| Lara Johnstone to take ET
hunger strike to White House
EcoNews Service, Vancouver, BC By Alfred Webre PORTLAND, OR - Lara Johnstone on July 28, 2001 began a hunger strike to request President George W. Bush to fulfill his campaign promise and make public the truth about UFOs and Extraterrestrials. On August 18, 22 days into her hunger strike, Lara announced on the live Ground Zero show (1080KOTK - Portland) that she will take her Presidential hunger strike to Washington, D.C. and the White House, as a daily reminder to President Bush. "I am asking President Bush to fulfill his campaign promise, and make public information on U.S. government involvement with Extraterrestrial craft, technologies, and civilizations by supporting the Disclosure witnesses who are ready to testify before the U.S. Congress about their extensive knowledge of the Extraterrestrial presence," says Johnstone. Johnstone is referring to the approximately 100 military and corporate Disclosure witnesses who have volunteered videotaped testimony about UFOs and Extraterrestrials. Many of these witnesses are subject to security oaths, and would require Presidential or Congressional immunity to testify in public before the U.S. Congress. According a letter Lara wrote to her Congresswoman, Congressional Black Caucus member Barbara Lee (D - Oakland, CA.), "These numerous recorded witnesses constitute only a small portion of a vast pool of identified present of former military, intelligence, corporate, aviator, flight control, law enforcement officers, scientists and other witnesses, who will come forward when subpoenaed to testify at Congressional Hearings. Without a grant of immunity releasing them from their security oaths, many such unimpeachable witnesses fear to speak out." Ms. Johnstone used to work for Peggy Noonan,
the former speechwriter to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush, Sr.
In writing President George W. Bush on July 26, she said, "I recall she
wrote a speech for your father about a 'thousand points of light'.
About George W. Bush, the 35 year-old Johnstone says, "Now, I am not particularly a fan of Mr. Bush, however, the more I think about what he said to Mr. Huffer (twice) I am convinced that he wants to tell the people the truth!" "But if those who want him to tell the truth, they are now going to have to get off their armchairs and let him know!" Johnstone adds. Johnstone is referring to statements by then Governor George Bush to former U.S. Army Security Agency member Charles Huffer during a 2000 presidential campaign stop. Huffer asked both Governor Bush and Dick Cheney, who was also present, as to whether they would release government secrets regarding UFOs and Extraterrestrials if elected. This reporter witnessed that exchange, as broadcast by CNN. On July 28, 2000, Huffer approached Governor Bush and Mr. Cheney in Springdale, Ark. and asked Bush, "would [you] finally tell us what is going on with UFOs?" Governor Bush replied, "Sure I will." The question and Bush's answer were recorded by ABC NEWS and broadcast on Nightline and more completely on CNN the next day. On July 29, the Washington Post published part of an interview with Charles Huffer about the exchange. On the videotape, Mr. Bush is clearly seen stating that release of the UFO information would be the first thing he would do, while pointing to Mr. Cheney. Later, when asked by Huffer if he would really release the UFO materials, Governor Bush replied, "Yes sir," a reply that Huffer states he also has on audiotape. Neither Mr. Bush nor Mr. Cheney have responded directly to Mr. Huffer's follow-up on their campaign promise. In a letter to Charles Huffer dated July 16, 2001, Vice President Cheney's office stated they were referring all questions in the matter to NASA. NASA in turn responded to Mr. Huffer in an August 1, 2001 letter, stating, "NASA has no program for the investigation of UFOs, nor does the Agency have any factual evidence of the existence of the existence of intelligent extraterrestrial life." Lara's hunger strike first began, reporter Grant Cameron writes, after " July 26, 2001, [when] Lara Johnstone wrote a letter to President George Bush in support of over 100 Extraterrestrial Disclosure Witnesses who had come forward to tell of their involvement in the cover-up of the UFO story by the government. Lara stated in her letter that she would support her request for disclosure with a hunger strike. Now, more than three weeks later there is still no reply from President Bush, or any one else at the White House. There is not even an acknowledgment that the letter arrived." The non-profit Disclosure Project on May 9,
2001 held a National Press Club conference in Washington, DC to present
live testimony from 20 high-level military and corporate witnesses to Extraterrestrial
phenomena. According to the Disclosure Project, " The event was live
webcast, and at 9 a.m. over 250,000 people were waiting on-line for the
press conference to begin. The next biggest webcast event at the
National Press Club was less than 25,000. The first hour of the conference
On Monday, August 13, Lara took her hunger
strike to the steps of the federal courthouse in Oakland, to petition her
Congresswoman, Barbara Lee to write a letter
In her hand-delivered letter to Congresswoman Lee, Lara states, "As you know, the recorded testimony of scores of military, government and other witnesses to Unidentified Flying Objects and Extraterrestrial events and projects is strong evidence of the existence of an UFO/Extraterrestrial presence on and around Earth. This recorded testimony consists of dozens of first-hand, often top-secret witnesses to UFO and Extraterrestrial events, internal UFO-related government projects and covert activities, space-based weapons programs and covert, reverse-engineered energy and propulsion system projects. The technologies that are of an Extraterrestrial origin, when publicly released within a planned transition period, will provide solutions to global environmental and security challenges." Johnstone requested Congresswoman Lee to support a ban on space-based weapons. "Our generation of voters and leaders are responsible for this once in a lifetime decision -- to ban space-based weapons so that we will be permitted to join the peaceful travelers in the universe," Lara wrote. On July 26, Congressman Dennis J. `Kucinich
