1 00:00:09,593 --> 00:00:11,178 NARRATOR: Is the U. S. government 2 00:00:11,178 --> 00:00:13,680 covering up the truth about alien contact? 3 00:00:15,307 --> 00:00:17,601 And if so, why? 4 00:00:17,601 --> 00:00:18,685 JOHN PODESTA: The government seems to be 5 00:00:18,685 --> 00:00:19,937 completely unaccountable 6 00:00:19,937 --> 00:00:21,271 to the American public. 7 00:00:21,271 --> 00:00:23,398 They rarely release anything 8 00:00:23,398 --> 00:00:25,234 that they know or their findings. 9 00:00:28,779 --> 00:00:30,906 GIORGIO A. TSOUKALOS: The fact that the U. S. government has 10 00:00:30,906 --> 00:00:34,201 investigated thousands and thousands of reports 11 00:00:34,201 --> 00:00:37,371 leads me to think they know much more 12 00:00:37,371 --> 00:00:39,915 than they let us believe. 13 00:00:39,915 --> 00:00:42,834 NARRATOR: Could the government have a secret agenda, 14 00:00:42,834 --> 00:00:45,796 one known to only a select few, 15 00:00:45,796 --> 00:00:49,049 and perhaps dating back hundreds of years? 16 00:00:49,049 --> 00:00:51,343 GEORGE NOORY: The government's program continues 17 00:00:51,343 --> 00:00:54,471 to be deny, deny, deny. 18 00:00:54,471 --> 00:00:57,057 NICK POPE: Sometimes, government finds it helpful 19 00:00:57,057 --> 00:01:00,060 to sow seeds of disinformation and misinformation 20 00:01:00,060 --> 00:01:03,647 to hide the facts about these sorts of programs. 21 00:01:03,647 --> 00:01:05,941 STEVE BASSETT: Hillary Clinton was basically saying, 22 00:01:05,941 --> 00:01:07,693 "You are going to give me the information I need 23 00:01:07,693 --> 00:01:09,486 to disclose the extraterrestrial presence, 24 00:01:09,486 --> 00:01:11,446 or I'm gonna fire every single one of you." 25 00:01:11,446 --> 00:01:13,699 PODESTA: People want to know what the government knows, 26 00:01:13,699 --> 00:01:16,326 and they ought to know what the government knows. 27 00:01:46,523 --> 00:01:51,695 NARRATOR: On December 16th, 2017, 28 00:01:51,695 --> 00:01:54,698 The New York Times ran an explosive story 29 00:01:54,698 --> 00:01:58,452 entitled "Glowing Auras and 'Black Money': 30 00:01:58,452 --> 00:02:01,788 The Pentagon's Mysterious UFO Program." 31 00:02:01,788 --> 00:02:05,375 It was the first time the American public learned 32 00:02:05,375 --> 00:02:08,295 of a top secret U. S. government project, 33 00:02:08,295 --> 00:02:11,840 the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, 34 00:02:11,840 --> 00:02:14,885 otherwise known as AATIP. 35 00:02:14,885 --> 00:02:17,304 The revelations concerning the existence 36 00:02:17,304 --> 00:02:21,224 of the Pentagon's AATIP program are extraordinary. 37 00:02:21,224 --> 00:02:25,562 It is the single biggest ever news 38 00:02:25,562 --> 00:02:28,523 in the whole history of the UFO phenomenon. 39 00:02:28,523 --> 00:02:33,236 It's not quite a spaceship in a hangar smoking gun, 40 00:02:33,236 --> 00:02:35,989 but it's the closest we've ever been. 41 00:02:35,989 --> 00:02:40,285 I assure you that nothing like this has ever happened 42 00:02:40,285 --> 00:02:42,120 in the history of this issue. 43 00:02:42,120 --> 00:02:44,081 This is a milestone. This is a watershed. 44 00:02:46,541 --> 00:02:49,211 NARRATOR: The article reported that the program had been run 45 00:02:49,211 --> 00:02:53,256 by a former Pentagon official named Luis Elizondo, 46 00:02:53,256 --> 00:02:56,051 a senior career intelligence officer 47 00:02:56,051 --> 00:03:00,555 with top security clearance and with experience in everything 48 00:03:00,555 --> 00:03:03,642 from microbiology and parasitology 49 00:03:03,642 --> 00:03:06,269 to the study of global terrorism. 50 00:03:06,269 --> 00:03:09,272 It was Elizondo's job to investigate reports 51 00:03:09,272 --> 00:03:11,983 of unidentified flying objects, 52 00:03:11,983 --> 00:03:16,279 and to measure what threat they could pose to national security. 53 00:03:16,279 --> 00:03:20,701 AATIP received these cases from various different channels. 54 00:03:20,701 --> 00:03:22,994 In some cases, reporting would come up through Navy channels. 55 00:03:22,994 --> 00:03:24,871 In other cases, it would come up through Air Force channels. 56 00:03:24,871 --> 00:03:26,498 In other cases, it would come through 57 00:03:26,498 --> 00:03:29,960 the intelligence community, and all roads led to our office, 58 00:03:29,960 --> 00:03:31,795 regarding the phenomena. 59 00:03:31,795 --> 00:03:35,507 NARRATOR: Elizondo played a key role 60 00:03:35,507 --> 00:03:38,176 in the government's top secret AATIP program 61 00:03:38,176 --> 00:03:42,472 prior to his leaving the government in 2017. 62 00:03:42,472 --> 00:03:46,810 Among the reasons given for his departure was the bitterness 63 00:03:46,810 --> 00:03:49,521 he felt that the research he was conducting, 64 00:03:49,521 --> 00:03:53,024 and the conclusions that he and his colleagues were reaching, 65 00:03:53,024 --> 00:03:55,110 were not being taken seriously 66 00:03:55,110 --> 00:03:58,447 by other agencies within the government. 67 00:03:58,447 --> 00:04:02,451 Even Congress, to which AATIP owed its funding, 68 00:04:02,451 --> 00:04:06,163 was hard-pressed to give Elizondo so much as a hearing 69 00:04:06,163 --> 00:04:09,749 so that his findings could be made part of the public record. 70 00:04:09,749 --> 00:04:12,294 Interestingly, just two months 71 00:04:12,294 --> 00:04:15,380 after Elizondo's exit from the government, 72 00:04:15,380 --> 00:04:18,300 The New York Times broke the major story, 73 00:04:18,300 --> 00:04:21,636 exposing the AATIP program and many of the facts 74 00:04:21,636 --> 00:04:23,513 surrounding the government's secret research 75 00:04:23,513 --> 00:04:26,183 into UFO activity. 76 00:04:26,183 --> 00:04:29,728 When I read in The New York Times this front page story 77 00:04:29,728 --> 00:04:33,356 that the government was running this semi-secret program 78 00:04:33,356 --> 00:04:36,067 to investigate, well, aerial phenomena, 79 00:04:36,067 --> 00:04:39,196 which is kind of a code word for UFOs, 80 00:04:39,196 --> 00:04:42,574 yeah, you know, I thought, "My God, all these years, 81 00:04:42,574 --> 00:04:44,743 "you know, people who think that we're being visited 82 00:04:44,743 --> 00:04:47,954 "were claiming that the government was, in fact, 83 00:04:47,954 --> 00:04:51,124 "possessing some secret knowledge about this. 84 00:04:51,124 --> 00:04:53,919 And, sure enough, they did have this secret investigation." 85 00:04:53,919 --> 00:04:57,464 NARRATOR: For Luis Elizondo, The New York Times article 86 00:04:57,464 --> 00:04:59,549 served as a vindication 87 00:04:59,549 --> 00:05:02,427 for the years that his research went unrecognized 88 00:05:02,427 --> 00:05:04,888 and his warnings unheeded. 89 00:05:04,888 --> 00:05:08,475 For if the UFO activity being recorded was real, 90 00:05:08,475 --> 00:05:12,062 so, too, was the possibility that it was being caused 91 00:05:12,062 --> 00:05:14,940 by technologies that were not only unknown, 92 00:05:14,940 --> 00:05:17,776 but of extraterrestrial origin. 93 00:05:17,776 --> 00:05:21,446 NOORY: Elizondo, he resigned because he felt 94 00:05:21,446 --> 00:05:24,366 the government considered this a joke. 95 00:05:24,366 --> 00:05:26,868 I think that the fact that these folks are out there 96 00:05:26,868 --> 00:05:29,246 trying to get the answers that we're all seeking, 97 00:05:29,246 --> 00:05:31,581 absolutely fantastic. 98 00:05:31,581 --> 00:05:33,959 And they're getting to top government officials. 99 00:05:33,959 --> 00:05:37,504 And someday, we're gonna get the answers 100 00:05:37,504 --> 00:05:39,339 from people like that-- 101 00:05:39,339 --> 00:05:42,425 not from government, but from people like that. 102 00:05:42,425 --> 00:05:46,012 NARRATOR: Luckily for Luis Elizondo, 103 00:05:46,012 --> 00:05:48,974 one of the people who took him and his research seriously 104 00:05:48,974 --> 00:05:53,103 was musician and UFO researcher Tom DeLonge. 105 00:05:53,103 --> 00:05:56,189 PODESTA: Tom DeLonge, who is most famous 106 00:05:56,189 --> 00:06:01,069 for his being the lead in Blink-182. 107 00:06:01,069 --> 00:06:05,073 I've known Tom for a while, and he spearheaded an initiative 108 00:06:05,073 --> 00:06:08,869 that's brought together a number of scientists and others 109 00:06:08,869 --> 00:06:12,914 to both continue to study the phenomena on the outside, 110 00:06:12,914 --> 00:06:15,959 in the private sector, and to raise funds to do that. 111 00:06:15,959 --> 00:06:19,880 POPE: His enthusiasm, his passion 112 00:06:19,880 --> 00:06:21,798 has driven things forward. 113 00:06:21,798 --> 00:06:23,633 A lot of people were saying, 114 00:06:23,633 --> 00:06:25,927 "What does a rock star know about all this?" 115 00:06:25,927 --> 00:06:29,055 Let's not forget that sometimes even people in government 116 00:06:29,055 --> 00:06:30,849 and military and the intelligence community 117 00:06:30,849 --> 00:06:36,313 get a little more starstruck than they should by celebrities. 118 00:06:36,313 --> 00:06:41,943 Tom DeLonge was able to use this to leverage, I guess, access 119 00:06:41,943 --> 00:06:44,070 where others had tried and failed. 120 00:06:46,197 --> 00:06:48,700 NARRATOR: In October 2017, 121 00:06:48,700 --> 00:06:50,660 Tom DeLonge announced the creation 122 00:06:50,660 --> 00:06:53,955 of his To The Stars Academy of Arts andamp; Science, 123 00:06:53,955 --> 00:06:58,084 an organization devoted to the study of UFOs 124 00:06:58,084 --> 00:07:01,171 and the possible existence of extraterrestrial activity 125 00:07:01,171 --> 00:07:03,798 here on Earth. 126 00:07:03,798 --> 00:07:07,927 When Elizondo left the Pentagon, he was determined 127 00:07:07,927 --> 00:07:11,556 to bring AATIP's years of investigation out of the shadows 128 00:07:11,556 --> 00:07:15,352 by releasing several of the videos he had collected. 129 00:07:15,352 --> 00:07:18,563 One of them featured this incredible encounter, 130 00:07:18,563 --> 00:07:22,651 taken by a fighter jet in Florida in 2015, 131 00:07:22,651 --> 00:07:25,445 now known as the Gimbal video. 132 00:07:37,749 --> 00:07:41,252 NARRATOR: On December 18, 2017, 133 00:07:41,252 --> 00:07:45,048 DeLonge and Elizondo revealed a second shocking video 134 00:07:45,048 --> 00:07:48,134 which was released through The Washington Post. 135 00:07:48,134 --> 00:07:52,263 This UFO had been tracked by the USS Princeton 136 00:07:52,263 --> 00:07:54,933 for several days over the Pacific Ocean, 137 00:07:54,933 --> 00:08:00,355 approximately 100 miles southwest of San Diego. 138 00:08:00,355 --> 00:08:03,858 On the screen, it also says the speed of the F-18 139 00:08:03,858 --> 00:08:08,738 is 250 knots, roughly about 280 miles per hour. 140 00:08:08,738 --> 00:08:10,990 This F-18 can't seem to get any closer 141 00:08:10,990 --> 00:08:12,951 to this vehicle, whatever it is. 142 00:08:12,951 --> 00:08:15,829 Now, the F-18's one of the highest technology 143 00:08:15,829 --> 00:08:17,956 fighter crafts on the planet. 144 00:08:17,956 --> 00:08:20,875 And it can't catch this thing? 145 00:08:20,875 --> 00:08:24,087 When it darts offscreen to the left, 146 00:08:24,087 --> 00:08:26,464 it would be going extremely fast. 147 00:08:26,464 --> 00:08:29,259 The g-forces would turn a person inside it 148 00:08:29,259 --> 00:08:31,261 into, like, tapioca pudding. 149 00:08:31,261 --> 00:08:33,012 I mean, it would kill them. 150 00:08:35,265 --> 00:08:38,059 NARRATOR: In March 2018, 151 00:08:38,059 --> 00:08:41,604 a third Pentagon video entitled "Go Fast" was released, 152 00:08:41,604 --> 00:08:45,734 and featured yet another unexplained aerial encounter. 153 00:08:51,448 --> 00:08:53,658 (pilots laugh) 154 00:08:53,658 --> 00:08:56,911 NARRATOR: But perhaps the most shocking information 155 00:08:56,911 --> 00:09:01,624 to come from Tom DeLonge and his To The Stars Academy was 156 00:09:01,624 --> 00:09:06,087 Luis Elizondo's claim that Bigelow Aerospace had modified 157 00:09:06,087 --> 00:09:09,382 its buildings for the storage of strange metal alloys 158 00:09:09,382 --> 00:09:14,012 of unknown origin, also known as metamaterials. 159 00:09:14,012 --> 00:09:16,890 Now, hold, stop the presses right there. 160 00:09:16,890 --> 00:09:19,267 What are these metal alloys? 161 00:09:19,267 --> 00:09:22,312 POPE: Luis Elizondo has referred 162 00:09:22,312 --> 00:09:25,940 to these as "meta materials." 163 00:09:25,940 --> 00:09:29,986 The implication is that they're not special magical elements, 164 00:09:29,986 --> 00:09:32,238 or anything, but they do seem to be 165 00:09:32,238 --> 00:09:35,075 materials that have been studied. 166 00:09:35,075 --> 00:09:38,411 According to Elizondo, tests have been run. 167 00:09:38,411 --> 00:09:40,413 The answer has come back: 168 00:09:40,413 --> 00:09:43,708 whatever these things were, they came from space. 169 00:09:43,708 --> 00:09:45,710 PODESTA: There was also indications 170 00:09:45,710 --> 00:09:47,128 that there were certain polymers 171 00:09:47,128 --> 00:09:50,256 that were discovered at crash sites 172 00:09:50,256 --> 00:09:54,219 that were unexplained and were reviewed. 173 00:09:54,219 --> 00:09:56,346 RICHARD DOLAN: You know, for years and years, 174 00:09:56,346 --> 00:10:00,266 UFO researchers had talked about crash retrievals of UFOs, 175 00:10:00,266 --> 00:10:01,976 or that elements of these objects 176 00:10:01,976 --> 00:10:03,937 had been recovered and were being studied. 177 00:10:03,937 --> 00:10:06,815 And skeptics would laugh at these claims. 178 00:10:06,815 --> 00:10:08,983 You know, how ridiculous 179 00:10:08,983 --> 00:10:12,445 such conspiracy paranoid fantasies were. 180 00:10:12,445 --> 00:10:14,239 Well, guess what. 181 00:10:14,239 --> 00:10:16,866 Now we have it confirmed. 182 00:10:16,866 --> 00:10:19,494 What are these materials? 183 00:10:19,494 --> 00:10:21,162 Are they of this Earth? 184 00:10:21,162 --> 00:10:24,165 Are they from an advanced alien intelligence? 185 00:10:24,165 --> 00:10:28,628 Were these metals actually taken from crashed UFOs? 186 00:10:28,628 --> 00:10:32,465 What are the sources for these kinds of metals? 187 00:10:32,465 --> 00:10:35,135 These are the kind of questions that we need to learn 188 00:10:35,135 --> 00:10:37,262 the answers to if we're gonna get to the bottom 189 00:10:37,262 --> 00:10:41,307 of understanding what the government knows about UFOs. 190 00:10:41,307 --> 00:10:45,145 NARRATOR: Is it possible that the U. S. military has recovered 191 00:10:45,145 --> 00:10:48,148 crashed extraterrestrial spacecraft, 192 00:10:48,148 --> 00:10:50,775 and that wreckage from these aircraft 193 00:10:50,775 --> 00:10:53,528 is currently being stored and studied 194 00:10:53,528 --> 00:10:57,824 by a top-secret team at Bigelow Aerospace? 195 00:10:57,824 --> 00:11:00,535 TAYLOR: One of the really interesting things about AATIP 196 00:11:00,535 --> 00:11:03,163 is how much information hasn't been released. 197 00:11:03,163 --> 00:11:05,165 We hear things that are coming. 198 00:11:05,165 --> 00:11:07,083 There's this report that was written 199 00:11:07,083 --> 00:11:08,835 that we're supposed to get to see at some point. 200 00:11:08,835 --> 00:11:10,086 Haven't seen it yet. 201 00:11:10,086 --> 00:11:12,213 And then, are there more videos? 202 00:11:12,213 --> 00:11:13,923 We've seen, I think, three videos come out 203 00:11:13,923 --> 00:11:15,550 that they've released. 204 00:11:15,550 --> 00:11:17,135 There has to be more. 205 00:11:17,135 --> 00:11:18,636 They were doing this for, like, five years, 206 00:11:18,636 --> 00:11:21,055 or maybe even a lot longer than that. 207 00:11:21,055 --> 00:11:23,766 I bet you there's a lot more. 208 00:11:23,766 --> 00:11:26,394 DAVID CHILDRESS: Other secret military programs 209 00:11:26,394 --> 00:11:29,022 have been going on for many, many decades. 