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Government Releases UFO Files (New: Added 14 May 2008)
The MoD has today begun a 4-year programme of releasing its entire archive of UFO files. I used to run the MoD's UFO project and because I worked on these files, I helped the National Archives on this project, selecting documents that might be of interest to the media. I commend the government for this move. These files don't prove we've been visited by aliens. Most UFOs can be explained as misidentifications of aircraft lights, satellites, meteors, stars and planets. But a small percentage are more difficult to explain and involve UFOs seen by police officers, commercial airline pilots and military personnel, or tracked on radar. Such incidents persuade me that whatever the true nature of the UFO phenomenon, it raises important defence, national security and flight safety issues.
Government to Release all UFO Files
The Ministry of Defence has made a firm commitment to release its entire archive
of UFO files. I was informed of this intention earlier this year but have now
been notified of the precise details. There are some 160 files dating back to
the 1970s and it has been decided to place them in the National Archives over
the next three years, commencing, it is hoped, in Spring 2008. The release will
be undertaken on a rolling programme in chronological order, starting with the
oldest files first. The files cover a wide variety of areas, ranging from policy
and UFO sighting reports, through to public correspondence and the way the
subject is handled when raised in parliament or covered in the media. Some
material will be redacted in accordance with the exemptions to the Freedom of
Information Act. This would cover material such as names of MoD officials,
together with any classified information. I very much welcome the MoD's
decision. Whatever one believes about UFOs, the files will offer an intriguing
window on one of the most interesting and controversial aspects of the MoD's
business.
Insiders Lobby US Government on UFOs
On 12 November 2007 a group of people with backgrounds in government, military and aviation held a press conference in Washington DC at the National Press Club. They called formally on the US government to reopen formal investigations of UFO sightings, which finished in 1969 when Project Blue Book was closed down. While taking no formal position on the nature of the UFO phenomenon, all those concerned had come together because of concerns over the defence, national security and flight safety issues raised. The event was moderated by former Arizona Governor Fife Symington. Other attendees included two retired generals and a number of civil or military pilots and people with government backgrounds. All of the panel had either seen a UFO while on duty, or been responsible for government/military investigations into the UFO phenomenon. I attended the event and was one of the signatories to the declaration. Further details of the event and the declaration can be found at the website of the Coalition for Freedom of Information, www.freedomofinfo.org
MoD to Open UFO Files
The MoD has announced that it is to release more UFO files. The files concerned are Defence Intelligence Staff files and had previously been contaminated with asbestos. It was originally feared they would have to be destroyed, sparking conspiracy theories among the UFO community. Now, the files have been decontaminated and will be scanned onto the MoD website over the next few months. These 24 files are the tip of the iceberg. To date, the MoD has received over 10,000 UFO reports and a case file on a significant incident can consist of over 100 separate documents. The MoD would dearly love to release all its UFO files, as the French have done, not least because of the burden of responding to requests on the subject (The MoD receives more Freedom of Information Act requests on UFOs than on any other subject). The complicating factor is the Data Protection Act. No personal information concerning witnesses can be released, so every page of every file has to be checked, and redacted to remove any such data. It's a massive job, and full disclosure is probably years away. Nonetheless, I greatly welcome this latest development, which should provoke further interest in the UFO phenomenon and which reinforces MoD's commitment to freedom of information and open government.
Roswell
On 10 April I'll be appearing on a new Channel Five documentary about the Roswell incident. On or around 2 July 1947 something crashed in the desert near Roswell in New Mexico, USA. The military said that they had recovered a "flying disc", but quickly retracted the statement and claimed that the object that crashed was just a weather balloon. As we approach the 60th anniversary of this most famous of all UFO incidents, this new investigative documentary examines the various theories about Roswell and features the testimony of believers and sceptics alike. The programme runs from 8pm to 9pm and was made by Love Productions, who also made "Bermuda Triangle - The True Story".
9/11
On 5 April I'll be taking part in a three hour debate about 9/11, on James Whale's radio show on TalkSport. The other participants are former MI5 officer Annie Machon, author Ian Henshall and researcher Tim Sparke. We'll be discussing and debating the various conspiracy theories that surround 9/11 and taking calls from listeners who want to have their say. I'll be defending the US Government's official view on 9/11, so I'm expecting a rough ride from conspiracy theorists. TalkSport broadcasts on 1089/1053 AM to all of the UK, and you can listen to the show live over the internet via a link at their www.talksport.net website. The debate will start at 10pm and run through to 1am.
