THE CSETI PROJECT STARLIGHT DISCLOSURE STRATEGY:
UPDATE AND CLARIFICATION
8 April 1998
Steven M. Greer M.D. copyright 1998
For over four and one half years, CSETI has been diligently implementing a strategic plan to effect a disclosure on the UFO/ETI subject. Recent misinformation and disinformation regarding this process which has appeared on the Internet and elsewhere necessitates a reiteration of that strategic plan and an update on the process.
In the summer of 1993, a group of CSETI advisors and military consultants met to discuss how to best develop a reliable point of contact (POC) to the US government. This was felt necessary after a number of CSETI CE-5 encounter incidents had occurred which resulted in team members expressing concerns about covert attempts to interfere with the CE-5 diplomatic initiative. It was felt a reliable POC was needed for communication and briefing purposes, thus reducing the likelihood of an undesired outcome or event.
Ultimately it was decided that we should pursue various POCs within the Executive Branch of the US government and the military and to approach congressional leadership at a later point in the process.
A strategic plan was devised to 1) collect and identify the Best Available Evidence related to UFOs/ETI; 2) identify top-secret military and intelligence witnesses to the matter who were willing to come forward and disclosure what they knew; 3) create a team of briefers and advisors to Executive Branch officials and military officials who would conduct briefings and recommend near-term disclosure of the subject and the end to secrecy related to the subject.
By September of 1993 this plan was in action, and with the assistance of a senior official at the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a meeting was set up at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base with the top-secret Foreign Aerospace Science and Technology Center located there (this had previously been the Foreign Technology Center to which the 1940's New Mexico UFO crash remains had been sent; it is now called the National Air intelligence Center -NAIC). The discussions at Wright-Patterson AFB were cordial and constructive.
Eventually, a number of consultants became involved with the briefing and disclosure process, including national security think tank heads, friends of the President and others. Continued networking resulted in briefings for senior Clinton Administration officials, including CIA Director James Woolsey.
During these briefings, we recommended decisive government action to end the secrecy surrounding this subject and that the Administration should work to disclose substantial facts about the UFO/ETI issue as soon as possible. In the materials provided for senior White House, CIA, DOD and other officials we set out the rationale for the timeliness of this disclosure and the dangers associated with continued secrecy. We also clearly stated in writing that if the government did not coordinate this disclosure, that we would bypass the government and work to disclose these secrets unilaterally.
However, we made it clear that it was in the nation's (and world's) best interest to have so weighty a matter disclosed cooperatively by the government.
Unfortunately, very senior Executive Branch officials, including the CIA Director, senior Presidential advisors and Pentagon officials found it difficult to penetrate the ultra-secret 'black' programs dealing with this subject. As CIA Director Woolsey pointed out to me, they cannot disclose what they do not know or have access to.
It is now a matter of public record that Assistant Attorney General and close Presidential friend Webster Hubbell had been asked officially by the President to look into the UFO issue (see Hubble's book 'Friends in High Places"). Hubbell stated that they were not satisfied with the answers they were getting from NORAD and elsewhere. It is disturbing to think that the President - our Commander-In-Chief - and his inner circle may not have high enough clearances to be briefed fully on this matter...
After a period of extensive briefings for US, foreign and UN leaders, it became obvious that 1) these leaders were deliberately being kept in the dark on the subject and 2) that they did not possess the courage or political will to take on the covert apparatus managing the UFO/ETI matter. In fact, they were visibly shaken by the situation.
As more and more top-secret witnesses, documents and other evidence was identified, it became clear that - unless a Presidential executive order effectively ended the secrecy and resulted in disclosure - that our next best option would be to identify a member of congress who would call for and hold open congressional hearings on the subject.
At this point, a number of old wags in the UFO subculture stated that we should just come forward with what we knew, identify the top-secret witnesses and let it all come out. This facile strategic recommendation overlooked three major problems:
1. The foundation of the disclosure process is the pool of dozens of top-secret military and intelligence witnesses to unambiguous UFO/ET events and programs. These courageous witnesses have asked for a safe, effective and official means of coming out with their testimony, if at all possible.
CSETI felt a moral responsibility to vigorously pursue an officially sanctioned venue for so momentous a disclosure, if at all feasible. To this end, CSETI has - for 4 ½ years - attempted to secure the highest, safest official venue possible for this disclosure. These courageous military witnesses have asked this of us, and we have faithfully pursued that request. Some of these witnesses are in fear for their lives; others fear other sanctions and punishment. All of them would prefer to come forward in an official setting, freed from the restraints of their national security oaths etc.
