Nick Pope Revisited

Let’s start again. I was a little disturbed about the allegations slung at Nick Pope by Dr. David Clarke recently and that Nick Pope had not had the opportunity to respond to them. I also want to point out that I have no dog in this fight and was looking for a little fairness in all this. I expected some pushback, but, in this world today, who wouldn’t expect some pushback. I have now heard from a number of others about all this. First, I suppose, is to answer the question of why Dr. David Clarke would bring this up now, if the issue had been settled decades earlier. According to what he told me; the simple answer is that he didn’t. He was responding to a question asked by Martin Willis during Willis’ podcast.

By Kevin Randle A Different Perspective 11-30-20

Nick Redfern

Photo copyright by Kevin Randle

Second, all those who emailed me seemed to object to my use of the term “allegations” against Nick Pope. All who emailed me said that there had been no allegations, just statement of facts. One of those facts, an important one, had to do with Nick Pope’s duty at the MoD and whether or not he, Nick Pope, had conducted official UFO investigations. While serving in the MoD, Nick Pope had other duties and devoted only 20% of his salary to dealing with UFOs. In other words, the majority of his time went to other things. His UFO duties involved taking down the initial information about a UFO sighting and then passing it on to another organization. To quote Nick Redfern (and now you know why I kept saying Nick Pope), back in 1994, Nick Pope told Nick Redfern, “There is no specific ‘UFO budget,’ except the staff costs, i.e. around 20% of my salary, together with a tiny percent of some other salaries, reflecting my line management’s supervisory role.”

For those interested, here is a link to an article an Nick Redfern published a number of years ago that dealt with some of this.

That, of course, does not rule out Nick Pope having investigated UFO sightings. It suggests that there wasn’t much of a budget for any investigation. It could be said that the initial intake of information over the telephone is part of an investigation, though certainly not the most important aspect of it. However, there is additional information that is relevant to the discussion.

David Clarke noted in communication with me, “Sec(AS) [Secretariat Air Staff] where Nick worked 1991 – 1993 was not authorized or funded to investigate UFO reports.”

That seems to be fairly definitive but there is more relevant information. According to what David Clarke provided, “This is set out clearly in the attached policy document from 1997, written by Pope's line manager, that says any follow-up investigations that were required were carried out by the DI55 intelligence staff and/or the Royal Air Force.”

In still another document that came from official sources, and of which I now have a copy, it says:

Mr. Pope at one time served as EO (Band D) in the Secretariat Air Staff [a junior civil servant grade] ... [and] left Sec(AS) in 1994...and his knowledge of this issue, other than from publicly available sources, must be regarded as dated. Mr. Pope elected to describe his position as the "Head of the MoD's UFO Project", a term entirely of his own invention, and he has used his experience and information he gathered (frequently going beyond the official remit of his position) to develop a parallel career as a pundit on the topic, including writing several books, some purportedly non-fiction. Mr. Pope constantly puts himself forward in various parts of the media, solicited and unsolicited, as an "expert" (despite his lack of recent knowledge about the work carried on in the branch concerned) and seeks credit amongst other aficionados for having "forced" the MoD to reveal its "secret" files on the subject. The latter is far from the truth...

Finally, in what might be the final straw here, David Clarke provided the following, “In another document from the same period, the head of the Air Historical Branch (RAF) is even more forthright, saying ‘Far from accurately representing the Department's position, he [Pope] has sought to embellish the truth at almost every turn’.”

I suppose, that if you wish to be generous, you could say that taking the initial report and asking questions about it could be considered part of an official investigation. But that is really stretching a point and doesn’t accurately reflect the situation. The actual investigation into the reports that demanded additional work was carried about by other British government organizations and Nick Pope had virtually nothing to do with that.

But the real problem here is what Nick Pope published on his own website. Any errors, embellishments, alterations of fact can’t be blamed on the webmaster. Nick Pope approved the content. This biography said:

Nick Pope ran the British Government’s UFO project. From 1991 to 1994 he researched and investigated UFOs, alien abductions, crop circles and other strange phenomena, leading the media to call him the real Fox Mulder. His government background and his level-headed views have made him the media, film and TV industry’s go-to guy when it comes to UFOs, the unexplained and conspiracy theories.

Another aspect of this was that Nick Pope had apparently accused David Clarke of plagiarism and of being a needy, dishonest ufologist. The direct quote from David Clarke is, “Nick Pope has called me dishonest, a liar, a nut and a serial plagiarizer - despite providing absolutely no evidence for any of these things all of which are seriously defamatory.” But this particular allegation has been debunked by Hayley Stevens a post to her blog which you can read here.

I mean you can disagree with someone but this is unreasonable. There is additional information contained in this post that sheds additional light on the problem. Some of the sources or documents she mentions I have seen and have copies for verification.

I’m not sure if this is piling on, or if it is relevant information. As noted above, Nick Pope claimed that he had investigated claims of alien abduction, crop circle formations or animal mutilations as part of his job at the MoD. Philip Mantle supplied the following information: Just read this from UK documentary producer Matt Quinn. This was posted in the comments section of the martin Willis podcast:

From that reference Phillippe... "From 1991 to 1994 Mr. Pope worked as a civil servant within Secretariat (air staff). He undertook a wide range of secretariat tasks relating to central policy, political and parliamentary aspects of non-operational RAF activity. Part of his duties related to the investigation of unidentified aerial phenomena reported to the Department to see if they had any defence significance." This doesn't actually contradict what David Clark has said, and what has been 'common knowledge' for a very long time... it also completely fails to support in any way, Nick Pope's ridiculously-aggrandised claims... But in reality? I can only paraphrase Martha and the Muffins...

