I think there is a general agreement within the UFO community that UFO disclosure on the part of the government would be a good idea. Many researchers are therefore somewhat distressed that the government has made few open indications of any disclosures any time soon. There is, however, a disconnect between what is viewed as the apparent best course of action, and what is happening.

In the many lectures I have given on the President and his role in the UFO cover-up I have been often asked, why the government has chosen to cover-up the ET presence from the people.

To answer this question I looked back on the administration of Jimmy Carter who came into the White House after making the promise that he would release the UFO files once elected.

I have always believed that disclosure will come with extreme pressure on the government. This is the way it has happened with all major political shifts of the past. Rarely, if ever, has a politician come up with a good idea to advance society, and then had all members of the House and Senate jump in and pass it. UFO Disclosure, just because it is deemed a good idea for society, will not be given a free ride inside Congress. Nor should it. It is in competition with many good ideas being promoted by many public interest groups.

In viewing the actions of government I think it is important to remember that the points below are talking about how the government (not a normal average American citizen) might think. For example an average citizen would use logic and see no threat where the government would. In Iraq the White House saw an imminent threat to the United States from Sadam Hussein who had no weapons of mass destruction, no planes, no water and electricity in most of the country. The American forces had high tech fighters flying over the country many times a day shooting at anything they deemed to be a threat. The military saw a bigger threat than the American populous or other countries in the United Nations. Danger is a relative term.

A similar example would be the handling of the security situation in the country following 911. Government security officials developed a system of yellow, orange, red alerts. Based on the same intelligence agencies that produced bad Iraqi War intelligence, the color of the light would be changed at wimp representing a different level of security threat. There was no obligation to justify any change in the color alert.

Historically, in almost every case, the government is dragged kicking and screaming to ever important advance in society. Some examples would be:

Women’s Right to Vote began in 1848 when the first Woman's Rights Convention was held, but it was not until there were large demonstrations outside the White House, where 500 women were imprisoned, that woman got the right to vote in 1920. Women were not handed the vote. The vote came after 75 years of struggle.

Both large and high profile demonstrations by Greenpeace activists have stopped US and French nuclear testing, radioactive waste dumping at sea, and generated a general ecological awareness by many nations. Our ideas of recycling and protecting the environment came after years of pressure on politicians.

Gay rights was driven by many large marches on the Mall in Washington DC.

Money for aids research came after great pressure exerted from within the gay and Hollywood communities.

The decision to end the Vietnam War came after years of demonstration on campuses and various U.S. cities.

Our present government is no more willing to make the move for disclosure than our past leaders were to let African-Americans and women vote, or to recognize gays. Enough people must support the issue until it becomes a powerful voting block. Then politicians who must get reelected begin to listen.

The reason by the forces that control the cover-up might be one (or a combination) of the following points.

Complexity: The ET presence is not a simple story such as "they are here." All collected evidence points to the fact that the final story will be very complex and possibly multi dimensional. The more researchers study the phenomena the more visiting races there appear to be, and the more complex their technology looks. It appears to be far beyond what we know or can even comprehend.

Recent UFO research announcements have continued to show a phenomenon that is constantly changing and becoming more complex. In the U.K. for example a series of "crop circles" began in the 1980s. It was a completely new aspect to the point that some considered it a new phenomenon in itself. It has developed into a complex new dimension of the UFO mystery.

Similarly, Mexican UFO researchers have begun to document on video sightings of small white orb UFOs that have been flying over populated areas, such as around the Mexico City airport. Whn the phenomenon was first recognized the objects were seen in groups of 2- 8, but recent films show grouping that number into the hundreds.

The most recent films have also shown some sort of serpents like white objects flying through the sky dropping off white, red, and blue spheres. Thousand of films have been made of these objects.

National Security: Jimmy Carter entered the White House determined to release the UFO files, inspired by the fact he himself had had a sighting. However, after a UFO briefing Carter changed teams joining the cover-up side. He told actress Shirley MacLaine "it was true…there were occupants," and that he wanted to "shine the sunshine laws on it to see how the people would react," but he "couldn’t and wouldn’t."

Carter spelled out that if the subject involved "national security" he wouldn’t release that material. Anything that the briefers would tie into threat to the security of the nation would be reason for Carter to keep quiet. Carter stated,

Research attorney Peter Gerston stated "officials simply do not disclose secret information whether it be in the interests of national security or in their own vested interests.""

Don’t know what to do: The cover-up may simply be a case of the government not knowing what to do about the ET situation. They might be simply covering up their ignorance.

Wilbert Smith, who headed up the Canadian government investigation into flying saucers from 1950-1954, said "The only reason that those in authority have said nothing about it is that they simply don’t know what to do about it. "

This not knowing what to do led to a situation inside the Canadian government of helplessness. Wilbert B. Smith stated, "Fact is when certain government officials came face to face with the reality of the space people, and realized there was nothing they could do about it, they promptly closed their eyes and hoped the whole thing would go away."

