President's UFO Talk

The President of the United States of America is considered by many to be the most powerful man in the world. If that very powerful President is in change of the UFO cover-up, then that relationship is the key relationship to study in determining what is going on. If the President is not the head of the UFO cover-up, cut out of the loop by some Machiavellian group bypassing the constitution, then that is the key story to investigate. In short, the President’s relationship to the UFO situation is the key to understanding what happened, and how to end the cover-up.

A quick look back at history shows that rarely have U.S. Presidents or vice-presidents ever commented on the UFO situation. Part of the reason for this executive silence is that no one ever asked. Presidential records show there may have been only four occasions when the President or vice-president has ever faced the UFO question while in office, and in front of a public form. That amounts to four occasions in 55 years, or once every fourteen years.

The first occurred on July 10, 1947, only days following the Roswell New Mexico crash, when President Truman first faced a question about UFOs. He was asked if he had ever seen a flying saucer. He replied, "only in the newspapers."

A reporter then asked Truman if there was "any explanation of them." The President replied, "Only the explanations I have seen in the newspapers. Did you ever hear of the moon hoax?"

In December 1954, President Eisenhower was asked a question about a flap of UFO sighting in Europe, and if U.S. authorities suspected something extraterrestrial was involved. Eisenhower replied:

Well, with regard to those recent reports, nothing has come to me at all, either verbally or in written form. And I must say, when I go back far enough, the last time I heard this talked to me, a man whom I trust from the Air Forces said that it was, as far as he knew, completely inaccurate to believe that they came from any outside a planet or otherwise.

In July 1996 just following the release of the movie Independence Day where aliens attack and destroy the White House, President Clinton was asked if he thought America could fight and win over invading aliens as had occurred in the fictionalized movie. Clinton responded, "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."

In April 2001 vice-president Cheney was asked if in any of his government jobs (White House Chief of Staff, Secretary of Defense, vice-president) he had ever been briefed on UFOs, and if so when, and what was he told. Cheney replied:

Well if I had been briefed on it, I’m sure it was probably classified, and I couldn’t talk about it. I have not come across the subject since I have been back in government, oh like since January 20^th. I’ve been in a lot of meetings and I don’t recall one on UFOs.

In most past administrations there has been no mention of UFOs by the President, whether in executive branch documents, press conferences, or in White House news releases. There have, for example, been only three letters on the UFO subject 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 Ford to researcher George Filer, telling him that he was unable to get any answers to the UFO question as Congressman, Vice President, or President.

At first glance it would appear that the plan is that most important problem mankind has ever faced, should never cross paths with the most powerful man in the world. At least that is the way it has been made to appear. Recently, however, there seems to be a change in how some administrations have chosen to play the game.

In the 1997 movie Contact, President Clinton appears in the White House Press room to declare to the world, "This is the product of years of exploration by some of the world’s most distinguished scientists . . . if this discovery is confirmed, it will surely be one of the most stunning insights into our universe that science has uncovered. Its implications are as far reaching and awe-inspiring as can be imagined . . . "

The message was made to appear as Clinton’s reaction to an alien signal picked up during a SETI search of radio signals from the Vega star system.

In reality, it was nothing of the sort. It was a taped segment of a statement read one the White House lawn by President Clinton following the discovery of a possible biological fingerprint in a Martian meteor. The segment had been taped, reworked, and made to look like an official confirmation of first contact with an extraterrestrial race.

The White House protested the surreptitious and unauthorized use of the Clinton speech. Mike McCurry stated that the issue was "of real concern to the Legal Counsel."  Presidential counsel Charles F.C. Ruff wrote to the film's director and producer, Robert Zemeckis, said, ``You have manipulated images of the president's public statements, taken them out of the context in which they were uttered and adapted them to fit the plot of your film.''

President Clinton, on the other hand, did not "express any real concern." The White House legal department wrote the Contact people a letter, but that’s as far as it went. They did not push the issue. The producers of Contact were not forced to make changes to the movie, provide compensation, or even apologize for their actions.

Further, there were indications that Clinton may have known his image was going to be used. A spokesman for Warner Brothers stated Clinton was aware of what was happening. As further support for this opinion the spokesman stated that Dee Dee Myers, Clinton’s former press secretary, was a media consultant for the movie.

Perhaps a reason the Clinton White House did not more forcefully protest the use of the President’s voice and image in such an out of context way, is that the Clinton White House was sympathetic to the extraterrestrial image. Secondly, the image of Clinton making the statement placed the President in a good light compared to the scandal images that were so common in the media.

More important, the Clinton White House kept a low profile on their protests of this extraterrestrial misrepresentation of the President, because they too were surreptitiously placing UFO and alien references in official speeches and statements originating from the White House. They appeared as a form of trash talk, never a discussion of UFOs themselves, and always indirectly inserted so they would appear as a common part of the language of the speech. The alien references were usually inserted as part of a humorous comment or joke. Many on the other hand, as I will show, had well calculated enigmatic meanings.

These UFO trash talk incursions were first used in the Reagan administration. The pattern was continued in the Clinton administration were the number of insertions increased dramatically. Most of the other administrations had used very few, and usually none.