210 00:11:29,022 --> 00:11:31,232 And it's really just the tip of the iceberg. 211 00:11:31,232 --> 00:11:35,278 NARRATOR: Was the U. S. government's AATIP program 212 00:11:35,278 --> 00:11:39,199 the only one to be investigating extraterrestrial activity? 213 00:11:39,199 --> 00:11:42,994 And, if so, how was it started, and why? 214 00:11:42,994 --> 00:11:46,497 And was the government seriously concerned 215 00:11:46,497 --> 00:11:48,541 that such activity was happening? 216 00:11:48,541 --> 00:11:51,461 Or was the bigger concern that the public 217 00:11:51,461 --> 00:11:53,922 would find out about it? 218 00:12:00,762 --> 00:12:05,433 NARRATOR: Washington, D. C., 2007. 219 00:12:05,433 --> 00:12:08,311 Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada 220 00:12:08,311 --> 00:12:11,814 summons Senator Daniel Inouye from Hawaii 221 00:12:11,814 --> 00:12:15,276 and Alaska Senator Ted Stevens to a secure room 222 00:12:15,276 --> 00:12:18,446 in the Capitol Building for a secret meeting. 223 00:12:18,446 --> 00:12:21,199 He convinces them to lend their support 224 00:12:21,199 --> 00:12:24,452 to fund a project researching UFO reports 225 00:12:24,452 --> 00:12:26,788 in the interest of national security-- 226 00:12:26,788 --> 00:12:30,541 the Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program, 227 00:12:30,541 --> 00:12:32,293 or AATIP. 228 00:12:32,293 --> 00:12:35,129 Senator Reid was successful in getting money 229 00:12:35,129 --> 00:12:38,299 into the Defense Department budget 230 00:12:38,299 --> 00:12:42,595 to create a small office to look at 231 00:12:42,595 --> 00:12:44,681 what the government knew, 232 00:12:44,681 --> 00:12:48,810 and to study some more recent incidents that had occurred, 233 00:12:48,810 --> 00:12:50,561 and to delve into the background, 234 00:12:50,561 --> 00:12:53,856 and to try to explain what pilots who had encountered 235 00:12:53,856 --> 00:12:56,651 strange aerial phenomena couldn't explain. 236 00:12:56,651 --> 00:12:59,529 NARRATOR: Without any public debate, 237 00:12:59,529 --> 00:13:03,283 $22 million is allocated for AATIP 238 00:13:03,283 --> 00:13:06,327 from a black money budget that few people know about 239 00:13:06,327 --> 00:13:07,954 or can monitor. 240 00:13:07,954 --> 00:13:09,414 PODESTA: Much of it, I think, was classified. 241 00:13:09,414 --> 00:13:11,416 Much of it was unclassified, 242 00:13:11,416 --> 00:13:14,252 but I think people didn't know about the program. 243 00:13:14,252 --> 00:13:18,298 I'm very glad that my friend Harry Reid decided 244 00:13:18,298 --> 00:13:22,093 that he would pursue this and sought money for it. 245 00:13:22,093 --> 00:13:25,054 Senator Stevens was genuinely interested in the topic. 246 00:13:25,054 --> 00:13:27,140 But none of them went out and discussed it. 247 00:13:27,140 --> 00:13:31,311 NARRATOR: When later asked about his support for the program, 248 00:13:31,311 --> 00:13:34,814 Senator Reid said that he was inspired by his friend, 249 00:13:34,814 --> 00:13:38,985 retired former senator and astronaut John Glenn. 250 00:13:38,985 --> 00:13:42,822 Glenn, the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth, 251 00:13:42,822 --> 00:13:45,825 told Reid that he thought that the federal government 252 00:13:45,825 --> 00:13:48,911 should be looking seriously into UFOs. 253 00:13:48,911 --> 00:13:52,206 But there are some who believe that Reid's support 254 00:13:52,206 --> 00:13:55,334 owes less to John Glenn than to his friendship 255 00:13:55,334 --> 00:13:58,880 with one of the senator's largest campaign contributors: 256 00:13:58,880 --> 00:14:04,677 Robert Bigelow, the founder of Bigelow Aerospace. 257 00:14:04,677 --> 00:14:08,473 Robert Bigelow owned a series of hotels, 258 00:14:08,473 --> 00:14:11,142 and he sold it and made a lot of money. 259 00:14:11,142 --> 00:14:15,813 He decided then he wanted to get into space exploration. 260 00:14:15,813 --> 00:14:20,026 He's fascinated by extraterrestrials and UFOs. 261 00:14:20,026 --> 00:14:23,988 NASA was providing insight, as opposed to oversight-- 262 00:14:23,988 --> 00:14:27,158 which is an important distinction there... 263 00:14:27,158 --> 00:14:30,036 NOORY: And his dear friend, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, 264 00:14:30,036 --> 00:14:33,456 was convinced by Robert Bigelow 265 00:14:33,456 --> 00:14:36,000 to get the government to spend $22 million 266 00:14:36,000 --> 00:14:38,711 into this program to investigate UFOs. 267 00:14:38,711 --> 00:14:40,671 MIKE BARA: It's not a coincidence, to my mind, 268 00:14:40,671 --> 00:14:42,381 that he was involved in 269 00:14:42,381 --> 00:14:45,968 the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program. 270 00:14:45,968 --> 00:14:48,262 He builds rockets and planes and who knows what else, 271 00:14:48,262 --> 00:14:50,389 and he seems like a perfectly logical person 272 00:14:50,389 --> 00:14:54,018 to have been the point man in the private sector 273 00:14:54,018 --> 00:14:57,605 for using the information that was gleaned from that project, 274 00:14:57,605 --> 00:15:00,149 whatever it was, and we don't know what a lot of it was 275 00:15:00,149 --> 00:15:01,400 because it's classified. 276 00:15:01,400 --> 00:15:03,611 NARRATOR: At the time, 277 00:15:03,611 --> 00:15:06,239 the fact that much of AATIP's research was 278 00:15:06,239 --> 00:15:09,408 outsourced to Bigelow Aerospace made perfect sense. 279 00:15:09,408 --> 00:15:13,204 First of all, the company already had a staff 280 00:15:13,204 --> 00:15:16,582 of highly qualified aerospace engineers. 281 00:15:16,582 --> 00:15:20,336 And, secondly, an outside company could operate 282 00:15:20,336 --> 00:15:22,421 without the kind of public scrutiny 283 00:15:22,421 --> 00:15:25,299 imposed on a government-based agency. 284 00:15:25,299 --> 00:15:29,220 Bigelow could operate in total secrecy. 285 00:15:29,220 --> 00:15:32,682 Private companies aren't held to the Freedom of Information Act. 286 00:15:32,682 --> 00:15:34,934 Private companies can do whatever they want to 287 00:15:34,934 --> 00:15:38,104 with their funding, and you can't go then and fill out 288 00:15:38,104 --> 00:15:40,273 a Freedom of Information Act request. 289 00:15:40,273 --> 00:15:43,651 That's a way to keep things more secretive. 290 00:15:43,651 --> 00:15:47,155 NARRATOR: But was the AATIP program's need for secrecy 291 00:15:47,155 --> 00:15:50,199 merely designed to keep its UFO findings 292 00:15:50,199 --> 00:15:53,119 independent of public scrutiny? 293 00:15:53,119 --> 00:15:56,080 Or was there a greater interest in hiding 294 00:15:56,080 --> 00:15:58,457 not only what AATIP was finding, 295 00:15:58,457 --> 00:16:02,837 but also what those in charge of the program were looking for? 296 00:16:05,214 --> 00:16:08,050 In May 2017, 297 00:16:08,050 --> 00:16:10,303 Robert Bigelow was the subject of a profile 298 00:16:10,303 --> 00:16:12,972 on CBS's 60 Minutes. 299 00:16:12,972 --> 00:16:15,933 The piece was meant to focus 300 00:16:15,933 --> 00:16:18,102 on Bigelow's relationship to NASA 301 00:16:18,102 --> 00:16:21,689 and his activities in creating life-support habitats 302 00:16:21,689 --> 00:16:23,524 for future astronauts. 303 00:16:23,524 --> 00:16:27,945 During his interview, Bigelow revealed to 60 Minutes 304 00:16:27,945 --> 00:16:31,324 that he was not only an aerospace enthusiast, 305 00:16:31,324 --> 00:16:35,036 but a full-fledged believer in extraterrestrials. 306 00:16:37,079 --> 00:16:39,081 Do you believe in aliens? 307 00:16:39,081 --> 00:16:41,918 I'm absolutely convinced. That's all there is to it. 308 00:16:41,918 --> 00:16:45,129 Do you also believe that UFOs have come to Earth? 309 00:16:45,129 --> 00:16:47,173 There has been and is an existing presence-- 310 00:16:47,173 --> 00:16:48,674 an E. T. presence. 311 00:16:48,674 --> 00:16:49,926 And I've spent millions and millions. 312 00:16:49,926 --> 00:16:51,677 I've probably spent more as an individual 313 00:16:51,677 --> 00:16:53,304 than anybody else in the United States 314 00:16:53,304 --> 00:16:55,473 has ever spent on this subject. 315 00:16:55,473 --> 00:16:57,558 Is it risky for you to say, 316 00:16:57,558 --> 00:16:59,101 you know, in public that you believe 317 00:16:59,101 --> 00:17:00,937 -in UFOs and aliens? -I don't give a damn. 318 00:17:00,937 --> 00:17:02,897 -I don't care. -You don't worry 319 00:17:02,897 --> 00:17:04,732 that some people will say, "Did you hear that guy? 320 00:17:04,732 --> 00:17:05,900 He sounds like he's crazy." 321 00:17:05,900 --> 00:17:07,902 -I don't care. -Why not? 322 00:17:07,902 --> 00:17:09,362 It's not gonna make a difference. 323 00:17:09,362 --> 00:17:12,490 It's not gonna change reality of what I know. 324 00:17:12,490 --> 00:17:14,617 Bob Bigelow said, 325 00:17:14,617 --> 00:17:16,994 "E.T.s are here. They're right under your nose." 326 00:17:16,994 --> 00:17:19,872 And he uses the word "E. T." He doesn't beat around the bush. 327 00:17:19,872 --> 00:17:23,793 BASSETT: Robert Bigelow became my hero. 328 00:17:23,793 --> 00:17:27,880 That "I don't give a damn" really was for a lot of people. 329 00:17:27,880 --> 00:17:31,592 It was for every billionaire space jockey out there, 330 00:17:31,592 --> 00:17:36,472 whether it's Elon Musk or Branson or Bezos. 331 00:17:36,472 --> 00:17:38,266 But guess what. 332 00:17:38,266 --> 00:17:42,770 None of those people have ever said to a reporter, 333 00:17:42,770 --> 00:17:45,648 "You know, I'm pretty sure there's extraterrestrials here." 334 00:17:45,648 --> 00:17:48,359 Bigelow did. 335 00:17:48,359 --> 00:17:51,571 LINDA MOULTON HOWE: We must now go and ask the head 336 00:17:51,571 --> 00:17:54,824 of Bigelow Aerospace what does he mean 337 00:17:54,824 --> 00:17:58,286 that aliens are under everyone's noses. 338 00:17:58,286 --> 00:18:01,872 This story really is begging 339 00:18:01,872 --> 00:18:05,376 for somebody to go to Robert Bigelow 340 00:18:05,376 --> 00:18:08,462 and say, "Can we now go and see your warehouse?" 341 00:18:11,090 --> 00:18:15,511 What a fantastic next step it would be for the world. 342 00:18:15,511 --> 00:18:19,432 NARRATOR: Although funding for the AATIP program 343 00:18:19,432 --> 00:18:22,852 was quietly ended in 2012, 344 00:18:22,852 --> 00:18:26,397 there are those who believe that its focus on the study 345 00:18:26,397 --> 00:18:27,857 of recent UFO activity 346 00:18:27,857 --> 00:18:30,318 and on the study of extraterrestrial life 347 00:18:30,318 --> 00:18:33,154 are still alive and well, 348 00:18:33,154 --> 00:18:37,617 although now further hidden under a different agency name. 349 00:18:37,617 --> 00:18:40,786 When the Pentagon grudgingly admitted 350 00:18:40,786 --> 00:18:43,122 the existence of the AATIP program, 351 00:18:43,122 --> 00:18:44,832 they did a clever thing, 352 00:18:44,832 --> 00:18:49,211 and they said that the funding had run out in 2012. 353 00:18:49,211 --> 00:18:52,715 The implication was that the program was no more, 354 00:18:52,715 --> 00:18:54,550 but with my knowledge of the way 355 00:18:54,550 --> 00:18:57,595 in which these classified sensitive programs are run, 356 00:18:57,595 --> 00:18:59,263 pulling the funding part 357 00:18:59,263 --> 00:19:02,725 is not the same as terminating the project. 358 00:19:02,725 --> 00:19:06,312 NARRATOR: But while some version of the government's 359 00:19:06,312 --> 00:19:09,982 AATIP program may still be operating in secret, 360 00:19:09,982 --> 00:19:11,776 the same cannot be said 361 00:19:11,776 --> 00:19:14,737 for some of the agency's former employees. 362 00:19:14,737 --> 00:19:17,490 And there is one in particular 363 00:19:17,490 --> 00:19:21,410 who is not only open to the idea that aliens do exist, 364 00:19:21,410 --> 00:19:23,496 he has made it his mission 365 00:19:23,496 --> 00:19:27,083 to communicate his findings throughout the world. 366 00:19:31,003 --> 00:19:33,631 NARRATOR: When The New York Times story broke, 367 00:19:33,631 --> 00:19:36,258 revealing the existence of the U. S. government's 368 00:19:36,258 --> 00:19:38,969 ultra top secret AATIP program, 369 00:19:38,969 --> 00:19:41,972 UFO experts and ancient astronaut theorists 370 00:19:41,972 --> 00:19:44,308 had validation for what they knew 371 00:19:44,308 --> 00:19:47,436 had been happening for decades: 372 00:19:47,436 --> 00:19:51,565 that the government has proof of extraterrestrial visitation 373 00:19:51,565 --> 00:19:54,819 and that they have been hiding it from the public. 374 00:19:54,819 --> 00:19:57,321 TSOUKALOS: The investigations were denied 375 00:19:57,321 --> 00:19:59,865 during the time of their happening. 376 00:19:59,865 --> 00:20:02,868 And it's really curious that we're always told, 377 00:20:02,868 --> 00:20:05,454 "No, these programs are not happening." 378 00:20:05,454 --> 00:20:08,916 And then, 20 years later, these documents are being released 379 00:20:08,916 --> 00:20:13,003 to reveal the fact that these investigations did happen. 380 00:20:13,003 --> 00:20:16,173 My initial reaction to the information 381 00:20:16,173 --> 00:20:19,260 that was released in December of 2017 382 00:20:19,260 --> 00:20:23,973 was that this has really been going on for over 70 years. 383 00:20:23,973 --> 00:20:27,518 NARRATOR: Although the government's AATIP program 384 00:20:27,518 --> 00:20:30,146 was established in 2007, 385 00:20:30,146 --> 00:20:32,815 it was by no means the first top secret program 386 00:20:32,815 --> 00:20:35,067 designed to investigate UFO activity 387 00:20:35,067 --> 00:20:36,986 in the United States. 388 00:20:36,986 --> 00:20:40,740 The first was known simply as Project Sign, 389 00:20:40,740 --> 00:20:43,909 and it was set up within the U. S. Air Force 390 00:20:43,909 --> 00:20:47,288 to investigate unexplained aerial phenomena, 391 00:20:47,288 --> 00:20:52,126 such as the event now known as the Battle of Los Angeles. 392 00:20:52,126 --> 00:20:53,919 What's called the Battle of L. A. 393 00:20:53,919 --> 00:20:57,590 is actually one of the earliest unexplained UFO mysteries 394 00:20:57,590 --> 00:20:59,633 in modern... our modern era. 395 00:20:59,633 --> 00:21:02,094 Three months after Pearl Harbor, 396 00:21:02,094 --> 00:21:06,015 it took place on the early morning of February 25, 1942. 397 00:21:07,933 --> 00:21:11,437 An unknown object appeared over Los Angeles 398 00:21:11,437 --> 00:21:14,315 and anti-aircraft guns opened fire on it. 399 00:21:14,315 --> 00:21:16,358 (rapid gunfire) 400 00:21:16,358 --> 00:21:18,486 RADIO ANNOUNCER: The anti-aircraft guns 401 00:21:18,486 --> 00:21:20,946 began barking during a blackout 402 00:21:20,946 --> 00:21:24,784 ordered by the IV Interceptor Command at 2:25 a. m. 403 00:21:24,784 --> 00:21:27,995 1,430 artillery shells were fired 404 00:21:27,995 --> 00:21:32,958 at several unknown objects. 405 00:21:32,958 --> 00:21:37,129 Many eyewitnesses on the ground saw this. 406 00:21:37,129 --> 00:21:41,592 There was concern that the Japanese were somehow involved, 407 00:21:41,592 --> 00:21:44,428 but there was no Japanese aircraft carrier, 408 00:21:44,428 --> 00:21:46,722 no chance that Japanese airplanes 409 00:21:46,722 --> 00:21:48,557 could have been responsible for this. 410 00:21:48,557 --> 00:21:51,477 The Secretary of the Navy said to the public, 411 00:21:51,477 --> 00:21:53,103 "It was just war nerves. 412 00:21:53,103 --> 00:21:55,105 There was nothing out there, whatsoever." 