Fear: The President and other high officials might simply afraid. Afraid to deal with the issue. When President Clinton and his executive branch people took over the government in 1993, Dr. Steven Greer obtained an inside opportunity to brief Congressman Dan Burton, the chairman of the powerful House Government Reform and Oversight Committee. Burton was very interested in the UFO case that was being made by Greer. He asked Greer for everything that he had on the subject.

One year later Burton had backed off his UFO quest after he and his chief aid experienced some strange surveillance indications. On an interview with Art Bell on the radio show "Coast to Coast" Greer stated that Burton had now become like everyone else in government - afraid of dealing with the issue. "The problem is no one wants to act," said Greer. "They’re not acting because they are afraid."

Edgar Mitchell, the Apollo 14 astronaut commented on the reason for the secrecy based on information that had been shared with him by old timers familiar with the intelligence factors related to the UFO cover-up. Mitchell said there is a very simple reason why governments have been so secretive: fear.

In-house Secrecy: The government, particularly the executive branch of the government would like to deal with the issue in secrecy. In the early years of government involvement, the government dealt with the UFO issue in part by the use of a public investigation – Project Blue Book. The whole project turned out to be a public relations nightmare where the government was forced to deal publicly with every UFO sighting, and other non-related items that people believed were related to the phenomena.

It is much easier to deal with an issue, especially one where there is no roadmap, in secrecy where dirty laundry and mistakes can be handled outside the scrutiny of media and the public.

Alien Cover-up: The aliens are covering up as well. They appear to be using what some researchers call a "leaky embargo." They present themselves but in a way that proof can not be confirmed. Instead of landing and announcing they are here, they fly beside aircraft for a number of minutes, or pass messages to lone individuals who take the message to the world.

The aliens could land anytime they want and make themselves known. The aliens have refused to directly announce their presence, and this forces hesitation on behalf of the government.

If the aliens won’t announce, why should the government go first? The government is waiting to see what the ultimate goal of the aliens is.

Alien Masters: The aliens are in fact in charge. They directly or control everything related to their presence and the future disclosure of their presence. This is something the government could never admit publicly.

Government files illustrate a number of disturbing UFO sighting reports that show "hostile actions" by the aliens. Does the government want to announce this to the public, especially if the government can not control events?

Government gridlock: The announcement of an ET presence on earth would be front page news for months. It would stymie and dominate the government’s every action and not allow it to carry out any of its planned business. It would be Monica Lewinski situation times 1000.

Agencies like NASA would become irrelevant overnight. The government would face the question of why they continued to fund NASA when they knew the primate space efforts were a waste of taxpayer money.

Population Resistance: The government knows that the population is not ready to deal with aliens. It is conceivable that a certain percentage of citizens would not accept the alien presence and would in fact attack the aliens.

This is something that the government would have a hard time controlling as American citizens have a constitutional right to bear arms. The aliens might be seen as invaders or agents of the devil "in sheep’s clothing."

Any attack against the aliens might result in a counterattack causing massive damage on the country. (This point, however, is good news, as it shows the aliens could never take over no matter what advanced technology they had. They would end up bogged down in a Vietnam style quagmire like the one facing the United States today in Iraq.)

People Don’t Care: In the last 57 years the President has only faced the UFO question twice. In the 2004 election there was not a single UFO related question to one of the two major candidates. The people therefore do not see the UFO-ET presence as a key issue. Why would the government risk all the potential fallouts for an issue that no one cares about?

Past statements: The government has lied for almost 60 years and thus must continue the lie. One lie has been used to cover another and it is becoming impossible to come clean. The government must first come up with a way to explain they have been misleading the public for 57 years.

Collapse in Belief systems: This would be particularly evident among government scientists and engineers who would have to deal with the fact that their employer has been lying to them and feeding them false data, and more importantly the fact that most of their treasured beliefs in science we wrong.

The 1961 Brooking Institute study looked at this situation.

""It has been speculated that of all groups, scientists and engineers might be the most devastated by the discovery of relatively superior creatures, since these professions are most clearly associated with the mastery of nature, rather than with the understanding and expression of man."

As science fuels the modern technological advances, and upheaval would negatively affect the economy.

Fear of Death: One possibility is that the President has been threatened with death by the control group. Steven Greer told a story that a close friend of Bill Clinton’s had told him that "If the President does what you say - he fears that he will end up like Jack Kennedy." This theory of the President being threatened with death to keep him quiet is actually quite popular in the UFO community. There have even been controversial documents leaked into the UFO community that even claim Kennedy was assassinated because he gave the order to declassify the ET presence.

