David Clarke News July 2008
WHY LET THE FACTS GET IN THE WAY OF A GOOD STORY?
Silly Season: 'the summer month of August is traditionally viewed as journalism's silly season, in which there is very little news, allowing senior editorial staff in particular to take holidays. Politicians are in the middle of their long break from Parliamentary duty and government offices are short-staffed, suggesting nothing of major importance is likely to happen and resulting in the media turning to the reporting of more trivial matters.' (The Guardian, 31 July 2002).
In July 2007 Britain’s favourite tabloid tried to persuade us that a great white shark had visited the normally serene Cornish coast, complete with wobbly video clips showing sinister dark fins breaking the waves. The Sun’s shark mania soon evaporated when it was revealed the footage was taken in Cape Town, not St Ives.
In 2008 the silly season arrived earlier than usual and for most of June Jaws mania was swapped for an invasion by ‘the Alien Army’. For certain sections of the media UFOs have now become perennial silly season fodder. Tabloid newspapers in particular will print anything UFO-related without any iota of critical scrutiny. As Nick Davies points out in Flat Earth News, this type of story is cheap and easy to cover and gives the punters what they want.
During the spring of 2008, with the MoD files story simmering away and the imminent release of a new X-file movie, it was inevitable that UFOs would soon be back in force. As one UFO witness caught up in the hype told me: "a journalist intuitively seemed to understand this when he said to me: 'it's about time we had another UFO story.' "
Add a flotilla of sky lanterns to the heady brew and – hey presto - a media-created UFO flap was upon us. For a full week in June The Sun filled its pages with exciting tales of UFOs bothering police helicopters and buzzing bemused squaddies. And when these tales dried up there was an army of eager readers on hand to stoke the embers by sending in their own grainy images of lights in the sky filmed on mobile phones and camcorders.
This summer’s UFO mania kicked off on 20 June with a Sun exclusive. The crew of the South Wales police helicopter were confronted by a ‘flying saucer shaped’ object as they approached their landing pad at just 500 feet. According to ‘an anonymous source’ the pilot had to bank sharply to avoid a collision above St Athan, near Cardiff International Airport, shortly after midnight on 8 June. The pilot then set off across the Bristol Channel in hot pursuit of the intruder, but had to turn back when fuel ran low over the North Devon coast. Most police copters carry hi-tech equipment such as surveillance cameras but nothing was captured on film which suggests this was a fleeting observation. Even stranger, although the UFO – described as ‘circled by flashing lights’ – was clearly visible to the naked eye, nothing could be seen through the crew’s night-vision goggles. They reported their encounter to senior officers who then passed it “to Britain’s UFO investigators.” Within hours of publication on the Sun's website the story was republished around the world.
The police, by now inundated with press inquiries, dismissed The Sun's story as factually inaccurate. They said the incident did occur but the crew simply saw an “unusual aircraft” not a “flying saucer”. The force refused to release any further details of the crew’s report but were quick to pour cold water on the more sensational claims made by The Sun's source. The copter had not chased the UFO across the Bristol Channel, nor had to take evasive action to avoid it, they added. Further details were provided by a spokesman for air traffic control at Cardiff airport. He confirmed the pilot had reported his sighting to the controller who immediately checked the radar for anything unusual. But they could see nothing other than the helicopter. It appears the incident was quickly forgotten about until someone - The Sun's mysterious source – leaked an exaggerated version to the media. This was confirmed when it emerged that the Ministry of Defence and the Civil Aviation Authority had no knowledge of the sighting. To put it simply, if it was not reported to them directly, then as far as they were concerned there was nothing for them to investigate!
Meanwhile BBC Wales put the cat amongst the pigeons with a story from newlyweds Lucy and Lyn Thomas. They believe the police saw a group of sky lanterns released by guests at their wedding party. The celebration was held in a field at Cowbridge, which is three miles north-north-west of St Athan, on the same evening. These ubiquitous paper lanterns, 2ft 6 in high (0.79m), behave exactly like mini hot-air balloons and when released at night have been the source of many UFO sightings during the past three summers. The couple purchased 100 lanterns for the event and told the BBC they checked aviation safety regulations before going ahead. Thirty were launched over a three hour period from 11 pm. The northwesterly winds that evening would have taken the lanterns directly towards the helicopter base. But The Sun – and the police – were having none of it. The crew were very experienced and “we do NOT believe it [the UFO] was one of these lanterns,” an indignant force spokesman told us. But whatever the police believe what are the chances that both a UFO and a fleet of sky lanterns happened to visit St Athan at exactly the same time?
