Are We Alone? Philosophical Implications of the Discovery of Extraterrestrial Life

The book was written by Professor Paul Davies, currently of Arizona State University. The Amazon write up of the book says...

The authentic discovery of extraterrestrial life would usher in a scientific revolution on par with Copernicus or Darwin, says Paul Davies. Just as these ideas sparked religious and philosophical controversy when they were first offered, so would proof of life arising away from Earth. With this brief book (160 pages, including two appendices and an index), Davies tries to get ahead of the curve and begin to sort out the metaphysical mess before it happens. Many science fiction writers have preceded him, of course, but here the matter is plainly put. This is a very good introduction to a compelling subject.

"We have spoken with a number of present and former U.S. government officials who may have been in a position to know what information the U.S. Government has on this subject. Our approach to the U.S. government has been focused on urging the release of information that it may have regarding UFOs that has been heretofore held as classified for national security purposes. We have urged that now that the cold war is over, constraints on release of information can be relaxed." Laurance Rockefeller

In January 2001, the Clinton White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), released to me 991 pages of documents on to a Freedom of Information Request (FOIA) asking for documents related to UFOs, extraterrestrial intelligence, and the Rockefeller UFO Initiative.

The OSTP is one of the few Clinton White House Executive departments that is open for FOIA requests. The other approximately 76.8 million pages of paper documents, 75,000 museum artifacts, and 1.85 million photographs are exempt by law from disclosure or FOIA requests for five years after the end of the Clinton administration, or January 20, 2006.

Based on the UFO records released by OSTP, and testimony of people who were involved in the White House UFO Disclosure Initiative, it is conceivable that there could be thousands of other pages of UFO material in the personal papers of the President and the First Lady, and in the papers of many of the cabinet members and Press Secretaries in the Clinton White House.

The documents released by the OSTP consist of all the correspondence coming into and going out of the Office on the included UFO subject. There is also some internal UFO related correspondence between staffers in the OSTP collection. Most UFO - related FOIAs filed between 1994 and 2001 are included in the package. Some, like the FOIA response to Dick Farley in early 1995, are mysteriously absent. Most of the 991 pages are related to Laurance Rockefeller’s UFO Disclosure Initiative, set up by Rockefeller to obtain declassification of all UFO files held by the United States government.

I should note, at this point to anyone thinking of paying the $135.00 to obtain this set of documents, that the documents are very poorly filed compared to the excellent list of documents compiled by the FOIA officer, Barbara Ann Ferguson. The set of documents I received from OSTP, were short of almost 300 pages of the documents on the list. In attempts to straighten this out, other documents that should have been in the UFO FOIA request were found.

The 88 documents that make up the set are numbered 1 through 88. I strongly suggest anyone requesting the documents check the number against the document, as well as to check to see that the document number fits the document described. Many documents I received had two different numbers - which means one of the two documents ordered isn’t there. I would also suggest a very careful checking of the entire package once it is received. This process took me many hours, and remain incomplete.

This first section is an attempt to provide an overview of what is contained in the collection. In addition to the OSTP documents, I have attempted to provide as background some of the other undocumented UFO items related to the Clinton administration. This was done because all these items tied together show a Clinton White House very interested in the subject of UFOs and extraterrestrial intelligence.

The first document, which to began became a flood of documents going into and out of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, was written by Henry L. Diamond, attorney for Laurance S. Rockefeller. It was dated March 29, 1993.

The Letter stated that Rockefeller, who was described by Diamond as "a leading U.S. conservationist, businessman, and philanthropist," was "anxious to have a brief meeting with Dr. Gibbons (Special Assistant to the President for Science and Technology) to discuss the potential availability of government information about unidentified flying objects and extraterrestrial life."

While most of the Rockefeller brothers had focused their attention on making money and politics, Laurance Rockefeller had over the years, developed an interest in the ecology, UFOs, and extraterrestrial intelligence. These interests may have stemmed from his days at university, where he majored in philosophy. Rockefeller described his interest in UFOs and ETI this way:

My interest in ETI is prompted by the fact that I have been long concerned with the possibility of expanding man’s spiritual and intellectual potential. This interest stems from a lifetime of concern and support for innovative thinking in fields such as philosophy, holistic healing, science and spirituality. I have become convinced that we must fulfill more of our human potential if we are to cope with the increasing difficult problems which now challenge our quality of life and our very survival.

Rockefeller, according to the Diamond letter was taking this preliminary step to brief Dr. Gibbons in preparation for "an approach to President Clinton on this subject." Rockefeller, the letter said, was prepared to tell President Clinton that,

"There is a belief in many quarters that the government has long held classified information regarding UFOs which has not been released and that the failure to do so has brought about unnecessary suspicion and distrust. Many believe that the release of such information, if it exists, on a basis consistent with national security considerations, would be a significant gesture which would increase confidence in government."

The proposal, made for the preliminary UFO meeting with Gibbons, involved discussing the issues involved, thus making "his (Rockefeller’s) communication to the President as useful as possible." Diamond proposed a 45-minute meeting that would be attended by himself, Rockefeller, and Scott Jones, then President of the Human Potential Foundation in Washington, D.C..

The responsibility for obtaining a meeting with the President’s Science Advisor was the responsibility of Scott Jones. There was no indication that the White House would be interested, or would allow an audience on the subject. Jones suggested that the road into the White House, and ultimately the President, was through Jack Gibbons. Gibbons was the official chosen because he had been recently appointed as Science Advisor to the President. Secondly, Jones had known Gibbons when he was at the Congressional Research Service and Jones was special assistant to Senator Claiborne Pell on the Hill. (1985-1990).

Matrix of UFO Beliefs: Briefing and Document Scandal

Within the OSTP collection of UFO documents that the OSTP sends out in response to FOIAs, there is no document that details Dr. Gibbons’ acceptance of Laurance Rockefeller’s offer of a UFO briefing, but he did reluctantly accept. Preparations for the briefing of President Clinton’s Science Advisor on UFOs were begun.

On April 14, 1993, at 7:30 a.m. Rockefeller and Dr. C.B. Scott Jones sat across from Dr. Jack Gibbons and his chief aide, Skip Johns. Rockefeller spent thirty minutes briefing him on the current state of Ufology, with the help of a nine-page briefing paper titled the Matrix of UFO Beliefs.

The Matrix of UFO Beliefs had been written for Rockefeller and Jones by award winning investigative journalist Richard Farley. Farley referred to the paper as "an investigative and analytical tool . . . reflecting primary categories into which beliefs about UFOs seem to fall, when allowing for the broadest range of reported phenomena and perceptions." Farley, who had worked on the paper for years, described the concept within the paper that he prepared for briefing Dr. Gibbons:

The Matrix of UFO Beliefs was not designed to suggest to the President or his advisors what "all the UFOs might be." And the paper reflects my assumption that, for at least some publicly perceived "UFOs," various of our government’s branches would be expected to know very well what may have been witnessed.

Primarily, the Matrix of UFO Beliefs was to serve us as our outline for a briefing of the President and his senior advisors on the range of public opinions and beliefs about UFOs as had been determined from: the popular literature; activity at UFO conferences; and throughout respective UFO venues into which beliefs evolved or had been seeded, manipulated or reinforced.

The second part of the Matrix of UFO Beliefs is reflective of our assessment (5/14/93) of the range of citizen beliefs about what our government might know, and what roles its agencies may have been or be playing. These analyses I also arrived at by sifting through most of the organizational venues of "UFOlogy."

Farley was a member of the Rockefeller UFO Disclosure Initiative to the Clinton White House, from October 1992 through April 1994. "My task in support of our White House UFO disclosure effort," wrote Farley, "was to recommend and produce background materials for Mr. Rockefeller to leave behind after his meeting to make his case."

Farley resigned from the UFO effort in protest of Rockefeller's approach to the problem. "I ultimately disagreed," wrote Farley after he resigned, "on the timing and dynamics of ‘what to push and when.’" Further, Farley had a serious concern that UFOs were being used as "camouflage for exotic aerospace and directed energy technologies."

Farley wrote the Matrix of UFO Beliefs paper based on his 20 years of active inquiry into UFO phenomena. The main contributors to Farley's UFO thinking had been two prominent UFO researchers, J. Allen Hynek, and Jacques Vallee.

As well as the briefing paper that Farley wrote for Rockefeller’s briefing of Jack Gibbons (and thus the President), there was a second briefing paper also prepared for the Rockefeller briefing.

This paper was prepared at the direction of the Central Intelligence Agency, in response to the request they received from Gibbons asking for information to prepare him for the upcoming Rockefeller briefing. This second briefing involved "using" UFO researcher Bruce Maccabee to prepare the briefing paper for the CIA. It was prepared in record time.

There were no OSTP records of the actual Matrix of UFO Beliefs briefing in the FOIA package. The 9-page Matrix of UFO Beliefs briefing paper did not appear in the OSTP files until December 19, 1994, when OSTP staffer Sue Bachtel received two copies of the briefing she had requested from Scott Jones. The fact that Bachtel had requested a document from outside the OSTP, indicates strongly that the original Matrix was no longer in the files. This late appearance of the Matrix briefing into the OSTP files raises the question of:

• Where was the original of the Matrix of UFO Beliefs briefing paper that was used to brief Gibbons on April 14, 1993?
• Why did it take 20 months to get a copy of the Matrix of it into the files?
• Why was Sue Bechtel requesting copies of the Matrix briefing from Jones?
• Where is the correspondence related to the missing Matrix brief?

An insight into what might have happened comes from two May 1995 letters from UFO researcher, author, and publisher Bob Teets to Jack Gibbons. Teets had worked for Scott Jones’ Human Potential Foundation as managing editor for the HPF Press.

In his two letters, Teets told Gibbons that he had seen a "version of the Matrix . . . appended to a Gibbon’s Fax of March 29, 1994." Teets pointed out that the version attached to the fax was not the one that had been used during the original briefing of the Presidential Science Advisor. Moreover, the document in the OSTP files did not even exist at the time the OSTP claimed it had sent the document out. " It was," wrote Teets, " a revised version which my company prepared at Dr. Jones’ direction in mid-May, 1994. Therefore, such a version did not exist at the time you sent you Fax to Secretary Widnall nearly two months prior to that time."

Teets did not get an answer to his May 11, 1995-letter, but his letter did cause Gibbons’ office to take action. What OSTP appeared to have done was to destroy the "Matrix" document that they had attached to the March 29, 1994-fax. In the package of documents this author received from the OSTP, the March 29, 1994-fax referred to by Teets no longer has the Matrix attached to it.

Proof that Teets probably did see the Matrix attached, and that something is missing from the 3/29/94 Fax, is found on the cover page of the fax. The March 29, 1994 Fax is identified in the OSTP files as Document 11. OSTP identifies it as having 5 pages. Yet the cover page says the total number of pages in the document totals 16. Adding the Matrix document to the 5 pages would give 16 pages, so it is apparent, the Matrix document was removed. This probably occurred after Teets wrote to complain OSTP was using a document that didn’t exist when the fax was sent.

Why would the OSTP attach a document that didn’t exist yet, and where was the copy of the Matrix that was at one time attached to the fax? One story says that OSTP lost the original Matrix of UFO Beliefs, or more accurately, gave it away.

According to one source, Gibbons' office sent out the entire file (of originals!) to a person on the east coast who had filed a FOIA for UFOs. Gibbons office was forced to write to the researcher and request that he send the documents back. When the documents were returned, the Matrix was missing.

The OSTP office seemed to have a problem losing documents, as the Matrix is not the only document missing from the OSTP UFO document collection. Also missing is a second UFO briefing that was faxed to OSTP on the same morning of the first Rockefeller UFO briefing for Dr. Gibbons.

It was prepared by Navy civilian physicist, Dr. Bruce Maccabee, at the request of the CIA. The CIA, in turn, had been contacted by the White House to provide a briefing for Dr. Gibbons, to prepare him and provide background information for his upcoming UFO meeting with Laurance Rockefeller.

Maccabee was told by CIA scientist Dr. Ronald Pandolfi that his briefing document would be used to brief the President’s Science Advisor, Dr. John Gibbons. The briefing was titled, "Briefing on the U.S. Government Approach to the UFO Problem as Determined by Civilian Researchers During the Last Twenty Years." It arrived just after Rockefeller’s UFO briefing was completed, and was not presented.

It was Maccabee himself who discovered that the briefing he had prepared for Gibbons was missing from the OSTP files. His discovery came after receiving a reply to an FOIA he had filed with OSTP in July 1996 for all their documents related to UFOs and the Rockefeller UFO Disclosure Initiative. There is now a copy of Maccabee’s briefing in the OSTP files thanks to Maccabee, who in January 1977, sent OSTP another copy. He stated he was sending it "in case you have lost the previous one."

Still another document missing from the OSTP collection is the reply to the April 29, 1995 letter from Dick Farley to Dr. Gibbons requesting a release of all UFO documents inside the OSTP. The OSTP did reply to the letter, treating it as an FOIA request, and providing hundreds of pages of documents to Farley. The two-page letter sent to Farley was for some reason left out of the OSTP UFO collection.

Lastly, according to Dick Farley, also missing from the OSTP files were "exchanges between former SECDEF Melvin Laird and then-SECDEF-Designate Les Aspin which apparently were in the OSTP files." These had, according to Farley been part of a package of "original" documents that OSTP mistakenly sent to a researcher in Maine by the name of William Laparl.

Asked to confirm this Laparl said, "Yes I remember a Laird letter, because he had been out of the situation for so long, that I didn’t even know if he was still alive." He also confirmed that he had mistakenly been sent the original documents.

Educating Clinton’s Science Advisor

On April 21, 1993, one week after the briefing took place, Rockefeller wrote Gibbons thanking him for the chance to present the case for "UFOs and Extraterrestrial Intelligence." As a follow-up to what they had discussed in the briefing, Rockefeller stated that Scott Jones would be providing an annotated bibliography as important background source material on UFOs.

According to Rockefeller’s letter, Gibbons had apparently welcomed the idea. Rockefeller also figured that the background material would be important, for during the briefing, Dr. Gibbons had related that in three months as Science Advisor to the President, he had not "learned that the United States government has a body of knowledge on UFOs or ETI that is being withheld from the public."

In a May 26th letter from Gibbons to Scott Jones, Gibbons revealed not only had he been provided with a bibliography, he was provided with a number of books from the Jones Foundation Library. "I look forward to working through them," wrote Gibbons, "and will return them to you when I am finished."

Rockefeller also revealed in the April 21st letter that Gibbons had, following the briefing, recommended that the UFO /government issue be sent to Secretary of Defense Les Aspin for action. Despite Gibbons suggestion that the Department of Defense handle the UFO issue, there was an indication that aides in Gibbons office were interested in the UFO issue. (Documents found later in the OSTP package show that Aspin, at the advising of Melvin Laird, former Secretary of Defense in the Nixon Administration sent the UFO issue back to OSTP and the President for action).

In one of the concluding paragraphs of the April 13th letter, Rockefeller notified Gibbons that Scott Jones was " planning to convene a small group to discuss the state of knowledge about UFOs and ETI in an informal, non-public way." The suggestion was made that Gibbons or one of his staffers would be welcome as an observer. In the margin of the letter, a member of Gibbons staffers scribbled, "I would be willing to go if JHG (John H. Gibbons) Oks it."

The official invitation to discuss UFOs privately came in an August 4, 1993-letter from Rockefeller to Gibbons. The informal roundtable discussion was to be held September 13-15, 1993 at Rockefeller’s JY Ranch in the Teton Forest near Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Those attending included: Richard Farley, Bob Teets, Rockefeller and a couple Rockefeller non-UFO friends from NewYork, Henry Diamond, Dr. Scott Jones, Dr. John Mack, Dr. Bruce Maccabee, Dr. Leo Sprinkle, Linda Moulton Howe, Dr. Steven Greer, Marie Galbraith, and Keith Thompson.

Dr. Jill Tartar, then director of SETI was also invited to the meeting. Dr. Tartar, however, turned down the invitation. In a polite refusal of the invitation sent by Scott Jones, Tarter "cited some of the other folks who were going to attend and suggested they were ‘not scientific.’" The refusal was therefore an attempt to distance herself from the fringe element, she perceived as attending the Rockefeller gathering.

Dr. Carl Sagan also declined an invitation to attend the event at the Rockefeller Ranch. He claimed a scheduling conflict. It was the first of at least a couple encounters between the hard-core UFO skeptic and Laurance Rockefeller. Rockefeller met in 1994 with Sagan and his wife, but no details of what came of the meeting were made public.

In 1996, Rockefeller had an indirect contact with Sagan while setting up an international conference on UFOs and ETI, which was to be hosted by the Executive Director of the International Scientific Union.

Through Jill Tarter, Sagan found about the conference and declined a chance to be involved even before he was even invited. In a letter Sagan wrote to Jill Tarter he spelled out his refusal to attend. Sagan wrote,

"I think I’ve said all I’ve had to say on the UFO business in The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark. If Mr. Rockefeller has an questions on the content of the book, I would be more than happy to engage in a one-on-one dialogue."

Although no records exist of if Sagan and Rockefeller met again, Rockefeller did write Sagan and made the offer. In his letter to Sagan he also raised a serious question about the logic of Sagan’s thinking on UFOs and ETI.

Your letter to Dr. Tarter of October 2 has found it’s way to my desk and I am delighted that you are available to continue a dialogue. . .We continue to share your interest in assessing the probability of extraterrestrial intelligence. We believe that while the approach through radio telescope inquiry might prove useful, other inquiries might be productive as well. As you well know, there is a substantial anecdotal evidence on the existence of ETI and UFOs, and little evidence of radio signals. Thus, we believe other avenues are worthy of serious scientific inquiry.

Skip Johns, a key Gibbons staffer, who had been present with Gibbons during the initial Rockefeller UFO briefing, wrote a note on top of the invitation document to "Tim," another Gibbons staffer, "JHG would like to discuss with you." Unfortunately according to one of those attending, Bruce Maccabee, no one from the Science Advisor’s office attended.

On October 20, 1993 Gibbons and Henry Diamond met and talked at the Environmental Law Institute. Subsequent to that discussion, Diamond wrote a letter to Gibbons informing him that Mr. Rockefeller would like to have another meeting to discuss UFOs.

Shortly after this October request by Diamond, another UFO researcher, Steven Greer, International Director of Center for the Study of Extraterrestrial Intelligence (CSETI), made his move to, like Rockefeller, brief the Clinton White House people on the UFO subject. He hoped to achieve two of the same goals that were being promoted by Rockefeller: 1) attain a complete declassification of all UFO documents within the U.S. Government; and, 2) gain amnesty for witnesses involved in classified UFO activities, so they could tell their stories without fear of reprisal.

On December 13, 1993, Dr. Greer met with the "principal advisor to the President for Intelligence matters related to national security," DCI James Woolsey. It was the first of many UFO briefings that Greer would do for members of the Clinton administration.

From the available documentation, Greer was much more active proselytizing White House staff on UFOs than were Jones and Rockefeller. During one interview, he mentioned some of the people inside the Clinton administration whom had been briefed by himself or his briefing team:

"There were many briefing materials that were given, not only to the CIA Director Mr. Woolsey, but to other senior members of the Clinton administration. Members of our team of the CSETI Project Starlight team were able to provide briefing materials to and meetings with the Presidents’ closest friends, and the Bruce Lindsay family. Bruce Lindsay being the President’s sort of senior counselor in the White House, but also one of his closest friends...We were also able to do similar briefing materials and conveyed them to the President’s Science Advisor, to Tony Lake, who at the time was the National Security Advisor to the President...to senior people in Al Gore’s office, his Chief of Staff, as well as Al Gore, and many of his personal friends."

Despite these many briefing, Dr. Greer is only mentioned in passing in the 1,000 pages of material released by the OSTP. This is probably accounted for by the fact that his contacts were outside the OSTP, and the record of his contacts will not be available until 2006 when the Clinton files become subject to FOIA requests.

The lack of OSTP references to Greer does not mean that Greer and Rockefeller did not cross paths. The complete record of their association is not totally known yet, but what is known, is that Greer did at one time have close connections with Dr. Gibbons’ UFO briefer, Laurance Rockefeller. A few months before doing his briefing with Woolsey, Greer had met with Rockefeller at his ranch outside of Jackson Hole. During this meeting Dr. Greer started providing Rockefeller with material that Rockefeller would eventually use to brief President Clinton, at his Wyoming Ranch, in August 1995. Dr. Greer described the material as "a package of evidence, assessments and other documents."

He and Rockefeller had been working together since January 1994. He had provided Rockefeller with the latest UFO information being received from top-level deep-throats in contact with CSETI. Rockefeller, in exchange, provided funding for Dr. Greer’s Project Starlight Coalition (PSC). The PSC was a group CSETI had formed in July 1993. Greer described it as "a voluntary association of researchers, scientists, world leaders and concerned citizens who are dedicated to affecting a non-harmful disclosure on the UFO/ETI (Unidentified Flying Object / Extraterrestrial Intelligence) issue in the near future."

The Roswell Search

Diamond wrote Gibbons in October 1993 asking for a new face-to-face meeting for Mr. Rockefeller. Once again, it appeared that what Rockefeller wanted - Rockefeller got. On February 4, 1994 Rockefeller and Scott Jones met again with Gibbons and his staff. By this time, the responsibility for dealing with Rockefeller and his UFO Disclosure Initiative had moved back from the Defense Department to Gibbons Office for Science and Technology Policy.

During this February 1994 meeting, Gibbons made a stunning proposal related to Rockefeller’s main request that all UFO information be declassified and released. Rockefeller referred to the Gibbons proposal in a follow -up letter.

"We believe that your approach of starting by addressing a specific incident is an important and reasonable way to begin the process of declassification in this area."

It was an opportunity that Rockefeller made the most of. He fully encouraged Gibbons to work to declassify Roswell, the "mother of all UFO cases." Rockefeller wrote,

The July 1947 Roswell incident would be a logical and challenging place to start. While much in the public sector has been written about it, the government has had nothing to say about it after the original press release saying that a flying disc had been recovered was retracted. The public record of this incident has been thoroughly analyzed. Further information depends upon access to classified information.

Many are convinced that Roswell marks the beginning of government secrecy about UFOs. However, whatever the truth of Roswell, a definite statement about it from the government would be very important. If it actually was UFO related, it could be used to start the process of reversing the government’s 40 plus years of denial on the subject. If it can fully be explained as not UFO related, it would be a significant contribution to the field, and perhaps even contribute to more rigor in research on the subject.

If this specific project initiative is successful, it will become an important prototype for the release of all UFO information. Obviously, the means of carrying out this event-related review is up to you. However, to the extent we can be helpful, we want to be.

Rockefeller added, "Scott Jones and his associates are quite current on research accomplished on this subject. I have asked that they be available to assist your investigation in any appropriate way."

In addition to "lifting classification about Roswell" Rockefeller asked that President Clinton "grant amnesty on an individual basis to allow those with knowledge of the incident to speak without fear of prosecution."

Finally, Rockefeller asked that Gibbons "designate a staff person for continuing contact." In the meantime, and under these circumstances, Rockefeller promised that he would hold off on the UFO letter he was drafting addressed to President Clinton.

This "Clinton draft letter" popped up over and over in the 1,000 pages released by OSTP, from its first reference in 1994, to early 1996, when it appeared the letter might have been sent to the President. It appeared attached to Gibbons’ letters, in various states of draft. In one draft, discussed later, Gibbons or one of his staff actually made comments in the margin about various ideas expressed in the letter.

Attached to this Gibbons letter, was an even more interesting letter to Anne Bartley who appeared to have been one of the Gibbons staffers in the room during the February 4th meeting. In this letter, Rockefeller makes an even more stunning disclosure - it was the President’s Science Advisor Jack Gibbons who had proposed making Roswell a test case for new declassification procedures. Rockefeller wrote,

Jack’s suggestion to make the 1947 event a test case of the Government’s willingness to review classification procedures under the President’s recent Executive Order was a very good one.

As with the letter to Gibbons, Rockefeller dangled the proposed letter to Clinton: "My idea of the letter to the President seems best tabled, and for us to concentrate on Jack Gibbons and follow through on his suggestion."

Only three days after these Rockefeller letters, Scott Jones wrote a letter to Jack Gibbons fulfilling his role to provide Dr. Gibbons with the best evidence they could provide on the Roswell case. Much of the material presented to Gibbons with the letter, was produced by the Fund for UFO Research as part of their effort "to support a thorough and open inquiry into the Roswell incident." Also enclosed with the letter was a series of press clipping related to the efforts that were being undertaken by Representative Steven Schiff (R-NM).

The OSTP files also show that Dr. Gibbon’s office was provided a 170-page report on Roswell prepared for the Fund for UFO Research by Fred Whiting. It is not clear if the report was presented prior to, after, or during the February 4th meeting. This private report titled "The Roswell Events" was described as:

A chronology of events and a compilation of supporting documentation concerning the possible crash of an Unidentified Flying Object and the recovery of its wreckage and the bodies of its crew in July 1947 near Roswell, New Mexico.

In the February 17 letter, Jones also revealed two interesting sidelights to Roswell investigations going on in other government circles. Jones presented both sidelights as warnings to Dr. Gibbons that the Roswell search was not going to be an easy one. The first item Jones pointed out was that he had heard that when the GAO had contacted the Pentagon for information on Roswell for their investigation, they had been told by a military spokesman to "Go shit in your hat." Secondly, Jones warned about UFOs being used to cloak other highly classified projects.

My mention of mind-control technology at the February 4 meeting was quite deliberate. There are reasons to believe that some government group has interwoven research about this technology with alleged UFO phenomena. If that is correct, you can expect to run into early resistance when inquiring about UFOs, not because of the UFO subject, but because that has been used to cloak research and application of mind-control activity.

On April 26, 1994, Rockefeller was again back in contact with Gibbons, this time commenting on the Clinton Executive Order to reduce unnecessary secrecy classifications that were being circulated among federal agencies. Rockefeller hoped that it would be enough to help find the UFO files that were being sought. Secondly, in this letter Rockefeller mentioned meeting with Carl Sagan on the issue of extraterrestrial life. Sagan had expressed skepticism about the quality of the evidence of extraterrestrial life, but did "strongly support" the release of government information on the subject.

On May 24, 1994, Gibbons received a memorandum from Sheila E. Widnall, Secretary of the Air Force, notifying him that the Air Force was investigating UFOs, and "Roswell in particular."

A cartoon found in the OSTP package of documents. It was taken  from the January 21, 1994 Albuquerque Tribune, and included in a collection of articles dealing with the Congressman Schiff Roswell investigation.

Although there is no record of the order from the White House to Widnall, it is quite apparent that the White House had ordered the new review of the Roswell case, consistent with the agreement Gibbons and Rockefeller had made to make it a test case for UFO disclosure.

In hindsight, Secretary Sheila Widnall was probably the last person the Clinton administration should have approached to aid the disclosure process. Widnall came to her job with first class black-world credentials. She had been for six years a trustee of Aerospace Corporation, a half billion-dollar-a-year nonprofit organization that provided management and technical support for the Air Force space program, including half of the black reconnaissance programs supporting the CIA and NSA. These black-world credentials made her the perfect choice for the Air Force which in 1997 spent 40 cents of every dollar on secret projects.

It was Widnall who recommended to the White House the seizure by the Air Force of two tracts of public land totaling 3,900 acres around the famous Area-51 test site known in the UFO world as "Dreamland." The area had become famous for UFOs after a man by the name of Bob Lazar went public in the late eighties claiming that he had been involved in a black budget program at the base involving the back engineering of captured flying saucers.

Widnall said publicly that getting too close to the base could allow foreign intelligence to gain knowledge about U. S. capabilities. "Collection of information regarding the air, water, and soils is a classic foreign intelligence practice because analysis of these samples can result in the identification of military operations and capabilities," Widnall stated.

The seizure probably had more to do with that fact that Lazar’s claims about alien technology at the base were widely reported. This led to an entire tourist industry around Area-51 centered on people hiking up into the mountains surrounding the base where they could look down over into the valley towards the flight test center at Groom Lake, and see what was flying around.

It is assumed that the request for the U.S.A.F. to investigate Roswell came from Dr. Gibbons office, the President, or someone inside the President’s office. We will not know for sure who ordered the investigation because Clinton records are not subject to FOIA requests until January 2006.

What is known, is that Air Force Secretary Widnall knew the White House wanted a report on Roswell, and she was writing to Gibbons to report what had been done. Her words appeared at first glance to be very encouraging,

"While we don’t have the bottom line yet, I thought you would be interested in this interim report I got from my staff. I intended to bring it over this morning, but forgot. My policy is that we are declassifying everything even remotely related, and anything our people think still needs to be classified will have to be justified to me. More to follow!

On the bottom of the memo Gibbons wrote a note for his primary Roswell expert in the Office, Skip Johns, suggesting they sit down and discuss the report prior to talking to Rockefeller. "Skip for your scanning." Gibbons wrote. " After you and I have had a chance to discuss, I’ll be ready to communicate with L.R. and his niece. JG"

On May 26, 1994 Scott Jones wrote another letter to Gibbons to ask if "there had been enough progress with your look into the Roswell incident to warrant another meeting with Laurance." In addition, Jones stated he was writing to update Gibbons on the latest news.

One news item Jones wanted to relate is that there had been a break in the Rockefeller camp. Richard Farley, who had written the "The Matrix of UFO Beliefs" briefing that was used to introduce Gibbons to the UFO classification issue, had broken with the team. Worse yet, as Jones related, he had made an independent move to bypass Rockefeller and Gibbons and went right to the President. This meant that there were now at least two roads to the President on the same issue. "I am sorry," wrote Jones, "about this uncoordinated action." Jones put forward his account of what had happened,

"I have learned that one of the Foundation’s former staff members, Dick Farley, has made an independent contact with the White House on the UFO subject. Farley wrote me that as of a month ago he had sent three different packets of material that detailed the complete activities of the foundation in support of Mr. Rockefeller and his interest in the declassification of government materials related to the UFO phenomena. Farley would only identify the White House staff person as an Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff (the staffer turned out to be Deputy Chief of Staff Phil Lader who went on to be appointed by President Clinton to be Ambassador to Great Britain). My major concern is that when you heard about Farley’s approach you may have thought that we were trying to run a second separate program on this subject with another part of the White House Staff. That emphatically is not the case. Farley had personal motivation for what he did, and I suspect we will continue to try to maintain the contact."

Along with this defection by Richard Farley from the Rockefeller camp, came another break from the Rockefeller camp. Ufologist Jacques Vallee had been offered a position helping with the Disclosure Initiative. Instead of taking the offer, Vallee turned it down and wrote directly to Dr. Gibbons to present his own UFO views, which differed from those ideas Rockefeller was presenting. Vallee had offered to meet with Gibbons either in San Francisco or Washington or at Gibbons convenience. Despite Vallee’s high profile in the UFO community Gibbons turned Vallee down cold. Vallee was told he could provide anything on the subject by mail, but as one of Gibbon’s aides wrote, "Did not encourage."

Woolsey’s ignorance did not create a strong opening position for a man considered "the principal advisor to the President for Intelligence matters related to national security," and who as Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) also served as the head of the United States Intelligence Community consisting of 12 other intelligence agencies. The combined thirteen agencies "carry out all the intelligence activities of the United States Government." These included, among others, the Defense Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency, National Imagery & Mapping Agency, National Reconnaissance Office, Air Force Intelligence, Army Intelligence, Marine Corps Intelligence, and Navy Intelligence.

Consequently, both Clinton and Woolsey were somewhat ignorant on intelligence matters, and were therefore forced be start from zero. Moreover, they were forced to rely totally on George Bush’s CIA for the intelligence information they would need to govern. The world view they would develop would be one that was, in part at least, drawn out for them by the CIA, that had been in the hands of a Republican administration for the past twelve years.

