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Article/Document:

Searching for the Truth: Media Control and the Presidents Interest in Ufology

Dennis Balthaser, Oct 18, 2001

original source |  fair use notice

Summary: When doing radio or TV interviews and lectures, I am frequently questioned about the cover-up of the Roswell Incident and other related topics. The general public has a hard time accepting the statements I make from time to time, that the news media is controlled to some degree by the government, and that the President of the United States is not totally informed about the UFO situation.

Dennis Balthaser

author's bio


When doing radio or TV interviews and lectures, I am frequently questioned about the cover-up of the Roswell Incident and other related topics. The general public has a hard time accepting the statements I make from time to time, that the news media is controlled to some degree by the government, and that the President of the United States is not totally informed about the UFO situation.

If I'm incorrect about the media, why don't we hear or read more about UFOs from them? There are several lists on the internet that report sightings from around the world on a weekly basis, but that information very seldom receives any coverage in national or local newspapers, radio or TV broadcasts. When it is reported, invariably the reporter makes light of it rather than reporting it seriously, which does nothing to advance the knowledge of the average person about this topic.

There are of course exceptions to this in radio, with shows such as Art Bell, Jeff Rense, Jerry Pippin and several other local broadcasts around the country. As a researcher, I'm thankful that they exist to give us researchers an opportunity to share our knowledge and information at least with a small percentage of the public.

I feel strongly that some information as it pertains to our national defense, is justified in being kept undercover, such as our approach to dealing with bin Laden, in response to the terrorist attack against the United States on September 11, 2001. With news coverage being what it is today, there are certain things that we don't need to broadcast to the world. Past history has proven that secrets can be kept and the news media can be prevented from going public with the information.

In the 1940s, the development of the atomic bomb right here in New Mexico had over 50,000 people involved and the public knew nothing about it for almost 10 years. The Stealth fighter,
(F-117), was basically not made public until the Gulf War in the 90's but the development and testing of that aircraft goes back more than 25 years. World wide, UFOs are reported daily and the impact they could have on our future is of vital importance, so I have to assume that we are not being told everything about their existence, since the major news media hardly ever report anything on the subject of UFOs. It has been reported that UFOs are the second most popular posting on the Internet, meaning there is a large interest in this subject, but the media continues to ignore it, or as I believe, perhaps is told to ignore it.

As to the Presidents of the United States not being totally informed about the UFO situation, I maintain that the President is a temporary employee and by law only allowed to be in office for two terms or 8 years. Basically I don't think the President can be trusted with all the information that certain individuals in our government possess about the subject of UFOs, because of term limits of the President and the fact that he doesn't possess the security clearance apparently related to the subject of UFOs. Some have indicated over the years that the security of the UFO situation was rated higher than the security for the development of nuclear bombs.

Most, if not all of the Presidents since Harry Truman have publicly had an interest in the subject of UFOs, but for one reason or another have not been able to obtain the information they desired on the subject. If they are unable to obtain the information as President of the United States, why not? We all know the President is somewhat limited in his ability to get things done, due to the check and balance system set up by our forefathers in establishing our government in the first place, and that still is the best governmental system in the world. It is my strong belief however, that there are others within our government that have the information on UFOs, and will not share that with anyone outside of their group, including the President of the United States.

I will share some comments and statements with you, that as a researcher I have been able to obtain over the past few years in regards to our recent Presidents involvement and interest in UFOs. You can decide what to believe.

Many rumors have circulated since 1947, that President Harry Truman was involved with the Majestic 12 group that allegedly had a written policy for dealing with UFOs. The authenticity of those documents however, is still being investigated and researched. On July 10, 1947, (days after the Roswell Incident), Truman was asked if he had ever seen a flying saucer. His response was, "only in the newspapers." A reporter then asked Truman if there was "any explanation of them." Truman again responded, "Only the explanations I have seen in the newspapers."

Many of us believe that Truman advised Dwight D. Eisenhower about the UFO situation when he succeeded Truman as President. (Remember that Eisenhower was a five star General during his military career also). In December 1954, "Ike" was asked about a "flap" of UFO sightings in Europe, and if U.S. authorities suspected something extraterrestrial was involved. He responded that nothing had come to him, verbally or in written form. He further stated that the last time anyone had talked to him about the subject, it had been from a man whom he trusted in the Air Force, who said it was, as far as he knew, completely inaccurate to believe that they came from any other planet or otherwise.

