Government and military
What presidents and the White House said and did about UFOs and UAP. 46 events, newest first.
Government13 Feb 2015
On his last day as counselor to President Obama, John Podesta tweeted that his biggest failure of 2014 was again not securing disclosure of the UFO files. It was unclear which files he meant; he had long urged release of government UFO records.
Photo: Lawrence Jackson, White House photographer, Public domain
Government2 Apr 2014
On ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live, former President Bill Clinton said that in his second term he had Area 51 records checked and the Roswell papers reviewed, and found no aliens. He added he would not be surprised if Earth were visited some day.
Photo: Lauren Gerson, Public domain
GovernmentNov 2011
Answering 'We the People' petitions seeking UFO disclosure, Phil Larson of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy wrote that the government had no evidence of life beyond Earth or of extraterrestrial contact, and no credible information that such evidence was being hidden.
Photo: U.S. Government, Public domain
Whistleblowers26 Apr 2010
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, head of Russia's Kalmykia region, said on Channel One's Pozner program that aliens visited his Moscow apartment in 1997 and showed him their ship. Duma deputy Andrei Lebedev wrote to President Medvedev asking about state-secret risks; the Kremlin declined to comment.
Photo: A.Savin, CC BY-SA 3.0
Government2004
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson wrote the foreword to The Roswell Dig Diaries, a book on a Sci Fi Channel-funded 2002 dig at the alleged crash site, saying the mystery had never been adequately explained. In 2007, as a presidential candidate, he said he would consider releasing Roswell files.
Photo: U. S. Department of Energy, Public domain
Government22 Oct 2002
Former White House chief of staff John Podesta appeared at a Washington news conference with a Sci-Fi Channel-backed coalition seeking release of government UFO records. He said he was personally skeptical but that it was time to open the books.
Photo: NHD-INFO [1], CC BY 2.0
Media19 May 2002
Fox aired The Truth, the two-hour finale of The X-Files, ending its nine-season original run. Creator Chris Carter said it would close some storylines but not answer every question about the government-conspiracy plot. The series later returned in 2016.
Photo: David Shankbone, CC BY 3.0
Sightings14 Jul 2001
Just after midnight, drivers pulled off the New Jersey Turnpike to watch orange and gold lights in a V formation over the Arthur Kill near Carteret. A Carteret police lieutenant counted 16 lights. Newark Airport and the Weather Service had nothing to explain them; no official cause was found.
Photo: Famartin, CC BY-SA 4.0
Media1996
Nuclear physicist and ufologist Stanton Friedman published 'Top Secret/Majic', defending the authenticity of the disputed Majestic-12 papers, which describe a secret Truman-era group handling a recovered saucer. The papers' authenticity is widely disputed, and skeptics call them fakes.
Photo: AllenS, Public domain
Government30 Nov 1995
At a Christmas tree lighting in Belfast, President Bill Clinton answered a 13-year-old's letter by saying that, as far as he knew, no alien craft crashed at Roswell in 1947, and that if the Air Force had found alien bodies it had not told him.
Photo: William Murphy from Dublin, Ireland, CC BY-SA 2.0
Government29 Sep 1995
President Clinton signed Presidential Determination 95-45, exempting the Air Force operating location near Groom Lake, Nevada, from waste-law provisions that would force disclosure of classified information. It cited pending litigation; the site, popularly called Area 51, is central to UFO lore.
Photo: Ken Lund from Reno, Nevada, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0
Media10 Sep 1993
Fox premiered Chris Carter's drama The X-Files, in which a skeptic and a believer investigate unexplained phenomena. It ran to 2002, and its 1996 Peabody citation said it prompted viewers to discuss unexplained phenomena and the motives of government officials.
Photo: Marcin Wichary from San Francisco, U.S.A., CC BY 2.0
Government21 Sep 1987
In an address to the UN General Assembly, President Reagan said that if humanity faced an alien threat from outside this world, its differences would quickly vanish. It was a rhetorical point about global unity, not a statement about UFOs, but it is often quoted in UFO discussions.
Photo: Reagan Library, CC BY 3.0
Government4 Dec 1985
Speaking at Fallston High School after the Geneva summit, President Reagan said he had told Gorbachev privately that a threat from another planet would make the two nations forget their differences, adding that they could not wait for an alien race to bring that about.
Photo: President (1981-1989 : Reagan). White House Photographic Office. 1981-1989, Public domain
Media1980
Sunn Classic Pictures released Hangar 18, directed by James L. Conway, a drama in which the Air Force hides a crashed saucer at a Texas base while the White House chief of staff keeps it quiet before an election. Its title echoes a claim made at a 1974 symposium about a stored crashed craft.
Government1 Feb 1978
NASA's Information Sheet 78-1 said NASA would answer public UFO inquiries sent to the White House but ran no UFO research program, and would analyze only bona fide physical evidence from credible sources, following its December 1977 reply to the President's science adviser.
Photo: Vargklo at English Wikipedia, Public domain
GovernmentDec 1977
On July 21, 1977, Frank Press, science adviser to President Carter, wrote to NASA Administrator Robert Frosch proposing a panel to check for significant new UFO findings since the Condon Report. About five months later NASA answered that neither a research effort nor a symposium was justified.
Photo: NASA, Public domain
Government1976
During his 1976 presidential campaign, Jimmy Carter, who had filed a report of his own 1969 sighting, said he would make government UFO information available to the public and scientists. After taking office he did not follow through, citing possible defense implications.
Photo: Jack R. Thornell, Public domain
Government21 Nov 1974
The House and Senate overrode President Ford's veto to enact amendments tightening the Freedom of Information Act. UFO researchers later used the law in suits such as Ground Saucer Watch's, which led the CIA to release hundreds of UFO documents in 1978.
Sightings18 Sep 1973
Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter filed a sighting report with the International UFO Bureau describing a bright, color-changing light about the size of the moon that he said he and others saw in 1969 while waiting outside a Lions Club meeting in Leary, Georgia.
Photo: Georgia Secretary of State, Public domain
Government15 Dec 1954
Asked about European saucer investigations and claims the Air Force suspected extraterrestrial origins, President Eisenhower said nothing new had reached him and that a trusted Air Force source had told him it was inaccurate to think they came from another planet.
Photo: White House, Public domain