Clinton and his running mate Al Gore were given their first briefings by President Bush’s DCI, Robert Gates. Gates’ boss, George Bush, had likewise done the briefing of then President-elect Carter, when he was DCI twelve years earlier. It was during that Carter briefing that Carter was told by Bush, "the UFO subject is a need-to-know subject, and that he as President didn’t have the need to know."

If the Bush comment about UFOs to Carter is accurate, it is highly unlikely that incoming President Clinton was told anything about the UFO subject by President Bush’s CIA briefers. If Clinton was curious about UFOs, which was the rumor inside the CIA, he would have to find out for himself.

As the top intelligence man, James Woolsey also had an interest in UFOs prior to joining the Clinton White House. This interest was shared by his wife Sue Woolsey, Chief Operating Officer of the National Academy of Sciences. This interest arose from experiencing a daylight sighting of a UFO in New Hampshire during the late sixties.

There also was a story that Woolsey had been previously involved in a request by former President George Bush to be briefed on the UFO subject. The story is told by Dan Smith, a researcher and friend of the CIA’s UFO expert Dr. Ronald Pandolfi.

"Ron [Pandolfi] and I are driving back from Front Royal after my briefing a special forces Colonel, a devout Catholic, on UFOs, eschatons and messiahs, with Ron observing. So I ask Ron about briefing the next President. And he said that if George W. [Bush] wanted a briefing he could just ask his dad about it. Ok, and what would his dad tell him, Ron? Well, his dad could tell him that he had tasked Jim Woolsey to find out and get back to him. Oh, really! And what was the result, Ron? Well, Jim came back and told the President that he just didn’t need to know."

Later in front of Gus Russo at a dinner party where Pandolfi was in attendance, Smith tried to get Pandolfi to confirm the story for Russo that Woolsey had been called in by Bush, and that he had told the President he had no "need-to-know." Russo was prepared to take the story to the New York Times, but this time Pandolfi denied the story.

Having had his own sighting, Woolsey was open to receiving more information about the subject. As the first CIA Director after the end of the cold war, Woolsey was also attempting to open things up. On November 30, for example, Woolsey had appeared on CNN’s Larry King Show. There, Woolsey had stated that the new Clinton administration "wished to disclose historical material in a spirit of new openness."

It was rumored that the Clinton administration planned to declassify some black budget programs, and that some of these programs contained some of the classified UFO material that had been sought after for years.

Woolsey’s push for openness, and a personal interest in UFOs, was partly responsible for Woolsey talking to his close friend John Petersen to request a personal briefing on UFOs. It was decided that Dr. Steven Greer should be the one to do the briefing.

John Petersen was given the task of following Greer around as he made presentations around the country, to gather information on him. Finally, at a presentation Colorado State University, in Fort Collins, Colorado. Petersen made his approach to Dr. Greer.

Following the lecture Petersen approached Greer, and stated, "Dr. Greer, I think it is time that we help you."

Greer asked who he was, and Petersen said, "Well, I know a few folks in Washington who I think you need to meet with."

Greer the asked who those people might be and Petersen responded, "Well I’m good friends with the director of central Intelligence." To this Greer responded, "Well, that’s a good start."

Greer was asked to provide materials for James Woolsey so that he could review and search inside the CIA for material. The information, however didn’t help as he told Greer during the December 13th briefing. Woolsey "made internal inquiries" within the CIA about UFOs, but was reportedly "denied access."

"You have given me information," Woolsey told Greer, "so that I could go into certain compartments, and ask about what is going on related to this subject. They have all told me nothing. They told me, well we had Project blue book, but the Air Force closed it in 1969. . ."

What he had been given by those under his command was basically the standard UFO cover story, and according to Greer, Woolsey was furious about the situation that he and President Clinton had been cut out of a major piece of national security apparatus. "He was gravely shaken," according to Greer. "He was almost in tears." Woolsey stated, "You know, they are treating me like a bag-man, that goes up to Capitol Hill, gets their 30 billion dollars for the intelligence community, and brings it back. You know I really don’t know anything that’s going on that’s sensitive."

This lack of power by Woolsey was supported by another story that had occurred before the briefing. As well as the information Greer had provided which Woolsey couldn’t reference in CIA files, Woolsey was also receiving other requests for information related to UFOs. One of these requests dealt with deletions that had be made in already released CIA UFO documents.

In September 1993, only a couple of months before the meeting between Greer and Woolsey, John Peterson had approached Woolsey with a series of documents that he had received from UFO researcher Stanton Friedman. Friedman wanted to know why the CIA had deleted large sections from some material he had been sent. Peterson agreed to question Woolsey about it. Woolsey, in turn, stated that he would look into the matter. He, however, was not able to provide much insight.

The UFO briefing for Woolsey was set up for December 13, 1993 by Petersen, who had an inside knowledge of the workings of the military and intelligence in Washington. He had worked in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and also on the National Security Staff at the White House. At the time of the briefing he was the Director of the Washington area think tank known as the Arlington Institute. Mr. Peterson and his wife hosted the Woolsey clandestine UFO briefing in his Arlington townhouse. The briefing was identified as a dinner party in official records maintained by the CIA.

This according to Greer’s version of the story, was a cover story. " The cover for this meeting in Arlington was a dinner party, " Greer told one audience. " Now the way things are done in Washington, just so you know. Nothing important ever happens in an official meeting. Nothing ever, ever, ever, ever, forget about it. It happens at Georgetown dinner parties, blah, blah blah. That’s where everything is done. That is true. Forget about it. It doesn’t happen the way you think."

The briefing of Woolsey was conducted by Dr. Steven Greer, International Director of the Center for the Study of Extraterrestrial Intelligence (CSETI). Greer also headed up the Project Starlight Coalition (PSC). It was a group CSETI had formed in July 1993, described by Greer as "a voluntary association of researchers, scientists, world leaders and concerned citizens who are dedicated to affecting a non-harmful disclosure on the UFO/ETI (Unidentified Flying Object / Extraterrestrial Intelligence) issues in the near future."

The strategic plan of the Project Starlight Coalition was to 1) collect and identify the best evidence related to UFOs/ETI; 2) identify top-secret military and intelligence witnesses to the matter who were willing to come forward and disclose what they knew; 3) create a team of briefers and advisors for executive Branch officials and military officials who would conduct briefings, and recommend near-term disclosure of the subject and the end to secrecy related to the subject; 4) and to educate the world leadership and the world’s population regarding the reality of UFOs/ETI.

Dr. Greer was informed that he would be the first to brief Woolsey on the subject. Dr. Greer, like Laurance Rockefeller and Dr. Scott Jones, had been busy attempting to brief as many members of the Clinton administration on UFOs as possible. During one interview Greer mentioned some of the people inside the Clinton Administration who had been briefed by himself or his briefing team:

"There were many briefing materials that were given, not only to the CIA Director Mr. Woolsey, but to other senior members of the Clinton administration. Members of our team of the CSETI Project Starlight team were able to provide briefing materials to and meetings with the Presidents’ closest friends, and the Bruce Lindsay family. Bruce Lindsay being the President’s sort of senior counselor in the White House, but also one of his closest friends... We were also able to do some similar briefing materials and conveyed them to the President’s Science Advisor, to Tony Lake, who at the time was the National Security Advisor to the President... to... senior people in Al Gore’s office, his Chief of Staff, as well as Al Gore, and many of his personal friends."

Despite the many briefings Greer was providing for White House staff, he is not directly mentioned in the 1,000 pages of OSTP files that were released by the White House. This is because the OSTP files are from Dr. Jack Gibbons’ office, and Rockefeller did all the briefings with Clinton’s Science Advisor. Files dealing with the Greer briefings and contacts will not be available until January 2006 when the rest of the White House files from the Clinton administration are available as FOIA.

Greer had close connections with Laurance Rockefeller who was briefing Dr. Gibbons. Three months before conducting his briefing for Woolsey, Dr. Greer had met with Rockefeller at his ranch near Jackson Hole, Wyoming. During this meeting Dr. Greer briefed Rockefeller on his concept of briefing key politicians and other VIPs, to help initiate a release of all withheld UFO material. Later, after the Woolsey briefing, Greer also provided Rockefeller with "a package of evidence, assessments and other documents," to assist him with his personal briefing of Bill and Hillary Clinton in August 1995.

Greer arrived at the Woolsey briefing believing that the President, his military advisors, his intelligence people, and his advisors inside the White House, had not been briefed on the UFO subject. Further, he believed that any briefing information they had been given on the UFO subject was probably disinformation.

Greer arrived at this discouraging conclusion after conducting interviews with dozens of "deep-throat informants" inside the UFO program. Those witnesses had told Greer that most of the people inside the White House and within the intelligence community had been cut out any knowledge about the UFO program. People like the President and the CIA Director, had no idea what was going on. Dr. Greer therefore entered the Woolsey meeting feeling that he had the responsibility to provide the Director "the scientific data, along with a well-conceived assessment, and set of recommendations."

As Greer was already aware of before the briefing, Woolsey was not in a good position to be in possession of any critical ultra secret information. He was first of all, an appointee of the President. He could be replaced at a moment’s notice, based on the President’s pleasure and the prevailing political situation. Secrets are not generally given to situations of uncertainty. CIA directors come and go, but the CIA goes on and on.

Secondly, as mentioned above, Woolsey came to the job with no real experience beyond small encounters on the edge of the world of intelligence. Two such encounters were a stint as undersecretary of the Navy under Jimmy Carter, and being retained by a CIA intelligence officer for counterintelligence, who was reprimanded during Iran Contra.

Thirdly, Woolsey came into the top intelligence job on a promise by President Clinton to cut intelligence spending by about $7 billion over a five-year period. Woolsey would have been seen to most in the world of intelligence as nothing more than an outside administrator for the intelligence departments who carried an axe to work each day. To make the situation worse, Woolsey had declared during his confirmation hearings that he might even be able to do better than the $7 billion cut proposed during the campaign by Bill Clinton.

Finally, Woolsey misunderstood what was required, and was unaware that he would be lied to. "Jim underestimated the manipulative quality of the agency bureaucracy, where lying and deceptions are institutionalized," said a former senior national security official. "He was too trusting, and that made him easy prey. He wasn’t ready for people lying to him when he was loyal to them."

Further complicating Greer’s effort to convince the DCI of the reality of the UFO situation, and to get him to end the cover-up by publicly releasing critical information, was the clash of two main ideas at the briefing . Greer on one hand viewed the aliens as good guys here to usher earth into the galactic community. As part of this paradigm, Greer believed that the military should stop shooting at the aliens. Further, Greer believed that the military-industrial group that controlled the UFO information should quit trying to use the presence of the aliens as a reason to fund an intergalactic war with the aliens.

Woolsey, on the other hand, was a hawk on defense. He was a defender of the strategic defense initiative. He favored U.S. strategic modernization. Where Greer saw a world coming out of the cold war, and now able to turn its attention to outer space, Woolsey described the world as " a more lethal version of the world that existed before 1914," due to the existence of modern weapons and delivery systems.

Dr. Greer saw a world basically at peace, giving the government an opening to disclose the UFO/ETI secret that had been withheld due to the Cold War. Woolsey saw the world as full of new, possibly more dangerous enemies. The Soviet Union dragon had been slain, but as Woolsey saw it, "We now live in a jungle filled with a bewildering variety of poisonous snakes, and in many ways the dragon was easier to keep track of."

To off set the lack of information, Greer included as a part of the briefing a "summary of points regarding Project Starlight" that had been prepared for members of the Clinton Administration. This summary stated in part that CSETI:

• Intended to cooperate with the U.S. government, the United Nations, and other governments.
• Will conduct briefing on the UFO/ETI situation, and prepare an announcement of the ETI presence that will not harm the government.
• Will commit resources to make an undeniable case for the ET origin of these objects;
• Will work with leaders in society, here and abroad, to change current government policy on this subject.
• Are dedicated to "fulfill this project in a way which would be a positive event for humanity;."
• Will retain secrecy for "certain valid secret Projects which are vital to national security or to future defense readiness."

In an interview years after the event, Greer was asked whether President Clinton had requested the UFO briefing for his intelligence director. Greer responded:

"I would say that I can’t comment that he sought out this particular contact by the President. I can say, emphatically, that it was taken extremely seriously, and of course, the CIA Director makes the daily intelligence advisories for the President. I can also tell you that this meeting was not an off- the- cuff meeting that lasted for five or ten minutes, but this meeting was nearly three hours in duration."

Other information that came to light years after the 1993 briefing showed that Woolsey was indeed out of the loop not only with the UFO situation, he was also on the outside with President Clinton. Clinton had come into Washington ignorant of intelligence, and not very interested in what intelligence agencies like the CIA were doing.

The New York Times reported, for example, that when the Clinton administration invaded the island of Haiti in 1994, they did not contact the CIA for assistance until the very last minute. When the CIA dropped leaflets in support of the invasion using voodoo symbols, they were called on the carpet for "showing support for one religion over another." Woolsey found himself in the position of "receiving more criticism from his congressional overseers than any other cabinet-level official in the Clinton administration."

Even though Woolsey had the most power than anyone else in the Administration to come up with an answer to the UFO mystery, he found that he had no support for his intelligence mission from inside the Clinton White House. No one inside 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue cared at all about the CIA. It was an administration where the priorities were domestic issues such as health care and the economy. "Woolsey," wrote the New York Times, "had little support in the White House that apparently thought little, and cared less, about the CIA or it’s director." When Clinton first came to office, he proposed that spending on intelligence would be cut by $7 billion over the next five years. The cold war CIA seemed to be on the chopping block.

Records show that in the first two years Woolsey was Director of all U.S. Intelligence agencies, he only met twice with Clinton in private. The situation was so bad that when a deranged pilot crashed his light plane on the White House grounds in fall 1994, White House staffers passed around the joke that the pilot was James Woolsey attempting to get a meeting with President Clinton. In December 1994 Woolsey resigned realizing he would never get the support he needed and deserved from President Clinton. " I sort of wandered in," said Woolsey, "and wandered out."

The meeting between Dr. Greer and James Woolsey lasted three hours. This was a long time compared to most briefing which only last 30-60 minutes. Prior to the meeting Dr. Greer had been told by John Petersen that Dr. Woolsey and his wife had experienced a daylight sight of a UFO in the late sixties in New Hampshire. Woolsey and his wife confirmed this sighting during the first minutes of the briefing.

Woolsey and his wife were, because of their sighting experience, very interested and aware about UFOs. Woolsey’s pre-existing belief in the existence of UFOs even led him to cut off Greer after only fifteen minutes of Dr. Greer presenting the evidence. Woolsey was no longer interested in listening to sighting reports and viewing documents. He stated, "Yes, I know they exist. Now talk to me about what all of this means."

To answer this question, Dr. Greer spent two and a half hours answering the implications of the extraterrestrial presence on earth. He detailed, based upon testimony from high-ranking military and government witnesses, why he believed the aliens are here, how the secrecy had been maintained over the years, and what the social and economic effects of disclosing the E.T. presence would be.

According to Greer’s recollection of the briefing, the CIA Director was upset that the UFO story was being withheld from him. "He felt terribly wronged," said Greer, "that something like this would not be something that he would have found out about after many months of being at the top of the intelligence community."

Greer recalled that at times the evidence being presented caused the Woolsey to become very intense. "I mean," said Greer, "there were times when, well, he would just hold his head in his hands going, ‘Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh! Oh! Wow!’ I mean he was just exclaiming as we went through documents that we have acquired, as we went through cases, as we went through photographic evidence, as we went through other types of scientific evidence."

According to Greer, much of the panic exhibited by Woolsey came not from the facts surrounding the E.T. presence, but from the fact that he had no control over the CIA files on the subject, or Greer’s threat to force a public disclosure about the subject. In response to Greer’s request for Woolsey’s cooperation in initiating a UFO disclosure, Woolsey pleaded with Greer to understand his limited position. "I can’t release," he told Greer, "what I don’t have access to." Greer described it as a "poignant stunning moment."

James Woolsey’s wife, Dr. Sue Woolsey, was also present for the briefing and was very interested in the material that Greer was presenting. Sue Woolsey had made a name for herself, holding a position which gave her an expertise in evaluating scientific evidence. She was Chief Operating Officer of the National Academy of Sciences.

At one point in the discussion, Mrs. Woolsey even stopped Greer to ask him a question that was bothering her. How, she asked, were the aliens communicating over the vast distances in space? Dr. Greer provided his understanding that the mind of the alien was used to interact with the hardware. This is how time and space problems were overcome. To this Sue Woolsey said, "I thought it had to be something like that."

Dr. Greer provided Woolsey a strategic outline of a disclosure plan CSETI had come up. It was based on testimony from a series of high-ranking military and government officials who were aware of the inside story of the UFO cover-up. The witnesses were prepared to testify openly about what they knew, and this would force the disclosure. Greer made it clear that the disclosure would go ahead with or without Woolsey’s cooperation.

Greer also outlined for the CIA Director the specific actions he felt the CIA and the Clinton White House should make to assist in a smooth disclosure. Finally Dr. Greer asked Woolsey to locate documents related to specific known events and known projects related to UFOs. For this Greer provided Woolsey specific dates and events to search out. Woolsey agreed to do what he could to help.

Woolsey kept his promise to look into the cases for which he had been given dates, places, or documents. Shortly after the briefing, the CIA Director passed back to Greer the results of his investigation. He reported through Petersen that " the files weren’t there." He had searched, but there were no documents within the intelligence community that he could get to that would answer the questions Dr. Greer was seeking answers for. Woolsey had run into the "empty file syndrome." The Director had confirmed that he, as the head of the Intelligence community in the United States, was effectively "out of the loop" on UFOs.

Woolsey also found out during his term as Director that lying about things like UFOs to the director was standard practice. As a former senior national security official told Andrew Cockburn of the New York Times:

"Woolsey underestimated the manipulative quality of the agency bureaucracy where lying and deceptions are institutionalized. He was too trusting, and that made him easy prey. He wasn’t ready for people lying to him when he was loyal to them."

Woolsey Orders UFO Study

Inspired by the December 1993 briefing, and possibly green-lighted by President Clinton, Woolsey created an "order for the review of all Agency files on the subject of UFOs." This internal request led ultimately to the CIA publishing a new UFO study in 1996 titled "CIA’s Role in the Study of UFOs, 1947-1990."

The report, however, turned out not to be an independent assessment of the many rumored UFO files inside the CIA, but rather a new whitewash report detailing the CIA view about the agency’s involvement in the UFO phenomena during the years 1947-1990. It was first published in the classified intelligence publication Studies in Intelligence. In 1997, the CIA released an unclassified version of the paper which was published on the CIA Internet web page.

The report was written by Gerald K. Haines, a CIA and National Reconnaissance Office historian. In the introduction to the paper, Haines confirmed Woolsey’s role in requesting a new review of the UFO evidence inside CIA files:

"In late 1993, after being pressured by Ufologists for the release of additional CIA information on UFOs, R. James Woolsey ordered another review of all Agency files on UFOs."

The release of the new whitewash CIA study on UFOs might have got the CIA off the hook regarding its UFO cover-up involvement, but it put the USAF back on the hook. It was a move that upset the top brass in the Air Force.

The reason for this was, that during the 1993-94 period, the Air Force had put in a lot of time and money into a new study on the rumored UFO crash at Roswell for the OSTP and the President. The Air Force also sponsored a major campaign to promote the conclusion of the Roswell report to the public. All this effort was expended to convince the tax-paying public that the Air Force had honestly looked at the facts surrounding UFOs, found nothing worth investigating, and now had nothing to hide.

The conclusion of the new CIA report, however, was that the Air Force had effectively lied about more than half of its public statements regarding UFOs from the 1950s on. This, the CIA report stated, was done to cover for covert CIA operations. "Just when it looked as though the Air Force had won a major battle in the UFO public relations war with its publication of "Roswell: Case Closed," wrote Project 1947 Director Jan Aldrich, " the ‘die hard issue’ of UFOs was resurrected."

In the report, Haines claimed that more than half of the UFO sightings during the 1950s and 1960s were actually not UFOs, but misidentified secret spy planes such as the U-2 and SR-71. The damaging part to the Air Force was Haines’ allegation that the Air Force Project Blue Book, set up to investigate UFO reports, actually consulted with the CIA U-2 staff personnel in Washington, and helped to coordinate dismissive explanations for the public to cover for the CIA aerial spy operations. In short, the Air Force was anything but honest as they were claiming following the release of their Roswell report.

The CIA came to their conclusion despite the fact that their final report failed to cite a single example of a case that could have been explained by a spy plane. It was a conclusion that was basically dismissed outright by all UFO researchers.

Woolsey’s attempt to open up the UFO files, and to produce a report telling of the CIA involvement since 1947, appeared then only to incite the CIA officials who controlled the UFO files. They simply used the Woolsey request for a UFO investigation to produce yet another report that reinforced the debunking efforts first proposed by the CIA Robertson Panel in 1953.

As the CIA account of the Air Force UFO deception broke in the press, the Air Force was forced to quickly deny what the CIA was now claiming. Brigadier General Ronald Sconyers was sent to put out the new UFO blaze. Sconyers told the press, "I cannot confirm or deny that we lied. The Air force is committed to providing accurate and timely information within the confines of national security."

Woolsey Plays Duck and Cover

James Woolsey resigned from his CIA Directorship in December 1994 under heavy attack from all sides. He claimed he had appreciated the opportunity to serve and returned to his former life as a lawyer. The UFO link to the highest intelligence officer in the Clinton administration was gone.

The fact that Woolsey had been briefed by Dr. Greer was kept quiet until 1998. It was made public by Dr. Greer because of statements made by Webster Hubbell, Clinton former Attorney General. In a book Hubbell wrote about his time in the Clinton White House, Hubbell made public the fact that he had been asked by President Clinton to look into the UFO mystery.

Greer’s release of the fact that he had briefed the head of the CIA on UFOs, and that the CIA director had expressed strong opinions about the reality of the phenomena initiated a negative response from James Woolsey even though he was no longer in the Clinton administration.

The negative reaction, however, did not come until September 17, 1999, just prior to the release of Dr. Greer’s book " Extraterrestrial Contact" in which the Woolsey briefing was fully discussed. Contact with Non-human Intelligence (CNI) News Director Michael Lindemann received a fax from John Peterson, Woolsey’s friend, and the man who had hosted the secret briefing in his Alexandria Virginia townhouse. The September 16, 1999-letter read as follows:

It has just come to the attention of the four of us that you have, without giving any of us the opportunity to comment, published a distorted account of a dinner party of some six years ago at which the four of us, you, and your wife were seated together.

In the introduction to your book, "Extraterrestrial Contact," published earlier this year you portray this dinner party conversation during which the four of us listened to your views and politely asked questions as a "briefing" with a "cover story." You further assert that Mr. and Mrs. Woolsey reported a UFO sighting to you and agreed with your views. You include specific alleged quotations from them.

None of this is accurate. You have portrayed politeness as acquiescence and questions as affirmations. Your conduct in this matter contravenes both accuracy and simple manners.

Sincerely,

(signed)

John L. Petersen Diane C. Petersen R. James Woolsey Suzanne H. Woolsey

Petersen and Woolsey’s complaint about not being informed of Dr. Greer’s disclosure of the meeting, was actually a bit outdated. Dr. Greer had already disclosed the secret Woolsey briefing in an interview he had done with radio show host Art Bell almost two years before in response to the Webster Hubbell statement about being asked by President Clinton to look into UFOs. The information released in that interview was much more detailed than the short couple of paragraphs in the introduction to Greer’s book Extraterrestrial Contact. The interview distribution was not wide enough to have reached Woolsey or Peterson.

CNI News Director Michael Lindemann contacted Dr. Greer and asked him to respond to the denials made by the Petersens’ and Woolseys’. Lindemann did not mention the fact that the information had been public for quite a while already. Dr. Greer responded in part:

Mr. Woolsey and the others question the accuracy  (or manners) of my depiction of this meeting in the introduction to my new book "Extraterrestrial Intelligence: The Evidence and Implications." (http://www.disclosureproject.org/). You can read this introduction on the website for yourself.

Mr. Woolsey et al. have a very selective memory of this nearly 3-hour briefing of a sitting CIA Director. If anything, and my wife can attest to this, my description of the meeting is incredibly understated.

In his letter, Mr. Woolsey (now apparently a lobbyist in Washington) implies that this was not a briefing but only a dinner party, and that the dinner party was not a cover story for the briefing, etc.

It must be understood that it was a friend of the CIA Director, Mr. Petersen - not myself -who characterized the dinner party as a cover story for the meeting with the CIA Director. Indeed, Mr. Petersen made arrangements for this meeting and hosted it in his home in Arlington Virginia. He told me and my wife that even his wife did not know that Mr. Woolsey was coming over to their home for dinner until the morning of the briefing.

They claim my characterization and specific references describing the meeting were inaccurate. Not at all.

Quoting from a sensitive memo FedEx’ed to my home from Mr. Petersen, who made all of the arrangements with the CIA Director:

"re "I talked to Woolsey this morning and he (underlined in original) suggested getting together over dinner. He was not aware of your organization or that anyone was planning such an announcement (regarding UFOs/smg). This almost certainly means that, 1) There is an active attempt being made at the lower levels of government to sabotage Project Starlight ( the CSETI UFO disclosure effort/smg). 2) this group almost certainly had tapped your phones and is aware of most of the details of your plans..."

"If we do have dinner with Jim (Woolsey), we will have moved this thing to a much higher plane and in doing so raised significant red flags for those who don’t want to see this thing succeed. Operation Starlight will become a serious (underlined) threat to the status quo."

"Meeting with people like Woolsey must be kept very closely guarded. I have not even told Diane (Mr. Petersen’s wife/smg) about it."

"You must understand that great principalities and powers will oppose your plans..."

"Then, all in bold: Remember: the most powerful people in the world will have a deep, compelling interest in our activities and will use everything (in italics) at their disposal to effect their objectives."

Mr. Petersen, who heads up a Washington area think tank called The Arlington Institute, was working very closely with me during those days and had substantial experience in national security and military matters.

From the above quotes it is obvious that this was no mere dinner party! The dinner party was only the cover - and the stakes were and are every bit what Mr. Petersen describes.

As for other information contested in Mr. Woolsey's letter, I stand by the account. Regarding Mr. Woolsey's UFO sighting : This was first conveyed to me by his long-time friend Mr. Petersen and was later confirmed at the briefing.

In my new book, I reproduce the document handed to Mr. Woolsey during the briefing. In this document, which I handed personally to him, we recommend that Mr. Woolsey and the President move decisively towards a near-term disclosure of the UFO/ETI matter. Just a dinner party?

I am certain that Mr. Woolsey knew the UFOs were real and that a very deep cover project was running that area - a project which had kept the CIA Director himself in the dark.

Later in their letter, Mr. Woolsey et al complain that my conduct "contravenes....simple manners". Manners? I was on Larry King Live over nine months after the meeting with the CIA Director. But this meeting was not disclosed, because Mr. Woolsey was still in office and I felt decorum necessitated silence regarding such meetings. I have behaved with the utmost restraint and have disclosed such matters only after very careful consideration. Indeed, I would not be writing this letter except that Lindemann at CNI plans to publish Mr. Woolsey's 'sanitized ' account of the briefing and has compelled me to write. (Why Mr. Woolsey et al would make such a letter available to Lindemann is beyond me.) I made no pact of silence regarding such meetings. And since disclosing this meeting, I have always portrayed Mr. Woolsey and his wife as people seeking the truth of such matters and as people who wanted excessive secrecy ended. Perhaps I was wrong...

Manners? Indeed - if anything, perhaps I have been too restrained. Good 'manners' as it pertains to this subject means speaking the truth - and being willing to stand up for it. Good manners would be public servants such as Mr. Woolsey, Dr. Woolsey and others doing the right thing and working ardently for the truth to be told regarding UFOs and ETI. Good manners should mean being more concerned for the health of our democracy and the Constitution than

covering-up the import and purpose of such a briefing. And good manners would be joining in the effort to disclose a matter which, once made public, would allow earth-saving technologies to be revealed which would halt the wholesale destruction of our eco-system.

As a very busy emergency doctor in NC, with four young daughters, I assure you that we did not make that brief trip to Washington, D.C. on December 13, 1993 to sight-see or just to have dinner. But rather, we made that journey to plead for the end of super - secret projects which are being withheld from the people so that our democracy could be made whole and our children's future made sustainable.

The current attempt to minimize, obfuscate or cover-up the purpose and details of this briefing with the CIA Director is quite disconcerting -and strange. Why Mr. Woolsey and the others would write such a letter is unknown to me. We can only speculate. I stand by my account. But now, perhaps the time has come for ''we the people' to demand that current and former officials such as CIA Director Woolsey and the President be held responsible for the lack of action on resolving this most pressing problem. After all, we pay their salaries, provide their perks - and they represent us. It is not I who needs defense. My actions over these long years have spoken my commitment. But we still await action from our elected and appointed officials. As the earth groans under the weight of the erosive and corrupting influences of big money and special interests, I wonder just how much longer we shall have to wait...

I think it is time that the American people demand that the waiting time be over.

Steven M. Greer M.D.

CSETI Director

The quick reply to Petersen and Woolsey went unanswered by Mr. Petersen and the former CIA Director. CNI director Michael Lindemann, claiming information from sources close to the event felt that the use "briefing" might not have been the proper word for Greer to use. Usually briefings are not done over dinner and with wives present. There was no question raised that Greer had been with Woolsey and that UFOs were discussed.

Woolsey told a reporter who questioned him about the Greer UFO affair that Greer had misrepresented the 1993 event. Greer, however, has not retracted any part of his story. In 2001, this author had a chance to present all the Woolsey material discussed here to the reporter, and the reporter in question seemed to conclude that Woolsey was perhaps being less than truthful with him.

Since the Woolsey denial of the account of his involvement into UFOs, Woolsey has returned to the world of Intelligence. He sits on the Chief of Naval Operations Executive Panel. He acts as a consultant to CNN for the Afghan War. This may be because he is more at home working for Republican administrations such as the time he spent working with the Bush White House.

On June 1, 1994, Clinton Science Advisor received a letter from Laurance Rockefeller asking if there had been any developments in the effort to get answers to the Roswell mystery. In addition, for the first time in the OSTP documents, the name of Melvin Laird, former Secretary of Defense for President Nixon, and former boss to Hillary Clinton,[1] is mentioned. Rockefeller mentions in the letter, that it was Laird who had advised that he go to Gibbons as the proper “point of contact and coordination with the federal government.”

Included with the letter was a copy of a letter that Rockefeller had received from Laird a couple weeks before. Rockefeller attached it to show Gibbons Laird’s “support for our approach of constructively seeking release of information.”

The Laird letter stated that the efforts towards “declassification of any government projects which might have been associated with Unidentified Flying Objects seems to be on the right track.” More importantly, Laird outlined his personal opinion about what the final answer would be.

“I am sure that should classification be lifted, some individuals will be disappointed as certain of these phenomena will be pretty well explained. Any review will certainly disappoint some individuals who have built up some rather extreme antidotal and uncollaborated accounts, which the removal of classification might discredit to a large extent. Removal of undue classification will remove the speculation of some of these reports.”[2]

Also in the June 1, 1994 letter Rockefeller announced that he had conducted preliminary discussions with a group who were planning a United Nations Conference on extraterrestrial intelligence. He hinted to Gibbons that the group could use someone of Gibbons stature and knowledge to make the United Nations effort a success.

