The UK's X-Files: MOD Files / Condign Report / Etc.

[Anonymous]

No wonder. Imagine a spotty youth (ala simpson's) working at mcdonalds or other burger chain, setting himself up as an authority on raising cattle, slaughter and beef cookery....

Oh wait a sec......(nobody mention mutilations...this was supposed to be an analogy :lol: )

 

[Jerry_B]

Well, I see "Real-Life-Fox-Mulder" Nick Pope has finally got around to sharing his thoughts on the Condign Report with us. As usual, he adds nothing to the debate:

Project Condign

It is amusing that Pope seems to merely rehash pretty much everything that's been said before him. He's not exactly what I call insightful

 

[Anonymous]

I didnt think the whole 'plasma ball' idea had been so totaly explained. Reading certain writers for fortean times and listening to some of the pundits it sounds like the earth light hypothesis has been finaly formed. I may be wrong but there are certain flaws in the idea, leaving aside the whole area of wether strong magnetic fields cause halucinations which is scetchy at best. I also read somwhere that balls of plasma couldnt last beyond a few seconds and notions that they could display aerial acrobatics like forming triangles was still up for debate. Also(and i believe this is important) When did the government become an authority on the ufo or uap debate, they seem to have done very little reaserch.

 

[mothman8]

When did the government become an authority on the ufo or uap debate, they seem to have done very little reaserch.

I take it from this you are new to the UFO scene. The british government has had an interest in UFO's for around 50 years atleast and the condign report is the latest of many to emerge through declasification/freedom of information act.

 

[Anonymous]

Im not very new to the the ufo seen. My point was that the government has had a very hit and miss relationship with ufo research. They claimed, until recently, not to be interested in ufos as they were not a defence matter (ok this was the military but as i understand it they are the people doing the reaserch). Regarding the recent report by them Dave Clark himself said it was partly based on bad science. They seem to be behined most scientific research on the field. The plasma ball theory itself is very old and as i have already stated is no where near being a proven hypothesis. Unless you consider Pope as being a government investigator in which case i am wrong and they have been investigating this for a long while.

 

[azuredoor]

I like the way the report (link) blames nick pope for a decrease in UFO reports!

This report is extremely interesting, don't believe the news reports read it yourself.

www.mod.uk


edited by TheQuixote: created hyperlinks to stop pagebreak

 

[nissemus]

What I've never understood is the MOD's line that "UFOs are not considered a threat to UK security".

As they admit they don't know what the things are, then how they can make such an evaluation? I would have thought a bloody great silent triangle speeding and hovering all over Western Europe might constitute a possible threat. There's also the small number of cases, some from the UK, where people claim to have been injured by these things. If that's not a defence matter, what is?

Of course, the conspiracy theorists will claim that the Government knows full what what the things are, and that reports like Condign are just a smokescreen. There's not much evidence for this position, but the situation wasn't helped by Thatcher's "you can't tell the people" comment.

 

[Jerry_B]

Well, perhaps because the MoD doesn't take them at all seriously (not all that surprising) means that they've not considered them a threat to the UK's Security? After all, alot of reports which don't really add up to much can hardly be something really worth worry about, let alone spending tax-payers' money on. You might as well ask why the MoD doesn't get worried by ghosts either

 

[Mal_Adjusted]

re MoD line on national security and UFOs.

as i understand it, they take the pragmatic line that unless there is proof that these craft are actually involved in the destruction of property or attacks on people in the UK then they are not a threat.

any scientific research would be along the lines of seeing if there was any weapons or flight capability that could be used in some way.

i suspect that they are not worried by the black triangles as the know who is flying them and it isn't extra terrestrials.

nb the MoD are not in the business of providing an aircraft recognition service to the public either

 

[Jerry_B]

I even think it's a bit of a leap of the imagination to think that they know who is flying the black triangles. That seems to assume that they're real, after all.

 

[dreeness]

Compare

(UFOs are merely randomly-appearing energy clouds that generate psychotic hallucinations. And that's of no defence significance.)

with

(Your wife isn't pregnant, she's a werewolf. And that's nothing to worry about.)

