(Credit: HM Government)

But it appears that petitions like these aren’t unique to the United States. Simon Sharman, a filmmaker and broadcaster in the UK, has lodged a petition with the UK government requesting parliamentary debate on UFO disclosure in Britain. The wording of this petition is similar to previous We the People petitions in the U.S. It reads: “We, the undersigned, ask the British government to share with its citizens the full truth that it knows about UFOs and any visitations to Earth by beings or probes not from this planet.” The first petition submitted to We the People by Bassett asked the president to “formally acknowledge an extraterrestrial presence engaging the human race.”

Phil Larson, who works on space policy and communications at the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy, responded to Bassett’s petition in November 2011 with the following statement:

The U.S. government has no evidence that any life exists outside our planet, or that an extraterrestrial presence has contacted or engaged any member of the human race. In addition, there is no credible information to suggest that any evidence is being hidden from the public’s eye.

Sharman’s petition is the only one of its kind in the UK, and he is going to actively attempt to engage the British population on the UFO subject by touring towns and cities all over the country during the next year, giving presentations on the subject, free of charge.

U.S. petitions submitted to We the People require 25,000 signatures in one month to merit an official response from the White House. Sharman’s petition to the UK government has a longer time frame, but within the one-year period, 100,000 signatures must be achieved for the issue to be considered for debate in the House of Commons.

The benefit of these petitions is debatable. Some truly believe petitions like these will incite meaningful change, and will result in the disclosure of secret information from governments. Others, however, think it highly unlikely that governments will openly admit a history of public deception, petitions or not.

What do you think about the efforts of those submitting petitions like the ones mentioned in this article? Is there any chance they will be productive, or are they a waste of time? Share your comments with us below, or on the Open Minds facebook page.

In early November, the White House officially responded to two UFO petitions on their “We The People” section of the White House website. The White House stated that “The U.S. government has no evidence that any life exists outside our planet, or that an extraterrestrial presence has contacted or engaged any member of the human race.” Authors of the petitions, as well as some supporters of these petitions, were hoping for a different response.

Stephen Bassett (credit: PRG)

Bassett’s petition goes live on December 1, and will need to get 25,000 signatures by December 31 in order to receive a response from the White House.

But Bassett’s petitions have received criticism for their combative wording and conspiracy-oriented nature. A new petition that went live today takes a different approach.

Bryce Zabel

Richard Dolan

Searching for microbes on Mars and radio signals from space is not enough. We must explain Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, or UAP, right here on Earth.

For six decades worldwide, credible witnesses (including Presidents Carter and Reagan) have consistently described objects with flight capabilities beyond our technology. UAP are often verified by radar and even seen at nuclear sites by military officers.

Given the national security implications, the United States should conduct an independent investigation. This inquiry must transparently review the key unsolved UAP reports with access to classified documents. It must have the power to call witnesses and grant immunity.

The findings should be publicly presented.

The petition can be read and signed here – https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/!/petition/investigate-unidentified-aerial-phenomena-reported-citizens-police-astronauts-pilots-and-military/xjcNxcZj?utm_source=wh.gov&utm_medium=shorturl&utm_campaign=shorturl

ET disclosure petition on the White House website (credit: WhiteHouse.gov)

“We The People” was launched by the White House to provide “a new way to petition the Obama Administration to take action on a range of important issues facing our country.” The site enables anyone to create a petition about any topic.

One of the UFO/extraterrestrial petitions called on the White House to “Immediately disclose the government’s knowledge of and communications with extraterrestrial beings.” The other petition sought formal acknowledgement of “an extraterrestrial presence engaging the human race.” Both petitions were created on September 22, 2011, but of the two, the latter petition received nearly 6,700 more signatures–12,078.

Phil Larson, who works on space policy and communications at the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy, responded to these two petitions with the following statement:

The U.S. government has no evidence that any life exists outside our planet, or that an extraterrestrial presence has contacted or engaged any member of the human race. In addition, there is no credible information to suggest that any evidence is being hidden from the public’s eye.

