| Part 1 - Did NASA Try to Stop Spielberg's
"Close Encounters of the Third Kind" Movie? © 2010 by Linda Moulton Howe "When they [NASA] read the [Encounters] script they got
very angry and felt that it was a film that would be dangerous." - Steven Spielberg, 1978 Cinema Papers interview about
his 1977 movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind ![]()
Out-of-print Cinema Papers © 1978 interview with Steven Spielberg,
discovered by author Matthew Alford while researching the history of Hollywood cinema.
August 26, 2010 Bristol, England - Two British authors, Matthew Alford, 32, and Robbie Graham, 29, are investigating the concept that the CIA and other American intelligence agencies manipulate Hollywood to produce television and movies that can alter public perceptions and be used to monitor public reactions. Robbie is a full-time doctoral candidate at the University of Bristol working on a Ph.D. to examine Hollywood's historical representation of UFOs and potential extraterrestrial life. Robbie formerly was Associate Lecturer in Media at Stafford College in Stafford, England. Matthew Alford, Ph.D., earned his doctorate in 2008 from the University of Bath, England, with his Ph.D. thesis entitled, "A Propaganda Model for Hollywood? Representations of American Foreign Policy in Contemporary Films." Matthew has written for the Guardian, Fortean Times, New Statesman and BBC radio. He has also lectured at the Universities of Bath and Bristol. Matthew has a new August 2010 book released by the U. K.'s Pluto Press entitled Reel Power: Hollywood Cinema and American Supremacy. ![]()
Reel Power: Hollywood Cinema and American Supremacy
© August 2010 by Matthew Alford, published by U. K.'s Pluto Press.
Click to Pluto Press.
While researching Hollywood history and the background of Steven Spielberg specifically, Matt Alford discovered a 1978 interview with film director Spielberg about his 1977 blockbusterClose Encounters of the Third Kind. The interview was published in a 1978 edition of the now out-of-print magazine called Cinema Papers. Below in the section highlighted by yellow lines, Spielberg answers the interviewer's question: At any point during the setting up of the film were you more in doubt than not? Spielberg's reply: "I really found my faith when I heard that the government was opposed to the film. If NASA took the time to write me a 20-page letter, then I knew there must be something happening. "I had wanted co-operation from them, but when they read the script, they got very angry and felt that it was a film that would be dangerous. I think they mainly wrote the letter because (Spielberg's previous) Jaws convinced so many people around the world that there were sharks in toilets and bathtubs, not just in the oceans and rivers. They were afraid the same kind of epidemic would happen with UFOs."
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Out-of-print Cinema Papers © 1978 interview with Steven Spielberg
about his blockbuster 1977 film, Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
![]()
Out-of-print Cinema Papers © 1978 interview with Steven Spielberg
about his blockbuster 1977 film, Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
In this 2-Part Earthfiles report, I'll begin with Robbie Graham's comments about a 2010 article he co-wrote with Matthew Alford entitled, Spielberg's UFO Secrets. At the conclusion of our interview, I have reprinted with permission their entire article in More Information.
Interview: ![]()
Robbie Graham, Full-Time Doctoral Student,
University of Bristol, Bristol, England,
and formerly Associate Lecturer in Media,
Stafford College, Stafford, Staffordshire, England
Robbie Graham, Full-Time Doctoral Student, University of Bristol, Bristol, England: "Here's my position on Steven Spielberg. He's good friends with Bill Clinton and he's talked with (President Jimmy) Carter, (President Ronald) Reagan, and other United States presidents. He has received awards from the Department of Defense. He's very close to Washington power elite. I think it would be quite amazing, given Spielberg's overt interest in the phenomenon, if Spielberg has not asked certain people in the know about the phenomenon and had not received certain answers. Therefore, I think it's plausible that Spielberg has over the years been privy to some information through unofficial channels relating to UFOs. I think that Spielberg would very likely have been told certain things by Bill Clinton, off the record obviously. I think that Spielberg has probably spoken to a number of people in the loop, shall we say, and that's why he continues to make so many films