8)

 

[wembley8]

I even think it's a bit of a leap of the imagination to think that they know who is flying the black triangles. That seems to assume that they're real, after all.

It's not unlikely that the MoD know more about US black aircraft operations than we do. I certainly hope so. The blanked-out section on classified aircraft suggests this.

 

[Analis]

I read some investigations about the Belgian wave of 1990. They're serious and convincing. There were other inquiries at the San Juan Valley. They show that there are indeed flying objects shaped like black triangles, looking like manufactured machines. What they are remains enigmatic. There are maybe secret prototypes; maybe something else shaped like them. Or a combination of both (which I deem the most likely). The question remains open as to why the Report tells so peremptorily that there is no security problem. But that some parts of the Report are blanked shows that it is not very reliable, to say the least.

 

[wembley8]

The question remains open as to why the Report tells so peremptorily that there is no security problem. But that some parts of the Report are blanked shows that it is not very reliable, to say the least.

The blanked sections show that they know more than they can tell (eg about the two black aircraft which were censored). There is nothing in there to suggest a security problem - is there?

 

[Jerry_B]

Hmm - you mean 'secret prototypes' that fly around in full view with bright lights which draw attention to themselves? And then when they allegedly appeared in Blegium, they were tracked by Belgian Air Force fighter jets - so much for stealth. So it seems that these supposed hi-tech super-secret aircraft ply their trade by being both very obvious and not invisible to radar...?

 

[Analis]

Only if it wanted to remain hidden. Certainly, a secret prototype would never be exposed in such a way. But some thought it was displayed as part of a psychosocial experiment, and so made itself deliberately seen. Rather implausible on such a scale and for a so long time, but it was possible. It should have been a lightweig structure, a dirigible. But some features don't tally with this hypothesis. I don't think any more that the "Belgian" UFOs were secret prototypes. But there was something definitely unknown. For the sightings in Arizona, the case remains open. But I agree that there are too many flying triangle sightings in Britain. That's not a good way to remain hidden! Any foreign agent could easily spot and study them. So, that they are sightings of prototypes is not yet demonstrated.

 

[wembley8]

And then when they allegedly appeared in Blegium, they were tracked by Belgian Air Force fighter jets - so much for stealth.

The Belgian incident showed exactly that they were well able to evade the intercepting jets and that their countermeasures were highly effective.

 

[Jerry_B]

Their countermeasures weren't at all effective if they could be tracked by fighters. So they're not stealthy.

 

[rynner2]

Could we have hitched a ride on UFOs?

Newly released files may put one mystery to bed, but in doing so others are left unanswered

James Randerson
Thursday February 22, 2007
The Guardian

It is not the sort of discussion you imagine among the grey-suited ranks of Whitehall - defence analysts debating the existence of little green men and speculating about whether they have visited Earth.
But a set of newly released internal Ministry of Defence documents gives a fascinating insight into the military's interest in UFOs. They tell the story of the MoD's decision to investigate the threat they might pose and whether alien military technology could be used in the defence of the realm. They also reveal the conflicting attitudes within Whitehall to the subject and the lengths that officials went to in order to keep the project secret.

The documents, many marked "Secret UK Eyes A", lay out the rationale for the three-year Project Condign report which analysed more than 10,000 possible UFO sightings collected over several decades - many from military personnel. The existence of the 460-page report was revealed last year following freedom of information requests by David Clarke, a lecturer in journalism at Sheffield Hallam University, and his colleague Gary Anthony. It was more FOI sleuthing on their part that turned up the current slew of papers.
The documents show that the internal lobbying effort for a UFO study began in 1993. In a briefing note from the secret UFO investigation branch of Defence Intelligence - called DI55 - an unnamed author wrote: "The national security implications are considerable. We have many reports of strange objects in the skies and we have never investigated them.

Paranoid response

"I also believe that it is important to appreciate that what is scientific 'fact' today may not be true tomorrow ... If reports are taken at face value then devices exist that do not use conventional reaction propulsion systems, they have a very wide range of speeds and are stealthy. I suggest that we could use this technology, if it exists."

