Reineck’s 1997 Earhart plea to Bill Clinton rejected: “Our tax dollars at work in Washington”

Rollin Reineck, perhaps best known for his failed attempt to resurrect the Irene Bolam-was-Amelia Earhart lie in his 2003 book Amelia Earhart Survived, is familiar to readers of this blog, and so I will forego further introductions. 

This letter from the retired Air Force colonel who once navigated B-29s launched from Saipan against the Japanese mainland, appeared in the November 1998 Amelia Earhart Society Newsletters.  Here Reineck discusses with friends Bill Prymak and Joe Gervais an official response he received to one of many requests he had sent to Washington, D.C., this one to then-President Bill Clinton — which Clinton certainly never saw — seeking answers to the Earhart question. (Boldface emphasis mine throughout.)

Dear Joe and Bill,

Friday I received a response to my recent letter to the President, in which I asked that he direct the release from the various military intelligence sources and the CIA of all AE matter.

The response from the Director, Freedom of Information, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense, is not exactly what I had in mind, and practically puts us back to square one.  However, there may be some information we can use.

Joe Gervais, left, and Rollin Reineck, circa mid-1990s, overlooking Honolulu, Hawaii. Still esteemed by some as the greatest of Earhart researchers, Gervais can count among his contributions the vile and false Irene Bolam-as-Amelia Earhart theory, which his friend Reineck unsuccessfully tried to reprise in his 2003 book, Amelia Earhart Survived.

Paragraph four of the letter is a brief summary of the Executive Order that releases all classified information that is over 25 years old.  I have a copy of the Executive Order, and made reference to it in my letter.  Mr. Passarella points out that there are some exceptions concerning the release of info, and to be sure that I understand them, he has enclosed a copy of the pertinent parts to the Executive Order.

I am aware of the exceptions, but find it odd that he would point them out.  I can’t help but have the feeling that he is trying to tell me something.  Generally the exceptions do not fit the Earhart case except Sec. 3.4.(b)(6). – . . . “reveal information that would seriously and demonstrably impair relations between the United States and a foreign government.”  If my gut feeling about this is right, we might just as well fold up our tent and move on, as the foreign government involved is Japan, and no one is going to upset relations with Japan at this time over Amelia Earhart.

In the Goerner book, he talks about an aide to the Secretary of Defense who pointed out that there was more to the Earhart matter than anyone suspected and, “There are some possible international repercussions.” (pp. 314)  It would appear that we now have gone the whole circle and we are no further ahead than we were in 1966.  However, there is always the chance that we will find something that has been overlooked by the government that could add to our knowledge.

Hawaii Senator Daniel Inouye, circa 2009, the only U.S. senator to ever actively advocate for total disclosure of the secret Earhart files

Passarrella also includes part of another Executive Order (#12937) dated 10 Nov. 1994.  This EO would appear to offer some help as it is already effective and deals with the type of information we are interested in.  Note the second half of the first page (just below the President’s signature), are record groups RG127 and RG226.  I am trying to get an index of the material contained in these two groups.  Perhaps you may have some ideas about the other groups.  Let me know what you think.

I also got a letter (enclosed) from Senator [Daniel] lnouye [D]  (rhymes with “annoy me”), which is in response to a letter that I sent to [Senator] Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D).  It is typical of the innocuous trash we get from our representatives.  Aloha, RCR

Just five years earlier, Bill Prymak couldn’t restrain his enthusiasm when he saw a September 1992 letter from the same Senator Inouye (below) to Reineck promising legislation that would finally break open the longstanding stone wall that has surrounded the Earhart case since its earliest days.  Prymak was so overcome that he devoted the front pages of two AES Newsletters, the November 1992 (“Special Newsletter”) edition, headlined, in all caps, “Senator Dan Inouye, Hawaii, To Help Solve 55 Year Old Amelia Earhart Mystery,” and few months later, his February 1993 edition (below), screamed “FINALLY, PAYDIRT FOR COLONEL REINECK!!!”

Inouye was the only U.S. senator to ever actively advocate for total disclosure of the secret Earhart files.  Ironically, he was a Japanese-American citizen who narrowly escaped internment during World War II.  Inouye was one of only seven members of the U.S. Senate to be awarded the Medal of Honor;  five of those were cited for their valor during the Civil War.  With 50 more like him, we might write “Case Closed” to the problem of the Earhart disappearance — it’s never been a mystery to the Deep State in Washington. 

For much more on Rollin Reineck’s attempts to break down the stone walls Washington long ago erected around the Earhart case, please see my Jan. 28, 2020 post,  “Rollin Reineck’s 1990s Earhart work bears fruit: Hawaii senator pledges to open secret Earhart files,” and “Senator Inouye’s Earhart legislation would ‘declassify any records that have been classified’” of Feb. 11, 2020.