413 00:21:55,105 --> 00:21:58,150 NARRATOR: Although the U. S. Army Air Force 414 00:21:58,150 --> 00:22:00,653 officially dismissed the objects seen in the sky 415 00:22:00,653 --> 00:22:02,488 as weather balloons, 416 00:22:02,488 --> 00:22:05,324 they failed to explain why so many weather balloons 417 00:22:05,324 --> 00:22:08,702 would have been floating over Los Angeles in the first place. 418 00:22:08,702 --> 00:22:12,206 In the years following the Battle of Los Angeles, 419 00:22:12,206 --> 00:22:15,584 numerous other UFO sightings were reported, 420 00:22:15,584 --> 00:22:17,795 including the one widely referred to as 421 00:22:17,795 --> 00:22:22,049 "the Roswell incident," in which an unidentified object, 422 00:22:22,049 --> 00:22:25,052 referred to in the press as a flying saucer, 423 00:22:25,052 --> 00:22:27,805 reportedly crashed on a ranch 424 00:22:27,805 --> 00:22:30,307 just outside the town of Roswell, New Mexico, 425 00:22:30,307 --> 00:22:34,144 on July 4, 1947. 426 00:22:34,144 --> 00:22:37,731 Within 24 hours, the story changed. 427 00:22:37,731 --> 00:22:40,234 And they said, "We made a mistake. 428 00:22:40,234 --> 00:22:42,236 "It's not a flying disc. 429 00:22:42,236 --> 00:22:45,614 It's just debris from a weather balloon." 430 00:22:45,614 --> 00:22:48,158 DOLAN: The Roswell incident was 431 00:22:48,158 --> 00:22:51,704 probably a major contributor to the establishment 432 00:22:51,704 --> 00:22:53,330 of what became known as Project Sign 433 00:22:53,330 --> 00:22:55,124 just a couple of months later. 434 00:22:56,667 --> 00:22:58,586 NARRATOR: By the time Project Sign 435 00:22:58,586 --> 00:23:01,171 was established in 1948, 436 00:23:01,171 --> 00:23:04,008 UFO sightings had become so frequent, 437 00:23:04,008 --> 00:23:07,970 they could no longer be ignored or dismissed. 438 00:23:07,970 --> 00:23:11,307 Given the fact that there was a Cold War escalating 439 00:23:11,307 --> 00:23:14,184 between the United States and the Soviet Union, 440 00:23:14,184 --> 00:23:17,646 concerns that UFOs might be spy satellites 441 00:23:17,646 --> 00:23:19,815 or foreign-made weapons gave some justification 442 00:23:19,815 --> 00:23:22,902 to the increasing paranoia. 443 00:23:22,902 --> 00:23:25,112 Answers needed to be found. 444 00:23:25,112 --> 00:23:27,156 But just as the government's 445 00:23:27,156 --> 00:23:30,367 first official UFO program was getting started, 446 00:23:30,367 --> 00:23:35,414 it was suddenly and mysteriously shut down. 447 00:23:35,414 --> 00:23:38,500 There was a very big incident during the summer of 1948, 448 00:23:38,500 --> 00:23:41,211 when a report went to the Air Force Chief of Staff, 449 00:23:41,211 --> 00:23:42,922 General Hoyt Vandenberg, 450 00:23:42,922 --> 00:23:47,426 and it stated, "This is real. They're here." 451 00:23:47,426 --> 00:23:51,430 And Vandenberg closed down Project Sign. 452 00:23:51,430 --> 00:23:54,099 NARRATOR: But why would the Air Force Chief of Staff 453 00:23:54,099 --> 00:23:58,020 shut down a program designed to study UFOs 454 00:23:58,020 --> 00:23:59,855 just after being informed 455 00:23:59,855 --> 00:24:04,526 that UFOs were not only real but of genuine concern? 456 00:24:04,526 --> 00:24:07,071 There seems to be a pattern of suppression 457 00:24:07,071 --> 00:24:09,907 over the last 70 years when it comes to the UFO subject. 458 00:24:09,907 --> 00:24:12,826 And all of these government investigations into UFOs, 459 00:24:12,826 --> 00:24:15,871 where they look into it, 460 00:24:15,871 --> 00:24:17,665 then they say there's nothing to it. 461 00:24:17,665 --> 00:24:19,500 Then they look into it again, 462 00:24:19,500 --> 00:24:21,377 then they're finding that there is something to it. 463 00:24:21,377 --> 00:24:23,087 But they don't want to say what it is. 464 00:24:27,883 --> 00:24:29,760 NARRATOR: For the next four years, 465 00:24:29,760 --> 00:24:32,012 UFO sightings continued to be reported, 466 00:24:32,012 --> 00:24:33,973 so many, in fact, 467 00:24:33,973 --> 00:24:37,059 that the government could no longer dismiss them as hoaxes, 468 00:24:37,059 --> 00:24:38,727 weather anomalies, 469 00:24:38,727 --> 00:24:42,147 or simply the product of mass hysteria. 470 00:24:42,147 --> 00:24:44,984 By March 1952, 471 00:24:44,984 --> 00:24:47,319 a number of high-ranking Air Force generals 472 00:24:47,319 --> 00:24:49,655 became so frustrated with the military's 473 00:24:49,655 --> 00:24:52,199 previous attempts to properly investigate 474 00:24:52,199 --> 00:24:56,245 so-called flying saucers that they launched a program 475 00:24:56,245 --> 00:24:59,581 that would be the most serious and best-funded to date: 476 00:24:59,581 --> 00:25:02,292 Project Blue Book. 477 00:25:02,292 --> 00:25:05,587 Under the command of Air Force Captain Edward Ruppelt, 478 00:25:05,587 --> 00:25:09,299 this new top secret agency would take UFOs 479 00:25:09,299 --> 00:25:12,136 and their potential threat to national security 480 00:25:12,136 --> 00:25:13,929 very seriously. 481 00:25:13,929 --> 00:25:18,350 Project Blue Book produced a standard form 482 00:25:18,350 --> 00:25:21,145 for people who wanted to report a UFO. 483 00:25:21,145 --> 00:25:24,189 What did it look like? Was there a sound? 484 00:25:24,189 --> 00:25:28,152 They even had a chart for people to calculate 485 00:25:28,152 --> 00:25:31,488 the angle of elevation. 486 00:25:31,488 --> 00:25:34,408 If UFOs are nothing to worry about, 487 00:25:34,408 --> 00:25:38,829 why is the Air Force requesting so much information 488 00:25:38,829 --> 00:25:41,540 about the true nature of what the witnesses saw? 489 00:25:41,540 --> 00:25:45,544 NARRATOR: In January 1953, 490 00:25:45,544 --> 00:25:48,422 after gathering hundreds of reported sightings, 491 00:25:48,422 --> 00:25:50,883 photographs and interviews, 492 00:25:50,883 --> 00:25:54,636 Captain Ruppelt and astronomer Dr. J. Allen Hynek 493 00:25:54,636 --> 00:25:57,598 prepared and presented their best 23 cases 494 00:25:57,598 --> 00:26:00,851 to a CIA-formed panel of scientists 495 00:26:00,851 --> 00:26:04,521 led by Dr. H. P. Robertson. 496 00:26:04,521 --> 00:26:06,648 The Robertson Panel concluded 497 00:26:06,648 --> 00:26:09,068 that the evidence could all be dismissed 498 00:26:09,068 --> 00:26:11,028 as natural occurrences 499 00:26:11,028 --> 00:26:14,615 and was not worth the effort of the government. 500 00:26:14,615 --> 00:26:17,451 And it was the Robertson Panel which was the origin 501 00:26:17,451 --> 00:26:19,953 for a lot of the propaganda that was put out in the media 502 00:26:19,953 --> 00:26:23,248 when it came to UFOs. 503 00:26:23,248 --> 00:26:25,167 They wanted to publicly ridicule the subject, 504 00:26:25,167 --> 00:26:28,003 so that people wouldn't want to be associated with it, 505 00:26:28,003 --> 00:26:30,339 basically killing all the public interest 506 00:26:30,339 --> 00:26:32,966 in this field so they could continue to research 507 00:26:32,966 --> 00:26:34,718 these exotic technologies behind the scenes. 508 00:26:38,472 --> 00:26:40,974 NARRATOR: In 1969, 509 00:26:40,974 --> 00:26:44,478 Project Blue Book was finally shut down 510 00:26:44,478 --> 00:26:46,605 on the grounds that there was no proof 511 00:26:46,605 --> 00:26:50,234 the unidentified objects posed a national security threat 512 00:26:50,234 --> 00:26:53,570 or were of extraterrestrial origin. 513 00:26:53,570 --> 00:26:56,448 But was that really the end of the story 514 00:26:56,448 --> 00:26:59,076 or only the beginning? 515 00:27:01,328 --> 00:27:03,247 In February 2018, 516 00:27:03,247 --> 00:27:07,209 Nick Pope, the former Director of Defence Security 517 00:27:07,209 --> 00:27:09,461 at the British Ministry of Defence, 518 00:27:09,461 --> 00:27:13,841 traveled to Washington, D. C., to meet with Chase Kloetzke, 519 00:27:13,841 --> 00:27:16,677 a registered lobbyist for UFO disclosure 520 00:27:16,677 --> 00:27:18,053 and a former program developer 521 00:27:18,053 --> 00:27:21,515 for the U. S. Department of Defense. 522 00:27:21,515 --> 00:27:24,017 Chase Kloetzke has investigated 523 00:27:24,017 --> 00:27:27,479 numerous U. S. government secret studies into UFOs 524 00:27:27,479 --> 00:27:30,858 and has examined many of the once-classified files 525 00:27:30,858 --> 00:27:33,360 pertaining to Project Blue Book. 526 00:27:33,360 --> 00:27:37,865 I've got this Project Blue Book file from the FBI archives. 527 00:27:37,865 --> 00:27:41,493 And the first page I want to really go over with you 528 00:27:41,493 --> 00:27:46,248 is this one that indeed reads "UFO fact sheet." 529 00:27:46,248 --> 00:27:49,543 Okay, so this is basically a summary of the position 530 00:27:49,543 --> 00:27:51,128 with regard to Project Blue Book. 531 00:27:51,128 --> 00:27:53,630 -Right, the official statement. -Okay. 532 00:27:53,630 --> 00:27:55,424 And so, this says, 533 00:27:55,424 --> 00:27:58,135 "Since the termination of Project Blue Book, 534 00:27:58,135 --> 00:28:00,762 "no evidence has been presented to indicate 535 00:28:00,762 --> 00:28:02,973 "that further investigation of UFOs 536 00:28:02,973 --> 00:28:04,516 by the Air Force is warranted." 537 00:28:04,516 --> 00:28:06,602 "Terminated." 538 00:28:06,602 --> 00:28:10,856 Well, was the program really terminated? That's my question. 539 00:28:10,856 --> 00:28:14,151 Absolutely. And if it was, what took its place? 540 00:28:14,151 --> 00:28:15,652 Well, yes, the Air Force 541 00:28:15,652 --> 00:28:18,322 isn't suddenly going to stop being interested 542 00:28:18,322 --> 00:28:21,533 in uncorrelated targets in its airspace. 543 00:28:21,533 --> 00:28:23,535 Right, absolutely. And the second document, 544 00:28:23,535 --> 00:28:25,454 I really want you to weigh in on. 545 00:28:25,454 --> 00:28:26,747 It doesn't make sense. 546 00:28:26,747 --> 00:28:30,000 POPE: Wow. 12,618 sightings. 547 00:28:30,000 --> 00:28:31,501 That's a lot. 548 00:28:31,501 --> 00:28:36,256 And 701 of them remained completely unidentified. 549 00:28:36,256 --> 00:28:37,716 That's a staggering amount. 550 00:28:37,716 --> 00:28:41,637 These are the cases that were properly investigated, 551 00:28:41,637 --> 00:28:45,891 interviewed witnesses, radar tapes were looked at, 552 00:28:45,891 --> 00:28:48,435 and still no answers found. 553 00:28:48,435 --> 00:28:52,022 Wait a minute. Here, look. Here it is. 554 00:28:52,022 --> 00:28:55,484 At the end of the program, the unknowns drop. 555 00:28:55,484 --> 00:29:00,822 They go from 32 to 19 to three and one. 556 00:29:00,822 --> 00:29:04,201 I smell a rat. They've cooked the books. 557 00:29:04,201 --> 00:29:07,371 -They can't pull the plug on the program... -Right. 558 00:29:07,371 --> 00:29:09,498 ...if you've still got a high number of unknowns. 559 00:29:09,498 --> 00:29:12,125 So they clearly pushed those cases 560 00:29:12,125 --> 00:29:14,711 out of the unidentified column 561 00:29:14,711 --> 00:29:18,048 and into the cases that are explained, at least publicly. 562 00:29:18,048 --> 00:29:20,008 This is their way out. 563 00:29:23,095 --> 00:29:26,056 NARRATOR: Was Project Blue Book officially shut down 564 00:29:26,056 --> 00:29:28,517 because it had simply found no convincing evidence 565 00:29:28,517 --> 00:29:30,602 that UFOs were real? 566 00:29:30,602 --> 00:29:33,146 Or was it because the government 567 00:29:33,146 --> 00:29:35,482 had come to the opposite conclusion, 568 00:29:35,482 --> 00:29:40,904 that not only were they real but of extraterrestrial origin, 569 00:29:40,904 --> 00:29:44,908 a truth that could be so potentially disturbing, 570 00:29:44,908 --> 00:29:48,620 it needed to be covered up even deeper than before? 571 00:29:54,626 --> 00:29:56,753 NARRATOR: As far as UFO researchers 572 00:29:56,753 --> 00:29:59,464 and ancient astronaut theorists are concerned, 573 00:29:59,464 --> 00:30:02,759 proof that the U. S. government has not only known 574 00:30:02,759 --> 00:30:05,637 about extraterrestrial activity on our planet, 575 00:30:05,637 --> 00:30:08,640 but has been systematically covering it up for decades, 576 00:30:08,640 --> 00:30:10,517 first came in the form 577 00:30:10,517 --> 00:30:13,770 of a single roll of 35-millimeter film, 578 00:30:13,770 --> 00:30:16,606 anonymously sent to a documentary filmmaker 579 00:30:16,606 --> 00:30:21,069 by the name of Jaime Shandera in 1984. 580 00:30:22,404 --> 00:30:24,448 The film, when developed, 581 00:30:24,448 --> 00:30:26,742 showed images of an eight-page memo 582 00:30:26,742 --> 00:30:29,619 allegedly written in 1952 583 00:30:29,619 --> 00:30:33,790 by the first director of the CIA, Roscoe Hillenkoetter, 584 00:30:33,790 --> 00:30:36,960 to President-elect Dwight Eisenhower. 585 00:30:36,960 --> 00:30:40,797 In it, Hillenkoetter informs Eisenhower 586 00:30:40,797 --> 00:30:44,051 of the existence of a top secret government think tank 587 00:30:44,051 --> 00:30:45,927 that was originally set up 588 00:30:45,927 --> 00:30:49,514 by President Harry S. Truman in 1947. 589 00:30:49,514 --> 00:30:53,852 It was referred to in the memo as MJ-12, 590 00:30:53,852 --> 00:30:57,773 initials which stood for a far more mysterious group of men 591 00:30:57,773 --> 00:31:00,609 known as the Majestic 12. 592 00:31:00,609 --> 00:31:03,445 The authorization to establish MJ-12 593 00:31:03,445 --> 00:31:05,906 allegedly came from President Harry Truman 594 00:31:05,906 --> 00:31:08,700 on September 24, 1947. 595 00:31:08,700 --> 00:31:13,830 This was actually one day after the famous memo 596 00:31:13,830 --> 00:31:16,249 in which General Nathan Twining wrote 597 00:31:16,249 --> 00:31:17,918 a three-page letter about these flying saucers 598 00:31:17,918 --> 00:31:19,628 to another general, 599 00:31:19,628 --> 00:31:22,756 talking quite explicitly about their characteristics, 600 00:31:22,756 --> 00:31:25,842 the fact that this was real, not visionary or fictitious. 601 00:31:25,842 --> 00:31:30,138 No one anywhere, outside of this group, 602 00:31:30,138 --> 00:31:33,433 is to know anything about UFOs, 603 00:31:33,433 --> 00:31:36,353 E.T.s, crash retrievals, 604 00:31:36,353 --> 00:31:38,188 bodies, any of it. 605 00:31:40,982 --> 00:31:43,110 That document identified the 12 people 606 00:31:43,110 --> 00:31:45,570 who were MJ-1 through MJ-12. 607 00:31:45,570 --> 00:31:47,656 The first one, MJ-1, 608 00:31:47,656 --> 00:31:50,450 was Admiral Hillenkoetter of the Navy. 609 00:31:50,450 --> 00:31:52,786 There were four military people, 610 00:31:52,786 --> 00:31:54,704 there were four technical people, 611 00:31:54,704 --> 00:31:58,208 and then there were just general government people. 612 00:31:58,208 --> 00:32:00,085 They were the kind of people you'd expect 613 00:32:00,085 --> 00:32:03,046 to have been involved in an important top secret program. 614 00:32:03,046 --> 00:32:05,549 NARRATOR: While the authenticity 615 00:32:05,549 --> 00:32:08,677 of the MJ-12 documents is still being debated, 616 00:32:08,677 --> 00:32:10,762 what is known is that, 617 00:32:10,762 --> 00:32:15,225 in 1954, Eisenhower thought enough of the UFO phenomenon 618 00:32:15,225 --> 00:32:19,855 to order that a new secret military base be set up. 619 00:32:19,855 --> 00:32:24,860 Located 83 miles northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada, 620 00:32:24,860 --> 00:32:27,612 Area 51 would later become infamous 621 00:32:27,612 --> 00:32:31,867 as the most top secret military base in the world. 622 00:32:31,867 --> 00:32:36,746 BARA: Area 51 is the secret base of all secret bases. 623 00:32:36,746 --> 00:32:39,457 For a long time, it was the place 624 00:32:39,457 --> 00:32:43,712 that we went to to study foreign technology. 