The UK Ministry of Defence began a campaign in 2008 to release all of their UFO files, a process which supposedly had come to an end in June, 2013. However, in a response to a letter inquiring about specific UFO files, the MOD says it is treating the letter as a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, and as such has found the documents in question and will be releasing them. The FOI response says the files are being prepared to be released to The National Archives (TNA) of the UK, a process which may take 9 months.
The FOI response was released on September 16 as part of a weekly posting on the Ministry of Defence website listing FOI responses of the week. The document is titled, “Whether documents titled ‘UFO policy’ and 3 other documents still exist and if so are they still ‘classified’.”
Only an excerpt of the original letter to the MOD is included, and states the request as:
whether documents covering the period 1971-76 and 1996-2000 titled ‘UFO policy’ and three other documents covering the periods June-Dec 2000, Dec 2000-Mar 2004 and March 2004 exist, and if so are they still ‘classified’.
The FOI response outlines that the documents were found and that they will be released to the TNA, making them available in about 9 months. The document also includes a table of the 18 documents to be released. They include several documents titled “Air Traffic Control Low Flying UFOs,” several others titled “ADGE UFO Reports.” and then, among others, the specific files requested.
The name of the person who made the request is redacted, so it is unknown who or why the request was made. Or perhaps more importantly, how the requester knew to ask for these particular files.
Of even more concern to UFO researchers is why these files were not included with the UFO files already released. If a simple FOIA request results in the discovery of more UFO files, it begs the question, how many more files does the MOD have? Furthermore, this demonstrates that the MOD was either mistaken or dishonest when they claimed to have already released all of their UFO files.
Nick Pope, former UFO investigator for the MOD, told the Daily Star, “This is a huge embarrassment for the MoD and will have UFO enthusiasts up in arms.”
Pope continued, “When the government said that all its UFO files had been released, conspiracy theorists didn’t believe everything had been made public and it turns out they were right.”
As for the files themselves, Pope says, “The 18 files include ones from RAF radar specialists and from the ultra-secretive Defence Intelligence Staff, so there may be some fascinating revelations still to come.”
The MOD FOI response can be downloaded here.
Nothing like Nick Pope being on both sides of the fence since he is after all former DoD. Before this he was claiming that all information has been released. Now he’s on the other side? Priceless!
Let me settle the mystery a little. I was the person who made the request, you can see the letter in its full glory, including my name, on my blog thetruthhides.wordpress.com. (And if you check, the reference numbers match up perfectly with the redacted version and the version my my blog)
I made the request based on some material I had read by John Burroughs, and decided to quantify what he was saying by a FOIA request.
It is a shame the person who has started spreading this FOIA request around has just lifted it from my blog, redacted my name and tried to make a mystery where there isn’t one. The bigger questions are surely around why the MoD kept quiet for so long about these files and still has to answer for the vast amount of missing UFO files.
Andy Russell
Andy, thank you for letting us know about this. This definitely clears up that mystery. However, it was the MOD who blacked out your name. Most likely because, as in the US, it is policy to black out names in government docs before releasing them to the public. Thanks again for the heads up! Burroughs had sent me more information as well.
Good job Andy! Hold that little weasel’s feet to the fire and if you don’t know who that little weasel is, his picture appears on this article.