Another interesting follow-on article:
Obama’s choice of CIA Director signals renewed effort to disclose CIA X-Files
January 7, 4:23 PM
by Michael Salla, Ph.D., Honolulu Exopolitics Examiner
Leon Edward Panetta
President Elect Obama did more than just play golf and relax at his exclusive Kailua beachfront rental during his end of year Hawaii holiday. He spent time deciding on who would fill one of his key national security positions – Director of the CIA. His choice of an outsider to the intelligence community, Leon Panetta, has been both welcomed and criticized by intelligence experts.
Panetta achieved prominence as President Clinton’s Chief of Staff (1994-1997). He is a veteran political insider and his supporters hope he can rebuild morale in the CIA which was badly tarnished by faulty intelligence assessments that led to the Iraq war.
Significantly, Panetta is close to John Podesta who served as Panetta’s deputy during the Clinton Administration. Podesta eventually became Clinton’s Chief of Staff from 1998-2001. Podesta currently serves as co-chair of Obama’s transition team, and the selection of Panetta reflects Podesta’s influence.
Podesta has been an outspoken advocate of increased declassification of government documents. Both Panetta and Podesta were in key positions to support President Clinton’s Executive Order 12958 passed on April 17 1995. EO 12958 made it easier to declassify national security information that had been unnecessarily classified for decades.
Among the many classified national security files targeted for declassification were those related to FBI’s X-Files The X-Files was a term that could be traced to the FBI’s historic efforts to get to the bottom of the UFO phenomenon. These files were often categorized under “Flying Discs: Security Matter-X”. The X-Files became immortalized in the hit television series of the same name.
During the Clinton administration, Podesta was open about his interest in the X-Files television series. This led to his support for declassification of many national security files, especially those concerning UFOs. On October 22, 2002, Podesta made a statement at the National Press Club concerning the legality of UFO information that has not been released to the public on national security grounds. He said: “I think it’s time to open the books on questions that have remained in the dark on the question of government investigations of UFOs.”
Interest in finding about UFOs in the Clinton administration wasn’t just limited to Podesta.
Webster Hubbell was a personal friend of President Clinton who had appointed him as associate attorney general of the Justice Department. In his autobiography, Hubbell wrote: “Clinton had said, ‘If I put you over at Justice I want you to find the answers to two questions for me. One, who killed JFK? And two, are there UFOs?’... Clinton was dead serious. I had looked into both, but wasn’t satisfied with the answers I was getting.” .
Clinton’s interest in finding the truth of UFOs very likely influenced his choice of the last Intelligence Community outsider, who like Panetta, was asked to head the CIA. Former CIA Director James Woolsey was very interested in finding out about any UFO information secretly kept at the CIA. In fact, Woolsey was given an informal ‘briefing’ by Dr Stephen Greer in 1993 who told him what civilian researchers had discovered about UFOs. Woolsey then ordered the CIA to prepare a report on all its information about UFOs. Woolsey was part of a hushed up effort by the Clinton administration to find the truth about UFOs.
The choice of Panetta as CIA Director signals that the Obama administration is also interested in the declassification of files concerning UFOs. Panetta will likely spearhead efforts by the Obama administration to pressure the CIA to release its deepest held secrets – the CIA’s X-Files.
OTOH, there sure has been a lot of activity recently re: sightings.