As a side note, I believe that there have only been 3 letters on the subject of UFOs signed by Presidents after entering the White House.
1) Letter from Lyndon Johnson (while Vice President) to a researcher in Canada,
directing him to NASA for analysis of a UFO photo.
2) Letter from President Richard Nixon to a young girl commenting on her theory as to
where UFOs come from.
3) Letter from Ex-President Gerald Ford to a researcher, telling him that he was unable
to get any answers to the UFO question as a Congressman, Vice President, or
President.

President John F. Kennedy was supposedly asked, "what do you think about UFOs" by one of the stewards aboard Air Force One, to which he replied, "I'd like to tell the public about the alien situation, but my hands are tied." If in fact Kennedy knew anything about the UFO situation, that knowledge was forever silenced in Dallas, Texas November 22, 1963.

Ronald Reagan obviously had an obsession with the UFO phenomena, and made several comments in various speeches. Reagan in fact had several sightings himself while governor of California. One of his most famous comments came when he was attending the Geneva summit with Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev in November 1985, when he supposedly stated, "that if the people of the world were to find out that there was some alien life form that was going to attack the earth, then that knowledge would unite all the peoples of the world." He referred to his comments with Gorbachev, at Fallston High School in Maryland a month later. The most famous Reagan comment I believe occurred as he was addressing the Forty-second general assembly of the United Nations on September 21, 1987, when he said in part, "Perhaps we need some outside, universal threat to make us recognize the common bond. I occasionally think how quickly our differences worldwide would vanish if we were facing an alien threat from outside this world. And yet I ask---is not an alien force already among us?"

President George H. Bush had been Reagan's Vice President, and previously for a year, the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency under then President Ford. He might have had access to UFO information in those positions. In March 1988, while still Vice President and on the campaign trail in Arkansas he was approached by a UFO Investigator and asked, "Will you tell the people the truth about UFOs?" Bush replied, "Yeah---if we can find it, what it is. We are really interested."

President Jimmy Carter is on public record as having seen and reported (two reports) a UFO in Georgia, while governor in January 1969. I have heard that in 1977-78 Pentagon officials secretly suppressed a White House study into Extraterrestrial Communications during the Carter Presidential years. In 1976, at the Southern Governor's Conference, Carter stated, "I don't laugh at people anymore when they say they saw a UFO. I've seen one myself." He added, "If I become President, I'll make every piece of information that this country has about UFO sightings available to the public." Whether forgotten or reconsidered in the White House, he never did.

The late television and film star Jackie Gleason, was an avid collector of UFO literature and golfing partner of President Richard Nixon. Gleason's widow claims that President Nixon took Gleason to Homestead Air Force Base, where he saw six or eight mangled remains in what looked like glass-topped freezers located in an inner chamber of one of the structures at the base. Nixon supposedly also pointed out what he said was the wreckage from a flying saucer, enclosed in several large cases.

President Clinton kept a copy of Schmitt and Randle's book, "UFO Crash at Roswell", on a shelf in his private study. During a trip to Belfast, Northern Ireland, he read a letter from a thirteen-year-old boy named Ryan, dealing with the crash in Roswell in 1947. He answered the boy by saying, "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." While president, Clinton asked long-time associate and assistant attorney general Webster Hubbell, "to find the answers to two questions for him: One who killed JFK; and two, are there UFOs?" Hubbell in his book, "Friends in High Places" says, "Clinton was dead serious." Hubbell said, "he had looked into both, but Clinton wasn't satisfied with the answers."

That brings us to our current President, George W. Bush. Bush was questioned about the UFO situation and stated his Vice President Dick Cheney would be the man to know about this subject, having been former Secretary of Defense. I personally will not hold my breath for any disclosure by the former Secretary of Defense.

There are many other comments by the men that have held the highest office in this country over the years, but again, it is my belief that what ever they might know, we will probably never learn from them. It appears evident to me that the President does have some information on the subject and that several have definitely had an interest in the topic, but researchers and the public, will have to obtain the information from other sources than the media and our Presidents.

Dennis G. Balthaser
Email: truthskr@roswell.net

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U.S. Presidents and UFOs