about UFOs and aliens. ROBBIE, DO YOU THINK IT IS FEASIBLE THAT THE VERY FIRST INSIGHT THAT STEVEN SPIELBERG HAD THAT HE WAS TREADING ON DANGEROUS GROUND WAS IN FACT THE ALLEGED 20-PAGE LETTER FROM NASA WHEN HE WAS WORKING ON THE SCRIPT FOR ENCOUNTERS, WHICH DID NOT COME OUT UNTIL NOVEMBER OF 1977. THAT MEANS SPIELBERG WAS WORKING ON THE SCRIPT BEFORE THEN AND THE SCRIPT WOULD HAVE COME BEFORE PRODUCTION. THAT MEANS, AS YOU SUGGESTED, IF HE HAD MADE AN INQUIRY OUT OF INNOCENCE TO NASA AND TO THE DEFENSE DEPARTMENT FOR HELP IN DOING HIS OWN WRITTEN SCRIPT FOR CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, THAT WOULD BE WHAT SET OFF THE ALARM BELLS AND RED FLAGS ... Yes. WITHIN OUR GOVERNMENT. THEN THAT 20-PAGE LETTER THAT ALLEGEDLY WAS DISCUSSED IN THE 1978 CINEMA PAPERS JOURNAL MIGHT HAVE BEEN THE VERY FIRST TIME THAT STEVEN SPIELBERG WAS CONSCIOUS OF HOW MUCH THE GOVERNMENT REALLY KNOWS AND IS AFRAID OF THE PUBLIC KNOWING. Yeah! I think so because that's what Spielberg himself said. He said, 'If NASA took the time to send me a 20-page letter then I knew that something must be happening.' He also said toCinema Papers, 'That's when I found my faith.' So, he believed in UFOs at that point and it was not until he received that letter that he found his faith and had his suspicions justified.' If there is any truth to the rumor that Spielberg was told by Reagan in 1982 that the UFO phenomenon was real, then of course that would also have spurred Spielberg on. WHY DO YOU THINK THAT THE MORE THAT YOU AND OTHERS HAVE TRIED TO GET STEVEN SPIELBERG TO GO ON THE RECORD ABOUT WHAT HAS BEEN TOLD TO HIM ABOUT THE PRESENCE OF A NON-HUMAN INTELLIGENCE ON THIS PLANET, THE MORE HE SEEMS TO HAVE RETREATED AND RESISTED ANY EFFORTS BY PEOPLE TO HAVE HIM JUST GENUINELY TALK ON THE RECORD? I don't know. I think it has to do with the people that Spielberg keeps company with. I think he is treading a fine line. In 2005, Spielberg actually said publicly that he is less confident now than he used to be that we are actually being visited by aliens. He made quite a bizarre statement to the effect that if They were here, he would be filming them more, that people would be seeing them more. Of course, that's not the case at all. Anyone who even loosely follows as the years go by, UFO sightings are increasing and there is not a week that goes by now without a video or photograph being shown on national news networks. IT WAS AS IF SPIELBERG WAS GIVING OUT A NOW-CONVENTIONAL POLITICAL SPIN. Yes, and I think that might relate to an event in 1999 when Spielberg's name appeared on a leaked list of attendees to the Bilderberger Group meeting held that year in Portugal. The coveted Bilderberger invite if you are considered by its members to be a significant mover and shaker with significant influence on the international stage and also willing to play ball to an extent with the elite. That Spielberg's name was on the list is hugely significant. Some people suggest an official acclimatization program. After someone (such as Spielberg) has had an interest in the phenomenon for so many years, it seems strange that Spielberg would not stand up and lend his name to the UFO even when he has been given an opportunity to do so. I find that odd. It implies that he is toeing a line somewhere. AND ROBBIE, IF STEVEN SPIELBERG HAS OPTED FOR POLITICAL SURVIVAL IN THE CURRENT WORLD, WHAT WOULD YOU SPECULATE IS THE INFORMATION THAT HE HAS BEEN EXPOSED TO IN HIS CONVERSATIONS WITH VARIOUS POLITICAL LEADERS ABOUT THE PRESENCE OF A NON-HUMAN INTELLIGENCE ON THIS EARTH? My feeling is that Spielberg has received limited exposure - probably not more than confirmation that, 'Yes, we are being visited by various intelligences and that yes, the U. S. government is deeply involved in this.' Beyond that, I don't think Spielberg would be exposed to much. After all, he's just a film director. He does not have Above Top Secret clearances. He's not part of some Special Access Project somewhere. You know, he's Spielberg at the end of the day. He likes to talk (laughs). You're not going to tell him too much, I don't think. That's not to say he cannot keep secrets, but I don't think you want to tell him too much." Did U. K. Prime Minister Winston Churchill
Demand Policy of Silence About UFOs? "This (UFO) event should be immediately classified
since it would create mass panic amongst the general population
and destroy one's belief in the church." - Churchill bodyguard, quoting Churchill as told to grandson, a U. K. scientist
![]()
American General Dwight D. Eisenhower with U. K.'s
Prime Minister Winston Churchill during World War II in 1943.
