Documents / Official release
This Clinton Presidential Library FOIA release (2006-0483-F), taken from Scheduling Office records, contains Steven M. Greer's CSETI correspondence with the White House. Greer's 15 November 1996 letter asks President Clinton for a meeting before a planned UN disclosure event. A memo sent to senior officials says witnesses would testify publicly unless told by 1 January 1997 that security oaths still bind them. Greer's enclosed briefings claim ET craft were retrieved in 1947. The White House declined the meeting on 6 December 1996.
STRATEGIES AND RATIONALE FOR CHANGING GOVERNMENT POLICY It is recommended that current government policy on UFOs/ETI be changed to one of increasing disclosure, openness, and cooperation with civilian researchers. Failure to effect a review and policy change within the next 12-24 months may result in significant unfortunate outcomes insofar as it is likely that both civilian research initiatives (e.g., CSETI RMIT research projects) and imminent extraterrestrial events will overtake current policy. ... A "window of opportunity" exists for the Administration to effect such a change. This unique window exists as the result of the confluence of two significant events: 1. The existing policy of secrecy exists, in part, because of justifiable concerns during the Cold War, which included the control of possible developments vis-a-vis extraterrestrial technology, as well as more general psychological and sociological concerns. The ending of the Cold War provides for a plausible rationale for changing current policy at this time, and would provide the current Administration with an excellent explanation for the public so that past secrecy could be justified, thereby minimizing any embarrassment to past administrations, or to career government, military, and intelligence employees. Since some time has already elapsed since the end of the Cold War, this rationale is highly time sensitive. 2. Since the Clinton Administration is less than one year old, the President, the Secretary of Defense the Director of Central Intelligence, the new Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and other key government figures will have "plausible deniability" on this issue, so long as a policy change occurs in the first one to two years of the term. After that time, the Administration could be harmed by a late, uncontrolled disclosure since such an event would play to the public in one of two equally unacceptable ways: If the Administration claims ignorance on a subject this important, it will be accused of incompetence. And if the Administration admits to knowing about this subject, it will be subject to accusations of unwarranted secrecy, and possibly even "cover-up" by the media and public. At this point in time, the Administration would not be faulted for a one-to two-year delay in disclosure, and may even be viewed heroically by a majority of the American people, inasmuch as a majority of Americans already believe that UFOs are real and are most likely interplanetary craft. We believe that this "window" provides for an historic opportunity to change current policy and enter a new era of openness on this important subject.
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Official release, from the nara collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 41 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.