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This highlights guide from The National Archives describes the tenth and final release of Ministry of Defence UFO files: 25 files with 4,400 pages covering the MoD UFO desk from late 2007 to its closure in November 2009. It explains how to use the PDF bookmarks and summarises key stories. These include the briefing that recommended closing the desk, a public disclosure campaign, a sharp rise in sightings linked to Chinese lanterns, and reports sorted by location.
Disclosure Campaign Letters and emails from members of a campaign calling on the UK government to disclose „the truth‟ about UFOs can be found at DEFE 24/2629/1 p29-31, 13-14 and DEFE 24/2457/1 p34-36. The campaign highlighted a radio interview with an American astronaut who said he believed „the Roswell crash was real and a number of contacts have been real and on-going [but] it‟s all been covered up by all of our governments for the last 60 years‟. A letter dated 11 August 2008 addressed to the then Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, asked if the UK government was aware of the astronaut‟s revelations and asked „do you believe that the British people have the right to know if our world has been contact[ed] by alien civilisations?‟. The letter was answered by the MoD which stated that it is „quite open about its involvement with the UFO phenomena‟ and that it had agreed to transfer its entire archive of UFO files to The National Archives (DEFE 24/2629/1, p.14-15). There are further letters and emails addressed to Defence Ministers Des Browne, Bob Ainsworth and John Hutton (DEFE 24/2629/1 p29-31) as well as a letter that was forwarded to MoD from Buckingham Palace (DEFE 24/2457/1 p35-37). Suggestions that release of UFO files is a ‘cover-story’ Several correspondents ask why the MoD had not released any close encounter stories that would prove the existence of extra terrestrials. One adds that „the papers recently released…are a cover-story, covering up the UK government‟s true intentions with UFOs; they have learnt more than they are telling‟ (DEFE 24/2452/1, p52). Reaction to media coverage In an email dated 2 June 2009 to RAF Business Secretariat, the MoD UFO desk officer wrote: „I believe it is fair to say that the release programme itself…has been a success for the MoD. It has accrued a great deal of national and international press publicity, the majority of which can be considered to be positive or at worst neutral. Naturally a section of ufologists will never be convinced of that, but frankly, whatever we say, they will choose to believe whatever they believe and we will never convince them otherwise‟ (DEFE 24/2458/1, p41). UFO Sightings and Reports The surge in UFO sighting reports A briefing, which can be found in DEFE 24/2458/1 (p 19-25), reveals that during the years 2000-2007 MoD received an average of 150 reports per annum. This figure doubled in 2008 (208 reports) and trebled in 2009 (643 reports were logged by 30 November). This was the second highest recorded by the MoD since 1978 when officials logged 750 sightings. In addition the UFO desk officer received 97 FOI requests on UFOs during 2009. The briefing notes that the „upsurge in sighting
Document, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 12 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.