Election Watch 2008
Heard On The Hill
Dear Senator: The Truth Is Out There
By Emily Heil and Elizabeth Brotherton
Roll Call Staff
November 4, 2008
They've hosted conventions, launched Web sites and made plenty of documentaries, but believers in extraterrestrials haven't had much success persuading the government to acknowledge that aliens exist.
But with Americans about to pick a new commander in chief, E.T. enthusiasts think the time is ripe for the government to acknowledge that earthlings have indeed made contact with beings from outer space. And to drive home the effort, supporters are undertaking a massive lobbying effort that's rather low-tech: They're writing their Senators!
Or, more specifically, they're striving to send presidential contenders Sens. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) a million letters, faxes and e-mails asking that the new president make public the government's alien archives.
"This is the perfect time," said Stephen Bassett, executive director of the Paradigm Research Group, which lobbies the government to release data on extraterrestrial events. "A transcendent election, the need for change being talked about everywhere... the call for transparency in government, open government. This is the time."
Bassett has lobbied Congress to release alien information for years, and his pleas have fallen mostly on deaf ears. But he tells HOH that he expects "The Million Fax on Washington" to work.
Plenty of high-profile folks, such as New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D), have said recently that the government hasn't been entirely forthcoming about contact from outer space. Most telling, Bassett argues, is that Democratic bigwig John Podesta—who called on the government to make any evidence of UFOs public a few years back—will oversee Obama's potential presidential transition.
With that in mind, Bassett wagered that there is an 80 percent to 90 percent chance that by spring 2009, the new president will acknowledge that the government has made contact with beings from outer space. And there's nothing to fear, he said—all that newly public knowledge of alien technology can be used to deal with the planet's pressing concerns, such as global warming.
"We need to know the truth," he said. "And then we can start to deal with it."
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