On August 5, 2010, the latest batch of British UFO files were released from the U. K. National Archives. See: 080610 Earthfiles. One of the files contains August to October 1999 correspondence between a "qualified scientist, specializing in physics and astronomy" to the British Ministers Correspondence Unit in London, England, about his grandfather, whom he describes "serving as a personal bodyguard to the Prime Minister," Winston Churchill. The scientist gives details about an alleged conversation of alarm between PM Churchill and American General Dwight D. Eisenhower discussing an encounter between an RAF bomber returning from Germany and an unknown aerial object "metallic with an arrow-shaped body." The scientist wrote to the Ministry of Defence that his grandfather heard Winston Churchill say to General Eisenhower, "This event should be immediately classified since it would create mass panic amongst the general population and destroy one's belief in the church." "ROBBIE, IF WINSTON CHURCHILL, YOUR COUNTRY'S PRIME MINISTER, IN DISCUSSIONS WITH GENERAL DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER FROM THE UNITED STATES BACK IN APPROXIMATELY 1943 DURING WORLD WAR II - IF CHURCHILL'S INSTANT REACTION TO WHAT THEY KNEW ABOUT THE FACTS OF AN INTERACTION BETWEEN AN UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECT AND A BOMBER CAUSED WINSTON CHURCHILL TO SAY, 'WE MUST CLAM THIS UP FOR 50 YEARS BECAUSE IT WOULD UPTURN RELIGIONS,' WHAT DO YOU THINK THAT POLICY MAKERS KNOW TODAY IN 2010? I used to think that there is this giant government conspiracy and that there are people within our government and military that do know exactly what is going on - that they have all the pieces to this gigantic puzzle and someone knows what is going on. They just are keeping it very secret. I don't think that is the case anymore. I don't think anyone has all of the pieces to this puzzle. I don't think anyone possibly can even comprehend exactly the true nature of this phenomenon. How can you go public with something that you can't fully comprehend and you can't even begin to explain or understand? Those question marks alone would be alarming enough to warrant covering something up. Even if people had told Spielberg, 'We don't know the full extent of what is going on' - even that is going to be a shock to the system for anyone. It's almost more alarming to think that they don't know what is going on. As far as Spielberg. Hollywood is all about egos. So, being privy to the most classified information in the world makes you feel quite special. Spielberg might have been asked informally, 'When required, produce certain films that have certain Ufological content in them.' But at the same time, I also think that Spielberg is frustrated. I think in (2007 feature film) Transformers, which Steven Spielberg produced, is an interesting example. [ Editor's Note: Transformers is a 2007 American live-action film, based on the Transformers toy line. The film was directed by Michael Bay and written by John Rogers, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman. It stars Shia LaBeouf as Sam Witwicky, a teenager involved in a war between the heroic Autobots and the evil Decepticons, two factions of alien robots who can disguise themselves by transforming into everyday machinery. The Decepticons desire control of the All Spark, the object that created their robotic race, with the intention of using it to build an army by giving life to the machines of Earth. That 2007 feature film spawned a sequel,Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, which was released on June 24, 2009, to negative reviews, but was a commercial success and grossed more than its predecessor. A third and final film is set to release on July 1, 2011 in 3-D. ] During the end of that film, there is a strange interlude in the closing credits. The character Sam (Witwicky) played by Shia LaBeouf, his parents comment to the camera, 'If Earth is being visited by aliens, then - the parents say - 'The government would let us know. This is America.' Then they go on to say, 'That's how we know we live in a free land because there are no secrets.' IT'S VERY SARCASTIC BECAUSE THE FILMMAKERS... Exactly! ... KNOW THAT WE LIVE IN A COUNTRY THAT LIES PERPETUALLY AND THAT SPIELBERG WAS BASICALLY GIVING A MESSAGE - OR ALLOWING A MESSAGE TO BE GIVEN AT THE END OF THE FILM. Yeah! And I think that particular dialogue was there at Spielberg's influence directly. In fact, the first name to appear in the credits following that scene is Spielberg's. And Transformers drew heavily on UFO literature. You've got to wonder if this is having an affect on peoples' perceptions of life out there? What if tomorrow, there was some kind of a mass landing? How much of what pops into our heads will be the result of Hollywood filmmakers? And that is quite worrying because most of it is negative and frightening and not a lot of it is based in reality. AND PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD NEED TO KNOW FOR A FACT THAT FEATURE FILMS, WHETHER THEY ARE MADE IN ENGLAND, GERMANY OR THE UNITED STATES OR INDIA OR WHEREVER, THEY CAN BE USED BY GOVERNMENTS TO MANIPULATE PUBLIC OPINION. Absolutely! That's one of the primary functions of cinema going back to its earliest years. Film has always been used as propaganda. It's no different today. It's just that the propaganda is more sugar-coated now and we don't recognize it for what it is. That's a very slick machine, the Hollywood propaganda machine. The UFO phenomenon continues to be a target for its propaganda." Continued in Part 2: Hollywood Hit Squad?
