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Posted: 09-08-2010 08:24 Post subject:

Churchill was a H.G. Well's fan, but did it make it more receptive to accept UFOs as ET crafts when he saw one (if we suppose this sighting took place at all) ? War of the Worlds imagery was really different from 'flying saucers'.
Is there an example of a military, civil servant or politician who suggested an ET origin for 'flying saucers', 'mystery balloons' or 'foo fighters' before 1947 ? To my knowledge, when they studied the 1942 Los Angeles 'attack', the foo fighters, any other Second World War sighting and the 1946 Scandinavian and Greek waves, none of them ever hinted at this possibility. It seems that witnesses did not envision this possibility either, with possibly very few exceptions. Unless we're not told everything.
What could have made Churchill ready to 'recognize' his UFO as extra-terrestrial ? Was there something special in his sighting ?

And there's another problem : Churchill reportedly validated a study in 1952, which concluded there was nothing to UFO sightings. How is it possible, if he believed from his own testimony that they were ET ? More, from different accounts, he was not aware when the commission involved in the making of this report had been created, and learned of its existence only after. If he was convinced of the presence of alien crafts in our skies, and that they threatened the basic foundations of our civilization, their study should have been a priority for him. Unless he was a mischievious character...

Posted: 03-03-2011 09:50 Post subject:

UFO files: threat of alien invasion taken seriously by military
The police, armed forces and intelligence services were all mobilised after a "very successful" practical joke for a student rag week sparked fears of a real alien invasion, newly released secret files reveal.
By Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent 6:30AM GMT 03 Mar 2011 20

The authorities, including four local forces and a bomb disposal unit, swung into action after six "flying saucers" were found by members of the public in a perfect line across southern England.

But fears of a real "war of the worlds" incident petered out after examination of the "spacecraft" showed that it was an elaborate rag week hoax by engineering students.
The incident, which was taken seriously for a number of hours, took place in 1967 but has only just been revealed by secret UFO files released by The National Archives.

They show that early in the morning of 4 September the police and RAF were flooded with calls from the public reporting six small “flying saucers” that had been discovered in locations in a perfect line across southern England from the Isle of Sheppey to the Bristol Channel.
Four police forces, bomb disposal units, the army and the MoD’s intelligence branch were all mobilised, before it emerged the saucers were a hoax by engineering students from Farnborough Technical College.
The joke was only discovered after bomb disposal experts opened up one of the objects and found it was a fake.

The story emerged as part of the largest ever release of UFO files.
They also revealed a number of military sightings of UFOs, a claimed "alien abduction" in London and an unidentified aircraft shadowing a Lancaster bomber.

The extraterrestrial files reveal how the phenomenon was discussed at the highest level of government and security services worldwide, including at the United Nations (UN), the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and was even the subject of a debate in the House of Lords.

The previously-classified records show that in January 1979 – during the peak of the "Winter of Discontent" – in addition to discussions on trade union strikes, the House of Lords held a debate of the subject of UFOs – the only full debate on UFOs ever held in British Parliament.

etc...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/ufo/8357455/UFO-files-threat-of-alien-invasion-taken-seriously-by-military.html

Posted: 03-03-2011 15:07 Post subject:

Posted: 03-03-2011 15:28 Post subject:

Comforting (isn't it?) to know that the responses to what initially was thought to be an actual UFO landing included;

"The army's southern command, four police forces, bomb disposal units, RAF helicopters and the MoD's intelligence branch were all mobilised ... to meet the threat."
"...a Scotland Yard bomb disposal squad with orders to check one of the objects with portable X-ray equipment"
"Another of the "saucers" was sent to be examined by Home Office scientists at Aldermaston..."
"One saucer which was found at Chippenham, Wiltshire, was blown up in a controlled explosion." (!!!!!)

So, let that be a lesson to any ET's out there - the home counties are no place to leave your craft unattended!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/03/alien-invasion-hoax-fooled-ministry

Posted: 03-03-2011 17:28 Post subject:

Posted: 04-03-2011 00:22 Post subject:

"Four ETs and a Teacake" ?

Posted: 04-03-2011 01:19 Post subject:

http://newsthump.com/2011/03/03/people-whove-seen-ufos-are-shit-at-drawing-reveals-mod-files/

Posted: 04-03-2011 04:01 Post subject:

Another one that has been in the public domain for years (which David Clarke gets excited about in the podcast) is the restricted document "Satellite Accidents" - I read a copy of this in my local library a few years ago, where it was a supplement held in a folder of civil defence documents, which had been in the library since 1986 (and only borrowed once!)

