Is UFO Classification Hurting Our Country?

I was just watching the May 2001 National Press Club briefing by Project Disclosure, which is dedicated to declassifying UFO information held by the United States government.

I'm a science fiction buff, but a "want to believe" skeptic when it comes to UFOs. I thought this video was one of the most important videos I have seen in a long time on the subject. I saw a lot of people with a lot of clearances tell me that the United States government knows much more about UFOs than they are letting on. Doctor Greer, a Virginia emergency room physician who decided to drop medicine and research this phenomenon, has over 400 witnesses. Hundreds of hours of sworn testimony.

And it's not just those guys. I remember that president Clinton's former chief of staff, Leon Paneta, came out a few years back and pleaded, pleaded mind you, with the government to release this material. To give out the technology that could make a difference. A senior editor at Jane's Defense Weekly has written a book alleging that we have had UFO technology for many years.

I won't argue UFOs here. Personally, I think the weight of common sense has shifted in the world. Now it's more likely that they exist than they do not. That's just my observation of human opinion. I think most people believe it is likely that the United States government knows more about alien technology than they are letting on.

I will, however, ask you to think about the classification of information. In a democracy, the people have the responsibility to make informed decisions. Knowing where a Soviet missile base is -- that's one thing. But new technology? Radically new technology? Keeping it secret for decades? There's something really fundamentally wrong with this.

When we've got kids over in Iraq dying because the American public believes it is in our strategic interest to be there, the public had damned better know the whole story. It's immoral, illegal, and the worst kind of demagoguery to keep technology that might reduce our oil dependency a secret. Nobody cares about the aliens. Nobody gives a hoot about larger civilizations than our own. We do, however, care about our quality of life, the needs of our families and our country, the future of the planet. We have the responsibility to vote here. To keep information from us on purpose that would change our votes is a critical threat to our democracy. We can't run the country if we are blind and deaf. And if we're not running the country, it's not legitimate any more.

I understand that people in the military industrial complex have an obligation to keep secrets no matter what. They have a responsibility to not add their own values to what they are processing. And I support the system. You can't have every person making his or her own moral decisions about public policy and then going public with classifed material, like we had with the CIA Prison story recently. That's wrong. We have to be able to keep secrets.

I cannot think of any other issue that is like this one, however, for several reasons. 1) It has been going on for decades, 2) the public already suspects the truth, 3) it has direct impact on the lives of the world, 4) it lacks the oversight that every other part of our government has, and 5) it is the worst kind of precedent you could possibly imagine. This issue, more than any other issue today, is eating away at the foundations of our trust in not just some administration, but the entire system of government that we have. It's a cancer. Somebody has to stand up and cut it out. The greater good is now served by openess, not secrecy. I add my voice to those others begging for folks to make this change happen. Please.

I would encourage those in the know to consider these factors. I do not think that I would want to live my life keeping something like that from my fellow man. I would not want to go to my grave knowing something that could save millions of lives, something that could change the world, and not done anything about it. I would not want to be part of any system that hurt so many people, for whatever reason.

I cannot imagine why the folks inside these operations do not come out today, online, on video, with evidence, and make the loudest claims they possibly can to anybody who will listen.

But that's just me.

Mercury & Gemini Astronaut, Colonel Gordon Cooper
A saucer flew right over [us], put down three landing gears, and landed out on the dry lakebed. [The cameramen] went out there with their cameras towards the UFO...I had a chance to hold [the film] up to the window. Good close-up shots. There was no doubt in my mind that it was made someplace other than on this earth. - Video interview. Transcribed in Disclosure, Steven M. Greer, MD., ed., pp. 226-227. See also Gordon Cooper & Bruce Henderson, Leap of Faith: an Astronaut's Journey into the Unknown, pp. 80-91, 194 - 200

FAA Division Chief of Accidents and Investigations, John Callahan
The UFO was bouncing around the 747. [It] was a huge ball with lights running around it...Well, I've been involved in a lot of cover-ups with the FAA. When we gave the presentation to the Reagan staff, they had all those people swear that this never happened. But they never had me swear it never happened. I can tell you what I've seen with my own eyes. I've got a videotape. I've got the voice tape. I've got the reports that were filed that will confirm what I've been telling you. - Video interview and Disclosure, pp. 80 - 85.

Former Chief of Defense, British Royal Navy, Admiral Lord Hill-Norton
I have frequently been asked why a person of my background - a former Chief of the Defense Staff, a former Chairman of the NATO Military Committee - why I think there is a cover-up [of] the facts about UFOs. I believe governments fear that if they did disclose those facts, people would panic. I don't believe that at all. There is a serious possibility that we are being visited by people from outer space. It behooves us to find out who they are, where they come from, and what they want. -Video and Disclosure, pp. 305 - 307.

Former Director of CIA, Vice Admiral R.H. Hillenkoetter
It is time for the truth to be brought out in open Congressional hearings. Behind the scenes, high-ranking Air Force officers are soberly concerned about the UFOs. But through official secrecy and ridicule, many citizens are led to believe the unknown flying objects are nonsense. To hide the facts, the Air Force has silenced its personnel. - The New York Times, Sunday, February 28, 1960: "Air Force Order on 'Saucers' Cited," p. L30. See also Disclosure, p. 58.

US Navy Pilot, Lieutenant Frederick Fox
There is a [military] publication called JANAP 146E that has a section that says you will not reveal any information regarding the UFO phenomenon under penalty of $10,000 fine and ten years in jail. So the secret has been kept. - Disclosure, pp. 145, 146.

Marine Corps, Corporal Jonathan Weygandt
[The UFO] was buried in the side of a cliff. When I first saw it, I was scared. I think the creatures calmed me...[Later] I was arrested [by an Air Force officer]. He was saying, "Do you like the Constitution?" I'm like, "Yeah." He said, "We don't obey. We just do what we want. And if you tell anybody [about us or the UFO], you will just come up missing." - Video and Disclosure, pp. 275 - 277.