" _From nine to five, he had to spend his time at work His job was very boring as an office clerk The only thing that helped him pass the time away Was knowing he'd be back at Echo Beach someday_ " As we're 'buying' UK government publications (when it suits) do a search with the UK's National Archive service... And I do very much encourage you to do your own legwork; don't just take my word for it. I can tell you (as a media professional) that when 'Open Skies Closed Minds' was published it was generally received by the press as highly entertaining bollocks... riding a wave that was well in motion at the time. Just a 'jolly japes' type romp through an over-egged fantasy world... Good copy, bit of a laugh. But Nick Pope always had more in common with Dilbert than Mulder. The woman who got Nick Pope's job after him is called Kerry Philpott, and is on record stating there was no "strange phenomena section" at the MOD and that whilst Nick had been an 'EO' - Junior management grade administrator - just as she now was, she wrote "neither he nor indeed am I the head of any 'UFO' section"...

There is a chap called James Easton who is fairly well known here in Scotland as something of a 'UFOlogist'. Way back in 1999 he wrote an open letter to the MOD which posed many questions about Nick's duties and the MOD's locus in relation to various 'Fortean' phenomena... The response he got was. “The main duties of the post concern non-operational RAF activities overseas and diplomatic clearance policy for military flights abroad. A small percentage of time is spent dealing with reports from the public about alleged ‘UFO’ sightings and associated public correspondence. The MoD has not investigated a claim of alien abduction, crop circle formations or animal mutilation.” I'm sure it's now well over a decade since David Clark put that information up on his own site - over 20 since James got the response he did from the MOD and I honestly cannot tell you of anyone (except the incredibly non-credible) to whom that was in any way, shape or form a surprise. David Clark hasn't lied. - You don't have to like the guy, or not be disappointed at Nick. But David hasn't lied.

This then, is the other side of the coin. I provided Nick Pope with a platform for his comments, and it is only fair that I supply the others with a similar courtesy. I’m inclined to say that the reader should take his or her own view of the material and decide what to believe. However, that is a somewhat weasel-worded claim for me to make. I waded into this swamp because I believed that Nick Pope should be heard, but now, having seen the other side, and although I think of Nick Pope as a friend (and can say the same about Philip Mantle and Nick Redfern), I must come down on their side of the fence.

What we see here is just another of the nasty fights that erupt in this field, though this one played out in the UK rather than here in America. If you care to comment, then you must be prepared for the consequences of that commentary. It had seemed to me, originally, that this was a bit of a fight over semantics, but it has, of course, ranged far beyond that. I don’t like the name calling or the allegations of plagiarism, having had that directed at me for a long time, but sometimes you just have to make a stand.

Here then, is what I believe to be the whole truth of the matter. And while I could say that I wish I had not involved myself in it, I would rather say that I think here is enough information that we all know the truth.

Following is one of those documents that seems to clarify the situation. I append it here for those who wish to see a little more of the evidence.

Continue Reading ►

See Also:

Did Nick Pope Investigate UFOs for the UK MoD?

UFO Experts Nick Pope And David Clarke – Rumble in The UK

British UFO Document Release Designed to Deflect Public and Media Interest Says Former Ministry of Defence UFO Specialist

UFO Files I Have Loved and Lost

Nick Pope Refutes Abduction Story, says, 'I've Never Even Seen a UFO!'

REPORT YOUR UFO EXPERIENCE

Did Nick Pope Investigate UFOs for the UK MoD?

In the UFO community, there are always disagreements and sometimes allegations are slung that have no basis in fact. I have been called a shill for the Air Force, I have been accused of working for Hector Quintanilla and Project Blue Book, and that I am an anti-abduction propagandist who writes fiction. The only truth in all that is that I do write fiction including science fiction but does that really disqualify me from UFO investigation? Wouldn’t my background in the military and my training in various fields suggest I can bring some important insights to UFO investigation?

By Kevin Randle A Different Perspective 11-27-20

I say all this because Dr. David Clarke has again suggested that Nick Pope, sometimes described as Britain’s Fox Mulder (because the news media loves to reduce everything to the lowest common denominator) didn’t investigate anything officially. Clarke told Martin Willis, during Willis’ recent podcast, “There was a UFO desk when he was an incumbent for three years but he was just one of dozens of people who did that task and he didn’t actually investigate anything.”

Clarke went on to say that Nick Pope merely received the reports and that he then filed them. The people responsible for the investigations was the Defence Intelligence Staff, DISS. It was their job to conduct the UFO investigations that were believed to have some sort of military significance.

Clarke said, “I’ve interviewed most of the people who worked on this subject in DISS at that time and they tell me ‘well, Nick Pope didn’t have any involvement in this. We did the investigations, we didn’t share information with them because we didn’t trust them.” He meant that the civilian servants tended to leak information into the public arena which is why they didn’t trust them.

Of course, this really is nothing new. Clarke has raised these allegations in the past and Nick has refuted them in the past. This sort of thing seems to dot the UFO landscape. It doesn’t matter how many times the allegations are challenged; they seem to pop up again and again.

