Article/Document:

Pressure Building for Congressional Hearings on UFOs

Sarah McClendon, White House Correspondent, McClendon News Service, July 1, 1998

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Summary: Pressure is building up for Congress to give attention to the controversy over unidentified flying objects. With scientists from Stanford, MIT, Cornell, Princeton and elsewhere studying UFO evidence, the controversy is now being brought out into the open and heavy secrecy surrounding the subject is being lifted. Seminars on UFO evidence are being held periodically throughout the country with laymen discussing the evidence without fear of being ridiculed. (This article is written by Sarah McClendon, the nation's longest-serving White House Correspondent, who died on 9 January 2003.)

Sarah McClendon

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Washington, D.C.- Pressure is building up for Congress to give attention to the controversy over unidentified flying objects. With scientists from Stanford, MIT, Cornell, Princeton and elsewhere studying UFO evidence, the controversy is now being brought out into the open and heavy secrecy surrounding the subject is being lifted. Seminars on UFO evidence are being held periodically throughout the country with laymen discussing the evidence without fear of being ridiculed.

When about 30 members of Congress or their staff heard a briefing on UFOs in April of 1997, Rep. Dan Burton, R., Ind. chairman of the Government Reform and Oversight Committee, displayed some interest in the matter. His committee has received a number of letters on the subject, according to staff member Matthew Ebert. ìThese letters are treated seriously,î he said. Ebert thinks there is a possibility congressional hearings will be held.

At a May 11 hearing on human rights documents pertaining to Guatemala and Honduras held by the House subcommittee on Government Management, Information and Technology, its chairman Rep. Steve Horn, R. CA, asked how the government classifies UFO documents. The two witnesses, Lee Strickland, chief of the Information Review Group of the Central Intelligence Agency and Steven Garfinkle, director of the Security and Oversight Group of the National Archives, both said they thought UFO documents should be considered as public information.

There may be economic benefits from this emerging information. Dr. Steven Greer, an emergency room physician, who for eight years has briefed and been briefed by government and U.N. officials on the subject of unidentified objects in U.S. airspace, is convinced that the materials and technology of UFOs carry enormous benefits. For example, he says their energy creating apparatus does not use internal combustion.

Greer asserts the financial and environmental cost of exploiting oil and gas to service 6 billion people worldwide can be dramatically reduced. Large scale energy production derived from UFO technology would reverse environmental damage and save hundreds of billions of dollars annually in direct costs.

Dr. Greer is the International Director of the Center for the Study of Extraterrestrial Intelligence and leads a working team of around 200 composed of CSETI members and associates, government employee witnesses, consultants and government contacts. Their hope is to get congress to hold hearings and take testimony from witnesses. He has explained his conclusions to a number of congressional members.

A national petition utilizing the internet and calling for congressional hearings was launched last year by another group, Stargate International out of Tucson, Arizona. It has accumulated 20,000+ names to be presented to congress. A million signatures are sought.

Greer is aware that many employees of the government keep secret facts which they have obtained about UFOs. He feels it is unconstitutional for government to bottle up information on this importance. He would like to see UFOís openly discussed and covered widely in the press.

For some years the belief has been widespread there is in the public domain a presidential executive order forbidding government employees from talking about UFOs. Dr. Greer is not aware of any such an executive order but indicated concern that secret executive orders have been issued and not disclosed to Congress or the public. Such secret orders would make it difficult for people to learn more about UFOs. From the White House it was learned that a check of executive orders going back to the early eighteen thirties shows none has been issued on this subject. Surprising is the growing number of citizens showing an interest in finding out more about UFOs. Seminars are being held around the country every week with as many as five and six hundred in attendance.

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Background on Sarah McClendon, White House Correspondent