Alien fleet over Shropshire?
On 25 June The Sun whipped its readership into a frenzy with a page one splash to follow its UFO exclusive. This was complete with mobile phone footage of 13 UFOs “spinning in the skies” above a military base in the Midlands. Corporal Mark Proctor and three squaddies from the first battalion Irish Regiment spotted the objects whilst on night patrol from Tern Hill barracks near Market Drayton, at 11 pm on 7 June, shortly before the Welsh incident. Cpl Proctor described the lights as “like rotating cubes with multiple colours” that zig-zagged as they moved across the sky. He was able to capture two on his mobile phone and the footage was later posted on The Sun website. The paper had now found an expert, former MoD UFO desk-jockey Nick Pope, who was happy to help the paper keep the story running. Despite the lack of interest from his former employers, he demanded the MoD launch “an official inquiry” into the sightings, falling back on that old chestnut, “the credible witness”. Military observers, he claimed “tend to make good witnesses”, and in his expert opinion the Shropshire UFOs were clearly not aircraft or meteors. This was indeed obvious, but why weren’t the spinning globes of fire sky lanterns? No sooner had Pope put his neck on the block that Tern Hill Hotel manager Stuart Willett came up with the solution to the mystery. On three or four occasions in the past few months he had hosted weddings where lanterns had been released, the last occasion being 7 June. “We’ve had inquiries from residents before,” he told BBC Shrophire “but it’s the first time it’s been classed as a UFO.”
Ever since former editor Kelvin McKenzie created the Crying Boy legend The Sun's writers have had lots of fun entertaining their readers with spurious stories during the summer silly season. The journalistic cliche ‘why let the facts spoil a good story?’ was never more appropriate and publicity-hungry UFO ‘experts’ are fair game as part of the tabloid circus. Like the Crying Boy, the alien invasion of 2008 has ‘got legs’ and as we write The Sun have set up a UFO camp at the foot of the Berwyn Mountains in North Wales, scene of a classic 1974 incident which some believe was a UFO crash retrieval. “If anything happens,” reported Sun hack Nick Francis, “we’re prepared with telescopes, infra-red cameras, torches and metal detectors.” If just a handful of lanterns can cause this much fuss just imagine what a concerted effort nationwide with a team of dedicated lantern launchers could do!
The Sun - June 25-28, 2008; BBC News Wales, 20 June & 25 June; BBC News Shropshire 25 June.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/ufos/
Additional media links:
http://www.forteantimes.com/strangedays/ufofiles/1233/the-mod-files.html
http://www.miller-mccune.com/article/454
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BRITISH X-FILES OPEN AT NATIONAL ARCHIVES
The UK Ministry of Defence has taken the first step in its long-awaited decision to release its complete back catalogue of UFO reports at The National Archives (TNA).
International media interest is expected to coincide with the public opening of the first eight files on May 14. Staff are preparing for up to 1 million hits on a special website they are using for the public launch. The newly-released files are now available to download free of charge for the first month. Further files will be added as the collection grows over the next three to four years.
The decision to release all the remaining MoD UFO files in chronological order was taken last year in response to a long-running campaign by myself and colleagues Joe McGonagle and Gary Anthony using the Freedom of Information Act.
Since the decision was made I have been acting as the TNA’s consultant ‘expert’ on the historical significance of the files. For the duration of the press launch I will be helping TNA staff respond to Press inquiries both from the UK and across the world.
During the last month I have produced a detailed, updated Background Briefing to the entire collection of UFO records held at the TNA for those who wish to explore the papers further. Some 200 files, some of which date back to the First World War, have already been released and are available for research purposes. Plans are in hand to make scans of some of these early UFO papers available via the TNA website in future.
The National Archives - the Truth is in here!
For the launch I have also recorded a podcast that summarises the content of the new files and the background to the releases. Both the Background Briefing and podcast can be downloaded from the TNA’s new ‘UFO’ website that can be reached via the link on this page.
The first release covers UFO reports, policy and public correspondence between 1978 and 1987. Four of the eight files originate with the MoD Air Staff secretariats DS8 and Sec(AS). These have become well known to UFO researchers and the media as the MoD's 'UFO desk’.
