
has always been known within the UFO community that Bill Clinton had an
interest in discovering the answer to the UFO puzzle. If the numbers of trash
talk UFO items found in his White House materials is any indication, the level
of Clinton’s obsession about UFOs made Reagan’s interest in the subject look
tame in comparison.
Like
Ronald Reagan, both Bill and Hillary Clinton were very interested in the
concept of an alien invasion. The first time Clinton brought up the idea of an
alien invasion idea during an interview with Tom Brokaw of MSNBC. This
interview, done on July 15, 1996, involved the just released movie
“Independence day.” Clinton conveyed to
Brokaw how much he had enjoyed the movie.
I loved it. I loved it and ‑‑Mr.
Pullman came and showed it. I thought he made a good president. And we watched
the movie together, and I told him after it was over he was a good president,
and I was glad we won. And it made me wonder if I should take flying lessons.[26]
During
the interview, Brokaw took a question from an Internet e-mail asking Clinton if
he thought that we could actually win a war against the aliens if they were to
attack America, as the fictionalized Independence Day movie had shown.
President
Clinton replied, “Yes, I think we'd fight them off. We find a way to win.
That's what America does ‑‑ we'd find a way to win if it happened.”
The
President then launched into an alien invasion speech that would have made
President Reagan proud.
The good thing about Independence
Day is there's an ultimate lesson for that ‑‑ for the problems right here on
Earth. We whipped that problem by working together with all these countries.
And all of a sudden the differences we had with them seemed so small once we
realized there were threats that went beyond our borders. And I wish that we
could think about that when we deal with terrorism and when we deal with
weapons proliferation ‑‑ the difference between all these others problems.
That's the lesson I wish people would take away from Independence Day. [27]
Clinton
was a big fan of the movie Independence Day, and he spoke highly of it a
number of times. On the day of the movie’s release, at the 200th
Birthday Celebration for Youngstown Ohio, Clinton said this of the movie.
Somebody joked with me ‑‑ I don't
know if any of you have seen this new movie "Independence Day" ‑‑
(applause) ‑‑ but somebody said I was coming to Youngstown because this is the
day the White House got blown away by space aliens. (Laughter.) I hope it's
there when I get back. (Laughter.) Anyway, I recommend the movie. I got a
chance to see it the other night.[28]
A
couple weeks after the release of the movie, still inspired by the Independence
Day movie, President Clinton made yet another alien invasion remark.
Very interesting, don't you think,
that this movie, Independence Day, is becoming the most successful movie ever?
Some say it's because they blew up the White House and the Congress ‑‑
(laughter) ‑‑ and that may be. But, you know, you see story after story after
story about how the movie audiences leap up and cheer at the end of the movie
when we vanquish the alien invaders, right? I mean, what happened? The country
was flat on its back, the rest of the world was threatened, and you see all
over the world all these people have all of a sudden put aside the differences
that seem so trivial once their existence was threatened, and they're working
together all over the world to defeat a common adversary. [29]
The
next alien invasion comments came from Hillary Clinton who seemed to share the
President’s interest in the alien invasion concept. On October 13, 1998, at Spanish
Hall, Prague Castle Hillary said:
In one of those popular movies I
referred to that swept my country and apparently made a lot of money around the
world, called Independence Day — these movies always seem to start with an
attack on Washington, D.C., which I don’t really know how to take, the blowing
up of the White House and Capitol to begin with—the ending of it required all
of us to cooperate to fend off an alien attack. And certainly in the theater in
which I saw it, there were great cheers as people of all different races and
backgrounds and societies around the globe came together as human beings to
save ourselves. We certainly don’t expect it to come to that . . . [30]
On
January 25, 1999, speaking at the White House Hillary said this “Most of the
movies about the future show aliens descending from outer space determined to
blow up the world, and somehow they always begin or end with Washington, D.C.
(Laughter.)”[31]
Then on June 17, 1999 speaking in Paris, France, Hillary tied the concept of
the alien invasion to the making of movies in America.
In my own country, many of the
movies in recent years express our innate fears about what awaits us. They are
apocalyptic visions that leave only a few people on earth—whole cities
surviving under domes because we have depleted our natural resources. And often
in these movies, for reasons that I question, we have space aliens who are
always blowing up Washington, D.C., and the White House.[32]
A
few months after Hillary made her reference to movies and alien invaders,
President Clinton made a speech to a group of schools that identified an alien
invasion scenario as good as any President Reagan had ever used.
I told somebody the other day ‑‑ I
got a big laugh ‑‑ I said, you know, I get so angry at all these conflicts
around the world, and these expressions of hatred here at home based on race or
religion or sexual orientation. If we were being attacked by space aliens, like
in that movie, "Independence Day," we'd all be looking for a foxhole
to get in together and a gun to pick up together. The absence of a threat
sometimes causes us to lose our sense of focus, our center, our concentration .
