- The X-Files have been opened: in a victory for ufo-logists
everywhere, the man from the ministry not only admits he has an open mind
about the existence of extra-terrestrial lifeforms but also keeps a careful
tally of UFO sightings.
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- Following a request under the Freedom of Information
Act by the Financial Times, the Ministry of Defence has revealed it remains
"totally open-minded" about the possibility that life exists
beyond Earth.
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- The MoD has released a detailed log of reported unidentified
flying object sightings. "Strange lights were seen in the sky"
in Whitstable, Kent, just over two weeks ago - the same night a member
of the public reported a "flying saucer" over Stoke-on-Trent,
Staffordshire and a "sighting" at Chatteris, Cambridgeshire.
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- More exotic alien encoun-ters were recorded last year.
"A square red object, pinkish at the front" was spotted in Strathclyde,
Ayr, on January 2; a "chewy mint shaped" object was seen in the
night sky above Nelson, Lancashire, in May; and a "large black object"
was identified in Rhyl, Clwyd, in February.
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- A diligent ufologist from Surrey gave a detailed eye-witness
account in May, noting that "grooves and windows could be seen and
no room for humans to fit within it". The same month "a bright,
pulsing, spider- looking object" appeared at King's Lynn, Norfolk,
and the MoD was even contacted by someone from Sri Lanka in March puzzled
by an orange "ring doughnut".
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- A letter from the MoD's directorate of air staff explains
that it examines all UFO sightings it receives "solely to establish
whether what was seen might have some defence significance". It adds:
"Only a handful of reports in recent years have warranted further
investigation and none revealed any evidence of a threat."
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- But, in an aside that will hearten conspiracy theorists,
the letter stresses that the MoD "remains totally open-minded"
as to "the question of the existence or otherwise of extra-terrestrial
lifeforms".
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- This approach may explain why the MoD has not always
confined its work on extraterrestrials to recording sightings. In 1950,
a working party set up by the MoD "to investigate the flying saucer
phenomenon" reported to the joint technical intelligence committee.
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- The MoD letter does not detail verbatim the spy chiefs'
reaction to this report on alien life forms. But they presumably decided
the spooks would be better employed in the cold war - the letter states
that the intelligence committee decided the working party should be dissolved.
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- The government also refused to back a 1978 attempt by
the Grenadian delegation to the United Nations to establish an international
working group to evaluate UFO reports, the letter states. "The British
delegation did not think that such an agency was appropriate to the function
of the UN." The MoD admitted the documents are a fraction of the thousands
of records of alleged alien visits.
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- http://news.ft.com/
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