But as Alejandro Rojas pointed out when he wrote a story about the UFO/ET petitions, there may be evidence to the contrary. Rojas mentioned a Bill Clinton interview from Hong Kong in which the former President stated:

I did attempt to find out if there were any secret government documents that revealed things and if there were, they were concealed from me too. I wouldn’t be the first president that underlings have lied to or that career bureaucrats have waited out. But there may be some career person somewhere hiding these dark secrets, even from elected Presidents. But if so, they successfully eluded me, and I am almost embarrassed to tell you that I did try to find out.

In his response to the petitions, Larson added, “However, that doesn’t mean the subject of life outside our planet isn’t being discussed or explored. In fact, there are a number of projects working toward the goal of understanding if life can or does exist off Earth.” The examples he provided were SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence), NASA’s Kepler mission, and the Mars Science Laboratory.

Stephen Bassett

When “We The People” launched, a petition needed to receive at least 5,000 signatures within 30 days to be eligible for a response from the White House. Both of the previously mentioned petitions achieved this goal. But due to greater-than-expected activity on “We The People,” the White House has amended the terms of participation, requiring new petitions to reach 25,000 signatures within 30 days.

Quint (aka Eric Vespe) of Ain’t It Cool News used the promotional push for Spielberg’s new movie, Super 8, as an excuse to get an interview with Spielberg to talk about Quint’s favorite movie, Jaws. At end of the very long interview, Quint asked Spielberg about the rumor that Reagan had whispered to Spielberg that ETs were real during the movie screening, and for the first time ever, Spielberg commented on the incident.

Ronald and Nancy Reagan speaking with Spielberg after the screening of ET. (image credit: Ronald Reagan Library)

An excerpt from the interview:

Quint: Now, I’ve heard a story that I wanted to run by you. I have no idea if it’s true, but an effects friend of mine told me about a special screening of E.T. for Ronald Reagan. Have you heard this story?

Steven Spielberg: I was there!

Quint: The story I heard is that when Reagan saw it he started talking about how close to reality it was and he was quickly ushered out of the room. Is that true?

Steven Spielberg: No, he wasn’t ushered out of the room. He was the President of the United States! Nobody could usher Ronald Reagan out of the room! It was in the White House screening room and Reagan got up to thank me for bringing the film to show the President, the First Lady and all of their guests, which included Sandra Day O’Connor in her first week of as a Justice of the Supreme Court, and it included some astronauts… I think Neil Armstrong was there, I’m not 100% certain, but it was an amazing, amazing evening.

He just stood up and he looked around the room, almost like he was doing a headcount, and he said, “I wanted to thank you for bringing E.T. to the White House. We really enjoyed your movie,” and then he looked around the room and said, “And there are a number of people in this room who know that everything on that screen is absolutely true.”

And he said it without smiling! But he said that and everybody laughed, by the way. The whole room laughed because he presented it like a joke, but he wasn’t smiling as he said it.

The room did laugh and then later on I’ll never forget my conversation with the President. He pulled me aside, he said… and I can’t do Reagan. I wish I could do that breathy, wonderful voice of his… And Nancy Reagan was standing right next to him and the President said to me, “I only have one criticism about your movie,” and I said “What’s that?” He said, “How long were the end credits?” I said, “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe three, three and a half minutes?” He said, “In my day, when I was an actor, our end credits were maybe 15 seconds long.”

He said, “Why don’t you let everybody get a credit… three and a half, four minutes, that’s fine, but only show that inside the industry, but throughout the rest of the country reduce your credits to 15 seconds at the end?” Nancy Reagan turned to him and said, “Oh, Ronny, they can’t do that. You know that.” And he went, “Oh, yes, yes. I suppose.” (laughs) That was the extent of my conversation about that. That was his only criticism, he felt the end credits were too long!

Quint: So, do you think he actually let something slip there?

Steven Spielberg: I don’t think he let something slip there, no. I think he delivered a joke without smiling, without a little bit of a twinkle behind the joke. I think the joke landed because everybody laughed, but because I’m a little bit of a Ufologist I was hoping that there was something more to the joke than met my eye. I’m sorry to say I think he was simply trying to tell a joke.

Listen to the interview here.

It was also interesting to see Spielberg referring to himself as a Ufologist. We have written about Spielberg’s comments on UFOs before, and will be featuring more, including a new picture we received from the Reagan library, in the next issue of Open Minds Magazine.

For more about Reagan and UFOs, including the rumors that have been floating around up until now on this, visit PresidentialUFO.com and read our previous web story here.