More Information: Reprinted by Earthfiles with permission: Spielberg's UFO Secrets © 2010 by Robbie Graham and Matthew Alford
Steven Spielberg is obsessed with UFOs. Indeed, judging by the success of his alien movies to date, his obsession is infectious. Perhaps more so than any other filmmaker, Spielberg has molded our perceptions of otherworldly visitors. Films such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and E.T.: The Extraterrestrial (1982) abound with iconic imagery seared into the minds of millions:
a mothership's miraculous ascension at Devil's Tower; a boy and his fugitive friend from the stars cycling in silhouette across the face of the moon. Even Spielberg's less memorable alien movies – War of the Worlds (2005) and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) – have enjoyed enormous success at the worldwide box-office, raking in some $1.4 billion between them. Although the 63-year-old has donned his director's cap for just four alien-themed movies, his role as a producer has long seen him neck-deep in extraterrestrial entertainment. Spielberg's credits to date include, Batteries Not Included (1987), the Men in Black franchise (1997 ), the epic alien abduction mini-series Taken (2002) and the Transformers franchise (2007). Spielberg is also closely involved in the development of four projects due in 2011: the alien invasion series Fallen Skies; the 'Sci-fi-Western' Cowboys and Aliens; the much anticipated Super 8, the plot for which features Area 51, the US Air Force and an escaped alien entity; and the 'aliens in high school' thriller, I Am Number Four. That Spielberg continues to make movies about life elsewhere is owed not simply to good business sense, but is due in large part to his own childhood fascination with UFOs; a fascination that would intensify into his late twenties and culminate in his cathartic production of Close Encounters – one of the director's most personal films. "I was mainly inspired when I began to meet people who had had experiences,"
Spielberg told Sight and Sound magazine in 1977. "I realised that just about every
fifth person I talked to had looked up at the sky at some point in their lives and
seen something that was not easy to explain. And then I began meeting people
who had had close encounters... where undeniably something quite phenomenal
was happening right before their eyes. It was this direct contact – the interviews –
that got me interested in making the movie." [i] Spielberg's interest in UFOs even extended to a belief in an official cover-up:
"I wouldn't put it past this government that a cosmic Watergate has been
underway for the last 25 years," he remarked during a Close Encounterspromotional
interview, "Eventually they might want to tell us something about what
they've discovered over the decades." [ii] That the world's most successful living director has an overt fascination with
UFOs has long fueled conspiracy theories that he may have gained
"inside knowledge" of a genuine "cosmic Watergate." Spielberg, after all,
is a generous campaign contributor to the Democratic Party and routinely
rubs shoulders with the Washington power elite. [iii] Conspiracists even peg Spielberg as the government's go-to guy in what
is thought to be a secret programme to acclimatize the public to the reality
of extraterrestrials through entertainment media. Spielberg has been
inseparable from the political dimension of the UFO phenomenon since
the early days of his career. In 1977, he spoke with relish of "rumours"
that President Carter was due to make "some unsettling disclosures"
about UFOs later that year . [iv] Needless to say, no such disclosures were forthcoming, although not
for lack of effort on Carter's part. Jimmy Carter famously had reported
his own UFO sighting in 1969, and it had made a believer of him [v] –
so much so that one of his informal campaign pledges had been
to reveal the truth about UFOs. While at a Wisconsin press conference in 1976, a few months prior to
his election victory, Carter was asked if, as President, he would,
"air what's behind closed doors in regards to UFOs." "Yes," replied Carter
, "I would make these kinds of data available to the public...
to help resolve the mystery about it." [vi] Later that same year, however, when the now President-elect asked
outgoing Director of Central Intelligence George Bush Sr. for,
"the information that we have on UFOs and Extraterrestrial intelligence,"
Bush denied Carter's request, stating that, "simple curiosity on the par
t of the President" was inadequate, as the information existed,
"on a Need-to-Know basis only." [vii] At a public event in 2008, a journalist seized the opportunity
to ask Carter about his apparent failure to follow through on UFO
disclosure during his time in office. Carter replied sheepishly before
making a hasty exit: "We did release a lot of the information,
but I'm not sure how much was not released." [viii] Intriguingly, the Carter Presidential Library contains no record
of the film-loving President having ever viewed Close Encounters
while in office. But in a 1977 Canadian TV interview conducted
directly after the movie's official release, Spielberg said matter-of-factly
that Carter had viewed the movie, "Last Saturday." "We haven't heard
the direct feedback," said Spielberg, but added,
"We hear he [Carter] liked it quite a bit. " [ix] Indeed, the following March 1978, The Phoenix Gazette cited
Close Encounters as, "Jimmy Carter's favorite movie," noting that,
"The President has seen the movie many times. " [x] This is not the only discrepancy over the official record concerning
Carter and Spielberg. Officially, Spielberg never set foot in the
Carter White House and had never met the President, yet a solitary
photocopy of a photograph discovered in the Carter Presidential Library
proves that the two men did indeed meet. The photo shows Carter
and Spielberg in friendly conversation and is signed: "To Steven Spielberg,
[from] Jimmy Carter." An accompanying White House stationary
note signed by White House Social Secretary Gretchen Poston and
addressed to Spielberg reads: "The President thought you would
enjoy receiving the enclosed photograph." [xi] This apparent secrecy almost certainly resulted from a desire in the
military-intelligence community – and even among Carter's staff –
to keep the Administration publicly from being further associated
with flying saucers. A UFO-spotting President viewing the ultimate
UFO movie at the White House and having get-togethers with its
alien-obsessed director would have been a PR nightmare. Not only
that, but it would likely have exacerbated the White House'
s existing UFO-related problems. Throughout the Spring and Summer of 1977 (before the release of
Close Encounters), the Carter White House had been deluged with
thousands of letters from the public pertaining to UFOs, the majority
of which were handed off to the Air Force, which itself officially
had washed its hands of the UFO problem in 1969. Exasperated,
and ill-equipped to deal with the sheer mass of UFO letters,
Carter's Science Advisor Dr. Frank Press sought to offload the problem
onto NASA, suggesting to NASA Administrator Dr. Robert Frosch
that the space agency not only become the "focal point for the
UFO question," but to pick up where the Air Force left off and
spearhead a new government UFO investigations programme.