And he speculates: "If the sightings are of devices not of the Earth then their purpose needs to be established as a matter of priority ... possibilities are: 1 Military reconnaissance. 2 Scientific. 3 Tourism."

According to a former MoD intelligence analyst who asked not be named, the MoD was paranoid in the late 1980s that the Soviet Union had developed technology that went beyond western knowledge of physics. "For many years we were very concerned that in some areas the Russians had a handle on physics that we hadn't at all. We just basically didn't know the basics they were working from," he said. "We did encourage our scientists not to think that we in the west knew everything there was to be known."

Material that was held back from the original FOI release of the Project Condign report, but which was published in October after an appeal, suggests that the MoD suspected that this scientific knowledge came from studying UFOs - or unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) as the MoD prefers to call them. "Russian, former Soviet republics and Chinese authorities have made a co-ordinated effort to understand the UAP topic. Several aircraft have been destroyed and at least four pilots have been killed 'chasing UFOs'."

One of Project Condign's conclusions was that UAP events could be put down to poorly understood phenomena called plasmas. The report says that the Russian military was doing research using plasmas as reflector antennas, aerodynamic drag reducers, stealth absorbers and using them to produce "saucer-shaped volumes".

The initial request in 1993 for an MoD research project into UFOs was shelved, but in a later memo dated June 19 1995 following a surge in UFO reports, the same unnamed wing commander at DI55 wrote: "Until we conduct some analysis of the files we will not have any idea what the many reports represent. If at any stage in the future UAPs are shown to exist then there is the potential for severe embarrassment."

Clarke, whose book Flying Saucerers: The Social History of Ufology will be published in April, says: "They knew that because no detailed study of the subject had ever been carried out - and consequently they had no idea what UFOs were - they could not justify the claim they were of no threat."

Nick Pope, who worked on the MoD's public UFO desk until 1994 and features in the correspondence, adds: "This was always the big debate. How could you possibly fulfil the remit of looking at the issue properly to see if there was anything of defence significance, without carrying out research and investigation? I think it is one of these subjects where it is low probability, high consequence," he adds. "For the want of spending a little bit of money, the potential wins if there were anything of any defence significance here would be worth having."

But how much money did the MOD spend? One document refers to a £35,000 cost estimate, while in another from 1996, the head of Defence Intelligence (Scientific and Technical) estimated £80,000 for a year-long study. Project Condign when it was eventually begun took more than three years to complete. So does that mean a price tag of at least £240,000?

No, according to the MoD, although it would not release the true figure. "This assumption that the sum will tally up to £80,000 a year isn't supported and is inaccurate. It was funded from an existing contract within existing budgetary levels," it adds.

The project was given to a trusted defence contractor and although details of the contract have not been revealed, the documents suggest that it was handled so as not to expose Project Condign to scrutiny. In the initial 1993 correspondence on the subject, a memo from DI55 refers to the potential "political embarrassment" of the project becoming known. It goes on: "I believe that opening a new contract especially for this study and using competitive tendering would potentially expose the study to too wide an audience."

But Pope believes this was simply a practical measure. "Using an existing contract is always going to be easier than actually commissioning a new one," he says. "It wasn't an attempt to take it outside scrutiny. It was a quick fix."

Suspicious minds

The internal memos and briefing notes are peppered with hints of the considerable scepticism the DI55 wing commander encountered from superiors. In the original August 1993 brief he writes: "I am well aware that anyone who talks about UFOs is treated with a certain degree of suspicion. I am briefing on the topic because DI55 have a UFO responsibility, not because I talk to little green men every night!"

And in a later document he describes a briefing by DI55 on the subject. "The scientists and engineers present treated to [sic] topic seriously while non scientists (or those without a physical science background) made the usual jokes about little green men and mass hallucination!"

When Project Condign was eventually completed in 2000 it concluded that there was no evidence that UAPs were of extra-terrestrial origin. But there was a limit to what the author could do, because he was not allowed to interview people who had witnessed UAP events or talk to experts.

