Last tranche of UFO files released

[uforn]

Last tranche of UFO files released

Drawing of alien waving (catalogue reference: DEFE 24/2457/1)

21 June 2013

The National Archives has today released its tenth and final tranche of UFO files ufos.nationalarchives.gov.uk/, containing 4,400 pages of UFO policy, correspondence and UFO sighting reports covering the final two years of the Ministry of Defence's UFO Desk (from late 2007 until November 2009).

The files reveal for the first time the reasons behind the closure of the UFO Desk and how sightings had become a social phenomenon making tabloid headlines and sparking a disclosure campaign for 'the truth'.

Dr David Clarke, author of the book 'The UFO Files', said: 'The last pieces of the puzzle have finally been revealed with this insight into the last days of the UFO Desk. These files spell out clearly why the Ministry of Defence decided - after 60 years - it no longer needed to keep tabs on sightings, even those made by 'credible' people such as police officers and pilots. The last files from the UFO desk are now all in the public domain. People at home can read them and draw their own conclusions about whether 'the truth' is in these files or still out there.'

Reasons behind the closure

The UFO Desk received over 600 UFO sightings and reports in 2009, treble the amount of the previous year. With this surge in sighting reports, increasing time and resources were needed to manage the UFO Desk, which the files note 'serves no defence purpose and merely encourages the generation of correspondence'.

The files also show that in 2009, Defence Minister Bob Ainsworth was told that in more than 50 years 'no UFO sighting reported to [MoD] has ever revealed anything to suggest an extra-terrestrial presence or military threat to the UK' (DEFE 24/2458/1).

File highlights

•A letter from a school child to the MoD asking for the truth about UFOs after she had seen some strange lights (includes a drawing of an alien in a UFO waving, above). The UFO desk sent a bag of RAF goodies in response (DEFE 24/ 2457/1)

•A report received via the UFO hotline by someone who had been 'living with an alien' in Carlisle for some time (DEFE 24/2625/1)

•Report by a man from Cardiff who claimed a UFO abducted his dog, car and tent while while he was camping with friends (DEFE 24/2623/1)

•MoD police officer sighting of pear drop-shaped 'translucent green light' from Royal Navy Base at Portsmouth (DEFE 24/2460/1)

The files are free to download for a month at nationalarchives.gov.uk/ufos. ufos.nationalarchives.gov.uk/

You can also read a guest post by Dr David Clarke blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/blog/guest-blog-ufo-desk-closed/ about the files on our blog blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ and order his book The UFO Files www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/bookshop/details.aspx?titleId=750 (2nd edition) from our bookshop.

New UFO app

To mark the end of the UFO file release programme, an iPhone/iPad app UFO Files UK has been created by Black Plaques in association with The National Archives. The app lets users explore the official data by searching UFO reports dating back 25 years, with almost 5,000 sightings analysed, categorised and mapped.


Source:

www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/news/850.htm

[Laurance]

I wonder why they waited so long between this batch and the last release?

[uforn]

Jun 22, 2013 8:31:45 GMT 1 Laurance said:

I wonder why they waited so long between this batch and the last release?

The last batch was July of last year, I don't think its been that long. It was probably down to the time it took them to digitize the files.

Here are some news media reports on the release of these last batch of files ~



Sky News broadcast with Gary Hesletine of PRUFOS www.prufospolicedatabase.co.uk/ on the lack of media attention to the best cases of UFO reports etc.






ITN broadcast with Dr David Clarke on the release on the files ~

[uforn]

Here's Timothy Goods say on the release of these files on sky news ~ news.sky.com/story/1106367/ufo-desk-why-mod-shut-real-life-x-files

[uforn]

I'm not impressed with Tim Goods interview, he starts of good then goes into pure speculation on a so called meeting with "ET's" with guy a called Sir Peter Horsley whom he knew!

I'm sure Ive heard of this before but Ive not got time to look into it unfortunately.

I expected more from Tim Good, some solid research and genuine evidence and a very good say on the matter, it seems to me he is book orientated ?

[Laurance]

Yeah but they were releasing them monthly at one point, so why take a year this time? Even digitalisation doesn't cut it, also there has to be more files than that.

The reason they haven't received that much attention is because they contain nothing anyone already knows or read about.

Sometimes an expert is only good when they write a book, they have had time to sit down, research, prepare and all sorts but when put on the spot they have less time. Maybe Tim Good is one of those....... or he is starting to slip off the barrel like many other Researchers do because he cannot fill in the blanks and is now fed up.