625 00:32:43,712 --> 00:32:46,590 NARRATOR: During the 1970s and '80s, 626 00:32:46,590 --> 00:32:49,426 T.D. Barnes worked at the secret base, 627 00:32:49,426 --> 00:32:52,304 reverse-engineering captured enemy aircraft, 628 00:32:52,304 --> 00:32:54,764 like Russian MiG jets. 629 00:32:54,764 --> 00:32:57,142 What we considered reverse-engineering was... 630 00:32:57,142 --> 00:33:00,478 was taking a plane or a radar, 631 00:33:00,478 --> 00:33:02,397 taking it apart, looking at the electronics, 632 00:33:02,397 --> 00:33:04,065 how they built it. 633 00:33:04,065 --> 00:33:06,318 We were all bound by security oaths. 634 00:33:06,318 --> 00:33:07,777 We could not talk. 635 00:33:07,777 --> 00:33:09,821 NARRATOR: But is it possible that, 636 00:33:09,821 --> 00:33:11,531 in addition to reverse-engineering 637 00:33:11,531 --> 00:33:13,450 foreign fighter jets, 638 00:33:13,450 --> 00:33:16,786 Area 51 employees were also working on other, 639 00:33:16,786 --> 00:33:20,081 out-of-this-world technologies? 640 00:33:20,081 --> 00:33:23,043 BARA: To my mind, it's also clear that the U. S. government 641 00:33:23,043 --> 00:33:26,796 has had crashed extraterrestrial technology, 642 00:33:26,796 --> 00:33:29,841 and Area 51 would have been the perfect place 643 00:33:29,841 --> 00:33:33,678 to reverse-engineer and test that particular information. 644 00:33:33,678 --> 00:33:36,056 NARRATOR: In order to insure that the activities 645 00:33:36,056 --> 00:33:39,851 at Area 51 and elsewhere were kept hidden from the public, 646 00:33:39,851 --> 00:33:42,229 members of the military, and even officers, 647 00:33:42,229 --> 00:33:44,940 were sworn to secrecy. 648 00:33:44,940 --> 00:33:48,735 But luckily for UFO researchers and ancient astronaut theorists, 649 00:33:48,735 --> 00:33:52,405 not everyone involved was willing to keep quiet. 650 00:33:52,405 --> 00:33:54,908 Some became whistleblowers, 651 00:33:54,908 --> 00:33:57,911 who risked everything from public scorn to imprisonment, 652 00:33:57,911 --> 00:34:01,456 in order to let the public learn the truth. 653 00:34:03,833 --> 00:34:05,794 Washington state. 654 00:34:05,794 --> 00:34:08,463 June 24, 1947. 655 00:34:10,006 --> 00:34:12,676 Aviator and businessman Kenneth Arnold 656 00:34:12,676 --> 00:34:15,136 witnesses nine fast-moving objects 657 00:34:15,136 --> 00:34:18,265 flying in tandem near Mount Rainier. 658 00:34:18,265 --> 00:34:21,893 He times them as they fly between two mountain peaks, 659 00:34:21,893 --> 00:34:23,478 and calculates their speed 660 00:34:23,478 --> 00:34:27,857 to be between 1,200 and 1,700 miles per hour, 661 00:34:27,857 --> 00:34:30,944 at least 600 miles per hour faster 662 00:34:30,944 --> 00:34:35,031 than the fastest aircraft in existence at the time. 663 00:34:35,031 --> 00:34:38,076 Kenneth Arnold is the guy who actually is credited 664 00:34:38,076 --> 00:34:40,412 with coining the term "flying saucer," 665 00:34:40,412 --> 00:34:43,498 because what he saw were objects that were flying 666 00:34:43,498 --> 00:34:45,750 at some distance from his airplane 667 00:34:45,750 --> 00:34:48,837 that were sort of skipping and jumping and wobbling 668 00:34:48,837 --> 00:34:51,381 and doing very, very unusual high-speed maneuvers. 669 00:34:51,381 --> 00:34:54,175 So that's where the term "flying saucer" came from. 670 00:34:54,175 --> 00:34:57,345 NARRATOR: Although the U. S. Air Force formally categorized 671 00:34:57,345 --> 00:35:00,473 Kenneth Arnold's experience as a mirage, 672 00:35:00,473 --> 00:35:04,519 other reported sightings were not so easily dismissed. 673 00:35:04,519 --> 00:35:08,148 The public was starting to demand answers. 674 00:35:08,148 --> 00:35:10,358 Once the initial sighting happened by Kenneth Arnold, 675 00:35:10,358 --> 00:35:13,612 and the Roswell incident took place, 676 00:35:13,612 --> 00:35:17,240 there were sightings everywhere around the United States. 677 00:35:17,240 --> 00:35:19,576 They were happening all over the world. 678 00:35:21,995 --> 00:35:24,456 NARRATOR: In 1949, 679 00:35:24,456 --> 00:35:27,000 retired Marine Corps pilot-turned-writer 680 00:35:27,000 --> 00:35:30,920 Major Donald Keyhoe was asked by True magazine 681 00:35:30,920 --> 00:35:34,341 to write an article on these numerous sightings. 682 00:35:34,341 --> 00:35:36,968 Although Keyhoe was a skeptic, 683 00:35:36,968 --> 00:35:39,763 he spent the next eight months conducting his own research 684 00:35:39,763 --> 00:35:42,057 by tapping into his contacts in the Pentagon 685 00:35:42,057 --> 00:35:44,351 and the military. 686 00:35:44,351 --> 00:35:46,853 Eventually, he came to a conclusion 687 00:35:46,853 --> 00:35:49,564 he would have considered unthinkable: 688 00:35:49,564 --> 00:35:52,734 flying saucers were not only real, 689 00:35:52,734 --> 00:35:56,863 they were of extraterrestrial origin. 690 00:35:56,863 --> 00:35:58,907 HOWE: Major Keyhoe 691 00:35:58,907 --> 00:36:02,661 was one of the last real military voices, 692 00:36:02,661 --> 00:36:05,163 from the time of the Truman administration 693 00:36:05,163 --> 00:36:07,374 going into the Eisenhower administration, 694 00:36:07,374 --> 00:36:12,837 who was honestly trying to tell the truth. 695 00:36:12,837 --> 00:36:16,633 NARRATOR: Keyhoe's article in True magazine shook the nation. 696 00:36:16,633 --> 00:36:19,386 It was not only a solid piece of journalism 697 00:36:19,386 --> 00:36:22,597 on the topic of UFOs, 698 00:36:22,597 --> 00:36:24,557 but served as a stinging indictment 699 00:36:24,557 --> 00:36:27,394 of the U. S. military and the government's determination 700 00:36:27,394 --> 00:36:30,438 to keep the public in the dark. 701 00:36:30,438 --> 00:36:34,484 HOWE: That True magazine, it was historic because 702 00:36:34,484 --> 00:36:36,820 it went to a heck of a lot of people. 703 00:36:36,820 --> 00:36:39,322 Then, in 1958, Keyhoe went on a program 704 00:36:39,322 --> 00:36:41,116 called the Armstrong Circle Theatre, 705 00:36:41,116 --> 00:36:42,826 which was a live television program. 706 00:36:42,826 --> 00:36:46,162 ANNOUNCER: "UFO: The Enigma of the Skies" 707 00:36:46,162 --> 00:36:49,624 on the Armstrong Circle Theatre. 708 00:36:49,624 --> 00:36:53,002 Major, you've seen our report on the Air Force conclusions 709 00:36:53,002 --> 00:36:55,046 dealing with the current UFO sightings. 710 00:36:56,798 --> 00:36:58,591 Well, I was excited to hear that 711 00:36:58,591 --> 00:37:01,428 Keyhoe was going to debate the Air Force. 712 00:37:01,428 --> 00:37:04,514 And now, Mr. Edwards, I would like to make a disclosure, 713 00:37:04,514 --> 00:37:07,267 something which has never been revealed to the public. 714 00:37:07,267 --> 00:37:10,478 Toward the end of the program, he broke in and said, 715 00:37:10,478 --> 00:37:13,481 to the effect, "I'm going to say something 716 00:37:13,481 --> 00:37:15,483 that the public has never heard before." 717 00:37:15,483 --> 00:37:17,986 If the hearings are held, open hearings, 718 00:37:17,986 --> 00:37:20,864 I feel it will prove beyond doubt that flying saucers... 719 00:37:20,864 --> 00:37:23,575 (audio fades) 720 00:37:23,575 --> 00:37:27,245 HOLCOMBE: At that point, his sound was lost. 721 00:37:27,245 --> 00:37:32,250 What was Major Keyhoe saying, and who cut him off? 722 00:37:32,250 --> 00:37:34,335 (no audio) 723 00:37:34,335 --> 00:37:35,420 Thank you, Major Keyhoe. 724 00:37:35,420 --> 00:37:37,964 NARRATOR: It was later discovered 725 00:37:37,964 --> 00:37:40,091 that Air Force officials had been stationed 726 00:37:40,091 --> 00:37:42,844 in the control booth during the broadcast. 727 00:37:42,844 --> 00:37:45,430 And there are many who still believe that Keyhoe's audio 728 00:37:45,430 --> 00:37:49,184 was deliberately cut in order to keep him from revealing 729 00:37:49,184 --> 00:37:52,771 top secret information concerning the government's 730 00:37:52,771 --> 00:37:54,147 ongoing UFO investigations. 731 00:37:55,899 --> 00:37:57,859 The Air Force was lying. 732 00:38:00,069 --> 00:38:03,239 NARRATOR: But why was the Air Force so concerned about 733 00:38:03,239 --> 00:38:06,284 the American public hearing Major Keyhoe's statement? 734 00:38:06,284 --> 00:38:09,954 What did they have to lose if they were forced to admit 735 00:38:09,954 --> 00:38:13,833 their ongoing investigations into UFOs? 736 00:38:13,833 --> 00:38:15,794 I wrote this down because I think 737 00:38:15,794 --> 00:38:18,713 it's one of the most important historic sentences, 738 00:38:18,713 --> 00:38:21,257 and it comes from Major Keyhoe. 739 00:38:21,257 --> 00:38:25,845 "For the past 175 years..." 740 00:38:25,845 --> 00:38:28,723 That would be 1772. 741 00:38:28,723 --> 00:38:32,227 That would be before the founding of the United States. 742 00:38:32,227 --> 00:38:36,856 "...the planet Earth has been under systematic, 743 00:38:36,856 --> 00:38:40,735 "close-range examination by 744 00:38:40,735 --> 00:38:45,448 living observers from another planet." 745 00:38:46,950 --> 00:38:49,577 TSOUKALOS: This is nothing new. 746 00:38:49,577 --> 00:38:51,162 These cover-ups have happened 747 00:38:51,162 --> 00:38:53,498 for thousands and thousands of years. 748 00:38:53,498 --> 00:38:56,668 Throughout ancient texts, there are references 749 00:38:56,668 --> 00:39:00,213 to what I call "misunderstood technology." 750 00:39:00,213 --> 00:39:02,799 WHITEHEAD: In modern times, 751 00:39:02,799 --> 00:39:06,010 you'll hear stories of UFOs and spacecraft, 752 00:39:06,010 --> 00:39:08,680 because now we have the language to talk about technology. 753 00:39:08,680 --> 00:39:11,474 Whereas in ancient times, they didn't have any reference 754 00:39:11,474 --> 00:39:13,726 to that kind of technology. 755 00:39:13,726 --> 00:39:15,687 So they would have thought this is something 756 00:39:15,687 --> 00:39:18,898 that's angelic or from another dimension or god-like. 757 00:39:18,898 --> 00:39:20,775 (deep whirring) 758 00:39:20,775 --> 00:39:24,445 The fact that the U. S. government has investigated 759 00:39:24,445 --> 00:39:27,240 thousands and thousands of reports 760 00:39:27,240 --> 00:39:30,285 leads me to think that 761 00:39:30,285 --> 00:39:35,039 they may know much more than what they let us believe. 762 00:39:42,589 --> 00:39:45,216 NARRATOR: Proof of the U. S. government's complicity 763 00:39:45,216 --> 00:39:47,886 in covering up extraterrestrial activity 764 00:39:47,886 --> 00:39:50,847 does not only come in the form of leaked documents 765 00:39:50,847 --> 00:39:53,558 and the contents of secret files. 766 00:39:53,558 --> 00:39:56,811 Sometimes the evidence comes 767 00:39:56,811 --> 00:39:59,856 from credible firsthand accounts, 768 00:39:59,856 --> 00:40:05,111 not from whistleblowers, but from American astronauts. 769 00:40:05,111 --> 00:40:08,615 Everything that NASA does is supposedly aboveboard. 770 00:40:08,615 --> 00:40:11,868 Everything they do, they should tell us about. 771 00:40:11,868 --> 00:40:14,245 We should know about all of their launches 772 00:40:14,245 --> 00:40:17,874 and missions and who all the astronauts are. 773 00:40:17,874 --> 00:40:21,044 They themselves are not sharing all of the information. 774 00:40:21,044 --> 00:40:23,588 Most of it is being kept secret. 775 00:40:31,971 --> 00:40:34,766 NARRATOR: The Baikonur Cosmodrome. 776 00:40:34,766 --> 00:40:38,603 April 12, 1961. 777 00:40:38,603 --> 00:40:42,690 The Vostok-1 rocket achieves liftoff, 778 00:40:42,690 --> 00:40:45,902 and Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin 779 00:40:45,902 --> 00:40:48,446 is heralded as the first human in space. 780 00:40:49,948 --> 00:40:51,950 The event serves as a wake-up call 781 00:40:51,950 --> 00:40:54,661 to the United States and NASA, 782 00:40:54,661 --> 00:40:58,790 whose Project Mercury program would, over the next two years, 783 00:40:58,790 --> 00:41:01,626 launch six of its own astronauts into space. 784 00:41:01,626 --> 00:41:03,753 The Space Race-- 785 00:41:03,753 --> 00:41:06,631 to land a human being on the Moon-- was on, 786 00:41:06,631 --> 00:41:10,468 and mankind was now a space-faring species. 787 00:41:10,468 --> 00:41:13,304 BARA: The achievement of putting a man in space 788 00:41:13,304 --> 00:41:15,306 was almost a miracle. 789 00:41:15,306 --> 00:41:19,602 Nobody knows what they might see or encounter out there, 790 00:41:19,602 --> 00:41:22,981 extraterrestrial spacecraft or even E. T. s themselves. 791 00:41:22,981 --> 00:41:24,273 MAN: Liftoff. 792 00:41:24,273 --> 00:41:25,733 NARRATOR: Although the first five 793 00:41:25,733 --> 00:41:27,276 Mercury missions go off without incident... 794 00:41:27,276 --> 00:41:29,862 MAN: Liftoff 30 minutes after the hour. 795 00:41:29,862 --> 00:41:32,365 NARRATOR: ...during the sixth and final mission, 796 00:41:32,365 --> 00:41:36,452 astronaut Gordon Cooper reports an unusual encounter. 797 00:41:36,452 --> 00:41:40,206 While aboard his spacecraft, he reports 798 00:41:40,206 --> 00:41:43,835 a green glowing object quickly approaching his capsule. 799 00:41:43,835 --> 00:41:47,463 The UFO is also picked up by NASA's tracking station. 800 00:41:47,463 --> 00:41:51,134 But by the time Cooper splashes down 801 00:41:51,134 --> 00:41:55,013 in the Pacific Ocean, reporters are told 802 00:41:55,013 --> 00:41:58,891 that any questions about the incident are strictly forbidden. 803 00:41:58,891 --> 00:42:03,062 There's no question that NASA actually has protocols in place 804 00:42:03,062 --> 00:42:06,274 for how astronauts should deal with 805 00:42:06,274 --> 00:42:09,235 and report or not report anomalies. 806 00:42:09,235 --> 00:42:12,321 Now, over the years, there have been astronauts 807 00:42:12,321 --> 00:42:14,282 that have kind of broken those protocols. 808 00:42:14,282 --> 00:42:17,493 Gordon Cooper is one who talked a lot about a UFO sighting 809 00:42:17,493 --> 00:42:20,038 he had on a Mercury spacecraft. 810 00:42:20,038 --> 00:42:22,665 And that upset quite a few people at NASA. 811 00:42:24,292 --> 00:42:27,503 NARRATOR: In June 1965, 812 00:42:27,503 --> 00:42:30,298 two years after Gordon Cooper's flight, 813 00:42:30,298 --> 00:42:33,968 Gemini 4 astronaut James McDivitt 814 00:42:33,968 --> 00:42:36,429 reports seeing a metallic object 815 00:42:36,429 --> 00:42:39,891 flying in orbit alongside his spacecraft. 816 00:42:39,891 --> 00:42:44,604 And, once again, the event is quickly covered up. 817 00:42:44,604 --> 00:42:46,856 There have been many stories over the years 818 00:42:46,856 --> 00:42:48,816 coming from astronauts of various missions, 819 00:42:48,816 --> 00:42:50,902 from Mercury missions, from the Apollo missions, 820 00:42:50,902 --> 00:42:53,905 and even from the Soviet missions to space, 821 00:42:53,905 --> 00:42:55,531 where astronauts have come out and said 822 00:42:55,531 --> 00:42:57,533 that they have seen these UFOs flying around, 823 00:42:57,533 --> 00:42:59,160 that they've been followed, 824 00:42:59,160 --> 00:43:00,828 that they've seen unconventional aircraft 825 00:43:00,828 --> 00:43:02,497 on some of their missions. 826 00:43:02,497 --> 00:43:05,124 BARA: There's a story that Buzz Aldrin tells 827 00:43:05,124 --> 00:43:07,794 about Apollo 11, where the Apollo 11 spacecraft 828 00:43:07,794 --> 00:43:11,172 was followed for many, many hours by an object 829 00:43:11,172 --> 00:43:13,424 that was so strange that they actually reported on it 830 00:43:13,424 --> 00:43:15,218 through their private channels. 