White House responds to ET petition

Banner for the White House "We the People" program.

Obama reviewing papers on his way to the Pittsburgh airport last week. (image credit: White House)

The White House has responded to a request to acknowledge the presence of extraterrestrial beings interacting with humankind.  Unfortunately for the requestors, the White House says they don’t have any evidence that life exists outside of our planet, let alone advanced civilizations to be in contacts with.

In September the White House launched a new program called “We the People”, which enables citizens to submit an online petition. If the petition receives enough petitions, they promised to give an official response. UFO/ET activist Steven Bassett immediately submitted, asking Obama to “formally acknowledge an extraterrestrial presence engaging the human race.”

Soon after, a second petition was submitted asking the White House to “immediately disclose the government’s knowledge of and communications with extraterrestrial beings.” Both petitions received the necessary 5000 signatures required for a response.

That response came Saturday and was authored by Phil Larson of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Larson’s answer begins:

Thank you for signing the petition asking the Obama Administration to acknowledge an extraterrestrial presence here on Earth.

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.

Logo for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy

He went on to point out several programs whose purpose is to search for extraterrestrial life, including NASA’s Kepler spacecraft which searches for planets capable of harboring life; the Mars Science Laboratory, which is sending up the Curiosity rover to Mars in search of signs of life; and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) project, which searches for extraterrestrial signals sent by an advanced civilization far far away.

Bassett was less than impressed with the response to his petition. In my last blog on his petition I had asked him if he felt the President knew anything about an extraterrestrial presence on visiting earth, given some evidence that other presidents had actually looked into the matter. Basset told me, “Whether or not he knows it to be true, he could easily find out.”

Apparently, the President does not find it an important enough issue to try to find out. As for the White House response, Basset wrote on his site:

The [White House] response was unacceptable. Much feedback is likely. PRG will begin to pre-promote a new petition relevant to the Disclosure process … and will continue to keep the Disclosure issue front and center within this attempt at participatory democracy by the Obama administration,

White House spokesman Matt Lehrich told The Huffington Posts’ Lee Speigel in an e-mail Monday:

There’s no reason someone couldn’t submit a second petition, if it crosses the threshold [of 25,000 signatures], it will get a response. Obviously, if the petition is very similar, it may garner a similar response.