. . And what I'm saying is ‑‑ you all laughed when I said this before, I
referenced that movie, "Independence Day" ‑‑ but, you know, if we
were being attacked by space aliens, we wouldn't be playing these kind of
games. These kinds of games are only possible because the economy is strong and
the American people are self‑confident . . . [33]
Not
to be outdone, Hillary came up with another alien invasion scenario. Hillary
delivered the remark at the Mars Millennium Project kick-off held at the
National Air & Space Museum. She spoke of modern movie themes, alien
invasion ideas, and a positive future.
When you look at popular culture
today, positive images of the future are often hard to come by. You look at the
movies that have tried to predict what will happen in the future, and we often
see a lot of death and destruction and environmental degradation. It’s not just
that people might live under domes on Mars, but they would have to live under
domes here on this planet because of what we will have done to our environment.
Or whether we will have to join together as human beings to stave off attacks
from aliens in outer space, and then we’ll have to put aside our really petty
differences—differences in our own country and differences among people around
the world—to stand up for our common humanity . . . The logo of the Mars
Project challenges us to picture a different kind of future. Not the one that
is portrayed in the movies of our popular culture or in our worst nightmares,
but instead one that really is filled with hope and possibility.[34]
The
final alien invasion reference, on November 7, 1999, came from President
Clinton in a moment of total frustration. The latest Republican bill had just
been pushed through the House of Representatives only days before. Clinton
realized he would have to veto it. Faced with the upcoming veto fight, Clinton
made the following statement to a group of educators. “If we were being
attached by space aliens, we wouldn’t be playing these kinds of games.”
This
was one of the few Clinton UFO remarks that gained any media attention.
Conservative broadcaster Rush Limbaugh responded to Clinton’s alien invasion
remark by saying, “What he going to do? Arrange one?”
Less
spectacular than the alien invasion remarks, but much more frequent were
comments about UFOs in the Clinton White House. On at least eight different
occasions and locations, Clinton compared UFO sightings and Social Security.[35]
The general UFO/social security reference made by Clinton resembled the line he
used in West Orange, New Jersey, at a DNC Dinner. “And everyone knows,” said
Clinton, “there are surveys which show that young people believe it is more
likely that they will see a UFO than that they’ll every draw Social Security.”[36]
On
a couple occasions, Clinton would double up on the UFO reference and add a
comment about one of his favorite shows- x-files, such as he did at Georgetown
University.
You know, there was a recent poll
which said that young people in the generation of the students here felt it was
far more likely that they would see a UFO than that they would draw Social
Security . . . It's very important you understand this. Once you understand
this, you realize this is not an episode from the X Files, and you're not more
likely to see a UFO if you do certain specific things.[37]
Sometimes
the alien trash talk was brilliantly hidden and immeasurably meaningful. It
escaped the attention of everyone who heard it, except the one person or group
the comment was intended for. A prime example of this was a statement made by
Hillary Clinton on April 10, 1997 on the Diane Rehm show.
During
the show Hillary was asked about the story that she had approved hush money
payments to Webster Hubbell, her former partner at the Rose law firm in Little
Rock, and later President Clinton’s attorney general. The hush money was to
stop Hubbell from talking about his and Hillary’s role in Whitewater, according
to the rumor.
“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.”[38]
The
comment generated immediate reactions from Ufologists around the country. “We
demand an apology,” Michael Luckman told the New York Post. Luckman and other
researchers figured that the remark was insensitive in light of the Heaven’s
Gate suicides that had just occurred.
In
reality Hillary’s comment had nothing to do with the UFO community. After all,
friend Laurance Rockefeller had briefed her on the evidence of UFO reality. The
comment was actually directed, not at her friends in the UFO community, but at
Congressman Dan Burton, Chairman of the House Government Oversight Committee.
Burton, a conservative Republican congressman, had according to some turned his
committee into “a one-stop shop for Clinton haters.” As Burton told the Indianapolis
Star of Clinton, “this guys a scumbag. That’s why I’m after him.”[39]
Only days before Hillary appeared on the Diane Rehm show Burton had issued 25
subpoenas. Seventeen of these were
issued to focus on the hiring of
Hillary’s friend and former coworker at the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock
Webster Hubbell, by the White House.
Burton,
like the Clintons, was also very interested in UFOs. On the day before the
Hillary’s comment about UFOs, Burton sent his chief congressional aide to
attend Dr. Steven Greer’s Top Secret UFO witness briefing held for members of
congress. Hillary had also been invited, as were many members of the White
House. Hillary did not attend, but some White House people did attend, and
Greer received “wonderful personal letters” from within the White House.[40]
Following
the briefing Burton had requested everything Greer had on the subject of UFOs.