(D.-Cleveland) announced his intention to introduce legislation banning
space-based weapons. "The time has come to ban the further weaponization
of space," Congressman Kucinich said. "We must work toward the elimination
of all nuclear weapons, and an end to policies which cause this country
to move toward the weaponization of space. I was pleased with the
recent news from our neighbor to the north that Canada is ready to join
an international effort to prohibit weapons in space. It is time
for the United States to take the lead and end
Lara's letter to Congreewoman Lee continues, "The legislation to ban space-based weapons will prohibit acts of war against Extraterrestrial civilizations, which have proven to be concerned about nuclear and weapons industry, but also have proven they are not to be hostile. The comprehensive legislation will transform the terrestrial war industry into a world cooperative military (without space weapons), civil, and commercial space industry. This will provide unprecedented benefits and opportunities to all on Earth and in space." Lara's involvement with the Extraterrestrial
issue began, according to reporter Grant Cameron, on July 22, 2001, "when
Dr. Steven Greer arrived in San Francisco to
"Lara was a bit skeptical of the whole extraterrestrial thing," writes Cameron. "She had no background in Ufology. She had never had a sighting. A friend sent her an e-mail about the local Disclosure Event. Lara visited the Disclosure web site on the Internet. After reading the objective she decided to attend. "I never before really 'believed'," Lara wrote to President George Bush, "in ‘verifiable evidence' of extraterrestrial visits." The Disclosure event turned out to be a "reality check" for Lara. "During the event the two hour Disclosure testimony videotape was shown," Cameron states, "This tape, produced by the Disclosure project, contains highlights of over 100 hours of testimony that had been collected from interviews with dozens of U.S. Government, industrial, and military witnesses to UFO and extraterrestrial events and secret 'black-ops' projects. "Lara decided action was necessary," Cameron states. "She chose a form of protest that she was familiar with - a hunger strike. In late 2000 Lara had used this protest method successfully against the state of California. Lara described her first hunger strike protest, 'I went on a hunger strike was against the CA Department of Corrections and Gov. Gray Davis. After 25 days, they bowed, admitted -- in writing -- what I had alleged, and what they had 'said', but not in writing. Before the press conference, the department head of all of California's prisons came up to me and went ballistic. He started screaming 'Who do you think you are, 'How dare you?' and on and on! He did not like being called up by the South African media, asked to answer very difficult questions regarding how he runs his prisons!'" The 35 year-old Johnstone, who lives in Oakland, Ca. Is originally from South Africa. Asked if the hunger strike had affected her medically, Johnstone stated during the KOTK program, "I am carrying out this hunger strike with an open mind, and on a day-to-day basis," Johnstone stated during the KOTK program, which included a public appeal for medical personnel to monitor her daily progress. Lara Johnstone is clear that she wants to
provide President George W. Bush with a clear choice about releasing UFO
and Extraterrestrial information. " If we choose to fight, bicker, find
blame and pre-judge, or whatever, well we will only get more of the same
and get nowhere very fast!" she said. "We -- as George Bush does
-- have a choice! We can take it screaming at him, and be sure he is not
going to have the
Asked when she would be arriving on her Presidential hunger strike to Washington, DC, Lara stated "I may arrive around the time of the anti-globalization protests at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) meetings starting September 28." "On my way to the White House, I may stop where others feel I can be if use," she adds. "In New York, I plan to sit in on hunger strike at the offices of President Bill Clinton in Harlem. He was very supportive of extraterrestrial Disclosure, but was blocked. I also will definitely take this hunger strike to the United Nations in New York." On July 26, Canada's Foreign Minister John Manley stated that "Canada would be very happy…to launch an initiative to see an international convention preventing the weaponization of space." Canada's lead in initiating a United Nations treaty banning space-based weapons is a marked break with the Bush administration on the issue of preventing an arms race in space. When asked about how her Presidential hunger strike would unfold in Washington, DC, Lara says, "Well, I am just starting to think about that. I may ask to join Proposition One in a vigil in front of the White House." Proposition One is a grassroots movement for disarmament of nuclear weapons and the conversion of nuclear and other arms industries to provide for human and environmental needs." "My hunger strike is really about the truth - be that about the environment, or about extraterrestrial Disclosure. If there were high-level environmental witnesses coming forth to reveal testimony about ecological dangers, they would receive a great deal of public support, both within the environmental movement and with the public. The same degree to support should be given the Disclosure witnesses. I am grateful for all the work the Disclosure witnesses have done, the work everyone has done! " This EcoNews story is based on reporting by Clyde Lewis, Holly Conley, Grant Cameron, Ernie Vega, and Alfred Webre. CONTACT: 604-733-8134
KEY LINKS:
Lara Johnstone's Bush/UFO Disclosure Website
Lara Johnstone's Story
Ground Zero: Clyde Lewis, Host - Radio Archives
Disclosure Project Website
Proposition One
Washington Post Story: "Bush, Cheney
Come Calling In Arkansas"
|