On August 18, 22 days into her hunger strike, Lara announced on
the live Ground Zero show (1080KOTK - Portland) that she will
take her Presidential hunger strike to Washington, D.C. and the
White House, as a daily reminder to President Bush.
"I am asking President Bush to fulfill his campaign promise, and
make public information on U.S. government involvement with
Extraterrestrial craft, technologies, and civilizations by
supporting the Disclosure witnesses who are ready to testify
before the U.S. Congress about their extensive knowledge of the
Extraterrestrial presence," says Johnstone.
Johnstone is referring to the approximately 100 military and
corporate Disclosure witnesses who have volunteered videotaped
testimony about UFOs and Extraterrestrials. Many of these
witnesses are subject to security oaths, and would require
Presidential or Congressional immunity to testify in public
before the U.S. Congress.
According a letter Lara wrote to her Congresswoman, Congressional
Black Caucus member Barbara Lee (D - Oakland, CA.), "These
numerous recorded witnesses constitute only a small portion of a
vast pool of identified present of former military, intelligence,
corporate, aviator, flight control, law enforcement officers,
scientists and other witnesses, who will come forward when
subpoenaed to testify at Congressional Hearings. Without a grant
of immunity releasing them from their security oaths, many such
unimpeachable witnesses fear to speak out."
Ms. Johnstone used to work for Peggy Noonan, the former
speechwriter to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush, Sr. In
writing President George W. Bush on July 26, she said, "I recall
she wrote a speech for your father about a 'thousand points of
light'. Can we shed a thousand points of light in this world? If
so, we need to open up the dark secrets that keep us in fear from
each other. It won't be easy, and will take a huge amount of
courage, honesty, responsibility and forgiveness, from all six
billion of us."
About George W. Bush, the 35 year-old Johnstone says, "Now, I am
not particularly a fan of Mr. Bush, however, the more I think
about what he said to Mr. Huffer (twice) I am convinced that he
wants to tell the people the truth!"
"But if those who want him to tell the truth, they are now going
to have to get off their armchairs and let him know!" Johnstone
adds.
Johnstone is referring to statements by then Governor George Bush
to former U.S. Army Security Agency member Charles Huffer during
a 2000 presidential campaign stop. Huffer asked both Governor
Bush and Dick Cheney, who was also present, as to whether they
would release government secrets regarding UFOs and
Extraterrestrials if elected. This reporter witnessed that
exchange, as broadcast by CNN.
On July 28, 2000, Huffer approached Governor Bush and Mr. Cheney
in Springdale, Ark. and asked Bush, "would [you] finally tell us
what is going on with UFOs?" Governor Bush replied, "Sure I
will." The question and Bush's answer were recorded by ABC NEWS
and broadcast on Nightline and more completely on CNN the next
day. On July 29, the Washington Post published part of an
interview with Charles Huffer about the exchange.
On the videotape, Mr. Bush is clearly seen stating that release
of the UFO information would be the first thing he would do,
while pointing to Mr. Cheney. Later, when asked by Huffer if he
would really release the UFO materials, Governor Bush replied,
"Yes sir," a reply that Huffer states he also has on audiotape.
Neither Mr. Bush nor Mr. Cheney have responded directly to Mr.
Huffer's follow-up on their campaign promise. In a letter to
Charles Huffer dated July 16, 2001, Vice President Cheney's
office stated they were referring all questions in the matter to
NASA. NASA in turn responded to Mr. Huffer in an August 1, 2001
letter, stating, "NASA has no program for the investigation of
UFOs, nor does the Agency have any factual evidence of the
existence of the existence of intelligent extraterrestrial life."
Lara's hunger strike first began, reporter Grant Cameron writes,
after " July 26, 2001, [when] Lara Johnstone wrote a letter to
President George Bush in support of over 100 Extraterrestrial
Disclosure Witnesses who had come forward to tell of their
involvement in the cover-up of the UFO story by the government.
Lara stated in her letter that she would support her request for
disclosure with a hunger strike. Now, more than three weeks later
there is still no reply from President Bush, or any one else at
the White House. There is not even an acknowledgment that the
letter arrived."