Only days after Melvin Laird had sent his letter to Rockefeller over the question of declassification, and it’s possible implications for the subject of UFOs, Clinton’s general Counsel Robert G. Damus sent out a memorandum to agency heads regarding Clinton’s proposed declassification Executive Order titled “Declassification of Selected Records within the National Archives of the United States.”[3]

The draft of the order prepared by the National Security Council proposed a major declassification of materials in the National Archives. After reading the draft, Rockefeller must have felt that disclosure was only a short distance away.Even though the OSTP was not on the distribution list a copy of the proposal was found in the office files. The draft proposal asked for the immediate declassification of 48.8 million pages of information held by the United States Archives. The spirit of the proposal was described as,

The interests of the United States and its citizens are best served by making information regarding the affairs of Government readily available to the public, and whereas, large number of classified records in the permanently valuable holding of the National Archives and Records Administration no longer require national security protection.

It is not known yet how the declassification proposal document got to Gibbon’s office, but the office copy was attached to a letter from Anne Bartley, Trustee and President of the Rockefeller Family Fund.[4] Anne was the niece of Laurance Rockefeller, daughter of Winthrop Rockefeller. Her name appears a couple of times in the OSTP files so it appears that she played a role in the Rockefeller initiative. Interestingly, Anne had a strange tie in with Bill Clinton’s administration. Her father Winthrop Rockefeller, had like Bill Clinton, been Governor of Arkansas.

Anne Bartley’s letter was written on July 27th, almost two months after the declassification proposal was first circulated. In the letter, Bartley asked Dr. Gibbons if he thought that “a relaxation of the classification system” would “be helpful in producing more information about extraterrestrial intelligence.”[5]

Bartley also pressured Gibbons by reminding him of the promise he had made in the February 4, 1994 meeting he had with Laurance and herself, “You suggested that you would initiate an informal inquiry into the availability of information within federal agencies about the 1947 Roswell, New Mexico, event. Is there anything to report?”

As the summer of 1994 came to an end, the Rockefeller team figured their efforts to reveal the secrets of UFOs and extraterrestrial intelligence were about to produce fruit. Gibbons had “initiated an informal inquiry” on Roswell, and President Clinton had produced the Executive Order to force mass declassification of documents. The scene was one of an imminent disclosure of some sort.

In mid August Scott Jones wrote Gibbons telling him that there was a new highly respected member of the Rockefeller briefing team. In the letter Jones offered Gibbons the advice of Apollo astronaut Ed Mitchell in “areas that Laurance, you, and I have been discussing.” “Mitchell,” Jones wrote, “passed me the word... he would be glad to meet with you.”

Further, Jones, who was sharing information with CIA agent Ronald Pandolfi, reported to Gibbons about the efforts of CIA Director James Woolsey’s to uncover the UFO secret. “He has a document search under way,” wrote Jones, “but has not discovered anything of significance.”[6]

Jones suggested that perhaps Gibbons and Woolsey would benefit by sharing UFO information. “You may want to talk to Woolsey about what you are doing,” wrote Jones, “... Woolsey believes that the public could handle any disclosure the government might make on this subject.”[7]

This disclosure about the active UFO role of the CIA’s James Woolsey in the August 11, 1994- Jones letter is important. It provides a independent dated letter supporting Dr. Greer’s contentions that 1) Woolsey was supportive of UFO disclosure, and 2) Woolsey was actively attempting to uncover the truth and 3) Despite being the top intelligence official in the country Woolsey was cut off - unable to discover anything about what was really going on.

In addition, this letter (combined with the appearance of Woolsey’s wife at the April 1997 briefing that Greer provided for interested Congressmen, and other powerful Washington movers and shakers) goes a long way to demolish the September 16, 1999 Woolsey denial of his personal UFO interest and support.[8] Woolsey’s denial was issued in a public letter following Greer’s telling of the Woolsey UFO briefing in the introduction to his 1999 book “Extraterrestrial Contact.”

Just when the efforts towards UFO disclosure seemed to be going so well, Jack Gibbons ended the party. In a handwritten note, on White House stationary, dated August 17, 1994 he wrote Laurance Rockefeller.

“I apologize for my silence, but I was awaiting news from the Air Force. Yesterday I received the material they’ve been working on for some months, Report of the Air Force Research regarding the “Roswell Incident.” It appears to be a thorough study, and will also be used as input to the GAO analysis, which is a much broader study. Will get back to you after we’ve had a chance to go over the document. Incidentally, I told Claiborne Pell about this situation yesterday.”[9]

Two days later Gibbons and UFO supporter Senator Pell met for lunch. Undoubtedly, the meeting had been set up to discuss the conclusions of the final Air Force report were discussed. The OSTP files contain a letter from Gibbons thanking Pell for the lunch. Enclosed with the hand-written thank-you letter Gibbons enclosed “the final summary text of the Air Force report on the ‘Roswell Incident.’”[10]

On September 5, 1994 Laurance Rockefeller wrote back acknowledging the Gibbons note about the final Air Force report. He did not acknowledge having seen a copy of the report. Rockefeller simple wrote, “We are grateful for your leadership on this issue and when you feel it is appropriate, we would welcome the opportunity to talk to you about it.”[11]

Three days later Secretary of the Air Force Sheila E. Widnall sent a copy of the Air Force Press release to Gibbons, outlining the conclusions of the study “to locate records that would explain an alleged 1947 UFO incident.”

The Air Force Press conference to announce the release of the Air Force Report, was held without even telling New Mexico Congressman Steven Schiff. The Air Force press release was made before Schiff had even read the final Air Force report, giving him no chance to publicly dispute the final conclusions. The lack of warning may not have been an accident.

Schiff was a key UFO supporter who had helped initiate a General Accounting Office (GOA) investigation of the Roswell case. He did this with a March 11, 1993-letter to Secretary of Defense Les Aspin demanding an investigation of the events surrounding the rumored Roswell crash.. He wrote to the Department of Defense instructing him to “direct such a review be undertaken on a priority basis and that representative or representatives of the Department of Defense and the responsible Military Departments promptly arrange to brief and provide me with a written report providing a current, complete, and detailed description and explanation of both the nature of what was recovered, and all official actions taken on the matter. (Roswell)”[12]

The conclusion arrived at in the Air Force Roswell report was not what the Rockefeller team had hoped for. A copy of the Air Force news release in the OSTP files described the Air Force’s final conclusions.

The Air Force research did not locate or develop any information that the “Roswell Incident” was a UFO event nor was there any indication of a “cover-up” by the Air Force. Information obtained through exhaustive record searches and interviews indicated that the material recovered near Roswell was consistent with a balloon device of the type used in a then-classified project. No records indicated or even hinted at the recovery of “alien” bodies or extraterrestrial materials.[13]

Rockefeller did not express his disappointment with the Air Force Report until three months after the report was issued. When he finally decided to comment he did it in his careful diplomatic style. The December 9th letter from Rockefeller to Gibbons, and his key Roswell aide Skip Johns, read in part:

“Thank you again for being so generous with your time in discussing our areas of mutual interest and concern... I was delighted to see that we share this openness to a new paradigm.”

“We will continue to explore our interest in extraterrestrial intelligence... We continue to believe that the President’s initiative toward a full declassification of unnecessarily classified materials would be a very useful step in this direction and urge you to do all that you can to push this process along.”

“I hope we made it clear that we were very grateful for your initiative in stimulating the recent Air Force Review of the Roswell incident. Although many who are students of UFOs felt that the report was not complete, your leadership in bringing this about was an important step.”

“We are continuing our citizens’ reconnaissance of the extraterrestrial intelligence phenomena. We fully understand that with all the pressing current matters on your desk you do not find it feasible to devote substantial time to this area. However, we would like to take the opportunity of keeping you informed and from time to time seek your counsel.”[14]

Rockefeller’s chief assistant in the White House UFO initiative, Scott Jones, was much more blunt with his opinions regarding the Air Force’s Roswell Report. He wrote to Gibbons Jones lashing out at the Air Force and at the White House.

“...there are important issues that the AF Report skirts with deliberateness. That suggests for some reason the cover up continues... Jack, I hope you got a fuller briefing from the Air Force than the public, self-serving statement released by them. And if you did, I hope that you have taken an aggressive and positive position within the White House staff to share with the American public every thing the U.S. government knows about UFO phenomena...The president could try to defuse any potential political vulnerability on the subject by going to the Congressional leadership with a complete briefing on what has been going on and what he inherited when he came into office...the perception is growing that the Clinton administration, as were previous administrations, is an unknown part of the problem. How hard can it be to change the policy of secrecy and denial? Will it be any harder than surviving condemnation from the American public if the U.S. is forced by another country’s announcement, or other action that preempts Clinton’s opportunity for honest initiative?"[15]

Unlike Rockefeller, Jones was much quicker at voicing his disagreement with the Air Force conclusions. He wrote a nine-page review of the Air force report and attached it to his letter to Gibbons. It was prepared and mailed to Gibbons’ office only six days after the Air Force Roswell press conference. The report was titled “Assessment and Recommendations for Action on the Report of Air Force Research Regarding the ‘Roswell Incident.”

Jones, undoubtedly speaking with Rockefeller’s blessing, wrote of the Air force report:

“One message from the Air Force Report is that they still have confidence that this issue can be ‘managed.’ There are other messages of equal importance, which suggest that the game is changing. The Air Force must deeply regret that it was forced to say anything public about Roswell. They know the tenacity of the small group of UFO researchers who will follow any lead to the grave, and in this report they have been forced to expose additional leads.”

“The most important event is that after December 1969, when the Air Force closed Project Blue Book and announced that they were out of the game, they are now back in the field. It may turn out that they actually are not a major player, but have been forced to suit up again.”

Several important precedents have been established by the Air Force effort:

1) The subject of UFO phenomena and government knowledge about it is now viably in the public domain. 2) Interviewees were provided with authorizations from either the Secretary of the Air Force or the Senior Security Official of the Air Force that would officially allow discussion of classified information, if applicable, or free them from any prior restrictions in discussing the matter, if such existed.”[16]

Jones, besides commenting on the September Air Force Roswell report, spent a great portion of his assessment paper expressing his views on the entire UFO problem. These conclusions and assessments, outlined by Jones, are important because they indicate where the entire Rockefeller team stood on the key UFO issues, and hence which ideas they were passing on to the Clinton administration.

Secondly, Jones’ conclusions on the Roswell report helped to clarify where he stood on the UFO issue based on his view from “the inside” about what was going on inside the Clinton White House.

In public, Jones had said very little. Part of this was due to an agreement he and Rockefeller had made with Gibbons when the UFO Disclosure Initiative began. In a lecture in gave to the International UFO Congress in 1998 Jones explained,

“I have no details to share about these (Gibbons/White House) discussions. We told Gibbons that what was said at these meetings would not be revealed by us. Indeed, it was the White House that made a statement that the meetings were taking place, and the reason they did that of course was they were concerned that if there was a leak about the fact that we were meetings and talking on this subject in the White House, it would be hard to do damage control, so they leaked it and put a spin on it in their favor.”[17]

Jones was a key player, who described his prime responsibility in the White House Initiative as “ to develop a strategy that would get us into the White House to make our case for more openness on the subject.” He served not only as a partner to Rockefeller, but earlier as a key aide to Senator Claiborne Pell, Chairman of the powerful Foreign Relations Committee, who was also had an active interest in UFOs. These contacts had provided Jones insights into what might be going on. In his review of the Air Force Roswell report he outlined what he believed might be going on.

“Congress - “There is no evidence that the leadership of the Congress is paying any attention to the current effort, but the involvement of the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of the Congress, charged with examining all matters related to the receipt and disbursement of public funds, is significant.”

“President - The President remains the critical player in this drama. Maybe each President is not automatically briefed on the subject. But somewhere around the President, someone knows where to task for the briefing. My guess is that it is someone within the National Security Council. Someone in the directorate who survives administration after administration. Dangerously (for democracy and accountability) it could be someone in the private sector... If the President asks for it (briefing) with force, it cannot be withheld. If he merely shows casual interest, he might be kept in the dark.”

The disappointment and disagreement with the Air Force conclusions by other UFO researchers was found and described in the OSTP files. They were much less diplomatic about their views on the Roswell Report than was Laurance Rockefeller. Although Gibbons’ files contained the counter arguments made by other researchers, there were no indications in the documents anyone in OSTP office answered the charges, or took any investigative actions.

The first letter to arrive from in Gibbon’s office came from aviation and science writer Don Berliner. Writing on behalf of The Fund For UFO Research, Berliner enclosed a paper he had written titled “Air Force Explanation of 1947 ‘Roswell’ UFO Crash a Lot of Hot Air.” Berliner wrote:

“The U.S. Air Force recently “explained” the highly controversial story of material recovered from an alleged UFO that crashed in central New Mexico in 1947 as a once secret Project Mogul balloon. A careful analysis of the 23-page official report, by the Fund for UFO research, has revealed enough holes in the Air Force theory to bring down the sturdiest of balloons.”[18]

Another comment attacking the Air Force Roswell Report found in the OSTP papers was a 28-page paper identified as “Document 24” in the collection. This letter with attachments was written by UFO researcher, writer, and lecturer Stanton Friedman. Friedman was an Roswell expert who had written and lectured extensively on the subject.

Friedman’s paper written on the Air Force Report was titled “The Roswell Incident: The USAF and the New York Times.” There was no indication in the files of when the OSTP received the document, or even how the Friedman paper got into Gibbon’s office. The report appeared to go unanswered by Gibbons staff.

Stanton characterized the Roswell report as a “preemptive strike against the GAO” and a continuation of “a long, easily documented, history of USAF misrepresentation about UFOs.”[19] In a careful analysis of the Air Force Report Friedman carefully pointed out the flaws in the report’s argument for the 1947 Roswell crash being caused by a Mogul balloon.

As 1994 came to a close the records of the OSTP showed that discussion of Roswell by the Rockefeller group had stopped. Yet, actions and statements by President Clinton in 1995 and beyond seemed to indicate that the President was still interested in the topic of Roswell. An example illustrating this interest was revealed in September 1998, when during the Lewinsky investigation, the Clinton White House turned over to prosecutors a list of books held in Clinton’s private library. The list of books did not include the Air Force Report on Roswell which basically concluded to paraphrase Scott Jones, “nothing happened, you can go back to sleep.” The President’s book list did include “UFO Crash at Roswell” by Kevin Randle and Donald Schmitt, which concluded there was a crash at Roswell, and it had nothing to do with balloons, as claimed in the Air Force report.[20]

More importantly, statements made by President Clinton indicated he was no more a believer in the Air Force Roswell explanation than those in the Rockefeller group, or the other UFO researchers who had sent in dissenting papers to the Gibbons office.

Clinton’s lack of faith in the September 1994 Air Force Report was most evident during a late November 1995 trip to Belfast, Northern Ireland to promote a peace plan in the war torn country. During the lighting of the city Christmas tree, Clinton read a letter from a thirteen-year-old Belfast boy named Ryan dealing with Roswell.

He then proceeded to answer the letter with a response that to the untrained eye seemed nothing more than an attempt to entertain the crowd with a humorous reply. In effect, the reply was loaded with meaning.

“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.) [21]

Speeches prepared for sitting Presidents are very carefully prepared events. Whatever words turn up in a Presidential speech do not appear there by accident. In the Reagan administration, for example, speeches went through up to 30 drafts, and had to be signed-off by up to 25 agencies, departments, and individuals. Every single word was checked and approved for release.

What President Clinton appeared to be saying in his Belfast speech was that he knew he wasn’t being told the whole story on Roswell, and he like everyone else, would like to be told what really happened.

In late 1994 the Rockefeller/Gibbons discussion turned from Roswell to other UFO angles such as abductions. In a December 13, 1994-letter, found in the OSTP files, Scott Jones wrote Gibbons sending him information about the latest book release from one of the most prominent UFO/abduction writer Whitley Strieber. The new book was titled Breakthrough.

The discussion of Strieber and abductions had actually begun during the initial April 1993 briefing given to Gibbons, where Jones had provided Strieber’s first best selling book “Communion.” Now in December 1994 Jones was sending Strieber’s latest information on the subject. In the letter Jones stated that he was sending the Strieber manuscript in part because he believed Gibbons would find:

“That some of its speculations are mirrored in official studies and assessments that you have discovered in the government. While I hope this is true, I would not really be surprised if you tell me some day when it is appropriate for us to have a full discussion on the subject, that government really failed to address the metaphysical nut of the problem.”

“Consciousness is the core issue. If the government hasn’t realized this, it has kept itself out of the loop of possible understanding of the phenomena and what responses to make.”[22]

This was not the first time Jones had talked to Jack Gibbons about the importance of the mind related to the UFO mystery. As mentioned previously, Jones had warned Gibbons about possible mind control research being part of the UFO matrix during the February 4th face-to-face meeting between the two men. In that discussion Jones warned that the UFO phenomena was being used to cover mind control research.

Part of the information Jones had based this assessment on came from Dick Farley and Jacques Vallee who had claimed there was much more to UFOs than Roswell. Farley described these UFO items as “high strangeness” cases and “psychiatric abuse issues” (mind control experimentation by U.S. black operations). “My colleagues and I refused to limit our work to just Roswell etc. as we had been commanded by Scott to do,” wrote Farley. “The evidence for the other stuff was too strong... The issue between Scott and I was whether to let the ‘perps’ of the BAD elements of UFOlogical disinformation of the hook.”[23]

In fact, after Farley broke with the Rockefeller Disclosure team he went as far as to say that Rockefeller and Scott Jones “stuck with the Roswell scenario despite knowing first hand that it was a gigantic hoax.”[24]

An interesting sidelight to this apparent insight by Jones about the “core’ issue is the fact that the idea of the importance of the metaphysical went back almost 50 years to the very first days of UFO research done by Canadian researcher Wilbert Smith who headed up the Canadian government’s investigation of UFOs.

In the often quoted Top Secret “Memo to the Controller of Telecommunications”[25] most researchers refer to Smith’s four key points identifying what he learned about the flying saucers while making inquiries in the United States:

1) the matter is the most highly classified subject in the United States
2) flying saucers exist
3) a group headed by Vannevar Bush is working on the problem, and 4) the matter is considered of “tremendous significance.

Most researchers, however, ignore the very next line, which indicates the United States government may have realized right from the very beginning that the metaphysical was the “core” issue. In the very next line of the memo following the four points Smith wrote about the importance of the mind to the UFO mystery.

“I was further informed that the United States authorities are investigating along a number of lines which might possibly be related to the saucers such as mental phenomena, and I gather that they are not doing too well since they indicated that if Canada is doing anything at all in geo-magnetics, they would welcome a discussion with suitably accredited Canadians.[26]

[1]. In the summer of 1968, while on a Wellesley Internship Program, Hillary worked as an intern researching and writing for Melvin Laird, then a Wisconsin congressman.
[2]. Letter - Melvin R. Laird to Laurance Rockefeller, dated May 9, 1994.
[3]. Memorandum -Robert G. Damus, “Proposed Executive Order Entitled ‘Declassification of Selected Records within the National Archives of the United States” May 23, 1994.
[4]. Nelson, Laurance, David, John D. III established the Rockefeller Family Fund in 1967, and Martha Baird Rockefeller The Fund characterized itself as “practicing a strategic brand of grant making that helped produce a number of nationally significant public interest gains.”
[5]. Memorandum -Anne Bartley to Jack Gibbons “Laurance Rockefeller Interest in Extraterrestrial Intelligence.
[6]. Jones explanation for the lack of documents being discovered in the search was his belief that the CIA was not the place the cover-up was taking place. “If I had the responsibility to run a super safe black program on this subject,” wrote Jones, “I would take it completely out of the government’s hands... and run it from the private sector, probably somewhere in the aerospace community.” This, Jones figured, would allow officials to be able to answer Congress that “no such program exists in their department.”
[7]. Letter - Scott Jones to John H. Gibbons, Ph.D. August 11, 1994.
[8]. Letter - John L. Petersen, Diane C. Petersen, R. James Woolsey, and Suzanne H. Woolsey to Steven M. Greer, dated September 16, 1999. In the letter signed by both James Woolsey and his wife Sue, they contended that the December 1993 “briefing” described by Greer was nothing more than a “dinner party.” Greer’s contention that they were very interested was described by the Woolsey as no more than “ listening to your views and politely asking questions.”
[9]. Letter - Jack Gibbons to Laurance Rockefeller, dated 8/17/94.
[10]. Letter, Jack Gibbons to Claiborne Pell.
[11]. Letter - Laurance Rockefeller to Jack Gibbons, dated September 5, 1994.
[12]. Letter - Steven Schiff to Les Aspin, dated March 11, 1993.
[13]. Memorandum for Correspondents No. 235-M, U.S.A.F., September 8, 1994.
[14]. Letter, Laurance Rockefeller to John H. Gibbons, dated December 9, 1994.
[15] Letter, Scott Jones to Jack Gibbons December 2, 1994.
[16]. Jones, Scott, “Assessment and recommendations for Action on the Report of Air Force Research regarding the ‘Roswell Incident.’” Human Potential Foundation, September, 1994
[17] Jones, C.B. Scott “How the Alien Presence Affects Society” International UFO Congress lecture 1998
[18]. Letter Don Berliner to John Gibbons, dated September 23, 1994
[19]. Freidman, Stanton, “The Roswell Incident: The USAF, and the New York Times.” dated September 26, 1994
[20]. Randle, Kevin and Schmitt. Don, “UFO Crash at Roswell”, 1991 New York Avon Publishers
[21]. 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
[22]. Letter - Scott Jones to John gibbons, dated December 13, 1994
[23]. Farley, Dick, “re: Popular Mechanics on UFOs” from SarfattiScienceSeminar discussion group, April 13, 2001
[24]. Farley, Dick, “re:(UFO beliefs, Vallee&Hynek, Tart, etc.)re” from SarfattiScienceSeminar discussion group, December 10, 2000
[25]. Smith, Wilbert, “Memorandum to the Controller of Telecommunications” November 21, 1950
[26]. ibid

Pontius Pilot addressing Jesus of Nazareth

The OSTP files showed that 1995 brought with it some new ideas to advance the extraterrestrial hypothesis. The Human Potential Foundation, for example, hosted an international conference: When Cosmic Cultures Meet in late May.

Speakers at the Conference were asked to address the "implications, preparations, and response for the time when either or both interdimensional and extraterrestrial cultures come into open contact with cultures of Earth.

The OSTP files document Scott Jones’ invitations to a whole list of people including Jack Gibbons, Hillary Clinton, and President Clinton. Gibbons was asked to include in his address comments that "the subject is researchable, should be considered by competent researchers, and that the government will make data available to support the research." None of the three White House invitees accepted the offer. If there was support inside the White House for extraterrestrials, it wasn’t going to be open support.

In a February 9, 1995 letter Jones mentioned that for some reason he had been searched out by two sources, and leaked a couple of explosive facts. Jones was told that the "Lincoln Lab has been the site of most of the government research on this subject," and from a separate source the fact that "there are on average 400 monthly uncorrelated space events detected by the U.S. Space Command."

"I suspect that anyone who is active in this field cannot avoid being used by assorted interests who have a particular passion for their point of view," continued Jones. "While this information seems plausible based upon other information I know. I have made no attempt to confirm these statements and do not intend to pass them along even as rumor."

"There are two areas of sadness on this subject, continued Jones. "The first is the government’s bodyguard of lies around it, and the second is the attempt by some (perhaps even some parts of the government) to cloak it in evil. Nature is not evil."

The February ninth letter also indicated that the game plan had changed for the Rockefeller team on the "UFO Initiative". Jones indicated some disappointment in how the UFO Initiative had gone so far. "It appears," Jones wrote, "after Laurance’s last meeting with you that we are not going to get feedback on our attempts to get the White House to open the books on this subject. Neither Laurance nor I need any encouragement or credit for what we have been trying to accomplish. We have done what we thought was reasonable and needed. For my own part I am shifting my energy on this subject to a new, supportive strategy."

Jones hinted that the new approach might center on a "public relations approach" to force the information out. Jones reminded Gibbons that Rockefeller had mentioned this possibility at their first meeting. Jones outlined the possibilities. "He (Rockefeller) can afford a rather aggressive and expensive effort implementing that strategy, e.g., full page ads in major newspapers."

The U.S.A.F. had closed down their investigation into Roswell in September 1994. The OSTP files show, however, that in 1995 the Government Accounting Office (GAO) investigation into Roswell, initiated by Congressman Steven Schiff, was still in process. In April Gibbons was contacted by the GOA and asked 1) whether your office has an knowledge of what occurred at Roswell, and 2) what if any, government records or information your office has concerning this matter.

Gibbons who had now spent two years looking into Roswell, following his first meeting with Rockefeller in April 1993, wrote back with a disappointing report.

"In response to your recent inquiry of April 12, 1995. The Office of Science and Technology reviewed its records regarding the Roswell Incident. OSTP has no direct knowledge of what occurred at Roswell and no records, except for the information I received from the Air Force. I look forward to receiving the GAO report."

The Farley Letters

One of the most revealing documents in the entire Clinton OSTP UFO collection is a set of two letters sent by C. Richard Farley Jr. The letters were sent on April 28, and May 1, 1995. Both were requests for documents. One was addressed to Dr. Gibbons, and one was addressed to the Commander of the U.S. Coast Guard. Both were sent Certified U.S. Mail/ Return receipt Req. The letter addressed to Dr. Gibbons was answered, but that reply does not appear in the OSTP files.

Letter 1

The April 28, 1995-letter was by far the more important of the two letters. This was because Farley attached documents that were not found in the OSTP package. Secondly, he referred to other documents that also are not found in the OSTP UFO files. This clearly indicates that the OSTP collection, as big as it is, might be only the tip of the iceberg. The Farley letter must have sent Clinton officials racing to plug the holes Farley had just opened.

Richard (Dick) Farley, as mentioned previously, was an award winning investigative writer, who was hired by the Human Potentials Foundation. When attached to the Rockefeller White House UFO Disclosure initiative, Farley was the one who wrote the "Matrix of UFO Beliefs" that was used during the first April 1993 briefing of Dr. Gibbons. Farley was also the author of the "Annotated Bibliography" that Scott Jones provided to Gibbons following the initial briefing.

Farley provided many of the UFO books that were provided to Gibbons following the first briefing. These were provided to Gibbons to bring him up to speed on the UFO issue, and to "give Gibbons and the President a ‘look’ at the UFO field" as it is broadly and publicly perceived.

Finally, Richard Farley was the member of the Rockefeller Initiative, who on the date of the second face-to-face meeting with Gibbons (February 4, 1994), broke with the Rockefeller team and made his own UFO approach to the White House. Farley sent three packages of material into the White House through Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff Philip Lader. This material said Farley "eventually brought the Rockefeller UFO Initiative at least to Mack McClarty, then Chief of Staff to the President."

Of all the documents attached to the Farley letter, the most revealing is a transcript of a phone interview between Scott Jones at the Human Potential Institute and Dr. Ronald Pandolfi at the CIA "discussing Pandolfi’s (and CIA’s) role in supporting Gibbons’ response to the Rockefeller ‘UFO’ Initiative."

Farley wrote in his April 28, 1995 letter to Gibbons that Scott Jones’ former executive assistant told him "Jones routinely ‘bugged’ Pandolfi’s calls." Farley further stated that the attached transcript was given to him by Jones "for purposes which were not clear to me then, nor presently; I sent it to the FBI and CIA months ago."

The Pandolfi/Jones transcript is important because of its timing and the personalities involved. It was dated April 15, 1993, the day after Laurance Rockefeller and Scott Jones first sat face-to-face with Science Advisor Gibbons to brief him on the UFO situation. It therefore gives a clear insight into how the whole "Rockefeller UFO Initiative" to the White House began.

The key personality involved in preparing for the Gibbons briefing - Dr. Ronald Pandolfi - pointed to the fact that the initial Rockefeller briefing to Gibbons was taken seriously at least by the CIA. Dr. Pandolfi worked for the CIA’s Directorate of Science and Technology. He was described by The American Spectator as "the CIA’s highest ranking scientist."

The involvement of Pandolfi also showed that key CIA people were apparently counseling Clinton’s Science Advisor on how to handle the UFO topic. Pandolfi’s friend William Laparl stated that "Pandolfi had been called in by Gibbons, and Gibbons asked him questions. I was friends with Pandolfi so I knew what was going on." Laparl doubted, however, that Pandolfi told Gibbons anything significant.

According to Laparl Pandolfi and many of the other people in the CIA didn’t even want to get involved in the Clinton administration search for extraterrestrials.

"I know that the CIA guys kind of cringed when this came up. Pandolfi sort went ‘Oh No. Anything but that!’ So what he did was to farm it out to like lessor people. He kind of treated it with contempt. They didn’t go looking for any secrets on their spare time, I can tell you that right now. I know for a fact. I know because I was messing with these people before it happened. There was general contempt for the Clintons before they even showed up. They showed up looking for this UFO stuff. Most of this stuff had been done under different auspices prior to that in one way or another."

The fact that this high ranking CIA scientist and agent phoned Scott Jones on the day of the Rockefeller UFO briefing to the President’s Science Advisor, indicated that the CIA may have been trying to feel out what Rockefeller was up to, or they were attempting to aid Rockefeller at someone’s bequest.

According to the transcript of the April 15th telephone call Pandolfi confirmed he had been contacted by the White House. He told Jones,

"We (CIA) had been tasked a couple of days before the proposed visit of Laurance Rockefeller with the White House Science Advisor, to provide a briefing update to him — and we didn’t do that. Instead we tasked our friend Dr. Maccabee to do it. He did an excellent job... Gibbons said that he had gotten a one page input from Rockefeller indicating what the subject was going to be, and he didn’t have any background on it, claimed that he had never heard of MJ-12, or things like that, and so he contacted our representative over there and asked whether we could provide some support."

Jones, who helped Rockefeller do the briefing, stated he had not seen the Maccabee briefing paper on the morning they did the briefing for Gibbons. He therefore asked Pandolfi why the CIA hadn’t done the briefing itself. Pandolfi replied, "We didn’t have the material here to do it on that short of notice, didn’t have any reference material in the file records, and Bruce had already taken a shot on something fairly similar."

This claim about a lack of reference material in the files of the CIA is strange in light of what Pandolfi’s predecessor at the CIA, Christopher C. "Kit" Green, told Bruce Maccabee in 1979. Kit had apparently stated that the CIA files may contain as many as 15,000 UFO-related files, of which two or three thousand were really interesting.William Laparl, a friend of Pandolfi also stated that the CIA had lots of material, and that Pandolfi probably now controlled it,

"Pandolfi would know all the politics behind the scenes. He would be the first point of contact for all this, you know what I mean. He would be the front man, the visible guy. But he would also know the invisible. He would know where to point you but he wouldn’t tell you. There is no question in my mind but that Green had a huge interest in investigation, and probably had something like 15 file cabinets full of stuff that never got released... I think Rob inherited a lot of it."

Both Dr. "Kit" Green and Dr. Ronald Pandolfi had each been in charge of what has come to be known at the CIA as the "Weird Desk." This is the station where all the UFO and other paranormal topic files are kept. Maccabee termed the job done by Pandolfi and Green as the "Keepers of the Weird."

Both men were considered UFO experts. Kit Green, in fact, had long been rumored as qualified to brief Presidents on the UFO issue. He had supposedly taken over the job that was held for many years by CIA agent Arthur Lundahl who claimed privately to have briefed three sitting Presidents regarding UFOs. Back in the eighties, UFO researcher Bill Moore had also described Kit Green as " a person close to the President of the United States, capable of checking on information to determine its reliability."

