Britain releases documents explaining closure of military UFO desk


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Newly declassified files from Britain's Ministry of Defense shed further light on why the military shut down its UFO desk nearly three years ago: despite a surge in reported sightings, the expensive operation just had no defense benefit.

The National Archives has been releasing declassified Ministry of Defense files on UFOs for the past five years. The 10th and final tranche released Friday covers the work carried out during the final two years of the Ministry of Defense's UFO desk, from late 2007 to November 2009.

The 25 files detail reports of alien abductions, sightings, offers to develop weapons to shoot UFOs out of the sky ? and the reason for the UFO desk's shutdown.

Among the documents ? spread out over 4,400 pages ? was a memo to then-Defense Minister Bob Ainsworth in November 2009, saying that the UFO operation was "consuming increasing resource, but produces no valuable defense output."

In more than 50 years, no UFO sighting report "has ever revealed anything to suggest an extraterrestrial presence or military threat to the U.K.," the memo said.

The records show that 2009 saw 600 UFO sightings and reports ? triple the number of the previous year and the largest ever number of UFO sighting reports since 1978, the year "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" was released in cinemas.

Whatever the reason behind the surge ? some files suggest the popularity of releasing Chinese lanterns at weddings was behind it ? the decision was taken to close the desk.

"The level of resources diverted to this task is increasing in response to a recent upsurge in reported sightings, diverting staff from more valuable defense-related activities," the documents said, with one saying the desk "merely encourages the generation of correspondence."

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Yeah, 'cuz every unexplained light in the sky, is a Chinese lantern. :rolleyes:

 

 

Just cause it's unexplained it doesn't equate alien either  :rolleyes:

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Just cause it's unexplained it doesn't equate alien either  :rolleyes:

 

that's the one darn thing that gets me... in the late 80's we saw black triangle wing planes flying in the sky really fast and everyone made fun of us saying we thought we saw aliens blah blah blah..... turned out they where stealth bombers.... and not alien.....

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Didn't know a Chinese lantern could travel faster than the speed of sound and def the laws of physics. :shiftyninja:

 

Something China not telling us?

 

MADE IN CHINA

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Didn't know a Chinese lantern could travel faster than the speed of sound and def the laws of physics. :shiftyninja:

 

Something China not telling us?

 

 

Yeah, not many skeptics pay attention to the right-angle turns, the instant acceleration, a massive object floating in the sky, silently,

or the winking out of a craft.

 

Oh, and pay no attention to the burned ground and landing marks that appear overnight ...

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Didn't know a Chinese lantern could travel faster than the speed of sound and def the laws of physics. :shiftyninja:

 

Something China not telling us?

 

 

 

When it comes to UFOs it seems everyone from the Mc Ds burger flipper to the bank teller becomes an expert on the laws of physics. 

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Among the documents ? spread out over 4,400 pages ? was a memo to then-Defense Minister Bob Ainsworth in November 2009, saying that the UFO operation was "consuming increasing resource, but produces no valuable defense output."

In more than 50 years, no UFO sighting report "has ever revealed anything to suggest an extraterrestrial presence or military threat to the U.K.," the memo said.

 

I agree. Time to turn our attention toward more serious things.
 

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^ It could also be their reaction to 'we know the answers -- Aliens are no threat -- let's bury the truth'. ;)

 

Are they a threat? After 50 years any reasonable person would have to conclude no.

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^ It could also be their reaction to 'we know the answers -- Aliens are no threat -- let's bury the truth'. ;)

 

 

 

There is a couple of ways of looking at this. One being they are not a threat because they are simply not here, this being the most likely. The other way of looking at it, playing devil's advocate, is if they were here, that simple fact alone would be a threat either directly or indirectly. To get here would require advanced technology, that technology alone is a threat, specially if it fell into the wrong hands. Then there is the threat of them just being here, as much as you like to think of yourself as accepting, the simple fact is much of the world isn't so. Much of the world would be skeptical of their motives, their abilities, even their existence would be a threat to people's religious and world views. Also how would the gov know they pose no threat, maybe the aliens are in it for the long haul. 

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When it comes to UFOs it seems everyone from the Mc Ds burger flipper to the bank teller becomes an expert on the laws of physics. 

 

 

yeah those "laws" of physics..... we have 100% proved them to be laws now right?.... until then they are just theories and they can still change..... we haven't completely figured physics out and heck quantum physics just gets weird fast...

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yeah those "laws" of physics..... we have 100% proved them to be laws now right?.... until then they are just theories and they can still change..... we haven't completely figured physics out and heck quantum physics just gets weird fast...

The point I was making is that the ones making these claims often don't even know what that term means let alone able to make the call that something something law is being broken. Specially when that call is being made from an image or video.

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There is a couple of ways of looking at this. One being they are not a threat because they are simply not here, this being the most likely. The other way of looking at it, playing devil's advocate, is if they were here, that simple fact alone would be a threat either directly or indirectly. To get here would require advanced technology, that technology alone is a threat, specially if it fell into the wrong hands. Then there is the threat of them just being here, as much as you like to think of yourself as accepting, the simple fact is much of the world isn't so. Much of the world would be skeptical of their motives, their abilities, even their existence would be a threat to people's religious and world views. Also how would the gov know they pose no threat, maybe the aliens are in it for the long haul. 

Yeah, if they are here, they are a threat. Pure and simple.

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I saw a UFO in CO 1998 daytime, real close going very slow upwind, 60' in diameter about 120 yards away, about 200 feet up, it was a perfect seamless mirrored sphere.  it reflected what it was over as it moved along slowly.  I waved at it and it immediately turned grey, to brown to black then winked out.. gone in 3 seconds. that was my 3rd.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm on the fence about my opinion on Aliens.

 

I think they exist because countless cultures have depecited beings which were not human as gods. Think about the Pyramids, do you really think that at the time we humans could have created something like that?

 

I think they don't exisit because there has been no conclusive evidence besides flashing lights that tell me Aliens exisit.  A UFO doesn't mean Alien, it means a craft that cannot be identified.

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I'm on the fence about my opinion on Aliens.

Think about the Pyramids, do you really think that at the time we humans could have created something like that?

Yes I do think we humans could do that.

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Yes I do think we humans could do that.

How? They must have had something influence that design. I find it hard to believe that they came up with that pyramid shape out of no where.

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