831 00:43:15,218 --> 00:43:18,471 BUZZ ALDRIN: I'm looking out the window, and I see... 832 00:43:18,471 --> 00:43:20,765 What's that? 833 00:43:20,765 --> 00:43:25,019 There's an object that's moving with respect to everything else. 834 00:43:25,019 --> 00:43:27,313 Geez. It's not supposed to be doing that. 835 00:43:27,313 --> 00:43:28,815 Wonder how far away it is. 836 00:43:31,067 --> 00:43:34,570 If it's a long ways away, it's going mighty fast. 837 00:43:34,570 --> 00:43:38,825 If it's not too far away, it, uh, maybe isn't going very fast. 838 00:43:38,825 --> 00:43:41,786 Wonder what it is. 839 00:43:41,786 --> 00:43:43,746 "Hey, Neil. Look at this." 840 00:43:43,746 --> 00:43:45,039 We look at it. 841 00:43:45,039 --> 00:43:47,208 God, what is that? 842 00:43:47,208 --> 00:43:51,754 Probably the, uh, upper stage rocket. 843 00:43:51,754 --> 00:43:55,174 Yeah, but didn't we just watch that thing carefully 844 00:43:55,174 --> 00:43:58,052 out in front of us, out the window, 845 00:43:58,052 --> 00:44:01,639 light its engine and go... (imitates whooshing) 846 00:44:01,639 --> 00:44:04,642 Well, I guess that's not what we're looking at, (chuckles) 847 00:44:04,642 --> 00:44:06,352 'cause that's a long ways away. 848 00:44:06,352 --> 00:44:10,523 What's the odds that it's some alien 849 00:44:10,523 --> 00:44:12,817 or Russian or something else? 850 00:44:12,817 --> 00:44:17,113 But we were not about to cancel the Moon mission 851 00:44:17,113 --> 00:44:20,032 and putt-putt over there to find out which one it was. 852 00:44:20,032 --> 00:44:21,659 (chuckles) 853 00:44:21,659 --> 00:44:23,661 WHITEHEAD: There's been many astronauts 854 00:44:23,661 --> 00:44:26,372 that have come forward that have talked about this, 855 00:44:26,372 --> 00:44:29,375 so it seems like some of them want to talk about it, 856 00:44:29,375 --> 00:44:32,128 and others are either afraid to talk about it, 857 00:44:32,128 --> 00:44:34,380 or they've been silenced for some reason. 858 00:44:34,380 --> 00:44:38,885 NARRATOR: One person involved with the early space program 859 00:44:38,885 --> 00:44:42,513 who did not remain silent was JoAnn Donaldson, 860 00:44:42,513 --> 00:44:45,308 a young biomedical engineer at NASA. 861 00:44:45,308 --> 00:44:48,394 In 1972, 862 00:44:48,394 --> 00:44:51,439 during the Apollo 17 Moon mission, 863 00:44:51,439 --> 00:44:55,109 Donaldson's job was to monitor the astronauts' vital signs 864 00:44:55,109 --> 00:44:59,197 and to observe their pre-flight and post-flight recovery. 865 00:44:59,197 --> 00:45:02,491 JoANN DONALDSON: Ron Evans was in charge of the command module 866 00:45:02,491 --> 00:45:04,619 while Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt 867 00:45:04,619 --> 00:45:06,746 were on the surface of the Moon. 868 00:45:06,746 --> 00:45:09,957 When the command module would orbit the Moon, 869 00:45:09,957 --> 00:45:12,877 part of the orbit would take it behind the Moon, 870 00:45:12,877 --> 00:45:16,881 what we call "loss of signal" to Mission Control. 871 00:45:16,881 --> 00:45:20,843 Day two, Ron came out from behind the Moon, 872 00:45:20,843 --> 00:45:24,013 reported in to Mission Control. 873 00:45:24,013 --> 00:45:26,682 And Gene comes up on the comm link and says, 874 00:45:26,682 --> 00:45:30,311 "Hey, Ron, you're not lonely up there without us are you?" 875 00:45:30,311 --> 00:45:34,273 And Ron reported back, says, "Nope, I got company." 876 00:45:34,273 --> 00:45:36,776 Everybody was just kind of taken aback. 877 00:45:36,776 --> 00:45:39,862 It was like, you know, "company"? 878 00:45:39,862 --> 00:45:43,157 That itself implies that there was something else 879 00:45:43,157 --> 00:45:45,284 up there with him. 880 00:45:45,284 --> 00:45:48,621 Well, Mission Control's first reaction was, 881 00:45:48,621 --> 00:45:50,289 "Guys, are you joking?" 882 00:45:50,289 --> 00:45:53,167 And Ron says, "No, this is not a joke. 883 00:45:53,167 --> 00:45:57,672 "There is an object flying in formation with me, 884 00:45:57,672 --> 00:46:00,007 up here, circling the Moon." 885 00:46:00,007 --> 00:46:04,428 When Ron reported that the object was leaving his orbit, 886 00:46:04,428 --> 00:46:07,390 he calculated that they had been in formation with him 887 00:46:07,390 --> 00:46:09,308 for approximately five 888 00:46:09,308 --> 00:46:12,228 to five-and-a-half orbits of the Moon. 889 00:46:12,228 --> 00:46:15,314 NARRATOR: As far as the public was concerned, 890 00:46:15,314 --> 00:46:18,192 nothing out of the ordinary happened. 891 00:46:18,192 --> 00:46:21,112 At the exact moment that astronaut Ron Evans 892 00:46:21,112 --> 00:46:23,489 reported he was not alone, 893 00:46:23,489 --> 00:46:27,994 NASA officials disconnected the public feed for media outlets. 894 00:46:30,371 --> 00:46:32,498 The following day, NASA ordered 895 00:46:32,498 --> 00:46:36,085 a conference call for everyone involved in the incident. 896 00:46:36,085 --> 00:46:38,754 DONALDSON: We were all told we're gonna continue on 897 00:46:38,754 --> 00:46:42,508 with the mission as if nothing has happened, 898 00:46:42,508 --> 00:46:45,386 and do not discuss this anomaly 899 00:46:45,386 --> 00:46:50,099 with anyone outside of your command. 900 00:46:50,099 --> 00:46:54,478 NARRATOR: After the Apollo 17 crew splashed down 901 00:46:54,478 --> 00:46:58,816 in the Pacific Ocean, JoAnn Donaldson examined Evans 902 00:46:58,816 --> 00:47:01,652 as part of the post-mission recovery procedure. 903 00:47:01,652 --> 00:47:05,573 DONALDSON: Ron was sitting up on the side of his bunk. 904 00:47:05,573 --> 00:47:09,201 And he goes, "Well, I'm reliving 905 00:47:09,201 --> 00:47:12,121 "what I saw while I was in orbit around the Moon. 906 00:47:12,121 --> 00:47:14,165 "I don't think the Russians had launched 907 00:47:14,165 --> 00:47:16,500 "something this big in orbit. 908 00:47:16,500 --> 00:47:19,170 "I estimate this thing was 40, 45 feet long. 909 00:47:19,170 --> 00:47:21,130 It was cigar shaped." 910 00:47:21,130 --> 00:47:23,507 BARA: Now, any cylindrical object like that 911 00:47:23,507 --> 00:47:26,302 is not gonna be something that we made. So what was it? 912 00:47:26,302 --> 00:47:29,472 Clearly it was not one of ours. 913 00:47:29,472 --> 00:47:31,098 WHITEHEAD: We trust these astronauts 914 00:47:31,098 --> 00:47:33,267 to report back on what they see. 915 00:47:33,267 --> 00:47:34,518 They're essentially scientists 916 00:47:34,518 --> 00:47:35,978 that are exploring space on our behalf. 917 00:47:35,978 --> 00:47:38,647 But a lot of people are unaware of the fact 918 00:47:38,647 --> 00:47:41,400 that many of our astronauts have spoken openly about UFOs. 919 00:47:41,400 --> 00:47:45,488 Many of them were fighter pilots before they became astronauts, 920 00:47:45,488 --> 00:47:49,033 and they have seen craft flying as pilots. 921 00:47:49,033 --> 00:47:51,285 Could it be that they've been pulled aside and told, 922 00:47:51,285 --> 00:47:54,205 "This is all you're allowed to say and no more," 923 00:47:54,205 --> 00:47:56,290 because NASA is trying to silence 924 00:47:56,290 --> 00:47:57,958 these astronauts from telling the truth? 925 00:48:01,629 --> 00:48:03,506 NARRATOR: Another Apollo astronaut 926 00:48:03,506 --> 00:48:06,634 who openly admitted his belief in extraterrestrial contact 927 00:48:06,634 --> 00:48:08,761 was Edgar Mitchell, 928 00:48:08,761 --> 00:48:11,597 the lunar module pilot for Apollo 14. 929 00:48:11,597 --> 00:48:15,142 In his later years, he claimed many of his colleagues 930 00:48:15,142 --> 00:48:17,770 had strange paranormal experiences 931 00:48:17,770 --> 00:48:21,148 during their missions, and frequently declared 932 00:48:21,148 --> 00:48:24,235 that most UFO phenomena are directly connected 933 00:48:24,235 --> 00:48:27,363 to extraterrestrial activity. 934 00:48:27,363 --> 00:48:31,534 EDGAR MITCHELL: I have had no firsthand personal experience, 935 00:48:31,534 --> 00:48:34,787 but all the evidence from the research people that I know 936 00:48:34,787 --> 00:48:37,331 from both Europe and the United States 937 00:48:37,331 --> 00:48:40,042 have investigated all the sightings 938 00:48:40,042 --> 00:48:43,045 from dozens of years. 939 00:48:43,045 --> 00:48:45,589 And it's pretty sure it's all true. 940 00:48:45,589 --> 00:48:51,470 I believe that the alien craft, presuming they're reality-- 941 00:48:51,470 --> 00:48:53,431 I think they are, others think they are-- 942 00:48:53,431 --> 00:48:55,683 have been coming for a long, long time. 943 00:48:55,683 --> 00:48:59,645 NARRATOR: As the sixth person to walk on the Moon, 944 00:48:59,645 --> 00:49:02,857 Mitchell's opinions concerning UFOs and their connection 945 00:49:02,857 --> 00:49:07,194 to extraterrestrial encounters have been difficult to dismiss. 946 00:49:07,194 --> 00:49:09,321 But if otherworldly entities 947 00:49:09,321 --> 00:49:11,407 have been making contact with us-- 948 00:49:11,407 --> 00:49:15,578 not only for decades but for centuries-- 949 00:49:15,578 --> 00:49:18,038 what is their goal? 950 00:49:23,377 --> 00:49:26,839 NARRATOR: July 20, 1969. 951 00:49:31,594 --> 00:49:33,679 NARRATOR: Millions of people around the world 952 00:49:33,679 --> 00:49:35,973 are glued to their televisions 953 00:49:35,973 --> 00:49:39,643 to watch one of the greatest achievements in human history. 954 00:49:39,643 --> 00:49:42,271 Astronaut Neil Armstrong 955 00:49:42,271 --> 00:49:46,609 is about to become the first Earth-born extraterrestrial 956 00:49:46,609 --> 00:49:49,695 by stepping foot on the surface of the Moon. 957 00:49:56,452 --> 00:49:59,121 NARRATOR: Although Richard Nixon 958 00:49:59,121 --> 00:50:01,123 is the current president of the United States, 959 00:50:01,123 --> 00:50:03,459 most give credit to the man 960 00:50:03,459 --> 00:50:05,711 who held the office six years earlier, 961 00:50:05,711 --> 00:50:08,839 John Fitzgerald Kennedy. 962 00:50:08,839 --> 00:50:13,552 Many years ago, the great British explorer George Mallory, 963 00:50:13,552 --> 00:50:17,264 who was to die on Mount Everest, 964 00:50:17,264 --> 00:50:19,433 was asked why did he want to climb it. 965 00:50:19,433 --> 00:50:21,810 He said, "Because it is there." 966 00:50:21,810 --> 00:50:24,939 Well, space is there, and we're going to climb it. 967 00:50:24,939 --> 00:50:28,192 NARRATOR: But even as Neil Armstrong 968 00:50:28,192 --> 00:50:30,486 and fellow astronaut Buzz Aldrin 969 00:50:30,486 --> 00:50:32,905 were still engaged on their historic mission, 970 00:50:32,905 --> 00:50:36,283 Nixon and the team at NASA now faced 971 00:50:36,283 --> 00:50:40,412 an even more daunting challenge: What to do next? 972 00:50:40,412 --> 00:50:42,665 The Moon mission had gripped 973 00:50:42,665 --> 00:50:45,626 the American consciousness as nothing before, 974 00:50:45,626 --> 00:50:48,254 and even though a number of return missions 975 00:50:48,254 --> 00:50:50,673 had been planned, there was nothing on the launch pad 976 00:50:50,673 --> 00:50:53,133 that could top landing a man on the Moon 977 00:50:53,133 --> 00:50:55,344 as either a national goal 978 00:50:55,344 --> 00:50:58,097 or effective political propaganda. 979 00:50:58,097 --> 00:51:02,226 To this end, in 1972, 980 00:51:02,226 --> 00:51:05,104 as Nixon began planning his reelection campaign, 981 00:51:05,104 --> 00:51:08,524 the space shuttle program was announced. 982 00:51:08,524 --> 00:51:11,026 It was also during this same time 983 00:51:11,026 --> 00:51:14,154 that the president's chief of staff, H. R. Haldeman, 984 00:51:14,154 --> 00:51:17,032 proposed the creation of a documentary film 985 00:51:17,032 --> 00:51:19,785 that would depict Nixon as being fully committed 986 00:51:19,785 --> 00:51:21,495 to the development of a number 987 00:51:21,495 --> 00:51:24,164 of ambitious science-based programs. 988 00:51:24,164 --> 00:51:27,209 To produce it, Haldeman turned 989 00:51:27,209 --> 00:51:30,296 to successful advertising executive-turned-filmmaker 990 00:51:30,296 --> 00:51:33,215 Robert Emenegger. 991 00:51:33,215 --> 00:51:35,467 HOLCOMBE: They knew that Bob had made promotional films 992 00:51:35,467 --> 00:51:37,636 for the Department of Defense. 993 00:51:37,636 --> 00:51:40,431 So he was contacted and asked 994 00:51:40,431 --> 00:51:42,766 if he would come to a meeting in Los Angeles 995 00:51:42,766 --> 00:51:44,727 with the Committee to Re-Elect the President. 996 00:51:44,727 --> 00:51:48,480 And they said, "We need a media consultant. 997 00:51:48,480 --> 00:51:50,566 "We'd like somebody to come on board 998 00:51:50,566 --> 00:51:53,902 "and make a documentary that would support Nixon, 999 00:51:53,902 --> 00:51:58,032 "a documentary about some perhaps secret project 1000 00:51:58,032 --> 00:52:00,868 "that the government's been working on 1001 00:52:00,868 --> 00:52:03,537 that can be released or declassified." 1002 00:52:03,537 --> 00:52:06,123 Well, they run around the country 1003 00:52:06,123 --> 00:52:08,751 being shown all sorts of secret projects. 1004 00:52:08,751 --> 00:52:11,503 They went to Wright-Patterson, and they were shown 1005 00:52:11,503 --> 00:52:13,964 very classified laser experiments. 1006 00:52:13,964 --> 00:52:18,844 They were shown dolphins being trained for demolition work. 1007 00:52:18,844 --> 00:52:22,890 They were shown dogs being trained for various tasks. 1008 00:52:22,890 --> 00:52:26,560 Then they were taken to Norton Air Force Base, 1009 00:52:26,560 --> 00:52:30,314 which at that time housed the Air Force film depository. 1010 00:52:30,314 --> 00:52:33,692 Paul Shartle was the director of the depository. 1011 00:52:33,692 --> 00:52:37,905 They were taken into a building where these films were kept. 1012 00:52:37,905 --> 00:52:41,075 They were taken into what was known as a clean room, 1013 00:52:41,075 --> 00:52:43,952 meaning it was free of any bugs, microphones, 1014 00:52:43,952 --> 00:52:46,705 video equipment, anything. 1015 00:52:46,705 --> 00:52:50,751 NARRATOR: It was during his meeting at Norton Air Force Base 1016 00:52:50,751 --> 00:52:54,296 that Robert Emenegger learned that Paul Shartle had 1017 00:52:54,296 --> 00:52:57,508 a different agenda from that of the president, 1018 00:52:57,508 --> 00:52:59,718 and a different film in mind than the one 1019 00:52:59,718 --> 00:53:03,305 that had been initially proposed. 1020 00:53:03,305 --> 00:53:06,684 Shartle said, "I'd like to ask you this: 1021 00:53:06,684 --> 00:53:11,355 How would you like to make a documentary on UFOs?" 1022 00:53:11,355 --> 00:53:13,107 And Bob Emenegger was stunned. 1023 00:53:13,107 --> 00:53:15,442 He told me at his home, 1024 00:53:15,442 --> 00:53:17,528 he said, "I didn't know anything about UFOs. 1025 00:53:17,528 --> 00:53:19,071 "I was shocked. 1026 00:53:19,071 --> 00:53:22,449 "They said if we would make the documentary, 1027 00:53:22,449 --> 00:53:27,371 "we would be given 600 feet of 16-millimeter film 1028 00:53:27,371 --> 00:53:31,875 shot at Holloman Air Force Base of a UFO landing there." 1029 00:53:31,875 --> 00:53:34,253 NARRATOR: For Robert Emenegger, 1030 00:53:34,253 --> 00:53:37,047 it was an offer too good to refuse. 1031 00:53:37,047 --> 00:53:38,841 Believing he had the full support 1032 00:53:38,841 --> 00:53:41,218 of both the president and the military, 1033 00:53:41,218 --> 00:53:43,178 he set about to make the U. S. government's 1034 00:53:43,178 --> 00:53:46,807 first official film on the subject of UFOs. 1035 00:53:46,807 --> 00:53:49,768 He quickly recruited Rod Serling, 1036 00:53:49,768 --> 00:53:53,689 Burgess Meredith and José Ferrer to narrate the film, 1037 00:53:53,689 --> 00:53:57,568 and the final explosive scene was to show actual footage 1038 00:53:57,568 --> 00:54:00,612 of an alien encounter. 