Not only was Green qualified to brief the President, Dick Farley maintained that Ronald Pandolfi had stated that "Kit had been brought in to brief the President.(Clinton)" Pandolfi, in turn denied the Farley claim that President Clinton was briefed by "Kit" Green. "I have no reason," stated Pandolfi, "to believe Kit ever briefed Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Monica Lewinsky, Jack or any other frequent visitor to the White House on the issue of UFOs.

Dick Farley further maintained that "Kit" Green was brought in to brief Dr. Gibbons as soon as it was learned that Rockefeller would be coming to the OSTP to present his case for UFO disclosure. Farley stated,

"The REAL briefing of Dr. Jack Gibbons was conducted by Dr. Christopher "Kit" Green... for the record, both Ron Pandolfi and Kit Green have confirmed to me that Kit did come in and brief Dr. Jack Gibbons, a result of Laurance Rockefeller’s effort to get UFO disclosure on the agenda."

In the Jones/Pandolfi phone transcript Pandolfi commented further on the UFO briefing that Maccabee had been asked to prepare for Dr. Gibbons. "We helped him (Maccabee) on it and he did a fairly professional job like you would do a briefing for a President. He had one and a half pages of bulletized notes, and then tabs going back to paragraphs on each of the main points, and then further tabs going back to the original source material."

Maccabee, however, contends that he received no help from Pandolfi or anyone else in writing the briefing book titled "Briefing on the U.S. Government Approach to the UFO Problem as Determined by Civilian Researchers During the Last Twenty Years."

"I had no help. Pandolfi called me up at home. Said it is needed tomorrow morning by 8 AM. So I planned what I was going to say, including the "tab references" and then wrote the first page and a half executive summary and sent that. Subsequently I sent the tabs. There was exactly no input from Pandolfi or anyone else."

Further in the transcript, Jones asked Pandolfi what feedback Maccabee had gotten to his briefing. Pandolfi replied, "Bruce was not at the briefing so he knows nothing at this point."

Jones then asked if Jack Gibbons had seen Maccabee’s briefing prior to himself and Rockefeller presenting their UFO briefing. Pandolfi responded that Gibbons had read the UFO briefing book prepared for him.

"He supposedly had. He got it the night before, and he claimed he read it either the night before or early that morning. Kit was supposed to meet with Jack yesterday and supposed to give us some guidance today if there is any additional follow-up or his reactions were."

This statement differs radically from a statement Pandolfi made in an E-mail comment in November of 2000. In this version of the story Pandolfi stated Gibbons had not read the Maccabee briefing book.

"Bruce delivered the briefing book to Jack the following morning before his meeting with Rockefeller. My understanding is that Jack gave the briefing document to Rockefeller. I have no reason to believe Jack read the briefing book or made a copy."

Bruce Maccabee, the author of the briefing book, provided yet a third story of what happened. He stated that he worked all night on the briefing, having been given less than a day to produce it. He finished it just before the 8 am deadline he had been given. He faxed the briefing to Dr. Gibbons’ office, and found out later from Pandolfi that his briefing had not been used. The Rockefeller briefing had started early and was ending just as Maccabee’s briefing book was arriving by fax in Dr. Gibbons office.

The one thing every version of the April 14, 93 briefing agrees on is that Jack Gibbons was not keen on the UFO subject. Pandolfi in the April 15th telephone call with Jones said, " My guess is that he (Gibbons) is not going to do anything. He seemed to be fairly averse to this whole subject. "On the other end of the phone, Scott Jones agreed,

"What he told me, I’ve known Jack for eight years, I was not surprised at what he told us during the time we spent with him. He said he had no information on this, no personal knowledge, and was not read into it, doesn’t know the literature. I think that is a true statement. My assessment is that he was not at ease with the subject when we were talking about it. That also did not surprise me. He declared to us that he was an agnostic, that if there was some evidence there he would be glad to look at it. But at this point he has no knowledge of such evidence."

In the November 2000 E-mail, Pandolfi was even more blunt about Gibbons attitude on the day of the initial Rockefeller briefing. Speaking of his personal involvement in the first briefing Pandolfi said,

"I had one and only one conversation with Jack on the issue of UFOs. Jack asked why in the world someone like Rockefeller would believe in such nonsense. My response was that only a fellow believer could answer such a question."

The transcript in the OSTP files reveals that Pandolfi and Jones agreed to work together. Pandolfi sent over a copy of the Maccabee briefing book. Jones stated he would like to see it, as he was in the process of putting together some additional material for Gibbons.

If Jones did provide the Maccabee briefing book to Gibbons it did not appear in any of the Jones correspondence to Jack Gibbons. It also was not part of the 1993 OSTP files after being received by fax in the OSTP office. Maccabee did even recover a copy of the briefing when he filed a FOIA for it in July 1996.

The records seem to show that there were possibly three briefing 1) One done by "Kit" Green on April 13; one done on April 14th by Laurence Rockefeller and Scott Jones using "The Matric of UFO Beliefs" briefing; and a briefing done by Bruce Maccabee that may have been read by Dr. Gibbons. Yet, there was absolutely no official record in OSTP files of these briefing having taken place.

A copy of the Maccabee briefing finally became part of the OSTP UFO files in January 1977 when Maccabee attached a copy of it to letter addressed to Dr. Gibbons. He wrote to Gibbons,

"In April 1993, at the request of Dr. Ronald Pandolfi of the CIA. I sent (faxed) you an information paper regarding UFOs... In that briefing paper I presented evidence that the government has collected a rather large number of documents on UFO sightings. Moreover, one could easily conclude from these documents that the government has sufficient evidence to prove that many UFOs are, in fact, neither natural phenomena nor misidentified artifacts of human creation... i.e., are apparently artifacts of non-human origin (so called flying saucers). A copy of this document is enclosed in case you have lost the previous one."

Another key document attached to the April 29, 1995 Farley letter, is a draft of a letter from Scott Jones to Dr. Gibbons dated April 30, 1993 just after the first Gibbons briefing. No such letter could be found in OSTP file received in my FOIA. This means that the letter was never sent, or it was pulled from the files for some reason.

The letter is an important one. In it Scott Jones details the 18 UFO books that the Foundation came up with to bring Gibbons up to speed on the UFO issue.

The letter also describes four letters (attached to the Jones April 30 draft) concerning the Clinton Administration and UFOs. These letters have been rumored, and this Jones draft confirms they exist. They were not attached to the letter that Farley sent to Jones. The Jones draft letter describes the letter as:

1. Melvin Laird to Secretary of Defense Designee Les Aspin, January 8, 1993, requesting a review of classified space programs with the intent to declassify some of the materials.
2. Melvin Laird to Laurance Rockefeller, January 28, 1993, in which he states that Defense Secretary Aspin feels that the issue should be coordinated through the office of the president’s Science Advisor.
3. Les Aspin to Melvin Laird, January 14, 1993, acknowledging that he had received the letter on the classification issue.
4. A draft of a letter from Laurance Rockefeller to President Clinton requesting that he take action on the UFO issue. Attached to the letter was "Potential Estimates of the Situation" which appeared to early version of the Matrix of UFO Beliefs.

In addition to these letters wrote Jones, "there have been private conversations between these principals and others that have been more direct to the specific issue than the words in the letter suggest."

Finally, the April 29, 1995 Farley’s letter attaches three other letters which further the idea that there is much more to be found than the 991 pages in the OSTP files. These are

• One of the letters Richard Farley received from Philip Lader, Assistant to the President and deputy Chief of Staff. Lader was Farley’s source inside the White House. On the letter Lader makes a handwritten comment, "Remarkable thoughts !"
• Another letter from Melvin Laird to Laurance Rockefeller where he states of the UFO secrecy issue, "it is government- wide policy which needs to be changed."
• A letter from Scott Jones to Laurance Rockefeller dated almost a year before the White House UFO Initiative thanking Rockefeller for his financial support, and promising that the foundation will "focus on research into the existence of UFOs and the possibility of tapping into the universal power grid."

This third letter also discusses a possible meeting between three billionaires Laurance Rockefeller, Robert Bigelow, and Hans-Adam Liechtenstein to discuss funding of UFO research.

Letter 2

The second Farley letter found in the OSTP was dated May 1, 1995. It was a letter that was actually addressed to the Commander of the U.S. Coast Guard. It was only a single page with one attachment. The attachment was two pages from a study done for the U.S. Coast Guard titled The Road to 2012: Looking Towards the Next Two Decades. This futuristic report was written by John L. Petersen of the Arlington Institute.

The enclosure referenced a futurist "Wild Card" scenario postulated by John Petersen. ("Official Contact is Made with Extraterrestrials"). The importance of the extraterrestrial scenario appearing in a study done for the Coast Guard, possibly paid for by taxpayers, was the possible link to CSETI Director Dr. Steven Greer, who was using Petersen as one of his key military advisors. Farley wrote of the important connection,

"People claiming association with Mr. Petersen, and who also are quite deeply involved in a professed public campaign claiming to be about "making contact with extra-terrestrials" have cited this report, and Mr. Petersen’s asserted ‘high-level government contacts" in their soliciting of private funding in support of this group’s alleged "Project Starlight." Billed as an effort to persuade U.S. citizens that contacts with "ETs" in "UFOs" are either imminent or have been made, this group also has been positioning itself to play an "international role" managing public responses. This subject organization is based in North Carolina, and calls itself CSETI, (Committee to Study Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence... CSETI has received funding from Laurance Rockefeller."

Interestingly, Farley’s letter concerning Dr. Greer and John Petersen was sent at exactly the same time that Dr. Greer was writing a memo to President Clinton. Greer was writing the President "requesting a meeting with relevant Administration as soon as possible." In addition, Dr. Greer wrote seeking White House cooperation in a project that he and Laurance Rockefeller were working on.

"CSETI, Mr. Laurance Rockefeller, Astronaut Gordon Cooper, as well as several other prominent astronauts and military figures will be convening a meeting of witnesses on June 2, 3, 4, 1995, and we invite the Administration to send an observer or participant to this meeting."

This meeting of high quality witnesses (Asilomer Conference) is never mentioned in the OSTP files, even though Laurance Rockefeller did finance the conference. Dr. Steven Greer, who had gathered the witnesses together, is also never directly mentioned in the OSTP files which is strange in light of the numerous contacts that Dr. Greer had inside the White House. Rumors circulated on the Internet that Dr. Greer had indeed provided two briefing to Science Advisor Dr. Gibbons.

The references to Greer briefing Gibbons may have been a reference to Rockefeller and Jones doing the briefing as a part of the Greer team. It seems had to believe Greer would move to brief Gibbons when he knew Rockefeller was doing the same thing. A reference to Gibbons in Greer’s May 1995 Memo to President Clinton does make one think about the Greer role in the Clinton OSTP.

Please find enclosed several documents previously conveyed to the Administration via the Director of Central Intelligence (James Woolsey), the President’s Science Advisor, and Mr. Bruce Lindsey.

On June 4, 1995, the twenty-four participants of the Asilomar Conference wrote a letter to President Clinton asking "that the appropriate members of the Administration meet with members of the Project Starlight Coalition...that the President issue an executive order to release U.S. government witnesses from their national security obligations/oaths related the subject (UFOs)... and that the President issue an executive order to declassify and release currently classified materials, documents and evidence related to the subject..."

There were now at least three major efforts focused at the White House 1) Rockefeller’s Disclosure Group 2) Richard Farley and 3) Dr. Steven’s Greer’s group. Each group was making contact with their contacts inside the White House. Each group was writing letters and presenting evidence to support their case.

These contacts and letters, like many before, did not break the logjam and release the classified UFO information. With these drawbacks in mind, Laurance Rockefeller patience had worn thin. He prepared himself to go directly to the President.

"But if (John) Podesta were ever to become a Washington celebrity, this married father of three would probably be acclaimed for his formidable talents as a chef, his compulsive attention to detail and his fanatical devotion to ‘The X-Files’... As White House press secretary Mike McCurry puts it, "John can get totally maniacal and phobic on certain subjects. He's been known to pick up the phone to call the Air Force and ask them what's going on in Area 51." Washington Post, September 30, 1998

"It was known among the high CIA people, and the people who had contact with these people, that the Clintons were on the prowl for UFOs. Bill Clinton had been asking anyone who would listen to him, to tell him the secret. You know, he would get some Admiral in there, and say "By the way, tell me the UFO secret." They would just look at him like "What planet are you from?" William Laparl, who worked with the CIA in the early days of the Clinton Administration

During a late November 1995 address in Ireland, President Clinton took time during his speech to express frustration at not being able to get any information on UFOs. In particular, Clinton expressed frustration about the 1947 crash of an unknown craft near Roswell, New Mexico. This rumored UFO crash was a case that the Clinton administration had gone to great lengths to uncover.

"If the United States Air Force did recover alien bodies" in Roswell, the President told the Irish audience, "the Air Force didn’t tell me about it, and I would like to know."

In response the President’s "I would like to know" comment, Clinton received a letter from Paul Davids, the executive producer and co-writer of the movie "Roswell." Davids wrote a recollection of his letter to the President.

"I sent the President a two-page letter urging a change of policy regarding the secrecy and classification of documents surrounding the UFO issue in so many cases. I enclosed four videotapes: The movie ‘Roswell’ (of which I was Executive Producer and co-writer), and three documentaries I prepared that present UFO evidence: ‘Down in Roswell’ (a compendium of news coverage through the years on the Roswell Incident); ‘Reply to the Air Force Report on the Roswell Incident’ (an indictment of the Air Force ‘Mogel Balloon’ report), and ‘Golden Anniversary UFO Briefing for the White Sands Missile range Pioneers.’ (Based on a UFO presentation to the 50th Anniversary of the White Sands Missile Range and Proving Grounds.)"

It has been the general practice, since 1977, for the White House to re-route all UFO letters to NASA or the Air Force. The policy was started by President Jimmy Carter, who because of his open discussion of his UFO sighting, had been flooded with thousands of letters on UFOs. Unable to answer all the letters, the White House began the process of moving the Air Force or NASA who had the staff, and UFO backgrounds to answer the letters.

Clinton’s treatment of Davids’ letter was different. The positive reply signed by the President showed clearly that the Clinton held a genuine interest in the subject of the 1947 Roswell crash. Davids recalled the Clinton White House handling of his letter.

"To my surprise, a brief reply was sent to me by the President immediately following the date of Richard Hoagland’s Washington Press Club Conference in which Hoagland cited lunar anomalies that support possible conclusions of ancient alien artifacts on those worlds. The reply was overnighted by Priority Mail in a priority envelope. (Previous correspondence from Bill Clinton was always by standard first class mail.) My letter to the President had been marked Personal and Confidential. His reply was marked Personal."

"The President expressed gratitude and appreciation for my having sent him the videocassettes, calling it generous and thoughtful on my part, and he passed on Hillary’s best wishes to me as well."

Clinton’s positive and personal response to Davids’ letter was consistent with a commitment he had made to the subject of UFOs while still running for President. That commitment, made in a letter to a citizen, indicated that Clinton was truly interested in the UFO subject. The commitment was the only time a U.S. President’s has addressed the UFO phenomena in writing prior to being elected.

Writing on his personal letterhead, then President-elect Clinton wrote the following UFO pledge to a constituent named Michael,

"Thank-you for voicing your opinion on UFOs. A Clinton-Gore administration will seek to meet the needs of the U.S. and other nations while moving towards our long term space objectives, including human exploration of the solar system. We will also stress efforts to learn about other planets which improves our understanding of our own world, and stimulates advances in computers, sensors, image processing, and communications."

President Clinton came to the White House with an openness about things that might go beyond the physical world he could see. Hillary Clinton described him as, "insatiably curious about everything." Dick Morris, Clinton’s strategist who was generally given credit for both Clinton election victories, described Clinton’s religious beliefs as "somewhat of a mystical spirituality."

Clinton was also known to have a strong interest in science fiction and the Sci-Fi Channel. Days before District Cablevision of Washington was set to add Sci-Fi Channel to its basic package, Dick Ross, a VP with USA Networks Inc., parent company of cable's Sci-Fi Channel received a call from the White House. The official wanted to know wanted to know how the president could receive the cable network at the White House, as well as his retreat at Camp David.

The White House was quickly wired, and Ross got the OK to descramble the channel's signal for the Camp David satellite dish, as the area was not yet wired for cable. The Sci-Fi channel was "really pretty flattered" at the President’s interest.

Clinton appeared to believe that things beyond the physical could affect his success as President. He shared, for example a habit with Ronald Reagan in that he was reluctant to ever talk about victory, or victory plans, before winning an election, figuring that this loose talk would change the result of the election.

Author Jeffery Toobin wrote that Clinton’s friends "knew Clinton was actually a superstitious man, a collector of rabbit’s feet and lucky pennies, which he ( like President Reagan before him had done) meticulously placed in his pocket each day." This belief in the unseen undoubtedly had made Clinton much more open to the existence of UFOs, and UFOs is a subject the President seemed very interested in.

Support for Clinton’s strong interest in UFOs can be found in many the UFO comments that he made during his two administrations. ( see Appendix Presidential UFO Trash Talk for a complete list) Of the many comments, probably the most open and dramatic was a series of UFO answers President Clinton provided during an July 15, 1996 interview with MSNBC host Tom Brokaw.

Brokaw had begun a new show called InterNight that involved providing an Internet link to take questions, and to broadcast the interview live over the net. One of the 8,000 questions that came in over the Internet for Clinton Brokaw chose one dealing with the just released movie "Independence Day" about invading extraterrestrials. Clinton’s openness on the subject was something never seen with any President before him. The exchange went as follows,

MR. BROKAW: Here's a question from the Internet, one more -- Independence Day, the movie -- could we really fight these guys off, or what, Mr. President?

THE PRESIDENT: I loved it. I loved it and --

MR. BROKAW: A lot of people did, apparently.

THE PRESIDENT: 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.

But, 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 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 other problems. That's the lesson I wish people would take away from Independence Day.

Even though the President had the interest and will to take on the UFO problem, he found that once elected, that he and his elected officials were being cut out of the government UFO process. The President found himself forced to gather information on the subject from researchers outside the government, intelligence, and military. These outsiders were given the green light to brief Clinton’s top staffers.

This situation of being exiled from the information necessary to deal with the issue caused the Clinton great frustration. Years later Sarah McClendon, a senior White House reporter, substantiated the President’s great frustration over UFOs, and the cause for it.

McClendon told Dr. Greer that she had, at one point, put the question of UFO secrecy to Clinton. She asked the President why he didn’t just do something to disclose the truth about UFOs. McClendon said that the President leaned over to her and in response to her question said, "Sarah, there’s a secret government within the government, and I have no control over it."

Moreover, according to another story told to Dr. Greer by an Deputy Assistant to the President by the name of Kevin, not only was the President not in the loop on UFOs, and totally unable to force a disclosure, but he even feared for his life over the issue. Greer recounted the story as it was told to him, in early 1994 following a briefing he had given to the President’s CIA Director James Woolsey in December 1993.

"A friend of the President came to my home, after I had met with CIA Director James Woolsey. Now this is a guy who is sort of a democratic party big wig. He said, "Steve, I don’t think we can do this, although we support the objectives.’" (of the Disclosure proposal)

"I said, ‘Why not?’ Now this guy is a big kidder. I thought he was joking.

"He said, ‘Well, we’re convinced that if the President does what your asking him to do, and what you’ve asked his CIA Director to do, he’ll end up like Jack Kennedy."

"I went, ‘ha ha ha." "Then he said, ‘I’m serious.’ He was not joking. There’s a lot of fear, and a lot of intimidation."

Kevin had been a close friend of both Dr. Greer, and the President. Kevin had lived at the White House for months on end during the first Clinton administration. When Greer provided a briefing package for the President, it had been Kevin who had done two UFO briefings for Clinton. Greer recounted Kevin’s efforts to brief the President on UFOs:

President Clinton received a briefing from us in 1993, and then again in 1994. A friend of mine who lived at the White House for months on end, went through those materials with President Clinton. President Clinton was also very upset that he was not getting intelligence information on this.

Now, Kevin was saying that Clinton had seen the information, but was unable to help. The message back from Clinton was, "I can’t do this but you can."

The perceived threats towards the President did not completely immobilize Clinton on the issue. It was not as if Clinton’s search for UFO truth ended, or that he began a passive wait in the oval office hoping someone would come in and tell him what was going on. He did make some moves such as, on April 17, 1995, when took steps to a more open government, that he hoped would indirectly help the UFO disclosure movement.

What Clinton did was to sign Executive Order 12958, which directed that all government records of historical value and those 25 years or older be immediately reviewed and declassified, unless it meet one of nine narrowly-defined exemptions. Clinton’s Executive Order required that all these records be reviewed, or exempted from declassification by April 2000. It was hoped that this declassification would open up the UFO documents everyone was seeking.

Those who were pushing for the declassification of UFO documents, like Rockefeller, were quick to react positively to the President’s move. Rockefeller wrote his congratulations to Gibbons over the Executive order draft and its tie-in to the UFO/ETI issue.

"The draft executive order revising the national policy on classification of documents is a major step forward and those who are responsible for bringing it about are certainly to be congratulated... In large measure, my concern with government information involving extraterrestrial intelligence was stimulated by the widespread public belief that the government was withholding information about UFO incidents. If the proposed new policy goes into effect, reasonable people should be assured that the government is making available information it has on an orderly basis."

As 1995 moved along, however, that the Executive Order did not frighten those who held the UFO secrets. The continued silence of "those in the know who constitutionally were obligated to brief Clinton" showed they were not about to voluntarily provide him the UFO story.

Another thing that Clinton did to try and obtain answers to the UFO mystery was to begin tasking the heads of various departments within his government to bring him the answer to the UFO mystery. In addition, he opened the White House doors so that almost every one of his key cabinet members and friends were given UFO briefing from knowledgeable members of the public. People like Greer, Rockefeller, and Farley moved in to provide UFO information and briefings.

One of the first cabinet members to be tasked with searching out answers to the UFO problem was Associate Attorney General Webster Hubbell. Hubbell was a close friend, and golfing buddy with Bill Clinton. The two had done their Christmas eve shopping together for years. Hubbell had also been Hillary Clinton’s former law partner at the Rose law firm in Little Rock. There he and Vince Foster had battled successfully to have Hillary brought into the firm as an associate.

Hubbell revealed the UFO mission Clinton had tasked him within his 1997 memoir "Friends in High Places".

It was not the first time Webster had been given a tough task by Bill Clinton. Back in the Arkansas days for, Dick Morris’s polls for then Governor Clinton were showing constant high negatives for Hillary and it was determined this was costing Clinton votes.

During a golf game with Hubbell, Clinton sent Webster on the mission that everyone including himself was too frightened to do. Hubbell was to go and convince Hillary that she should change her name to Clinton to correct the high negatives showing up in the polls. Hubbell did as he was told.

When it came to the later mission, Clinton was interested in finding out about UFOs which interested him, and the death of JFK which really interested him as Kennedy had been his idol since he had shaken hands with him at 16 just months before he was assassinated. Hubbell wrote that Clinton said, "if I put you over at Justice I want you to find the answers to two questions for me, One- who killed JFK. And two- are there UFOs?"

"Clinton was dead serious," Hubbell wrote, "I had looked into both but wasn't satisfied with the answers I was getting." It was later revealed that Hubbell had even gone to NORAD headquarters to get an answer for the President, but there too, he had run up against a brick wall of denial.

According to William Laparl, who was working with the CIA during the period, Hubbell didn’t have much of a chance in getting the answer to the UFO secret. "You know what people thought of the Clinton people?" said Laparl. "Zero. They figured these people would be around for 4 years and 8 years at the worst, and that’s it... They tried to get Webster Hubbell, to ask questions. No one is going to tell that guy anything. Can you see the Chief of Naval Operations saying ‘Ya Webster, here’s the story.’"

The public airing, by Hubbell, that Clinton had an obsession about UFOs and that he had asked Hubbell to flush out the answers caused some embarrassment at the White House. Mike McCurry, the President’s Press Secretary, immediately faced the question of confirming or denying what Hubbell had written in his book about the President’s UFO search.

The question came from Deborah Orin, a White House reporter who wrote for the New York Post. Orin was a hard questioning reporter who was not popular in the White House. The White House considered her as spending too much time focusing on tabloid type stories.

Orin had investigated and asked questions about stories such as the claims being made by former FBI agent Gary Aldrich who claimed he had witnessed all manner of scandalous things going on in the White House while he had worked there.

Orin asked many questions on the Lewinsky scandal, and had pressed hard to find out about a memo chastising White House staffers for writing bad checks. This zeal to go after the White House jugular scared many connected to the White House. Lanny Davis, for example, who had been the chief Clinton defender on TV talk shows regarding the Lewinsky affair, was so afraid of Orin he made it a policy never to talk to her.

Even though McCurry was known as "spinmaker extraordinaire," the problem of answering the Hubbell UFO question was not simple. Not only did McCurry have to answer the question, but he had to do it without putting Hubbell down. This was because Hubbell had been subpoenaed to testify about the WhiteWater scandal that was dogging the Clintons. Hubbell, according to the Clinton’s Whitewater partner James McDougall, knew "where the bodies were buried," so the Clinton White House had to avoid saying anything that would make Hubbell angry.

McCurry, on the other hand, was good at avoiding questions he didn’t wish to address. As Deborah Orin, who had known McCurry for 15 years, described it,

"If he didn’t want to address a sensitive question, he would deflect it, duck it, or dismiss it. He would needle the person who asked it. What he wouldn’t do is provide a straight answer. It was an attempt to marginalize reporters who asked embarrassing questions."

The tact that McCurry used to escape the Orin’s question about the Hubbell UFO comments was brilliant. What he did was to use the same technique that has been used against UFOs questions by various government agencies for over 50 years. He mocked the subject of UFOs, and thus avoided having to discuss the President’s involvement. Secondly, he employed a tactic that the Clinton administration had done with other damaging revelations such as the Jennifer Flowers story, and the Dick Morris "lovechild scandal." McCurry attacked each as if they were tabloid fodder than he shouldn’t have to address.

When Orin put forward the question of Hubbell comments that he had been tasked to look into UFOs, McCurry responded by referring to an alien that had appeared on the front cover of the Weekly World News newspaper tabloid shaking hands with the President. The humorous issue with the picture of Clinton and the alien, ran six months before the Clinton 1992 election victory, and it headlined the story that the alien was backing Clinton for the election. Playing off Orin’s interest in tabloid type stories McCurry stated,

"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."

Orin was not put off by the answer. She rephrased her question. "Did he ask Hubbell to find out about those two issues?" McCurry again bypassed the question saying, "I have no idea and I'm not going to respond to specific things in books that are written."

Orin considered McCurry’s refusal to address the Clinton/Hubbell UFO questions as "an all out stonewall." As for the rest of the press sitting quiet while McCurry walked around the UFO question, Orin commented "they rolled over and played dead." The White House correspondents, according to author Howard Kurtz, did not defend Orin as they would then "risk losing whatever little access they had."

Files from the Clinton Office for Science and Technology Policy showed that Clinton’s Science Advisor, Jack Gibbons, had also been involved in attempting to get an answer to the UFO mystery for the Clinton White House. The particular investigation that Gibbons’ office undertook related to UFOs concerning the crash of a mysterious object near Roswell, New Mexico in July 1947.

To fulfill his role for the President, Gibbons tasked the Air Force to do a full investigation of the Roswell incident. He also cooperated with a General Accounting Office investigation, initiated by New Mexico Congressman Steven Schiff, into the events surrounding the 1947 New Mexico crash.

History does not yet tell us for sure whether Clinton pressured Gibbons to investigate UFOs. It was a well known fact that Gibbons did not like the subject. "Gibbons didn’t want to touch it," said William Laparl. "He didn’t want anything to do with it, but he did it because he had to... they didn’t want anything to do with it. Because Rockefeller was so important to the Clintons and Clinton asking for something, some of the agencies did minor little things."

It is now fairly clear, however, that although UFOs may have been a pet interest of the President, it was not a subject that brought Gibbons any joy. This Gibbons distaste for the subject of UFOs is spelled out in many of the OSTP documents, and also by people who dealt with Gibbons on the issue of UFOs.

Dick Farley was one of the insiders who stated Gibbons was not happy with his "UFO assignment" for the President. Farley worked as a member of the Rockefeller team that first briefed Gibbons on UFOs in 1993 following his election victory. Farley wrote that Gibbons "maintained the posture that his efforts were really to ‘protect’ the President by keeping him away from UFO issues and Laurance Rockefeller’s inquiries."

Gibbons stated right up front in the first briefing with Rockefeller that "he was an agnostic, and that if there was some evidence there he would be glad to look at it. But, he added, at that point he had seen no such evidence."

In late 1995 Laurance Rockefeller sent his draft UFO letter intended for President Clinton to Jack Gibbons for his input. Gibbons reviewed the letter for Rockefeller and wrote his comments in the margins of the draft letter. The comments Gibbons wrote in the margins clearly showed his level of disbelief.

The draft letter suggested that Gibbons OSTP office be a "coordinator for government information about ETI and UFOs." Gibbons scribbled in the margin, "Please, no!"

At the end of the letter Gibbons wrote what appeared to be his conclusion to the whole UFO involvement of his OSTP office, and the Rockefeller UFO case.

• open invitation to the nuts
• overwhelm OSTP
• no evidence

The biggest indicator that Gibbons did not share the President’s love of UFOs came in an August 1995 letter that Jack Gibbons wrote to the President. It was just days before the President was scheduled to receive the long awaited briefing on UFOs from Laurance Rockefeller. Gibbons wrote like a man who had tried to save the company from collapse, but was now announcing to the owner that the company was broke. Gibbons’ letter to President Clinton was an acknowledgment that, despite his best efforts, Rockefeller had made it around him, and was now going to sell UFOs to the President in person. Gibbons outlined his displeasure with the UFO subject, and how things had turned out.

"Soon after you were inaugurated Les Aspin and Mel Laird referred Laurance to me concerning the famous ‘Roswell incident,’ dating from 1947, in which UFO buffs claimed a flying saucer crashed near the town of Roswell, New Mexico...I persuaded Rockefeller not to bother you with this issue but instead to let me talk to defense officials to see if there was anything to the story... the bottom line is that all evidence points to a failed U.S. Air Force balloon experiment, and no evidence of a ‘Flying saucer’ or cover-up conspiracy... Rockefeller may thank you for the openness of the Administration, including his ability to work with me...he knows that we are trying to be helpful in responding to his concerns about UFO’s...but I’ve made it no secret that we must not be too diverted from more earthly imperatives."

Besides the members of Clinton’s staff like Hubbell and Gibbons who had been given "UFO jobs," we now know that a whole series of close Clinton staffers were receiving UFO briefing from a variety of sources.

Some, like Clinton Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers, took the UFO information she had received and went on to be a media consultant for the movie "Contact." This was the 1997 movie that included a clip of President Clinton announcing that the first Extraterrestrial contact had been made by astronomers. It was a video clip that had been carefully reworked to make it appear like an announcement of the discovery of an extraterrestrial message. It was in reality only a statement made in August 1996 by President Clinton regarding the discovery of possible bacterial evidence found in a Martian meteor. The Presidential clip, although clearly faked to be something it was not, produced almost no hostile response or legal action from the Clinton White House.

Alien Encounter at the White House
©2001 Chris Hiers. Web site:
http://cartoonery.com/ . Reproduced
by permission.

Other Clinton press secretaries were also dragged into the UFO mess. Most appeared to be facing the questions against their will. Joe Lockhart, for example, when approached at a White House reception about UFOs for the second time by a friend of reporter Sarah McClendon made it clear he no longer wished to discuss the subject. Lockhart then went to the far side of the room where he remained for the remainder of the reception.

Mike McCurry usually handled the subject with caustic or humorous comments. An example of this occurred when asked during a news conference by one reporter asked if the President might be going to Roswell. McCurry replied, " I didn’t say a thing. No, we don’t need to go there because we were there in the flying saucer yesterday."