The remaining four files originate with the Defence Intelligence Staff branch DI55, who provided behind-the-scenes technical and scientific assistance to the UFO desk. DI55 were also the MoD department responsible for the ‘Condign Report’ on UFOs, which drew upon these newly-released files for its database of UFO/UAP reports.
The UFO reports series in this first tranche begins in November 1981 and ends in November 1987. Readers will note that the files have been ‘redacted’, whereby personal details such as the names and addresses of witnesses and MoD staff are removed under Section 40 of the FOIA (which relates to the Data Protection Act).
Nevertheless, it is relatively easy to discern the identities of some of the MoD’s regular correspondents, which include some well-known UFOlogists. Indeed, I was amazed to discover one file (DEFE 31/175) contains a copy of the first letter I wrote to the MoD’s UFO desk in September 1987!
The first batch of files provides a snapshot of British UFOlogy from the late 1970s through the mid-1980s, when the Rendlesham forest mystery first hit the headlines and crop circles were becoming the new UFOlogical obsession.
The papers contain several hundred individual reports, a number of them originating from civil aircrew and a few from military sources. Here are just two highlights chosen at random from the current release:
Rendlesham Forest incident
One file (DEFE 24/1925) contains a briefing on the famous Rendlesham incident (often described as 'Britain's Roswell') prepared by Sec(AS) for Lord Trefgarne, Tory Defence Minister, in September 1985. Trefgarne had agreed to meet with a retired Chief of Defence Staff, Lord Peter Hill-Norton, who was pressing the MoD to reopen their investigation of the incident.
The briefing is of interest because it provides a clear explanation for why MOD did not share Hill-Norton’s concern about the possible defence implications of the report made by Lt Col Charles Halt, the USAF deputy base commander at RAF Woodbridge. It says on receipt of Halt’s report on 15 January 1981 – two weeks after the events - checks were carried out by air defence staff but these "failed to reveal any radar trace of anything unusual in the area at the time".
As a result, they decided no follow-up was necessary because Lt Col Halt "does not ask for further investigation" in his memo that was forwarded to the Ministry by the RAF base commander, Don Moreland.
Lord Hill-Norton was told: "I think you will agree that it is highly unlikely that any violation of UK airspace would be heralded by such a display of lights. I think it equally unlikely that any reconnaissance or spying activity would be announced in this way...we believe that the fact Col Halt did not report these occurrences to MOD for almost 2 weeks after the event, together with the low key manner in which he handled the matter are indicative of the degree of importance in defence terms which should be attached to the incident."
British Army interest in the Crop Circles
Another item from the same file is a copy of a report compiled by the Army Air Corps of their investigations into crop circle formations that appeared in fields near Andover, Hampshire, in August 1985.
A team led by Lt Col Edgecombe photographed the central 40ft diameter circle from the ground and the air. They were alerted to the presence of the circles by the farmer who owned the fields in which they had appeared. He called the army helicopter base to demand “what on earth we [the AAC] were up to now”.
In their report to Whitehall the Army team express their bafflement at the lack of traces and note how the wheat was “laid flat in a clockwise twist - as if a plank had been put with one end at the centre and then swept round in a complete circle.”
The Army’s interest in crop circles led to intense speculation by UFOlogists and ‘cerealogists’ about official cover-ups. These papers prove the military had no secret knowledge of alien forces at work in England’s fields. Even DI55, who were consulted by Sec(AS) on the possible defence significance of the crop circles in 1985, were left grasping at straws.
In December 1985 a DI55 desk officer wrote that “something unusual has happened but just what remains a mystery”. He added: “From a purely defence viewpoint I don’t think there is anything in the report to worry us - there does not appear to be a landing as such since the wheat is only depressed (not completely flattened), there are no tracks in the wheat and there does not appear to be burn or scorch marks - I lean to some kind of natural phenomena such as mini-tornadoes bouncing off the ground.”
In hindsight we can see how easily the Army, the MoD and the intelligence services were fooled by the intricate handiwork of circle-makers just as easily as anyone else who visited the formations with an open mind.
It was another five years before hoaxers Doug and Dave came forward to confess they had created the first crop circles and unwittingly created a new UFO-related mystery which continues to grow in spite of its disconfirmation.