1039 00:54:00,612 --> 00:54:02,656 But when it came time to receive 1040 00:54:02,656 --> 00:54:04,825 the incredible footage he'd been promised, 1041 00:54:04,825 --> 00:54:08,245 Emenegger had the government's once-open door 1042 00:54:08,245 --> 00:54:11,373 slammed in his face. 1043 00:54:11,373 --> 00:54:15,961 They had been promised really dramatic footage, 1044 00:54:15,961 --> 00:54:19,715 said to be completely legit, of a UFO landing 1045 00:54:19,715 --> 00:54:23,260 at Holloman Air Force Base, in 1964, 1046 00:54:23,260 --> 00:54:25,137 which had alien beings come out, 1047 00:54:25,137 --> 00:54:27,514 like The Day the Earth Stood Still, essentially. 1048 00:54:27,514 --> 00:54:31,268 HOWE: Out came some kind of a ramp. 1049 00:54:31,268 --> 00:54:34,396 Our contingent of humans walked up, 1050 00:54:34,396 --> 00:54:36,356 met these two EBENs, 1051 00:54:36,356 --> 00:54:39,109 "Extraterrestrial Biological Entities." 1052 00:54:39,109 --> 00:54:44,740 And then in this doorway was a being unlike the EBENs, 1053 00:54:44,740 --> 00:54:47,701 and that it was holding a rod that had a spiral 1054 00:54:47,701 --> 00:54:51,038 that went around the rod, and that this was used 1055 00:54:51,038 --> 00:54:53,916 to communicate with our team. 1056 00:54:53,916 --> 00:54:56,376 CAMERON: This was a film 1057 00:54:56,376 --> 00:54:58,795 that had four different vantage points. 1058 00:54:58,795 --> 00:55:01,131 They were shooting one from the air, three on the ground. 1059 00:55:01,131 --> 00:55:03,425 And the craft landed, 1060 00:55:03,425 --> 00:55:06,470 the aliens came out, and they stored the craft. 1061 00:55:06,470 --> 00:55:08,347 All this was on film. 1062 00:55:08,347 --> 00:55:12,434 NARRATOR: But on the day Emenegger was to be given a copy 1063 00:55:12,434 --> 00:55:15,062 of the 16-millimeter footage from the Air Force, 1064 00:55:15,062 --> 00:55:18,065 the filmmaker received an unexpected phone call. 1065 00:55:18,065 --> 00:55:20,234 (phone ringing) 1066 00:55:20,234 --> 00:55:23,153 HOWE: It is one of those like out of a Hollywood feature. 1067 00:55:23,153 --> 00:55:27,324 It's supposed to be coming. A courier is on the way. 1068 00:55:27,324 --> 00:55:29,952 They cannot believe it. It's really gonna happen. 1069 00:55:29,952 --> 00:55:32,371 They're gonna see all of this film. 1070 00:55:32,371 --> 00:55:34,831 And then another phone call: 1071 00:55:34,831 --> 00:55:37,751 "We're sorry, the approval has been rescinded. 1072 00:55:37,751 --> 00:55:39,795 No film." 1073 00:55:39,795 --> 00:55:43,048 CAMERON: Colonel Coleman from the Pentagon said, 1074 00:55:43,048 --> 00:55:44,716 "The timing isn't right. 1075 00:55:44,716 --> 00:55:47,594 We can't allow you to use the film." 1076 00:55:47,594 --> 00:55:49,513 HOLCOMBE: Bob Emenegger was crushed. 1077 00:55:49,513 --> 00:55:51,265 He said, "Why?" 1078 00:55:51,265 --> 00:55:54,476 And he found out that, "Making a documentary 1079 00:55:54,476 --> 00:55:58,105 "exposing UFOs as being extraterrestrial 1080 00:55:58,105 --> 00:56:02,317 would not help the president, but conceivably could harm him." 1081 00:56:02,317 --> 00:56:05,153 NARRATOR: Ultimately, Robert Emenegger 1082 00:56:05,153 --> 00:56:08,198 was forced to complete his documentary 1083 00:56:08,198 --> 00:56:11,535 without the sensational footage he had been promised. 1084 00:56:11,535 --> 00:56:12,995 It was a documentary called 1085 00:56:12,995 --> 00:56:15,038 UFOs: Past, Present, and Future. 1086 00:56:15,038 --> 00:56:17,207 And they also had a book by the same name. 1087 00:56:17,207 --> 00:56:20,085 NARRATOR: As written by Robert Emenegger, 1088 00:56:20,085 --> 00:56:23,088 and directed by Ray Rivas, the documentary 1089 00:56:23,088 --> 00:56:26,425 proved to be both popular and influential. 1090 00:56:26,425 --> 00:56:30,220 Even without the smoking gun footage, it caused a sensation, 1091 00:56:30,220 --> 00:56:34,349 and was later credited as one of the inspirations 1092 00:56:34,349 --> 00:56:37,769 behind Steven Spielberg's 1977 blockbuster 1093 00:56:37,769 --> 00:56:42,024 Close Encounters of the Third Kind. 1094 00:56:42,024 --> 00:56:43,942 CAMERON: The Robert Emenegger disclosure effort 1095 00:56:43,942 --> 00:56:45,944 is what I call it. 1096 00:56:45,944 --> 00:56:48,614 I said, "You know, that film, Bob, that's very strange. 1097 00:56:48,614 --> 00:56:50,866 "You know, if it weren't for the location, 1098 00:56:50,866 --> 00:56:52,492 that's Close Encounters of the Third Kind." 1099 00:56:52,492 --> 00:56:55,120 And he said, "What, I didn't tell you?" 1100 00:56:55,120 --> 00:56:57,497 And I said, "You didn't tell me what?" 1101 00:56:57,497 --> 00:56:59,750 "I didn't tell you I gave a copy to Steven Spielberg?" 1102 00:56:59,750 --> 00:57:01,960 And I said, "No, you didn't tell me that." 1103 00:57:01,960 --> 00:57:05,213 So the documentary was done in 1975. 1104 00:57:05,213 --> 00:57:07,090 Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind 1105 00:57:07,090 --> 00:57:10,093 came out in 1977. 1106 00:57:10,093 --> 00:57:12,512 And so, when you see Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 1107 00:57:12,512 --> 00:57:14,431 it's the Holloman Air Force Base story, 1108 00:57:14,431 --> 00:57:16,141 just changed the location. 1109 00:57:16,141 --> 00:57:18,685 It's exactly what the story was. 1110 00:57:18,685 --> 00:57:22,064 NARRATOR: While the alleged alien UFO footage 1111 00:57:22,064 --> 00:57:25,067 from Holloman Air Force Base has never surfaced, 1112 00:57:25,067 --> 00:57:28,612 many ancient astronaut theorists believe it still exists, 1113 00:57:28,612 --> 00:57:31,239 under lock and key. 1114 00:57:31,239 --> 00:57:37,079 What I am really truly expecting is that somewhere, 1115 00:57:37,079 --> 00:57:40,791 from 2018, going forward in the next decade, 1116 00:57:40,791 --> 00:57:47,422 that finally all of that film is going to be released, 1117 00:57:47,422 --> 00:57:51,968 and that we will finally enter the true history. 1118 00:57:51,968 --> 00:57:55,597 NARRATOR: Did the U. S. Air Force really have footage 1119 00:57:55,597 --> 00:57:57,974 of secret meetings between government officials 1120 00:57:57,974 --> 00:58:00,560 and extraterrestrials? 1121 00:58:00,560 --> 00:58:04,773 And if so, where is it now? 1122 00:58:08,151 --> 00:58:11,446 Coming up... 1123 00:58:11,446 --> 00:58:14,199 NARRATOR: For decades, American presidents 1124 00:58:14,199 --> 00:58:17,536 have officially denied that they have received any information 1125 00:58:17,536 --> 00:58:20,622 that extraterrestrials are visiting Earth. 1126 00:58:20,622 --> 00:58:24,167 But considering that the U. S. government has conducted 1127 00:58:24,167 --> 00:58:27,671 at least four major investigations into UFO activity 1128 00:58:27,671 --> 00:58:29,881 since the 1940s, 1129 00:58:29,881 --> 00:58:33,885 why has there been so much time and taxpayer money devoted 1130 00:58:33,885 --> 00:58:35,512 to studying something 1131 00:58:35,512 --> 00:58:38,807 that the government claims isn't happening? 1132 00:58:38,807 --> 00:58:41,893 We don't know for an absolute fact 1133 00:58:41,893 --> 00:58:44,730 what kind of briefings presidents actually receive, 1134 00:58:44,730 --> 00:58:48,108 when they come into office, about extraterrestrials. 1135 00:58:48,108 --> 00:58:49,818 But we do have some indications 1136 00:58:49,818 --> 00:58:52,237 from some documents that do exist, 1137 00:58:52,237 --> 00:58:55,741 one of them being the original MJ-12 presidential briefing 1138 00:58:55,741 --> 00:58:57,534 for President Eisenhower, 1139 00:58:57,534 --> 00:59:00,120 telling him all about the crash at Roswell. 1140 00:59:00,120 --> 00:59:03,790 NARRATOR: On November 2, 2005, 1141 00:59:03,790 --> 00:59:06,877 a document surfaced that was allegedly a transcript 1142 00:59:06,877 --> 00:59:09,755 made from a recorded presidential briefing 1143 00:59:09,755 --> 00:59:14,593 held at Camp David in March of 1981. 1144 00:59:14,593 --> 00:59:18,638 Present were President Ronald Reagan, 1145 00:59:18,638 --> 00:59:21,099 CIA director William Casey, 1146 00:59:21,099 --> 00:59:23,685 Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, 1147 00:59:23,685 --> 00:59:28,356 and a mysterious person known only as "The Caretaker." 1148 00:59:28,356 --> 00:59:31,610 According to the document, during the meeting, 1149 00:59:31,610 --> 00:59:34,279 The Caretaker shared evidence that aliens 1150 00:59:34,279 --> 00:59:38,033 have been visiting the Earth for thousands of years, 1151 00:59:38,033 --> 00:59:41,411 and that modern American records of such encounters 1152 00:59:41,411 --> 00:59:47,083 officially began in 1947, following the Roswell incident. 1153 00:59:47,083 --> 00:59:49,211 BARA: Certainly, if you look at Ronald Reagan, 1154 00:59:49,211 --> 00:59:52,005 he's somebody who brought up aliens all the time. 1155 00:59:52,005 --> 00:59:54,883 To my mind, what Reagan is communicating is, 1156 00:59:54,883 --> 00:59:57,928 "Yes, Roswell happened. Yes, it is significant. 1157 00:59:57,928 --> 00:59:59,846 "Yes, there are aliens. 1158 00:59:59,846 --> 01:00:02,849 "And we'd better get used to this idea 1159 01:00:02,849 --> 01:00:05,143 or figure out how to deal with them." 1160 01:00:05,143 --> 01:00:08,522 I, William Jefferson Clinton... 1161 01:00:08,522 --> 01:00:10,398 NARRATOR: But it was with the inauguration 1162 01:00:10,398 --> 01:00:14,361 of President Bill Clinton in January 1993 1163 01:00:14,361 --> 01:00:16,738 that many UFO researchers believed 1164 01:00:16,738 --> 01:00:21,076 they finally had an ally in the White House. 1165 01:00:21,076 --> 01:00:25,413 If the United States Air Force did recover alien bodies, 1166 01:00:25,413 --> 01:00:27,499 they didn't tell me about it, either, 1167 01:00:27,499 --> 01:00:29,960 and I want to know. 1168 01:00:29,960 --> 01:00:33,547 BARA: So, when Bill Clinton gets into office, he called in 1169 01:00:33,547 --> 01:00:35,507 his presidential aide Webb Hubbell, 1170 01:00:35,507 --> 01:00:38,760 and the first two things that he asked for after he was president 1171 01:00:38,760 --> 01:00:42,889 was who killed JFK and are there aliens. 1172 01:00:42,889 --> 01:00:46,852 Clinton knew that there was something up about aliens 1173 01:00:46,852 --> 01:00:50,522 and UFOs that people were not being told. 1174 01:00:50,522 --> 01:00:52,440 NARRATOR: In his quest to shed light 1175 01:00:52,440 --> 01:00:55,110 on the government's secret UFO investigations, 1176 01:00:55,110 --> 01:00:58,530 President Clinton found an unlikely ally 1177 01:00:58,530 --> 01:01:02,117 in billionaire philanthropist Laurance S. Rockefeller, 1178 01:01:02,117 --> 01:01:04,870 who used his influence to push full disclosure 1179 01:01:04,870 --> 01:01:09,165 about possible extraterrestrial activities on Earth. 1180 01:01:11,251 --> 01:01:13,461 The way it started was Laurance Rockefeller, 1181 01:01:13,461 --> 01:01:16,256 who was one of the famous Rockefeller brothers, 1182 01:01:16,256 --> 01:01:20,677 had been shown a documentary on Roswell 1183 01:01:20,677 --> 01:01:22,512 and was very interested. 1184 01:01:22,512 --> 01:01:24,222 So, the election was going on at the time, 1185 01:01:24,222 --> 01:01:27,350 and he said, "Whether Ross Perot wins or George Bush wins 1186 01:01:27,350 --> 01:01:29,811 "or Bill Clinton wins, I'm going to the White House 1187 01:01:29,811 --> 01:01:34,149 and I'm going to get them to disclose the UFO story." 1188 01:01:34,149 --> 01:01:36,818 NARRATOR: In 1993, 1189 01:01:36,818 --> 01:01:39,154 Laurance Rockefeller began inviting 1190 01:01:39,154 --> 01:01:41,448 a select group of UFO researchers 1191 01:01:41,448 --> 01:01:43,617 and ancient astronaut theorists 1192 01:01:43,617 --> 01:01:46,077 to join him for an important first meeting 1193 01:01:46,077 --> 01:01:50,999 of what would become known as the Rockefeller Initiative. 1194 01:01:50,999 --> 01:01:54,794 In 1993, I got a phone call saying, 1195 01:01:54,794 --> 01:01:57,672 "Linda, we'd like you to join 1196 01:01:57,672 --> 01:01:59,799 "a group of your peers 1197 01:01:59,799 --> 01:02:03,803 at Laurance Rockefeller's ranch at Jackson Hole." 1198 01:02:03,803 --> 01:02:06,848 So, we met. 1199 01:02:06,848 --> 01:02:09,434 There were people like Robert Bigelow, 1200 01:02:09,434 --> 01:02:12,145 now the head of Bigelow Aerospace. 1201 01:02:12,145 --> 01:02:17,400 And there were others that were authors and scientists. 1202 01:02:17,400 --> 01:02:19,819 CAMERON: One of the people who helped edit the letter 1203 01:02:19,819 --> 01:02:22,238 on UFO disclosure to the president of the United States 1204 01:02:22,238 --> 01:02:23,448 was Hillary Clinton. 1205 01:02:23,448 --> 01:02:27,160 She was the first lady at the time. 1206 01:02:27,160 --> 01:02:29,871 NARRATOR: Another person close to Bill Clinton 1207 01:02:29,871 --> 01:02:33,500 who was an advocate for government investigation of UFOs 1208 01:02:33,500 --> 01:02:35,377 was John Podesta, 1209 01:02:35,377 --> 01:02:39,255 who served as the president's assistant in 1993 1210 01:02:39,255 --> 01:02:44,928 and became his deputy chief of staff in 1997. 1211 01:02:44,928 --> 01:02:48,890 I've had a long career, trying to fight 1212 01:02:48,890 --> 01:02:52,102 against government secrecy and create more openness. 1213 01:02:52,102 --> 01:02:54,270 Right after I left law school, I started working on that 1214 01:02:54,270 --> 01:02:55,855 at the Department of Justice, 1215 01:02:55,855 --> 01:02:57,565 then at the Senate Judiciary Committee. 1216 01:02:57,565 --> 01:02:59,359 And then when I worked for President Clinton 1217 01:02:59,359 --> 01:03:01,444 in the White House, I was one of the people 1218 01:03:01,444 --> 01:03:03,321 spearheading an initiative, 1219 01:03:03,321 --> 01:03:06,199 to declassify what turned out to be 1220 01:03:06,199 --> 01:03:08,326 over a billion pages of documents 1221 01:03:08,326 --> 01:03:11,204 that were resident at the National Archives. 1222 01:03:11,204 --> 01:03:12,956 In President Clinton's case, 1223 01:03:12,956 --> 01:03:15,166 I think he was interested in the phenomena. 1224 01:03:15,166 --> 01:03:18,003 He had worked with his then science advisor Jack Gibbons 1225 01:03:18,003 --> 01:03:20,922 to understand what was going on. 1226 01:03:20,922 --> 01:03:23,633 CAMERON: This correspondence starts going back and forth 1227 01:03:23,633 --> 01:03:25,051 for three years. 1228 01:03:25,051 --> 01:03:27,178 Rockefeller is putting immense pressure 1229 01:03:27,178 --> 01:03:29,389 on the White House to disclose. 1230 01:03:29,389 --> 01:03:31,975 NARRATOR: Laurance Rockefeller requested 1231 01:03:31,975 --> 01:03:35,353 that the 1947 Roswell incident be a starting point 1232 01:03:35,353 --> 01:03:37,605 in the government's disclosure. 1233 01:03:37,605 --> 01:03:39,858 CAMERON: They went out and they reinvestigated Roswell. 1234 01:03:39,858 --> 01:03:41,609 It came back, 1235 01:03:41,609 --> 01:03:44,612 and Bill Clinton saw the final report in 1995. 1236 01:03:44,612 --> 01:03:47,949 PODESTA: President Clinton's one of 1237 01:03:47,949 --> 01:03:50,285 the most curious people I've ever met. 1238 01:03:50,285 --> 01:03:52,829 I think he wanted to know what the Air Force knew, 1239 01:03:52,829 --> 01:03:55,081 and got a report back that, in my view, 1240 01:03:55,081 --> 01:03:57,959 was a little bit unsatisfying. 1241 01:03:57,959 --> 01:03:59,961 He was furious, from what I was told. 1242 01:03:59,961 --> 01:04:02,338 NARRATOR: The Rockefeller Initiative 1243 01:04:02,338 --> 01:04:04,424 was hoping for a revelation, 1244 01:04:04,424 --> 01:04:07,385 but the U. S. Air Force stuck to its position 1245 01:04:07,385 --> 01:04:12,515 that a crashed weather balloon caused the Roswell incident. 1246 01:04:12,515 --> 01:04:15,185 CAMERON: Clinton goes to Belfast, Northern Ireland, 1247 01:04:15,185 --> 01:04:17,312 in November of 1995. 