The Roswell Declaration at the White House: 20,000 Signature

The Roswell Declaration at the White House: 20,000 Signatures and a Redacted Paper Trail

In July 1997, Kent Jeffrey of the International Roswell Initiative sent President Clinton a petition signed by over 20,000 people — including three retired Air Force generals and two former astronauts — asking for an Executive Order to declassify any government knowledge of UFOs. The White House routed it to the Air Force, which replied that existing declassification rules under Executive Order 12958 made a new order 'unnecessary.' Withheld from the file: partial declarations from Edgar Mitchell

Published

October 6, 2026

Declassified

Date not listed

Source agency

National Archives and Records Administration

roswelldeclarationwhitehouse000signaturesredactedpaper

A 20,000-Signature Petition Reaches President Clinton

The document preserved States during the summer of 1997. On July 8, 1997, Kent Jeffrey, writing as Coordinator of the International Roswell Initiative, addressed a letter to President Bill Clinton at Pennsylvania Avenue. S.

S. astronauts. The paper trail shows how the executive branch processed that request.

S. Air Force, with appropriate action requested. The referral form identifies the incoming item as a letter dated July 8, 1997, from Mr.

Kent Jeffrey, Coordinator, International Roswell Initiative, Post Office Box 5125, Larkspur, California, and restates the subject as a statement requesting a mandated policy of openness regarding any government knowledge about UFOs. The file therefore documents not a classified finding but a civic demand for disclosure, and the administrative machinery that carried it from the White House to the Air Force for reply.

Air Force Cites Executive Order 12958 in Formal Reply

President receives a large number of requests for personal intervention each week, he has asked the departments and…

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Based on the official release at https://catalog.archives.gov/id/147871567

Original government source · National Archives and Records Administration

Scanned: Case Number 243544

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https://catalog.archives.gov/id/147871567

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