Documents / Official release
This file, released by the William J. Clinton Presidential Library under FOIA request 2006-0476-F, holds White House correspondence records for case 243544. In a July 8, 1997 letter to President Clinton, Kent Jeffrey of the International Roswell Initiative submitted more than 20,000 signed copies of the Roswell Declaration, which asks for an Executive Order declassifying UFO information. On December 9, 1997 the Air Force replied that such an order was unnecessary because declassification under E.O. 12958 was already underway.
“Terry”2 pages
InternaiTonal Roswell
P.O. Box 5125 • Larkspur, CA 94977 • U.S.A .• Ro~weIlDec@flol.com • http://www.roswell.org
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July 8, 1997
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President Bill Clinton
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20500
Dear President Clinton,
This letterjs accompanied by over 20,000 signed copies·of a statement known.~s the Roswell
Declaration. The-Declaratio!1 requests a mandated policy of openqess on the part of the U.S,.
government with respect to any knowledge it might possess or acquire about YFOs or extrater
restrial intelligence. The signatories to this mainstream, grassroots effort, the International
Roswell Initiative, include hundreds of scientists and engineers,three retired air force generals,
and two former U.S. astronauts. -
While the initiative was originally inspired by the 1947 Roswell event, extensive research has
established that the Roswell incident itself did not involve an extraterrestrial craft. Whether it is
justified or not, there is a widespread lack of confidence in the government's forthrightness with
regard to the UFO phenomenon, even among those who do not believe a UFO. crashed at Ros
well in 1947. For example, a late-1996 Gallup poll revealed that 71 percent of the American
public believes that lithe. U.S. government knows more about UFOs than it is telling." ."J
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An executive order guaranteeing that inforirlation as profound and important as that relating to
other intelligent life in the univ~rse would never be withheld by the U.S. government would
surely be considered a positive ~ove by those on all sides of the issue. Wheth~r 'Or not any such
information exists, such a mandate would undoubtedly do much to alleviate the American peo
ples' long-term distrust and suspicion of their'g~vernmentconcerning this subject. -'
Sincerely,
Y-i:~.
Kent Jeffrey
Coordinator, International Roswell Initiative Official release, from the nara collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 47 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.