1248 01:04:17,312 --> 01:04:19,022 He's lighting the Christmas tree, 1249 01:04:19,022 --> 01:04:21,316 and that's when he gives the famous speech. 1250 01:04:21,316 --> 01:04:23,985 He said he gets a letter from Ryan, 1251 01:04:23,985 --> 01:04:26,571 which I tried to recover in an FOIA. 1252 01:04:26,571 --> 01:04:29,991 There is no letter to Ryan. I think they just made it up. 1253 01:04:29,991 --> 01:04:32,744 He said, "Ryan, if you're out there in the audience tonight, 1254 01:04:32,744 --> 01:04:34,579 here's the answer to your question." 1255 01:04:34,579 --> 01:04:36,206 No. 1256 01:04:36,206 --> 01:04:39,334 As far as I know, an alien spacecraft 1257 01:04:39,334 --> 01:04:42,837 did not crash in Roswell, New Mexico. 1258 01:04:42,837 --> 01:04:46,591 And, Ryan, if the United States Air Force 1259 01:04:46,591 --> 01:04:49,344 did recover alien bodies, 1260 01:04:49,344 --> 01:04:53,848 they didn't tell me about it, either, and I want to know. 1261 01:04:53,848 --> 01:04:58,061 CAMERON: That's why in 1997 the U. S. Air Force goes out 1262 01:04:58,061 --> 01:05:00,647 and does a second Roswell report, 1263 01:05:00,647 --> 01:05:02,148 spends $20 million on it, 1264 01:05:02,148 --> 01:05:03,983 because the president was furious. 1265 01:05:03,983 --> 01:05:06,778 NARRATOR: According to the revised report, 1266 01:05:06,778 --> 01:05:10,281 the so-called alien bodies that eyewitnesses claimed 1267 01:05:10,281 --> 01:05:12,534 they saw being pulled from the wreckage 1268 01:05:12,534 --> 01:05:16,704 were dismissed as being nothing more than crash test dummies 1269 01:05:16,704 --> 01:05:19,040 which had been tethered to parachutes being used 1270 01:05:19,040 --> 01:05:21,918 in an otherwise conventional test. 1271 01:05:21,918 --> 01:05:25,421 PODESTA: Dr. Gibbons pressed first the Secretary of Defense 1272 01:05:25,421 --> 01:05:27,674 Les Aspen, and then the Secretary of the Air Force, 1273 01:05:27,674 --> 01:05:30,885 to take this matter seriously, to do a review. 1274 01:05:30,885 --> 01:05:32,762 The boxes were missing. The documents were gone. 1275 01:05:32,762 --> 01:05:35,056 Nobody knew anything. 1276 01:05:35,056 --> 01:05:39,185 And, you know, the... the trail kind of went cold. 1277 01:05:40,728 --> 01:05:43,064 NARRATOR: In 1996, 1278 01:05:43,064 --> 01:05:46,609 the Rockefeller Initiative was quietly closed, 1279 01:05:46,609 --> 01:05:48,361 and its participants-- 1280 01:05:48,361 --> 01:05:50,155 frustrated that forces within the government 1281 01:05:50,155 --> 01:05:52,907 still refused to reveal the truth-- 1282 01:05:52,907 --> 01:05:57,162 went away without the answers they'd hoped for. 1283 01:05:57,162 --> 01:06:00,123 The Rockefeller Initiative is considered by some researchers 1284 01:06:00,123 --> 01:06:03,376 to be the biggest government UFO disclosure story 1285 01:06:03,376 --> 01:06:05,044 of all times. 1286 01:06:05,044 --> 01:06:07,297 BARA: The fact that it even existed, 1287 01:06:07,297 --> 01:06:09,883 that it was sanctioned in any way by the government, 1288 01:06:09,883 --> 01:06:12,093 that the report was accepted 1289 01:06:12,093 --> 01:06:14,053 by the White House and people in the government, 1290 01:06:14,053 --> 01:06:16,472 I think is very, very highly significant. 1291 01:06:16,472 --> 01:06:19,017 So it's kind of a very small incremental step forward 1292 01:06:19,017 --> 01:06:21,477 in the process of disclosure 1293 01:06:21,477 --> 01:06:24,898 and moving us towards the ultimate answers 1294 01:06:24,898 --> 01:06:27,066 to the questions that we're all asking. 1295 01:06:31,154 --> 01:06:34,782 NARRATOR: Washington, D. C. 1296 01:06:34,782 --> 01:06:38,203 July 1996. 1297 01:06:38,203 --> 01:06:40,663 Political activist Stephen Bassett 1298 01:06:40,663 --> 01:06:42,832 becomes the first registered 1299 01:06:42,832 --> 01:06:45,210 extraterrestrial life and disclosure lobbyist 1300 01:06:45,210 --> 01:06:47,962 in the United States. 1301 01:06:47,962 --> 01:06:51,090 For years, he had been trying to organize 1302 01:06:51,090 --> 01:06:53,509 a hearing with members of Congress 1303 01:06:53,509 --> 01:06:56,262 to present evidence that the government was hiding 1304 01:06:56,262 --> 01:06:59,724 important information from its people. 1305 01:06:59,724 --> 01:07:04,229 The extraterrestrial presence, if formally acknowledged, 1306 01:07:04,229 --> 01:07:07,065 could bring in an age of reform, where the human race 1307 01:07:07,065 --> 01:07:08,733 could get its act together, 1308 01:07:08,733 --> 01:07:10,568 because we're running out of time. 1309 01:07:10,568 --> 01:07:13,988 As I got into the issue, 1310 01:07:13,988 --> 01:07:17,367 what I learned is just how dysfunctional 1311 01:07:17,367 --> 01:07:20,495 the United States government had become. 1312 01:07:20,495 --> 01:07:23,122 It is the vast expanse of secrecy 1313 01:07:23,122 --> 01:07:25,750 and abuse of secrecy in power that is lying 1314 01:07:25,750 --> 01:07:29,003 at the base of a great deal of our problems. 1315 01:07:29,003 --> 01:07:33,800 And so I had one simple fundamental task: 1316 01:07:33,800 --> 01:07:35,927 formal acknowledgment of the extraterrestrial presence, 1317 01:07:35,927 --> 01:07:38,429 simple, clean and easy. 1318 01:07:38,429 --> 01:07:41,140 CHAIRMAN: Gentlemen, if you could stand and repeat after me? 1319 01:07:41,140 --> 01:07:44,352 NARRATOR: On April 29, 2013, 1320 01:07:44,352 --> 01:07:46,437 Bassett organized 1321 01:07:46,437 --> 01:07:49,983 the Citizen Hearing on Disclosure in Washington, D. C. 1322 01:07:49,983 --> 01:07:52,777 The objective was to bring together 1323 01:07:52,777 --> 01:07:57,073 the most compelling evidence of extraterrestrial visits to Earth 1324 01:07:57,073 --> 01:07:59,409 and convince former members of Congress 1325 01:07:59,409 --> 01:08:01,244 to take immediate action. 1326 01:08:01,244 --> 01:08:04,372 BASSETT: I had wanted to do it since 2001-- 1327 01:08:04,372 --> 01:08:07,875 bring in 42 witnesses, from ten countries, 1328 01:08:07,875 --> 01:08:11,796 to testify in the main ballroom of the National Press Club, 1329 01:08:11,796 --> 01:08:14,882 before six former members of the Congress, 1330 01:08:14,882 --> 01:08:18,219 five congresspersons, one senator. 1331 01:08:18,219 --> 01:08:22,432 And they testified for 30 hours over five days. 1332 01:08:22,432 --> 01:08:24,809 It was an amazing event, 1333 01:08:24,809 --> 01:08:28,938 mostly because of the caliber of witnesses that were brought in, 1334 01:08:28,938 --> 01:08:31,357 the investigators, researchers. 1335 01:08:31,357 --> 01:08:33,401 They don't want you to know that. 1336 01:08:33,401 --> 01:08:35,611 NARRATOR: Witnesses included John Callahan, 1337 01:08:35,611 --> 01:08:37,196 former division chief 1338 01:08:37,196 --> 01:08:39,407 of the Accidents and Investigations Branch 1339 01:08:39,407 --> 01:08:41,868 of the FAA, 1340 01:08:41,868 --> 01:08:45,204 the former Canadian Minister of Defence, Paul Hellyer, 1341 01:08:45,204 --> 01:08:48,833 retired Air Force captain Robert Salas, 1342 01:08:48,833 --> 01:08:51,961 and many others who had conducted extensive research 1343 01:08:51,961 --> 01:08:53,880 into the UFO phenomenon. 1344 01:08:53,880 --> 01:08:56,883 We live in a cosmos teeming with life. 1345 01:08:56,883 --> 01:08:59,218 The fact that some other civilizations 1346 01:08:59,218 --> 01:09:01,304 are more advanced than we are may be humbling, 1347 01:09:01,304 --> 01:09:04,891 but that could be a necessary step in our survival. 1348 01:09:04,891 --> 01:09:08,353 People are so afraid for their lives, their families, 1349 01:09:08,353 --> 01:09:12,315 because they have had to sign nondisclosure agreements. 1350 01:09:12,315 --> 01:09:16,152 CHAIRMAN: Witness from the U. K., Nick Pope. 1351 01:09:16,152 --> 01:09:17,779 POPE: Thank you. 1352 01:09:17,779 --> 01:09:19,364 Um, you should all have a printed-out copy 1353 01:09:19,364 --> 01:09:21,199 of my opening statement. 1354 01:09:21,199 --> 01:09:24,202 POPE: I was one of the witnesses, and I have to say, 1355 01:09:24,202 --> 01:09:27,789 this was the nearest that we've gotten since, 1356 01:09:27,789 --> 01:09:30,875 oh, way back to the '70s and the '60s, even, 1357 01:09:30,875 --> 01:09:35,546 to proper congressional hearings on the UFO mystery. 1358 01:09:35,546 --> 01:09:39,384 You did work for the Ministry of Defence in the U. K.? 1359 01:09:39,384 --> 01:09:41,594 That's correct, sir, yes. 1360 01:09:41,594 --> 01:09:44,764 POPE: I was asked about my experience 1361 01:09:44,764 --> 01:09:48,101 within the British government's UFO program, 1362 01:09:48,101 --> 01:09:50,603 and one of the U. K.'s most high-profile cases, 1363 01:09:50,603 --> 01:09:53,064 the Rendlesham Forest incident. 1364 01:09:53,064 --> 01:09:56,484 NARRATOR: In December 1980, 1365 01:09:56,484 --> 01:09:59,654 there were unexplained reports of a glowing craft in the woods 1366 01:09:59,654 --> 01:10:03,241 of Royal Air Force Base, Woodbridge. 1367 01:10:03,241 --> 01:10:07,870 Burn marks and broken branches were later discovered. 1368 01:10:07,870 --> 01:10:11,708 Some have called this incident "Britain's Roswell." 1369 01:10:11,708 --> 01:10:15,253 POPE: Even though I've left government, I responded with, 1370 01:10:15,253 --> 01:10:18,297 "I can neither confirm nor deny." 1371 01:10:18,297 --> 01:10:20,925 I don't think the committee liked 1372 01:10:20,925 --> 01:10:23,761 my "neither confirm nor deny" response, 1373 01:10:23,761 --> 01:10:26,222 and they pushed me very hard on that. 1374 01:10:26,222 --> 01:10:28,641 Certainly, you've been involved since you left. 1375 01:10:28,641 --> 01:10:30,268 Yes, sir, in a private capacity. 1376 01:10:30,268 --> 01:10:31,644 What's your opinion, 1377 01:10:31,644 --> 01:10:33,813 based on all that stuff that you've had access to? 1378 01:10:33,813 --> 01:10:35,481 Is there an E. T. origin 1379 01:10:35,481 --> 01:10:39,986 to what's obvious sightings of real UFOs? 1380 01:10:39,986 --> 01:10:42,488 It is a... a possibility. 1381 01:10:42,488 --> 01:10:45,241 KLOETZKE: You could tell by the faces, 1382 01:10:45,241 --> 01:10:48,202 they really weren't quite sure what to think of this yet. 1383 01:10:48,202 --> 01:10:51,956 By Wednesday, we have them, you know, standing up, 1384 01:10:51,956 --> 01:10:55,460 pointing fingers, saying, "We need to open those files." 1385 01:10:55,460 --> 01:10:58,379 POPE: It drove things forward. 1386 01:10:58,379 --> 01:11:01,215 It took the UFO phenomenon out of the fringe 1387 01:11:01,215 --> 01:11:03,050 and into the mainstream. 1388 01:11:03,050 --> 01:11:05,762 BASSETT: Thousands of people watched it online. 1389 01:11:05,762 --> 01:11:07,680 We netcast it so that 1390 01:11:07,680 --> 01:11:09,724 members of Congress and their staff 1391 01:11:09,724 --> 01:11:12,477 who were too timid to come down and watch it there, 1392 01:11:12,477 --> 01:11:14,312 or members of the press that were afraid 1393 01:11:14,312 --> 01:11:16,022 that they might be seen watching it, 1394 01:11:16,022 --> 01:11:18,107 could watch it in the comfort of their offices. 1395 01:11:18,107 --> 01:11:21,736 Sometime this year, we may just enter a new world. 1396 01:11:21,736 --> 01:11:23,362 Thank you so much. 1397 01:11:23,362 --> 01:11:25,490 NARRATOR: Based on the hearings, 1398 01:11:25,490 --> 01:11:28,284 four of the six former members of Congress 1399 01:11:28,284 --> 01:11:31,204 pledged their support to hold a world conference, 1400 01:11:31,204 --> 01:11:33,498 in conjunction with the United Nations, 1401 01:11:33,498 --> 01:11:35,750 to address the disclosure 1402 01:11:35,750 --> 01:11:38,085 of all knowledge of extraterrestrial contact 1403 01:11:38,085 --> 01:11:39,504 with this planet. 1404 01:11:41,172 --> 01:11:44,717 Then, on August 15, 2013, 1405 01:11:44,717 --> 01:11:48,262 less than four months after the Citizen Hearing on Disclosure, 1406 01:11:48,262 --> 01:11:53,226 the United States government made a shocking admission. 1407 01:11:53,226 --> 01:11:55,603 After decades of denying its existence, 1408 01:11:55,603 --> 01:11:58,147 they finally admitted that a secret base 1409 01:11:58,147 --> 01:12:01,776 known as Area 51 did exist. 1410 01:12:01,776 --> 01:12:04,821 Did the Citizen Hearing on Disclosure 1411 01:12:04,821 --> 01:12:07,949 force the U. S. government to act? 1412 01:12:07,949 --> 01:12:09,867 While the government acknowledged 1413 01:12:09,867 --> 01:12:14,163 the existence of Area 51, it still has not been revealed 1414 01:12:14,163 --> 01:12:17,792 just what it is currently being used for. 1415 01:12:17,792 --> 01:12:19,460 And since that disclosure, 1416 01:12:19,460 --> 01:12:22,213 the perimeter around the base has been extended 1417 01:12:22,213 --> 01:12:25,591 and security heightened. 1418 01:12:25,591 --> 01:12:29,136 Area 51 has to be more secretive now, 1419 01:12:29,136 --> 01:12:31,639 because you got so many other concerns. 1420 01:12:31,639 --> 01:12:34,684 We didn't have computers to worry about, Internet, 1421 01:12:34,684 --> 01:12:37,228 all that sort of thing that you've got today. 1422 01:12:37,228 --> 01:12:39,897 So it's a brand-new ball game as far as security. 1423 01:12:39,897 --> 01:12:43,109 NARRATOR: While many considered the government's admission 1424 01:12:43,109 --> 01:12:46,654 of the existence of Area 51 to be a bombshell, 1425 01:12:46,654 --> 01:12:50,408 an even bigger disclosure was still to come: 1426 01:12:50,408 --> 01:12:56,038 the declassification of millions of top secret CIA documents. 1427 01:13:03,212 --> 01:13:04,797 NARRATOR: Bethesda, Maryland. 1428 01:13:04,797 --> 01:13:07,717 November 2014. 1429 01:13:07,717 --> 01:13:09,802 Stephen Bassett, 1430 01:13:09,802 --> 01:13:13,598 executive director of the Paradigm Research Group, 1431 01:13:13,598 --> 01:13:17,977 launches an initiative directed to influence Hillary Clinton. 1432 01:13:17,977 --> 01:13:20,730 Based on Clinton's work with Laurance Rockefeller 1433 01:13:20,730 --> 01:13:22,857 in the 1990s, 1434 01:13:22,857 --> 01:13:25,443 Bassett believes she could be an ally 1435 01:13:25,443 --> 01:13:30,031 in getting the government to declassify its UFO files. 1436 01:13:30,031 --> 01:13:33,326 That political initiative was begun 1437 01:13:33,326 --> 01:13:35,870 by sending a full copy 1438 01:13:35,870 --> 01:13:39,040 of the 30 hours of testimony to every member of Congress, 1439 01:13:39,040 --> 01:13:43,294 addressing the Rockefeller Initiative, naming names-- 1440 01:13:43,294 --> 01:13:47,131 Secretary Clinton, President Clinton, John Podesta, 1441 01:13:47,131 --> 01:13:48,841 George Stephanopoulos, et cetera, et cetera. 1442 01:13:48,841 --> 01:13:52,386 That testimony created a very significant dilemma 1443 01:13:52,386 --> 01:13:54,889 for the Clinton campaign team. 1444 01:13:54,889 --> 01:14:00,728 The political initiative forces the Clinton campaign team, 1445 01:14:00,728 --> 01:14:03,230 which included Barack Obama-- he was on the team-- 1446 01:14:03,230 --> 01:14:05,775 to speak to the issue. 1447 01:14:05,775 --> 01:14:09,862 Are we ready to go win an election in November? 1448 01:14:09,862 --> 01:14:11,656 (crowd cheering) 1449 01:14:11,656 --> 01:14:14,659 NARRATOR: Clinton's campaign chairman, John Podesta, 1450 01:14:14,659 --> 01:14:17,328 is well known for his interest in UFO 1451 01:14:17,328 --> 01:14:22,333 and extraterrestrial encounters, and according to him, so is she. 1452 01:14:24,251 --> 01:14:26,629 Secretary Clinton, likewise, 1453 01:14:26,629 --> 01:14:28,756 was also kind of interested in the topic, 1454 01:14:28,756 --> 01:14:31,717 and during the course of the campaign said 1455 01:14:31,717 --> 01:14:33,761 that, if elected, she would have ordered 1456 01:14:33,761 --> 01:14:36,639 a more thorough declassification review. 