The non-profit Disclosure Project on May 9, 2001 held a National
Press Club conference in Washington, DC to present live testimony
from 20 high-level military and corporate witnesses to
Extraterrestrial phenomena. According to the Disclosure Project,
" The event was live webcast, and at 9 a.m. over 250,000 people
were waiting on-line for the press conference to begin. The next
biggest webcast event at the National Press Club was less than
25,000. The first hour of the conference was 'electronically
jammed' according to the president of ConnectLive, the company
that webcasts all National Press Club events."
On Monday, August 13, Lara took her hunger strike to the steps of
the federal courthouse in Oakland, to petition her Congresswoman,
Barbara Lee to write a letter to President Bush sharing Lara’s
request for Extraterrestrial Disclosure.
In her hand-delivered letter to Congresswoman Lee, Lara states,
"As you know, the recorded testimony of scores of military,
government and other witnesses to Unidentified Flying Objects and
Extraterrestrial events and projects is strong evidence of the
existence of an UFO/Extraterrestrial presence on and around
Earth. This recorded testimony consists of dozens of first-hand,
often top-secret witnesses to UFO and Extraterrestrial events,
internal UFO-related government projects and covert activities,
space-based weapons programs and covert, reverse-engineered
energy and propulsion system projects. The technologies that are
of an Extraterrestrial origin, when publicly released within a
planned transition period, will provide solutions to global
environmental and security challenges."
Johnstone requested Congresswoman Lee to support a ban on
space-based weapons. "Our generation of voters and leaders are
responsible for this once in a lifetime decision -- to ban
space-based weapons so that we will be permitted to join the
peaceful travelers in the universe," Lara wrote.
On July 26, Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D.-Cleveland)
announced his intention to introduce legislation banning
space-based weapons. "The time has come to ban the further
weaponization of space," Congressman Kucinich said. "We must work
toward the elimination of all nuclear weapons, and an end to
policies which cause this country to move toward the
weaponization of space. I was pleased with the recent news from
our neighbor to the north that Canada is ready to join an
international effort to prohibit weapons in space. It is time for
the United States to take the lead and end the weaponization of
space."
Lara's letter to Congreewoman Lee continues, "The legislation to
ban space-based weapons will prohibit acts of war against
Extraterrestrial civilizations, which have proven to be concerned
about nuclear and weapons industry, but also have proven they are
not to be hostile. The comprehensive legislation will transform
the terrestrial war industry into a world cooperative military
(without space weapons), civil, and commercial space industry.
This will provide unprecedented benefits and opportunities to all
on Earth and in space."
Lara's involvement with the Extraterrestrial issue began,
according to reporter Grant Cameron, on July 22, 2001, "when Dr.
Steven Greer arrived in San Francisco to make a presentation of
his traveling Disclosure Project. The event was held at the huge
Masonic Auditorium. Among the 2,000 people in the audience was a
woman by the name of Lara Johnstone.
"Lara was a bit skeptical of the whole extraterrestrial thing,"
writes Cameron. "She had no background in Ufology. She had never
had a sighting. A friend sent her an e-mail about the local
Disclosure Event. Lara visited the Disclosure web site on the
Internet. After reading the objective she decided to attend. "I
never before really 'believed'," Lara wrote to President George
Bush, "in ‘verifiable evidence' of extraterrestrial visits." The
Disclosure event turned out to be a "reality check" for Lara.
"During the event the two hour Disclosure testimony videotape was
shown," Cameron states, "This tape, produced by the Disclosure
project, contains highlights of over 100 hours of testimony that
had been collected from interviews with dozens of U.S.
Government, industrial, and military witnesses to UFO and
extraterrestrial events and secret 'black-ops' projects.
"Lara decided action was necessary," Cameron states. "She chose a
form of protest that she was familiar with - a hunger strike. In
late 2000 Lara had used this protest method successfully against
the state of California. Lara described her first hunger strike
protest, 'I went on a hunger strike was against the CA Department
of Corrections and Gov. Gray Davis. After 25 days, they bowed,
admitted -- in writing -- what I had alleged, and what they had
'said', but not in writing. Before the press conference, the
department head of all of California's prisons came up to me and
went ballistic. He started screaming 'Who do you think you are,
'How dare you?' and on and on! He did not like being called up by
the South African media, asked to answer very difficult questions
regarding how he runs his prisons!'" The 35 year-old Johnstone,
who lives in Oakland, Ca. Is originally from South Africa.
Asked if the hunger strike had affected her medically, Johnstone
stated during the KOTK program, "I am carrying out this hunger
strike with an open mind, and on a day-to-day basis," Johnstone
stated during the KOTK program, which included a public appeal
for medical personnel to monitor her daily progress.