Burton’s interest in UFOs was also known to most in Washington. Time magazine
columnist and former Deputy Washington Bureau Chief, Margaret Carlson wrote
about how Hillary’s comment was directed at Burton, and she seemed to defend
Hillary. “The UFO comparison is apt in his (Burton) case. He is considered
flaky and a bit of a crackpot, even though a nice guy. Some crackpots are
nice.”[41]
When
Hillary took her shot at Burton on the radio show, one of the White House
reporters questioned the President about it in a news scrum just before a
cabinet meeting. He asked Clinton what he thought about Hillary’s statement
about “the continuing saga of Whitewater, the never-ending fictional conspiracy”
and “some people’s obsession with UFOs and the Hale-Bobb comet.”
Realizing
whom Hillary was referring to Clinton burst out laughing and said, “Did she say
that? (Laughter.) That's pretty good. (Laughter.)”
The
reporter asked, “I was wondering if you share that sentiment? And also, we
haven't had a chance to ‑‑”
Still
laughing, the President said, “Well, if I didn't, I wouldn't disagree with her
in public.”[42]
Another
comment made which contained a strong hidden meaning was a statement made by
President Clinton while on a trip to Belfast, Northern Ireland. During the
lighting of the city Christmas tree, Clinton read a letter from a
thirteen-year-old Belfast boy named Ryan, and dealing with the UFO crash in
Roswell in 1947.
And to all of you who have not lost
your sense of humor, I say thank you. I got a letter from 13‑year‑old Ryan from
Belfast. Now, Ryan, if you're out in the crowd tonight, here's the answer to
your question. No, as far as I know, an alien spacecraft did not crash in
Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947. (Laughter.) And, Ryan, if the United States Air
Force did recover alien bodies, they didn't tell me about it, either, and I
want to know. (Applause.) [43]
The
story behind this comment that explains what Clinton was talking about goes back
to a letter written on March 29, 1993, only nine weeks after Clinton had come
to power. The letter was addressed to Clinton’s science advisor John Gibbons,
and was written a lawyer for conservationist, businessman and billionaire
philanthropist Laurance Rockefeller.
In
the letter, the attorney Henry Diamond informed Gibbons that “there is a belief
in many quarters that the government has long held classified information
regarding UFOs” and “Mr. Rockefeller, with other leading citizens, is planning
to make an approach to President Clinton on this subject.”[44]
Over
the next year Rockefeller and Gibbons met to see what could be done about
getting the government to release the secret information they had on UFOs. In a
meeting on February 4, 1994, Gibbons made a suggestion of approaching the
subject “by addressing a specific incident” as a reasonable way to begin the
process of declassification regarding UFOs.[45]
Rockefeller
immediately suggested Roswell as the case he wished President Clinton to start
with. “The July 1947 Roswell incident,” wrote Rockefeller, “would be a logical
and challenging place to start.”
There
is evidence that Clinton did put pressure on the Air Force for an answer not to
UFOs, but to the Roswell case. In 1994 the Air Force published a new study on
the Roswell crash[46]
that was being investigated to come up with an explanation to answer the many
charges being made by eyewitnesses coming forward. In addition, Clinton kept a copy of Kevin
Randle and Donald Schmitt’s book “UFO Crash at Roswell” on a shelf in his
private study.
In August 1995 Laurance Rockefeller finally
got his opportunity to meet with Bill and Hillary Clinton, and present to them
the best evidence that he had been able to collect. Clinton realized that there
had been a cover-up of the facts surrounding the Roswell case, and he was not
part of the circle that was being told.
Consequently,
while in Ireland, only a couple months after the briefing by Rockefeller
Clinton took a shot across the bow of the Air Force about the cover-up. “If the
United States Air Force did recover alien bodies, they didn't tell me about it
either, and I want to know.” Clinton had chosen Ryan’s letter to allow him to
talk about the subject. Letters in Presidential speeches are not pulled out of
a hat. They are chosen to make certain points. Clinton’s point was - I asked
for the facts on Roswell from the Air Force, and I’m demanding an answer.
Yet
the Roswell reference was only introduced as trash talk. The administration had
no intention of talking about the specifics of UFOs. This is clearly
illustrated by the reaction of Mike McCurry to a question put to him in Ireland
during a news conference following the lighting of the Christmas tree.
McCurry
was asked, “Yes the last one; this will probably end the briefing. Did the
President actually inquire of the Air Force in gathering the information he
provided the 13-year-old Ryan from Belfast-- (laughter)--was holding
extraterrestrials?”
McCurry
simply replied, “You’re right, Mark, that ended the briefing.”