Philip Mantle, the force behind Flying Disk Press, and someone who can’t be seen as a skeptic, wrote to a number of UFO researcher around the world this last week:

Over the past few days social media has been buzzing regarding allegations made by Dr. David Clarke. Dr. Clarke was interviewed by Martin Willis on his podcast on the 18th of November. At around halfway through this one hour interview Martin asked David about Nick Pope. As most of you will know Mr. Pope claims to have run the UK government’s UFO project and had officially investigated UFOs, crop circles and alien abductions as part of his MoD job. Dr. Clarke publicly stated that his is not the case and that Mr. Pope undertook no such work and there never was nor is there a UK government ‘UFO PROJECT’…

Dr. David Clarke is not the only source of information regarding Nick Pope. Personally I have been making my own enquiries which are still on-going. Although my enquiries are not yet complete I have seen and heard enough to convince me that Dr. Clarke is indeed correct. As a result just yesterday [November 25] I removed Nick Pope’s foreword for the revised edition of my book “WITHOUT CONSENT”.

Of course Nick Pope denies these allegations but now the ball is [simply] in his court. Can Nick Pope provide any official documentation that states he ran the UK government’s UFO Project? Well the MoD also claims that he did no such thing. If he can’t then is this the beginning of the end of Nick Pope?

Still, there is some smoke, but is there any fire. I particularly liked the idea that Nick present some sort of documentation. I have had the same sort of requests made of me when people wondered if I had been completely honest about my background. I provided the documentation, though a couple of times it took some convincing for the controlling agencies to release the data. I always attempt to supply the information requested to stop the rumors.

I have also found that those who can’t provide the evidence tend to come up with the “I’m not going to dignify that request with any sort of response defense.” I’ve always taken that to mean that they can’t provide the evidence so they just dodge the question with this non response… Or they fall back on the old the records have been altered or have been destroyed. Huge red flags when dealing with these sorts of allegations.

I reached out to Nick Pope, who was, of course, aware of this latest brouhaha. Within minutes, I had an answer from Nick. He mentioned that this allegation had been around for years and it had been answered time and again. He pointed out that he had been interviewed on a number of high-level television, radio, and newspaper reporters and had appeared in numerous documentaries. He suggested that those reporters had vetted him and found his claims to be credible…

Well, given the state of journalism today, and knowing that documentary producers often have their own agendas, I wasn’t particularly swayed by that argument. Some might have checked, but I figure most hadn’t. They just believed what they were told because that was easier than doing any real investigation.

That wasn’t all he said. He provided a link to an official document that seemed to underscore what he claimed. You can read that here.

If you scroll down slightly, you’ll find a question that was asked in the British parliament that seemed to suggest that Nick did investigate UFOs. It is not a ringing endorsement, but does suggest that Nick was telling the truth about his involvement, officially, in UFO investigations.

So, to answer Philip Mantle’s question, it seems that Nick did supply an official document that states he ran the project. For those who don’t want to go to all that trouble, here is that brief statement:

From 1991 to 1994 Mr. Pope worked as a civil servant within Secretariat (air staff). He undertook a wide range of secretariat tasks relating to central policy, political and parliamentary aspects of non-operational RAF activity. Part of his duties related to the investigation of unidentified aerial phenomena reported to the Department to see if they had any defence significance.

As I say, not exactly a ringing endorsement, but it the same sort of endorsement we’ve seen for Louis Elizondo and the AATIP project he might have run. We are now in a world of secrets and bureaucracies and double speak so it is hard to define the truth. At the moment we have no real answer, other than Nick did supply official documents but it didn’t go quite as far as I would have liked.

That’s not all. Since the bar was set very low, it wasn’t very difficult to overcome. Other official documents show that Nick did investigate UFOs while serving at the MoD. You can see some of them here:

https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/ufos/UK/defe-24-1972.pdf

http://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/ufos/UK/defe-24-2086.pdf

As a final bit of evidence, Nick was interviewed for a documentary and according to that documentary, was the spokesman for the MoD UFO program. For those interested, you can watch it below:

I will note, for those who don’t wish to watch the whole thing, that the relevant part begins at the fifteen minute mark. Nick also wrote, “I don't think there's rivalry between David Clarke and I. I remember Clarke from the British UFO Research Association, so we're not rivals - merely people who come at this subject from different sides of the fence: him as a ufologist, me as someone who's looked at the phenomenon as part of my government job. Obviously, it's frustrating when someone misunderstands or misrepresents my government work, but the lie that I didn't investigate UFOs for the MoD was nailed years ago, and obviously the official website of British parliament is an unimpeachable source. QED.”

This whole thing might just boil down to one man making claims about another and that man providing evidence that those claims are false. Given that this has played out long before, this might just be much ado about nothing.

Continue Reading ►

See Also:

UFO Experts Nick Pope And David Clarke – Rumble in The UK

British UFO Document Release Designed to Deflect Public and Media Interest Says Former Ministry of Defence UFO Specialist

UFO Files I Have Loved and Lost

Nick Pope Refutes Abduction Story, says, 'I've Never Even Seen a UFO!'

REPORT YOUR UFO EXPERIENCE

UFOs and Politics

When the Republicans release this as their closing paragraph of a multi-year investigation into Trump. Hard to call this fake news when the red team is the one that put it out. Stay tuned for some sealed indictments that may finally start rolling out - pic.twitter.com/nuGAkcpl1v

— Tom DeLonge (@tomdelonge) October 18, 2020

Tom DeLonge has been expressing his political views on Twitter. After writing a line like that about DeLonge, reporters and bloggers typically give readers an obligatory few sentences about how he is the unlikely front man of an organization consisting of former defense officials and contractors who purport to research UFOs. We'll skip the intro since you probably already know about TTSA if you're reading my blog in the first place, but we could add that very little in the way of compelling evidence has actually been produced by those former officials and contractors. After decades of spooky stories and promises of forthcoming UFO Disclosure, we continue to have little more than hearsay to show for it.

