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This National Archives press release announces the release of 25 Ministry of Defence UFO files containing over 6,700 pages that document the work of the MoD's UFO Desk, which closed in November 2009. The files include a job description for the Desk Officer, a 1995 intelligence briefing on possible alien motives, a 1979 briefing questioning alien visits, and a briefing on UFO policy for Tony Blair's office. They also include individual reports such as a Spalding 'men in black' visit and a sighting at Chelsea Football Club.
The strangest job in Whitehall UFO files reveal behind the scenes of the ‘UFO Desk’ UFO files released today by The National Archives reveal for the first time, the role of the UFO Desk Officers*, what they really thought about the possibility of alien visits, their ideas to harness alien technology as a weapon, and their briefings to Tony Blair on UFO policy. The 25 files, which contain over 6,700 pages, include a job description for the UFO Desk Officer post. Described as a relatively junior role, it contains a summary of the „daily mechanics‟ of the UFO Desk Officer job, written by the incumbent before being transferred to another post in November 2009 when the UFO desk was closed. Daily duties included providing briefings on the Ministry of Defence‟s position on UFOs and extraterrestrial life, undertaking UFO investigations, handling hundreds of FOI requests, and managing UFOlogists (UFO „experts‟) and press enquiries. The Desk Officer says the idea of UFO investigations “tends to suggest to the public that there are Top Secret teams of specialist scientists scurrying around the country in a real life version of the X-Files….[but] this is total fiction.” In fact according to the Desk Officer, many investigations involved searching the internet. Dr David Clarke, author of the book 'The UFO files' and Senior Lecturer in Journalism from Sheffield Hallam University, said: “These records allow us to look behind the scenes of what must have been one of the strangest jobs in Whitehall. We now have a fascinating insight into some of the extraordinary reports and briefings which passed over the UFO Desk on a daily basis and how its officers used logic and science in their attempts to explain „the unexplained‟.” Amongst the files is a 1995 briefing by a UFO Intelligence Officer which states that although there is no hard evidence for alien craft, if sightings were indeed alien visitors there were a number of possible reasons for their visit including “a) military reconnaissance b) scientific c) tourism”. The briefing paper also states that if the reports were to be believed, alien technology was far superior to ours and goes on to suggest that the Ministry of Defence could use the UFO technology, if it existed.
Document, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 3 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.