This immediately set alarm bells ringing throughout the U.S.
National Security apparatus and resulted in Colonel Charles Senn –
Chief of Air Force Community Relations – advising NASA to steer
well clear of the UFO issue. In a September 1, 1977 letter to
NASA's Lt. General Duward Crow, Colonel Senn wrote:
"I sincerely hope you are successful in preventing a
reopening of UFO investigations." [xii] NASA, it turned out, needed little dissuading and was already
engaged in attempts to dampen the public's enthusiasm for extraterrestrials.
Before Close Encounters had even entered into production, Spielberg's
self-penned script had raised a red flag at NASA and prompted the
space agency to send the director a 20- page letter in an attempt to
dissuade him from making the film. "When they [NASA] read the
script they got very angry and felt that it was a film that would be
dangerous," Spielberg told the film journal Cinema Papers in 1978,
"I felt they mainly wrote the letter because Jaws convinced so many
people around the world that there were sharks in toilets and bathtubs,
not just in the oceans and rivers. They were afraid the same kind of
epidemic would happen with UFOs." [xiii] Our requests to NASA, the Pentagon and Spielberg for a copy of
this letter have proven unsuccessful. Spielberg's publicist Marvin Levy
assured us on two occasions that he would pursue Spielberg on the
matter, but has since become unresponsive. There is, of course, the
possibility that the letter never even existed. Spielberg's biographer,
Ray Morton, pointed out to us that, "Steven likes to exaggerate and
has a tendency to tell tall tales... he has a great talent for bending
mundane facts into something more interesting."[xiv] Still, the letter seemed real enough to Spielberg, who cited it as affirmation
of his belief in alien life: "If NASA took the time to send me a 20-page letter,
then I knew there must be something happening," he told Cinema Papers.
"That's when I really found my faith." [xv] Spielberg's most successful alien film, E.T., was also an Oval Office
favourite. Incumbent this time was Ronald Reagan, who, like both
Carter and Spielberg, was also known to be keenly interested in UFOs.
During a private screening of E.T. at the White House in 1982,
in which Reagan and Spielberg were seated together, the President
is reported to have leaned over to his guest and whispered:
"You know, there aren't six people in this room who know how true
this really is." [xvi] Spielberg related this story to Hollywood television producer Jamie Shandera shortly after the screening. Despite having had numerous opportunities over the years to refute
the Reagan incident, Spielberg has yet to do so. In 1983, Emmy Award-winning
TV producer and journalist Linda Moulton Howe made multiple attempts
to secure an interview with Spielberg to discuss Reagan's alleged
comments but was told each time by the director's publicist that he
was "away on location." [xvii] Presidential researcher Grant Cameron made a similar attempt in 1988,
only to be told by Spielberg's publicity coordinator Kris Kelly:
"Unfortunately, Mr. Spielberg is currently away working on his next
project and is unable to personally answer your question." [xviii] On yet another occasion, Florida Today reporter Billy Cox also tried
to crack Spielberg on the issue. This time, Spielberg's publicist, Marvin Levy,
was more direct in his response, stating over the telephone: "Mr. Spielberg
does not wish to discuss any private conversation held with the President." [xix] It is not hard to imagine Reagan having made the statement. Like President Carter,
Reagan had also seen a UFO, not once but twice (whilst Governor of California),
and his daughter, Patti Davis, had spoken of her father as being, "fascinated
with stories about unidentified flying objects and the possibility of life on other
worlds." [xx] Reagan's belief in aliens even affected the content of key policy
speeches. In a September 1987 address to the General Assembly of the
United Nations, the President said: "I occasionally think how quickly our
differences worldwide would vanish if we were facing an alien threat from
outside this world..." He then paused, before posing a cryptic question:
"And yet, I ask you, is not an alien force already among us?" [xxi] Most assumed he was speaking metaphorically, but a discussion two years
previously at the Geneva summit conference between Reagan and
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev raised the possibility that he may actually
have meant it. Reagan had suggested that, in the event of an alien invasion,
their two countries should fight back as one. Gorbachev himself
acknowledged this discussion during a public speech at the Kremlin
in 1987. "The US President said that if the Earth faced an invasion
by extraterrestrials, the United States and the Soviet Union would join
forces to repel such an invasion," Gorbachev said, before adding,
somewhat wryly, "I shall not dispute the hypothesis, though I think
it's early yet to worry about such an intrusion." [xxii] It's no secret that Spielberg has discussed the UFO topic with
at least two Presidents besides Reagan – these most likely being Democrats
Carter (for the reasons cited above) and Clinton (with whom the director
was known to be chummy). According to Spielberg, the Commanders-in-Chief
in question had no special access to the government's alleged UFO secrets.
