>then establishing an inner circle of Illuminati to manage relations with them and keep their presence a secret from the general public
If I'm not mistaking, that group was refered to as the Majestic 12.
Believe it or not, Gene Rodenberry was allowed to sit in on those meetings, and they claim it was those meetings where he got the idea for the TV show Star Trek, and the episodes were created to 'ready' humans for extraterrestrial contact.
Of course I would have to go back and re-research all of this again to get it more accurate.