"The nature of the security classification meant he was unable to discuss the study with scientists who might have been able to advise him on the credibility of the conclusions he reached," says Clarke. This explains Project Condign's baffling conclusion - that UAPs are real, but caused by strange plasmas, which are on the fringes of scientific understanding. "He ended up trying to explain one mystery by reference to another," says Pope.

http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly ... 70,00.html

 

[eburacum]

And he speculates: "If the sightings are of devices not of the Earth then their purpose needs to be established as a matter of priority ... possibilities are: 1 Military reconnaissance. 2 Scientific. 3 Tourism."

These tourists seem to like Bonnybridge by all accounts...

 

[rynner2]

MoD opens its files on UFO sightings to public

James Randerson
Thursday May 3, 2007
The Guardian

The Ministry of Defence plans to open its "X-Files" on UFO sightings to the public for the first time. Officials have not yet decided on a date for the release of the reports, which date back to 1967, but it is hoped to be within weeks.
The move follows the decision by the French national space agency to release its UFO files in March, the first official body in the world to do so.

UFO buffs will be keen to find out what officials knew about some of the UK's most famous sightings and whether any action was taken. One celebrated event - at Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk, in 1980 - has been dubbed "Britain's Roswell" after the UFO incident in the US in 1947. At Rendlesham there were several witness reports of a UFO apparently landing. The released files should support or discount claims that radiation was detected at the site after the event.

David Clarke, a lecturer in journalism at Sheffield Hallam University and author of Flying Saucerers: A Social History of UFOlogy, said opening the MoD's files would make it harder to sustain the idea that evidence for the existence of aliens has been suppressed. "The more of this stuff that they put on their website or put in the national archives, the less it will cost the taxpayer, because at the moment people are writing in about individual incidents and they are having respond," said Dr Clarke, referring to requests under the Freedom of Information Act.

The documents due for release are witness reports of apparent UFO sightings, many by civil pilots and military personnel. Most were simply collected and filed by a small, secret unit within defence intelligence called DI55. A few are thought to have been investigated further by the military, but the details have never been made public. There are 24 files due for release, each containing 200-300 reports of sightings, plus internal MoD briefings and correspondence.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story ... 75,00.html

 

[Timble2]

This report looks like it might be from the MOD files, however, the chap who's investigating it is a bit optomistic, I think the trail might be a bit cold after 31 years.

Hunts Post

A close encounter in Norfolk Road
02 May 2007

A RESEARCHER is trying to unravel a Huntingdonshire UFO mystery that has just been uncovered after more than 30 years.

It took place in November, 1976, in the skies above Huntingdon.

A man, who gave his address as Norfolk Road, had been out walking his dog when he spotted an object in the sky. According to a letter, it was to be his 'close encounter'.

UFO researcher John Hanson, 61, has uncovered the letter, which was sent to the Ministry of Defence, detailing the unidentified flying object experience.

"It seems this gentleman had been taking his dog for a walk in the Sapley Playing Fields area at about 6.20am on November 5," Mr Hanson said. "As he made his regular walk, he came across a most unusual object hovering above the ground with the letters VAWCON marked on the side."

Mr Hanson, a retired police officer, claims that an RAF investigator was dispatched from RAF Wyton to interview the man about the sighting.

The man, who only wished to be identified as Dave, was said to have told the official: "I saw a dome-shaped structure with coloured lights on the top, hovering above the playing field. It had a telescopic probe which appeared from its metallic dome structure. I was petrified and ran home."

The man also drew a sketch of the craft.

The documents have only come to light recently, following investigations by Mr Hanson, who lives in Worcestershire.

Mr Hanson, who has been researching the paranormal since his retirement from the police force in 1995, said: "This case is one of the most unusual I have discovered during my investigations. I've got an open mind about the existence of aliens but there does seem to be lots of evidence - and a lot of hoaxes as well.

"I would be delighted to hear from any Hunts Post readers who might be able to shed some light on the incident or help me find the man involved."

George Robbins, 77, chairman of the Norfolk Road Residents Association, has been living in the road since 1973, but believes it has always been UFO-free.

"I used to know the chap involved but I can't recall anything about a UFO sighting," he said. "UFOs aren't much of a concern, to be honest. We've got more problems with parking and littering."

A police spokesman added: "We do get some calls about UFOs. We had one last Christmas from a woman in Fenland who had seen bright lights above her house.

