I sorta agree there Trained but because NASA seems not to be the publicly owned body it was designed to be and actually seems very military oriented, perhaps the possible reason for overall reticence regarding ET life and UFO's trumps any other concerns?
If the US military or government body does have guilty knowledge of ufo's or ET life visiting earth (big 'if' but run with it) and they are keeping it secret because knowledge of novel energy generation or whatever would upset the global monetary applecart - then I think many things will be 'trumped' by that over-riding concern.
I am often stumped as to why the US seems to be the most reluctant by far of any country regarding admitting the UFO phenomenon is real. The UK has never denied there are UFOs. They just slyly say that 'ufos present no threat to national security'. They never say 'ufos are all mis-identified explainable phenomena' or suchlike.
Either you can take Leslie Kean's take that the US' policy is just a relic and hangover from cold-war paranoia of the 1950's or my own take in that the US has some knowledge that may not be all-encompassing but more than what is public, and that knowledge could seriously damage powerful institutions where it hurts the most: in the pocket.
So my opinion is that for their chosen stance, the US has to take some hits, be it with running a sideshow for public consumption with NASA or not being able to use certain technologies yet publicly etc. I think the overall reason for UFO secrecy is of paramount importance to the people who have any guilty knowledge, even though various things have to suffer for it. Just my opinion of course as I have zero actual knowledge to back it up other than the sense I get from being interested in this field and seeing numerous documentaries and listening to hundreds of hours of radio such as the Paracast - added to that the books I read, and from all those sources, what I have said makes most sense to me. Of course, there is no actual reason why any of the truth to all this should be logical. The truth, as is often said, maybe far, far stranger than any of us can guess.
One last thought: When I hear that due to the Brookings' Report's findings, namely that evidence of ET life may cause societal breakdown etc and basically the public 'cannot handle the truth' - well that really get's me annoyed like nothing else. So what is so special about those few people who may know whatever is being withheld? Did they go mad and shoot their families? Did they stop turning up at work or withdraw all their savings to go on a mad spending spree? Probably not, so I don't see why the rest of us can't handle it.
If polls are to be believed as representative of what the US population think, then the majority of Americans do believe there is ET life and that the US govt. is withholding knowledge. If so many Americans already believe those things then I do not see what the big deal could be?
(angry face for any government who thinks the people cannot handle 'the truth'.
and another one!)