Lara Johnstone is clear that she wants to provide President
George W. Bush with a clear choice about releasing UFO and
Extraterrestrial information. " If we choose to fight, bicker,
find blame and pre-judge, or whatever, well we will only get more
of the same and get nowhere very fast!" she said. "We -- as
George Bush does -- have a choice! We can take it screaming at
him, and be sure he is not going to have the support to tell the
truth, or we can support him, and be prepared to stand committed
to be responsible for helping people understand!"
Asked when she would be arriving on her Presidential hunger
strike to Washington, DC, Lara stated "I may arrive around the
time of the anti-globalization protests at the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) meetings starting September 28."
"On my way to the White House, I may stop where others feel I can
be if use," she adds. "In New York, I plan to sit in on hunger
strike at the offices of President Bill Clinton in Harlem. He was
very supportive of extraterrestrial Disclosure, but was blocked.
I also will definitely take this hunger strike to the United
Nations in New York."
On July 26, Canada's Foreign Minister John Manley stated that
"Canada would be very happy…to launch an initiative to see an
international convention preventing the weaponization of space."
Canada's lead in initiating a United Nations treaty banning
space-based weapons is a marked break with the Bush
administration on the issue of preventing an arms race in space.
When asked about how her Presidential hunger strike would unfold
in Washington, DC, Lara says, "Well, I am just starting to think
about that. I may ask to join Proposition One in a vigil in front
of the White House." Proposition One is a grassroots movement for
disarmament of nuclear weapons and the conversion of nuclear and
other arms industries to provide for human and environmental
needs."
"My hunger strike is really about the truth - be that about the
environment, or about extraterrestrial Disclosure. If there were
high-level environmental witnesses coming forth to reveal
testimony about ecological dangers, they would receive a great
deal of public support, both within the environmental movement
and with the public. The same degree to support should be given
the Disclosure witnesses. I am grateful for all the work the
Disclosure witnesses have done, the work everyone has done! "
This EcoNews story is based on reporting by Clyde Lewis, Holly
Conley, Grant Cameron, Ernie Vega, and Alfred Webre.
In another blow to the Bush administration, the Associated Press
has learned that the Bush daughters are expected to announce
Thursday their party switch from the Bush family to the Kennedy
clan. The Bush daughters, Barbara and Jenna, were recently cited
for trying to buy alcohol with fake ID's at an Austin restaurant.
Barbara Bush said, "In light of the current climate in Washington
and Austin, this move just feels right."
Jenna Bush also made a statement but was incoherent and could not
be quoted.
The mood at the White House was somber as the President expressed
his "disappointery" at his daughters' decision.
Official spokesperson Ari Fleisher denied that this move would
shift the balance of partying power to the Democrats. "The
President will continue to do the job the Supreme Court sent him
here to do."
Privately however, White House staffers worried that the Kennedys
would now be invited to future Rose Garden keggers.
Ted Kennedy was also expected to make a statement when he woke
up, maybe as soon as 3 PM.
UFOs + Facts + Aliens + Life + Your Reality and Goodness.
Government Employees Say It's Time to Reveal UFO Evidence.
ABCNews.com - That's according to a group of about 20 former
government workers, many of them military and security officials,
who stepped forward on Wednesday to say they had witnessed
evidence of aliens and unidentified flying objects and called for
congressional hearings about such sightings.
"These testimonies establish once and for all that we are not
alone," said Steven Greer, director of the Disclosure Project, a
nonprofit research organization dedicated to disclosing alleged
alien sightings.
Greer, who organized the program at the National Press Club in
Washington, argued that the United States and other governments
have known about UFOs for at least 50 years and have been keeping
the information secret.
Greer said there were some 400 witnesses who claim to have
firsthand experience with UFO sightings or alien evidence, and
are willing to testify before Congress.
Among them is Daniel Sheehan, a well-known Washington lawyer who
is acting as counsel for members of Greer's group.
Sheehan told reporters that during the Carter administration he
found out about government-held UFO information that then-CIA
Director George Bush, father of the current president, would not
release.
Sheehan said he was then led into the National Archives, where he
was shown photographs of captured UFOs, complete with what
appeared to be alien writing symbols, but he was only allowed to
take notes on a yellow legal pad. He traced the photos onto the
cardboard back of his pad, he said.