"We wondered whether it might have been Santa in his sleigh."

There was another report of a UFO sighting on the Oxmoor in 1999, by a resident claiming to have seen a dark shape fly over his house.

The object was described as 'an equilateral triangle with the top cut off'. No action was taken.

* Do you know the man who saw the UFO? Have you seen any strange shapes in the skies above Norfolk Road? E-mail [email protected] with your story or call the news desk on 01480 411481.

 

[rynner2]

Is the truth really out there? At last, the MoD opens its files
Last week, Captain Ray Bower saw strange lights in the sky. Now he, and thousands of others, may be allowed to discover the cause.
By Robert Verkaik
Published: 04 May 2007

"Unidentified object seen. Bright, yellow, thin, stationary. Size of 737. Second object same shape seen behind first at some distance... It could have been as much as a mile wide."

Not the words of a local leaving the Dog and Duck at throwing out time, but the most recent report by a British pilot of a sighting of an unidentified flying object.

It was logged by Captain Ray Bower, a 50-year-old pilot of 22 years experience, who made the observation during a flight over the Channel Islands last week.

If the truth really is out there, then Britain's growing army of UFO hunters hope that Capt Bower's report and thousands of other sightings of cigar-shaped objects and strange flashing lights will eventually prove it.

Bombarded by requests to see the evidence, the Ministry of Defence is to release Britain's official documents of UFO sightings, so the public can judge for themselves whether we are being visited by alien life forms.

A spokeswoman for the MoD said: "We are receiving a lot of requests at the moment to see this information so we have decided to put the reports on our website. But to give this some sort of context we have only ever been interested in reports that have a defence perspective."

The decision will be a blow to Britain's conspiracy industry which has found the MoD's secrecy over UFO sightings compelling evidence of a cover-up. It was only recently that the MoD acknowledged that a government UFO unit, known as S4F (Air) or DI55, even existed.

Capt Bower's report will now be examined by MoD investigators who will try to establish whether what he saw posed any threat to national security.

According to his local newspaper, Capt Bower spotted a bright-yellow light 10 miles west of Alderney while his plane was about 30 miles from the island and at 4,000ft. "It was a very sharp, thin yellow object with a green area. It was 2,000ft up and stationary," he said. "I thought it was about 10 miles away, although I later realised it was approximately 40 miles from us. At first, I thought it was the size of a 737. But it must have been much bigger. It could have been as much as a mile wide."

As he continued his approach to Alderney, he saw a second object further to the west. "It was exactly the same but looked smaller because it was further away," he said. "It was closer to Guernsey. As I got closer to it, it became clear to me that it was tangible. I was in two minds about going towards it to have a closer look but decided against it because of the size of it. I had to think of the safety of the passengers first."

Capt Bower is not alone. Thousands of people have reported sightings to MoD. In 2004, the most recent documents available, the MoD's UFO unit received 88 reports.

But it is the dispassionate observations of pilots and military personnel which the MoD tends to take most seriously. Many of these reports have been transferred to the National Archives Office in Kew.

Britain's most famous UFO sighting was at Rendlesham Forest, near RAF Woodbridge, Suffolk, in 1980. The "Rendlesham File" concerns a sighting of a "glowing" triangular object by US Air Force police.

The documents had only previously been made available to about 20 people who used the American Freedom of Information Act to gain access to them.

The report says that in the early hours of 27 December 1980 a number of US Air Force men witnessed the object hover in the sky, transmitting blue pulsating lights and sending nearby farm animals into a "frenzy". In a report entitled "Unexplained Lights", USAF Lt Col Charles I Halt, the deputy base commander at RAF Bentwaters, adjacent to Woodbridge, told how he witnessed an object emitting a "red sun-like light" moving through the trees.

The MoD's response read: "No evidence was found of any threat to the defence of the United Kingdom, and no further investigations were carried out."

Twenty seven years later the MoD still remains to be convinced of the case for visits by alien life forms.

Capt Bower has also kept an opened mind about his experience. "I'm certainly not saying that it was something of another world," he said. "All I'm saying is that I have never seen anything like it before in all my years of flying."