Makes you wonder how much other interesting material is already out there, but not filed under "UFOs".

Posted: 04-03-2011 04:40 Post subject:

Ooh, there's an unusual photo in DEFE/24/2024 pages 153-156 worth having a look at.

Someone really ought to do a big index of all the best bits of these Smile

Posted: 04-03-2011 10:38 Post subject:

Posted: 04-03-2011 15:53 Post subject:

Posted: 04-03-2011 21:43 Post subject:

Pretty sure it was covered in detail in Jenny Randles' "UFO Retrievals" too, which was early-mid 1990s.

Some of these new files have got so much raw data in them, just page after page of reports.

Posted: 12-07-2012 08:04 Post subject:

Reality of working on UK's 'X-Files'

Documents released by the National Archives have revealed what life was like for those working on the Ministry of Defence (MoD) UFO desk shut down in 2009.

When it was announced that papers relating to that desk were to be released to the public in 2007, some newspapers went into overdrive. "MoD to to open British UFO X-Files", declared the Daily Telegraph.
When they were actually released in 2008 the BBC News website reported "Files released on UFO sightings" although the Daily Star went with the more dramatic "Brit X-Files open at last".

This suggested a veil finally being lifted to reveal a murky world of unmarked helicopters, blacked-out SUVs, Men In Black operatives and a procession of strange lights in the skies.
The reality, as revealed by the ninth tranche of declassified National Archive documents, is definitely more Yes, Minister than Mulder and Scully.
Those junior intelligence officers working on the desk between 1950 and 2009 spent most of their time on more mundane matters than confirming close encounters.
That desk was closed because the £50,000-a-year budget was diverting "MoD resources from tasks that are relevant to defence".

One of the newly-released papers, from December 2008, shortly before the desk was transferred to the RAF's Air Command, indicates what life was like for those posted to UFO duties.
"In the event I win the lottery over Christmas or walk under a bus, I thought it would be helpful if I gave you some details about the role of the UFO desk beyond the daily mechanics of the job," the current investigator cheerfully wrote in an email.

The vast majority of the desk's work was dealing with UFO reports, the majority of which came via a hotline, where members of the public could leave details of what they had seen.
"People often see things in the sky they cannot explain," he said. "Sometimes, as concerned citizens, they report them to us since they believe we will be able to identify what they have seen."

The latest papers show examples of the kind of sightings reported. In 1977, for instance, a spate of UFO sightings in west Wales led to local MP Nicholas Edwards becoming "inundated" with reports and asking the MoD to investigate.
A local hotel owner said a dome-like object landed "like the moon falling down" behind the hotel - she saw two tall silver-suited "faceless humanoids" come out of the object and start "making measurements".
An RAF police officer was called in to interview the woman and suspected a silver protective suit seen in a shop window in nearby Haverfordwest might have been just too tempting for a local practical joker.

Over its 59-year career, the MoD unit investigated more than 10,000 "sightings" - a rate of one every two days. Most, it appears, had an everyday explanation, from aircraft, to balloons, reflected lights or other innocent activity.

"From time to time, we may receive a report from aircrew, air traffic control or the police that, in our judgement, may deserve a closer look since they are either trained observers or are sufficiently well-versed in aviation matters for their reports to carry more weight and detail than usual," the email said.
The desk would then have to liaise with experts and attempt to provide a rational explanation.

One example - which at the time prompted a letter to defence officials over why RAF fighters had not been scrambled - took place in 1996.
Police officers in Skegness and Boston in Lincolnshire spotted a UFO, according to MP Martin Redmond, and that something had also had been picked up by RAF radar.

An investigation carried out by an RAF wing commander said the Royal Greenwich Observatory had identified the lights spotted by the police as particularly bright stars.

[The scientific work of the observatory was relocated elsewhere in stages in the first half of the 20th century, and the Greenwich site is now maintained as a tourist attraction.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Greenwich_Observatory ]

Those radar signatures? Apparently an echo from the spire of Boston's St Botolph's Church. Rolling Eyes

By the end of the unit's life, about 5% of cases investigated remained unexplained.

A lengthy briefing was given to Prime Minister Tony Blair in 1998, just as the incoming Labour government was implementing the White Paper on Freedom of Information (FoI).
Nick Redfern, author of a book on the UK government's UFO files, had urged the new PM "to consider making available for public scrutiny all of the many and varied UFO reports compiled by the government".