International UFO Cabal? James Oberg, an ABCNEWS space consultant
and retired NASA engineer, says Greer has long argued "there's
this bizarre theory that there is a worldwide real X-file cabal
that is using UFO technology."
But Oberg noted not every witness attending the conference
necessarily subscribed to Greer's theory, and says those
attending the press conference shouldn't be mocked.
"People see strange things they can't understand, and that can't
be explained either then or in hindsight, and it's good to keep
documenting these, because often the mysterious sightings are
things of interest, to military intelligence or even to science."
Oberg says people sometimes can be too quick to conclude that the
explanation is little green men.
"Often, I've seen people jump to conclusions about what they saw,
because, after all, to have been scared by a distant fireball can
be embarrassing but to have encountered an alien space ship is
more exciting."
Military Denies UFOs
The U.S. government repeatedly has denied having any evidence of
alien species, though it investigated UFOs for decades.
The Air Force was responsible for investigating alleged sightings
for the military. From 1947 to 1969, the service's Project Blue
Book at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, investigated
12,618 reported sightings. It said it found explanations for all
but 701, such as swamp gas, airplane lights, weather balloons and
other natural phenomena.
Sightings for which explanations couldn't be determined were
categorized as sketchy reports that couldn't be pinned down.
In 1997, the Air Force announced it was formally closing its
nearly 50-year investigation into the alleged alien sighting at
Roswell, N.M. It denied that there was evidence of a UFO at
Roswell and that the military covered it up.
"Information obtained through exhaustive records searches and
interviews indicated the material recovered near Roswell was
consistent with a balloon device of the type used in a
then-classified project," said a Pentagon statement. "No records
indicated, or even hinted at, the recovery of 'alien' bodies or
extraterrestrial materials."
Alien Energy?
In another statement Wednesday, Donna Hare, a former NASA
contract employee, said that Apollo astronauts saw an alien craft
when they landed on the moon, but were told not to reveal it.
Hare's source was a man who had been quarantined with the
astronauts.
Former Air Force Maj. George Filer III told reporters that when
he was at McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey, an alien craft
came down, and an alien got out and was shot by a military
policeman.
"Our security police went out there and found him at the end of
the runway dead," Filer said.
"They asked me to brief the general staff," he said, but was
later told not to. He said he would tell the story in front of
Congress.
Filer is not new to UFO sightings. He has his own Web site caled
Filer's Files, where he says he also chased an alien ship over
England when flying for the U.S. Air Force.
"I personally have observed a UFO both visually and on radar.
I've been chasing them ever since," he writes.
Greer said extraterrestrials could provide a new, plentiful
source of energy that would supply the world's energy needs.
Information from alien encounters, said Greer, could also have
significant impact on the global environment and the quest for
world peace.
ABCNEWS' Katelynn Raymer in Washington and David Ruppe in New
York contributed to this report.
By Dick Farley [email protected]
The American UFO Newsletter 5-10-1
I was there. (Actually I asked the last questions, of Dan Sheehan
and Steven Greer. Sheehan answered his but Greer "didn't have
time." Event over!) The event lasted two and a half hours; I do
not know how much of it is archived. It is supposed to remain on
the NPC site for six months, but you should watch it soon. I am
told the Project Discovery (CSETI & Paradigm Research Group) site
has it too.
The event was held in the ballroom (13th Floor) of the National
Press Club in Washington (14th and F. Streets, NW). While the
room is available for rental by anyone, it costs less if rented
through a Press Club member. According to the manager of catering
for the NPC, the Project Disclosure event was booked by Ms. Sarah
MacClendon, a now-90-ish veteran White House reporter who has
been a thorn in the sides of many Presidents who sought to keep
the American people in the dark about something Sarah believed we
needed to know. This is important to consideration of the Project
Disclosure event.
It was well-connected, well-funded. There were references to
Zero-Point Energy, anti-grav and other claims of technical
advances some on this list are working on. You'll be happy to
know you've already succeeded and that your technologies hold the
keys to "stopping global warming" and "ending the energy crisis,"
among other benefits. Of course, the weaponization of space was a
primary focus of the organizers (they're against it). But the
real stars were the retired military officers and FAA officials,
who are agreeing to testify before a Congressional committee if
one can be prodded into holding open hearings on it.