Britain's most notorious sightings

Devon, October 1967

Sgt Roger Willey and Pc Clifford Waycott were driving along a country lane when they were dazzled by bright white lights in the sky. There have been many theories, including spy ships sent by the Soviet Union.

Winchester, Hampshire, November 1976

Joyce Bowles and Ted Pratt claimed they were visited by aliens while driving on a country lane. They claim their car suddenly shook and then veered off the road into a grass verge. The car was subject to electrical interference as the engine roared. They spotted what appeared to be a cigar-shaped craft with three entities behind a window in the object. As they watched a bearded humanoid wearing a silver suit came out, walked to the car and looked in on the occupants. He then disappeared, and the couple were able to drive off.

Dechmont, West Lothian, November 1979

Bob Taylor's alleged encounter is the only recorded UK case officially investigated by police. Mr Taylor said he came across a large spherical object in a woodland clearing. He claimed two round objects with protruding metal spikes attached themselves to his trousers and began to drag him towards the UFO. The next thing he knew he was coming round lying face down on the grass. The police case is still open.

Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk, 1980

This incident concerned a sighting of a "glowing" triangular object by US Air Force police in Rendlesham Forest, near RAF Woodbridge. In the early hours of 27 December 1980 a number of US Air Force men saw the object hover in the darkness, pulsating with light and sending nearby farm animals into a "frenzy". The MoD's response was a top secret memo that dismissed the event in terms of a threat to national security.

Somewhere over southern England, 1994

The crew of an Air France flight from Nice to London saw a giant disk that seemed change shape and colour. After a minute or so it disappeared.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politi ... 511433.ece

 

[Timble2]

More about that Huntindon UFO from the Hunts post

FOLLOWING last week's article about a UFO sighting above Norfolk Road, The Hunts Post has been inundated with tales of mysterious shapes in the sky.

One reader, John Bray, even sent in this picture, of a close encounter believed to have taken place near the Eaton Oak pub in Eaton Socon.

Mr Bray, who lives in Eaton Socon, claims the photograph was taken by a friend of his in 1979. The friend kept the photograph to himself at first, fearing no one would believe him, but eventually confided in Mr Bray.

Mr Bray claims to have sent the photograph to a "UFO research centre" in Norfolk, who examined the image and could not find "anything wrong with it" to indicate that it wasn't genuine.

As well as Mr Bray's new evidence, the mystery of the UFO sighting in Norfolk Road has become a little clearer.

Sue Plows, of Lammas Gardens, Huntingdon, is the sister of the man involved in the sighting. She told The Hunts Post: "It all happened early one morning. We knew Dave wasn't making it up, we could tell. There were other people around who had seen the same things, and the dog - Pippa - was ill for days afterwards."

David, the fourth child of six, committed suicide in 1991 after a marriage breakdown.

Another reader, Alan Williams from Wyton, suggested that the markings on the side of the craft may have read VRWCON, rather than VAWCON.

Mr Williams says that this could be the registration number of an aircraft from Sarawak, which is now part of Malaysia.

Other readers to contact The Hunts Post included Sawtry woman Linda Ashton, who claimed her family had seen two silver discs fly over their house in Hull in 1976. Mrs Ashton said: "They were there one minute, gone the next. You tend not to make too much of it in case people think you are round the bend."

Eynesbury resident Gina wrote of an experience she had while living in Duxford in the 1970s. She recalls a "bluey-mauve" light enveloping her bedroom, her son, then 18, being scared by humming bright lights in a field.

Gina wrote: "If the spaceships do exist they are very intelligent. Does the intelligence sector of the Government know more than it will ever let on?

 

[rynner2]

WE ARE A UFO HOTSPOT
06:00 - 02 August 2007

The Westcountry is a "hot spot" for sightings of Unidentified Flying Objects, according to a secret Ministry of Defence (MoD) database.

In the last eight years there have been almost 80 unexplained sightings in the skies over the far South West, ranging from 300ft white spheres in Tavistock to spinning orange lights over Glastonbury.

The WMN has also learnt that since 2000, the MoD has stopped investigating reports of unidentified flying objects and the list of sightings has only come to light following a Freedom of Information request.

