"What would happen if all of us in the world discovered that we were threatened by an outer -- a power from outer space -- from another planet."What is important about these statements? A number of things, but looking carefully at Reagan's assumptions, they tell us much about the man and about possible government policy on the subject. The most important assumption is that there is a "threat" to the world. Explicitly it is an "alien" threat, from some "other species," not human.
This was the president of the United States speaking publicly for the record, and the subject was confirmed by another head of state. How many lead stories in national newspapers and weekly news magazines picked up on this? How many editorials were written exploring the subject and the president's concerns? Zero. The reason for that will be discussed later. But what about the assumptions of a threat from a non-human alien species? Where did that information come from? We can look at this two ways. Either Reagan had slipped a cog (after all, he was the person who said that trees are a primary source of pollution), or he was making a statement based upon information he received as the president of the United States. Because it was repeated three times over a period of nearly two years, it has the earmarks of an official statement. It may be official, but is it accurate?
Not knowing what the government knows, it is impossible to answer that question. However, the same question can be asked of the private UFO research community. Based upon what they know about UFO phenomena, do you think that they would agree with Reagan that the world faces a threat from non-human aliens? You would get three different answers to this questions: "yes," "no," and "I don't know." In my view the most reasonable answer is "I don't know." Of course, the "yes" answer is correct for those who are seeking a new enemy to replace the old Soviet Union, even if there is no evidence of hostile intent on the part of the visiting others. That may have been Reagan's attitude. I would assume that those who would answer "no" would include those who believe they have had a personal interaction with the visiting others, and on balance feel that the interaction was positive.
Without an informative data base, we should be conservative in making judgments concerning the "threat" potential from UFO phenomena. If any country of our contemporary world was capable of extending its human presence to an inhabited planet of another star system, I would be fearful for that community, given the general track record of violence on earth. I don't know who may be interacting with us, but if we try to meet them with aggressive Star Wars technology, the hopeless outcome is easy to predict.
On the other hand, if we meet visiting cultures with fearless curiosity and a genuine willingness to try to understand their needs and offer what we can, and to ask for assistance that we need, the outcome may be uncertain, but the dance will have begun.
The point is that this critical decision is too important for any government to make in secret. I am sure that the counterpart to the "Better Dead than Red" group has already been formed.
I am certain that a major problem the government faces concerns how to handle the "capabilities versus intention" issue. Those of you with government intelligence experience know what this issue is. A major responsibility of the intelligence community is to estimate a potential enemy's military capability. For example, how many ICBMs, what range, what size warhead, what reaction time to launch, what accuracy, what reliability, etc. However, political leaders routinely ask additional questions. Given that the enemy has 1,000 ICBMs, under what conditions will he use them, does he intend to launch a preemptive strike, etc.? In their minds is the apparent logical link that the reason a country has a certain military capability is that it intends to use it. This is always easy to believe about an enemy state, while on the other hand, your country has military capabilities for defensive use only.
We have to wonder how the world's intelligence communities have assessed UFO phenomena. What capability assessment have they made? From public reports, craft can hover and then accelerate at such a rate that they fly out of visual range in a matter of seconds. Alternatively, they can "blink out" without obvious movement. This is the ultimate stealth technology. There are reports that when the pilot of an intercepting aircraft starts to arm his weapon systems, he immediately looses other critical aircraft systems that keeps him from pressing home his attack. The suggestion is that somehow his aggressive intent is immediately known to his potential target, and effective countermeasures are instantly engaged. Then there are numerous reports that the visiting others are capable of taking over the mind of an individual and obtaining a complete data dump. Communication is also reported in terms of robust parapsychological phenomena, for example, telepathy.
If they can control our weapon systems and take over our minds, they apparently can do anything they want to do. But do these monster powers make them monsters? And what are their intentions? If you had the responsibility of briefing the president on these issues, what would you tell him? Knowing the president, would you tell Jimmy Carter one thing and Ronald Reagan another? And who are you, a faceless bureaucrat in an unnamed agency?
The issue is too important to be handled by a faceless bureaucrat in an unnamed agency. The American public and the U.S. Congress must be involved.
Earlier I asked the question why there was no press response to Reagan's extraordinary statements concerning a space threat to the world. The short answer is that the press has effectively been taken out of the loop by the success of a counterintelligence program targeted against the American public and the press. The government wants no restrictions on how it attempts to handle what we are calling UFO phenomena. To get this freedom of action, a clamp of secrecy and stealth intimidation of the press has been employed. The program has been so successful against the press, that it doesn't even recognize the wound. The process apparently was to stage a number of "UFO events," get the press charging to the bait and then with fanfare show that it was either a hoax or misinterpretation of natural phenomena. When print editors hear:"UFO," "UFO," we get the same response from them that the village finally gave the young sheep herder who cried "Wolf" too many times.
This program of ridicule along with super secrecy and an aggressive way of dealing with individuals who officially know something about the facts and begin to talk have been adequate to keep the lid on what the government really knows and what it is doing about it. Of course we all wish them well in whatever they are doing, but with the pressures of the Cold War gone, and for the first time in over forty years the Executive can turn fully to this "problem," I frankly am very concerned about what decisions are being made without involvement of the normal democratic process.