By ANDREW DeMILLO – 3 days ago
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — In a move sure to provide fodder for conspiracy theorists, the Clinton Library withheld e-mails with subject lines like “X-Files” and “Area 51″ from a batch of documents recently released at a UFO buff’s request.
National Archives officials made several files — ranging from a White House staffer’s obsession with the TV show “The X-Files” to President Clinton’s push to hook up the Sci-Fi Channel at Camp David — available for viewing starting last Thursday in response to Freedom of Information requests.
Several pages, however, were withheld because they would “constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy,” according to National Archives documents.
Among the released pages, 27 come from the files of former White House Chief of Staff John Podesta, a fan of “The X-Files,” a show about FBI agents investigating extraterrestrials and other supernatural events. The files include articles forwarded to Podesta about the canceled Fox show.
Peter Baker, a Washington Post reporter, relied on Podesta’s interest in the show to persuade him to help on a book about the White House.
“Why am I skeptical that this book constitutes an opportunity for us?” Podesta wrote in a March 24, 1999, e-mail to Baker, who eventually wrote a book about the former president’s impeachment and trial.
“Because any good X-Files fan is skeptical by nature and understandably so,” Baker replied the next day.
In 1995, a group called the “Project Starlight Coalition” sent President Clinton a letter asking him to declassify any documents about extraterrestrials or UFOs.
Two months later, an aide replied that he had forwarded the request for a meeting to White House staff.