It means the list of UFOs, just released from the MoD archives, has never been properly investigated by defence experts.

But before the recent shark-inspired panic switches to fears of an alien invasion, it would appear some of the accounts from space-ship spotters can be more easily explained. For example, some of the UFOs listed in the official Government database have so far taken the shape of a telegraph pole, fireworks or helicopters.

In the past, the MoD examined any UFO sighting reports that it received to establish if the UK airspace has been "compromised by hostile and unauthorised activity" as part of the top secret report into Unidentified Aerial Phenomena in the UK Air Defence Region.

"It was not to establish the possibility of extra-terrestrial visitors but to see if there was any information of value to assess the threat of foreign weapons systems," an MoD spokesman said yesterday.

But since 2000 all this has changed: "Defence intelligence staff decided that it was not necessary for them to continue receiving the sighting reports generated by the public and would put the resources into other tasks. The MoD doesn't have the expertise or a role in respect of it and doesn't know of any evidence of the alleged phenomena."

The reports range from a traditional "flying saucer" in Bideford in July 2000 to the more extreme object, the size of a small room "spinning on its own axis", in Torquay in 2001.

The UFOs come in all shapes and sizes too, from a very bright "half-a-mile-long object" over Probus in Cornwall in 2001, to a "silver, cigar-shaped object, moving faster than a nearby plane" in Harracott, Devon in December 2000.

While some of the reports are incredibly vague, others are detailed in their descriptions. On April 7, 2003 a "craft" was spotted in Falmouth with three yellow lights on the port side and three red lights on starboard side. Its shape was "between circular and triangular, or delta wing size" - although the timing of the sighting, at 2.30am, might suggest the spotter was not as alert as they might have been.

Dave Gillham, who founded Cornwall UFO Research Group in 1995, said less light pollution made it easier for people in the Westcountry to see the airborne objects.

"There are only small towns, so once you get out into the country you can see more clearly," he said. "The UFOs are really coloured lights, so they stick out quite a bit in the dark. They come in from the sea and go around the coast. There's a lot going on at the moment. I don't think everything can be explained."

Mr Gillham holds annual conferences in the county with speakers from all over the world to discuss the phenomena.

But he admits it is also a chance for people who have seen something unusual overhead to talk with other like-minded people. "A lot of people get ridiculed for saying they have seen UFOs, so that's why we have the conference."

http://tinyurl.com/39lcl4

 

[rynner2]

MoD to open British UFO X-files
By Aislinn Simpson
Last Updated: 2:12am GMT 24/12/2007

Top-secret details about hundreds of sightings of Unidentified Flying Objects are to be released for public viewing in response to the nation's continuing fascination with the subject.

The Ministry of Defence will release a total of 160 files dating back to that time [sic] to the National Archives in Kew.

The first files will be made available in Spring 2008 and the process is expected to take three years.

The MoD has received reports of over 10,000 UFO sightings since the UFO project was set up in 1950.

After investigation, around 5 per cent remain unexplained. According to Nick Pope, who ran the Ministry of Defence UFO project from 1991 to 1994, some of the sightings are "highly credible".

He decided to speak out about the failure to seriously address the issue after resigning from his MoD post at the Directorate of Defence Security last year. [?]

He claimed that he and his staff spent their time releasing documents in answer to Freedom of Information requests from the media or members of the public instead of interviewing witnesses to more credible sightings

It is understood that the MoD has decided to release the documents because it receives more FoI requests on the subject that on any other.

Mr Pope said that while he was initially sceptical about UFOs, access to the classified files and investigation of a series of spectacular UFO sightings - mainly by police and military personnel - had changed his mind.

One such sighting was of a "vast, triangular-shaped craft" firing a narrow beam of light onto the ground and emitting a low-frequency humming sound that was spotted flying over RAF Cosford in the West Midlands and RAF Shawbury in Shropshire in 1993.

In another incident, at the Twin Bases of RAF Bentwaters and RAF Woodbridge in Suffolk in December 1980, RAF staff were sent to investigate a suspected plane crash after bright lights were reported emanating from nearby woods.