By Jack Brewer The UFO Trail 10-19-20

While plenty of the burden falls on the shoulders of self-described scientists who plundered around Skinwalker Ranch, it's not all their fault. It's been three years now since Kean and company broke the AATIP story in the Times, and there are a whole lot of relevant assertions made in that article that still haven't been verified. The Times, its writers, and TTSA bear responsibility for that.

As we have explored on this blog and elsewhere, the Disclosure movement is a chronic staple of the UFO genre. It has endured some 70 years of public hearings, Congressional panels, and forecasts of big things to come. Nonetheless, many UFO advocates continue to suggest a Congressional hearing will, this time, reveal the secrets that are surely withheld.

Deeply withheld secrets, we might add, that allegedly seem to be rather puzzlingly made available to men like Luis Elizondo. These men, secrets purportedly in hand, apparently decided to launch a corporation with a stock securities strategy for fundraising rather than seek counsel from attorneys with expertise in national security and whistleblower law. It might indeed be considered reasonable to tap some brakes on the validity and objectivity of their insider knowledge that rests so heavily on taking them at their word.

As DeLonge weighs in on the upcoming election, we could consider a prevailing point that towers above the support and criticism he receives: The UFO topic is married to the political arena.

In order to realistically discuss possible Congressional hearings and initiatives (like the Rubio-backed effort to obtain a DoD appraisal of the UAP situation), we must consider political allegiances and related dynamics. Moreover, while some high profile characters state they support a nonpartisan approach and that politics should stay out of the UFO fray, their actions suggest somewhat otherwise.

I thought @TuckerCarlson made two really good points during our interview the other day: 1. There is nothing partisan about the #UAP issue (and we need to keep it that way!) & 2. Were it not for COVID, the UAP issue would be getting a great deal more coverage than it already is.

— Christopher K. Mellon (@ChristopherKMe4) October 13, 2020

As suggested in the above tweet, TTSA personnel and its friends of the program are fond of guest spots on the right wing, highly dubious FOX News. The "highly dubious" description I opted to use is not just my personal observation, but is in line with court filings by FOX itself. Attorneys argued on behalf of FOX that reasonable viewers do not take Carlson seriously and understand his segments to be hyperbole, as suggested in the screenshot below.

In my interview with Tucker Carlson yesterday I floated the idea of a NASA sample-return mission to Venus, but stressed it would need strict adherence to the relevant back contamination protocols. Or, as I put it, guarding against "the Venus flu".https://t.co/T95Eyzj1GZ

— Nick Pope (@nickpopemod) September 15, 2020

The seemingly ever present Nick Pope is also among those who frequent Carlson's show and discuss issues which many would argue he is not the least bit qualified to address, much less explain. The political leanings of Pope, who generally supports TTSA or most anything that keeps people talking about UFOs, may be explored at his Twitter account.

UFO enthusiasts and TTSA fans, whether they like it or not, are somewhat forced to accept that Congressional support for the UAP topic is enmeshed with political issues. Acknowledging the political factor in the UFO arena is a sensitive undertaking for the talking heads because it lays bare the topic's often overlooked social complexity. It is often overlooked, both mistakenly and as an insincere matter of convenience, in lieu of promoting an overly simplistic and unrealistic model. UFO buffs might also consider why their preferred spokespeople, if they sincerely want to keep the topic as apolitical and nonpartisan as possible, congregate to talk about it on the defacto state media channel.

Continue Reading ►

See Also:

"Mr. President ... Start Tweeting About UFOs, Now, Before It’s Too Late"

Shadowing Jimmy Carter's UFO Legacy

Gerald Ford Made UFOs a Political Issue

REPORT YOUR UFO EXPERIENCE

Future Release of RAF’s Secret UFO ‘X-files’ Ain't Happening

The Truth in NOT in here…

The RAF’s secret ‘X-files’ of reported UFO sightings in British skies are to be placed online for the first time – according to the media.

This was the hyperbolic story published by the Mail Online, Metro, The Sun, Fox News and assorted others on Monday, 27 January 2020. Their source was the Press Association who made a request under the Freedom of Information Act for data on UFO sightings reported to the Ministry of Defence since the closure of their UFO unit in November 2009. The MoD responded to a similar FOI request from me, on 23 January 2018, as follows:

By David Clarke The UFO Chronicles 2-17-20

“The MoD ceased investigating UFO reports after 2009 because they served no defence benefit. Nonetheless, the Department has continued to receive requests for UFO records from members of the public and, occasionally, reports of their own UFO sightings. Therefore, while the MoD does hold information relating to UFOs since 2009, these consist solely of emails and letters from members of the public and the Department’s responses.”

Self-styled ‘former head of the [non-existent] British government UFO project’ Nick Pope is quoted by the MailOnline as saying he is pleased the public are going to be given an insight into ‘our work on these real-life X-files‘.

Sadly nothing could be further from the truth. As the MoD have made clear on numerous occasions, no work has been done on these ‘real life X-files’ since the admin office that logged calls was cut in 2009.