Sometimes
the trash talk was much less intense, with much less hidden meaning, and more
like a simple obsession by a President and his staff with extraterrestrials. At
a meeting in the East Room dealing with Genomics the President stated, “Won’t
it be sad to have an Internet connection to Mars if there are no Martians to
write to or e-mail us?”[47]
In another musing about the extraterrestrials Clinton stated, “Well, I don’t
know what to say. You know if they’re out there, I hope they have the best of
what we have and fewer headaches.”[48]
Very
early in the administration at a NAFTA meeting in the White House, in front of
ex-president Jimmy Carter who had experienced a UFO sighting, Clinton made this
bizarre extraterrestrial comment, “I have been sent an extraterrestrial
telegram stating that “I too, am for NAFTA,” signed Otto von Bismarck.[49]
Finally, at the 2000 Kennedy Center Honors held in the White House Clinton
stated “ NASA even sent Chuck Berry's music on a space probe searching for
intelligent life in outer space. (Laughter.) Well, now, if they're out there,
they're duck walking.”[50]
Sometimes,
President Clinton would have one of those days when everything he saw was
alien. October 3, 1994 was such a day. At 7:53 p.m. during a Victory Rally
speech for Senator Robb, Clinton unleashed a whole string of alien remarks.
But the other thing that both of us
had to do, even to make a career in public life, was to fight against what has
been the brilliant strength of the Republicans, particularly the Republicans on
the right, for many years now. And that is, that they are better talkers than
we are, and ‑‑ and listen to me now ‑‑ and they raise more money than we do to
turn their opponents into aliens. Right? (Laughter.). . .And they are brilliant
at it. They sort of try to turn you into a space alien . . . And now the
Republicans are saying, well, if your problems aren't all solved, it's just
because the aliens have taken over Washington. (Laughter.). . . And while we
have been working, they have been talking, blaming, dividing, turning us into
aliens . . . [51]
Whether
inspired by the crowd, or just having an “alien day,” at 9:20 p.m. at the Robb
Victory Dinner Clinton started up again.
And here in Virginia, you have this
stark, graphic example of how really good they are at making down, up; up,
down; square, round, and turning us into aliens . . . So they try to turn the
President or the Senator from Virginia into an alien in the minds of ordinary
voters, and hope they can clog the information channels enough so that will
guarantee that in the scales inside us all, fear will outweigh hope on election
day . . . You have to decide ‑‑ what do you believe in? . . .They have turned
me into an alien with a lot of voters in Virginia so I can be in the ad. . . . And the idea that they could be trying
to turn him into some sort of space alien who is from the far left, when he has
done something that they talked about but never did . . .[52]
The
most bizarre alien trash talk came not from the President, but from his chief spokesmen
- Presidential Press Secretaries Mike McCurry and Joe Lockhart. Consider, for
example McCurry talking about the President’s upcoming travel schedule in early
1998.
Q: Right. Where is he going on
Monday or Tuesday?
McCurry: It’s always good to let a
little rabbit out that people can chase. You will be especially happy at where
he’s going.
Q: Tucumcari, New Mexico? Roswell?
McCurry: I didn’t say a thing. No,
we don’t need to go there because we were there in the flying saucer yesterday.[53]
Following
the release of the movie Independence Day, in July 1996, two Florida
Today reporters faced Press Secretary McCurry with a question. The reporters
asked if the White House had any plan for an alien invasion attack if it were
to come. The reporters were told there were no plans.” An Air Force spokesman
also told the reporters that if someone had an alien sighting and felt “in
imminent danger,” that he or she should contact the local authorities. This
lead the reporter to conclude an attack on the White House would be responded
to by Clinton and McCurry with a call to the D.C. cops.[54]
Further
inquiries by the reporters about a possible Independence Day scenario
led McCurry to say that if the aliens did attack, “I just hope it’s one of
those days when Whitewater or the FBI files have dominated the news.”[55]
A
couple weeks after the Independence Day movie comments it was
time for the Clintons to return to Jackson Hole, Wyoming for their 1996
vacation.
The Clintons had been in Jackson Hole for
their 1995 summer vacation, where they stayed at the cabin of West Virginia
Senator John D. Rockefeller and where Laurance Rockefeller briefed both Hillary
and Bill Clinton on the subject of UFOs.
In
a press briefing just prior to leaving, McCurry commented on the possibility of
the President returning to Washington, part way through the vacation, as he had
done in 1995. With Independence Day still fresh in his mind McCurry
stated,
He will hold to that tradition. The
only thing that would compel a high public profile is if space aliens came to
Washington and destroyed the White House. (Laughter.) That would probably
compel him to come out of his blissful vacation mode. [56]
Sometimes
the bizarre alien comments made by Clinton’s press secretaries took a bitter
tone when the questions dealt with scandals, or leaks. In November 1997,
McCurry was forced to answer the embarrassing revelation in a book just
published by Clinton’s former Attorney General Webster Hubbell, that Clinton
had sent him off in search of the answer to UFOs and the JFK assassination.
Q Did the President ask Webb Hubbell
to find out about UFOs and the JFK assassination?
MR. MCCURRY: No. We have a regular
briefing in the Oval Office with this space alien that some tabloids report.