2. The disclosure of the reality of UFOs and ETI is no small matter. Neither the CSETI leadership nor our witnesses wanted to appear to be upstaging the US government, the UN or other concerned governments. It was imperative that we make good-faith efforts to get our national and world leaders to deal with this subject officially, prior to a unilateral privatized disclosure. The implications of such a disclosure are so vast and so profound that only a very reckless person or group would attempt to effect this disclosure without first offering to work cooperatively with our governments. We have assiduously created a paper trail which fully documents these efforts, lest we later be accused of disclosing the ultimate secret without first consulting with the government. While this process has been in turns tedious, rewarding, exasperating, expensive and time-consuming, we are certain that it was the right thing to do.
3) In the absence of significant funding for a privatized disclosure, the best and most cost-effective way to achieve this goal was to convince the government or the Congress to take on this task. A congressional hearing, obviously, would be funded by the Congress. A private disclosure will need to be funded by - who? Those who think that you simply hold a press conference with the witnesses (arranging that - including flying into one place, lodging etc dozens of witnesses- would alone cost tens of thousands of dollars, if not hundreds of thousands) have never dealt with big media on this subject. We are not willing to expose these witnesses unless it is strategically effective. There is no point in taking such risks unless there is a reasonable likelihood that the status quo will be changed. To privately see that this is the case -with no support of congress or the government - will be a very complex and expensive undertaking, far outside the resources of the UFO community at this time (or at any time in the past).
In light of the above, from 1995-1997 CSETI pursued a number of briefings with members of Congress. One year ago, on April 9,1997, we convened the historic CSETI briefings for members of Congress, White House figures and senior military figures, among others (see the CSETI Report on the DC Briefings). Since April of 1997, we have continued to provide briefings and recommended to key congressional committee chairmen that open hearings be convened as soon as practical. Hundreds if not thousands of CSETI supporters have written these key congressional leaders recommending open hearings on the UFO/ETI subject.
I have personally met with numerous members of Congress. Key committee chairmen have been fully briefed and given unambiguous evidence and top-secret witness testimony, in person and on videotape. And everyone is tossing this hot potato to someone else's committee. Not unlike the refrain Not In My Backyard, it appears our leaders are saying Not In My Committee .
To recap, we have over the past four and a half years assiduously fulfilled a strategy to identify the best scientific evidence and government witnesses, brief and advise world leaders, members of Congress, the Pentagon, the UN and others and have fully documented this process. We have done everything humanly possible, at immense cost in funds, time and human life, to see that this process was done properly. In good faith to our witnesses we took no shortcuts and have consistently asked the President, the Congress and others to allow this disclosure to take place officially and safely through proper channels.
While we are willing to continue to brief members of Congress, Pentagon leaders and other government leaders when called upon, and while we still prefer official government involvement in this disclosure, the time has come to begin these disclosures without the government. We cannot allow this process to be delayed indefinitely by bureaucrats or timid politicians who will not take on this responsibility. The opportunity has been offered to them, and we continue to offer our cooperation should Congress or the President decide to do the right thing and become involved in this disclosure process.
Ultimately, however, the time comes when closure is needed regarding the government briefing process, and 'we the people' should exert our rights to free speech and come forward with the truth as we have found it.
Without the cover of a Congressional subpoena, many witnesses may be reluctant to step forward. However, we know that the most courageous and resolute government witnesses will come forward with us, independent of the government. They, more than we, are weary of the excessive secrecy and ridiculing which surrounds this subject. With these courageous witnesses, we will come forward with a privatized, civilian led program to disclose the truth of this subject, in the most credible, highest and most effective manner possible.
This will consist of a world news conference, multi-part prime time expose documentary series, compendium books and a world scientific summit. This process, once begun, must be relentless, high quality, serious and thorough.
Ironically, numerous members of Congress, White House staff, and very senior Joint Chiefs of Staff personnel have recommended that we bypass the government altogether and come forward with the evidence and witnesses. Of course, this is somewhat self-serving, since it gets them off the hook and ignores the fact that many of our best witnesses will not come forward without officially sanctioned approval and immunity from prosecution for violating national security regulations. Nevertheless, after four and half years of thorough strategic implementation, the time has come to see that the truth comes out via a civilian, privatized multi-media process. And we have been told by members of Congress that once this happens, the likelihood of open Congressional hearings will be significantly enhanced.
These are the crossroads at which we find ourselves: The Congress, like Caesars's Senate, pursues trivialities while Rome burns, and the main stream news media regards the pursuit of sexual peccadillos as the summit of investigative reporting. How tragic.
Meanwhile, it is left to the people to resolve one of the most important issues of our time: That we are not alone, that intelligent life is visiting this planet, and that a cabal of covert programs and entities are hiding the truth from our leaders and from the people. And the means for generating immense amounts of pollution-free energy is hidden away in black projects, while the earth's geophysical equilibrium is increasingly upset.