The UFO trash talk in the Reagan administration received a great deal of publicity. This was especially true of Reagan’s alien invasion remarks.

In the Clinton administration, there were so many UFO references used it is almost staggering. Yet, the UFO trash talk went completely unnoticed. Except for a couple brief mentions of some of these items in the press and in UFO Internet discussion groups, the incursions went totally unnoticed - till now.

The Reagan Era

Of all the U.S. Presidents, Reagan more than any other President, has received notoriety for his obsession with the UFO phenomena. The obsession tag came from a series of UFO related utterances made by Reagan in various speeches and comments.

Billy Cox, a feature writer with the newspaper Florida Today, wrote a major story that was republished in USA Today about Reagan and the series of UFO comments. Cox described the situation as "Ronald Reagan’s abiding fascination with extraterrestrials."

A careful review of Reagan’s background did show a UFO leaning. Ronald Reagan’s daughter Patti Davis described her father as "fascinated with stories about unidentified flying objects and the possibility of life on other worlds." She compared the "madness" of her father’s inauguration day to "a fifty’s movie in which flying saucers descend on the metropolis."

Reagan may have gained this intense interest from sightings he had while he was Governor of California. Kitty Kelly in her Unauthorized Biography of Nancy Reagan stated Reagan admitted to believing in flying saucers, and "even swore that he had seen a few unidentified flying objects."

Two of these Reagan encounters with UFOs have become public. Steve Allen made the first sighting story public on his WNEW-AM radio show in New York. Allen stated that a well-known personality in the entertainment industry had confided the story to him many years before. As the story had already made the rounds in the rumor mill, there was no question the comedian and host was referring to Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy.

Ron and Nancy were expected at a casual dinner party with friends in Hollywood. Except for the Reagans, all the guests had arrived. Ron and Nancy showed thirty minutes later quite upset. They stated that they had seen a UFO coming down the coast.

The second sighting occurred in 1974 while Reagan was still Governor. Reagan related the story to Norman C. Millar, then Washington Bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal, later the editor of the Los Angeles Times Reagan told Millar:

"I was in a plane last week when I looked out the window and saw this white light. It was zigzagging around. I went up to the pilot and said, ‘Have you seen anything like that before?’ He was shocked and said, ‘Nope.’ And I said to him: ‘Let’s follow it!’

We followed it for several minutes. It was a bright white light. We followed it to Bakersfield, and all of a sudden to our utter amazement, it went straight up into the heavens. When we got off the plane, I told Nancy all about it."

Reagan, in his discussion of the sighting with Norman C. Millar added that he had told Nancy about the UFO he had seen, and they had done personal research on UFOs. This research had uncovered the facts that there were references to UFOs in Egyptian hieroglyphics. The animated way that Reagan was telling his story led Millar to conclude that Reagan seriously believed in UFOs. He asked him, "Governor, are you telling me that you saw a UFO?"

Suddenly, according to Millar, Reagan realized that he was talking to a reporter. "This look crossed his face," recalled Millar, "and he said let’s just say that I’m an agnostic."

Once in the White House it didn’t take Reagan a long time to bring up the UFO subject and get into alien hot water. This was despite efforts to limit the President’s ramblings. In their book Landslide, Jane Mayer and Doyle McManus described that the Reagan handlers went to great lengths to "conceal" the President’s assertion that he had seen a flying saucer or his belief that there was a ghost in the Lincoln bedroom. There were also attempts made to control Reagan’s open discussions of Armageddon, another of the President’s favorite subjects.

The efforts to maintain total silence on the forbidden subjects were not successful. Sometimes, the efforts were so unsuccessful that Reagan was able to get two of the forbidden topics in the same speech such as during the Remarks at the Annual Conservative Political Action Conference Dinner on February 11, 1988. In the speech, written for Reagan by Pulitzer Prize winning speechwriter Tony Dolan, Reagan said:

...By the way, something odd happened just before I got here tonight that I think you should know about. I got a message from Dave Keane reminding me that this was the eve of Lincoln's birthday-and suggesting I go upstairs and check on the ghost in Lincoln's bedroom. I did. And what do you know, there was Stan Evans dressed as Abe Lincoln. And he kept saying, "Listen to Jesse Helms.". . . Well, we conservatives have been in Washington now for a while and we occasionally need to remind ourselves what brought us here in the first place: our unshakable, root-deep, all-encompassing skepticism about the capital city's answer to the UFO, that bizarre, ever-tottering but ever-flickering saucer in the sky called "The Prevailing Washington Wisdom."

Most of President Reagan’s UFO comments related to what he referred to as "my fantasy." The concept of the fantasy was that the world would become united if faced with an invasion of aliens from another world. As Reagan saw it, the world would during such an invasion, view all people as one race. This would unite the one Earth race in their dealing with extraterrestrials.

