[Dion]

"I simply want them to conduct themselves as if they were sitting in Congress and conduct a hearing that the Congress won’t hold," he said.

Cook says he can do that, but don’t expect him to become a believer just because Paradigm is paying him and taking care of travel expenses for him and his wife.

"I made it clear to them that I am unlikely to be persuaded," said Cook, who represented Utah’s 2nd Congressional District for two terms starting in 1997. "Extraterrestrial life? I can buy into that as a possibility, but to this day I have not heard or read or seen anything that makes me believe that anyone has encountered one on Earth."

That said, Cook doesn’t want to disparage anyone who believes they’ve seen an unidentified flying object, and he points out that a UFO is merely an unexplained aircraft, not necessarily evidence of life from a far-away planet.

"I never felt I witnessed one," he said. "I am what you might call an open-minded skeptic when it comes to these things. I don’t want to imply that anybody has lied about what they think they have seen."

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/politic...ssett.html.csp