In 1996 McCurry faced numerous UFO questions. The first ones came just following the blockbuster movie "Independence Day," where invading aliens come to earth and blow up the White House as part of their attack. A reporter from the "Florida Today" newspaper asked McCurry if the White House had any plan for an alien invasion attack if it were to come. McCurry replied that there were no plans.

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."

Shortly after this questioning about "Independence Day" Bill and Hilary returned to vacation in the Tetons where they had received their UFO briefing the year before from Laurance Rockefeller. The vacation also came only days after President Clinton read his statement on the South Lawn of the White House announcing that scientists had found a Martian meteorite that showed possible signs of biological life. All these factors seemed to come together for a great UFO one liner when McCurry was asked if the President planned to head back to Washington early as he had the year before.

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.

The briefings for Clinton administration members started even before the President took office. Part of this was due to the stories going around that Clinton was a fan of UFOs. "The Clinton people were personally interested before they showed up," said William Laparl. "I know for a fact that before this investigation Clinton may have been asking Gibbons to find out stuff before even Rockefeller got heavily involved... That’s sort of normal for a new President "Give me all the secrets."

The first of many briefings was an offer of a UFO briefing to the Clinton White House from former Nixon Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird. At the urging of Laurance Rockefeller, Laird wrote to his good friend Les Aspin, the Clinton Defense Secretary’s designee, offering to brief him on UFOs.

Also called in by Rockefeller to help with the White House UFO briefing Initiative was the famous evangelist Billy Graham - a man who claimed friendships with many U.S. Presidents. Graham had earlier spoken of his belief in extraterrestrial life in a book he had written about angels, and had supplemented his statement about extraterrestrial life in an interview that he had given on Clinton’s Inauguration Day to interviewer David Frost.

Rockefeller wrote Graham that he would like Graham to co-sign a letter to the President "requesting that he review the present secret classification of government information pertaining to UFOs and related phenomena." Rockefeller told Graham in his letter that he was considering sending copies to the Secretary General of the landmark 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro Maurice F. Strong, Secretary-General of the United Nations Perez de Cuellar, and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter as other possible signatories to the letter.

Graham, although supportive of the efforts to gain declassification for the UFO subject, turned down the offer to sign the letter to President Clinton. He wrote Rockefeller,

"Naturally, I was most interested to hear of your desire to get declassification of documents changed so that they will be available to researchers and those with an interest in the so-called UFOs, etc. I think you are exactly right, that since they are reviewing the whole classification process, many documents will probably become available that have not previously.

I also appreciate your invitation to me to be a part of those signing such a letter of request to the President. However, over the years I have mad it a policy not to co-sign such letters, but keep my contacts with presidents on a purely, personal, one-on-one, private basis. In this way I have an opportunity to discuss many issues and subjects over the years with nobody knowing about it, no publicity, and they have the assurance that I will not discuss what we talked about...I hope you will understand."

The UFO briefings given to White House staff did not stop at Les Aspin. Bruce Lindsey, Clinton’s legal counsel, Arkansas friend, and key figure behind containing the Monica Lewinsky story, was briefed on the subject of UFOs by Dr. Steven Greer’s Project Starlight staff. Lindsey was so close to the President he was called "Clinton’s shadow" following him wherever he went. Nothing ever became public about how Lindsey reacted or what efforts he made to help the Clinton administration battle UFO secrecy.

Lindsey was one of the Arkansas Clinton inner circle who helped pick many of the cabinet members for Clinton during the transition in 1992-93. He may have been a part of a group of "close associates" of President Clinton who were briefed in Little Rock after Clinton realized he was being stonewalled on his UFO inquiries. The briefer to this group of Clinton associates was UFO investigator Richard Hoagland.

Although Hoagland was schooled in UFOs, he was probably more famous for his work on the Cydonia region of Mars, and the appearance there of a handmade "face." Clinton, and some of his associates, had a interest in possible life on Mars as well.

Both Bill and Hillary had made statements and jokes about life on Mars. In August 1996, Clinton even appeared on the south lawn of the White House to announce that life might have been found on Mars. Speaking of a meteorite that had been found to possibly contain evidence of fossilized bacteria, Clinton said:

Today, rock 84001 speaks to us across all those billions of years and millions of miles. It speaks of the possibility of life. If this discovery is confirmed it will surely be one of the most stunning insights into our universe that science has ever uncovered. Its implications are as far-reaching and awe-inspiring as can be imagined.

President Clinton even threw in an indirect reference to the "alien invasion" concept in describing new proposed robot mission to the red planet. On July 4, 1996, a little more than a month before, the movie "Independence Day" had been released in the United States. The movie deal with the theme of invading aliens who travel to Washington where the blow up the White House. When Clinton spoke of the next trip to Mars, he spoke of a return invasion. "I should tell you," said the President, "that the first mission is scheduled to land on Mars, on July 4, 1997--Independence Day."

Following the Clinton Mars announcement, it became public that Clinton advisor Dick Morris, described by Time as "The Man Who Has Clinton's Ear," had already shared the news with his mistress. Morris told the 37-year-old prostitute Sherry Rowlands, the news that there was life on Mars, but that the information was a "military secret." This had occurred one full week before NASA and Clinton went public with the news.

Rowlands was told that she was only one of seven people in the world that knew there was life on Mars. This premature disclosure meant that Clinton and Morris were discussing the meteorite discovery, and its critical meaning, long before it was made public.

Hoagland’s briefing of the Clinton people was first made public in a interview Hoagland conducted with radio host Art Bell. It received very little attention at the time, due partly to disbelief that a group attached to the President would be gathered together in Little Rock, to obtain UFO information that the President should have been able to get with a phone call.

According to Hoagland’s account of the briefing, He gave the briefing over two nights. "The first night went well, the second night was headed-off, and attendees were told that Hoagland had left for Texas."

In 1998 White House reporter Sarah McClendon ran a story stating that Clinton’s key National Security Advisor Anthony Lake had also received a briefing on UFOs. Lake was confronted about his knowledge of UFOs story during an appearance on the PBS Diane Rehm talk show. Lake was so flustered with the question (which centered on his knowledge of Roswell - a case the Clinton administration had spend a lot of effort investigating) that he literally provided no answer at all. Diane Rehm was forced to step in and talk to the caller.

Then following a speech Lake gave in April 1998 at Princeton University, he was asked directly about the McClendon story that during his term as National Security Advisor to Clinton he had been briefed about UFOs. This time, Lake at least had a response to the UFO question but it was an answer that was very strange.

"This is very classified. But if you look at Independence Day, the contact with the space aliens, the description of the aliens is just about perfect. No, that’s nonsense. Absolute nonsense. I never got a briefing. There is no, what is it Roswell. Unless, I never heard of Roswell...Area 51.I never heard of it..."

The briefers of Anthony Lake were rumored to be Dr. Greer’s CSETI Starlight group. Therefore, I put the question of the national security advisor’s claim of UFO ignorance and denial of being briefed to Dr. Greer following a lecture he gave at Laughlin, Nevada in March 2001. Speaking to Lake’s claim of UFO ignorance, Greer responded, "Not true." As to Anthony Lake’s claim that he was never briefed, Dr. Greer stated,

"A member of my team provided him with those materials, and he asked the President about the subject. He is not totally ignorant of the subject. It is true if he said he ignorant of it in terms of material provided to him officially. I’m just a guy (referring to his briefing to Lake) I’m lower than dog poop. I just a guy - a civilian. So if he’s saying he did not deal with or get officially- that’s true. They did receive materials from us. I do have the man on my team who gave it to him and briefed him."

Vice-President Al Gore, senior people in Al Gore’s office, his Chief of Staff, and many of his personal friends" were also given UFO briefings by Dr. Greer’s Starlight team. Very little has been released about Gore and his staff’s reaction, or subsequent action to help declassify the UFO subject. Stories have circulated that Gore’s people, particularly his person on the environment was very interested, and did discuss the UFO topic further with Greer outside of the briefings given.

Briefing for Director Of Central Intelligence

The most significant briefing given to a member of the Clinton administration was given in December 1993 by Dr. Greer. It was a three-hour briefing given to President Clinton’s Director of Central Intelligence James Woolsey. Dr. Greer described his briefing of Woolsey as a presentation of "the scientific data, along with a well-conceived assessment, and set of recommendations."

Greer stated that he had been told that Woolsey "had an interest in the subject and felt that the subject was valid, that he had not been able to find out anything through channels, even though he was the head of the CIA, the NSA, the NRO, and other civilian intelligence agencies."

Woolsey was very moved by the evidence Greer presented and offered to do what he could to come up with answers. As supported by a recently declassified document from the CIA, Woolsey did appear (as claimed by Greer) to try to track down some UFO cases given to him to check. These efforts were unsuccessful. Woolsey found himself was faced with the "empty file syndrome" - no evidence pro or con.

His wife Sue Woolsey, Chief Operating Officer for the National Academy of Sciences, was also present for the Greer briefing. She shared an interest in the phenomena, as she and her husband had experienced a daylight sighting in the sixties in New Hampshire. Her interest in Greer’s work continued after the briefing, and even after her husband was replaced as DCI. She was reportedly in attendance for the special briefings Dr. Greer held for government and congressional members in Washington, in April 1997.

The internal UFO inquiries made at the CIA by James Woolsey following the Greer briefing led to a new study of UFOs inside the CIA prepared for the Director. The final report, however, turned out not to be an independent assessment but rather a new whitewash CIA publication on the agency’s involvement in the UFO phenomena over the years 1947-1990.

The final report was titled "CIA’s Role in the Study of UFOs, 1947-1990." It was written by Gerald K. Haines, a CIA (and formally National Reconnaissance Office) historian. It was published in Studies in Intelligence, a classified journal published for the intelligence community. In the introduction to the paper Haines confirmed Woolsey’s role in requesting a new review of the UFO evidence inside CIA files.

"In late 1993, after being pressured by Ufologists for the release of additional CIA information on UFOs, R. James Woolsey ordered another review of all Agency files on UFOs."

The release of the new whitewash CIA study on UFOs might have got the CIA off the hook regarding its involvement in covering-up UFOs, but put the USAF back on the hook. After all the effort to produce a new study on Roswell for the OSTP and the President, and a major effort to promote the conclusion to the public, the CIA conclusion was that the Air Force had lied about more than half of its public statements regarding UFOs from the 1950s on to cover for CIA spy operations.

"Just when it looked as though the Air Force had won a major battle in the UFO public relations war with its publication of "Roswell: Case Closed," wrote Project 1947 Director Jan Aldrich, " the ‘die hard issue’ of UFOs was resurrected."

Haines claimed in the CIA report that more than half of the UFO sightings during the 1950s and 1960s were actually not UFOs but misidentified secret spy planes such as the U-2 and SR-71. More damaging to the Air Force was Haines allegation that the Air Force Project Blue Book, set up to investigate UFO reports, was actually consulting with the CIA U-2 staff personnel in Washington, and helping to coordinate dismissive explanations for the public to cover for the spy plane flights.

As the story of the Air Force deception broke in the press the Air Force was forced to send out Brigadier General Ronald Sconyers to deny the CIA conclusion. He told the press, "I cannot confirm or deny that we lied. The Air force is committed to providing accurate and timely information within the confines of national security."

Alerting the Chief of Staff

Richard Farley, a former member of the Rockefeller UFO Disclosure Initiative team, made his own effort to provide UFO briefings to yet other members of the Clinton White House. He described his efforts as "tossing the inside documents of Rockefeller’s REAL ‘UFO Disclosure Initiative’ over the transom into the White House."

On February 4, 1994, the same day that Laurance Rockefeller was meeting with Dr. Gibbons for the second time, Farley sent a complete set of "Rockefeller UFO Disclosure Initiative" documents by FedEx to Phil Lader in the White House. Over the next year plus, Farley sent three packages to Lader, then an Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff, (later Ambassador to Britain). Lader was a key figure in the Clinton administration because he had been hand-picked for his job by Bill and Hillary Clinton, despite the fact he did not even appear on the list of people to interview for the Deputy Chief of Staff job.

Farley reported that he sent "several" packages of UFO material to Lader. Lader was responsible for White House Operations and staff, including the coordination of the overall policy development process. He was, for example, part of the team that found a job for Linda Tripp, when a request came from the executive to get her out of the White House.

The Clinton OSTP papers revealed that Lader appeared to be interested in the UFO material Farley was sending. In response to the first packet of Rockefeller White House Initiative documents sent by Farley in February 1994, Lader sent Farley a thank-you letter. In the margin of the letter Lader had added a hand-written comment "Remarkable Thoughts."

Farley told this author that his UFO briefing effort actually made it as high as Clinton’s Chief of Staff Mack McLarty. Farley believed that McLarty had discussed the material with President Clinton, but doubted that he had given the President anything more than what Farley called "retail UFOlogy."

Those in the office of Chief of Staff to the President after McLarty left, appeared to carry on the interest in UFOs. Their unchallenged actions showed that it was safe to be interested in UFOs in the Clinton White House.

Clinton’s Deputy Chief of Staff John Podesta was one case in point. He was known among White House reporters as the unofficial leader of the X-files club in the West Wing of the White House.

The "Christian Science Monitor" also wrote about the Clinton’s Deputy Chief of Staff’s extraordinary interest in the X-files.

"Some White House staffers decorate coffee tables with presidential trinkets. Not John Podesta. While serving as deputy chief of staff to President Clinton, the table in his office was covered with "X-Files" paraphernalia. Books, fan magazines, and photos of special agents Mulder and Scully formed the little shrine he built to the popular science fiction TV series."

Podesta expressed his obsession with X-files when he told U.S. News "when the show about aliens comes on I just get glued to the tube and try to figure out which government agencies to call to determine if the show's story is real or not." U.S. News reported further that Podesta had even E-mailed one of the shows characters, FBI agent Dana Scully."

Even the white House Press Secretary Mike McCurry confirmed Panetta’s very serious interest, "John can get totally maniacal and phobic on certain subjects. He's been known to pick up the phone to call the Air Force and ask them what's going on in Area 51."

Even as this paper was being edited, another revelation was made about another Clinton staffer who appeared to have as part of his job description, "find out about UFOs." That Clinton cabinet member was Secretary of Defense William Cohen. Given Cohen background, it is not surprising that he would take up a UFO investigation for the Clinton administration. After all Cohen was one of the Senators who stepped in and rescued the U.S. Army’s psychic intelligence-gathering program known as Project Stargate, after Reagan national Security advisor Frank Carlucci "dispatched the inspector general to investigate the Stargate Project at Fort Meade."

It has not been announced if the directive for Cohen action came directly from President Clinton, but Dr. Steven Greer has announced after discussions with "a very famous astronaut" that Cohen had called this astronaut in to help with a UFO investigation he had begun.

"This particular astronaut had during his career been in possession of a very specific piece of incontrovertible piece of evidence related to UFOs. It is something that if disclosed would clear and definitive," Greer said in a special breaking interview with radio host Art Bell. "This astronaut described how he had approached and worked directly with President Clinton’s Secretary of Defense William Cohen to look into and retrieve from classified projects this specific piece of evidence - of that which he had all the specific details...the words used by this astronaut to me were ‘there was an inordinate large amount of money and personal time by the Secretary of Defense William Cohen was spent to locate this evidence, and he was never given access to it.’"

Dr. Greer stated in the interview that this effort by Secretary Cohen was further proof that, despite the interest in the Clinton White House and a concerted effort by the President and his staff to get the answers, they were unconstitutionally cut out of the process of governing control over the UFO subject.

It was perhaps this frustrating situation that led Bill Clinton to bypass the official search for UFO answers, and actually approve a personal UFO briefing from a member of the public for himself and his wife Hillary. That historic briefing took place during the President’s August 1995 vacation at the Rockefeller Ranch outside Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The briefer was Laurance Rockefeller.

The inclusion of Hillary in the Rockefeller briefing was the first indicator that the President’s wife actively involved, was prepared to play a strong role in the search for UFO answers inside the Clinton White House.

I'm getting my facts straight. (Laughter.) First of all, let me say that Hillary and I are delighted to have all of you here. The story Hillary told about her fascination with space is not apocryphal, it is real. I heard it a long time before I ever thought she would be telling it before a microphone. And so this is a thrilling day for us. President Bill Clinton 1998

We’ll have a woman President by 2010. Hillary Clinton statement during the 1992 campaign.

A young girl interested in public service can be told with a straight face that she too could grow up to be president. Hillary Rodham Clinton

Hillary discusses a UFO story about her "steamy relationship" with a space alien that appeared in the Weekly World News.

A review of the nearly 1,000 pages of UFO files from OSTP have revealed that yet another powerful member of the Clinton White House was involved in the UFO briefings, and also in the actual attempt to bring the issue to President Clinton. That person, whose name appears more than once in the OSTP documents, was the President’s wife Hillary Clinton.

Hillary’s UFO involvement may have come simply from the fact that she played a strong role in many of the Clinton White House decisions. Hillary, in fact liked to quote people who referred to her and Bill in the White House as getting two for the price of one, a blue-light special. Hillary did not hide the fact that she liked the co-presidency idea.

The President asked Hillary’s opinion on almost every issue. She was so much a part of the President’s decisions that Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward commented, "I’d go as far as to say she’s part of Bill Clinton’s brain." It was reported that Hillary usually had more to say in staff meetings than the President, and she wasn’t afraid to say what she had on her mind.

Chief pollster and strategist Dick Morris, the President’s key pollster and strategist, stated in an interview with Peter Jennings that Hillary "had tremendous power, and was a crucial element in the White House in ‘93 and ‘94." In fact when asked, Morris agreed with the rumor that Hillary "was the power behind the throne."

Morris concluded, in fact, that Hillary was being viewed so strongly in the public, she was making the President look "weak, wishy-washy, and ineffective." When the democrats lost seats in the 1994 mid-term elections, Morris advised the President "that Hillary withdraw from overt participation in White House staff meetings and politics, so that the impression of a secret hidden power not sap her husband’s image and undermine perceptions of his strength."

Hillary was not a typical First Lady. She had, for example, more senior aides on her staff than the Vice-President. She requested the office of the Vice-president, and although she did not get it she did it, she did become the only First Lady in history to have an office in the West Wing. Not only was she the only First Lady to have an office there, she was the first to have an office there for her chief of staff as well. The two offices were not only in the West Wing, they were office spaces reserved for the senior executives. This created a situation where Dee Dee Myers, the President’s Press Secretary, was relegated to a small corner office.

Hillary was one of the six key people who sat around a table in Little Rock during the transition, and picked the key people for top White House jobs. Those sitting on the transition team stated, "she knows more about this than most of us do." Discussions took place during this time about actually giving Hillary a title in the new Administration. One of the titles considered was the President’s Chief of Staff, a position Hillary had wanted.

For this and her other independent actions, Hillary was often described in unflattering terms. "The American Spectator," for example, described Hillary as "the Lady Macbeth of Little Rock: consuming ambition, inflexibility of purpose, domination of pliable husband, and an unsettling lack of tender human feeling, along with the affluent contempt for traditional female roles." Sara Polk, a third First Lady with Hillary like personal traits, was also accused of "ruling her husband and influencing his political decisions." First Lady Sara, in fact, was so involved in her role as her husband’s advisor that it got her in hot water with female guests to the White House. They would find themselves standing alone following official functions. Sara, their host, would be off in the other room discussing politics with their husbands.

Not only was Hillary’s strong presence inside the white House an asset to being in on UFO discussions, but she held a long time interest in space. She had, after all, decided at fourteen that she might like to be an astronaut. This desire led her to write a letter to NASA to obtain information on what steps she should take to achieve her dream. What she received back "infuriated" her. She was told NASA was not taking any female astronauts.

As well as space, Hillary also exhibited a strong liking for items of the paranormal like UFOs. It was an interest she shared with her husband, as well as many past Presidents and first ladies in history.

It now appears that Rockefeller might have been aware of Hillary’s interest in the UFO subject. Rockefeller had after all known the Clintons prior to their election, and had contributed to their campaign. His brother Winthrop had like Bill Clinton been Governor of Arkansas.

William Laparl had stated that it was the scuttlebutt in high levels of government and in the CIA that both the Clintons were somewhat interested in Ufology prior to being elected. "She was particularly interested at one point," said Laparl, "and she was asking a lot of questions."

When I mentioned to Laparl that some researchers did not believe Hillary was in the loop, Laparl went one step further. "She was almost an equal mover with him on this," Laparl said. "I would not give him any more weight at all on this UFO thing. If anything she may have slightly been pushing it more than he was. That’s the way I read the situation."

Dick Farley, who was part the Rockefeller team that was providing UFO material to Dr. Gibbons and his staff, is one of those that doubts Hillary’s involvement. This belief is based partly on fact that Scott Jones had told Farley that Hillary was not in the loop.

Farley, however, publicly wrote of an incident that seems to contradict the "unknowing Hillary" theory. In an article Farley posted to the Internet he reported that on February 4, 1994, following the second briefing of the President’s Science Advisor, "Laurance, Henry (Diamond) and Scott (Jones) visited the First Lady's office and met briefly with her assistant (Chief of Staff Maggie Williams)." Such a meeting in the West Wing clearly appeared to illustrate that Hillary’s role in the Clinton White House’s handling of the UFO situation, was one that started almost at the beginning of the Clinton administration. It at least indicates that Rockefeller thought it important enough to make his way over to Hillary’s office in the West Wing of the White House to talk UFOs.

Paranormal First Ladies

The idea that a First Lady might have an interest in UFOs goes all the way back to Mrs. Betty Ford. During 1966 Gerald Ford’s made congressional requests for an investigation into UFO sightings that were occurring in his home state of Michigan. It was rumored, however, that it was his wife Betty who had the interest in the UFO subject. Her congressman husband, as the story goes, was only following her direction in asking for an investigation.

Nancy Reagan continued the First Lady trend with her strong interest in UFOs as well as in other areas of the paranormal. Both of her interests were shared by President Reagan. Nancy was present for Ronald Reagan’s first reported UFO sighting prior to attending a dinner party in California. When Reagan had his second sighting, he reported it to Nancy as soon as he arrived home. According to Norman C. Millar, to whom Reagan told the story, Ronald and Nancy Reagan had done personal research on UFOs following the sighting. This research had uncovered many things, including the fact that there were references to UFOs in Egyptian history.

Although Ronald and Nancy Reagan have been written up by many historians as not always in touch with reality, the fact is that many first families who had occupied 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, were also according to available records, quite interested in things of the paranormal. A quick review shows that it was not unusual at all to find a First Lady or president with an interest in ghost, séances, or UFOs. Consider for example:

• The wife of President Abraham Lincoln, Mary Todd Lincoln, hosted as many as eight séances in the White House. President Lincoln, himself, attended at least one of these séances held in the White House on April 23, 1863. Much of Mary Todd’s interest in spiritualism centered around efforts to communicate with her son Willie who in 1862 died in what is now known as the Lincoln bedroom. Mrs. Lincoln claimed success. "Willie lives," said Mrs. Lincoln, "he comes to me every night and stands at the foot of the bed with the same sweet adorable smile he always has had."
• President Theodore Roosevelt claimed that he felt the presence of Lincoln in the Lincoln bedroom. He was rumored to have kept his "astrological chart mounted on a chess board, and was said to consult it at crucial moments in his presidency."
• Eleanor Roosevelt said of the Lincoln ghost, "Sometimes when I worked at my desk late at night I’d get a feeling that someone was standing behind me. I’d have to turn around and look."
• Jimmy Carter and his wife believed that a house he lived in from 1955 to 1961 was haunted. Carter’s daughter held sleeps over in the White House where the young girls waited for Lincoln’s ghost to appear. In addition to ghosts, President Carter believed that on January 6, 1969 he witnessed a UFO for ten minutes while waiting for a meeting to begin in a small Georgia town.
• First ladies and Presidents who claimed to have seen or sensed Lincoln’s ghost in the White House include, Grace Coolidge, Theodore Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, Jacqueline Kennedy, and Ladybird Johnson.
• Nancy and Ronald Reagan both claimed to have experienced the Lincoln ghost. Reagan, to the dismay of his staff even referred to Lincoln’s ghost in his speeches.
• Both James Garfield and Abraham Lincoln believed they had premonitions that they would be assassinated. Truman believed that he had a premonition in a dream of Roosevelt’s death just before the President died.
• Most of the decisions in the Reagan White House (especially after the assassination attempt) took place only after they were approved by Nancy Reagan’s California astrologer.
• Mamie and Dwight Eisenhower fought a rumor that they were bringing psychic Jean Dixon into the White House for advice.
• Other first ladies who were interested in visionaries, psychics, mediums, astrologers, and human potential advocates included the wives of Ulysses S. Grant, John Tyler, Woodrow Wilson, and Warren G. Harding.

The fact then that OSTP files hint that Hillary Clinton continued the trend of interest in UFOs by first ladies should come as no surprise. These OSTP references, along with other public UFO statements, show that Hillary led all First Ladies in her strong interest in UFOs and other paranormal areas of study.

At times Hillary’s interest in UFOs appeared to be one of quiet support or curiosity. In May 1995 Hillary was asked to present a lecture at a conference, sponsored by Hillary’s friend Laurance Rockefeller, which dealt with the impact of possible future extraterrestrial contact. Patti Solis, Director of Scheduling for the First Lady wrote, "Mrs. Clinton’s official schedule will not permit her to accept the invitation." Hillary may have been interested in UFOs, but a public speech on the topic was a bit too much of an "outing."

The Clintons Get Briefed

The month of August is a hot steamy month in the nations capitol. It is the usual time for the President to escape the heat of the city and the heat of the many congressional skirmishes.

The month of August 1995 would be hotter than most Presidential Augusts in history. As well as ultimately being the month when the first family would get a briefing on UFOs from Laurance Rockefeller, it was the month of Monica Lewinsky. It would be the start of the end of the Clinton presidency.

Monica Lewinsky had worked at the White House, first as an intern, and then as an employee, from July 1995 to April 1996. The month of August 1995, was the month that Monica Lewinsky characterized to investigators as the month when she began "intense flirting" with the President.

On August 10th, Monica appeared in a green dress and flirted with the President at a birthday party that was being held for Bill Clinton by staff in the White House. On August 14, at a departure ceremony for the departing President, Monica was again there to wish the President good-bye. Days later, the President would be at the Rockefeller Ranch in Wyoming listening to a pitch for the reality of visiting extraterrestrials.

The first clear indication that Hillary was to play an active role in the UFO policy inside the Clinton White House came when a story was published by the New York Post that Bill and Hillary Clinton had been briefed on the UFO subject, in August 1995, while the first family was on vacation at the Rockefeller Teton Ranch outside of Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

This briefing was not done by the CIA or any other government agency. It was done by the then 85-year-old billionaire philanthropist and Clinton friend Laurance Rockefeller. With both Clintons in attendance, he presented an oral briefing designed to present the best evidence for UFOs, and his reasoning why all UFO documents should be declassified.

The UFO briefing was done during the Clintons’ scheduled seventeen day holiday. The Clintons were staying at the 8000 sq. ft. Villa (known as the JY ranch) of Laurance’s nephew West Virginia Senator John D. Rockefeller located at the south end of the Teton National Park.

As reported by Dick Farley, the CIA had attempted to "shield" Clinton from the people like Rockefeller and Greer who were trying to enlighten the President about UFOs. For that reason Rockefeller chose to do the briefing away from the White House where the CIA would have less control, and less ability to block his UFO efforts. The Wyoming vacation presented the prime opportunity as few of Clinton’s top people were at the ranch during the vacation period. The only one known to have been there was Erskine Bowles who arrived the morning of the briefing. Even press secretary Mike McCurry was on holidays. The assistant press secretary Ginny Terzano was holding down the fort.

The UFO briefing occurred due to a combination of Rockefeller’s power and determination to bring the problem of UFO secrecy to the President. It was also aided by the President’s interest in UFOs and frustration at not being able to find out what was going on. The President was ready to hear the story and Rockefeller was ready to tell it. It would be the first of what Richard Farley called "several direct contacts" between Rockefeller and Clinton away from the White House.

Moreover, Rockefeller had become tired at what he considered the continued cover-up surrounding UFOs, and the effort by those surrounding Clinton to shield the President from his UFO Initiative. Rockefeller’s was determined to play hardball to get the ear of the President. This was evidenced by a pressure tactic that the White House handlers learned about just prior to the UFO briefing given to Bill and Hillary in Wyoming.

During the first UFO briefing given to Clinton’s Science Advisor in March 1993, Laurance Rockefeller had discussed the possibility of a public campaign in major U.S. newspapers to "encourage the President to change the policy of secrecy silence and disinformation he inherited concerning the UFO phenomena."

As Rockefeller’s campaign for Disclosure proceeded, Rockefeller held back on using the intensive pressure he had warned about in the first briefing with Clinton’s Science Advisor. At a private meeting in Georgetown in late 1993, Dr. Steven Greer questioned Rockefeller about why he wasn’t "intensifying the pressure." Rockefeller responded that he was limited because the rest of the Rockefeller family was not in favor of what he was doing.

In August 1995, as Rockefeller was preparing his briefing for President Clinton things had changed. The soft sell approach was not working. Rockefeller decided to tighten the screws to let others (those blocking his UFO Initiative in the CIA and White House) know he meant business.

It may have been this pressure that finally led to the White House handlers to allow the Rockefeller UFO show and tell session. In one of the documents found in Clinton OSTP files there is a letter where C.B. Scott Jones outlined the threat to Clinton’s Science Advisor.

"Several layouts of full page ads have been drafted. One that I like is attached to this letter. Timing of such a media strategy depends upon what the White House does or does not do. If needed, it certainly would not be delayed much before the presidential campaign media blitz starts."

Attached to the letter Jones attached one of the proposed ads that Rockefeller was proposing to place in The News York Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times and others.

Mr. President

On the subject of UFO Phenomena -

What Do You Know. When Did You Learn It?

Have you Shared it With Congress?

When Will You Talk To The American People About It?

The Subject is as Important as any We Will

Ever Face. Don’t try to go it Alone.

This Information Belongs to the World.

Although some around President Clinton seemed determined to exclude UFOs from the presidential list of "things to do," Clinton himself, had always exhibited a strong interest in the subject of UFOs.

In many of his public speeches he mentioned UFOs or joked about them. One example was when he commented quite positively over the 1996 alien invasion movie "Independence Day." The movie had been screened for Bill and Hillary Clinton in the White House on July 6 by Bill Pullman who played the president in the movie, along with director Roland Emmerich and producer Dean Devlin.

Not only did he talk openly about the movie with reporter Tom Brokaw, he even found a moral in the fictional alien story of aliens attacking the earth. That moral Clinton attached to his comment was exactly the same one former President Reagan had attached to his alien invasion comments made between 1985 and 1987.

"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.. .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."

Clinton’s UFO interest would have meant that he fully welcomed Rockefeller’s UFO briefing as part of his vacation. It was a matter of action and policy which Clinton loved, even on holidays. Holidays were things that Clinton hated. Vacation represented inaction and being cut off from the people. He usually didn’t sleep well on holidays, and was usually in a bad mood.

Nothing, however, was put out by the White House Press Office which indicated UFOs were on the vacation agenda. This was undoubtedly because it was not an item high in the polls, and the possible damage that might occur by announcing the meeting could not be justified by the few votes that might be gained.

The press did not make any mention of the UFO briefing, perhaps because they were sidetracked by another story that had run in the local paper. Rumors circulated among the reporters, the day after Clinton arrived at the Rockefeller Ranch, that Barbra Streisand was in Jackson Hole, and might have had supper with the President.