This is just a brief summary of two interesting highlights from the first collection of files released in May 2008. Many more releases will follow during the next three to four years, bringing the developing story of the MoD’s involvement in the UFO mystery slowly up to date.
Eventually all 160 files covering UFO reports, correspondence and official policy from the mid-1980s up to the present day will form part of a unique new resource for UFOlogy.
Keep watching this space for updates.
The files can be downloaded as pdfs from:
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ufos
Also see Joe McGonagle's pages on the file releases and the relevant background to these releases at:-
http://www.uk-ufo.org/condign/di55docs.html
http://www.uk-ufo.org/condign/di55-21-12-07.htm
http://www.uk-ufo.org/condign/di55-10-05-07.htm
Noted media coverage links are also available at:-
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7398784.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7398108.stm
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/05/14/britain.ufos/?iref=mpstoryview
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/may/14/spaceexploration.military
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/05/explore_the_xfiles.html
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/ian_ridpath/2008/05/et_alors.html
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THE CRYING BOY CURSE RETURNS!
The April 2008 edition of Fortean Times features the results of my research into the 'Crying Boy' curse that has become one of the UK's best known 'urban legends'. The cover illustration is a composite image by Etienne Gilfillan showing a typically kitsch crying boy framed by supernatural flames. The legend has it that copies of the 'cursed' painting - some attributed to a mysterious Spanish artist known as Bragolin - have been the focus of a series of house fires in which the prints have survived undamaged. Crying boys, by a number of different artists, were one of the first mass produced prints and thousands were sold across the UK during the 60s and 70s. My interest in the story began when I was working as a journalist for the Sheffield Star based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire. I learned from one of the old timers at the paper how the story had grown out of an anecdote told by firefighters who kept finding crying boys in the wreckage of house blazes in and around the town. In 1985 the story was scooped by The Sun newspaper which launched a tabloid campaign dubbed 'The Curse of the Crying Boy.' The Sun played a central role in creating the legend which has since found a life of its own on the internet and spread as far as Brazil. My article in Fortean Times 234 is the first time the full story has been told and I bring the legend up to date with news of the most recent 'crying boy' fire in Rotherham - reported last year. Keep watching this space for more urban legend updates.
My site has been updated with a new article on the First World War legend of the 'Vanishing Regiment' at Gallipoli - a favourite among UFO potboilers and internet newsgroups debating extraterrestrial kidnappings. My investigation sets out the facts and debunks the UFO connection.
The Book Reviews page has been updated with a review of a new book on the Foo-Fighter mystery by US writer Keith Chester.
Sheffield Star, 5 March 2008: 'Truth about Crying Boy curse revealed
Peterborough Evening Telegraph, 5 March 2008: 'Dispelling the mystery of the Urban Myth'
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http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2236033,00.html
The truth is out: X-Files go public
British UFO 'sightings' investigated by a secret branch of the MoD are soon to be revealed and officials are braced for a torrent of inquiries.
Mark Townsend, defence correspondent
Sunday January 6, 2008
Observer
Without warning, the orange UFO swooped toward them. The crew of the RAF Vulcan bomber banked hard and radioed they were being chased across the Atlantic by a large mysterious object. The incident was classified as a UFO sighting and the details were immediately locked away.
Now, 30 years later, the extraordinary encounter is among thousands of previously secret cases contained in the government's 'X-Files' that officials are to release in their entirety.
The cases, many from a little-known defence intelligence branch tasked with investigating UFO claims, will be published by the Ministry of Defence to counter what officials say is 'the maze of rumour and frequently ill-informed speculation' surrounding Whitehall and its alleged involvement with Unidentifed Flying Objects.
The public opening of the MoD archive will expose the once highly classified work of the intelligence branch DI55, whose mission was to investigate UFO reports and whose existence was denied by the government until recently. Reports into about 7,000 UFO sightings investigated by defence officials - every single claim lodged over the past 30 years - are included in the files, whose staged release will begin in spring.
The decision to release Whitehall's full back-catalogue of UFO investigations was taken last month after the Directorate of Air Space Policy, the government agency responsible for filtering sensitive reports, gave its permission to publish the biggest single release of documents in MoD history. Now the government fears a repeat of the unprecedented demand and the website crash experienced by the French national space agency in March when it released its own UFO files. Government IT experts are believed to have drawn up contingency plans to avoid a repeat scenario when Britain's dossiers are finally made public.