One area of advance hype that did not happen were appearances via
video tape of former astronauts Edgar Mitchell and Gordon Cooper.
No mention was made of this and there was no video tape shown.
The 21 "in person" witnesses each made a five-minute or less
presentation, the majority of which were coherent and persuasive.
As I am not given to hyperbole, and whatever one thinks about
Greer and his gig, I do have to report that the event itself was
professionally run and very well received. There is material now
"out there" for intelligent public discussion of UFOs and ET,s
and if there are some on this list concerned about efforts to
"start up a new religion" for the Technocratic Age, do fasten
your seat belts, because here it comes! Now! Greer referred
(without attribution) to Arthur Clarke's characterization of this
time as "the end of humanity's childhood." I will leave it to you
to see the event on the web.
What Greer & Company have formed is something I have called in
the past a "nontraditional alliance," of former military folks
who are decidedly conservative patriots working alongside abject
liberals like Daniel Sheehan, who did legal work for the New York
Times on the Pentagon Papers case and later was involved in the
Karen Silkwood case (about Kerr-McGee's nuclear operations for
DoE, in Texas, etc.). It is a fascinating mix and again, well
worth personal review & analysis by each of you.
It had an impressive array of witness (21 present in the flesh),
many with solid and public credentials. For the first time, some
"official" folks having UFO sightings or knowledge are saying, in
front of (a bank of 12-plus TV cameras and "real" press) that
they will testify before Congress. This is one initiative the
"Majestic-12" gang will find it impossible to ignore, and with
Rumsfeld-Bush space policies up for review, it will be along
lines of opening up "black budget" projects where Congress will
dig.
Again, regardless of one's perspective or bias about the
"players," today's event is singularly important because it's the
best executed such initiative we've ever had. I have my own
views, of course, about some of what was said. And no, I am NOT
"drinking the Kool-Aid" (none was served). But rather than burn
up the Internet with chaff and hearsay, this one is worth you
science guys and others on-list tuning in. More later and I
certainly will respond to questions and to clarify "hearsay,"
etc. It is important that this effort not degenerate into simply
more disinformation and angry invective, personal attacks and
accusations. Kudos to Greer and Steve Bassett for a program
well-conducted.
As to "what it all means," what other motives or agendas are in
play here, that will take months to gauge. Some of the "usual
suspects" were present, of course, from the "Retail UFOlogy of
Usual Kind" cadres, no doubt to find and amplify the weakest
links or wildest tales, to again try and derail the campaign. But
it won't work this time around. As Greer noted, today's event is
the start of "a process."
My sense is THIS disclosure initiative is getting support from
official, if not necessarily "political," levels in the
government and military, with an eye toward perhaps "cleaning up"
bad secrets from the Cold War corroding public confidence. There
no doubt are elements of the "Matrix of UFO Beliefs" this
particular group is not interested in addressing (at least
publicly), such as "mind control" allegations or
"angelic/demonic" interpretations of alien abductions,
"hybridization" suspicions or the ultimate intentions of the
"visiting others."
The mood expressed by principles of the organizing entities
(sorry, couldn't resist ;-) is decidedly "peaceful surrender" to
the "aliens," as Greer's rationale (as he expressed it during the
Q. & A. period) is that if "they" wanted to harm us they already
would have, given our bad treatment of them over the years. And
Greer, Sheehan and others are, of course, of the "belief" that
disclosure of what they are certain is at the heart of the UFO
"cover-up" will be a planetary unification stimulus, which Greer
and obviously his backers clearly favor. But for the present,
Steven and his allies are focusing on the "real sightings" of an
unexplained kind, letting the retired military and aviation
officials "break trail" on it.
I'm waiting to gauge the media penetration, "spin" and any
counterattacks before I weigh in with analysis or "local color."
But I am glad I went in person, and I had an opportunity to
interview a number of the witnesses one-on-one, without
intervention or spinning by the organizers. Let's see how the
fallout and counterattacks by those who do not favor "UFO
disclosure" or "space demilitarization" takes shape. Later! If
it's real, it has a politics. Once "disclosure" happens, the real
debates begin!
References: http://www.press.org
http://www.DisclosureProject.org
UFOs + Facts + Aliens + Life + Your Reality and Goodness.
"Government Employees Say It's Time to Reveal UFO Evidence."
What if everything is an illusion and nothing exists? In that case, I definitely overpaid for my carpet.
Woody Allen