Such as story was an addictive high for reporters. Streisand had stayed over night at the White House in 1993, at the same time that Hillary at been at her father’s deathbed in Little Rock. When she returned home, Hillary had reportedly banned Streisand from the White House when she was out of town. The possibility that Clinton and Streisand had dined together was the main story at the August 18, 1995 news conference.

What might not be known in the public mind is that even the President’s vacation is part of the constant search for votes. In August 1995 Clinton was behind in the polls to Bob Dole, and every public move on the vacation was carefully orchestrated to attract votes. He was encouraged, for example, not to hunt because Dole already had these voters. The same went for golfing which greatly upset Clinton. Items such as baseball, hiking, and camping were identified as swing voter areas of interest. It then comes as no surprise to see that Bill and Hillary went hiking and camping during the vacation. Clinton, frustrated at the idea golfers would be for Dole, asked if golfing would be OK if he wore a baseball hat.

The President’s statement to the press was that he intended to rest, and play some golf. The assistant Press Secretary stated nothing more than "I think you can expect them to go out and have fun. It’s a vacation."

Behind the scenes, however, the planned UFO briefing had been ready for weeks. Dr. Steven Greer was one of the people who had provided Rockefeller with material that would be used in the briefing. Days before Clinton left for his vacation Greer wrote James Dorskind, Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of Presidential Correspondence, informing him that he and his group would be available to help with the Presidential UFO briefing should there be problems.

"At Mr. Rockefeller’s request, I have conveyed to him a package of evidence, assessments and other documents to share with the President. Please know that I am available to answer any questions regarding this evidence or the subject in general, and I am willing to come to the YK Ranch on very short notice, should this be helpful to the President or his staff. Be assured that our entire network of scientists, astronauts and researchers are at your service."

Clinton’s Science Advisor, Jack Gibbons, wrote a memorandum to President Clinton attempting to prepare the President for the Rockefeller briefing. He titled it "Inquiry from Laurance Rockefeller." It was a memo in which Gibbons indirectly tried to tell the President that the briefing would be a waste of time. He wrote that he and his staff had already been down the UFO road with Rockefeller and that there was no evidence to support Rockefeller’s concerns. He wrote,

"You will probably see Mr. Rockefeller on your vacation in the Tetons. He will want to talk to you about his interests in extrasensory perception, paranormal phenomena, and UFOs. His interests are related to those of Senator Pell."

"A second rubric for Rockefeller’s interest is what is called ‘human potential’ research. The extreme examples usually involve precognition, super-human strength, endurance in life saving roles, telepathy, and others. Senator Pell and others have supported the funding of research in social science to focus more on these phenomena."

When the UFO briefing actually took place is not certain, but it occurred before or after the 49th birthday party given for the President at the home of World Bank President James Wolfensohn near the Rockefeller Ranch, on the evening of the August 19.

Some like C. B. Scott Jones, who had been involved with Rockefeller in the first UFO briefing given to a member of the Clinton administration, was not too certain that the White House would ever let the briefing take place. On August 23, 1995, he wrote to Jack Gibbons trying to find out what had happened.

"Mr. Rockefeller was a guest at the President’s birthday party a few days ago in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. I hope he had an opportunity to talk to the President about this subject. It would be comforting to know for sure that the President is not being shielded by the White House staff on this subject."

As Dr. Greer had been providing material for the briefing, and was corresponding with Dorskind at the White House, this author asked Greer at the 2000 Spring Laughlin World UFO Congress what the President’s reaction had been to the Rockefeller presentation. Greer stated

"Bill Clinton’s reaction was that he had asked Webster Hubbell to look into this. Webster Hubbell asked NORAD, and asked if there was anything to it. They said no...Clinton was not in put into the loop contrary to what you might have heard on this, and Carter was largely left out. He knew a little, but he was not allowed to really get briefed. Reagan knew more, and Bush knew more.

According to researcher and author Whitley Strieber, Rockefeller confirmed to him that both Bill and Hillary had appeared when he discussed his hope that the Clinton White House would bring UFO disclosure.

"He spoke of a time he had spent with President and Mrs. Clinton at his JY Ranch in the Grand Tetons in 1995, where he had outlined for them the contents of a briefing that had been developed out of Project Starlight, the 1993 Rockefeller-funded program that evolved into today’s Disclosure Project. He said that the Clintons had not commented on the information until the next morning, when, before the President appeared, Mrs. Clinton requested to Mr. Rockefeller that he not bring the subject up again."

It should be noted that no matter what happened regarding UFOs at the JY Ranch - it was not a "briefing" in the classic government sense. An official briefing is never done on a one-on-one basis. A briefing is a concise review of a subject for an official by someone who is an government expert in the field - not a civilian. This technical point also holds true for the Greer-Woosley encounter in December 1993 which was also described by many accounts as a briefing.

In addition to Hillary being included in the Rockefeller briefing given to Bill Clinton during the 1995 vacation, the Clinton OSTP files give another hint at the key involvement by Hillary in the Rockefeller UFO Initiative.

As mentioned before, for a period of three years Rockefeller worked on a letter to be sent to the President on the UFO subject. Although not explicitly stated in the OSTP files, it appeared that Rockefeller had been discouraged from sending the letter to the President it by Jack Gibbons.

On November 1, 1995, Rockefeller’s lawyer Henry L. Diamond sent Jack Gibbons the latest version of Rockefeller letter to the President. As had happened before Diamond proposed that it was time the President saw the letter. "Laurance thinks," wrote Diamond, "it is perhaps timely to send a letter to the President."

More important than the fact that Rockefeller was again threatening a direct UFO letter to the President, is the fact that Diamond announced to Gibbons the identity of the person who had helped in the drafting of the Presidential letter. The people helping Rockefeller with the UFO letter were none other than Hillary Clinton and her staff.

"Attached are," wrote Diamond, "a draft letter to the President which Laurance has been discussing with Mrs. Clinton and her staff." The draft of the Hillary aided November 1995 letter to the President read as follows:

Draft

Dear President Clinton,

Re: Lifting Secrecy on Information About

Extraterrestrial Intelligence as Part

of the Current Classification review

For some time in connection with my concern for human values, I have been interested in the enhancement of spirituality and holistic healing as well as the development of a new paradigm of consciousness. This involves an appreciation of the close relationship between science and religion and the wisdom of approaching them together rather than separately.

As result of extensive conversations with researchers in these areas, as well as my own informal study, I have come to believe that the question of life elsewhere in the cosmos is of paramount importance. Your initiative in bringing greater openness to government through the current review of the classification of government documents to eliminate unnecessary secrecy, offers an extraordinary opportunity to advance our knowledge of this question.

This letter is to request, that, as part of this reassessment, you personally and specifically direct a review of current government information policy concerning Extraterrestrial Intelligence (ETI), including Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs). It is widely believed that various information concerning the existence of non - existence of UFOs, and that it has been unnecessarily withheld from the public as classified for reasons of national security. If this information were released, it would be received as evidence of a new spirit of partnership between government and its citizens.

The current classification review is a good step. However, Mr. President, from past experience there is every reason to believe that without your personal initiative available information of ETI and UFOs will not be released in a meaningful way. This is to urge you to expand and accelerate the important movement towards openness you have initiated. We would like to suggest the following steps:

1. Direct that information about ETI and UFOs be given priority in the current classification review.

2. Appoint a coordinator for government information about ETI and UFOs to bring together information from all federal agencies involved, such as the Department of Defense, the Air Force, NASA, the CIA and other parts of the intelligence community. Your Science Advisor, Jack Gibbons, might well be the right person for this role.

3. Make it known through federal agencies, such as those named above, that anyone having information about ETI or UFOs will be granted amnesty from relevant oaths or other government constraints.

These steps, I respectfully suggest, would further not only be the cause of scientific inquiry and knowledge, but also that of public confidence in government and international good will. The timing is particularly propitious because, as our first post-Cold war President, you have an opportunity to take this important step without many of the national security constraints that have limited government candor with the American people in the past.

As an interested and concerned citizen, I stand ready to assist in whatever I can do that you might find useful.

Sincerely

Laurance S. Rockefeller

A February 5, 1996-letter from Rockefeller to Clinton’s Science Advisor gave further indication about just how involved Hillary was in the UFO process. This process involved getting the critical UFO information to the President, so he in turn could initiate UFO disclosure. As a part of this effort to gather information, Science Advisor Gibbons had offered to "approach the Air Force, the Central Intelligence Agency and NASA on this project." The information gathered would be presented to Rockefeller, and if need be the President. In addition Rockefeller wrote of the effort to gather UFO information from the various agencies, "You indicated that you will keep the First Lady’s Office informed, and we shall as well."

Further details about Hillary Clinton’s connection to the White House UFO Initiative came from Dan Smith. Smith is a researcher and was a regular contact of CIA scientist Dr. Ronald Pandolfi. Pandolfi, as mentioned before, was the CIA agent called in by the Clinton White House to provide information on UFOs when Rockefeller made his first approach to the White House.. Smith spoke of Pandolfi’s UFO role in the White House, and his ties to Hillary.

"Ron's job relative to the Clintons was to prevent Hillary from trying to find out who Jim Woolsey's (CIA Director) sources were, since they would have had to know the real story in order explain to Jim why George Bush, Sr. should not be given the content of it. Hillary was trying and is still trying to get back to the horse's mouth. Exactly what her motives are, are not clear to me."

The final connection between Hillary and the Rockefeller UFO Initiative is also the strangest. In 1996 and 1997 Hillary took a lot of negative press about her new age occult leaning. She was tied to new age writer Marianne Williamson, who some described as a "Jewish charismatic spiritualist," and yogi to the stars Ken Scott Nateshvar.

Then a couple months after Hillary helped edit the Rockefeller UFO letter to the President, Hillary’s name became tied to the Director of the Foundation for Mind Research Jean Houston. Houston was described by some as a "New Age" author who "studied psychic experiences and mystical connections to historical figures and other worlds." When the story of the Houston connection became public Houston became known as Hillary Clinton’s "Eleanor Roosevelt Conduit."

According to a book "The Choice" by Bob Woodward, Hillary met from late 1994 till March 1996 with Houston. In the Woodward account, Houston led the First Lady through "imaginary conversations" with her hero Eleanor Roosevelt and also with Mahatma Ghandi. Hillary turned down Houston’s suggestion she talk with Jesus.

Houston was one of a group of New Age style authors who were invited to Camp David on the last weekend of 1994 to help Bill and Hillary work through "the traumas of their first two years in Washington." As well as spending a weekend at Camp David, Houston spent the night at the White House on a number of occasions.

Hillary found the advise of Jean Houston to be the most meaningful of the group of new Age advisors. Maggie Williams, Hillary’s Chief of Staff during the first term, "came to speak of Hillary’s mood brightening on the days when she got her ‘Jean fix.’"

When the story broke Hillary Clinton’s office put out a statement denying that the First Lady was participating in a séance. Houston herself, put out a statement that she was not a psychic. The sessions with Roosevelt and Ghandi were described as "brainstorming" sessions "visualizing" what Eleanor Roosevelt "might have said." The statement read in part,

"While I have had a number of conversations with Jean Houston, it is not true that she is my spiritual advisor... During the hours of free-wheeling discussion, Jean Houston suggested that I imagine a conversation with Eleanor Roosevelt, who grappled with the difficult social issues of her day. This was an interesting intellectual exercise to help spark my own thoughts; it was a brainstorming session for my book - - not a spiritual event... And I do wonder what Eleanor Roosevelt might think of all this."

Despite the denial, Hillary’s actions kept people wondering just how imaginary Hillary was viewing her Eleanor Roosevelt connection. Twice in the second term of her husband’s administration, Hillary made a pilgrimage to Eleanor’s cottage home that had been restored in Hyde Park, New York. During the second visit, Hillary spoke of the controversial conversations with Eleanor. "I meant it as a metaphor, but it became, yet again, one of those things people all talked about, I guess sort of suggesting I really had gone off the deep end." She ended her speech to the staff at the home with a smile, "The next time I talk to her, I will tell her all about what you are doing."

The second visit to the Roosevelt home came during Hillary’s run for the New York senate seat. Perhaps, not surprisingly, years earlier Eleanor Roosevelt had also been offered a chance to run for the Senate in New York. She turned down the opportunity. Eleanor’s offer had come from top aide to President Franklin Roosevelt, Harold L. Ickes. When Hillary Clinton decided to run, who did she pick as her top political advisor for the campaign? None other than Harold L. Ickes son, Harold M. Ickes.

Not surprisingly, the press immediately started the make comparisons between Hillary and former First Lady Nancy Reagan who paid $3,000 a month to an astrologer for guiding her husband to run the country. Neil Lattimore, Hillary’s Chief of staff immediately moved to end that connection,

"If you want to compare Mrs. Clinton to Nancy Reagan, the only person Mrs. Clinton has been channeling is her TV, and I can assure you she was not tuned into the Psychic Friends...this is not a mystic. This is not channeling."

The importance of Jean Houston’s role in the UFO picture came in a fax sent from Rockefeller’s lawyer, Henry Diamond, to Jack Gibbons dated June 6, 1996. This was the same time frame when Hillary and Jean Houston were meeting to talk to Eleanor Roosevelt, and the same time frame when Rockefeller was meeting with Hillary to discuss his UFO strategy.

The fax sent by Diamond was a confirmation that Diamond, Laurance Rockefeller, and Laurance’s senior person in New York, Wes Frye, would be meeting with Gibbons the next day- June 7. In the fax Diamond thanked Gibbons for the meeting, and told the President’s Science Advisor that the subject Rockefeller wanted to discuss during the meeting was Hillary’s friend Jean Houston. Attached to the fax was an earlier letter from Houston to Rockefeller outlining her views on UFOs and Rockefeller’s effort to effect disclosure UFO disclosure in the White House.

"Thank-you for sending me the documentation concerning Unidentified Flying Objects...It has long been our position that the truth of this matter should be made known. Our feeling is that the likely effects would be more positive than negative...So, Mr. Rockefeller, we congratulate you on your part in making this very formidable and readable presentation of a very important subject. How does one go about using it to break through decades of stonewalling and denial and get the veil lifted? We would certainly be pleased to play a part in bringing about that end. Let me invite you to come and visit us and we would certainly look forward to discussing the UFO problem as well as other matters of mutual interest."

The Houston to Rockefeller letter was dated March 18, 1996. Houston invited Rockefeller to meet with her at her home just outside of New York in April. The meeting undoubtedly took place and by June Rockefeller thought Jean Houston important enough to arrange a special meeting in Washington with Gibbons. Hillary’s input and UFO connection to Houston during this critical period have not yet been made public. The two were, according to Hillary, meeting on a number of occasions during this period.

The prominent role of Hillary in the Rockefeller UFO Initiative should not come as any surprise when all her public actions regarding the UFO subject are viewed. Hillary time and again spoke of UFOs, UFO sightings, and the concept of the "alien invasion," in her speeches, and in her statements to the press.

As far back as Bill Clinton’s campaign to win the nomination for the Democratic party in 1992, Hillary was already talking publically about UFOs. In reply to the womanizing accusations being raised in the media associated with Jennifer Flowers, the Washington Post said this of Hillary:

"Hillary Clinton was key in helping Clinton, then campaigning for the Democratic nomination, fending off Flower’s allegations, calling them as "trash for cash" and likening the rumors about Clinton’s sex life to UFO sightings."

There were many references to UFOs in Hillary Clinton’s speeches. A prime example was April 1997, during the days when Steven Greer was in Washington doing a special UFO briefing for members of Congress. Hillary appeared on the local Washington Diane Rehm show, where she 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 circulating in the press.

In her reply Hillary took a direct shot at Congressman Dan Burton who was known as "a one-stop shop for Clinton haters," and whose committee had just issued 17 subpoenas, directed at the hiring of Webster Hubbell by the White House.

Copyright 2002 Steve Sack, Minneapolis Star Tribune

Hillary knew that Dan Burton was very interested in UFOs, and that he had one of his top people at the Greer briefing. Tying together Burton’s strong interest in UFOs and Whitewater, Hillary shot back at Burton, "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."

A second example of Hillary’s UFO talk came on October 13, 1998, at Spanish Hall, Prague Castle in The Czech Republic. During this speech Hillary raised the "alien invasion" scenario, a concept first used by President Reagan, and repeated often by her husband Bill. 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... "

Again 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.)"

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."

Hillary delivered yet another "alien invasion" remark at the Mars Millennium Project kick-off held at the National Air & Space Museum in Washington. She spoke of modern movie themes, alien invasion ideas, and a positive future.

"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."

Even during Hillary’s campaign for Senator in New York, the subject of aliens was not far from the Clinton family mind. In a fund-raising speech for Hillary’s Senate campaign, Clinton President accused New York City Mayor Rudolph 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."

As we look together towards the 2004 Presidential election, there is a possibility of Hillary Clinton running for President. After all, Hillary has had people asking her to run since she was in high school. One of the her campaign insiders in her 2000 Senatorial race stated, "If Gore loses next year, then it’s Hillary in 2004."

Asked if she would consider running in the future Hillary said, "We’ll talk later." When President Clinton was asked about the possibility he stated, "Oh, She’d be great at it, but I don’t think she would ever run - not in a hundred years. She is not interested in being elected to office and she has always said that publically."

Betsy Wright who had been Bill Clinton’s chief of Staff while he was governor of Arkansas, and also the "bimbo-eruption" firefighter during the 1992 Presidential campaign, also had an opinion on Hillary’s presidential chances. She was approached by Bill Clinton prior to running to President to ask her opinion about his possible candidacy.

Knowing that Bill Clinton might have a Gary Hart image problem with women, Betsy got Bill to write down all the women he had been with and when. When Bill provided her the list she advised him not to run. She did, however, encourage Hillary to run thinking she could win.

Considering a Presidential race would not be the first time that Hillary has thought of succeeding her husband. In 1990, according to what Webster Hubbell wrote in his 1997 book, Hillary seriously talked of running to succeed her husband as Arkansas governor when Bill Clinton seemed bored with the job.

Laurance Rockefeller worked hard to get the gospel of UFOs to Bill and Hillary Clinton during the two terms of Bill Clinton’s presidency. His efforts had limited success, despite the large amount of effort he put into it.

In light of this apparent failure, it is interesting to note one particular event that occurred while Hillary was campaigning for New York Senator. The event showed that if Hillary became President, perhaps the work done to reveal the truth about UFOs by Rockefeller might yet come to fruition under a second Clinton presidency.

The event occurred following a May 4, 2000 speech that Hillary gave at the Clinton Community College. Among the many people there to hear Hillary speak was Robert Williams, an instructor at the college. Williams interest was the anomalies on the Martian surface which

some believe indicate the existence of extraterrestrial life. He came to the lecture hoping to talk to Hillary about pictures, taken by the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft that went into orbit around Mars in 1997. Williams believed that these photos were being withheld by NASA.

Williams was able to get into the presentation line following the speech. He was wearing a tee-shirt with the famous Mars face on it. Below the face on the tee-shirt it said, "Face the Facts."

As Hillary shook Robert’s hand he said to her, "It is an honorable pleasure to meet and ask you to help in your present capacity to see all the Mars images taken by the Global Surveyor spacecraft be released within the 6 month NASA policy."

Hillary asked, "What’s the problem?"

Williams replied, "All images are to be released after 6 months and NASA and MSSS are not releasing these images as required by their own rules and contacts. We’ve lost two spacecraft and I believe the public has a right to ask NASA to release all the images from the working spacecraft around Mars in accordance with their own stated policy."

Hillary stated, "No one has ever asked me about Mars before. Give (she named her assistant) your information and we’ll look into it."

Hillary told the assistant to get Williams’ information and questions. She then moved down the reception line. Williams wrote down his contact information and the message "Release all Mars information now."

The next day while Williams was doing his normal search of the Mars Global Surveyor MOC data site. What he found was the first new CDs of Mars image data in five months.

Less than 36 hours after talking to Hillary Clinton the withheld NASA images had been released. Williams was firmly convinced that it was Hillary who had helped to shake the images loose. Perhaps this is a telling indication that it might be a woman who finally makes the final disclosure about the extraterrestrials to the world? Time will tell.

"Our goal is to have elected officials decide what is secret and what is not because now the bureaucrats keep all the secrets. They don’t even keep the Congress and President informed." Mrs. Galbraith editor/author of Best Available Evidence Briefing Document.

"Knowledgeable and sincere civilians around the world must come together to collect the best evidence on this subject, and then educate world leaders, leaders in society, and our fellow humans." Steven Greer outlines title, strategy, and concept of Best Available Evidence May 1994.

The Setting

As the year 1995 began, Laurance Rockefeller and his partner in the White House UFO Disclosure Initiative, Scott Jones, arrived at the opinion that the Clinton administration might actually be making some moves to try and end the secrecy surrounding the UFO subject. "There is some shadowy evidence," Jones wrote to Gibbons in February 1995, "that the administration is in the process of modifying the government’s policy concerning secrecy and denial about the UFO phenomena."

Jones noted, however, that the White House didn’t appear prepared to share that game plan with them. "It appears," Jones wrote Gibbons, "after Laurance’s last meeting with you that we are not going to get feedback from our attempts to get the White House to open the books on this subject. Neither Laurance nor I need any encouragement or credit for what we have been trying to accomplish. We have done what we thought was reasonable and needed."

At exactly the same time this letter was being written to the President’s science advisor by Rockefeller’s partner on the White House Disclosure Initiative, Rockefeller began financing another UFO effort that he believed was reasonable and needed. This effort involved producing a briefing document that would produce an overview of the evidence surrounding the UFO phenomena. That briefing document could then be used to educate readers why all the collected UFO evidence should be studied rather than ignored.

The audience for the briefing document would not be just the President’s Science Advisor as it had been during the initial UFO disclosure initiative. Rockefeller decided this time to try and influence a wider audience of people who could hopefully help to end the government secrecy surrounding UFOs. The audience Rockefeller figured could help included Congressmen, Senators, United Nations officials, religious leaders, and other top VIPs. The briefing document Rockefeller chose for this task would become known as the "Best Available Evidence: Unidentified Flying Object Briefing Document." Because Rockefeller financed the entire project, the briefing report is most commonly called "The Rockefeller UFO Report."

The Best Available Evidence Briefing Document: Rockefeller Report

On February 5, 1996, Laurance Rockefeller wrote a letter to Jack Gibbons thanking him for what he called "the very productive phone call last week." In the same letter, Rockefeller promised to provide Gibbons with a copy of a UFO briefing report titled Unidentified Flying Objects: The Best Available Evidence (BAE). Rockefeller wrote that he would be very interested in Gibbons’ reaction to the material contained in the report.

A few weeks later, on February 29, Rockefeller wrote Gibbons again. To his letter, Rockefeller attached a 27-page Executive Summary of the Unidentified Flying Object Briefing Document: Best Available Evidence. Along with the Executive Summary, Rockefeller provided Gibbons with his assessment of the report he had financed,

"While I do not necessarily agree with every finding and conclusion, I do believe that the evidence presented indicates that this subject merits serious scientific study. Toward that end, I hope that our government, other governments, and the United Nations will cooperate in making any information they may have available."

The Executive Summary was not the only report funded by Rockefeller. There were actually three different Best Available Evidence briefing documents produced for Rockefeller.

November 1995 - a 129-page draft of Unidentified Flying Objects: The Best Available Evidence was printed and sent to various people around the world for comments and suggestions. A copy of this was found in the OSTP files. It was probably provided by Laurance Rockefeller.

December 1995 - UFORC Committee Chairman Richard Hall writes a 27-page Unidentified Flying Objects: The Best Available Evidence-Executive Summary. A copy of this was mailed to OSTP in February 1996 by Rockefeller and is found in the files.

December 1995 released February 1996 - The final 169-page Unidentified Flying Objects: The Best Available Evidence is published. There is no copy of this in the OSTP files.

The financing of the Best Available Evidence report was also only one in a whole series of UFO research efforts that Rockefeller had financed in the early nineties. He had been a constant source of what researchers referred to as "Rockeybucks," i.e., money spent by Rockefeller to get to the bottom of the UFO mystery.

During this period, in the early nineties, many researchers made research proposals to Rockefeller, and were provided funds. In January 1994, for example, funds were provided for Steven Greer to fund his Project Starlight. Greer wanted $1.2 million, and was given $20,000.

The money for these UFO-funded projects was funneled through the Scott Jones’ Human Potential Foundation. The Human Potential Foundation itself received almost all its funding from Rockefeller, and that funding lasted from mid-1991 until mid-1994.

Another project included Rockefeller putting up $10,000 in 1993 to stop the "Journal for Scientific Investigation" from going under. The financially strapped journal often published UFO articles by mainstream scientists.

From 1993-95, Rockefeller funded the alien abduction research of Dr. John Mack’s Center for Psychology and Social Change at Harvard University. Dick Farley, who was named the liaison for the Rockefeller funding, placed the level of funding at $194,000. Later, when Harvard University decided it planned to censure Dr. Mack for his pro-abduction research, Rockefeller stepped in to finance the legal defense of Mack in front of the Harvard review board. Prominent Christic Institute lawyer Daniel Sheehan was hired, which resulted in the Harvard review board quickly withdrawing the charges.

Finally, in May 1995, Rockefeller financed a conference "When Cosmic Cultures Meet". It was organized and run by Scott Jones. Jones invited both Bill and Hillary Clinton to the conference described as, "The first conference devoted to a serious consideration of what should transpire in the initial formal meeting of humans and another cosmic culture."

The Best Available Evidence document was another in the list of UFO projects Rockefeller had chosen to finance. According to Marie Galbraith, who oversaw the Best Available Evidence project for Laurance Rockefeller, the BAE project was set up to produce a briefing document that could be used to brief important people in governments worldwide.

Galbraith saw it as a failsafe for the pinpointed "important people," so they would not be caught unaware should there be a sudden disclosure of the reality of UFOs. "It is like your children are going to announce their engagement and they haven’t even told their mommies and daddies," said Galbraith, "and then their mommies and daddies read about it in the newspaper. They would be upset wouldn’t they?"

Don Berliner, identified as the key author of the BAE briefing, expressed the same sentiment for those whom the document was intended for. "We're only giving it to really top people not ordinary people like you and me," Berliner said. " I guess the only reason I have a copy is I wrote the thing."

Despite the fact that the restricted printing of 1,000 copies of the final BAE was intended only for the top people in government, a review of the collection of 991 pages of documents released by Gibbons’ OSTP office, shows that there is no record of the report in the files. This would mean that the 169-page final report was never provided to the President’s Science Advisor, or that the report was lost or removed on purpose.

As Gibbons was the main link to the President on UFOs for Rockefeller, it means that the President also may not have seen the report that Rockefeller financed for VIPs like the President. To help establish if the President did or did not receive a copy of the report, members of the committee that produced the report were asked. Most could not provide much help, admitting that they did not know for sure who had received the 1,000 copies produced. One member of the committee, when asked who in the White House was sent a copy of the final 169-page BAE document responded, "none of anyone’s business."

One of the co-authors of the BAE, Antonio Huneeus, found the fact that the BAE was not found in the OSTP files puzzling. "I am sure a copy was sent to Gibbons," said Huneeus. "I remember seeing that Marie Galbraith was very exact in how she did things. She had these lists of the different people that were receiving this thing. I do remember seeing Gibbons’ name."

What the OSTP files did have besides the short Executive Summary sent to Gibbons by Rockefeller in February 1996, was the November 1995 preliminary draft of Best Available Evidence. This 129-page version of the paper was the initial draft report that had been written for the committee by Don Berliner. Copies of it had been sent around the world for comment and correction.

There were no comments or corrections made by Gibbons or his staff on the preliminary BAE draft found in the OSTP files. There was, however, a handwritten note from Gibbons to Rockefeller’s lawyer dated March 5, 1996, in which Gibbons claimed he had received a copy of "the UFO document briefing document by Don Berliner." In reality, Gibbons had only received the 27-page executive summary written by Dick Hall that was attached to the February 29 letter. Gibbons stated, "I will pursue it before sending a communication in response to Laurance’s letter of February 29." No such communication to Rockefeller was found in the OSTP files.

The BAE report was referred to by Rockefeller as the "Bootsie Report," named after the woman who was coordinating the writing, and distribution -Marie "Bootsie" Galbraith, wife of Evan Galbraith, investment banker and former Ambassador to France. The report is often referred to as the Rockefeller Report, because Rockefeller put up the money to produce the report.

Galbraith had been brought onto the Rockefeller UFO team as a replacement for Dr. Scott Jones, whose funding ended in mid-1994. "Galbraith was kind of a replacement for Jones. That’s correct," replied co-author Antonio Huneeus, when asked about the hiring of Galbraith. " They were unhappy with Jones, for whatever reasons, I don’t know. Basically Rockefeller had a three-year contract with Jones for funding of Jones. When that expired, the money that would have gone to renew Jones contact went to Marie Galbraith and our project."

The BAE report was written (during the period February 1995 to February 1996) out of an office on Madison Avenue supplied by Sandy Wright, and paid for by Laurance Rockefeller. The original preliminary draft of BAE was written by aviation writer Don Berliner. He was not involved with the later stages of the documents creation. In preparation for the writing of the final draft, Galbraith and Wright interviewed and then hired Fate magazine UFO columnist Antonio Huneeus. The original idea had Huneeus only lending his assistance with the writing and editing, but which led to his far greater involvement.

"I ended up doing almost half of the book, because they weren’t too satisfied with the Berliner draft. They were happy with the general concept, but they though that it needed to be considerably improved, or modernized. The first draft read too much like an old NICAP document. It needed more international cases. Initially I was just brought in to edit it, and as I read the thing, I made a list of suggestions. They practically approved all of them. That’s when we added all the international cases - the Spanish cases. The French cases and so on were in the Berliner document, but the problem is that he had used secondary sources. Berliner had used say articles on the Belgium wave, and he had used an article by Bob Pratt in the MUFON journal at the beginning of the wave, because he doesn’t read French. I do. I had the two volumes. So although some of those things were in the original document they were completely rewritten by me."

The case selection and writing of the report were coordinated by Marie Galbraith. Even though Rockefeller financed it, he had no input into selection of writing. " The idea was basically that it was in the hands of Marie Galbraith," Huneeus recalled. "To my knowledge, Rockefeller never even suggested that ‘Oh, you should include this thing or not that thing.’"

For Galbraith the BAE required a full-time commitment. Huneeus, who used Sandy Wright’s desk, sat across from Galbraith, and later described her efforts for Rockefeller:

"I soon realized that it was actually Galbraith who was the executive producer of this thing. Sandy was almost never there. Marie Galbraith was there every day. It was like 9-5 or something... Marie Galbraith had to approve everything that I did. She would read everything. That’s why, at the end, her name was not supposed to appear as a co-author. She did not really write a great deal in terms of actual writing, but she must have proofread and edited and digested it so many times. Every single page was approved by her up to the last comma. In the end, she decided that she wanted her name there as a co-author.

Sandra Wright, a wealthy New Yorker whose interests included shamanism, subtle sciences, and the principles of Noetic (psi) sciences, allowed her non-profit BSW Foundation to be used "as an umbrella under which all the work could be done." Wright and Galbraith had been close friends prior to the start of the project.

According to Rockefeller’s spokesman Fraser Seitel, Rockefeller put up $30,000 (FUFOR used the figure $50,000) to produce the report, but did not endorse the findings. "He is interested in Government disclosure of reported activities in this area," said Seitel. "Laurance's feeling is that he is not convinced one way or the other. But he is interested in learning what the Government has on file... He's really quite an eclectic person."