Originally MoD intended to retain any letters received after 30 November 2009 for just 30 days and then destroy them, ‘largely removing any future FOI liability and negate the need to release future files’.

But it seems they overlooked their own ‘Guidance to Record Reviewers’, issued in 2011. This lists records on UFOs as being ‘historically significant’ and protected from destruction. My 2013 blog post UFO Files – saved! explains how this decision came about.

Therefore, the records currently being scanned for release online via a dedicated gov.uk webpage consist entirely of:

a) letters and emails reporting mainly ‘lights in the sky’ received by MoD since the closure of their UFO desk in November 2009, with personal information (names and addresses) redacted. In effect exactly the same type of ‘report’ that can be found in the records released before 2009 available here and here.

b) duplicate copies of a standard letter that is issued in response to public inquiries that blankly states the MoD’s official line on the subject. This says they have no information or expertise on the subject of extraterrestrial life and all their surviving historical UFO records have now been transferred to The National Archives.

In summary, there is definitely nothing remotely ‘top secret’ being hidden away within these records and, as this link to MoD UFO reports 1997-2009 proves it is also not the first time – as incorrectly claimed – the UK MoD has made this type of material available online.

This is just the latest example of the UK media seeking out a story, any story!, about UFOs and aliens, in this case as light relief from the bleak January news agenda full of Brexit, epidemics and other miseries.

As one former Fleet Street journalist once said, “sometimes it just seems like it’s the right time to run another UFO story”.

And if there is no story, then just make one up.

It is of course pleasing that someone, somewhere, in the UK defence establishment is prepared to collate and publish records of this kind.

But missing from these so-called ‘X-files’ is any content that reveals how the MoD and RAF respond to reports of unidentified aerial phenomena reported by military personnel and air defence radar stations.

This material, if it exists, has now been removed from the reach of the Freedom of Information Act. If there are any real journalists out there, this is where you should be looking for a story.

For More, Visit David's Blog ►

See Also:

Why Britain’s MoD Closed the UFO Files: Exclusive New Evidence

British MoD Releases UFO X - Files

UFO Desk: Why MoD Shut Real-Life X-Files

Additional UFO 'X Files' Uncovered in UK

REPORT YOUR UFO EXPERIENCE

Britain 'Could Be Running Secret UFO Study'

A former defence chief believes the
British government could be running a secret UFO study.

This is despite Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson claiming he has 'no plans' to open the secret department. Britain's UFO desk, which probed notorious sighting such as Shropshire's 'Cosford Incident', closed in 2009.

By Jamie Brassington www.shropshirestar.com 2-15-19

But Nick Pope, who ran the former Ministry of Defence desk from 1991 to 1994, believes parts of the government could still be investigating the phenomena.

[...]

Continue Reading ►

See Also:

Has the British Ministry of Defence Released All of Its UFO Files?

Why Britain’s MoD Closed the UFO Files: Exclusive New Evidence

UFO NEWS | UK | VIDEO: New Release of UFO 'X-files' Shows MoD Took Idea of Alien Visitors Seriously

REPORT YOUR UFO EXPERIENCE

Top-Secret Government ‘UFO Research’ Program

The US Defense Intelligence Agency has released documents which expose some of the work carried during a top-secret UFO research project.

[...]

The latest documents were obtained by Nick Pope, a British researcher who headed up the Ministry of Defence’s UFO desk. They were sent to the Senate’s Committee on Armed Services and show AATIP’s research interest focused on various ‘exotic

By Jasper Hamill metro.co.uk 1-17-19

technologies’. These included wormholes, antigravity, invisibility cloaking, warp drives and high energy laser weapons.

[...]

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Key Documents Related to Pentagon UFO Study Revealed | VIDEO

Documents Prove Secret UFO Study | VIDEO

Senator Harry Reid Fought To Keep Secret Pentagon UFO Program Going

Dr. Eric W. Davis, of NASA's Breakthrough Physics Propulsion Project, Discussed UFOs During Lecture | VIDEO

REPORT YOUR UFO EXPERIENCE

Whistleblower To Disclose 1000s of UFO Files?

[...]

He has yet to be named, but a former British MoD UFO investigator confirmed to us the man is a genuine source, creatinga flurry of excitement within the UFO disclosure community.

thetruthrevolution.net 8-30-18

Nick Pope, who was charged by the MoD with investigating baffling UK UFO cases, including the Rendlesham incident, said: “I’ve actually had some personal communication with this individual, and have no doubts about his background. “It’s clear from the language he uses and the information he has that he’s a genuine insider.” But Mr Pope stopped short of encouraging the whistleblower to come outinto the open.

[...]

Continue Reading ►

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Area 51 Whistleblower, Bob Lazar Reconfirms UFO Information | VIDEO – 25th Anniversary

Snowden UFO Photos Come Under Fire

What Does the CIA Know and When Did It Know It about Roswell?

REPORT YOUR UFO EXPERIENCE

UFO Mysteries Unraveled: ‘Real-Life X-Files’ and a Top Secret UK Project

A former official at the U.K.’s Ministry of Defence has shed new light on the circumstances surrounding a secret government UFO study that was conducted during the 1990s.

By James Rogers Fox News 5-11-18

In 1996, the MoD commissioned a defense contractor to produce a comprehensive report on U.K. UFO sightings. The report was compiled at a time of huge public interest in UFOs fueled by the wildly popular “X-Files” TV series and 1997’s 50th anniversary of the purported UFO incident in Roswell, New Mexico.