The first such "alien invasion" comment came from President Reagan when he was attending the Geneva summit with Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev in November 1985. During a series of impromptu toasts on November 19, President Reagan began his toast by discussing an invasion of aliens approaching on Halley’s Comet that a flying saucer was traveling behind the Hale-Bopp comet. Where President Reagan hypothesized that aliens coming on a comet might be coming to invade the earth, the Heaven’s gate groups believed the aliens were coming to take them to an extraterrestrial "Kingdom of Heaven." A Memorandum of Conversation from the United States State Department recorded Reagan’s comment.

Reagan said that while the General Secretary was speaking, he had been thinking of various problems being discussed at the talks. He said that previous to the General Secretary’s remarks, he had been telling Foreign Minister Shevardnadze (who was sitting to the President’s right) 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 approaching on Halley’s Comet, then that knowledge would unite all the peoples of the world.

Further, the President observed that General Secretary Gorbachev had cited a Biblical quotation, and the President is also alluding to the Bible, pointed out that Acts 16 refers to the fact that "we are all of one blood regardless of where we live on the Earth," and we should never forget that.

A review of the files at the Reagan library shows no records in the speechwriter’s files for this toast. It is safe then to assume that this "alien invasion" toast remark was an ad-lib comment by the President. The same would hold true for the "alien invasion" remark made to Shevardnadze. They were not, as some have espoused, a carefully drafted attempt by the White House or some MJ-12 type group to lead or mislead the public.

There was a third mention of the alien invasion hypothesis made at the Geneva Summit. Reagan made it to Gorbachev during the five hours of personal conversations that were held between the two leaders. The Memorandums of Conversation from the Summit do not document the third remark, but it is evident from the number of pages in the NSC file that not everything in the five hours of conversations was recorded. The mention of the third "alien invasion" remark was made public by Reagan himself in a speech that President Reagan made shortly after arriving back in the U.S. from the summit.

On December 4, 1985, Ronald Reagan made a speech at Fallston High School, Harford County, Maryland. During the speech President Reagan reflected on his meeting with Gorbachev in Geneva two weeks before. Reagan spent much of the speech talking about an exchange of scholars, scientists, and government officials between the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R. that he and Gorbachev had discussed. At the very end of the speech, Reagan stated that during five hours of private conversations with Gorbachev in Geneva, he had brought up the alien scenario:

"I couldn’t help but - when you stop to think that we’re all God’s children, wherever we live in the world, I couldn’t help but say to him (Gorbachev) just how easy his task and mine might be if suddenly there was a threat to this world from some other species from another planet outside in the universe. We’d forget all the little local differences that we have between our countries and we would find out once and for all that we really are all human beings here on this Earth together. Well I guess we can wait for some alien race to come down and threaten us, but I think that between us we can bring about that realization."

A review of the speech writer files from the Fallston speech show that the "alien invasion" reference was neither in the drafts of the speech nor in the speech copy. Reagan had simply added his recollection of his "alien invasion" comment to Gorbachev while he was speaking. Once again the idea had come from Reagan, as opposed to a hidden power behind the President.

The Fallston remark did not attract big headlines in America, but it did generate a reply from Gorbachev. On February 16, 1987, in an important speech, at a conference at Grand Kremlin Palace in Moscow on the "Survival of Humanity," Gorbachev appeared to respond to President Reagan:

"At our meeting in Geneva, the U.S. President said that if the earth faced an invasion by extraterrestrials, the United States and the Soviet Union would join forces to repel such an invasion. I shall not dispute the hypothesis, although I think it’s early yet to worry about such an intrusion. It is much more important to think about the problems that have entered in our common home."

In response to Gorbachev Reagan decided to bring up the alien invasion fantasy again. This time he chose to use the United Nations as his stage. Toward the end of his speech to the Forty-second general assembly of the United Nations on September 21, 1987, Reagan said,

" In our obsession with antagonisms of the moment, we often forget how much unites all the members of humanity. Perhaps we need some outside, universal threat to make us recognize this common bond. I occasionally think how quickly our differences worldwide would vanish if we were facing an alien threat from outside of this world. And yet I ask - is not an alien force already among us? "

In the Reagan Administration’s speech writing file there is a record of how this alien invasion reference ended up in the speech. Clark Judge wrote the speech, and Judge had not included an alien invasion reference, despite the fact that it appeared Reagan had asked for it.

A near final draft was sent to Reagan for comment on September 17, four days before the speech. In his scratchy, patriarchal handwriting Reagan wrote:

I think there is too much anti-Soviet preaching in view of what we are trying to achieve right now.

And towards the end perhaps I still would like my "fantasy" - how quickly our differences worldwide would vanish if creatures from another planet should threaten this world.

On September 18, 1987 Clark Judge wrote to President Reagan and stated " Your Fantasy is included. Please see page 16, paragraph at the top of the page." When the speech returned to Judge from Reagan "if creatures from another planet should threaten," was changed to "if we were faced with an alien threat from outside" as is found in the final speech.

The request for and changes to the wording of the alien invasion remark in the speech were Reagan’s ideas. The correspondence between Reagan and Judge does however show, that many departments such as State and NSC did see and sign off on the reference to the aliens being in the speech.