Old Style Conservatives: Like in some religious settings the "conservatives" want to hang on to status quo as long as possible. The government would have to deal with this group which would not be willing to negotiate or compromise. This is commonly described as the reason major newspapers do not follow the UFO story. The editors are just simply old style skeptic conservatives.

There is a rumor in the UFO community that there is a split in the UFO control group over whether or not to disclose. As there is no disclosure it would appear that the conservatives still hold the majority of the votes.

Weapons Development: There is a need to develop ET technology in secret into super-weapons in case of alien attack. There is also a great desire by the military weapons people to develop weapons that are more efficient at killing. The alien technology would be a dream come true for weapon development people. Developers who control the technology may want to keep things secret to solidify their control over the technology before the public finds out. "My friends," wrote Peter Gersten, "as long as technology is the prize, no official disclosure will ever take place."

Lead Time: If the American military people have figured out 70% of the secrets behind the alien technology it would be dangerous to release this. The piece released might be exactly the piece required by the enemy to complete their weapons system. The defense sector knows that in modern war lead time is critical, as many present day wars only last days or months. Any advantage gained by alien technology would develop a weapons lead time of months or years. This would give the enemy no time to build their own system.

This lead time problem would also apply to lead times that might have been gained by an enemy also working on alien technology. Giving our adversaries an indication of what we know would allow the enemy to attack if he knew we had no counter measure.

Reverse Engineering – The government is buying for time till they have completed back engineering crashed saucers.

Need to Know: The population does not have the need to know. As one Navy Captain told researcher Ray Stanford in 1964 "those dealing with the problem are capable of rational judgment in the face of the unexpected. They know the facts… people are not ready to know the facts."

This is a strong principle inside the military that they have special access to information that the population should not be given access to for various reasons. UFOs have always been described as a "need to know" item. Vice President Dick Cheney for example, when asked if he had been officially briefed on the subject of UFOs stated "If I had been briefed on that subject, it probably would have been classified and I wouldn’t be talking about it."

Kickbacks and Profits: He who has the gold makes the rules. If the cover-up is controlled by insiders, as many believe, they could be resisting disclosure because of astronomical profits and kickbacks to be made from siphoning classified extraterrestrial ultra-technology into insider corporations.

Knowledge is power, and power brings profit in the capitalist system.

Lose of power: Power brokers who know control the situation would definitely lose power. They would definitely have less power in a World style government because the U.S. population is very small.

Dependence on Oil: The entire economy is dependant on oil, and everyone addicted to it has become addicted to the technologies involved. It is part of the status quo, and people don’t like change.

Oil also involves a lot of money and jobs. This would be a major factor in keeping the money flowing to the people who are benefiting now.

Retooling an economy based almost entirely on oil would be very disruptive to society.

Short Sightedness: The government operates in the short term, and UFOs is a long term issue. Steven Greer stated that a person attached to the National Security advisor to President Reagan stated that long term in the government is 5 years.

The President only has a term of 4 years, and because he is always seeking votes his main interests usually lie in things that are achievable in his four year term. This is especially true if one measures the possible fallout of disclosure vs the votes that could be gained.

In a related point some military sources have said that government officials such as the President transitional figures; around for no more than eight years. There is no reason to bring them into a very complex issue for such a small period of time.

Nationalism: Disclosure of the ET presence would transfer citizen allegiance from the United States to the world. It has often been said, "Nationalism is the only game in town."

A future consideration is that if there is a one world view, the military, weapons developers, and security services people would find it hard to sell weapons and fear.

Government Black Operations - Many UFOs are secret government experiments that must be protected by covering up all sightings. This was the case made in the 1997 CIA study "A Die-Hard Issue: CIA's Role in the Study of UFOs, 1947-90," written by CIA historian Gerald K. Haines. Haines stated that most of the UFOs seen since 1947 were caused by intelligence planes such as the U-2 and the SR-71.

Abductions: If the government would to disclose that there is an ET presence here on earth, one of the first questions that would be asked to the President is "As President you are constitutionally responsible for the protection of the American people. It has been estimated that 6-8 million people have been abducted by the extraterrestrials. In light of this Mr. President what are you doing to stop it." Based on presently available evidence it appears that not only does the President not know how to stop it, he probably does not even know why the aliens are doing it.

Mutilations: The confirmation by the government that 10,000 or more cattle have been mutilated would send panic throughout the American populous. The fact that the government had known and did nothing to stop it would lead to a rash of lawsuits from farmers all over the country. As the government can do nothing to stop the mutilations – they would be faced with a no win situation. If the government itself is doing the mutilations as some claim, this naturally could never be released under any circumstances.

Some contend that there have been human mutilations, and if true it appears that the government can not stop this either. The confirmation of a human element to the mutilation phenomena would be like a nuclear bomb going off in Washington, D.C.