(Laughter.) Maybe the New York Post hasn't reported that, but we asked the
space creature to look into that story.
Q Did he ask Hubbell to find out
about those two issues?
MR. MCCURRY: I have no idea and I'm
not going to respond to specific things in books that are written.[57]
In June 1996 McCurry was faced with
questions about the book Unlimited Access, written by Gary Aldrich.
Aldrich a former FBI agent in the White House accused the Clinton White House
of a whole range of illegal activities. In response to some reporters question
about whether any of Aldrich’s claims were true McCurry shot back, “No, except
that space aliens had probably landed on the South Lawn of the White House,
too, and we're cavorting with them as well. It's absolutely ridiculous.”[58]
Clinton’s
Press Secretaries were particularly ready with alien trash talk when the
question had anything to do with a story that had appeared in a national
tabloid. One such case was on the morning after Dick Morris, a Clinton
strategist, resigned after being caught with a $200‑an‑hour call girl. The
allegations had been written up in the tabloid newspaper The Star. The
Clinton reelection committee accepted Morris’s resignation immediately.
In
Mike McCurry’s news conference the next morning, McCurry fielded a number of
questions about the detailed allegations made in the article, and asking him to
speculate what damage Morris’s resignation had done to the Clinton White House.
McCurry moved to downplay the damage caused by the article. “A publication in a
tabloid like this ‑‑ or a story in a publication like this is not something
that routinely we worry about. It kind of falls in the space alien category.”
In
response to this reply another reporter came back with “How is it the
President's could be in the position of letting himself lose a valued advisor
for a story you say is in the space alien category?” McCurry responded that
campaigns lose people all the time and the President honored Morris’s request
that his family not be dragged through the scandal by remaining with the
campaign.
In
January 1999, it was Clinton Press Secretary Joe Lockhart’s turn. He was faced
another scandal query about a 13-year-old boy in Arkansas. The boy’s mother was
claiming, in a tabloid story, that Bill Clinton was the boy’s father. One
reporter stated to Lockhart that the photo of the boy in the national tabloid
did look like Clinton. “That’s good,” replied Lockhart, “and I’m an alien space
baby.”[59]
The
Clintons were under constant pressure during the eight-year administration,
accused of all manner of scandals. Some of the alien references reflected these
attacks. They took on a tenor of persecution, such as during the rally for
Senator Chuck Robb, which was quoted above.
They raise more money than we do to
turn their opponents into aliens. Right? . . .That is what they do. And they
are brilliant at it. They sort of try to turn you into a space alien. . . And here in Virginia, you have this
stark, graphic example of how really good they are at making down, up; up,
down; square, round, and turning us into aliens . . . They have turned me into
an alien with a lot of voters in Virginia so I can be in the ads . . . [60]
Near
the end of his second term as President, Clinton still felt persecution by the
Republicans. In a fund-raising speech for Hillary’s Senate campaign, Clinton
President Clinton accused New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani of enlisting a
"right‑wing venom machine" to help “raise a double‑ton of money” in
his senate campaign against Hillary. He also accused Guiliani’s party of trying
to convince voters that he and Hillary were space aliens.
They believe you have to drive
people apart in order to win elections. And since they're wrong on the issues,
they're right. In other words, people won't agree with them on the issues, so
the only way they could win is to convince them that we're the first cousins of
space aliens. (Laughter.) They've got this figured out now; we're right and
they're wrong on these big issues. So the only way they can win is to convince
people that we're space aliens. [61]
George W. Bush Tries His Hand
Like
his father, who occasionally mentioned UFOs or aliens during his
administartion, George W. Bush has not been silent on the UFO issue. In what is
now a famous incident on July 28, 2000, George W. Bush answered a UFO question
by Charles Huffer on the campaign trail by promising to tell the public what’s
going on with UFOs. Moments later he added that he planned to put
vice-president elect Dick Cheney on the problem once elected. “It’s the first
thing he will do,” said Bush.
What
is not so well known is that this was not the first time that Bush had spoken
about UFOs. Three months earlier candidate Bush uttered a classic UFO trash
talk comment aboard Air Force One flight from Austin to Palm Springs,
California. The UFO comment was hidden in a statement Bush made to describe his
ability to attract diverse groups of voters in his run for the Presidency. He
also wished to characterize himself as having a sense of humor.
In
front of a group of stunned reporters, Bush held up the most recent copy of the
tabloid newspaper the Weekly World News, and turned to a story, which
exclaimed in large bold print, “Space Alien Backs Bush for President.” The
story showed a picture of a bald, whitish reptilian type alien and Bush shaking
hands. Bush told the reporters “his alien encounter was further proof of his
commitment to expanding the Republican Party’s appeal.”[62]
“New faces, new voices,” Bush
announced. He held up the story for all the reporters to see. “It goes to show
that I am willing to reach across certain demographic lines.”