Later in the same month Reagan talked once more about the alien threat. This time he broached the subject for the second time with Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze while Shevardnadze’s was in Washington to sign the INF Treaty on September 15, 1987. The New Republic magazine reported the story ;

Near the end of his lunch with Shevardnadze Reagan wondered aloud what would happen if the world was faced with an ‘alien threat’ from outer space. ‘Don’t you think the United States and the Soviet Union would be together Reagan asked? Shevardnadze said, "yes, absolutely. And we wouldn’t need our defense ministers to meet."

Reagan’s final alien invasion reference was made on May 4, 1988. It was the day after Donald Regan, the former Reagan Chief of staff had revealed " Virtually every move and decision the Reagans made during my time as White House Chief of Staff was cleared in advance with a woman in San Francisco who drew up horoscopes to make sure the planets were in a favorable alignment for the enterprise."

Reagan made his alien reference in a question and answer period following a speech to the National Strategy Forum in the Chicago Palmer House Hotel. It was dubbed the "space invader" speech by the media, but was written up in media stories only as a sidelight to the astrology revelations of the day before.

Significantly, Reagan’s alien statement was made in response to the question - " What do you consider to be the most important need in International Relations?" Reagan replied:

" I’ve often wondered...what if all of us in the world discovered that we were threatened by an outer - a power from outer space, from another planet. Wouldn’t we all of a sudden find that we didn’t have any differences between us at all, we were all human beings, citizens of the world, and wouldn’t we come together to fight that particular threat . . ."

Beside the alien invasion remarks found in various Reagan speeches, there are a couple other times when Reagan made reference to UFOs and extraterrestrials. On June 27, 1982, a year after Reagan entered the White House, Ronald Reagan made one of his most famous alien remarks when he hosted Steven Spielberg in the White House.

Spielberg was at the White House to present a private screening of his soon to be released movie ET: The Extraterrestrial. The movie dealt with a young visiting extraterrestrial that becomes stranded on earth and struggles to return, while U.S. government agents try to capture him.

Movies were a big part of Reagan’s life before he became President, and he spent a lot of time while President watching movies, either in the White House Theater, or on the weekends at Camp David. White House records list 377 movies that Ron and Nancy Reagan had been shown. These included most of the Star Trek movies, and most of Steven Spielberg movies. In fact, two days before Spielberg arrived in Washington for the special screening of E.T., the Reagans were at Camp David watching Spielberg’s fictional ghost movie Poltergeist.

Along with the Reagans and Spielberg thirty-five people were invited to the special E.T. screening. The event started with a reception in the Blue Room where the Reagans met with the invited guests. From there the group moved to the Red Room where the Presidential party had dinner. At 8:22 p.m., in the White House Theater, the movie began.

During the screening of E.T.the President leaned over, clapped Spielberg on the shoulder, and quietly commented, "You know, there aren’t six people in this room who know how true this really is." Unfortunately, the sudden press of people following the movie prevented Spielberg from pursuing the strange comment made by Reagan.

A couple months later, probably still inspired by the E.T. movie, a couple months later President Reagan showed up in Roswell, New Mexico to give a speech for the re-election of Harrison (Jack) Schmitt. Schmitt was a Republican Senator from New Mexico who as an Apollo 17 astronaut was the last man to walk on the moon.

Schmitt like Reagan was interested in the UFO phenomena. Like Reagan, Schmitt had publicly played both the investigator and the agnostic. On a positive note Schmitt declared, "If the government has any information on UFO's, it should be released to the public -- barring anything that might affect national security. We ought to be involved in a search to find out if there's any good evidence that UFOs really are spacecraft that are being piloted by extraterrestrial beings." Playing the conservative politician Schmitt stated, "The existence of intelligent life elsewhere in our universe is highly probable, given the huge number of sun-like stars that exist out there. That such life would visit our star and planet, however, is unlikely, but not impossible given the large number of choices it would have for such a visit. Further, the so-called UFOs have not done a very good job of communicating for life (that's) intelligent enough to travel between stars."

Schmitt’s actions spoke very strongly towards his interest in solving the UFO mystery. In 1979 during the peek wave of cattle mutilations Schmitt gathered together 200 policemen, cattlemen, investigators, FBI agents, and media men from 11 western states in Albuquerque for the only official investigation into the cattle mutilation phenomena. No solution to the problem was reached by the gathering, but only a few days later the justice Department offered money for an investigation.

Even more spectacular was Senator Schmitt’s involvement a year later in the case of Paul Bennewitz, an Albuquerque businessman who had contacted Kirkland Air Force base, U.S.A.F. intelligence, and President Reagan about his claim that he was monitoring a base of aliens operating in the center of the Jicarilla Reservation in Northern New Mexico. On November 10 , Bennewitz was invited to the Kirkland Air Force base to present his findings to a small group of officers and scientists. A week later, agent Richard Doty told Bennewitz that the Air Force Office of Special Investigation (AFOSI) had decided against further consideration of the matter.

At this point Senator Schmitt involved himself in the case asking Doty asking what AFOSI was planning to do about Bennewitz's allegations. When informed that no investigation was planned, Schmitt spoke with Brig. Gen. William Brooksher of base security.

