Subject: IUFO: UFO Studies Done and Proposed by the Carter Administration
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UFO Studies Done and Proposed by the Carter Administration
Preliminary Study Proposals
It is not a well know fact that the Carter administration actually
proposed and hosted a number UFO studies. When Carter first entered the
White House it was known from his public declaration of having been a UFO
witness, that he was familiar with what the objects were. Further, his
campaign promise to release everything held by the U.S. government on the
subject, placed the new President into a position where studies would be
required to get at the facts.
One study that was proposed and which almost got of the ground was one
proposed by the Stanford Research Institute. It has been called the
"Carter Extraterrestrial Communication Study."
In May 1977, only months after the inauguration of Jimmy Carter, the
preliminaries of a project to study extraterrestrial communications was
set up at the Center for the Study of Social Policy at the Stanford
Research Institute.
The study was headed by Dr. Alfred Webre, a Yale trained lawyer and
Senior Policy Analyst at the Center. Peter Schwartz, another senior
Policy Analyst, was an advisor to the project. Tom Thomas, the Supervisor
of the Center had approved and signed off on the proposal.
During his interview, prior to being brought on to the Stanford staff,
Webre has asked "to do an extraterrestrial project." This study would be
based on a theory Webre had published in the early 1970s called the
Context Communication Theory of Extraterrestrials which held that
extraterrestrial phenomena could be interpreted by certain laws.
While campaigning Jimmy Carter for President had made his declaration of
his sighting and intention to release all the UFO data. It provided Webre
the ideal opportunity for his study. "It was a godsend," stated Webre.
"We took Carter on his word."
Webre immediately began to identify "people inside the Carter White House
who were sympathetic to the UFO issue."
The study proposed containing no classified aspects. The initial contact
within the Carter white House for the proposal was Stewart Eisenstatt,
with the Domestic Policy Staff. Webre pitched the outline of the proposed
study. The White House agreed, and the work began.
Webre flew from California to Washington to meet in the Executive Office
Building with White House Domestic Policy Staff every two or three weeks.
"The proposal was known and approved within the Domestic Policy Staff of
the White House," said Webre, "and it was in circulation with the White
House Science Advisors Office." The meeting continued with the Carter
White House from May 1977 till September 1977.
I was signed in and out and I would meet with her
around the proposals. The structure of our
proposal was that the White House would remain
the overall policy director on this research
proposal, which was envisioned to be about three
years long. Once a final report was issued under
the proposal it would become a White House
document, and would come out under their agency
and their policy recommendations.
The study to provide knowledge on the subject, and propose a future
course of action, had three phases:
Creation of a data base of UFOs and
extraterrestrials in private and non-private
collections. The proposal involved obtaining data
worldwide as opposed to simply the United States
Evaluation phase where searches would be made for
"alternate models using the best scientific minds
available.
The final report and recommendations, and the
creation of "a permanent, open, global data-base
under independent control for UFO and EBE
(extraterrestrial biological entity) encounters.
The final report would have included
"recommendation for the recission of intelligence
and military secrecy regulations, which interfere
with the flow of UFO and EBE data in the open
civilian, scientific, and public domain.
Hopefully it could have developed an
"extraterrestrial communication project to
establish non-hostile, open communication from an
authoritative human source to whatever
intelligence the project might find."
The extraterrestrial communications project came to the proposal stage in
September 1977. The White House signed off on it, and Webre and the
others involved from SRI "were given the directive to begin the personnel
approaches with NASA, and with the National Science Foundation who would
be the actual funding agencies for the proposal under the overall
direction of the White House. James Fletcher, the NASA administrator, was
provided a copy of the proposal, and began reviewing it.
Weber flew back to California to prepare for the next step at SRI. The
move by the White House to green light the project, however, had set off
alarm bells in the Pentagon among those whose job it was to protect the
UFO secret.
When Webre arrived back at SRI, he reported that he was called back into
the office of the Senior SRI Official along with Peter Schwartz. Into the
room walked an African-American who was the SRI liaison at the Pentagon.
He announced that the project was to be terminated. The reason for the
termination of the White House approved proposal was, "There are no
UFOs." He stated that he had been informed by someone in the Pentagon
that "if the study went forward, SRI^Òs contracts with the Pentagon would
be terminated."
As most of the contracts at SRI were tied into the Pentagon, the writing
was on the wall for "extraterrestrial communication. Webre was told by
the SRI liaison "to stimulate," and play along with it. In this way the
liaison stated he would keep his job.
The Senior SRI Officer sided with the Pentagon liaison, and the
extraterrestrial communication study for the Carter White House was dead.
Another person who had heard the story that the Carter administration was
proposing to do a UFO study was Robert Barrow, who had been corresponding
with President Ford, when he was a Congressman, on the subject of UFOs.