Strangely,
the Weekly World News turned out to be very prophetic. In an August 11,
1992 edition the same alien was shown shaking hands with Bill Clinton. In that
article, the alien declared that Bill Clinton would win the upcoming election.
He did.
In
the May 2000 article about Bush and his meeting with the alien, the alien
declared that he was changing parties because of the “moral failings” of the
Democratic White House. He alien declared that the upcoming election would be
very close, and that Bush would win.
Even
stranger than the fact Weekly World News predictions turned out to be so
accurate, is the fact that the Bush/alien story was considered news by the
mainstream media. On May 8, the New York Times wrote a
three-column story about the alien incident on Air Force One.[63]
It was an example of infotainment becoming news.
The Weekly World News, and
the New York Times were playing off the power of the Presidency to
create a story about an alien influencing American politics. It was a strategy
that many have used because of the power that the President and his words hold
for America and the world. The power of their words is not lost on the
Presidents.
Moments after Eisenhower was swore in
as the 34th President, Truman met for a lunch with some of his
cabinet members. One of the cabinet members found Truman standing quietly
looking out the window. He asked Truman what was wrong. Why was he looking out
the window?
“One hour ago,” said Truman, “I
could say anything I wanted and it would be all around the world in fifteen
minutes. Now I could stand and talk for two hours, and no one would give a
damn.”
Looking
back in history there have been many memorable Presidential words moving around
the world.
Four score and seven years ago, our fathers
brought forth unto this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and
dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
"The only thing we have to fear is fear
itself
Ask not what your country can do for you‑‑ask
what you can do for your country.
Mr. Gorbachev, Tear Down This Wall!
ICH BIN EIN BERLINER
Each
of these lines acts as a legendary marker in history. Without any further
details people know the President, the time, and the context of the words
spoken. That is because words spoken by a sitting President hold power not
given to any other man on earth.
It
is a fact is that many recent Presidents have used some of their powerful words
to speak about UFOs. Some like the
Eisenhower “military industrial complex” remark, or the Reagan “alien invasion”
remark are already viewed by some as important markers in history. Seen in this
light, UFOs suddenly take on a new significance. They have entered a world
where words are carefully crafted, and where little is said without an intended
meaning. The final evaluation of how history will appraise these Presidential
utterances, however, remains to be seen.
[1]There
have been many incidents when Presidents have made comments about UFO prior to
being President, and a few cases when they have spoken about UFOs after leaving
office. While in office speaking for the country, there have been very few
questions asked, and very few answers given.
[2] .The first question of the White
House occurred in a White House news conference on July 7, 1947, the day the
Roswell crash story broke in world newspapers. Asked three times what
the White House position was on the flying saucers, Truman’s Press Secretary, Charles
Ross answered, “ I thought you meant the flying trip back from Charlottesville.
I read that he came back at 65 miles an hour, which would have landed the
President, in the time taken, somewhere in the vicinity of Annapolis, I take
it.” That was the only answer Ross provided, and the reporters accepted it. The
world news media has been accepting no answers and non-answers on the subject
ever since.
ii.”Public
Papers of the President: Dwight D. Eisenhower” p. 353-54. It should be
remembered that these words are just a paraphrase of what the President said on
December 15, 1954. Tape recorders were not allowed and reporters were only
allowed to paraphrase what Ike had said on any one question. This practice
changed in the Eisenhower administration when Ike allowed televisions into the
news conference room.
iii.Diane
Rehm Show, WAMU- Radio National Public Radio, April 11, 2001
vv. Press Briefing by Chris Jennings,
Presidential Health Care Policy Advisor, and Mike McCurry, Office of
Press Secretary, July 17, 1997
vWarner Brothers did send a copy of the film to
Clinton. No comment was ever made by the White House about what the President
thought of the film, once he had seen it.
[3]Gordon,
Marcy “Clinton Lawyer says movie “Contact” Manipulates the presidents Statements”
from The Augusta Chronicle Online: Technology@ugusta, July 14, 1997
[4].Cox,
Billy “UFOs Uncovered” Florida Today Oct 14,1988 Page 8
[5].Cannon,
Lou “President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime.” Simon & Schuster,
New York 1991 p. 214. The comment about her father’s interest in UFOs came in
an interview of Davis by Cannon. The comment about inauguration day is from the
first page of Davis’s autobiographical novel “Home Front.”
[6].Kelly,
Kitty “Nancy Reagan: The Unauthorized Biography” Simon & Schuster New York
1991 p 148
[7].Filer,
George A. “MUFON Skywatch Investigations: Filers’s Files #16” 4-24-00
[8].Mayer,
Jane & McManus, Doyle “ Landslide: The Unmaking of the President
1984-1988" Houghton Miffin Company Boston 1988 p.402. Mayer and
McManus point out that the phrase “I’m an agnostic” is the same expression
Reagan used when confronted with the fact that Nancy Reagan was planning his
every move based on astrology.
