White House denies contact with space aliens

Radio telescopes of the Allen Telescope Array, an array of 42 radio telescopes seeking signs of intelligent life in the universe, are seen in Hat Creek, Calif. / Ben Margot

Strike one more blow against UFO conspiracy theories. The U.S. government is not in contact with any extraterrestrials from other worlds, nor has any confirmed proof of alien life been found, White House officials say.

"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," Phil Larson of the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy wrote in a statement published Friday (Nov. 4). "In addition, there is no credible information to suggest that any evidence is being hidden from the public's eye."

The message came in response to two petitions posted on the White House's "We the People" site, which allows the public to air grievances through petitions. In this case, one asked the government to "formally acknowledge an extraterrestrial presence engaging the human race," while another requested that the Obama administration "immediately disclose the government's knowledge of and communications with extraterrestrial beings."

As of Monday (Nov. 7), the first petition has garnered 12,078 signatures, while the second has 5,387. The White House has promised to respond to any petition that gains a certain number of signatures within a given time — in this case, the requirement was 5,000 signatures.

"If a petition gets enough support, White House staff will review it, ensure it's sent to the appropriate policy experts, and issue an official response," according to the "We the People" site. [10 Alien Encounters Debunked]

Close encounters of the faux kind

The belief that authorities are hiding evidence of alien life is not a new one. Many UFO proponents insist to this day that extraterrestrial vehicles crashed near Roswell, N.M., in 1947 and were sent for government study at the Area 51 Air Force base in Nevada.

Yet the government has consistently denied ever having encountered any UFO hardware or other evidence for extraterrestrials, and scientists say no credible proof of aliens has ever been made public.

That doesn't satisfy UFO conspiracy theorists, though.

"This Petition calls for the President to disclose to the American people the long withheld knowledge of government interactions with extraterrestrial beings and call for open Congressional hearings to allow the people to become aware of this subject through those whose voices have been silenced by unconstitutional secrecy oaths," reads one of the two recent petitions.

"The people have a right to know. The people can handle the truth," said the other.

Looking for E.T.

Though the official White House response did quash the idea that the government was hiding information on the subject, Larson openly acknowledged two government-supported efforts to search for signs of E.T.

NASA's Kepler space telescope, which was launched in 2009, is on a mission to search for Earth-like planets around other stars in the hopes that some might prove habitable to alien life. And NASA is gearing up to launch its new Mars rover Curiosity this month, which will investigate Martian geology for signs that the Red Planet may once have been hospitable to microorganisms.

Larson also cited the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) project, which began with public funding, that uses radio telescopes to scour the heavens for signals from alien species.

"Many scientists and mathematicians have looked with a statistical mindset at the question of whether life likely exists beyond Earth and have come to the conclusion that the odds are pretty high that somewhere among the trillions and trillions of stars in the universe, there is a planet other than ours that is home to life," Larson wrote. "Many have also noted, however, that the odds of us making contact with any of them — especially any intelligent ones — are extremely small, given the distances involved. But that's all statistics and speculation. The fact is we have no credible evidence of extraterrestrial presence here on Earth."

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[Somedudesomewhere]

Why would they make this announcement weeks before the NSA declassifies this nearly 55 year old file,
http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/ufo/key_to_et_messages.pdf

[alientravelogue]

The White House and the mainstream media are so hopelessly out of touch with reality.

I feel sorry for you people, I really do, WHEN the truth about ET contact finally comes out, your whole paradigm will be shattered.
But then again, I don't have much sympathy, if you aren't going to open yourself up to possibilities outside you're current understanding, then you deserve it. I welcome the end of our current paradigm, I welcome the end of all so called sacred institutions.

Disclosure will happen, and if I could, I would force it out. Damn the consequences.

[wgalison]

"Strike one more blow against UFO conspiracy theories. The U.S. government is not in contact with any extraterrestrials from other worlds, nor has any confirmed proof of alien life been found, White House officials say."

Let me get this straight, Clara: if there is a "conspiracy theory" - meaning an allegation of duplicity by our government- and the government denies it, that strikes "one more blow" against the allegation?

I hear there is an opening for a reporter at the Pyongyang Times. You should look into it.

[anapprentice]

The White House response was an insult to those of us who signed the petition. They did not even bother to do an investigation before sending out the response that there were no known extraterrestrials. All they had to do was to talk to some CIA or Pentagon people. It is the US military/intelligence community that has kept this secret for so long. They think the disclosure will jeopardize US dominance of the world is ufocoverup.org for more info

[mr45below]

With all due respect I think before you believe you'r own propaganda about creations of "Paranoid People" you should study this

http://sohodata.nascom.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/soho_movie_theater

Lasco3 2011-11-01 _ 2011-11-07 and slowly tab through NASA own view of our sun

And by all means leave me an explanation....

[justanavgguy]

Whew... I am so glad this is resolved, I haven't been able to sleep in years worrying about this...

Whether or not you think that UFO's are real, if you EVER think that ANY gov't is going to admit to them existing, you need to put down the crack pipe...

I think that we have about 14 trillion other things to be focusing on rather than stupid stuff like this!

and BTW magik1369, CERN in Switzerland just made atomic particles exceed the speed of light, so much for Einstein's theories...

It has always amazed me how much we think we know about science, when we really have never even scratched the surface.

[magik1369]

It is impossible to accelerate beyond the speed of light. The nearest star to Earth is Alpha Centuri which is 4 light years or about 120 trillion miles away. The distances between stars makes space travel impossible. UFO's could possibly be inter-dimensional in nature but there is no evidence of that either. Most UFOs are the creations of paranoid people.

[alientravelogue]

wow, people still think the way you do? Have you ever heard of quantum physics? Probably not. You're still reading science books from the 1960's.

Fact, universe is teaming with consciousness. Do some honest research, if you don't reach the same conclusions, you're doing something wrong.