[...]

Code-named Project Condign, the report analyzed a database of sightings between 1987 and 1997 and was delivered to officials in 2000. The study, entitled ‘Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) in the UK Air Defence Region,’ found that that sightings could be explained by a variety of known phenomena, both man-made and natural. The incidence of relatively rare natural phenomena was also noted. “No evidence exists to associate the phenomena with any particular nation,” it said.

[...]

Continue Reading ►

See Also:

Project Condign: "In 2006, the British Ministry of Defence Declassified Its Three-Year study of UFOs..."

Has the British Ministry of Defence Released All of Its UFO Files?

Why Britain’s MoD Closed the UFO Files: Exclusive New Evidence

REPORT YOUR UFO EXPERIENCE

Has the British Ministry of Defence Released All of Its UFO Files?

Robert Hastings says “No!” and Nick Pope Agrees

THIS ARTICLE WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN 2013

A new BBC online article, dated June 20, 2013 and titled “UFO sightings: Files explain why MoD closed down special desk”, discusses what I consider to be a calculated decision by the British government to feign a lack of interest in the UFO phenomenon, even as public sighting reports in the UK reached a very high level. At the conclusion of this article, former MoD UFO specialist Nick Pope comments, agreeing with my assessment. In response to the story, I posted the following comment:

By Robert Hastings The UFO Chronicles 5-10-18

“The U.S. Air Force used this same sleight-of-hand in 1969 to get the American public off its back by closing down Project Blue Book. Years later, FOIA requests forced the release of U.S. government files which proved that other groups, including the CIA and NSA, continued to secretly study national security-related UFO incidents in America. Hopefully the British public won't be duped by this ruse.” Were it not for a word-count limit, I would have added that the USAF’s Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) were also involved in sensitive UFO investigations, something not mentioned by the Pentagon during its Blue Book closure announcement.

Similarly, the real situation regarding official interest in UFOs in the UK is far different than the MoD—and its de facto debunking spokesman, Dr. David Clarke—portray when discussing the topic in the media. For example, over the past five years, information has emerged relating to the famous Rendlesham Forest incidents, in December 1980, which confirms that a bona fide UFO was indeed tracked by both British and American radars in the area.

My 2007 tape recorded interviews with the two USAF air traffic controllers on duty at RAF Bentwaters during that time-frame may be read in an article at my website, which also contains a published statement by retired MoD UFO Desk administrator, Nick Pope, regarding former RAF radar operator Nigel Kerr’s independent radar tracking of the same unidentified aerial object.

Significantly, one of the USAF controllers, Ike Barker, told me that the UFO—which appeared as an orange-colored sphere, approximately the size of an F-111 fighter/bomber—had been spotted out the window of the air traffic control tower at the exact moment it was observed to be momentarily hovering on the tower’s radar scope. It then moved rapidly away in the direction of the base’s Weapons Storage Area (WSA) which contained tactical nuclear bombs, according to multiple USAF sources I have interviewed.

RAF Bentwaters’ American Deputy Base Commander at the time, then-Lt. Col. Charles Halt, has been on-the-record about the incident at the WSA since 1991, saying that while he was leading a security team in nearby Rendlesham Forest that night, investigating strange lights seen there, he had heard frantic radio chatter from Security Policemen posted at the bomb depot, reporting that the UFO was hovering near the facility and directing laser-like beams down into it.

While Barker’s testimony differs somewhat in the details, compared with Halt’s account, it does provide a general corroboration of a UFO presence near the WSA in the pre-dawn hours of December 28, 1980. (It may well be that the UFO made more than one pass near the facility, which would explain the discrepancies in their statements: Barker said the UFO flew extremely fast in a southwesterly direction, passing just to the west of the WSA; he did not see it hover nearby the bunker complex or send down beams into it, as the radio chatter heard by Halt indicated.)

So, according to a former USAF deputy base commander and a USAF air traffic controller, a bona fide UFO actually maneuvered very near the largest nuclear weapons storage depot in Western Europe, located in Suffolk, England. Moreover, Col. Halt says security personnel at the site reported that the aerial object apparently targeted at least one of the bunkers there with laser-like rays.

(In 1994, I interviewed another retired USAF colonel, whose identity must remain confidential, who confirmed the incident and further stated that two tactical nukes were subsequently removed from the Bentwaters WSA and flown aboard a C-5A cargo aircraft to Kirtland AFB, New Mexico, for analysis. This individual said that the report he read about the event did not mention the technical findings resulting from that investigation and, therefore, he could not say whether the two bombs had been adversely affected by the beams.)

In spite of these dramatic revelations, the MoD officially claims that its records show no evidence of a UFO threat to the UK’s national security. Clearly, important facts about the Rendlesham Forest incidents are still being suppressed by the British government, despite its recently-hyped claim that it is being transparent with the public regarding its knowledge—or more accurately, lack of knowledge—about the UFO phenomenon.

Moreover, one of the now-retired USAF Security Policemen involved in the multiple UFO events at Rendlesham/RAF Bentwaters that week, Technical Sergeant Jim Penniston, says that Ministry of Defence personnel were present for his harsh debriefing following his encounter with a landed UFO in the woods during the early hours of December 26th. While their role may have been a passive one—leaving the questioning to two USAF officers who were not introduced and whom Penniston did not recognize—the mere presence of persons working for MoD's Air Staff secretariat DS8 hints at an interest in the events in Rendlesham Forest not reflected in the files declassified by the MoD's UFO Desk in the recent past.

