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�If Congress will not do its job, the public will.�

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Executive Director

���Stephen Bassett

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Board of Advisors

���Alfred Webre JD, MEd

���Richard Dolan, MA

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Sponsors

���Paradigm Research�Group

���X-PPAC

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Citizen Hearing

#161, Bethesda, MD 20814

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Phone: �301-990-4290
Cell: �201-431-2459

[email protected]

www.citizenhearing.org

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Press Release���� ����������������������������� � ��������������������� ����� ��������������
January 13, 2003

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Washington, DC � A simulated congressional hearing is a well established technique used by public policy organizations.� Today an initiative, the Citizen Hearing, has been launched to apply this concept on a grand scale to the growing awareness of extraterrestrial phenomena and the mounting distrust of government statements of fact on the issue.

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When sufficient funds are raised, this weeklong event will be held during the summer of 2003 in Washington, DC under conditions which resemble a formal congressional hearing as closely as possible.� Considerable effort will be made to ensure gavel-to-gavel coverage by public and commercial news media.�

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Stephen Bassett, founder of the Paradigm Research Group and X-PPAC, directs the project which will present the testimony of 30 witnesses to at least five former members of the Congress over a period of five days.� �This will be the primary focus of PRG and X-PPAC during the first half of 2003,� said Bassett, who added, �A citizen hearing will help educate the public and the 108^th Congress and motivate the media towards investigative action.�

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Noted researcher, Richard M. Dolan, author of UFOs and the National Security State, has joined the Board of Advisors.� During the coming weeks additional advisors and sponsors will be added to the project.

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The internet address for the Citizen Hearing will be www.citizenhearing.org.�

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Beginning January 20, Mr. Bassett will be touring Nevada, California, Arizona and New Mexico building public awareness of the Citizen Hearing initiative and recruiting advisors to the Board.� Also planned are private meetings with former Members of the Congress and potential supporters of the project.

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The last hearings of substance held in the Congress on the subject of extraterrestrial related phenomena were in 1966 and 1968 � 35 years ago.� They were the �Hearing by the Committee on the Armed Services of the House of Representatives, 89^th Congress, Second Session, April 5, 1966 (instigated by Congressman Gerald Ford) and the Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects � Hearings before the Committee on Science and Astronautics of the U.S. House of Representatives, 90^th Congress, Second Session, July 29, 1968.� �These hearings were scripted and insufficient.�

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Since 1991 repeated attempts to get the Congress to reengage the mounting evidence for an extraterrestrial presence have been rebuffed. The single notable exception was the late Steven Schiff of New Mexico.� Scores of other Members have been approached with no resulting hearings.

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Since the Congress will not act, the public will.

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