1457 01:14:36,639 --> 01:14:39,225 She was very open. She did not skirt the issue. 1458 01:14:39,225 --> 01:14:40,977 She talked about it very openly. 1459 01:14:40,977 --> 01:14:44,313 NARRATOR: Many believe that had Clinton won, 1460 01:14:44,313 --> 01:14:46,190 there would have been a seismic shift 1461 01:14:46,190 --> 01:14:49,151 from the government's long-held policy of secrecy 1462 01:14:49,151 --> 01:14:55,074 concerning UFO investigations to a new policy of full disclosure. 1463 01:14:55,074 --> 01:14:57,827 PODESTA: The system of regulation 1464 01:14:57,827 --> 01:15:01,914 that creates our secrecy system-- what's top secret, 1465 01:15:01,914 --> 01:15:05,042 what's confidential, these lower levels of classification-- 1466 01:15:05,042 --> 01:15:09,005 that's regulated and has been since the Truman administration 1467 01:15:09,005 --> 01:15:11,424 by executive order of the president. 1468 01:15:11,424 --> 01:15:16,637 The president sets forward the general rules of classification. 1469 01:15:16,637 --> 01:15:18,723 And some presidents have been more forthcoming, 1470 01:15:18,723 --> 01:15:20,683 wanted less secrecy. 1471 01:15:20,683 --> 01:15:24,603 Some have tightened the reins and wanted more secrecy. 1472 01:15:24,603 --> 01:15:25,813 It makes a difference. 1473 01:15:25,813 --> 01:15:28,649 BASSETT: The CIA and the Pentagon-- 1474 01:15:28,649 --> 01:15:32,153 they were worried about Hillary Clinton, Secretary Clinton, 1475 01:15:32,153 --> 01:15:34,780 all the statements she was making, winning the presidency, 1476 01:15:34,780 --> 01:15:36,699 and going to the Pentagon and basically saying, 1477 01:15:36,699 --> 01:15:38,784 "You are going to give me the information I need 1478 01:15:38,784 --> 01:15:40,494 "to disclose the extraterrestrial presence, 1479 01:15:40,494 --> 01:15:43,205 or I'm gonna fire every single one of you." 1480 01:15:43,205 --> 01:15:48,461 As this year of 2016 went forward, we all expected 1481 01:15:48,461 --> 01:15:51,380 that this headline that we've been waiting for 1482 01:15:51,380 --> 01:15:55,092 that is going to break the protocol, 1483 01:15:55,092 --> 01:15:59,263 break the policy of denial, was going to happen. 1484 01:15:59,263 --> 01:16:02,266 John Podesta was trying to get ready 1485 01:16:02,266 --> 01:16:05,144 to open up that we're not alone in the universe. 1486 01:16:05,144 --> 01:16:08,147 All of that crashed 1487 01:16:08,147 --> 01:16:12,359 when a different person became President of the United States. 1488 01:16:12,359 --> 01:16:16,363 NARRATOR: November 8, 2016, 1489 01:16:16,363 --> 01:16:20,159 Donald Trump was elected as America's next president. 1490 01:16:20,159 --> 01:16:24,371 There would be no disclosure of the secret UFO files. 1491 01:16:24,371 --> 01:16:27,541 PODESTA: I've had a number of 1492 01:16:27,541 --> 01:16:29,668 members of Congress, 1493 01:16:29,668 --> 01:16:32,922 members of the U. S. Senate say to me, "Keep going at this. 1494 01:16:32,922 --> 01:16:35,716 I'm really interested in it, but I can't say anything about it." 1495 01:16:35,716 --> 01:16:38,260 NARRATOR: But as a longtime advisor 1496 01:16:38,260 --> 01:16:40,387 to President Barack Obama, 1497 01:16:40,387 --> 01:16:44,058 John Podesta still had an ally in the White House, 1498 01:16:44,058 --> 01:16:47,311 one who would remain there for another two months. 1499 01:16:51,273 --> 01:16:55,486 January 17, 2017. 1500 01:16:55,486 --> 01:16:58,364 In Barack Obama's last days as president, 1501 01:16:58,364 --> 01:17:01,283 the CIA posts on its website 1502 01:17:01,283 --> 01:17:04,954 nearly 13 million pages of agency documents, 1503 01:17:04,954 --> 01:17:08,666 many of which pertain to UFOs. 1504 01:17:08,666 --> 01:17:13,546 It was a very, very big deal, and people were excited. 1505 01:17:13,546 --> 01:17:18,134 All of these things were efforts, I believe, 1506 01:17:18,134 --> 01:17:20,761 to educate people and to move us 1507 01:17:20,761 --> 01:17:26,183 in a direction that we can accept, as a society, 1508 01:17:26,183 --> 01:17:29,103 that extraterrestrials are here 1509 01:17:29,103 --> 01:17:32,565 and have been here for thousands of years. 1510 01:17:35,693 --> 01:17:39,029 NARRATOR: Investigator Chase Kloetzke and author Nick Pope 1511 01:17:39,029 --> 01:17:41,240 have been searching for proof 1512 01:17:41,240 --> 01:17:43,534 that the U. S. government has been hiding its interactions 1513 01:17:43,534 --> 01:17:45,578 with extraterrestrials. 1514 01:17:45,578 --> 01:17:48,789 Now they hope to find new evidence among 1515 01:17:48,789 --> 01:17:52,501 the millions of recently declassified pages. 1516 01:17:52,501 --> 01:17:54,253 Well, there's such a lot to go through. 1517 01:17:54,253 --> 01:17:57,047 -KLOETZKE: Exactly. -It comes back to the old saying, 1518 01:17:57,047 --> 01:18:00,301 the best place to hide a book is in a library. 1519 01:18:00,301 --> 01:18:04,305 And there are all sorts of gems in here, I'm sure, 1520 01:18:04,305 --> 01:18:06,223 but, um, how would we ever know? 1521 01:18:06,223 --> 01:18:08,559 We've got to go through it literally page by page, 1522 01:18:08,559 --> 01:18:10,477 -line by line. -Right. 1523 01:18:10,477 --> 01:18:13,230 So we're taking a look at this report. 1524 01:18:13,230 --> 01:18:15,441 December 1960. 1525 01:18:15,441 --> 01:18:17,526 This has come from Detroit, 1526 01:18:17,526 --> 01:18:22,573 and it's a sighting of unidentified objects in the sky. 1527 01:18:22,573 --> 01:18:25,868 "Like a disc," it says, 1528 01:18:25,868 --> 01:18:28,078 which again, is something I'm sure you've come across 1529 01:18:28,078 --> 01:18:29,747 in-in various reports, as have I. 1530 01:18:29,747 --> 01:18:31,373 Yes, many. 1531 01:18:31,373 --> 01:18:33,709 POPE: And yet, it has these redactions on it. 1532 01:18:33,709 --> 01:18:35,878 And again, the question arises: Why? 1533 01:18:35,878 --> 01:18:40,090 If this subject is so unclassified and unimportant, 1534 01:18:40,090 --> 01:18:41,926 why all these redactions? 1535 01:18:41,926 --> 01:18:44,470 -And this next document. -Oh, wow. That's crazy. 1536 01:18:44,470 --> 01:18:47,473 KLOETZKE: Right? Why even bother? 1537 01:18:47,473 --> 01:18:51,018 Only information is... the date. 1538 01:18:51,018 --> 01:18:53,520 13 million documents. 1539 01:18:53,520 --> 01:18:56,440 If there really was a smoking gun in there, 1540 01:18:56,440 --> 01:18:58,651 it would be almost impossible to find. 1541 01:19:02,404 --> 01:19:05,532 NARRATOR: So far, the CIA archive has revealed 1542 01:19:05,532 --> 01:19:07,534 thousands of reports of sightings 1543 01:19:07,534 --> 01:19:09,954 of unexplained aircraft. 1544 01:19:09,954 --> 01:19:13,207 One report said that, of 1,500 official accounts 1545 01:19:13,207 --> 01:19:16,126 of UFOs since 1947, 1546 01:19:16,126 --> 01:19:20,756 an incredible 20% remain unexplained. 1547 01:19:20,756 --> 01:19:24,718 But was the release of the CIA online archive 1548 01:19:24,718 --> 01:19:30,182 another step towards disclosure or a way to bury the truth? 1549 01:19:30,182 --> 01:19:33,686 When the Pentagon's classified study into UFOs-- 1550 01:19:33,686 --> 01:19:36,689 the Advanced Aerial Threat Identification Program-- 1551 01:19:36,689 --> 01:19:40,359 was uncovered later in 2017, 1552 01:19:40,359 --> 01:19:42,569 journalists and researchers rushed 1553 01:19:42,569 --> 01:19:46,073 to file Freedom of Information Act requests. 1554 01:19:46,073 --> 01:19:50,369 Will these files finally explain what the government knows? 1555 01:19:56,375 --> 01:19:59,378 NARRATOR: 11 months after the CIA's archive 1556 01:19:59,378 --> 01:20:02,047 is released to the public in 2017, 1557 01:20:02,047 --> 01:20:04,717 The New York Times story reveals 1558 01:20:04,717 --> 01:20:06,885 the Department of Defense's AATIP-- 1559 01:20:06,885 --> 01:20:10,514 or Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program. 1560 01:20:14,560 --> 01:20:16,395 NARRATOR: As soon as the story breaks, 1561 01:20:16,395 --> 01:20:18,981 journalists and researchers start filing 1562 01:20:18,981 --> 01:20:23,527 Freedom of Information Act requests, known as FOIA. 1563 01:20:23,527 --> 01:20:30,200 There have now been 1,500 to 2,000 FOIAs on this program-- 1564 01:20:30,200 --> 01:20:32,328 $22 million program-- 1565 01:20:32,328 --> 01:20:34,204 and the government at this point is saying, 1566 01:20:34,204 --> 01:20:35,664 "Program? What program?" 1567 01:20:35,664 --> 01:20:37,207 They're playing the same old game. 1568 01:20:37,207 --> 01:20:38,792 "We didn't release those films." 1569 01:20:38,792 --> 01:20:40,252 But they're under so much pressure. 1570 01:20:40,252 --> 01:20:42,713 BASSET: If this keeps up for even 1571 01:20:42,713 --> 01:20:44,882 four, five or six more months, 1572 01:20:44,882 --> 01:20:49,511 I do not imagine how disclosure can not take place. 1573 01:20:49,511 --> 01:20:52,931 PODESTA: Much of what was undertaken and reviewed 1574 01:20:52,931 --> 01:20:55,351 still remains in the dark, 1575 01:20:55,351 --> 01:20:58,645 in classified form at the Department of Defense. 1576 01:20:58,645 --> 01:21:01,273 I would hope that they would declassify it 1577 01:21:01,273 --> 01:21:03,150 and release as much as possible. 1578 01:21:03,150 --> 01:21:05,444 -Good afternoon. -MAN: Good afternoon. 1579 01:21:05,444 --> 01:21:08,322 CAMERON: When this story broke in The New York Times... 1580 01:21:08,322 --> 01:21:10,282 -Jordan. -CAMERON: ...guy by the name of 1581 01:21:10,282 --> 01:21:13,619 Jordan Fabian from The Hill-- he asks Sarah Sanders 1582 01:21:13,619 --> 01:21:15,954 the $64,000 question. 1583 01:21:15,954 --> 01:21:18,832 Does the president believe in the existence of UFOs, 1584 01:21:18,832 --> 01:21:20,834 and would he be interested 1585 01:21:20,834 --> 01:21:22,336 in restoring funding for that program? 1586 01:21:22,336 --> 01:21:24,463 Somehow that question hasn't come up 1587 01:21:24,463 --> 01:21:27,549 in our back and forth over the last couple days, but I will, 1588 01:21:27,549 --> 01:21:31,804 uh, check into that and be happy to circle back. Jennifer? 1589 01:21:31,804 --> 01:21:34,556 CAMERON: As far as I know, she has never come back around, 1590 01:21:34,556 --> 01:21:36,350 because you can't. 1591 01:21:36,350 --> 01:21:38,435 The president has to stay out of it. 1592 01:21:38,435 --> 01:21:41,522 They want the community to force the issue. 1593 01:21:41,522 --> 01:21:43,440 They want us to force the issue. 1594 01:21:43,440 --> 01:21:47,111 And that is why they moved it to Bob Bigelow, 1595 01:21:47,111 --> 01:21:49,988 who's a contractor in Las Vegas. 1596 01:21:49,988 --> 01:21:53,033 It's private industry that will do the disclosure. 1597 01:21:53,033 --> 01:21:55,494 BASSETT: History is about to happen at a level 1598 01:21:55,494 --> 01:21:59,498 that's almost incalculable, extraordinary, unprecedented. 1599 01:21:59,498 --> 01:22:03,127 It makes something like the Roman Empire look trivial. 1600 01:22:03,127 --> 01:22:05,462 So, just think about that. 1601 01:22:05,462 --> 01:22:07,256 The announcement of the extraterrestrial presence, 1602 01:22:07,256 --> 01:22:09,174 worldwide engagement, 1603 01:22:09,174 --> 01:22:12,261 open contacts with multiple civilizations. 1604 01:22:12,261 --> 01:22:16,473 The revelations about AATIP may be clues 1605 01:22:16,473 --> 01:22:18,642 that there's an agenda here. 1606 01:22:18,642 --> 01:22:22,354 This may be government trying 1607 01:22:22,354 --> 01:22:25,774 to slowly drip-feed this information out to the public 1608 01:22:25,774 --> 01:22:29,486 in such a way that there won't be out-and-out panic. 1609 01:22:29,486 --> 01:22:31,822 It may be a way 1610 01:22:31,822 --> 01:22:37,035 of slowly but surely acclimatizing people 1611 01:22:37,035 --> 01:22:39,955 to the reality of this phenomenon. 1612 01:22:39,955 --> 01:22:43,667 TSOUKALOS: The fact that The New York Times published 1613 01:22:43,667 --> 01:22:46,920 a Pentagon story is extraordinary. 1614 01:22:46,920 --> 01:22:50,716 And nobody really cared, so, 1615 01:22:50,716 --> 01:22:55,679 to me, that means that while we are all talking about 1616 01:22:55,679 --> 01:22:58,390 that we may be connected to extraterrestrials, 1617 01:22:58,390 --> 01:23:01,435 that this knowledge is within us. 1618 01:23:01,435 --> 01:23:05,898 It's hardwired, so that, hey, if they're coming, 1619 01:23:05,898 --> 01:23:09,234 it won't be panic because we come from them. 1620 01:23:09,234 --> 01:23:13,322 I do think that the world is ready for this knowledge, 1621 01:23:13,322 --> 01:23:17,284 and I think that it would be the most revolutionary story 1622 01:23:17,284 --> 01:23:19,453 in the history of mankind. 1623 01:23:22,623 --> 01:23:25,209 NARRATOR: Has the time finally come 1624 01:23:25,209 --> 01:23:27,711 when not only the United States government 1625 01:23:27,711 --> 01:23:32,508 but nations around the world will reveal what UFO researchers 1626 01:23:32,508 --> 01:23:36,386 and ancient astronaut theorists have long suspected: 1627 01:23:36,386 --> 01:23:39,473 that extraterrestrial visitation of our planet 1628 01:23:39,473 --> 01:23:42,434 is not only real, but has been happening 1629 01:23:42,434 --> 01:23:44,895 for thousands of years? 1630 01:23:44,895 --> 01:23:49,775 There are many who believe the answer is a profound yes, 1631 01:23:49,775 --> 01:23:53,028 and that the truth will lead to a greater understanding 1632 01:23:53,028 --> 01:23:58,116 not only of mankind's past, but of its future, 1633 01:23:58,116 --> 01:24:01,245 a future that will see humans 1634 01:24:01,245 --> 01:24:04,456 as the torchbearers of a new generation, 1635 01:24:04,456 --> 01:24:09,253 and as the extraterrestrial visitors of planets and galaxies 1636 01:24:09,253 --> 01:24:11,797 far beyond our own. 1637 01:24:11,797 --> 01:24:16,260 CAPTIONING PROVIDED BY A E NETWORKS 1638 01:24:16,260 --> 01:24:18,929 ou look at the face, it's keeping record 1639 01:24:18,929 --> 01:24:21,932 not only of Egypt, but the whole world. 1640 01:24:24,309 --> 01:24:26,019 Three, two, one. Let it go. 1641 01:24:26,019 --> 01:24:28,105 We're trying to find microbes 1642 01:24:28,105 --> 01:24:29,565 coming from the upper atmosphere. 1643 01:24:29,565 --> 01:24:30,983 We're gonna recreate 1644 01:24:30,983 --> 01:24:34,319 the exact flight path over the Bermuda Triangle. 1645 01:24:34,319 --> 01:24:36,613 This is when you experienced this time vortex? 1646 01:24:36,613 --> 01:24:39,491 I traveled 100 miles in only three minutes. 1647 01:24:39,491 --> 01:24:40,951 DAVID CHILDRESS: Wow! 1648 01:24:42,452 --> 01:24:44,288 Every block is bigger than this car. 1649 01:24:44,288 --> 01:24:44,997 GIORGIO TSOUKALOS: Insane! 1650 01:24:46,623 --> 01:24:48,834 The reason this pyramid is the most magnificent 1651 01:24:48,834 --> 01:24:50,919 is what you're about to see inside the Great Pyramid. 1652 01:24:50,919 --> 01:24:52,045 TSOUKALOS: This is incredible. 1653 01:24:52,045 --> 01:24:53,463 That's historic, 1654 01:24:53,463 --> 01:24:54,673 that we've actually seen it. 1655 01:24:54,673 --> 01:24:57,092 The possibility that in the past, 1656 01:24:57,092 --> 01:24:59,845 we had interactions with an extraterrestrial civilization. 1657 01:24:59,845 --> 01:25:00,887 You can't rule it out. 1658 01:25:00,887 --> 01:25:02,222 We have an impulse within us 1659 01:25:02,222 --> 01:25:04,766 to explore, to discover. 1660 01:25:04,766 --> 01:25:06,727 -There is where Area 51 is. -Oh, wow. 1661 01:25:06,727 --> 01:25:09,021 What we actually 1662 01:25:09,021 --> 01:25:11,021 zkmoovlmvhd؀�]؀�]�N