In this light, it came as no surprise that the re-election rally for Schmitt should be at the location of the most popular UFO story of the century, and that Reagan brought up the subject of extraterrestrials in his speech. Reagan began his speech

It feels good to be here in the land of enchantment and far away from a place of disenchantment on the banks of the Potomac. Jack (Schmitt), are you sure you want to go back there? [Laughter] Of course, having once been an astronaut, Jack Schmitt is probably the only one who feels at home there; because Washington is in orbit most of the time about one thing or another. [Laughter]

You know, when he was first elected he Senate, he probably thought that, like E.T., [A character in the movie ``E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial.''] he had landed on another planet. He was one of the few among those alien big spenders, big taxers, who was working to bring economic order to our nation.

George Herbert Walker Bush Talks UFOs

George Bush’s chance to talk about UFOs came while he was still vice-president to President Reagan. On March 7, 1988 Bush was on the campaign in Rogers, Arkansas. There waiting to question the vice-president was UFO investor Charles Huffer. Just as Bush was entering the building for a news conference, Huffer turned on his tape recorder and approached Bush.

"Mr. Bush, Mr. President," asked Mr. Huffer (in the excitement of the moment Mr. Huffer called him President). "Will you tell the people the truth about UFOs?"

"Yeah," replied Bush. Then realizing what he had just said Bush added, "If we can find it, what it is. We are really interested."

"You’ll have it, you’ll have It." said Huffer. "It’s in there. (Huffer meant it would be in his briefing when he became president) Declassify it and tell us, ok?"

"OK," said Bush, " alright, yes."

Bush then entered the building and met with the press. Huffer remained outside waiting for Bush to come back out. When he did emerge from the building, Huffer, his tape recorder running again, told George Bush, "Going to hold you to that promise."

"Alright," replied Bush.

"OK," said Huffer, "you’re going to get it." (Huffer meant the UFO information)

"Why don’t you send me some information about it? " asked Bush.

"Naw," said Huffer, "you’re a CIA man. You know all that stuff."

" I know some." replied Bush. "I know a fair amount."

Bush had spent a year as Director of Central Intelligence for President Gerald Ford, where he may have learned some of the UFO secrets. He may also have learned some of the UFO secrets from briefing that he and Ronald Reagan were rumored to have had at the Manzano Weapons Storage area in Albuquerque in 1982. If Bush did "know a fair bit." He only took a couple occasions during his Presidency to talk about it.

The first incident occurred on July 2, 1992 when Bush suddenly answered a question with this bizarre reply. Bush said, "I told them to keep this thing secret. The extraterrestrial who met with George Bush at Camp David -- I told him, I said, if I'm going to meet with you -- [laughter] – I told him it was for me all along. There he is. [Laughter]" (The question does not help identify what Bush is referring to, but it appears to refer to the tabloid alien that the Weekly World News claimed was meeting with all the candidates in the 1992 election)

Bush’s final comment occurred on October 30, only a couple days before the 92 elections. Bush was speaking to the Kentucky Fried Chicken Convention in Nashville, Tennessee. Bush introduced a UFO reference that Clinton would use over as President to advance his campaign to pass his medicare reform package. Bush stated, "But what about Governor Clinton? In June, he promised to present his 100-day plan even before the election. That's four days away. No plan, no plan has been sighted yet, and the reason is simple. You're more apt to see a UFO than you are his plan." [Laughter]

Clinton Not to be Outdone

It has always been known within the UFO community that Bill Clinton had an interest in discovering the answer to the UFO puzzle. If the numbers of trash talk UFO items found in his White House materials is any indication, the level of Clinton’s obsession about UFOs made Reagan’s interest in the subject look tame in comparison.

Like Ronald Reagan, both Bill and Hillary Clinton were very interested in the concept of an alien invasion. The first time Clinton brought up the idea of an alien invasion idea during an interview with Tom Brokaw of MSNBC. This interview, done on July 15, 1996, involved the just released movie "Independence day." Clinton conveyed to Brokaw how much he had enjoyed the movie.

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.

During the interview, Brokaw took a question from an Internet e-mail asking Clinton if he thought that we could actually win a war against the aliens if they were to attack America, as the fictionalized Independence Day movie had shown.

President Clinton replied, "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 President then launched into an alien invasion speech that would have made President Reagan proud.

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 was a big fan of the movie Independence Day, and he spoke highly of it a number of times. On the day of the movie’s release, at the 200^th Birthday Celebration for Youngstown Ohio, Clinton said this of the movie.

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.

A couple weeks after the release of the movie, still inspired by the Independence Day movie, President Clinton made yet another alien invasion remark.

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.

The next alien invasion comments came from Hillary Clinton who seemed to share the President’s interest in the alien invasion concept. On October 13, 1998, at Spanish Hall, Prague Castle 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 . . .

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.

A few months after Hillary made her reference to movies and alien invaders, President Clinton made a speech to a group of schools that identified an alien invasion scenario as good as any President Reagan had ever used.

