Imagine a worldwide media event staged on the steps of the Capitol
2/21/2000
AlienZoo resident ufologist Jim Dilettoso's article Mission Control explores UFO research, ET technologies, and moments in ufology's past.
The February 2000 issue of Life magazine features those ET kids from the hit WB series "Roswell" on its cover. A very interesting section of the article is a poll of 1,564 adults: 30% believe that extraterrestrials have visited Earth; 48% believe that the government is hiding what it knows; and 1 in 200 believe they've been abducted.
This is all well and good. But let's imagine, for just a moment, that the Men in Black were to decide that it's time for the U.S. government to offer full-disclosure on the topic of ETs. What would happen? What kind of a plan would be necessary? What kind of a budget would be needed? Who would supervise the collection of all relevant data, formation of policy, preparation of the news briefings, and supervision of the on-going process of communicating a single concept to every man woman and child on Earth?
On a much simpler level, would humans or aliens decide that disclosure should take place? It's possible that if the ETs didn't want there to be a cover-up, there wouldn't be one.
For now, let's assume that both the ETs and the humans have decided that the human race is sufficiently developed to handle the information that we are not alone.
President Clinton recently delivered a $1.8 trillion budget to Congress; this is available at the Web site of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Having studied the budget on line, maneuvered the CCER National Budget Simulation, and reviewed the OMB's federal budget figures in detail, I've found that the entire budget for international affairs is about $20 billion. The budget for the State Department is only $3 billion. The budget for the U.S. military is $271 billion. The interest on the national debt is $371 billion.
However, after three days of searching, I couldn't find just the part where the government briefs the population about ETs. Regardless, in visiting the site of the General Accounting Office, I found the UFO report on Roswell ("Roswell Report: Case Closed"), so I thought the agency at least had prepared some kind of budget in the past that we could use as a guideline. I guess the plan and the budget haven't been prepared after all.
So, I've decided to do a little research, develop a disclosure strategy, and prepare a budget of my own. I even threw in the planning of a new agency to manage all the affairs.
The plan ($1 million)
Studies are yet to be done on the cultural impact of disclosure. Existing think tanks like Brookings or Rand would probably be engaged, and meet jointly with political action groups like XPPAC Campaign 2000. Based on these findings, the National Security Agency would direct an existing black budget toward full public disclosure. It's probable that a number of layers of briefings to various government personnel would be needed prior to the revelation. Even more certain is a post-disclosure situation that will probably call for the creation of a new agency to oversee the process of successful disclosure. International ramifications must be prepared for through a non-partisan group like the Council on Foreign Relations.
The budget process ($150,000)
Initial costs of the impact study, and the subsequent creation of a disclosure plan, could be covered by the existing budget of the agency that is the authority on disclosure. The new agency would probably be created by legislation or executive order. The agency would supervise everything from ongoing, all-levels briefings to the investigation and authentication of new cases. Either the office of the president or Congress could initiate the action; Congress would debate over the plan, and vote it into active law.
Pre-disclosure briefings ($50 million)
Once the total policy for disclosure has been enacted and funded, the initial plan begins. Most certainly, top government officials would be briefed first. According to Dr. Steven Greer, of CSETI, most elected officials have never been briefed on the topic; they would have to be "indoctrinated," or taught what to think. So will about 1,000,000 other government officials, as well as influential persons in politics, finance, business, and the media. Not only will sophisticated briefing materials need to be created for the briefing team(s), but complicated security precautions would be needed at the highest levels.
The briefings would transpire according to a sequence. Information would be delivered, integrated, and understood by the leadership contingency -- much in the same way that the CIA briefs the president on a daily basis. The president must fully 'understand' the situation, for decision-making purposes; his decisions affect everyone from cabinet members to the people on the street. Word would be re-distributed to agents on a need-to-know basis. Briefings could be initiated by a carefully planned public controversy like the CAUS lawsuit versus the Department of Defense. Lawyer Peter Gersten has set the table for pre-disclosure to begin with FOIA documents concerning the UFO covert-operation history.
The time-sequence
The time-sequence for full disclosure would following along these lines: pre-disclosure; public disclosure (an event); public discussion and controversy (the "red zone"); the formation of a U.S.-hosted public information office that deals with domestic and international affairs; the creation of a United Nations-backed worldwide disclosure network; and the development of the World Federation of United Nations.
The first briefings would be given to the leaders of the three branches of the federal government -- the executive, legislative, and judiciary branches. Appropriate to the level of security, at least four levels of briefings would be needed; each would prepare the person for their responsibility for action and re-briefing. I discovered from a friend at the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO) that policy dictates that above-top-secret briefings are delivered by a minimum of two persons to a groups no larger that 15. The mathematics for the size of the staff, and the number of persons to be briefed, equates to 200,000 briefings. Based on
1996 U.S. federal budget figures, the U.S. process would involve 2 million federal employees, 1 million military personnel, and 300,000 police professionals. Science Applications International Corporation is very qualified to consult on this subject.