In summary, it appears that what the MoD has been engaging in is the selective declassification of UFO-related files, whereby low-level, generally mundane documents are released with much media fanfare, while very sensitive files continue to be withheld from public view. The practice is commonly called “spin”. The purpose of this propaganda tactic is to alter the actual story of official interest in the UFO phenomenon, so that it appears as if there exists only minimal concern or none at all.

My comprehensive exposé on the MoD’s deliberate duplicity and debunker David Clarke’s witting or unwitting role in foisting this UFO disinformation on the British people, may be read at my website.

Robert Hastings adds:

Upon completion of this article, I sent it to former Ministry of Defence UFO Desk administrator Nick Pope, and requested his candid opinion regarding my contentions.
In particular, I asked Pope to provide his assessment of Dr. David Clarke’s self-created role as the authoritative interpreter of the reasons for, and significance of, the MoD’s release of classified UFO documents—a self-serving ploy that members of the British media seem to have swallowed unreservedly. As one will read, Mr. Pope puts things in their proper perspective.

Nick Pope responds:

Classified Documents in the MoD's UFO Files

Project Condign's final report was classified Secret UK Eyes Only, as were some of the supporting papers. Some of the minutes recording discussions relating to the setting up of the Flying Saucer Working Party were classified Top Secret. However, the UK's Freedom of Information Act contains wide-ranging exemptions covering areas such as defense, security and intelligence, among others.

All documents passed to the National Archives will have been reviewed by MoD before being sent out (this is one of the reasons why the release program took five years), so anything released to the public is either unclassified, or is now judged to be unclassified, whatever the original classification. Careful scrutiny of the released material shows plenty of documents have been redacted or withheld in entirety. And that's not including several of the more interesting files, documents, films and photographs that the MoD claims have been "inadvertently destroyed" or "lost".

Access to Classified Information

In government, access to classified information is a product of your security clearance and your 'need to know'. Thus, in a sense, you can never say for sure whether you're privy to all the information on any particular topic, because even if you're the "Subject Matter Expert", there may not just be specific things to which you're denied access, but areas the existence of which you're not even aware. Think of this in terms of 'unknown unknowns'. So while I had a Top Secret SCI security clearance for much of my MoD career and certainly believe I saw all the UFO files, I can't be certain: "I don't know what I don't know" is another way that those of us who have dealt with highly-classified material sometimes characterize this situation.

David Clarke

To clarify David Clarke's role, he's a ufologist, formerly with the British UFO Research Association. He's done some volunteer clerical work for the UK's National Archives on the Ministry of Defense UFO files and got to do a few interviews on the subject when each batch of files was released—generally when I was unavailable. In relation to the final batch of files he got a few more interviews than usual, simply because I now live in America and there were limits to what I could do with the UK media.

Having done as a government job what he did as a hobby, I can confirm that Clarke has never worked for the MoD or held a security clearance. MoD redacts the files before sending them to the National Archives, so he's only ever seen the same unclassified material as any other member of the public [Hastings’ emphasis].

One MoD document referred to him as a "UFO spotter"—a disparaging term used to describe somebody with a nerdish and slightly obsessive attitude to the subject. He's a folklore buff who's interested in fairies and goblins and I've been told he privately thinks some UFOs and alien abductions may represent "some sort of supernatural phenomenon". He keeps this opinion to himself, presumably because he's worried people would think he's a nut. So he's no sinister debunker—just a slightly odd hobbyist, reading out the government press release. Some people would probably use the term "useful idiot" to describe his parroting the MoD "no defense significance" sound bite, which was designed solely to keep Parliament, the media and the public off our backs.

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See Also:

One UFO at RAF Bentwaters Appeared on Radar: Skeptics Claim Witnesses Mistook a Lighthouse for a UFO but Two Air Traffic Controllers Say They Tracked an Otherworldly Craft

UFO-Spin in the UK

UFO-Spin in the UK: David Clarke's Rebuttal

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Additional UFO ‘X Files’ Uncovered in UK

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UK Government To Disclose UFO ‘X Files’ Says Ex-MoD Official

By Sasha Sutton
www.neonnettle.com
923-14

Accounts of UFOs and other-worldly goings on are usually hidden from the public domain by governments, but reports have recently revealed that the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) will declassify more of its X Files and make them publicly available on the National Archives. Ex-MoD official Nick Pope has said this is 'hugely embarrassing' for the government after failing to fulfill its promise to the nation.

     The Mirror reports that the government department had previously promised to disclose all by June last year, however this was not the case as it has a further 18 files, which the public will be able to access by September next year.

Former MoD official who used to run the UFO project, and Neon Nettle correspondent Nick Pope said, “This is a hugely embarrassing situation for the government. Last summer they told the media and the public that yes, this was absolutely all the UFO files and there was a big fanfare about this being the end of a five year programme to declassify and release the entire archive. Now they say, 'Oh, wait a minute, we've found a whole bunch of further UFO files'”. . . .

. . . they include ones from air defence specialists whose task, in relation to the MoD’s UFO investigations, was to determine whether visual sightings could be corroborated by radar evidence.

“There are also some files from one of the most secret parts of the MoD, the Defence Intelligence Staff. Ironically, there are even files about the release of the UFO files themselves, as staff discuss copyright and other legal issues arising from publishing material (including photographs and videos) sent in by members of the public”, Pope added. . . .