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

Not to be outdone, Hillary came up with another alien invasion scenario. Hillary delivered the remark at the Mars Millennium Project kick-off held at the National Air & Space Museum. She spoke of modern movie themes, alien invasion ideas, and a positive future.

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.

The final alien invasion reference, on November 7, 1999, came from President Clinton in a moment of total frustration. The latest Republican bill had just been pushed through the House of Representatives only days before. Clinton realized he would have to veto it. Faced with the upcoming veto fight, Clinton made the following statement to a group of educators. "If we were being attached by space aliens, we wouldn’t be playing these kinds of games."

This was one of the few Clinton UFO remarks that gained any media attention. Conservative broadcaster Rush Limbaugh responded to Clinton’s alien invasion remark by saying, "What he going to do? Arrange one?"

Less spectacular than the alien invasion remarks, but much more frequent were comments about UFOs in the Clinton White House. On at least eight different occasions and locations, Clinton compared UFO sightings and Social Security. The general UFO/social security reference made by Clinton resembled the line he used in West Orange, New Jersey, at a DNC Dinner. "And everyone knows," said Clinton, "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."

On a couple occasions, Clinton would double up on the UFO reference and add a comment about one of his favorite shows- x-files, such as he did at Georgetown University.

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 . . . 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.

Sometimes the alien trash talk was brilliantly hidden and immeasurably meaningful. It escaped the attention of everyone who heard it, except the one person or group the comment was intended for. A prime example of this was a statement made by Hillary Clinton on April 10, 1997 on the Diane Rehm show.

During the show Hillary 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.

"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."

The comment generated immediate reactions from Ufologists around the country. "We demand an apology," Michael Luckman told the New York Post. Luckman and other researchers figured that the remark was insensitive in light of the Heaven’s Gate suicides that had just occurred.

In reality Hillary’s comment had nothing to do with the UFO community. After all, friend Laurance Rockefeller had briefed her on the evidence of UFO reality. The comment was actually directed, not at her friends in the UFO community, but at Congressman Dan Burton, Chairman of the House Government Oversight Committee. Burton, a conservative Republican congressman, had according to some turned his committee into "a one-stop shop for Clinton haters." As Burton told the Indianapolis Star of Clinton, "this guys a scumbag. That’s why I’m after him." Only days before Hillary appeared on the Diane Rehm show Burton had issued 25 subpoenas. Seventeen of these were issued to focus on the hiring of Hillary’s friend and former coworker at the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock Webster Hubbell, by the White House.

Burton, like the Clintons, was also very interested in UFOs. On the day before the Hillary’s comment about UFOs, Burton sent his chief congressional aide to attend Dr. Steven Greer’s Top Secret UFO witness briefing held for members of congress. Hillary had also been invited, as were many members of the White House. Hillary did not attend, but some White House people did attend, and Greer received "wonderful personal letters" from within the White House.

Following the briefing Burton had requested everything Greer had on the subject of UFOs. Burton’s interest in UFOs was also known to most in Washington. Time magazine columnist and former Deputy Washington Bureau Chief, Margaret Carlson wrote about how Hillary’s comment was directed at Burton, and she seemed to defend Hillary. "The UFO comparison is apt in his (Burton) case. He is considered flaky and a bit of a crackpot, even though a nice guy. Some crackpots are nice."

When Hillary took her shot at Burton on the radio show, one of the White House reporters questioned the President about it in a news scrum just before a cabinet meeting. He asked Clinton what he thought about Hillary’s statement about "the continuing saga of Whitewater, the never-ending fictional conspiracy" and "some people’s obsession with UFOs and the Hale-Bobb comet."

Realizing whom Hillary was referring to Clinton burst out laughing and said, "Did she say that? (Laughter.) That's pretty good. (Laughter.)"

The reporter asked, "I was wondering if you share that sentiment? And also, we haven't had a chance to --"

Still laughing, the President said, "Well, if I didn't, I wouldn't disagree with her in public."

Another comment made which contained a strong hidden meaning was a statement made by President Clinton while on a trip to Belfast, Northern Ireland. During the lighting of the city Christmas tree, Clinton read a letter from a thirteen-year-old Belfast boy named Ryan, and dealing with the UFO crash in Roswell in 1947.

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.)

The story behind this comment that explains what Clinton was talking about goes back to a letter written on March 29, 1993, only nine weeks after Clinton had come to power. The letter was addressed to Clinton’s science advisor John Gibbons, and was written a lawyer for conservationist, businessman and billionaire philanthropist Laurance Rockefeller.

In the letter, the attorney Henry Diamond informed Gibbons that "there is a belief in many quarters that the government has long held classified information regarding UFOs" and "Mr. Rockefeller, with other leading citizens, is planning to make an approach to President Clinton on this subject."

Over the next year Rockefeller and Gibbons met to see what could be done about getting the government to release the secret information they had on UFOs. In a meeting on February 4, 1994, Gibbons made a suggestion of approaching the subject "by addressing a specific incident" as a reasonable way to begin the process of declassification regarding UFOs.