The BAE contained nothing that could be considered new and explosive. It contained no new sightings, or disclosures, but rather a review of some of the more dramatic documented UFO sightings and incidents that had occurred since 1947. The cases chosen were all non-controversial. Therefore, cases like those describing abduction by aliens were not included, "Abductions were left out because we wanted to deal with official evidence," said Huneeus, "and the more official sounding evidence, and the more scientific evidence, the more solid facts. Abductions just get too controversial, and it is complex, and that was left out too." Cattle mutilations, and UFO contactee material suffered from the same problems as abduction cases, and thus met the same fate.

The BAE was written up like a first year textbook. It was designed to acquaint those, whom it was written to brief, with information that the UFO phenomenon involved many sightings, was worldwide, and was supported through well-investigated evidence.

The BAE has often been compared to "The UFO Evidence" that was written in 1964 by the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP), under the editorship of Dick Hall. The 1964 NICAP review of the UFO evidence included 700 UFO cases. Hall, who had headed up the 1964 report, not surprisingly, was chosen to head up the UFORC group.

The material used for the report was reportedly provided through a rare combined effort of the three main UFO organizations. (Fund for UFO Research, MUFON, and Center for UFO Studies). The group called itself the UFO Research Coalition. (UFORC) They first met in Chicago in February 1995 with Marie Galbraith "to discuss proposals for funding." What they hoped to produce was a report later described by Rockefeller as "quite factual and avoiding sensationalism."

Although the case files for the briefing were provided by the big three research organizations, the groups appeared to have little input into the actual writing of the report. They where, however, provided copies of the drafts that they had to sign off on.

FUFOR committee member Dick Hall, for example, identified as the Chairman of the UFORC told me, "You really ought to address your questions to Don Berliner who was the principal. I was not directly involved in the project other than writing the Executive Summary for the Fund... I didn’t participate other than as an occasional advisor or consultant."

CUFOS committee member Mark Rodeghier stated, "while a coalition project, the BAE was really put together by Don Berliner and a few others, not by anyone from CUFOS, or MUFON for that matter."

MUFON committee member Tom Deuley, stated that FUFOR acted as a lead group in the project, and "the actual work was carried out by Berliner, Huneeus, and Galbraith."

The UFORC committee members began their work in February 1995, but prior to their first meeting, there was another researcher who already hard at work trying to produce a Best Available Evidence briefing document. That researcher was Dr. Steven Greer.

Greer had been working since 1993 to produce a document that could be used to brief important people such as the many members of the Clinton administration had already briefed.

When the UFORC was formed in February 1995, Greer somehow thought he was part of the Rockefeller funded effort to produce the long awaited briefing document. The fact of the matter was that he had been cast aside by Galbraith in favor of maintaining the support of the three main UFO groups. As 1995 evolved the relationship between Greer and Galbraith deteriorated until in October 1995, they corresponded for the last time. Prior to the formation of the UFORC, the relationship between Greer and Galbraith appeared to have been very good.

Greer / Galbraith Contacts

Greer and Galbraith both represented project groups that were attempting to influence the Clinton administration in the 1995-96 period. The project both envisioned was a document that would be used to brief VIPs like President Clinton to provide him a view of the breadth and depth of the UFO evidence. The Best Available Evidence briefing document became the symbol of that common goal. Who would get credit for the BAE, and who would be allowed to use it, however, became the genesis of a dispute that would last well into 1997.

The story of Greer’s involvement with Galbraith, and the level of Galbraith’s support for what Greer was trying to do, is told in two very disputed versions of the story. One version of the story is told by Steven Greer. The other side was told not by Galbraith, but by the Fund for UFO Research. As far as this author knows neither Galbraith, nor her boss Laurance Rockefeller, has ever openly commented on the Galbraith/Greer relationship.

Galbraith and Greer first met at a two day meeting of eight UFO researchers convened by the Human Potential Foundation at the JY Ranch of Laurence Rockefeller near Jackson Hole, Wyoming in September of 1993. Greer wrote of the encounter stating, "I shared with Ms. Galbraith and others gathered there our plans regarding collecting the best available evidence regarding UFOs, and our plans to provide briefings for world leaders and the public on the subject."

Greer stated that Galbraith took " a keen interest" in his best available evidence concept so he provided Galbraith " a full compliment of our plans, strategy, and an outline of the BAE, including inclusion and exclusion for cases, the title ‘Best Available Evidence,’ and the concept and strategy for its use, etc." Greer claims that this "collaboration" with Galbraith continued for two years, and there seems to be evidence that Galbraith did take an interest in Greer’s work during this time period.

In February 1994 Galbraith set up a talk on UFOs for Steven Greer in New York City. Galbraith invited friends she thought would be interested in UFOs.

In May, 1994, Galbraith traveled across the country to Colorado to take part in a Rapid Mobilization Investigative Team (RMIT) field investigation being conducted by Greer in a UFO flap area.

In 1995, the contact between the two and the discussion of the BAE concept continued. On January 30, 1995, Galbraith and Greer met at Sandy Wright’s apartment to discuss the creation of what Greer called the "Starlight Coalition," and a "BAE Summit." (which Greer had requested $500,000 funding for)

This meeting led to Galbraith providing Greer with $20,000 of Rockefeller’s money for a June 1995 "Witness Summit" of military and government witnesses from the US and Russia.

The witness summit did take place, and became known as the Asilomer conference. Twenty-four witnesses showed up to tell their stories, and to sign a joint letter asking President Clinton to "issue an executive order to release U.S. government witnesses from their national security obligations/oaths related to the subject so that they may provide public testimony." This high-level witness testimony evolved into a briefing Greer’s CSETI group held for "members of Congress, congressional staff, White House staff, military leaders and other Washington leaders" on the subject of UFOs and extraterrestrial intelligence. That in turn evolved into the disclosure news conference sponsored by Sarah McClendon and held in the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on May 9, 2001.

In late July and early August 1995, Galbraith carried on a three-memo exchange with Greer. She requested that Greer send her material on pilot cases that Greer had apparently received from NASA’s Richard Haines. "Perhaps," Galbraith wrote Greer, "we could summarize the material and use it for a short presentation in our ‘Briefing Document.’"

Galbraith and Greer also corresponded for nine months in 1995. That correspondence, according to the FUFOR account, centered on "collecting witness testimony to use to obtain eventual government amnesty for all government and military witnesses and to make a video one day to use as evidence."

Greer maintained that, as well as correspondence, there were also "numerous hours spent via long distance telephone discussing the BAE with Mrs. Galbraith and in selecting specific cases to be used."

The Battle Over the BAE

When Galbraith first met Greer at the Rockefeller Ranch in 1993, she knew little about UFOs, and was not involved in any UFO projects. She only seriously became involved in studying UFOs when asked for help by Laurance Rockefeller in July 1994 to "recommend funding for valid UFO/ETI investigation and to encourage governments worldwide to open their files."

Once in charge of the Rockefeller funding for UFO projects, Galbraith began a six-month crash course to bring herself up to speed on the subject. This she did by reading, and by talking to many investigators in America and Europe. Eight months after being given the assignment from Laurance Rockefeller, Galbraith now had some knowledge of the subject. She hired Don Berliner as author, and together with the UFO cases provided by the three UFO groups, the task of writing and printing the BAE began.

The formation of the team to research and write the BAE, however, did not include Steven Greer as a member. This was despite the fact that Galbraith was still in contact with Greer. One reason for this apparent playing of two hands by Galbraith, and the ultimate rejection of Dr. Greer, had much to do with the UFORC committee members.

It is no secret that many on the committee did not, and still do not like Steven Greer. Although none of the UFORC members would admit it, there is little doubt that many, if not all of them, would not have participated in the project if Steven Greer and his CSETI group had been allowed a seat at the table producing the BAE.

The most objectionable thing to most of the UFORC members about Greer appeared to be some of the philosophy and methodology of Greer’s CSETI group. "Greer was considered a loose cannon at best," one member said, "no one in the larger group would ever have allowed Greer anywhere near the project."

The main item that led the UFORC group members to consider Greer a "loose cannon" went back to outings that Greer had hosted going back to the early nineties. Greer himself admitted he had "been called every name in the book" for having done it. The outings hosted by Greer resembled contactee style outings of the fifties which most UFORC members also looked down on. Greer and his team members claimed to be able to, through a system of techniques, to attract UFOs, and interact with the extraterrestrials in them.

Greer described the encounters as Close Encounters of the fifth kind (CE-5). Greer described the systematic approach for initiating these CE-5s as "utilizing techniques that I developed when I was 18, (1973) to establish contact with extraterrestrial intelligences, and vector or guide them in to close encounter with us." Greer claimed great success utilizing the technique. He even claimed that after one very successful encounter with four UFOs in Florida in March 1992, he received a call from the "former head of intelligence for Army Intelligence, and a bunch of other spooks" who invited him to a meeting in a hotel room, and played sixty-four questions about "what the hell did he think he was doing" until three in the morning.

The more conservative UFO elements like those on the UFORC group have often referred to the Greer process as attracting UFOs with flashlights. In reality, the protocols Greer claimed he had been given by the extraterrestrials, were much more complex than just flashlights. Regardless, Greer was one person the UFORC group didn’t want anything to do with.

Some, like UFORC member Dick Hall, considered Greer little more than a New-Age cult leader. Antonio Huneeus, one of the authors of the BAE stated if Greer would be involved, he wouldn’t join the committee because he did not want to work with him. When told Greer would not be involved, and he agreed to participate.

Don Berliner, the main BAE author, also had little good to say about Dr. Greer. When questioned in 1977 about Greer’s possible involvement in the drafting of the BAE, he stated that "the implication that he worked with Greer and CSETI to be highly insulting, and damaging to his reputation as a professional writer."

The second reason for Greer being cut out of the BAE project in 1995, involved a fallout between Laurance Rockefeller/Marie Galbraith and Steven Greer which occurred just prior to the release of the preliminary draft of the BAE. Neither Greer nor anyone on the UFORC committee would comment on the split, but one member of the committee did state that committee people were warning Galbraith and Rockefeller about Greer. Speaking of the split one member said, "It was a good idea on the part of the Rockefeller people. If it resulted from our reading of Greer, they took good advice."

The second, and the more likely, reason for the split involved Greer making statements on Laurance Rockefeller’s behalf which went against what Rockefeller believed, and were also not approved beforehand. One likely suspect of disagreement between the two parties, was Greer’s contention that most if not all abductions were the result of U.S. covert black operation paramilitary units simulating "alien abductions" through "reverse-engineered ET technologies."

Huneeus clearly recalled the differences in opinion between Greer and Rockefeller, and how because of this Greer ended up being cut loose.

"I remember they started objecting when he would send these memos and things to the Rockefeller office directly... I remember we received this very bizarre memo that Greer wrote to Clinton, a very long thing. Basically he was trying to use Rockefeller’s name to get some attention from the White House, and this they did not like. This was one of the earlier things that upset Marie Galbraith. She didn’t like the gist of the memo either, bringing out all these kinds of conspiracies and the like."

In the final letter between Greer and Galbraith written on October 19, 1995, Galbraith spelled out the problem. According to the FUFOR account of the letter,

"Galbraith wrote to Greer saying that the BSW wished to continue to help him in some of his efforts which would benefit the entire UFO community, but she could not necessarily agree with his interpretation of much of the UFO phenomena and that he must ‘be very careful when using Laurance Rockefeller’s name that it is not associated with an assumed approval of your interpretation of events.’"

Armen Victorian, a British investigator who researched the split between the two camps while it was happening. He stated that it was actually Henry Diamond, and not Rockefeller who made the move to cut Greer loose. "Greer whilst working for Rockefeller/Galbraith," wrote Henry, "at that time misrepresented himself as Laurance’s representative. Henry Diamond, Laurance’s attorney soon put a stop to it, and cut off any further funding to Greer."

Greer’s version of the story is that he was basically railroaded off the BAE briefing document project for "which (he) originated and for which (he) selected many of the cases. Greer claimed that he had been involved in the planning and production of the BAE. He further maintained that he was "responsible for the title, strategy, and concept" used to create the Best Available Evidence briefing document. He claimed that once the Rockefeller BAE project began in February 1995, he did have a role for the team. "It was decided," wrote Greer of his role, "that my efforts should go into obtaining extraordinary evidence and deep cover first-hand military and intelligence data and witness testimony." Lastly, he claimed that the BAE had always been set up as a "jointly created document, and a permanently non-copyrighted, public domain document."

In an article written after he had been set adrift by Galbraith, Greer wrote "I have watched for 18 months as the BAE document was seized, misrepresented by many as originating from Galbraith et al, and generally used in bad faith by those who falsely lay claim to it." On this claim there seems to be evidence to back Greer’s version of the story.

The UFORC group, who ended up in control of the copyright to the Best Available Evidence, did not meet till February 1995. The evidence clearly shows, however, that Greer was using the title, and detailing the strategy and concept of the BAE long before the UFORC’s first meeting. The strategy and concept of the briefing document were to brief high-level people who had the influence to change policy, and initiate a disclosure of the hidden UFO evidence. These high level types of briefings were already being done by Greer in 1993-94 period. During that time the following people and groups were briefed; members of the U.S. President and vice-presidential staffs, UN leadership and family of Boutros Boutros Ghali, U.N. Secretary General, the CIA Director, head of Intelligence for Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Wilson, and Defense Intelligence Agency Director General Patrick Hughes.

In 1993 already, Greer had already talked about collecting the best available UFO evidence to use for briefing purposes. It was mentioned as one point of a three part strategic plan for Project Starlight which he headed. Greer outlined the first part of the plan as "collect and identify the Best Available Evidence related to UFO/ETI."

In May 1994, Greer outlined the title, strategy, and concept of the Best Available Evidence. "Knowledgeable and sincere civilians around the world," wrote Greer, "must come together to collect the best evidence on this subject, and then educate world leaders, leaders in society, and our fellow humans."

Also in a letter dated November 1, 1994, almost four months prior to the first UFORC meeting, Greer wrote a letter to his supporters. In the letter Greer clearly spelled out the strategy and concept of the BAE and used the exact term "Best Available Evidence Briefing Document" that would later become the title of the copyrighted UFORC report.

"It was stated to me that adequate data exists in the civilian research community to constitute definite evidence for the existence of ETI; this we have known for some time. We are encouraged to move decisively in collecting this data, and completing a comprehensive briefing document containing the Best Available Evidence. This must be a very high priority, and funding needs to be secured soon for this unprecedented research project... The White House, the national Security Council and apparatus, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the U.N. Secretary-General and U.N. Security Council, and select other foreign heads of state must be fully briefed with this BAE briefing document."

Despite the fact that Greer appeared to be the force behind preceding with the creation of a briefing document to educate VIPs on the legitimacy of the UFO evidence, he ended up on the outside looking in. The word was passed to him that he would not be able to use the document as a briefing tool for the high-level officials he was trying to educate about UFOs.

Greer wrote in 1997 that both he and Sandy Wright, who was providing the foundation for the BAE project, "protested this extraordinary and devise act, but Mrs. Galbraith and the UFO Research Coalition persisted in this behavior."

The protest over the copyright and usage of the BAE, by Wright and Greer, split the group. Sandy Wright, despite the reference in Acknowledgments for the final report that Sandra Wright had provided her foundation "as an umbrella under which all the work could be done" was removed from the project in late 1995 months before the final report was finished. The reference in the acknowledgments to Wright’s involvement was, according to Berliner, "included to be polite."

Wright found herself removed from the project, and on the outside with Greer. Although she had been one of the original people setting up the project Sandy received only thirty copies of the final report to distribute as she pleased, and according to Greer was not allowed to "purchase copies of the document for free distribution to VIPs and world leaders."

Don Berliner maintained that a copyrighted final version was always the intent. "We did not formally copyright any of the drafts," he wrote, "knowing the final report would be copyrighted, and that would cover all drafts."

Huneeus, the other author, remembered it different. The sudden copyrighting of the final report in December 1995, caught him by surprise and he was, like Greer and Wright, not happy with the copyrighting decision. He stated,

"I wasn’t very happy with the copyright either, because I was left out of it. That happened when the document was done pretty much. The whole document was finished around November 1995, and it went to the printers... It was Christmas and I went home. I even did the galley proofs from Equador. Marie sent them to me by Federal express. I think it was on that trip, or it may have been on an earlier trip when I went to Europe. I was not present. I was not consulted . I remember getting back to her office. Marie basically told me "we" have. By "we" I suppose she and Rockefeller. She said, "We have taken the decision to give the copyright to the UFO Research Coalition." That was already a fait accompli. There was really nothing that I could do. I could have made a fuss over it, but it would not have been appropriate at that moment."

Although the UFORC maintained that Greer had no involvement in the project, he was, for some unknown reason mailed a copy of the final report in February 1996. Greer immediately wrote a letter to Laurance Rockefeller on the copyright issue to "informing him of this treachery" by Galbraith. He warned Rockefeller that he "intended to use the BAE document... for educating world leaders on the UFO subject," despite the copyright. Greer maintained years later in his version of events that "no corrective instructions were ever sent to us regarding this clearly stated position."

In April 1997 Greer, believing he had equal access to the BAE report used two BAE reports as handouts to a private "closed briefing on UFOs and Extraterrestrial Intelligence" he hosted in Washington D.C., on April 9-10, 1997. The two reports were the 28-page "Best Available Evidence: Executive Summary" written by Dick Hall, and an altered version of the "Best Available Evidence" draft report published in 1995.

The executive summary was "without copyright" had been produced by Hall for "all who desired to have it. It could be copied and distributed by anyone free of charge, provided the material was left as it was presented in the original."

The November 1995 draft BAE document, which Greer used for his Washington briefings, was however covered by copyright, even though the draft was marked exactly the same as the BAE: Executive Summary Briefing, which was "without copyright." Neither document mentioned that it was either copyrighted or free for distribution.

What made the situation worse, is that Greer actually altered the document turning it into a document that appeared to have been produced by his organization CSETI. He left the name of Berliner as the author but removed the names of the three UFO groups, as well as Huneeus, Galbraith, and even Rockefeller who had financed it.

Greer removed the cover page from the original and produced his own making it seem like the report was produced by CSETI. On the replacement cover Greer added after Don Berliner’s name: "Concept, Title, and Strategy:Steven M. Greer, M.D.; Case Selection: CSETI Project Starlight Team." Despite the fact that Greer had warned Rockefeller that he intended to use the document for briefings, the changes made to make it look like the work of CSETI turned out to be very dumb move.

Once the word leaked out of Washington that Greer had provided copies of the altered Rockefeller report to Congressmen and others, the UFORC immediately launched legal action as a remedy to Greer’s actions. Researchers in the UFO community accused Greer of piracy and copyright infringement, which led to Greer also obtaining legal counsel "for appropriate remedies" against those who had decided to "besmirch" his name.

Despite, Greer’s protests that "Mrs. Galbraith, in collaboration with the so-called and newly formed UFO Research Coalition attempted to seize this jointly created BAE document, copyright it, and restrict its use... " the writing was on the wall and Greer knew he had to back down. The UFORC did now hold the copyright to the report. In June 1977, Greer announced that he recognized he had no legal standing to use the BAE, and surrendered.

"The CSETI Briefing Document which currently is available for purchase does not contain any part or reference to this BAE document... At this juncture, due to the unpleasantness of the entire matter, we are not even providing this document gratis to VIPs who should receive it."

The legal action taken by the UFORC against Greer was somewhat peculiar in light of the fact that, at the same time they were threatening Greer with legal action over distributing the copyrighted draft Rockefeller document, they were aware that someone else was also copying and distributing the same draft BAE document.

This illegal duplication of the BAE was being done by was the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. It was mailing out the BAE draft to all people who requested information on UFOs from the office. The UFORC committee knew the White House was doing the same thing as Greer, but it did nothing to stop this practise. Don Berliner, a key member of the committee stated, "Telling the White House to stop distributing copies would hardly have been polite."

The Document Itself

The initial 1993 Rockefeller White House Disclosure Initiative had, through an agreement with the President’s Science Advisor, been an effort that centered on one specific UFO incident - the 1947 crash near Roswell, New Mexico.

This single-case approach was taken because Gibbons suggested that it appeared to be an easier task to expose a cover-up on one case, as opposed to trying to prove a cover-up of all UFO information. Rockefeller had therefore talked almost exclusively about Roswell during the three years he dealt with the White House.

When the Air Force returned its Roswell report to the White House stating that, in their opinion, there was neither a cover-up nor an extraterrestrial link connected to the 1947 event near Roswell, New Mexico. With the Roswell link dead, Rockefeller took a new course in commissioning the "Bootsie Report." It would be a report that would deal with many carefully researched UFO cases which supported the reality of UFOs. The Roswell case, once the only case Rockefeller would talk about, would be almost ignored.

The draft BAE report makes only brief mention in its 129 pages to the Roswell crash, and the final report ( The final report did add a two-page appendix reviewing the Roswell incident) That reference to Roswell did not focus on the crash, but rather on the government’s "reaction to the growing public and press interest in the apparent crash in 1947." Rockefeller’s report described that reaction as "the most striking example of continuing government secrecy." The report seemed to be answering back to the failed Air Force and GOA investigations initiated by the Clinton administration.

As part of this rebuttal to the two failed reports the BAE detailed the following significant items:

"Despite the testimony to the contrary of dozens of first and second-hand witnesses to this event, the U.S. government has yet to release even one Air Force Report that includes the full testimony of these witnesses"

The brief U.S.A.F. 1994 report and the large U.S.A.F. report of 1995 both now state that "the wreckage found on the sheep ranch was not that of a balloon used for weather analysis."

The General Accounting Office (the investigative arm of the U.S. Congress) "in its final report, stated that it could find no evidence for the wreckage of a UFO, but discovered that a large quantity of potentially valuable U.S. Air Force message traffic for the period had been improperly destroyed.

"Since no documentation was found to support the new Project Mogel explanation, the GAO did not endorse the current Air Force explanation and stated that ‘the debate on what crashed at Roswell continues.’"

What the report was instead, was a document that Rockefeller thought would provide an overview of the UFO secrecy issue in the U.S. government, and a presentation of a collection of classic UFO cases of strong evidential integrity.

A second item missing from the deluge of UFO evidence, put forward in the report is any reference at all to abduction reports.(CE-4) The report, in fact, contains only one case of an observation of an actual being associated with the UFO. (CE-3) Half of the cases are close encounters where physical evidence is left behind (CE-2), or close encounters observation of unusual craft or airborne objects. (CE-1) The abduction material, of which there were plenty of cases to chose from, was carefully avoided.

As well as discussing the new UFO study report, Rockefeller brought up the second part of his UFO Disclosure Initiative first brought up with the White House in 1993. This involved the amnesty program for people, inside the government, military, or industry, who wished to testify about their roles in the UFO subject.

Gibbons had suggested that the three UFO groups who had worked on the report should "put forward two or three names who might be candidates for a pilot project to access the usefulness of the expanded amnesty program" urged by the Rockefeller team.

Gibbons also promised that he would talk to the Air Force, the Central Intelligence Agency, NASA, and Hillary Clinton’s office on the amnesty program. Rockefeller wrote on February 5 that he hoped this could be done quickly so he could add this amnesty aspect to the letter he was drafting to the president. He wanted all the significant issues to be placed in front of the President before the end of the year so that the President could give it "attention in a second term."

In the first section of the report sent to the White House, Marie Galbraith wrote a section on "government secrecy" which she wrote was the main problem in understanding the UFO situation. Galbraith spelled out the importance of overseeing secrecy in a democracy like the United states, "The decision where to draw the line between a citizen’s right to know and the government’s right to secrecy for national security reasons," she wrote, "must be made by appropriate members of society."

The introduction to the report, written by Galbraith, stated that secrecy on the subject may have gone too far. Many of the secrecy concerns that Rockefeller had raised with Jack Gibbons were spelled out, including the fact that the elected government might no longer be in control.

"Secrecy, like power, lends itself to abuse. Behind the shield of secrecy, it is possible for an agency or service to avoid scrutiny and essentially to operate outside of the law. Accountability to the tax payers and to the congress can conveniently be avoided... given the size of the government bureaucracy and the high degree of compartmentalization that exists within it, it is conceivable that even the President himself is not fully briefed on ‘above top secret’ matters. Such information, allowing access only on the strictest ‘need-to-know’ basis, is not necessarily given to senior elected officials who come and go and can therefore be regarded as temporary, political, and unreliable... Is it possible that a few privileged individuals have access to this information while denying it to the electorate for ‘national security’ reasons, so that it can be privately studied? In a democracy, should not this decision be made by our elected officials and be based upon an informed discussion?"

The report concludes:

"When studied as a group, these case histories exhibit clear patterns which strongly suggest that they belong to a distinct new class of phenomena, rather than being a formless collection of disparate observational errors... It is this large quantity of evidence of the existence of something completely baffling which motivates many of us to urge the governments of the world to release all they know about UFOs so that the people of the world, and especially scientists, can begin to come to grips with a mystery that has far too long been subjected to secrecy and ridicule."

The UFO Coalition officially distributed the Summary to members of the Congress and other government authorities. Marie Galbraith sent some of her copies to French diplomats and President Chirac. Each member of the UFORC was given 50 copies to distribute as they saw fit.

Rockefeller did not request many copies for himself. The copies he did request went to General Colin Powell, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and the present Secretary of State, former Secretary of State for President Nixon and long rumored UFO Insider Henry Kissinger, evangelist Billy Graham, and founder of the Earth Council and Secretary General of the landmark 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro Maurice F. Strong.

A number of letters were received back from the powerful people who were sent the BAE Final Report. The letter, however, did not motivate any of the powerful people to action which was part of the original intent.

"Marie Galbraith did show me some of the letters that she received from some of these Senators after the document was sent... people in the House of Lords, and former Senators, and stuff like that. They were mostly just polite letters. They were people that knew her and her husband. It was the typical letter saying, ‘Thank-you very much for sending a copy of the briefing document. We will put it in our library’. There was no concrete action, just polite letters acknowledging receipt of the document."

The release of the BAE was plagued by the New York Press that insisted on playing up the angle that one of the powerful brothers of the Rockefeller dynasty was a believer in UFOs, that they were in analyzing what was in the final report.

The report was further set back by the lack of a coordinated effort to control the media covering the story. The Rockefeller effort to produce a UFO briefing document was provided to reporters like Luckman who in turn traded off the information to the gossips columnists in New York. "If they had controlled the publicity then they at least could have steered it in the direction that they wanted," explained Huneeus. "Instead they left it in the hands of people like Luckman. The gossip columnist never cared about the contents of the document. The big new item to them was the fact that Rockefeller was a believer in flying saucers. That was the angle that Luckman was pushing, because he was a publicist and he knows what sells and what doesn’t sell."

When the report was finished a further uncoordinated effort to distribute the report led to further set-backs. Each member of the committee was allowed to distribute their copies to whomever they wanted to. There was no overall plan as to who should receive the important document, and there was no follow-up after the documents were sent. "Each person would send it to someone he knew," said Huneeus, "and that was it. There was no really much follow-up or anything. That is why perhaps the report had so little impact."

The Report did receive support from outside the United States. In France the authors of the COMETA report spoke glowingly of the importance, in the United States, of private independent associations such as the sponsored efforts by Rockefeller to produce the Best Available Evidence, and the Sturrock workshop in 1997.

The final chapter of the BAE story occurred in 2000 when some of the former UFORC members met at an event celebrating the commercial edition of the book came out. It was there that the members of the committee found out that Rockefeller was finished with the UFO subject. "We asked Marie Galbraith what was up with Rockefeller," stated Huneeus, "we asked if it would still be possible if he could fund some stuff. She said no, basically he is very old. He is in his nineties now, and he is just basically dealing with stuff with family."

The contribution of the BAE "to this field has been important," wrote Huneeus. "Other financistas as the millionaires Joe Firmage and Robert Bigelow have taken the initiative. The future it will measure his results."

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT

TO NAFTA DISTINGUISHED AMERICAN ENDORSEMENT EVENT

The East Room

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, President Carter, Mr. Vice President, all the distinguished people who have spoken here today.

I would like to begin by making two observations. First of all, after hearing what has been said I'm pretty proud to be an American today. And I think all of you should be, too. (Applause.) Secondly, I have been sent an extraterrestrial telegram stating that "I, too, am for NAFTA", signed Otto von Bismarck. (Laughter.)

For Immediate Release April 10, 1997

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT AND THE VICE PRESIDENT

AT TOP OF CABINET MEETING

Q -- just a little while ago, Mrs. Clinton was asked about questions that keep coming up about efforts -- whether the White House knew of or was behind or whether there were any efforts to pay hush money to Webster Hubbell. And she called it part of the continuing saga of Whitewater, the never-ending fictional conspiracy that honest-to-goodness reminds me of some people's obsession with UFOs and the Hale-Bopp comet. (Laughter.) And I was wondering --

THE PRESIDENT: Did she say that? (Laughter.) That's pretty good. (Laughter.)

Q I was wondering if you share that sentiment? And also, we haven't had a chance to -- (laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT: Well, if I didn't, I wouldn't disagree with her in public. (Laughter.)

Q We haven't had a chance to hear what your comment is to the apology that Webb Hubbell and his claim that he was a con artist who fooled people here at the White House. Are you angry at him now? He seems to have caused you a whole lot of trouble, and he seems to be causing it.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, no, I'm not angry at him anymore because he's paid a very high price for the mistake he made. And if he hadn't come up here and he'd stayed home and tried to work it through, he would have paid a price, but it would have been a smaller one.

But let me remind you that everybody pays in life. There's -- somehow we all wind up paying for whatever we do, and he paid a very high price. And he's apologized and I accept his apology. He's got four wonderful children and a fine wife. And he's done a lot of wonderful things in his life, and I hope he'll be able to go on and do some more wonderful things.

And as far as I'm concerned, that's why we have a criminal justice system: people get punished, they pay their price, and they're supposed to be able to go on. He got punished and paid quite a high price, and I hope he'll be able to go on with his life now.

For Immediate Release November 26, 1997

PRESS BRIEFING

BY MIKE MCCURRY

The Briefing Room

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.

For Immediate Release January 28, 1998

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT

TO THE PEOPLE OF CHAMPAIGN-URBANA

University of Illinois

Champaign-Urbana, Illinois

There are polls that say that young people in their 20s think it's more likely that they will see UFOs than that they will ever collect Social Security. (Applause.) And all of you know that the Social Security system is supposed to be in trouble.

For Immediate Release January 28, 1998

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT

TO THE PEOPLE OF LA CROSSE, WISCONSIN

La Crosse Convention Center

La Crosse, Wisconsin

I saw a survey the other day that said young people in their 20s thought it was more likely that they would see UFOs than that they'd ever get to collect Social Security. (Laughter.) Now, here's what I have to say about that. I don't want to stop people from watching the X-Files, go on and do that.

(Laughter.)

For Immediate Release February 9, 1998

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT

ON SOCIAL SECURITY

Gaston Hall

Georgetown University

Washington, D.C.

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. (Laughter.) And others may think that it's a long way off, as Mannone said, and the Vice President said he thought it was a long way off.

A couple of days ago I went to New Mexico to visit our national labs -- you may have seen the story. And our national labs at Los Alamos and Sandia and Lawrence Livermore, where we do a lot of the research that not only helps us to preserve the security of our smaller and smaller nuclear arsenal, but helps us to deal with our environmental questions and a lot of other fascinating challenges of the future...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.

For Immediate Release February 9, 1998

PRESS BRIEFING BY

GENE SPERLING

The Briefing Room

Sperling:... somebody who is 33 today will turn 65 in 2029 and that they should care very deeply about this, and that they should not feel that Social Security is as likely to occur for them as seeing a UFO.

For Immediate Release February 19, 1998

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT

TO DNC DINNER

Private Residence

West Orange, New Jersey

And everybody knows -- 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. (Laughter.)