Delivering the message to employees of agencies of the U.S. intelligence community will be simpler than the leak-laden Dept. of Energy or department of Housing and Urban Development. The process of prioritizing who needs to know first would cost a few million dollars, merely to cover primary research. Leaders would have to decide to whom information should be disclosed first: state governors, the Trilateral Commission, the national Council of Churches, the chairmen of corporations like AOL Time Warner or General Electric, the National Association of Broadcasters, the Pope, or UFO research groups. Next would come "spinning" the news; spin doctors cost more than data delivery -- including cab fare. I recommend an organized series of lunches with an AFIO members.
The timetable for these briefings is conditional on the development of the new ET information agency. Remember that, concurrently, the new ET agency would be in charge of hiring personnel, preparing materials, and getting ready for the moment of disclosure.
Disclosure, the event ($1 million)
The moment we've all been waiting for entails two delivery methods. Choice one involves the president of the U.S. delivering a message from the White House, in a simple, to-the-point fashion: "We've been visited by extraterrestrials for more than 50 years."
Choice two would be a worldwide media event staged on the steps of the Capitol, overlooking the Washington Mall. In the foreground of the Lincoln Memorial, the worldwide press corps would anxiously cover the event, and seeking to summarize a 200-page press report. Every member of Congress, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the State Department, as well as captains of industry, religious leaders, and ambassadors from major countries -- 10,000 persons in all -- would be seated in a gallery, planned and staged by a top Washington PR firm. Tickets to the gallery would be scalped at $10,000 each. An estimated 3 billion people would watch the happening on TV, or the Internet.
What would the president say? Following a beautiful video, produced (perhaps donated) by Steven Spielberg, the president would step up to the podium. He (perhaps she) would explain why this information is being released at such a time in history. He would outline why it has taken so long for disclosure to occur, and would apologize for any inconveniences or character assassinations that may have taken place while the entire issue has been studied and covered up. He would eloquently reveal that ETs have been visiting us, and would describe what they look like, as slides of spaceships and aliens fill the backdrop. The president would also discuss why aliens came here, and what they want. He would emphasize that ETs are our allies.
Finally, he would introduce the director of the Extraterrestrial Information and Cultural Exchange Bureau (ETIACE). The director of ETIACE would explain how her program was designed to investigate ongoing visitations, and provide psychological assistance to teachers, priests, bankers, and abductees. ETIACE, she'd say, specializes in fostering the development of technology and cultural information given to us by the ETs. She'd assure everyone that everything is just fine, that we could all relax, and get back to the business of the peaceful development of our planet and prosperity. In the background, a film would zoom in on the new ETIACE headquarters.
The agency for ET affairs ($2 billion annually)
If it costs the State Department $3 billion a year to manage U.S. relationships with 200 countries, how much should it cost for ETIACE to manage relationships with the rest of the universe? I picked a number of $2 billion and then set out to create a budget from the ground up. After calculating every item I could think of -- every consultant, producing videos with Hollywood budgets, hiring 5,000 people, renting 50 offices, and airline and hotel reservations for 1,000 agents -- I realized that I could spend only $900 million a year.
Regardless of the available budget, there are known prerequisites. This new agency -- thousands of agents strong -- would need to operate at the highest levels of efficiency and expediency. If you really study the scope of the project in detail, and attempt to calculate just what it takes to brief every person on Earth, you will need a big stack of paper. Even if total planetary communication were achieved using satellite TV and the Internet on an on-going basis, the full integration of life-changing concepts would require generations.
Once disclosure happens, it is forever the charge of the disclosing party (the U.S.) to monitor and source all ET data. Everyone would have to grapple with the fact that their reality has been modified. Some central policy and authority would exist in order to guarantee the safe delivery of every human into the new reality. Many people will want to meet the aliens, hear about their religion and music, or go for a ride in their spaceships. (Of course, the term UFO would be substituted for spaceship.) Established UFO research networks, like Skywatch or CNI, would become the liaisons to the ETs.
If things were to sour, contingency plans could take effect. The list of potential problems is considerable. No one would believe disclosure; citizens would think it's another trick from a government that they don't trust. A third-world nation like Iran would claim it is a lie from the great Satan. Aliens don't cooperate and don't reveal themselves. Religious leaders wouldn't have answers about our God and their God. Renegade UFO groups who were shunnedslander the Agency and burn history books on the Capitol lawn.
ETIACE would have a big job. I would compare it to managing U.S. Agency for International Development, because it is something that affects everyone on Earth. So I studied the budgets of various agencies looking for an appropriate model. Payroll items, per diem expenses, and media materials would be modeled after existing projects where direct contact with the "client" is required.
We realize that any change in a recognized Truth affects what people believe in. Proper prediction of behavior is crucial. Think-tank contracts, behavior models, and simulations abound, and they all cost money. But the potential for long lasting benefits is great. Global conflict might cease. What's more, huge defense budgets could be hacked away, and the technologies gained from the ETs in health, energy, and transportation would have immense benefit in the hands of private industry.
Steve Bassett, of the Paradigm Research Group in Washington, DC, recently told me that the cost of secrecy is a much higher number. Black budgets and slush funds consume billions each year. The cost of disclosure I've just outlined is much lower.
If the $2 billion-a-year number is too high, the alternative would be to continue to leak information through TV and movies, with a focus on the Generation X and Y. Eventually, the skeptics, the greedy, and the fearful would die off. The mission would be accomplished with a bloodless coup.