He even implied they had been deliberately kept out of the loop:
"I know a couple of Presidents who certainly have not been 'clued in' –
or at least they're telling me they haven't been clued in – as to the existence
of any hard evidence that we've been gathering." [xxiii] This would seem to gel with the allegations about President Carter's failed attempts to access sensitive UFO information. Clinton, too, has publicly voiced his frustration at being stonewalled on the issue. At a speech in Belfast in 1995, Clinton made a point of bringing up the
famous 'Roswell Incident' of 1947: "If the United States Air Force did recover alien bodies, they didn't tell me about it, either, and I want to know." [xxiv] He was even more direct in a question and answer session following a speech in Hong Kong in 2005. When asked about Roswell, the President replied:
"I did attempt to find out if there were any secret government documents that revealed things. If there were, they were concealed from me too. And if there were, well I wouldn't be the first American President that underlings have lied to,
or that career bureaucrats have waited out. But there may be some career
person sitting around somewhere, hiding these dark secrets, even from elected presidents. But if so, they successfully eluded me." [xxv] As has been the case with many a Hollywood powerhouse before him,
Spielberg's reach in Tinseltown soon came to extend to the corridors of
power. Just how friendly the director had become with the political glitterati
was illustrated in June of 1999 when his name appeared on a leaked
list of attendees of the annual Bilderberg conference held that year in Portugal.
Also on the guest list, among many others, were Bill Clinton, Kofi Annan,
Tony Blair, Bill Gates, Henry Kissinger, Rupert Murdoch and Pope John Paul II .
[xxvi] [ Editor's Note: Wikipedia - The Bilderberg Group, Bilderberg conference, or Bilderberg Club is an annual, unofficial, invitation-only conference of around 130 guests, most of whom are people of influence in the fields of politics, banking, business, the military and media. Each conference is closed to the public. The U. S. Central Intelligence Agency has been involved since the first meeting in May 1954. The original conference was held at the Hotel de Bilderberg, near Arnhem in The Netherlands, from 29 May to 31 May 1954. It was initiated by several people, including Polish politician Józef Retinger, concerned about the growth of anti-Americanism in Western Europe, who proposed an international conference at which leaders from European countries and the United States would be brought together with the aim of promoting Atlanticism – better understanding between the cultures of the United States and Western Europe in order to foster cooperation on political, economic, and defense issues. Retinger approached Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, who agreed to promote the idea, together with Belgian Prime Minister Paul Van Zeeland, and the head of Unilever at that time, Dutchman Paul Rijkens. Bernhard in turn contacted Walter Bedell Smith, then head of the CIA, who asked Eisenhower adviser Charles Douglas Jackson to deal with the suggestion. The guest list was to be drawn up by inviting two attendees from each nation, one of each to represent conservative and liberal points of view. Fifty delegates from 11 countries in Western Europe attended the first conference, along with 11 Americans.] Those who receive the coveted Bilderberg invite do so because they are
recognised by the world's most powerful movers and shakers as having
tremendous influence on the international stage, as well as being willing
to 'play ball' with the Global Elite. Being a Bilderberger is known to have
its perks – in the months to follow, Spielberg would receive the Department
of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service from Secretary of Defense
William Cohen, [xxvii] and, from President Clinton himself, the National
Humanities medal. [xxviii] The director even received an honorary knighthood in a ceremony
at the British Embassy in Washington. "The truth is," said a puffed-up
Spielberg afterwards to a small crowd which included his good friend
Hillary Clinton, "I stand before you now and I'm a knight." [xxix] "Sir" Steven may feign ignorance when it comes to inside knowledge
of UFOs, but James Fox, the director of the 2009 UFO documentary,
I Know What I Saw, has a letter from Spielberg (obtained via a mutual friend)
in which the Hollywood mogul allegedly makes some intriguing comments
about its subject matter. Fox believes the letter to be important in the
context of UFO secrecy and has requested Spielberg's permission to go
public with its contents. Despite Spielberg's publicist initially suggesting
that his boss would be, "happy to let that happen," the director's response
was, "Not at this time." "There won't be a better time," retorted Fox
, who continues to press Spielberg on the issue. As for clues as to what
Spielberg may have said in the letter, Fox told reporter and radio host
Angelia Joiner: "Let's suffice it to say, he's an advocate of government
transparency on the phenomena." [xxx] So, is it really possible that Spielberg has the inside track on UFOs?
