SCI FI Channel Challenges Government Secrecy
Supports New FOIA Effort on UFO Records and
Release of Report on Failure to Conduct Scientific Research

WHAT:
The SCI FI Channel will announce its support of a
new effort to gain release of secret government records
on unidentified aerial phenomena, commonly referred to
as UFOs and release a new report by an independent
journalist on the federal government's failure to carry
out systematic scientific research into this widespread
phenomenon (5% to 10% of which scientists say cannot
be explained by natural or human causes). 

Citing the importance to the public of declassifying
government records, John Podesta, former Clinton White
House Chief of Staff, will speak in support of the effort to
gain release of still secret government records. 
A new FOIA initiative will also be announced.

To generate public support for more disclosure and a
scientific investigation the formation of the Coalition for
Freedom of Information (CFI) will also be announced.

WHO:
Bonnie Hammer, SCI FI Channel President
John Podesta, former White House Chief of Staff
Leslie Kean, journalist
Lee Helfrich, attorney, Lobel, Novins & Lamont
Ed Rothschild, executive director, Coalition for Freedom of Information

WHEN:  Tuesday, October 22, 2002
WHERE: National Press Club, Washington, DC
PRESS ONLY

John Podesta, former Clinton White House Chief of Staff, will speak in support of the effort to gain release of still secret government UFO records. He will cite the importance to the public of declassifying government records.

Podesta was a key member of the Clinton administration. It was an administration went to great lengths to obtain the answer to the UFO mystery. Clinton's Science Advisor Dr. John Gibbons initiated an investigation by the U.S.A.F. into the crash of an unknown object at Roswell New Mexico. Clinton's first CIA Director James Woolsey in 1993 also green-lighted a new CIA investigation into UFOs. Clinton himself asked his good friend Webster Hubbell to find out the truth about UFOs. Hillary Clinton, also very interested in the UFO phenomena helped Laurance Rockefeller edit a letter to President Clinton on UFOs, and was briefed on the UFO subject by Rockefeller at the Rockefeller ranch during the President's 1995 vacation there. The Podesta statement will be part of an announcement by the SCI FI Channel in support of a new effort to gain release of secret government records on unidentified aerial phenomena, commonly referred to as UFOs and release a new report by an independent journalist on the federal government's failure to carry out systematic scientific research into this widespread phenomenon.

The big announcement will be made at the National Press Club in Washington on Tuesday October 22, 2002.

Besides offering up support for disclosure on UFOs, a new FOIA initiative will also be announced. This will include the announcement of the formation of the Coalition for Freedom of Information (CFI).