Rockefeller immediately suggested Roswell as the case he wished President Clinton to start with. "The July 1947 Roswell incident," wrote Rockefeller, "would be a logical and challenging place to start."

There is evidence that Clinton did put pressure on the Air Force for an answer not to UFOs, but to the Roswell case. In 1994 the Air Force published a new study on the Roswell crash that was being investigated to come up with an explanation to answer the many charges being made by eyewitnesses coming forward. In addition, Clinton kept a copy of Kevin Randle and Donald Schmitt’s book "UFO Crash at Roswell" on a shelf in his private study.

In August 1995 Laurance Rockefeller finally got his opportunity to meet with Bill and Hillary Clinton, and present to them the best evidence that he had been able to collect. Clinton realized that there had been a cover-up of the facts surrounding the Roswell case, and he was not part of the circle that was being told.

Consequently, while in Ireland, only a couple months after the briefing by Rockefeller Clinton took a shot across the bow of the Air Force about the cover-up. "If the United States Air Force did recover alien bodies, they didn't tell me about it either, and I want to know." Clinton had chosen Ryan’s letter to allow him to talk about the subject. Letters in Presidential speeches are not pulled out of a hat. They are chosen to make certain points. Clinton’s point was - I asked for the facts on Roswell from the Air Force, and I’m demanding an answer.

Yet the Roswell reference was only introduced as trash talk. The administration had no intention of talking about the specifics of UFOs. This is clearly illustrated by the reaction of Mike McCurry to a question put to him in Ireland during a news conference following the lighting of the Christmas tree.

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

McCurry simply replied, "You’re right, Mark, that ended the briefing."

Sometimes the trash talk was much less intense, with much less hidden meaning, and more like a simple obsession by a President and his staff with extraterrestrials. At a meeting in the East Room dealing with Genomics the President stated, "Won’t it be sad to have an Internet connection to Mars if there are no Martians to write to or e-mail us?" In another musing about the extraterrestrials Clinton stated, "Well, I don’t know what to say. You know if they’re out there, I hope they have the best of what we have and fewer headaches."

Very early in the administration at a NAFTA meeting in the White House, in front of ex-president Jimmy Carter who had experienced a UFO sighting, Clinton made this bizarre extraterrestrial comment, "I have been sent an extraterrestrial telegram stating that "I too, am for NAFTA," signed Otto von Bismarck. Finally, at the 2000 Kennedy Center Honors held in the White House Clinton stated " 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."

Sometimes, President Clinton would have one of those days when everything he saw was alien. October 3, 1994 was such a day. At 7:53 p.m. during a Victory Rally speech for Senator Robb, Clinton unleashed a whole string of alien remarks.

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 . . .

Whether inspired by the crowd, or just having an "alien day," at 9:20 p.m. at the Robb Victory Dinner Clinton started up again.

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? . . .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 . . .

The most bizarre alien trash talk came not from the President, but from his chief spokesmen - Presidential Press Secretaries Mike McCurry and Joe Lockhart. Consider, for example McCurry talking about the President’s upcoming travel schedule in early 1998.

Q: Right. Where is he going on Monday or Tuesday?

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?

McCurry: I didn’t say a thing. No, we don’t need to go there because we were there in the flying saucer yesterday.

Following the release of the movie Independence Day, in July 1996, two Florida Today reporters faced Press Secretary McCurry with a question. The reporters asked if the White House had any plan for an alien invasion attack if it were to come. The reporters were told there were no plans." An Air Force spokesman also told the reporters that if someone had an alien sighting and felt "in imminent danger," that he or she should contact the local authorities. This lead the reporter to conclude an attack on the White House would be responded to by Clinton and McCurry with a call to the D.C. cops.

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."

A couple weeks after the Independence Day movie comments it was time for the Clintons to return to Jackson Hole, Wyoming for their 1996 vacation.

The Clintons had been in Jackson Hole for their 1995 summer vacation, where they stayed at the cabin of West Virginia Senator John D. Rockefeller and where Laurance Rockefeller briefed both Hillary and Bill Clinton on the subject of UFOs.

In a press briefing just prior to leaving, McCurry commented on the possibility of the President returning to Washington, part way through the vacation, as he had done in 1995. With Independence Day still fresh in his mind McCurry stated,

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.

Sometimes the bizarre alien comments made by Clinton’s press secretaries took a bitter tone when the questions dealt with scandals, or leaks. In November 1997, McCurry was forced to answer the embarrassing revelation in a book just published by Clinton’s former Attorney General Webster Hubbell, that Clinton had sent him off in search of the answer to UFOs and the JFK assassination.

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.

In June 1996 McCurry was faced with questions about the book Unlimited Access, written by Gary Aldrich. Aldrich a former FBI agent in the White House accused the Clinton White House of a whole range of illegal activities. In response to some reporters question about whether any of Aldrich’s claims were true McCurry shot back, "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."

Clinton’s Press Secretaries were particularly ready with alien trash talk when the question had anything to do with a story that had appeared in a national tabloid. One such case was on the morning after Dick Morris, a Clinton strategist, resigned after being caught with a $200-an-hour call girl. The allegations had been written up in the tabloid newspaper The Star. The Clinton reelection committee accepted Morris’s resignation immediately.