With such hearty back-slapping between him and his friends in D.C.,
it's not hard to see how such rumours got started. But a government
programme to manipulate our perceptions of alien life? Strange though it may
seem, the U.S. government has a long history of involving itself in UFO-related
productions. In 1953 the CIA-sponsored Robertson Panel decided to,
"strip [the] aura of mystery" from UFOs through the use of "mass media
such as television [and] motion pictures." The initiative had a direct impact
on several films and TV shows in the 1950s and 1960s, as with a UFO-themed
episode of the Steve Canyon TV series (1958-59) and the Walter Cronkite TV
special UFO: Friend, Foe or Fantasy? (1966) – both of which were heavily
edited in line with the Robertson panel's recommendations. In stark contrast, the
government has, on occasion, actively promoted the notion of alien visitation.
This was best demonstrated when UFOs: Past Present and Future (1974) –
a Golden Globe nominated documentary supportive of the Extraterrestrial
Hypothesis – received the full backing of the Air Force, Army, Navy, and even NASA. [xxxi] The U.S. government's motives for involving itself in UFO-themed
entertainment are unclear, although it may be of some significance
that in 1952, CIA Director Walter Bedell Smith discussed seriously,
"the possible offensive or defensive utilization of these phenomena
[UFOs] for psychological warfare purposes." [xxxii] Others, meanwhile,
prefer the theory that the government, by way of Hollywood, is conditioning
us to the reality that we are not alone. One final curiosity concerning Spielberg and UFOs is that, as of 2005,
the director's public stance on the phenomenon has shifted abruptly from
die-hard believer to Doubting Thomas. "I'm a little less sure in my 50s than
I was in my 20s that we will be visited," Spielberg told the Chicago Sun Times.
"Think of all the millions of video cameras out there now. But there are
fewer photos of alleged UFOs today. But maybe it's a UFO cold spell.
It's an off season." [xxxiii] Spielberg's rationale is puzzling, to say the least. UFO data collated
by governments and civilian research groups over the past decade show
a clear increase in the number of reported sightings worldwide with the
U.K. Ministry of Defence even declaring 2009 officially to be the second
biggest year on record for UFO sightings, having logged 643 reports last year.
[xxxiv] Sightings in the U.S. are also on the increase. In 2008, the Mutual UFO Network
(MUFON) – America's largest UFO investigations organisation – logged upwards of 5000 sighting reports. [xxxv] Spielberg's comments about a lack of
photographic evidence are similarly puzzling as barely a week now passes without
local and regional news programmes across the globe featuring fresh photos
and video footage of inexplicable things in the sky. How, then, might we account for Spielberg's strange reversal in belief?
Perhaps the director has now officially been let into the loop and thus
been advised to adopt a more sceptical public position on UFOs, all the while
continuing dutifully to manipulate public perception of aliens through his
Hollywood productions. On the other hand, perhaps Spielberg is simply less clued in than he appears to be. Frustratingly, as we approach our conclusion it seems we are left with more questions than answers – particularly regarding Spielberg's secret letters. What might the director have revealed recently in the letter held by James Fox and which Spielberg has now deemed inappropriate for public release? And why, 34 years after receiving it, does he continue to remain tight-lipped about the content of his mysterious 20-page letter from NASA. In a career spanning four decades, Steven Spielberg has brought the extraordinary
into the ordinary lives of everyday folk and, for the price of a cinema ticket,
allowed us to glimpse the mysteries which flit at the peripheries of our humdrum
reality. He has rightfully cultivated a reputation as the people's director. Perhaps,
then, it's time he shared with the people just what – if anything – he really knows
about one of the greatest mysteries of them all.
Notes:
[i] Richard Combs, "Primal Scream: An Interview with Steven Spielberg,"
Sight and Sound, Spring 1977, in: Lester D. Friedman and Brent Notbohm,
Steven Spielberg Interviews (University Press of Mississippi, 2000), pp. 31-32. [ii] Close Encounters promotional interview, 1977, available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9TY6yg4ejM&feature=related [iii] For a list of Spielberg's campaign contributions from 1999 – 2009, see: http://www.campaignmoney.com/biography/steven_spielberg.asp [iv] Close Encounters promotional interview, 1977, available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9TY6yg4ejM&feature=related [v] Carter's actual UFO sighting report is available at:
http://www.presidentialufo.com/jimmy-carter/238-president
-jimmy-carters-actual-ufo-sighting-report [vi] Grant Cameron, "Jimmy Carter UFO," The Presidents UFO Website,
August 1, 2009, available at: http://www.presidentialufo.com/
jimmy-carter/93-jimmy-carter-ufo [vii] This accounting of events was related by Marcia Smith, a space policy
senior analyst at the Congressional Research Service in Washington D.C.,
to Daniel Sheehan, an attorney who had performed duties for President
Carter and who worked on the famous cases of Karen Silkwood and
Daniel Ellsberg. See: Richard M. Dolan, UFOs and the National Security
State: The Cover-up Exposed 1973-1991 (New York: Keyhole, 2009),
pp. 132-133. Sheehan's video testimonies available at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLxw--wondI and: http://
video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=6311954405187592633&ei
=sieaS5hlh6f4Bv_hsZQN&q=daniel+sheehan&hl=en# [viii] Video available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrJeBCi47ME [ix] Close Encounters promotional interview, available at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BACQX-WzWeA [x] Phoenix Gazette, March 18th 1978. [xi] Grant Cameron., "Jimmy Carter UFO," The Presidents UFO
Website, August 1, 2009, available at:
http://www.presidentialufo.com/jimmy-carter/93-jimmy-carter-ufo [xii] Richard, M. Dolan, UFOs and the National Security State:
The Cover-up Exposed 1973-1991 (New York: Keyhole, 2009), pp. 138-142.
