Former Sen. Mike Gravel and a panel of experts says White House suppressing evidence of ETs

Even as most Americans wonder what planet politicians are from, is it possible that the government is squelching evidence of extraterrestrials visiting Earth? One former presidential hopeful says yes -- and that the conspiracy goes all the way to the top.

Former Sen. Mike Gravel (D-Alaska) says the White House has helped keep the truth about the "extraterrestrial influence that is investigating our planet" from the public.

"It goes right to the White House, and of course, once the White House takes a position, 'well there's nothing going on'...it just goes down the chain of command, everyone stands toe," Gravel tells Top Line.

Gravel is one of six former congress representatives who were paid $20,000 by the UFO advocacy group Paradigm Research to participate in a Congressional-style Citizen Hearing on Disclosure in Washington this week, where witness after witness has presented first-hand accounts of UFO sightings and extraterrestrial visits.

Gravel says the strongest accounts of alien encounters are from former military officers, such as retired Air Force Capt. Robert Salas, who testified that UFOs temporarily disabled nuclear weapons on his watch.

"The smoking gun of the whole issue, which is when they saw hovering space craft in Wyoming and South Dakota over the ICBM missile silos that the missiles couldn't work," Gravel says.

Gravel says the media has aided what he sees as a government cover-up by not taking reports of ET encounters seriously.

"What we're faced with here is, in areas of the media, and the government too, an effort to marginalize and ridicule people who have specific knowledge," he says.

When asked about the fact that he was compensated for his participation in the hearing, Gravel says it did not influence him to agree with the testimony.

"This is an opportunity which I've taken to focus on this issue for an entire week and the preparation I made in coming to it, for my enrichment that's very important," Gravel says.

For a ride into the outer limits of human knowledge on the possibility of alien life, and to hear how Gravel thinks the world should treat potential alien visitors, come along for this expedition of Top Line.

ABC's Eric Wray, Betsy Klein, Melissa Young, and Bob Bramson contributed to this episode.