[9].Mayer
& McManus, p. 34
[10].”Remarks
at the Annual Conservative Political Action Conference Dinner”, Public
Papers of Ronald Reagan, Feb 11, 1988.
[11].Halley’s
Comet is a comet that is visible every seventy-six years. It is 16x8x8
kilometers in size. It crossed closest to earth on its inbound orbit on Nov.27,
1985, and after circling the sun comes closest to earth on its outbound journey
on April 11, 1986. All during this period it was visible from earth. The Reagan
statement took on new significance in San Diego on March 26, 1997, when the
bodies of 39 similarly dressed men and women took their own lives in a mass
suicide. Marshall Applewhite led the group known as Heaven’s gate. The group
believed a spaceship was hiding behind the comet, and that it was coming to
pick them up and take them to heaven.
[12].According
to the Memorandum of Conversation produced by the State Department “The
Biblical quotation was to the effect that there is a time to throw stones, and
there is a time to gather them; now is the time to gather stones which have
been cast in the past.
[13].
“Memorandum of Conversation: Impromptu Toasts by Two Principals, November
19, 1985,” Geneva Meeting, Memcons of Plenary Sessions, Files of Jack
Matlock, Box 5, File 92137
[14].
Copy of the speech found in “Administration of Ronald Reagan”. Page
1451-1453. In the question and answer session following the speech, Reagan
added to the highlight of the alien invasion remark by reminding the students
that Lincoln’s ghost was still walking around the White House. “I have come to
understand very much why Abraham Lincoln once said that he had been driven to his
knees many times because he had no other place to go . . .’ Reagan said. “As I
say, I’ve come to understand very much what Mr. Lincoln meant. He’s supposed to
be around the White House, you know, now and then.”
[15].Cox,
Billy “UFOs won’t be in the Platform, but...” Florida Today August 17,
1988 Page 2D
[16].Cox
ibid
[17].Speech
writing was down to a science in the Reagan administration. This was because
image was considered so important for the success of President Reagan. There
were about six writers and four researchers who drafted almost all of the
Reagan speeches. Each speech went through up to 30 drafts, and 25-50 people and
agencies had a say in staffing, or reviewing of the drafts. Consequently
anything that appeared in a Reagan speech had been reviewed often and by many
people.
[18].Presidential
Handwriting Files, Box 29, Folder 579, 9/21/87
[19].Huneeus,
J. Antonio “ Is Reagan’s Preoccupation With an ‘Alien Invasion’ of the Earth
Just Rhetoric?” New York City Herald May 12, 1988
[20].Donald
T. Regan “ For The Record” Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Publishers, New
York, 1988 p.3 One particular item of interest mentioned by the press was the
fact that Reagan had been sworn in as Governor of California at midnight based
on the advise of Jean Dixon the astrologer Dixon was later fired by Nancy
Reagan and replaced with Joan Quigley in San Francisco. Kitty Kelly in her unauthorized biography on
Nancy Reagan named other astrologers who had personally directed the actions of
Ron and Nancy over the years. They included Ed Helms who Ronald Reagan had used
since 1949, and Sybil Leek, an astrologer who Ronald Reagan had used while
Governor of California. Kelly also named the name of Carroll Righter who Nancy
had consulted in Los Angeles. It is believed Donald Regan leaked the astrology
stories to damage Nancy Reagan who he did not get along with.
[21].Huneeus,
J. Antonio “ Is Reagan’s Preoccupation With an ‘Alien Invasion’ of the Earth
Just Rhetoric?” New York City Herald May 12, 1988
[22].The
screening of “E.T.” was considered a private function, and the Reagan Library
under “invasion of privacy” provisions has withheld the names of those
attending the dinner and movie.
[23].Reagan,
Ronald, Remarks at a New Mexico Republican Party Rally in Roswell, Office of
the Press Secretary, October 29, 1982
[24]. Bush, George; Remarks at a Meeting
With the House Republican Conference on Health Care and an Exchange With
Reporters, Public Papers of the President: George Bush, July 2, 1992
[25]. Bush, George, Remarks to the Kentucky
Fried Chicken Convention in Nashville, Tennessee, Public Papers of the
President: George Bush, October 30, 1992
[26].Interview
of the President by Tom Brokaw of MSNBC, Office of the Press Secretary, July
15, 1996
[27].ibid
[28].Clinton,
Bill, Remarks by the President at the 200th Birthday Celebration
of Youngstown, Ohio, and the 150th Birthday Celebration of Mahoning
County, Ohio, Office of the Press Secretary, July 4, 1996. In a related
matter, as announced by Bill Clinton from the south lawn of the White House on
August 7, 1996, the very next launch to explore Mars would land on the Martian
surface July 4, 1997, “Independence Day.”
It was sort of a return invasion.