Continue Reading . . .

See Also:

X-Files of Soviet Defense Ministry Exposed

UFO Desk: Why MoD Shut Real-Life X-Files

Britain’s Very Own X-Files and Their Space Slime Mystery

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Missing Military Records; Senator John McCain & The Rendlesham Forest UFO Incident

From Left: Nick Pope, James Penniston, John Burroughs (Credit: CHD

Anatomy of a farce

By Billy Cox De Void 5-28-14

     As a member of base security for the 81st Tactical Fighter Wing, retired USAF veteran John Burroughs held a security clearance designated "Secret." But he had no idea, back in late December 1980, that when he traipsed into a surrounding forest to investigate what British intelligence labeled an Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon incident, he had embarked upon a classified mission. And yet, inferentially, judging from the controversy attending his military records, that appears to be what exactly what happened.

Could John McCain's efforts to retrieve an Arizona veteran's medical records put him on a collision course with The Great Taboo?/CREDIT: huffingtonpost.com

After attempting in 2012 to link his congestive heart failure to a service-connected disability, the 53-year-old Sedona resident was startled by a statement from the Arizona Department of Veterans’ Services in denying his claim last year: “You served in the Air Force from April 14, 1982, to February 13, 1988, and from April 5, 1999, to July 5, 2000, and from September 21, 2001, to July 4, 2003.”

Completely omitted was Burroughs’ initial Air Force hitch, which included time served at Woodbridge air base in Suffolk, England, site of the UAP encounter. He joined the USAF on March 12, 1979.

This was big-time weird, because Burroughs had formerly appealed for help from now-retired Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl. Kyl’s staff couldn't get his papers, either. They were informed Burroughs’ elusive medical records — which Burroughs needed to make his case for compensation — might be languishing in a classified section in the Department of Veterans Affairs; indeed, a VA letter informed Burroughs “A claim must be filed with the VA before classified records can be requested.”

As Burroughs would eventually discover thanks to an assist from Sen. John McCain’s office, his discharge papers had been deliberately altered. “It took a yeoman's job to get your DD214 corrected,” wrote a McCain staffer, “but we may never be able to gain access to the missing USAF medical records from 1979 to 1983.”

Taken out of context, you might chalk this one up to a routine VA snafu, especially in Arizona, where bureaucrats are running for cover in light of the unfolding “wait time” scandal. But Burroughs’ military partner during the early hours of Dec. 26, 1980, retired Sgt. Jim Penniston, can’t get his records released, either.

Only in retrospect would both learn of an investigation by the British Defence Intelligence Service, which reported how radiation levels at the UAP scene were “significantly higher” than normal background levels. More specificly, during a cold-case review in 1994, the Defence Radiological Protection Service determined those readings were seven to 10 times stronger than normal. Furthermore, the UK’s formerly classified Project Condign acknowledged, if not disparaged, alternate explanations for its weather-plasma explanation for Burroughs' injuries: "Some of the extreme postulations is that these UAPs are, in fact, genuine constructed air vehicles, which use scientific and engineering principles which are beyond current applied knowledge. Thus they must have some sort of propulsion systems which would provide the extraordinary range of velocities and accelerations frequently reported." After filing a FOIA petition for additional information on 18 redacted UAP documents, Burroughs was denied “because," wrote the Brits, "it may consist of detailed information relating to the defence of the UK.”

You can get a bigger picture in Encounter in Rendlesham Forest, a Burroughs/Penniston accounting of lives upended, authored by former MoD official Nick Pope. Pope says he submitted the manuscript to the Defense Department’s Office of Security Review as well as the MoD’s Press Office for prior review. “While I’m aware that this can sound sinister and smacks of government censorship,” he writes in an email to De Void, “I should say that it’s an essentially fair system to ensure that people who’ve had access to highly classified and/or sensitive information don’t inadvertently disclose it. This would arise, for example, in relation to nuclear issues. John, Jim and I take our security oaths and loyalty to our countries seriously.”

In fact, Encounter rips the scab off a number of unresolved questions on the Bentwaters/Woodbridge sticky wicket, not the least of which is the matter of whether or not nuclear weapons were stored on base during the Cold War era. Between the Yanks and the Brits attempting to bounce responsibility for the conundrum off on each other, lost radar records, on-site photos of the UAP that just didn’t develop properly, inaccurately recorded dates that confounded FOIA efforts, having the story break in News of the World's scandal rag, and Condign’s surprising concessions about UAP roles in health effects, Encounter is the anatomy of a farce.

“It’s written for the mainstream public in America; it’s a well known event in Britain but not so much in the U.S.,” says Burroughs. “And I don’t know the whole story, either. That’s the problem. I have a right to see my own records. And McCain’s aides can’t get them.”

After months of VA inertia, Burroughs says McCain was instrumental in getting him to the front of the line for open-heart surgery in December. What comes next isn’t exactly clear. “Senator McCain's office has a strict no staff interview policy, especially in regards to casework,” states press secretary Rachel Dean.

That might work for now. But if Encounter in Rendlesham Forest gains traction with sales and publicity, McCain could find himself under pressure to take this thing farther than he ever intended.

Continue Reading . . .

See Also:

Project Condign: "In 2006, the British Ministry of Defence Declassified Its Three-Year study of UFOs..."

Senator John McCain Tasked Air Force To Investigate 'Phoenix Lights' UFO

UFO NEWS | VIDEO | UK: Rendlesham UFO Debated On UK ITV1

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