They found a kind of lunar landing module standing on three legs, decorated with strange hieroglyphic-type markings, which then flew off.

The indents it left in the ground were examined the next morning with a Geiger Counter and emitted ten times the normal levels of radiation.

However, the Ministry of Defence does not attempt to identify such aircraft unless it sees "evidence to suggest that UK airspace has been compromised by hostile or unauthorised air activity".

When the French government released all its UFO files earlier this year, the dedicated website promptly crashed due to the number of people trying to access the information.

Mr Pope said he expected to see similar a flurry of interest in the files, which he predicted would convert some sceptics.

"Whatever people think about UFOs, these documents are fascinating and show how the MoD has researched and investigated this mystery for nearly 60 years, without an answer," he said.

A Ministry of Defence spokeswoman confirmed the documents would be released from next year. "There has always been a great deal of interest in this subject," she said.

http://tinyurl.com/yv5zmg

 

[rynner2]

Huge rise in British UFO sightings
By Gary Cleland
Last Updated: 2:41am GMT 08/02/2008

Clusters of up to 100 mysterious objects, bright white lights and strange, triangular shaped objects are just some of a huge surge in UFO sightings reported to the Ministry of Defence last year.

The number of UFO sightings reported to the MoD is up from 97 to 135
The ministry has opened up its own "X-Files" for 2007, revealing 135 UFO sightings from across the UK.

If aliens are choosing the UK as a holiday destination, it appears it is becoming more popular, as the number if sightings has shot up since 97 were reported in 2006.

Last year the MoD released details of UFO sightings for the first time, including an archive back to 1998. Previously, details of classified reports were kept secret for 30 years. Discs, formations, white or orange lights, triangular shaped craft and pipe-like objects were all spotted buzzing around the sky in 2007.

In Duxford, Cambridgeshire on April 12, a witness reported seeing fifty objects, each with an orange light, assembling in the sky before ascending.

Two pilots in different planes above Alderney in the Channel Islands reported the same UFOs on April 23. They saw one bright orange craft, then a gap, followed by an identical object.

In Portsmouth, Hants, in October, a witness watched as "an oval/spherical shaped object approached an aircraft, and appeared to accelerate very fast, and then wobbled from side to side.

"Another object appeared in roughly the same vicinity and then stayed stationary."

In the West Midlands in December, one witness got a shock when a UFO shone a light into her window. The MoD logged: "A giant craft shone a light into the witness's back window. It shot off fast at first to the North East and then started to move at a slow pace."

Another report noted a "an exceedingly bright light, which was stationary, but sometimes flew off" over the Wiltshire skies.

Hilary Porter, from the British Earth and Aerial Mysteries Society (BEAMS) said sightings were becoming increasingly common. She said: "There has been a huge influx of UFOs. Absolutely enormous. There has been these huge formations than have been coming.

"We have had so many calls from people that have seen these huge formations. We have had call after call after call, from business people right down to ordinary folk in their cars. “There have been some very close encounters that have been quite unnerving for the people involved. :shock: We have had other people reporting orb sightings. "

Others maintain that the vast majority of the sightings can be explained. Many are helicopters or other human designed craft like weather balloons and satellites, while others are optical illusions or unusual cloud formations. The MoD made the decision to release the files after a Freedom of Information request.

A spokeswoman said the ministry does not investigate each and every report. "We only investigate if there have been any objects in British air space that may be military," she said.

"Unless there's evidence of a potential threat we don’t investigate to try to identify it."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jh ... ufo107.xml

 

[azuredoor]

Huge rise in British UFO sightings

The number of UFO sightings reported to the MoD is up from 97 to 135

Well its quite staggering really, an increase of 38, oooooo

 

[Pete Younger]

Huge rise in British UFO sightings

The number of UFO sightings reported to the MoD is up from 97 to 135

Well its quite staggering really, an increase of 38, oooooo

For a moment there, I thought your arithmetic was staggeringly out, but I guess you meant 38, ooooow!

 

[taras]

The increase coincides with the Russian air force resuming their flights into (or 'near', depending on who you believe) UK airspace - and the attendant British jets sent to intercept them.