A reprint of Senn's letter is available in: Timothy Good, Beyond Top Secret:
The Worldwide UFO Security Threat (London: Sidgwick & Jackson), pp. 438-439. [xiii] Gail Heathwood, "Steven Spielberg," Cinema Papers, April – June, 1978. [xiv] Email to Matthew Alford, 6th November, 2008. [xv] Heathwood, G., 'Steven Spielberg', Cinema Papers, April – June, 1978. [xvi] William L. Moore, "President Reagan on Aliens,"
Focus Magazine, November 1, 1987. [xvii] Telephone conversation with Robbie Graham, February 24, 2010. [xviii] Grant Cameron, "Reagan UFO Story," The Presidents UFO
Website, August 1, 2009, available at:
http://www.presidentialufo.com/ronald-reagan/99-reagan-ufo-story [xix] Billy Cox, "UFOs won't be in the Platform, but...,"
Florida Today, August 17, 1988. [xx] Grant Cameron, "Reagan UFO Story," The Presidents UFO
Website, August 1, 2009, available at:
http://www.presidentialufo.com/ronald-reagan/99-reagan-ufo-story [xxi] Reagan's comments available at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6Bz6Dkl84k [xxii] Timothy Good, Beyond Top Secret: The Worldwide UFO Security Threat
(London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1996), p. 259. [xxiii] Audio file available at: http://www.adrive.com/public/b41c1e33b2d7
d434a60147a98a0489cc46898eb43a2af6ea7ebb6c34b34f60c9.html [xxiv] Clinton's comments available at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSMhNk8wSng [xxv] Clinton's comments available at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3F3CXspsuo [xxvi] World Net Daily, "Clinton, Pope join Bilderbergers:
Secret Meeting of Global Movers, Shakers in Portugal," May 26, 1999,
available at: http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=17083 [xxvii] United States Department of Defense, "Award Ceremony
with Secretary Cohen and Steven Spielberg," August 11, 1999, available at: http://www.defense.gov/Transcripts/Transcript.aspx?TranscriptID=396 [xxviii] National Endowment for the Humanities 1999 Annual Report,
"The National Humanities Medals," available at:
http://www.neh.gov/news/report99/medals.htm [xxix] BBC News, "Spielberg Receives Royal Honour,"
January 30, 2001, available at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/1142446.stm [xxx] Angelia Joiner, "Spielberg Knows What he Saw in UFO
Documentary," Open Minds TV, December 9, 2009, available at:
http://www.openminds.tv/spielberg-knows-what-he-saw-in-ufo-documentary/ [xxxi] Robbie Graham and Matthew Alford, "Close Encounters
with the Pentagon," The Presidents UFO Website, October 23, 2009,
available at: http://www.presidentialufo.com/
disney-ufo-connection/267-close-encounters-with-the-pentagon [xxxii] Timothy Good, Above Top Secret: The Worldwide UFO Cover-up
(London: Harper Collins, 1993), p.507. [xxxiii] Cindy Pearlman, "Terrorism of the Future?
Film has Definite Parallels to 9/11," Chicago Sun Times,
Sunday Showcase Section, P. 1, June 26, 2005. [xxxiv] Caroline Grant and Vince Soodin, "Brit UFO reports triple in 2009,"
The Sun, January 12, 2010, available at: http://www.thesun.co.uk/
sol/homepage/news/2804537/Brit-UFO-reports-triple-in-2009.html [xxxv] Mutual UFO Network, "Press Release: Reports
of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) Reached a Record Level in 2008,"
PR.com, March 19th, 2009, available at: http://www.pr.com/press-release/139591
For further related information about use of Hollywood for counterintelligence
misinformation, please see other Earthfiles reports in the Archive by clicking on hot links: • 12/22/2008 — Part 2: CIA, UFOs and Hollywood
• 12/17/2008 — Updated - Part 1: CIA, UFOs and Hollywood
Websites: Majestic 12 Documents: http://www.majesticdocuments.com American Presidents: http://www.presidentialufo.com Coalition for Freedom of Information: http://www.freedomofinfo.org/ UFO Casebook: http://www.ufocasebook.com/ NUFORC: http://www.nuforc.org/ Justice for Bentwaters 81st Security Police, 1980 Rendlesham Forest: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=118776534810576 RAF Bentwaters History: http://www.bunkertours.co.uk/milhist2/raf_bentwaters.htm http://twinbases.org.uk/wentback/egercic.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Bentwaters | 
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