[29].Clinton,
Bill, Remarks by the President at Ceremony for Boys and Girls Nation,
Office of the Press Secretary, July 18, 1996
[30].Clinton,
Hillary, Speech by Hillary Rodman Clinton at Forum 2000, Office of Press
Secretary, October 13, 1998
[31].Clinton,
Hillary Remarks by the President, The First Lady, Professor Natalie Davis
and Professor Martin Marty at the Fifth Millennium Evening at the White House,
Office of the Press Secretary, January 25, 1999
[32].Clinton
Hillary, “Globalization into the Next Millennium: Remarks at The Sorbonne by
First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton Paris, France, White House Press Office,
June 17, 1999
[33].
Clinton, Bill, Remarks by the President at Awards Ceremony for Blue Ribbon
Schools, White House Press Office, October 28, 1999
[34].Clinton,
Hillary, Mars Millennium Project Kick-off: Remarks by First Lady Hillary
Rodham Clinton” Office of the Press secretary, January 14, 1999
[35] The
social security UFO comparison came from a 1994 survey by Third Millennium, a
Gen-X think tank.
[36].Clinton,
Bill, Remarks by the President to DNC Dinner, Office of the Press
Secretary, February 19,1998
[37].Clinton,
Bill, Remarks by the President on Social Security, Georgetown University,
Office of the Press Secretary, February 9, 1998
[40].Interview
done by Jeff Rense on Sightings.com, 4-29-97, with Shari Adamiak- Dr. Greer’s
personal assistant.
[41].Media
Research Center Cyber Alert, Volume Two; no.48, April 14, 1997
[42].Remarks
by the President and the Vice President at Top of Cabinet Meeting, Office
of Press Secretary, April 10, 1997
[43].Clinton,
Bill Remarks by the President and the First Lady at the Lighting of the City
Christmas Tree, Office of Press Secretary, November 30, 1995
[44].Memorandum,
Henry L. Diamond to John H. Gibbons, Request for Meeting with Dr. Gibbons
for Laurance S. Rockefeller, April 12 or 13, 1993, March 29, 1993
[45].Letter,
Laurance Rockefeller to John Gibbons, February 14, 1994.
[46]. The July 1994 report was put out by the
USAF Headquarters and was called The Roswell Report: Case Closed.” In
the report the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force concluded an exhaustive
search for records in response to a General Accounting Office (GAO) inquiry
showed that there was no evidence the Roswell crash involved an
extraterrestrial craft. Interestingly, the use of the term Case Closed was used
in as the title of a book written by Gerald Posner stating that there was no
conspiracy involved in the JKF assassination.
[47].Millennium
Evening at the White House: Informatics Meets Genomics, White House Press
Office, October 12, 1999
[48].Remarks
by the President and the First Lady at Millenium Matinee “Under the Sea, Beyond
the Stars”, White House Press Office, June 12, 2000
[49].Clinton,
Bill, Remarks by the President to NAFTA Distinguished American Endorsement
Event, White House Press Office, November 2, 1993
[50].Clinton,
Bill Remarks by the President at Kennedy Center Honors Reception”,
Office of Press secretary, December 3, 2000
[51].Remarks
by the President at Senator Robb Virginia Victory Rally, Office of the
Press Secretary, October 3, 1994
[52].Clinton,
Bill, Remarks by the President at Senator Robb Victory Dinner, Office of
The Press Secretary, October 3, 1994
[53].Press
Briefing by Mike McCurry, Office of the Press Secretary, January 29, 1998
[54].Washington,
D. C. Police Department spokesman Kenny Bryson said: "They [The Pentagon]
told you to call us? Aw, c'mon, you've got to be kidding. What
are we supposed to do, write them a ticket?"
[55].Edmonds,
Patricia and Eisler, Peter, “What if they come? The U.S. has no Plan to Deal
with Aliens” from Florida Today Space Online, July 12, 1996
[56].Press
Briefing by Mike McCurry, Office of the Press Secretary, July 26, 1996
[57].Press
Briefing by Mike McCurry, Office of the Press Secretary, November 26, 1997
[58].Press
Briefing by Mike McCurry, Office of the Press Secretary (Lyon, France),
June 28,1996
[59].Press
Briefing by Joe Lockhart, Office of the Press Secretary, January 4, 1999
[60].Clinton,
Bill, Remarks by the President at Senator Robb Virginia Rally, Office of
the Press Secretary, October 3, 1994
[61].Clinton,
Bill, Remarks by the President for Mrs. Clinton, Office of the Press
Secretary, April 1, 2000
[62].Bruni,
Frank, “Bush Runs, With a Lexicon of His Own”, from New York Times” May
8, 2000, p A18
[63].Bruni,
Frank, “Bush Runs, With a Lexicon of His
Own”, from New York Times” May 8, 2000, p A18. The story was also
carried by the NYPost.com and a number of other Internet new services.
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