MOD Psychic Study
It has been revealed that in 2001/02 the Ministry of Defence ran a secret project aimed at recruiting psychics. The official term used was remote viewing (sometimes known as psychic spying) but what this amounts to is seeing whether people can use ESP to track down people and items of interest to the government and the military. Both the Pentagon and the CIA funded remote viewing programmes aimed at searching for hostages in Beirut, arms dumps, drugs caches and terrorists, as well as attempting to identify the location of Soviet ballistic missile submarines. When I was running the MoD's UFO project in the Nineties I was approached by some people who claimed to be able to be able to remote view and I had some speculative discussions about this with colleagues in the Defence Intelligence Staff. But until now, there was no indication that a study was ever commissioned. The report was classified Secret UK Eyes Only and ran to 168 pages. Only three copies were ever made. The tests themselves took place in a commercial property, to disguise the fact that this was a government programme. The potential remote viewers were monitored by a sophisticated array of equipment and attempted to ascertain the test targets, images of which were placed in sealed envelopes. While many remote viewers were adjudged not to have accessed the target, some assessments stated that "the subject may have accessed the target" or that the subject "had accessed some of the features associated with the target". The ultimate aim of this study was "the selection of one or more individuals who it is felt can be 'trusted' to be used for the sensitive targets". The "sensitive targets" are not detailed, but based on the CIA's project and bearing in mind the date of the MoD study, it would be surprising if the targets did not include Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and Osama Bin Laden.
The Cosford Incident
On 1 November 2006 I fronted a Channel Five documentary, The British UFO Mystery. The programme focused on a wave of UFO sightings that occurred on 30 and 31 March 1993, where many of the witnesses were police officers and military personnel. The UFO was described by some as a vast triangular-shaped craft, capable of accelerating in seconds from a virtual hover to speeds of around Mach 2. Steel Spyda, the production company that made the show, used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain the MOD case file on the incident, which runs to over 100 pages. The documentary drew an audience of over one million and the subsequent public interest led the MOD to publish the case file on its website, in the Freedom of Information section. More details of this case and the documentary can be found in "The Cosford Incident", in the Selected Articles section of my website.
Nick Pope Resigns From MOD
I resigned from the Ministry of Defence in 2006 and left the Department in October, after 21 years of Government service. I greatly enjoyed my MOD career and had a series of fascinating jobs, but wanted to devote more time to my various business interests. My departure became an international news story, but much of the media coverage was exaggerated. I never claimed that an alien invasion was imminent. What I said was that the UFO phenomenon raises some flight safety, defence and national security issues and that in view of this, sightings shouldn't be dismissed without first undertaking some form of proper scientific investigation.
Beyond Magazine
Beyond Magazine is a new publication focusing on the paranormal and the unexplained. I have been asked to write a regular column for the magazine and will be using this to highlight some of the most intriguing UFO incidents investigated by the Ministry of Defence. A link to the magazine's website can be found in the Links section of this site.
The Condign Report
The Ministry of Defence has revealed details of a formerly secret UFO study. Codenamed 'Project Condign', the report is the most highly classified UFO document ever to have been released under the UK's Freedom of Information Act. Although I was involved in the discussions that led to the commissioning of this report, I had left the MOD's UFO Project by the time the study was undertaken and was not involved. I am certainly not the author, as has been suggested by various UFO researchers and journalists. The report runs to over 400 pages and delves into some fairly controversial areas, theorising about electrically-charged atmospheric plasmas, and temporal lobe disorders. The difficulty with this is that there's no scientific consensus on such matters, and as a rule of thumb, one shouldn't try to explain one unknown phenomenon by citing evidence of another! That said, the release of this report should be welcomed by all those with an interest in the UFO mystery, be they sceptics or believers. It will further the debate on this issue and demonstrates the MOD's ongoing commitment to releasing as much UFO documentation as possible, under the Freedom of Information Act. The media are having a field day with this story, and I've been doing numerous TV and radio interviews. The UFO mystery is back in the spotlight and the release of this report shows that there were those of us in the MOD who believed that the UFO phenomenon was worthy of serious, in-depth study. The full report will be released on the MOD's website on or before 15 May.