Among the first tranche of UK cases will be the official government files into the famous Rendlesham incident, dubbed 'Britain's Roswell' after the US incident when a flying saucer is said to have crash-landed in the New Mexico desert 60 years ago. On a foggy night in 1980 several witnesses reported a UFO apparently landing in Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk. Statements claimed the craft was covered in markings similar to Egyptian hieroglyphics and aliens emerged from it. Although a man later confessed to having staged the incident as a hoax, the files will clear up continuing speculation as to whether radiation was detected at the site after the event.
Another case reported to the intelligence branch DI55 - Britain's version of the 'Men In Black' - chronicles a series of reports sent to RAF Scampton, Lincolnshire, by the crew of a Vulcan bomber on exercise over the Bay of Biscay early on 26 May 1977. According to documents seen by The Observer, five crewmen, including the captain, co-pilot and navigators, watched 'an object' approach their aircraft at 43,000ft above the Atlantic. The mysterious craft then appeared to turn and follow their precise course from a distance of four miles.
Initially, the crew said the object resembled landing lights 'with a long pencil beam of light ahead' but as it turned towards them the lights suddenly went out leaving a diffuse orange glow with a bright fluorescent green spot in its bottom right-hand corner. Then, according to signals sent back to Scampton, the crew noted a mystery object 'leaving from the middle of the glow on a westerly track... climbing at very high speed at an angle of 45 degrees'.
The Vulcan's navigator recorded interference on his radar screen from the direction of the UFO which continued for 45 minutes as the plane headed back to Britain. On return to the UK, the camera film from the aircraft's radar was examined by RAF intelligence. They found a 'strong response' from the direction of the sighting. The UFO was captured as 'an elongated shadow' of a 'large-sized' object travelling at a similar height to the Vulcan. An intelligence report sent to the MoD the same day says the crew 'were unable to offer a logical explanation for the sighting'.
Although hailed as the complete disclosure of the UK's UFO files, questions are likely to remain over whether all available information will be made public. Despite the Vulcan sighting being investigated by DI55, no details remain in the file indicating what they found or what became of the radar film.
The disclosures are more likely, claim some experts, to lend credence to the theory that such UFO incidents were, rather than alien visitations, military activities such as missile launches, testing of prototype aircraft and other activities during the Cold War.
David Clarke, a lecturer in journalism at Sheffield Hallam University and author of Flying Saucerers: A Social History of UFOlogy, said: 'Something was definitely going on, but really these files show that the government did not know either. This release will be a source of disappointment or vindication for some, and embarrassment for others.
'Conspiracy theorists who believe that the various governments of the world are hiding secrets about the "reality" of aliens will see this as another whitewash effort by the MoD and will probably continue their self-sustaining "campaign for the truth", when the truth will in fact now be "out there".'
UFO researcher Joe McGonagle said: 'There will always be a hard core who believe these files were prepared for release and that there is a secret department within the military who has a separate stash of files that have not been disclosed.'
UFOs remain one of the most popular subjects for Freedom of Information requests and the release is certain to generate a massive response from the public when the files are placed in the National Archives. Clarke, who has lodged hundreds of FoI requests, recently discovered that the government was considering destroying the 24 files created by DI55 because they were contaminated by asbestos. Not only were the UFO records polluted, but a total of 63,000 files estimated at between six to 12 million pages - most of them classified as secret - were facing the same fate. Having admitted the existence of the problem to Clarke, the MoD opted to instigate a £3m project digitally to scan the files before they were destroyed. Scanning of the 24 contaminated UFO files owned by DI55 was completed last year, although it is understood that names of officials in the reports will be removed.
Although the government remains reticent to discuss its intelligence work on UFOs, it is known that DI55 has been hot on the trail of flying saucers since the Sixties. Experts admit that they work closely with the security services MI5, MI6 and GCHQ to collect and assess evidence of potential threats to Britain.
The decision by the UK to open its files could lead to the US government following suit. A group of former pilots and government officials recently urged the Pentagon to reopen investigations into claims of UFO sightings.
UFO claims
1980 Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk. US servicemen claim to have seen an alien craft and its landing site.