In an earlier briefing document for a House of Lords debate on UFOs, a previous incumbent was moved almost to poetry, questioning why aliens would want to come to "an insignificant planet (the Earth) of an uninteresting star (the Sun)".
The intelligence officer recovered from this philosophical conundrum to conclude that "claims of thousands of visits in the last decade or so are far too large to be credible".

The officer in 2008 said he expected to receive at least 100 FoI requests each year.

Some conspiracy theorists believed the fact the MoD had a UFO desk meant there was much behind-the-scenes investigation of alien visits.
The intelligence officer's email rejects that idea: "[It] tends to suggest to the public that there are Top Secret teams of specialist scientists scurrying around the country in a real life version of the X-Files… [but] this is total fiction.

"The closest we have to the post of 'UFO Expert' is probably my own, but this has always been a generalist, non-technical post with the emphasis on correspondence with the public.

"Whilst I have naturally built up some degree of knowledge of various UFO cases as part of my tenure in this post, I often find the best source of information is simply to Google the internet!". Shocked

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18797688

So, our experts got their info from tourist attractions and Google! Twisted Evil

Posted: 12-07-2012 08:46 Post subject:

A different angle from the Telegraph:

The UFO Files: aliens 'might come here for holidays'
Government officials believe aliens may visit Earth and suggest harnessing UFO technology for UK defences, files say.
By Hannah Furness
12:01AM BST 12 Jul 2012

Documents from the Ministry of Defence classified archives show staff believed aliens could visit for “military reconnaissance”, “scientific” research or “tourism”.

In a 1995 briefing now published by the National Archives, a desk officer said the purpose of reported alien craft sightings “needs to be established as a matter of priority”, adding there did not appear to be “hostile intent”.
The unnamed official said it was “essential that we start with open minds”, explaining “what is scientific ‘fact’ today may not be true tomorrow”.
Clarifying he did not “talk to little green men every night”, he said: “We have a remit that we have never satisfied. That is, we do not now (sic) if UFOs exist.
“If they do exist, we do not know what they are, their purpose or if they pose a threat to the UK.

“If the sightings are of devices not of the earth then their purpose needs to be established as a matter of priority. There has been no apparent hostile intent and other possibilities are: 1) Military reconnaissance; 2) Scientific; 3) Tourism.”
He added that “if reports are taken at face value” they showed extraterrestrial vehicles had “a very wide range of speeds and are stealthy”.
Thus, he suggested, “we could use this technology, if it exists”.

His briefing document lists possible reasons for UFO sightings, including mass hallucinations, US aircraft, “atmospheric events” and hoaxes, but indicated none provide a fully convincing explanation.

It adds there are “some indications that the reported incidents are only the tip of an iceberg and many people do not wish to risk embarrassment and so do not report sightings”.

He also noted that the number of reports of “strange objects in the skies” increased dramatically after the Second World War, with most sightings coming from “farmers, policemen, doctors and lovers”.
“Most people think that UFOs are a recent phenomena (sic) but they are not,” he said. “There are reasonably reliable reports of strange objects in the skies dating back hundreds of years.”

In 1979, an official briefing written by the MoD in preparation for a House of Lords debate on UFOs questioned why aliens would want to visit the Earth.
An unnamed intelligence officer said it would be prudent to consider the number of stars in the universe, the number which might have inhabitable planets and a list of interesting places in the universe that an intelligent community might wish to visit".
He said: “A visit to an insignificant planet (the earth) of an uninteresting star (the sun) would probably not occur more than once in a thousand years or so, even if one assumes that every intelligent community made say 10 launches a year.”
Thus, he concluded, “claims of thousands of visits in the last decade or so are far too large to be credible”.

Papers also show the existence of a "Flying Saucer Working Party" within government during 1950-52.
In 1998, one worried member of staff annotated the file to say: “Oh dear! This makes our 'no interest' in [flying saucers] look suspect. I know not now but maybe then."

Dr David Clarke, UFO consultant at the National Archives and university lecturer, said: “These files also detail the background to the MoD’s decision to release these files to the public in the first place, something I had been campaigning for over several years under the Freedom of Information Act.
"Now they have been released at The National Archives they will provide future generations with a fascinating snapshot of an unexplored aspect of contemporary social history.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/ufo/9392888/The-UFO-Files-aliens-might-come-here-for-holidays.html