[uforn]

Jun 25, 2013 5:02:38 GMT 1 Laurance said:

Yeah but they were releasing them monthly at one point, so why take a year this time? Even digitalisation doesn't cut it, also there has to be more files than that.

The reason they haven't received that much attention is because they contain nothing anyone already knows or read about.

Sometimes an expert is only good when they write a book, they have had time to sit down, research, prepare and all sorts but when put on the spot they have less time. Maybe Tim Good is one of those....... or he is starting to slip off the barrel like many other Researchers do because he cannot fill in the blanks and is now fed up.

As far as I know they have never released the files monthly, it has been around 6 months in between releases, ufos.nationalarchives.gov.uk/existing-files.htm
I agree there must be more files, and we are not getting to see the "real" unsolved properly investigated case's.

Here's an interesting quote from Dr David Clarke on Tim Good and Nick Pope.

Quote:

Of course, conspiracy theorists will continue to dismiss the real ‘disclosure’ as a whitewash because its contents do not support their preconceived beliefs. And their suspicions will be encouraged by diehard UFO proponents such as Nick Pope and Tim Good, the latter interviewed by Sky News here news.sky.com/story/1106367/ufo-desk-why-mod-shut-real-life-x-files , because it is in their interest to keep the mystery alive and kicking.

Both continue to make spurious claims about aliens posing a threat to earth’s defences and hint darkly that ’…much of the best material has not been released.’

drdavidclarke.co.uk/2013/06/23/ufo-files-i-have-loved-and-lost/


I hate to say it, but for once I agree with Nick Pope in that the best material has not been released.

[barry]

British UFO Document Release Designed to Deflect Public and Media Interest Says Former Ministry of Defence UFO Specialist
* Reuters is not responsible for the content in this press release.
Wed Jun 26, 2013 7:00am EDT
British UFO Document Release Designed to Deflect Public and Media Interest Says Former Ministry of Defence UFO Specialist

PR Newswire

WASHINGTON, June 26, 2013

WASHINGTON, June 26, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A claim by the British Ministry of Defence that UFOs have no defense significance is "designed solely to keep Parliament, the media and the public off our backs," according to former MoD UFO Desk administrator Nick Pope.

Pope's startling statement was in response to the MoD's release last week of what it says is its final batch of UFO documents. Official MoD spokesmen and one self-styled UFO expert, David Clarke, claim that the MoD found no evidence of a UFO threat to the UK and, therefore, closed its UFO Desk. The subsequent, widely-publicized declassification of its UFO documents—the implication being that nothing remained hidden—was intended to demonstrate the MoD's public transparency on the UFO issue.

In reality, Pope says, "the UK's Freedom of Information Act contains wide-ranging exemptions covering areas such as defense, security and intelligence" and the newly-available documents had already been "judged to be unclassified" before their release.

Regarding David Clarke, Pope says, "Some people would probably use the term 'useful idiot' to describe his parroting the MoD 'no defense significance' sound bite."

These and other provocative comments by Pope have just been published in an article by UFOs and Nukes researcher Robert Hastings, who discovered a credible UFO involvement in the famous Rendlesham Forest/RAF Bentwaters case, which occurred in Suffolk, England.

Hastings interviewed the two U.S. Air Force air traffic controllers on duty at Bentwaters during a week of UFO activity there, and the nearby forest, in December 1980, who say they tracked a bona fide UFO on radar and saw the object hover—it appeared as an orange-colored sphere—before it raced away.

Hastings says that the UFO later hovered near the USAF's Weapons Storage Area (WSA), containing tactical nuclear bombs, and directed laser-like beams down into the facility. Bentwaters' former deputy base commander, now-retired Col. Charles Halt, first acknowledged the dramatic incident in 1991, saying that he had heard frantic radio chatter from Security Policemen at the WSA, describing the UFO and the beams, while he was investigating reports of strange lights in nearby Rendlesham Forest.

Hastings says, "If the incident at the WSA actually occurred, and it appears that it did, then UFOs do indeed pose a defense threat to the UK."

SOURCE Robert Hastings  

[uforn]

Here are the links to the article you posted baz, www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/26/uk-ufo-documents-idUSnPNDC38491+1e0+PRN20130626

Original source Robert Hastings, www.ufohastings.com/articles/has-the-british-ministry-of-defence-released-all-of-its-ufo-files