For Immediate Release February 25, 1998

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT

AT DCCC DINNER

Private Residence

San Francisco, California

But as I said in the State of the Union address, it's literally true, there was a public opinion survey done last year which showed that most people under 25 thought it was more likely that they would see a UFO than that they would ever draw a penny of Social Security. I don't want to discourage young people from watching the X-Files -- (laughter) -- but I think we have to somehow reverse that perception. So that's the first thing I want to say.

For Immediate Release March 21, 1998

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT

IN SATELLITE ADDRESS TO PEW CHARITABLE TRUSTS'

"AMERICANS DISCUSS SOCIAL SECURITY"

The one think I think is very important is that young people understand especially what the realities are. I mean, I saw a survey the other day that said that some people -- a lot of people in their 20s thought it was more likely that they would see a UFO than that they would ever draw Social Security. Now, that's not accurate.

For Immediate Release April 7, 1998

ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT

TO A NATIONAL FORUM ON SOCIAL SECURITY

Penn Valley Community College

Kansas City, Missouri

To the younger people here today who may believe that you will never see a Social Security check -- indeed, I saw a poll which purported to be serious that said that Americans in their twenties thought it was more likely they would see a UFO than that they would every draw Social Security. (Laughter.)

For Immediate Release June 12, 2000

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT AND THE FIRST LADY

AT MILLENNIUM MATINEE "UNDER THE SEA, BEYOND THE STARS"

The East Room 2:37 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I don't know what to say. (Laughter.) You know, if they're all out there, I hope they have the best of what we have and fewer headaches. (Laughter.)

Roswell Comments in the Clinton Administration

For Immediate Release November 30, 1995

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT

AND THE FIRST LADY

AT THE LIGHTING OF THE CITY CHRISTMAS TREE

Belfast City Hall

Belfast, Northern Ireland

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.)

For Immediate Release November 30, 1995

PRESS BRIEFING BY MIKE MCCURRY

Europa Hotel Belfast, Northern Ireland

Okay, Mark, one last one.

Q Yes, the last one; this will probably end the briefing. Did the President actually inquire of the Air Force in gathering the information for the answer he provided the 13-year-old Ryan from Belfast -- (laughter) -- was holding extraterrestrials?

MR. MCCURRY: You're right, Mark, that ended the briefing. (Laughter.) Okay, I'll be back.

For Immediate Release January 29, 1998

PRESS BRIEFING BY

MIKE MCCURRY

The Briefing Room

Q Right. But where is he going on Monday or Tuesday?

MR. 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?

MR. MCCURRY: I didn't say a thing. No, we don't need to go there because we were there in the flying saucer yesterday. (Laughter.)

X-file References in the Clinton Administration

For Immediate Release January 28, 1998

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT

TO THE PEOPLE OF LA CROSSE, WISCONSIN

La Crosse Convention Center

La Crosse, Wisconsin

I saw a survey the other day that said young people in their 20s thought it was more likely that they would see UFOs than that they'd ever get to collect Social Security. (Laughter.)

Now, here's what I have to say about that. I don't want to stop people from watching the X-Files, go on and do that. (Laughter.)

I saw a survey the other day that said young people in their 20s thought it was more likely that they would see UFOs than that they'd ever get to collect Social Security. (Laughter.)

Now, here's what I have to say about that. I don't want to stop people from watching the X-Files, go on and do that. (Laughter.)

For Immediate Release February 9, 1998

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT

ON SOCIAL SECURITY

Gaston Hall

Georgetown University

Washington, D.C.

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. (Laughter.) And others may think that it's a long way off, as Mannone said, and the Vice President said he thought it was a long way off.

A couple of days ago I went to New Mexico to visit our national labs -- you may have seen the story. And our national labs at Los Alamos and Sandia and Lawrence Livermore, where we do a lot of the research that not only helps us to preserve the security of our smaller and smaller nuclear arsenal, but helps us to deal with our environmental questions and a lot of other fascinating challenges of the future...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.

For Immediate Release February 25, 1998

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT

AT DCCC DINNER

Private Residence

San Francisco, California

But as I said in the State of the Union address, it's literally true, there was a public opinion survey done last year which showed that most people under 25 thought it was more likely that they would see a UFO than that they would ever draw a penny of Social Security. I don't want to discourage young people from watching the X-Files -- (laughter) -- but I think we have to

somehow reverse that perception. So that's the first thing I want to say.

For Immediate Release September 16, 1998

PRESS BRIEFING BY

THE VICE PRESIDENT,

DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF JOHN PODESTA,

PRINCIPAL ASSOCIATE DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL ROBERT LITT,

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF THE FBI CAROLYN MORRIS,

UNDER SECRETARY OF COMMERCE WILLIAM REINSCH,

DEPUTY SECRETARY OF DEFENSE JOHN HAMRE,

AND DEPUTY NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR JIM STEINBERG

MR. PODESTA: Guess what? I'm here to talk about encryption. Okay. I can see the front row leaving here. (Laughter.) As the Vice President noted, Jim Steinberg and I have co-chaired our process in this matter. I volunteered for that duty because of my well-known fascination with The X Files, which most of you know about.

For Immediate Release June 26, 2000

PRESS BRIEFING BY TREASURY SECRETARY LARRY SUMMERS,

CHIEF OF STAFF JOHN PODESTA, DIRECTOR OF THE NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL GENE SPERLING AND OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET DIRECTOR JACK LEW

MR. PODESTA: First, the very notion of a budget surplus would have been considered a bizarre "X-Files" plot when President Clinton took office, let alone a $1 trillion mid-session re-estimate.

For Immediate Release June 27, 2000

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT

AT UNVEILING OF PORTRAIT OF

TREASURY SECRETARY ROBERT RUBIN

I thought it was kind of cruel the way Larry made fun of Bob not knowing about "The X Files." (Laughter. ) "The X Files" – Bob Rubin didn't know who B.B. King was. (Laughter.)

November 7, 1999

"If we were being attached by space aliens we wouldn’t be playing these kinds of games."

For Immediate Release April 1, 2000

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT

AT FUNDRAISER FOR MRS. CLINTON

Hyatt Regency

Washington. D.C.

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.)

For Immediate Release October 28, 1999

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT

AT AWARDS CEREMONY FOR BLUE RIBBON SCHOOLS

Washington Hilton Hotel

Washington, D.C.

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 kind of games are only possible because the economy is strong and the American people are self-confident. . .

For Immediate Release August 29, 1995

PRESS BRIEFING

BY

MIKE MCCURRY

The Press Filing Center, Sheraton Hotel, Chicago, Illinois

MR. MCCURRY: I certainly didn't know about it until Dick told me yesterday afternoon. And the President certainly didn't know anything about it until yesterday. And I'm not aware that anyone had any specific information about it. But all we're talking about here is a story that we would not have tended to put a lot of stock in to begin with. 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 space alien category

For Immediate Release October 3, 1994

9:20 P.M. EDT

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT

AT SENATOR ROBB VICTORY DINNER

The Sheraton Premiere

Vienna, Virginia

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? 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 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 . . .

October 3, 1994

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT

AT SENATOR ROBB VIRGINIA VICTORY RALLY

McLean Hilton Hotel

McLean, Virginia

7:53 P.M. EDT

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. . .

"Globalization into the Next Millennium" June 17, 1999

Remarks at The Sorbonne

by First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton

Paris, France

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.

For Immediate Release March 3, 2000

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT AT DINNER FOR THE

DEMOCRATIC SENATORIAL CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE

Private Residence

San Francisco, California

I mean, see, that's what senators are supposed to do. Not scream at people at nine decibels and -- it's like a version of space aliens, some of these talk shows here. (Laughter.)

For Immediate Release July 26, 1996

PRESS BRIEFING

BY MIKE MCCURRY

NOTE: This reference is made in connection to the Clintons returning to Jackson Hole Wyoming for their summer holidays. The Clintons had been in Jackson Hole for their 1995 summer vacation, where they stayed at the Rockefeller cabin - and where Lawrance Rockefeller briefed both Hillary and Bill Clinton on the subject of UFOs. During the 1996 visit the Clintons stayed at the home Max Chapman, a good friend of theirs and also a good friend of Erskine Bowles.

MR. MCCURRY: He will hold to that tradition. The only thing that would compel a high public profile is if space aliens came to the Washington and destroyed the White House. (Laughter.) That would probably compel him to come out of his blissful vacation mode.

For Immediate Release July 4, 1996

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT

AT 200TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION

OF YOUNGSTOWN, OHIO, AND

150TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION OF

MAHONING COUNTY, OHIO

The Riverfront

Youngstown, Ohio

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.

Q Mike, on another issue, since Fabiani isn't talking about it, are you reacting to or characterizing in any way the Aldridge book?

MR. MCCURRY: 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.

MR. MCCURRY: He's talking about a Washington Times story that, frankly, is not worth taking the time to read. I just don't have any comment on it because it's ridiculous.

Q What about the appropriateness of an FBI agent assigned to the White House leaving a service and then writing a book like this?

MR. MCCURRY: It borders on fiction. I guess people are entitled to write fiction.

Q Mike, is the official White House position that it denies all these allegations?

MR. MCCURRY: Nobody has taken the time to read it because it's a ridiculous book.

Q So you have no position on the --

MR. MCCURRY: It's fiction, that's our position.

For Immediate Release July 15, 1996

INTERVIEW OF THE PRESIDENT

BY TOM BROKAW OF MSNBC

MR. BROKAW: Here's a question from the Internet, one more -- Independence Day, the movie -- could we really fight these guys off, or what, Mr. President?

THE PRESIDENT: I loved it. I loved it and --

MR. BROKAW: A lot of people did, apparently.

THE PRESIDENT: 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.

But, 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 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.

For Immediate Release July 18, 1996

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT

AT CEREMONY FOR BOYS AND GIRLS NATION

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.

Why can't we work together to achieve common dreams? What is it about people that they need to adopt creeds that will enable them to demean other people and look on them as subhuman and take their lives away? We have to fight that. You're living in a time where, literally, you're going to be able to do things that have not been invented yet. A lot of you will be in jobs within a decade that have not been invented yet. The patterns of work and life, of travel and learning will be unbelievable. And no nation is as well-positioned as the United States if we seize our opportunities, meet our challenges and protect our values.

For Immediate Release Januray 14, 1999

Mars Millennium Project Kick-Off

Remarks by First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton

National Air & Space Museum

January 14, 1999

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.

For Immediate Release October 12, 1999

MILLENNIUM EVENING AT THE WHITE HOUSE

INFORMATICS MEETS GENOMICS

East Room

President: Won’t it be sad to have an Internet connection with Mars if there are no Martians to write to or e-mail us?

For Immediate Release January 4, 1999

PRESS BRIEFING BY JOE LOCKHART

Q Joe, is the administration committed to releasing that report in some form or another after it's been vetted for national security

--

MR. LOCKHART: Which report?

Q The report of Cox.

MR. LOCKHART: I would have to check on that.

Q You're not willing to commit to releasing it in some form?

MR. LOCKHART: I'm not willing to commit to releasing a congressional report, absolutely not.

Q But wait --

MR. LOCKHART: I think there will probably be a declassification process on that, and then I'm sure we will talk with

Congressman Cox and Congressman Dicks. But I'm not going to commit from here whether that's going to be released -- it's

their report.

Q Joe, I'm not here to defend the Star tabloid, but it seems to me they broke the story of Gennifer Flowers and the Dick

Morris sex scandal. Now, when both of those stories broke, defenders of the President said, oh, it's just the Star, it's just a

tabloid, we're not going to dignify that with a response. And that was sort of the way to discredit the story.

It seems to me that both those stories turned out to be true -- the Dick Morris story certainly turned out to be true; the Gennifer

Flowers story, at least a portion of it, the President has admitted that he had at least one sexual liaison with Gennifer Flowers.

And my question is, how can you use that same defense to just dismiss out of hand the story? I'm not asking whether the story

is true, but wouldn't it be more instructive to just deny or acknowledge the facts that are in question here, rather than try to

smear that tabloid?

MR. LOCKHART: I'm not trying to smear, I'm just telling you that unless you have some independent reporting that you want

to bring to this room and ask me about, I'm just not going to comment.

Q The picture on the Internet he looks exactly like the President.

MR. LOCKHART: That's good. And I'm an alien space baby, Lester. (Laughter.) And we're probably related -- so, next.

Q Do we have some of your DNA?

MR. LOCKHART: Sam, that's personal and we'll talk afterwards. (Laughter.)

For Immediate Release December 3, 2000

December 3, 2000

                        REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
                   AT KENNEDY CENTER HONORS RECEPTION

                             The East Room
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.

July 14, 1997

PRESS BRIEFING

BY CHRIS JENNINGS, PRESIDENTIAL HEALTH CARE POLICY ADVISOR,

AND MIKE MCCURRY

Q Mike, could you speak to the concerns about the President's digitized role in "Contact" this weekend and taking certain past

statements and manipulating them into the script?

MR. MCCURRY: I think the White House Counsel set forth some of the concerns we have. I don't know that the President

himself has seen the film. I have not heard the President express any real concern, but as a general practice, the White House

Legal Counsel raises concerns when we have them about the use of the President's image, and this was a case obviously where

the Counsel thought it was appropriate to remind the makers of the film that there are some legitimate restrictions on those uses.

Q The letter didn't go out and suggest -- or request any specific remedy?

MR. MCCURRY: That's correct.

Q Do you know why that is?

MR. MCCURRY: Because the movie was ready to debut in movie theaters across the nation and there wasn't much he could

do about it at that point.

Q Well, what specifically did the White House Counsel say that they had a problem with in the film?

MR. MCCURRY: I mean, in the letter, it's just the use of the President's image and words to make a fictional point in a plot

unrelated to the context in which the President made real remarks was disturbing and had some elements that were of real

concern to the Legal Counsel.

Q But you didn't need to give them permission, they didn't ask your permission, there was nothing that happened in advance?

MR. MCCURRY: There was no -- to my knowledge, no formal granting of approval by the White House to the project.

Q Are you going to sue?

Q When they saw it, were they particularly dismayed? Did they feel that he would definitely be misconstrued in this -- in that

particular context of the film?

MR. MCCURRY: Do you have the letter? I think the letter speaks for itself, is pretty clear, and we released it over the

weekend.

Q Mike, you've had a lot of this recently. I mean, Jerry's Subs and magazines all kind of using Clinton as their --

MR. MCCURRY: Look, there is a difference between legitimate parody, freedom of expression when it comes to satire,

parody, political commentary. That's different and that's all within the First Amendment and freedom of speech. But there is a

difference in which the President's image, which is his alone to control, is used in a way that would lead a viewer to imagine that

he had said something that he didn't really say.

Q I understand there was another movie that used the President's image, "The First Son," where he was talking on the phone to

his -- where a real picture of President Clinton talking on the phone, was talking on the phone to his successor. Did this arouse

the same concerns, or was that somehow --

MR. MCCURRY: I never heard of the movie. (Laughter.) I don't even know. Anything else?

Siskel and Ebert day at the White House. (Laughter.) All right, what else?

Q The letter -- do you hope that the letter is read by those in Hollywood, that, you know, let's cut it out and don't do it

anymore?

MR. MCCURRY: Obviously, we hope that -- the purpose of the President's letter and having publicized it is to remind people

that there are certain restrictions on the use of the President's image, the image of the White House for commercial purposes.

Q Will that letter be released?

Q Well, what recourse have you got?

MR. MCCURRY: We released it last week, did we not? We released it last week.

Q But what recourse do you have if those restrictions aren't honored?

MR. MCCURRY: The Counsel's Office can tell you. I think there is some, but I think the principal benefit is to just advise

those in the creative community that there are some restrictions so that as they are doing their own creative work, they can

understand better what those restrictions are.

Q So that's all you're going to do on this one?

MR. MCCURRY: I'm not aware of anything else beyond the Counsel's letter contemplating.

Q Mike, the President's going to --

Q These are restrictions in law or --

MR. MCCURRY: I think they're intellectual property, just copyright and intellectual property concerns.

SPEECH BY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON AT FORUM 2000

Spanish Hall, Prague Castle

Prague, Czech Republic

October 13, 1998

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,

January 25, 1999

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT,

THE FIRST LADY,

PROFESSOR NATALIE DAVIS AND PROFESSOR MARTIN MARTY

AT FIFTH MILLENNIUM EVENING AT THE WHITE HOUSE

Mrs Clinton: 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.)

We know for certain in January 1993 when Bill Clinton entered the White House in January 1993 that he had an interest in the UFO phenomena because of what Bill Clinton’s long-time friend Webster Hubbell wrote in his 1997 book “Friends in High Places.” Hubbell reported that Bill Clinton had proposed (in the early days of the administration) to him that if he was given a job in the Justice Department as Assistant Attorney General that he should find out “Are there UFOs?” (He was also given the job of finding out "who killed JFK.")

It is not certain where Bill’s original UFO interest came from. One woman came up to me after a lecture in Bill’s home state of Arkansas and told me that either Bill and Hillary or someone very close to them had experienced a UFO sighting in the late 1970s. The woman claimed to be a sister to a key person in Bill Clinton’s Hot Springs background. She promised to provide me the details after talking to her sister, and I never heard from her again.

Whatever caused the interest there were many stories circulating that Bill was interested. William LaParl, a friend of CIA scientist Ronald Pandolfi (who was asked to provide a UFO briefing for President Clinton’s Science Advisor) stated,

“It was known among the high CIA people, and the people who had contact with these people (Clintons) that they were on the prowl for UFOs. He (Bill) had been asking anyone who would listen to him, to tell him the secret. You know, he would get some Admiral in there, and say “By the way, tell me the UFO secret.” They would just look at him like “What planet are you from?”

And so the stage was set for Bill Clinton when businessman and philanthropist Laurence Rockefeller appeared at the White House on April 14, 1993 to make his pitch that the President should open up all the UFO files for the American people to see.

Although it is not spelled out in the available documentation, it would appear that Rockefeller, no matter how powerful could not just walk into the President’s office and make his pitch for disclosure. He was instead advised by his close friend and former Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird to start his mission with Dr. John Gibbons, the President’s Science Advisor. That’s where the whole Rockefeller Initiative for UFO disclosure would be played out for almost the next three years.

The Introduction of Roswell

Of the many meetings between Rockefeller and Gibbons, one of the key meetings occurred on February 4, 1994 when Laurance Rockefeller met with Dr. Gibbons to discuss steps needed for UFO disclosure. During that meeting Gibbons made a proposal “that as a pilot project” he “might seek information from federal agencies about the incident at Roswell, New Mexico in 1947.” It was felt that if the UFO cover-up was as large and secretive as Rockefeller was maintaining, that it might be easier to start with the disclosure of one case rather than taking on the whole cover-up. Rockefeller replied positively to the Gibbons proposal of choosing one case in a follow-up letter dated February 14, 1994.

"We believe that your approach of starting by addressing a specific incident is an important and reasonable way to begin the process of declassification in this area."

It was an opportunity that Rockefeller made the most of. He fully encouraged Gibbons to work to declassify Roswell, the "mother of all UFO cases." Rockefeller wrote,

“The July 1947 Roswell incident would be a logical and challenging place to start. While much in the public sector has been written about it, the government has had nothing to say about it after the original press release saying that a flying disc had been recovered was retracted. The public record of this incident has been thoroughly analyzed. Further information depends upon access to classified information.”

“Many are convinced that Roswell marks the beginning of government secrecy about UFOs. However, whatever the truth of Roswell, a definite statement about it from the government would be very important. If it actually was UFO related, it could be used to start the process of reversing the government’s 40 plus years of denial on the subject. If it can fully be explained as not UFO related, it would be a significant contribution to the field, and perhaps even contribute to more rigor in research on the subject.

If this specific project initiative is successful, it will become an important prototype for the release of all UFO information. Obviously, the means of carrying out this event-related review is up to you. However, to the extent we can be helpful, we want to be.”

Rockefeller added, "Scott Jones and his associates are quite current on research accomplished on this subject. I have asked that they be available to assist your investigation in any appropriate way."

In addition to "lifting classification about Roswell,” Rockefeller asked that President Clinton "grant amnesty on an individual basis to allow those with knowledge of the incident to speak without fear of prosecution."

Finally, Rockefeller asked that Gibbons "designate a staff person for continuing contact." In the meantime, and under these circumstances, Rockefeller promised that he would hold off on the UFO letter he was drafting addressed to President Clinton.

At the same time that Rockefeller was pressing the Clinton administration to declassify the true story of Roswell, there were other efforts to solve the Roswell mystery. The General Accounting Office (GAO) was an investigation that had been commissioned by Congressman Steven Schiff of New Mexico in January 1994. Senator Diane Feinstein joined in requesting that the GAO look into the Roswell incident. On July 28, 1995 the GAO's Report "Results of a Search for Records Concerning the 1947 Crash Near Roswell, New Mexico” about its Roswell and related saucer crashes documentation findings was presented to Congressman Schiff and Senator Feinstein.

Congressman Schiff released the 20-page, General Accounting Office (GAO) Report in a press release on July 28, 1995. In the press release Congressman Schiff indicated that, “important documents which may have shed more light on what happened at Roswell, are missing.”

Then in October 1995 the Air Force put out “The Roswell Report: Fact vs. Fiction in the New Mexico Desert.” This was the final report of an earlier version published in 1994 called “Report of the Air Force regarding the Roswell Incident.” Both these Air Force reports concluded that nothing extraterrestrial had occurred in Roswell in July 1947. All the flying saucer stories had actually be caused by a Top Secret balloon program called Project Mogul intended to detect Soviet nuclear explosions.

Belfast Roswell Talk

One month later Bill Clinton acted on Roswell. He had done nothing publicly, but it is generally believed that through his science advisor Dr. John Gibbons the USAF was given the green light to re-investigate the Roswell UFO crash.

In a November 30 Belfast, Northern Ireland speech in front of 80,000 people Bill Clinton answered back to the USAF report stating that nothing extraterrestrial had been behind the 1947 Roswell crash.

Those who have studied the making of presidential speeches realize that nothing gets into a presidential speech without good reason. Speeches are rewritten up to 30 times, and are signed off by various government agencies. Sometimes two dozen or more agencies will have to approve of what the president is saying. Every work is checked in a presidential speech.

Therefore when Bill Clinton started taking about Roswell in a speech that was advertised as a peace speech, the president wanted to say something important. The speech was given only weeks after the final USAF report on Roswell so it was probably this report that caused President Clinton to speak out.

There had been a letter writing competition in Northern Ireland. School children wrote letters to the visiting U.S. president and the two winning letter writers were on the stage with Clinton during his speech. Neither of their letters, however, was read. Instead, Clinton answered a letter from Ryan who was asking about Roswell. (An FOIA filed with the Clinton Library failed to find this key letter)

This is what Clinton said in his speech,

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. 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.

When combined with the just released USAF final report on the Roswell crash, it is obvious what Bill Clinton was doing. He had helped force a new investigation by the Air Force of the Roswell evidence. Their final report given to the president weeks before the Belfast speech told the president – we checked it out and it wasn’t caused by ETs.

Clinton, however, was not satisfied with the answers in the Roswell report. It was another dead end in years of trying to get an answer to the UFO mystery by the President. In short, the President was saying you claim that there was no supporting evidence for ET, but you did not deal with the many claims by witnesses that there were dead alien bodies recovered in the Roswell crash.

With his public rebuke, Clinton effectively forced the USAF to go back and reinvestigate the question of the bodies. This however, ended up in another whitewash by the Air Force in 1997 with a third 231-page Roswell report called “The Roswell Report: Case Closed.” President’s Clinton’s challenge to explain the witness reports of bodies was answered by the explanation that the so-called alien bodies that witnesses reported seeing in the desert in separate incidents were anthropomorphic test dummies that were carried aloft between 1954 and 1959 by Air Force balloons, then dropped attached to parachutes"

The Lewinsky Roswell Connection

Despite the fact that Clinton’s Roswell body challenge did nothing more than cause the Air Force to do another Roswell study, it did bring a new and important figure into the Roswell crash history story – Paul Davids. Davids was motivated by the Belfast speech.

Paul Davids is a Hollywood Director, Executive Producer, Producer, Screen Story, Screenwriter. Following a daylight UFO sighting in 1987 Davids took a strong interest in getting to the bottom of the UFO mystery. He went on to executive producer and co-writer of the 1994 movie Roswell, which was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture for Television.

Davids had some connections to Bill Clinton. His father Dr. Jules Davids had been Bill Clinton’s professor for American Diplomatic History at Georgetown University. Bill and Dr. Davids had continued a relationship after Bill had graduated.

Paul Davids had also written Bill Clinton an early letter of “enthusiastic support” during the 1992 campaign telling him about writing a series of Star Wars books he was writing and offering to help write speeches for Governor Clinton.

Bill wrote back on February 12, 1992 stating that he was looking forward to the Star Wars looks appearing in the stores, and promising to send his letter to George Stephanopoulos.

Davids wrote Bill Clinton later with pictures of his dad and the first round of six Star Wars books that Davids was writing. Then President-elect Clinton wrote back thanks Davids for the items he had sent and his support.

Paul Davids, therefore, was not afraid to contact the President after ABC covered the President in Belfast talking about the Roswell crash, and how he had not been given all the answers. “I wanted disclosure very badly,” Davids said, “I had a connection to the president, and I wasn’t afraid to be a little bold.”

Paul Davids said, “I heard the President wanted to know so I took it upon myself to write him a Personal and Confidential letter.” In the letter dated January 3, 1996 Paul stated,

When you recently made a statement about the Roswell incident during your trip to Ireland, I felt moved to write to you. Your statement concluded with the words, “If the United States Air Force did recover alien bodies, they didn’t tell me about it either and I want to know.”

To help Clinton – who wanted to know- Davids enclosed a videotape of his 1994 movie Roswell, a videotape of a keynote speech he had give to a banquet for the Golden Anniversary of the White Sands Missile Range, a one hour videotape compendium of media and news coverage on the Roswell case throughout the years, and a videotape of a speech Paul Davids gave following the USAF release on Roswell called “Reply to the Air Force on the Roswell Incident.” Most importantly Davids included with his package the 1991 book “UFO Crash at Roswell” written by written by Kevin D. Randle and Donald R. Schmitt.

The materials were passed through to Clinton through Nancy Hernreich, Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of Oval Office Operations. Bill Clinton replied by overnight mail on March 20, 1996 thanking Paul for the videotapes.

In September 1998 the Roswell book that Davids had sent became public again during the impeachment of President Clinton when it was found in the president’s private study. Prosecutors were searching out Nicholson Baker’s novel on phone sex called “Vox” that had reportedly been sent to the President by White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

The associated press reported that the novel “was listed on a shelf right between volumes entitled "Churchill on Courage: Timeless Wisdom for Persevering'' and an Air Force report, "UFO Crash at Roswell.''

In September 2005 the UFO crash at Roswell again appeared in Bill Clinton’s life, but this time he brought it up in response to a question which had nothing to do with UFOs but rather the idea of “secrets being passed from president to president.” The question came to President Clinton in a question and answer session following a speech made to the CLSA in Hong Kong.

Clinton in reply began speaking about Roswell,

"Well I don't know if you all heard this, but, there was actually, when I was president in my second term, there was an anniversary observance of Roswell. Remember that? People came to Roswell, New Mexico from all over the world. And there was also a site in Nevada where people were convinced that the government had buried a UFO and perhaps an alien deep underground because we wouldn't allow anybody to go there. And uhm… I can say now, 'cause it's now been released into the public domain.... This place in Nevada was really serious, that there was an alien artifact there. So I actually sent somebody there to figure it out."

"I did attempt to find out if there were any secret government documents that revealed things. If there were, they were concealed from me too. And if there were, well I wouldn't be the first American president that underlings have lied to, or that career bureaucrats have waited out. But there may be some career person sitting around somewhere, hiding these dark secrets, even from elected presidents. But if so, they successfully eluded me…and I'm almost embarrassed to tell you I did (chuckling) try to find out."

In 2007 the Roswell crash again became a talked about issue when Tom Carey and Don Schmitt released their new book “Witness to Roswell.” Paul Davids, who wrote the forward to the book, and who had provided “UFO Crash at Roswell” to President Clinton in 1996, decided there was new “case-closed” evidence that Bill Clinton had to see.

Therefore “armed with ‘Witness to Roswell’ and another new book titled “The Roswell Legacy” by Jessie Marcel Jr.”, Davids told his wife that he “was determined to get these two books to ex-President Clinton. I wasn’t sure how I was going to do it.”

In August 2007, while considering a trip to Harlem, New York where Bill Clinton had an office, an opportunity arose to attend a pancake fundraiser in the Hamptons for Hillary Clinton who had started her run for President. Bill Clinton reportedly would be there.

Paul had some reservation about putting up the money to attend, and whether there would be agents who might take the bag of books from him.

“I might go to all this trouble,” Paul Davids told the 2007 X-Conference, “and never give him the books.” While considering the options Paul discovered that the fundraiser would be held on Davids Lane (Davids LA on the street sign). The location had both his rare last name and LA where he lived. The synchronicity of this situation led Paul to believe that he was on the right track and it was meant to be.

When Paul and his wife arrived at the fifteen million dollar mansion where the fundraiser was being held, there was no one there to stop Paul from bringing in the Roswell books.

Bill and Hillary were there, and were in a very good mood. It was a beautiful day. Paul quickly took a picture of himself (remembering to smile) with Hillary in the background to prove that he had been there.

Paul moved his way right up to the little patio along the house where he listened to Bill give a speech. As he listened he planned how he would get his “own private moment with the President.”

Paul had consulted the owner of the house about his mission, and was told to get as close as possible and then make a dash once Hillary was done because everyone would be distracted surrounding Hillary.

As soon as Hillary finished Paul made his move. He moved back behind where Bill Clinton has seated by himself.

“I had the president to myself for between five and ten minutes,” Paul said. ‘There I was with my bag of books in my moment in front of the President. First I introduced myself. I reminded him of the fact that I was the son of Dr. Jules Davids… without being too direct at first I said, ‘Mr. President. I wrote the forward to a new book that just came out recently and I would really hope that you would read it. It’s quite a good forward and actually quite a good book.”

“Oh,” replied Clinton, “what’s the book?

Paul then took “Witness to Roswell” out of the bag and gave it to Clinton who looked at it. “His eyes were riveted on the ‘unmasking the cover-up’ part of the title,” recalled Paul.

“When you were in Ireland,” Paul said as the President continued to look at the cover, “you said that you were very very interested in this subject, and you said if it happened the Air Force hadn’t told you and you wanted to know about it.’

Paul then told Clinton that he had not gone along with the Air Force report that had been released by the Air Force during the Clinton administration, but mentioned that it was good that the head of the Air Force had released servicemen from their secrecy oaths related to the 1947 crash.

“The authors of this book went to meet with all those servicemen and all the testimony you never got is in this book,” Paul added as the President continued to stare at the book. “I think it shows that the report that was released when you were President is false, unfortunately, but the truth is here.”

Then he gave the President the second book “The Roswell Legacy” by Jessie Marcel Jr., and a new affidavit that had been released following the death of Walter Haut, in which Haut confirmed the object had been from outer space and that there had been bodies. Paul had made a blown up 120% copy to present to the President. He “stuck it in the book so the President couldn’t miss it just in case he didn’t make it to the last chapter.”

The last thing that Paul mentioned to the President was “that the people have to know this. The people have a right to be told.” He further mentioned that the former Defense Minister of Canada Paul Hellyer had been speaking out about this, and that the former Governor of Arizona Fife Symington had spoken out about it.

“When I said Fife Symington something lit up in his eyes, he took the whole bag…” Paul recalled. “He said ‘You know, I’ve always been really interested in this stuff, and I’m going to read this.”