Barack Obama. 44th President of the United States of America and, some say, the first to talk seriously about aliens. That said, the former Commander-in-Chief found himself in the headlines very recently because of a joke he made about the existence of UFOs. He offered a clarification – but, unsurprisingly, his comments have sent conspiracy theorists into a frenzy. Chris Smith speaks with David Whitehouse, the author of The Alien Perspective, and has just penned a piece on the story for the British press too…
David – Well, Obama was taking part in a podcast, and the question was, are aliens real? He replied, yes, they are, but they’re not at Area 51, and I didn’t know anything about them unless there was a conspiracy not to tell the president. But of course, the febrile UFO community is always on the lookout for any chink in the government cover-up of these things, and they went into overdrive, saying that this is soft disclosure, as they call it. This is part of being softened up and prepared for the big announcement that the United States has alien spacecraft, alien bodies, and that it’s part of a pattern. There were rumours that President Trump was going to give a big disclosure speech in a couple of weeks, and of course, you’ve got Steven Spielberg’s film Disclosure Day, which is about aliens and cover-ups coming out soon. So the UFO community saw this as being something more than it was.
Chris – Has Barack Obama mentioned aliens before, or was this his first rodeo?
David – No, actually, he and some other presidents have mentioned aliens before. There was a reception at the White House when he was president, and he said in his speech that if he wanted to know about aliens, he’d call Shirley MacLaine, because she’d said she’d spotted UFOs over her ranch. And then he mentioned Area 51, and then he brought the House down by saying, I think I became the first president to publicly mention Area 51. So he’s joked about it, as have other presidents, Reagan in particular, because this is the question that so many people ask presidents, you know, are the aliens real? And the presidents have usually got their jokey answers ready to back the question off. But Obama didn’t. Obama was straight to the point, and that’s what caused all the fuss.
Chris – There was a conference, though, wasn’t there? And some disclosures and some analysis of what we do and don’t know in the last couple of years. And is that added fuel to the fire?
David – Well, there’s been lots of hearings and conferences about UFOs and aliens. And over the last few years, they’ve been organising hearings organised by a few, I have to say, rather wacky American politicians bringing on people who claim they know about the cover-up, and who claim they’ve seen aliens, but providing no evidence whatsoever. You really have to be very tough-minded and say, what is the evidence? Lots of people have stories. Stories are easy. But other than stories, you have to say, what is the evidence for this? And Obama clarified his position, saying he had no indication when he was president of anything extraterrestrial. But, of course, people will not believe that. They’ve already started saying, well, he was forced to say that because he let the cat out of the bag.
Chris – Where do you stand on all this, though? Because my opinion, and I’m not a space scientist like you, but I am a scientist. My opinion is, do aliens exist? Absolutely. They almost certainly exist. The universe is too vast. It’s too enormous on too big a scale for the numbers not to make that theoretically possible in some form. So I think life does exist out there. But are they here? Have they rewritten the rules of physics to get here? I think absolutely not. But that’s just my opinion. What do you think?
David – I think you’re absolutely right. The universe is vast and wonderful. And it would be arrogant supreme to think we’re the only form of life in the universe. But we don’t know, of course. We suspect from what we understand of science that they are probably alien life forms of who knows what fabulous design and predisposition out there, that one day we could perhaps contact. But the question is whether they’re here is an entirely different matter, and it’s a murky history of made-up stories of myth and rumour and misidentification, ultimately that has no evidence. Think about it. The idea that aliens born under the light of another star could look out at the cosmos and wonder if there are others like us, and set off on fabulous voyages across the stars, arrive at planet Earth and stay just out of our reach. Just show us fuzzy blobs. They mutilate cattle. They abduct people and probe them. And then they go off and crash incompetently in the desert. Is this a consistent story? Who knows what they are like, whether they would be good or bad for us? We do not know.
Chris – Do you think that the conspiracy actually is that Spielberg’s UFO film is coming out and that perhaps this is just very conveniently timed that these comments get us all talking, and now we’re talking about that film, and that perhaps, the two are connected?
David – Well, I don’t know. I mean, the UFO community is always on the verge of a big reveal, and then it doesn’t happen and then move on to the next time it is going to happen. It has to be said that the Obamas are producing a film about a UFO encounter, Barney and Betty Hill. Of course, Spielberg read the runes several years ago of this increasing chatter about UFOs and has come up with this film, so it’s part of a cultural movement, a feeling that comes from time to time that people make money off. And remember that when people, particularly in these days of YouTube and people are getting paid for hits, people are not just telling you stories about UFOs, they’re selling you stories. And this UFO phenomenon has become a money-making juggernaut for some people. So, yes, it’s in the air, as you say, at the moment, and that we’re all talking about it. It’ll die down, and then in a while, we’ll all be talking about it again.