Two petitions. Over 17,000 signatures. One demand: “Immediately disclose the government’s knowledge of and communications with extraterrestrial beings.”
The request emerged from the We the People initiative—an Obama administration program that, given enough interest in a small window of time, promises to grant the public an official response to burning questions. Earlier this month, two petitions with very similar aims were together able to garner the required number of signatures by the initiative to earn an answer. Petitioners demanded the release of government files on aliens, but the White House claimed they had nothing to offer.
“The U.S. government has no evidence that any life exists outside our planet, or that an extraterrestrial presence has contacted or engaged any member of the human race,” replied Phil Larson from the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy on Nov. 5. “In addition, there is no credible information to suggest that any evidence is being hidden from the public’s eye.”
Larson acknowledged the possibility of aliens, and described a variety of NASA projects aimed at searching for them, but stressed that there was “no credible evidence of extraterrestrial presence here on Earth.”
Although it’s an official White House statement, the nothing-to-see-here response is not likely to satisfy public interest. Despite similar statements, one petition cited opinion polls indicating that more than 50 percent of Americans believe there is an extraterrestrial presence, and more than 80 percent believe the government is not telling the truth about this phenomenon.
Given recent government disclosures containing several thousand documents suggesting evidence of extraterrestrial contact from the U.K., France, Denmark, Brazil, and others, the White House, We the People statement leaves much to be desired.
“I find it a bit astonishing that at this point, given the preponderance of positive proof that has been collected, that there would be these sorts of denials,” said Dr. Steven Greer, founder of the Disclosure Project NGO. “However, it doesn’t mean that they’re lying.”
In a phone interview Dr. Greer repeatedly clarified that any claims of no evidence were absurd, “But the low-level person who made this statement could certainly have been making these claims based on the best of his knowledge. This does not mean that there is no knowledge on this subject from this administration. The devil is in the details here.”
While the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy may genuinely be in the dark on evidence of alien life, Greer has personally met with many high-level officials who certainly have compelling stories to share. Over the last 20 years, Greer’s organization has collected testimony from over 500 high-profile witnesses and whistle-blowers who’ve observed projects that they say are clearly related to extraterrestrial civilizations.
“This is actually quite well known in several highly classified projects,” said Greer, who has traveled around the world and met with various individuals and governments to convince them to release the information they have.
Greer’s Disclosure Project—and its sister organization, the Center for the Study of Extra Terrestrial Intelligence (CSETI)—has collected accounts from a variety of sources, including military witnesses from every branch, authorities from several government agencies, and even former presidents.
“And that’s just the tip of the iceberg to the kind of evidence we have,” Greer said, referring to photos, FAA radar images, and other documents available to view at disclosureproject.org and cseti.org.
“The secrecy surrounding the extraterrestrial subject is so excessive, and frankly illegal, that even people in senior positions in government are frequently misled or denied access,” he said, recounting several examples of personally briefing individuals in positions of authority and oversight who explained that they also were looking for answers, but would often come up against an impenetrable wall of secrecy.
“Most Americans don’t realize that senior executive personnel frequently will not be given access to highly secret projects,” said Greer. “Particularly ones that deal with something like this where the subject is controversial, and the secret is enormous. It’s a bit simplistic to say that the government is hiding this from us when the people that we think of as being the head of our government are frequently victims of this kind of deception.”
Back in the Clinton administration, Greer said he was asked to brief former CIA Director R. James Woolsey on the subject and learned that neither he, nor the president, knew anything about the issue and “were even denied access or intentionally misled when they tried to push for information.”
A History of Secrecy
The secrecy that goes all the way to the top can be traced to the beginning of the government’s history of UFO studies. Greer pointed to a Canadian classified document that was accidentally released in the mid-1970s. Written in 1951, the document states that the U.S. government was studying extraterrestrial technology extensively, and identified it as the most secret project within the government at that time.
“At that time we were developing the hydrogen bomb, which wasn’t detonated until 1952. So you can imagine what kind of technology could be even more secret than the H-bomb,” said Greer, who went on to describe a decades-long military-industrial complex campaign to dismiss and marginalize the subject of extraterrestrial research.
“The secrecy and these absurd denials aren’t because the issue is silly, although that’s how it’s often portrayed—little green men. It’s because the implications are so vast. You cannot address information on the existence of intelligent life out there without also disclosing information of sciences and technologies that are so far beyond what we see today.”
Greer explains that introducing technology that would rival the oil power and conventional energy grid running the world today would “represent an enormous transformation and change. Most people who are in powerful positions don’t want to take on that kind of change. It’s easier just to kick the can down the road.”
So when can we expect a full disclosure from the U.S. government? Greer says that the release of information rests more in our hands—the public, the media, the people in the public interest sector—than it does in the hands of the president.
“If these folks are being denied access and don’t control it, then it’s incumbent on us to find people with the courage to come forward and tell the public the truth,” said Greer.
“Disclosure is something happening now,” he continued. “This is a process. As for a singular moment when folks within the power structure of the United States government come clean, I think if the people lead the leaders will follow.”
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