Britain’s former UFO officer reveals the secrets of his job
According to a former employee of the UFO desk, which closed in 2009, the perception that it consisted of “top secret teams of specialist scientists scurrying around the country in a real life version of the X-Files” was “total fiction”.
Instead, daily duties included providing briefings on the ministry of defence’s position on UFOs, undertaking UFO investigations, handling freedom of information requests and managing UFOlogists (UFO “experts”).
The stranger investigations included one into a UFO sighting by a police officer at Chelsea football club and another into a visit by three “men in black” to a person who reported a UFO encounter in Lincolnshire, east England.
According to the files, a hotel owner in Wales once complained to her MP after a UFO landed in a field “from which two tall silver-suited ‘faceless humanoids’ emerged and began “making measurements’”.
Also included in the files are details of a 1995 briefing by one of the defence ministry’s UFO intelligence officers which speculated on why aliens would visit earth.
Despite having no hard evidence for alien craft, the officer explained that any visit would most likely be motivated by military reconnaissance, scientific development or tourism.
In a briefing prepared in 1979, a UFO intelligence officer noted that no radio tracking systems had ever picked up alien transmissions.
The release of the documents came after a request by David Clarke, author of the book The UFO files.
“These records allow us to look behind the scenes of what must have been one of the strangest jobs in Whitehall (shorthand for Britain’s civil service),” said Clarke.
“We now have a fascinating insight into some of the extraordinary reports and briefings which passed over the UFO Desk on a daily basis and how its officers used logic and science in their attempts to explain ‘the unexplained’,” he said.
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Don’t you think that the first sentence bespeaks of Presumptive arrogance?
“Government officials believe aliens may visit Earth and suggest harnessing UFO technology for UK defences, files say.
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”.
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