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House of Commons. (Credit: UK Parliament)

The petition for UFO disclosure goes international

Several petitions submitted to the White House’s We the People website during the past year asked for information to be released about UFOs and extraterrestrials. And, although only one of his petitions has successfully reached the required number of signatures to earn an official response, Steve Bassett of the Paradigm Research Group just launched his fifth petition on the website. This latest attempt asks for the Obama administration to re-investigate the alleged crash of an extraterrestrial craft near Roswell, New Mexico in 1947.

(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.

About Jason McClellan

Jason McClellan is a UFO journalist and the producer/co-host of the web series Spacing Out! He is also the web content manager and staff writer for OpenMinds.tv, and a co-organizer and technical producer of the International UFO Congress. As a founding member of Open Minds, Jason served as a writer and editor for the now defunct Open Minds magazine. He has appeared on Syfy, NatGeo, and, most recently, he co-starred on H2's Hangar 1: The UFO Files. ------ Follow Jason on Twitter @acecentric and subscribe to Jason's updates on Facebook.

5 comments

  1. I think all we can do is petition, for the record books. Although just as you said, it’s ‘highly unlikely governments will openly admit a history of public deception’. This subject and the inevitability of a full disclosure will come no-matter what. Whether a major event occurs involving UFO’s in real time or that key document is leaked in some manner.

  2. To those that say petitions do no good, I look forward to hearing your suggestions – or better yet Efforts – in the fight to discover what truths may be hidden. Although I agree that petitions alone will not lift any veil of secrecy, we do live in a democracy and what is the use of doing so if we don’t USE our freedoms? My petition – UFOs: Time for Truth also serves a second a vital function: it helps to me to engage the population in this subject that deserves so much more respect than it receives.

  3. I agree that increasing public awareness is great. But, unfortunately, these petitions garner very little attention outside the existing community of UFO proponents.

  4. It’s really stupid, sorry, to create a petition and not succeed ! It should be prepared few month before by creating partnership with a lot of ufo related websites around the world ! Every website could prepare his visitors to this event! I am in europe, i’m really interested by this subject but I think there should be more union and preparation!

  5. Its good to keep hassling the governments about the subject but they simply have too much to lose by letting the public know the truth. Religion, Finance, Free energy, World order and outright panic are the main reasons the truth is witheld. Add to that the governments deceit over the last 100 years and its easy to see why they would likely never disclose the truth.

    Its sad, but if we even struggle to get on with different race’s and religions in our own species how the hell are we going to handle dealing with lifeforms from a different planet.

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