Clinton Not the Only One in the Dark

"I did attempt to find out if there were any secret government documents that revealed things. If there were, they were concealed from me too. And if there were, well I wouldn't be the first American president that underlings have lied to, or that career bureaucrats have waited out. But there may be some career person sitting around somewhere, hiding these dark secrets, even from elected presidents. But if so, they successfully eluded me…and I'm almost embarrassed to tell you I did (chuckling) try to find out." Bill Clinton Hong Kong September 2005

It now appears that President Bill Clinton is not the only high level official who went looking for the truth about UFOs and found himself on the outside trying to look in. The Head of Intelligence for the Joint Chief of Staff during the Clinton administration also appeared to have gone looking and was told, "Sorry Sir, you do not have a need-to-know."

This new evidence arose during a July 4 Larry King Live show about the 1947 Roswell UFO crash. It has been 61 years since the U.S. Army Air Force announced in early July 1947 that they had recovered a "flying saucer" near Roswell, New Mexico.

One of the guests to the King show was Dr. Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14 astronaut and the 6th man to walk on the moon. Mitchell appeared to tell his story of how he knows the Roswell recovery of a flying saucer along with bodies was a reality.

Dr. Mitchell's testimony centered on two areas of evidence;

1) Having grown up in the Roswell area, Mitchell related that he had conversations with many "old timers" in the Roswell area who confirmed to him the reality of the crashed flying saucers story.

2) Dr Mitchell recounted some details about a Pentagon briefing he held with J-2, the head of Intelligence for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Rear Admiral Thomas R. Wilson, U.S. Navy, in April 1997. Present with him at the briefing were Dr. Steven Greer and US Naval Reserve Commander Willard H. Miller. Miller retired in 1994 where he was on the Current Operations Staff (J3) of U.S. Atlantic Command, Norfolk, Virginia working on operations, intelligence, and special contingency issues.

It is not the first time Dr. Mitchell has told the story, but it is his first interview about the Pentagon episode on a major national television show. The story has also been told many times by Dr. Steven Greer in great detail. Researcher and writer Richard Dolan did further investigation of the story and told what happened on an interview with an internet radio show called Paracast in July 2007.

During that interview Dolan emphasized that he was able to get Wilson over the telephone and he received partial confirmation from Wilson directly about the meeting but without additional details. During the conversation after the Wilson has figured out the subject he has become very angry and aborted the conversation, saying "Yes, I met with them, and that's the only true thing about it. The rest is pure poppycock."

What follows is the conversation between Dr. Edgar Mitchell and Larry King. Nye, noted briefly in the transcript is a skeptic on the show arguing with all the guests. Mitchell would not engage him.

KING: We are now joined by distinguished American in West Palm Beach Dr. Edgar Mitchell, the Apollo XIV astronaut, sixth man to walk on the moon, many of the Roswell witnesses told Dr. Mitchell their accounts which he says were later verified by a contact at the Pentagon. What do you believe, Dr. Mitchell?


DR. EDGAR MITCHELL, APOLLO ASTRONAUT: Well, I can say, Larry, I have no firsthand experience but all of my experience comes from what I call the old timers that at some point in their - before they passed on, and these folks are all gone now, and because I was who I was, because I lived in the area, I grew up in the area, and because I was an astronaut, some of them wanted to get it off their chest before they passed on and I happened to be selected to hear their story.

And all of them as I heard some of the earlier testimony, all of them were under very severe oaths and fear and penalty for talking but they did want to talk and it was ...

KING: What do you think, Dr. Mitchell, what do you think of Bill Nye's assessment when it comes to what happened, that this was a spy balloon.

MITCHELL: I'm sorry, Bill Nye -- he was saying everybody is colored by their beliefs and not looking at the evidence. I'm sorry, he's not either. And I think he's totally wrong ...

NYE: So, let me ask you ...

KING: Hold on, don't interrupt.

Go ahead, Dr. Mitchell. I'm sorry. MITCHELL: Well, I eventually went to the Pentagon and asked for a meeting with the Intelligence Committee of the Joint Chiefs of Staff which I got with another naval officer who had had many similar experience and we told our story and this gentleman, a vice admiral, said to us, well, I don't know about that but I'm going to find out. And called a few weeks later and said he had found the source of the black budget funding for this project and that he was going to subsequently investigate because if it was real he should know about it, as a matter of fact, he should be in charge, those were his words.

And so we did get calls from some time later and a report much later than that that he had found the people responsible for the cover-up and for the people who were in the know and were told, I'm sorry, admiral, you do not have need to know here and so, goodbye.

KING: All right, Bill.

NYE: So, what are you saying? First of all, did you interview these people on their death bed or under oath? Let the viewer - I'm not going to change your mind. So that's for Ed, go for that.

MITCHELL: They sought me out.

KING: They sought him out.

NYE: But they were not on their deathbed. A deathbed declaration is quite a different thing from seeking you out and telling a story. You're not going to convince me.

MITCHELL: I am not interested in arguing with you. I'm telling my story. If you want to shut up and hear it, I'll be glad to talk. Otherwise, no.

NYE: I'm claiming that you haven't made a claim about aliens. You made a claim about a cover-up, which I'm right there with you and you made a claim about an admiral that was not given clearance to read it. I'm right there with you on that. But go ahead about the aliens.

MITCHELL: I happened to have lived in the area and the - and I grew up the area and my family had farming and ranch holdings and farm machinery holdings. We knew many of the people, including the ranch where this was discovered and in spite of all of the security oaths, etc, the talk in the community was, of what it was, that it was an alien craft and that survived all of the other stories and all of the other oaths and so forth. It was there for a long time. I happened to have lived there.

As a matter of fact, Robert Goddard, the father of American rocketry, his farm was right down the road from ours and I walked past his home every day going there. So I feel fairly well-informed on all of this and like some of your earlier witnesses, Larry, whose fathers talked to them, whose parents talked to them, they were involved, we heard the same thing. We knew it, it was not really covered up and so these stories did get out even though the day after the official announcement had come out in the "Roswell Record" newspaper and was repeated the next day, there was a lot of snickering and laughing going on about what in the world is going on here.

KING: Dr. Mitchell, we're going to do more on this and I want to invite you back for a longer period of time. You're a distinguished American and we appreciate you appearing with us.

MITCHELL: Thank you, Larry.

KING: Dr. Edgar Mitchell.

Do you believe the government lies about UFO activity? Our next guest, a career military man, says it does. You're watching LARRY KING LIVE.