4.3 Recommended Congressional Actions

further to take part in a dialogue addressing a dramatically transformed view of humans on this planet and their future place as part of a larger group of intelligent beings;

3. We recommend that the public write the President and ask that he issue an executive order permitting witnesses to safely come forward (see section on Presidential actions) and write their senators and representatives requesting that they sponsor open hearings where these witnesses may testify. 4. We recommend that former government, military or corporate persons with knowledge about this subject and willingness to be witnesses, contact the Disclosure Project to help make their knowledge public in an honorable and patriotic manner. We have protective measures in place, and the more witnesses we have, the stronger the case – and the greater the margin of safety for all concerned; 5. Ultimately, if the people will lead, the leaders will follow. Courage, vision and perseverance are needed to transform this situation, and create a time of openness and trust. If our leaders currently lack this courage and vision, then we must manifest it for them since ultimately the public will help drive the disclosure effort.

4.3 Recommended Congressional Actions

Considering the incredible importance and implications of this subject, Congress has played an almost negligible role over the past four to five decades. In fact only two formal hearings have been held during that time period. The first was held by the House Armed Services Committee on April 5, 1966 because of strong editorial and public criticism of the Air Force Project Blue Book UFO program. Then Representative Gerald Ford of Michigan was a strong supporter of the hearings, in part as a result of major sightings that had occurred during March of that year in his state and seen by hundreds of people and reported widely in the press. The result of the hearings was the recommendation for an independent scientific investigation of UFOs, which became the University of Colorado “Scientific Study of UFOs” directed by Dr. Edward Condon.

Then in 1968, the House Science and Astronautics Committee held a “Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects” to review the scientific evidence for UFOs. Of the six scientists who testified, five opinioned that there was a valid scientific anomaly that should be studied further. In fact, one of the scientists33, Dr. James McDonald, a senior physicist and professor at the University of Arizona, concluded that, ”My own study of the UFO problem has convinced me that we must rapidly escalate serious scientific attention to this extra-ordinarily intriguing puzzle.” A year later the Condon Committee concluded that there was no convincing scientific evidence for UFOs and recommended that Project Blue Book be terminated, which happened later that year on December 17. This surprising conclusion was reached in spite of the fact that about 30% of the cases investigated by the committee had remained unexplained. In the 1990s, the refusal of the Air Force to even comment on the growing evidence of a crash near Roswell, NM lead then Representative Steven Schiff (R-NM) to request that the General Accounting Office conduct a search for related documents. In 1995 the GAO released a report stating that they could not find documents related to the crash as documents from Roswell Army Base from that time period had been improperly destroyed.

Then in early April, 1997 the CSETI organization held a closed briefing for members of congress and civilian witnesses in the hopes that someone in Congress would have the courage to

33 See sections 32.1 and 6.3 (under Dr. Robert Wood for other comments by and about Dr. McDonald.

hold hearings on this topic. No one then nor until today has had the courage to call for hearings on this topic, even though the statement made by Rep Gerald Ford in 1966 that “We owe it to the people to establish credibility regarding UFOs,” is as true today as it was then. It is interesting to note that the members of the Senate have never held any hearings on this subject although privately individuals have expressed significant interest in the subject.

We recommend that Congress take the following actions to pursue this matter:

1. Make directed inquiries to contacts and chairmen of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees; 2. Inquire directly to the various facilities, agencies and entities listed (section 5.1.3); 3. Pursue other contacts known to the Congress, which may be able to assist in identifying points of control for these operations. 4. Purse this matter further by convening Congressional Hearings whereby direct witnesses to these projects may testify. We believe more than one member of Congress should be located to co-sponsor such an inquiry. 5. Pass a Congressional ban on weapons in space and encourage our allies and the UN to do the same.

Note that once issues concerning the validity of National Security oaths (Section 4.7.2) and amnesty (Section 4.7) are resolved by congress and/or presidential order, there are hundreds of potential witnesses who are willing to testify on the reality of the UFO/ET issues and their implications for our country’s future.

It is only through the medium of open and public congressional hearings that an understanding of the complexity of these issues may be achieved and our country can move forward.

Because of the interconnections between the UFO issue and the world’s energy status and technology, it will also be necessary to also hold Congressional Hearings on these energy issues as well, as a pursuant, but somewhat parallel process.

Once the reality of the UFO issues are accepted by Congress, then we recommend that Congress:

1. Thoroughly investigate these new technologies both from current civilian sources as well as compartmented projects within military, intelligence and corporate contracting areas. 2. Authorize the declassification and release of information held within compartmented projects related to this subject. 3. Specifically prohibit the seizing or suppression of such technologies. 4. Authorize substantial funding for basic research and development by civilian scientists and technologists making this research available to the public and mainstream scientists. 5. Develop plans for dealing with disclosing such technologies and for the transition to a non-fossil fuel economy. These plans should include among others: military and national security planning; strategic economic planning and preparation; private