[Quix]

No, the President does NOT have access to whatever he wants. My relative asserted that he, at his relatively low level of things had clearances higher than the President's. Many have asserted such.

Jimmy Carter and Dilldo Clinton both were kept from vast portions of the UFO phenomena.

I suspect Bush Sr knew most of recent Presidents because of his extensive government service and head of the CIA service.

[XJarhead]

My relative asserted that he, at his relatively low level of things had clearances higher than the President's. Many have asserted such.

And I'm quite certain that your relative with his admittedly low level of things has personal knowledge as to exactly what the President has the ability and authority to see.

That is the worst type of self-important speculation imaginable on the part of your releative. Has he spoken to the President? Has he been present when the President was refused access to information he requested? If not, I submit that he is speaking from a portion of his anatomy better reserved for other bodily functons.

I'm sensing a pattern. It seems as though people on "your side" of this issue take concepts that may be applicable in a general sense and apply them to specific situations without any idea of whether they actually fit. Your relative gets told "only people with so-and-so clearance can view this." From that, he extrapolates that the President is not permitted to see it. What he ignores is that the person who gave him that general instruction obviously wasn't referring to the President, because your relative had no reason to know whethe the President was supposed to have access.

To put it in more concrete, military terms, lets say I'm the XO of a battalion, and my CO tells me "hey, we're going to be going to the field next week, but don't tell anyone." If I bump into my division commander, and he asks me if we're going to the field next week, of course I tell him yes. Only a literalist dimwit would assume that my battalion CO meant for his comments to apply to the division commander, because the context of the comment is that I'm supposed to keep it quiet from subordinates.

It's the same type of strained literalism that would lead your relative to conclude that general guidance applicable to dissemination of classified information was intended to bar access by the President.

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

Actually one of the things Clinton wanted to find out for himself once he became President was to know what the government knew about UFO's and ET. He interviewed many top level people and was apparently satisfied that the government had no knowledge of UFO's. He even got more info about the Roswell incedent than has been declassified. He was convinced it was just a case of spy ballons and test dummies. No one has better clearance than the President, there are even special provisions for someone who keeps information from the President and staff.