In Mike McCurry’s news conference the next morning, McCurry fielded a number of questions about the detailed allegations made in the article, and asking him to speculate what damage Morris’s resignation had done to the Clinton White House. McCurry moved to downplay the damage caused by the article. "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 the space alien category."

In response to this reply another reporter came back with "How is it the President's could be in the position of letting himself lose a valued advisor for a story you say is in the space alien category?" McCurry responded that campaigns lose people all the time and the President honored Morris’s request that his family not be dragged through the scandal by remaining with the campaign.

In January 1999, it was Clinton Press Secretary Joe Lockhart’s turn. He was faced another scandal query about a 13-year-old boy in Arkansas. The boy’s mother was claiming, in a tabloid story, that Bill Clinton was the boy’s father. One reporter stated to Lockhart that the photo of the boy in the national tabloid did look like Clinton. "That’s good," replied Lockhart, "and I’m an alien space baby."

The Clintons were under constant pressure during the eight-year administration, accused of all manner of scandals. Some of the alien references reflected these attacks. They took on a tenor of persecution, such as during the rally for Senator Chuck Robb, which was quoted above.

They raise more money than we do to turn their opponents into aliens. Right? . . .That is what they do. And they are brilliant at it. They sort of try to turn you into a space alien. . . 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 ads . . .

Near the end of his second term as President, Clinton still felt persecution by the Republicans. In a fund-raising speech for Hillary’s Senate campaign, Clinton President Clinton accused New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani of enlisting a "right-wing venom machine" to help "raise a double-ton of money" in his senate campaign against Hillary. He also accused 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.

George W. Bush Tries His Hand

Like his father, who occasionally mentioned UFOs or aliens during his administration, George W. Bush has not been silent on the UFO issue. In what is now a famous incident on July 28, 2000, George W. Bush answered a UFO question by Charles Huffer on the campaign trail by promising to tell the public what’s going on with UFOs. Moments later he added that he planned to put vice-president elect Dick Cheney on the problem once elected. "It’s the first thing he will do," said Bush.

What is not so well known is that this was not the first time that Bush had spoken about UFOs. Three months earlier candidate Bush uttered a classic UFO trash talk comment aboard Air Force One flight from Austin to Palm Springs, California. The UFO comment was hidden in a statement Bush made to describe his ability to attract diverse groups of voters in his run for the Presidency. He also wished to characterize himself as having a sense of humor.

In front of a group of stunned reporters, Bush held up the most recent copy of the tabloid newspaper the Weekly World News, and turned to a story, which exclaimed in large bold print, "Space Alien Backs Bush for President." The story showed a picture of a bald, whitish reptilian type alien and Bush shaking hands. Bush told the reporters "his alien encounter was further proof of his commitment to expanding the Republican Party’s appeal."

"New faces, new voices," Bush announced. He held up the story for all the reporters to see. "It goes to show that I am willing to reach across certain demographic lines."

Strangely, the Weekly World News turned out to be very prophetic. In an August 11, 1992 edition the same alien was shown shaking hands with Bill Clinton. In that article, the alien declared that Bill Clinton would win the upcoming election. He did.

In the May 2000 article about Bush and his meeting with the alien, the alien declared that he was changing parties because of the "moral failings" of the Democratic White House. He alien declared that the upcoming election would be very close, and that Bush would win.

Even stranger than the fact Weekly World News predictions turned out to be so accurate, is the fact that the Bush/alien story was considered news by the mainstream media. On May 8, the New York Times wrote a three-column story about the alien incident on Air Force One. It was an example of infotainment becoming news.

The Weekly World News, and the New York Times were playing off the power of the Presidency to create a story about an alien influencing American politics. It was a strategy that many have used because of the power that the President and his words hold for America and the world. The power of their words is not lost on the Presidents.

Moments after Eisenhower was swore in as the 34^th President, Truman met for a lunch with some of his cabinet members. One of the cabinet members found Truman standing quietly looking out the window. He asked Truman what was wrong. Why was he looking out the window?

"One hour ago," said Truman, "I could say anything I wanted and it would be all around the world in fifteen minutes. Now I could stand and talk for two hours, and no one would give a damn."

Looking back in history there have been many memorable Presidential words moving around the world.

· Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth unto this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

· "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself

· Ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country.

· Mr. Gorbachev, Tear Down This Wall!

· ICH BIN EIN BERLINER

Each of these lines acts as a legendary marker in history. Without any further details people know the President, the time, and the context of the words spoken. That is because words spoken by a sitting President hold power not given to any other man on earth.

It is a fact is that many recent Presidents have used some of their powerful words to speak about UFOs. Some like the Eisenhower "military industrial complex" remark, or the Reagan "alien invasion" remark are already viewed by some as important markers in history. Seen in this light, UFOs suddenly take on a new significance. They have entered a world where words are carefully crafted, and where little is said without an intended meaning. The final evaluation of how history will appraise these Presidential utterances, however, remains to be seen.