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MOD file DEFE 24/2032/1

The Black Vault · 492 pages · text from the file's own layer

This Ministry of Defence file, released through The National Archives and published by The Black Vault, holds the MOD's 2002 handling of Dr David Clarke's requests for UFO documents under the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information. It includes the MOD's 9 December 2002 reply, which covered reports from 1976, 1980, 1993 and 1996 and charged £260. It also contains internal emails and file requisitions, plus Foreign Office and United Nations papers from 1978 on Grenada's proposal for UFO research.

  • p. 69 …There was nothing at all to suggest that the unexplained sig:hti.ags were alien spacecraft…
  • p. 190 …the most remarkable and unexplained mysteries of k, modern times•. He claims that during the Gallipots…
  • p. 212 …the ufologista; who ad~ without critical scrutiny, to their huge files of 'reported sightings and landi…
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sum, we cannot prove that all or even most of these so-
I
called sightings were not UFOs. But we can say that there is a
great variety of phenomena in the skies for which there are
. perfectly ordinary explanations. We have rio reason to believe
that the so-called UFOs are attributed to anything but these same
causes.
10. But what of these famous arrivals of UFOs, claimed to be
fully documented and authenticated by many witnesses. On
scrutiny they tend to be elusive. I will select one, which
Lord Clancarty has described in his book MYsterious Visitors
as •one of the most remarkable and unexplained mysteries of
k,
modern times•. He claims that during the Gallipots campaign
in 1975, an en~; ire British regiment, the First Fotirth Norfolks,
-was advancing towards Hill 60: a cloud descended and picked up
~he regiment and it was never heard of again ••••••• (checking
with Army Historical Branch)
11. As I h~ve indicated,there is no criticism of those who
accurately report phenomena. The criticism is of over-readiness
to call them ,!UFOs', and to transpose that into 'alien space
craft'. Thb reports are passed without critical scrutiny to
,-w,W\
the ufologists; who add~ without critical scrutiny, to their
huge files of 'reported sightings and landin~s•.
- 4 -
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Document, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 492 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.