1984 Minsk, USSR. Aeroflot pilots say they are pursued by a glowing shape.
1989 Bonnybridge, Scotland. Fire crew report objects rushing towards them before veering away at the last moment.
1990 Brussels, Belgium. Two F-16 fighter pilots recount being engaged in 75-minute mid-air chase with a UFO.
MOD TO DISCLOSE UFO ARCHIVE
The MoD have decided to release their entire collection of UFO files as a direct result of the campaign, led by myself and colleagues, using the Freedom of Information Act.
News of the plan was released in a FOI response to Joe McGonagle in the summer of 2007 but full details were not confirmed until December, when the MoD disclosed that some 160 files had been earmarked for transfer to the National Archives.
The release of the files will take place in stages over the next three years and it is hoped that at least some of the material will be available in electronic form. The Ministry say the release is "a major exercise, which [we] believe is unique in MoD history."
The collection includes not only the Defence Intelligence Staff files, which had previously been earmarked for release, but a large number of Defence Secretariat (DAS) UFO files covering reports, correspondence and policy on UFOs. The oldest files date from circa 1980 and the latest from 2007, including responses to FOI requests.
Personal information, such as the names of witnesses and officials, are likely to be redacted from the released material under Section 40 of the Act, which explains the lengthy delay in the release of the entire collection.
Full details of the release can be found on the UK UFO Condign database here:
http://www.uk-ufo.org/condign/di55docs.html
The opening of these files is a major success in the Campaign for Freedom of Information. For too long the British public has been denied access to information collected and paid for by its own money. While the actual content of these files will be of interest only to a small number of people, it cannot be denied that the topic of UFOs is the subject of continuing fascination by a substantial proportion of the general public. Therefore total transparency is the only option available for the Government.
Until recently information held by the MoD on UFOs was surrounded by unnecessary secrecy. Before the introduction of the Code of Practice for Access to Government Information in 1994 and the FOIA in 2005 it was impossible for anyone to discover what the results of MoD investigations into sightings had been. This secrecy was a breeding ground for conspiracies and encouraged some people to believe that proof that we were being "visited by aliens" was being deliberately concealed for sinister purposes.
My personal campaign to cut through the maze of rumour and speculation began in 1999 when I began to use the Code of Practice to apply for the release of specific files on UFO incidents. At that time a substantial amount of material from the 1960s had been released at the Public Record Office (now The National Archives) under the 30 year rule.
In 2001 I had my first big success when an application under the Code of Practice resulted in the release of the file on the classic Rendlesham Forest UFO incident, which some have dubbed 'Britain's Roswell.' Later that same year, a follow-up request under the Code resulted in the release of the Ministry's long-lost report by the 'Flying Saucer Working Party' produced in 1950 and later used to brief Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
Since 2005 I have embarked on a systematic campaign with a small group of colleagues, including Joe McGonagle, Gary Anthony, Andy Roberts and others, to use the power of the new Freedom of Information Act to cajole, persuade and - when necessary - force the MoD and other Government departments to release their UFO archives.
Many other documents, files and information have surfaced as a result, including the report produced for the Defence Intelligence Staff at the completion of a three year study of 'unidentified aerial phenomena' (UAP) completed in 2000. Code-named 'Project Condign', this three-volume report was released in 2006 as a direct result of a joint FOI request placed by myself and Gary Anthony.
Following this major success we kept up the pressure upon the MoD and the DIS to release the UFO report files that were used to draw up the database used by the Condign study. This ultimately led to the decision, in May 2007, to release first the DIS UFO archive and, later in the year, the entire collection of UFO files held by Whitehall. This is the ultimate accolade and a fitting culmination in our eight year campaign for disclosure.
In their statement, released to Joe McGonagle, the MoD finally admit that "by opening our files in this way, we may...help to counter the maze of rumour and frequently ill informed speculation that surrounds the role of the MoD in the UFO phenomena."
I doubt the disclosure of these files will convince those who believe there is a conspiracy to hide evidence concerning extraterrestrial visitors. These people will never accept anything less than full confirmation of their beliefs. Inevitably, some have already dismissed this release as a whitewash and for them the 'truth' remains still out there, hidden no doubt in more above top secret files somewhere else.
Nevertheless, the fact that full disclosure has already happened, in the UK at least, remains a fact that will be accepted by most rational UFO researchers and welcomed by the wider community as a landmark in open government.
Keep watching this space for updates.
News Archive
Copyright (c) David Clarke 2008