Barrow described how the Carter people ended up talking to him about a
possible study.
After Jimmy Carter assumed the Presidency, I heard the rumor
along with everybody else that he might initiate a UFO study.
Since I was quite into UFOs at the time, I made it known that
I was interested in joining any such project in any capacity
for which I might be suited. There were people in Congress
who knew of my long-time interest. To my surprise, one of
them recommended me to Carter's people, and the transition
team indicated to that person that my name would be under
consideration.
That was as far as Barrow was involved in that rumored study. He was
never contacted. Another study of UFOs that was done for President Carter
in the early days of the administration was known as the "L.A. Study." It
was put together for the President by a number of UFO researchers in the
Los Angeles area.
On May 13, 1977 four of the involved scientists Ronald R. Regan, Ph.D.,
William F. Hassel, PH.D., Ronald H. Olch, M.s., and Marina S. Conrad,
M.A., addressed a letter to President Carter regarding their proposed UFO
study.
We, the undersigned, represent an informal group of
scientists, engineers and UFO investigators in the Los
Angeles area who are in the process of developing a concise
report on UFO phenomena based on documented UFO cases. This
report will discuss UFO characteristics, physical and
physiological phenomena, witness reliability and will make
recommendations on several potentially fruitful areas of
scientific research. When completed, this report will be
delivered to the White House to provide background material
to make decisions regarding the initiation of government
sponsored UFO research.
The letter responding to the reseracher's letter to the President was
returned by Stanley D. Schneider, assistant to the President's Science
Advisor who replied with the standard line that,
All information on UFOs which the Air Force held from 1947 to
1969, when the terminated their Project Bluebook following
the release of the Condon Report, has been declassified and
placed in the National Archives where it is a matter of
public record.
Schneider did acknowledge that a UFO study was being prepared for the
President, and he did not turn it down.
We note with interest that you are preparing a report
recommending such a government-supported research program. If
as Jody Powell (the President's Press Secretary) suggests,
you forward your completed report to this office, we shall
certainly give it out consideration and make any appropriate
recommendations.
The report was finished, and according to one member of the L.A. group,
former NSA member Paul Smith, the report was taken to washington by Bill
Moore. Copies were supposedly also give to Congressmen and Senators for
their action. Bill Moore retired from researching UFOs, and the exact
status of what happened to the finished report remains a mystery.
President Carter, Daniel Sheehan, and Donald Menzel : The Congressional
Research Service Studies for President Carter
"Knowledge will Forever Govern Ignorance And a People Who Mean to be
their Own Governors Must Arm Themselves with the Power Which Knowledge
Gives" The Words of President James Madison as inscribed on the Madison
Building in Washington D.C., where Daniel Sheehan claimed he was allowed
to view the classified section of the USAF UFO Project Blue Book in 1977,
and where he said he discovered the picture of the crashed flying saucer.
"It's always difficult to strike a balance between the public's
right to know and NASA's need for candor." Marcia Smith, a space
policy senior analyst at the Congressional Research Service in
Washington, DC., as quoted by James Oberg
Shortly after President Carter came to power in January 1977, Daniel
Sheehan, then General Counsel to the United States Jesuit National
Headquarters - National Office of Social Ministry in Washington, D.C.,
was reportedly approached by Marcia S. Smith, Director of the Library of
Congress^Òs Science and Technology Division of the Congressional Research
Service.from 1984-1985.
The Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress is a
research group of more than 400 people who do research for congress and
the White House. They have played more than a passing interest in the UFO
problem over the years. Every one of these UFO research efforts has been
led by Marcia Smith.
Sheehan reported that he was asked by Smith "to participate in a highly
classified major evaluation of the UFO phenomena, and extraterrestrial
intelligence." The person who made the offer was Marcia Smith. She made
Sheehan a special consultant to the Congressional Research service.
Marcia had in turn learned of Sheehan from her friend Rosemary Chalk, who
at the time was the Secretary to the National Science Foundation. Chalk
and Sheehan attended the same church in Washington. During one
conversation between the two Sheehan had told Chalk that he had wanted to
be an astronaut as a young man, but that the appointments he has sought
to attain this goal had been given away as political prizes to others. He
told Chalk that his goal had been, "to become an astronaut and to go out
into outer space, and meet other civilizations."
When Sheehan was finished telling his story about how he ended up
becoming a lawyer, Chalk was surprised. She said, "Wow, I never imagined
that was true, but I have someone that you have to talk to." The person
who called was Marcia Smith.
A part of this contact with Marcia Smith and the CRS involved Sheehan
being asked to use his position inside the Jesuit community to obtain the
UFO documents held in the Vatican library. Sheehan made an approach to
his contact at the Vatican
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